And now every single Linux user on the planet will chime in with their own expert opinion on this topic
But isn't that the point of slashdot?
I mean, this is a discussion forum, and most people here want to read and post.
Perhaps if that bugs you, you shouldn't read/., because that is what you will get alot of. For better or worse people are free to post here even if they aren't an expert.
Of course, just plugging in sections of work into a google search engine can produce interesting results....
Probably of more value would be to compare results this year with previous years submitted answers. Although there would be alot of people out there with PhD's who would be in trouble if this time honoured method of passing exams and assignments was cracked down on.
so somehow these Palm 3 components are going to run OSX and replace the iMac?
Perhaps you miss the point of my post.
Gamers are always going to want the latest, liquid cooled overclocked graphics chip.
A palm (for example) could surf the web easily, its main limitation is display size.
For alot of people, the sort of processing power here is more than enough to do word processing, web browsing, etc.
And yes, I think that the palm components do run the core of osx ok, which is a linux core. In fact, palm based linux PDA's are already available. They won't run the nice eye candy well. But then again, from what I have heard, neither does some of the iMacs - the nice stuff really chews up cpu cycles.
this would NOT work to build a computer on, at least not for many years. most computers get hot, and the ones that don't at least need a place to attach components that DO get hot- like the CPU, memory, graphics card, etc.
The heat generation is greater if you increase the voltage to drive it faster, and less if you reduce the size of the components, at least as far as CMOS technology goes.
But anyway, these are components which only recently have begun to run hot. Graphics cards only recently required fans, and CPU's didn't need active cooling until a couple of years ago. Passive cooling would work fine for alot of designs.
Best example - my Palm 3 orginiser. It runs just fine off 2 AAA batteries, which don't have enough power in them to make anything much hot for long anyway. Are you suggesting that my palm 3 isn't a real computer? This could be done today in terms of power consumption - I'm not just dreaming about what might be achieved one day if you can only shrink down the etch size enough.
yeah, steve jobs is the only person to ever do things with computers
I am not suggesting that its only Apple has a monopoly on design - I've never been a mac owner but that doesn't stop me respecting alot of their design.
Anyway, I'm thankful that he made USB happen by making the first legacy free computer (Note - I'm not saying he invented USB), that he got rid of the floppy drive, and a whole host of things - none of which were strictly speaking his inventions. But he did them anyway and everyone benefits, including PC users like myself.
This sort of technology could have a myriad of uses.
For example:
I can just see how Steve Jobs (who loves form with function) could use this type of technology to get away from the beige box a step further. You could print out the computer on the back of the screen, or into the monitor stand. Then again, he has almost done that with the new iMac's anyway.
PDA's could get alot smaller.
Also, it (presumably) gets away from alot of issues with size of circuits. Traditional intergrated circuits benefit from small size as they have not only use lower voltages and operate faster, but also have a lower likely hood of defects. Each silicon wafer may have a few pinpoint defects, but each one takes out the whole chip. Smaller chips mean a smaller percentage loss rate.
Presumably this technology is resistant to such faults (or it would be pretty useless at the sizes of sheets of newspaper). This could mean very large integrated circuits without the need for circuit boards as such. In other words, shrinking a whole motherboard down to a large integrated circuit.
While the current technology is still at a 10 micron stage, it could still have benefit if applied to the idea of printing a whole computer rather than just printing a CPU and soldering it in.
Also, I would presume that this is first generation technology, and should reduce below 10 microns fairly easily.
Well, if you assume the level of competence that is being stated here (a hacker clever enough to gain access to root and remount the hard disk drive as read-write when it was mounted as read only) then I reckon they would probably be competent to get around most of this sort of stuff. Heck, they might even wriggle their way into your CMOS and fix up the boot sequence.
As for getting a small hard drive - well my iso of smooth wall is 22 MB in size. I don't know where you can buy any 10 MB hard disk drives these days, but I'd say that I wouldn't trust any 10 MB HDD you could buy second hand.
Really, if you are that paranoid, boot from a write protected system by copying it all into a ram drive, have no HDD, and if you need log files, send them over a network to another system. If you are truly paranoid, you could probably even boot off the network from a read only mount. Then, even if your firewall is compromised, thats just the first step. And running from ram is alot faster than a CD ROM.
Theoretically, the read-only mounted harddrive could be remounted as read/write. I admit that this would be hard.
But it's theoretically impossible with a CDROM, as the media just won't cooperate.;)
Keep your logfiles on the HD. Nothing else really needs to be there.
So you have a hacker who could remount your hard drive as read/write, but you don't think that he could deal with a CR rom booting system?. So whats to stop him copying the CD rom files to the HDD, modifying them and just rebooting to a read/write HDD?
I mean, if you have that level of access, you own the system anyway, don't you?
If they can get control in a system that is read only, no matter how, you can regain control after a reboot anyway.
... the far side would be the dark side as far as you're concerned. The amount of radio crap we're spewing makes the work those guys are doing even more amazing, and sticking a robot observatory on the far side of a stable platform like Luna could produce some really cool results.
Yes. Although a manned post would be cooler:-). I suppose that is a bit of a way off - and I am sure the first manned post will be on the near side.
How are they going to communicate with the robot observatory?
Perhaps someone should reverse engineer the protocols used by these tools, and create a program for people to run, which sends random/garbage data back to the central server..
They encrypt the data sent using public key technology. Ironically it has made it hard for the RIAA to work out what is being done by whom without breaking the DMCA. The actual files are sent unencrypted P2P unfortunately.
Of course, a DOS attack probably could just send garbage to work. This is probably not the right way to deal with spyware, IMHO.
Does any file sharing program available today encrypt the actual files transmitted? Just wondering.
Similarly, whether you decide to use the right spelling does not depend on the weather. Speaking on slashdot is a privilege, not inherently a right. Bad spelling is adequate for previews, but not final submissions.
"...it is routine in MS OSes to download and execute unknown binaries..."
Uh, yeah... my copy of Windows does that all the time! All by itself, just for the heck of it... Now, seriously speaking, what the heck were you referring to?
I realise that this was intended sarcasm, but if you have win xp it does that - autoupdate. Unless you _trust_ microsoft, of course. Autoupdate acts in the background without notification by default (but not on my installations):(
Also, pretty much every program you download is binary only - eg., winamp. Several of them include spyware such as Kazaa. Your average user has no chance of knowing if this is happening. Programs only inform you of this if they are honest enough to do so.
For what it is worth, microsoft's definition of security (where XP gives each user an admin logon without a password by default - (again, not in my system):( is to lock the critical files away in folders which have system only access, not admin access. I'm sure your average/. reader knows how long it takes an administrator to give themselves access to a file or folder!:(
Oh well, if I could only find a linux version that 1)installed easily (must get mandrake 8.1). 2)runs windows software (must get vmware) and 3)handles USB mouses being hotplugged in and out of an X session (must learn how to code c++ and fix up the bloatware that X windows has become).
Since there is already a critical mass of carefull users on linux, programs that use more permissions that they need to can expect to receive flews of angry emails. Under w2k/xp, where most home users run in administrator, those that do not are less likely to complain. The end result is, windows software too often crashes and bugs up unless run as root.
Yes. Agree totally. Like my favourite game, Diablo II. Has to run as an administrator account under win 2000/xp. Don't ask me why. Its not even microsoft's fault for once. Just technical incompetence at blizzard north software, I guess.
(And yes, I do run it as admin (but not on my server - although I doubt that that would stop a concerted hack on the part of blizzard)
Groups are working on deafness too, it's not like everyone's doing eyes today. Rush Limbaugh has gone deaf and is trying a new surgery to regain his hearing.
There are many forms of deafness. It can be a conductive deafness - for example if the bones in your middle ear are broken or ossified. This is similar to but much worse than the way your hearing weakens if you don't pop your ears on a plane descent. This sort of deafness is easy to fix. Often amplifying the sound will help.
Then there is neural deafness, which can be in the cochlea (where the implants help) or directly in the acoustic nerve (such as when a tumour of the nerve - acoustic neuroma - has to be removed. It can also be developmental if you have never heard sounds, although in these people the brain seems to rewire the centres to other language such as signing.
These different forms of deafness will require different treatments.
The new eyeball described here wont help with certain forms blindness. Cortical blindness, due to a stroke of the brain centres processing vision, for example, isn't going to be helped by this.
Sure, many European socialist countries put nice padding on the bars, but they are still jails nonetheless. Which is why so many try and "break out" by coming to the US.
Actually, the first world country with the highest rate of imprisonment is? Probably the US. Thanks to the three strike rules the jail industry is one of the fastest growing there.
I'd certainly rather be a white European in a European jail than a black American (USA) on their third strike for stealing a pair of jeans. I know which one will get their freedom first. (Sorry, I'm biting a bit here, but...)
Sorry, a bit close to flamebait there. But seriously, have you ever been to these European countries? Do you even have a passport? (I'm told that the US has one of the lowest rates of passport ownership in the first world - something around 20% of the population).
There is a huge difference between economic models (capitalism vs socialism vs communism) and leadership models (democracy versus autocracy). What alot of people in the US don't get is that just because a country is or becomes democratic wont make them capitalist. For example, most democratic countries have free basic health care for all, and few voters will let that stop.
Anyway, regards open source in China - fantastic. The microsoft juggernaut shows exactly what the dark side of capitalism is like (and I am no communist, believe me). But unregulated dominant corporations cause problems which alot of people on/. would be well aware of.
It makes me think that if we find the cure for cancer, we find the key to immorality.
Its not that simple I think. (From memory I think I posted about this alot 2-3 months ago on/.)
You can rest assured that there are many ways to die other than cancer however. These include accidents and trauma (mean time to death many hundred years), infections (major cause of death before antibiotics), vascular disease (still the leading killer), alzheimers (a good 10-15% of those who live long enough), respiratory failure (we get about 150 years worth of lung function at birth, accelerated decline with smoking etc). Not to mention non lethal problems such as cataracts and lens failure (age related long sightedness - presbyopia), macular degeneration - and these things only send you blind.
Not that I would want to stop you hoping. I'm hoping too. Its just that I am starting to get a feel for how complex the whole problem is - our entire bodies were selected to get us to old age, which was probably mid 50's back when average life expectancy was in the mid 20's. And precious little lasts alot longer than that.
I do believe that most of these problems are technical in nature, however, and there is hope in that.
Fuck you can't be right on slashdot without some free market jackass thinking the internet is somehow going to solve everyone's problems.
I never suggested it was going to solve everyones problems. But it changes the relationshop between producer and consumer.
We already see software houses sell primarily over the internet. And yes, they do use middlemen, like the credit card agencies. I'm not suggesting otherwise.
But it will change the relationship between producer and consumer (already has in alot of areas). Record companies are fundamentally different in the way that they do business independent producers. (If they actually salaried workers like the software industry does, thats a little different, but I can't think of any musician who draws a salary as such from the industry).
If you want to tell the RIAA to fuck off you better have a better distribution model than merely saying "I'll promote my music over the internet".
Actually some bands do. But that is not what my argument is about so much. Its about the relationship of the consumer with the middleman that is at issue throughout this column. And in that we are arguing about the music industries ability to own (note writers don't sell their works to publishers, just a print run usually), and to distribute the music. An ability which new technology in the form of internet file sharing is threatening.
If you believe that this trend is going to stop, then fair enough, its your opinion. And yes, there will be middlemen. But you don't have to go to a software shop anymore to buy software, and you don't have to go to a music shop to get music. And you never will have to again, whether or not the RIAA gets control of internet distribution.
I can't understand the hostile reaction from you here, but possibily you are reading more into my postings than I am putting there.
No, Yes and No. For me anyway. If you asked a few million islamic people living in poverty, it might be no, no and yes. Probably flamebait material posting like this, but the point is that the question may not be as stupid as you think. It depends of the perspective of the person who provides the answer.
Having a middleman in the music business is always going to be inevitable. If you've ever worked on commission you'd understand why this is so. They can give an artist a 50k signing bonus so they don't have to go hungry whilst waiting for their music to sell.
Its not inevitable anymore. That is what scares the RIAA so much. Its not about free swapping (even they know that the CD's are still selling just fine in the stores) at the moment.
But the internet removes the need for most of the distribution mechanisms, and the profit that goes with that.
See, they don't offer 50K to everyone. Just people that they think will do ok, and who already have music. These people can now have their music on the net. If anyone comes up with a direct pay mechanism (and I bet you won't get that with tne new napster - it will all go through the RIAA), these people will already be getting money before the industry comes knocking on the door.
Its happening a little already - its pretty easy to master your own blank CD's. Interestingly the major labels canned a plan to allow record stores to mix and match songs and burn CD's about 10 years ago, when they realised that the record stores could then just bypass the industry and go direct to the artists.
Its alson not inevitable if you don't rely on recorded music sales for a living. Alot of bands that tour give away their music so that more people come to their live performances. They will never need a middle man for this.
mp3 has become the standard now - no arguments there I would think from anyone. (Ok, flame me if you want on that one).
The reason that.ogg won't take over is that mp3 is good enough. Just like CD's were good enough. They were built in a time when it was impractical to have decompressors of any power, and even the music players didn't have the displays to show the title and artist name mostly. Which is why we need gracenote (CDDB) now.
mp3's have limitations, sure. No digital rights management (so sad, that one). Poor compression algorithms. And so on. Of course, for their day the MP3 compression algorithm was quite processor intensive, its just that CPU's have gotten faster.
But a poor algorithm just means more disk space. Is that a problem? Well, no as disk spaces have improved alot. In fact, its getting to the stage where you wouldn't need to compress the music at all. An 80 GB HDD would hold about 120 CD's, uncompressed. You could almost argue that compression isn't necessary now. Except for the bandwith limitations on the internet, of course.
But mp3's are good enough to do the job. Sure, they need high bit rates to sound good. Is that an issue? If it was, would you ever buy a CD? As long as you can get your music to sound ok, you probably won't care.
Its good to have ogg there, as a backup in case there is a problem with royalties with mp3, but really I can't see anyone dumping mp3's in a hurry.
Even microsoft acknowledges this as it tries to subvert the movement with its wma architecture.
Microsoft might manage it, but only if they can offer something better (they managed this with internet explorer, failed with iis, and the court is out on the pocket pc). Restricting users isn't an improvement, and isn't going to get everyone to move over to wma. As those people who ripped to wma find out, its harder to get a good player for that format, even if it uses half the space.
The CD has been with us for a couple of decades, and isn't going anywhere mostly because its hard to do better. MP3 is going to be with us for at least a decade more, for exactly the same reason.
Just my $0.01 worth (Allowing for US/Aud exchange rates).
If I could invent a paper bill that could withstand 50 years of travel, exchange, and (well, let's face it) abuse, that was incredibly rip, tear, and wear resistant, could withstand repeated exposure to water, moisture, solvents, and other environmental nasties, it might not matter as much if the production cost per unit were ten times as much as the face value.
You are probably not aware that the Australian currency uses polymer technology:
http://www.rba.gov.au/Currency/
(and look at the polymer note technology section)
Which lasts about 4 times longer than paper notes. Not quite 50 years, but still a very long time. I don't think we have any plans to add chips, but its a very good technology.
Slashdot Mirror
And now every single Linux user on the planet will chime in with their own expert opinion on this topic
/., because that is what you will get alot of. For better or worse people are free to post here even if they aren't an expert.
But isn't that the point of slashdot?
I mean, this is a discussion forum, and most people here want to read and post.
Perhaps if that bugs you, you shouldn't read
Michael
Of course, just plugging in sections of work into a google search engine can produce interesting results....
Probably of more value would be to compare results this year with previous years submitted answers. Although there would be alot of people out there with PhD's who would be in trouble if this time honoured method of passing exams and assignments was cracked down on.
Michael
so somehow these Palm 3 components are going to run OSX and replace the iMac?
Perhaps you miss the point of my post.
Gamers are always going to want the latest, liquid cooled overclocked graphics chip.
A palm (for example) could surf the web easily, its main limitation is display size.
For alot of people, the sort of processing power here is more than enough to do word processing, web browsing, etc.
And yes, I think that the palm components do run the core of osx ok, which is a linux core. In fact, palm based linux PDA's are already available. They won't run the nice eye candy well. But then again, from what I have heard, neither does some of the iMacs - the nice stuff really chews up cpu cycles.
Michael
I don't know why I respond to AC posts, but:
this would NOT work to build a computer on, at least not for many years. most computers get hot, and the ones that don't at least need a place to attach components that DO get hot- like the CPU, memory, graphics card, etc.
The heat generation is greater if you increase the voltage to drive it faster, and less if you reduce the size of the components, at least as far as CMOS technology goes.
But anyway, these are components which only recently have begun to run hot. Graphics cards only recently required fans, and CPU's didn't need active cooling until a couple of years ago. Passive cooling would work fine for alot of designs.
Best example - my Palm 3 orginiser. It runs just fine off 2 AAA batteries, which don't have enough power in them to make anything much hot for long anyway. Are you suggesting that my palm 3 isn't a real computer? This could be done today in terms of power consumption - I'm not just dreaming about what might be achieved one day if you can only shrink down the etch size enough.
yeah, steve jobs is the only person to ever do things with computers
I am not suggesting that its only Apple has a monopoly on design - I've never been a mac owner but that doesn't stop me respecting alot of their design.
Anyway, I'm thankful that he made USB happen by making the first legacy free computer (Note - I'm not saying he invented USB), that he got rid of the floppy drive, and a whole host of things - none of which were strictly speaking his inventions. But he did them anyway and everyone benefits, including PC users like myself.
Michael.
Computer crashes aren't fatal - but that doesn't mean that they don't cost anything.
I suppose that that statement begs the question of why they make you turn off your mobile phone when you get on a plane.
Michael
This sort of technology could have a myriad of uses.
For example:
I can just see how Steve Jobs (who loves form with function) could use this type of technology to get away from the beige box a step further. You could print out the computer on the back of the screen, or into the monitor stand. Then again, he has almost done that with the new iMac's anyway.
PDA's could get alot smaller.
Also, it (presumably) gets away from alot of issues with size of circuits. Traditional intergrated circuits benefit from small size as they have not only use lower voltages and operate faster, but also have a lower likely hood of defects. Each silicon wafer may have a few pinpoint defects, but each one takes out the whole chip. Smaller chips mean a smaller percentage loss rate.
Presumably this technology is resistant to such faults (or it would be pretty useless at the sizes of sheets of newspaper). This could mean very large integrated circuits without the need for circuit boards as such. In other words, shrinking a whole motherboard down to a large integrated circuit.
While the current technology is still at a 10 micron stage, it could still have benefit if applied to the idea of printing a whole computer rather than just printing a CPU and soldering it in.
Also, I would presume that this is first generation technology, and should reduce below 10 microns fairly easily.
Just a thought or two.
Michael
Well, if you assume the level of competence that is being stated here (a hacker clever enough to gain access to root and remount the hard disk drive as read-write when it was mounted as read only) then I reckon they would probably be competent to get around most of this sort of stuff. Heck, they might even wriggle their way into your CMOS and fix up the boot sequence.
As for getting a small hard drive - well my iso of smooth wall is 22 MB in size. I don't know where you can buy any 10 MB hard disk drives these days, but I'd say that I wouldn't trust any 10 MB HDD you could buy second hand.
Really, if you are that paranoid, boot from a write protected system by copying it all into a ram drive, have no HDD, and if you need log files, send them over a network to another system. If you are truly paranoid, you could probably even boot off the network from a read only mount. Then, even if your firewall is compromised, thats just the first step. And running from ram is alot faster than a CD ROM.
Michael.
Theoretically, the read-only mounted harddrive could be remounted as read/write. I admit that this would be hard.
;)
But it's theoretically impossible with a CDROM, as the media just won't cooperate.
Keep your logfiles on the HD. Nothing else really needs to be there.
So you have a hacker who could remount your hard drive as read/write, but you don't think that he could deal with a CR rom booting system?. So whats to stop him copying the CD rom files to the HDD, modifying them and just rebooting to a read/write HDD?
I mean, if you have that level of access, you own the system anyway, don't you?
If they can get control in a system that is read only, no matter how, you can regain control after a reboot anyway.
Michael
... the far side would be the dark side as far as you're concerned. The amount of radio crap we're spewing makes the work those guys are doing even more amazing, and sticking a robot observatory on the far side of a stable platform like Luna could produce some really cool results.
:-). I suppose that is a bit of a way off - and I am sure the first manned post will be on the near side.
Yes. Although a manned post would be cooler
How are they going to communicate with the robot observatory?
Michael
Perhaps someone should reverse engineer the protocols used by these tools, and create a program for people to run, which sends random/garbage data back to the central server..
They encrypt the data sent using public key technology. Ironically it has made it hard for the RIAA to work out what is being done by whom without breaking the DMCA. The actual files are sent unencrypted P2P unfortunately.
Of course, a DOS attack probably could just send garbage to work. This is probably not the right way to deal with spyware, IMHO.
Does any file sharing program available today encrypt the actual files transmitted? Just wondering.
Michael
So if you download Kazaa to pirate music and someone gets info on your machine specs then too damn bad.
There are actually non infringing uses of the Kazaa software.
The spyware doesn't discriminate though, I'm sure.
BTW, does anyone know if Morpheus has spyware. I was under the impression it doesn't, which is why I use it.
Michael
Similarly, whether you decide to use the right spelling does not depend on the weather. Speaking on slashdot is a privilege, not inherently a right. Bad spelling is adequate for previews, but not final submissions.
.sig lately?
All fumbs and no thingers.
Have you looked at your
Michael
"...it is routine in MS OSes to download and execute unknown binaries..."
:(
:( is to lock the critical files away in folders which have system only access, not admin access. I'm sure your average /. reader knows how long it takes an administrator to give themselves access to a file or folder! :(
Uh, yeah... my copy of Windows does that all the time! All by itself, just for the heck of it... Now, seriously speaking, what the heck were you referring to?
I realise that this was intended sarcasm, but if you have win xp it does that - autoupdate. Unless you _trust_ microsoft, of course. Autoupdate acts in the background without notification by default (but not on my installations)
Also, pretty much every program you download is binary only - eg., winamp. Several of them include spyware such as Kazaa. Your average user has no chance of knowing if this is happening. Programs only inform you of this if they are honest enough to do so.
For what it is worth, microsoft's definition of security (where XP gives each user an admin logon without a password by default - (again, not in my system)
Oh well, if I could only find a linux version that 1)installed easily (must get mandrake 8.1). 2)runs windows software (must get vmware) and 3)handles USB mouses being hotplugged in and out of an X session (must learn how to code c++ and fix up the bloatware that X windows has become).
Michael
Since there is already a critical mass of carefull users on linux, programs that use more permissions that they need to can expect to receive flews of angry emails. Under w2k/xp, where most home users run in administrator, those that do not are less likely to complain. The end result is, windows software too often crashes and bugs up unless run as root.
Yes. Agree totally. Like my favourite game, Diablo II. Has to run as an administrator account under win 2000/xp. Don't ask me why. Its not even microsoft's fault for once. Just technical incompetence at blizzard north software, I guess.
(And yes, I do run it as admin (but not on my server - although I doubt that that would stop a concerted hack on the part of blizzard)
Michael.
Groups are working on deafness too, it's not like everyone's doing eyes today. Rush Limbaugh has gone deaf and is trying a new surgery to regain his hearing.
There are many forms of deafness. It can be a conductive deafness - for example if the bones in your middle ear are broken or ossified. This is similar to but much worse than the way your hearing weakens if you don't pop your ears on a plane descent. This sort of deafness is easy to fix. Often amplifying the sound will help.
Then there is neural deafness, which can be in the cochlea (where the implants help) or directly in the acoustic nerve (such as when a tumour of the nerve - acoustic neuroma - has to be removed. It can also be developmental if you have never heard sounds, although in these people the brain seems to rewire the centres to other language such as signing.
These different forms of deafness will require different treatments.
The new eyeball described here wont help with certain forms blindness. Cortical blindness, due to a stroke of the brain centres processing vision, for example, isn't going to be helped by this.
Michael
Sure, many European socialist countries put nice padding on the bars, but they are still jails nonetheless. Which is why so many try and "break out" by coming to the US.
/. would be well aware of.
Actually, the first world country with the highest rate of imprisonment is? Probably the US. Thanks to the three strike rules the jail industry is one of the fastest growing there.
I'd certainly rather be a white European in a European jail than a black American (USA) on their third strike for stealing a pair of jeans. I know which one will get their freedom first. (Sorry, I'm biting a bit here, but...)
Sorry, a bit close to flamebait there. But seriously, have you ever been to these European countries? Do you even have a passport? (I'm told that the US has one of the lowest rates of passport ownership in the first world - something around 20% of the population).
There is a huge difference between economic models (capitalism vs socialism vs communism) and leadership models (democracy versus autocracy). What alot of people in the US don't get is that just because a country is or becomes democratic wont make them capitalist. For example, most democratic countries have free basic health care for all, and few voters will let that stop.
Anyway, regards open source in China - fantastic. The microsoft juggernaut shows exactly what the dark side of capitalism is like (and I am no communist, believe me). But unregulated dominant corporations cause problems which alot of people on
My 2c worth.
Michael
It makes me think that if we find the cure for cancer, we find the key to immorality.
/.)
Its not that simple I think. (From memory I think I posted about this alot 2-3 months ago on
You can rest assured that there are many ways to die other than cancer however. These include accidents and trauma (mean time to death many hundred years), infections (major cause of death before antibiotics), vascular disease (still the leading killer), alzheimers (a good 10-15% of those who live long enough), respiratory failure (we get about 150 years worth of lung function at birth, accelerated decline with smoking etc). Not to mention non lethal problems such as cataracts and lens failure (age related long sightedness - presbyopia), macular degeneration - and these things only send you blind.
Not that I would want to stop you hoping. I'm hoping too. Its just that I am starting to get a feel for how complex the whole problem is - our entire bodies were selected to get us to old age, which was probably mid 50's back when average life expectancy was in the mid 20's. And precious little lasts alot longer than that.
I do believe that most of these problems are technical in nature, however, and there is hope in that.
Michael
Who gives a fuck about islamic people ?
Most Americans do, now. Its the radical islamic people who feel as you do that caused September 11. Pity you can't see how close you are to them.
Anyway, this is so off topic that I'm not going to keep this thread going any more.
Michael
Fuck you can't be right on slashdot without some free market jackass thinking the internet is somehow going to solve everyone's problems.
I never suggested it was going to solve everyones problems. But it changes the relationshop between producer and consumer.
We already see software houses sell primarily over the internet. And yes, they do use middlemen, like the credit card agencies. I'm not suggesting otherwise.
But it will change the relationship between producer and consumer (already has in alot of areas). Record companies are fundamentally different in the way that they do business independent producers. (If they actually salaried workers like the software industry does, thats a little different, but I can't think of any musician who draws a salary as such from the industry).
If you want to tell the RIAA to fuck off you better have a better distribution model than merely saying "I'll promote my music over the internet".
Actually some bands do. But that is not what my argument is about so much. Its about the relationship of the consumer with the middleman that is at issue throughout this column. And in that we are arguing about the music industries ability to own (note writers don't sell their works to publishers, just a print run usually), and to distribute the music. An ability which new technology in the form of internet file sharing is threatening.
If you believe that this trend is going to stop, then fair enough, its your opinion. And yes, there will be middlemen. But you don't have to go to a software shop anymore to buy software, and you don't have to go to a music shop to get music. And you never will have to again, whether or not the RIAA gets control of internet distribution.
I can't understand the hostile reaction from you here, but possibily you are reading more into my postings than I am putting there.
Yours,
Michael
Yes, no, and no. Any other stupid questions?
No, Yes and No. For me anyway. If you asked a few million islamic people living in poverty, it might be no, no and yes. Probably flamebait material posting like this, but the point is that the question may not be as stupid as you think. It depends of the perspective of the person who provides the answer.
Anyway, isn't this getting just a bit offtopic.
Michael
Having a middleman in the music business is always going to be inevitable. If you've ever worked on commission you'd understand why this is so. They can give an artist a 50k signing bonus so they don't have to go hungry whilst waiting for their music to sell.
Its not inevitable anymore. That is what scares the RIAA so much. Its not about free swapping (even they know that the CD's are still selling just fine in the stores) at the moment.
But the internet removes the need for most of the distribution mechanisms, and the profit that goes with that.
See, they don't offer 50K to everyone. Just people that they think will do ok, and who already have music. These people can now have their music on the net. If anyone comes up with a direct pay mechanism (and I bet you won't get that with tne new napster - it will all go through the RIAA), these people will already be getting money before the industry comes knocking on the door.
Its happening a little already - its pretty easy to master your own blank CD's. Interestingly the major labels canned a plan to allow record stores to mix and match songs and burn CD's about 10 years ago, when they realised that the record stores could then just bypass the industry and go direct to the artists.
Its alson not inevitable if you don't rely on recorded music sales for a living. Alot of bands that tour give away their music so that more people come to their live performances. They will never need a middle man for this.
Michael
Napster is old old news that no one cares about.
Strange you should say that. Alot of people are posting here. Maybe some of them do care.
Michael
mp3 has become the standard now - no arguments there I would think from anyone. (Ok, flame me if you want on that one).
.ogg won't take over is that mp3 is good enough. Just like CD's were good enough. They were built in a time when it was impractical to have decompressors of any power, and even the music players didn't have the displays to show the title and artist name mostly. Which is why we need gracenote (CDDB) now.
The reason that
mp3's have limitations, sure. No digital rights management (so sad, that one). Poor compression algorithms. And so on. Of course, for their day the MP3 compression algorithm was quite processor intensive, its just that CPU's have gotten faster.
But a poor algorithm just means more disk space. Is that a problem? Well, no as disk spaces have improved alot. In fact, its getting to the stage where you wouldn't need to compress the music at all. An 80 GB HDD would hold about 120 CD's, uncompressed. You could almost argue that compression isn't necessary now. Except for the bandwith limitations on the internet, of course.
But mp3's are good enough to do the job. Sure, they need high bit rates to sound good. Is that an issue? If it was, would you ever buy a CD? As long as you can get your music to sound ok, you probably won't care.
Its good to have ogg there, as a backup in case there is a problem with royalties with mp3, but really I can't see anyone dumping mp3's in a hurry.
Even microsoft acknowledges this as it tries to subvert the movement with its wma architecture.
Microsoft might manage it, but only if they can offer something better (they managed this with internet explorer, failed with iis, and the court is out on the pocket pc). Restricting users isn't an improvement, and isn't going to get everyone to move over to wma. As those people who ripped to wma find out, its harder to get a good player for that format, even if it uses half the space.
The CD has been with us for a couple of decades, and isn't going anywhere mostly because its hard to do better. MP3 is going to be with us for at least a decade more, for exactly the same reason.
Just my $0.01 worth (Allowing for US/Aud exchange rates).
Michael
Word is painfully proprietary
Yes, but is Star Office saving in word format?
Michael
If I could invent a paper bill that could withstand 50 years of travel, exchange, and (well, let's face it) abuse, that was incredibly rip, tear, and wear resistant, could withstand repeated exposure to water, moisture, solvents, and other environmental nasties, it might not matter as much if the production cost per unit were ten times as much as the face value.
You are probably not aware that the Australian currency uses polymer technology:
http://www.rba.gov.au/Currency/
(and look at the polymer note technology section)
Which lasts about 4 times longer than paper notes. Not quite 50 years, but still a very long time. I don't think we have any plans to add chips, but its a very good technology.
Michael