Ok, after reading this older article and FINALLY training my eyes to see those goofy 3d images that people used to look at endlessly in the malls (which are actually kinda cool, I must say) - I was trying to look at the image from this article (the one in this story) and I think I just blew both eye-gaskets. I thought I saw something form in the middle of the image, but it turned out to be a 1/3 block of "TV STATIC".
Are injunctions on product distribution not possible?
There needs to be a bill passed into law such that ANY PRODUCTS THAT HAVE BEEN FOUND TO BE MONOPOLISTIC IN BEHAVIOUR, or SIMILARLY CONTROVERISAL SHALL BE IMMEDIATELY INJUNCTIONED AND WITHDRAWN FROM PUBLIC SALE UNTIL SAID CASE IS COMPLETED IN ITS ENTIRETY.
A subclause stating that the above could only apply if the manufacturer was FOUND GUILTY ON MULTIPLE COUNTS OF ANTI-COMPETITIVE BEHAVIOR AND IN MULTIPLE COUNTRIES / CONTIENTS would easily put a limiting factor on potential "abuses" of this new law.
Based on your premise, Microsoft would have to be found guilty in roughly 50,000 "globally-significant" countries for them to "suffer" and/or lose their ability to continue abusing consumers and governments.
In 20 years when the world is listening to 8-channel audio/video files, are you still going to be happy with your 2-channel CD's? You'd be naive to think that "it'll be good enough".
Every couple of years, I adopt the latest technology and realize that I really can't go back to the older stuff. For example, I wince everytime I walk over to a Win95 machine. Luckily, better technology has emerged (I'm thinking Linux, not XP; but that's just my opinion).
Keep in mind that WE drive the market, not the other way around. They can't force subscriptions on us if we don't want them. However, they're targeting the lowest-common-denominator of society (the uninformed) and as a result we might have already lost the right to "own" music. Educate your friends, peers, etc. It's the only way to stop consumer abuse like this.
Big business will phrase it as if you have no choice, but keep in mind that your wallet is the great equalizer.
I think they're trying to duplicate the "NetFlix" phenomenon. You pay a flat rate per month, and you can just listen to any X number of tunes. Once you've reached your "max" number you'll have to either delete some tunes, upgrade your subscription, or "expire / return" some tunes in order to free up some capacity.
An example would be: user pays $20 / month for ANY 20 songs from the library. He picks his favorite 20 songs. A new artist comes out with a PHAT NEW TRACK that he MUST have.
He can either: a) "return" or "expire" one of the tracks that he has oustanding or b) upgrade his subscription to $25 per month for any 40 songs.
I think they're trying to lock people into a subscription model because it keeps revenue streams alive (for the company) and it's [relatively] difficult for people to drop subscriptions. For example, if you had to choose between paying your internet bill or buying the latest and greatest X-PS4-Game-Box-Cube; you'll probably be more likely to pay your internet bill (or music bill in this case).
I'm not certain that's their idea, but it sounds like that's what the business plan is at this point.
It's kind of brilliant from a business standpoint, but let's just see if the market takes kindly to it.
The anticipation of having to propose is bad enough, just imagine the anticipation of knowing that you HAVE TO BEAT LEVEL 1 in order to even get TO THE PROPOSAL.
Of course, if he couldn't beat level 1, she probably wouldn't want to be with him anyway.
Aside from the anticipation factor, this is going to be a GREAT event. I hope they post the outcome here on/....
I think I'm just a little unclear on the differences among bios/kernel loaders/boot loaders. I know that the linux kernel doesn't really use the BIOS (for the most part) when it discovers devices. As such, the BIOS is a moot point. How does this compare to embedded systems like Arm/XScale boards?
What if each of the planets are getting sucked into the sun one by one and new ones are formed at the end of the line. They start small, but then they accumulate mass over the millenia.
It's just a hunch, but if true it would mean that we should look for life on Venus before Mars. I think that 3rd planet from the sun is just the position that has the most favorable living conditions.
Long after we're gone, Mars' bacterium will start to develop, ice caps will melt, water and bacterium will merge into primordial ooze, fish will walk on land, evolove, and people will flourish again.
Wouldn't the robot be much more functional (based on the generally known 'Mech specs) without car-doors attached to it's hands?
Car doors attached to the hands might be useful to give it more credibility as actually having been built "from an automobile". I'm not sure what the value of that could be other than the wow/marketing factor.
Hmmm, marketing from a car maker maybe...?
Regardless, I can't help but think that my Aibo could take this thing in a battle royal.
You could charge to post your or your clients' ideas on Slashdot and watch their IP disappear as people with more resources than they have scoop up the idea and run with it.
I bet their competitors would pay you a good bit of money for this service.
Drat! I'm falling victim to my own idea by even posting this consulting idea!
Why not kill syslogd entirely? If you don't need it running, kill it. It's not a server, and unless you're experiencing failure of some sort; or some other loss of functionality why run syslogd on a notebook/portable. If nothing else, set your console to be/dev/ttyS0 and set your syslogd/klogd to output to the serial port. At least this way you could debug your machine if it started acting funny.
I recommend reading up on some of the tricks that embedded people (like me) use. There are a ton of ways to save power and drive-time.
I've never seen it (in a laptop; but I have it in my car) - it's not hard to replace a hard disk with a CFcard. Use the 2.5" hard disk for media/games/etc... but use a 512 or 1G cfcard for the OS/system. As such you can save a ton of energy by not having drive motors spinning up/down, etc.
Now she has a PC (probably filled with spyware and all kinds of awful stuff) but I don't have to answer the phone, or defend her choice of computer every christmas.
Nice way to return the respect due to the person that helped give you life.
We're the consumers. NEVER FORGET, that WE dictate what platforms will offer what functionality - not vice-versa.
Never underestimate the power of the dollars in your wallet. Contact the vendor and tell them what games you've bought in the past, and how if they don't offer the functionality you want you won't buy any future games; and furthermore, you'll tell all of your friends (and blog-mates, and website visitors, etc) NOT to purchase the game.
They're going to "try" to limit the functionality, but I'm sure that if enough people bitch they'll see the err of their ways.
As a coder and socialite, I can fill you guys in on the secret.
Coding is a VERY PRECISE SCIENCE.
Talking to people is a VERY RELAXED ART.
On nights that I'm in "code mode" I don't go out and socialize, or party, etc. I write code. The problem with geeks is that we don't spend enough time in social situations. Just like everything else in life, you have to put time into things that are worth doing. In the same way that you can soak up some code by spending time with it, you can soak up social graces by being around people (that aren't close friends).
PEOPLE ARE NOT COMPUTERS. If you don't put a comma in the right place, or you don't puncuate your sentences properly, your conversation will still compile. The only way to mess up a conversation is to OVERTHINK or OVERANALYZE it. The best thing to do is just talk to everyone as if they were a close family member or friend. Ask them about their day... Ask the cashier at Publix or Kroger if she/he's been busy today. They'll chat with you.
Also, don't chat with people just for a predefined GOAL. People can see right through that (especially girls). Share a few sentences with the grocery bagger EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE NOTHING TO GAIN FROM HIM. It will do 2 things - it will relax you when talking to a stranger, and it will help you build your basic conversational topics.
Hell, start small. When you call 411 and ask for a number, and the chick is looking it up, ask her if she's been busy. Ask her if shes based out of your town. If it's a dude, do the same thing. Learn to just talk to people and act like you care what they are telling you. But DON'T BE CREEPY. Listen to what they say and follow up on it briefly, but don't linger on things. When your bags are done being placed in your shopping cart, tell the person, "good luck."; or "have a good day". or whatever. Being social is not nearly as complex as learning a programming language; so stop looking at people like every period, semicolon, comma matters.
People are very basic.
The end result is that you'll be more relaxed in general when talking with people. You won't have a "goal" when talking to someone, and people won't think that you do and they'll just talk about whatever with you.
Alcohol helps, but it's not a solution.
Once you find the "keyword" that you and the little slut have in common, you can milk it and show your intelligence on the subject and then bed her.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2: Intermediate conversation - In this chapter we'll discuss how to tell her things like, "Don't wake me up when you leave tomorrow..." and "I really appreciate the head, but I'd be really impressed if you made me a sandwich..."
Seriously, discovering the vagina was both a blessing and a curse for me. It literally divided my world in two: computers and women.
Few things are better than the company of a great woman (and her vagina). However, few things are better than a significant tech. accomplishment.
The two are mostly mutually exclusive. However, I've found a girl that knows and loves tech (she's not a coder; but she "gets it"). As such I consider myself very fortunate.
Anyway, hire a hooker to rock him out one night and see if he doesn't start thinking with his penis more (and thus shifting some of his focus into women [pun intended]).
The only problem with that idea is that you could either: charge the battery, or commute from point a to point b. A human wouldn't [likely] produce enough energy to do both.
Sooo - you could sit in the Target parking lot with your kickstand down pedaling like mad to charge your battery so you could ride home; or you could just peddle home and charge your battery when you get there.
Your idea, however, does have merit. In a situation where you didn't have access to a point of electricity, it might be useful. I don't have a link handy, but there's a guy that is travelling around the world on his bicycle and he's posting to his blog and uploading coords, etc. daily[I think]. I'm sure someone on here has the link; it was a pretty cool feat, and he's doing it using only Solar and Human power (with an occasional hotel charge I think).
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, after reading this older article and FINALLY training my eyes to see those goofy 3d images that people used to look at endlessly in the malls (which are actually kinda cool, I must say) - I was trying to look at the image from this article (the one in this story) and I think I just blew both eye-gaskets. I thought I saw something form in the middle of the image, but it turned out to be a 1/3 block of "TV STATIC".
Drat!!!
So I can pick another. For some strange reason I just don't want my flight from Atlanta to Phoenix "blue-screening".
Uhm, ok so my reasoning isn't so strange.
For the record, the CMU team was assisted by the Dashwerks DashPC project ([ironically] seen earlier today here on Slashdot.
Dashwerks has provided advice, notes, and exclusive IP to [at least one] member of the CMU DARPA team members for the past year or so.
It's very fulfilling to see underdog project(s) such as these in the spotlight and taking a lead position in their respective industries.
Are injunctions on product distribution not possible?
There needs to be a bill passed into law such that ANY PRODUCTS THAT HAVE BEEN FOUND TO BE MONOPOLISTIC IN BEHAVIOUR, or SIMILARLY CONTROVERISAL SHALL BE IMMEDIATELY INJUNCTIONED AND WITHDRAWN FROM PUBLIC SALE UNTIL SAID CASE IS COMPLETED IN ITS ENTIRETY.
A subclause stating that the above could only apply if the manufacturer was FOUND GUILTY ON MULTIPLE COUNTS OF ANTI-COMPETITIVE BEHAVIOR AND IN MULTIPLE COUNTRIES / CONTIENTS would easily put a limiting factor on potential "abuses" of this new law.
Anyone want to help me get it passed?
In this new "global economy", the formula needs to change significantly.
The WTO / UN needs to come up with a figure similar to the following:
Global value * (number of companies that they've "settled" out of court with) * (a random number between 0 and 250) / 7 (continents)
The resultant fee would more than discourage monopolistic behavior and consumer abuse.
The reality, however, is that most of us have already realized that our rights are long lost and now all we can do is just bend over and take it.
Anyone have any lubricant?
Based on your premise, Microsoft would have to be found guilty in roughly 50,000 "globally-significant" countries for them to "suffer" and/or lose their ability to continue abusing consumers and governments.
When was the last time you visited Best Buy?
They have MULTIPLE Linux flavors on their shelves.
Why limit yourself though?
In 20 years when the world is listening to 8-channel audio/video files, are you still going to be happy with your 2-channel CD's? You'd be naive to think that "it'll be good enough".
Every couple of years, I adopt the latest technology and realize that I really can't go back to the older stuff. For example, I wince everytime I walk over to a Win95 machine. Luckily, better technology has emerged (I'm thinking Linux, not XP; but that's just my opinion).
Keep in mind that WE drive the market, not the other way around. They can't force subscriptions on us if we don't want them. However, they're targeting the lowest-common-denominator of society (the uninformed) and as a result we might have already lost the right to "own" music. Educate your friends, peers, etc. It's the only way to stop consumer abuse like this.
Big business will phrase it as if you have no choice, but keep in mind that your wallet is the great equalizer.
I think they're trying to duplicate the "NetFlix" phenomenon. You pay a flat rate per month, and you can just listen to any X number of tunes. Once you've reached your "max" number you'll have to either delete some tunes, upgrade your subscription, or "expire / return" some tunes in order to free up some capacity.
An example would be:
user pays $20 / month for ANY 20 songs from the library. He picks his favorite 20 songs. A new artist comes out with a PHAT NEW TRACK that he MUST have.
He can either:
a) "return" or "expire" one of the tracks that he has oustanding
or
b) upgrade his subscription to $25 per month for any 40 songs.
I think they're trying to lock people into a subscription model because it keeps revenue streams alive (for the company) and it's [relatively] difficult for people to drop subscriptions. For example, if you had to choose between paying your internet bill or buying the latest and greatest X-PS4-Game-Box-Cube; you'll probably be more likely to pay your internet bill (or music bill in this case).
I'm not certain that's their idea, but it sounds like that's what the business plan is at this point.
It's kind of brilliant from a business standpoint, but let's just see if the market takes kindly to it.
The anticipation of having to propose is bad enough, just imagine the anticipation of knowing that you HAVE TO BEAT LEVEL 1 in order to even get TO THE PROPOSAL.
/....
Of course, if he couldn't beat level 1, she probably wouldn't want to be with him anyway.
Aside from the anticipation factor, this is going to be a GREAT event. I hope they post the outcome here on
[ shudder - twitch ]
How is this different from eCos and/or Redboot?
I think I'm just a little unclear on the differences among bios/kernel loaders/boot loaders. I know that the linux kernel doesn't really use the BIOS (for the most part) when it discovers devices. As such, the BIOS is a moot point. How does this compare to embedded systems like Arm/XScale boards?
Can anyone clarify this for me/us?
DashPC is [one of] the intersection(s) of the car and computer tech.
The DashPC is an open-source vehicle human-machine interface. It has OBDII vehicle interfacing, mp3s, gps, dvd, cds, xm, radio, etc. etc. etc.
DISCLAIMER: I'm the originator of the DashPC project (which has been featured here before)
I couldn't agree more... I don't know how many speeding tickets I can directly attribute to Grand Theft Auto skills!
I have a theory...
What if each of the planets are getting sucked into the sun one by one and new ones are formed at the end of the line. They start small, but then they accumulate mass over the millenia.
It's just a hunch, but if true it would mean that we should look for life on Venus before Mars. I think that 3rd planet from the sun is just the position that has the most favorable living conditions.
Long after we're gone, Mars' bacterium will start to develop, ice caps will melt, water and bacterium will merge into primordial ooze, fish will walk on land, evolove, and people will flourish again.
What could the significance of the Doors be?
Wouldn't the robot be much more functional (based on the generally known 'Mech specs) without car-doors attached to it's hands?
Car doors attached to the hands might be useful to give it more credibility as actually having been built "from an automobile". I'm not sure what the value of that could be other than the wow/marketing factor.
Hmmm, marketing from a car maker maybe...?
Regardless, I can't help but think that my Aibo could take this thing in a battle royal.
You could charge to post your or your clients' ideas on Slashdot and watch their IP disappear as people with more resources than they have scoop up the idea and run with it.
I bet their competitors would pay you a good bit of money for this service.
Drat! I'm falling victim to my own idea by even posting this consulting idea!
Why not kill syslogd entirely? If you don't need it running, kill it. It's not a server, and unless you're experiencing failure of some sort; or some other loss of functionality why run syslogd on a notebook/portable. If nothing else, set your console to be /dev/ttyS0 and set your syslogd/klogd to output to the serial port. At least this way you could debug your machine if it started acting funny.
I recommend reading up on some of the tricks that embedded people (like me) use. There are a ton of ways to save power and drive-time.
I've never seen it (in a laptop; but I have it in my car) - it's not hard to replace a hard disk with a CFcard. Use the 2.5" hard disk for media/games/etc... but use a 512 or 1G cfcard for the OS/system. As such you can save a ton of energy by not having drive motors spinning up/down, etc.
Now she has a PC (probably filled with spyware and all kinds of awful stuff) but I don't have to answer the phone, or defend her choice of computer every christmas.
Nice way to return the respect due to the person that helped give you life.
We're the consumers. NEVER FORGET, that WE dictate what platforms will offer what functionality - not vice-versa.
Never underestimate the power of the dollars in your wallet. Contact the vendor and tell them what games you've bought in the past, and how if they don't offer the functionality you want you won't buy any future games; and furthermore, you'll tell all of your friends (and blog-mates, and website visitors, etc) NOT to purchase the game.
They're going to "try" to limit the functionality, but I'm sure that if enough people bitch they'll see the err of their ways.
RELAX!
As a coder and socialite, I can fill you guys in on the secret.
Coding is a VERY PRECISE SCIENCE.
Talking to people is a VERY RELAXED ART.
On nights that I'm in "code mode" I don't go out and socialize, or party, etc. I write code. The problem with geeks is that we don't spend enough time in social situations. Just like everything else in life, you have to put time into things that are worth doing. In the same way that you can soak up some code by spending time with it, you can soak up social graces by being around people (that aren't close friends).
PEOPLE ARE NOT COMPUTERS. If you don't put a comma in the right place, or you don't puncuate your sentences properly, your conversation will still compile. The only way to mess up a conversation is to OVERTHINK or OVERANALYZE it. The best thing to do is just talk to everyone as if they were a close family member or friend. Ask them about their day... Ask the cashier at Publix or Kroger if she/he's been busy today. They'll chat with you.
Also, don't chat with people just for a predefined GOAL. People can see right through that (especially girls). Share a few sentences with the grocery bagger EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE NOTHING TO GAIN FROM HIM. It will do 2 things - it will relax you when talking to a stranger, and it will help you build your basic conversational topics.
Hell, start small. When you call 411 and ask for a number, and the chick is looking it up, ask her if she's been busy. Ask her if shes based out of your town. If it's a dude, do the same thing. Learn to just talk to people and act like you care what they are telling you. But DON'T BE CREEPY. Listen to what they say and follow up on it briefly, but don't linger on things. When your bags are done being placed in your shopping cart, tell the person, "good luck."; or "have a good day". or whatever. Being social is not nearly as complex as learning a programming language; so stop looking at people like every period, semicolon, comma matters.
People are very basic.
The end result is that you'll be more relaxed in general when talking with people. You won't have a "goal" when talking to someone, and people won't think that you do and they'll just talk about whatever with you.
Alcohol helps, but it's not a solution.
Once you find the "keyword" that you and the little slut have in common, you can milk it and show your intelligence on the subject and then bed her.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2: Intermediate conversation - In this chapter we'll discuss how to tell her things like, "Don't wake me up when you leave tomorrow..." and "I really appreciate the head, but I'd be really impressed if you made me a sandwich..."
Seriously, discovering the vagina was both a blessing and a curse for me. It literally divided my world in two: computers and women.
Few things are better than the company of a great woman (and her vagina). However, few things are better than a significant tech. accomplishment.
The two are mostly mutually exclusive. However, I've found a girl that knows and loves tech (she's not a coder; but she "gets it"). As such I consider myself very fortunate.
Anyway, hire a hooker to rock him out one night and see if he doesn't start thinking with his penis more (and thus shifting some of his focus into women [pun intended]).
http://www.linuxbios.com
The only problem with that idea is that you could either: charge the battery, or commute from point a to point b. A human wouldn't [likely] produce enough energy to do both.
Sooo - you could sit in the Target parking lot with your kickstand down pedaling like mad to charge your battery so you could ride home; or you could just peddle home and charge your battery when you get there.
Your idea, however, does have merit. In a situation where you didn't have access to a point of electricity, it might be useful. I don't have a link handy, but there's a guy that is travelling around the world on his bicycle and he's posting to his blog and uploading coords, etc. daily[I think]. I'm sure someone on here has the link; it was a pretty cool feat, and he's doing it using only Solar and Human power (with an occasional hotel charge I think).
Does anyone have this link handy?
The car should be programmed to discover any problems under the bonnet, then send a message to the garage to let them know.
The mechanics would then contact the women directly to invite them over.