Well...considering that there have been public announcements that DHS et al are trying (with only limited success) to hire huge numbers of "security" techs it sure seems like they were caught with their pants down.
We were wondering exactly that. It's basically a novelty item at this point. At least that's how the discussion was going, and could have been completely wrong. Such is/.
And if you had read the/. discussion about that device, you would know the quality of the device is such that no professional cameraman would use one. Until there is a device that integrates two cameras of the same quality professionals use (as opposed to those sold in best buy) this will be a moot point for the pros.
If you had RTFA you would know that in addition to the equipment cost, filming takes longer because of the set up/tear down of twice as many cameras, and the post-processing does actually take more work to make sure both tracks are synced up properly. Also until people get used to filming in 3d there will need to be extra redos to get the actors' limbs in the picture instead of being cut off at the side of the 3d picture, which TFA says and I can imagine would be disconcerting.
Funny thing is, you still have to pay for it even though it's in "beta". By rights as a beta tester they should be paying YOU...or are they pulling a M$ and making their customers into beta testers?
Fuck that, I'm stickin' with a phone that acts like a phone instead of a pc.
Sorry, I meant 1280x720 pixel H.264 encodings of fansubbed anime shows, which presumably compress better than live TV because of the way they are drawn and shaded.
Vandalism and attention seeking are probably cooler when you're 15 years old. It's not that hacking is "less cool" than it used to be, you just grew up and didn't notice.
It worked fine with the stock Vista install, doesn't work period in XP, and was unreliable in my self-installed Windows 7. I bought the machine a year ago so I'm not sure I can get a factory Win7 image for it. However I will check for updated drivers; last time I worried about it was in September and all the Win7 drivers were in beta.
My Thinkpad T400 has two GPUs. One is an Intel GMA4500, the other is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400. Running with the Intel GPU cuts off a full third of my power consumption because it uses the main CPU and main memory instead of dedicated chips. But switching between the two GPUs is iffy at best and usually requires a reboot. If I get stuck on the Intel GPU then I can't play games until I reboot and switch to the ATI GPU, so I usually stay on the ATI unless I really need battery life.
What is significant about what ASUS is doing is the PC will *automagically* switch to the high-performance GPU when you start up a game or a flash video, then switch back when you go back to word processing. This is something that has never been done before and is a major step towards making "switchable graphics" truly useful.
That is, of course, assuming that the ASUS power management app doesn't crash all the time leaving your system in an unstable state.
Umm, no. The task manager only shows CPU usage as a percentage of maximum usage at either present or maximum clock speed. This widget duplicates a graph shown in the Win7 Resource Monitor and tracks the actual CPU clock speed (in gigahertz), because the auto-clocking software changes the CPU speed in response to demand. My Win7/Core2 machine does this, but presumably ASUS is more aggressive in clocking down the i7 chip.
If you're going to look up a patent application, see that it is worthy of being granted, and then infringe/continue to infringe on it, then I'd say you deserve prosecution. If the invention was truly original, there should be no "unwitting" infringers at the time of review--they would have to deliberately reverse-engineering a proprietary patent-pending product shortly after it came to market to know about the invention. This kind of transparency would possibly have the effect of encouraging compliance with the law rather than litigation--infringers would have added awareness and incentive to seek out licensing agreements or work-arounds rather than wait for litigation if the penalties are steeper.
If, on the other hand, the invention was not truly original, and there were "infringers" at the time of the application, then the patent should not be issued in the first place. If patents like this still get issued even after the added transparency and peer-checking, then we know the system really is broken.
Anonymity or pseudonymity might work, but at the same time ever level of immunity you grant adds to the possibility of spam and/or illegitimate claims cluttering up the message board and wasting examiners' time.
For the record, I am squarely in the "no software patents, ever" camp, but proposed this solution for the sake of argument and because working within the current legal structure is always a challenge.
Have the patent office add a Slashcode forum so commenters from the peanut gallery can yell: DUPE!!!
Crowd-sourcing patent review is a very good idea actually. Patent applications are normally published after 540 days whether they've been issued or not, so putting them up for public comment *before issuance* would be in line with current policy. And since slashdotters are used to providing references, the clerks could just ignore everything else and look up the references people posted. WikiPatents.com is a start but does not seem to allow people to actually critique a patent (or application) for being unique.
Only problem is: how are we going to get an intelligent (slashdot) crowd to research all of the ~500,000 patents filed each year? For that matter, would this actually be able to deter some of the frivolous patent applications, i.e. actually have them denied? I would love to see the (probably short) list of patent applications that have been denied recently.
The most important thing for a successful engineer is the ability to question rules and specifications. Like, "Why do you want me to only use bricks to build this house? Oh, you want it fireproof? Then I will alter your spec and use steel." If the client refuses, the engineer gets frustrated and leaves. Any good engineer knows there better be a damn good reason for the specifications, otherwise you get a suboptimal solution. This has a tendency to drive them away from arbitrary religious beliefs, etc., and results in agnosticism in idealistic engineers.
However, there are many engineers who are not so idealistic, not so critical of their specifications, and more likely to make (invalid) assumptions. These people are more likely to hold conservative religious beliefs, and possibly absorb the beliefs of others, especially when in school. Granted, these are also the least competent engineers, which might explain why so many attacks have been flubbed.
For the sake of argument, it is easy to see how an idealistic engineer could be disillusioned by all the arbitrary and f***ing retarded rules in politics and business, eventually leading to extremism against the "broken system". But the same idealist would also be able to see that terrorism would not change the system, thus I believe most recruited engineer terrorists fall into the "incompetent" category.
This is all part of society's "war on men"--trying to make men responsible for everything that could be wrong in the culture. Witness the recent probes on gender bias in college admissions. They wonder why colleges are not admitting the same proportion of women when they get twice as many applications from women as from men. Nevermind the potential for a study to determine if female students apply to more schools than men (thus generating more applications) or whether admitting more women would serve anybody's best interests (including those of women). Any reason to bash on men is fine, regardless of whether they are in the majority or if any actual discrimination is taking place. And it's a worldwide phenomenon. It's no wonder the herbivore movement is taking hold.
Which is exactly why Microsoft will be the first one to do so, thus eliminating any point in hiding the source in the first place--besides deceiving potential users.
What he meant was, he'd rather not be prosecuted for downloading child pornography, since that is what "related to this case" would imply. I heartily agree that it probably exists, after all why go through the trouble of raping your own children if you can't make a few bucks off it?
When was the last time you blindly installed a program that performs a loosely-defined set of high-level administrative tasks like deleting files and disabling hardware, and which was developed for the express purpose of deterring law-enforcement? It's one thing to question the motives of freeware zip program or video editor, but I would never give full control of my OS to a program that could very plausibly be written by the bad guys themselves.
The counter-argument is of course that they wrote it to protect themselves, not to screw honest people, but there is no guarantee one black-hat won't try to screw another. Granted, the risk of *clones* that are *actual malware* is arguably higher than the original being malware.
However, it just occurred to me that this could become relevant for a lot more people if the international DMCA takes effect and enforcement against individual downloaders ramps up...
...to distribute rootkits and create botnets. Even better than those "Free Antivirus Software" downloads.
Seriously, is anybody going to trust something like this without the source? Somebody intelligent enough not to open unsolicited email attachments, at any rate.
(And yes, I realize there might be "legitimate" reasons for keeping the source out of law enforcement's hands, but frankly [at risk of trolling] I would rather be spied on by the government than identity thieves.)
Slashdot Mirror
...watching us amusedly from the shadows while we blindly poke sticks in the opposite direction.
Granted, you aren't using a laptop keyboard with your KVM switch so Lenovo's research obviously took your position into account :)
Well...considering that there have been public announcements that DHS et al are trying (with only limited success) to hire huge numbers of "security" techs it sure seems like they were caught with their pants down.
We were wondering exactly that. It's basically a novelty item at this point. At least that's how the discussion was going, and could have been completely wrong. Such is /.
And if you had read the /. discussion about that device, you would know the quality of the device is such that no professional cameraman would use one. Until there is a device that integrates two cameras of the same quality professionals use (as opposed to those sold in best buy) this will be a moot point for the pros.
If you had RTFA you would know that in addition to the equipment cost, filming takes longer because of the set up/tear down of twice as many cameras, and the post-processing does actually take more work to make sure both tracks are synced up properly. Also until people get used to filming in 3d there will need to be extra redos to get the actors' limbs in the picture instead of being cut off at the side of the 3d picture, which TFA says and I can imagine would be disconcerting.
Funny thing is, you still have to pay for it even though it's in "beta". By rights as a beta tester they should be paying YOU...or are they pulling a M$ and making their customers into beta testers?
Fuck that, I'm stickin' with a phone that acts like a phone instead of a pc.
(I have to note, that this is not your average CRT thought. It did cost about $7200 when it was new. I bought it cheap on eBay.)
Have you tried comparing it with a $7200 LCD? The results might be a little different.
Sorry, I meant 1280x720 pixel H.264 encodings of fansubbed anime shows, which presumably compress better than live TV because of the way they are drawn and shaded.
Vandalism and attention seeking are probably cooler when you're 15 years old. It's not that hacking is "less cool" than it used to be, you just grew up and didn't notice.
Sucks for the HD releases that are 350MB per episode though...have to get better compression for them.
Hear hear. You don't have to be paranoid to own assault weapons, but it helps.
It worked fine with the stock Vista install, doesn't work period in XP, and was unreliable in my self-installed Windows 7. I bought the machine a year ago so I'm not sure I can get a factory Win7 image for it. However I will check for updated drivers; last time I worried about it was in September and all the Win7 drivers were in beta.
My Thinkpad T400 has two GPUs. One is an Intel GMA4500, the other is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400. Running with the Intel GPU cuts off a full third of my power consumption because it uses the main CPU and main memory instead of dedicated chips. But switching between the two GPUs is iffy at best and usually requires a reboot. If I get stuck on the Intel GPU then I can't play games until I reboot and switch to the ATI GPU, so I usually stay on the ATI unless I really need battery life.
What is significant about what ASUS is doing is the PC will *automagically* switch to the high-performance GPU when you start up a game or a flash video, then switch back when you go back to word processing. This is something that has never been done before and is a major step towards making "switchable graphics" truly useful.
That is, of course, assuming that the ASUS power management app doesn't crash all the time leaving your system in an unstable state.
So basically it's like the task manager?
Umm, no. The task manager only shows CPU usage as a percentage of maximum usage at either present or maximum clock speed. This widget duplicates a graph shown in the Win7 Resource Monitor and tracks the actual CPU clock speed (in gigahertz), because the auto-clocking software changes the CPU speed in response to demand. My Win7/Core2 machine does this, but presumably ASUS is more aggressive in clocking down the i7 chip.
If you're going to look up a patent application, see that it is worthy of being granted, and then infringe/continue to infringe on it, then I'd say you deserve prosecution. If the invention was truly original, there should be no "unwitting" infringers at the time of review--they would have to deliberately reverse-engineering a proprietary patent-pending product shortly after it came to market to know about the invention. This kind of transparency would possibly have the effect of encouraging compliance with the law rather than litigation--infringers would have added awareness and incentive to seek out licensing agreements or work-arounds rather than wait for litigation if the penalties are steeper.
If, on the other hand, the invention was not truly original, and there were "infringers" at the time of the application, then the patent should not be issued in the first place. If patents like this still get issued even after the added transparency and peer-checking, then we know the system really is broken.
Anonymity or pseudonymity might work, but at the same time ever level of immunity you grant adds to the possibility of spam and/or illegitimate claims cluttering up the message board and wasting examiners' time.
For the record, I am squarely in the "no software patents, ever" camp, but proposed this solution for the sake of argument and because working within the current legal structure is always a challenge.
Have the patent office add a Slashcode forum so commenters from the peanut gallery can yell: DUPE!!!
Crowd-sourcing patent review is a very good idea actually. Patent applications are normally published after 540 days whether they've been issued or not, so putting them up for public comment *before issuance* would be in line with current policy. And since slashdotters are used to providing references, the clerks could just ignore everything else and look up the references people posted. WikiPatents.com is a start but does not seem to allow people to actually critique a patent (or application) for being unique.
Only problem is: how are we going to get an intelligent (slashdot) crowd to research all of the ~500,000 patents filed each year? For that matter, would this actually be able to deter some of the frivolous patent applications, i.e. actually have them denied? I would love to see the (probably short) list of patent applications that have been denied recently.
The most important thing for a successful engineer is the ability to question rules and specifications. Like, "Why do you want me to only use bricks to build this house? Oh, you want it fireproof? Then I will alter your spec and use steel." If the client refuses, the engineer gets frustrated and leaves. Any good engineer knows there better be a damn good reason for the specifications, otherwise you get a suboptimal solution. This has a tendency to drive them away from arbitrary religious beliefs, etc., and results in agnosticism in idealistic engineers.
However, there are many engineers who are not so idealistic, not so critical of their specifications, and more likely to make (invalid) assumptions. These people are more likely to hold conservative religious beliefs, and possibly absorb the beliefs of others, especially when in school. Granted, these are also the least competent engineers, which might explain why so many attacks have been flubbed.
For the sake of argument, it is easy to see how an idealistic engineer could be disillusioned by all the arbitrary and f***ing retarded rules in politics and business, eventually leading to extremism against the "broken system". But the same idealist would also be able to see that terrorism would not change the system, thus I believe most recruited engineer terrorists fall into the "incompetent" category.
Congratulations, you are the first to do so.
That doesn't have some sort of sarcastic relation to the content of my post does it?
This is all part of society's "war on men"--trying to make men responsible for everything that could be wrong in the culture. Witness the recent probes on gender bias in college admissions. They wonder why colleges are not admitting the same proportion of women when they get twice as many applications from women as from men. Nevermind the potential for a study to determine if female students apply to more schools than men (thus generating more applications) or whether admitting more women would serve anybody's best interests (including those of women). Any reason to bash on men is fine, regardless of whether they are in the majority or if any actual discrimination is taking place. And it's a worldwide phenomenon. It's no wonder the herbivore movement is taking hold.
Which is exactly why Microsoft will be the first one to do so, thus eliminating any point in hiding the source in the first place--besides deceiving potential users.
What he meant was, he'd rather not be prosecuted for downloading child pornography, since that is what "related to this case" would imply. I heartily agree that it probably exists, after all why go through the trouble of raping your own children if you can't make a few bucks off it?
When was the last time you blindly installed a program that performs a loosely-defined set of high-level administrative tasks like deleting files and disabling hardware, and which was developed for the express purpose of deterring law-enforcement? It's one thing to question the motives of freeware zip program or video editor, but I would never give full control of my OS to a program that could very plausibly be written by the bad guys themselves.
The counter-argument is of course that they wrote it to protect themselves, not to screw honest people, but there is no guarantee one black-hat won't try to screw another. Granted, the risk of *clones* that are *actual malware* is arguably higher than the original being malware.
However, it just occurred to me that this could become relevant for a lot more people if the international DMCA takes effect and enforcement against individual downloaders ramps up...
Who's to say that AC wasn't actually involved writing it at the time? :D
...to distribute rootkits and create botnets. Even better than those "Free Antivirus Software" downloads.
Seriously, is anybody going to trust something like this without the source? Somebody intelligent enough not to open unsolicited email attachments, at any rate.
(And yes, I realize there might be "legitimate" reasons for keeping the source out of law enforcement's hands, but frankly [at risk of trolling] I would rather be spied on by the government than identity thieves.)