I contacted the company and here is the explanation they gave me (with permission to reprint):
"Permission from the federal government is required whenever technology is transferred out of the country to the jurisdiction of a foreign government or launch rockets into space from American soil. In addition whenever you wish to take photographs of the earth from space your required to receive a license from NOAA in order to make sure that you are both aware of and will comply with international treaties on national sovereignty. The U.S. State Department review process is the most complex as it involves ITAR regulations that monitor the international transfer of arms. In addition numerous defense and State Department agencies review the application to make sure the company is in compliance with treaty requirements, political mandates, environmental issues, national security and many other issues. The destination to the moon is not the main reason that a license is required. It is the launching of a rocket from earth into space and the earthbound complexities surrounding such a launch. Transorbital is just the first company who has been able to weave its way through the process in order to obtain the First License To Launch to the Moon And Take Pictures from the Moon."
I love the idea and would love to see this. It also makes sense, since NASA, like most national space agencies are for the good of human kind.
On the other hand trying to see it from you average government official's point of view, there would be paranoia since, I believe, NASA shares technology with the military and even without the mililtary ties, there would still be fear mungering over 'national security'. Also, your average programmer probably wouldn't have access to the hardware to run and test the stuff on.
Travelling for business GSM is a big advantage. It is available in practically every county in the world and with a tri-band phone the world is my Oyster. To see the sort of coverage GSM has, pop over to GSM World.
GSM is an evoloving standard which incorporates all sort of sorts of technologies. Encryption could be added, but like any standard involving multiple parties, it will take time. There will always be pluses and minuses, though I like what GSM has to offer.
There are a few problems with the patent system. Amongst them are:
Having to pay huge fees for patent searches. Because of this it usually ends up being cheaper to send in a patent application and then let someone else scream prior art.
Now with international law protecting patents of other countries, it just became even more complicated to make sure that there was no prior art.
The obvious is being patented (this is obvious to/. readers). Then again, when you aren't working in a given field what is obvious will vary. This means that we really need a means of public screening of patents.
There is no such thing as a perfect system. Anything is open to abuse, so there needs to be guidelines and reviews for a system to be run as close to the original intent as possible.
You could probably add a cage around the passenger compartment, but refitting an existing air-craft is expensive and also takes time. Another problem is that the cage would add weight, thus burning more fuel. The person ending up carrying the cost would be the passenger, and if it cost more to fly on that plane, then they are likely to opt for another company, that isn't so concerned about safety. Banning the use of notebooks is cheap and quick to implement.
We will probably see aircraft in the future be notebook friendly, but in the meantime enjoy the time to rest your brain;)
The sorts of issues Microsoft were introducing were the sorts of things that caused problems for another programming language known as Smalltalk.
For those of you not familiar with Smalltalk, it is the grand-father all object oriented languages. It also made used of a virtual machine. Beyond the core Smalltalk language, incompatible extensions sprung up left right and center. Also, the various implementations of the VMs were incompatible with one another. This means that you can't run a Smalltalk program writen for IBM Visual Age with Squeek, as an example. So, while you can complain about Sun's control on the language, it does prevent history repeating itself.
If you look at the bottom of the article there are a number of associated links listed. One of them is Nature, a British science journal. If you do a search at Nature (I used 'glucose' and 'hydrogen' as keywords) a number of relavent articles will show up. Unless you are willing to pay for a subscription, then you are likely to need to pass by your local university library to read them, as the results are just abstracts.
Re:First they came for the Indians...
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No need to panic, once businesses are automated, all that would be left is automating the clients;) Sure it begs the question 'where do we fit in all this?', though if you are a business owner making money, all you care about is the bottom line.
Add to that, that it is probably also cheaper and faster to make a DVD than it is a video.
I tried looking via Google to find any info that would back up this point of view, but I haven't found any pertinent information on the subject. If anyone has any hard figures, please post them here.
One of the great advantages of having no ads is that there is no concept of ratings. With no advertisers you can concentrate on the providing quality content, as opposed to stuff that is meant to please the advertiser.
A lot of people like Mercedes cars, since they are well designed and well built. Some people can afford them and will buy them, and for the rest they will buy what they can now and buy the car they really want once they can afford it. The Mac is like that. Just accept that it isn't for everyone - life sucks, but that is the way things are;)
Apple needs to stay a hardware company, and hence keep MacOS X to themselves, since, IMO, they are the only company that is doing any serious innovation in this domain. They may not have the market, but they have a product that everyone envies.
I can't afford a Mercedes, and I accept that until I have the money to do so I will have to accept what ever alternatives there are. The world of computers is the same - its a reality you have to accept.
I recently popped over to China where I noticed CDs labelled as being in HDCD format. I bought a CD just to see what it was all about. From the website (hdcd.com) :
"HDCD-encoded CDs sound better because they are encoded with 20 bits of real musical information, as compared with 16 bits for all other CDs. HDCD overcomes the limitation of the 16-bit CD format by using a sophisticated system to encode the additional 4 bits onto the CD while remaining completely compatible with the existing CD format. HDCD provides more dynamic range, a more focused 3-D soundstage, and extremely natural vocal and musical timbre. With HDCD, you get the body, depth, and emotion of the original performance not a flat, digital imitation."
So, you still need a special player to take advantage of the format, it is better that oridinary CDs, but inferior to Super Audio CDs, but at at least there doesn't seem to be anything to stop you from making your MP3s.
Sometime back on/. there was article on how spinning a CD too fast would result in a shattered CD. Now I would be interested in knowing how high spin speeds, below shattering speed, would effect the life span of a CD - would we see pit damage due to heat or any other effects?
Sure you can encrypt the data, but if the eaves dropper is capable of capturing the data stream then they can then use a computer to crunch it until it can be decoded. This solution would act as another level of security. Before the eaves dropper can decode the data they first have to understand what the polorization pattern is.
Of course, there is nothing stopping anyone coming up with hardware that would record this and then allow the decoding. Though this is where is becomes interesting: imagine if you rotate the polarization of the data through 360 every second, you would then be able to to add add perpendicular signal with junk data - which polarization should the eaves dropper being listening to?
Security is like a fortress, the more walls you put up the harder it is for the enemy to take control. If you don't deal with security breaches then the enemy can get through with enough work. When it comes to computing the more barriers you put up then more expensive hardware is need by the attackers, so you end limiting the threats to a handful who you can easily watch out for.
I walked into a hi-fi/video store in the UK and asked about DVD players. I didn't even ask about region encoding, and the sales guy mentioned that it was region free. I asked the guy about it and he says they get modified standard.
According to this document utility patents last 20 years and design patents last 15. If as the article indicates this letigation is after two decades of usage in JPEG, then either JPEG existed before the patent or the patent is about to expire, if it hasn't yet done so.
This is one thing that has always got me with the digital fridge. Sure it can work out when something I have bought has run out, but how would it know what I want to order, unless I always eat the same food day in day out. Heck, when I go to the super-market I pick my items depending on how I feel, so how does the fridge know what I want?
Yeah I am probably being ignorent, but as they say 'ignorence is bliss';)
Looking around the net with google I found this link that indicates 8 to 10% efficiency. This is fairly low when compared to standard solar cells ( see CNN article ) which indicates 40% efficiency. Although spheral solar cells aren't as efficient, since they can be used in places where regular solar cells can't, any efficiency is better than none at all.
Personally, if I'm getting on a plane, I want the pilot to be relaxed and thinking about his flight plan - not about the creepy guard who confiscated the binder clip from his approach charts.
But who is the pilot going to be holding hostage? Unless he is insane and plans to hold himself hostage, and then orders himself to fly to destination unknown?
How can a company come in at this late date and declare a patent on jpeg? Isn't there prior art?
Yep - I am starting to feel that there needs to be some sort of regulation that if a patent has been in *widespread* public use after two years and the patent owner has not announced publically that they own a patent covering such technology, then they should be probhibted from suing implementers of the patent. 'Widespread' is is emphasized as the company or individuals should be able to protect their patent if it can be argued that there was a possibility that they didn't realise that anyone was infringing until date x.
Intel marketing wouldn't like clockless chips as it would cause them massive headaches in the Mhz FUD. For once real world performance comparisons would have to matter.
I can imagine the scene at the key note: stev jobs announces the new.mac initiative, and the goes to show the newly designed site. He types the url and wait, and waits, and then gets the message 'site overloaded'. Loosing his temper - 'Slashdotted already!! Couldn't those guys have waited!?'
Slashdot Mirror
I love the idea and would love to see this. It also makes sense, since NASA, like most national space agencies are for the good of human kind.
On the other hand trying to see it from you average government official's point of view, there would be paranoia since, I believe, NASA shares technology with the military and even without the mililtary ties, there would still be fear mungering over 'national security'. Also, your average programmer probably wouldn't have access to the hardware to run and test the stuff on.
GSM is an evoloving standard which incorporates all sort of sorts of technologies. Encryption could be added, but like any standard involving multiple parties, it will take time. There will always be pluses and minuses, though I like what GSM has to offer.
- Having to pay huge fees for patent searches. Because of this it usually ends up being cheaper to send in a patent application and then let someone else scream prior art.
- Now with international law protecting patents of other countries, it just became even more complicated to make sure that there was no prior art.
- The obvious is being patented (this is obvious to
/. readers). Then again, when you aren't working in a given field what is obvious will vary. This means that we really need a means of public screening of patents.
There is no such thing as a perfect system. Anything is open to abuse, so there needs to be guidelines and reviews for a system to be run as close to the original intent as possible.You could probably add a cage around the passenger compartment, but refitting an existing air-craft is expensive and also takes time. Another problem is that the cage would add weight, thus burning more fuel. The person ending up carrying the cost would be the passenger, and if it cost more to fly on that plane, then they are likely to opt for another company, that isn't so concerned about safety. Banning the use of notebooks is cheap and quick to implement.
;)
We will probably see aircraft in the future be notebook friendly, but in the meantime enjoy the time to rest your brain
For those of you not familiar with Smalltalk, it is the grand-father all object oriented languages. It also made used of a virtual machine. Beyond the core Smalltalk language, incompatible extensions sprung up left right and center. Also, the various implementations of the VMs were incompatible with one another. This means that you can't run a Smalltalk program writen for IBM Visual Age with Squeek, as an example. So, while you can complain about Sun's control on the language, it does prevent history repeating itself.
If you look at the bottom of the article there are a number of associated links listed. One of them is Nature, a British science journal. If you do a search at Nature (I used 'glucose' and 'hydrogen' as keywords) a number of relavent articles will show up. Unless you are willing to pay for a subscription, then you are likely to need to pass by your local university library to read them, as the results are just abstracts.
No need to panic, once businesses are automated, all that would be left is automating the clients ;) Sure it begs the question 'where do we fit in all this?', though if you are a business owner making money, all you care about is the bottom line.
Add to that, that it is probably also cheaper and faster to make a DVD than it is a video.
I tried looking via Google to find any info that would back up this point of view, but I haven't found any pertinent information on the subject. If anyone has any hard figures, please post them here.
One of the great advantages of having no ads is that there is no concept of ratings. With no advertisers you can concentrate on the providing quality content, as opposed to stuff that is meant to please the advertiser.
A lot of people like Mercedes cars, since they are well designed and well built. Some people can afford them and will buy them, and for the rest they will buy what they can now and buy the car they really want once they can afford it. The Mac is like that. Just accept that it isn't for everyone - life sucks, but that is the way things are ;)
I can't afford a Mercedes, and I accept that until I have the money to do so I will have to accept what ever alternatives there are. The world of computers is the same - its a reality you have to accept.
The other next generation audio format appears to be DVD-Audio, as described by this FAQ
"HDCD-encoded CDs sound better because they are encoded with 20 bits of real musical information, as compared with 16 bits for all other CDs. HDCD overcomes the limitation of the 16-bit CD format by using a sophisticated system to encode the additional 4 bits onto the CD while remaining completely compatible with the existing CD format. HDCD provides more dynamic range, a more focused 3-D soundstage, and extremely natural vocal and musical timbre. With HDCD, you get the body, depth, and emotion of the original performance not a flat, digital imitation."
So, you still need a special player to take advantage of the format, it is better that oridinary CDs, but inferior to Super Audio CDs, but at at least there doesn't seem to be anything to stop you from making your MP3s.
Sometime back on /. there was article on how spinning a CD too fast would result in a shattered CD. Now I would be interested in knowing how high spin speeds, below shattering speed, would effect the life span of a CD - would we see pit damage due to heat or any other effects?
Of course, there is nothing stopping anyone coming up with hardware that would record this and then allow the decoding. Though this is where is becomes interesting: imagine if you rotate the polarization of the data through 360 every second, you would then be able to to add add perpendicular signal with junk data - which polarization should the eaves dropper being listening to?
Security is like a fortress, the more walls you put up the harder it is for the enemy to take control. If you don't deal with security breaches then the enemy can get through with enough work. When it comes to computing the more barriers you put up then more expensive hardware is need by the attackers, so you end limiting the threats to a handful who you can easily watch out for.
I walked into a hi-fi/video store in the UK and asked about DVD players. I didn't even ask about region encoding, and the sales guy mentioned that it was region free. I asked the guy about it and he says they get modified standard.
According to this document utility patents last 20 years and design patents last 15. If as the article indicates this letigation is after two decades of usage in JPEG, then either JPEG existed before the patent or the patent is about to expire, if it hasn't yet done so.
This is one thing that has always got me with the digital fridge. Sure it can work out when something I have bought has run out, but how would it know what I want to order, unless I always eat the same food day in day out. Heck, when I go to the super-market I pick my items depending on how I feel, so how does the fridge know what I want?
;)
Yeah I am probably being ignorent, but as they say 'ignorence is bliss'
Looks like Spielberg's 'Pinky and the brain' was a prediction and not simply a cartoon - doh. Maybe the heading should have been
Pinky: "Gee Brain, what are we going to do tonight?"
Brain: "what we do every night - try to take over the world!"
Looking around the net with google I found this link that indicates 8 to 10% efficiency. This is fairly low when compared to standard solar cells ( see CNN article ) which indicates 40% efficiency. Although spheral solar cells aren't as efficient, since they can be used in places where regular solar cells can't, any efficiency is better than none at all.
Personally, if I'm getting on a plane, I want the pilot to be relaxed and thinking about his flight plan - not about the creepy guard who confiscated the binder clip from his approach charts.
But who is the pilot going to be holding hostage? Unless he is insane and plans to hold himself hostage, and then orders himself to fly to destination unknown?
How can a company come in at this late date and declare a patent on jpeg? Isn't there prior art?
Yep - I am starting to feel that there needs to be some sort of regulation that if a patent has been in *widespread* public use after two years and the patent owner has not announced publically that they own a patent covering such technology, then they should be probhibted from suing implementers of the patent. 'Widespread' is is emphasized as the company or individuals should be able to protect their patent if it can be argued that there was a possibility that they didn't realise that anyone was infringing until date x.
Intel marketing wouldn't like clockless chips as it would cause them massive headaches in the Mhz FUD. For once real world performance comparisons would have to matter.
I can imagine the scene at the key note: stev jobs announces the new .mac initiative, and the goes to show the newly designed site. He types the url and wait, and waits, and then gets the message 'site overloaded'. Loosing his temper - 'Slashdotted already!! Couldn't those guys have waited!?'