As to your second idea, I had an idea back a while ago about combining the likes of SourceForge with something like RentAcoder. The basic idea is to provide a site for half-finished open source projects. Customers can then submit sujested to-do items. Multiple customers would then pledge money for completion of those todo's. Once there is enough money pledged for a particular feature, that would then draw an open-source programmer to complete that item, and the completed code and pledge money would then be collected into an escrow account, and appropriatly distributed once all work is completed. Then the code would become gpl'd (or whatever the original project's license was). Of course, there would be problems with either people pledging money and not paying up, or not being satisfied with the resulting code, in which case they would be inclined to withdraw their pledge. So, the programmer would have to agree to complete the code in exchange for say 80% of pledges to be collected. Other details, of course, would have to be worked out, but in general, it would function similar to Elance.com, or rentacoder.com, with the variation that multiple customers are putting up money, and the resultant code would then be made gpl'd...
Pick up any HD44780 compatible LCD, and hook it up to your parallel port. There's a driver for linux that controls this using the same commands that Matrix Orbital uses. However, a 20x4 LCD will run less than $10.00 at many on-line parts houses. I use one for my digital jukebox project.
The trademark for "Windows" is in trouble because the word was used to describe computer GUI software long before Microsoft introduced their product.
However, Microsoft claims that "Windows" is not only attached to the code that puts a "window" on the screen, but is also attached to the entire set of API's that have nothing to do with a window (such as buttons, font, drivers, edlin, etc.). The windowing API's are only a very small fraction of what the entire product does, small enough to make it almost arbitrary. Therefore, in that sense, it is their argument that it should be afforded the same protection as any other arbitrary name attached to a product, such as Apple.
I've got a Bun coffee brewer, which has a hot water resevoir in it. You dump a pitcher of water into it, and it flushes the existing pre-heated water through instantly. It only takes 2 minuts to get a pot of coffee. So, first thing I do is start the coffee, then by the time my toast pops up, it's done.
Assuming your tablet pc's have a supported chipset, you can replace the system bios using the "linux bios" project. This replaces the system bios with a modified linux boot image. It can in turn chain-load either another linux distribution, or load another OS such as win2k. The advantage of this is that you can embed a public key in the bios image that would then be used to authenticate a signed boot image that would be downloaded to ram via a utility under linux. This will fix man-in-the-middle attacks upon bootup. And, you can configure the boot image to do whatever you need.
Well, in this case you need an external ISA expansion unit, that interfaces to the main system via a PCI card... I just did a google search using the terms isa expansion chassis, and the first several links looks promissing.
I think the point is one of the following a) You want to hook up a bunch of devices, and scsi gives you 15 drives per chain, where your on-board IDE only gives you 4 devices total (I know, this can be taken care of with additional IDE cards) b) You have a device that isn't available in a scsi version, and you have an all-scsi system (which is why these adapters were historicaly marketed to Mac users) c) You want to cheaply stock up your SCSI raid system This is what I want to do: use this put 2-3 cheap huge IDE drives on my scsi raid card, stripe them, and then carve out numerous logical drives from this pool. I haven't seen an IDE-raid card that lets you define logical drives, where most scsi raids do. Why do I want to use logical drives instead of partitions? Well, some OS's want to be installed in a primary partition (FreeBSD), and most want at least their boot code below 1024 cylindars, so being able to take 100-200 gig of cheap IDE drives and define a bunch of 8-gig logical devices allows me to play with more (and more versions of) various OS's, and makes upgrading easier/safer (install new version of a given os on new logical drive, then copy stuff over as needed).
That's why most large companies have, as part of their security policy, a documentation labeling policy. It is up to the document originator to properly lable such documents (such as, general use, internal use, confidential, trade secret, etc.). Then there is a correlating policy on how such documents are to be handled.
I would just like to point out that dvd-ram isn't really outdated. Basically, it's not a format intended for video use, but for data use. Whereas a dvd-rw or dvd+rw can only be written to no more than 1000 times, dvd-ram can go at least 100,000 rewrites. Also, dvd-ram can be randomly written to, unlike dvd-rw, which uses the same method as cd-rw to simulate a randomly-writable device.
So, if your application is data-centric, dvd-ram is the way to go. It is basically the same type of tech used in MO drives, but a lot cheaper for the media. Also, dvd players are starting to come out supporting dvd-ram.
Re:solution for one of the problems..
on
The New IT Crisis
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· Score: 2, Interesting
One thing that thin clients don't solve is... Laptops. A lot of companies deploy a bunch of laptops, cause they're not much more expensive than desktops (exp. if they lease everything), for those employees that need to work from the office, bus/train, home, all day/all night. So if you design you network to be server-centric, laptop users are left out in the cold.
Because when the consummer goes to replace said product, they might not got back to said manufacturer. They instead will go to a competitor. And that competitor will also be the one to sell said consummer the next hot item out on the market instead of the original manufacturer.
Thoese were 2.6 GB per side (you have to remove the disk & flip it over). The 4.7 GB disks are 4.7GB per side, so a double-sided disk can store 9.4 GB. Also, as far as I know, the only double-sided DVD disks are DVD-RAM, and only the ones that come in a cartridge.
What temprature do your drives run at in your case? If they are hot to the touch, then you don't have enough airflow over the drives. Many tower cases I've seen don't provide for enough drive ventalation.
Instead of dvd-rw, try dvd-ram. Currently, you can get the media for close to $1 - $2 per gig. And the technology is actually the same as magneto-optical (MO) drives. But, since it's part of the DVD standard, the media is cheaper per gig than MO. The tech is phase-change, so it's not sensitive to light or magnetic fields.
What was the airflow like in your server case with those drives? Were the drives sitting in adjacent drive bays? Many brands of 7200 rpm drives run extremely hot, and need proper airflow over the drives, which some cases don't provide. One of my drives was running hot enough to almost cause blisters, but when I got a new case, it ran much cooler. Even if the case provides proper ventalation, you've gotta watch the drive cables, they tend to block the air and cause warm spots.
As far as getting access elsewhere, are there any isp's out there that will sell you a tunneled static IP? For a reasonable price? That way, if you have limited choices in broadband, you could get around this type of issue, along with issues of your broadband provider blocking inbound ports. Then, it's just a matter of getting the tunnel set up over something like https, so that the tunnel can't be detected.
I would say the best technique would be poisining the p2p with what looks like legit files, but contain garbage. If the signal/noise ratio becomes too low, then many would abandon the particular network. Also, another technique would be to overload the network with downloads, which would be seen legaly as a DOS attack. This bill would make it clear that these two measures wouldn't be considered crimes (which now they can be).
As far as I know, there is nothing in patent legislation that prevents one from publishing papers which describe a patented process or algorithm. So, if it is held that source code is the same as speech, then would non-binary distributed open source programs be free from patent suits? Now, if this were the case, it would still be up to the individual that obtains and compiles the source to rectify any patent issues (i.e., paying license fees, etc.). But, does patent law prevent an individual from producing an instance of that invention for personal use, as long as it is not distributed? What about for research purposes?
Actually, this would be very poor for statistical purposes, because about the only people that would make entries in the database would be people who have had failures. About the only thing you could coorilate is the number of defect enteries compared to the number of drives sold by a particular manufacturer, but that would only be good for comparing one manufacturer to another, not for determine what the failure rate would be.
If your are going to require current gun owners to register their casings, then that will require that the gun be fired. There are many collectors who have prized mint-condition firearms, never been fired. These can be worth multiple thousands of dollars. As soon as you fire the first round, it will drop the value significantly. Also, what do you do about guns that are in a collection but aren't in working order?
Actually, you can sue for what would be a resonable ammount for you to charge for an alternate license. That is, you can license your code under the GPL, but if soneone doesn't want to be bound by it, they can negotiate a seperate license with you (i.e., if they wanted to keep their changes proprietary). Therefore, you could sue for what you would charge for this alternate license, plus treble damages.
There is no perfect OCR software
on
Accurate OCR?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I've heard that often times it is cheaper to send the material to a data entry company (which uses over-seas labour) than it is to use OCR software, since you have to spend so much time correcting proofreading. I've always thought that Omnipage was one of the most accurate packages out there, so since that's what you already use, I don't think your gonna get much better. Of course, it's been several years since I've worked with any ocr, that the state of the art may have changed since then.
ogg123 requires a cpu with floating point, which the Strongarm cpu doesn't have. Previously, the only available integer based vorbis decoder library was commercial only, but it's free now (see previous slashdot story on this). So, maybe it can be incorporated into ogg123 now.
Slashdot Mirror
As to your second idea, I had an idea back a while ago about combining the likes of SourceForge with something like RentAcoder. The basic idea is to provide a site for half-finished open source projects. Customers can then submit sujested to-do items. Multiple customers would then pledge money for completion of those todo's. Once there is enough money pledged for a particular feature, that would then draw an open-source programmer to complete that item, and the completed code and pledge money would then be collected into an escrow account, and appropriatly distributed once all work is completed. Then the code would become gpl'd (or whatever the original project's license was).
Of course, there would be problems with either people pledging money and not paying up, or not being satisfied with the resulting code, in which case they would be inclined to withdraw their pledge. So, the programmer would have to agree to complete the code in exchange for say 80% of pledges to be collected. Other details, of course, would have to be worked out, but in general, it would function similar to Elance.com, or rentacoder.com, with the variation that multiple customers are putting up money, and the resultant code would then be made gpl'd...
Pick up any HD44780 compatible LCD, and hook it up to your parallel port. There's a driver for linux that controls this using the same commands that Matrix Orbital uses. However, a 20x4 LCD will run less than $10.00 at many on-line parts houses. I use one for my digital jukebox project.
However, Microsoft claims that "Windows" is not only attached to the code that puts a "window" on the screen, but is also attached to the entire set of API's that have nothing to do with a window (such as buttons, font, drivers, edlin, etc.). The windowing API's are only a very small fraction of what the entire product does, small enough to make it almost arbitrary. Therefore, in that sense, it is their argument that it should be afforded the same protection as any other arbitrary name attached to a product, such as Apple.
I've got a Bun coffee brewer, which has a hot water resevoir in it. You dump a pitcher of water into it, and it flushes the existing pre-heated water through instantly. It only takes 2 minuts to get a pot of coffee. So, first thing I do is start the coffee, then by the time my toast pops up, it's done.
Assuming your tablet pc's have a supported chipset, you can replace the system bios using the "linux bios" project. This replaces the system bios with a modified linux boot image. It can in turn chain-load either another linux distribution, or load another OS such as win2k. The advantage of this is that you can embed a public key in the bios image that would then be used to authenticate a signed boot image that would be downloaded to ram via a utility under linux. This will fix man-in-the-middle attacks upon bootup. And, you can configure the boot image to do whatever you need.
Well, in this case you need an external ISA expansion unit, that interfaces to the main system via a PCI card...
I just did a google search using the terms isa expansion chassis, and the first several links looks promissing.
I think the point is one of the following
a) You want to hook up a bunch of devices, and scsi gives you 15 drives per chain, where your on-board IDE only gives you 4 devices total (I know, this can be taken care of with additional IDE cards)
b) You have a device that isn't available in a scsi version, and you have an all-scsi system (which is why these adapters were historicaly marketed to Mac users)
c) You want to cheaply stock up your SCSI raid system
This is what I want to do: use this put 2-3 cheap huge IDE drives on my scsi raid card, stripe them, and then carve out numerous logical drives from this pool. I haven't seen an IDE-raid card that lets you define logical drives, where most scsi raids do. Why do I want to use logical drives instead of partitions? Well, some OS's want to be installed in a primary partition (FreeBSD), and most want at least their boot code below 1024 cylindars, so being able to take 100-200 gig of cheap IDE drives and define a bunch of 8-gig logical devices allows me to play with more (and more versions of) various OS's, and makes upgrading easier/safer (install new version of a given os on new logical drive, then copy stuff over as needed).
That's why most large companies have, as part of their security policy, a documentation labeling policy. It is up to the document originator to properly lable such documents (such as, general use, internal use, confidential, trade secret, etc.). Then there is a correlating policy on how such documents are to be handled.
I would just like to point out that dvd-ram isn't really outdated. Basically, it's not a format intended for video use, but for data use. Whereas a dvd-rw or dvd+rw can only be written to no more than 1000 times, dvd-ram can go at least 100,000 rewrites. Also, dvd-ram can be randomly written to, unlike dvd-rw, which uses the same method as cd-rw to simulate a randomly-writable device.
So, if your application is data-centric, dvd-ram is the way to go. It is basically the same type of tech used in MO drives, but a lot cheaper for the media. Also, dvd players are starting to come out supporting dvd-ram.
One thing that thin clients don't solve is... Laptops. A lot of companies deploy a bunch of laptops, cause they're not much more expensive than desktops (exp. if they lease everything), for those employees that need to work from the office, bus/train, home, all day/all night. So if you design you network to be server-centric, laptop users are left out in the cold.
Because when the consummer goes to replace said product, they might not got back to said manufacturer. They instead will go to a competitor. And that competitor will also be the one to sell said consummer the next hot item out on the market instead of the original manufacturer.
Thoese were 2.6 GB per side (you have to remove the disk & flip it over). The 4.7 GB disks are 4.7GB per side, so a double-sided disk can store 9.4 GB. Also, as far as I know, the only double-sided DVD disks are DVD-RAM, and only the ones that come in a cartridge.
What temprature do your drives run at in your case? If they are hot to the touch, then you don't have enough airflow over the drives. Many tower cases I've seen don't provide for enough drive ventalation.
Instead of dvd-rw, try dvd-ram. Currently, you can get the media for close to $1 - $2 per gig. And the technology is actually the same as magneto-optical (MO) drives. But, since it's part of the DVD standard, the media is cheaper per gig than MO. The tech is phase-change, so it's not sensitive to light or magnetic fields.
What was the airflow like in your server case with those drives? Were the drives sitting in adjacent drive bays? Many brands of 7200 rpm drives run extremely hot, and need proper airflow over the drives, which some cases don't provide. One of my drives was running hot enough to almost cause blisters, but when I got a new case, it ran much cooler. Even if the case provides proper ventalation, you've gotta watch the drive cables, they tend to block the air and cause warm spots.
As far as getting access elsewhere, are there any isp's out there that will sell you a tunneled static IP? For a reasonable price? That way, if you have limited choices in broadband, you could get around this type of issue, along with issues of your broadband provider blocking inbound ports. Then, it's just a matter of getting the tunnel set up over something like https, so that the tunnel can't be detected.
Don't know about ready-made ones, but you can build your own.
Try this.
I would say the best technique would be poisining the p2p with what looks like legit files, but contain garbage. If the signal/noise ratio becomes too low, then many would abandon the particular network. Also, another technique would be to overload the network with downloads, which would be seen legaly as a DOS attack. This bill would make it clear that these two measures wouldn't be considered crimes (which now they can be).
As far as I know, there is nothing in patent legislation that prevents one from publishing papers which describe a patented process or algorithm. So, if it is held that source code is the same as speech, then would non-binary distributed open source programs be free from patent suits? Now, if this were the case, it would still be up to the individual that obtains and compiles the source to rectify any patent issues (i.e., paying license fees, etc.). But, does patent law prevent an individual from producing an instance of that invention for personal use, as long as it is not distributed? What about for research purposes?
Actually, this would be very poor for statistical purposes, because about the only people that would make entries in the database would be people who have had failures. About the only thing you could coorilate is the number of defect enteries compared to the number of drives sold by a particular manufacturer, but that would only be good for comparing one manufacturer to another, not for determine what the failure rate would be.
If your are going to require current gun owners to register their casings, then that will require that the gun be fired. There are many collectors who have prized mint-condition firearms, never been fired. These can be worth multiple thousands of dollars. As soon as you fire the first round, it will drop the value significantly. Also, what do you do about guns that are in a collection but aren't in working order?
Actually, you can sue for what would be a resonable ammount for you to charge for an alternate license. That is, you can license your code under the GPL, but if soneone doesn't want to be bound by it, they can negotiate a seperate license with you (i.e., if they wanted to keep their changes proprietary). Therefore, you could sue for what you would charge for this alternate license, plus treble damages.
I've heard that often times it is cheaper to send the material to a data entry company (which uses over-seas labour) than it is to use OCR software, since you have to spend so much time correcting proofreading. I've always thought that Omnipage was one of the most accurate packages out there, so since that's what you already use, I don't think your gonna get much better. Of course, it's been several years since I've worked with any ocr, that the state of the art may have changed since then.
ogg123 requires a cpu with floating point, which the Strongarm cpu doesn't have. Previously, the only available integer based vorbis decoder library was commercial only, but it's free now (see previous slashdot story on this). So, maybe it can be incorporated into ogg123 now.