I just bought me a GeForce3 Ti200 from compuplus.com for $79. If only I'd waited, an extra 50 bucks would have bagged me an inferior, untested card with screwy drivers.
Seriously, how can they sell even one of these cards? Of course, they will. People generally don't know what they're buying anyway.
"Hackers stealing personal information from the databases of large companies! Read all about it at the web site of a large company (which first requires your personal information.)"
Anyone else think this is dumb? Please stop linking to NYTimes already! There's plenty of other places out there also carrying these stories.
I must be missing something, because it seems to me that its an invasion of privacy either way. Just because it happens all the time and many people haven't protected themselves against, and many don't even know that they need to protect themselves against it, doesn't make it OK.
I agree... based on that guy's logic, it's ok for someone to hop my fence, sneak into my backyard, throw my dog some meat, and peer through the crack between the curtains in my rear window, because I left the crack there. The process to put together the wireless data not meant for you is even more convoluted. Obviously noone intended to make their data public, they just wanted to have wireless access.
So, let me get this straight... you're running an OS advanced enough to allow you to log in remotely, to see what someone else is doing, and to mess with their desktop... but you haven't figured out how to keep the janitors out yet?
How does receiving publicly broadcast data bind you to a contract?
I totally agree with this. In fact, I'd take it a step farther - if something is broadcast freely to the general public, then I think it should be implied that we can do what we want with that data. I have the first five seasons of the X-files on videotape. I'd love to sell those to someone on Ebay, but I can't, even though those shows have been broadcast freely across the country. It makes no sense.
This is exciting - I think that between the public bathrooms and the grease bins, McDonald's will become an energy company, and start giving away food for profit!
Ronald McDonald hereby accepts the Nobel Prize for ending world hunger...
Well, personally I only really enjoy movies when I can get absorbed by them and forget everything but the show. The best part about theaters is that they are dark, devoid of distaction (ideally), and the screen fills your view. So actually, sitting in dim lighting with people walking around serving drinks sounds rather annoying. But that's just me.
A cyclist in traffic behaves much more like a car, and is easy to predict. As a driver and a bicyclist, I have no problem with a bicycle slowing traffic down. It's much safer and less stressful for everyone.
Well, safer for everyone except the bicyclist. I never ride along the road if there is a sidewalk, unless the road is very low traffic. The reason for this is simply that there is no place on the road for bicycles! I can't travel 40 MPH, and there is no special lane for me. On top of that, drivers don't know what to do about me being there anyway.
On the sidewalk, I just need to avoid pedestrians. The only risk is annoying them, but I try to be considerate. Unless they jump and tackle me, I'm not going to hit them. That's not true for cars! I'm not going to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair because I took the road instead of the sidewalk, and got nailed by some idiot driver. Forget it.
Hilary Rosen: "I ask them, 'What have you done last week?' They may say they wrote a paper on this or that. So I tell them, 'Oh, you wrote a paper, and you got an A? Would it bother you if somebody could just take that paper and get an A too? Would that bug you?'
Right... I do this sort of thing all the time... Last week, I downloaded the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, burned it to CD, and told all my friends to listen to this great music I had made! A better question would be: would it bother you if thousands of people around the country were downloading your paper and enjoying reading it?
Does anyone else out there think that making money by selling people something they can copy for free sounds like a SCAM? I put it up there with those chain letters: If five people send you a dollar, and then they each get five people to send you a dollar, and... you'll be rich! If you record a CD, and we spend thousands of dollars talking it up, and we can convince people to each buy their own "copy", you'll be rich!
Do we need 1000 (repeated) posts about how this is a repeat?
Dude, I think someone already posted that there are too many repeated posts about this repeat story. In fact, this story was posted last week, and someone already commented here that we don't need more repeat posts about it being a repeat. To reiterate, it's redundant. Thank you.
How about, say, theft of income? What if I just say, took an hours worth of your pay away? Suppose you make burgers for a living and your boss makes you pay out of your paycheck for every one that was stolen, and I took a few?
Your analogy falls very short. When I work for an employer, we have a contract - I do what they say, they give me money. Now if my contract specifies that I don't get paid if someone steals burgers, well that's a pretty shitty contract. But you still didn't steal from me, you stole the burgers from my employer. I'll be pissed, but just because you're a jerk and I have a bad contract.
But now, with regards to intellectual "property", say you wrote a song and recorded it. My friend gives you money for a CD with the song on it. Then I copy my friend's CD and give you no money. Why is that inherently wrong? Did we ever sign a contract saying that I would pay you to record the song?
Yes, you lost the chance to make money by selling me a copy of your song. But what kind of way to make money is that? I pay you money for something I can get for free? It makes no difference where the song came from to me - it was there, a bunch of bits on a shiny disc, and I copied it.
If you want to make some money, go get a freaking job. Or put on a concert and charge admission. But don't try to tax me for some transaction which didn't involve you. How can you say I've stolen? How many less songs do you have now that you didn't have before?
You know, I don't even use Linux myself... but I can see a good argument for why Linux on a PDA is a good idea. Every time a manufacturer builds a PDA with WINCE or PalmOS, they have to pay some fee (let's say it's $25) to MS or Palm. And for what? Functionality that already exists for free in Linux. So in theory, this is a great way to offer a similar product to your competitors, for $25 less.
The key, of course, is not to screw it up. There's no technological reason why the Linux based PDA can't sync just as well and have just as easy of a UI as the other guys. But if you're going to break away you have to do it right. If Sharp did in fact screw up the syncing, then it's their fault when their device fails in the market. But if they did it right, then 98% of the users can forget their PDA even has Linux. They can just know that it works and it saved them $25.
Paying a license fee to tie your shoes, because somebody else invented the algorithm.
Paying to have a conversation, because you're taking in somebody's "intellectual property".
Bullshit.
Did you ever stop to consider how much better the software world would be today if all software was free? Alot of people, including me, would be out of work, and alot of companies would be out of business, but that wouldn't matter. All those people and dollars could go towards making better hardware and buying more of it.
So, who would make the software? Well, it would be a combination of people making it because they wanted functionality, and companies making it to utilize the hardware they wanted to sell.
Some software would be proprietary to a specific piece of hardware, but most of it would be designed to be open ended and compatible. If it was all free, everything we have now would be much better. Think about it.
Don't let these sad stories cloud your head. I think it's nice that this guy would love to make lots of money off of his software, but that doesn't mean it is his inherent right to do so.
I completely agree! In fact, I have in mind the design I'd love to have in 5-10 years, I hope someone makes it:
Same size as a typical PDA today, so it fits in my pocket.
Opens up like this one, except the hinge is on the long axis.
Screen is almost the entire size of the PDA. It is wider than tall, and runs at maybe 720x480, with full color. (No *&^!* graffiti area, or only a virtual one that I can disable!)
There is still a pen, but it's used mostly for pointing or drawing.
The keyboard is two pieces that are hinged on the short axis, and fold out into a nice usable size, as tall as the PDA is wide, and twice as wide as the PDA is tall, in QWERTY format. This will require some clever design, but I'm sure it's possible.
DataPlay drive gives me cheap 500MB discs. I can play a movie or 100 mp3's with a single disc. (Headphone jack is a must)
Batteries: The batteries are thin flat pads that mount on the back of the pda. For typical, day-to-day operation, I will not need to change the battery, I will just place the pda in its stand at night to sync and recharge. But when I'm going on a trip or listening to mp3's or whatever, I can bring extra batteries with me. These batteries are easily charged apart from the pda. In addition to buying extras of the ultra-thin batteries, I can buy a fat, heavy, low-tech battery, which I wouldn't want to have to carry every day, but for long trips it would provide a long charge and not cost way too much money.
There is no such thing as good web design. There is only good user design.
Totally! You don't have to worry about how to design the webpage, if you can just design the users. Just make them so they want whatever you're showing them. I connected the pleasure center of my user's brains to the yellow light receptors in their eyes. Then I just made all the backgrounds yellow, and they are ecstatic about it, let me tell you.
That's a nice opinion, but it's not the law. The law states that if any part of your car is in the intersection before the light turns red, you're legal to proceed through the intersection.
Now, what's realy safe, or what people should do, is a matter up for debate, but not up for tickets.
Herman's team connected a variety of off-the-shelf devices to a prototype meeting room that can take dictation, track individual speakers and, perhaps some day, answer spoken questions.
I'd like to see this actually work... not the spoken questions part, just the simple dictation. I am doing alot of research into voice recognition software right now, and I have yet to see software that can accurately transcribe free dictation from any given speaker.
Sure, some software does pretty well if it is only looking for a few specific words. But give it a 60,000 word english dictionary to work with, and it just doesn't cut it. The best I've seen is maybe 70% accuracy, on a good day, in a quiet room, with my face right up to the microphone. 70% does not make for a final document that anyone wants to try and wade through and decipher.
Anyone can say they support "dictation", but until the accuracy increases, it's like saying you support database transactions because you only corrupt 30% of the data.
Has anyone out there had better experiences than me? What do you think is the best speech recognition software for free dictation right now? (My vote would be for ViaVoice.)
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't know that one, so I guessed and ended up reading it Elmer Fudd style: "Fwom what I Wemember" :) Cwazy Taco...
$242 AUD ~= $136 USD
I just bought me a GeForce3 Ti200 from compuplus.com for $79. If only I'd waited, an extra 50 bucks would have bagged me an inferior, untested card with screwy drivers.
Seriously, how can they sell even one of these cards? Of course, they will. People generally don't know what they're buying anyway.
"Hackers stealing personal information from the databases of large companies! Read all about it at the web site of a large company (which first requires your personal information.)"
Anyone else think this is dumb? Please stop linking to NYTimes already! There's plenty of other places out there also carrying these stories.
Oh, come on... anyone who's been on /. long enough knows that pretty much everything from AC's is waste.
Yes, legally it's different, but morally speaking it feels about the same, to me.
Whoa, cool... anyone have a link to the demo?
I agree... based on that guy's logic, it's ok for someone to hop my fence, sneak into my backyard, throw my dog some meat, and peer through the crack between the curtains in my rear window, because I left the crack there. The process to put together the wireless data not meant for you is even more convoluted. Obviously noone intended to make their data public, they just wanted to have wireless access.
So, let me get this straight... you're running an OS advanced enough to allow you to log in remotely, to see what someone else is doing, and to mess with their desktop... but you haven't figured out how to keep the janitors out yet?
I totally agree with this. In fact, I'd take it a step farther - if something is broadcast freely to the general public, then I think it should be implied that we can do what we want with that data. I have the first five seasons of the X-files on videotape. I'd love to sell those to someone on Ebay, but I can't, even though those shows have been broadcast freely across the country. It makes no sense.
I'd be glad to help. After all, if someone comes to Google looking for a cult, I'd like for them to know where to find a cult.
This is exciting - I think that between the public bathrooms and the grease bins, McDonald's will become an energy company, and start giving away food for profit!
Ronald McDonald hereby accepts the Nobel Prize for ending world hunger...
Well, personally I only really enjoy movies when I can get absorbed by them and forget everything but the show. The best part about theaters is that they are dark, devoid of distaction (ideally), and the screen fills your view. So actually, sitting in dim lighting with people walking around serving drinks sounds rather annoying. But that's just me.
Well, safer for everyone except the bicyclist. I never ride along the road if there is a sidewalk, unless the road is very low traffic. The reason for this is simply that there is no place on the road for bicycles! I can't travel 40 MPH, and there is no special lane for me. On top of that, drivers don't know what to do about me being there anyway.
On the sidewalk, I just need to avoid pedestrians. The only risk is annoying them, but I try to be considerate. Unless they jump and tackle me, I'm not going to hit them. That's not true for cars! I'm not going to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair because I took the road instead of the sidewalk, and got nailed by some idiot driver. Forget it.
Right... I do this sort of thing all the time... Last week, I downloaded the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, burned it to CD, and told all my friends to listen to this great music I had made! A better question would be: would it bother you if thousands of people around the country were downloading your paper and enjoying reading it?
Does anyone else out there think that making money by selling people something they can copy for free sounds like a SCAM? I put it up there with those chain letters: If five people send you a dollar, and then they each get five people to send you a dollar, and... you'll be rich! If you record a CD, and we spend thousands of dollars talking it up, and we can convince people to each buy their own "copy", you'll be rich!
Dude, I think someone already posted that there are too many repeated posts about this repeat story. In fact, this story was posted last week, and someone already commented here that we don't need more repeat posts about it being a repeat. To reiterate, it's redundant. Thank you.
Your analogy falls very short. When I work for an employer, we have a contract - I do what they say, they give me money. Now if my contract specifies that I don't get paid if someone steals burgers, well that's a pretty shitty contract. But you still didn't steal from me, you stole the burgers from my employer. I'll be pissed, but just because you're a jerk and I have a bad contract.
But now, with regards to intellectual "property", say you wrote a song and recorded it. My friend gives you money for a CD with the song on it. Then I copy my friend's CD and give you no money. Why is that inherently wrong? Did we ever sign a contract saying that I would pay you to record the song?
Yes, you lost the chance to make money by selling me a copy of your song. But what kind of way to make money is that? I pay you money for something I can get for free? It makes no difference where the song came from to me - it was there, a bunch of bits on a shiny disc, and I copied it.
If you want to make some money, go get a freaking job. Or put on a concert and charge admission. But don't try to tax me for some transaction which didn't involve you. How can you say I've stolen? How many less songs do you have now that you didn't have before?
You know, I don't even use Linux myself... but I can see a good argument for why Linux on a PDA is a good idea. Every time a manufacturer builds a PDA with WINCE or PalmOS, they have to pay some fee (let's say it's $25) to MS or Palm. And for what? Functionality that already exists for free in Linux. So in theory, this is a great way to offer a similar product to your competitors, for $25 less.
The key, of course, is not to screw it up. There's no technological reason why the Linux based PDA can't sync just as well and have just as easy of a UI as the other guys. But if you're going to break away you have to do it right. If Sharp did in fact screw up the syncing, then it's their fault when their device fails in the market. But if they did it right, then 98% of the users can forget their PDA even has Linux. They can just know that it works and it saved them $25.
It's all these great new terms like "weblications" that make this world of new technology (or worlnewology!) a better, happier place.
All I can say is, point that laser somewhere else!
Paying a license fee to tie your shoes, because somebody else invented the algorithm.
Paying to have a conversation, because you're taking in somebody's "intellectual property".
Bullshit.
Did you ever stop to consider how much better the software world would be today if all software was free? Alot of people, including me, would be out of work, and alot of companies would be out of business, but that wouldn't matter. All those people and dollars could go towards making better hardware and buying more of it.
So, who would make the software? Well, it would be a combination of people making it because they wanted functionality, and companies making it to utilize the hardware they wanted to sell.
Some software would be proprietary to a specific piece of hardware, but most of it would be designed to be open ended and compatible. If it was all free, everything we have now would be much better. Think about it.
Don't let these sad stories cloud your head. I think it's nice that this guy would love to make lots of money off of his software, but that doesn't mean it is his inherent right to do so.
-
Same size as a typical PDA today, so it fits in my pocket.
- Opens up like this one, except the hinge is on the long axis.
- Screen is almost the entire size of the PDA. It is wider than tall, and runs at maybe 720x480, with full color. (No *&^!* graffiti area, or only a virtual one that I can disable!)
- There is still a pen, but it's used mostly for pointing or drawing.
- The keyboard is two pieces that are hinged on the short axis, and fold out into a nice usable size, as tall as the PDA is wide, and twice as wide as the PDA is tall, in QWERTY format. This will require some clever design, but I'm sure it's possible.
- DataPlay drive gives me cheap 500MB discs. I can play a movie or 100 mp3's with a single disc. (Headphone jack is a must)
- Batteries: The batteries are thin flat pads that mount on the back of the pda. For typical, day-to-day operation, I will not need to change the battery, I will just place the pda in its stand at night to sync and recharge. But when I'm going on a trip or listening to mp3's or whatever, I can bring extra batteries with me. These batteries are easily charged apart from the pda. In addition to buying extras of the ultra-thin batteries, I can buy a fat, heavy, low-tech battery, which I wouldn't want to have to carry every day, but for long trips it would provide a long charge and not cost way too much money.
So, when can I buy it?Totally! You don't have to worry about how to design the webpage, if you can just design the users. Just make them so they want whatever you're showing them. I connected the pleasure center of my user's brains to the yellow light receptors in their eyes. Then I just made all the backgrounds yellow, and they are ecstatic about it, let me tell you.
Misspelling, or clever pun? You be the judge.
That's a nice opinion, but it's not the law. The law states that if any part of your car is in the intersection before the light turns red, you're legal to proceed through the intersection.
Now, what's realy safe, or what people should do, is a matter up for debate, but not up for tickets.
I'd like to see this actually work... not the spoken questions part, just the simple dictation. I am doing alot of research into voice recognition software right now, and I have yet to see software that can accurately transcribe free dictation from any given speaker.
Sure, some software does pretty well if it is only looking for a few specific words. But give it a 60,000 word english dictionary to work with, and it just doesn't cut it. The best I've seen is maybe 70% accuracy, on a good day, in a quiet room, with my face right up to the microphone. 70% does not make for a final document that anyone wants to try and wade through and decipher.
Anyone can say they support "dictation", but until the accuracy increases, it's like saying you support database transactions because you only corrupt 30% of the data.
Has anyone out there had better experiences than me? What do you think is the best speech recognition software for free dictation right now? (My vote would be for ViaVoice.)