One of my favorite eco-alarmist screeches. You paraphrased it nicely:
Fissionables are out, not only is it unreasonably dangerous but we don't have anywhere near enough uranium to provide the 10 terawatts/year our world now consumes
Several missing(ed) points. First, when do fissionables become reasonably dangerous? Probably about the time the North East finishes draining our strategic oil reserves for heating next winter. It also seems that fossil fuels are rapidly becoming unreasonably dangerous. Second, uranium is not the only fissionable available. Third, what's so dangerous anyway? Modern reactors and fuel plants are cleaner than coal mines. How much carbon-ash do you want to bury and that is compared to how much waste from nuclear fuels?!?!?
Overall, in the long run I've got to bet on fusion if I have to stick to Earth based resources only. If we are allowed to mine space resources, then solar power from orbiting stations becomes much more attractive. I'd say that's a good reason to esablish a viable space based segment of the economy.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
...toward taking the music out of the "industry" by being a filter and publishing the results. If everyone would go to mp3.com and download a couple of tunes a day, or even per week, listen to them and make note of the ones that they like, then publish that data, tell their friends, email them a song you like, with name of band, contact info, etc. the transformation would be explosive.
A couple of friends and I are currently working on a sideline "local vocals" website to support any local musician. Want to go to a bar? Check the gig schedule, download a sample tune(cover or original) and pick and choose. Then show up, have a brew and drop a tip in their jar. The bar makes money, the band makes money, you get a good time, and no online money handling or "song buying" is required.
This whole scene is new, immature, and completely chaotic. There will be a bunch of ideas tried and some might work. The nice thing is, that even if a lot fail, some *will* work.
But until they put the serial number scanner into the checkout lane, your bills will be mixed with all the others at the grocery store. All they'll know is that you spent somewhere between X-20 and X dollars there. Just keep stirring things up by exchanging those 20's with all of your friends.
I guess we could eventually retreat to those "gold" $1 coins.
Your anonymous shopper loyalty card does not hide you if you use other forms of electronic payment AKA credit/debit cards to execute your purchase.
First stick your ATM card in the machine at the bank, near work, or near home(because such trace data is useless, as they already know where you live, work, and where the bank is). Then pay cash.
As far as the ISDN bit goes, having a dedicated phone number that happens to be dedicated to a modem is wonderful fun for telemarketers I'm sure. Of course the real purpose of my extra line is roaming 'net access...
Anyway, it seems that many more of us are building aliases. I have a "real" phone number and a junk phone number, real email address and junk address, real userid/browser that has only been seen making purchases, another for surfing, my extended family and several friends proxy through my box via junkbuster just to help clutter the IP/cookie map, how long will these demographic databases be perceived to have any value?
...'till you learn, or until I grow weary(probably the latter).
The only reason that most operating systems exist is to provide utilities to applications. Part of that utility is resource management. There is no scheduling and no management on a single task, single cpu system and indeed on systems like that, there is often little or no os. All there is is initialization code and app. Once setup, it runs. The os per se is irrelevant. The same applies to multi-tasking single cpu systems under light(aka single task) load. The os is there to provide utility, not efficiency. Why else is there such a thing as WinXX?
This can be extrapolated without much difficulty to a 32 task, 32 cpu system. Once setup, it runs. The OS is there to provide utilities like file systems, network drivers, queues and such. It does not constantly schedule the running processes around from cpu to cpu as this would be extremely inefficient, wasteful of cycles and cpu cache having to constantly flush and refill. It is much better to set the app up and let it go uninterrupted. If the os or app needs interrupts, let one cpu handle them, the others continue running. If there are many different types of interrupts, spread them across the cpus so that each gets one interrupt type, and appropriately one task. The likelyhood of having both app and interrupt code in cache is greatly increased. Once again, once set up, the os is out of the way and irrelevant, or should be. Hell, it's likely most of the OS will be swapped out anyway. It can't make much of a difference if it never runs. Believe me, a box such as this will never see your normal ps ax output of Quake, sendmail, 5 of apache, ftpd, sshd, X, java, identd, oracle8i, netscape, mutt, 5 xterms, 6 copies of bash, and your favmp3encoder, blablabla all at the same time. It might see something equivalent to 32 copies of seti@home, the distributed.net client, or one copy of oracle all of which you'll note run with very high efficiency on *any* smp capable os.
Only in semi-random high load multi-tasking systems where resources are constantly being allocated, released, and re-allocated and multiple tasks are queued up and waiting on those resources does the actual resource management, including cpu scheduling efficiency, of the os play a part. Unfortunately for folks that want to get the most out of their systems, this is just the type of environment where most low end smp boxes live and thus, the efficiency (or lack) of the os and the hardware limits such as bus bandwidth are very important and generally quite apparent.
Last but not least do the arithmetic. Even if the the app is a dynamic, high load system as above, if the cpu spends one thousandth of its time running the os code, how much difference does it make to the app if the os suddenly becomes one half as efficient? How much difference does it make if the OS becomes twice as efficient?
...that if the app never or rarely makes system calls, and the hardware provides enough resources (ie 32 fast procs, a dozen NICs, and loads of memory) so that the app(s) are not in contention with each other, then the os is not involved. The hardware architecture becomes much more important, ie does the bus have enough bandwidth, cache snooping, etc.?
The only situation where the os has influence is when there are context switches, or multiple processes contending for limited resources of other types. Even then if the app consumes 99.9999% of the CPU, suppose I come along with an OS that's half as efficient. Now the app gets 99.9998% of the CPU and what does that do to the throughput of my app? Diddly.
If my app spends all of its time in loops calculating matrix values it does not care if the os even exists. It could just as well have been booted straight from the ROM. There is no support required. OTOH, if my app needs such things as virtual memory, swap space, multiple tasks waiting for the same proc, etc. then the efficiency of the os DOES make a difference.
I'm willing to bet that a 32 proc, 256GB, 8 NIC, 8 FC, 4 SCSI chain box was built with a particular purpose in mind, not just on a whim as in "Oh, I'll take the 128MB SDRAM since it only costs $1 per meg...". Try 31 or 32 simultaneously active processes or threads, each with a working data set size of ~4GB or so. Throw in a net across all processes box-to-box bandwidth that needs some combo of 8 fiberchannel devices, some 600-800Mb over 8 NICs, and disk i/o needs that are just too much for 3 chains, right around 4, and not enough to justify 5 hosts. Otherwise there would be fewer or more procs, more or less RAM, NICs, FCs and SCSI cards. Even rich people don't throw around >$500K on a whim. They also will not toss Linux in there just for the fun of it. The gov might, but then they know it's not their money that they're spending.
...on the application. In many massive computationally intense applications, the OS is effectively irrelevant since 99.99999% of the CPU time is spent in the app and not doing system calls. Wanna do a fusion bomb simulation? How about weather? Just what kind of system resources does an app like that need? They need CPU and memory. Does this box have a lot of both? Semaphores? No. Pipes? Yes, but they're static and setup at the start. File I/O only happens at start and finish. After all that they've still got multiple NICs and SCSI cards.
...drop the insurance and buy a bond. It's totally up to you.
The statistics, IMO, should only be a starting point. Every year millions of kids start driving and get their licenses. There is no history for them, nor was there when you started driving. There are statistics that have been collected from previous years and whether you like them or not, they are valid for what they measure. They measure that thousands of those kids crash.
Now, just imagine that you are an insurance company. In a fashion, someday you will be if you ever have any kids. Do you start a brand new, inexperienced and young driver out with the best, lowest rates? Do you do this when all of driving history shows that other kids *like*that*one* are a much more expensive and certainly warrant higher rates? Of course not, otherwise you'd go broke paying all of those bills.
>Um, and blacks are more violent than whites. I
>have statistics to prove such.
Unfortunately, no one is required to buy insurance of their own good behavior, so this particular statitistic is irrelevant.
>I'd just like to be judged on what i've done.
>Regardless of how you decide to classify my
>gender, race, age, or fucking style.
Don't worry, eventually you will be. The problem is when you are young, you haven't done anything.
So...you are judged by your contemporaries.
>This `woman driver` crap is segregating and
>offensive. I haven't done anything and neither
>have females.
What the hell are you talking about? What woman driver crap? It is a feature of our CULTURE that men, especially young ones, drive more than women. When was the last time that a female took a male on a date? You know, asked him out, drove the car, paid the *whole* bill? Males engage in this behavior much more than females. How many SAH moms are there compared to SAH dads? It's cultural. Driving is just a part of it, and since men drive more, they are greater risks especially when they are young and inexperienced.
OTOH, since they get more experience, they get better and become lesser risks than women as they get older. Realize these are all generalizations.
>You're born a certain way and I
>dislike any company that discriminates upon what
>I can't (and do not want to) change.
Sorry bud, but here's a taste of reality. People will judge you on such triviality as the way that you look. Learn to deal with it. Stereotypes exist for one reason and that is that they work. It is natural for your brain to generalize. Any intelligent person will recognize this and thus be able to reduce the number of errors that they would make if they relied entirely on stereotypes. Just because they aren't perfect doesn't mean that they are "bad". They are reality.
No problems here. SWBell actually made the install *ahead* of schedule. Back in April I was certainly surprised to get a call one morning from a tech asking if he could come out now rather than the scheduled date 2 weeks later... I am officially beyond the distance limit, but I still get 440K down and 130K up.
SWBell provides transport. August.net provides bandwidth. No problems. Everyone that I talked to knew what "Linux" was. For $23 I got the bronze metered at 3GB each way per month including a static IP. I've never gone over 85% of that even when I half-assed tried. 3GB is a lot of web surfing. No special limits on services I can run or anything else. Overall, no big problems, good service. Had ~3 hours of downtime on a Sunday night. I called and reported. It was up when I woke up Monday morning. Got a call from a tech about an hour later that wanted to know if he could take the line down to do some more tests. It seems the LIU was making errors and he wanted to check it out. Go ahead I said...
>Also, how is the increased amount males have to
>pay explained? That seems like that could be sex
> discrimination
It's actually pretty clear. Males do more driving than females. They also do more driving with "company" in the car to distract them. Then there's the obvious(if you've been there) change in behavior and attitude when males, on average, turn 25. They start getting married, hormones start fading, they start having thoughts about a career, start accumulating material wealth and appreciating the effort it took to acquire. IOW, they start taking fewer risks with their lives and property.
Yes, there are those that drive more safely earlier and some later. That is why I think that insurance should simply be more personal. Do you or I have a good record? If so, then we should get much better rates. OTOH, if one of us makes a mistake, or in some fashion exhibits risky or careless behavior, the rate hike should be higher.
It works great and it doesn't take a lot of your time. Once you've got it configured to your preferences and naming setup, you just insert the CD, verify that the online database has the name and tracks and then you leave it alone. Go do something else until it starts playing the music off of the CD. Then put in the next...
It's almost as easy as watching the Olympics and drinking beer at the same time.
Whether ANYBODY actually read it. The person that submitted it, the/. reviewer (timothy?) that supposedly checked it out, the rest of these posters above.
All you have to do to get a clue is look at the frigging URL.
They want something for nothing. Rather than do the legwork themselves and hunt down each and every pirate out there, they turn to the universities and expect help for free. If they want the universities to do them a service such as set up or restrict their 'net services in whatever manner that M&D prefer, they should at least offer to pay for it.
Hell, have it change channels! The ultimate in couch potatoism. You don't even need a remote to skip commercials! You could set up a cue(!) as well. Perhaps you'd like to see that cool commercial with the chainsaw slasher that everyone's talking about, but don't want to spend all evening attached to the tv? Set up your pc and vcr and let it record when it gets the Nike tones.
Eewww, the bad side is I doubt that the political folks will catch on so they won't have the tones and then we'd get programming+politicoBS+programming+politicoBS... that would be tough to watch.
>Thanks to the test though, they now know the
>figures neccessary to maximize profit, and they
>could give a shit about you. They just found out
>exactly how many people would pay what amount.
...there is something wrong with that?
As far as maximizing profit, that's what every business seeks to do. It always involves curtailing something. If it is true that discarding part of their potential market is the way to maximize their profit, I don't have any quarrel with that.
There are always certain customers that will feel that the price for whatever item(whatever it might be and whichever method was used to derive it) is too high.
...it won't be a test. It will simply be a new "pricing policy". Do take note that they did not publish the goals of the test, nor the results.
The end result is the same. If they raise their prices(for me) enough, I will go to a competitior. If their competitor does the same, I'll go back to the local store and pay cash.
...the ihttp part any way, but the www.blablabla.upyours part is completely legit.;-) It requires no changes to your user software at all. Only some nameservers need some config info.
Otherwise, for the ihttp/iftp stuff you'd have to have a plugin or something to support the new naming/whatever protocol. Just like https, or ssh plugins for http or telnet programs. You can of course invent your own protocol, call it whatever you want, make a plugin, and hand it out. Whether people use it or not is another question;-(
Other than that, there might be some things you can do in the MIME setup stuff that would make it work. Perhaps you can try to add a setup to your mime/application junk that causes ihttp: to be handled just like http: or something like that. Could be fun to fool around and make up some funky URLs.
...then folks will simply start up their own "name lookup system" that is independent of the current DNS setup.
Build it on freenet, submit an RFC that defines a new class of URL, say ihttp, iftp, or blabla.com.i, etc. for "independent" or whatever. There is no rule that precludes a complete "shadow" or parallel naming system from being constructed.
You and I can do this today. Set up a new root server, using different ports than the defaults for named, patch bind to first check the alt-dns database servers and if the name is not found there, check the "real-dns".
There are lots of possibilities and none of them are "regulated".
They are hardware. So is my disk spinning device.
They both shine lights on stuff and have detectors that pick up the reflections. There is also software for both that takes the reflections as input and makes patterns on the screen dependent upon the input.
I don't have a "player"
I don't have a "license"
I have some software that takes the reflected light patterns as input and makes images and sounds. It was not produced by the same company that produced the disk or the hardware that spins it.
Getting a clue?
I'm not violating any license agreement.
I'm not revealing any trade secrets.
I'm not defeating any access control mechanism.
I'm not pirating copyrighted works.
Slashdot Mirror
One of my favorite eco-alarmist screeches. You paraphrased it nicely:
Fissionables are out, not only is it unreasonably dangerous but we don't have anywhere near enough uranium to provide the 10 terawatts/year our world now consumes
Several missing(ed) points. First, when do fissionables become reasonably dangerous? Probably about the time the North East finishes draining our strategic oil reserves for heating next winter. It also seems that fossil fuels are rapidly becoming unreasonably dangerous. Second, uranium is not the only fissionable available. Third, what's so dangerous anyway? Modern reactors and fuel plants are cleaner than coal mines. How much carbon-ash do you want to bury and that is compared to how much waste from nuclear fuels?!?!?
Overall, in the long run I've got to bet on fusion if I have to stick to Earth based resources only. If we are allowed to mine space resources, then solar power from orbiting stations becomes much more attractive. I'd say that's a good reason to esablish a viable space based segment of the economy.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
...toward taking the music out of the "industry" by being a filter and publishing the results. If everyone would go to mp3.com and download a couple of tunes a day, or even per week, listen to them and make note of the ones that they like, then publish that data, tell their friends, email them a song you like, with name of band, contact info, etc. the transformation would be explosive.
A couple of friends and I are currently working on a sideline "local vocals" website to support any local musician. Want to go to a bar? Check the gig schedule, download a sample tune(cover or original) and pick and choose. Then show up, have a brew and drop a tip in their jar. The bar makes money, the band makes money, you get a good time, and no online money handling or "song buying" is required.
This whole scene is new, immature, and completely chaotic. There will be a bunch of ideas tried and some might work. The nice thing is, that even if a lot fail, some *will* work.
But until they put the serial number scanner into the checkout lane, your bills will be mixed with all the others at the grocery store. All they'll know is that you spent somewhere between X-20 and X dollars there. Just keep stirring things up by exchanging those 20's with all of your friends.
I guess we could eventually retreat to those "gold" $1 coins.
Your anonymous shopper loyalty card does not hide you if you use other forms of electronic payment AKA credit/debit cards to execute your purchase.
First stick your ATM card in the machine at the bank, near work, or near home(because such trace data is useless, as they already know where you live, work, and where the bank is). Then pay cash.
>I've mostly scanned empty beer containers
Excellent idea!
As far as the ISDN bit goes, having a dedicated phone number that happens to be dedicated to a modem is wonderful fun for telemarketers I'm sure. Of course the real purpose of my extra line is roaming 'net access...
Anyway, it seems that many more of us are building aliases. I have a "real" phone number and a junk phone number, real email address and junk address, real userid/browser that has only been seen making purchases, another for surfing, my extended family and several friends proxy through my box via junkbuster just to help clutter the IP/cookie map, how long will these demographic databases be perceived to have any value?
...'till you learn, or until I grow weary(probably the latter).
The only reason that most operating systems exist is to provide utilities to applications. Part of that utility is resource management. There is no scheduling and no management on a single task, single cpu system and indeed on systems like that, there is often little or no os. All there is is initialization code and app. Once setup, it runs. The os per se is irrelevant. The same applies to multi-tasking single cpu systems under light(aka single task) load. The os is there to provide utility, not efficiency. Why else is there such a thing as WinXX?
This can be extrapolated without much difficulty to a 32 task, 32 cpu system. Once setup, it runs. The OS is there to provide utilities like file systems, network drivers, queues and such. It does not constantly schedule the running processes around from cpu to cpu as this would be extremely inefficient, wasteful of cycles and cpu cache having to constantly flush and refill. It is much better to set the app up and let it go uninterrupted. If the os or app needs interrupts, let one cpu handle them, the others continue running. If there are many different types of interrupts, spread them across the cpus so that each gets one interrupt type, and appropriately one task. The likelyhood of having both app and interrupt code in cache is greatly increased. Once again, once set up, the os is out of the way and irrelevant, or should be. Hell, it's likely most of the OS will be swapped out anyway. It can't make much of a difference if it never runs. Believe me, a box such as this will never see your normal ps ax output of Quake, sendmail, 5 of apache, ftpd, sshd, X, java, identd, oracle8i, netscape, mutt, 5 xterms, 6 copies of bash, and your favmp3encoder, blablabla all at the same time. It might see something equivalent to 32 copies of seti@home, the distributed.net client, or one copy of oracle all of which you'll note run with very high efficiency on *any* smp capable os.
Only in semi-random high load multi-tasking systems where resources are constantly being allocated, released, and re-allocated and multiple tasks are queued up and waiting on those resources does the actual resource management, including cpu scheduling efficiency, of the os play a part. Unfortunately for folks that want to get the most out of their systems, this is just the type of environment where most low end smp boxes live and thus, the efficiency (or lack) of the os and the hardware limits such as bus bandwidth are very important and generally quite apparent.
Last but not least do the arithmetic. Even if the the app is a dynamic, high load system as above, if the cpu spends one thousandth of its time running the os code, how much difference does it make to the app if the os suddenly becomes one half as efficient? How much difference does it make if the OS becomes twice as efficient?
Something like:
Just say "No" to Windows.
...that if the app never or rarely makes system calls, and the hardware provides enough resources (ie 32 fast procs, a dozen NICs, and loads of memory) so that the app(s) are not in contention with each other, then the os is not involved. The hardware architecture becomes much more important, ie does the bus have enough bandwidth, cache snooping, etc.?
The only situation where the os has influence is when there are context switches, or multiple processes contending for limited resources of other types. Even then if the app consumes 99.9999% of the CPU, suppose I come along with an OS that's half as efficient. Now the app gets 99.9998% of the CPU and what does that do to the throughput of my app? Diddly.
If my app spends all of its time in loops calculating matrix values it does not care if the os even exists. It could just as well have been booted straight from the ROM. There is no support required. OTOH, if my app needs such things as virtual memory, swap space, multiple tasks waiting for the same proc, etc. then the efficiency of the os DOES make a difference.
I'm willing to bet that a 32 proc, 256GB, 8 NIC, 8 FC, 4 SCSI chain box was built with a particular purpose in mind, not just on a whim as in "Oh, I'll take the 128MB SDRAM since it only costs $1 per meg...". Try 31 or 32 simultaneously active processes or threads, each with a working data set size of ~4GB or so. Throw in a net across all processes box-to-box bandwidth that needs some combo of 8 fiberchannel devices, some 600-800Mb over 8 NICs, and disk i/o needs that are just too much for 3 chains, right around 4, and not enough to justify 5 hosts. Otherwise there would be fewer or more procs, more or less RAM, NICs, FCs and SCSI cards. Even rich people don't throw around >$500K on a whim. They also will not toss Linux in there just for the fun of it. The gov might, but then they know it's not their money that they're spending.
...on the application. In many massive computationally intense applications, the OS is effectively irrelevant since 99.99999% of the CPU time is spent in the app and not doing system calls. Wanna do a fusion bomb simulation? How about weather? Just what kind of system resources does an app like that need? They need CPU and memory. Does this box have a lot of both? Semaphores? No. Pipes? Yes, but they're static and setup at the start. File I/O only happens at start and finish. After all that they've still got multiple NICs and SCSI cards.
...drop the insurance and buy a bond. It's totally up to you.
The statistics, IMO, should only be a starting point. Every year millions of kids start driving and get their licenses. There is no history for them, nor was there when you started driving. There are statistics that have been collected from previous years and whether you like them or not, they are valid for what they measure. They measure that thousands of those kids crash.
Now, just imagine that you are an insurance company. In a fashion, someday you will be if you ever have any kids. Do you start a brand new, inexperienced and young driver out with the best, lowest rates? Do you do this when all of driving history shows that other kids *like*that*one* are a much more expensive and certainly warrant higher rates? Of course not, otherwise you'd go broke paying all of those bills.
>Um, and blacks are more violent than whites. I
>have statistics to prove such.
Unfortunately, no one is required to buy insurance of their own good behavior, so this particular statitistic is irrelevant.
>I'd just like to be judged on what i've done.
>Regardless of how you decide to classify my
>gender, race, age, or fucking style.
Don't worry, eventually you will be. The problem is when you are young, you haven't done anything.
So...you are judged by your contemporaries.
>This `woman driver` crap is segregating and
>offensive. I haven't done anything and neither
>have females.
What the hell are you talking about? What woman driver crap? It is a feature of our CULTURE that men, especially young ones, drive more than women. When was the last time that a female took a male on a date? You know, asked him out, drove the car, paid the *whole* bill? Males engage in this behavior much more than females. How many SAH moms are there compared to SAH dads? It's cultural. Driving is just a part of it, and since men drive more, they are greater risks especially when they are young and inexperienced.
OTOH, since they get more experience, they get better and become lesser risks than women as they get older. Realize these are all generalizations.
>You're born a certain way and I
>dislike any company that discriminates upon what
>I can't (and do not want to) change.
Sorry bud, but here's a taste of reality. People will judge you on such triviality as the way that you look. Learn to deal with it. Stereotypes exist for one reason and that is that they work. It is natural for your brain to generalize. Any intelligent person will recognize this and thus be able to reduce the number of errors that they would make if they relied entirely on stereotypes. Just because they aren't perfect doesn't mean that they are "bad". They are reality.
No problems here. SWBell actually made the install *ahead* of schedule. Back in April I was certainly surprised to get a call one morning from a tech asking if he could come out now rather than the scheduled date 2 weeks later... I am officially beyond the distance limit, but I still get 440K down and 130K up.
SWBell provides transport. August.net provides bandwidth. No problems. Everyone that I talked to knew what "Linux" was. For $23 I got the bronze metered at 3GB each way per month including a static IP. I've never gone over 85% of that even when I half-assed tried. 3GB is a lot of web surfing. No special limits on services I can run or anything else. Overall, no big problems, good service. Had ~3 hours of downtime on a Sunday night. I called and reported. It was up when I woke up Monday morning. Got a call from a tech about an hour later that wanted to know if he could take the line down to do some more tests. It seems the LIU was making errors and he wanted to check it out. Go ahead I said...
Dead on and waaaaayyyyy ahead of his time.
Lucky bastard didn't have to live to see his nightmares come true.
>Also, how is the increased amount males have to
>pay explained? That seems like that could be sex
> discrimination
It's actually pretty clear. Males do more driving than females. They also do more driving with "company" in the car to distract them. Then there's the obvious(if you've been there) change in behavior and attitude when males, on average, turn 25. They start getting married, hormones start fading, they start having thoughts about a career, start accumulating material wealth and appreciating the effort it took to acquire. IOW, they start taking fewer risks with their lives and property.
Yes, there are those that drive more safely earlier and some later. That is why I think that insurance should simply be more personal. Do you or I have a good record? If so, then we should get much better rates. OTOH, if one of us makes a mistake, or in some fashion exhibits risky or careless behavior, the rate hike should be higher.
It works great and it doesn't take a lot of your time. Once you've got it configured to your preferences and naming setup, you just insert the CD, verify that the online database has the name and tracks and then you leave it alone. Go do something else until it starts playing the music off of the CD. Then put in the next...
It's almost as easy as watching the Olympics and drinking beer at the same time.
Whether ANYBODY actually read it. The person that submitted it, the /. reviewer (timothy?) that supposedly checked it out, the rest of these posters above.
All you have to do to get a clue is look at the frigging URL.
They want something for nothing. Rather than do the legwork themselves and hunt down each and every pirate out there, they turn to the universities and expect help for free. If they want the universities to do them a service such as set up or restrict their 'net services in whatever manner that M&D prefer, they should at least offer to pay for it.
Hell, have it change channels! The ultimate in couch potatoism. You don't even need a remote to skip commercials! You could set up a cue(!) as well. Perhaps you'd like to see that cool commercial with the chainsaw slasher that everyone's talking about, but don't want to spend all evening attached to the tv? Set up your pc and vcr and let it record when it gets the Nike tones.
Eewww, the bad side is I doubt that the political folks will catch on so they won't have the tones and then we'd get programming+politicoBS+programming+politicoBS... that would be tough to watch.
It should be obvious since if I was, you wouldn't be seeing this post.
>Thanks to the test though, they now know the
>figures neccessary to maximize profit, and they
>could give a shit about you. They just found out
>exactly how many people would pay what amount.
...there is something wrong with that?
As far as maximizing profit, that's what every business seeks to do. It always involves curtailing something. If it is true that discarding part of their potential market is the way to maximize their profit, I don't have any quarrel with that.
There are always certain customers that will feel that the price for whatever item(whatever it might be and whichever method was used to derive it) is too high.
CT can definately spell.
Now we'll just have to start working on peel and its derivations.
...it won't be a test. It will simply be a new "pricing policy". Do take note that they did not publish the goals of the test, nor the results.
The end result is the same. If they raise their prices(for me) enough, I will go to a competitior. If their competitor does the same, I'll go back to the local store and pay cash.
Problem solved.
...the ihttp part any way, but the www.blablabla.upyours part is completely legit. ;-) It requires no changes to your user software at all. Only some nameservers need some config info.
;-(
Otherwise, for the ihttp/iftp stuff you'd have to have a plugin or something to support the new naming/whatever protocol. Just like https, or ssh plugins for http or telnet programs. You can of course invent your own protocol, call it whatever you want, make a plugin, and hand it out. Whether people use it or not is another question
Other than that, there might be some things you can do in the MIME setup stuff that would make it work. Perhaps you can try to add a setup to your mime/application junk that causes ihttp: to be handled just like http: or something like that. Could be fun to fool around and make up some funky URLs.
> We really need to put this on the front page,
> and not just for people who have found the YRO section.
Keep it off the front page. Notice how few trolls, FP!s, and other BS is evident here? It's like a return to the pre-moderation-good-ole-days.
...then folks will simply start up their own "name lookup system" that is independent of the current DNS setup.
Build it on freenet, submit an RFC that defines a new class of URL, say ihttp, iftp, or blabla.com.i, etc. for "independent" or whatever. There is no rule that precludes a complete "shadow" or parallel naming system from being constructed.
You and I can do this today. Set up a new root server, using different ports than the defaults for named, patch bind to first check the alt-dns database servers and if the name is not found there, check the "real-dns".
There are lots of possibilities and none of them are "regulated".
DVDs.
They are hardware. So is my disk spinning device.
They both shine lights on stuff and have detectors that pick up the reflections. There is also software for both that takes the reflections as input and makes patterns on the screen dependent upon the input.
I don't have a "player"
I don't have a "license"
I have some software that takes the reflected light patterns as input and makes images and sounds. It was not produced by the same company that produced the disk or the hardware that spins it.
Getting a clue?
I'm not violating any license agreement.
I'm not revealing any trade secrets.
I'm not defeating any access control mechanism.
I'm not pirating copyrighted works.