If I remember correctly, Maria Cantwell used to work for Real Networks. So I could see her siding with the DMCA since "secure" content transmission is part of her former employer's business.
As I am a South Carolina resident, I'm about to ship off a letter to Fritz Hollings. Please critique it and feel free to suggest ways to improve it before it goes. I wonder if complaining about the draft of the SSSCA at this point is worthwhile since they seem to ignore its existence. I also wonder if I'm going overboard by insinuating he's acting in the interests of his contributors and not citizens. It seems fair to me, but I want my arguments to look reasonable and not have my letter ignored.
The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. Hollings,
I am a professional software developer and a constituent in your state. I've recently become concerned with your proposed bill, the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). I am against such a bill, and I'll explain why below.
No Public Participation / No Regard for Fair Use: In Section 104(b)(1)(A), the proposed bill describes the security standard as being determined by "representatives of interactive digital device manufacturers and representatives of copyright owners." In effect, you are permitting corporations to determine the scope of this law, with no input from the public who will be using such devices. The public's fair-use rights have been slowly whittled away by recent laws. The SSSCA will continue this disappointing trend of protecting the profits of media companies at the expense of the consumer.
Open Source Software: There is an entire industry of software manufacturers and support organizations that write software that is freely available. This software is installed on millions of computers around the world, including servers that run the Internet. Software engineers like myself earn a living supporting this software. Open source software contains software code that is freely published. Your draft bill could, in effect, make this type of software illegal, since developers would be unable to "hide" security software in open code.
Digital Devices: There are any number of digital devices that have no need for these protection schemes. My scientific calculator is a "digital device." So is my Global Positioning System unit. They have absolutely no need for built-in protection systems. Your bill would place an undue burden on digital hardware manufacturers to protect things that don't need it. This will result in less hardware being produced, and increased development expenses which will be passed on to consumers.
Copyright protection can be maintained with state-of-the-art technology. Your bill will encourage companies to create mediocre protection schemes backed by the threat of prosecution. Piracy will continue unabated in foreign countries.
I am not sure exactly how you think you are benefiting South Carolina with this bill. My reading of the proposal is that it will only benefit the large corporations in this country, especially the media conglomerates. Please don't act solely in the interest of your high-dollar contributors.
I believe you are doing a disservice to South Carolinians and Americans by proposing this bill, and I urge you to do away with it.
John, I do use my digital camera quite a bit, but I use the laptop all the time. I think the biggest problem with the laptop might be that the battery is always plugged into the unit and is constantly being 'topped-off' by the power. You'd think they'd design it to make sure this situation doesn't ruin the battery, but as someone mentioned, that's probably a nifty way to sell more batteries.
BTW, a lot of the web photos come from scanned 35mm slides...Arizona was entirely 35mm. I've had the G1 for 9 months and it's starting to produce the majority of the web pictures...the Costa Rica album was probably 50% G1 shots. I'll go all-digital when I can afford a good digital SLR.
I've been slow to get into kite photography. The main problem has been that you need a big kite to lift camera equipment, strong winds, or both. I only have an 8 sq. ft. flowform, and it's too small. I did build a small wooden rig with an ice cube 'timer' which was more of a learning experience than anything else. The disposable camera attached was light but took bad shots on the ground, let alone flying 100 feet up.:) My best results so far were done with a cheap 640x480 digital camera, suspended by the strap, and run up into the air after triggering the 10 second timer. It made for some interesting shots of the beach, albeit slanted by the strap position. Nothing good enough to put on the web yet! For now I just link to a site of someone who really knows how to do it!
I'm running the Dell default install of Windows Me. My CPU averages about 60% when I'm using it for normal stuff like the web or email. The fan hardly ever runs (did all the time back when I ran the distributed.net client on it!). I'll have to look into software that might prolong the battery life.
One of these days I'll install Win2K or even Linux (I do run that on my server though).
How many times have you recharged the battery in your laptop? How many times in your digital camera?
That's sort of hard to answer, since the battery is in the laptop constantly, and the laptop is socket-powered 99.9% of the time I use it. But I estimate that I fully used and charged it no more than 50 times. More like about 30. The camera has had probably 30 or more charges too. I know they're not the same and I don't expect my G1 battery to run my Dell. Maybe I just got a bad laptop battery, but it's too late for me to have it fixed free now.:(
I fully understand that my G1 battery would not power my laptop. It wasn't my intention to compare the two batteries directly. What I was more interested in was that they were both lithium-ion batteries, but the laptop's battery has experienced a significant performance degradation, while the camera's has not. I have read that my laptop battery was supposed to be good for around 500 charges. Besides leaving it in a powered laptop 99% of the time, I have had to fully charge it maybe 50 times. The camera battery seems as if it was a better design. It might not scale, I don't know. My point was that there's more to it than just the chemicals involved.
I have a Canon Powershot G1 digital camera. It uses a proprietary lithium-ion battery, about the size of a C or D battery, but more square in shape. This battery is fantastic. The camera can run for hundreds of photos, you can leave the viewscreen on, and use the flash a lot before you have to recharge. Through many charges it seems to have no degradations in performance.
On the other hand, I have a Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop which has a lame battery. It is also lithium-ion. When I first got my laptop the battery would last about 3 hours before having to recharge. About a year later, it would last barely 1 hour. Dell knows their batteries don't last very long and only warrant them one year (despite the 3 years I have on the rest of the machine!). I found this out when I contacted them 1 year + 1 week after I bought the laptop. I ended up writing a small windows app called BatteryLog to help track your battery performance. You may want to give it a try on your laptop before your year-warranty runs out.
So basically, it's more than just the technology of the battery, it's also the design and manufacturer. There are some good ones out there!
I've been amassing old computer junk in my closet for years. I'm almost to the point where I was going to pay to have them recycled. But damn, for all I know, I'm probably just paying for shipment to China!
I think there has to be an upcoming business opportunity in recycling this stuff, and doing it in an environmentally responsible manner. I'd almost be willing to start the ball rolling myself. Any resources out there for learning how to do it?
Don't these controllers vibrate when you crash your car, or get shot, or do something else that you shouldn't have?
Seems to me that if you didn't suck at the game, the vibration injuries would not be a problem. One the other hand, you could look at the injury being better than being in a real car crash or being shot!
When I want MP3s on my stereo, what I'm doing right now is connecting my server's sound card output into the stereo via long RCA cables.
The problem is how can I control what's being played? I have to go into the office to play, stop, next track, etc. That's the one step I want to get around with a remote control.
Perhaps if there was a cheap infrared receiver that could go with my stereo components and somehow send those signal back to the server in the other room.
I'd like something like this to sit in my living room with my stereo stuff. I'm not sure how long a USB cable can be, but this could let me control an MP3 player on my server in another room, while piping sound out to my stereo system.
I don't need an entire computer and hard drive in an expensive box to be a stereo component, just something to play music from my server and allow me to control it from the living room.
An ethernet jack would've been cooler...but that might have made it an entirely different beaast inside.
I fooled around with emails and faxes for weeks, then eventually called their support at 1-888-642-9675. Be prepared to be on hold for a _long_ time, I waited like 40 minutes or so. Annoying, but it's their dime. I was successfully able to make changes to my domain after I talked to them. They even gave me a special fax number to use. Apparently they actually check that fax machine!:)
Hopefully the same number will make it easier for you to move off NSI.
I first learned of Mathworld last fall when writing some 3D code and searching Google for math info. Lots of links popped up which led to pages that were blocked.:(
It seems to me that this settlement sucks. I'd rather see someone recreate all of the material without CRC's involvement. That's a tough hill to climb but who knows what CRC could do in the future? And who would want to submit new articles to Mathworld knowing that CRC gets your hard work for free?
If I'm still alive in 50 years, I'll still be reading John D. MacDonald. His Travis McGee series is a classic. Those novels, written from the 1960s to the 1980s, are not only enjoyable to read, but are also filled with MacDonald's accurate social commentary and predictions.
"was not successful because the [United States-supplied] rocket experienced flight anomalies"
Nice dig at the U.S., as if all of our rockets were poor quality. I'm not saying all of the U.S.'s rockets are perfect, they're not, but they're pretty much as good as anything else out there.
Slashdot Mirror
If I remember correctly, Maria Cantwell used to work for Real Networks. So I could see her siding with the DMCA since "secure" content transmission is part of her former employer's business.
As I am a South Carolina resident, I'm about to ship off a letter to Fritz Hollings. Please critique it and feel free to suggest ways to improve it before it goes. I wonder if complaining about the draft of the SSSCA at this point is worthwhile since they seem to ignore its existence. I also wonder if I'm going overboard by insinuating he's acting in the interests of his contributors and not citizens. It seems fair to me, but I want my arguments to look reasonable and not have my letter ignored.
The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. Hollings,
I am a professional software developer and a constituent in your state. I've recently become concerned with your proposed bill, the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). I am against such a bill, and I'll explain why below.
No Public Participation / No Regard for Fair Use: In Section 104(b)(1)(A), the proposed bill describes the security standard as being determined by "representatives of interactive digital device manufacturers and representatives of copyright owners." In effect, you are permitting corporations to determine the scope of this law, with no input from the public who will be using such devices. The public's fair-use rights have been slowly whittled away by recent laws. The SSSCA will continue this disappointing trend of protecting the profits of media companies at the expense of the consumer.
Open Source Software: There is an entire industry of software manufacturers and support organizations that write software that is freely available. This software is installed on millions of computers around the world, including servers that run the Internet. Software engineers like myself earn a living supporting this software. Open source software contains software code that is freely published. Your draft bill could, in effect, make this type of software illegal, since developers would be unable to "hide" security software in open code.
Digital Devices: There are any number of digital devices that have no need for these protection schemes. My scientific calculator is a "digital device." So is my Global Positioning System unit. They have absolutely no need for built-in protection systems. Your bill would place an undue burden on digital hardware manufacturers to protect things that don't need it. This will result in less hardware being produced, and increased development expenses which will be passed on to consumers.
Copyright protection can be maintained with state-of-the-art technology. Your bill will encourage companies to create mediocre protection schemes backed by the threat of prosecution. Piracy will continue unabated in foreign countries.
I am not sure exactly how you think you are benefiting South Carolina with this bill. My reading of the proposal is that it will only benefit the large corporations in this country, especially the media conglomerates. Please don't act solely in the interest of your high-dollar contributors.
I believe you are doing a disservice to South Carolinians and Americans by proposing this bill, and I urge you to do away with it.
John, I do use my digital camera quite a bit, but I use the laptop all the time. I think the biggest problem with the laptop might be that the battery is always plugged into the unit and is constantly being 'topped-off' by the power. You'd think they'd design it to make sure this situation doesn't ruin the battery, but as someone mentioned, that's probably a nifty way to sell more batteries.
:) My best results so far were done with a cheap 640x480 digital camera, suspended by the strap, and run up into the air after triggering the 10 second timer. It made for some interesting shots of the beach, albeit slanted by the strap position. Nothing good enough to put on the web yet! For now I just link to a site of someone who really knows how to do it!
BTW, a lot of the web photos come from scanned 35mm slides...Arizona was entirely 35mm. I've had the G1 for 9 months and it's starting to produce the majority of the web pictures...the Costa Rica album was probably 50% G1 shots. I'll go all-digital when I can afford a good digital SLR.
I've been slow to get into kite photography. The main problem has been that you need a big kite to lift camera equipment, strong winds, or both. I only have an 8 sq. ft. flowform, and it's too small. I did build a small wooden rig with an ice cube 'timer' which was more of a learning experience than anything else. The disposable camera attached was light but took bad shots on the ground, let alone flying 100 feet up.
I'm running the Dell default install of Windows Me. My CPU averages about 60% when I'm using it for normal stuff like the web or email. The fan hardly ever runs (did all the time back when I ran the distributed.net client on it!). I'll have to look into software that might prolong the battery life.
One of these days I'll install Win2K or even Linux (I do run that on my server though).
How many times have you recharged the battery in your laptop? How many times in your digital camera?
That's sort of hard to answer, since the battery is in the laptop constantly, and the laptop is socket-powered 99.9% of the time I use it. But I estimate that I fully used and charged it no more than 50 times. More like about 30. The camera has had probably 30 or more charges too. I know they're not the same and I don't expect my G1 battery to run my Dell. Maybe I just got a bad laptop battery, but it's too late for me to have it fixed free now. :(
I fully understand that my G1 battery would not power my laptop. It wasn't my intention to compare the two batteries directly. What I was more interested in was that they were both lithium-ion batteries, but the laptop's battery has experienced a significant performance degradation, while the camera's has not. I have read that my laptop battery was supposed to be good for around 500 charges. Besides leaving it in a powered laptop 99% of the time, I have had to fully charge it maybe 50 times. The camera battery seems as if it was a better design. It might not scale, I don't know. My point was that there's more to it than just the chemicals involved.
I have a Canon Powershot G1 digital camera. It uses a proprietary lithium-ion battery, about the size of a C or D battery, but more square in shape. This battery is fantastic. The camera can run for hundreds of photos, you can leave the viewscreen on, and use the flash a lot before you have to recharge. Through many charges it seems to have no degradations in performance.
On the other hand, I have a Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop which has a lame battery. It is also lithium-ion. When I first got my laptop the battery would last about 3 hours before having to recharge. About a year later, it would last barely 1 hour. Dell knows their batteries don't last very long and only warrant them one year (despite the 3 years I have on the rest of the machine!). I found this out when I contacted them 1 year + 1 week after I bought the laptop. I ended up writing a small windows app called BatteryLog to help track your battery performance. You may want to give it a try on your laptop before your year-warranty runs out.
So basically, it's more than just the technology of the battery, it's also the design and manufacturer. There are some good ones out there!
I've been amassing old computer junk in my closet for years. I'm almost to the point where I was going to pay to have them recycled. But damn, for all I know, I'm probably just paying for shipment to China!
I think there has to be an upcoming business opportunity in recycling this stuff, and doing it in an environmentally responsible manner. I'd almost be willing to start the ball rolling myself. Any resources out there for learning how to do it?
Don't these controllers vibrate when you crash your car, or get shot, or do something else that you shouldn't have?
Seems to me that if you didn't suck at the game, the vibration injuries would not be a problem. One the other hand, you could look at the injury being better than being in a real car crash or being shot!
This is a simple and cool idea. I tested this script on my local box and I hope to put it on my real mail server soon. Thanks!
(mod that idea up!)
When I want MP3s on my stereo, what I'm doing right now is connecting my server's sound card output into the stereo via long RCA cables.
The problem is how can I control what's being played? I have to go into the office to play, stop, next track, etc. That's the one step I want to get around with a remote control.
Perhaps if there was a cheap infrared receiver that could go with my stereo components and somehow send those signal back to the server in the other room.
I'd like something like this to sit in my living room with my stereo stuff. I'm not sure how long a USB cable can be, but this could let me control an MP3 player on my server in another room, while piping sound out to my stereo system.
I don't need an entire computer and hard drive in an expensive box to be a stereo component, just something to play music from my server and allow me to control it from the living room.
An ethernet jack would've been cooler...but that might have made it an entirely different beaast inside.
I think the song was written by that old Dilbert vision statement generator.
What happens when the battery dies? I assume the thing can't keep you balanced properly without power!
Doesn't Google rank data based on how many other people link to it? If you only had Google pointing to it, wouldn't it be very low on a search list?
I fooled around with emails and faxes for weeks, then eventually called their support at 1-888-642-9675. Be prepared to be on hold for a _long_ time, I waited like 40 minutes or so. Annoying, but it's their dime. I was successfully able to make changes to my domain after I talked to them. They even gave me a special fax number to use. Apparently they actually check that fax machine! :)
Hopefully the same number will make it easier for you to move off NSI.
I think a Pizza Hut logo would be really sexy on the wing where the American Flag currently takes up valuable advertising space.
I first learned of Mathworld last fall when writing some 3D code and searching Google for math info. Lots of links popped up which led to pages that were blocked. :(
It seems to me that this settlement sucks. I'd rather see someone recreate all of the material without CRC's involvement. That's a tough hill to climb but who knows what CRC could do in the future? And who would want to submit new articles to Mathworld knowing that CRC gets your hard work for free?
How about an Everything2 for Math?
If I'm still alive in 50 years, I'll still be reading John D. MacDonald. His Travis McGee series is a classic. Those novels, written from the 1960s to the 1980s, are not only enjoyable to read, but are also filled with MacDonald's accurate social commentary and predictions.
"was not successful because the [United States-supplied] rocket experienced flight anomalies"
Nice dig at the U.S., as if all of our rockets were poor quality. I'm not saying all of the U.S.'s rockets are perfect, they're not, but they're pretty much as good as anything else out there.
You forgot to open your SCHEME and SHITEATING GRIN tags. :)
The only reason I go to the altavista.com domain these days is for the Babelfish.
So I hope the AV search engine will still prosper to some degree, so that the whole business doesn't tank and they take the Babelfish with it.
A good article related to this. Talks about trying to stick it out after the Dot Bomb has exploded.
To be a real virus, it has to propagate to other machines, which is likely breaking the law.
So the 10,000 pounds will eventually end up in the pocket of a lawyer for defending you!
Maybe he was thinking of Strom Thurmond...he's the other SC senator. He's not running again, though.