I agree. Piracy has always been around and will always be around. There's no reason to muck up a perfectly obvious and efficient distribution channel (the internet) just because they're paranoid.
The fact is the ease of duplicating music is the very reason why these companies are so profitable in the first place. The record companies want to be able to fully exploit various recording technologies while at the same time preventing consumers from using these very same technologies. Its good when they use it but its evil when we use it?
Before music was recordable, the economics of the music world were very different. Record companies obviously didn't exist then. The bulk of their buisness now is a direct result of cheap and easy duplication technology. The same type of technology that they are now trying to stop others from using. Is this ironic or is it just me?
i agree with what you're saying and i'm all for cleaner energy sources but fusion reactors just aren't feasible yet.
my point was just that relatively clean fission reactor technology already exists.
the plutonium issue is way over hyped and was simply used as a scare tactic to bury this technology. the reactor has to be run under specific conditions in order to produce plutonium. a breeder reactor running in its normal energy production mode does not create plutonium.
nuclear waste isn't waste, it can be reprocessed into fuel and burned in a modern nuclear reactor called IFR or Integral Fast Reactor. i've already outlined the virtues of this reactor in other threads so do a search if you're interested.
of course reactor housings and components eventually become waste products that need to be dealt with when the reactor is decommisioned but all in all nuclear power is much cleaner than fossil fuels by several orders of magnitude.
all energy production causes problems. there is always waste heat for one thing. even solar has environmental questions unanswered. what happens if you cover a huge portion of desert with solar collectors. all of sudden the ground temperature in a large region is lowered significantly which will likely disturb the habitation there.
i'm all for solar power, don't get me wrong, i'm just saying there are always issues. nuclear technology is available now and is much cleaner than anything else available.
a special type of reactor is required to burn this type of reprocessed fuel. it is called an IFR Integral Fast Reactor and is a very safe reactor design.
clean energy technology has already been developed and is available now. reactors have been designed, built, tested and then the technology was shelved and buryed by the oil industries who were unwittingly helped along by misinformed environmentalists.
i can't believe we still burn coal!
if you care about the environment then i suggest you look into IFR Integral Fast Reactor. the prototype was EBR-II built and tested at the Argonne National Laboratory about 10 years ago. it is both safe and clean meaning it effectively produces no waste.
the IFR Integral Fast Reactor recycles its waste over and over until essentially all of the fuel is spent. the very small amount of remaining waste that is not consumable has a half life of only 300 years and is no more radioactive than the original ore from which it was mined. additionally the IFR has passive safety features which makes meltdown impossible.
the original statement: "...the employee is free to leave at any time. If he does not, then he is not being 'abused'..."
my boss comes in and clubs me over the head with a 2 by 4. 1 minute later i quit my job for being abused. but according to the assertion, i could not have been abused until after i quit. for the 1 minute that i sat there stunned, i was not abused because i had not yet quit. if i was not abused then why did i quit my job?
the assertion does not hold. it is faulty logic.
also known as the chicken and the egg problem or in multi-threading as deadlock. the transition cannot occur unless the state is true but the state cannot be true unless the transition has already occured.
its not insane nor is it dishonest. please explain how it is dishonest.
nothing prevents these workers from getting full time employment at MS or part time employment elsewhere. there's a reason they are called "temps".
many other companies have similar rules. Apple Computer for one has had a nearly identical temp policy for at least 10 years. the policy is there to protect both temps and full time employees, it does not benefit the company in any way except to protect them from law suits.
full time workers are much more expensive to a company. if MS can hire temps and contractors and keep them on projects for 5 years, 10 years or more, then they have no incentive to hire full time workers.
why hire a full time worker and pay out all the benefits (medical, dental, bonuses, profit sharing, stock purchase plan etc.) when they can get a temp to do the same work and just pay a straight wage with no benefits?
Apple computer has similar policies for contractors and temps for exactly the same reason. Apple lost a law suit in the 80's that was basically the same as this one.
one of the biggest problems for the FSB is the distance between the cpu logic and the main memory. by putting everything on one chip you get rid of that problem and gain some new ones.
but the point is that as transistors get smaller we can put more and more functionality into the cpu itself. eventually maybe even the entire computer will be a single chip. lots of new problems to deal with but... FSB, what's an FSB?
the advantage of ball semiconductors is manufacturing. you can mass produce them at an incredible rate.
however, the draw back is that the transistor size is MUCH larger. (5 microns, i think) in other words, we won't see these 2 technologies combined for a long time.
i don't have time to look up the details but if i remember correctly, their transistors were on the order of 5.0um. Thats about 30 times larger than the 0.13um transistors that we can print on wafers.
do a search for "ball semiconductor" and you will find a lot of information.
http://www.ballsemi.com
todays steppers typically use a 193nm or 157nm source and are printing 180nm and 130nm patterns. these are production systems not research.
PSM Phase Shift Masking and OPC Optical Proximity Correction are 2 technologies that make sub wavelenght lithography possible. these technologies have been in production for at least a year now. any 0.13um process probably uses a combination of OPC and maybe PSM. Pentium 3 and 4 chips, to name two, are both produced with a 0.13um process.
The tax issue is interesting
on
EULA In Games
·
· Score: 1
"A state could conceivably rule that if the company, and not the customer, still owns the game, then they should have to pay taxes on this "intangible property.""
is this right? do corporations have to pay taxes on this type of property?
imagine M$ having to declare every copy of windows ever sold as part of their assets.
If you are inexperienced then the best way you can contribute is by building your skill set and following some open source projects without contributing code. Wait until you're a little more seasoned before you jump onto someone elses project. The open source community needs good experienced coders more than anything else.
Alternatively you could find or start a small open source project that has other inexperienced programmers.
I'm now a well respected project leader but i dread to think of the contributions i would have made to a project when i was a high school hacker. Writing code is easy, writing good code is hard but writing maintainable code seems to only come with experience.
This type of self levitation has already been proven.
The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance...
just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance...
as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.
And I'll never forget the grim look on his face
when he heisted himself and took leave of this place,
through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.
And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks, with the one word...
"UNLESS."
"say, your resume, [is] in Word 10, and next year you don't renew, but you DO change jobs, sorry, you can't modify that resume. You have to buy a new product to make a change to an existing document."
or download StarOffice and convert the doc.
its getting dull watching people ignore obvious solutions just to bash MS.
if you don't like it, don't use it.
i don't and i don't.
"If customers do not renew or install an upgrade product, they can still open, view and print their existing documents." - from the article
again, how is this blackmail? you are not prevented from accessing your data you are only prevented from modifying it in native *Word* format or creating new documents.
btw, MS sucks but strawman arguments against them only make us look weak as a community.
i don't like MS any more than the next programmer but your argument is weak and does nothing to advance your position. its ironic you should use the word 'arbitrary' because it describes your own argument quite well.
how is this blackmail? MS doesn't prevent you from accessing your data. they prevent you from generating new content.
no one is forcing you to give money to MS so download Star Office and quit your whining.
Is iridium useful for wireless broadband?
on
Iridium Saved?
·
· Score: 1
How much bandwidth can an iridium connection carry? If they planned for voice only then i guess its not too much but if the design allows for more than just voice data then why not make it a wireless broadband service?
This could bring broadband to remote areas. I'm sure you could easily charge upwards of $80 - $100 / month for broadband in areas where there are no other alternatives.
and bush and gore make their arguments in an "oh so pointed" manner? the amount of rhetoric from the major parties completely eclipses anything nader has ever approached.
nader has a vision for our future. bush and gore have visions of their own futures.
give it a break. no one except the republicans are swallowing this line of BS reasoning. THE RICH DO NOT NEED A TAX BREAK. its the poor who need the tax break.
i will never vote for a tax break for the rich (of which i consider myself one) until some equilibrium is restored. the wealth in this country is absurdly out of balance and it is interfering with democracy.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. Piracy has always been around and will always be around. There's no reason to muck up a perfectly obvious and efficient distribution channel (the internet) just because they're paranoid.
The fact is the ease of duplicating music is the very reason why these companies are so profitable in the first place. The record companies want to be able to fully exploit various recording technologies while at the same time preventing consumers from using these very same technologies. Its good when they use it but its evil when we use it?
Before music was recordable, the economics of the music world were very different. Record companies obviously didn't exist then. The bulk of their buisness now is a direct result of cheap and easy duplication technology. The same type of technology that they are now trying to stop others from using. Is this ironic or is it just me?
yes, recycling waste was only one of the virtues of the IFR reactor. and yes, its fuel cycle does not have to begin with reprocessed fuel.
i believe there are other reactors designs with similar features but IFR is the only one i know anything about. i am by no means an expert.
i was stunned when i read about how this reactor project was cancelled.
i agree with what you're saying and i'm all for cleaner energy sources but fusion reactors just aren't feasible yet.
my point was just that relatively clean fission reactor technology already exists.
the plutonium issue is way over hyped and was simply used as a scare tactic to bury this technology. the reactor has to be run under specific conditions in order to produce plutonium. a breeder reactor running in its normal energy production mode does not create plutonium.
nuclear waste isn't waste, it can be reprocessed into fuel and burned in a modern nuclear reactor called IFR or Integral Fast Reactor. i've already outlined the virtues of this reactor in other threads so do a search if you're interested.
of course reactor housings and components eventually become waste products that need to be dealt with when the reactor is decommisioned but all in all nuclear power is much cleaner than fossil fuels by several orders of magnitude.
all energy production causes problems. there is always waste heat for one thing. even solar has environmental questions unanswered. what happens if you cover a huge portion of desert with solar collectors. all of sudden the ground temperature in a large region is lowered significantly which will likely disturb the habitation there.
i'm all for solar power, don't get me wrong, i'm just saying there are always issues. nuclear technology is available now and is much cleaner than anything else available.
these issues should be decided by reasoned arguments not emotional ones.
a special type of reactor is required to burn this type of reprocessed fuel. it is called an IFR Integral Fast Reactor and is a very safe reactor design.
clean energy technology has already been developed and is available now. reactors have been designed, built, tested and then the technology was shelved and buryed by the oil industries who were unwittingly helped along by misinformed environmentalists.
i can't believe we still burn coal!
if you care about the environment then i suggest you look into IFR Integral Fast Reactor. the prototype was EBR-II built and tested at the Argonne National Laboratory about 10 years ago. it is both safe and clean meaning it effectively produces no waste.
the IFR Integral Fast Reactor recycles its waste over and over until essentially all of the fuel is spent. the very small amount of remaining waste that is not consumable has a half life of only 300 years and is no more radioactive than the original ore from which it was mined. additionally the IFR has passive safety features which makes meltdown impossible.
the original statement: "...the employee is free to leave at any time. If he does not, then he is not being 'abused'..."
:)]
my boss comes in and clubs me over the head with a 2 by 4. 1 minute later i quit my job for being abused. but according to the assertion, i could not have been abused until after i quit. for the 1 minute that i sat there stunned, i was not abused because i had not yet quit. if i was not abused then why did i quit my job?
the assertion does not hold. it is faulty logic.
also known as the chicken and the egg problem or in multi-threading as deadlock. the transition cannot occur unless the state is true but the state cannot be true unless the transition has already occured.
[i liked your PB reference.
"the employee is free to leave at any time. If he does not, then he is not being 'abused'"
this is clearly a false statement and i find this type of 'logic' very disturbing. you would do well to devote more thought to your point of view.
its not insane nor is it dishonest. please explain how it is dishonest.
nothing prevents these workers from getting full time employment at MS or part time employment elsewhere. there's a reason they are called "temps".
many other companies have similar rules. Apple Computer for one has had a nearly identical temp policy for at least 10 years. the policy is there to protect both temps and full time employees, it does not benefit the company in any way except to protect them from law suits.
full time workers are much more expensive to a company. if MS can hire temps and contractors and keep them on projects for 5 years, 10 years or more, then they have no incentive to hire full time workers.
why hire a full time worker and pay out all the benefits (medical, dental, bonuses, profit sharing, stock purchase plan etc.) when they can get a temp to do the same work and just pay a straight wage with no benefits?
Apple computer has similar policies for contractors and temps for exactly the same reason. Apple lost a law suit in the 80's that was basically the same as this one.
one of the biggest problems for the FSB is the distance between the cpu logic and the main memory. by putting everything on one chip you get rid of that problem and gain some new ones.
but the point is that as transistors get smaller we can put more and more functionality into the cpu itself. eventually maybe even the entire computer will be a single chip. lots of new problems to deal with but... FSB, what's an FSB?
the advantage of ball semiconductors is manufacturing. you can mass produce them at an incredible rate.
however, the draw back is that the transistor size is MUCH larger. (5 microns, i think) in other words, we won't see these 2 technologies combined for a long time.
i don't have time to look up the details but if i remember correctly, their transistors were on the order of 5.0um. Thats about 30 times larger than the 0.13um transistors that we can print on wafers.
do a search for "ball semiconductor" and you will find a lot of information.
http://www.ballsemi.com
todays steppers typically use a 193nm or 157nm source and are printing 180nm and 130nm patterns. these are production systems not research.
PSM Phase Shift Masking and OPC Optical Proximity Correction are 2 technologies that make sub wavelenght lithography possible. these technologies have been in production for at least a year now. any 0.13um process probably uses a combination of OPC and maybe PSM. Pentium 3 and 4 chips, to name two, are both produced with a 0.13um process.
the gate oxide was 0.8nm thick
"A state could conceivably rule that if the company, and not the customer, still owns the game, then they should have to pay taxes on this "intangible property.""
is this right? do corporations have to pay taxes on this type of property?
imagine M$ having to declare every copy of windows ever sold as part of their assets.
If you are inexperienced then the best way you can contribute is by building your skill set and following some open source projects without contributing code. Wait until you're a little more seasoned before you jump onto someone elses project. The open source community needs good experienced coders more than anything else.
Alternatively you could find or start a small open source project that has other inexperienced programmers.
I'm now a well respected project leader but i dread to think of the contributions i would have made to a project when i was a high school hacker. Writing code is easy, writing good code is hard but writing maintainable code seems to only come with experience.
This type of self levitation has already been proven.
The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance...
just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance...
as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants.
And I'll never forget the grim look on his face
when he heisted himself and took leave of this place,
through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.
And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks, with the one word...
"UNLESS."
"say, your resume, [is] in Word 10, and next year you don't renew, but you DO change jobs, sorry, you can't modify that resume. You have to buy a new product to make a change to an existing document."
or download StarOffice and convert the doc.
its getting dull watching people ignore obvious solutions just to bash MS.
if you don't like it, don't use it.
i don't and i don't.
"If customers do not renew or install an upgrade product, they can still open, view and print their existing documents." - from the article
again, how is this blackmail? you are not prevented from accessing your data you are only prevented from modifying it in native *Word* format or creating new documents.
btw, MS sucks but strawman arguments against them only make us look weak as a community.
i don't like MS any more than the next programmer but your argument is weak and does nothing to advance your position. its ironic you should use the word 'arbitrary' because it describes your own argument quite well.
how is this blackmail? MS doesn't prevent you from accessing your data. they prevent you from generating new content.
no one is forcing you to give money to MS so download Star Office and quit your whining.
How much bandwidth can an iridium connection carry? If they planned for voice only then i guess its not too much but if the design allows for more than just voice data then why not make it a wireless broadband service?
This could bring broadband to remote areas. I'm sure you could easily charge upwards of $80 - $100 / month for broadband in areas where there are no other alternatives.
and bush and gore make their arguments in an "oh so pointed" manner? the amount of rhetoric from the major parties completely eclipses anything nader has ever approached.
nader has a vision for our future. bush and gore have visions of their own futures.
probably making... what? $14k/yr. end sarcasm
give it a break. no one except the republicans are swallowing this line of BS reasoning. THE RICH DO NOT NEED A TAX BREAK. its the poor who need the tax break.
i will never vote for a tax break for the rich (of which i consider myself one) until some equilibrium is restored. the wealth in this country is absurdly out of balance and it is interfering with democracy.