As for how Sun and Novell will or won't work together going forward, everything is mere speculation at this point. However, Sun already has signed agreements with SuSE for at least the initial release of JDS and so Novell will have to honor those. The issue comes up when the first agreement runs out and it is time to renegotiate.
Anyone used these wrappers to say what type of performance they can achieve?
For instance, just putting traffic through a or NAT routine can take up to 10% speed hit if you have no other significant bottlenecks. Yeah, I know, my example isn't apples-to-apples, it's just meant to give an example of a performance hit.
I would imagine a wrapper, even for a completely bug-free alien driver, would have some form of performance degradation and/or extra CPU usage or both.
As a side note, I too am very afraid that this will further stifle linux native device driver support from commercial outfits.
Except that if I remember right the minimum Java Enterprise System subscription is 1,000 (so the parent probably just typo'ed the 100 instead of miscalculating by a factor of 10). Therefore it is a minimum cost of $150,000 for JES + JDS.
For a large corporation with a large deployment it is not a big deal.
For SMB (small / medium business) or home users, it obviously makes the $100/desktop much more attractive since there is no minimum order under that pricing model.
Additionally the $100/desktop is the full retail price. Obviously the way the world works there are price breaks and discounts depending on the size of the deal (but at a certain deployment scale the discounts will be less cost-effective than the JES + JDS subscription cost).
and one more sed just for insomnia's sake... and I swear I previewed it twice just to avoid this...
s/that\ it\ should need/that\ it\ should\ not\ need/
What the hey... I've gotten a score:5 comment tonight... the various -1: off-topics I get from this thread should just about cancel it out (except that my karma was already capped, so the +4 didn't add to it while the -4 will lower it... karma's a bitch... useless but a bitch:)
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
well, i'll disagree with this statement as an absolute statement.
I don't see how the phrase "it is more productive" can be considered an "absolute statement"... the "more" is a quantifier. If I had said "it is always more productive" then I could see this. I was never imagined I needed to add a qualifier like "it is (sometimes | often) more productive".
There are plenty of replies that do not add anything new to the topical conversation (off topic posts, flames, etc). Moderation, at least some of the time, reduces this "noise" and increases the value of the topical posts.
Of course, I agree 100% with that statement. I thought I even said so in my reply but just to be sure I'll agree with that again.
So i would say that moderation, when used for it's intended purpose, is arguably more valuable than replies.
More valuable than noise response (as noted in your next point), yes. But I never asked for noise, spam or useless responses that are only crafted for response sake. See below.
I do agree that posting opinions is important, but i think it's better to have no replies than 100% noise threads that waste everyone's time.
You mean like this one?;) Actually, this isn't pure noise, just off-topic but I think a fairly worthy debate on the process that is slashdot.
And while I would agree that a lack of any content would be better than 100% noise threads, I never advocated noise threads. Surely asking for "thoughtful opinions" can be seen as asking for replies that are useful and not "noise"?
Implicit in a request for "thoughtful opinions" is that one is definitely not asking for mindless chatter. If a person doesn't have an opinion created with aforethought, I have no problem with them not saying anything at all.
With the limited number of characters in a/. signature (and it's just a dang signature for everyone's sake) there is no way to capture this entire train of thought... but surely the language is subtle enough that it should need to be spelled out in detail.
Unfortunately for all the people who are wasting mod points and time on this thread I'm having to work late for a deadline and this is proving a useful mind-break in between edits... otherwise I swear I'd let it die... probably will after this one since if anyone reading this feels I haven't made proper counter-points by now, they probably never will.
Sun is trying to expand recognition of the new products by leveraging the existing recognition of the "Java" name and its association with Sun.
Naturally there are going to be plenty of folks who think it's just plain off-base, but those people already know Sun and Java in depth. The idea is to get into the minds of the people who aren't as familiar with either but who still have a low-level association and recognition of the names.
Java as a technology is still important and is being showcased in this product.
FWIW, I'm not saying pro or con on this decision... there were a lot of long debates between various groups on naming. As one might imagine, "Sun Desktop System" as well as other options were all considered. However, Sun has decided across the board to use the "Java [variable] System" naming scheme for the software product suites (Java Enterprise System rebranding for the various Sun ONE components, etc). Essentially "Java" becomes the software brand (with exceptions like Solaris, which is a good thing since calling Solaris something like the "Java Operating System" would be REALLY bad and would also be exclusive of Linux) and "Sun" becomes the hardware brand.
It will take some getting used to, but at least it is consistent enough that it will eventually make sense and apply to more than just this one product as long as that consistency is retained for a long time.
*rofl* the parent to my post got mod'ed up for being insightful even though he was offtopic, I got mod'ed down for replying and pointing out that it was offtopic. Heh, so of course this will get mod'ed down, too.
There needs to be a way to voluntarily post at a score:0 offtopic without being forced to be anonymous (since posting anonymously I'd be accused of trying to save karma points).
Separate from whether it is a -good- thing or not, Sun has no plans to get rid of Solaris now or anytime in the predictable future. Java Desktop System is planned to be running on Solaris in the next 12 months or less (of course that could slip).
Getting into Linux does not automatically mean killing off established offerings. In this case it made sense since the current low-end and corporate desktop spaces pretty much demands Linux or Windows (I wouldn't call Mac hardware low-end due to cost nor have I seen OSX with major acceptance in the corporate space). Solaris continues to be the choice of Sun's high-end hardware customers.
That's actually one of the great things about JDS, by running on both with the same codebase and features for the core components (GNOME, StarOffice, Mozilla, Evolution, Java and to a lesser extent GAIM and some of the extra utilities) Sun's customers can get an abstracted environment that looks and functions the same whether it runs Solaris or Linux. Until they get to the system administration or power user levels the end-user won't need to worry about which system they are on.
While yes, that means in the near future that a customer could transition from a big expensive SPARC box down to a less expensive x86 PC without retraining skills, it also means the reverse. The reverse may not be as common as the original premise, but it still is a barrier removal.
The first release of JDS is essentially a standalone product with no more remote management or administration features than any other Linux distro. The next couple of releases afterwards are going to be geared toward making big deployments easier for larger organizations. As that happens the idea of switching to various other Sun solutions like SunRay clients and more powerful workstations becomes more plausible. Not required or locked in, just more plausible. If a company wants to only use x86 PC hardware, they will be perfectly capable of doing so. However having choices can't be bad.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
If it was more productive to voice than to moderate, there would be no need for moderation!
1: You have to have people voicing opinions before you can moderate them. Therefore hierarchically voicing -is- the more important aspect as moderating would exist without it.
2: I didn't say it is not useful to moderate, only that it is -more- important to provide input (which assumes you have some form of input).
3: Part of my purpose with the signature is to get people to converse since I don't need to be mod'ed -up- as my karma hit it's limit a long time ago and if they are going to mod me -down- I'd rather know why (and unless I go on a bunch of sequential tirades a few down mods isn't going to affect my karma status anyway)... it is more constructive to know why someone disagrees with you rather than to only see a general categorization of said disagreement.
4: Since most people at any given time don't have mod points and no one except perhaps the administrators have mod points all the time, it would appear that at least someone else agrees with me, otherwise we would all have mod points all the time.
5: It's a freaking signature... but at least you voiced about it instead of moderating;)
Java Desktop System, aka Mad Hatter, is built on top of SuSE Linux Desktop 1.0. Since SLD is a non-free distribution, Sun hasn't secured the rights to put it up for download.
Right now JDS is integrated into the basic install process along with the branded SuSE distribution, therefore it is not available as a separate add-on CD like Ximian Desktop 2.
I'm not saying it never will be able to do something like this, only that this initial release will not. In the future it may be possible download in some form when JDS runs on additional platforms.
Of course, you can build a nearly functional equivalent using whatever Open Source OS you wanted along with the various desktop softwares. Some (not all) of the things you won't get will be:
* The Evolution Sun ONE Calendar Server connector
* The "Blueprint" theme / look / feel
* Various improvements to each of the software modules (unless you incorporate the Sun patches which have not yet been incorporated into the main project trees... and yes, Sun does submit back as required)
* Improved Internationalization / Localization (though this first release will have limited improvements here)
Also, it's $50/year/user, but to get that pricing you have to have a Java Enterprise System (JES) subscription (which is $100/user/year, making it $150/user/year for JES + JDS).
There is a separate JDS shrinkwrap pricing model which is $100/system/year... that's per system, not per user, so it may be more beneficial in some situations and less in other.
If you remember (I spent a lot of afternoons after school watching TOS reruns and too much time as a teen watching TNG shows) the various ships made a number of atmospheric entries and planetary landings.
I mean sheesh, if you're going to get picky, at least be accurate;)
Criminy. I know you think you're being funny... but as someone who survived in the middle of the Colorado falls last year, I can tell you it's not working.
To the folks in Southern Cali... best of luck to you. You've got it worse than we had it and I know it was pretty scary going outside at sunset and seeing a glow on the -wrong- horizon.
It's mature, has a ton of features, and has no viable replacement; who is gonna leave and where are they gonna go?
Interestingly I can see in my mind a bubble above a cartoon of Bill Gates saying exactly those same things with a date of about 2 or 3 years ago.
While I agree with you that that is the state of things today, I'm in the camp that would like to see a viable replacement created if XFree86 is stagnating as it appears to be (or even if not, simply to foster creative competition).
And the scaremongering, while too sensationalist for me too, is only a derivative of a direct quote from the original article in which Harold Hunt specifically calls out:
What this means for XFree86
Some will say nothing. Some will say good riddance. Some will say this is the beginning of the end. Who knows? Who cares? Let/. figure it out.
Sounds like like an invitation for someone to ask exactly what the OP asked to me. For once the scaremonger has an excuse.
I never once said to ban RFID or not to go down a certain path. I'm advocating looking forward so that we don't stumble along the way. It is the argument of vigilism and nothing more.
Insults are the last resort of someone who has run out of supporting arguments and so I'll consider further discussion moot.
My point is that that is a first step on a road to more invasive methods. The first step is usually innocuous, it's the stairway that can be dangerous if the lights are out.
But see, McDonald's (which is just my generic example here) doesn't -care- who bought what tires.
But once they read your tires, they can be pretty sure that you're going to be the one associated with them for quite some time. So they -can- associate that random number with the person who ordered a McGriddle 5 times in the last month. Now they can tailor your ads to your shopping experience (just like anonymous ad tracking cookies) and even use the data for polling which foods are popular with which customers.
And if you happen to pay with a card, they can quite quickly and easily associate your name with the random number.
Take it one step further... now when you drive over that speed bump, someone can trigger a reader next to it and the camera that zaps your plate. If they just happen to be the kind of organization that has access to your license plate information then they can associate the RFID with you. Now they can simply put RFID readers around town, which due to their mass adoption will be far cheaper than cameras and far less obvious, and monitor where ever you go. And share it with other towns.
A quick check of the RFID versus plate every once in awhile makes sure the database is still accurate.
Hey, do I think this is happening today? Hell no. Do I think that in some form this will be used in the not-too-distant future (similar to things like the ad tracking in "Minority Report")? Sure do. Do I think it will be used surreptitiously? Probably not, but only if we are reasonably diligent about it. Especially after seeing the current trends in privacy from our government.
Disregarding the idea that you seem to consider long range tracking to invalidate the "paranoia" some people have towards short range RFID tracking...
"short range" is still plenty to be tracked... how many times per week are you herded through a confined and controlled space? Walking into a Wal-Mart you always pass between the security gates (and exactly what do you think those security gates scan for?). When you drive through McDonald's with your soon-to-have RFID tags (if some manufacturers get their way... see earlier articles on RFID on/.) you definitely can be scanned.
It is not going to be hard to build RFID scanners into just about any door or driveway. The RFID tags in your tires won't have been put there for McDonald's to scan, but that doesn't stop them from doing it and assigning you an ID. That may be technically anonymous (unless you pay with a credit card, giving them your name), but so are web browser cookies.
In essence RFID may well become concrete equivalents to web browser cookies. Don't people deserve the same abilities to block or remove the RFID as we have the ability to do with cookies in a browser? Until RFID has very strict controls, we "paranoids" will continue to raise flags on this technology. If everyone else is lucky we'll succeed in taming it before it becomes a problem. I'll be happy to have been a paranoid if that's the case.
Interestingly, I had requested a press kit or at least press-ready logos for Mozilla awhile back for inclusion in a presentation I'm writing. Got a quick response saying it sounded feasible, but nothing since. I ended up scouring the web and finding a lizard picture but it wasn't the best quality for the resolution I need.
If Mozilla had a full press kit explaining the project and including press-ready logos I think they'd see more coverage (and more serious coverage) of their package in the mainstream press.
Additionally, it is quite inexpensive to send out a press release over the newswires. When the Thunderbird/Firebird products are 1.0'ed (or 2.0'ed)... send out a press release along with a link to the press kit. Heck, if you can get a contribution pool (I think wire releases are something like $100), make a press release each time a major release occurs.
It won't make front page headlines, but it would be alot better than the current situation.
Exactly... my desire for a semi-decent camera (of which this seems to qualify, though I haven't seen real-world shot examples yet) on my cellphone is because I travel alot for work and often find myself wanting to zap a snapshot to my wife. However I -don't- want to be carrying around my clunky Canon Powershot G2 to meetings... heck, I don't even want to carry a tiny digital camera to the meeting. However, I obviously won't mind carrying a phone to a meeting.
Likewise, I often need a PDA functionality, but I don't use it quite enough to make carrying a PDA with me. Therefore I'm often left without addresses/appointments/etc on the road. I can fall back on my laptop to retrieve them, but that is clunky, too.
If I could leave the laptop in the case and carry a single device with phone, pda and camera functionality, I'd be set. The LGE device seems to have a good form factor... it could be bigger if...
To be my dream device it would need the following:
* Camera that can send images via MMS -as well- as storing them on a local drive when necessary. Must be able to function as a "dumb" camera by not having the screen on. A small indicator LCD may be needed to allow this, but this could also be used for caller-id or such.
* PDA w/Linux sync capabilities (and WinCE can be synched via multisync today) using any of the connection methods (see below). I'm not snobby enough to need it to be Linux on the PDA, would be nice, but I've spent enough time futzing with my Zaurus, I'll take WinCE if it does what I need. Gaming functionality would be enabled through the PDA OS.
* Media player (probably actually would be part of the PDA software suite)
* Phone w/ a good interface to the PDA without sacrificing the ability to be able to use the phone "blind" by punching keys easily in the dark... I'd like the phone to also be able to record to the local drive. Phone must be able to be turned off without shutting off the PDA/camera/HD/etc so that you can operate this on a plane or in a restaurant/etc (and to save power).
* Audio input (line-in... the phone would already have a condenser mic and that should also be usable)
* small (1.8") hard drive with at least 30GB of storage
* Bluetooth... not the best thing in the world, but enough possibilities exist to make this useful.
* USB 2.0 port with support for USB networking devices so that I could get a better-than-802.11b connection... the docking cradle should be a USB ethernet adapter so that anything can connect to it without needing to go through a connection to a PC. Using this as a USB HD is a key function even though it's near the end. I need a data convergence device.
* Power saving modes so that you can have only 1 function active (USB HD, phone, PDA OR camera) without everything else being powered. Perhaps the PDA is always active and then other devices are enabled/disabled (and powered down) by loading their specific application.
* Battery - with a high-end compact battery and the power saving considerations you should be able to get at least a few hours out of the thing. An easily replaced battery (possibly with a short life internal battery to save state when the external battery dies or is being replaced) would be a necessity. A fuel cell option would of course be nice, but it could be a separate piece that you attach when needed.
* Form factor should tend to the smaller "phone" size rather than going the route of the Nokia 9210 or the huge first-gen PDAphones. I would be happy with something like a Zaurus clamshell or this LGE slider. I think a clamshell to hide extra controls with an always-exposed directional pad and phone keypad would be best.
* Optional: USB On-the-Go so that I could not only use it as a USB HD but could also connect USB slave devices to it.
Slashdot Mirror
Believe me, I know what Sun JDS is based on :)
As for how Sun and Novell will or won't work together going forward, everything is mere speculation at this point. However, Sun already has signed agreements with SuSE for at least the initial release of JDS and so Novell will have to honor those. The issue comes up when the first agreement runs out and it is time to renegotiate.
Erm ... reminder: Novell bought Ximian a few months ago. I think that pretty well shows their intent for Novell to pursue a Linux desktop strategy.
Darn, where are my modpoints when I need them?
To the person who is about to mod this post -1: Offtopic, please also mod the parent +1 Insightful.
Anyone used these wrappers to say what type of performance they can achieve?
For instance, just putting traffic through a or NAT routine can take up to 10% speed hit if you have no other significant bottlenecks. Yeah, I know, my example isn't apples-to-apples, it's just meant to give an example of a performance hit.
I would imagine a wrapper, even for a completely bug-free alien driver, would have some form of performance degradation and/or extra CPU usage or both.
As a side note, I too am very afraid that this will further stifle linux native device driver support from commercial outfits.
I found the best way to diet.
... and I can get completely stoned 24/7 and miss a week of work at a time on my doctor's orders. I've lost 10 pounds in 5 days!
... what you need is a ...
I no longer want food
Yes folks, that's right
TONSILLECTOMY!
Except that if I remember right the minimum Java Enterprise System subscription is 1,000 (so the parent probably just typo'ed the 100 instead of miscalculating by a factor of 10). Therefore it is a minimum cost of $150,000 for JES + JDS.
For a large corporation with a large deployment it is not a big deal.
For SMB (small / medium business) or home users, it obviously makes the $100/desktop much more attractive since there is no minimum order under that pricing model.
Additionally the $100/desktop is the full retail price. Obviously the way the world works there are price breaks and discounts depending on the size of the deal (but at a certain deployment scale the discounts will be less cost-effective than the JES + JDS subscription cost).
and one more sed just for insomnia's sake ... and I swear I previewed it twice just to avoid this ...
... I've gotten a score:5 comment tonight ... the various -1: off-topics I get from this thread should just about cancel it out (except that my karma was already capped, so the +4 didn't add to it while the -4 will lower it ... karma's a bitch ... useless but a bitch :)
s/that\ it\ should need/that\ it\ should\ not\ need/
What the hey
I don't see how the phrase "it is more productive" can be considered an "absolute statement" ... the "more" is a quantifier. If I had said "it is always more productive" then I could see this. I was never imagined I needed to add a qualifier like "it is (sometimes | often) more productive".
Of course, I agree 100% with that statement. I thought I even said so in my reply but just to be sure I'll agree with that again.
More valuable than noise response (as noted in your next point), yes. But I never asked for noise, spam or useless responses that are only crafted for response sake. See below.You mean like this one? ;) Actually, this isn't pure noise, just off-topic but I think a fairly worthy debate on the process that is slashdot.
And while I would agree that a lack of any content would be better than 100% noise threads, I never advocated noise threads. Surely asking for "thoughtful opinions" can be seen as asking for replies that are useful and not "noise"?
Implicit in a request for "thoughtful opinions" is that one is definitely not asking for mindless chatter. If a person doesn't have an opinion created with aforethought, I have no problem with them not saying anything at all.
With the limited number of characters in a /. signature (and it's just a dang signature for everyone's sake) there is no way to capture this entire train of thought ... but surely the language is subtle enough that it should need to be spelled out in detail.
Unfortunately for all the people who are wasting mod points and time on this thread I'm having to work late for a deadline and this is proving a useful mind-break in between edits ... otherwise I swear I'd let it die ... probably will after this one since if anyone reading this feels I haven't made proper counter-points by now, they probably never will.
Exactly why they chose the name they did.
... there were a lot of long debates between various groups on naming. As one might imagine, "Sun Desktop System" as well as other options were all considered. However, Sun has decided across the board to use the "Java [variable] System" naming scheme for the software product suites (Java Enterprise System rebranding for the various Sun ONE components, etc). Essentially "Java" becomes the software brand (with exceptions like Solaris, which is a good thing since calling Solaris something like the "Java Operating System" would be REALLY bad and would also be exclusive of Linux) and "Sun" becomes the hardware brand.
Sun is trying to expand recognition of the new products by leveraging the existing recognition of the "Java" name and its association with Sun.
Naturally there are going to be plenty of folks who think it's just plain off-base, but those people already know Sun and Java in depth. The idea is to get into the minds of the people who aren't as familiar with either but who still have a low-level association and recognition of the names.
Java as a technology is still important and is being showcased in this product.
FWIW, I'm not saying pro or con on this decision
It will take some getting used to, but at least it is consistent enough that it will eventually make sense and apply to more than just this one product as long as that consistency is retained for a long time.
*rofl* the parent to my post got mod'ed up for being insightful even though he was offtopic, I got mod'ed down for replying and pointing out that it was offtopic. Heh, so of course this will get mod'ed down, too.
There needs to be a way to voluntarily post at a score:0 offtopic without being forced to be anonymous (since posting anonymously I'd be accused of trying to save karma points).
Separate from whether it is a -good- thing or not, Sun has no plans to get rid of Solaris now or anytime in the predictable future. Java Desktop System is planned to be running on Solaris in the next 12 months or less (of course that could slip).
Getting into Linux does not automatically mean killing off established offerings. In this case it made sense since the current low-end and corporate desktop spaces pretty much demands Linux or Windows (I wouldn't call Mac hardware low-end due to cost nor have I seen OSX with major acceptance in the corporate space). Solaris continues to be the choice of Sun's high-end hardware customers.
That's actually one of the great things about JDS, by running on both with the same codebase and features for the core components (GNOME, StarOffice, Mozilla, Evolution, Java and to a lesser extent GAIM and some of the extra utilities) Sun's customers can get an abstracted environment that looks and functions the same whether it runs Solaris or Linux. Until they get to the system administration or power user levels the end-user won't need to worry about which system they are on.
While yes, that means in the near future that a customer could transition from a big expensive SPARC box down to a less expensive x86 PC without retraining skills, it also means the reverse. The reverse may not be as common as the original premise, but it still is a barrier removal.
The first release of JDS is essentially a standalone product with no more remote management or administration features than any other Linux distro. The next couple of releases afterwards are going to be geared toward making big deployments easier for larger organizations. As that happens the idea of switching to various other Sun solutions like SunRay clients and more powerful workstations becomes more plausible. Not required or locked in, just more plausible. If a company wants to only use x86 PC hardware, they will be perfectly capable of doing so. However having choices can't be bad.
s/would\ exist/wouldn\'t\ exist/
... time to take a break.
twice in 24 hours with the need to sed myself
1: You have to have people voicing opinions before you can moderate them. Therefore hierarchically voicing -is- the more important aspect as moderating would exist without it.
2: I didn't say it is not useful to moderate, only that it is -more- important to provide input (which assumes you have some form of input).
3: Part of my purpose with the signature is to get people to converse since I don't need to be mod'ed -up- as my karma hit it's limit a long time ago and if they are going to mod me -down- I'd rather know why (and unless I go on a bunch of sequential tirades a few down mods isn't going to affect my karma status anyway)
4: Since most people at any given time don't have mod points and no one except perhaps the administrators have mod points all the time, it would appear that at least someone else agrees with me, otherwise we would all have mod points all the time.
5: It's a freaking signature
No, it won't be, at least for this first release.
... and yes, Sun does submit back as required)
... that's per system, not per user, so it may be more beneficial in some situations and less in other.
Java Desktop System, aka Mad Hatter, is built on top of SuSE Linux Desktop 1.0. Since SLD is a non-free distribution, Sun hasn't secured the rights to put it up for download.
Right now JDS is integrated into the basic install process along with the branded SuSE distribution, therefore it is not available as a separate add-on CD like Ximian Desktop 2.
I'm not saying it never will be able to do something like this, only that this initial release will not. In the future it may be possible download in some form when JDS runs on additional platforms.
Of course, you can build a nearly functional equivalent using whatever Open Source OS you wanted along with the various desktop softwares. Some (not all) of the things you won't get will be:
* The Evolution Sun ONE Calendar Server connector
* The "Blueprint" theme / look / feel
* Various improvements to each of the software modules (unless you incorporate the Sun patches which have not yet been incorporated into the main project trees
* Improved Internationalization / Localization (though this first release will have limited improvements here)
Also, it's $50/year/user, but to get that pricing you have to have a Java Enterprise System (JES) subscription (which is $100/user/year, making it $150/user/year for JES + JDS).
There is a separate JDS shrinkwrap pricing model which is $100/system/year
If you remember (I spent a lot of afternoons after school watching TOS reruns and too much time as a teen watching TNG shows) the various ships made a number of atmospheric entries and planetary landings.
;)
I mean sheesh, if you're going to get picky, at least be accurate
s/Colorado\ falls/Colorado\ fires/
Apparently my brain has some cross-linked files.
Criminy. I know you think you're being funny ... but as someone who survived in the middle of the Colorado falls last year, I can tell you it's not working.
... best of luck to you. You've got it worse than we had it and I know it was pretty scary going outside at sunset and seeing a glow on the -wrong- horizon.
To the folks in Southern Cali
Except today's political environment has seen fit to twist copyright arguments into whatever the most powerful PAC is looking for that day.
This is just going to get uglier once it gets to court unless we get lucky enough to have a very tech-savvy AND copyright-savvy court hearing it.
Interestingly I can see in my mind a bubble above a cartoon of Bill Gates saying exactly those same things with a date of about 2 or 3 years ago.
While I agree with you that that is the state of things today, I'm in the camp that would like to see a viable replacement created if XFree86 is stagnating as it appears to be (or even if not, simply to foster creative competition).
And the scaremongering, while too sensationalist for me too, is only a derivative of a direct quote from the original article in which Harold Hunt specifically calls out:
Sounds like like an invitation for someone to ask exactly what the OP asked to me. For once the scaremonger has an excuse.
I never once said to ban RFID or not to go down a certain path. I'm advocating looking forward so that we don't stumble along the way. It is the argument of vigilism and nothing more.
Insults are the last resort of someone who has run out of supporting arguments and so I'll consider further discussion moot.
My point is that that is a first step on a road to more invasive methods. The first step is usually innocuous, it's the stairway that can be dangerous if the lights are out.
But see, McDonald's (which is just my generic example here) doesn't -care- who bought what tires.
... now when you drive over that speed bump, someone can trigger a reader next to it and the camera that zaps your plate. If they just happen to be the kind of organization that has access to your license plate information then they can associate the RFID with you. Now they can simply put RFID readers around town, which due to their mass adoption will be far cheaper than cameras and far less obvious, and monitor where ever you go. And share it with other towns.
But once they read your tires, they can be pretty sure that you're going to be the one associated with them for quite some time. So they -can- associate that random number with the person who ordered a McGriddle 5 times in the last month. Now they can tailor your ads to your shopping experience (just like anonymous ad tracking cookies) and even use the data for polling which foods are popular with which customers.
And if you happen to pay with a card, they can quite quickly and easily associate your name with the random number.
Take it one step further
A quick check of the RFID versus plate every once in awhile makes sure the database is still accurate.
Hey, do I think this is happening today? Hell no. Do I think that in some form this will be used in the not-too-distant future (similar to things like the ad tracking in "Minority Report")? Sure do. Do I think it will be used surreptitiously? Probably not, but only if we are reasonably diligent about it. Especially after seeing the current trends in privacy from our government.
Disregarding the idea that you seem to consider long range tracking to invalidate the "paranoia" some people have towards short range RFID tracking ...
... how many times per week are you herded through a confined and controlled space? Walking into a Wal-Mart you always pass between the security gates (and exactly what do you think those security gates scan for?). When you drive through McDonald's with your soon-to-have RFID tags (if some manufacturers get their way ... see earlier articles on RFID on /.) you definitely can be scanned.
"short range" is still plenty to be tracked
It is not going to be hard to build RFID scanners into just about any door or driveway. The RFID tags in your tires won't have been put there for McDonald's to scan, but that doesn't stop them from doing it and assigning you an ID. That may be technically anonymous (unless you pay with a credit card, giving them your name), but so are web browser cookies.
In essence RFID may well become concrete equivalents to web browser cookies. Don't people deserve the same abilities to block or remove the RFID as we have the ability to do with cookies in a browser? Until RFID has very strict controls, we "paranoids" will continue to raise flags on this technology. If everyone else is lucky we'll succeed in taming it before it becomes a problem. I'll be happy to have been a paranoid if that's the case.
Interestingly, I had requested a press kit or at least press-ready logos for Mozilla awhile back for inclusion in a presentation I'm writing. Got a quick response saying it sounded feasible, but nothing since. I ended up scouring the web and finding a lizard picture but it wasn't the best quality for the resolution I need.
... send out a press release along with a link to the press kit. Heck, if you can get a contribution pool (I think wire releases are something like $100), make a press release each time a major release occurs.
If Mozilla had a full press kit explaining the project and including press-ready logos I think they'd see more coverage (and more serious coverage) of their package in the mainstream press.
Additionally, it is quite inexpensive to send out a press release over the newswires. When the Thunderbird/Firebird products are 1.0'ed (or 2.0'ed)
It won't make front page headlines, but it would be alot better than the current situation.
Exactly ... my desire for a semi-decent camera (of which this seems to qualify, though I haven't seen real-world shot examples yet) on my cellphone is because I travel alot for work and often find myself wanting to zap a snapshot to my wife. However I -don't- want to be carrying around my clunky Canon Powershot G2 to meetings ... heck, I don't even want to carry a tiny digital camera to the meeting. However, I obviously won't mind carrying a phone to a meeting.
... it could be bigger if ...
... I'd like the phone to also be able to record to the local drive. Phone must be able to be turned off without shutting off the PDA/camera/HD/etc so that you can operate this on a plane or in a restaurant/etc (and to save power).
... the phone would already have a condenser mic and that should also be usable)
... not the best thing in the world, but enough possibilities exist to make this useful.
... the docking cradle should be a USB ethernet adapter so that anything can connect to it without needing to go through a connection to a PC. Using this as a USB HD is a key function even though it's near the end. I need a data convergence device.
Likewise, I often need a PDA functionality, but I don't use it quite enough to make carrying a PDA with me. Therefore I'm often left without addresses/appointments/etc on the road. I can fall back on my laptop to retrieve them, but that is clunky, too.
If I could leave the laptop in the case and carry a single device with phone, pda and camera functionality, I'd be set. The LGE device seems to have a good form factor
To be my dream device it would need the following:
* Camera that can send images via MMS -as well- as storing them on a local drive when necessary. Must be able to function as a "dumb" camera by not having the screen on. A small indicator LCD may be needed to allow this, but this could also be used for caller-id or such.
* PDA w/Linux sync capabilities (and WinCE can be synched via multisync today) using any of the connection methods (see below). I'm not snobby enough to need it to be Linux on the PDA, would be nice, but I've spent enough time futzing with my Zaurus, I'll take WinCE if it does what I need. Gaming functionality would be enabled through the PDA OS.
* Media player (probably actually would be part of the PDA software suite)
* Phone w/ a good interface to the PDA without sacrificing the ability to be able to use the phone "blind" by punching keys easily in the dark
* Audio input (line-in
* small (1.8") hard drive with at least 30GB of storage
* Bluetooth
* USB 2.0 port with support for USB networking devices so that I could get a better-than-802.11b connection
* Power saving modes so that you can have only 1 function active (USB HD, phone, PDA OR camera) without everything else being powered. Perhaps the PDA is always active and then other devices are enabled/disabled (and powered down) by loading their specific application.
* Battery - with a high-end compact battery and the power saving considerations you should be able to get at least a few hours out of the thing. An easily replaced battery (possibly with a short life internal battery to save state when the external battery dies or is being replaced) would be a necessity. A fuel cell option would of course be nice, but it could be a separate piece that you attach when needed.
* Form factor should tend to the smaller "phone" size rather than going the route of the Nokia 9210 or the huge first-gen PDAphones. I would be happy with something like a Zaurus clamshell or this LGE slider. I think a clamshell to hide extra controls with an always-exposed directional pad and phone keypad would be best.
* Optional: USB On-the-Go so that I could not only use it as a USB HD but could also connect USB slave devices to it.
* Optional: full networking services (web s