"So you can see, multicasting sounds good in theory but how can you make it work, practically? This is what I mean when I say it's only good for 'live' content."
Agreed. But I think you underestimate how often this happens. I'll bet there are several people in this office building listening to the same streaming local news station that I am right now. (And even if they aren't listening to it, most people just leave it streaming.) And around commute time, I'll bet that number increases many fold. I KNOW that there are a lot of people who connect (via internet) to live streams from local traffic cameras.
Also, during non-work hours, live sports events would certainly benefit from multicasting as well. It certainly wouldn't be uncommon for a handful of people in the same are to be listening to the same live sports feed. (My Dad and my brother do.)
I'm not saying that multicasting is THE answer. It certainly isn't, but it would help for live streams. And I think live streams account for more internet traffic than you realize. (This will probably be more so over time, not less so.) It is worth considering the technology.....
Ouch!! I was able to dial in to my university's modem pool so I saved $$ on the phone bill. But I did have a few problems on the install. Two or three times I would get half way through and find out one of my disks was bad. (Back to the download...)
They'll take my CD burner away from me when they pry it from my cold dead hands!!!
-Derek
How much does it cost to make all those diskettes these days?:-)
When I first installed slackware I spent about $5 on diskettes and I was up all night downloading the disk images. Ahhhh yes, *those* were the days.
Anyway, kudos to Patrick for his fine work and I hope he finds the money so that he can pay those who work hard along side him. (One more reason for a standard internet micropayment system.)
-Derek
That was one of the funniest posts I've read in a while. (If it wasn't meant to be funny then it is even more hysterical.) I'm glad it was moderated up so that it caught my attention.
-Derek
Hacktivism is childish. In my mind it is the equivalent of toilet papering a senators house when you disagree with what he does. In nearly ALL cases, there are much better ways to get your point across.
-Derek
"this new method only requires slight changes to current NTSC broadcast stations and HDTV receivers, and will not make current analog sets obsolete."
If this is true, then I can think of several large electronic companies that will try to push this standard into history as quickly as possible. Can you image the how giddy the Sony, RCA, Hitachi, etc... executives were when they knew everyone was going to have to buy an expensive new TV (or converter) within the next 5-6 years? What a windfall! Now, image what they will try to do to a new technology that threatens all that.
"I'd rather see MS challenged creatively in the marketplace, or by the generous spirit of movements like Open Source, than by a bunch of admittedly clueless federal bureaucrats, or an erratic judge."
So would I, BUT, the problem is that you are assuming that the marketplace is a level playing field where the consumer reigns supreme. This is NOT AT ALL TRUE. The marketplace is controlled, at least in large part, by the same large companies (Microsoft, RIA) and the same federal bureaucrats (DMCA, UCITA) and the same judges (Kaplan) that you say you don't want making this decision.
You say, "Let MS be challenged in the marketplace!"
I say, "Challenge the marketplace in court!"
From my perspective, all of the important battles (MPAA, 1-click patents, RIAA, DeCSS, UCITA, censorware, encryption export controls, GPL, carnivore, Napster...) will happen in the courtrooms and not in the marketplace. That's the sad truth of it.
It is an personal opinion that is reasonably expressed. The only way it could possibly be viewed as flamebait is if it makes YOU real mad to read it. If that is the case, YOU have a problem and YOU need to learn a little tolerance for the opinions of others. (Show a little "free speach" attitude and let him express his thoughts.)
I write front ends for medical databases for hospitals and larger medical offices and from my experience...
1) Most hospitals DON'T have a lot of money to spend on these things. (Despite what you may think when you get a bill.) If you don't believe me, just ask your next ER doctor about the latest cost cutting measures -- or if you want to hear a more realistic answer ask a NURSE about the latest cost cutting.
2) While PDA's may not be cutting edge technology, 95 percent of hospitals are on the trailing end of the technology curve. (Many of our client are still mainframe or DOS based!) Don't expect this to catch on like is implied above.
... what will they be tommorrow? Next year? Will they always be around? If not, will you have enough warning to migrate your mission critical system to something else? Probably.
The point is, you're dependent on DG. They may have great support now, but will they always? Don't get to comfortable while your mission critical stuff is 100% dependent on a third party for support.
I listened to ESR talk about selling "Open Source" to the organization and that was exactly one of his main points. When you buy from a third party they usually have a contractual responsibility to support the product. But on the flip side, YOUR COMPANY IS HELD HOSTAGE to that third party for bug fixes and support. And we all know that tech companies NEVER go out of business, right? Using Free Software, on the other hand, leaves you many more options, as mentioned by the previous poster.
So when the next PHB makes a big deal about some vendor having "support", turn around and ask him why he wants the company held hostage to a third party for mission critical software.
The motivation for the GNU project started when RMS wanted to fix and enhance a printer driver but he was denied access to the source code. So he, and some of the worlds most compotent computer engineers, had to live with it until the vendor made the changes. It happens.
Don't be fooled with grandiose promises of support. I think we all know what a frustrating experience it can be trying to get "support" for something. While it is true that money talks and the more money your company has invested in the support contract the better service you'll get, it is also true that the more money you invest in the project the less you can afford to not have in house control over the internals.
For an interesting essay on the economics of "Open Source" software read ESR's "The Magic Cauldron".
I found a local band that had a song I was really excited to hear. The rest of the music sounded good but I was really only interested in the single song. I was very excited to find out that I could purchase the one track that I was interested in from Liquid Music for a reasonalbe price ($1.50 USD vs $15 USD for the whole CD).
Now comes the catch. First of all, the liquid music file was only playable by the Liquid Music player on the computer that it was downloaded to. They did provide the ability to burn the song on to a CD *BUT* my CD-R isn't "supported". Never mind that the CD-R is a quality, name-brand burner with support on many platforms. Also, there is no liquid music player for Linux, or any other *nix.
So, if I had purchased this song, it would be entirely unavailable to me anywhere besides the Windows computer that I downloaded it on to. Yeah, that's a great deal. Thanks guys!
Solutions-
Decode their file format to something useable (MP3?).
Add support for my CD-R.
Buy the whole CD.
In this case the ability to decode the music format or hack in support for my CD-R would have both been solotions to my problem (and would have both been, I believe, covered by "fair use"). The anti-circumvention clauses in the DMCA now prevent these solution from ever being legal.
Solutions under DCMA
Buy the whole CD.
It turned out that the CD was published under an indie label (no RIAA) so I felt good about buying the whole CD. It is hard to argue that the DCMA doesn't hurt the consumer. I hope this example helps.
I found a local band that had a song I was really excited to hear. The rest of the music sounded good but I was really only interested in the single song. I was very excited to find out that I could purchase the one track that I was interested in from Liquid Music for a reasonalbe price ($1.50 USD vs $15 USD for the whole CD).
Now comes the catch. First of all, the liquid music file was only playable by the Liquid Music player on the computer that it was downloaded to. They did provide the ability to burn the song on to a CD *BUT* my CD-R isn't "supported". Never mind that the CD-R is a quality, name-brand burner with support on many platforms. Also, there is no liquid music player for Linux, or any other *nix.
So, if I had purchased this song, it would be entirely unavailable to me anywhere besides the Windows computer that I downloaded it on to. Yeah, that's a great deal. Thanks guys!
Solutions-
Decode their file format to something useable (MP3?).
Add support for my CD-R.
Buy the whole CD.
In this case the ability to decode the music format or hack in support for my CD-R would have both been solotions to my problem (and would have both been, I believe, covered by "fair use"). The anti-circumvention clauses in the DMCA now prevent these solution from ever being legal.
Solutions under DCMA
Buy the whole CD.
It turned out that the CD was published under an indie label (no RIAA) so I felt good about buying the whole CD. It is hard to argue that the DCMA doesn't hurt the consumer. I hope this example helps.
I signed up about three weeks ago and the installer finally came to get set up my modem yesterday. Guess what. STILL NO SERVICE! When he left yesterday he claimed that there was a temporary router problem and I should be on "in about 1/2 hour". I've made 2 calls to thier "support" line since then and (after re-booting) they concluded that they had no idea what the problem was and that the installer needed to return to fix it. When will that be? TWO MORE WEEKS!!! This doesn't bode well for them.
-Derek
P.S. I'm in Taylorsville UT using the ATT@Home service.
Their argument is that they don't think anyone should have the right to publish their IP without permission. I don't think they would care if you reverse engineered their:CuteKitty and kept it to yourself. (In fact they would probably never even find out about it.) In this context, your microwave example makes no sense to me.
I personally started to reverse engineer their toy the moment I found out that it would spit out plain barcode text. Luckily I found out someone had already done it and it saved me the trouble. Now I can use the ":Cat" for all sorts of things on all sorts of platforms.
To those who published the code: Thanks!
To DigitalConvergence: What your beef? How does this ruin you business model? It seems to me that your little toy just became orders of magnitude more useful. Not only can I use it with your software (when I'm in Windows), but I can use it for whatever else my little geek brain dreams up. Back off and let the popularity of your device soar.
Could someone please post where I can find out more details about this story? (This sounds a lot like an urban legend.) Before I spout off my opinions, I'd like to be a little better informed on the details. Thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
I had to stay out of this decision, because I am obviously prejudiced. HP management went ahead and did the right thing without me.
Isn't this exactly WHY Perens works with HP!?! To help them make decisions and form their business direction with regards to Free Software?
Maybe someone can help clarify this. (Bruce?)
-Derek
"So you can see, multicasting sounds good in theory but how can you make it work, practically? This is what I mean when I say it's only good for 'live' content."
Agreed. But I think you underestimate how often this happens. I'll bet there are several people in this office building listening to the same streaming local news station that I am right now. (And even if they aren't listening to it, most people just leave it streaming.) And around commute time, I'll bet that number increases many fold. I KNOW that there are a lot of people who connect (via internet) to live streams from local traffic cameras.
Also, during non-work hours, live sports events would certainly benefit from multicasting as well. It certainly wouldn't be uncommon for a handful of people in the same are to be listening to the same live sports feed. (My Dad and my brother do.)
I'm not saying that multicasting is THE answer. It certainly isn't, but it would help for live streams. And I think live streams account for more internet traffic than you realize. (This will probably be more so over time, not less so.) It is worth considering the technology.....
-Derek
Nice catch! (E.H. Slaughter Elementary)
http://www.mckinneyisd.net/slaughter/
Maybe someone should change that name, before it starts putting ideas into the little kiddies minds.
-Derek
Ouch!! I was able to dial in to my university's modem pool so I saved $$ on the phone bill. But I did have a few problems on the install. Two or three times I would get half way through and find out one of my disks was bad. (Back to the download...)
They'll take my CD burner away from me when they pry it from my cold dead hands!!!
-Derek
How much does it cost to make all those diskettes these days? :-)
When I first installed slackware I spent about $5 on diskettes and I was up all night downloading the disk images. Ahhhh yes, *those* were the days.
Anyway, kudos to Patrick for his fine work and I hope he finds the money so that he can pay those who work hard along side him. (One more reason for a standard internet micropayment system.)
-Derek
That was one of the funniest posts I've read in a while. (If it wasn't meant to be funny then it is even more hysterical.) I'm glad it was moderated up so that it caught my attention.
-Derek
Common sense doesn't often rule in the courtroom. High powered lawyers do. If you feel otherwise, you are fooling yourself.
-Derek
Hacktivism is childish. In my mind it is the equivalent of toilet papering a senators house when you disagree with what he does. In nearly ALL cases, there are much better ways to get your point across.
-Derek
"this new method only requires slight changes to current NTSC broadcast stations and HDTV receivers, and will not make current analog sets obsolete."
If this is true, then I can think of several large electronic companies that will try to push this standard into history as quickly as possible. Can you image the how giddy the Sony, RCA, Hitachi, etc... executives were when they knew everyone was going to have to buy an expensive new TV (or converter) within the next 5-6 years? What a windfall! Now, image what they will try to do to a new technology that threatens all that.
-Derek
"I'd rather see MS challenged creatively in the marketplace, or by the generous spirit of movements like Open Source, than by a bunch of admittedly clueless federal bureaucrats, or an erratic judge."
So would I, BUT, the problem is that you are assuming that the marketplace is a level playing field where the consumer reigns supreme. This is NOT AT ALL TRUE. The marketplace is controlled, at least in large part, by the same large companies (Microsoft, RIA) and the same federal bureaucrats (DMCA, UCITA) and the same judges (Kaplan) that you say you don't want making this decision.
You say, "Let MS be challenged in the marketplace!"
I say, "Challenge the marketplace in court!"
From my perspective, all of the important battles (MPAA, 1-click patents, RIAA, DeCSS, UCITA, censorware, encryption export controls, GPL, carnivore, Napster...) will happen in the courtrooms and not in the marketplace. That's the sad truth of it.
Derek
from the the-gravity-vortex-is-in-utah dept.
Anyone have any ideas?
-Derek
Yeah, someone post a mirror. Don't worry about content controls-- I've kept my analog computer around just in case such a need arises!
-Derek
To whoever moderated the above post as flamebait:
It is an personal opinion that is reasonably expressed. The only way it could possibly be viewed as flamebait is if it makes YOU real mad to read it. If that is the case, YOU have a problem and YOU need to learn a little tolerance for the opinions of others. (Show a little "free speach" attitude and let him express his thoughts.)
-Derek
I write front ends for medical databases for hospitals and larger medical offices and from my experience...
1) Most hospitals DON'T have a lot of money to spend on these things. (Despite what you may think when you get a bill.) If you don't believe me, just ask your next ER doctor about the latest cost cutting measures -- or if you want to hear a more realistic answer ask a NURSE about the latest cost cutting.
2) While PDA's may not be cutting edge technology, 95 percent of hospitals are on the trailing end of the technology curve. (Many of our client are still mainframe or DOS based!) Don't expect this to catch on like is implied above.
-Derek
...Data General, now EMC,...
... what will they be tommorrow? Next year? Will they always be around? If not, will you have enough warning to migrate your mission critical system to something else? Probably.
The point is, you're dependent on DG. They may have great support now, but will they always? Don't get to comfortable while your mission critical stuff is 100% dependent on a third party for support.
-Derek
I listened to ESR talk about selling "Open Source" to the organization and that was exactly one of his main points. When you buy from a third party they usually have a contractual responsibility to support the product. But on the flip side, YOUR COMPANY IS HELD HOSTAGE to that third party for bug fixes and support. And we all know that tech companies NEVER go out of business, right? Using Free Software, on the other hand, leaves you many more options, as mentioned by the previous poster.
n /magic-cauldron.html
So when the next PHB makes a big deal about some vendor having "support", turn around and ask him why he wants the company held hostage to a third party for mission critical software.
The motivation for the GNU project started when RMS wanted to fix and enhance a printer driver but he was denied access to the source code. So he, and some of the worlds most compotent computer engineers, had to live with it until the vendor made the changes. It happens.
Don't be fooled with grandiose promises of support. I think we all know what a frustrating experience it can be trying to get "support" for something. While it is true that money talks and the more money your company has invested in the support contract the better service you'll get, it is also true that the more money you invest in the project the less you can afford to not have in house control over the internals.
For an interesting essay on the economics of "Open Source" software read ESR's "The Magic Cauldron".
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/magic-cauldro
-Derek
I had no idea Sun was such a butt. (*sound of opions forming*)
-Derek
Now comes the catch. First of all, the liquid music file was only playable by the Liquid Music player on the computer that it was downloaded to. They did provide the ability to burn the song on to a CD *BUT* my CD-R isn't "supported". Never mind that the CD-R is a quality, name-brand burner with support on many platforms. Also, there is no liquid music player for Linux, or any other *nix.
So, if I had purchased this song, it would be entirely unavailable to me anywhere besides the Windows computer that I downloaded it on to. Yeah, that's a great deal. Thanks guys!
Solutions-
In this case the ability to decode the music format or hack in support for my CD-R would have both been solotions to my problem (and would have both been, I believe, covered by "fair use"). The anti-circumvention clauses in the DMCA now prevent these solution from ever being legal.
Solutions under DCMA
It turned out that the CD was published under an indie label (no RIAA) so I felt good about buying the whole CD. It is hard to argue that the DCMA doesn't hurt the consumer. I hope this example helps.
-Derek
Related links:
P.S. I posted this earlier, but it didn't seem to show up, sorry if this turns out to be a re-post.
Now comes the catch. First of all, the liquid music file was only playable by the Liquid Music player on the computer that it was downloaded to. They did provide the ability to burn the song on to a CD *BUT* my CD-R isn't "supported". Never mind that the CD-R is a quality, name-brand burner with support on many platforms. Also, there is no liquid music player for Linux, or any other *nix.
So, if I had purchased this song, it would be entirely unavailable to me anywhere besides the Windows computer that I downloaded it on to. Yeah, that's a great deal. Thanks guys!
Solutions-
In this case the ability to decode the music format or hack in support for my CD-R would have both been solotions to my problem (and would have both been, I believe, covered by "fair use"). The anti-circumvention clauses in the DMCA now prevent these solution from ever being legal.
Solutions under DCMA
It turned out that the CD was published under an indie label (no RIAA) so I felt good about buying the whole CD. It is hard to argue that the DCMA doesn't hurt the consumer. I hope this example helps.
-Derek
Related links:
it's the huge slingshot needed to get it into space that is a bugger to design.
That's what the previously mentioned CATS prize was all about. Too bad it failed. Maybe next round, or better yet, the X prize!
-Derek
I signed up about three weeks ago and the installer finally came to get set up my modem yesterday. Guess what. STILL NO SERVICE! When he left yesterday he claimed that there was a temporary router problem and I should be on "in about 1/2 hour". I've made 2 calls to thier "support" line since then and (after re-booting) they concluded that they had no idea what the problem was and that the installer needed to return to fix it. When will that be? TWO MORE WEEKS!!! This doesn't bode well for them.
-Derek
P.S. I'm in Taylorsville UT using the ATT@Home service.
I never got the chance to see it. I sounded funny, what was it? Any mirrors?
-Derek
Their argument is that they don't think anyone should have the right to publish their IP without permission. I don't think they would care if you reverse engineered their :CuteKitty and kept it to yourself. (In fact they would probably never even find out about it.) In this context, your microwave example makes no sense to me.
I personally started to reverse engineer their toy the moment I found out that it would spit out plain barcode text. Luckily I found out someone had already done it and it saved me the trouble. Now I can use the ":Cat" for all sorts of things on all sorts of platforms.
To those who published the code: Thanks!
To DigitalConvergence: What your beef? How does this ruin you business model? It seems to me that your little toy just became orders of magnitude more useful. Not only can I use it with your software (when I'm in Windows), but I can use it for whatever else my little geek brain dreams up. Back off and let the popularity of your device soar.
That is all.
-Derek
...Gilbert of Great Bridge!!!
Cool name.
-Derek
Could someone please post where I can find out more details about this story? (This sounds a lot like an urban legend.) Before I spout off my opinions, I'd like to be a little better informed on the details. Thanks.
-Derek