OK, so they had 5 1/2 years from 'hang on lads, I've got an idea' to launch date - but NASA usually take a lot longer than that to design, develop and test probes.
So they're taking a gamble, on the basis that it's better to try and fail than never try. And if it works, it'll be fantastic.
OK, the debunking is now in the article header - it was only meant to be posted for short while, due to an agreement with the publisher.
And (by the way) I wasn't buying the conspiracy theories either - although my comment didn't actually say that. It was an answer to a previous comment 'explaining' the 'loss' of the article incorrectly as being moved to paid content. I was just debunking that explanation as not consistent with the facts.
Maybe I should have more explicitly stated that I didn't think anything nefarious was going on - but I imagine I'll now be quoted on some conspiracy theory website as 'fearlessly arguing for the truth':)
The table of contents still lists all the other articles - if you click on any one of them (for example this one you get the first paragraph, and then an invitation to buy the rest of the article. Fine, that's their right - it costs money to archive so many pages...
But the article is question isn't listed - and the link given by The Memory Hole doesn't offer to sell you the article, it says it has been deleted.
And it's nothing to do with it being a 'popular subject' - Time states quite clearly that it's only issues over 2 years old that are archived, not 'historically important' ones.
If the contract says 'you give us permission' and the law says 'thou shalt not do this without permission' then there is no conflict.
If the law says 'thou shalt not, even if the party of the first part asks you to' then we have a problem:)
Note that I'm not saying it's ethical, but it's no worse than the EULA for Windows Media Player that says 'Microsoft can screw your computer up because we want to' and I haven't hear about any lawsuits over that yet... although I'd be glad to be corrected.
I saw a program on Tv once (I know, timewasting again) where they took a couple with two kids and two jobs, and calculated how much 'extra' cash they'd gained by the wife working. Call it X.
Then they worked out the costs of day care, days off to take the kids to the doctor, the extra petrol for running to & from daycare, the jobs, the other associated costs... Call it Y.
Imagine the reaction when they revealed to this stressed, harried, 'overworked' couple that X was less than Y. She could quit her job and spend all day with her kids, and be better off!
She cried, he cried, she quit - and they all lived happily ever after...
Mark
PS The only reason she quit, I recall, was that he earned more. That's a whole other thread though:)
and in case you'd not noticed the URL, it's a comedy show (just imagine a parody of the Open University, or all those 'Science' shows you had to watch at school when you were a kid that patronised you and told you utter rubbish). Hilarious, and now out on Dependable Video Discus.
PS yes, I know the link doesn't actually have the definition of PHB, nor the acronym itself; but that's the sort of response you should give your PHB - exactly correct, yet useless; and preferably inciting a feeling of stupidity for asking you even once, and a dread of admitting they don't understand the answer.
PPS The above rambling run-on sentence included for any PHBs who clicked the link, in order to make them feel at home.
PPPS More PS than actual comment, should be caught by the lameness filter:)
Wow, I've never had such a lengthy (and thankfully insightful) response to one of my posts before - thanks!
I absolutely agree with you - eBooks will happen, and that will be a good thing in many ways, but it'll probably come about for the wrong reasons. Stopping us sharing books, loaning them to friends or even selling them second-hand will reduce the number of people reading. Why don't they just ban public libraries while they're about it? On average a lot of people read the books they borrow without the author getting any extra cash, but for some reason my loaning a 10-year old copy of 'The Hobbit' to a friend is a cause for concern?
The reason I posted that quote was not to propose a Luddite point of view (and if I would, then using a SciFi author as a source would probably be counter-productive:) but rather to show that a lot of the 'features' of eBooks are already inherent in books - and that eBooks will have to be notably better in one or more ways in order to succeed. If they're lighter (which they are if you carry a load of books), cheaper, clearer, have useful features not possible in a paper book, etc then people will buy them.
When they come up with a reader that I can afford to accidentally leave on a plane, or drop in the bath or drop from my bag on a bike, which is as easy on the eyes as paper and ink, as light and convenient as a paperback, I'll be right there!
And yes, it means I can carry my whole library on a single disk, but I'd damn better be allowed to back that library up in case I drop it! And with DRM looking like it does right now, I could end up having to buy the whole lot again... Even if I'm insured, that's a huge problem.
Brave New World? Read it sometime - it's not all good news! (as I suspect you know, to be honest)
Isaac Asimov in a speech to the 1989 American Booksellers Association had a word of comfort for the traditionalists among us. He made a passionate defense of the survival of the book when he asked his audience to imagine a device that "can go anywhere, is totally portable. . . . Something that can be started and stopped at will [and] requires no electric energy to operate." This dream device is, of course, the book. "It will never be surpassed because it represents the minimum technology with the maximum interaction you can have."
Basically MultiVac (the huge computer at the centre of the world;) was able to track so many variables it could almost predict the outcome of an election - there were just a few variables it needed a human brain for, and it selected a 'typical' person to answer some fairly trite questions ('what do you think of the price of eggs?') to check the calibration and make the final decision.
Not really the same as this - MultiVac was trying to determine the outcome of an election, or the average of a number of votes, not the 'average voter'. Bear in mind the average voter doesn't vote:)
Radiohead's latest album is also 'Content Protected' (a.k.a unplayable) such that you have to use some naff Java applet to listen to the music on a PC.
Of course on my Mac, it ripped perfectly in iTunes, no problem...
And the album is called.... Hail to the Thief. Ironic, no?
Mark
PS The first copy I bought wouldn't play, wouldn't rip, would barely mount - I figured it was the copy protection, but swiftly realised it was the inch-wide star-shaped crack on the back
How evil would a company have to be before you'd stop taking money from them?
And if you're on welfare and take money from the US Government, does that mean you condone the War on Terror/Drugs/Whatever? If you don't, the do you have an obligation to move to another country?
What if this guy was refusing to hire people who lived in Iraq during the Saddam years? After all, they were clearly supporting him, he kept getting re-elected! How about he refused to hire Mormons, because lots of people from SCO are Mormons?
Where do we draw the line? It's OK to discriminate against certain groups, is it?
My bad:) That'll teach me to post without researching.
However, from reading the Register article, it did read as though the changes made were in that area - maybe I'm speculating too far?
Whatever... the reason they're not using OS X is (I imagine) because it's easier to write a driver for the new/changed hardware under Linux than OS X - I don't know why, Darwin's just as open source!
The Navy wanted a custom Xserve chassis, and the work was organized by Terra Soft who employed a third-party to modify the hardware. Terra Soft provided a custom kernel and drivers for Fibre Channel storage.
So perhaps Apple weren't interested in making custom X-Serves, or hacking OS X to fit...
Whatever the custom hardware is (Fibre-Channel disk arrays by the sound of it) probably isn't supported by stock OS X.
Re:"Actively searching for new suppliers"?
on
iBox Episode 2
·
· Score: 1
All Apple is doing is preventing you from selling hardware to run their OS. No one says that you -have- to run Apple software, so you -have- to buy Apple hardware
Actually, they're not even doing that. They're preventing you from buying replacement parts from a repair centre to build your own Mac.
If you want to run Mac OS X, without a Mac, then go right ahead.
Slashdot Mirror
Are we sure we're not slightly behind?
They were basically told 'hey, want to send a probe? it's got to be ready next week and weigh less than X kg' so they had to rush it.
See the official History
OK, so they had 5 1/2 years from 'hang on lads, I've got an idea' to launch date - but NASA usually take a lot longer than that to design, develop and test probes.
So they're taking a gamble, on the basis that it's better to try and fail than never try. And if it works, it'll be fantastic.
Mark
And highly US-centric.
For those of us in the UK, we can't use any of these. As for the rest of Europe....
Mark
I have a Yamaha YCL-26 Clarinet which I ought to play more often :)
OK, the debunking is now in the article header - it was only meant to be posted for short while, due to an agreement with the publisher.
:)
And (by the way) I wasn't buying the conspiracy theories either - although my comment didn't actually say that. It was an answer to a previous comment 'explaining' the 'loss' of the article incorrectly as being moved to paid content. I was just debunking that explanation as not consistent with the facts.
Maybe I should have more explicitly stated that I didn't think anything nefarious was going on - but I imagine I'll now be quoted on some conspiracy theory website as 'fearlessly arguing for the truth'
Mark
Not true.
The table of contents still lists all the other articles - if you click on any one of them (for example this one you get the first paragraph, and then an invitation to buy the rest of the article. Fine, that's their right - it costs money to archive so many pages...
But the article is question isn't listed - and the link given by The Memory Hole doesn't offer to sell you the article, it says it has been deleted.
And it's nothing to do with it being a 'popular subject' - Time states quite clearly that it's only issues over 2 years old that are archived, not 'historically important' ones.
Mark
and the first time someone 'own3rz' a web site and leaves this logo? Maybe we should have a tarred brush as a logo (think about it)...
We already lost the word 'hacker' - let's not try and get behind a logo that we can lose too!
Mark
PS I like the glider idea though - just not the idea of a logo per se.
If the contract says 'you give us permission' and the law says 'thou shalt not do this without permission' then there is no conflict.
:)
If the law says 'thou shalt not, even if the party of the first part asks you to' then we have a problem
Note that I'm not saying it's ethical, but it's no worse than the EULA for Windows Media Player that says 'Microsoft can screw your computer up because we want to' and I haven't hear about any lawsuits over that yet... although I'd be glad to be corrected.
Mark
I saw a program on Tv once (I know, timewasting again) where they took a couple with two kids and two jobs, and calculated how much 'extra' cash they'd gained by the wife working. Call it X.
:)
Then they worked out the costs of day care, days off to take the kids to the doctor, the extra petrol for running to & from daycare, the jobs, the other associated costs... Call it Y.
Imagine the reaction when they revealed to this stressed, harried, 'overworked' couple that X was less than Y. She could quit her job and spend all day with her kids, and be better off!
She cried, he cried, she quit - and they all lived happily ever after...
Mark
PS The only reason she quit, I recall, was that he earned more. That's a whole other thread though
Periodic Table of the Elements
and in case you'd not noticed the URL, it's a comedy show (just imagine a parody of the Open University, or all those 'Science' shows you had to watch at school when you were a kid that patronised you and told you utter rubbish). Hilarious, and now out on Dependable Video Discus.
Mark
I'm not sure of the PC model, but it sure looks like she's wiping off the ink he's just scrawled all over the screen.
First lesson: "When I say 'write an email' I don't mean it literally. Put down the pen. Put it down. DROP THE PEN!"
Second lesson: "If you're taking secret computer lessons so your staff don't find out you're a moron, don't appear in an article about it."
Third lesson: ????
Fourth lesson: Profit!
I'm so very sorry.
Mark
If you feel lucky, it takes you right to the source...
:)
:)
Mark
PS yes, I know the link doesn't actually have the definition of PHB, nor the acronym itself; but that's the sort of response you should give your PHB - exactly correct, yet useless; and preferably inciting a feeling of stupidity for asking you even once, and a dread of admitting they don't understand the answer.
PPS The above rambling run-on sentence included for any PHBs who clicked the link, in order to make them feel at home.
PPPS More PS than actual comment, should be caught by the lameness filter
PPPPS As should excessive smilies
Wow, I've never had such a lengthy (and thankfully insightful) response to one of my posts before - thanks!
:) but rather to show that a lot of the 'features' of eBooks are already inherent in books - and that eBooks will have to be notably better in one or more ways in order to succeed. If they're lighter (which they are if you carry a load of books), cheaper, clearer, have useful features not possible in a paper book, etc then people will buy them.
I absolutely agree with you - eBooks will happen, and that will be a good thing in many ways, but it'll probably come about for the wrong reasons. Stopping us sharing books, loaning them to friends or even selling them second-hand will reduce the number of people reading.
Why don't they just ban public libraries while they're about it? On average a lot of people read the books they borrow without the author getting any extra cash, but for some reason my loaning a 10-year old copy of 'The Hobbit' to a friend is a cause for concern?
The reason I posted that quote was not to propose a Luddite point of view (and if I would, then using a SciFi author as a source would probably be counter-productive
When they come up with a reader that I can afford to accidentally leave on a plane, or drop in the bath or drop from my bag on a bike, which is as easy on the eyes as paper and ink, as light and convenient as a paperback, I'll be right there!
And yes, it means I can carry my whole library on a single disk, but I'd damn better be allowed to back that library up in case I drop it! And with DRM looking like it does right now, I could end up having to buy the whole lot again... Even if I'm insured, that's a huge problem.
Brave New World? Read it sometime - it's not all good news! (as I suspect you know, to be honest)
Mark
Isaac Asimov in a speech to the 1989 American Booksellers Association had a word of comfort for the traditionalists among us. He made a passionate defense of the survival of the book when he asked his audience to imagine a device that "can go anywhere, is totally portable. . . . Something that can be started and stopped at will [and] requires no electric energy to operate." This dream device is, of course, the book. "It will never be surpassed because it represents the minimum technology with the maximum interaction you can have."
(Quoted from Libraries in Science Fiction)
Mark
will automatically present you with them in the correct order - i.e. when you first update it ONLY shows you iCal.
Next time, you'll get the chance to download iSync.
Neither needs a reboot.
Mark
Are you sure it's not been mentioned anywhere?
:)
I think it has...
Mark
(I don't care if I've been trolled, that was silly fun
It was 'Franchise' by Isaac Asimov.
;) was able to track so many variables it could almost predict the outcome of an election - there were just a few variables it needed a human brain for, and it selected a 'typical' person to answer some fairly trite questions ('what do you think of the price of eggs?') to check the calibration and make the final decision.
:)
Basically MultiVac (the huge computer at the centre of the world
Not really the same as this - MultiVac was trying to determine the outcome of an election, or the average of a number of votes, not the 'average voter'. Bear in mind the average voter doesn't vote
Mark
Maybe it's a UK-only thing.... I have the special edition too, and on the back it says:
"This disc contains copy control technology"
Radiohead's latest album is also 'Content Protected' (a.k.a unplayable) such that you have to use some naff Java applet to listen to the music on a PC.
Of course on my Mac, it ripped perfectly in iTunes, no problem...
And the album is called.... Hail to the Thief. Ironic, no?
Mark
PS The first copy I bought wouldn't play, wouldn't rip, would barely mount - I figured it was the copy protection, but swiftly realised it was the inch-wide star-shaped crack on the back
And if you're on welfare and take money from the US Government, does that mean you condone the War on Terror/Drugs/Whatever? If you don't, the do you have an obligation to move to another country?
What if this guy was refusing to hire people who lived in Iraq during the Saddam years? After all, they were clearly supporting him, he kept getting re-elected! How about he refused to hire Mormons, because lots of people from SCO are Mormons?
Where do we draw the line? It's OK to discriminate against certain groups, is it?
My bad :) That'll teach me to post without researching.
However, from reading the Register article, it did read as though the changes made were in that area - maybe I'm speculating too far?
Whatever... the reason they're not using OS X is (I imagine) because it's easier to write a driver for the new/changed hardware under Linux than OS X - I don't know why, Darwin's just as open source!
(From the article)
The Navy wanted a custom Xserve chassis, and the work was organized by Terra Soft who employed a third-party to modify the hardware. Terra Soft provided a custom kernel and drivers for Fibre Channel storage.
So perhaps Apple weren't interested in making custom X-Serves, or hacking OS X to fit...
Whatever the custom hardware is (Fibre-Channel disk arrays by the sound of it) probably isn't supported by stock OS X.
All Apple is doing is preventing you from selling hardware to run their OS. No one says that you -have- to run Apple software, so you -have- to buy Apple hardware
Actually, they're not even doing that.
They're preventing you from buying replacement parts from a repair centre to build your own Mac.
If you want to run Mac OS X, without a Mac, then go right ahead.
Mark
That's what they're proposing. You either post their article verbatim, or post a link.
;)
Read The Fine Article
Mark
It's not a cult - it's a very shiny, flashy, lickable toy....
Mark 'Poisoned Kool-Aid' Hood