MP3's have survived for this long without any "corporate interests"... what makes you think that just because the market doesn't grow, that MP3 will "be taken down"?
It's aimed at my grandmother who would like to be able to talk to her grandkids over this here new fancy email thing 'cause they never phone any more.
It's aimed at my brother who wants to get the latest sports scores at espn.com, but otherwise has no use for a computer. Like, whatever!
It's aimed at people who probably don't use a sound card, ethernet connection, external CPU, etc, etc, etc. at all, let alone care whether or not they can get a third-party one that isn't built into the motherboard.
It's not aimed at anyone who reads Slashdot regularly, that's for damn sure!
> Yea, and if that happens the people running the "servers" will be able to charge by the hour for app usage.
> This would be a Bad Thing(TM).
Would it, really?
I'm sure that there would be more than one company running these "netserver-apps"... with competition like that, we could watch for the prices getting very low very fast.
You'd probably see stuff like:
Subscribe to OneNet (TM)! OneNet (TM) offers you 5 applications in One (TM)! WordOne (TM), ChartOne (TM), PaintOne (TM), DataOne (TM) and MailOne (TM) all for the low, low price of $2.99 per month! Assumes a 50 hour limit. Unlimited time for as low as $4.99 per month! Say good-bye to low disk space, upgrade hassles and End User License Agreements! Subscribe to OneNet (TM) today!
Well... okay, maybe not quite, but you get the gist. Comapnies would make a killing off of stuff like that due to multiple clients, and yet when you get right down to it, the end-user would probably end up paying less than today (compare $5 per month to $500+ every couple of years to buy the software yourself (don't forget the upgrades!)). Simple economies of scale.
And given that the primary OS'es will be Open Sourced (in this hypothetical future), I see no reason why the Application Servers shouldn't be as well.
Hell, if you're really concerned about the cost, you can shell out a bit of money up-front and run your own.
*shrug*
Call me an idealist, but I actually see that situation as much preferable to what exists today. -- - Sean
Re:Illegal search and seizure...
on
UCITA is passed
·
· Score: 1
> Regardless, this is such a ludicrous bill that the states implementing it will become laughing stocks. Can you imagine being the governor of such a state asking large corporations whose livelihood depend on high technology that moving to your state means they have to give up their rights to the software on which their corporation depends? I don't think so.
I think you missed something there. It's not being implemented on a state-by-state basis. If you read the article, it clearly mentions:
The act means both vendors and users will be able to count on a uniform law, instead of relying on differing laws on a state-by-state basis, said Ray Nimmer, a law professor at the University of Houston Law Center and one of the drafters of the law.
It won't matter what any one particular state has voted for, the same law will apply everywhere. -- - Sean
IPO: Initial Price Offering (I think). When the stock for a certain company first goes on the market, this is the price it is announced at. It is usually held for a little while (a couple of days or so), and only those people who are eligible are allowed to buy it at this time. Then it gets released to the public. At this point, the price usually shoots up very rapidly, so anyone who bought at IPO makes a lot of money very quickly (before the general public gets a chance).
CEO: Chief Executive Officer. The guy who makes all the top-level financial decisions in a company. Responsible for employing just about everyone else (including the president, etc...). -- - Sean
Re:vaporware: the authoritative definiton
on
Beaming Money
·
· Score: 1
Okokok. I bow before the all-knowing relater of The Jargon File...
D'oh!
I should RTFM more often so that I know of what I speak...:-) -- - Sean
Re:Star Trek's Money System
on
Beaming Money
·
· Score: 1
1. Gold-pressed latinum. A DS9 (I think) episode where Quark (again, I think) mentions something about the sheer brilliance of taking something worthless, like gold, pressing it into valuable latinum, a process which is hard to duplicate, and thereby making it a good form of currency.
2. STIV: The Voyage Home. The pizza parlour... who's gonna pay for the pizza? Dr. Whatzerface: "And I guess they don't have money in the 23rd Century, either." Kirk: "Well, they don't." -- - Sean
Ummm... my understanding of vapourware was that it refers to a software project that gets abandoned before it is completed/released.
Just because something is not available yet (ie: before they said it would be) does not mean that it's vapourware. If it never becomes available, then it is vapourware.
Until they say they're abandoning it, or until the release date hits without them saying/releasing anything, it's simply "under development".
I mean, by your argument, Linux 2.4 is vapourware. Huh??? No, it's not! It's just not finished yet. -- - Sean
That system has been running in Canada for years!
on
Beaming Money
·
· Score: 3
> Citibank (and some other big bank, I think) tried a pilot (sorry) program on the Upper West Side of Manhattan a year ago or so. They replaced our ATM cards with "smart cards" that could hold cash, and got a bunch of vendors in the neighborhood to install readers. The smart card came with a little reader that would show you your current balance as well as your last few transactions.
That sort of system has been in place all across Canada for several years now (like about 7 or 8). I's called Interac.
The only thing you mentioned that we don't have are the little readers.
Every single bank and credit union in Canada (there are 5 big banks, a handful of small ones, and a zillion credit unions) is in on the Interac system.
It's basically an ATM (bank) card that can be used for purchasing. Pretty much any store in Canada, from McDonalds to the international airports, to little mom-and-pop corner store, to the big department stores (Sears, etc) accept them.
You can pay for your purchases directly with the card; no signing anything, all you have to do is input a single 4-number PIN. The money, if available, gets debited directly and instantly from your account.
A couple bank machines also offer the option of transferring money directly to someone else's Interac account, similar to what this Confinity thing does (except that you can't carry it with you).
Sure, the bank knows where you made the purchase, when and how much, but that's it. They don't know/what/ the purchase was. And it offers pretty much instant transactions; a few seconds and it's over. It's pretty close to being crack-proof; about the only way would be to tamper with one of the machines in advance... but they sit along-side the cash registers, so you might as well tamper with that and take the money directly, especially since any Interac transfer is logged.
Like I said, it's been in place here since the early 90's, and is immensely popular. I don't have the exact figures on-hand but something like 30%-40% of all purchases nationwide last year were made over Interac, and it's growing by 10% plus per year.
Since every single banking institution in the country is involved, you don't have to be a customer of any one particular bank or have a special ATM card or anything. Any old one will do.
And, there are really only a very few (probably under 5%) stores/restaurants/whatever that don't take it. Even the government takes it for pretty much anything. I think taxes (Income taxes, etc) are the only things they don't accept it for... and there are plans underway to change that.
It's a great system -- to be honest, I've always wondered why on earth they couldn't adopt something similar (or even the same system, to make things easy) in the USA. -- - Sean
Re:I'll use paper for now, thanks.
on
Beaming Money
·
· Score: 1
Hmmm... and this thing is theoretically intended for WinCE machines...?
Heh... OTOH, this could be good. Let's say someone big... big and important... has just received a nice large - ummm - payment, and Windows crashes...
Ok, so I'm sure there are a few holes in that scenario, but it's a nice thought:-) -- - Sean
Re:A new way to rob people
on
Beaming Money
·
· Score: 1
Jeez... it was a joke!!
Didn't you notice the rating comment? aka: 3: Funny??
That's why it was rated up... not because of anything else. -- - Sean
> 5) the diary of the people at UNLV who sent the first data packets over the phone line. ("we typed an 'L' in 'login', and UCLA got it. We then typed the 'O', and the computer crashed")
Hehe... that sounds priceless... where would one be able to find said diary? -- - Sean
> This is interesting but way too hypothetical and speculative; as you say, an unlikely scenario. Would not likelier scenarios be more interesting -- such as the fact the the continued use of the GPL disperses the power from the computing elite to computing newcomers, thus making computer technology have a more democratic basis? That is much more likely to happen and fortunately makes for a better society.
I'm obviously not the original AC here!:-)
But anyways. Yes, I'm sure that is a more likely scenario, but empires fall most quickly when their leaders concentrate on the good and ignore the bad.
I'm not saying that the Open-Source/Free Software (OS/FS) movement is an empire, but the basic idea still applies. And when one is decentralized as much as we are, everyone is a leader, or at least a potential one.
If we only look at the future through the proverbial rose-coloured glasses, then if something unexpected happens, such as what our friendly neigbourhood AC has proposed, we are up shit creek without a paddle, so to speak.
The best offense is a good defense. If we at least consider all the things that could possibly "go wrong," rather than dismissing them offhand as "hypothetical and speculative," then if, horror of horrors, one of them does occur, we will be at least a bit prepared for it, and have some idea of what to do.
Maybe not a concrete plan, but better than nothing.
It is everyone's responsibility who wants to see the OS/FS movement succeed and blossom to at least consider unpleasant outcomes, no matter how unlikely. That way, if the unlikely becomes inevitable, we may have someone with an idea of how to head it off.
Oh, and FYI: the weekly HL sessions are the only time I use either (in windoze... I haven't even installed the Linux drivers for them to use for the rest of the week).
FYI, I have the equipment. An ESS with 500-watt subwoofer, and a Voodoo3-2000PCI. I play Half-Life at a LAN party that is scheduled every weekend. I know what the difference is.
I also hnow what it was like before I shelled out the bux, and I know I wasn't missing much. -- - Sean
Slashdot Mirror
"Da. Am thinkink of carbonated borscht for lonk nights of coding."
--
- Sean
--
- Sean
> Actually, I believe that the Soviets also placed several cosmonauts on the moon.
!?!?!????????!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!?
--
- Sean
Yes, I also recall seeing the "Just Kidding!" disclaimer.
But I also live in Canada. Hmmmmmm.......
--
- Sean
> What you've said could have been said in fewer words.
Yup... one word, in fact:
Progress
--
- Sean
MP3's have survived for this long without any "corporate interests"... what makes you think that just because the market doesn't grow, that MP3 will "be taken down"?
Have I missed something here?
--
- Sean
> Do I not have the right to record it off TV?
No, as a matter of fact, you don't. Sorry!
--
- Sean
> (not talking about simple webtv things here)
DUH! What the hell do you think these things are? The are just faster WebTV's with somewhat better resolution and the ability to do java.
--
- Sean
Which is why you won't be buying this computer.
It's aimed at my grandmother who would like to be able to talk to her grandkids over this here new fancy email thing 'cause they never phone any more.
It's aimed at my brother who wants to get the latest sports scores at espn.com, but otherwise has no use for a computer. Like, whatever!
It's aimed at people who probably don't use a sound card, ethernet connection, external CPU, etc, etc, etc. at all, let alone care whether or not they can get a third-party one that isn't built into the motherboard.
It's not aimed at anyone who reads Slashdot regularly, that's for damn sure!
And that includes you.
--
- Sean
> This would be a Bad Thing(TM).
Would it, really?
I'm sure that there would be more than one company running these "netserver-apps"... with competition like that, we could watch for the prices getting very low very fast.
You'd probably see stuff like:
Well... okay, maybe not quite, but you get the gist. Comapnies would make a killing off of stuff like that due to multiple clients, and yet when you get right down to it, the end-user would probably end up paying less than today (compare $5 per month to $500+ every couple of years to buy the software yourself (don't forget the upgrades!)). Simple economies of scale.
And given that the primary OS'es will be Open Sourced (in this hypothetical future), I see no reason why the Application Servers shouldn't be as well.
Hell, if you're really concerned about the cost, you can shell out a bit of money up-front and run your own.
*shrug*
Call me an idealist, but I actually see that situation as much preferable to what exists today.
--
- Sean
I think you missed something there. It's not being implemented on a state-by-state basis. If you read the article, it clearly mentions:
It won't matter what any one particular state has voted for, the same law will apply everywhere.
--
- Sean
Umm... I was under the impression that Red Hat, in fct, was turning a (small) profit...
--
- Sean
IPO: Initial Price Offering (I think). When the stock for a certain company first goes on the market, this is the price it is announced at. It is usually held for a little while (a couple of days or so), and only those people who are eligible are allowed to buy it at this time. Then it gets released to the public. At this point, the price usually shoots up very rapidly, so anyone who bought at IPO makes a lot of money very quickly (before the general public gets a chance).
CEO: Chief Executive Officer. The guy who makes all the top-level financial decisions in a company. Responsible for employing just about everyone else (including the president, etc...).
--
- Sean
Okokok. I bow before the all-knowing relater of The Jargon File...
:-)
D'oh!
I should RTFM more often so that I know of what I speak...
--
- Sean
1. Gold-pressed latinum. A DS9 (I think) episode where Quark (again, I think) mentions something about the sheer brilliance of taking something worthless, like gold, pressing it into valuable latinum, a process which is hard to duplicate, and thereby making it a good form of currency.
2. STIV: The Voyage Home. The pizza parlour... who's gonna pay for the pizza? Dr. Whatzerface: "And I guess they don't have money in the 23rd Century, either." Kirk: "Well, they don't."
--
- Sean
Ummm... my understanding of vapourware was that it refers to a software project that gets abandoned before it is completed/released.
Just because something is not available yet (ie: before they said it would be) does not mean that it's vapourware. If it never becomes available, then it is vapourware.
Until they say they're abandoning it, or until the release date hits without them saying/releasing anything, it's simply "under development".
I mean, by your argument, Linux 2.4 is vapourware. Huh??? No, it's not! It's just not finished yet.
--
- Sean
> Citibank (and some other big bank, I think) tried a pilot (sorry) program on the Upper West Side of Manhattan a year ago or so. They replaced our ATM cards with "smart cards" that could hold cash, and got a bunch of vendors in the neighborhood to install readers. The smart card came with a little reader that would show you your current balance as well as your last few transactions.
/what/ the purchase was. And it offers pretty much instant transactions; a few seconds and it's over. It's pretty close to being crack-proof; about the only way would be to tamper with one of the machines in advance... but they sit along-side the cash registers, so you might as well tamper with that and take the money directly, especially since any Interac transfer is logged.
That sort of system has been in place all across Canada for several years now (like about 7 or 8). I's called Interac.
The only thing you mentioned that we don't have are the little readers.
Every single bank and credit union in Canada (there are 5 big banks, a handful of small ones, and a zillion credit unions) is in on the Interac system.
It's basically an ATM (bank) card that can be used for purchasing. Pretty much any store in Canada, from McDonalds to the international airports, to little mom-and-pop corner store, to the big department stores (Sears, etc) accept them.
You can pay for your purchases directly with the card; no signing anything, all you have to do is input a single 4-number PIN. The money, if available, gets debited directly and instantly from your account.
A couple bank machines also offer the option of transferring money directly to someone else's Interac account, similar to what this Confinity thing does (except that you can't carry it with you).
Sure, the bank knows where you made the purchase, when and how much, but that's it. They don't know
Like I said, it's been in place here since the early 90's, and is immensely popular. I don't have the exact figures on-hand but something like 30%-40% of all purchases nationwide last year were made over Interac, and it's growing by 10% plus per year.
Since every single banking institution in the country is involved, you don't have to be a customer of any one particular bank or have a special ATM card or anything. Any old one will do.
And, there are really only a very few (probably under 5%) stores/restaurants/whatever that don't take it. Even the government takes it for pretty much anything. I think taxes (Income taxes, etc) are the only things they don't accept it for... and there are plans underway to change that.
It's a great system -- to be honest, I've always wondered why on earth they couldn't adopt something similar (or even the same system, to make things easy) in the USA.
--
- Sean
Hmmm... and this thing is theoretically intended for WinCE machines...?
:-)
Heh... OTOH, this could be good. Let's say someone big... big and important... has just received a nice large - ummm - payment, and Windows crashes...
Ok, so I'm sure there are a few holes in that scenario, but it's a nice thought
--
- Sean
Jeez... it was a joke!!
Didn't you notice the rating comment? aka: 3: Funny??
That's why it was rated up... not because of anything else.
--
- Sean
That's cause that's pretty much what they are... foam mock-ups. Wanna see some more realistic pics (of an actual metal-and-plastic model)?
http://www.funtime-world.de/beri cht/woa240799.html
--
- Sean
> 5) the diary of the people at UNLV who sent the first data packets over the phone line. ("we typed an 'L' in 'login', and UCLA got it. We then typed the 'O', and the computer crashed")
Hehe... that sounds priceless... where would one be able to find said diary?
--
- Sean
> This is interesting but way too hypothetical and speculative; as you say, an unlikely scenario. Would not likelier scenarios be more interesting -- such as the fact the the continued use of the GPL disperses the power from the computing elite to computing newcomers, thus making computer technology have a more democratic basis? That is much more likely to happen and fortunately makes for a better society.
:-)
I'm obviously not the original AC here!
But anyways. Yes, I'm sure that is a more likely scenario, but empires fall most quickly when their leaders concentrate on the good and ignore the bad.
I'm not saying that the Open-Source/Free Software (OS/FS) movement is an empire, but the basic idea still applies. And when one is decentralized as much as we are, everyone is a leader, or at least a potential one.
If we only look at the future through the proverbial rose-coloured glasses, then if something unexpected happens, such as what our friendly neigbourhood AC has proposed, we are up shit creek without a paddle, so to speak.
The best offense is a good defense. If we at least consider all the things that could possibly "go wrong," rather than dismissing them offhand as "hypothetical and speculative," then if, horror of horrors, one of them does occur, we will be at least a bit prepared for it, and have some idea of what to do.
Maybe not a concrete plan, but better than nothing.
It is everyone's responsibility who wants to see the OS/FS movement succeed and blossom to at least consider unpleasant outcomes, no matter how unlikely. That way, if the unlikely becomes inevitable, we may have someone with an idea of how to head it off.
To ignore this is dangerous.
--
- Sean
I agree totally with what you're saying... and it just hit me...
Once you refine that a bit, you're saying that the best collection of documents on the development of the Internet is the internet itself.
--
- Sean
Oh, and FYI: the weekly HL sessions are the only time I use either (in windoze... I haven't even installed the Linux drivers for them to use for the rest of the week).
I'm still not sure it was worth the $$.
--
- Sean
Bzzzt! Thank you for playing!
FYI, I have the equipment. An ESS with 500-watt subwoofer, and a Voodoo3-2000PCI. I play Half-Life at a LAN party that is scheduled every weekend. I know what the difference is.
I also hnow what it was like before I shelled out the bux, and I know I wasn't missing much.
--
- Sean