I disagree with some of the sentiment posted here that "This sets back DRM several years". Nothing short of a class action suit against Sony will convince the public that it's a bad thing for anyone to put software on your own computer without asking, especially one that snoops on you and leaves you even more vunerable to attack.
Who needs to worry about RFID tags when your own home PC watches your every move and reports it to big corporations! Hell, the FBI could do exactly the same thing as Sony and get it put into law that every PC must have ratware installed! The ISP's would rather this than spend the serious money required to monitor your actions at the local network feed!
Good points, for certain. I haven't been to their campus, don't know anyone who works there personally, but all I have to do is compare the quality of their work. It speaks for itself.
If animated puppy dogs and paper clips, chaos in your normal.dot file, viruses in your.doc files are your thing then you'd be a happy customer.
Of all the word processors I've used I find it bizzare to the extreme that the auto numbering scheme still doesn't work right. The only part that worked well was Visio, and they didn't write it themselves, and it literally has gotten far buggier since MS bought it up.
The only people I know who think word is actually any good never seriously tried anything else.
What will you find in space that we are running out of on the planet?? Oil? Water? Land? Food? Energy? (sitting on a molten ball of magma with 1000 watts per square foot of power shining down on us - no shortage of energy..)
I prefer science and exploration (hey add tourism!) to be the reasons to go into space, but now we have the beginnings of a cold war in space starting up. That's likely the (sad but) real reason a space race seems imminent. With the amount of US federal budget in the military, it's an inevitable direction.
Perhaps reduundant, but if you want China's economy (and therefore pollution) to slow down, tell everyone to stop buying products from Walmart, Costco, pretty much any retailer.Even IKEA stuff is mostly made there now. China is not polluting for the fun of it, they do it to produce goods for the hungry western markets.
Don't forget GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms). In Canada (and I think in the US) we don't have the ability to chose between GMO and non-GMO food. The Canadian government has strongly opposed legislation that would require labelling of GMO products as such, so if there is ever an issue with any GMO food, we're the guinea pigs.
Ah, but the federal experts insist that they have fully tested all the products, and deem them safe. So what - federal experts have allowed all sorts of products on the market that turned out to be bad for us.
Don't get me wrong, I beleive that GMO foods have great potential to be a benefit, and improve our food supply, but we should have the ability to chose what we eat, and know where it came from.
Bob: Luxury! We used to Dream of using bits for logic! We used to have to use rocks to run our video games, that we had to pry out of the cold hard ground with our tongues! Fred: Ah, you had it easy then! We never even had rocks, we had to wait for the first generation suns to explode before there were any rocks! We used to have to move protons around, and we were never sure where we left them, or when we last saw them!
(Sorry, I just watched the four welchmen Monty Python skit last week....)
Most network servers (even the ones that run MS Windows) are typically far more secure than Grandma's PC in the den, and anyone in the internet service business that lets it's servers get catastrophically infested will not stay in business very long.
PS. Your machine already called home if you run MS Windows. If you want to control that, unplug the ethernet or switch to a different OS. Just wait till they try to turn on DRM hardware in the next gen platforms, you won't be allowed to run apps that are not Microsoft certified, "cause they will be a security risk, and we're helping you stay safe"..
Don't think that the opposite of the PC is an Xterm moving mouse clicks and raw pixels around a network. It's the client/server model, where the server is anywhere, INCLUDING your own desktop machine!
The web browser long ago went well past being an HTML renderer. As all these networkable (but not neccessarily networked) methods of user interface advance, it becomes a standard GUI API that developers can use to create applications.
What threatens Microsoft is that the most popular network GUI API's are not their own, and are typically open source, therefore they are not in control of the future of computing.
What applications are not already available from your web browser? I'm sure there are some, but there is no technical reason some clever group can't take up the challenge and provide it. We're only at the start of this shift.
What will have more impact - a letter from one person complaining that he can't record his favourite TV show on his Tivo, or a lobbyist from Tivo complaining that they are going out of business since there is no reason to own a Tivo due to DRM laws? Vote with your wallet, it has far more impact.
Math predicting something in the physical universe, which is then measured to match the theory to several decimal places, that's called science, and some of us find it is a big deal.
Real Science has the potential to protect us from a very dangerous universe. Science predicted the devastation in New Orleans, but politicians decided they knew better.
You go ahead and be happy, I'd prefer that scientists keep studying this place and warn me when they predict trouble is on the way. It's not helpful having crooks selling junk science to clutter up the discussion.
Very true, but every one of those breakthroughs came with solid actual published scientific research that anyone could study, not just a bunch of grandiose claims on a website with no backing evidence.
The various field strengths of electrical, gravitational and nuclear forces have been characterised, theorised, and documented many times and in many experiments for many years, and the results directly contradict the theories put forth as fact on the Electric Universe sites.
I find it interesting that his website seems to offer no proof, nor even a hint that his ideas might be controversial and deserve at least a cursory explanation as to why anyone should give them any credence.
Someone who has done no reading on the subject might not realize they contradict over a century of research into the "currently accepted" theories of cosmology, nuclear physics, etc.
Seems like a good way to sell a book. Reminds me of the other crackpot "The Final Theory" website..
Remember if it doesn't predict anything with verifiable results, it ain't science! A bunch of claims without mathematics, measurements, proofs is not science.
This trend of publishing nonsense and claiming it is science is a good argument for honest peer reviewed science journals.
There's nothing "old" about "nasty fuel wasting" as you put it. The shuttle burns an incredible amount of fuel to get into orbit, as do all other rocket designs. That is just simple physics. Think about how much more difficult it is to walk up a long hill as compared to flat ground. Now try to get to the top of a hill by throwing gas downwards as hard as you can. Not very efficient.
As for vehicle wasting, what wastes more money and therefore resources: A big dumb lifter like a Saturn V that is designed to launch just once, or a supposedly "environmentally freindly" Shuttle that uses two big dumb throw away rockets, and a big dumb throw away fuel tank, and a "reusable" vehicle that takes several months to rebuild?
The best solution I've heard showed up in the Vancouver Sun paper this morning: Split the rock down the middle, and set up a shrine for peace. But that's not funny.
I prefer we build a wall splitting the island in two, then we could invite Pink Floyd to come tear it down!
I think this brings out a very good point. From all the comments, it seems like at least a few of the schemes can be successfull (in that the coffe shop is full of paying customers all the time). I'd guess the proprietor indeed should decide on the atmosphere and mood, then design the business model to match, and don't try to be all things to all people, else they will satisfy no one. Also, the old market survey must be done - if there is a whole lot of free WiFi in the area, then free WiFi won't be a big selling point, but you'll also be less likely to fill up with non paying squatters.
If there's little free access, then going free will definitely fill up your shop, but a minimal charge might still fill your shop to capacity and keep out the freeloaders.
Step 1: Microsoft will finally fix trojans & viruses properly, using the DRM stuff to prevent "illegal" software from running on your machine for you.
Step 2: Let the spin doctoring begin: Anything not DRM authorized is illegal software, and anyone who tells you otherwise must therefore be a criminal.
Step 3: Lobby congress and make it illegal to connect a non DRM computer to the internet - look at the billions people spend trying to defend their systems from viruses etc now! Only bad people want that to continue!
Oh yeah, step 0: Make it illegal to disable any software protection, (already done) and make damn certain this new DRM - ah - Secure Bios (tm) is covered so we can arrest any criminal who tries to replace it with that obviously subversive Open Bios that the criminals want you to install..
Our only hope is that the others on the team will have a financial reason to keep this from happening..
Yes, it's not a lot of cash in the scheme of things, but why the hell won't NASA just donate the computer and tapes to a university? If they're going to toss it in the trash, they should be interested in giving it away for free. Put the data on the Web for all, and we're done. In fact NASA themselves should be able to do this inside of a week or two, presumably they know how to read these tapes themselves.. I don't see where anyone needs to raise $250K..?? Please explain yourselves, planetary society types..
Just because the registry worked in your case, doesn't mean that it's a good way to do things.
The registry problem: You have a single file that must be in perfect shape, or your system pretty much has to be reformatted and reinstalled.
Now, lets give the lowliest app written by some "insert your favourite dumbass character here" full read/write access to that file, and see how long it takes before your system dies off.
Single Point of Failure with no security: See "Windows Registry".
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree with some of the sentiment posted here that "This sets back DRM several years". Nothing short of a class action suit against Sony will convince the public that it's a bad thing for anyone to put software on your own computer without asking, especially one that snoops on you and leaves you even more vunerable to attack.
Who needs to worry about RFID tags when your own home PC watches your every move and reports it to
big corporations! Hell, the FBI could do exactly the same thing as Sony and get it put into law that every PC must have ratware installed! The ISP's would rather this than spend the serious money required to monitor your actions at the local network feed!
Good points, for certain. I haven't been to their campus, don't know anyone who works there personally, but all I have to do is compare the quality of their work. It speaks for itself.
.doc files are your thing then you'd be a happy customer.
If animated puppy dogs and paper clips, chaos in your normal.dot file, viruses in your
Of all the word processors I've used I find it bizzare to the extreme that the auto numbering scheme still doesn't work right. The only part that worked well was Visio, and they didn't write it themselves, and it literally has gotten far buggier since MS bought it up.
The only people I know who think word is actually any good never seriously tried anything else.
You're fine. How can you get screwed by a Virgin?
(sorry, you set it up, I had to spike it..)
Not meaning to be too abrasive, but.. Rubbish!
What will you find in space that we are running out of on the planet??
Oil? Water? Land? Food? Energy? (sitting on a molten ball of magma with 1000 watts per square foot of power shining down on us - no shortage of energy..)
I prefer science and exploration (hey add tourism!) to be the reasons to go into space,
but now we have the beginnings of a cold war in space starting up. That's likely the (sad but) real reason a space race seems imminent. With the amount of US federal budget in the military, it's an inevitable direction.
Perhaps reduundant, but if you want China's economy (and therefore pollution) to slow down, tell everyone to stop buying products from Walmart, Costco, pretty much any retailer.Even IKEA stuff is mostly made there now. China is not polluting for the fun of it, they do it to produce goods for the hungry western markets.
Don't forget GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms). In Canada (and I think in the US) we don't have the ability to chose between GMO and non-GMO food. The Canadian government has strongly opposed legislation that would require labelling of GMO products as such, so if there is ever an issue with any GMO food, we're the guinea pigs.
Ah, but the federal experts insist that they have fully tested all the products, and deem them safe.
So what - federal experts have allowed all sorts of products on the market that turned out to be bad for us.
Don't get me wrong, I beleive that GMO foods have great potential to be a benefit, and improve our food supply, but we should have the ability to chose what we eat, and know where it came from.
Bob: Luxury! We used to Dream of using bits for logic! We used to have to use rocks to run our video games, that we had to pry out of the cold hard ground with our tongues!
Fred: Ah, you had it easy then! We never even had rocks, we had to wait for the first generation suns to explode before there were any rocks! We used to have to move protons around, and we were never sure where we left them, or when we last saw them!
(Sorry, I just watched the four welchmen Monty Python skit last week....)
Microsoft spreads Fear Uncertainty and Doubt, what a shocker!
Most network servers (even the ones that run MS Windows) are typically far more secure than Grandma's PC in the den, and anyone in the internet service business that lets it's servers get catastrophically infested will not stay in business very long.
PS. Your machine already called home if you run MS Windows. If you want to control that, unplug the ethernet or switch to a different OS. Just wait till they try to turn on DRM hardware in the next gen platforms, you won't be allowed to run apps that are not Microsoft certified, "cause they will be a security risk, and we're helping you stay safe"..
The web is already a compute platform.
Don't think that the opposite of the PC is an Xterm moving mouse clicks and raw pixels around a network. It's the client/server model, where the server is anywhere, INCLUDING your own desktop machine!
The web browser long ago went well past being an HTML renderer. As all these networkable (but not neccessarily networked) methods of user interface advance, it becomes a standard GUI API that developers can use to create applications.
What threatens Microsoft is that the most popular network GUI API's are not their own, and are typically open source, therefore they are not in control of the future of computing.
What applications are not already available from your web browser? I'm sure there are some, but there is no technical reason some clever group can't take up the challenge and provide it. We're only at the start of this shift.
What will have more impact - a letter from one person complaining that he can't record his favourite TV show on his Tivo, or a lobbyist from Tivo complaining that they are going out of business since there is no reason to own a Tivo due to DRM laws?
Vote with your wallet, it has far more impact.
We could name the base camp after Thomas Edison...
My point was that there seems to be no math, measurements or any scientific evidence demonstrated on the "Electric Universe" web site linked to above.
m eCHAR=item2&methodnameCHAR=resource_getitembrowse& interfacenameCHAR=browse.cfm&ISSUEID_CHAR=376F2051 -382E-4520-92AE-30C33349E8E&ARTICLEID_CHAR=6793D8D 9-7868-4714-B18D-2FBCDBAAB57&sc=I100322
r e5/index.html?fs=www7.nationalgeographic.com
There is quite a bit of evidence for the current astrophysical theories, at least the ones that are considered more than just speculation. Go through the back issues of Scientific American for a good resource on the latest state of science, for one:
http://www.sciamdigital.com/browse.cfm?sequencena
Math predicting something in the physical universe, which is then measured to match the theory to several decimal places, that's called science, and some of us find it is a big deal.
Real Science has the potential to protect us from a very dangerous universe. Science predicted the devastation in New Orleans, but politicians decided they knew better.
This was reported by several media sources, here's one for reference:
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/featu
You go ahead and be happy, I'd prefer that scientists keep studying this place and warn me when they predict trouble is on the way.
It's not helpful having crooks selling junk science to clutter up the discussion.
Very true, but every one of those breakthroughs came with solid actual published scientific research that anyone could study, not just a bunch of grandiose claims on a website with no backing evidence.
The various field strengths of electrical, gravitational and nuclear forces have been characterised, theorised, and documented many times and in many experiments for many years, and the results directly contradict the theories put forth as fact on the Electric Universe sites.
Extrordinary claims need extrordinary proof.
I find it interesting that his website seems to offer no proof, nor even a hint that his ideas might be controversial and deserve at least a cursory explanation as to why anyone should give them any credence.
Someone who has done no reading on the subject might not realize they contradict over a century of research into the "currently accepted" theories of cosmology, nuclear physics, etc.
Seems like a good way to sell a book. Reminds me of the other crackpot "The Final Theory" website..
Remember if it doesn't predict anything with verifiable results, it ain't science! A bunch of claims without mathematics, measurements, proofs is not science.
This trend of publishing nonsense and claiming it is science is a good argument for honest peer reviewed science journals.
There's nothing "old" about "nasty fuel wasting" as you put it. The shuttle burns an incredible amount of fuel to get into orbit, as do all other rocket designs. That is just simple physics.
Think about how much more difficult it is to walk up a long hill as compared to flat ground. Now try to get to the top of a hill by throwing gas downwards as hard as you can. Not very efficient.
As for vehicle wasting, what wastes more money and therefore resources: A big dumb lifter like a Saturn V that is designed to launch just once, or a supposedly "environmentally freindly" Shuttle that uses two big dumb throw away rockets, and a big dumb throw away fuel tank, and a "reusable" vehicle that takes several months to rebuild?
Yes, we know you do Mr. Gates... :)
The best solution I've heard showed up in the Vancouver Sun paper this morning: Split the rock down the middle, and set up a shrine for peace. But that's not funny.
I prefer we build a wall splitting the island in two, then we could invite Pink Floyd to come tear it down!
Nah. Too damn cold.
I used your google map link to find the same lovely place in Google Earth, and posted the kmz link into current events on the Google Earth BBS.
I also appended the name Looney Island to commemorate our Canadian $1 coin...
Now someone post a photograph of this home away from home eh? You Danes got one handy??
We should have a hockey series between Canada and Denmark, winner gets the rock!
I guess a post about Freedom Patries will get me modded down for lame humour won't it??
I think this brings out a very good point. From all the comments, it seems like at least a few of the schemes can be successfull (in that the coffe shop is full of paying customers all the time). I'd guess the proprietor indeed should decide on the atmosphere and mood, then design the business model to match, and don't try to be all things to all people, else they will satisfy no one.
Also, the old market survey must be done - if there is a whole lot of free WiFi in the area, then free WiFi won't be a big selling point, but you'll also be less likely to fill up with non paying squatters.
If there's little free access, then going free will definitely fill up your shop, but a minimal charge might still fill your shop to capacity and keep out the freeloaders.
Now what's also absurd is that the money collected is distributed only to Canadian artists, so, sorry Britney, this tax is not for you eh?
/ Library/Computers/cd_levy.htm
How did this get passed? Ask Sheila Copps why on earth she passed this assinine "guilty so pay up" levy.
Here's an update from London Drugs in Canada on the Levy:
http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures/en-US/Content
But here's how it will roll out:
Step 1: Microsoft will finally fix trojans & viruses properly, using the DRM stuff to prevent "illegal" software from running on your machine for you.
Step 2: Let the spin doctoring begin: Anything not DRM authorized is illegal software, and anyone who tells you otherwise must therefore be a criminal.
Step 3: Lobby congress and make it illegal to connect a non DRM computer to the internet - look at the billions people spend trying to defend their systems from viruses etc now! Only bad people want that to continue!
Oh yeah, step 0: Make it illegal to disable any software protection, (already done) and make damn certain this new DRM - ah - Secure Bios (tm) is covered so we can arrest any criminal who tries to replace it with that obviously subversive Open Bios that the criminals want you to install..
Our only hope is that the others on the team will have a financial reason to keep this from happening..
Cue theme from "The empire strikes back"...
Yes, it's not a lot of cash in the scheme of things,
but why the hell won't NASA just donate the computer and tapes to a university? If they're going to toss it in the trash, they should be interested in giving it away for free. Put the data on the Web for all, and we're done. In fact NASA themselves should be able to do this inside of a week or two, presumably they know how to read these tapes themselves..
I don't see where anyone needs to raise $250K..??
Please explain yourselves, planetary society types..
And I bet paragraph numbering in MS Word works for you too :)
Just because the registry worked in your case, doesn't mean that it's a good way to do things.
The registry problem:
You have a single file that must be in perfect shape, or your system pretty much has to be reformatted and reinstalled.
Now, lets give the lowliest app written by some "insert your favourite dumbass character here" full read/write access to that file, and see how long it takes before your system dies off.
Single Point of Failure with no security:
See "Windows Registry".