If you want to enforce a standard, make sure you decide on an open one, such as SMTP/IMAP... MS Outlook for the desktop would work just as well as pine, mailx, and Netscape. The fact that management types cannot learn how to edit Majordomo mailing lists is NOT enough to warrant switching to a proprietary, unstable system.
No, they cannot be on CDs, for economical reasons. CDs are mass-produced; the same CD image is used for tens of thousands (maybe millions) of CDs. Watermarking individual copies is not feasible.
However, this raises an interesting point. What if I agree to buy a watermarked version of the song, then decide to sell it? I will either have to sell it through a SDMI-licensed broker (can you say monopoly?), or reselling it will be forbidden. (You don't "buy" a song, you "license" it for your own use, for ever. Licensing terms subject to change without notice.)
First: RedHat's target market is made of the non-geek users who don't know how to recompile a kernel or install a different version of GCC. These are the users that need to be lured away fro Microsoft; <troll> All geeks use Debian, FreeBSD or OpenBSD anyway. </troll>
Given this, let's compare:
Microsoft asserts its market share by bundling products that users have no (easy) way to remove, and by using proprietary technology to give their own products an edge. (hidden APIs, for example)
RedHat asserts its market share by bundling products that users have no (easy) way to remove
(much easier than Microsoft, but see the first paragraph above), and by using complicated open-source technology to give their own distribution an edge. (C++ binaries that are not compiled with GCC 2.96 won't link against the C++ library supplied with RedHat due to C++ name mangling; the user must either get a statically linked version (which isn't usually provided), compile from source (which they don't know how), or stick with RedHat's products).
There's a big difference between "it can be done" and "it will be done"; it's called barrier to entry.
This is not copy protection, it is watermarking. Basically, a secret inaudible wave is added to the song that you download that identifies your copy. Privacy concerns aside, if you then distribute your copy over the Internet and falls in the hands of someone who can decode this secret wave, it will be traced back to you. The goal was to remove (or alter beyond the point of recognition) the watermark without affecting the quality of the sound.
As a matter of fact, simple programming questions do exhibit your problem solving skills. A question that I have been asked at many interviews is to write a short program to reverse a single- (or double-) linked list, and for good reason. It's not that my job would require handling linked lists repeatedly; but that small-yet-not-obvious problems regarding simple data structures are easy enough to think through (aloud!) in a few minutes, yet hard enough not to memorize beforehand.
Newspapers/Magazines delivered by subscription have a unique subscriber's code on the front page; the next step-- scan that code before you scan the UPC next to the article, this way they will know who you are.
Same for hyperlinks embedded in TV signals as sounds; your cable set-top box can add a unique code to the signals. You can be directly presented with a "Click here to buy this product and bill it directly to your cable bill/credit card" page...
Scary.
Re:Ever try dowloading high encryption software?
on
Geographic Screening
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· Score: 1
Most sites that do geographic screening will do reverse lookup, assuming (incorrectly...) that all.com,.net,.org sites are in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
Today's date... not April Fool's day.
Web site... the Wall Street Journal, not the Onion.
I'm stumped.
If you want to enforce a standard, make sure you decide on an open one, such as SMTP/IMAP... MS Outlook for the desktop would work just as well as pine, mailx, and Netscape. The fact that management types cannot learn how to edit Majordomo mailing lists is NOT enough to warrant switching to a proprietary, unstable system.
"If you trust Microsoft, then Windows is right for you"
-- Me, October 2000
However, this raises an interesting point. What if I agree to buy a watermarked version of the song, then decide to sell it? I will either have to sell it through a SDMI-licensed broker (can you say monopoly?), or reselling it will be forbidden. (You don't "buy" a song, you "license" it for your own use, for ever. Licensing terms subject to change without notice.)
Given this, let's compare:
Microsoft asserts its market share by bundling products that users have no (easy) way to remove, and by using proprietary technology to give their own products an edge. (hidden APIs, for example)
RedHat asserts its market share by bundling products that users have no (easy) way to remove (much easier than Microsoft, but see the first paragraph above), and by using complicated open-source technology to give their own distribution an edge. (C++ binaries that are not compiled with GCC 2.96 won't link against the C++ library supplied with RedHat due to C++ name mangling; the user must either get a statically linked version (which isn't usually provided), compile from source (which they don't know how), or stick with RedHat's products).
There's a big difference between "it can be done" and "it will be done"; it's called barrier to entry.
This is not copy protection, it is watermarking. Basically, a secret inaudible wave is added to the song that you download that identifies your copy. Privacy concerns aside, if you then distribute your copy over the Internet and falls in the hands of someone who can decode this secret wave, it will be traced back to you. The goal was to remove (or alter beyond the point of recognition) the watermark without affecting the quality of the sound.
Is it just me, or is grc's "new and innovative" Genesis project the same as the SYN cookies that have been around for a few years?
As a matter of fact, simple programming questions do exhibit your problem solving skills. A question that I have been asked at many interviews is to write a short program to reverse a single- (or double-) linked list, and for good reason. It's not that my job would require handling linked lists repeatedly; but that small-yet-not-obvious problems regarding simple data structures are easy enough to think through (aloud!) in a few minutes, yet hard enough not to memorize beforehand.
Same for hyperlinks embedded in TV signals as sounds; your cable set-top box can add a unique code to the signals. You can be directly presented with a "Click here to buy this product and bill it directly to your cable bill/credit card" page...
Scary.
Most sites that do geographic screening will do reverse lookup, assuming (incorrectly...) that all .com,.net,.org sites are in the US.
Geographic Screening would be easy to implement once IPv6 becomes widespread. There is enough room (128 bits) for country and area codes in there...