It makes one wonder why everyone's touting electric/hybrid vehicles that run off of li-ion or polymer batteries. If people (erroneously) thought that hydrogen cars would do a Hindenberg in their driveway, wait til they find out about this.
People who never had any training in music can somehow play music, people who never studied math but have a high mathmatical aptitude, or even people who have plenty of indicators for Aspergers (sp?) syndrome who otherwise are capable programmers and entrepeneurs (Bill Gates, anyone?). Of course, the "idiot" is in quotations because two out of three ain't bad.
Or, for that matter, the server may have been going through regular maintenance, been down momentarily due to a DoS attack, or any variety of circumstances. Most people don't receive notices of such maintenance from their provider, only instead receiving a nonsensical numeric error code, if not an outright timeout which would lead an ignorant user to think his "internets are clogged" (at least if you don't have the POP3 command/reply codes memorized).
Chances are, this is exactly what happened, and sadly, his "sent internet" more than likely was sent over the lan by the e-mail server locally, so any sending of "internets" didn't technically occur to begin with.
I read the article a few days before it came up on Slashdot, and I agreee. The carvings were actually very well done, the artist put a lot of effort into accurately reproducing the reference photos he (or she) had to work with.
More than likely, the artist in question did it on spec, hoping to put food on the table for a week or more, and was promised enough at least to cover a few days for the first reproductions, only to be cut off by the scammer when the deal fell through (a common practice in business and crime).
Actually, WGA is more akin to extortion, since it not only constantly nags you throughout the day about the version of Windows not being legit, but to get it to stop (and to allow you to update your Windows installation, to protect against all manner of malware), you have to shell out $150. Did you buy a used computer with Windows XP installed? Did you download Windows XP from a pirate site or P2P app? It doesn't matter. You're still given the shakedown for $150.
And as for Linux, I've said it again and again, nobody wants to ditch the OS they feel comfortable with, in order to learn a whole new OS from scratch, just because it's more politically correct to do so, especially when they have to deal with the overzealous snobs who demand they do.
But in the case of many African countries, and other impoverished nations (as demonstrated throughout history), all any money from the B&MGF will accomplish is the following:
(1) Tinpot dictator will quietly (and enthusiastically) accept X m/billion dollar donation.
(2) Said dictator will announce in state run news media that he strong armed a major American company or the American government into giving money to his country, and of course, that the public will receive the fruits of that action.
(3) Said dictator will actually spend maybe $100 on constructing shack with a toilet in the center of the capital city, build another mansion for himself with the remaining funds, maybe buy a few hundred thousand rounds of ammo and some more surplus AK-47s for his army.
As long as his army has ammo, he doesn't have to give a damn about AIDS, food, infrastructure, et al. For the remainder of his constituents who haven't figured out they've been had, the state run media will announce that the US corporation/government weaseled out on the deal, and that he was a victim of circumstance.
"After all, they say, how can using a unique fingerprint for identification be riskier to theft than a plastic card, key chain token, or account number?"
Just look at murder victims whose hands have been lopped off to hide their identities. It doesn't take much of a (morbid) leap of logic that someone could hold onto a thumb, and surrepticiously use it to withdraw someone's entire finances.
Pretty much, yeah, and as a result of the tape's limitations, the video was relatively choppy. However, considering this system was developed almost 5 years before CD-I, 3DO, or SegaCD even made it to market, was nothing short of amazing. And (at least at the time) the target market wouldn't have to purchase any new hardware, that is, if they had a VCR handy.
I played the NEMO prototype (which was a monstrous wirewrap board) back in 1990 or so, and it was a fairly impressive experience. The data took up a small strip of space on the side of the screen, which seemed like a player piano in a sense.
Technically, if Worlds Of Wonder (makers of Teddy Ruxpin) and Hasbro stuck with their guns, Sega would still have lost. almost 5 years before the SegaCD made its debut, they were working on a project called Isix Nemo, which involved an interleaved frame system (24 FPS split into 4 6 frame chunks in the frame buffer for every sequence), footage of which was fed from a conventional VHS source, the frame buffer was not much more advanced than a Colecovision (in fact, the controller system was based on it). The end result was Sewer Shark, Night Trap, and a simple "Make your own music video" game, before Kid & Play made theirs using the same technology for the SegaCD.
Sega, however, could have whipped the pants off of Nintendo and NEC's consoles at the time, if they just applied themselves properly.
Actually, it took a couple of years after the GD-ROM was introduced that some clever guys figured out how to rip them. Sega more or less tossed the gauntlet into the ring when they made the claim that it was unhackable (which of course was a challenge).
The reason Sega failed was (1) Their VMUs were almost useless, due to short lived batteries, and (2) They pissed their pants when facing another Sega VS. Sony scenario, which wasn't helped by Microsoft entering the fray, and (3) They went with GD-ROM instead of DVD as a storage medium. Sony and Microsoft both capitalized on their abilities to act as "all in one" entertainment systems, complete with DVD playback.
The biggest problem, however, was that Sega didn't learn enough from the Master System's failings, they came close to success with the Megadrive, until Ninendo released their Super Famicom system. Then it went back to reinventing the wheel, waiting to see if market share was available (despite a reluctance to properly promote their consoles), then bailing on it when the bean counters couldn't see why the systems weren't selling. The 32X was an *okay* addon peripheral, but there was so much backing behind the Saturn, that pretty much everyone who bought it were left in the dark with a high tech paperweight. There was so much potential in the Saturn, but they failed to claim their niche, losing to Sony, which resulted in the same. There was even potential in the SegaCD, but again, they failed to market it sufficiently/properly. When you have that many gamers buying into that much hardware, eventually your gamers will give up on you when you fail to support it, if at all. Even Atari demonstrated this fact.
In the end, Sega's failing is simply explained: They lost their focus, and gave up far too easily at the slightest sign of adversity.
And before anyone mods me troll, I put in a few months at Sega of America as a QA tester, and watched as all of the above took place, back in the Genesis days. You wouldn't believe the time they wasted on the SegaCD as a "FMV Box", when it's overall graphical prowess was on a par with, if not obviously superior to the Super Famicom in the day. It was downright embarassing to see how they operated.
Not to mention the overwhelming numbers of people who are not online and cannot view the cartoon, let alone have the ability to understand the message of the cartoon. Most people probably think DRM is a new kind of cough medicine, thanks to the decades spent on keeping the public ignorant.
And as long as these estimated hundreds of millions of people are ignorant of the issues, they're going to ignore what their congresscritters do, as long as they keep them thar homosexuals from getting married and keep shoveling money into Halib- er, Iraq. Since Alito is in the SCOTUS, it's more than likely we'll see other precedents, such as Universal VS Sony, reversed as well. Since all of the companies that used to promote copying or timeshifting under fair use are now themselves major holders in the **AAs, they'll ironically stand side by side with him in the process.
In case any "red blooded Americans" haven't paid attention, it's a note for note plaegarism of "God Save the Queen". Does that mean England can legally sue?
That's the operative question. While terrestrial synthesis of alcohol is a waste byproduct, from organic conversion by hungry microbes, what would do it in the relative vacuum of space? It seems to be a bit too difficult to do as a random occurance as a random byproduct of various nebulae and stars, is it possible it's resulting waste of interstellar life?
I think, personally, the overall failure of a 3D net experience is due to the unrealistic expectations that most early adopters had, when virtual reality involved putting on a goofy helmet and feeling, smelling, tasting and hearing content that rivaled real life. This was mainly due to endless tons of crappy cyberpunk flicks, such as Johnny Mnemonic, Hackers, Lawnmower Man 1 & 2, et al. Hell, for the sake of definition, lets coin the phrase "Cyberputz" for such material.
Of course, in the 90s, and in the real world, when these interfaces were being experimented with, we had at best, a 56K modem that was incapable of connecting at any speed higher than 43K due to shitty connection quality, computers that at best ran 400-500 Mhz, graphics cards that were largely bloated and slow (shy of the last 3DFX card in the mid to late 90s), expensive RAM, all of which would not easily be available to anyone who didn't have a blank check to build a competent system. Add to this the overall cost of VR motion tracking helmets (still a pretty penny even today), and you have a rough approximation (Dactyl Terror, anyone?) of virtual reality. Still not quite anywhere near what cyberputz movies advertised or offered.
Now the only real reason for a cyberputz style 3D interface, was nothing more than showing a graphical representation of existing servers and routers, which in themselves would only be nessesary for a representation of distance between servers based on ping time, traceroutes, etc. Maybe a 3D logo, or animated character representing security apps or a virus (a 3D image of a really scary monster would be more psychologically effective at saying "Keep Out", than a javascript popup). Most of these things, however, are not needed by the average computer user. A perfect example of why, is the overall sales of set top boxes such as WebTV, bought up mainly by people who don't care to play Halo 2 on a PC, and just want to download e-mail, or (barely) navigate the web.
Long and short, as long as it's financially unprofitable, it will most likely be unavailable. As long as there is limited demand, it most likely will be unprofitable. It's a vicious cycle.
From what I know, most modern cellular phones have a rudimentary built in GPS, to aid in directing emergency services when 911 is dialed. You can disable it if you want, but judging from the thieves' behavior, I doubt they have the intelligence to do so.
Seriously, HD DVD formats on a laptop are laughable. LCD displays are limited in resolution, and for that matter, so are current HDTV monitors/displays. Your HD DVD would look the same on a 17" widescreen laptop as a non HD DVD, unless you're lucky.
The ONLY reason someone would want to pirate an HD-DVD format is to reduce its quality to be viewable on current technology.
Slashdot Mirror
It makes one wonder why everyone's touting electric/hybrid vehicles that run off of li-ion or polymer batteries. If people (erroneously) thought that hydrogen cars would do a Hindenberg in their driveway, wait til they find out about this.
People who never had any training in music can somehow play music, people who never studied math but have a high mathmatical aptitude, or even people who have plenty of indicators for Aspergers (sp?) syndrome who otherwise are capable programmers and entrepeneurs (Bill Gates, anyone?). Of course, the "idiot" is in quotations because two out of three ain't bad.
Or, for that matter, the server may have been going through regular maintenance, been down momentarily due to a DoS attack, or any variety of circumstances. Most people don't receive notices of such maintenance from their provider, only instead receiving a nonsensical numeric error code, if not an outright timeout which would lead an ignorant user to think his "internets are clogged" (at least if you don't have the POP3 command/reply codes memorized).
Chances are, this is exactly what happened, and sadly, his "sent internet" more than likely was sent over the lan by the e-mail server locally, so any sending of "internets" didn't technically occur to begin with.
I read the article a few days before it came up on Slashdot, and I agreee. The carvings were actually very well done, the artist put a lot of effort into accurately reproducing the reference photos he (or she) had to work with.
More than likely, the artist in question did it on spec, hoping to put food on the table for a week or more, and was promised enough at least to cover a few days for the first reproductions, only to be cut off by the scammer when the deal fell through (a common practice in business and crime).
Actually, WGA is more akin to extortion, since it not only constantly nags you throughout the day about the version of Windows not being legit, but to get it to stop (and to allow you to update your Windows installation, to protect against all manner of malware), you have to shell out $150. Did you buy a used computer with Windows XP installed? Did you download Windows XP from a pirate site or P2P app? It doesn't matter. You're still given the shakedown for $150.
And as for Linux, I've said it again and again, nobody wants to ditch the OS they feel comfortable with, in order to learn a whole new OS from scratch, just because it's more politically correct to do so, especially when they have to deal with the overzealous snobs who demand they do.
I know you are, but what am I?
But in the case of many African countries, and other impoverished nations (as demonstrated throughout history), all any money from the B&MGF will accomplish is the following:
(1) Tinpot dictator will quietly (and enthusiastically) accept X m/billion dollar donation.
(2) Said dictator will announce in state run news media that he strong armed a major American company or the American government into giving money to his country, and of course, that the public will receive the fruits of that action.
(3) Said dictator will actually spend maybe $100 on constructing shack with a toilet in the center of the capital city, build another mansion for himself with the remaining funds, maybe buy a few hundred thousand rounds of ammo and some more surplus AK-47s for his army.
As long as his army has ammo, he doesn't have to give a damn about AIDS, food, infrastructure, et al. For the remainder of his constituents who haven't figured out they've been had, the state run media will announce that the US corporation/government weaseled out on the deal, and that he was a victim of circumstance.
"After all, they say, how can using a unique fingerprint for identification be riskier to theft than a plastic card, key chain token, or account number?"
Just look at murder victims whose hands have been lopped off to hide their identities. It doesn't take much of a (morbid) leap of logic that someone could hold onto a thumb, and surrepticiously use it to withdraw someone's entire finances.
You're cooking with Dell!
It wasn't suicide, it was a mercy killing.
Mercy mercy mercy.
Back in 1992, my AOHell acct. was closed instantly because I dared to tell an obnoxious chat room user to "get a life".
Maybe the easiest method would be to simply be annoying online?
Pretty much, yeah, and as a result of the tape's limitations, the video was relatively choppy. However, considering this system was developed almost 5 years before CD-I, 3DO, or SegaCD even made it to market, was nothing short of amazing. And (at least at the time) the target market wouldn't have to purchase any new hardware, that is, if they had a VCR handy.
I played the NEMO prototype (which was a monstrous wirewrap board) back in 1990 or so, and it was a fairly impressive experience. The data took up a small strip of space on the side of the screen, which seemed like a player piano in a sense.
Technically, if Worlds Of Wonder (makers of Teddy Ruxpin) and Hasbro stuck with their guns, Sega would still have lost. almost 5 years before the SegaCD made its debut, they were working on a project called Isix Nemo, which involved an interleaved frame system (24 FPS split into 4 6 frame chunks in the frame buffer for every sequence), footage of which was fed from a conventional VHS source, the frame buffer was not much more advanced than a Colecovision (in fact, the controller system was based on it). The end result was Sewer Shark, Night Trap, and a simple "Make your own music video" game, before Kid & Play made theirs using the same technology for the SegaCD.
Sega, however, could have whipped the pants off of Nintendo and NEC's consoles at the time, if they just applied themselves properly.
Actually, it took a couple of years after the GD-ROM was introduced that some clever guys figured out how to rip them. Sega more or less tossed the gauntlet into the ring when they made the claim that it was unhackable (which of course was a challenge).
The reason Sega failed was (1) Their VMUs were almost useless, due to short lived batteries, and (2) They pissed their pants when facing another Sega VS. Sony scenario, which wasn't helped by Microsoft entering the fray, and (3) They went with GD-ROM instead of DVD as a storage medium. Sony and Microsoft both capitalized on their abilities to act as "all in one" entertainment systems, complete with DVD playback.
The biggest problem, however, was that Sega didn't learn enough from the Master System's failings, they came close to success with the Megadrive, until Ninendo released their Super Famicom system. Then it went back to reinventing the wheel, waiting to see if market share was available (despite a reluctance to properly promote their consoles), then bailing on it when the bean counters couldn't see why the systems weren't selling. The 32X was an *okay* addon peripheral, but there was so much backing behind the Saturn, that pretty much everyone who bought it were left in the dark with a high tech paperweight. There was so much potential in the Saturn, but they failed to claim their niche, losing to Sony, which resulted in the same. There was even potential in the SegaCD, but again, they failed to market it sufficiently/properly. When you have that many gamers buying into that much hardware, eventually your gamers will give up on you when you fail to support it, if at all. Even Atari demonstrated this fact.
In the end, Sega's failing is simply explained: They lost their focus, and gave up far too easily at the slightest sign of adversity.
And before anyone mods me troll, I put in a few months at Sega of America as a QA tester, and watched as all of the above took place, back in the Genesis days. You wouldn't believe the time they wasted on the SegaCD as a "FMV Box", when it's overall graphical prowess was on a par with, if not obviously superior to the Super Famicom in the day. It was downright embarassing to see how they operated.
I think there'd be a grand opening of the world's largest ice skating rink in Hell when that happens.
Not to mention the overwhelming numbers of people who are not online and cannot view the cartoon, let alone have the ability to understand the message of the cartoon. Most people probably think DRM is a new kind of cough medicine, thanks to the decades spent on keeping the public ignorant.
And as long as these estimated hundreds of millions of people are ignorant of the issues, they're going to ignore what their congresscritters do, as long as they keep them thar homosexuals from getting married and keep shoveling money into Halib- er, Iraq. Since Alito is in the SCOTUS, it's more than likely we'll see other precedents, such as Universal VS Sony, reversed as well. Since all of the companies that used to promote copying or timeshifting under fair use are now themselves major holders in the **AAs, they'll ironically stand side by side with him in the process.
In case any "red blooded Americans" haven't paid attention, it's a note for note plaegarism of "God Save the Queen". Does that mean England can legally sue?
Okay, thank you for the clarification. However, how would such a process operate in space?
That's the operative question. While terrestrial synthesis of alcohol is a waste byproduct, from organic conversion by hungry microbes, what would do it in the relative vacuum of space? It seems to be a bit too difficult to do as a random occurance as a random byproduct of various nebulae and stars, is it possible it's resulting waste of interstellar life?
More like follow the offshore bank accounts, Grand Cayman Islands, etc.
I think, personally, the overall failure of a 3D net experience is due to the unrealistic expectations that most early adopters had, when virtual reality involved putting on a goofy helmet and feeling, smelling, tasting and hearing content that rivaled real life. This was mainly due to endless tons of crappy cyberpunk flicks, such as Johnny Mnemonic, Hackers, Lawnmower Man 1 & 2, et al. Hell, for the sake of definition, lets coin the phrase "Cyberputz" for such material.
Of course, in the 90s, and in the real world, when these interfaces were being experimented with, we had at best, a 56K modem that was incapable of connecting at any speed higher than 43K due to shitty connection quality, computers that at best ran 400-500 Mhz, graphics cards that were largely bloated and slow (shy of the last 3DFX card in the mid to late 90s), expensive RAM, all of which would not easily be available to anyone who didn't have a blank check to build a competent system. Add to this the overall cost of VR motion tracking helmets (still a pretty penny even today), and you have a rough approximation (Dactyl Terror, anyone?) of virtual reality. Still not quite anywhere near what cyberputz movies advertised or offered.
Now the only real reason for a cyberputz style 3D interface, was nothing more than showing a graphical representation of existing servers and routers, which in themselves would only be nessesary for a representation of distance between servers based on ping time, traceroutes, etc. Maybe a 3D logo, or animated character representing security apps or a virus (a 3D image of a really scary monster would be more psychologically effective at saying "Keep Out", than a javascript popup). Most of these things, however, are not needed by the average computer user. A perfect example of why, is the overall sales of set top boxes such as WebTV, bought up mainly by people who don't care to play Halo 2 on a PC, and just want to download e-mail, or (barely) navigate the web.
Long and short, as long as it's financially unprofitable, it will most likely be unavailable. As long as there is limited demand, it most likely will be unprofitable. It's a vicious cycle.
From what I know, most modern cellular phones have a rudimentary built in GPS, to aid in directing emergency services when 911 is dialed. You can disable it if you want, but judging from the thieves' behavior, I doubt they have the intelligence to do so.
Seriously, HD DVD formats on a laptop are laughable. LCD displays are limited in resolution, and for that matter, so are current HDTV monitors/displays. Your HD DVD would look the same on a 17" widescreen laptop as a non HD DVD, unless you're lucky.
The ONLY reason someone would want to pirate an HD-DVD format is to reduce its quality to be viewable on current technology.
They should call it Windows Live Intensivecare!
*badumpbump*
Thankew thankew, I'll be here all night, and remember to tip your waitress once you're done tipping the cows.
Inside the model there will be 1000 photocards and personal objects from Bigelow Aerospace employees all flooting inside the space station.