Welcome to the present. We live in a time where there is great potential for the free exchange of information.
There are those that wish to "suppress the printing press", but ultimately attempting to roll back the clock 40 years to before copying, or 400 years to total publishing monopolies will not work.
If non-commercial duplication was freely allowed, would that kill innovation? No. Would it change some business models? Yes.
If copyright law was reverted to its original purpose and term length, would that kill innovation? No. It would encourage innovation. Would it change some business models? Yes.
DRM is a reaction to the Internet, and an attempt to maintain pre-internet-like control. Which is a natural business reaction, but not one that a thinking society should accept.
Suppose a conference call event is scheduled on the event server. The main conference happens at 9:00 in _Paris, France_. But the event server is in California.
Your server created events according to local time California. Now the US government changes the DST.
Your events occur an hour off.
Solutions: 1. store events in local event time of where the event actually occurred. You need to store: event-local-time and event-local-timezone. Then the time of event calculations would happen on the day of the event, with the current time calculations for each client.
2. store events in UTC time, with any DST adjustments reverted. Also store event-timezone. The DST offset calculations happen on day of event.
3. store event in UTC time. Also store event-timezone. Also store current event-timezone-offset.
Note that both 1, 2, and 3 work, and are equivalent if implemented correctly. The adjustments/conversions required on event day are: (1) requires two conversions in a simple implementation: event-local-time to UTC, UTC to client-local-time. (2) requires DST adjustment for event-time, and UTC to client-local-time conversion. (3) requires DST adjustment for any event-timezone-offset change (comparing stored event-timezone-offset and calculated offset from event-timezone), and UTC to client-local-time conversion.
I would prefer (3), but any of these are ok.
Broken implementations are:
-1. Store events in server local time. Breaks if actual events are somewhere else, and DST changes. Can break, or need recalculation if server changes timezone -2. Store events in UTC without storing information needed recalculate DST adjustment. Breaks if DST changes and is not stored.
If events are scheduled using UTC, then timezone and dst make no difference.
But if Outlook has "Y2DST" bugs, it stores or assumes that date/time is in local time, so events may be wrong if DST or the timezone of your server changes.
Note that these bugs if they exist could be reproduced otherwise by changing the timezone while programs are running. Events should happen at the same time, independent of timezone. (A real situation would be flying a live system/laptop to a new timezone).
But the bug in Windows is at a low level. Windows, for backward compatibility to DOS, assumes the hardware clock is local time. Any program that depends directly on the local time here, needs more than trivial algorithms to handle timezone and DST algorithms. These algorithms will fail, obviously if DST unexpectedly changes, and are probably in general not really expecting timezone to change. ( These algorithms could be compared with Y99-Y2K algorithms that tried to convert from a two digit year). And obviously any programs that have such low level DST/Timezone handling code would fail if someone set the not often used RealTimeIsUniversal=1 in Windows.
In general no program should rely on local time, internally. Local time should only be used to convey information to the user. "You appointment is at XXX in your timezone", or "What time in your timezone would you like to schedule your meeting alarm?".
"Sometimes you have to timestamp with whatever format the subsystem expects."
As an alternative, you could include timezone offsets with local time.
2007-03-06 07:30:00 -0800.
This is how email is stamped.
Then you are effectively passing both local time and UTC. That way, the "subsystem" can effectually correct the bug and use effective UTC for calculations.
07:30 - (-08:00) = 15:30:00
BTW, I wish slashdot would display dates with timezone offsets.
But slashdot, has yet to fix use of Y99 dates. ( http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/06/0229 232 )
Black box OS kernels like Windows can really never be disclosed. All you can really do is make some guesses or have an insider reveal some limited details.
For this reason, OS classes in school will be based on Linux,BSD,Minux,or even ReactOS. With all of these, if want to really know how it works, there is the code.
The secret-software-business is quite different that the shared discoveries of the scientific method that works well in education and science.
Historically, the open ones will be the only ones that survive. In 50 years: You want to know how DOS worked in the 1980s? Well, no source is available. But freedos provides a good example of how it worked. You want to know how some random UNIX worked. Well the source to that specific one is not available, but BSD and Linux are a good examples of how it worked. You want to know how Windows-2000 worked? Well, no source code is available, but ReactOS provides a close approximation of how it worked.
Feinstein clearly does not understand that the point of the copyright allowed in the constitution was to promote progress, not to protect rich corporations. She is clearly more of a Republican in this area. Here are some form letter responses that her office sends to complaints.
Feinstein responds with a form letter about the PERFORM DRM act:
".... If you have other questions or comments, please do not hesitate to write to me again, or contact my Washington, D.C. staff at (202) 224-3841."
OSX,doesnt matter.It is a black box, closed system
on
iPhone Not Running OS X
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Even if they used a Linux kernel, then piled there own locked down apps on top, what difference would that make? It is still a closed development model of a black box system.
They are trying to sell a very high end phone that is completely closed to add-on apps. That worked for the mp3 player, but the functionality of an mp3 player is expected to be limited.
Apple has chosen to live and die with a closed box model.
Feinstein clearly does not understand that the point of the copyright allowed in the constitution was to promote progress, not to protect rich corporations. She is clearly not a Democrat in this area. Here are some form letter responses that her office sends to complaints.
Feinstein responds with a form letter about the PERFORM DRM act:
1. Compatibility with DOS and Windows 95. Not really a reason. The RealTimeIsUniversal=0 setting could be preserved when upgrading a system. There is no real reason to have it be default on a new system.
2. Avoid confusing the novice user in BIOS. Novice users editing BIOS settings? Of course, the BIOS could have a timezone setting as well.
To tell Win2K that the hardware clock is UTC, Set: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInfo rmation\RealTimeIsUniversal
Assuming that the hardware clock is local time is plainly a bad idea, and this bug is unfixed in all versions of Windows.
"2006-07-04: Various Microsoft Windows Vista beta testers have told me that this next-generation operating system still is not capable of running the CMOS clock in UTC. If you are a Microsoft Vista beta tester, please use the opportunity to report this problem to Microsoft. Urge them to at least fully support the RealTimeIsUniversal=1 registry setting that is already partially implemented."
The timezone should only affect clock display, not the machine behavior.
Perhaps you are not aware, but the main cost of driving is subsidized by the government. If your taxes did not pay for roads, but this was paid for by the drivers (perhaps by a gas use fee), then you probably pay something comparable to $10/gallon.
If we had pay the true cost of driving on an pay-per-use basis, trains and other mass transportation would become more attractive.
And perhaps other vehicles, like flying cars ?, could enter the market.
But when the government effectively only subsidizes one transportation system, you end up with an environment for a natural monopoly and the market stagnates.
For example, 100 years ago, there were electric cars, and Model-T's got 25 MPG. Look how far we have come.
Only allow cars to be made that are limited to 70MPH.
If speeding is really bad, we can just prevent it.
Of course, non-highway speeding is harder. In that case, the maximum speed of the car needs to be modified according to gps maps, local sensors, or some combination.
A first step, could be to have the system only signal with some noise when a violation is happening, and make the speed limiting optional. Once most are ok with limiting themselves, then the auto speed limiting could be mandatory.
"apparently DVDs will also be subject to DRM restrictions placed by download services such as
limiting the times a movie can be played back
and how many times the movie can be burned."
The first limitation is not possible, unless DIVX really won against DVD. The second limitation is also not part of the DVD-Video standard, and it means that you probably need some windows program that downloads the video in Arbitrariy-proprietary-DRM-format-173, then converts they to a a non-standard DVD you can only play on windows or off-standard DVD players.
Was quantum physics involved to allow a person to walk on water? Was a cloning process involved to allow a virgin to have a baby? Or should we not try to compare a legend with reality?
In KDE, you can't just install a kde app. It's part of kdebasekitchensink. And there are odd dependencies all over.
$ konsole Link points to "/tmp/ksocket-dmahurin" Link points to "/tmp/kde-dmahurin" kbuildsycoca running... Reusing existing ksycoca
? klauncher,kdeinit,kded launched just to run a terminal ??
I recommend XFCE, and running GTK apps. Qt apps are ok too I guess. But I try to stay away from GNOME and KDE apps.
If there is a need for daemons running for, printing, sound, mounting or whatever, these should all be started at boot time, not as part of running the desktop.
The RIAA is for the most part an association of Corporations. These corporations have an unlimited lifespan, and the legal purpose of a Corporation is solely to make money. But in our wisdom, our courts decided more than a century ago, that this Corporate Entity is a legal person: with all the legal benefits of person, but apparently little punishment for wrongdoings.
This eternal entity obviously wants to "own" "copyrights" forever, for profit (its legal mandate). So the behavior of the RIAA and MPAA is not surprising.
If you had robots with rights that could outlive humans, you may have some of the same ownership problems as those created with this artificial corporation person creation.
When a corporation is made of of all robot employees... nevermind, you have probably seen that movie.
Rather than going to the moon to figure out how to have a airtight, self-sustainable eco-system and colony, why not try it in the ocean first? Yes there have been above-ground attempts (why did they stop). Underwater makes it harder to cheat and would be closer to moon isolation for much less cost.
Slashdot Mirror
Terror is synonym for fear.
"anti-terror list" makes no sense unless you are distinguishing fearful people.
Likewise, a "war on terror" would end if less people were afraid.
"...think back 40 years ago...."
"...15 years ago..."
Are you from the past?
Welcome to the present. We live in a time where there is great potential for the free exchange of information.
There are those that wish to "suppress the printing press", but ultimately attempting to roll back the clock 40 years to before copying, or 400 years to total publishing monopolies will not work.
If non-commercial duplication was freely allowed, would that kill innovation? No. Would it change some business models? Yes.
If copyright law was reverted to its original purpose and term length, would that kill innovation? No. It would encourage innovation. Would it change some business models? Yes.
DRM is a reaction to the Internet, and an attempt to maintain pre-internet-like control.
Which is a natural business reaction, but not one that a thinking society should accept.
Suppose a conference call event is scheduled on the event server. The main conference happens at 9:00 in _Paris, France_. But the event server is in California.
Your server created events according to local time California. Now the US government changes the DST.
Your events occur an hour off.
Solutions:
1. store events in local event time of where the event actually occurred.
You need to store: event-local-time and event-local-timezone.
Then the time of event calculations would happen on the day of the event, with the current time calculations for each client.
2. store events in UTC time, with any DST adjustments reverted. Also store event-timezone. The DST offset calculations happen on day of event.
3. store event in UTC time. Also store event-timezone. Also store current event-timezone-offset.
Note that both 1, 2, and 3 work, and are equivalent if implemented correctly.
The adjustments/conversions required on event day are:
(1) requires two conversions in a simple implementation: event-local-time to UTC, UTC to client-local-time.
(2) requires DST adjustment for event-time, and UTC to client-local-time conversion.
(3) requires DST adjustment for any event-timezone-offset change (comparing stored event-timezone-offset and calculated offset from event-timezone), and UTC to client-local-time conversion.
I would prefer (3), but any of these are ok.
Broken implementations are:
-1. Store events in server local time. Breaks if actual events are somewhere else, and DST changes. Can break, or need recalculation if server changes timezone
-2. Store events in UTC without storing information needed recalculate DST adjustment. Breaks if DST changes and is not stored.
If events are scheduled using UTC, then timezone and dst make no difference.
But if Outlook has "Y2DST" bugs, it stores or assumes that date/time is in local time, so events may be wrong if DST or the timezone of your server changes.
Note that these bugs if they exist could be reproduced otherwise by changing the timezone while programs are running. Events should happen at the same time, independent of timezone. (A real situation would be flying a live system/laptop to a new timezone).
But the bug in Windows is at a low level. Windows, for backward compatibility to DOS, assumes the hardware clock is local time. Any program that depends directly on the local time here, needs more than trivial algorithms to handle timezone and DST algorithms. These algorithms will fail, obviously if DST unexpectedly changes, and are probably in general not really expecting timezone to change. ( These algorithms could be compared with Y99-Y2K algorithms that tried to convert from a two digit year).
And obviously any programs that have such low level DST/Timezone handling code would fail if someone set the not often used RealTimeIsUniversal=1 in Windows.
In general no program should rely on local time, internally. Local time should only be used to convey information to the user. "You appointment is at XXX in your timezone", or "What time in your timezone would you like to schedule your meeting alarm?".
Search for RealTimeIsUniversal.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/mswish/ut-rtc.html
Though, the registry setting is still not officially supported.
"Sometimes you have to timestamp with whatever format the subsystem expects."
://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/06/0229 232 )
As an alternative, you could include timezone offsets with local time.
2007-03-06 07:30:00 -0800.
This is how email is stamped.
Then you are effectively passing both local time and UTC.
That way, the "subsystem" can effectually correct the bug and use effective UTC for calculations.
07:30 - (-08:00) = 15:30:00
BTW, I wish slashdot would display dates with timezone offsets.
But slashdot, has yet to fix use of Y99 dates.
( http
There are sufficiently different open OS's to cover all modern and past OS architectures.
UNIX - BSD, Linux, Minix
DOS - FreeDOS.
Windows NT/200 - ReactOS.
VMS - FreeVMS
Mach,XNU,OSX - Darwin
Microkernel - Hurd
Multics - SIMTICS
Plan9 - Plan9
BeOS - Haiku
OS/2 - NuDawn ?
Solaris - OpenSolaris
RT-OS - eCos
Black box OS kernels like Windows can really never be disclosed. All you can really do is make some guesses or have an insider reveal some limited details.
For this reason, OS classes in school will be based on Linux,BSD,Minux,or even ReactOS. With all of these, if want to really know how it works, there is the code.
The secret-software-business is quite different that the shared discoveries of the scientific method that works well in education and science.
Historically, the open ones will be the only ones that survive. In 50 years: You want to know how DOS worked in the 1980s? Well, no source is available. But freedos provides a good example of how it worked. You want to know how some random UNIX worked. Well the source to that specific one is not available, but BSD and Linux are a good examples of how it worked. You want to know how Windows-2000 worked? Well, no source code is available, but ReactOS provides a close approximation of how it worked.
Feinstein clearly does not understand that the point of the copyright allowed in the constitution was to promote progress, not to protect rich corporations. She is clearly more of a Republican in this area. Here are some form letter responses that her office sends to complaints.
8 92380
p onds-to-perform-act-dispute.html (scroll down)
= 2234915
Feinstein responds with a form letter about the PERFORM DRM act:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=193819&cid=15
And the same response to someone else:
http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/congressman-res
Feinstein response with a form letter about the DMCA:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=21099&cid
"....
If you have other questions or comments, please do not
hesitate to write to me again, or contact my Washington, D.C. staff
at (202) 224-3841."
Even if they used a Linux kernel, then piled there own locked down apps on top,
what difference would that make? It is still a closed development model of a black box system.
They are trying to sell a very high end phone that is completely closed to add-on apps.
That worked for the mp3 player, but the functionality of an mp3 player is expected to be limited.
Apple has chosen to live and die with a closed box model.
Feinstein clearly does not understand that the point of the copyright allowed in the constitution was to promote progress, not to protect rich corporations. She is clearly not a Democrat in this area. Here are some form letter responses that her office sends to complaints.
8 92380
p onds-to-perform-act-dispute.html
= 2234915
Feinstein responds with a form letter about the PERFORM DRM act:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=193819&cid=15
And the same response to someone else:
http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/congressman-res
Feinstein response with a form letter about the DMCA:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=21099&cid
"....
If you have other questions or comments, please do not
hesitate to write to me again, or contact my Washington, D.C. staff
at (202) 224-3841."
1. Compatibility with DOS and Windows 95.
Not really a reason. The RealTimeIsUniversal=0 setting could be preserved when upgrading a system.
There is no real reason to have it be default on a new system.
2. Avoid confusing the novice user in BIOS.
Novice users editing BIOS settings?
Of course, the BIOS could have a timezone setting as well.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/mswish/ut-rtc.html
o rmation\RealTimeIsUniversal
To tell Win2K that the hardware clock is UTC,
Set:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInf
Assuming that the hardware clock is local time is plainly a bad idea, and this bug is
unfixed in all versions of Windows.
"2006-07-04: Various Microsoft Windows Vista beta testers have told me that this next-generation operating system still is not capable of running the CMOS clock in UTC. If you are a Microsoft Vista beta tester, please use the opportunity to report this problem to Microsoft. Urge them to at least fully support the RealTimeIsUniversal=1 registry setting that is already partially implemented."
The timezone should only affect clock display, not the machine behavior.
Perhaps you are not aware, but the main cost of driving is subsidized by the government.
If your taxes did not pay for roads, but this was paid for by the drivers (perhaps by a gas use fee), then you probably pay something comparable to $10/gallon.
If we had pay the true cost of driving on an pay-per-use basis, trains and other mass transportation would become more attractive.
And perhaps other vehicles, like flying cars ?, could enter the market.
But when the government effectively only subsidizes one transportation system, you end up with an environment for a natural monopoly and the market stagnates.
For example, 100 years ago, there were electric cars, and Model-T's got 25 MPG.
Look how far we have come.
The photo-cop on the freeway is not needed.
Freeway speeding is the easiest to stop.
Only allow cars to be made that are limited to 70MPH.
If speeding is really bad, we can just prevent it.
Of course, non-highway speeding is harder. In that case, the maximum speed of the car needs to be modified according to gps maps, local sensors, or some combination.
A first step, could be to have the system only signal with some noise when a violation is happening, and make the speed limiting optional. Once most are ok with limiting themselves, then the auto speed limiting could be mandatory.
According to this:5 /
http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/test
About 43,000 died in vehicle crashes, both in 2005.
17,000 of the crashes were alcohol related.
13,000 of the crashes were speed related.
Now, think about ways that automobiles could be changed to prevent/limit speeding.
Of course money speaks louder than deaths.
While 3000 military deaths is too much, 3000 WTC deaths is too much, and 2000 Katrina deaths is too much, 40,000 auto deaths/per-year is normal.
"apparently DVDs will also be subject to DRM restrictions placed by download services such as
limiting the times a movie can be played back
and how many times the movie can be burned."
The first limitation is not possible, unless DIVX really won against DVD.
The second limitation is also not part of the DVD-Video standard, and it means that you probably need some windows program that downloads the video in Arbitrariy-proprietary-DRM-format-173, then converts they to a a non-standard DVD you can only play on windows or off-standard DVD players.
The word "OS" is not mentioned in the article.
Once, you could get 10 songs on a CD for $20.
Now they cost $150,000 for each song.
I guess I havn't bought a MAFIAA song in a while.
I admit that it bothers me a little that hybrids get a free Carpool/HOV pass.
I thought the point of HOV lanes was to have fewer cars on the road.
Allowing hybrids there does not encourage fewer cars out there.
But, you say, hybrids are really efficient, and the allowances helps fight polution.
Well, hybrids, by design are the most efficient in stop and go traffics.
Braking charges the batteries.
But in the HOV lane, hybrids are slowing less, so using the gas engine more.
Was quantum physics involved to allow a person to walk on water? Was a cloning process involved to allow a virgin to have a baby? Or should we not try to compare a legend with reality?
KDE and GNOME have gotten too heavy.
In KDE, you can't just install a kde app.
It's part of kdebasekitchensink.
And there are odd dependencies all over.
$ konsole
Link points to "/tmp/ksocket-dmahurin"
Link points to "/tmp/kde-dmahurin"
kbuildsycoca running...
Reusing existing ksycoca
? klauncher,kdeinit,kded launched just to run a terminal ??
I recommend XFCE, and running GTK apps. Qt apps are ok too I guess.
But I try to stay away from GNOME and KDE apps.
If there is a need for daemons running for, printing, sound, mounting or whatever, these should all be started at boot time, not as part of running the desktop.
The RIAA is for the most part an association of Corporations.
... nevermind, you have probably seen that movie.
These corporations have an unlimited lifespan, and the legal purpose of a Corporation is solely to make money.
But in our wisdom, our courts decided more than a century ago, that this Corporate Entity is a legal person: with all the legal benefits of person, but apparently little punishment for wrongdoings.
This eternal entity obviously wants to "own" "copyrights" forever, for profit (its legal mandate). So the behavior of the RIAA and MPAA is not surprising.
If you had robots with rights that could outlive humans, you may have some of the same ownership problems as those created with this artificial corporation person creation.
When a corporation is made of of all robot employees
VHS is dead, as are cassettes, 8-track and records.
,CD's , and MP3's (and OGG ...).
The real DRM of VHS and the others, was the degrading quality.
The quality degrades with watching it, degrades with copying it, degrades with time.
DVD's now have effectively no DRM.
CD's have no DRM.
MP3's have no DRM.
So the current effectively unencumbered base of digital media is DVD's
For HD-Blue-DVD to really replace DVD, it has to be effectively unencumbered as well. Until then people will buy DVD's because they are less limited.
But no, there has been no reason to use tapes for a while.
Rather than going to the moon to figure out how to have a airtight, self-sustainable eco-system and colony, why not try it in the ocean first?
Yes there have been above-ground attempts (why did they stop). Underwater makes it harder to cheat and would be closer to moon isolation for much less cost.