How introductory is the book to someone with little to no statistics background? I saw the review says that part 4 covers this, but I wonder. If I get my textbooks out, I can figure out how to do things like standard deviation, best fit lines, etc, but that's about it. Would this book/tool be useful to someone with such a rudamentary understanding of statistics?
Maybe I'm naieve or not understanding, but what will stop the pirates from unlocking/breaking/pirating the downloadable content? Aren't you just moving DRM from the front end to the back end?
it looks like the vast majority of the "open source hardware" projects were toys with blinking lights and pointless gadgets.
First, I'd say that early computers were likely characterized by many as pointless gadgets with blinking lights.
significantly improve our computing infrastructure and get rid of the problems caused by closed hardware (especially things like video cards, which are still giving open source OS's trouble)
Secondly, you view this too narrowly. The idea of open source hardware goes far, far beyond the personal computer. It's about being able to develop all sorts of hardware. Things that interface to the OBD port of your car. An alarm clock that has 4 alarm times instead of 1 or 2. A way to blink your Christmas lights to the BeeGees. These are the goals of open source hardware. Oh, and yes, maybe video cards too.
What is significant varies a lot from person to person. Building an inexpensive circuit that does something fun is significant if you find it to be so.
a provider of open source hardware has to expend significant manufacturing
Not so. If I build a single circuit to satisfy my own urges, I can still open source the schematic, pcb layout, parts footprint, etc. in a way that other people can use. They can fab it as is, or they can modify it, then fab it. Or, just look at it out of curiousity. No one says you have to manufacture your design in bulk, in the same way that you can create your own distro without having to send it to Best Buy in shrink-wrapped boxes. You can fab a prototype PCB these days for tens of dollars if you don't need it in a couple of days.
If the whole thing ends up being more trouble than it's worth
Perhaps. But part of the problem is that a lot of these problems are originating from places where people's trouble (ie time and effort) isn't worth very much to begin with, because there aren't better paying options for employment. Think gold farming...
It seems that the sort of people dedicated enough to develop this attack would also be able to learn to pick locks. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that a gas pump lock isn't very tough to pick. There's no reason that most people would want to open a gas pump, so there's no reason to use a very expensive, pick resistant lock on it.
I don't know about where you live, but here our small claims courts are not that useful. You file a case, the respondant doesn't show up, and you get a default judgement. Now what? They have a long time to pay up, and after they don't, you have to start a collection action. Getting the judgement is easy. Getting the money is hard.
Can anyone say were getting close to what Geordi La Forge had in the last Star Trek: Next Generation movie??
"were getting close to what Geordi La Forge had in the last Star Trek: Next Generation movie".
But for the joke to work, you have to think it in Leslie Nielson's voice. It's sort of a "It's the little room at the front of the plane, but that's not important right now" thing.
So our analog TVs are going to stop working soon? Why haven't we heard about this? It seems like they would have talked about it in the press or something.
Seriously, dude, I hope you haven't been in your job for more than like 6 months, otherwise this is all on you. Cough up $1600 and get 32 $50 converters. Or tell Comcast you want them to donate them. You have a franchise agreement you can allude to, right?
They're not speaking. She's pissed he walked through her lawn on the way to the beach, and he's still insisting that she write him a check for $450 for that time in the late 70's when she did a concert with her hair in honey-buns.
What? I don't know anything about Trolls or Warlocks. Oh, wait. Is this from that movie with DumbleDoor and that pirate guy-not Johhny Depp but the other one-and the big battle scenes?
In London, there might be problems with using composted human waste in a garden.
Why? What are you eating that we're not? I mean, granted, you steam the life out of all of your vegetables, and you don't seem to put any seasoning in your food except for that wierd box of sauces you leave on the table, but I don't see why the plants should care about that...
You see that new guy outside walking into the Super's office? He's willing to pay the rent the landlord is charging. that's why it keeps being that expensive. And in a big city, the rent is determined by the value of the land far more than the value of the building materials.
That's exactly what the class action lawyers want to happen, in settlement. And they'll get a take of the value of the bumpers. That's how it always pans out. The consumer gets some bobble of junk, or a coupon, and the class action firm gets cash for their trouble.
That said, I do think class action firms are among the only ones capable of putting a bit of fear in evil corporations (Think Merck/vioxx).
Slashdot Mirror
How introductory is the book to someone with little to no statistics background? I saw the review says that part 4 covers this, but I wonder. If I get my textbooks out, I can figure out how to do things like standard deviation, best fit lines, etc, but that's about it. Would this book/tool be useful to someone with such a rudamentary understanding of statistics?
Maybe I'm naieve or not understanding, but what will stop the pirates from unlocking/breaking/pirating the downloadable content? Aren't you just moving DRM from the front end to the back end?
People used to make these same arguments about professionally fabbed, multi layer pcbs. Now they're affordable to the masses.
it looks like the vast majority of the "open source hardware" projects were toys with blinking lights and pointless gadgets.
First, I'd say that early computers were likely characterized by many as pointless gadgets with blinking lights.
significantly improve our computing infrastructure and get rid of the problems caused by closed hardware (especially things like video cards, which are still giving open source OS's trouble)
Secondly, you view this too narrowly. The idea of open source hardware goes far, far beyond the personal computer. It's about being able to develop all sorts of hardware. Things that interface to the OBD port of your car. An alarm clock that has 4 alarm times instead of 1 or 2. A way to blink your Christmas lights to the BeeGees. These are the goals of open source hardware. Oh, and yes, maybe video cards too.
for most hardware of any significance
What is significant varies a lot from person to person. Building an inexpensive circuit that does something fun is significant if you find it to be so.
a provider of open source hardware has to expend significant manufacturing
Not so. If I build a single circuit to satisfy my own urges, I can still open source the schematic, pcb layout, parts footprint, etc. in a way that other people can use. They can fab it as is, or they can modify it, then fab it. Or, just look at it out of curiousity. No one says you have to manufacture your design in bulk, in the same way that you can create your own distro without having to send it to Best Buy in shrink-wrapped boxes. You can fab a prototype PCB these days for tens of dollars if you don't need it in a couple of days.
If the whole thing ends up being more trouble than it's worth
Perhaps. But part of the problem is that a lot of these problems are originating from places where people's trouble (ie time and effort) isn't worth very much to begin with, because there aren't better paying options for employment. Think gold farming...
Of course not. They don't think it's broken.
It seems that the sort of people dedicated enough to develop this attack would also be able to learn to pick locks. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that a gas pump lock isn't very tough to pick. There's no reason that most people would want to open a gas pump, so there's no reason to use a very expensive, pick resistant lock on it.
I don't know about where you live, but here our small claims courts are not that useful. You file a case, the respondant doesn't show up, and you get a default judgement. Now what? They have a long time to pay up, and after they don't, you have to start a collection action. Getting the judgement is easy. Getting the money is hard.
I'm pretty sure there is a clause allowing them to "moderate" according to whatever values they want.
So it's like 4chan then?
What a BS! I tried SP3, but it messed up my website. For some strange reason all the text I entered got posted twice :(
Crap! Is that what causes that?
Crap! Is that what causes that?
Um, last I checked there were only ~300,000 people in the US
When, exactly, was the last time you checked?
"Resistance is useless"? USELESS?
Get out.
"Honey, I think I'm going to bed now. Have you seen my lens cap?"
Can anyone say were getting close to what Geordi La Forge had in the last Star Trek: Next Generation movie??
"were getting close to what Geordi La Forge had in the last Star Trek: Next Generation movie".
But for the joke to work, you have to think it in Leslie Nielson's voice. It's sort of a "It's the little room at the front of the plane, but that's not important right now" thing.
No, Steve Jobs, dummy. It's a Retinal Display, right?
But what would they eat? Probably your retinea, which as far as I can tell, pretty much puts us back where we started.
So our analog TVs are going to stop working soon? Why haven't we heard about this? It seems like they would have talked about it in the press or something.
Seriously, dude, I hope you haven't been in your job for more than like 6 months, otherwise this is all on you. Cough up $1600 and get 32 $50 converters. Or tell Comcast you want them to donate them. You have a franchise agreement you can allude to, right?
Unbelievable that my post about safety concerns got modded as Troll.
Regrettably, there's no option to mod something "KillJoy". Those are the breaks.
They're not speaking. She's pissed he walked through her lawn on the way to the beach, and he's still insisting that she write him a check for $450 for that time in the late 70's when she did a concert with her hair in honey-buns.
My response is that I don't know how you can resent something that makes you a gajilionaire, but whatever.
Obviously, you've never gotten a huge settlement check for having your man-parts torn off in a freak industrial accident.
What? I don't know anything about Trolls or Warlocks. Oh, wait. Is this from that movie with DumbleDoor and that pirate guy-not Johhny Depp but the other one-and the big battle scenes?
In London, there might be problems with using composted human waste in a garden.
Why? What are you eating that we're not? I mean, granted, you steam the life out of all of your vegetables, and you don't seem to put any seasoning in your food except for that wierd box of sauces you leave on the table, but I don't see why the plants should care about that...
You see that new guy outside walking into the Super's office? He's willing to pay the rent the landlord is charging. that's why it keeps being that expensive. And in a big city, the rent is determined by the value of the land far more than the value of the building materials.
That's exactly what the class action lawyers want to happen, in settlement. And they'll get a take of the value of the bumpers. That's how it always pans out. The consumer gets some bobble of junk, or a coupon, and the class action firm gets cash for their trouble.
That said, I do think class action firms are among the only ones capable of putting a bit of fear in evil corporations (Think Merck/vioxx).