The key to making money from paid content is to make it Easy, Cheap, Safe and Reliable.
Easy - The site must be fast, easy to navigate and have a good search function.
Cheap - I don't know exactly how cheap it would have to be, but the general philosophy would be, cheap enough that the buyer does not have to think about the purchase for too long, and the penalty for making a mistake is minimal.
Safe - No viruses or malware.
Reliable - The site is always up, downloads always complete successfully.
And...of course NO DRM, NO COMMERCIALS.
Do all of these things, and I believe that most people would pay instead of pirate.
Wireless is a black art. Difficult even for experts.
Get a soldering station, voltmeter, oscilliscope and multi-output power supply.
Do some classic student exercises..
Get comfortable calculating resistor networks, then building and measuring them.
Characterize a bipolar transistor, and a FET.
Build some opamp circuits, inverting and noninverting amplifiers.
Find some simple schematics or kits of classic student projects.
Build them.
Trace the signal path, measuring voltages and currents at various places.
Read datasheets. Look at National Semiconductor, TI, Maxim, Linear Tech. Most modern electronic stuff is made out of higher level building blocks, not individual parts.
Yet another prediction that tablets will rule the computing world.
Well...I think they may eventually be good for some things, but I can't imagine doing any of the things that I use a computer for on a tiny screen with a crappy interface.
I might carry one when I am out and about, but it will always be a crippled, second or third best alternative.
BTW, my home computer screen is 30"...it's still too small
How do you know the simple chip in your ethernet card doesn't transmit everything? How do you know your router hasn't been hardcoded to ignore such traffic?
My product is an embedded industrial device, no ethernet, no connection to the internet. It is based on a simple microcontroller, no OS, no drivers.
Your argument really only applies to more complex products, that contain lots of "black box" firmware.
I provide the Gerber files, they make the PCB and populate it with components I approve. After incoming inspection on out automated test rig, my code is loaded, by our staff, in the US.
AFIK it is impossible for a private individual to get one of those certificates. Even it it was, why should a hobbyist need to spend hundreds of dollars to distribute his work for free?
If a woman decides, on her own, not to get into programming, science or engineering, I see no problem at all...It's her choice.
If a woman wants to get into programming, science or engineering, but is prevented by lack of intelligence or talent..That's just the way it is. Not all people, men or women, have what it takes to do this work.
If a woman wants to get into programming, science or engineering, but is prevented by law, tradition, custom or peer pressure...Then we all have a problem.
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No matter which software you find, buy or build, inventory is always difficult.
You have a virtual "inventory" in the database, and a real inventory of actual parts. Keeping the two synchronized takes a lot of discipline.
It's really easy to grab a part when you are in a hurry, and forget to update the database.
Or, grab 11 parts, and enter 10 in the database.
Even the professionals find it difficult.
Blowing it up would create a huge cloud of debris...very bad.
It's in geostationary orbit (~22000 miles), so it's way beyond the shuttle altitude.
Maybe somebody could develop a small space "tug" that could be launched to intercept it, and gently push it out of the way?
Probably a lot harder to actually do than to speculate about, and it would probably take years, and cost millions.
So...no easy answers.
The key to making money from paid content is to make it Easy, Cheap, Safe and Reliable.
Easy - The site must be fast, easy to navigate and have a good search function.
Cheap - I don't know exactly how cheap it would have to be, but the general philosophy would be, cheap enough that the buyer does not have to think about the purchase for too long, and the penalty for making a mistake is minimal.
Safe - No viruses or malware.
Reliable - The site is always up, downloads always complete successfully.
And...of course NO DRM, NO COMMERCIALS.
Do all of these things, and I believe that most people would pay instead of pirate.
to finally convince people to support alternative energy.
And I would pay(a little) to avoid them.
I mean, a 30 second commercial interruption is far better than 5 minutes of commercial interruptions.
And I suppose that death by lethal injection is better than death by torture.
Commercials suck.
I like directv, but I find that I am watching less and less of it. So much is crap.
Here's what I want...Pay per view video on demand.
Let me explain further.
Pay per view must be cheap enough that I don't really need to think about it too much...say 25 cents per show..
Absolutely no commercials!..Not even one!
Content should include every show that has ever been produced in the history of video, with good indexing and search
Yeah...I know it's a fantasy...but it would be cool
And no, I don't want to watch it on my computer.
I wouldn't even use the word "sacrifice".
Most times when I use a computer, I PREFER to do it at my desk, in front of my 30" monitor.
Not everyone wants to be mobile all the time.
Yeah, there are times when I have to use a portable computer, but it's always an inferior experience.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957
http://www.amazon.com/Op-Amp-Cookbook-3rd-Walter-Jung/dp/0138896011
Wireless is a black art. Difficult even for experts.
Get a soldering station, voltmeter, oscilliscope and multi-output power supply.
Do some classic student exercises.. Get comfortable calculating resistor networks, then building and measuring them. Characterize a bipolar transistor, and a FET. Build some opamp circuits, inverting and noninverting amplifiers.
Find some simple schematics or kits of classic student projects. Build them. Trace the signal path, measuring voltages and currents at various places.
Read datasheets. Look at National Semiconductor, TI, Maxim, Linear Tech. Most modern electronic stuff is made out of higher level building blocks, not individual parts.
How about designing roads that are safer to drive fast on.
Fast is good if it's safe
A touchscreen leads to smudging your screen, while picking the wrong menu choice and getting your arm tired.
Wonder why anybody likes them?
Just read Wired...
Yet another prediction that tablets will rule the computing world.
Well...I think they may eventually be good for some things, but I can't imagine doing any of the things that I use a computer for on a tiny screen with a crappy interface.
I might carry one when I am out and about, but it will always be a crippled, second or third best alternative.
BTW, my home computer screen is 30"...it's still too small
When I got my first C compiler...in 1981
Maybe I should have said it in poorly overdubbed English in the tradition of "My Kung-fu is stronger than yours!"
Off and on, over the last year, I have been employed as a contractor to the ATM industry, to develop anti-skimming hardware and software.
When I started, I was amazed that skimmers worked at all.
Now, I am truly impressed by the ingenuity of skimmer makers.
BUT...in the end, our technology will defeat them...
Preserving digital data is inherently hard.
Not only do you need to preserve the bits, but you also need to preserve the knowledge about what the bits mean.
So...instead of addressing this issue as important, the content owners have decided to add another layer...
Now, they encrypt the data, to prevent copying.
This makes the problem A LOT HARDER!
The content owners are the ones to blame if we lose entire decades of art and culture.
Somehow, I suspect that the original developers don't remember most of it either.
Unless you work with it every day, little by little, you forget.
First you forget the tricky parts.
About the only thing you remember after a few years is the general structure.
If you work with it every day, soon you will know it better than the original developers.
How do you know the simple chip in your ethernet card doesn't transmit everything? How do you know your router hasn't been hardcoded to ignore such traffic?
My product is an embedded industrial device, no ethernet, no connection to the internet. It is based on a simple microcontroller, no OS, no drivers.
Your argument really only applies to more complex products, that contain lots of "black box" firmware.
I provide the Gerber files, they make the PCB and populate it with components I approve. After incoming inspection on out automated test rig, my code is loaded, by our staff, in the US.
How do you know it's loaded? How do you know it's to your specifications?
Because we load it, in the US.
Not all Chinese-made products contain Chinese computer code.
I am a consultant to a US company. Our products are made by Chinese companies, to our specifications.
I write all of the code, and it is loaded after the products get to the US.
AFIK it is impossible for a private individual to get one of those certificates. Even it it was, why should a hobbyist need to spend hundreds of dollars to distribute his work for free?
You, the tinkerer, will *always* be able to buy a PC that meets your needs.
I certainly hope so...but the trend is disturbing.
The new versions of Windows restrict driver development to "approved corporations" only.
The mass market is being herded toward "appliances".
Gamers are switching to consoles.
Without large sales volume, the "fully programmable" computers will be a high priced, obscure niche product.
Why should the taxpayers be financing car production by boutique manufacturers for wealthy people?
Because the only way to lower prices is to increase production.
In the early days of gasoline cars, they were made by by "boutique manufacturers for wealthy people".
Little by little, as the industry matures, electric cars will get more affordable.
If a woman decides, on her own, not to get into programming, science or engineering, I see no problem at all...It's her choice.
If a woman wants to get into programming, science or engineering, but is prevented by lack of intelligence or talent..That's just the way it is. Not all people, men or women, have what it takes to do this work.
If a woman wants to get into programming, science or engineering, but is prevented by law, tradition, custom or peer pressure...Then we all have a problem.