Not surprisiingly, Jack Valenti has apparently started a road tour to promote this legislation. Today, there's a column by him in the Wall Street Journal, where he pleads:
"Families deserve to have options to watch movies on the Net, legally, at their command."
Yes, if you can keep sufficient staff to handle the workload, and remember you'll need some space to do the work.
But I've always found it better to use clones, and the more control we had over the design, the better. The real savings come from being able to set up all your systems consistently so that you can manage them more effectively. You might have to deal with a variety of hardware (video cards and NICs are hard to stay consistent with, they change every six months or so), but you can account for that.
Using brand name systems, even if you stick with one brand, involves extra work, because they change so often now. You always end up managing a heterogeneous environment that was designed by a marketing department. And desktop PC's are so disposable that any extra warranty you'd get on a brand name is going to cost you more than it's worth. Much easier to just replace a hard disk than to ship a PC out for service.
Your biggest cost is staff, so if you use the opportunity effectviely, you'll make everybody's job easier, and the hardware savings won't even matter. It will also shorten your lead times if you set it up right.
Also, be careful that you don't over-use spare parts, thats' one problem with having a lot of new hardware hanging around. My motto is, "If we have too many spares, we'll use them." Sometimes you swap out a hard disk, throw the old one in the "we'll test it someday" pile. But if it turns out that wasn't the porblem, then you've pretty much throw away a hard disk without realizing it.
I mean... the GPL basically does what it's intended to do, even if there are occasional transgressions. And the copyright holders don't have much financial incentive to go to court. And the offenders find it easier to comply or otherwise settle than to fight in court.
He's right... if the goal of a nation is to have a software industry at the expense of farming. If the goal is to have plentiful software that people can use, then that's another story. Gates understands how to be a capitalist, but he doesn't understand capitalism and the allocation of resources.
Remember, he wouldn't be arguing against Free Software if it weren't so effective.
Yeah, Snapstream is pretty good. Has that nice feature where you can click on the TitanTV listings to record a show. Not as good as a Tivo, but it does the basics and its much cheaper if you have a spare PC to run it on. It does have troubles with ATI cards, though mine now works fine with my AIW128.
Well, it did, except of course two days after I registered the software, the PC I was using it on flaked out and won't boot. Not Snapstream's fault, just bad karma.
Freedom of speech is not absolute in America, and never has been. Nor should it be.
Darned close, yes, but there have always been some things you couldn't do. Yelling fire in a crowded theater is the classic example. Distributing child pornography is still quite illegal. Telling somebody to go kill other people or destroy property is likewise outlawed. And of course, there have always been restrictions against libel and slander.
That's the way it's always been. Freedom of speech was never absolute, nor was it intended to cover such acts. Deconstructionist interpretations of the First Ammendment can't change that.
Whether the limitations apply to this case might be open to debate. Personally, I'm content to let the parties settle it themselves.
>> Java will win where UNIX and Linux servers are used..Net will be used where Windows servers are used.
Heh. It's funny... all kinds of very knowledgeable programmers are discussing an incredible amount of programming detail, and I've think you've hit the nail on the head with that simple observation. That's how I think it will shake out, too.
I'll go a step further. Java will become more open (and its future on the *nix platform will be extended) after Sun is acquired.
If you set up Outlook Express to access a Hotmail account, it checks for messages, even when you're not logged in. The login screen shows the number of waiting messages. I don't really use my Hotmail account (just use it for spam bait when I need to give an e-mail address). So, when I boot up my system, the login screen shows the number of waiting messages.
Pretty spooky to have your system checking mail for you even before you've asked it to, and displaying the results ON THE LOGIN SCREEN for the whole world to see. It's a pretty minimal information leak, but still, it shouldn't be happening. I've found no way to turn it off, at least none that actually work.
Win XP is basically Win2000 with an AOL interface. At my next 6-month reinstall, I'm going back.
typical... DSL is already heavily regulated, and that's the reason there's insufficient competition. But only beaureaucrats would believe that the cure for regulation is more regulation.
Market competition doesn't mean "competing to see who can give the biggest campaign contribution."
I dunno... I'd think that anybody who signs their name on the line right below where it says, "Renewal and Transfer Authorization," can probably figure it out.
More to the point, why would they adopt a technology that carries a licensing fee when they're trying to compete in a commodity market.
The answer, probably, is that a couple of years ago when the decision was made, they wanted to avoid being in a commodity market. But AMD has been successful enough with DDR that they've prevented Intel from differentiating themselves this way. If there were still only one viable CPU supplier, this strategy could have improved Intel's bottom line. But with the Athlon/DDR as competition, all that Rambus is accomplishing is keeping Intel system prices high.
Look at P4 systems in BestBuy or CompUSA... hardly any use Rambus, most just use regular SDRAM. Consumers buy CPU cycles, not memory bandwidth. Your Grandma (or your VP of Sales) knows that a 2GHz machine is usually better than a 1GHz machine, but their eyes glaze over when you talk about serial memory access.
If you want deregulation, then deregulate. That means... drum roll... no regulations. No guaranteed local monopoly, no "requirements", no conditional competition.
Making a bunch of new regulations and calling them deregulation is what got California into its electricity mess.
Well, software is usually heavily discounted when it's bundled with hardware. What the software publishers are trying to do is protect that discounted price, without worrying that resold bundled products will undercut their regular retail prices.
One could argue that this ruling will increase the "price" of bundled software, at least in some subtle way, although it will be offset by the unbundled software that becomes available. Not sure which arrangement is preferable from the consumer's point of view, but it's nice to see EULA's being subjected to this sort of scrutiny.
Interestingly, Microsoft's Not For Resale products have (or used to have) the same situation... resale was forbidden, but it was stated in the EULA. Of course, the EULA isn't binding until you opened the package, so Not For Resale copies can legally be resold, regardless of what it says on the box.
Actually, that's exactly how it's done... software, either in the camera or the PC, converts the raw sensor data, and corrects many factors, including brightness and color. In the case of the Canon D30, their software includes the ability to do a "linear" conversion of the raw sensor data to a TIFF, which results in an almost-black image when viewed on the screen. But it sometimes retains some highlight detail that gets lost in the normal conversion, so it can be used for some Photoshop tricks.
The limitations of digital that I've noticed mostly have to do with Dynamic Range, the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of an image that can be captured without losing detail. With film, it seems you can still shoot scenes that have more highlight-shadow range than you can with digital.
That said, I'm never going back to film... too much hassle, too much expense, and the instant gratification of seeing a digital photo you just snapped is great.
Slashdot Mirror
Not surprisiingly, Jack Valenti has apparently started a road tour to promote this legislation. Today, there's a column by him in the Wall Street Journal, where he pleads:
"Families deserve to have options to watch movies on the Net, legally, at their command."
Touching, isn't it?
Yes, if you can keep sufficient staff to handle the workload, and remember you'll need some space to do the work.
But I've always found it better to use clones, and the more control we had over the design, the better. The real savings come from being able to set up all your systems consistently so that you can manage them more effectively. You might have to deal with a variety of hardware (video cards and NICs are hard to stay consistent with, they change every six months or so), but you can account for that.
Using brand name systems, even if you stick with one brand, involves extra work, because they change so often now. You always end up managing a heterogeneous environment that was designed by a marketing department. And desktop PC's are so disposable that any extra warranty you'd get on a brand name is going to cost you more than it's worth. Much easier to just replace a hard disk than to ship a PC out for service.
Your biggest cost is staff, so if you use the opportunity effectviely, you'll make everybody's job easier, and the hardware savings won't even matter. It will also shorten your lead times if you set it up right.
Also, be careful that you don't over-use spare parts, thats' one problem with having a lot of new hardware hanging around. My motto is, "If we have too many spares, we'll use them." Sometimes you swap out a hard disk, throw the old one in the "we'll test it someday" pile. But if it turns out that wasn't the porblem, then you've pretty much throw away a hard disk without realizing it.
Try "Ask Slashdot" You'll have to sort out the good opionions from the useless ones, but you'll get plenty of answers.
Maybe it's because nobody cares.
I mean... the GPL basically does what it's intended to do, even if there are occasional transgressions. And the copyright holders don't have much financial incentive to go to court. And the offenders find it easier to comply or otherwise settle than to fight in court.
All in all, this is a good thing.
Hey, the RIAA seems to have people trolling Slashdot now, so articles on the basics are necessary.
Now if only they could convince people to build pages that have fewer than 100 GETs, it might actually make a difference.
He's right... if the goal of a nation is to have a software industry at the expense of farming. If the goal is to have plentiful software that people can use, then that's another story. Gates understands how to be a capitalist, but he doesn't understand capitalism and the allocation of resources.
Remember, he wouldn't be arguing against Free Software if it weren't so effective.
Yeah, Snapstream is pretty good. Has that nice feature where you can click on the TitanTV listings to record a show. Not as good as a Tivo, but it does the basics and its much cheaper if you have a spare PC to run it on. It does have troubles with ATI cards, though mine now works fine with my AIW128.
Well, it did, except of course two days after I registered the software, the PC I was using it on flaked out and won't boot. Not Snapstream's fault, just bad karma.
Freedom of speech is not absolute in America, and never has been. Nor should it be.
Darned close, yes, but there have always been some things you couldn't do. Yelling fire in a crowded theater is the classic example. Distributing child pornography is still quite illegal. Telling somebody to go kill other people or destroy property is likewise outlawed. And of course, there have always been restrictions against libel and slander.
That's the way it's always been. Freedom of speech was never absolute, nor was it intended to cover such acts. Deconstructionist interpretations of the First Ammendment can't change that.
Whether the limitations apply to this case might be open to debate. Personally, I'm content to let the parties settle it themselves.
Companies that base business plans around browser plug-ins usually end up here. Maybe it stands for "we need Funding."
>> Java will win where UNIX and Linux servers are used. .Net will be used where Windows servers are used.
Heh. It's funny... all kinds of very knowledgeable programmers are discussing an incredible amount of programming detail, and I've think you've hit the nail on the head with that simple observation. That's how I think it will shake out, too.
I'll go a step further. Java will become more open (and its future on the *nix platform will be extended) after Sun is acquired.
If you set up Outlook Express to access a Hotmail account, it checks for messages, even when you're not logged in. The login screen shows the number of waiting messages. I don't really use my Hotmail account (just use it for spam bait when I need to give an e-mail address). So, when I boot up my system, the login screen shows the number of waiting messages.
Pretty spooky to have your system checking mail for you even before you've asked it to, and displaying the results ON THE LOGIN SCREEN for the whole world to see. It's a pretty minimal information leak, but still, it shouldn't be happening. I've found no way to turn it off, at least none that actually work.
Win XP is basically Win2000 with an AOL interface. At my next 6-month reinstall, I'm going back.
Ahhhh... the secret to Google's ranking algorithm is finally revealed. If it's on Slashdot, then it goes to the top.
Well, if this guy is so scared about what the 'net will be like in 2004, then let's revisit this story in two years and see how much is true.
My guess is that there will still be free news sites, and that DSL bandwidth will still be unmetered, and that there will still be free software.
But that doesn't make for much of a story, does it?
typical... DSL is already heavily regulated, and that's the reason there's insufficient competition. But only beaureaucrats would believe that the cure for regulation is more regulation.
Market competition doesn't mean "competing to see who can give the biggest campaign contribution."
Maybe CmdrTaco should just add a Spolsky topic and be done with it.
I dunno... I'd think that anybody who signs their name on the line right below where it says, "Renewal and Transfer Authorization," can probably figure it out.
They're not dead, they're, um... they're just resting.
More to the point, why would they adopt a technology that carries a licensing fee when they're trying to compete in a commodity market.
The answer, probably, is that a couple of years ago when the decision was made, they wanted to avoid being in a commodity market. But AMD has been successful enough with DDR that they've prevented Intel from differentiating themselves this way. If there were still only one viable CPU supplier, this strategy could have improved Intel's bottom line. But with the Athlon/DDR as competition, all that Rambus is accomplishing is keeping Intel system prices high.
Look at P4 systems in BestBuy or CompUSA... hardly any use Rambus, most just use regular SDRAM. Consumers buy CPU cycles, not memory bandwidth. Your Grandma (or your VP of Sales) knows that a 2GHz machine is usually better than a 1GHz machine, but their eyes glaze over when you talk about serial memory access.
If you want deregulation, then deregulate. That means... drum roll... no regulations. No guaranteed local monopoly, no "requirements", no conditional competition.
Making a bunch of new regulations and calling them deregulation is what got California into its electricity mess.
I tried that once, explained how clothes sapped all my vital energy, and how things would be much better without them. She didn't go for it.
Well, software is usually heavily discounted when it's bundled with hardware. What the software publishers are trying to do is protect that discounted price, without worrying that resold bundled products will undercut their regular retail prices.
One could argue that this ruling will increase the "price" of bundled software, at least in some subtle way, although it will be offset by the unbundled software that becomes available. Not sure which arrangement is preferable from the consumer's point of view, but it's nice to see EULA's being subjected to this sort of scrutiny.
Interestingly, Microsoft's Not For Resale products have (or used to have) the same situation... resale was forbidden, but it was stated in the EULA. Of course, the EULA isn't binding until you opened the package, so Not For Resale copies can legally be resold, regardless of what it says on the box.
Actually, that's exactly how it's done... software, either in the camera or the PC, converts the raw sensor data, and corrects many factors, including brightness and color. In the case of the Canon D30, their software includes the ability to do a "linear" conversion of the raw sensor data to a TIFF, which results in an almost-black image when viewed on the screen. But it sometimes retains some highlight detail that gets lost in the normal conversion, so it can be used for some Photoshop tricks.
The limitations of digital that I've noticed mostly have to do with Dynamic Range, the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of an image that can be captured without losing detail. With film, it seems you can still shoot scenes that have more highlight-shadow range than you can with digital.
That said, I'm never going back to film... too much hassle, too much expense, and the instant gratification of seeing a digital photo you just snapped is great.
Geez, you know... I'm pretty sure I ran into that monkey on IRC the other day.
I heard that the first step in their campaign was going to involve sending out e-mails announcing the initiative to every business in America.