You know, what if someone wrote a virus that used all of this distributed computing power to improve itself? Instead of waiting for the inefficiencies of script kiddies to discover and exploit OS weaknesses, this distributed power could constantly be scanning and divising methods to devise the ultimate super-virus.
I wouldn't call a visit to the moon as controlling it. Controlling the moon would imply a continued presence, and the rubbish left behind doesn't count. In my opinion, in order to be in a position to control the moon, you need something of a defense/attack capability, whether manned or unmanned.
OK, the article blurb claims that QT/Sorenson had the fastest encoding times, but also had the third-worst quality (only QT/MPEG-4 was worse). DivX seems to have the best quality, which, in my opinion, should be the end goal.
Think about it, how many times are you going to encode a movie? How many times are you going to watch it? Typically, you are going to encode once and probably watch it multiple times. Therefore, I would happily accept a little longer processing time in the beginning if that means I will end up with a better quality production.
Actually, I live in the U.S. and have no clue when baseball season starts or ends. But then again, I care about baseball as much as I care about cricket -> Not at all.
And to keep this on-topic: I'm not really surprised about MLB's decision on this. Trying to get the free version of Real's player is a terrible pain. Quicktime isn't much better. You can find the free version of QT easily enough (unlike how deep Real buried theirs), but the servers hosting the free version of QT are constantly jacked up and you have to sit there and click retry about a thousand times to get it downloaded.
As far as the contract goes, MLB should just broadcast the games in both formats (unless the contract has an exclusive format clause). That should keep Real's lawyers at bay and make for happier customers at the same time.
My son plays my old NES almost as much as he plays with the PS2. So not only did I get a lot of fun out of the older system, but my son is enjoying it now (as do I when I game with him).
I don't think that a game has to have the newest and best technologies to be a great game. The real value of a game is the (re)playability and whether or not it has a decent concept.
On the same token, try administering a Windows Active Directory server when all you've ever known is *nix administration. At the hosting company I used to work at, I ended up installing Cygwin and wrote a bunch of bash scripts that called upon VBScripts to handle most common administrative tasks to make things easier for the Linix admins that had no clue about Windows.
Personally, I think they were not "getting" it on purpose so they wouldn't have to work on the Windows systems. They punished me by making me fix all of those problems (or at least stabilizing them so they would at least keep running).
Although I can handle both Linux and Windows quite well, throw me in front of a Mac and I feel like a blithering idiot.
I think that a lot of this "piracy" business that the MPAA and RIAA is a load of crap. For example, one of the loudest voices against Napster (before the became "legit") was Metallica. In one of the tape inserts for one of their albums (I forget which one), they claim outright that they used to trade tapes back and forth and copy them all the time before they made it big. So, it is OK when they commited piracy, but it isn't now when they are a target of it?
You should be able to use either the tweezers or the toothpick. Both of those devices are detachable and are included on all standard Swiss Army Knives.
"The music trade group must pay court fees for each of these cases. Filing each lawsuit will cost $150 in court fees, for a total of over $30,000, according to the EFF."
This doesn't even count the additional legal fees and man-hours involved in filing each individual case separately. Plus the additional costs for filing subpeonas to the individual ISPs, the costs to actually deliver the charges to the alleged violators, and so on. Hopefully, these costs will just continue to escalate and east away at the RIAA's bottom line. Maybe if they lose enough money on all of these legal fees, they will be willing to work out a more realistic position with the rest of the world. I won't hold my breath on that, though.
Actually, could you see if two different companies had an automatic DDoS system like this and someone spoofed their DDoS to attack Company A and made it look like it was coming from Company B? Company A's auto-attack would then attack Company B, which would, in turn, attack Company A. Not only would the continual volleys take out both companies, there would also be a huge impact on the network paths between them.
Actually, the Martha Stewart and Enron cases should be able to prove that crime isn't limited to the poorer members of society. Unethical behavior behavior exists at all levels, it is about a person's beliefs and values, not their economic ones.
Actually, I did convince a customer to install Cygwin once in order to assist in a data collection effort on their network. The scripts we wrote were quite ugly (especially the ones that called upon other Windows-based commands), but they were efficient and accurate enough to get all of the data that we needed to complete the project.
Damn, I didn't even realize that until you commented on it. I'm surprised that Slashdot didn't do some kind of self-gloating over that fact. I would have if it were me.
No, you are remembering correctly, WETA does use Linux-based server farms.
Well, with this pairing, that means whenever I take my kids to see the latest Pixar movie, I will be stuck with Apple commercials on top of all of the other commercials, the RIAA documentary, and all of the half-hour long previews that pretty much show you the whole movie (or at least the best parts).
Revised math: If you go with pricewatch.com instead of a retailer, you can easily get a 2.5 TB solution for under $1,700 USD, to include the RAID5 controller cards.
It's only 2.5 TB. He only asked for that much space, but he did not ask for the same performance specifications. Considering that 250 GB harddrives are going for about $250 (at Circuit City - jacked up retail rates), you can get 2.5 TB of storage for your home network for $2,500. You would probably need to get an extra EIDE adapter for most systems to handle this space, but that should only cost about $35-40.
Now, if he wanted better performance and reliability, he would need to spend a little more to get a good RAID5 controller card and probably 2 more hard drives to account for the parity data (depending upon how he organizes the system).
After reading the article, it appears that the software in question was designed specifically for the operation of a piece of medical equipment. Given this case, I would find it to be highly unethical for the EULA governing this piece of equipment to have any kind of statement regarding an application that could endanger human life.
Another point of contention is that everyone here keeps jumping up and showing the Microsoft EULA. I do not see anything in this article that states what OS is running on this equipment. I'm not standing up for Microsoft in this case, I'm just merely stating that we can't blame them without a specific reference. Considering the type of equipment involved, it is most likely using some customized, embedded operating system.
Also, the article specifically states that the Panamanian technicians involved had introduced changes to the software and thought that adding an extra radiation shield to the patient would protect the patient from the higher radiation dosage.
Given my interpretation of the article, this is a case of user-failure versus a software error.
Not only that, but if you find a security flaw in Windows and report it, either Microsoft ignores you or they threaten you with the DMCA for "hacking" the OS. If you find something in Linux, at least a dozen developers hop onto the problem and get it resolved within a week (or less).
This is no real surprise. Linux, even paying for support, is a lot cheaper. And, with blade servers, you can pack a lot more horse power in a lot smaller space.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, what if someone wrote a virus that used all of this distributed computing power to improve itself? Instead of waiting for the inefficiencies of script kiddies to discover and exploit OS weaknesses, this distributed power could constantly be scanning and divising methods to devise the ultimate super-virus.
Guess that makes it's name Marvin?
I wouldn't call a visit to the moon as controlling it. Controlling the moon would imply a continued presence, and the rubbish left behind doesn't count. In my opinion, in order to be in a position to control the moon, you need something of a defense/attack capability, whether manned or unmanned.
OK, the article blurb claims that QT/Sorenson had the fastest encoding times, but also had the third-worst quality (only QT/MPEG-4 was worse). DivX seems to have the best quality, which, in my opinion, should be the end goal.
Think about it, how many times are you going to encode a movie? How many times are you going to watch it? Typically, you are going to encode once and probably watch it multiple times. Therefore, I would happily accept a little longer processing time in the beginning if that means I will end up with a better quality production.
Actually, I live in the U.S. and have no clue when baseball season starts or ends. But then again, I care about baseball as much as I care about cricket -> Not at all.
And to keep this on-topic: I'm not really surprised about MLB's decision on this. Trying to get the free version of Real's player is a terrible pain. Quicktime isn't much better. You can find the free version of QT easily enough (unlike how deep Real buried theirs), but the servers hosting the free version of QT are constantly jacked up and you have to sit there and click retry about a thousand times to get it downloaded.
As far as the contract goes, MLB should just broadcast the games in both formats (unless the contract has an exclusive format clause). That should keep Real's lawyers at bay and make for happier customers at the same time.
My son plays my old NES almost as much as he plays with the PS2. So not only did I get a lot of fun out of the older system, but my son is enjoying it now (as do I when I game with him).
I don't think that a game has to have the newest and best technologies to be a great game. The real value of a game is the (re)playability and whether or not it has a decent concept.
"I don't know if anything can be done legally..."
Have you consulted with a lawyer? Then you would have an idea if there is a legal course to pursue.
On the same token, try administering a Windows Active Directory server when all you've ever known is *nix administration. At the hosting company I used to work at, I ended up installing Cygwin and wrote a bunch of bash scripts that called upon VBScripts to handle most common administrative tasks to make things easier for the Linix admins that had no clue about Windows.
Personally, I think they were not "getting" it on purpose so they wouldn't have to work on the Windows systems. They punished me by making me fix all of those problems (or at least stabilizing them so they would at least keep running).
Although I can handle both Linux and Windows quite well, throw me in front of a Mac and I feel like a blithering idiot.
I think that a lot of this "piracy" business that the MPAA and RIAA is a load of crap. For example, one of the loudest voices against Napster (before the became "legit") was Metallica. In one of the tape inserts for one of their albums (I forget which one), they claim outright that they used to trade tapes back and forth and copy them all the time before they made it big. So, it is OK when they commited piracy, but it isn't now when they are a target of it?
I'm glad their last album sucked....
Yeah, SCO's gonna claim this one has their code too.
You should be able to use either the tweezers or the toothpick. Both of those devices are detachable and are included on all standard Swiss Army Knives.
"The music trade group must pay court fees for each of these cases. Filing each lawsuit will cost $150 in court fees, for a total of over $30,000, according to the EFF."
This doesn't even count the additional legal fees and man-hours involved in filing each individual case separately. Plus the additional costs for filing subpeonas to the individual ISPs, the costs to actually deliver the charges to the alleged violators, and so on. Hopefully, these costs will just continue to escalate and east away at the RIAA's bottom line. Maybe if they lose enough money on all of these legal fees, they will be willing to work out a more realistic position with the rest of the world. I won't hold my breath on that, though.
Actually, could you see if two different companies had an automatic DDoS system like this and someone spoofed their DDoS to attack Company A and made it look like it was coming from Company B? Company A's auto-attack would then attack Company B, which would, in turn, attack Company A. Not only would the continual volleys take out both companies, there would also be a huge impact on the network paths between them.
Actually, the Martha Stewart and Enron cases should be able to prove that crime isn't limited to the poorer members of society. Unethical behavior behavior exists at all levels, it is about a person's beliefs and values, not their economic ones.
Actually, I did convince a customer to install Cygwin once in order to assist in a data collection effort on their network. The scripts we wrote were quite ugly (especially the ones that called upon other Windows-based commands), but they were efficient and accurate enough to get all of the data that we needed to complete the project.
Er, I meant to say MPAA instead of RIAA, not that they are philosophically much different.
Damn, I didn't even realize that until you commented on it. I'm surprised that Slashdot didn't do some kind of self-gloating over that fact. I would have if it were me.
Considering the OSX can compile and run Linux apps, I'm surprised that SCO hasn't gone after Apple as well....
No, you are remembering correctly, WETA does use Linux-based server farms.
Well, with this pairing, that means whenever I take my kids to see the latest Pixar movie, I will be stuck with Apple commercials on top of all of the other commercials, the RIAA documentary, and all of the half-hour long previews that pretty much show you the whole movie (or at least the best parts).
I'm still annoyed that they don't support Sindarin or Quenya. How am I supposed to work with this?
Revised math:
If you go with pricewatch.com instead of a retailer, you can easily get a 2.5 TB solution for under $1,700 USD, to include the RAID5 controller cards.
It's only 2.5 TB. He only asked for that much space, but he did not ask for the same performance specifications. Considering that 250 GB harddrives are going for about $250 (at Circuit City - jacked up retail rates), you can get 2.5 TB of storage for your home network for $2,500. You would probably need to get an extra EIDE adapter for most systems to handle this space, but that should only cost about $35-40.
Now, if he wanted better performance and reliability, he would need to spend a little more to get a good RAID5 controller card and probably 2 more hard drives to account for the parity data (depending upon how he organizes the system).
After reading the article, it appears that the software in question was designed specifically for the operation of a piece of medical equipment. Given this case, I would find it to be highly unethical for the EULA governing this piece of equipment to have any kind of statement regarding an application that could endanger human life.
Another point of contention is that everyone here keeps jumping up and showing the Microsoft EULA. I do not see anything in this article that states what OS is running on this equipment. I'm not standing up for Microsoft in this case, I'm just merely stating that we can't blame them without a specific reference. Considering the type of equipment involved, it is most likely using some customized, embedded operating system.
Also, the article specifically states that the Panamanian technicians involved had introduced changes to the software and thought that adding an extra radiation shield to the patient would protect the patient from the higher radiation dosage.
Given my interpretation of the article, this is a case of user-failure versus a software error.
Not only that, but if you find a security flaw in Windows and report it, either Microsoft ignores you or they threaten you with the DMCA for "hacking" the OS. If you find something in Linux, at least a dozen developers hop onto the problem and get it resolved within a week (or less).
This is no real surprise. Linux, even paying for support, is a lot cheaper. And, with blade servers, you can pack a lot more horse power in a lot smaller space.