This is true about so much more than computers. People treat their cars, their careers, their marriages, and even their own bodies this way. Maintenance isn't part of the culture here in the US, and I'd assume it's bad elsewhere, too. Laziness has become a way of life for so many.
It's pathetic that people won't even try to lose weight, eat better, exercise, get organized, or talk to their spouse until something's already broken. And even then, they want someone else (a doctor, an assistant or coworker, a marriage counselor) to fix it for them.
You can't save people from themselves. At least, not most of the time.
If you're approaching this from a security standpoint, and want to provide the best experience for the end-user, Mozilla (and many other open-source outfits) need to sell packages to the vendors. Sell a stack of boxes, manuals, adhesive CD labels, and printed CD sleeves to the local shops. That way, Joe's Computer Shack can buy 200 boxes and not have to worry about the software going out of date. Just burn a decent-quality CD-R of the latest build, pop it in the sleeve, and snap the box into shape. Or better yet, sell little glossy manuals with a pocket in the cover to hold a 3" CD-R, along with the adhesive label.
I can say that I haven't gotten spyware either. But I'm quite adept at removing it from family's, friends', and (until I bought her an iBook) my wife's computer which I personally maintained.
This is not to say that an intelligent, diligent person cannot keep spyware, malware, and all sorts of nasty crap out of their computers. It is to say that the problems we face are ones of social engineering. If I can't physically remove IE from a Windows PC, some program is going to launch it for the user no matter what protections are in place. Unless I administer a firewall, or screen a user's email, they are going to put malicious flotsam onto their hard drives, one way or another.
Remember that the real problem isn't Macs vs. PC's. It's one of "How much does the user actually need to know to stay protected, and how wary must they be of unknown content?" Is it enough to tell them not to re-enter their password for files they get in their eMail? On a Mac it is, but on Windows there are browser exploits out the wazoo, faulty RPC stacks and other remote exploits that spread viruses without user intervention, and sometimes you can't tell what you've gotten in your inbox until it's too late. Not to mention that oftentimes, one spyware or malware program putting its foot in the door is enough that several others can tunnel in unattended.
I, for one, am not placing all the blame with the users in this argument. Users do a pretty good job just trying to use their computers as a tool to increase their productivity or provide some entertainment. To expect more from them is an elitist notion that just won't hold up when you consider what computers are really for. And if you take inventory of the alternatives, "Anything but Windows" is about as true as it gets, especially because he's looking for something that will get out of his way and let him work with minimal maintenance and hassle. I like Linux, too, but in the face of these criteria, the Mac really is the best.
Not the least of things McVoy doesn't understand is that the software industry (as he sees it) is a boil on society's posterior. The real market for software (bepoke software) doesn't depend on shrink-wrapped software anymore.
When a client tells me they need an integrated in-house system with CAD integration, production scheduling and workflow management, linked to an existing accounting program, I'm not stuck buying off-the-shelf software. I can choose any of a number of web servers, database vendors, scripting languages, document convertors, and communications protocols. In some cases, the cost of buying off-the-shelf will be offset by a higher cost of maintenance or a steeper learning curve with an OSS equivalent.
But, lately, it's becoming more and more likely that the business will pay much more for the off-the-shelf implementation, because when I run into bugs, they can't be fixed. My programs have to change. When I can't figure out something particularly obscure, I have to pay for help (which I probably also did in scenario #1!!), and when new versions come out to address those issues, they pay the software vendor again -- AND they pay me to fix a whole new round of quirks.
OSS isn't all roses, but the community spirit can't help but focus on the needs of the users sometimes. In the past, the implementation costs of the commercial solutions were lower, because that's what most developers had exposure to and experience with. In the last 10 years, though, with the software companies charging hundreds of dollars for a student or developer license versus $0.00 for open source, whose products do you think are gaining mindshare?
I would second that thought. Microsoft claims they have the 'best minds' working for them, but I would posit that their measurement comes from easily quantifiable metrics, and has nothing to do with innovative or intuitive people.
From what I've seen in school, Microsoft attracts all the students (especially international ones) who have gotten a 4.0 in all their classes and can handle the stress of working 16-hour days. And, sadly, the ones who have no ideological stake in the computer industry, but who got their degree solely to make money.
The people Microsoft doesn't pay attention to (or can't get) are the Linux nerds who'll try to compile a kernel for anything that runs on electrical current, the creative Mac geeks who are just as handy with Photoshop as CodeWarrior, or the true computer scientists who are completely platform-agnostic as long as they can use a computer to learn something or solve a problem. There are other stereotypes out there, but (for the most part) they all tend to evoke this idea of being principled about their use of technology.
My guess is that Microsoft's patent policies, legal strong-arming, and monopolistic practices made it clear to this crowd long ago that they didn't give a flying crap where the industry, technology in general or even society (to the extent that it is steered by developments in their areas of operation) was going, as long as it put some money in their pockets. And there ARE a lot of PhD's and Masters Degree Holders that this tactic appeals to. At least in my experience, the really innovative and involved computer scientists don't tend to maintain a 4.0, attend every class, or participate in all the computer-related clubs on campus. But they are the ones with a personal stake in this industry, and for some reason, they tend to care enough about the computer community and the well-being of society at large to tell MSoft to screw off.
I don't know why I just wasted 10 minutes preaching to the crowd...
Hear, hear! Excellent description. In fact, sometimes it seems like the/. community has a collective lack of understanding of social motives. Fear of (other people | loss of revenue | technology | changes in the way company 'X' does business) and the resulting actions to defend oneself from the perceived threat account for a huge percentage of the articles posted here, but often they seem to be ignored in favor of a technical analysis of the situation.
In more extreme terms, think of a police department. Shouldn't they have a right to arrest and/or detain someone who (even innocently) gains access to a network of personal data about police officers (to protect the officers), or criminals (to protect the intruder)? This is one of the questions where the letter of the law gives way to survival instincts -- and it's in the interest of society, since these are people upon whom we depend.
It's not so different when the network has information about the student's whole world -- friends, enemies, and their authority figures. Until they know why and how the students got in, and what other students may have gotten information from them, the students may have to bear the burden of proof, and may suffer for it in the short term. In today's school system, teachers or administrators could lose their jobs over this, especially if it was a sanctioned test. Do you think anyone who voted for that vendor's software in committee will be ousted? I sure don't.
I just hope that, if these students truly were trying to help, they don't suffer too badly for it. There needs to be a clear channel for these security concerns, or a clear and exception-free condemnation thereof coupled with adult, external review. What's to prevent students from exposing flaws that have nothing to do with the technology, like the fact that their English teacher keeps her password on a Post-It stuck to her monitor? Maybe students just shouldn't be granted any rights to muck around in a system meant to control and evaluate their activities.
<sarcasm>Or maybe we should let students play in these networks without overly-strict rules. I mean, it hasn't hurt society as a whole to let the President, DoD, RIAA, MPAA, or any other industry groups influence Congress, has it? Who cares if they get partial control of their own regulation & evaluation?</sarcasm>
That's not the distinction I'm drawing. A game that requires you to whip through hairpin turns in an airship, or fight through a dungeon of monsters and solve difficult puzzles just seems a little more mature than one where you are required to draw basic shapes around a falling baby, or pull boogers out of someone's nose with a stylus. The kind of games I've seen on DS are not just basic, they're pedestrian and gimmicky, and most lack the substance required to compensate.
I agree that most "mature" games are about as juvenile as it gets. I have the same problem with the MPAA ratings system sometimes. My point was that games for the DS have all seemed like they were intended for a 6-year old that never saw a Palm PDA, or someone with ADD. Profanity and obscenity aren't what make games more mature, but rather precise control, polished visuals, and engaging (and often very difficult!) gameplay. However, filling a game with crappy MIDI music, cartoon characters, and too-cute dialog written to amuse small children sure can dumb it down.
It's a more difficult distinction, but oftentimes a certain level of violence does make a game more mature. Not because violence is 'kewl', but because violence fits into the scenario. To a point, it helps make the game more real, and less like an antiseptic playground for our vapid youth who can't yet distinguish between real and simulated violence.
You're right. A lot of commerce gets blocked by the firewall. I tried to ask my brother-in-law (in Peking) for advice on an electronic dictionary, only to find out that the domains of all the importers I'd found were off-limits to him. I ended up having to download the html pages, zip them, and email them...
I've got the PSP and I have friends with the DS, so I'll chime in.
The DS came off pretty lackluster to me, with cutesy games that require you to scribble. My friends who own the DS raved about games like Yoshi's Touch & Go, which requires you to draw clouds around baby Mario to keep him safe, and draw clouds for Yoshi to walk on. If you're into game franchises from your youth (like the Mario games, Kirby, Metroid, Zelda, etc.), the DS is the way to go. Not only will you get the (goofy!) new titles, you can play all the GBA carts of games in these series.
The PSP, since it doesn't get grandfathered into all the old-school games / franchises, seems a little less awesome at the onset. However, I can assure you that it makes up for its current lack of games and higher price with absolutely stunning visuals. Practical performance of the PSP is roughly the same as a Dreamcast right now -- Imagine the same quality of rendering, but at abount half the pixel count (480×278 vs. 640×480) on a VERY, VERY sharp display. Performance should improve as the system matures. In contrast, the DS's visuals are not even as good as a Nintendo 64 (think closer to original PlayStation). It can't even render 3D to both of its screens at one time!! (Technically, it can, but it can only do so at 15FPS, or by using a software renderer for the 2nd screen)
On to the games... While the PSP is in dire need of some platform games and RPG's in the states, it does have several winners. Wipeout Pure is stunning. Lumines can be more addictive than crack. Grand Theft Auto, while not my thing, is on its way. There are even several FPS's slated for later release that look good. If you can read Japanese, several good RPG's are available, including an old fave of mine, "Tales of Eternia". US releases of the RPG's may or may not happen, but are probably at least 6 months away. There is a FFVII-related RPG due to come out, though.
Almost approaching RPG status, Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade was kind of the loser of the games I've bought so far. It seems forced, cheesy, and the gameplay is good but nothing to write home about. It's playable, but I get annoyed at the grotesque pictures that show during the long, long load times. Which brings me to another issue.
Having the games on UMD means that you'll actually have to wait for things to load on the PSP, depending on the game. Tales of Eternia doesn't have any noticable load times, so from a purely technical standpoint, we know it can be done. Lumines doesn't seem to need that much data, and also doesn't lag. But, games with huge maps (Wipeout Pure) have long load times for new levels, and Untold Legends has actually frozen for 3-5 seconds to await UMD data during gameplay.
Pluses and minuses tallied, the PSP was a clear choice for me. Being able to sleep the system with a paused game and resume hours or even days later is hugely convenient. I bought a 512MB memory stick ($70 or so online), and it will hold a full-length feature film, or 3 medium-high quality 1-hour TV shows. You can find lots of software packages to sync up and convert movies, music, photos, etc. I use NullRiver's PSPWare, and it has made the PSP my favorite movie player (4.3" screen @ 1ft ~= 43" screen @ 10ft, in my perception, and it doesn't heat up like a laptop does). Drag 'n Drop a DivX Movie or a ripped VOB, wait an hour or so, viola!
Bottom line: The PSP does have a more mature, more polished feel. While I'm sure some games will eventually be as juvenile as the ones on the Nintendo DS, the technical merits of the PSP make it more capable of engaging games, and the ability to sleep the system mid-game makes it more convenient overall. With a few good RPG's, Sidescrollers, and a platform game or two (ala Ratchet & Clank, or Jak & Dexter) it would hop, skip, and jump all over the DS.
Copyright is not just supposed to be for the benefit of the copyright holder -- it is intended to be good for society and humankind in general.
Copyright, historically, is the balance between society's need to allow people to build on previous advances, against its more immediate need to provide an incentive for people to invest in new advancements.
Look at it this way: Why would you even bother to innovate when a less-intelligent or less-inspired individual could immediately take your idea and (without adding value or even fully understanding it), market it as their own? Copyright enforces (or used to enforce) a very good balance between these conflicting goals. If you can benefit from your advances until they become largely irrelevant, trivial, or otherwise fade into the static of history, while still allowing others in your field to build on your ideas (but not your literal product!), that seems like an excellent situation to me. America's founding fathers thought so, too. Now if I could just convince my Congressman...
Our parents had it easy, seeing Russia as the enemy, for two good reasons:
The US had the high ground. Freedom meant something, not only to us, but to our allies. Thanks, GW!
The USSR totally embraced communism, and was holding on tight.
China is a much more difficult issue. The Chinese people are, on the whole, pretty unhappy with their system, but they are doing something about it. Bands of insolent teens beating the shit out of cafe owners so they can get online may not be the most media-friendly expression of a growing unrest, but it's there. The younger generation is very different from the current power elite, and one of China's guiding principles is that the young should steer the nation. Most of the old watch are starting to face mandatory retirement.
China, as a government, is finding itself forced to change some of its notions about property ownership, government authority, and government regulation just to maintain the business ties it has with the west. Boycotting Chinese goods may not really accomplish what you think it does, since you don't know if it's the government or private citizens you're hurting. As of a 2003 constitutional amendment, individual citizens can have court-supported ownership over some of the factors of production.
The biggest difference we may see, and pretty much the best thing we could accomplish by meddling, is to give the courts power of judicial review. Recognizing that the government is not above the law is a huge step in establishing the rights of the individual and providing freedom from harassment by the government.
Things are changing. That doesn't mean we'll see some huge difference overnight, but it makes it harder to spout out blanket statements like "boycotts are effective" and "we don't know what's best for everyone". What we know might *be* best for everyone, if you're talking about basic human rights, the rights of life, liberty, and property. But what we do may be harmful even with the best knowledge and intent. We could be watching a peaceful revolution, or we might be looking at a time bomb ticking down. But our business is our own, and so too may the business of others be their own.
the hassles in running as a 'limited user' on a Windows box. Security in Windows (and the software itself!) isn't robust enough to allow users to install an application to their home directory and allow it access only to that user's registry. Oh, the woes of the registry!
In WinXP, no one writes software to be run in limited user mode. Many programs take extensive setup, after-the-fact registry hacking, and all kinds of permissions twiddling just to make them WORK when you're not an administrator. And even then, they're not always multi-user safe. Why should I have to install additional software to let users burn CD's, Nero? Why are even power users and administrators allowed to randomly drag stuff in and out of %systemroot%\system32? In reality, I have no problem with dragging and dropping, but Javascript programs and IE have no business making.dll's there.
If you install an app, it should be accessible in your userspace, no hassle. If you want something entered that affects all users, you should be prompted, password or not. Granted, most people would still click "OK", but I'm tired of having exploits pop malicious.dll's into my system directory, add themselves to my startup, and run in the background without my knowledge.
When diligence and a top-notch working knowledge of the system are no longer enough to protect you, something's obviously broken. We're no longer looking at simple "Click me and win!" viruses -- newer viruses hop around the network at will. Simply plugging a box without the latest Windows Updates into the network, you'll catch a virus.
I'm typing this from a WinXP box, but each week that goes by, I put more money into my Mac savings jar than the last.
At -270C (a somewhat chilly day here), the battery often needs some warming. Liquids turning to solid and all that.
That does sound a bit nippy. If I recall correctly, that's the ambient temperature of outer space... Even Canada doesn't get that cold very often!
--Jasin Natael
How is this any different from someone releasing a Windows Virus with a boatload of file padding, naming it song.mp3.exe, and putting the Windows Media Player or Winamp file icon on it? Haven't we already been through this with viruses before? kournikova.jpg.scr and myparty.yahoo.com come immediately to mind...
Am I wrong? IS there somehow a discordance in the way OSX handles filename extension-typed files and Type/Creator-typed files? It just seems trivial and non-newsworthy to me. Apple can patch for this in no time; why pay $60?
1xRTT, 1xEvDO, 3G GSM, 4G, you name it. It's because of things like this that most users won't be able to afford wide-area broadband connections. Why do content providers never consider the sensitivity of the connection the user is on?
Will I only be able to access new and exciting services wirelessly with a PDA or cellphone, but not with my laptop? A simple weather check for an unknowing user might suck away 10% of their bandwidth allotment. I mean, forcing dialup and ISDN users to endure this is bad enough, but what about poor Joe Schmoe with his laptop on the road hooked into his cellphone with packet data service? These are oft-visited websites! Either:
Joe has a per-kilobyte plan and pays through the nose
Joe and others like him increase traffic on the carrier's expensive network and everyone's bill for unlimited service goes through the roof.
I'm not saying that the sites are wrong for doing this, but I am suggesting that some attention should be given to actual connection speeds and types. With laptops outpacing sales of almost everything else, a browser cookie is most certainly no longer good enough.
Gah. Overall, I'm impressed with the machine translation, but the robots aren't ready to take over yet...
A bipedal walking robot to play with at home will be released at the end of the year for around 500,000 yen. The robot was jointly developed by venture company "ZMP" and sporting-goods manufacturer Mizuno, and was debuted on the second [of this month] as "Nuvo".
Bipedal ambulatory robots like Sony's Qrio and Honda's ASIMO are famous, but since their purpose is to garner publicity and brand recognition, everyday use would be unusual.
Muvo is 39cm tall and has a body mass of 2.5kg. It can walk in any direction, and when it falls, it can aright itself from face-up or face-down positions. It can be trained with close to 1000 conversational words, and can (among other things) salute or dance as instructed.
Its face includes a camera. Using a DoCoMo 3G phone, you can retrieve robot's-eye-view images from and remotely control the robot through a portal site -- it even becomes a "Security Robot".
Costs of development were lessened by cooperation in the joint venture, which held down the final price. More than 3000 units are expected to sell in the first year.
I don't know... The Rio, Creative, and iRiver mini-HDD products seem to be doing just fine in the $220-$250 price range, and they have crappy software and only 1.5GB of storage. Apple will clean up in this niche market.
This doesn't seem like a play to grow the overall market so much as it seems designed to maintain Apple's complete dominance in Hard Drive MP3 players overall. No manufacturer can compete with them on features and ease of use in either of the two major capacity ranges. And right now, in this new product segment, other companies can't even compete on price.
There are idiots everywhere. Just because the article was a piece of trash, don't rag on Ubiquitous Computing. It's a good idea -- force computers to become smart enough that they (and their interfaces) either disappear from our perception and/or become at least somewhat self-explanatory, then make them portable enough that we can use them wherever we are. Ubiquitous Computing, at its roots, strives to make computers reliable and portable so that getting data into or out of them is no longer a cognitive task -- something many of us geeks already enjoy (through years of daily interaction), but that will take a *tremendous* amount of work to bring to the masses.
However, there's already significant advancement in these areas. Younger people are increasingly using cellphones and PDA's, because these devices (at least until a year or two ago) were simple enough that you spent your time accomplishing *tasks* rather than interacting with the machine.
What the authors of this article are discussing seems to be the part of Ubiquitous Computing that I don't particularly like -- back-end service level integration. But think about it. If you want to be able to use a portable device everywhere, if you want to be able to issue the same commands to a computer at your home, at work, and at the bank, not only do all those computers need to know what data to share, they need to know what NOT to share. It seems logical that someone would try to create a security framework that defines which types of information the computer can share with other people and/or computers, and for what purposes...
Boring, but necessary. Certainly not worthy of the whiz-bang Slashdot post of the day. I don't know if there's a translated version available, but if anyone is interested in a genuinely good book about the subject, try checking out Sakamura Ken's (the guy who wrote TRON) "Ubiquitous Computing Revolution" (in Japanese, of course). If I remember correctly, he's the guy that coined the term in the first place (might be wrong about this).
Hell yes. Post a status report or a link to the project. I've tried getting Japanese TV content here in the US, and it's pretty lame. I could get a whole package of [insert other country] TV stations for an extra $5-$10 a month on my satellite bill, but ONE channel of Japanese TV is $25 per month!!! And all I can get on streaming media is music videos and canned anime.
If I could get a Playstation X or use my PC to watch digital streams over the internet, maybe it'd be quite a bit cheaper... would the stream be in the same format as the broadcast, or re-encoded for online distribution? I assume the broadcast is packet-based already.
One last question: With the digital broadcasts, can the professionally encoded data be saved straight from the air to disk (CD/DVD, Flash, HDD) and then replayed later via closed-circuit? It'd be great not to lose any quality to re-encoding. Here's hoping!
I've been studying Japanese for a while, and I know I'd love to at least try this out. It would be great to see the ideographic characters I already know flash before my eyes alongside their english equivalents and phonetic representations a few dozen times a day... Maybe they could play a little animation, so I'd know the stroke orders as well.
I've got a Sony Vaio laptop of the same generation as your Dad's... a Sony R505BL. I'll bet that the existing DRM support for SonicStage is the culprit here. I had problems with several burning programs (including Nero) until I uninstalled all the Sony proprietary DRM crap. Having already done that weeks ago, iTunes installed flawlessly, works well, and burns CD's without a hitch. Maybe you're pointing the right finger at the wrong person.
Ah, the errors one can make when one hasn't seen the Kanji. A quick Google Image search turned up the box front and, lo and behold, you were right. It is not the character for wisdom that follows holiness, but that of a sword.
You're also forgetting the penultimate Square game series, Seiken Densetsu (which means "Legend of Saints and Sages"). SD2 ("Secret of Mana" here in the states) was one of the best RPG's ever. It was only available on SNES, but you can find it as a ROM image or on eBay. If you look in the right places, you can also track down a fansubbed version of SD3 for play on your PC, which was never released in the US.
Secret of Mana: Imagine playing a realtime fighting RPG (like Zelda), but with 8 weapons to share among the 3 members of your party, weapon levels & skill levels, character levels, and as a team with up to three human players. It also had a pretty good plot, and took a while to beat (70+ hours). That was one fun game, lo these many years ago. Especially with 3 human players at once.
Seiken Densetsu 3: SoM without nearly as much button-holding, this game featured 6 main characters -- you choose three to balance your party, and as the characters evolve over the course of the game, you can choose different classes to mold each one into. Rather similar to its predecessors, but still a lot of fun once you start wishing you had another SoM-type game to play.
Slashdot Mirror
This is true about so much more than computers. People treat their cars, their careers, their marriages, and even their own bodies this way. Maintenance isn't part of the culture here in the US, and I'd assume it's bad elsewhere, too. Laziness has become a way of life for so many.
It's pathetic that people won't even try to lose weight, eat better, exercise, get organized, or talk to their spouse until something's already broken. And even then, they want someone else (a doctor, an assistant or coworker, a marriage counselor) to fix it for them.
You can't save people from themselves. At least, not most of the time.
Jasin NataelIf you're approaching this from a security standpoint, and want to provide the best experience for the end-user, Mozilla (and many other open-source outfits) need to sell packages to the vendors. Sell a stack of boxes, manuals, adhesive CD labels, and printed CD sleeves to the local shops. That way, Joe's Computer Shack can buy 200 boxes and not have to worry about the software going out of date. Just burn a decent-quality CD-R of the latest build, pop it in the sleeve, and snap the box into shape. Or better yet, sell little glossy manuals with a pocket in the cover to hold a 3" CD-R, along with the adhesive label.
I can say that I haven't gotten spyware either. But I'm quite adept at removing it from family's, friends', and (until I bought her an iBook) my wife's computer which I personally maintained.
This is not to say that an intelligent, diligent person cannot keep spyware, malware, and all sorts of nasty crap out of their computers. It is to say that the problems we face are ones of social engineering. If I can't physically remove IE from a Windows PC, some program is going to launch it for the user no matter what protections are in place. Unless I administer a firewall, or screen a user's email, they are going to put malicious flotsam onto their hard drives, one way or another.
Remember that the real problem isn't Macs vs. PC's. It's one of "How much does the user actually need to know to stay protected, and how wary must they be of unknown content?" Is it enough to tell them not to re-enter their password for files they get in their eMail? On a Mac it is, but on Windows there are browser exploits out the wazoo, faulty RPC stacks and other remote exploits that spread viruses without user intervention, and sometimes you can't tell what you've gotten in your inbox until it's too late. Not to mention that oftentimes, one spyware or malware program putting its foot in the door is enough that several others can tunnel in unattended.
I, for one, am not placing all the blame with the users in this argument. Users do a pretty good job just trying to use their computers as a tool to increase their productivity or provide some entertainment. To expect more from them is an elitist notion that just won't hold up when you consider what computers are really for. And if you take inventory of the alternatives, "Anything but Windows" is about as true as it gets, especially because he's looking for something that will get out of his way and let him work with minimal maintenance and hassle. I like Linux, too, but in the face of these criteria, the Mac really is the best.
Jasin Natael
Not the least of things McVoy doesn't understand is that the software industry (as he sees it) is a boil on society's posterior. The real market for software (bepoke software) doesn't depend on shrink-wrapped software anymore.
When a client tells me they need an integrated in-house system with CAD integration, production scheduling and workflow management, linked to an existing accounting program, I'm not stuck buying off-the-shelf software. I can choose any of a number of web servers, database vendors, scripting languages, document convertors, and communications protocols. In some cases, the cost of buying off-the-shelf will be offset by a higher cost of maintenance or a steeper learning curve with an OSS equivalent.
But, lately, it's becoming more and more likely that the business will pay much more for the off-the-shelf implementation, because when I run into bugs, they can't be fixed. My programs have to change. When I can't figure out something particularly obscure, I have to pay for help (which I probably also did in scenario #1!!), and when new versions come out to address those issues, they pay the software vendor again -- AND they pay me to fix a whole new round of quirks.
OSS isn't all roses, but the community spirit can't help but focus on the needs of the users sometimes. In the past, the implementation costs of the commercial solutions were lower, because that's what most developers had exposure to and experience with. In the last 10 years, though, with the software companies charging hundreds of dollars for a student or developer license versus $0.00 for open source, whose products do you think are gaining mindshare?
It was filmed in Canada. You had your chance to see the movie before anyone else, and you missed out. Don't blame Joss.
I would second that thought. Microsoft claims they have the 'best minds' working for them, but I would posit that their measurement comes from easily quantifiable metrics, and has nothing to do with innovative or intuitive people.
From what I've seen in school, Microsoft attracts all the students (especially international ones) who have gotten a 4.0 in all their classes and can handle the stress of working 16-hour days. And, sadly, the ones who have no ideological stake in the computer industry, but who got their degree solely to make money.
The people Microsoft doesn't pay attention to (or can't get) are the Linux nerds who'll try to compile a kernel for anything that runs on electrical current, the creative Mac geeks who are just as handy with Photoshop as CodeWarrior, or the true computer scientists who are completely platform-agnostic as long as they can use a computer to learn something or solve a problem. There are other stereotypes out there, but (for the most part) they all tend to evoke this idea of being principled about their use of technology.
My guess is that Microsoft's patent policies, legal strong-arming, and monopolistic practices made it clear to this crowd long ago that they didn't give a flying crap where the industry, technology in general or even society (to the extent that it is steered by developments in their areas of operation) was going, as long as it put some money in their pockets. And there ARE a lot of PhD's and Masters Degree Holders that this tactic appeals to. At least in my experience, the really innovative and involved computer scientists don't tend to maintain a 4.0, attend every class, or participate in all the computer-related clubs on campus. But they are the ones with a personal stake in this industry, and for some reason, they tend to care enough about the computer community and the well-being of society at large to tell MSoft to screw off.
I don't know why I just wasted 10 minutes preaching to the crowd...
Jasin NataelHear, hear! Excellent description. In fact, sometimes it seems like the /. community has a collective lack of understanding of social motives. Fear of (other people | loss of revenue | technology | changes in the way company 'X' does business) and the resulting actions to defend oneself from the perceived threat account for a huge percentage of the articles posted here, but often they seem to be ignored in favor of a technical analysis of the situation.
In more extreme terms, think of a police department. Shouldn't they have a right to arrest and/or detain someone who (even innocently) gains access to a network of personal data about police officers (to protect the officers), or criminals (to protect the intruder)? This is one of the questions where the letter of the law gives way to survival instincts -- and it's in the interest of society, since these are people upon whom we depend.
It's not so different when the network has information about the student's whole world -- friends, enemies, and their authority figures. Until they know why and how the students got in, and what other students may have gotten information from them, the students may have to bear the burden of proof, and may suffer for it in the short term. In today's school system, teachers or administrators could lose their jobs over this, especially if it was a sanctioned test. Do you think anyone who voted for that vendor's software in committee will be ousted? I sure don't.
I just hope that, if these students truly were trying to help, they don't suffer too badly for it. There needs to be a clear channel for these security concerns, or a clear and exception-free condemnation thereof coupled with adult, external review. What's to prevent students from exposing flaws that have nothing to do with the technology, like the fact that their English teacher keeps her password on a Post-It stuck to her monitor? Maybe students just shouldn't be granted any rights to muck around in a system meant to control and evaluate their activities.
<sarcasm>Or maybe we should let students play in these networks without overly-strict rules. I mean, it hasn't hurt society as a whole to let the President, DoD, RIAA, MPAA, or any other industry groups influence Congress, has it? Who cares if they get partial control of their own regulation & evaluation?</sarcasm>
--Jasin NataelThat's not the distinction I'm drawing. A game that requires you to whip through hairpin turns in an airship, or fight through a dungeon of monsters and solve difficult puzzles just seems a little more mature than one where you are required to draw basic shapes around a falling baby, or pull boogers out of someone's nose with a stylus. The kind of games I've seen on DS are not just basic, they're pedestrian and gimmicky, and most lack the substance required to compensate.
I agree that most "mature" games are about as juvenile as it gets. I have the same problem with the MPAA ratings system sometimes. My point was that games for the DS have all seemed like they were intended for a 6-year old that never saw a Palm PDA, or someone with ADD. Profanity and obscenity aren't what make games more mature, but rather precise control, polished visuals, and engaging (and often very difficult!) gameplay. However, filling a game with crappy MIDI music, cartoon characters, and too-cute dialog written to amuse small children sure can dumb it down.
It's a more difficult distinction, but oftentimes a certain level of violence does make a game more mature. Not because violence is 'kewl', but because violence fits into the scenario. To a point, it helps make the game more real, and less like an antiseptic playground for our vapid youth who can't yet distinguish between real and simulated violence.
Jasin NataelYou're right. A lot of commerce gets blocked by the firewall. I tried to ask my brother-in-law (in Peking) for advice on an electronic dictionary, only to find out that the domains of all the importers I'd found were off-limits to him. I ended up having to download the html pages, zip them, and email them...
Jasin NataelI've got the PSP and I have friends with the DS, so I'll chime in.
The DS came off pretty lackluster to me, with cutesy games that require you to scribble. My friends who own the DS raved about games like Yoshi's Touch & Go, which requires you to draw clouds around baby Mario to keep him safe, and draw clouds for Yoshi to walk on. If you're into game franchises from your youth (like the Mario games, Kirby, Metroid, Zelda, etc.), the DS is the way to go. Not only will you get the (goofy!) new titles, you can play all the GBA carts of games in these series.
The PSP, since it doesn't get grandfathered into all the old-school games / franchises, seems a little less awesome at the onset. However, I can assure you that it makes up for its current lack of games and higher price with absolutely stunning visuals. Practical performance of the PSP is roughly the same as a Dreamcast right now -- Imagine the same quality of rendering, but at abount half the pixel count (480×278 vs. 640×480) on a VERY, VERY sharp display. Performance should improve as the system matures. In contrast, the DS's visuals are not even as good as a Nintendo 64 (think closer to original PlayStation). It can't even render 3D to both of its screens at one time!! (Technically, it can, but it can only do so at 15FPS, or by using a software renderer for the 2nd screen)
On to the games... While the PSP is in dire need of some platform games and RPG's in the states, it does have several winners. Wipeout Pure is stunning. Lumines can be more addictive than crack. Grand Theft Auto, while not my thing, is on its way. There are even several FPS's slated for later release that look good. If you can read Japanese, several good RPG's are available, including an old fave of mine, "Tales of Eternia". US releases of the RPG's may or may not happen, but are probably at least 6 months away. There is a FFVII-related RPG due to come out, though.
Almost approaching RPG status, Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade was kind of the loser of the games I've bought so far. It seems forced, cheesy, and the gameplay is good but nothing to write home about. It's playable, but I get annoyed at the grotesque pictures that show during the long, long load times. Which brings me to another issue.
Having the games on UMD means that you'll actually have to wait for things to load on the PSP, depending on the game. Tales of Eternia doesn't have any noticable load times, so from a purely technical standpoint, we know it can be done. Lumines doesn't seem to need that much data, and also doesn't lag. But, games with huge maps (Wipeout Pure) have long load times for new levels, and Untold Legends has actually frozen for 3-5 seconds to await UMD data during gameplay.
Pluses and minuses tallied, the PSP was a clear choice for me. Being able to sleep the system with a paused game and resume hours or even days later is hugely convenient. I bought a 512MB memory stick ($70 or so online), and it will hold a full-length feature film, or 3 medium-high quality 1-hour TV shows. You can find lots of software packages to sync up and convert movies, music, photos, etc. I use NullRiver's PSPWare, and it has made the PSP my favorite movie player (4.3" screen @ 1ft ~= 43" screen @ 10ft, in my perception, and it doesn't heat up like a laptop does). Drag 'n Drop a DivX Movie or a ripped VOB, wait an hour or so, viola!
Bottom line: The PSP does have a more mature, more polished feel. While I'm sure some games will eventually be as juvenile as the ones on the Nintendo DS, the technical merits of the PSP make it more capable of engaging games, and the ability to sleep the system mid-game makes it more convenient overall. With a few good RPG's, Sidescrollers, and a platform game or two (ala Ratchet & Clank, or Jak & Dexter) it would hop, skip, and jump all over the DS.
Jasin NataelCopyright is not just supposed to be for the benefit of the copyright holder -- it is intended to be good for society and humankind in general.
Copyright, historically, is the balance between society's need to allow people to build on previous advances, against its more immediate need to provide an incentive for people to invest in new advancements.
Look at it this way: Why would you even bother to innovate when a less-intelligent or less-inspired individual could immediately take your idea and (without adding value or even fully understanding it), market it as their own? Copyright enforces (or used to enforce) a very good balance between these conflicting goals. If you can benefit from your advances until they become largely irrelevant, trivial, or otherwise fade into the static of history, while still allowing others in your field to build on your ideas (but not your literal product!), that seems like an excellent situation to me. America's founding fathers thought so, too. Now if I could just convince my Congressman...
Jasin NataelOur parents had it easy, seeing Russia as the enemy, for two good reasons:
Thanks, GW!
China is a much more difficult issue. The Chinese people are, on the whole, pretty unhappy with their system, but they are doing something about it. Bands of insolent teens beating the shit out of cafe owners so they can get online may not be the most media-friendly expression of a growing unrest, but it's there. The younger generation is very different from the current power elite, and one of China's guiding principles is that the young should steer the nation. Most of the old watch are starting to face mandatory retirement.
China, as a government, is finding itself forced to change some of its notions about property ownership, government authority, and government regulation just to maintain the business ties it has with the west. Boycotting Chinese goods may not really accomplish what you think it does, since you don't know if it's the government or private citizens you're hurting. As of a 2003 constitutional amendment, individual citizens can have court-supported ownership over some of the factors of production.
The biggest difference we may see, and pretty much the best thing we could accomplish by meddling, is to give the courts power of judicial review. Recognizing that the government is not above the law is a huge step in establishing the rights of the individual and providing freedom from harassment by the government.
Things are changing. That doesn't mean we'll see some huge difference overnight, but it makes it harder to spout out blanket statements like "boycotts are effective" and "we don't know what's best for everyone". What we know might *be* best for everyone, if you're talking about basic human rights, the rights of life, liberty, and property. But what we do may be harmful even with the best knowledge and intent. We could be watching a peaceful revolution, or we might be looking at a time bomb ticking down. But our business is our own, and so too may the business of others be their own.
Jasin Nataelthe hassles in running as a 'limited user' on a Windows box. Security in Windows (and the software itself!) isn't robust enough to allow users to install an application to their home directory and allow it access only to that user's registry. Oh, the woes of the registry!
.dll's there.
.dll's into my system directory, add themselves to my startup, and run in the background without my knowledge.
In WinXP, no one writes software to be run in limited user mode. Many programs take extensive setup, after-the-fact registry hacking, and all kinds of permissions twiddling just to make them WORK when you're not an administrator. And even then, they're not always multi-user safe. Why should I have to install additional software to let users burn CD's, Nero? Why are even power users and administrators allowed to randomly drag stuff in and out of %systemroot%\system32? In reality, I have no problem with dragging and dropping, but Javascript programs and IE have no business making
If you install an app, it should be accessible in your userspace, no hassle. If you want something entered that affects all users, you should be prompted, password or not. Granted, most people would still click "OK", but I'm tired of having exploits pop malicious
When diligence and a top-notch working knowledge of the system are no longer enough to protect you, something's obviously broken. We're no longer looking at simple "Click me and win!" viruses -- newer viruses hop around the network at will. Simply plugging a box without the latest Windows Updates into the network, you'll catch a virus.
I'm typing this from a WinXP box, but each week that goes by, I put more money into my Mac savings jar than the last.
--Jasin Natael
How is this any different from someone releasing a Windows Virus with a boatload of file padding, naming it song.mp3.exe, and putting the Windows Media Player or Winamp file icon on it? Haven't we already been through this with viruses before? kournikova.jpg.scr and myparty.yahoo.com come immediately to mind...
Am I wrong? IS there somehow a discordance in the way OSX handles filename extension-typed files and Type/Creator-typed files? It just seems trivial and non-newsworthy to me. Apple can patch for this in no time; why pay $60?
--Jasin Natael
1xRTT, 1xEvDO, 3G GSM, 4G, you name it. It's because of things like this that most users won't be able to afford wide-area broadband connections. Why do content providers never consider the sensitivity of the connection the user is on?
Will I only be able to access new and exciting services wirelessly with a PDA or cellphone, but not with my laptop? A simple weather check for an unknowing user might suck away 10% of their bandwidth allotment. I mean, forcing dialup and ISDN users to endure this is bad enough, but what about poor Joe Schmoe with his laptop on the road hooked into his cellphone with packet data service? These are oft-visited websites! Either:
I'm not saying that the sites are wrong for doing this, but I am suggesting that some attention should be given to actual connection speeds and types. With laptops outpacing sales of almost everything else, a browser cookie is most certainly no longer good enough.
--Jasin NataelGah. Overall, I'm impressed with the machine translation, but the robots aren't ready to take over yet...
A bipedal walking robot to play with at home will be released at the end of the year for around 500,000 yen. The robot was jointly developed by venture company "ZMP" and sporting-goods manufacturer Mizuno, and was debuted on the second [of this month] as "Nuvo".
Bipedal ambulatory robots like Sony's Qrio and Honda's ASIMO are famous, but since their purpose is to garner publicity and brand recognition, everyday use would be unusual.
Muvo is 39cm tall and has a body mass of 2.5kg. It can walk in any direction, and when it falls, it can aright itself from face-up or face-down positions. It can be trained with close to 1000 conversational words, and can (among other things) salute or dance as instructed.
Its face includes a camera. Using a DoCoMo 3G phone, you can retrieve robot's-eye-view images from and remotely control the robot through a portal site -- it even becomes a "Security Robot".
Costs of development were lessened by cooperation in the joint venture, which held down the final price. More than 3000 units are expected to sell in the first year.
I don't know... The Rio, Creative, and iRiver mini-HDD products seem to be doing just fine in the $220-$250 price range, and they have crappy software and only 1.5GB of storage. Apple will clean up in this niche market.
This doesn't seem like a play to grow the overall market so much as it seems designed to maintain Apple's complete dominance in Hard Drive MP3 players overall. No manufacturer can compete with them on features and ease of use in either of the two major capacity ranges. And right now, in this new product segment, other companies can't even compete on price.
--Jasin Natael
There are idiots everywhere. Just because the article was a piece of trash, don't rag on Ubiquitous Computing. It's a good idea -- force computers to become smart enough that they (and their interfaces) either disappear from our perception and/or become at least somewhat self-explanatory, then make them portable enough that we can use them wherever we are. Ubiquitous Computing, at its roots, strives to make computers reliable and portable so that getting data into or out of them is no longer a cognitive task -- something many of us geeks already enjoy (through years of daily interaction), but that will take a *tremendous* amount of work to bring to the masses.
However, there's already significant advancement in these areas. Younger people are increasingly using cellphones and PDA's, because these devices (at least until a year or two ago) were simple enough that you spent your time accomplishing *tasks* rather than interacting with the machine.
What the authors of this article are discussing seems to be the part of Ubiquitous Computing that I don't particularly like -- back-end service level integration. But think about it. If you want to be able to use a portable device everywhere, if you want to be able to issue the same commands to a computer at your home, at work, and at the bank, not only do all those computers need to know what data to share, they need to know what NOT to share. It seems logical that someone would try to create a security framework that defines which types of information the computer can share with other people and/or computers, and for what purposes...
Boring, but necessary. Certainly not worthy of the whiz-bang Slashdot post of the day. I don't know if there's a translated version available, but if anyone is interested in a genuinely good book about the subject, try checking out Sakamura Ken's (the guy who wrote TRON) "Ubiquitous Computing Revolution" (in Japanese, of course). If I remember correctly, he's the guy that coined the term in the first place (might be wrong about this).
--Jasin Natael
Hell yes. Post a status report or a link to the project. I've tried getting Japanese TV content here in the US, and it's pretty lame. I could get a whole package of [insert other country] TV stations for an extra $5-$10 a month on my satellite bill, but ONE channel of Japanese TV is $25 per month!!! And all I can get on streaming media is music videos and canned anime.
If I could get a Playstation X or use my PC to watch digital streams over the internet, maybe it'd be quite a bit cheaper... would the stream be in the same format as the broadcast, or re-encoded for online distribution? I assume the broadcast is packet-based already.
One last question: With the digital broadcasts, can the professionally encoded data be saved straight from the air to disk (CD/DVD, Flash, HDD) and then replayed later via closed-circuit? It'd be great not to lose any quality to re-encoding. Here's hoping!
--Jasin Natael
I've been studying Japanese for a while, and I know I'd love to at least try this out. It would be great to see the ideographic characters I already know flash before my eyes alongside their english equivalents and phonetic representations a few dozen times a day... Maybe they could play a little animation, so I'd know the stroke orders as well.
--Jasin Natael
I've got a Sony Vaio laptop of the same generation as your Dad's... a Sony R505BL. I'll bet that the existing DRM support for SonicStage is the culprit here. I had problems with several burning programs (including Nero) until I uninstalled all the Sony proprietary DRM crap. Having already done that weeks ago, iTunes installed flawlessly, works well, and burns CD's without a hitch. Maybe you're pointing the right finger at the wrong person.
--Jasin Natael
Ah, the errors one can make when one hasn't seen the Kanji. A quick Google Image search turned up the box front and, lo and behold, you were right. It is not the character for wisdom that follows holiness, but that of a sword.
--Jasin Natael
You're also forgetting the penultimate Square game series, Seiken Densetsu (which means "Legend of Saints and Sages"). SD2 ("Secret of Mana" here in the states) was one of the best RPG's ever. It was only available on SNES, but you can find it as a ROM image or on eBay. If you look in the right places, you can also track down a fansubbed version of SD3 for play on your PC, which was never released in the US.
Secret of Mana: Imagine playing a realtime fighting RPG (like Zelda), but with 8 weapons to share among the 3 members of your party, weapon levels & skill levels, character levels, and as a team with up to three human players. It also had a pretty good plot, and took a while to beat (70+ hours). That was one fun game, lo these many years ago. Especially with 3 human players at once.
Seiken Densetsu 3: SoM without nearly as much button-holding, this game featured 6 main characters -- you choose three to balance your party, and as the characters evolve over the course of the game, you can choose different classes to mold each one into. Rather similar to its predecessors, but still a lot of fun once you start wishing you had another SoM-type game to play.
--Jasin Natael
It's called search.
No, seriously? There are no secrets anyway. Just put it on the web and Google for it.
Drat. 3rd time's the charm... I have no personal files, you insensitive clod!.
One more try. HOT GRITS!
Crap. There's not a shred of sincerity left in me tonight. Good luck organizing your data, though.
--Jasin Natael