Oh exactly, that's what I meant to point out. When you're creating your application, you need to think long term, but keep your budget in mind. A migration app from MySQL to Oracle lets you start out with a high performance (and best of all FREE) database, and then you can migrate to Oracle at a later date when the need becomes more obvious.
Then again, some applications are better off just staying on a free database. NASA for instance, no longer uses Oracle. They are now using MySQL instead just because of the huge amounts of licensing fees that they can now divert to other areas, while still keeping their databases very fast and useful.
Apparently MySQL, PostgreSQL and SleepyCat aren't exactly out of the running for comercial applications either. This article from the MySQL homepage tells of Oracle's creation of a migration kit for "upgrading" from MySQL to Oracle. At least one of the big few are starting to recognize that not everyone starts out using thousand dollar software.
This crap is here to stay, the big corporations should just get used to it and improvise a little. People become millionaires every day by coming up with new, fresh ideas. A lot of these huge companies were started that way, but have since become as quick witted as a retarded three-toed sloth.
If the MPAA or the RIAA would stop their bitching for 2 minutes and really THINK about it, they could find a way to make money off of this practice again.
Think of it this way. Why do people want to download movies instead of paying $6 to go see one in a theater. Well it's cheaper! So what if the producers started distributing movies in more than one format? One goes to the screen, and a week later the same movie comes out on the Net, only it's not absolutely perfect quality, and/or it has commercials. There you go, they just got their $6 per person back. Would you download the movie directly from the producing company if they applied these modifications? I know I would! Free movies? I'm all over that! Who cares if there are commercials every half hour? People sit on their butts all day and watch TV as it is now, and they get commercials every 15 minutes!
Sorry to put it this way, but it is fucking retarded for everyone to go running to their lawyers every time someone is breaking new ground and a little dirt gets sprinkled on their driveway because of it. Take it all in and innovate a little. Everyone would be a lot happier in the end.
Apple's lawyers have recently began issuing cease-and-desist orders to anyone running the MacOS X operating system. Apple claims that using the operating system may lead to an understanding of how it works and could lead to intellectual property infringment.
Right.....
My question is this, if I use Winamp, Xamp, and Sonique to play my mp3's (along with the other 90% of the mp3 listening population) then how is microsoft going to make their operating system affect the playback qualiy of a third-party application??? If MS drops mp3 from the Windows Media player, then good! That's more recovered HD space for me to fill with mp3s.
As far as the mp3 recording quality goes, it's the same story. You can't write an operating system that treats certain applications poorly. People will just start using other applications that perform the same function. If MS thinks they are going to do something stupid with the process's CPU slice to keep people from encoding above a certain quality, I know plenty of mp3 encoders that don't encode in real time. They run on wav files instead. So if it takes my computer 3 hours to encode a 256kbps mp3 because the cpu keeps taking away that processes timeshare, then I guess I'll just have to encode 50 mp3s at once. That should take my computer quite a while anyways.
The point is, an OS is supposed to let you run applications, and provide inferfaces to the system's hardware for those applications to utilize. (There's more technical requirements as well, but I'm not getting into those.) Nazi eskimo tactics do not fall into the list of OS requirements. (No offense to any nazi eskimos out there.;)
Isn't the whole point of a key expiration system to keep the user up to date with the latest versions and prevent piracy?
The mere implementation of allowing a non-expiring key to exist will completely destroy the anti-piracy ability. Someone, somewhere will reverse engineer the code, determine what the non-expiring key is, and then post it to all the warez IRC channels and newsgroups. So much for improved anti-piracy.
I don't forsee software companies willingly implementing a non-expiring key. The example I mentioned above will push many non-programmer types (which normally end up controlling the feature list) to sway away from them. Aside from that obvious problem, what does it say about the intentions of the company? Sure, Microsoft can get away with just about anything, but if Joe's Software Barn writes an application that uses this software rental model, do they put one in, or not? Not putting in a non-expiring key will lead to problems if they ever go under, however putting one in could look as though the company is not sure of itself, which could easily cause many potential customers to steer clear of their product.
This whole rental idea on software is a pretty shakey model IMHO. Yes, it keeps the costs of software down for businesses. However, the repurcussions of totally relying on the survival of the authoring company can be very extreme.
If this model ever really catches on, I will stick to 1 rule. If the company issueing the software is not one of the VERY big few (MS, IBM, Oracle, etc), I will not be renting from them, and would opt to buy instead.
I would have hated waiting for the damn thing to compile everything I would want to put on it anyways. Plus the lack of an ethernet port would make this a poor server. hehe
Actually, OS/2 is still quite popular as a desktop OS in some areas of the Eastern hemisphere. (Australia comes to mind.) Also, OS/2 performs quite well for a lot of kiosk applications. (ATM's are a big one in this category. At least most of the ATM's around my area run OS/2.)
30Mbps is correct. DOCSIS does require that all compliant modems be capable to delivering this throughput for _downstream_. The upstream can vary from 320 Kbps to 10 Mbps. I used to work for a cable company in their broadband internet department. They capped their modems at 128kb upstream, and I have yet to find a cable provider that lets their modems run wide open. Better to cap the throuput in the firmware, and squeeze as many customers as you can into an OC192. At least, that's the apparent trend.
http://www.cabledatacomnews.com/cmic/cmic3b.html has a quick list of the DOCSIS specs.
I'm glad someone is taking the initiative to back away from broadband and move back towards baseband. IMHO broadband has too much of a tendancy to create higher ping times in online games. (I'm a bit of a hipocrit here though. I can't live without my cable modem...at least until I can get a straight ethernet connection. heh)
I've had a PalmVx for over a year now, and I use it on a very regular basis. I've also borrowed a friend's WinCE device, and noticed that the CE device was much more appealing to me.
1. It was color.
2. It had just as much software as my palm device did.
3. I remember reading about a palmOS emulator for WinCE devices. Not sure if it's true, but judging by the PalmOS SDK, it'll be easier to emulate palmOS on a CE device than vice versa.
4. CE devices get all the cool gizmos. My Vx has IR and a serial port. My friend's CE device has IR, serial, and a compact flash card compartment (which he filled with a 90MB IBM microdrive). Needless to say, his handheld was more fun to use and could hole a HELL of a lot more stuff.
I figured we would have learned our lesson after the first wave of "new gui apps" that ran overtop of 5250 terminals came along. Now that we have a few million dollars in development invested in these sweet gui apps, we can never ditch the 5250 connections that they work over!
Is is just me, or is anyone else sick of nearly every company's urge to overlay new technologies on top of legacy technologies?
There's a reason that the intel chipset is so obfuscated, and this is a prime example.
Anyone remember the old Net Yaroze project for the Playstation? (PSone) It was a way for hobbyists to write playstation games. For about $500, Sony provided you with a black console system (basically the same as the regular systems only it did not verify CD authenticity) and a bunch of C libraries for making system calls. I believe they even gave you a compiler, though it kind of sucked and you were better off buying Codewarrior for that aspect.
Well, we if get linux running on the PS2, and the whole thing is open sourced, then we'll have graphics and sound libraries put together in no time at all. Then anyone interested in writing games for the platform can do so. Just load the kernel and then have linux start your app right away. It probably wouldn't run as fast as some of the dedicated software (the kernel would probably eat a little bit of extra time here and there), but it would get the job done in most cases.
If you could get a hard-drive and an ethernet port hacked in there somewhere, it would almost be useful. (There's a bus extension port with an emtpy bay in the back of them, supposedly to be filled with either a modem or a hard-drive later.)
For it to be of any use at all though, you'd definitely need a keyboard device, and I don't think one is commercially available yet. (Please correct me if I'm wrong there.)
Anyways, with a HD, modem, and a keyboard, it could easily replace WebTV units using a linux based implementation. Or, you could swap the modem for ethernet and use it as a (fairly) low cost firewall for your PC's.:P
I'm sure someone will think of even more uses than that.
I've done tech support in the past, and I shudder to imagine what it will be like when the userbase starts to reach the 80 to 90th percentile. Already about 15% of the calls taken are from people that can barely run their computer as it is. (No joke! I've had to explain mouse usage to a few people in the past.)
Let's hope that with increased Net usage, general computer usage skills of the average American increase as well....
I'd be more interested in a cheap wireless Internet access that is satellite driven. Then I could justify putting a system in my truck. (Computer system, not stereo) Link that with GPS, and give it a dummy mode that makes it look like nothing but a touch screen radio to thieves, and I'll never have to worry about my vehicle getting stolen.
Walk outside
"Oh darn. Someone stole my truck."
Walk back inside.
Log on to Internet. Go to http://www.mywebpage.com.
Looky there! My truck keeps updating my webserver with its position. Call authorities. Explain situation, and give location of felons. Smile widely knowing that I will have my vehicle back in about 20 minutes.
Is it just me, or will this idea completely kill the entire line of CD to CDR standalone burners that have been on the market for the past year or so? Philips Magnavox might not like this too much, considering that they were one of the first to produce those units.
Not really much of an argument, but it's a thought that crossed my mind.
I've never been very impressed with Battlebots. I'd rather see autonomous robots fight. You don't need image recognition to do it either. Stick a transponder on each robot for positioning. Robot creators are allowed to do anything they want to prevent the transponder from working, but they are not allowed to physically shut it off. (It could run on its own power source quite easily.) However, ecm bursts for up to 10 seconds could be allowed. Trouble is, each transponder runs on a different frequency, so the ecm would have to be programmable. hehe.
Then, you throw away the lame remote controls, and focus on some good AI routines instead.
The whole idea would increase the overall cost and time to build for each robot, but it would be so much more interesting!
Slashdot Mirror
AHEM!
;)
http://www.mysql.com/news/article-51.html
THAT, my friend, is where I heard it.
I will correct myself in that not ALL of NASA is dumping Oracle. Merely the NAIS.
Please, next time check the links before you start shooting off.
>I guess the scientists are faster learners.
Oh! So THAT'S why they make the big $$ for using their brains!
hehe
Oh exactly, that's what I meant to point out. When you're creating your application, you need to think long term, but keep your budget in mind. A migration app from MySQL to Oracle lets you start out with a high performance (and best of all FREE) database, and then you can migrate to Oracle at a later date when the need becomes more obvious.
Then again, some applications are better off just staying on a free database. NASA for instance, no longer uses Oracle. They are now using MySQL instead just because of the huge amounts of licensing fees that they can now divert to other areas, while still keeping their databases very fast and useful.
Apparently MySQL, PostgreSQL and SleepyCat aren't exactly out of the running for comercial applications either. This article from the MySQL homepage tells of Oracle's creation of a migration kit for "upgrading" from MySQL to Oracle. At least one of the big few are starting to recognize that not everyone starts out using thousand dollar software.
This crap is here to stay, the big corporations should just get used to it and improvise a little. People become millionaires every day by coming up with new, fresh ideas. A lot of these huge companies were started that way, but have since become as quick witted as a retarded three-toed sloth.
If the MPAA or the RIAA would stop their bitching for 2 minutes and really THINK about it, they could find a way to make money off of this practice again.
Think of it this way. Why do people want to download movies instead of paying $6 to go see one in a theater. Well it's cheaper! So what if the producers started distributing movies in more than one format? One goes to the screen, and a week later the same movie comes out on the Net, only it's not absolutely perfect quality, and/or it has commercials. There you go, they just got their $6 per person back. Would you download the movie directly from the producing company if they applied these modifications? I know I would! Free movies? I'm all over that! Who cares if there are commercials every half hour? People sit on their butts all day and watch TV as it is now, and they get commercials every 15 minutes!
Sorry to put it this way, but it is fucking retarded for everyone to go running to their lawyers every time someone is breaking new ground and a little dirt gets sprinkled on their driveway because of it. Take it all in and innovate a little. Everyone would be a lot happier in the end.
Apple's lawyers have recently began issuing cease-and-desist orders to anyone running the MacOS X operating system. Apple claims that using the operating system may lead to an understanding of how it works and could lead to intellectual property infringment.
Right.....
;)
My question is this, if I use Winamp, Xamp, and Sonique to play my mp3's (along with the other 90% of the mp3 listening population) then how is microsoft going to make their operating system affect the playback qualiy of a third-party application??? If MS drops mp3 from the Windows Media player, then good! That's more recovered HD space for me to fill with mp3s.
As far as the mp3 recording quality goes, it's the same story. You can't write an operating system that treats certain applications poorly. People will just start using other applications that perform the same function. If MS thinks they are going to do something stupid with the process's CPU slice to keep people from encoding above a certain quality, I know plenty of mp3 encoders that don't encode in real time. They run on wav files instead. So if it takes my computer 3 hours to encode a 256kbps mp3 because the cpu keeps taking away that processes timeshare, then I guess I'll just have to encode 50 mp3s at once. That should take my computer quite a while anyways.
The point is, an OS is supposed to let you run applications, and provide inferfaces to the system's hardware for those applications to utilize. (There's more technical requirements as well, but I'm not getting into those.) Nazi eskimo tactics do not fall into the list of OS requirements. (No offense to any nazi eskimos out there.
Isn't the whole point of a key expiration system to keep the user up to date with the latest versions and prevent piracy?
The mere implementation of allowing a non-expiring key to exist will completely destroy the anti-piracy ability. Someone, somewhere will reverse engineer the code, determine what the non-expiring key is, and then post it to all the warez IRC channels and newsgroups. So much for improved anti-piracy.
I don't forsee software companies willingly implementing a non-expiring key. The example I mentioned above will push many non-programmer types (which normally end up controlling the feature list) to sway away from them. Aside from that obvious problem, what does it say about the intentions of the company? Sure, Microsoft can get away with just about anything, but if Joe's Software Barn writes an application that uses this software rental model, do they put one in, or not? Not putting in a non-expiring key will lead to problems if they ever go under, however putting one in could look as though the company is not sure of itself, which could easily cause many potential customers to steer clear of their product.
This whole rental idea on software is a pretty shakey model IMHO. Yes, it keeps the costs of software down for businesses. However, the repurcussions of totally relying on the survival of the authoring company can be very extreme.
If this model ever really catches on, I will stick to 1 rule. If the company issueing the software is not one of the VERY big few (MS, IBM, Oracle, etc), I will not be renting from them, and would opt to buy instead.
I would have hated waiting for the damn thing to compile everything I would want to put on it anyways. Plus the lack of an ethernet port would make this a poor server. hehe
Sounds great! When can I move in?
hehe
LOL! I remember that demo!
"And now I plug the USB device into the computer, Windows 98 will detect the new device and..." *BLUE SCREEN!*
Hrm... Sounds like MS is getting pretty hipocritical.
a Beowulf cluster of these!
LOL!
IT'S LIMBO TIME!!!!
how low can you go...
how low can you go...
how low can you go...
how low can you go...
...sorry. hehe
Actually, OS/2 is still quite popular as a desktop OS in some areas of the Eastern hemisphere. (Australia comes to mind.) Also, OS/2 performs quite well for a lot of kiosk applications. (ATM's are a big one in this category. At least most of the ATM's around my area run OS/2.)
30Mbps is correct. DOCSIS does require that all compliant modems be capable to delivering this throughput for _downstream_. The upstream can vary from 320 Kbps to 10 Mbps. I used to work for a cable company in their broadband internet department. They capped their modems at 128kb upstream, and I have yet to find a cable provider that lets their modems run wide open. Better to cap the throuput in the firmware, and squeeze as many customers as you can into an OC192. At least, that's the apparent trend.
l has a quick list of the DOCSIS specs.
http://www.cabledatacomnews.com/cmic/cmic3b.htm
I'm glad someone is taking the initiative to back away from broadband and move back towards baseband. IMHO broadband has too much of a tendancy to create higher ping times in online games. (I'm a bit of a hipocrit here though. I can't live without my cable modem...at least until I can get a straight ethernet connection. heh)
I've had a PalmVx for over a year now, and I use it on a very regular basis. I've also borrowed a friend's WinCE device, and noticed that the CE device was much more appealing to me.
1. It was color.
2. It had just as much software as my palm device did.
3. I remember reading about a palmOS emulator for WinCE devices. Not sure if it's true, but judging by the PalmOS SDK, it'll be easier to emulate palmOS on a CE device than vice versa.
4. CE devices get all the cool gizmos. My Vx has IR and a serial port. My friend's CE device has IR, serial, and a compact flash card compartment (which he filled with a 90MB IBM microdrive). Needless to say, his handheld was more fun to use and could hole a HELL of a lot more stuff.
Corporate America overlays technologies again!
I figured we would have learned our lesson after the first wave of "new gui apps" that ran overtop of 5250 terminals came along. Now that we have a few million dollars in development invested in these sweet gui apps, we can never ditch the 5250 connections that they work over!
Is is just me, or is anyone else sick of nearly every company's urge to overlay new technologies on top of legacy technologies?
There's a reason that the intel chipset is so obfuscated, and this is a prime example.
Probably something along the lines of being an anti-free speech advocate.
Judge: "I am not! I'm going to find out who that person is so I can make them stop saying that about me!"
heh
Anyone remember the old Net Yaroze project for the Playstation? (PSone) It was a way for hobbyists to write playstation games. For about $500, Sony provided you with a black console system (basically the same as the regular systems only it did not verify CD authenticity) and a bunch of C libraries for making system calls. I believe they even gave you a compiler, though it kind of sucked and you were better off buying Codewarrior for that aspect.
Well, we if get linux running on the PS2, and the whole thing is open sourced, then we'll have graphics and sound libraries put together in no time at all. Then anyone interested in writing games for the platform can do so. Just load the kernel and then have linux start your app right away. It probably wouldn't run as fast as some of the dedicated software (the kernel would probably eat a little bit of extra time here and there), but it would get the job done in most cases.
Just a thought.
If you could get a hard-drive and an ethernet port hacked in there somewhere, it would almost be useful. (There's a bus extension port with an emtpy bay in the back of them, supposedly to be filled with either a modem or a hard-drive later.)
:P
For it to be of any use at all though, you'd definitely need a keyboard device, and I don't think one is commercially available yet. (Please correct me if I'm wrong there.)
Anyways, with a HD, modem, and a keyboard, it could easily replace WebTV units using a linux based implementation. Or, you could swap the modem for ethernet and use it as a (fairly) low cost firewall for your PC's.
I'm sure someone will think of even more uses than that.
I've done tech support in the past, and I shudder to imagine what it will be like when the userbase starts to reach the 80 to 90th percentile. Already about 15% of the calls taken are from people that can barely run their computer as it is. (No joke! I've had to explain mouse usage to a few people in the past.)
Let's hope that with increased Net usage, general computer usage skills of the average American increase as well....
I'd be more interested in a cheap wireless Internet access that is satellite driven. Then I could justify putting a system in my truck. (Computer system, not stereo) Link that with GPS, and give it a dummy mode that makes it look like nothing but a touch screen radio to thieves, and I'll never have to worry about my vehicle getting stolen.
Walk outside
"Oh darn. Someone stole my truck."
Walk back inside.
Log on to Internet. Go to http://www.mywebpage.com.
Looky there! My truck keeps updating my webserver with its position. Call authorities. Explain situation, and give location of felons. Smile widely knowing that I will have my vehicle back in about 20 minutes.
Is it just me, or will this idea completely kill the entire line of CD to CDR standalone burners that have been on the market for the past year or so? Philips Magnavox might not like this too much, considering that they were one of the first to produce those units.
Not really much of an argument, but it's a thought that crossed my mind.
I've never been very impressed with Battlebots. I'd rather see autonomous robots fight. You don't need image recognition to do it either. Stick a transponder on each robot for positioning. Robot creators are allowed to do anything they want to prevent the transponder from working, but they are not allowed to physically shut it off. (It could run on its own power source quite easily.) However, ecm bursts for up to 10 seconds could be allowed. Trouble is, each transponder runs on a different frequency, so the ecm would have to be programmable. hehe.
Then, you throw away the lame remote controls, and focus on some good AI routines instead.
The whole idea would increase the overall cost and time to build for each robot, but it would be so much more interesting!