Which is probably the point. Intel has spent massive amounts of money convincing consumers that speed is the point. Consumers spend massive amounts of money buying the fast chip, and then relatively little money on the supporting hardware. In the end, they have a machine that typically can't use the full power of the chip. Intel marketers convince consumers they need a faster chip, and the cycle continues.
AMD has tried to fight this perception, but AMD does not have nearly enough money. The FUD Intel puts out about compatibility, speed, and support makes competition very difficult. AMD may have a sufficiently fast much more power efficient chip, but people will not buy it when their last machine, that ran at 1.2 GHZ Intel, was so slow that they believe their only hope is a 3GHZ machine.
So, entering into the PPC market may be a good thing. This market tend to have a more rational view of processor speed and an appreciation for low power consumption. If AMD can develop a fast efficient chip, there is enough competition so it has an even chance for success.
While this is not a replacement for OSS, I think it could be a useful hybrid model. In this case, the author of the software needs to collect a certain amount of money for his or her time. There is nothing wrong with this. This does not say anything specifically about closed or open source software. It is just another way for a programmer or group of programmers to make a profit. If the product is crap, no one wil buy it and life will move on, If it is good, then good code will enter the public domain. Since people tend to need money to eat and live, this may be an attractive option to encourage individual development. It will provide an alternative to creative people who want to code but can't see a way to make a living at it.
What would be interesting is if more companies started formally doing this, especially with regard to the time limit. For instance, much of the code base for the original Windows up to 95 is or soon will be of little use to MS. Likewise, the classic Mac OS, at least up to system 7 is obsolete. There are a number of application programs in the same boat. Wouldn't it be great for competition and innovation if source code was released after 5 years or so? Not only would this force companies to truly 'innovate or die', it would also provide great teaching examples for universities.
There are terms that are trademarked outside of the specific trade. Terms such as 'coke' and 'coca-cola' are trademarked pretty much for anything. If I set up a site 'ecoke.com' or 'sellcoke.com', I think I would be in a bit of trouble. OTOH, I would hope that I could set up 'cokesucks.com' or 'cokeistafrontforthecia.com', and, as long as I had it stated on every page that the site was satire, was not affiliated with the Coke corporation, and perhaps add a link back to the coke corporation, that would fall under free speech. I am pretty sure that this would not be the case as the.com TLD seems to be the at-will property of the fuedal corporations.
Which brings us to Visa. As stated, this might be a trademark that transcends a particular trade. On the other hand it is a common word that has a common meaning. Therefore one might find as dozen travel agencies with 'visa' in their name and another few dozen other business with 'visa' in their name. It is broadly the same issue of whether MS can claim 'Lindows' as an infringing mark(i sometimes think MS fights this so hard because Lindows might be a more powerful trademark). Might people think eVisa is a Visa credit card site. Probably, which mean the site should have a disclaimer. Should the credit card company get the site. I don't think so. But Visa the credit card company does have to fight otherwise they may fall victim to the Asprin problem.
I am not sure why i would want either. The modded X-Box would be a nice toy, but I think, my money would be better spent on a $75 DVD player and a portable MP3 player. First, when the DVD player breaks it is cheap enough to replace. Second, 10 GB is not enough to really store a CD collection. The music will still have to be stored elsewhere and downloaded to the device. So why not just by a somewhat portable MP3 player which, in a 5gb version, can be had for $200.
Beyond this I get nervous having MS stuff around. I really believe that their licenses are written to maximize the chance that the customer will break them so when push comes to shove, MS will only not have any liability, but can also have a reason to counter sue. Living in this world I have a few licenses around, but have made it a point to minimize the number.
Also, I know that everyone is talking about how much money it is costing MS when people buy the player and not the games, but since MS cares only about unit sales of XBox, the argument is moot. Anyone who buys an XBox is contributing to MS success.
To me, things such as this are just taunting the bear.
The thing that annoys me lately about these announcements is that the discs are not going to cost significantly less. These companies are complaining that they are losing their shirts with the over 50% piracy rate, but that assertion is not reflected in the price of copy protected media. It seems like a foregone conclusion that music producers should be using the free market to encourage the purchase of copy protected media. Copy protected CDs have less value to many customers, and should by the nature of the business plan generate more sales for vendors. Does anyone doubt that copy protected music CDs would fly off the shelf if the base price was $8? If piracy is as rampant as they say, wouldn't they end up making a larger profit?
Opera is a very good browser. It is much better than IE and much faster than Mozilla. I do use open source where it is a good product, and use closed software where it is neccesary. The only reason I do not use Opera is that they have yet to get a real version on OS X. I want a more or less consistant interface, so I use Chimersa on OS X and Mozilla on OS 9.
You know, it may be getting easier to 'borrow' an internet connection
For instance, In houston there is a lot of downtown office space. In particular large sections of larger building are empty due to the failure of a particular energy company, and the repercussions thereof. I wonder if all the connections have been cut off. Would it be possible to sneak in, drop of a modded XBox, and let the DOS attack ensue,
Likewise is there any reason why a wifi port could not be attached to the modded Xbox, The XBox could be driven around, doing the damage as it captured wireless networks.
just remember this much of this started with drugs. The fear mongers got the U.S. populous so scared of crack in the street that the populous allowed the U.S. government to remove due process and seize all assets of suspect drug dealer. We were told that these laws would only affect the drug dealers, and the vast majority of Americans, who were innocently earning a living, would not have to worry about being subject to laws. Of course we soon learned that the only people not subject to the laws were the upscale drug dealers in the posh country clubs.
Now the fear mongers are talking up the terrorist in an effort to promote an agenda of world domination. In the process, they are holding persons, sometimes U.S, citizens, indefinitely and without charges. Furthermore, torture is being seriously discussed. The recent U.S. election shows that the majority of the U.S. supports these suspensions of due process. Money is being diverted from domestic social programs. Again, under the assumption that the vast majority of Americans can consume and exist without worry of being subject to these new laws.
And we have the gall to complain that a few people have been arrested for stealing bandwidth. We expect to be taken seriously when we say we believed the laws would only apply to real criminals. Sometimes the hypocrisy of the country is beyond even my cynical belief.
A quote comes to mind "First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
Niemöller.
When we are willing to really willing to move beyond our fear, then we can talk about how bad it is the goverment has the power to take stuff without due process.
Does any one take this service seriously. For instance
What is the time delay between a point being logged by the tracking device and that point appearing on the web page?
Usually it is less than 12 minutes.
Lets assume that in town the average speed is 30 mph. That means a car can go about 6 miles in any direction, or like 100 mile^2 area to be searched for the car. The antennae can easily be broken off.
or this Does the tracking system work indoors or underground?
I wonder if chop shops are out in the open with line of sight to satellites or in enclosed warehouses.
I want my child to have this in their vehicle for emergency situations, but they object to my tracking their every move. What is the solution?
I understand how this sort of thing is useful in the consequences/rewards sequences of parenting, but parents making decisions because their offspring object, and not because thier offspring has earned the right to certain freedoms is just scary. It's like giving a child an Expedition not becuase the child knows how to drive it without killing other people but because thier peers(or the parents peers) will not respect them if they have anything less.
I believe the decision spoke to not stating the fess up front, and not the ability of the rental agencies to charge the fees.
In other words, it did not affect the ability of car rental companies to monitor the customers, but only the ability to charge credit cards without disclosure.
Two giant black holes have been found at the center of a galaxy born from the joining of two smaller galaxies and are drifting toward a cataclysmic collision that will send ripples throughout the universe many millions of years from now, scientists said today.
or, we will have destroyed ourselves or a meteor will destroy us by the time we see this.
Eventually, those ripples will hit Earth's galaxy and cause infinitesimal wobbling in all matter, though it would be far too tiny to be noticed by humans.
Even if we do survive long enough to see it, we won't care
"This is the first time we have ever identified a binary black hole. This is the aftermath of two galaxies that collided sometime in the past."
So it is not enough that we might be sucked into one black hole, now we can be split apart by two.
In about four billion years, astronomers believe, the Milky Way and the nearby Andromeda galaxy will collide and merge, fusing their black holes into one.
So in addition to meteors, magnetic reversal, volcanos, and sunspot we know have to worry about another galaxies offing us.
The Sun is expected to blow up into a nova in three billion years, and perhaps then collapse to form a small black hole of its own, he said.
But this doesn't matter because our sun will suck in our burned remnants long before that.
The only thing that RMS has to offer is a public code base that can customized to meet local needs and used without unexpected increases in licensing fees. India can use it's ample IT talent, something like half a million programmers, to create business plans and profit. On the other hand, India would primarily sell created product to India where the average salary is like $400 a year. They would probably have to do so with MS support.
On the other hand, BJG offers cash money and monopoly power. There is the 100 million dollar bribe to the Indian Government. There is also MS PR campaign to help make India the offshore development center. Again, there are a half million Indian programmers and the easiest way to employ them is to move MS related development to India, where, again, the average salary is like $400 a year.
Despite the best efforts of legislators, lawyers, and computer programmers, spam has won. Spam is killing e-mail.
This article reminds me of a quote from the Simpson in the episode where Flanders flashes back to his childhood and hippy parents We tried nothing and where all out of ideas
First, very little has been tried to stop spam. Most bills that have passed have been slanted towards the spammer interest. The most simple ways to stop spam have been seen as too much of a burden on the spammers, and therefore have not been implemented. Simple stuff like real headers, confirmed opt-in, and physical addresses in the email, are nowhere to be seen.
Second, most businesses cannot use a white list. They need to be open to new customers as well as current customers that may change email addresses without notice. Individuals need this kind of openness to deal with job searches emails from teachers, etc.
That said, I do see white-list filtering as a good extra feature on clients. Perhaps all unknown email can be filtered to a separate mailbox. The user can mark an email as not spam. There could then be a button that puts the good address in the white list and transfers all email to the trash. Of course, we would want autopreview and autoload of images and cookies turned off for this box.
The problem is that salespeople are allowed to mangle the truth, and, customers, who generally want something for nothing, are happy to believe the lies.
I was in a radio shack the other day when a medical doctor came in and wanted his Sprint phone "fixed" Evidently he was not able to acquire a signal in some of his locations. Customer service had told him that his antenna had to be realigned and to go to the place where he bought the phone. He did so and the radio shack people told him that he would have to go to a service center. I suspect the service center will "adjust" his antennae, then send the customer blindly on his way.
There is no way to know whose fault this is. Did the doctor just buy the cheapest phone expecting it to work? Did the doctor explain his application, but got sold a crappy phone by a sales person who wanted the commission? Does Sprint have a policy of spouting half truths so that people will buy it's less than average product? I myself have an average cell phone. I keep it because it is about 20% cheaper than the next better service and I have no contract. It is good enough for me, and I know enough to ask the right questions.
Of course Sprint is not alone in it's misdirection. AT&T has the unlimited minutes promotion but nowhere indicates, even in the instore displays, to which plans the promotion applies. We could fix most of our US consumer problems if vendors were forced to adhere to thier advertising statements.
First, I wonder what the battery life is on these puppies. Even the X-Scale is an ARM, Intel is not known for making chips that sip power, and MS is certainly not know for it's power management. I wonder if I will get the several days I am used to on my rechargeable Palm. Why don't PDA vendors list battery life anymore?
Second, this seems to be a prime example of customers being forced to pay for crippled technology. Although Dell get our appreciation graciously allowing us access to our own data by including unprotected memory, is then any end user reason to waste money and real estate on secure digital slot? Does anyone really want to spend $100 on crippled memory? I assume that unlike other PDA vendors, they are not using integrated slots. I could be wrong because the detail in the copy is pretty limited.
I aso assume that this will only work with windows, probably only windows XP and 2000, and will include MS viral licensing for updates.
I am not MS or dell bashing. I don't really like any of the PDA options right now. If I ran windows this machine would be good inexpensive option. It just seems that we have gotten overrun with feature we don't want and don't need. For instance, we want a bigger battery. Instead, we got an extra crippled slot.
Although it is correct that high margins do not mean a monopoly, in a mature market high margins are highly indicative that a monopoly exists. The pc industry is a mature market. Mostly everything on a PC is a commodity. There are a few high end items that do have significant research costs, but evidently nothing MS does has high research costs. How do we know this? The losses. Probably the biggest project was XBOX. They lost 177 million on sales of 505 million in that division. This means that amortized research costs, production costs, advertisement costs, and all the other costs of delivering a product was only about 700 million. That is 700 million to deliver a completely new project. A similar story is told with Windows and office, where they spent less than half a million to deliver each, both of which were delivered as "new cutting edge technology"
Now, I have been in industries where we charged 5 times over production costs. The revenue was cycled back through to R&D and equipment so we could stay technologically ahead of the competition. MS is not doing this. They are not pouring an additional billion dollars into security or stability or GUI research, even though this would be less than 1/2 of the profits. If the industry was competitive, they would have to spend that money. But because MS is a monopoly, a convicted monopolist, they can just sit on the cash. They neither have to aggressively improve the product or reduce prices.
Finally, your comparison with McDonalds is not valid. The cost of raw material in prepared food products in minimal. For instance, your $3 box of breakfast cereal probably has a few dimes of sugar, grain, fat, and flavoring, the flavoring probably being the most expensive part. However, due to advertising, distribution, licensing, and administrative costs, the profit is only around 5-20%. This is also true of McDonalds. McDonalds is in a highly competitive, and extremely mature, industry and it must spend money on development of new products and advertising. It aggressive pricing may mean that it may only makes money on soft drinks, which cost much more that your cited 17 cents to deliver. I have no love for McDonalds, but they at least are willing to spend a lot of money to deliver a product that they believe people want.
This appears to be another application Stochastic Resonance in which a very weak signal is enhanced by adding a bit of noise. I guess the vibrations of the floor amplify the 'signal' to the inner ear.
Nothing new or magical in the theory, but it is a really cool application. Kudos to the researchers.
Matthew 5:38-42 (New International Version) "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
The hypothesis is that a poor person might have only a tunic and cloak. The cloak will be rough and worn for coverage and the tunic for comfort. The person suing for the tunic is saying that the other person is not deserving of comfort. This is the inequity of power. By giving the cloak and tunic, the victim of the abuse is left naked in the courtroom, and while being naked is uncomfortable, it is worse to have to look upon a naked person and know that the person is naked because another person, who probably has everything to begin with, is spiteful.
The mile thing evidently has to do with rules of the Roman army, whom the Jews were the conquered slaves. The hypothesis goes that a Roman soldier was only allowed to make a slave carry the armor for a mile. By carrying the armor for more than a mile, the slave was forcing the Roman Soldier to break regulations, thus challenging the master/salve relationship.
In this case, the employee felt injured. As you say, the boss demanded help. As the story says, the employer did not thank the author for the help. Although this case may not be an attack, it is an imbalance of power, one that can be solved with violence or love. Sending a reasonable bill is appropriate because, much like the cloak example, you are forcing the other party to either ignore you as an inferior nor worthy of her time, which is plain rude, or negotiate with you, which is necessarily a more equal proposition. The employer can no longer claim the safety of ignorance.
Not to beat this horse any more to death, but my point is that the teaching of jesus are timeless and has great relevance to modern conflict. Thier use would help the USA solve issues in much less arrogant and violent fashions. On the other hand, Jesus was definitely encouraging his followers to do everything in their powers to peacefully create a more equal situations.
A disclaimer: I am not christian in the common American sense, and I get very annoyed at most christians attempt to pick and choose quotes in the bible, especially the words of jesus of Nazareth, to fulfill personal agendas.
The 'turn the other cheek' quote is a prime example. As interpreted by the modern christian church, this statement is about subverting yourself to authority and not defending yourself against corrupt powers. However, the is another interpretation. As I learned recently, this statement, as is the case in many of Jesus' statement, is an attempt to use local customs and etiquette to equalize unequal relationship. The explanation is fascinating. In the time of Jesus if one was going to slap an inferior, one would use the back of ones hand. After the inferior person was slapped, Jesus said to turn the other cheek. This would force the assailant to use the front of the hand to attack. However, the kind of slap was an implicit acknowledgment that the person was an equal. Therefore, by turning the other cheek the victim is forcing the assailant to acknowledge equivalence if he or she attacks.
So, far from bending over and taking the attack, the words tell us to not to be subservient, but be proactive in a peaceful way. Sending a reasonable bill for services is appropriate. If you did not agree on terms before the job, theft of services would probably not be appropriate. In the future, to 'turn the other cheek', agree on terms prior to the job, and let it be her choice.
As long as we are on geek humor, my favorite science jokes come from Sydney Harris, who also does computer humor and law humor. He is the one with the panel with the two mathematicians at the blackboard. In the middle of a proof in the chalkboard are the words "then a miracle occurs." In school we were told this was not an appropriate proof!
My favorite is a panel in which the door reads something like "Synthetic fiber institute". In the room there is an inspector fellow opening a cabinet. In the cabinet is a sheep. Harris is a master at creating a joke with one panel. The amount of information he can convey is incredible. If you see one of his books, take a look.
I agree with you completely. I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole. Your last paragraph summerizes the situation, and the reason none of us should care about this service nicely.
This really solves a lot of problems. It leaves the internet in general free to do what it does. It bypasses ICANN and puts the subdomain in the control of a U.S. company beholden to the U.S. government, and, most importantly, it does not impose U.S. law on the rest of the world. As much bashing as the U.S. congress has gotten here, I think they now deserve a conditional kudos for having a clue. I say conditional because they do hav a tendency to sneak in little easter eggs that come back to bite us in the butt.
I, however, don't know if this will be successful. Parent who don't wish to monitor their children, like those that complain about South Park and the like, will complain that the system is not perfect when a nude painting inadvertently makes it into a discussion about classic art. Christian fundamentalist will try subvert the intention of the domain by using it to promote their religious beliefs. The fast food chains will dominate the advertising in a continuing attempt to brand our children.
But, all in all, a good attempt and a gold star for congress. I am really not trying to be ironic. It is just we need to first teach our children to think. Sometimes I think we are so concerned with nipples and penises that allow equally dangerous, but more socially accepted material. Of course I agree that stuff like goatsx should be banned, but perhaps also this Jerry Falwell propaganda against muslims.
What I find most hopeful is that in the press release they highlight the classic music of the label. You know, the stuff that people already have on vinyl, tape, and CD. EMI is evidently giving us the opportunity to legally buy this music once again as MP3s, presumably to save us the hassle of converting the CDs ourselves.
I am really excited to have the opportunity to once again pay for the same songs from such wonderful people as
Billy Idol, Blondie, David Bowie, Coldplay, Joe Cocker, DC Talk, Duran Duran, Everclear, Fatboy Slim, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, Kottonmouth Kings, Dave Koz, Lenny Kravitz, Megadeth, Kylie Minogue, Anne Murray, Tina Turner, Thalia, Keith Urban, The Vines, Cassandra Wilson and The Beach Boys
many for the third or fourth time. It is clear that the what the record labels consider piracy is the consumer not paying full price for a song on each new media. It is not enough the we pay for the CD, we have to pay for the MP3 as well, probably on each device with which we wish to play.
It is also clear from the list that EMI believes none of us have any interest in artists such as Shaggy, AALIYAH, Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Meridith Brooks, Garth Brooks, or any other artists that has had a major new album in the last two years. I certainly don't want to be one of those people that damn them if they do or if they don't, but the press release gives me little hope that this is any more than a way to push old material.
Why should "calc.exe" need 1-3MB RAM?
Dude, you are behind the times. You need to upgrade to a real calculator. The RPN calculator on my powerbook under OS X takes 3MB of resident memory and 59MB of virtual memory. Now that is a real calculator.
Slashdot Mirror
AMD has tried to fight this perception, but AMD does not have nearly enough money. The FUD Intel puts out about compatibility, speed, and support makes competition very difficult. AMD may have a sufficiently fast much more power efficient chip, but people will not buy it when their last machine, that ran at 1.2 GHZ Intel, was so slow that they believe their only hope is a 3GHZ machine.
So, entering into the PPC market may be a good thing. This market tend to have a more rational view of processor speed and an appreciation for low power consumption. If AMD can develop a fast efficient chip, there is enough competition so it has an even chance for success.
What would be interesting is if more companies started formally doing this, especially with regard to the time limit. For instance, much of the code base for the original Windows up to 95 is or soon will be of little use to MS. Likewise, the classic Mac OS, at least up to system 7 is obsolete. There are a number of application programs in the same boat. Wouldn't it be great for competition and innovation if source code was released after 5 years or so? Not only would this force companies to truly 'innovate or die', it would also provide great teaching examples for universities.
There are terms that are trademarked outside of the specific trade. Terms such as 'coke' and 'coca-cola' are trademarked pretty much for anything. If I set up a site 'ecoke.com' or 'sellcoke.com', I think I would be in a bit of trouble. OTOH, I would hope that I could set up 'cokesucks.com' or 'cokeistafrontforthecia.com', and, as long as I had it stated on every page that the site was satire, was not affiliated with the Coke corporation, and perhaps add a link back to the coke corporation, that would fall under free speech. I am pretty sure that this would not be the case as the .com TLD seems to be the at-will property of the fuedal corporations.
Which brings us to Visa. As stated, this might be a trademark that transcends a particular trade. On the other hand it is a common word that has a common meaning. Therefore one might find as dozen travel agencies with 'visa' in their name and another few dozen other business with 'visa' in their name. It is broadly the same issue of whether MS can claim 'Lindows' as an infringing mark(i sometimes think MS fights this so hard because Lindows might be a more powerful trademark). Might people think eVisa is a Visa credit card site. Probably, which mean the site should have a disclaimer. Should the credit card company get the site. I don't think so. But Visa the credit card company does have to fight otherwise they may fall victim to the Asprin problem.
Beyond this I get nervous having MS stuff around. I really believe that their licenses are written to maximize the chance that the customer will break them so when push comes to shove, MS will only not have any liability, but can also have a reason to counter sue. Living in this world I have a few licenses around, but have made it a point to minimize the number.
Also, I know that everyone is talking about how much money it is costing MS when people buy the player and not the games, but since MS cares only about unit sales of XBox, the argument is moot. Anyone who buys an XBox is contributing to MS success.
To me, things such as this are just taunting the bear.
The thing that annoys me lately about these announcements is that the discs are not going to cost significantly less. These companies are complaining that they are losing their shirts with the over 50% piracy rate, but that assertion is not reflected in the price of copy protected media. It seems like a foregone conclusion that music producers should be using the free market to encourage the purchase of copy protected media. Copy protected CDs have less value to many customers, and should by the nature of the business plan generate more sales for vendors. Does anyone doubt that copy protected music CDs would fly off the shelf if the base price was $8? If piracy is as rampant as they say, wouldn't they end up making a larger profit?
Opera is a very good browser. It is much better than IE and much faster than Mozilla. I do use open source where it is a good product, and use closed software where it is neccesary. The only reason I do not use Opera is that they have yet to get a real version on OS X. I want a more or less consistant interface, so I use Chimersa on OS X and Mozilla on OS 9.
For instance, In houston there is a lot of downtown office space. In particular large sections of larger building are empty due to the failure of a particular energy company, and the repercussions thereof. I wonder if all the connections have been cut off. Would it be possible to sneak in, drop of a modded XBox, and let the DOS attack ensue,
Likewise is there any reason why a wifi port could not be attached to the modded Xbox, The XBox could be driven around, doing the damage as it captured wireless networks.
Now the fear mongers are talking up the terrorist in an effort to promote an agenda of world domination. In the process, they are holding persons, sometimes U.S, citizens, indefinitely and without charges. Furthermore, torture is being seriously discussed. The recent U.S. election shows that the majority of the U.S. supports these suspensions of due process. Money is being diverted from domestic social programs. Again, under the assumption that the vast majority of Americans can consume and exist without worry of being subject to these new laws.
And we have the gall to complain that a few people have been arrested for stealing bandwidth. We expect to be taken seriously when we say we believed the laws would only apply to real criminals. Sometimes the hypocrisy of the country is beyond even my cynical belief.
A quote comes to mind
"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
Niemöller.
When we are willing to really willing to move beyond our fear, then we can talk about how bad it is the goverment has the power to take stuff without due process.
What is the time delay between a point being logged by the tracking device and that point appearing on the web page?
Usually it is less than 12 minutes.
Lets assume that in town the average speed is 30 mph. That means a car can go about 6 miles in any direction, or like 100 mile^2 area to be searched for the car. The antennae can easily be broken off.
or this
Does the tracking system work indoors or underground?
I wonder if chop shops are out in the open with line of sight to satellites or in enclosed warehouses.
I want my child to have this in their vehicle for emergency situations, but they object to my tracking their every move. What is the solution?
I understand how this sort of thing is useful in the consequences/rewards sequences of parenting, but parents making decisions because their offspring object, and not because thier offspring has earned the right to certain freedoms is just scary. It's like giving a child an Expedition not becuase the child knows how to drive it without killing other people but because thier peers(or the parents peers) will not respect them if they have anything less.
In other words, it did not affect the ability of car rental companies to monitor the customers, but only the ability to charge credit cards without disclosure.
Two giant black holes have been found at the center of a galaxy born from the joining of two smaller galaxies and are drifting toward a cataclysmic collision that will send ripples throughout the universe many millions of years from now, scientists said today.
or, we will have destroyed ourselves or a meteor will destroy us by the time we see this.
Eventually, those ripples will hit Earth's galaxy and cause infinitesimal wobbling in all matter, though it would be far too tiny to be noticed by humans.
Even if we do survive long enough to see it, we won't care
"This is the first time we have ever identified a binary black hole. This is the aftermath of two galaxies that collided sometime in the past."
So it is not enough that we might be sucked into one black hole, now we can be split apart by two.
In about four billion years, astronomers believe, the Milky Way and the nearby Andromeda galaxy will collide and merge, fusing their black holes into one.
So in addition to meteors, magnetic reversal, volcanos, and sunspot we know have to worry about another galaxies offing us.
The Sun is expected to blow up into a nova in three billion years, and perhaps then collapse to form a small black hole of its own, he said.
But this doesn't matter because our sun will suck in our burned remnants long before that.
Now, why is it that we are so optimistic?
The only thing that RMS has to offer is a public code base that can customized to meet local needs and used without unexpected increases in licensing fees. India can use it's ample IT talent, something like half a million programmers, to create business plans and profit. On the other hand, India would primarily sell created product to India where the average salary is like $400 a year. They would probably have to do so with MS support.
On the other hand, BJG offers cash money and monopoly power. There is the 100 million dollar bribe to the Indian Government. There is also MS PR campaign to help make India the offshore development center. Again, there are a half million Indian programmers and the easiest way to employ them is to move MS related development to India, where, again, the average salary is like $400 a year.
This article reminds me of a quote from the Simpson in the episode where Flanders flashes back to his childhood and hippy parents
We tried nothing and where all out of ideas
First, very little has been tried to stop spam. Most bills that have passed have been slanted towards the spammer interest. The most simple ways to stop spam have been seen as too much of a burden on the spammers, and therefore have not been implemented. Simple stuff like real headers, confirmed opt-in, and physical addresses in the email, are nowhere to be seen.
Second, most businesses cannot use a white list. They need to be open to new customers as well as current customers that may change email addresses without notice. Individuals need this kind of openness to deal with job searches emails from teachers, etc.
That said, I do see white-list filtering as a good extra feature on clients. Perhaps all unknown email can be filtered to a separate mailbox. The user can mark an email as not spam. There could then be a button that puts the good address in the white list and transfers all email to the trash. Of course, we would want autopreview and autoload of images and cookies turned off for this box.
told you they were punishing Apple
I was in a radio shack the other day when a medical doctor came in and wanted his Sprint phone "fixed" Evidently he was not able to acquire a signal in some of his locations. Customer service had told him that his antenna had to be realigned and to go to the place where he bought the phone. He did so and the radio shack people told him that he would have to go to a service center. I suspect the service center will "adjust" his antennae, then send the customer blindly on his way.
There is no way to know whose fault this is. Did the doctor just buy the cheapest phone expecting it to work? Did the doctor explain his application, but got sold a crappy phone by a sales person who wanted the commission? Does Sprint have a policy of spouting half truths so that people will buy it's less than average product? I myself have an average cell phone. I keep it because it is about 20% cheaper than the next better service and I have no contract. It is good enough for me, and I know enough to ask the right questions.
Of course Sprint is not alone in it's misdirection. AT&T has the unlimited minutes promotion but nowhere indicates, even in the instore displays, to which plans the promotion applies. We could fix most of our US consumer problems if vendors were forced to adhere to thier advertising statements.
Second, this seems to be a prime example of customers being forced to pay for crippled technology. Although Dell get our appreciation graciously allowing us access to our own data by including unprotected memory, is then any end user reason to waste money and real estate on secure digital slot? Does anyone really want to spend $100 on crippled memory? I assume that unlike other PDA vendors, they are not using integrated slots. I could be wrong because the detail in the copy is pretty limited.
I aso assume that this will only work with windows, probably only windows XP and 2000, and will include MS viral licensing for updates.
I am not MS or dell bashing. I don't really like any of the PDA options right now. If I ran windows this machine would be good inexpensive option. It just seems that we have gotten overrun with feature we don't want and don't need. For instance, we want a bigger battery. Instead, we got an extra crippled slot.
Now, I have been in industries where we charged 5 times over production costs. The revenue was cycled back through to R&D and equipment so we could stay technologically ahead of the competition. MS is not doing this. They are not pouring an additional billion dollars into security or stability or GUI research, even though this would be less than 1/2 of the profits. If the industry was competitive, they would have to spend that money. But because MS is a monopoly, a convicted monopolist, they can just sit on the cash. They neither have to aggressively improve the product or reduce prices.
Finally, your comparison with McDonalds is not valid. The cost of raw material in prepared food products in minimal. For instance, your $3 box of breakfast cereal probably has a few dimes of sugar, grain, fat, and flavoring, the flavoring probably being the most expensive part. However, due to advertising, distribution, licensing, and administrative costs, the profit is only around 5-20%. This is also true of McDonalds. McDonalds is in a highly competitive, and extremely mature, industry and it must spend money on development of new products and advertising. It aggressive pricing may mean that it may only makes money on soft drinks, which cost much more that your cited 17 cents to deliver. I have no love for McDonalds, but they at least are willing to spend a lot of money to deliver a product that they believe people want.
Nothing new or magical in the theory, but it is a really cool application. Kudos to the researchers.
The hypothesis is that a poor person might have only a tunic and cloak. The cloak will be rough and worn for coverage and the tunic for comfort. The person suing for the tunic is saying that the other person is not deserving of comfort. This is the inequity of power. By giving the cloak and tunic, the victim of the abuse is left naked in the courtroom, and while being naked is uncomfortable, it is worse to have to look upon a naked person and know that the person is naked because another person, who probably has everything to begin with, is spiteful.
The mile thing evidently has to do with rules of the Roman army, whom the Jews were the conquered slaves. The hypothesis goes that a Roman soldier was only allowed to make a slave carry the armor for a mile. By carrying the armor for more than a mile, the slave was forcing the Roman Soldier to break regulations, thus challenging the master/salve relationship.
In this case, the employee felt injured. As you say, the boss demanded help. As the story says, the employer did not thank the author for the help. Although this case may not be an attack, it is an imbalance of power, one that can be solved with violence or love. Sending a reasonable bill is appropriate because, much like the cloak example, you are forcing the other party to either ignore you as an inferior nor worthy of her time, which is plain rude, or negotiate with you, which is necessarily a more equal proposition. The employer can no longer claim the safety of ignorance.
Not to beat this horse any more to death, but my point is that the teaching of jesus are timeless and has great relevance to modern conflict. Thier use would help the USA solve issues in much less arrogant and violent fashions. On the other hand, Jesus was definitely encouraging his followers to do everything in their powers to peacefully create a more equal situations.
The 'turn the other cheek' quote is a prime example. As interpreted by the modern christian church, this statement is about subverting yourself to authority and not defending yourself against corrupt powers. However, the is another interpretation. As I learned recently, this statement, as is the case in many of Jesus' statement, is an attempt to use local customs and etiquette to equalize unequal relationship. The explanation is fascinating. In the time of Jesus if one was going to slap an inferior, one would use the back of ones hand. After the inferior person was slapped, Jesus said to turn the other cheek. This would force the assailant to use the front of the hand to attack. However, the kind of slap was an implicit acknowledgment that the person was an equal. Therefore, by turning the other cheek the victim is forcing the assailant to acknowledge equivalence if he or she attacks.
So, far from bending over and taking the attack, the words tell us to not to be subservient, but be proactive in a peaceful way. Sending a reasonable bill for services is appropriate. If you did not agree on terms before the job, theft of services would probably not be appropriate. In the future, to 'turn the other cheek', agree on terms prior to the job, and let it be her choice.
My favorite is a panel in which the door reads something like "Synthetic fiber institute". In the room there is an inspector fellow opening a cabinet. In the cabinet is a sheep. Harris is a master at creating a joke with one panel. The amount of information he can convey is incredible. If you see one of his books, take a look.
I agree with you completely. I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole. Your last paragraph summerizes the situation, and the reason none of us should care about this service nicely.
I, however, don't know if this will be successful. Parent who don't wish to monitor their children, like those that complain about South Park and the like, will complain that the system is not perfect when a nude painting inadvertently makes it into a discussion about classic art. Christian fundamentalist will try subvert the intention of the domain by using it to promote their religious beliefs. The fast food chains will dominate the advertising in a continuing attempt to brand our children.
But, all in all, a good attempt and a gold star for congress. I am really not trying to be ironic. It is just we need to first teach our children to think. Sometimes I think we are so concerned with nipples and penises that allow equally dangerous, but more socially accepted material. Of course I agree that stuff like goatsx should be banned, but perhaps also this Jerry Falwell propaganda against muslims.
I am really excited to have the opportunity to once again pay for the same songs from such wonderful people as
Billy Idol, Blondie, David Bowie, Coldplay, Joe Cocker, DC Talk, Duran Duran, Everclear, Fatboy Slim, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, Kottonmouth Kings, Dave Koz, Lenny Kravitz, Megadeth, Kylie Minogue, Anne Murray, Tina Turner, Thalia, Keith Urban, The Vines, Cassandra Wilson and The Beach Boys
many for the third or fourth time. It is clear that the what the record labels consider piracy is the consumer not paying full price for a song on each new media. It is not enough the we pay for the CD, we have to pay for the MP3 as well, probably on each device with which we wish to play.
It is also clear from the list that EMI believes none of us have any interest in artists such as Shaggy, AALIYAH, Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Meridith Brooks, Garth Brooks, or any other artists that has had a major new album in the last two years. I certainly don't want to be one of those people that damn them if they do or if they don't, but the press release gives me little hope that this is any more than a way to push old material.
Why should "calc.exe" need 1-3MB RAM?
Dude, you are behind the times. You need to upgrade to a real calculator. The RPN calculator on my powerbook under OS X takes 3MB of resident memory and 59MB of virtual memory. Now that is a real calculator.