How many people didn't see this coming? Don't be shy, raise your hand if you actually BELIEVED FOR A SECOND that this copy-protection scheme would work...
I think it's funny that they introduced these special CDs onto the market in the first place. People buy CDs for the high-quality music, and then they go and release this "copy-protection" scheme that purposly screws up the data so bad people can't copy the music to their computers.
Instead of trying to find a way to prevent people from using the CDs that they've bought at a normal store, how about figuring out a way to encourage online users to support the bands who actually make the music....
Is there realy enough of a market to support all these different gaming consoles? Sony, M$, Nintendo... all shipping millions of units. I'm predicting that it'll turn into one big marketing push to get as much crap on the market as fast as possible to beat the competition and to hell with the quality of the actual games.
The last console I bought was a SNES, and since my computer can do everything the new consoles can do and a whole freakin lot more I doubt that I'll ever buy another. But as long as people have money to burn I guess it'll never stop.
See? NASA people do pay attention to Sci-Fi... first the lightsaber training droid, then an independant R2, and maybe an interrogation droid or two.
Seems to be easier to develop these systems for zero-g environments since you only have to worry about moving the device around instead of how to keep it up in the air, but as soon as someone develops an anti-gravity system for earth-based devices these things'll be everywhere! A whole new generation of Spy-Tv, Big Brother and Candid Camera to rot your brain during prime-time, what fun!
I watched JP3 the other day and I didnt think it was that bad, but maybe I just like seeing big dinosaurs chase stupid people (apparently so do many other people since they're already talking about a JP4).
I admit, the first dino scene with the plane did look kinda cheesy (it was obvious that was an animatronic dino instead of CGI) but I thought the bird-cage and some of the raptor scenes were done pretty well. Maybe they should've thrown a Compy attack in for good measure, but I went to the theatre to see dinosaurs and that's what I got. Long ago I discovered that turning off the logical part of your brain while watching a movie is the only sure way to have a good time.
Katz shouldn't be bashing a movie after only seeing the first few minutes, that's like reading the first 2 pages in a book and saying the plotline was terrible. If you dont like dinosaurs, please go rot your brain in another Reese Witherspoon movie.
P.S. If the spineosaurus had run out onto the airstrip and eaten Tea Leoni in the first 10 minutes of the movie I would've paid to see it on a regular-fare night instead of a cheap-night... god she's annoying.
It's good to see that an "international" group of people can work together for a common goal instead of trying to blow each other up.
Solar sail technology looks cool (cheap, free fuel, less bulk) but for some reason I think I'd still prefer the reassuring vibrations of a real engine. Solar Sails would never be able to push the craft faster than light so it's doubtful that the technology could take humans to other solar systems and back like we drive to the corner store.
Still, it'll be interesting to see where the scientists can take these ideas, a relaxing silent luxury cruise to Mars anyone? =)
looks like Darth and I think along the same lines... I'd need a third hand to be able to use something like this in a FPS game (mmmmm third hand), taking my existing hands off the keyboard/mouse to select something on the screen would be suicide.
Something like Red Alert or Starcraft would probably be better suited to the touch-screen inventory access of the gamepad...
good point... I was thinking the same thing while going through the article. The whole time they're talking about resonance in water making the boat go faster, and then they say "imagine it's uses in space!"
I imagine flexible concrete will start showing up in loads of places in the future, might as well mess around with it in zero-G too. =)
I must say, this sounds really cool. The Wired article is a little light on photos though.
They've actually made flexible concrete by mixing a few other ingredients with it and applying it in a thin layer, and they're USING the natural resonance of the material to their advantage instead of trying to find ways of avoiding it like in traditional construction.
of course when you first hear of it the first thought it "a concrete boat?" What's next? Concrete Nikes?
If I'd known I could've gotten my name in big lights I wouldve written a review of this book when I finished reading it, last August.
I bought this book (online, from Chapters, cuz it was on-sale) when I was finishing up my course on Network Administration because despite all the people saysing "oh you'll have no trouble getting a job when you finish" I hadn't a single job offer to go with the dozens of resumes that I sent out. What people didn't know was that no one will even look at you for a networking position until you've got 2 or 3 years experience.
I thought the book was well written, thought out and informative with some real-world examples in a world full of publishers trying to peddle their cookie-cutter text-book format guides. Despite the lame cover art, the author gives you lots of pointers and advice on what to watch for as a network consultant and shows a typical "day i the life of" account of one of his projects.
Not every dot-bomber can make it as a network consultant since it takes more than "yeah I helped the admin guy at my last job hook up some cables one time" to be successful.
I'm currently working as a software tester with some networking responsiilities. Still a long way from a full Network Consultant but I'm getting there.
go up on the roof if you want, I dont care. The robot is designed to patrol the HALLWAYS. I imagine the building has an elevator system to get to the upper floors to have a look around.
and the article said the thing has a laser range finder. I just took it one step forward and said "why not put some type of energy-based weapon system ala Star Trek on it?". The "frickin laser beams" comment was straight out of Austin Powers, duh.
Laser "dazzlers" are being tested by the military, as are large laser missle defense systems. Yeah they're only prototypes but they're making progress.
you're probably that guy at the party who likes to analyze the logic behind people's jokes too right?
Step 1: build robot to patrol building at night
Step 2: give robot the ability to learn and adapt, sensors to detect intruders and communications equipment to contact backup (ie campus rent-a-cops with whistles)
Step 3: strap a frickin' laser beam to the robot (or other energy-based weapon systems)
Step 4: run away screaming "why god? why?" when robot goes berzerk and mows down an entire class of "intruders" after straying too close to the water fountain and shorting itself out.
I'm just kidding, a patrolling robot is cool, it frees up a normal guard from having to walk the same hallways all the time.
But doesnt it look really unstable? one kick and that thing is helpless on the floor calling for help because it's "fallen and can't get up". I'm all in favor of a smaller, tank-based design.
From what I understand, the new "file identification technology" they're using is the acoustic sampling methods which ID a song despite how the file is named.
Apparently they take random samples of files shared by users. The server requests an acoustic fingerprint for a song shared by a user, your software takes the fingerprint and sends it back (without your control) and the pattern is compared or added to their database.
That means that renaming Metallica songs to "Metalica" wont have any effect since it's using the fingerprint and not the actual file name to ID the song.
As far as I'm concerned Napster has been neutered and it's only good for finding music by non-mainstream bands now. I've actually found a few good songs through their "discover" artists tab, but havent been able to find some songs to sample from a new CD by a band that I actually like.
I'll probably still use Napster to search through occasionally, but it's back to IRC for my normal music downloading. It may not be as pretty but it gets results.
Is it just me or do the tires on that little buggy (NYTimes artice) look really wimpy? I know that heavier equipment takes more energy to move but I wouldnt think tires that fragile could take much punishment in the regions they're planning to send it to.
so much for the BBC's investigative journalism.... a few clicks on the google web site reveales that it's actually "thousands of low cost PC's we've networked together to create a superfast search engine".... now was that so hard to do?
It's good to know that at least one dot-com is still going strong. Good work Google-people!
I love google.. it's fast, gives lots of results and the page isn't cluttered with dozens of banner ads like some other *cough* search-engine-portal-wannabes *cough*.
Maybe someday I'll get to use my networking skills on that server farm the've got going there... ahhhh a guy can dream eh?
A major car company finally clues in that gas reserves are dropping, and that traditional engines are harmful to the environment! wow.
I think every major car manufacturer should be making these new types of vehicles their top priority. Maybe then they could find a way to include some type of "home hydrogen" kit that will use a solar panel and a tank of water to generate the hydrogen you'd need for your new fuel-cell car. Just fill it before you leave for work and you're good for the day!
I wouldnt mind getting one of those Honda Insight hybrid cars (I know its not a fuel-cell car, but it's a start), if only they didnt cost over $27k Cdn (without even having a built in CD player!).
Step 1. Introduce recorders to home users so they can start taking control of what they watch, when they watch it, and what parts they want to skip (ie annoying commercials for feminine products during dinner time).
Step 2. Hope the broadcasters dont try to sue us out of existance because people suddenly dont HAVE TO watch said commercials.
Step 3. Start working with the cable companies to find a way to take control away from the users again. After all, we the cable broadcasters know what is best for our viewers. Now we can say "hey, if you want to watch teletubbies at 4:17am all you have to do is ask. Oh and we're going to keep track of everything you watch so we can pump in the commercials most likely to suck the money right out of your wallet."
I have to admit, I like the idea of "on-demand" television, the ability to select and view whatever show I want at any time is very appealing (especially since it means I wont miss a show because I forgot to set my VCR before I went out for the night), but the fact that they think they're "helping" by keeping track of what each user watches so they can insert the "right" commercials is REALLY annoying.
Now all I need is a TV that will show me pro-M$ advertising while in the background it can fight with the AOL commercial trying to install "the all-new AOL 27". Why spam your mailbox when we can take over your TV and send it directly into your eyeballs?
I can tell you right now that if I was on that campus and the IT department said "you have to install this Norton AV software so we can scan your machine for viruses any time we want" I'd be laughing in their faces.
There's no way I'd install software that would let those people have access to my directory structure, even if it is supposed to keep me virus free. I consider it an invasion of privacy, not to mention the fact that most of the university tech support I've encountered is one step up from a coma patient on the intelligence scale. I spent 4 years at university and never had a virus infect my machine...although I did have to help loads of people after that damn chernoble virus kicked in at exam time, but that's what they get for not making backups.
I'd say your best bet is a preventative program focused on the mail server itself (scanning for certain file attachment extentions, blocking mass-mailings, etc) along with a quick user-education program to let people know that they shouldnt run certain attachments (.js and.vbs especially).
As long as the little script-kiddies can get away with writing these stupid little viruses theres just going to be more and more of them. I'm praying for a magic-bullet that will prevent them from being forwarded in the first place.
maybe if you're into Britney and NSync....what I mean is that thanks to all those people who stopped BUYING cds in favor of just downloading them for free, I can no longer sample a few tracks from a new band before forking over the $20 to buy their cd.
Now I have to return to my old mp3 sources instead of using Napster's convenient click and search interface. The mp3 trading isn't going to stop and the sooner the RIAA realizes this the sooner they can start working WITH Napster instead of trying to sue them out of existance.
And WTH was my first post moderated down to 0 when the one about smoking a bud was set at 1 for "insightful"?
Apparently EVERYTHING I knew about magnetism, the universe, black holes AND human aging were WRONG! Thanks Alex!
After reading your page I now know that the universe was formed by thunder, magnets will keep people young forever and UFOs run on jet engines and gyroscopes! Good thing those topics didnt come up at a party or I wouldve seemed pretty dumb!
I cannot believe Slashdot would post this kind of "story"... it's not even "good" non-traditional thinking.
Atoms made up of "frequencies", China planning to nuke the world and then live forever, and WTH is a "100meg metal ball"?? What are you people thinking? At least take some basic physics/chem classes before trying to push your own theories.
The bible codes thing I've seen before, it's basically people looking for patterns in a jumble of characters. Given a large-enough sample of randomly generated characters I could probably find the phrase "hitler is evil" too. It's all in how things are interpreted.
Can we get back to posting some real news articles now?
no there wasnt... the show ended with them approaching earth, then the credits... that was the problem.
There was no "closure" showing what happened to the crew when they made it back home... it would have been nice if they had pushed everything ahead a bit and left more time for cleanup at the end of the show.
As a red-head I'd just like to point out that I really HATE the opening line to this little "anti-voyager" rant....
Now that that's out of the way, I wish people would stop bashing ST:Voyager. Sure it started off kinda weak, and the show could be a little slow and tech-heavy at times, but so were all the other series. It just took a little longer for them to find their characters and get a few half-decent episodes written.
I watched the finale episode twice yesterday and I thought it was fairly well done. Yes it dealt with the borg, yes it dealt with time travel, and yes there was lots of tech-talk but overall I think it did a pretty good job.
I did think it was odd that 2 minutes in a transwarp corridor was enough to get them the rest of the way home, when a normal trip would have taken 16 more years. And why didnt the admiral initiate a self-destruct of her little ship once she knew she wouldnt be needing it anymore?
Anyway, voyager wasn't the "red-headed stepchild" of the franchise, it was more like the poor cousin that took a little longer to find itself. Just be thankful that there wont be a movie.
Wouldn't 24 phone lines over 1 copper pair be otherwise known as a T1?
all you have to do is multiplex the signals and send them down the same pipe... the problem is keeping the signals in good shape when they get to the other end...
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's funny that they introduced these special CDs onto the market in the first place. People buy CDs for the high-quality music, and then they go and release this "copy-protection" scheme that purposly screws up the data so bad people can't copy the music to their computers.
Here's a little knowledge-nugget© for you record-producer-type people, some of us rip songs from CDs into MP3 format because it's WAY more convenient to listen to. That doesnt mean I'm going to share the data with the world just to spite the record companies... I know there are people who no longer buy CD's because the music is so easy to find online (and they should be punished for doing this), but I've actually bought MORE CD's in the past year or 2 because I had listened to the music online first.
Instead of trying to find a way to prevent people from using the CDs that they've bought at a normal store, how about figuring out a way to encourage online users to support the bands who actually make the music....
The last console I bought was a SNES, and since my computer can do everything the new consoles can do and a whole freakin lot more I doubt that I'll ever buy another. But as long as people have money to burn I guess it'll never stop.
Seems to be easier to develop these systems for zero-g environments since you only have to worry about moving the device around instead of how to keep it up in the air, but as soon as someone develops an anti-gravity system for earth-based devices these things'll be everywhere! A whole new generation of Spy-Tv, Big Brother and Candid Camera to rot your brain during prime-time, what fun!
I admit, the first dino scene with the plane did look kinda cheesy (it was obvious that was an animatronic dino instead of CGI) but I thought the bird-cage and some of the raptor scenes were done pretty well. Maybe they should've thrown a Compy attack in for good measure, but I went to the theatre to see dinosaurs and that's what I got. Long ago I discovered that turning off the logical part of your brain while watching a movie is the only sure way to have a good time.
Katz shouldn't be bashing a movie after only seeing the first few minutes, that's like reading the first 2 pages in a book and saying the plotline was terrible. If you dont like dinosaurs, please go rot your brain in another Reese Witherspoon movie.
P.S. If the spineosaurus had run out onto the airstrip and eaten Tea Leoni in the first 10 minutes of the movie I would've paid to see it on a regular-fare night instead of a cheap-night... god she's annoying.
Solar sail technology looks cool (cheap, free fuel, less bulk) but for some reason I think I'd still prefer the reassuring vibrations of a real engine. Solar Sails would never be able to push the craft faster than light so it's doubtful that the technology could take humans to other solar systems and back like we drive to the corner store.
Still, it'll be interesting to see where the scientists can take these ideas, a relaxing silent luxury cruise to Mars anyone? =)
Something like Red Alert or Starcraft would probably be better suited to the touch-screen inventory access of the gamepad...
All of them, pr0n knows no boundaries.
If they start charging for pr0n downloads, the entire continent will go bankrupt! =)
I imagine flexible concrete will start showing up in loads of places in the future, might as well mess around with it in zero-G too. =)
They've actually made flexible concrete by mixing a few other ingredients with it and applying it in a thin layer, and they're USING the natural resonance of the material to their advantage instead of trying to find ways of avoiding it like in traditional construction.
of course when you first hear of it the first thought it "a concrete boat?" What's next? Concrete Nikes?
I bought this book (online, from Chapters, cuz it was on-sale) when I was finishing up my course on Network Administration because despite all the people saysing "oh you'll have no trouble getting a job when you finish" I hadn't a single job offer to go with the dozens of resumes that I sent out. What people didn't know was that no one will even look at you for a networking position until you've got 2 or 3 years experience.
I thought the book was well written, thought out and informative with some real-world examples in a world full of publishers trying to peddle their cookie-cutter text-book format guides. Despite the lame cover art, the author gives you lots of pointers and advice on what to watch for as a network consultant and shows a typical "day i the life of" account of one of his projects.
Not every dot-bomber can make it as a network consultant since it takes more than "yeah I helped the admin guy at my last job hook up some cables one time" to be successful.
I'm currently working as a software tester with some networking responsiilities. Still a long way from a full Network Consultant but I'm getting there.
go up on the roof if you want, I dont care. The robot is designed to patrol the HALLWAYS. I imagine the building has an elevator system to get to the upper floors to have a look around.
and the article said the thing has a laser range finder. I just took it one step forward and said "why not put some type of energy-based weapon system ala Star Trek on it?". The "frickin laser beams" comment was straight out of Austin Powers, duh.
Laser "dazzlers" are being tested by the military, as are large laser missle defense systems. Yeah they're only prototypes but they're making progress.
you're probably that guy at the party who likes to analyze the logic behind people's jokes too right?
Step 2: give robot the ability to learn and adapt, sensors to detect intruders and communications equipment to contact backup (ie campus rent-a-cops with whistles)
Step 3: strap a frickin' laser beam to the robot (or other energy-based weapon systems)
Step 4: run away screaming "why god? why?" when robot goes berzerk and mows down an entire class of "intruders" after straying too close to the water fountain and shorting itself out.
I'm just kidding, a patrolling robot is cool, it frees up a normal guard from having to walk the same hallways all the time.
But doesnt it look really unstable? one kick and that thing is helpless on the floor calling for help because it's "fallen and can't get up". I'm all in favor of a smaller, tank-based design.
Apparently they take random samples of files shared by users. The server requests an acoustic fingerprint for a song shared by a user, your software takes the fingerprint and sends it back (without your control) and the pattern is compared or added to their database.
That means that renaming Metallica songs to "Metalica" wont have any effect since it's using the fingerprint and not the actual file name to ID the song.
As far as I'm concerned Napster has been neutered and it's only good for finding music by non-mainstream bands now. I've actually found a few good songs through their "discover" artists tab, but havent been able to find some songs to sample from a new CD by a band that I actually like.
I'll probably still use Napster to search through occasionally, but it's back to IRC for my normal music downloading. It may not be as pretty but it gets results.
Is it just me or do the tires on that little buggy (NYTimes artice) look really wimpy? I know that heavier equipment takes more energy to move but I wouldnt think tires that fragile could take much punishment in the regions they're planning to send it to.
Lookit me I'm a journalist!
I love google.. it's fast, gives lots of results and the page isn't cluttered with dozens of banner ads like some other *cough* search-engine-portal-wannabes *cough*.
Maybe someday I'll get to use my networking skills on that server farm the've got going there... ahhhh a guy can dream eh?
I think every major car manufacturer should be making these new types of vehicles their top priority. Maybe then they could find a way to include some type of "home hydrogen" kit that will use a solar panel and a tank of water to generate the hydrogen you'd need for your new fuel-cell car. Just fill it before you leave for work and you're good for the day!
I wouldnt mind getting one of those Honda Insight hybrid cars (I know its not a fuel-cell car, but it's a start), if only they didnt cost over $27k Cdn (without even having a built in CD player!).
Step 2. Hope the broadcasters dont try to sue us out of existance because people suddenly dont HAVE TO watch said commercials.
Step 3. Start working with the cable companies to find a way to take control away from the users again. After all, we the cable broadcasters know what is best for our viewers. Now we can say "hey, if you want to watch teletubbies at 4:17am all you have to do is ask. Oh and we're going to keep track of everything you watch so we can pump in the commercials most likely to suck the money right out of your wallet."
I have to admit, I like the idea of "on-demand" television, the ability to select and view whatever show I want at any time is very appealing (especially since it means I wont miss a show because I forgot to set my VCR before I went out for the night), but the fact that they think they're "helping" by keeping track of what each user watches so they can insert the "right" commercials is REALLY annoying.
Now all I need is a TV that will show me pro-M$ advertising while in the background it can fight with the AOL commercial trying to install "the all-new AOL 27". Why spam your mailbox when we can take over your TV and send it directly into your eyeballs?
There's no way I'd install software that would let those people have access to my directory structure, even if it is supposed to keep me virus free. I consider it an invasion of privacy, not to mention the fact that most of the university tech support I've encountered is one step up from a coma patient on the intelligence scale. I spent 4 years at university and never had a virus infect my machine...although I did have to help loads of people after that damn chernoble virus kicked in at exam time, but that's what they get for not making backups.
I'd say your best bet is a preventative program focused on the mail server itself (scanning for certain file attachment extentions, blocking mass-mailings, etc) along with a quick user-education program to let people know that they shouldnt run certain attachments (.js and .vbs especially).
As long as the little script-kiddies can get away with writing these stupid little viruses theres just going to be more and more of them. I'm praying for a magic-bullet that will prevent them from being forwarded in the first place.
Now I have to return to my old mp3 sources instead of using Napster's convenient click and search interface. The mp3 trading isn't going to stop and the sooner the RIAA realizes this the sooner they can start working WITH Napster instead of trying to sue them out of existance.
And WTH was my first post moderated down to 0 when the one about smoking a bud was set at 1 for "insightful"?
After reading your page I now know that the universe was formed by thunder, magnets will keep people young forever and UFOs run on jet engines and gyroscopes! Good thing those topics didnt come up at a party or I wouldve seemed pretty dumb!
I cannot believe Slashdot would post this kind of "story"... it's not even "good" non-traditional thinking.
Atoms made up of "frequencies", China planning to nuke the world and then live forever, and WTH is a "100meg metal ball"?? What are you people thinking? At least take some basic physics/chem classes before trying to push your own theories.
The bible codes thing I've seen before, it's basically people looking for patterns in a jumble of characters. Given a large-enough sample of randomly generated characters I could probably find the phrase "hitler is evil" too. It's all in how things are interpreted.
Can we get back to posting some real news articles now?
no there wasnt... the show ended with them approaching earth, then the credits... that was the problem. There was no "closure" showing what happened to the crew when they made it back home... it would have been nice if they had pushed everything ahead a bit and left more time for cleanup at the end of the show.
As a red-head I'd just like to point out that I really HATE the opening line to this little "anti-voyager" rant.... Now that that's out of the way, I wish people would stop bashing ST:Voyager. Sure it started off kinda weak, and the show could be a little slow and tech-heavy at times, but so were all the other series. It just took a little longer for them to find their characters and get a few half-decent episodes written. I watched the finale episode twice yesterday and I thought it was fairly well done. Yes it dealt with the borg, yes it dealt with time travel, and yes there was lots of tech-talk but overall I think it did a pretty good job. I did think it was odd that 2 minutes in a transwarp corridor was enough to get them the rest of the way home, when a normal trip would have taken 16 more years. And why didnt the admiral initiate a self-destruct of her little ship once she knew she wouldnt be needing it anymore? Anyway, voyager wasn't the "red-headed stepchild" of the franchise, it was more like the poor cousin that took a little longer to find itself. Just be thankful that there wont be a movie.
Wouldn't 24 phone lines over 1 copper pair be otherwise known as a T1? all you have to do is multiplex the signals and send them down the same pipe... the problem is keeping the signals in good shape when they get to the other end...