He added that customers don't want simplicity for the sake of it, claiming that the last time Microsoft tried that route, customer ratings of the firm "plummeted" for two years."
Unless Microsoft sees its product as being licenses rather than software (which is entirely possible, now I think of it) this is daft. People have to interact with the software on a daily basis. They only care about licenses when they get in their way... which is more likely to happen if they don't know what they're buying.
iTunes provides hooks for applications to get playlist information, locate actual tracks, and once you've done that they're just files on disk. Palm needs to provide their own hotsync anyway, and they had great hotsync technology in Palm OS, why do they need to use a backdoor instead of using documented interfaces?
People have been demonstrating variations on this for over a century, since Tesla shorted out the city of Colorado Springs.
It's still largely a solution looking for a problem. There's some areas where this kind of thing is both safe and useful, but they're pretty specialized. Charging or powering personal electronics isn't one of those areas.
The article explains "how" they limited it to P2P software, but not *why*. After all, there's no goddamn reason ANY software should be allowed to install backdoors and dead-man switches and rootkits and other malicious components on your computer.
Sony, Valve, and others... including arguably Microsoft and Apple, include or have included in their software components that are indistinguishable from certain kinds of Spyware except for the fact that they're installed by a program that "needs" to install them.
I suspect that if the drafters of this bill actually tried to REALLY block all spyware then they'd get hit by massive lobbying from the industry arguing that the rules would ban "anti cheating" programs installed by online games, and "tilt switches" in kernels and drivers, because... let's face it... they SHOULD.
THAT is the dirty laundry they're worried about. There's LOTS of software that for dubious reasons is installing crap it has no bloody business installing. The question is, why the hell Congress thinks they have to let the bastards get away with it.
I mean, the old PalmOS was all about supporting open source developers, with a free open source dev kit, emulator, all open source, no Tivoization. It's not Hawkins fault, the Visor was extremely open as well, I reckon it's those people from Be because the weird decisions started when they decided to dump the 68000 platform and build a new OS (that never got anywhere) with BeOS genes on the ARM so they could compete with Windows CE... despite the fact that they consistently outsold Windows-powered handhelds 4:1.
I haven't read Aztecs, now I'll have to dig it up. The short story is often better than the novel (eg, Blood Music, Ender's War) but you can never tell unless you read both.
In Vonda McIntyre's novel "Superluminal" starship pilots had to have their hearts replaced with a rotary pump because the rhythm of the heartbeat caused a breakdown in their bodies during FTL flight.
The whole anti-virus industry is kind of like a dysfunctional family sitcom, with Microsoft as the wacky uncle whose crazy antics ironically bring in new customers for the family business by the end of every episode. Every other season the crazy uncle threatens to leave and the kids go nuts trying to convince him he can't make it without them, but everyone knows he's going to be back by next season's premiere. This story arc is no different.
The funniest episodes are when the kids go out and try and pitch woo. They seem to think that everyone else is crazy as "Uncle Mike" and leave a trail of property damage all over town as they fail to convince Apple and Palm and everyone else that their nutty schemes are JUST what they need for success.
You don't even have to go back that far... just a few years ago my phone could go a long weekend on a charge, now I have to keep an eye on the "bars" if I forget to plug it in every night.
And somehow I was able to carry that Nokia "bar" phone with a fat battery pack in my pocket. It was only about 20% longer than my current clamshell phone, and no thicker or wider. Give me that 20% back, and eliminate the extra space taken up by the second screen (since it wouldn't need one), two extra layers of shell and hinges, and I'll bet I could get 3x the battery life in a phone that's more rugged and simpler to make.
Besides, you know what they say about a man who has a really small phone.
This isn't an "outmaneuver", it's precisely the right thing to do. It's no different from other open source projects with closed source components, like emulators that require a ROM image to function, or the Second Life client that requires proprietary Vivox components for voice.
ATM I'm just glad people quit talking about using ATM for packet networks and nobody needs ATM for Type 1 fonts any more so I can go to the ATM to get some money without brainlock.
Say we polarize the crystal using a specified voltage in it's 'melted' phase... Then to retrieve the value or 'polarization' we have a photon (created with a photon emitter) go through it effectively polarizing it (the photon) and then using a photon detector converting the photon back into a voltage
After reading your message and the one about the relative strengths of film and digital, it occurred to me to wonder what you could do with digital tracking. Basically stitching together a LOT of shorter exposure digital shots and correcting for the motion of the earth algorithmically to synthesize a long exposure image. It seems like an obvious hack for someone with a digital back and a fixed scope.
Did someone say microtransactions? You can easily blow $20 a month on buying Linden Dollars to buy clothes and skins and hair and animations and gadgets. Then if you want to buy land that's another $10 a month for a premium account, $20 to actually get some land, plus now you're buying houses and trees and furniture. And that just puts you into "lower middle class". The real status symbol is owning a whole island.
Slashdot Mirror
You do know that PGP came before S/MIME, right?
Where is PGP except that expensive commercial client which tries to do too much?
I shouldn't have to google things like this for you.
Don't forget where the "web of trust" came from.
He added that customers don't want simplicity for the sake of it, claiming that the last time Microsoft tried that route, customer ratings of the firm "plummeted" for two years."
Unless Microsoft sees its product as being licenses rather than software (which is entirely possible, now I think of it) this is daft. People have to interact with the software on a daily basis. They only care about licenses when they get in their way... which is more likely to happen if they don't know what they're buying.
iTunes provides hooks for applications to get playlist information, locate actual tracks, and once you've done that they're just files on disk. Palm needs to provide their own hotsync anyway, and they had great hotsync technology in Palm OS, why do they need to use a backdoor instead of using documented interfaces?
People have been demonstrating variations on this for over a century, since Tesla shorted out the city of Colorado Springs.
It's still largely a solution looking for a problem. There's some areas where this kind of thing is both safe and useful, but they're pretty specialized. Charging or powering personal electronics isn't one of those areas.
It had stipulations that state that when a P2P app is installed it clearly indicates what is being shared.
So why limit that to P2P? After all people accidentally share stuff out through Windows file shares, FTP shares, and web shares on a regular basis.
The article explains "how" they limited it to P2P software, but not *why*. After all, there's no goddamn reason ANY software should be allowed to install backdoors and dead-man switches and rootkits and other malicious components on your computer.
Sony, Valve, and others... including arguably Microsoft and Apple, include or have included in their software components that are indistinguishable from certain kinds of Spyware except for the fact that they're installed by a program that "needs" to install them.
I suspect that if the drafters of this bill actually tried to REALLY block all spyware then they'd get hit by massive lobbying from the industry arguing that the rules would ban "anti cheating" programs installed by online games, and "tilt switches" in kernels and drivers, because... let's face it... they SHOULD.
THAT is the dirty laundry they're worried about. There's LOTS of software that for dubious reasons is installing crap it has no bloody business installing. The question is, why the hell Congress thinks they have to let the bastards get away with it.
Yeh, that's the important point. Why not just ban spyware, period?
Tie up a crappy idea in lawsuits over bad patents.
Time for me to delete my social networking accounts methinks, it's lost all the glitter and sparkle
It ever had any?
Power efficiency matters. The RPU had about the transistor budget of a Rage Pro.
I mean, the old PalmOS was all about supporting open source developers, with a free open source dev kit, emulator, all open source, no Tivoization. It's not Hawkins fault, the Visor was extremely open as well, I reckon it's those people from Be because the weird decisions started when they decided to dump the 68000 platform and build a new OS (that never got anywhere) with BeOS genes on the ARM so they could compete with Windows CE... despite the fact that they consistently outsold Windows-powered handhelds 4:1.
They could fit one of Philipp Slusallek's ray-trace processing units in the corner of the chip and never notice the cost in silicon.
The main loop on the campus here is about a mile long.
I haven't read Aztecs, now I'll have to dig it up. The short story is often better than the novel (eg, Blood Music, Ender's War) but you can never tell unless you read both.
In Vonda McIntyre's novel "Superluminal" starship pilots had to have their hearts replaced with a rotary pump because the rhythm of the heartbeat caused a breakdown in their bodies during FTL flight.
They called the pulse-less pilots "Aztecs".
The whole anti-virus industry is kind of like a dysfunctional family sitcom, with Microsoft as the wacky uncle whose crazy antics ironically bring in new customers for the family business by the end of every episode. Every other season the crazy uncle threatens to leave and the kids go nuts trying to convince him he can't make it without them, but everyone knows he's going to be back by next season's premiere. This story arc is no different.
The funniest episodes are when the kids go out and try and pitch woo. They seem to think that everyone else is crazy as "Uncle Mike" and leave a trail of property damage all over town as they fail to convince Apple and Palm and everyone else that their nutty schemes are JUST what they need for success.
You don't even have to go back that far... just a few years ago my phone could go a long weekend on a charge, now I have to keep an eye on the "bars" if I forget to plug it in every night.
And somehow I was able to carry that Nokia "bar" phone with a fat battery pack in my pocket. It was only about 20% longer than my current clamshell phone, and no thicker or wider. Give me that 20% back, and eliminate the extra space taken up by the second screen (since it wouldn't need one), two extra layers of shell and hinges, and I'll bet I could get 3x the battery life in a phone that's more rugged and simpler to make.
Besides, you know what they say about a man who has a really small phone.
That you, Phillip? :)
This isn't an "outmaneuver", it's precisely the right thing to do. It's no different from other open source projects with closed source components, like emulators that require a ROM image to function, or the Second Life client that requires proprietary Vivox components for voice.
ATM I'm just glad people quit talking about using ATM for packet networks and nobody needs ATM for Type 1 fonts any more so I can go to the ATM to get some money without brainlock.
Say we polarize the crystal using a specified voltage in it's 'melted' phase... Then to retrieve the value or 'polarization' we have a photon (created with a photon emitter) go through it effectively polarizing it (the photon) and then using a photon detector converting the photon back into a voltage
Congratulations, you've reinvented the CDR!
After reading your message and the one about the relative strengths of film and digital, it occurred to me to wonder what you could do with digital tracking. Basically stitching together a LOT of shorter exposure digital shots and correcting for the motion of the earth algorithmically to synthesize a long exposure image. It seems like an obvious hack for someone with a digital back and a fixed scope.
Did someone say microtransactions? You can easily blow $20 a month on buying Linden Dollars to buy clothes and skins and hair and animations and gadgets. Then if you want to buy land that's another $10 a month for a premium account, $20 to actually get some land, plus now you're buying houses and trees and furniture. And that just puts you into "lower middle class". The real status symbol is owning a whole island.
Private island: $1000 down + $295 / month.
That's US dollars, not Linden dollars...