If Sega is planning on licensing the hardware to third parties, is there any chance that we're going to be seeing some kind of PCI card that 'does' DreamCast? Although I play on the DC quite a bit, I don't know too much about the hardware - would there be a problem from a slightly proprietary CD drive or some other lame attempt at copy prevention?
Clearly, it's not quite as neat as something like Bleem, but hey, it's a start, and I'd love to play SoulCalibur on my desktop box:)
I work for an advertising agency in Canada (I know, I know, only half a step removed from the Devil), and one of our major clients now is Sony. One of our staff decided that it was very important for us to better understand the client's products, and acquired us a grey-import PS2. And it's fun. And hardly anyone plays on it any more, preferring someone else's office-residing Dreamcast.
The main reason we're all playing on the Dreamcast rather than the PS2 is that the games are currently *far* more impressive on that platform. Many an afternoon is wasted^H^H^H^H^H^Hdedicated to competitive research of games such as SoulCalibur, Crazy Taxi, Sega Rally, and so on. Clearly, it's far easier for us to get games for the DC because of the fact that it's been around over here for a while, but still, we have 4 games for the PS2. And the only one of those that is even vaguely fun is the soccer game we have. It's also the game with the most realism (we have a racing game that is more realistic, but it's realistic to the point of unplayability). The games we have are visibly early-adoption titles.
I have a feeling that if the PS2 really is going to be the trojan horse of the home entertainment market, the games developers are going to have to mature their games very quickly indeed. Looking back at the run of the original PlayStation, it's very clear that the games have become better and better visually as time has progressed, and the programmers have learned to better utilise the hardware and it's abilities. I only hope for Sony's sake that they can do that again.
If you look a little more closely than CmdrTaco did, you'll see that the model numbers are different for those two machines, and the case of the system which Polo was talking about is quite dissimilar to the one in the ZD review. Having said that little rant, I really like the convergence thing, and it's only going to get more and more prevalent.
Actually, here in Canada the situation is the same. A law has to be passed and enforced before the courts will undertake an investigation into its validity. However, unlike the situation in the States, if a law is found to break the Constitution, it can in many cases be re-enacted, with a special clause that basically says "we know it breaks the Constitution, and we really don't care - it's law anyway." This has only been used twice, but it's a scary provision.
Law is a very funny thing, and funnier still is the American attitude that any laws they pass are enforceable globally (examples such as the Helms-Burton Act, relating to trade with Cuba, spring to mind very quickly).
At the end of the day, people that understand the problems that today's technology laws are making will start moving themselves, at the very least in a virtual manner, to jurisdictions where such things aren't problematic, or don't exist. One classic example of this is (or will be) HavenCo. Based on the Pseudostate of Sealand, is a place which is basically lawless, and proud of the fact. As long as you don't peddle kiddie porn, you will be able to host just about anything on their servers.
HavenCo's existance could, theoretically, be ignored if ISPs are forced to filter the IP addresses to which users are allowed to connect. However, this is an impractical technology to use, as there are a vast array of methods available to get around it.
BTW, HavenCo has been mentioned on Slashdot here and here.
I remember when VRML actually had some steam - it was when I first entered the web industry (about five years ago now I guess). My biggest memory of it was that it was *really* slow on the SGI machines I used at work.
I guess there is some chance that it could take off now, seeing as there is a lot more computing power on people's desktops, but the main problem it will always have is that 3D is not a simple format for the average person to be able to deal with and author in successfully. HTML has had such a good run because of the simple fact that people can easily deal with the reduced spatial requirements that 2D has, and the development of visual cues is well-known. That pretty much anyone can learn the basics of HTML in a day or two (and I use GeoCities as my proof of that) is testament to the simplicity of the format. Adding another dimension to the mix increases the complexity by an order of magnitude.
Surely the flight model would be something which would be stored (and modified) on the server running the (presumed) multi-player sim. In that instance, if the server is set up to allow 'zero-g lightspeed travel', then everyone will be able to, er, enjoy it.
Certainly, it would make things far more interesting if you could easily, by changing some textures and maps and just tweaking the physics engine a little, turn the sim into a Mars flight sim (or something even more esoteric).
If you're running a webserver cluster behind the router, and using the router itself to do the load balancing (IANASA - I am not a Sys Admin), then if all the dedicated webserving machines decide to go bye-bye on you, it would be a Nice Thing to be able to have the router throw out a "Sorry, our stuff is unavailable right now" message. Not that you should let the aforementioned state occur, but as the saying goes, 'better safe than dead.'
Although not all banks issue them, my parents used to get fixed-value credit cards when they went on holiday (they're far easier to deal with and carry around than traveller's checks). You'd just go to the bank, transfer some money on to a card (I believe it was Visa that issued them), and off you'd go - most ATMs would even tell you how much you had left. After the holiday, you'd just have the bank take off any remainder on the card and put it bank into your account. Personally, I don't see why this wouldn't work online (just make sure the maximum value on the card was 'reasonable'). The cards only work in ATMs currently, but hey, I'm sure Visa has the ability to fiddle that at will:)
for those who are interested in this, Visa has some details on the cards here
Executive Summary of the Following Rant:
It'll take a bunch of companies to make this work, and the only ones that are going to be really screwed by it are the people.
I can easily see something like the above situation occuring. All it needs is some logistics. And, given the current system, that's where the problem lies.
The major stumbling block to any supranational system such as this is getting known value into the thing in the first place. I'm going to give a very unlikely scenario here, but bear with me:)
Let's say, for instance, that Time Warner wants, for some reason, to spearhead the revolution. They want to set up shop on the net to sell MP3s to all and sundry, and also to make sure that nobody, especially themselves, gets taxed for the transactions. After setting up an offshore company to hold all the activities, they put up an e-com site, and get people to buy their good MP3s from there for a minimal sum per unit. Time Warner, the Official Company, makes up a lot of PR about how this is actually a Bad Thing, and "Nothing To Do With Us," goes through the motions of suing themselves, and as a result might just get away with it. And because they also own (some) of the network, by way of AOL, they have some chance of not having to shut the system down (I'll leave the 'distributed webserving' problem as an exercise for the reader).
Now, lets say that they wanted to use this money they'd been generating in the Real World. That's where the problem comes. You can bet that all the nations that had been screwed out of money would have *big* problems with dealing with that company which TW had set up. And, of course, if TW was to own up to the scheme, they'd have hell to pay. So, now they need to be able to do something with their 'untouchable cash.'
The best way to play with the untouchable cash is to have someone else working the same way, providing a service they want, who is willing to take their money. And so a network of supranationals would form, all dealing outside of the current boundaries, and being more than happy to see more of their turnover as profit.
The only question, after all that, is whether or not the public would get screwed more by their national governments to make up for the tax shortfall, or if they would end up in a similar 'supranational' situation. My main fear of something like this occuring is that basic services will disappear as the sources of tax income dwindle.
OOPS: Re:Cryptix - Java encryption library
on
GPG vs. PGP?
·
· Score: 2
Oops, pressed the wrong thing at the wrong time:/
Anyways, as I was saying, there have been a bunch of people complaining about getting software to run on different machines. Now, I know this is a bit of a utopian view of Java, as I'm well aware of the problems of "Write Once, Run Anywhere", but surely the use of something like Cryptix 3.1.2 alongside a standard such as JavaMail would be a good basis for dealing with all these problems. The Cryptix code has interoperability with PGP 2.x (which may not be enough for everyone, but it shows it's been moving in the right direction), and it links in with the cryptography hooks that Sun has defined. As for JavaMail, well, that speaks for itself.
From the article: When he described the system to Randolph N. Reynolds, vice chairman of Reynolds Metal Co., whom he met through a government-sponsored program for small exporters, he says Mr. Reynolds told him: "Patent it, son. Patent it." Messrs. Pool and Mauer, who together own DE Technologies, filed their patent application in 1997.
He *described* the system to a third party prior to patenting it. Certainly in the UK, that would invalidate the patent application, as the process was now public knowledge. I don't know how things work in the US, as I don't hail from there, but I think he's on shaky ground.
Well, I'm guessing that Compaq have realized that it'll cost a mountain of cash for each of the beasts in question, and that they're happy sales staff will be sure to sell you a multiplicity of the things:)
That's a very novel argument... until you actually look at the price of the systems involved in that top ten information. For the price-performance list, none of the top ten costs less than $350,000, and the most expensive is well over $800k. I wouldn't say that it's a particularly useful guide for those of us that have a more earthbound budget.
As for the 'top ten by database vendor' results... number one comes in at a measly $3.6 MILLION. Oh. Like my company can afford that. Number 2 is the same. Number 3 is, well, cheap in comparison, at $2.2 million. In fact, the cheapest system came from Sun, only cost (only!) something over $550k, and was running some Fujitsu software.
All in all, I think it proves that benchmarks, at least the ones that you're looking at, can be *very* flawed.
Just a quick question... where do our friendly neighbourhood scientists intend to get the 10MW of power required to make this thing work? If the Orion project was thrown off by way of the fact that it was based on nuclear explosions, and other systems based on nuclear tech have been ignored, what's the alternative power source for those big-ass magnets that are needed to make this thing work? I'm sure NASA won't be sending up tons of premagnetized ferrite - there has to be a massive amount of electricity involved in both the generation of the plasma, its containment and its controlled expulsion, and the solar panels for just 100kW of power (according to SciAm) are "unwieldy". That's a full two orders of magnitude less than is needed here.
The idea that this latest development is going to cause piracy to proliferate is a joke. This technology is limited to consumer DVD players (where you don't have a way to move data around, sotre decoded data) and people that want the most kick-ass home theatre they can get.
The threat from piracy is already well known regarding DVD - your home PC. Think about it - the article quotes a kit with screen and player as costing GBP 10,000 - about $15,500. That's a lot more than the pc that I use every day. Oh, and it has a DVD player. All I then need is a CD-R (oh, I have one of those too), and I am a potential pirate. The real interesting piracy hacks will start appearing when DVD-Rs hit the scene in a big way, if they're compatible with current consumer players. Then, all that you'll need to do to start a piracy industry is to buy one DVD, DeCSS it, and burn the thing without any protection. I'm sure the MPAA with have a hissy fit when they realise the region coding will become redundant at that point.
However, having said all that, it's a really neat idea, and I wish the guy that created it all the best - he's got a 900 pound gorrilla after his ass now:/
I don't think this place is going to belong to the Aussies... According to the BBC article on the subject, the island is about 20 miles from the Solomon Islands. Based on this, I'm guessing that the island is in their territorial waters, and so they'll be claiming the island (in most parts of the world, a country's territorial waters extend for 200 miles). I don't think we'll be seeing a macdonald's on there for a little while though.
For those of you that really, really want to buy an island, and that still have a little money after all the linux stocks jumped and dived, you might want to check out these people. The guy that runs this place is the agent for most of the inhabitable islands in the world, and he has some (ahem) real bargains!
It's actually an interesting article... something that I wasn't exactly expecting. Although it views the Internet as something completely commercial (not exactly valid, but things are moving that way), the proposals merit a look over at the very least.
Clear notice on every web site telling users what personal information may be collected by whom and how it will be used. Personally, I think that should already be mandatory. Accountability is a very important thing in this medium, given the ease with which information can be traded. There are currently no safeguards in place that allow a user to do the equivalent of a paper-chase to see who has what information on them. Such a lack of standards is, quite frankly, shameful.
Prohibitions on selling or sharing personally identifiable profiles with other companies or third parties. You know what? This would never work. What seems to be forgotten in this section is the fact that this kind of information is exactly what marketers want. As a result, there is no way that there would be any use in attempting to make something like this stick.
Clear and simple procedures to opt out of data collection. Why not reverse this? Let's see some sites that make it clear and simple to opt into data collection. It would be very pleasant to see a website that explained that they would like to use your provided information in (hopefully) a constructive way. I can't remember the last time I saw something like that.
Stringent guidelines on the collection of sensitive personal data. This item is almost acceptable. But, in my opinion, why make particular items 'more private' than others? Who sets these standards? The idea almost makes sense, but it far too vague to be of any use.
Notification on updates to privacy policies. When someone registers with a website, they should be able to expect to be treated the same for their entire time with that website, regardless of policy changes. They should have the opportunity to opt into the changes, but those changes should not be forced upon them.
Prohibitions on the use of data collected under more stringent privacy policies. This item is almost good too, but again, the user is required to proactively confirm their removal from a policy change. Bad.
That's my take on it, anyways. At least they tried, let's hope they're open to reviewing that proposal.
Enhydra also supports the required server-side sessioning that the questioner needs... Actually, that's a very cool technology if it's robust, but I'm not sure that server-side sessions work well in cases where things like NAT and firewalls are being used... It's tough to track 20 people all coming from the same IP address:)
And it's not without reason that I wrote that with a capital B.S.:)
Slightly more seriously though, it's interesting to see how many bugs and glitches are coming out of Microsoft these days, and how they're affecting our daily lives (well, the majority of PC user's lives anyways). Perhaps more interesting than this is the proof that bugs like these give us that scripting languages can be *extremely* powerful things.
I'm working on a system which embeds JavaScript (courtesy of Rhino - go Mozilla!) into something akin to an operating environment. As a result of the fact that XML and DOM are also very heavily involved, it is possible to control just about everything through scripting. This could be a huge security hole if I wanted it to be. However, Microsoft, in their wisdom, have driven a path through the minefield on my behalf, so all I have to do is tread more lightly than that behemoth
The point of the exercise is to get the most out of the FreeBSD system you own... let's say (as a simple example) that you're running a big website that uses a lot of servlets to achieve some cool customization, and you get *lots* of hits each day. In this situation, you wouldn't want to be emulating another OS, you'd want to stay native. I have no idea if the linux emulation will take advantage of multiple processors, but if not, you could well be losing out (I know I would be).
Another useless point on the subject: There are now 4 different BSDs that I know about (Free, Open, Net, Trusted), and it would probably make the porting exercise to the others a lot easier if we have source for a BSD-friendly version of the JDK available from Sun. I understand there may be third-party patches around too, but hey, if Sun feels the need to support a Linux distro of the JDK, I'd rather not feel like the less-loved sibling in the free-OS family:)
Slashdot Mirror
... Perhaps you'll have some luck contacting this person (the WHOIS entry for that domain, all three entries):
R., Scott scott@zebok.com
5773 Woodway
Houston, Tx 77057
US
713-521-9162
If Sega is planning on licensing the hardware to third parties, is there any chance that we're going to be seeing some kind of PCI card that 'does' DreamCast? Although I play on the DC quite a bit, I don't know too much about the hardware - would there be a problem from a slightly proprietary CD drive or some other lame attempt at copy prevention?
:)
Clearly, it's not quite as neat as something like Bleem, but hey, it's a start, and I'd love to play SoulCalibur on my desktop box
I work for an advertising agency in Canada (I know, I know, only half a step removed from the Devil), and one of our major clients now is Sony. One of our staff decided that it was very important for us to better understand the client's products, and acquired us a grey-import PS2. And it's fun. And hardly anyone plays on it any more, preferring someone else's office-residing Dreamcast.
The main reason we're all playing on the Dreamcast rather than the PS2 is that the games are currently *far* more impressive on that platform. Many an afternoon is wasted^H^H^H^H^H^Hdedicated to competitive research of games such as SoulCalibur, Crazy Taxi, Sega Rally, and so on. Clearly, it's far easier for us to get games for the DC because of the fact that it's been around over here for a while, but still, we have 4 games for the PS2. And the only one of those that is even vaguely fun is the soccer game we have. It's also the game with the most realism (we have a racing game that is more realistic, but it's realistic to the point of unplayability). The games we have are visibly early-adoption titles.
I have a feeling that if the PS2 really is going to be the trojan horse of the home entertainment market, the games developers are going to have to mature their games very quickly indeed. Looking back at the run of the original PlayStation, it's very clear that the games have become better and better visually as time has progressed, and the programmers have learned to better utilise the hardware and it's abilities. I only hope for Sony's sake that they can do that again.
It's called a 'battery.' Apparently they've been around for quite a while now.
If you look a little more closely than CmdrTaco did, you'll see that the model numbers are different for those two machines, and the case of the system which Polo was talking about is quite dissimilar to the one in the ZD review. Having said that little rant, I really like the convergence thing, and it's only going to get more and more prevalent.
Actually, here in Canada the situation is the same. A law has to be passed and enforced before the courts will undertake an investigation into its validity. However, unlike the situation in the States, if a law is found to break the Constitution, it can in many cases be re-enacted, with a special clause that basically says "we know it breaks the Constitution, and we really don't care - it's law anyway." This has only been used twice, but it's a scary provision.
Law is a very funny thing, and funnier still is the American attitude that any laws they pass are enforceable globally (examples such as the Helms-Burton Act, relating to trade with Cuba, spring to mind very quickly).
At the end of the day, people that understand the problems that today's technology laws are making will start moving themselves, at the very least in a virtual manner, to jurisdictions where such things aren't problematic, or don't exist. One classic example of this is (or will be) HavenCo. Based on the Pseudostate of Sealand, is a place which is basically lawless, and proud of the fact. As long as you don't peddle kiddie porn, you will be able to host just about anything on their servers.
HavenCo's existance could, theoretically, be ignored if ISPs are forced to filter the IP addresses to which users are allowed to connect. However, this is an impractical technology to use, as there are a vast array of methods available to get around it.
BTW, HavenCo has been mentioned on Slashdot here and here.
I remember when VRML actually had some steam - it was when I first entered the web industry (about five years ago now I guess). My biggest memory of it was that it was *really* slow on the SGI machines I used at work.
I guess there is some chance that it could take off now, seeing as there is a lot more computing power on people's desktops, but the main problem it will always have is that 3D is not a simple format for the average person to be able to deal with and author in successfully. HTML has had such a good run because of the simple fact that people can easily deal with the reduced spatial requirements that 2D has, and the development of visual cues is well-known. That pretty much anyone can learn the basics of HTML in a day or two (and I use GeoCities as my proof of that) is testament to the simplicity of the format. Adding another dimension to the mix increases the complexity by an order of magnitude.
Surely the flight model would be something which would be stored (and modified) on the server running the (presumed) multi-player sim. In that instance, if the server is set up to allow 'zero-g lightspeed travel', then everyone will be able to, er, enjoy it.
Certainly, it would make things far more interesting if you could easily, by changing some textures and maps and just tweaking the physics engine a little, turn the sim into a Mars flight sim (or something even more esoteric).
... when you think about it a little.
If you're running a webserver cluster behind the router, and using the router itself to do the load balancing (IANASA - I am not a Sys Admin), then if all the dedicated webserving machines decide to go bye-bye on you, it would be a Nice Thing to be able to have the router throw out a "Sorry, our stuff is unavailable right now" message. Not that you should let the aforementioned state occur, but as the saying goes, 'better safe than dead.'
for those who are interested in this, Visa has some details on the cards here
It'll take a bunch of companies to make this work, and the only ones that are going to be really screwed by it are the people.
I can easily see something like the above situation occuring. All it needs is some logistics. And, given the current system, that's where the problem lies.
The major stumbling block to any supranational system such as this is getting known value into the thing in the first place. I'm going to give a very unlikely scenario here, but bear with me :)
Let's say, for instance, that Time Warner wants, for some reason, to spearhead the revolution. They want to set up shop on the net to sell MP3s to all and sundry, and also to make sure that nobody, especially themselves, gets taxed for the transactions. After setting up an offshore company to hold all the activities, they put up an e-com site, and get people to buy their good MP3s from there for a minimal sum per unit. Time Warner, the Official Company, makes up a lot of PR about how this is actually a Bad Thing, and "Nothing To Do With Us," goes through the motions of suing themselves, and as a result might just get away with it. And because they also own (some) of the network, by way of AOL, they have some chance of not having to shut the system down (I'll leave the 'distributed webserving' problem as an exercise for the reader).
Now, lets say that they wanted to use this money they'd been generating in the Real World. That's where the problem comes. You can bet that all the nations that had been screwed out of money would have *big* problems with dealing with that company which TW had set up. And, of course, if TW was to own up to the scheme, they'd have hell to pay. So, now they need to be able to do something with their 'untouchable cash.'
The best way to play with the untouchable cash is to have someone else working the same way, providing a service they want, who is willing to take their money. And so a network of supranationals would form, all dealing outside of the current boundaries, and being more than happy to see more of their turnover as profit.
The only question, after all that, is whether or not the public would get screwed more by their national governments to make up for the tax shortfall, or if they would end up in a similar 'supranational' situation. My main fear of something like this occuring is that basic services will disappear as the sources of tax income dwindle.
Anyways, as I was saying, there have been a bunch of people complaining about getting software to run on different machines. Now, I know this is a bit of a utopian view of Java, as I'm well aware of the problems of "Write Once, Run Anywhere", but surely the use of something like Cryptix 3.1.2 alongside a standard such as JavaMail would be a good basis for dealing with all these problems. The Cryptix code has interoperability with PGP 2.x (which may not be enough for everyone, but it shows it's been moving in the right direction), and it links in with the cryptography hooks that Sun has defined. As for JavaMail, well, that speaks for itself.
From the article:
When he described the system to Randolph N. Reynolds, vice chairman of Reynolds Metal Co., whom he met through a government-sponsored program for small exporters, he says Mr. Reynolds told him: "Patent it, son. Patent it." Messrs. Pool and Mauer, who together own DE Technologies, filed their patent application in 1997.
He *described* the system to a third party prior to patenting it. Certainly in the UK, that would invalidate the patent application, as the process was now public knowledge. I don't know how things work in the US, as I don't hail from there, but I think he's on shaky ground.
Well, I'm guessing that Compaq have realized that it'll cost a mountain of cash for each of the beasts in question, and that they're happy sales staff will be sure to sell you a multiplicity of the things :)
That's a very novel argument... until you actually look at the price of the systems involved in that top ten information. For the price-performance list, none of the top ten costs less than $350,000, and the most expensive is well over $800k. I wouldn't say that it's a particularly useful guide for those of us that have a more earthbound budget.
As for the 'top ten by database vendor' results... number one comes in at a measly $3.6 MILLION. Oh. Like my company can afford that. Number 2 is the same. Number 3 is, well, cheap in comparison, at $2.2 million. In fact, the cheapest system came from Sun, only cost (only!) something over $550k, and was running some Fujitsu software.
All in all, I think it proves that benchmarks, at least the ones that you're looking at, can be *very* flawed.
Just a quick question... where do our friendly neighbourhood scientists intend to get the 10MW of power required to make this thing work? If the Orion project was thrown off by way of the fact that it was based on nuclear explosions, and other systems based on nuclear tech have been ignored, what's the alternative power source for those big-ass magnets that are needed to make this thing work? I'm sure NASA won't be sending up tons of premagnetized ferrite - there has to be a massive amount of electricity involved in both the generation of the plasma, its containment and its controlled expulsion, and the solar panels for just 100kW of power (according to SciAm) are "unwieldy". That's a full two orders of magnitude less than is needed here.
Ideas anyone?
The idea that this latest development is going to cause piracy to proliferate is a joke. This technology is limited to consumer DVD players (where you don't have a way to move data around, sotre decoded data) and people that want the most kick-ass home theatre they can get.
:/
The threat from piracy is already well known regarding DVD - your home PC. Think about it - the article quotes a kit with screen and player as costing GBP 10,000 - about $15,500. That's a lot more than the pc that I use every day. Oh, and it has a DVD player. All I then need is a CD-R (oh, I have one of those too), and I am a potential pirate. The real interesting piracy hacks will start appearing when DVD-Rs hit the scene in a big way, if they're compatible with current consumer players. Then, all that you'll need to do to start a piracy industry is to buy one DVD, DeCSS it, and burn the thing without any protection. I'm sure the MPAA with have a hissy fit when they realise the region coding will become redundant at that point.
However, having said all that, it's a really neat idea, and I wish the guy that created it all the best - he's got a 900 pound gorrilla after his ass now
I don't think this place is going to belong to the Aussies... According to the BBC article on the subject, the island is about 20 miles from the Solomon Islands. Based on this, I'm guessing that the island is in their territorial waters, and so they'll be claiming the island (in most parts of the world, a country's territorial waters extend for 200 miles). I don't think we'll be seeing a macdonald's on there for a little while though.
For those of you that really, really want to buy an island, and that still have a little money after all the linux stocks jumped and dived, you might want to check out these people. The guy that runs this place is the agent for most of the inhabitable islands in the world, and he has some (ahem) real bargains!
sorry... this was originally posted in regards to the PPI-specific item that was on /. but which was removed... just to give some context.
- Clear notice on every web site telling users what personal information may be collected by whom and how it will be used.
- Prohibitions on selling or sharing personally identifiable profiles with other companies or third parties.
- Clear and simple procedures to opt out of data collection.
- Stringent guidelines on the collection of sensitive personal data.
- Notification on updates to privacy policies.
- Prohibitions on the use of data collected under more stringent privacy policies.
That's my take on it, anyways. At least they tried, let's hope they're open to reviewing that proposal.Personally, I think that should already be mandatory. Accountability is a very important thing in this medium, given the ease with which information can be traded. There are currently no safeguards in place that allow a user to do the equivalent of a paper-chase to see who has what information on them. Such a lack of standards is, quite frankly, shameful.
You know what? This would never work. What seems to be forgotten in this section is the fact that this kind of information is exactly what marketers want. As a result, there is no way that there would be any use in attempting to make something like this stick.
Why not reverse this? Let's see some sites that make it clear and simple to opt into data collection. It would be very pleasant to see a website that explained that they would like to use your provided information in (hopefully) a constructive way. I can't remember the last time I saw something like that.
This item is almost acceptable. But, in my opinion, why make particular items 'more private' than others? Who sets these standards? The idea almost makes sense, but it far too vague to be of any use.
When someone registers with a website, they should be able to expect to be treated the same for their entire time with that website, regardless of policy changes. They should have the opportunity to opt into the changes, but those changes should not be forced upon them.
This item is almost good too, but again, the user is required to proactively confirm their removal from a policy change. Bad.
'Jornada' may well be Spanish for time (in the context of 'jornada completa'), but in this case it seems you're getting 'nada' for your 'dinero'
Enhydra also supports the required server-side sessioning that the questioner needs... Actually, that's a very cool technology if it's robust, but I'm not sure that server-side sessions work well in cases where things like NAT and firewalls are being used... It's tough to track 20 people all coming from the same IP address :)
And it's not without reason that I wrote that with a capital B.S. :)
Slightly more seriously though, it's interesting to see how many bugs and glitches are coming out of Microsoft these days, and how they're affecting our daily lives (well, the majority of PC user's lives anyways). Perhaps more interesting than this is the proof that bugs like these give us that scripting languages can be *extremely* powerful things.
I'm working on a system which embeds JavaScript (courtesy of Rhino - go Mozilla!) into something akin to an operating environment. As a result of the fact that XML and DOM are also very heavily involved, it is possible to control just about everything through scripting. This could be a huge security hole if I wanted it to be. However, Microsoft, in their wisdom, have driven a path through the minefield on my behalf, so all I have to do is tread more lightly than that behemoth
All I can say is 'thanks!'
(BTW, I'm currently using IE5. Oh, the irony.)
The point of the exercise is to get the most out of the FreeBSD system you own... let's say (as a simple example) that you're running a big website that uses a lot of servlets to achieve some cool customization, and you get *lots* of hits each day. In this situation, you wouldn't want to be emulating another OS, you'd want to stay native. I have no idea if the linux emulation will take advantage of multiple processors, but if not, you could well be losing out (I know I would be).
:)
Another useless point on the subject: There are now 4 different BSDs that I know about (Free, Open, Net, Trusted), and it would probably make the porting exercise to the others a lot easier if we have source for a BSD-friendly version of the JDK available from Sun. I understand there may be third-party patches around too, but hey, if Sun feels the need to support a Linux distro of the JDK, I'd rather not feel like the less-loved sibling in the free-OS family