Field's book, 'Symmetry in Chaos: A Search for Pattern in Mathematics, Art, and Nature' was released in 1992. He is one of the early mathematicians doing work in iterated symmetric systems.
His work might be unimpressive to you, and Mandelbrot's set might seem old hat, but they were the guys who did the math you borrow..
"Egypt's communications ministry suggesting it was caused by a cut in a major internet PIPELINE linking it to Europe."
So, it really is made out of tubes...
"The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music."
...
"Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."
The broadcasters now say 69 million televisions rely on antennas, including unconnected televisions in cable and satellite homes. They say that after a broadcaster-sponsored consumer education effort, consumers will want coupons for one-third of those televisions. That comes to 23 million coupons, and the initial $990 million allocation can fund 22.25 million coupons. If really necessary, additional funds will underwrite another 11.25 million coupons.
It seems the kind of faith Davies is pointing out is the faith scientists have that they can investigate the unknown and have faith that there will be a simple underlying principle which has remarkable predictive power.
And, it is often quite amazing that these patterns are so simple and orderly. An inverse square is not an inverse 1.9834... law.
Why is it that this faith in discovering underlying simple, consistant order is rewarded by our universe when seemingly random observations are examined closely?
The heart of all these problems is that the top thousand security-aware people haven't a clue on how to create systems that can support a billion security-unaware people operating computers that are connected to the internet.
These users didn't design these systems. Security unaware users shouldn't be able to screw up the system.
The self styled 'experts' need to get their act together and figure out how to secure the systems users are using. And, no that doesn't mean switching systems.
I'll watch their progress comfortably from my Mac, so I don't need to be an 'expert' to be secure.
I liked Patch/Merge. I used it in the late 60s / early 70s on Burroughs Large Systems, B5000s and B6000s.
It was not a file backup managment system, but a change managment system. It applied punch card code line changes to source disk files.
Each 'patch' was separately identified and could span files. Patches were named and numbered to see in a source listing what the last patch modified the source in a source flie printout.
It's real power was backing out old changes. You could backout or modify a patch made 10 changes ago, leaving the last 9 updates intact. Each functional update to a system was independent of the others. You did need to deal manually with any flagged overlaps.
It provided a merged view allowing you to drill down in time against lines of code to see how things evolved. A bit like Time Machine in its granularity and time history zooming. But, with punch cards and printed merged listings.
Apple has tended to bring apps and services to the Windows world, not buy Windows apps and kill them.
Quicktime has long been available on Windows. And, iTunes is there, too. Apple even contributes to open source.
Microsoft got their application start on Macs, and continues to support Office there. Adobe started with their apps on the Macintosh, and support them now on both Macs and Windows.
Apple provides entry level apps with the system. They also have some some pro apps. Other vendors provide professional applications for both the Mac and Windows.
Maybe a linux user group should buy them all and kiil them. Then linux would be the best system in the whole world.
And, that is exactly how to genuinely increase your winnings in the lotto lottery. Don't play number combinations with high 'meaning' and do play combinations with low 'meaning'.
the odds of getting picked don't change for any choice, but the paramutual payout for any winning choice will be better for a selection in which you need to share the prize pool with others who made the same choice.
The payouts from these things are so bad any advantage from such choices in irrelevant. Especially when you factor in the number of people who let the system pick randomly for them. Most bettor don't pick favorite, popular number sets, they go for the random system picks.
And, that list describes both the IT security community and the systems users.
Thr real problem is wirh the IT 'pros.' They need to develop security solutions that apply to users with just those attributes. The users aren't changing any time soon.
Lazy, stupid, unthinking IT sheep need to get their act together.
IT security is not evolved for the people it is intended to serve.
The Absolute Poker Scandal October 16th, 2007 5 Comments
Is AbsolutePoker.com rigged?
Either way, the company is in big trouble. What follows in this post is huge news in the world of online poker and online casinos.
Our story begins in 2003. Absolute Poker's software is in development and many test accounts are created to make sure the program is working correctly. One of these test accounts, known as account #363, can see the hole cards at any table. This test account can not be used to play in real money games, it is only used for development purposes to see that pots are distributed correctly. The id number of this account being #363 is important because this tells us that this was one of the first accounts ever opened in AbsolutePoker, making it very likely the person in control of this account is someone with intimate ties with the company (owner, founder, employee, programmer, shareholder, etc.)
Follow with me to the opening of Absolute Poker (AP). Four people in different parts of the United States open up accounts at Absolute Poker. These four individuals do not know each other. The names in question are Graycat, Steamroller, DoubleDrag, and Potripper. They play in Absolute Poker for a bit, but they don't do well and their accounts are not logged into for many months. These are actual and real players, they are not fake players, they do not know each other, and they are not cheaters.
Key moment in the development of Absolute Poker: a major software upgrade is in process in 2007. The company hires programmers from many areas, including Costa Rica. Our villain in this scandal comes across the test account #363 with hole card access. Visions of big money flash in front of his eyes as he envisions hacking his way to big casino cash. He hatches a plan.
He finds inactive accounts at Absolute Poker and changes the password to these accounts at the server level. He opens test account 363 at a separate computer which allows him to see all the hole cards at the table. He then gets family and friends to cash out his winnings to. The way he does this is after he gets a big amount of cash at the poker tables, he plays against his relatives and buddies and loses all his cash to them. DoubleDrag loses to Reymnaldo, Graycat loses to SupercardM55, and Steamroller and Potripper lose to other various friend and family controlled accounts.
September comes, and as the money piles up, so does the ego and greed. Other poker players make comments in chat that they suspect there is cheating and collusion involved. He logs in as DoubleDrag and then loses every hand intentionally in No-Limit in an attempt to cover up his scam as he senses other players may be on to him.
September 12th. A well-known online poker tournament player named Marco Johnson, who plays under the screen name CrazyMarco plays in a $1000 buy-in tournament at AbsolutePoker.com. Cheat account Potripper is also playing in this tournament. CrazyMarco loses a head-to-head battle with Potripper when Potripper and asks for the hand history of the final table.
September 17th. The four Absolute Poker accounts (Graycat, Steamroller, DoubleDrag, and Potripper) are suspended and frozen.
September 21st. AbsolutePoker sends CrazyMarco a huge Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file (10MB and a full 65,536 rows, which is limit in Excel for most current versions). The spreadsheet is too complicated and scrambled to look into, so he saves it and decides to analyze it later.
October 12th. An AbsolutePoker.com official statement is released with their official comments on the cheating rumors, gossip, controversy, and overall poker community outrage. The company has been made aware of the poker blogs, chatrooms, and online casino discussion forums that are talking about this situation and they state that they take these allegations "extremely seriously". They have "determined with reas
With the stunning global success of Apple's iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to "open" the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let's examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.
To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in "open" licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC. iPod users can and do acquire their music from many sources, including CDs they own. Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs, and is automatically encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.
The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the "big four" music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world's music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.
Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. Obtaining such rights from the music companies was unprecedented at the time, and even today is unmatched by most other digital music services. However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.
To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music. If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader's computer or portable music device. To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still "hide" the keys which unlock the music on the user's computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.
The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Apple's DRM system is called FairPlay. While we have had a few breaches in FairPlay, we have been able to successfully repair them through updating the iTunes store software, the iTunes jukebox software and software in the iPods themselves. So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.
With this background, let's now explore three different alternatives for the future.
I'm tired of this. Lets all just stop. I'll stop copying my CDs and why don't you stop publishing them. Who needs it. Lets have more music by more musicians.
Over the years I bought thousands of LPs and thousands of CDs. I've even spent thousands on cabinets to store them. But, thats over. I'm done.
I've all ready taken the first step. I've stopped buying music. I stopped buying new CDs years ago, and seem to have stopped used ones, too.
And, no more super groups in super stadiums at super prices, either. I'm back to live shows by unsigned artists in tiny venues.
No one outside of a small circle in Apple and ATT know what the real deal is. Apple is getting something for the phone and something each month for the service. ATT signed up using a spreadsheet with one set of assumptions. Some suggest Apple gets $200 per phone plus a bit of the monthly service charge. ATT's calculations could never guess Apple would change the equation this big so soon. It's not Apple's normal thing to slash prices. ATT will sell more services, but Apple probably gets a huge iPhone subsidy. I bet Apple took ATT to the cleaners with the deal.
No one outside of a small circle in Apple and ATT know what the real deal is. Apple is getting something for the phone and something each month for the service. ATT signed up using a spreadsheet with one set of assumptions. Some suggest Apple gets $200 per phone plus a bit of the monthly service charge. ATT's calculations could never guess Apple would change the equation this big so soon. It's not Apple's normal thing to slash prices. ATT will sell more services, but Apple probably gets a huge iPhone subsidy. I bet Apple took ATT to the cleaners with the deal.
It comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 and Corel Painter Essentials 2. These two free programs are much better than Gimp. No source code, but the price is very competitive.
Slashdot Mirror
And, the bean counters add the cost of their overhead to a $5 intrusion to bring the cost to $30k.
Its the same as a multimillion dollar bust when you figure things at 'street value' to pump your stats for the budget bean counters.
But, Electric Sheep was released in 1999.
Field's book, 'Symmetry in Chaos: A Search for Pattern in Mathematics, Art, and Nature' was released in 1992. He is one of the early mathematicians doing work in iterated symmetric systems.
His work might be unimpressive to you, and Mandelbrot's set might seem old hat, but they were the guys who did the math you borrow..
Clean solar scales even better, but only in places where the sun shines regularly.
Clean coal is a good alternative for the Arctic and Antarctic during their dark spells.
"Egypt's communications ministry suggesting it was caused by a cut in a major internet PIPELINE linking it to Europe." So, it really is made out of tubes...
Here's his position:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/
Thoughts on Music
Steve Jobs
February 6, 2007
...
"The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music."
...
"Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."
I pulled my funding of the RIAA over a year ago.
No new music for me.
http://www.legitgov.org/nh_machine_vs_paper.html
2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total Democratic Votes: 286,139 - Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008
Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%
Machine vs Hand:
Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)
2008 New Hampshire Republican Primary Results --Total Republican Votes: 236,378 Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008
Mitt Romney, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%
Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%
Machine vs Hand:
Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)
By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dtv-plan-will-help-first-responders-provide-adequate-funds-for-consumers-2007-06-13.html
The broadcasters now say 69 million televisions rely on antennas, including unconnected televisions in cable and satellite homes. They say that after a broadcaster-sponsored consumer education effort, consumers will want coupons for one-third of those televisions. That comes to 23 million coupons, and the initial $990 million allocation can fund 22.25 million coupons. If really necessary, additional funds will underwrite another 11.25 million coupons.
It seems the kind of faith Davies is pointing out is the faith scientists have that they can investigate the unknown and have faith that there will be a simple underlying principle which has remarkable predictive power.
And, it is often quite amazing that these patterns are so simple and orderly. An inverse square is not an inverse 1.9834... law.
Why is it that this faith in discovering underlying simple, consistant order is rewarded by our universe when seemingly random observations are examined closely?
A patent gives the holder the right to defend the patent.
If the patent holder doesn't bother you, why mess with them?
The longer they let it go, the better your chances of defending against a bad patent.
You do run a risk ignoring a strong one.
PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance, known as AIM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC
The heart of all these problems is that the top thousand security-aware people haven't a clue on how to create systems that can support a billion security-unaware people operating computers that are connected to the internet.
These users didn't design these systems. Security unaware users shouldn't be able to screw up the system.
The self styled 'experts' need to get their act together and figure out how to secure the systems users are using. And, no that doesn't mean switching systems.
I'll watch their progress comfortably from my Mac, so I don't need to be an 'expert' to be secure.
I liked Patch/Merge. I used it in the late 60s / early 70s on Burroughs Large Systems, B5000s and B6000s.
It was not a file backup managment system, but a change managment system. It applied punch card code line changes to source disk files.
Each 'patch' was separately identified and could span files. Patches were named and numbered to see in a source listing what the last patch modified the source in a source flie printout.
It's real power was backing out old changes. You could backout or modify a patch made 10 changes ago, leaving the last 9 updates intact. Each functional update to a system was independent of the others. You did need to deal manually with any flagged overlaps.
It provided a merged view allowing you to drill down in time against lines of code to see how things evolved. A bit like Time Machine in its granularity and time history zooming. But, with punch cards and printed merged listings.
would be any poker site dot net. All the dot nets are free and you win/lose money at the dot com ones.
Apple has tended to bring apps and services to the Windows world, not buy Windows apps and kill them.
Quicktime has long been available on Windows. And, iTunes is there, too. Apple even contributes to open source.
Microsoft got their application start on Macs, and continues to support Office there. Adobe started with their apps on the Macintosh, and support them now on both Macs and Windows.
Apple provides entry level apps with the system. They also have some some pro apps. Other vendors provide professional applications for both the Mac and Windows.
Maybe a linux user group should buy them all and kiil them. Then linux would be the best system in the whole world.
And, that is exactly how to genuinely increase your winnings in the lotto lottery. Don't play number combinations with high 'meaning' and do play combinations with low 'meaning'.
the odds of getting picked don't change for any choice, but the paramutual payout for any winning choice will be better for a selection in which you need to share the prize pool with others who made the same choice.
The payouts from these things are so bad any advantage from such choices in irrelevant. Especially when you factor in the number of people who let the system pick randomly for them. Most bettor don't pick favorite, popular number sets, they go for the random system picks.
And, that list describes both the IT security community and the systems users.
Thr real problem is wirh the IT 'pros.' They need to develop security solutions that apply to users with just those attributes. The users aren't changing any time soon.
Lazy, stupid, unthinking IT sheep need to get their act together.
IT security is not evolved for the people it is intended to serve.
http://casinosmack.com/blog/the-absolute-poker-scandal/
The Absolute Poker Scandal
October 16th, 2007 5 Comments
Is AbsolutePoker.com rigged?
Either way, the company is in big trouble. What follows in this post is huge news in the world of online poker and online casinos.
Our story begins in 2003. Absolute Poker's software is in development and many test accounts are created to make sure the program is working correctly. One of these test accounts, known as account #363, can see the hole cards at any table. This test account can not be used to play in real money games, it is only used for development purposes to see that pots are distributed correctly. The id number of this account being #363 is important because this tells us that this was one of the first accounts ever opened in AbsolutePoker, making it very likely the person in control of this account is someone with intimate ties with the company (owner, founder, employee, programmer, shareholder, etc.)
Follow with me to the opening of Absolute Poker (AP). Four people in different parts of the United States open up accounts at Absolute Poker. These four individuals do not know each other. The names in question are Graycat, Steamroller, DoubleDrag, and Potripper. They play in Absolute Poker for a bit, but they don't do well and their accounts are not logged into for many months. These are actual and real players, they are not fake players, they do not know each other, and they are not cheaters.
Key moment in the development of Absolute Poker: a major software upgrade is in process in 2007. The company hires programmers from many areas, including Costa Rica. Our villain in this scandal comes across the test account #363 with hole card access. Visions of big money flash in front of his eyes as he envisions hacking his way to big casino cash. He hatches a plan.
He finds inactive accounts at Absolute Poker and changes the password to these accounts at the server level. He opens test account 363 at a separate computer which allows him to see all the hole cards at the table. He then gets family and friends to cash out his winnings to. The way he does this is after he gets a big amount of cash at the poker tables, he plays against his relatives and buddies and loses all his cash to them. DoubleDrag loses to Reymnaldo, Graycat loses to SupercardM55, and Steamroller and Potripper lose to other various friend and family controlled accounts.
September comes, and as the money piles up, so does the ego and greed. Other poker players make comments in chat that they suspect there is cheating and collusion involved. He logs in as DoubleDrag and then loses every hand intentionally in No-Limit in an attempt to cover up his scam as he senses other players may be on to him.
September 12th. A well-known online poker tournament player named Marco Johnson, who plays under the screen name CrazyMarco plays in a $1000 buy-in tournament at AbsolutePoker.com. Cheat account Potripper is also playing in this tournament. CrazyMarco loses a head-to-head battle with Potripper when Potripper and asks for the hand history of the final table.
September 17th. The four Absolute Poker accounts (Graycat, Steamroller, DoubleDrag, and Potripper) are suspended and frozen.
September 21st. AbsolutePoker sends CrazyMarco a huge Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file (10MB and a full 65,536 rows, which is limit in Excel for most current versions). The spreadsheet is too complicated and scrambled to look into, so he saves it and decides to analyze it later.
October 12th. An AbsolutePoker.com official statement is released with their official comments on the cheating rumors, gossip, controversy, and overall poker community outrage. The company has been made aware of the poker blogs, chatrooms, and online casino discussion forums that are talking about this situation and they state that they take these allegations "extremely seriously". They have "determined with reas
Steve Jobs
February 6, 2007
With the stunning global success of Apple's iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to "open" the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let's examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.
To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in "open" licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC. iPod users can and do acquire their music from many sources, including CDs they own. Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs, and is automatically encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.
The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the "big four" music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world's music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.
Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. Obtaining such rights from the music companies was unprecedented at the time, and even today is unmatched by most other digital music services. However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.
To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music. If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader's computer or portable music device. To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still "hide" the keys which unlock the music on the user's computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.
The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Apple's DRM system is called FairPlay. While we have had a few breaches in FairPlay, we have been able to successfully repair them through updating the iTunes store software, the iTunes jukebox software and software in the iPods themselves. So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.
With this background, let's now explore three different alternatives for the future.
The first alterna
Mod their parents up
I'm tired of this. Lets all just stop. I'll stop copying my CDs and why don't you stop publishing them. Who needs it. Lets have more music by more musicians.
Over the years I bought thousands of LPs and thousands of CDs. I've even spent thousands on cabinets to store them. But, thats over. I'm done.
I've all ready taken the first step. I've stopped buying music. I stopped buying new CDs years ago, and seem to have stopped used ones, too.
And, no more super groups in super stadiums at super prices, either. I'm back to live shows by unsigned artists in tiny venues.
No one outside of a small circle in Apple and ATT know what the real deal is. Apple is getting something for the phone and something each month for the service. ATT signed up using a spreadsheet with one set of assumptions. Some suggest Apple gets $200 per phone plus a bit of the monthly service charge. ATT's calculations could never guess Apple would change the equation this big so soon. It's not Apple's normal thing to slash prices. ATT will sell more services, but Apple probably gets a huge iPhone subsidy. I bet Apple took ATT to the cleaners with the deal.
No one outside of a small circle in Apple and ATT know what the real deal is. Apple is getting something for the phone and something each month for the service. ATT signed up using a spreadsheet with one set of assumptions. Some suggest Apple gets $200 per phone plus a bit of the monthly service charge. ATT's calculations could never guess Apple would change the equation this big so soon. It's not Apple's normal thing to slash prices. ATT will sell more services, but Apple probably gets a huge iPhone subsidy. I bet Apple took ATT to the cleaners with the deal.
After the pay version, game developers often make the source available for the free version.
Just wait and see....
Gimp doesn't come with a free graphics tablet, but neither does Photoshop.
A very nice Wacom Graphire4 4x5 USB Tablet can be had for $92.83 http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Graphire4-4x5-Tablet-Silver/dp/B000BBCTHU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-0328201-5263211?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1189909906&sr=8-2
It comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 and Corel Painter Essentials 2. These two free programs are much better than Gimp. No source code, but the price is very competitive.