I am a supporter of reducing our individual consumption when possible, but statements like this strike me as misdirected:
E.O Wilson, the famous naturalist, claims it would now take four Earths to meet the consumption demands of the current human population, if all humans consumed at the rate of the average North American.
Well, Mr. Wilson, if all humans produced at the rate of the average North American, we could likely feed the world 10 times over. We already produce more food than is necessary in America--however sometimes distribution is a problem. In recent memory Africa has turned down our offers of corn because it is genetically modified. There's more to this but it's been covered in another/. article.
Because the minidisc uses Sony's proprietary ATRAC format, which is a pain, because it takes longer to transfer music to the player. See CNet's review...it's not exactly glowing. It's more expensive than CD players, and more handicapped. If it weren't it'd take the country by storm...it has great battery life and good media.
This has been addressed before on slashdot. You haven't ever seen a person drive up to an ATM, someone get out of the passenger side and do their banking, right? Nobody said the driver was blind...think a little longer before rolling your eyes.
I would be willing to be that if you put Deep Fritz into tournament play for 2 years and expose it's abilities complete against a cross section of the best GMs, Kramnik would beat it hands down.
Assuming that Deep Fritz doesn't learn anything in those 2 years--the programmers keep feeding it games, it changes its algorithm. In the Kasparov match what you speak of was much more of a factor because Kasparov had NEVER seen the computer's play, but the computer had been fed many Kasparov matches before their matchup.
I don't think it's as easy as you think to anticipate a computer's moves simply because there's still a computer scientist behind it, changing the strategy before each match. Additionally, before certain matches the programmers may opt to insert some pseudo-random variation before each move, such that if one move is only ranked *slightly* better than the next, the computer may take the next with a certain roll of the dice. Good point though, the computer definitely has not been analyzed by Kramnik nearly as much as Kramnik has been analyzed by the computer.
Is the game going to be broadcast live somewhere? I get the feeling this match is going to be something to tell the kids about someday, and I'd like to see it.
How can user written software run on a 'trusted' system?
From the Microsoft Palladium FAQ: When running, "Palladium" provides a parallel execution environment to the "traditional" Windows kernel- and user-mode stacks; "Palladium" runs alongside the OS, not underneath it. I think what they're trying to say is that you'll be able to run non-licensed software, however you'll receive a nasty warning similar to the warning in XP if you try to install non-WinXP certified drivers. So I see Palladium being like the Intel processor serial numbers, except you'll NEED to enable it for certain software. And of course it'll be cracked 2 days before release.
Q: Won't the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. want a back door to "Palladium"?
A: Microsoft would refuse to voluntarily place a back door in any of its products and would fiercely resist any government attempt to require back doors in products. From a security perspective, such back doors are an unacceptable security risk because they would permit unscrupulous individuals to compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our customers' data and systems. From a market perspective, such products would not be marketable, either domestically or internationally. Equally important, deliberately inserting such vulnerabilities would undermine Microsoft's reputation in the marketplace as a trusted vendor of products. For these reasons and others, we would, as we did during the encryption debate, oppose any such government efforts.
What I want to know is, what about Exception #3: "Software that writes directly to TCPA hardware will need to be updated." In other words, if you purchase TCPA hardware, forget about running "unauthorized" CD burning software. That's what scares me--not the software (hell, I doubt I'll upgrade Windows past XP), but the possibility that TCPA hardware will be the standard, and I won't be able to run open source software that interfaces with it (unless said software has some sort of license).
I love my Nomad, with the exception of it's size (Portable CD player size), slow transfer (USB only) and battery life (About 2 hours)...
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but that's a lot of exceptions (I guess this is going to show why I'm against early adoption, but whatever floats your boat). Reasons like this are why I chose a Toshiba e740 handheld over the Sharp Zaurus 5500 -- while I really wanted the features of Linux (with terminal functionality) and the thumb keyboard built-in, the battery life, I'm told, is about 1-2 hours, and there's no included WiFi. So to upgrade the Zaurus' hardware to match the e740, I'd need to purchase an add-on battery and a wireless modem, which make the device bigger and combined cost is the same as an e740. As much as I wanted to go with the device I knew I'd love, it wasn't up to the task. Of course, I'm guessing you bought your Nomad Jukebox before the iPod even came out (or had non-Mac support), so you probably chose the best product on the market at the time. I also love my Nomad II MG, but it doesn't really need a faster transfer rate because it only has 192 MB of space (with smartmedia card). This is still enough for 3 CDs or so.
I own (and love) a Nomad II MG, which supports WMA. It doesn't care about DRM--if the WMA has it enabled, fine. If not, no big deal. Transfers the same either way. In fact you can even use Windows Media Player to transfer your songs (WMA or MP3) to the Nomad II, and it won't require DRM to be enabled. However, don't get your hopes up for OGG on this device--odds are if they were going to do it they'd ship with it. I've been waiting for OGG on the Nomad II for a year or so now because they said the firmware is "upgradable for future formats." Not in this lifetime. Word to hardware manufacturers--you're sitting on a gold mine, and its name is OGG.
Re:This is ridiculous
on
Wartrapping?
·
· Score: 1
Toshiba's e740 uses a Prism wireless card, which doesn't work with MiniStumbler. However thanks for mentioning Famililar Linux, I will have to see what that's all about and I may decide to use that if it's possible on an e740. I've been dying to get out of the PPC 2002 interface anyway--the Pocket apps aren't worth anything and for some reason I've got a memory leak that forces me to soft reset the device once a week. Not a big deal but enough to annoy me.
Re:This is ridiculous
on
Wartrapping?
·
· Score: 1
Thanks for replying, Kismet looks like a great solution--however I'm not aware of any way to set up linux on the e740...I suppose if it's been done on iPaqs it can be done on the 740, but I haven't figured it out yet.
This is ridiculous
on
Wartrapping?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I've always believed that flat out good security was a much better solution than trying to eliminate all who would probe your security. Take for instance firewalls that claim to "track down attackers"--I don't care about that. Anyone with half a brain can get an IP address from their firewall logs. All I want is a firewall that locks down all unused ports, and offers program-specific access settings. This stops most portscans and worms. The idea of a honeypot may be important in certain cases, i.e. when very clever hackers have been found invading networks, even after they were secured well. But an ounce of prevention (locking down your wireless network in the first place) is worth a pound of cure (honeypots).
OT, does anyone know of a Netstumbler-like tool that works with the Toshiba e740's built in Prism wireless card?
Microsoft Windows XP: $100/license. Microsoft Office XP: $300/license. Paying extra for security: Thousands of dollars per site. Realizing there's a free, secure alternative: Priceless.
Some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Microsoft.
All together now...Repeat. However this is such great news, I don't mind hearing about it twice. Let's hope that at the very least this bill stirs up more media attention to the DMCA, DRM, and other things that are designed to take away our rights, not protect them.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, plans today to introduce the ``Digital Choice and Freedom Act,'' Silicon Valley's response to a host of Hollywood-backed bills tilted in favor of copyright holders.
Lofgren's bill would ensure consumers can copy CDs, DVDs and other digital works for personal use, just as they now do with TV shows and audio tapes.
``This would not authorize someone taking their digital content and sharing it with a million of their best friends,'' Lofgren said in an interview Tuesday. Instead of creating new rights for consumers, she said, her bill would ensure that ``the rights they have in the analog world, they have in digital.''
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., plans to introduce similar legislation Thursday.
First of all, it's been said before and I'll say it again: Boucher and Lofgren really have their heads screwed on right. Second, I feel very insignificant with a circle of friends ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE fewer than the "millions" of friends movie swappers are purported to have.
...now Steve, just point that gun down a little farther...there ya go! BANG
Seriously though, why are so many companies failing to realize that any perceived benefit short-term that they gain by closing their products is ultimately offset by the goodwill they lose among the enthusiasts circle--the community that will do more for their advertising than even the best "1984" commercial. It's called "word of mouth" - you'd think these people would have heard about it in marketing school...
It's not about "piracy" - it's about bandwidth being a limited resource, plain and simple. If they didn't use packetshaping, other services would be slowed down or made unusable. They've reached the limit of offcampus bandwidth. It's at a point where they're saying: "what do we cut" -- and P2P traffic is the first to be limited. It's the best solution, since it uses up 99% of the bandwidth to begin with anyway. What, would you rather slow down webpage requests to increase bandwidth?
There is simply no way to allow for everyone using P2P and keep a usable network at the same time, without increasing costs. I've seen what happens when Napster overloaded our network, and after they applied packetshaping the usability was 100% better. And during off-peak times, Napster speeds went back up, so you could still do your downloading in the mornings.
This sort of thing is going to spread nationwide. It's already in place at my school (Case Western Reserve University) as well - they implemented it last fall and it really helped network speed, at the cost of P2P offcampus.
What this means is we as college students have to start using oncampus sharing solutions like Direct Connect with oncampus hubs -- instead of searching national networks (fasttrack, gnutella), we can just set up college hubs like RIT students have done. Connecting oncampus will be orders of magnitude faster than connecting offcampus -- and nobody "shapes" those packets. The only potential problem is copyright infringement crackdown when the networks get popular enough - but as long as people don't share copyrighted music/movies, they're in the clear. Of course there's always FTP and IRC...
Slashdot Mirror
Because the minidisc uses Sony's proprietary ATRAC format, which is a pain, because it takes longer to transfer music to the player. See CNet's review...it's not exactly glowing. It's more expensive than CD players, and more handicapped. If it weren't it'd take the country by storm...it has great battery life and good media.
This has been addressed before on slashdot. You haven't ever seen a person drive up to an ATM, someone get out of the passenger side and do their banking, right? Nobody said the driver was blind...think a little longer before rolling your eyes.
I don't think it's as easy as you think to anticipate a computer's moves simply because there's still a computer scientist behind it, changing the strategy before each match. Additionally, before certain matches the programmers may opt to insert some pseudo-random variation before each move, such that if one move is only ranked *slightly* better than the next, the computer may take the next with a certain roll of the dice. Good point though, the computer definitely has not been analyzed by Kramnik nearly as much as Kramnik has been analyzed by the computer.
Is the game going to be broadcast live somewhere? I get the feeling this match is going to be something to tell the kids about someday, and I'd like to see it.
Why, submit an article hosted on the computer to Slashdot, of course.
I think what they're trying to say is that you'll be able to run non-licensed software, however you'll receive a nasty warning similar to the warning in XP if you try to install non-WinXP certified drivers. So I see Palladium being like the Intel processor serial numbers, except you'll NEED to enable it for certain software. And of course it'll be cracked 2 days before release.
What I want to know is, what about Exception #3: "Software that writes directly to TCPA hardware will need to be updated." In other words, if you purchase TCPA hardware, forget about running "unauthorized" CD burning software. That's what scares me--not the software (hell, I doubt I'll upgrade Windows past XP), but the possibility that TCPA hardware will be the standard, and I won't be able to run open source software that interfaces with it (unless said software has some sort of license).
At the bottom of the comments, this random quote is up: "I wish you humans would leave me alone." Be careful what you wish for, little green man...
I own (and love) a Nomad II MG, which supports WMA. It doesn't care about DRM--if the WMA has it enabled, fine. If not, no big deal. Transfers the same either way. In fact you can even use Windows Media Player to transfer your songs (WMA or MP3) to the Nomad II, and it won't require DRM to be enabled.
However, don't get your hopes up for OGG on this device--odds are if they were going to do it they'd ship with it. I've been waiting for OGG on the Nomad II for a year or so now because they said the firmware is "upgradable for future formats." Not in this lifetime. Word to hardware manufacturers--you're sitting on a gold mine, and its name is OGG.
Toshiba's e740 uses a Prism wireless card, which doesn't work with MiniStumbler. However thanks for mentioning Famililar Linux, I will have to see what that's all about and I may decide to use that if it's possible on an e740. I've been dying to get out of the PPC 2002 interface anyway--the Pocket apps aren't worth anything and for some reason I've got a memory leak that forces me to soft reset the device once a week. Not a big deal but enough to annoy me.
Thanks for replying, Kismet looks like a great solution--however I'm not aware of any way to set up linux on the e740...I suppose if it's been done on iPaqs it can be done on the 740, but I haven't figured it out yet.
I've always believed that flat out good security was a much better solution than trying to eliminate all who would probe your security. Take for instance firewalls that claim to "track down attackers"--I don't care about that. Anyone with half a brain can get an IP address from their firewall logs. All I want is a firewall that locks down all unused ports, and offers program-specific access settings. This stops most portscans and worms. The idea of a honeypot may be important in certain cases, i.e. when very clever hackers have been found invading networks, even after they were secured well. But an ounce of prevention (locking down your wireless network in the first place) is worth a pound of cure (honeypots).
OT, does anyone know of a Netstumbler-like tool that works with the Toshiba e740's built in Prism wireless card?
Microsoft Windows XP: $100/license.
Microsoft Office XP: $300/license.
Paying extra for security: Thousands of dollars per site.
Realizing there's a free, secure alternative: Priceless.
Some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Microsoft.
Sounds like more of a Shelbyville idea...
Jack Valenti: A senator once tried to test me. I ate his liver. With some fava beans and a nice chianti.
seriously, tell me you can't see Jack "Maddog" Valenti as Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lector...
First person to post lyrics to the broadway musical soundtrack is getting a +5 funny for sure.
All together now...Repeat. However this is such great news, I don't mind hearing about it twice. Let's hope that at the very least this bill stirs up more media attention to the DMCA, DRM, and other things that are designed to take away our rights, not protect them.
First of all, it's been said before and I'll say it again: Boucher and Lofgren really have their heads screwed on right. Second, I feel very insignificant with a circle of friends ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE fewer than the "millions" of friends movie swappers are purported to have.
"Grammar"
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
...now Steve, just point that gun down a little farther...there ya go!
BANG
Seriously though, why are so many companies failing to realize that any perceived benefit short-term that they gain by closing their products is ultimately offset by the goodwill they lose among the enthusiasts circle--the community that will do more for their advertising than even the best "1984" commercial. It's called "word of mouth" - you'd think these people would have heard about it in marketing school...
It's not about "piracy" - it's about bandwidth being a limited resource, plain and simple. If they didn't use packetshaping, other services would be slowed down or made unusable. They've reached the limit of offcampus bandwidth. It's at a point where they're saying: "what do we cut" -- and P2P traffic is the first to be limited. It's the best solution, since it uses up 99% of the bandwidth to begin with anyway. What, would you rather slow down webpage requests to increase bandwidth?
There is simply no way to allow for everyone using P2P and keep a usable network at the same time, without increasing costs. I've seen what happens when Napster overloaded our network, and after they applied packetshaping the usability was 100% better. And during off-peak times, Napster speeds went back up, so you could still do your downloading in the mornings.
This sort of thing is going to spread nationwide. It's already in place at my school (Case Western Reserve University) as well - they implemented it last fall and it really helped network speed, at the cost of P2P offcampus.
What this means is we as college students have to start using oncampus sharing solutions like Direct Connect with oncampus hubs -- instead of searching national networks (fasttrack, gnutella), we can just set up college hubs like RIT students have done. Connecting oncampus will be orders of magnitude faster than connecting offcampus -- and nobody "shapes" those packets. The only potential problem is copyright infringement crackdown when the networks get popular enough - but as long as people don't share copyrighted music/movies, they're in the clear. Of course there's always FTP and IRC...
Friends don't let friends drink and dual-boot.