...they'd be better off improving the original image compression algorithm or coming up with a new one... Does anyone know what happened to fractal image format files (.fif) and why they never took off?
Well JPEG2000 has a wavelet based compression algorithm. The only question is whether JPEG2000 will ever actually get used on the net -- patents again of course, though it has an ISO publication apparently.
I wrote that Microsoft would make a bold run for video game leadership,
--> -1 vague prediction
I predicted that we'd see no major example of cyber-terrorism
--> +1 Insigtful. somewhat insightful but not a bold prediction
I wrote that spam would get worse,
--> -2 Obvious, long term trend
that there would be useless laws passed to stop it (Can-Spam, anyone?)
--> that was sort of a random crapshoot
and that Microsoft would propose proprietary technologies (Purported Responsible Address) in an attempt to take advantage of the situation and increase its power over the market. I was right, but fortunately the IETF shot down PRA.
--> Good prediction, but not suprising for MS
I predicted that all kinds of software companies would abandon support for older products,
--> -5 Stupidest prediction ever since it's been going on since the beginning of time.
risis in the Linux community thanks to the SCO threat, and that some new governing structure would emerge as a result.
--> Good prediction but not correct. Maybe over the next few years we'll see effects from SCO but not within a year.
I wrote that the SCO legal case against Linux would implode and it did.
--> Yup, it was always increasingly clear that it probably would.
I predicted that 2004 would be a critical year for streaming media. What I meant then was that Burst.com was going to beat Microsoft
--> nice try Bob with bringing Burst.com in here, but nothing big and public happened in streaming media. MPEG4 is moving forward however! Maybe we'll see some implementations ready for use this year!
I predicted that digital convergence would accelerate in 2004 with a rise in VoIP and broadband content, along with a bunch of mergers.
--> Also generally obvious, long term trend, though focusing on VoIP was very insightful! Certainly something to watch this year!
I said that U.S. IT would grow except for HP and Sun, and that Dell would start selling MP3 players and TVs, and that their stellar customer satisfaction numbers would suffer. I was right, right, right.
--> Yup.
I predicted that Cisco would maintain its market leadership in routers (correct)
--> that would take several years to erode
I said WiFi would continue to grow, but would still be lacking a business model.
--> Duh:) Easy.
Here is a contentious one. I wrote that IT outsourcing would become an issue in the 2004 Presidential race. One reader claims that's not the case, but since it was an important subject in two of the debates and in many Kerry speeches I think I was right.
--> I agree, it was an issue, but outsourcing in manufacturing as well and in general *ought* to have been bigger.
I wrote that touchscreen voting problems wouldn't resolved or improved, and I was right.
--> Yup, though it was looking pretty likely.
Finally, I wrote that Microsoft would settle tons of legal cases for cash, but that nothing would be learned from it by anyone. Three billion dollars later, I am absolutely correct.
Now to my predictions for 2005, which come in no particular order.
1) Microsoft's entry into the anti-virus and anti-spyware businesses will be a disaster for users. This is based on everything I know about Microsoft,
--> Certainly it's always very possible with MS, but they also get it right-- or good enough-- on many products. Likely they will buy some virus scanning product from some company (not Norton), and it will be OK, but other stuff will be better.
2) Carrying over from last year, I predict that Burst.com will beat Microsoft in their current lawsuit.
--> +1 Interesting. Excellent prediction, it could go either way I think-- interested to see what happens!
3) Apple will take a big risk in 2005.
--> This is so vague, it shoud be counted out entirely.
Howl is an implementation of ZeroConf (including MDNS-SD and IP self-assigning) that works on Mac, Linux and Windows. It currently includes some APSL code, but the author plans on removing that in the near future. (Then it will be under a BSD-like license)
The key phrases are "Joe Average is out there shopping for the latest Pentium III computer to do word processing, send e-mail, and play an occasional game of Solitaire" and "Back in the days of owning a Commodore"
The difference between now and Back In The Day, is that computers are a million times more powerful and a million times more complex. But in many cases that power and complexity goes to waste. What if Compaq/Gateqay/YourFavoriteComputerSeller put out a cheap, simple 100 Mhz machine with a super simple OS (open source, of course) and a bunch of great little apps and -- MOST IMPORTANTLY -- put the right marketing spin on it? I'd wager they'd have a bunch of rather happy customers.
The Phase III 90-Day Human Test ended on December 19, 1997. The crew completed 91 days in the chamber, setting the record for the longest duration human closed chamber test in the United States. The Advanced Life Support System (ALSS) concept is that a human life support system, supplying food, water, and oxygen can operate indefinitely in space without resupply from Earth. This system is open with respect to energy but closed with respect to mass. This means regenerative or recycling technologies must be used.
As part of the overall technology development effort, a series of tests have been scheduled called the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project (LMLSTP), formerly known as the Early Human Testing Initiative (EHTI). The first test, EHTI Phase I, was performed in August, 1995, in the 10 foot chamber, known as the Variable Pressure Growth Chamber, located in building 7B at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). The second test, LMLSTP Phase II, was performed in June, 1996, in a 20 foot chamber, known as the Life Support Systems Integration Facility, located in building 7 at JSC.
The LMLSTP Phase IIA, begun on January 13, 1997, was the third human test to validate regenerative life support technologies. This test used hardware representative of International Space Station, scheduled for first launch in 1998.
The Phase III 90-Day Human Test ended on December 19, 1997. The crew completed 91 days in the chamber, setting the record for the longest duration human closed chamber test in the United States. The Advanced Life Support System (ALSS) concept is that a human life support system, supplying food, water, and oxygen can operate indefinitely in space without resupply from Earth. This system is open with respect to energy but closed with respect to mass. This means regenerative or recycling technologies must be used.
As part of the overall technology development effort, a series of tests have been scheduled called the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project (LMLSTP), formerly known as the Early Human Testing Initiative (EHTI). The first test, EHTI Phase I, was performed in August, 1995, in the 10 foot chamber, known as the Variable Pressure Growth Chamber, located in building 7B at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). The second test, LMLSTP Phase II, was performed in June, 1996, in a 20 foot chamber, known as the Life Support Systems Integration Facility, located in building 7 at JSC.
The LMLSTP Phase IIA, begun on January 13, 1997, was the third human test to validate regenerative life support technologies. This test used hardware representative of International Space Station, scheduled for first launch in 1998.
On another front, it really seems to me that if all the sysadmins are pissed off at NSI, we could all start pointing our DNS's to an alternate root DNS server (maybe in addition to NSI). What, > exactly, is stopping us from doing this? Even if only half the sysadmins did it, the others would follow suit so as not to lose access to all those alternate domains.
You can set your pc's nameserver to one of namespace's, and get to sites such as http://black.hole, http://acronym.soup, http://b92.radio, http://babe.cam, and http://sperm.bank (as well as the boring old.coms,.nets,.edus et cetera.)
These new TLDs form a kind of half-there web underground. name.space has registered hundreds of new TLDs (Top Level Domains)... excessive quantity, maybe, but a cool idea.
Interestingly, their policy is to protect "whois" information of their clients.
The Name.Space project was begun in 1996 by a group of artists and net-workers who were concerned about threats to privacy and free speech, and increasing access costs brought about by the Network Solutions, Inc. monopoly control over the Domain Name System, and the general commercialization of the net.
Name.Space set out to provide fast, inexpensive domain name registration, and to set up new toplevel domains (TLDs) to increase choice and free expression that was otherwise lacking in the legacy monopoly situation, dominated by NSI. As a result, Name.Space implemented the first truly self-service and fully automated domain name registration system with secure online account management and client access to domain name data, and the first to allow "unlisted" domain information (billing contact is not disclosed, and other info may be restricted to protect the domain holder's privacy).
I found them one day when I idly typed " www.alternic.net" into netscape, and found a link to name.space. (the alternic page is currently "down for construction")
A fascinating idea, many small registration services. What it (possibly) destroys, is the idea that ALL domain names (and therefore internet resources) are accessible from everywhere, because of this monster global database (interNIC). The formation of many unregulated and unorganized registration services is the fragmentation, in some sense, of the internet, into many little niches and cliques. These many name spaces (to borrow name.space's name) might overlap, but still seem very distinct. Perhaps, however, this is necesary-- it would in many ways model other media and facets of society; perhaps this is a good thing, when the web is growing at the fantastic rate that it is.
Very interested in the ideas of the Slashdot Cyber-Futurologicists.
It certainly isn't a black and white world, and I think that the author of the US N & W R article realizes this, and I'm sure most of/. realizes this, but unfortunately you can only get so deep in a new article, particularly one like this, which must be general in order to make sense to it's audience, one not necesarily that knowlegeable about the subject.
I suppose it's inevitable that stronger and stronger countermeasure forces (like the ISS etc.) will emerge, but it ups the stakes. The "[Crack|Hack]er war", _like_all_wars_ can only escalate.
Only by getting more secure products out there, and/or educating admins, I think, can the hacking *problems*-- the really anoying (pointless web page defacing) and wicked harmful (destruction of important data, theft of cc #s)-- be reduced.
What hardware? A Rio-like device? Your CD player/cd-rom drive?
--
I'm afraid sloppy has a point. Let's drag M$ back into this; if Windows uses SDMI, has some sort of SDMI controls built in, and 99.9999999% of the personal computers in the world are running windows, well, forget it.
It's still possible to avoid SDMI, just most people won't want to, cause everyone else uses it.
Slashdot Mirror
Well JPEG2000 has a wavelet based compression algorithm. The only question is whether JPEG2000 will ever actually get used on the net -- patents again of course, though it has an ISO publication apparently.
Where can I get a little (800x600, 10-15 inch) touchscreen?
Just stack them in the corner!
I wrote that Microsoft would make a bold run for video game leadership,
:) Easy.
--> -1 vague prediction
I predicted that we'd see no major example of cyber-terrorism
--> +1 Insigtful. somewhat insightful but not a bold prediction
I wrote that spam would get worse,
--> -2 Obvious, long term trend
that there would be useless laws passed to stop it (Can-Spam, anyone?)
--> that was sort of a random crapshoot
and that Microsoft would propose proprietary technologies (Purported Responsible Address) in an attempt to take advantage of the situation and increase its power over the market. I was right, but fortunately the IETF shot down PRA.
--> Good prediction, but not suprising for MS
I predicted that all kinds of software companies would abandon support for older products,
--> -5 Stupidest prediction ever since it's been going on since the beginning of time.
risis in the Linux community thanks to the SCO threat, and that some new governing structure would emerge as a result.
--> Good prediction but not correct. Maybe over the next few years we'll see effects from SCO but not within a year.
I wrote that the SCO legal case against Linux would implode and it did.
--> Yup, it was always increasingly clear that it probably would.
I predicted that 2004 would be a critical year for streaming media. What I meant then was that Burst.com was going to beat Microsoft
--> nice try Bob with bringing Burst.com in here, but nothing big and public happened in streaming media. MPEG4 is moving forward however! Maybe we'll see some implementations ready for use this year!
I predicted that digital convergence would accelerate in 2004 with a rise in VoIP and broadband content, along with a bunch of mergers.
--> Also generally obvious, long term trend, though focusing on VoIP was very insightful! Certainly something to watch this year!
I said that U.S. IT would grow except for HP and Sun, and that Dell would start selling MP3 players and TVs, and that their stellar customer satisfaction numbers would suffer. I was right, right, right.
--> Yup.
I predicted that Cisco would maintain its market leadership in routers (correct)
--> that would take several years to erode
I said WiFi would continue to grow, but would still be lacking a business model.
--> Duh
Here is a contentious one. I wrote that IT outsourcing would become an issue in the 2004 Presidential race. One reader claims that's not the case, but since it was an important subject in two of the debates and in many Kerry speeches I think I was right.
--> I agree, it was an issue, but outsourcing in manufacturing as well and in general *ought* to have been bigger.
I wrote that touchscreen voting problems wouldn't resolved or improved, and I was right.
--> Yup, though it was looking pretty likely.
Finally, I wrote that Microsoft would settle tons of legal cases for cash, but that nothing would be learned from it by anyone. Three billion dollars later, I am absolutely correct.
Now to my predictions for 2005, which come in no particular order.
1) Microsoft's entry into the anti-virus and anti-spyware businesses will be a disaster for users. This is based on everything I know about Microsoft,
--> Certainly it's always very possible with MS, but they also get it right-- or good enough-- on many products. Likely they will buy some virus scanning product from some company (not Norton), and it will be OK, but other stuff will be better.
2) Carrying over from last year, I predict that Burst.com will beat Microsoft in their current lawsuit.
--> +1 Interesting. Excellent prediction, it could go either way I think-- interested to see what happens!
3) Apple will take a big risk in 2005.
--> This is so vague, it shoud be counted out entirely.
Howl is an implementation of ZeroConf (including MDNS-SD and IP self-assigning) that works on Mac, Linux and Windows. It currently includes some APSL code, but the author plans on removing that in the near future. (Then it will be under a BSD-like license)
The key phrases are "Joe Average is out there shopping for the latest Pentium III computer to do word processing, send e-mail, and play an occasional game of Solitaire" and "Back in the days of owning a Commodore"
The difference between now and Back In The Day, is that computers are a million times more powerful and a million times more complex. But in many cases that power and complexity goes to waste. What if Compaq/Gateqay/YourFavoriteComputerSeller put out a cheap, simple 100 Mhz machine with a super simple OS (open source, of course) and a bunch of great little apps and -- MOST IMPORTANTLY -- put the right marketing spin on it? I'd wager they'd have a bunch of rather happy customers.
i remember reading an article in wired about a year ago abour the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project.
from the LMLSTP Phase III home page:
wired article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.06/mars.html
LMLSTP index page: http://pet.jsc.nasa.gov/lmlstp.html
i remember reading an article in wired about a year ago abour the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project.
from the LMLSTP Phase III home page:
wired article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.06/mars.html
LMLSTP index page: http://pet.jsc.nasa.gov/lmlstp.html
rh
"Alert: misrepresentation of user agent may be a copyright violation"????
death to all copyright crap!
jsm writes:
check out name.space (www.namespace.org).
You can set your pc's nameserver to one of namespace's, and get to sites such as http://black.hole, http://acronym.soup, http://b92.radio, http://babe.cam, and http://sperm.bank (as well as the boring old .coms, .nets, .edus et cetera.)
These new TLDs form a kind of half-there web underground. name.space has registered hundreds of new TLDs (Top Level Domains)... excessive quantity, maybe, but a cool idea.
Interestingly, their policy is to protect "whois" information of their clients.
From the "about us" page of their site ( www.namespace.org/about/):
I found them one day when I idly typed " www.alternic.net" into netscape, and found a link to name.space. (the alternic page is currently "down for construction")
A fascinating idea, many small registration services. What it (possibly) destroys, is the idea that ALL domain names (and therefore internet resources) are accessible from everywhere, because of this monster global database (interNIC). The formation of many unregulated and unorganized registration services is the fragmentation, in some sense, of the internet, into many little niches and cliques. These many name spaces (to borrow name.space's name) might overlap, but still seem very distinct. Perhaps, however, this is necesary-- it would in many ways model other media and facets of society; perhaps this is a good thing, when the web is growing at the fantastic rate that it is.
Very interested in the ideas of the Slashdot Cyber-Futurologicists.
rh
which june 31? june 31, 1999 or june 31 2000 :) ?
White hats, black hats... what about Red Hats?
It certainly isn't a black and white world, and I think that the author of the US N & W R article realizes this, and I'm sure most of
I suppose it's inevitable that stronger and stronger countermeasure forces (like the ISS etc.) will emerge, but it ups the stakes. The "[Crack|Hack]er war", _like_all_wars_ can only escalate.
Only by getting more secure products out there, and/or educating admins, I think, can the hacking *problems*-- the really anoying (pointless web page defacing) and wicked harmful (destruction of important data, theft of cc #s)-- be reduced.
The RIAA is a cartel of big record companies.
Buy indie; Viva la Vinyl!!
rh
What hardware? A Rio-like device? Your CD player/cd-rom drive?
--
I'm afraid sloppy has a point. Let's drag M$ back into this; if Windows uses SDMI, has some sort of SDMI controls built in, and 99.9999999% of the personal computers in the world are running windows, well, forget it.
It's still possible to avoid SDMI, just most people won't want to, cause everyone else uses it.
rh