Those who "provide broadband" are the physical infrastructure providers (allowing for minimal software layers regarding static/dynamic IP addressing, mundane access control, etc.); this is not the same as what many deem "ISP"s to wit email service, web hosting, etc. It's the difference between who paves & maintains the road to your mailbox vs. who picks up your trash. Back in the "golden age of the internet [where] you had dozens of ISPs to choose from" it was the phone company that provided the physical infrastructure connecting you to a bridge to the backbone; today you have a choice of phone, cable, DSL, 3G, 4G, WiMax, satellite, etc. providing that "last mile" type service bridging you to the Internet backbones. Don't confuse "golden age ISPs" data bridging service with their coincidental email/hosting/etc. services which you can now get from anywhere on the planet.
So... I'm confused about what the FCC is considering opening up access to what by who. Anyone can, with big money, get into the very expensive "last mile" service (or into the backbone service). Comcast gives me that "last mile" service (and I have options for AT&T DSL, Clear WiMax, Verizon 3G, etc.); pray tell who else is supposed to gain access to Comcast's wiring to my home for what purpose? My web/email hosting is on Hostway who knows where.
I once worked for a gaming company. The video poker/keno/whatever machine would throw a "hot player" flag to alert the staff when a player was winning too much or too often - not that there was anything actually wrong with what the player was doing, but just alert the house that things weren't going the house's way and maybe someone should look into it, distract the player, or throw 'em out.
How many people are going to leave their e-book reader sitting in the sun for 4-5 hours? We're talking direct, full sunlight here. Any clouds, shadows, or off-perpendicular variations and that charging time goes up by many more hours. We're talking hours here under optimal conditions. We're talking electronics at a cost of several hundred dollars you don't want to leave lying around unwatched. In reality, most people just can't/won't do it.
I have a Solio solar battery. Sounded nifty, cheap enough to play with. I soon discovered that there was just nowhere I could _leave_ it for hours on end, not just to assure full solar exposure, but where I was sure it would still be there and not get stolen. Car dashboard? overheated so badly it stopped charging. Clipped to shoulder bag? angles, shadows, etc. wrecked charging time. Patio? rain.
I like the idea of solar self-charging devices, but only as serving a last-ditch survival scenario. If a solar panel can be built in for trivial bulk, weight, and cost then fine - but really folks, slapping a solar panel on something you don't/won't leave in the sun for prolonged periods on a regular basis just doesn't cut it.
Maybe Times Square would be improved by removing the inundation of advertising. Been there, seen it, pretty lame actually once you look just a bit past the initial "Ooh! Shiny!" reflex.
Companies who lose sight of who the real customer is often die - a slow, lingering demise, but terminal nonetheless.
Methinks the great failing of Vista (and M$'s overall strategy flaw) was that M$ decided the customer is Dell (and other huge-volume buyers), IT departments, and DRM-lusting IP/content owners - forgetting that the real customer is each user clicking their way around the screen. Result: some 50% of Apple users are new to the product line, happy to put up with Jobs as a benevolent dictator who cares about their experience, happy to escape being treated as a mere marketing resource of eyeballs and wallets.
So long as we still have some technological liberties, someone will realize who the customer really is, serve them, and be rewarded - and drive **AA & government control out.
There is no "they" who has the responsibility for fixing "it". The Internet is a collaborative cooperative: everyone takes care of their part of it, cooperating with de-facto standards, and contributing a little money for those very few services everyone needs done by a few people.
If you want the Internet "fixed", then it's up to YOU to do YOUR part. Do you run a IPv6-compliant OS? router? server? Do you implement/support whatever you believe needs to be done to "fix" YOUR part of the Internet? - yes? Then when the time comes when the alleged problem must be solved, you've already taken care of your part - and (we hope) everyone else has done the same with theirs. There won't be a problem if everyone is proactive about the issue. - no? Then WTF are you complaining about? There is no "net-mommy" whose job it is to clean up your room along with everyone else's.
"Oh," you'll complain, "what about everyone who DOESN'T fix their part? Shouldn't ICANN or someone FORCE them to comply with what I think should be done?" Welcome to freedom. Enjoy your liberty. You get to do what you think you should do, and others get to do what they think they should do. When SHTF, you're ready, and they're not, and you'll find things have a way of sorting out.
Grow up. No, I don't mean that in a mean way. I mean: you are an adult now, meaning YOU are one of the people who makes the decisions you grew up assuming someone else was responsible for. "The government" (be it a nation's leaders, ICANN, or other empowered body) is just a collection of people like you; they're not super-adults or minor deities whom you naturally petition for care and security. YOU have freedom & liberty & responsibility - take care of your part of the Internet (and everything else) as you see best, cooperate with others as best you can, prepare for the failings of others, and make sure YOU are not one of those who fail.
Upgrade your networking stuff to do what you think it should (IPv6, etc.). Start using the improvements, showing your ISP that they need to upgrade (if they haven't already). Be the improvement, live the benefits early, be ahead of the curve, be ready for what comes. When the digital SHTF, your part of the 'net will work and will attract those who want to work with those others that work; those not ready will either fail (good riddance) or cope (catching up to where you are).
Who will fix the Internet? YOU will. You don't want a net-nanny telling you what you can't see/do on the web, so why do you want one telling you what you must see/do on the web?
Any risks regarding those of us with pacemakers? (I know this is/., but forgive me as I ask an honest question.)
I've been warned against getting too close to radio transmitters and other electromagnetic sources (cradling a cell phone on my left shoulder where the implant is, letting earphones dangle near my wiring, running chainsaws and other small engines/motors within arm's reach, etc.) Having a wireless power transmitter nearby sounds like a legitimate concern. Being a cyborg (literally) brings new personal meaning to the term "fatal error"...
Burning Man started out as an absolute do-whatever-you-want-just-don't-kill-anyone free-for-all. Like most liberal fantasies, it rapidly devolved into an authoritarian group usurping natural ownership and dictating rules galore. "We automatically own all your stuff" isn't the only BMO rule totally contrary to the events original spirit.
As someone fitted with a pacemaker of late, having means to often update the doc with performance data would be nice - if not downright life-saving.
With current technology, I have to go in for my "tuneup" every six months. It does involve a wireless interface, and there is an impressive amount of data dumped. A great many parameters can be changed with ease by a trained technician. When we determined that my natural resting heartrate was under 60bpm, reprogramming that to a minimum of 50bpm was trivial.
Transmitting ongoing data to the doc would be convenient, making it easy to email "hey, something funny happened today, please look into it" without having to wait until a scheduled appointment involving a not-always-available technician. Being able to transmit critical event as they occur is also very desirable - duh; my Medical Alert necklace may direct medics to call my cardiologist, who would be much more effective if he already had incident data.
Of course the real problem is remote control. Informing the doc of ongoing/critical data is one thing; allowing access to make remote updates is a different issue. Making the unit such that remote changes are impossible is, of course, possible. However, if ANY change will be made to such a critical device, then it should be done IN A DOCTOR'S OFFICE. One of my diagnostic routines is dropping my heart rate to 40bpm - harmless if done right, lethal if screwed up.
Of course the real concern to most/. readers is the LOLFAIL headline. "Hey, watch out for a DDOS on your pacemaker! Ha ha ha!" Nothing wins a lot of reads like a headline making some technical advancement sound really dumb. Funny how so many readers of a high-tech news source treat high-tech advancements like Luddites.
What's described is little different from firearms training systems such as CAPS, which project live-action video onto a life-size shoot-thru screen - allowing training with full-power live-fire in realistic situations. Police, military, and citizens* have been using this technology for more than a decade (albeit perhaps not quite as technically sophisticated).
(* - some of us realize that the police & military won't be there for us when their job needs to be done.)
Methinks the biggest problem with translating a book to a game is: with a book, the main characters usually make some grand mistakes (very specific ones) and then spend the rest of the tale trying to recover, while with a game the emphasis is NOT making mistakes - any mistakes. Readers want to see characters fail and overcome; players ARE the characters, and don't want the hit on their ego. We're fascinated by characters in books, but rarely would want to _be_ that character.
Every civilization, however manifest, goes through pretty much the same process of scientific development. At some point some scientist invariably tries something which wipes out the entire population. Recall those about to detonate the first nuclear bomb worrying about exactly this outcome...
What, you haven't read the proposed health care bill? only took me 2 minutes to find the bill and find the fines (which are implemented as fining everyone via taxes, then rebate the payment to those proven innocent).
What, you haven't read the laws that affect you? in several cases people have tried to start First Class mail services to compete directly with the Post Office, and found out the hard way doing so is outright illegal. Yes, I've researched it - you can too.
You don't want citations, you want an excuse to demean someone who holds a different view. If you want citations, there's this little thing called "Google"... you may have heard of it...
Sorry if I don't cover EVERY RELEVANT LAW IN EVERY JURISDICTION WITHIN ALL 50 STATES AND ALL TERRITORIES. I'm in Georgia; pardon my lack of automatically including jurisdictional differences a thousand miles from me.
Your nit-picking makes my point: at least when capitalism tends toward monopoly, you at least have the choice of not participating; the government also tends toward monopoly but does so by OUTRIGHT PUNISHING NON-PARTICIPATION. Here in GA, if I don't want health insurance I don't have to buy it. You in MA will, per the links you provide, be punished by fines if you don't buy health insurance (and jailed if you don't pay those fines, and killed if you sufficiently resist incarceration).
Capitalism has a tendency towards monopoly. This was pointed out by Marx in the 19th century, and expanded upon by Lenin
Ah, pointed out by leading thinkers who advocated & implemented the government having a monopoly over EVERYTHING.
Power tends to acquire more power. Better capitalistic power which tends to self-limit by still leaving people choices*, than governmental power which tends to literally kill the competition.
(* - You don't HAVE to buy at Wal-Mart. You CAN get internet access from other sources. You DON'T have to buy health insurance. Etc....vs., say, being heavily fined if you _don't_ participate in ObamaCare, or jailed if you try to start a First Class mail service.)
If you think C++ is staggeringly complex, you're probably not in a position to evaluate whether another 40 pages of complicated features is going to make the language any better.
And what are the bets that the demographics of these 180,000 people is among some of the better placed and prosperous human beings on this planet?
Well, considering that they HAVE a computer, are most likely using it (at least during TPB activities) for leisure instead of survival, understand enough of broadband network technology to realize encryption is useful for their activity, understand VPNs, understand encryption, appreciate anonymity, and apply all of it to the indicated activity, I dare say that they're in all likelihood doing much better than the half of the world's population trying to get by on less than $2/day.... is there a problem with that? Why do you call them out as "some of the better placed and prosperous human beings on this planet"?
Slashdot Mirror
I must be missing something here.
Those who "provide broadband" are the physical infrastructure providers (allowing for minimal software layers regarding static/dynamic IP addressing, mundane access control, etc.); this is not the same as what many deem "ISP"s to wit email service, web hosting, etc. It's the difference between who paves & maintains the road to your mailbox vs. who picks up your trash. Back in the "golden age of the internet [where] you had dozens of ISPs to choose from" it was the phone company that provided the physical infrastructure connecting you to a bridge to the backbone; today you have a choice of phone, cable, DSL, 3G, 4G, WiMax, satellite, etc. providing that "last mile" type service bridging you to the Internet backbones. Don't confuse "golden age ISPs" data bridging service with their coincidental email/hosting/etc. services which you can now get from anywhere on the planet.
So ... I'm confused about what the FCC is considering opening up access to what by who. Anyone can, with big money, get into the very expensive "last mile" service (or into the backbone service). Comcast gives me that "last mile" service (and I have options for AT&T DSL, Clear WiMax, Verizon 3G, etc.); pray tell who else is supposed to gain access to Comcast's wiring to my home for what purpose? My web/email hosting is on Hostway who knows where.
What am I missing here?
I once worked for a gaming company. The video poker/keno/whatever machine would throw a "hot player" flag to alert the staff when a player was winning too much or too often - not that there was anything actually wrong with what the player was doing, but just alert the house that things weren't going the house's way and maybe someone should look into it, distract the player, or throw 'em out.
Early versions of Doom included the ability to link 3 PCs and use their monitors for left/front/right displays. Pity it was dropped.
4-5 hours spent sitting in the sun
How many people are going to leave their e-book reader sitting in the sun for 4-5 hours? We're talking direct, full sunlight here. Any clouds, shadows, or off-perpendicular variations and that charging time goes up by many more hours. We're talking hours here under optimal conditions. We're talking electronics at a cost of several hundred dollars you don't want to leave lying around unwatched. In reality, most people just can't/won't do it.
I have a Solio solar battery. Sounded nifty, cheap enough to play with. I soon discovered that there was just nowhere I could _leave_ it for hours on end, not just to assure full solar exposure, but where I was sure it would still be there and not get stolen. Car dashboard? overheated so badly it stopped charging. Clipped to shoulder bag? angles, shadows, etc. wrecked charging time. Patio? rain.
I like the idea of solar self-charging devices, but only as serving a last-ditch survival scenario. If a solar panel can be built in for trivial bulk, weight, and cost then fine - but really folks, slapping a solar panel on something you don't/won't leave in the sun for prolonged periods on a regular basis just doesn't cut it.
Maybe Times Square would be improved by removing the inundation of advertising. Been there, seen it, pretty lame actually once you look just a bit past the initial "Ooh! Shiny!" reflex.
nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pacemakers
Considering my pacemaker battery needs replacing every 5 years (and I'm just 41) by cutting into my shoulder, I'd like very much to know more.
How many beads does my abacus need before it becomes sentient?
Companies who lose sight of who the real customer is often die - a slow, lingering demise, but terminal nonetheless.
Methinks the great failing of Vista (and M$'s overall strategy flaw) was that M$ decided the customer is Dell (and other huge-volume buyers), IT departments, and DRM-lusting IP/content owners - forgetting that the real customer is each user clicking their way around the screen. Result: some 50% of Apple users are new to the product line, happy to put up with Jobs as a benevolent dictator who cares about their experience, happy to escape being treated as a mere marketing resource of eyeballs and wallets.
So long as we still have some technological liberties, someone will realize who the customer really is, serve them, and be rewarded - and drive **AA & government control out.
So ... where is it?
Sometimes it is the customer's fault.
There is no "they" who has the responsibility for fixing "it". The Internet is a collaborative cooperative: everyone takes care of their part of it, cooperating with de-facto standards, and contributing a little money for those very few services everyone needs done by a few people.
If you want the Internet "fixed", then it's up to YOU to do YOUR part. Do you run a IPv6-compliant OS? router? server? Do you implement/support whatever you believe needs to be done to "fix" YOUR part of the Internet?
- yes? Then when the time comes when the alleged problem must be solved, you've already taken care of your part - and (we hope) everyone else has done the same with theirs. There won't be a problem if everyone is proactive about the issue.
- no? Then WTF are you complaining about? There is no "net-mommy" whose job it is to clean up your room along with everyone else's.
"Oh," you'll complain, "what about everyone who DOESN'T fix their part? Shouldn't ICANN or someone FORCE them to comply with what I think should be done?"
Welcome to freedom. Enjoy your liberty. You get to do what you think you should do, and others get to do what they think they should do. When SHTF, you're ready, and they're not, and you'll find things have a way of sorting out.
Grow up. No, I don't mean that in a mean way. I mean: you are an adult now, meaning YOU are one of the people who makes the decisions you grew up assuming someone else was responsible for. "The government" (be it a nation's leaders, ICANN, or other empowered body) is just a collection of people like you; they're not super-adults or minor deities whom you naturally petition for care and security. YOU have freedom & liberty & responsibility - take care of your part of the Internet (and everything else) as you see best, cooperate with others as best you can, prepare for the failings of others, and make sure YOU are not one of those who fail.
Upgrade your networking stuff to do what you think it should (IPv6, etc.). Start using the improvements, showing your ISP that they need to upgrade (if they haven't already). Be the improvement, live the benefits early, be ahead of the curve, be ready for what comes. When the digital SHTF, your part of the 'net will work and will attract those who want to work with those others that work; those not ready will either fail (good riddance) or cope (catching up to where you are).
Who will fix the Internet? YOU will. You don't want a net-nanny telling you what you can't see/do on the web, so why do you want one telling you what you must see/do on the web?
Any risks regarding those of us with pacemakers? (I know this is /., but forgive me as I ask an honest question.)
I've been warned against getting too close to radio transmitters and other electromagnetic sources (cradling a cell phone on my left shoulder where the implant is, letting earphones dangle near my wiring, running chainsaws and other small engines/motors within arm's reach, etc.) Having a wireless power transmitter nearby sounds like a legitimate concern. Being a cyborg (literally) brings new personal meaning to the term "fatal error"...
Burning Man started out as an absolute do-whatever-you-want-just-don't-kill-anyone free-for-all.
Like most liberal fantasies, it rapidly devolved into an authoritarian group usurping natural ownership and dictating rules galore.
"We automatically own all your stuff" isn't the only BMO rule totally contrary to the events original spirit.
As someone fitted with a pacemaker of late, having means to often update the doc with performance data would be nice - if not downright life-saving.
With current technology, I have to go in for my "tuneup" every six months. It does involve a wireless interface, and there is an impressive amount of data dumped. A great many parameters can be changed with ease by a trained technician. When we determined that my natural resting heartrate was under 60bpm, reprogramming that to a minimum of 50bpm was trivial.
Transmitting ongoing data to the doc would be convenient, making it easy to email "hey, something funny happened today, please look into it" without having to wait until a scheduled appointment involving a not-always-available technician. Being able to transmit critical event as they occur is also very desirable - duh; my Medical Alert necklace may direct medics to call my cardiologist, who would be much more effective if he already had incident data.
Of course the real problem is remote control. Informing the doc of ongoing/critical data is one thing; allowing access to make remote updates is a different issue. Making the unit such that remote changes are impossible is, of course, possible. However, if ANY change will be made to such a critical device, then it should be done IN A DOCTOR'S OFFICE. One of my diagnostic routines is dropping my heart rate to 40bpm - harmless if done right, lethal if screwed up.
Of course the real concern to most /. readers is the LOLFAIL headline. "Hey, watch out for a DDOS on your pacemaker! Ha ha ha!" Nothing wins a lot of reads like a headline making some technical advancement sound really dumb. Funny how so many readers of a high-tech news source treat high-tech advancements like Luddites.
What's described is little different from firearms training systems such as CAPS, which project live-action video onto a life-size shoot-thru screen - allowing training with full-power live-fire in realistic situations. Police, military, and citizens* have been using this technology for more than a decade (albeit perhaps not quite as technically sophisticated).
(* - some of us realize that the police & military won't be there for us when their job needs to be done.)
For example, I show Les Miserables from the point of view of a minor character who dies early on.
So ... it's a really short game?
Methinks the biggest problem with translating a book to a game is: with a book, the main characters usually make some grand mistakes (very specific ones) and then spend the rest of the tale trying to recover, while with a game the emphasis is NOT making mistakes - any mistakes. Readers want to see characters fail and overcome; players ARE the characters, and don't want the hit on their ego. We're fascinated by characters in books, but rarely would want to _be_ that character.
My pet theory:
Every civilization, however manifest, goes through pretty much the same process of scientific development. At some point some scientist invariably tries something which wipes out the entire population. Recall those about to detonate the first nuclear bomb worrying about exactly this outcome...
Citation?
What, you haven't read the proposed health care bill? only took me 2 minutes to find the bill and find the fines (which are implemented as fining everyone via taxes, then rebate the payment to those proven innocent).
What, you haven't read the laws that affect you? in several cases people have tried to start First Class mail services to compete directly with the Post Office, and found out the hard way doing so is outright illegal. Yes, I've researched it - you can too.
You don't want citations, you want an excuse to demean someone who holds a different view. If you want citations, there's this little thing called "Google" ... you may have heard of it ...
Depends on which issue of 2600. He'll be lounging on a yacht soon enough if he got issuWOU()*S&DF(AO)@#$(*S - NO CARRIER
Sorry if I don't cover EVERY RELEVANT LAW IN EVERY JURISDICTION WITHIN ALL 50 STATES AND ALL TERRITORIES. I'm in Georgia; pardon my lack of automatically including jurisdictional differences a thousand miles from me.
Your nit-picking makes my point: at least when capitalism tends toward monopoly, you at least have the choice of not participating; the government also tends toward monopoly but does so by OUTRIGHT PUNISHING NON-PARTICIPATION. Here in GA, if I don't want health insurance I don't have to buy it. You in MA will, per the links you provide, be punished by fines if you don't buy health insurance (and jailed if you don't pay those fines, and killed if you sufficiently resist incarceration).
Capitalism has a tendency towards monopoly. This was pointed out by Marx in the 19th century, and expanded upon by Lenin
Ah, pointed out by leading thinkers who advocated & implemented the government having a monopoly over EVERYTHING.
Power tends to acquire more power. Better capitalistic power which tends to self-limit by still leaving people choices*, than governmental power which tends to literally kill the competition.
(* - You don't HAVE to buy at Wal-Mart. You CAN get internet access from other sources. You DON'T have to buy health insurance. Etc. ...vs., say, being heavily fined if you _don't_ participate in ObamaCare, or jailed if you try to start a First Class mail service.)
Strange how much human progress and achievement comes from contemplation of the irrelevant.
- Scott Kim
If you think C++ is staggeringly complex, you're probably not in a position to evaluate whether another 40 pages of complicated features is going to make the language any better.
And what are the bets that the demographics of these 180,000 people is among some of the better placed and prosperous human beings on this planet?
Well, considering that they HAVE a computer, are most likely using it (at least during TPB activities) for leisure instead of survival, understand enough of broadband network technology to realize encryption is useful for their activity, understand VPNs, understand encryption, appreciate anonymity, and apply all of it to the indicated activity, I dare say that they're in all likelihood doing much better than the half of the world's population trying to get by on less than $2/day. ... is there a problem with that? Why do you call them out as "some of the better placed and prosperous human beings on this planet"?