Cable companies already do this. And they have been doing this since at least 1953. My grandfather built a cable TV system (with 2 channels) back then and charged $100/month (yes, in 1953) until he realized he was not going to have more than 6 customers at that rate.
There is a difference between saying "I was on the team that developed this and I know we used modern development methods, so I believe this is quality software" as opposed to "I used this software and it improved my life, earned me $1.25M, and got me a new gorgeous girlfriend."
I filed using a paper return, printed from their "fill-in PDF" tax form. So they still have to type it in.
The issue for me is not how to prepare the tax form, or even the e-filing. The issue for me is having to use some corporation to do the e-file in a way that allows the corporation to see it. It's "not in an envelope" electronically unless it is encrypted with the recipient (IRS) public encryption key.
Next year will be on paper, too, unless they fix the e-filing system.
And tax software that runs on Linux is a plus. An open-source one is even better. But "direct e-file" would be the best.
... just cut the international trunks. What will be more interesting is if they start to use duplicated IPv4 address space, or continue the move to IPv6. The "Iranian Spring" will come, and this action is likely to speed that up. Then it will get connected back to the world, again.
Of course, someone will still set up some secret gateways.
Just replace your junk Chinese cables with reasonably priced ones from the middle tier, where you are paying for what you get, instead of the top end where you pay for branding.
I do think Apple created a product the market was ready for, and was the first to make this particular advancement step. But I don't think they would have been first had they waited much longer. I don't think they would have been first had another company let geeks and nerds make product decisions. But they do make their products good. I would have an iPhone today if they had not done things like carrier exclusivity and be the exclusive app store for it. So I have a Samsung Galaxy S II instead. Jobs might have had the genius to make lots of things a lot of people want. But he didn't have the genius to make things the way everyone wants.
You mean no patents for junk ideas as well as for the few gems of innovation? Then I suspect maybe a few innovators might be discouraged. But corporations will still continue, sans a few overpaid lawyers.
As long as we have a patent system that blindly issues a patent to damn near anything applied for, even though there's no real innovation involved... e.g. stuff that the best engineers/programmers in their field could do without much effort if given a task that needs it, then we'll be having these wars. Patents need to be limited to the kinds of innovation that that we simply would not have if the applicant had not figured it out or spent the extensive effort and cost to come up with it.
Fundamentally, patents are themselves a government sanction theft of intellectual property from those that invent it, just because they didn't invent it first. Only because we can't know whether someone did invent it, or did steal it, do we justify a patent (which is really nothing more than government sanctioned exclusivity). But our patent office is not working to filter genuine innovation from trivia ideas. A few years ago I scanned over some random patents, selecting those in areas I happened to know, and found that the vast majority were easily doable, and not innovation. The ratio was around 500 (junk) to 1 (innovation). This was one sampling, so that can be off. I only used higher numbers spanning about the last 5 years at that time.
So it's not really the corporations doing this. They have to react this way under such a system, or end up being a loser. This is why we need an epic-major overhaul of the patent system itself, and not some minor tweaks that politicians have paid lip service to.
I have written more detail about this recently here.
And they even get a choice of which thing they want to learn... 1. How to respect the rights of the people... or... 2. How to make a web site and its servers secure. Sheesh. Did they set this up with "Government Websites For Dummies"?
If a media/content producer/distributor wants to use DRM, then I don't want their crap. So I don't care if the media play box can do DRM or not. I'll make or get DRM-free content. I want a box that can play any and all of that, from anywhere, including media in Linux and BSD filesystems.
As I see it, any media/content producer/distributor that wants to use DRM is clearly not marketing their product to me. That means they cannot claim what I'm not buying from them as a loss, because their businesses model doesn't include me at all. That doesn't mean I don't sometimes buy some DRM content, such as Män som hatar kvinnor / Flickan som lekte med elden / Luftslottet som sprängdes. But generally not because it's so difficult to play on those crap DVD/Blu-Ray boxes they make these days, and all the trailers they won't let you skip forward in.
So anyway, there is NO LOSS to them whether I do, or do not, download what someone ripped from some DRMed source. If I do have any ripped DRM content, I'm perfectly willing to buy it from them if/when they offer it in MY market (e.g. no DRM) for a reasonable (same as others) price.
Also, "USB hard-drive"? Do you really want to transfer media to a drive? Build a home NAS and stream everything to the media player. The media player should be small and quiet. There is no need for an HDD.
Why not have "everything" (and the builder gets to choose what she knows she wants):
USB and eSATA ports for bulk drive(s).
2nd USB port for memory stick sharing and rescue booting.
Camera card adapter for stuff from your camera.
Ethernet for your NAS and LAN and streaming from internet.
TV tuner card for over the air reception and cable ripping.
NTSC/PAL/Component digitizer card for copying all the old VHS and BETA tapes.
DVD/Blu-Ray player/recorder.
SDI/SDI-HD card if you work at a TV station.
And be sure to also support viewing still pictures (including picture frame mode) and playing any/all sound files.
... but since it still going on, it is worth bashing it around a bit. Maybe we can get more people to use HTTPS. Maybe we can even get Slashdot to make their HTTPS port actually work.
Slashdot Mirror
Cable companies already do this. And they have been doing this since at least 1953. My grandfather built a cable TV system (with 2 channels) back then and charged $100/month (yes, in 1953) until he realized he was not going to have more than 6 customers at that rate.
Yes.
There's nothing to be ashamed of for being smarter and more insightful than corporate executives and government officials.
There is a difference between saying "I was on the team that developed this and I know we used modern development methods, so I believe this is quality software" as opposed to "I used this software and it improved my life, earned me $1.25M, and got me a new gorgeous girlfriend."
Well, mine was fat. So I did quit. Found a new one that wasn't. Best decision of my life ... until she left me.
You can usually tell when people are doing that without the need to check for the brown color on their nose.
What if it's something stupid for engineers and more appropriate for sales people?
The stockholders should be doing the astroturfing. Afterall, it's their dog in the show.
Parent post spoiled this whole thread by giving away the suspenseful ending.
I filed using a paper return, printed from their "fill-in PDF" tax form. So they still have to type it in.
The issue for me is not how to prepare the tax form, or even the e-filing. The issue for me is having to use some corporation to do the e-file in a way that allows the corporation to see it. It's "not in an envelope" electronically unless it is encrypted with the recipient (IRS) public encryption key.
Next year will be on paper, too, unless they fix the e-filing system.
And tax software that runs on Linux is a plus. An open-source one is even better. But "direct e-file" would be the best.
... just cut the international trunks. What will be more interesting is if they start to use duplicated IPv4 address space, or continue the move to IPv6. The "Iranian Spring" will come, and this action is likely to speed that up. Then it will get connected back to the world, again.
Of course, someone will still set up some secret gateways.
Just replace your junk Chinese cables with reasonably priced ones from the middle tier, where you are paying for what you get, instead of the top end where you pay for branding.
If you had not narrowed it to just "communist" and just did "dictatorial" in general, then you could have also included Syria.
I do think Apple created a product the market was ready for, and was the first to make this particular advancement step. But I don't think they would have been first had they waited much longer. I don't think they would have been first had another company let geeks and nerds make product decisions. But they do make their products good. I would have an iPhone today if they had not done things like carrier exclusivity and be the exclusive app store for it. So I have a Samsung Galaxy S II instead. Jobs might have had the genius to make lots of things a lot of people want. But he didn't have the genius to make things the way everyone wants.
They are too big to fa^H^Hbreak up.
Apple's greatest innovations are much the same as Microsoft's ... extreme marketing.
You mean no patents for junk ideas as well as for the few gems of innovation? Then I suspect maybe a few innovators might be discouraged. But corporations will still continue, sans a few overpaid lawyers.
As long as we have a patent system that blindly issues a patent to damn near anything applied for, even though there's no real innovation involved ... e.g. stuff that the best engineers/programmers in their field could do without much effort if given a task that needs it, then we'll be having these wars. Patents need to be limited to the kinds of innovation that that we simply would not have if the applicant had not figured it out or spent the extensive effort and cost to come up with it.
Fundamentally, patents are themselves a government sanction theft of intellectual property from those that invent it, just because they didn't invent it first. Only because we can't know whether someone did invent it, or did steal it, do we justify a patent (which is really nothing more than government sanctioned exclusivity). But our patent office is not working to filter genuine innovation from trivia ideas. A few years ago I scanned over some random patents, selecting those in areas I happened to know, and found that the vast majority were easily doable, and not innovation. The ratio was around 500 (junk) to 1 (innovation). This was one sampling, so that can be off. I only used higher numbers spanning about the last 5 years at that time.
So it's not really the corporations doing this. They have to react this way under such a system, or end up being a loser. This is why we need an epic-major overhaul of the patent system itself, and not some minor tweaks that politicians have paid lip service to.
I have written more detail about this recently here.
And they even get a choice of which thing they want to learn ... 1. How to respect the rights of the people ... or ... 2. How to make a web site and its servers secure. Sheesh. Did they set this up with "Government Websites For Dummies"?
If a media/content producer/distributor wants to use DRM, then I don't want their crap. So I don't care if the media play box can do DRM or not. I'll make or get DRM-free content. I want a box that can play any and all of that, from anywhere, including media in Linux and BSD filesystems.
As I see it, any media/content producer/distributor that wants to use DRM is clearly not marketing their product to me. That means they cannot claim what I'm not buying from them as a loss, because their businesses model doesn't include me at all. That doesn't mean I don't sometimes buy some DRM content, such as Män som hatar kvinnor / Flickan som lekte med elden / Luftslottet som sprängdes. But generally not because it's so difficult to play on those crap DVD/Blu-Ray boxes they make these days, and all the trailers they won't let you skip forward in.
So anyway, there is NO LOSS to them whether I do, or do not, download what someone ripped from some DRMed source. If I do have any ripped DRM content, I'm perfectly willing to buy it from them if/when they offer it in MY market (e.g. no DRM) for a reasonable (same as others) price.
Oh, and I forgot the most important thing ... wifi ... so you can play things through your phone when on the loo.
Also, "USB hard-drive"? Do you really want to transfer media to a drive? Build a home NAS and stream everything to the media player. The media player should be small and quiet. There is no need for an HDD.
Why not have "everything" (and the builder gets to choose what she knows she wants):
And be sure to also support viewing still pictures (including picture frame mode) and playing any/all sound files.
... but since it still going on, it is worth bashing it around a bit. Maybe we can get more people to use HTTPS. Maybe we can even get Slashdot to make their HTTPS port actually work.
You're posting as Anonymous Coward so go ahead and name names.
Would porn ads be OK if the user had explicitly visited porn sites?