Ok. I want to start this comment by saying that I LOVE Linux and open-source. I think they are really cool. I run linux myself.
Now I want everyone to go look at the receptionists desk where they work, their mothers computer, and some *random persons on the street*.
I can unfortunately be sure that out of those 3, at least two of them were windows based for most people weren't they? Here's the point I am trying to make. The government is slowly backing down out of this Microsoft case. Microsoft is winning. Joe Average can't figure out linux, and isn't probably able to get it on his new computer he just bought at CompUSA/BestBuy preinstalled.
Microsoft is winning on the legal front. Hey, I've even heard jokes that were when Microsoft got broken up the two companies were going to be, Legal, and everything else. Having states drop out is not a good thing on this case. But there needs to be more than just this case going on.
First off, let me reccomend that you send PHYSICAL letters to the representatives in the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT from your state and the states involved in the Anti-Trust suit. Send 2 letters a day if you have to. Make them bring in mailbags from the open-source and technology in general communities. Don't send 'I hate Micrsoft they are evil' type letters. Send letters voicing your concern and supporting the movement to break up Microsofr. Feel free to send email. But send PHYSICAL letters to. The representatives are more likely to see a few of the physical letters if they get enough relating to a subject. Also, send these letters to the Department of Justice. Make our voice heard! Digital communication like email is great, but in the end it tends to be pushed to the side in Washington. Send physical mail and faxes.
Secondly, I am all for free software and open-source, but what I would really like to see our a few private, closed-source, traditional companies making browsers (netscape is gone so part of that whole trial is a moot point), a competitive commercial operating system, etc. Perhaps even make some of your products open-source, but some of the closed source. Just take on Microsoft on their own front.
We have to chip away at Microsoft at all angles if we are going to beat them. We can use this by supporting private companies, the movement by the Government to break Microsoft up, and by buying competitive commercial products instead of Microsoft ones.
On a final note, you may be tempted to, but if you send a letter about Microsoft to the department of Justice or your state representative, do not include the whole napster/RIAA thing in the same letter. Make that be a different letter. That way they'll be treated as two seperate issues, and more headway will be made.
Thank you...
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Hmmm... So the first guys went out and said that we were very similar in the number of genes to alot of other people. People were kinda taken by shock, much like people were when Darwin said we had evolved from apes/animals.
Now these guys have come along and said that the other guys were wrong, and that we have almost twice as many genomes as we thought we had, making us VERY different.
So who is right, can we know?
All I know is that I'd put my money on these reccent guys for getting their next round of government/private funding and the other guys will be scraping the couch for quarters. Why? because people want to think they are better than everyone/everything else. They see themselves as VERY different. They don't want to be told otherwise, regardless as to whether it is right or wrong.
"A closed mind is a wonderful thing to loose"
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. Moreover, most genes are split up into segments, known as exons, that are separated by long stretches of meaningless drivel. Although this drivel is copied during the first stage of the process by which genetic information is used to build the proteins that do the donkeywork of maintaining life, it is then cut out of the copies before they are transferred to the protein-making machinery
So they keep making errors, and there are these long segments that are considered 'MEANINGLESS'. They've doulbed their number! Perhaps humans AREN'T as complex as they thought we were. People find it hard to believe that we could be so closely related to other species. THEY LOOK for the things that seperate us. Humans, worms, and plants, at the base level, are still made up of the same 4 chemicals. Perhaps we are being overzealous in thinking that we are somehow so different.
I find it hard to accept any study also that claims a large portion of a DNA molecule to be 'DRIVEL'. Why is it so meaningless, just because you don't know what it does yet or what it's purpose is? Maybe that's the most important part that your looking over!
We'll see alot more in the field of biotechnology. It's definitely an interesting field of research with some pretty scary possibilities when we think about it. But until they can get a better handle on what the numbers are, and learn not to consider things meaningless, I'm not siding with either side.
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Necessity is the mother of invention. Limits are there. We will eventually reach them But we will advance, just like we have before. I remember the over-used phrase '28k oughta be enough for anybody.' Nowadays your considered insane to try to run ANYTHING on system with less then 48-64mb. Your considered legacy hardware. As the need advances the technology will. The more IN DEMAND something is, the more R&D dollars that will be spent on it, the more important it will become. There are alternatives out there, and we will eventually find them. We just have to keep looking.
I'm personally surprised that we are still using magnetic storage. A few years ago people were predicting that OPTICAL would be the way to go. But apparently it wasn't. Magnetic devices prices got driven down as the technology became cheaper and more in-demand.
Who knows where we may be five to ten years from now, perhaps everything will be stored at a remote location for most people and it will be accessed via thin-clients. Perhaps everyone will have their own miniature raid-aray. Perhaps everything will be stored on miniature removable media, but applications will be served from the net. It will be interesting to find out. But I don't think that we need to worry, as long as we continue to inovate, we will find a solution.
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everything in the computer industry is 99.999%. You can't be 100% sure of anything. Nobody's perfect. Not even the judge.
I could change the titles of my songs to something that was allowed, If they scan the headers, I could modify those. It's just not possible in ANY industry or really ANYTHING AT ALL to be 100% secure, safe, or positive. Napster has done a very good job of blocking stuff, Out of several hundred MP3's on an individuals computer, they allow something like, maybe three. I have some no-name stuff that one of my friends did, and Napster won't even let THAT be transfered.
What hasn't been blocked, has been lost because Napster's members gave up. The Justice department has to understand this.
Even the Justice Department can't be 100% sure of anything. There is always a chance that someone can be wrong, or lie, or make a mistake. Nobody's perfect. Not even the judge.
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Before people go off ranting that computers will ALWAYS be 'hackable' from a point that CRACKERS
can get into your machine. Read the article. They are talking about 'hacking' in the idea of tinkering.
I think though that I have to go with the writer of the article though. At the end he says that he's probably not gettina a new computer every year either. Personally, even if it's cheaper to get one of these boxes every year, I kinda like being able to get a case I like, build a nice computer, or spec one out that I like online, have some upgradability options, and use that computer fvor about 2-4 years.
What's great is that you might even be able to REUSE some of the computer parts.
Now, I can see where this might be an alright option for some people. People who aren't heavy users and just want a computer might not mind having a 'sealed case'.
However, this is kind of 'reverse engineering' and discourages people tinkering with stuff, which is how alot of the great minds in Science and Technology have learned about things. But we have to remember. A determined person who doesn't care about how it looks and is willing maybe to design their own case after they destroy the original, will be able to get in and tinker with stuff, but there may not be much to tinker with once someone gets there.
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Actually, it's probably been happening for hundreds of thousands of years....
The pictures are kind of neat though, and it's alway interesting to see what kinds of new life have turned up here on earth. (they mentioned they had reccently found some one-celled organisms living near the vents) It's hard to imagine sometimes, that even with all the technology like satellite imaging looking down on the earth, there are still places that are mysteries.
Looking at the description, they sound kinda like underwater hotsprings or geysers (like the ones out in Yellowstone) and they build a kind of dome or tower because of a build up of the minerals that are expunged from the opening. One would think that these would be larger and hotter being closer to earth's core, but apparently that's not the case.
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What is the point of attacking an IRC network with a DOS attack anyway?
It's not going to give you ops, your not going to achieve anything besides slowing down the network.
I have to wonder what the script kiddies problem is with EFNET, what's their beef with them? I'd like to see that posted here, or are they just doing it because they can.
I've seen some severs disappear off efnet and go private or join other networks too. People don't want to be associated with the unstable network, and they can't pay the bandwidth bills of a DOS atack. Remember, DOS sends a whole lot of information, which translates to bandwidth, which on servers, costs a pretty penny. And unless you own a telecom, that's money that your never going to see.
Whoever is doing this, just quit it. Attacking an IRC network (Which is free for people to connect to and use by the way) is just lame and stupid.
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Let me put it this way They've killed off a good portion of the decent competition on the desktop enviroment in the WIN32 enviro. Mozilla is good, and I prefer it over Netscape, but it has some problems still, and I can't get shockwave or dialpad or several other similar internet plugins to work in it.
Microsoft got what they wanted, they snuffed out the competition. People are beginning to notice in the non-tech community, and now they are trying to candy-coat everything and make themselves look like this great company that supports competition. I bet they just get back into the business of buying the competition. All this really is in the end is a PR move. They know that as of right now, there is no worry of serious competition, so, at least for now, while they are under scrutiny, they are going to candy-coat everything. I still wouldn't trust them.
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Yes, so, wow, we won't HAVE to use I.E. in Windows anymore. Here's a problem though, they killed Netscape already. Netscape left the browser business remember? Now I won't say they're aren't alternatives. I use Mozilla (And love it) on all my computers. But besides Opera and Mozilla, how many actual alternatives for windows computers that aren't just shells of MSIE.
Perhaps Netscape will decide to get back in the browser buisiness now? Or even better, more browser companies will emerge producing browsers that are better than what we have now and won't have to worry about not being able to get desktop space. Finally, maybe we won't have to deal with those MSN Internet Access icons on the desktop to start with to begin with.
I wonder though, if perhaps in the end Microsoft doesn't care anymore (which is probably the case) because they have already killed their primary competitors...
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Here's a question. If a Satellite is 'dead' (as in a condition where the Satellites are out of fuel as stated in the end of an article) Is the person who owns them still required to pay taxes on them as one would have to on undeveloped or unused real estate? I can see where a satellite thought that is active and being used could be considered as a business asset, and therefore be allowed to be taxed. I have to wonder though what the tax for a multi-million dollar earth-orbiting device is? Do they really have something in their books that describes this kind of item? Also, how many other people have satellites who they are going after, or is it just one guy. Finally, if I were able to build a satellite out of spare parts, like one of the Ham Radio satellites and a couple of my friends interested in rocketry built me a rocket, what kind of taxes would my satellite be applicable to? It's interesting since this area is not usually considered, as outerspace is usually considered 'beyond jurisdiction'. But, does that mean that laws still do not apply, and if someone hacks into my satellite and takes over it, am I out of luck in that case if laws don't apply? I'm guessing that even though it's kinda weird, that yes, in fact this is legal, however it's going to have to be decided what's really owed, and how something like this is taxed...
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Think about Hobbes social contract. 'People give up certain rights and freedoms for a feeling of safety etc.'
This is the same sort of situation kinda. People give up having their own servers for communications and data storage in technologies like.NET. It is the companies responsibility to give us fair service, and tell us what's going on.
If we do not like what's going on, it is our right and responsibility to seek alternatives.
Your always going to risk loss of data and loss of service if you let someone else handle your data, communications, authorization, etc. It's a risk that you take. You hope that the company is able to do a good job and maintain good service. Remember, if you start using.NET and using all of the authorization features to access Microsoft's sites that require Passport/Messenger, just like in Hobbes social contract you are giving up some rights and some control. Your taking a risk. But remember, their are other choices.
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Didn't these kinda keyboards exist on some machines back in like the mid-late 80's? They were called membrane keyboards?
I think if I remember properly they were annoying because you would still have to mash the keys, and if you didn't have to, you would be used to, and it would hurt! also, I remember that sometimes you would have to mash the keys several times to get a response. So, while they are a neat idea, I'm not sure I'll be getting one. They look, unique....though......
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This was a concern a few years ago (About 8-10) during the end of the Bush administration, and the beginning of the Clinton administration. People made a big deal about Earth Day, there was the bio-dome, and people worried about aeorsol, cfc's, and students had big enviromental programs in schools.
But the world stopped caring as much. Now people are driving SUV's which use tons of gas, aerosol can's are very prevelent, all though some are now enviro-friendly, and people are less likely to recycle unless their city requires them to. People are just waking up again to the possibility that there may be some enviromental implications of what they are doing. There will be a period of concern, hopefully changes will be made and things will be improved, but unfortunately, people will probably begin to forget again.
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Break through writers, cheaper text books.
on
Books on Demand
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· Score: 2
What I think is so great about this is that it's got tons of possibilities. Writers trying to break into the market and writers who are writing books that might only have a local interest can have maybe 20-30 books printed up at a time instead of hundreds, or have their books printed on demand. Textbooks can possibly become cheaper and be made available on demand to students at universities. No longer will shipping be a problem, if the book is out of stock, they'll print you one! I know alot of people see digital text as the future, but as it stands, it's not really a possibility. People don't want to sit in front of a monitor that long.
Finally, I think that this means that out-of-print books don't necessarily have to become 'not available'. If someone is interested in reading a book that has gone out of print or is not in demand enough for most stores to carry it, the store can print one up!
Perhaps eventually this will even be ported to newspapers, so that I can go and buy ANY NEWSPAPER that I want and get the full content (not just the stuff that they have online) from ANY city in the United States. Right now it's really only the big cities you can buy in any city, but if I wanted to say, read the news from Truth or Consequences, Nv. I wouldn't be able to.
Anyway, this technology has some pretty cool possibilities.
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I was just thinking. If someone owns the copyright to part or all of a single word, even a commonly used word or one that can have different meanings, then wouldn't.net be a copyright violation, or would everyone who owns a domain in the.net domain be in violation to Microsoft? I wonder if their could be a nice little class action suit here...
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Mono needs to be ported to more than just unicies. It'll need people to port it to Windows, the Macintosh, BEOS, Linux, Unix, BSD, and any other OS you might be able to think of. That's the secret of a successful open-source free project. Make it easy for them to install, make it available already built and packaged to as many different people as you can, and make the source code available so people can continue development, tweak, and improve upon your creation. If it's available on virtually all platforms, and is free, that will be even more the reason to choose it over.NET for home users and for businesses.
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I liked the books. The original Dune movie was kind of a disappointment. In many ways it was horrid!
I thought that the Sci-Fi mini-series was fairly well done and that the effects were awesome. I guess computers have made it easier to do high-quality sci-fi films:)
I am surprised the Sci-Fi channel didn't do a theatrical release of it. It probably would have made it, and in the end the Sci-Fi channel could make better revenues off of movie sales, video sales, pay-per-view, and finally ad sales on their channel then they did off of those couple of nights probably.
But I could be wrong. Who knows what those ads went for besides the people who bought them, the people who sold them, and the IRS, and they'll probably make a bundle off the next ones.
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Why would most people want to pay for something that they can get free?
The thing about the ringtones is stupid by the way. I thought I remember something like you can use a few bars (the little sections of sheet music, the things that make up the lines) (like 7 bars if I remember) of a song without pay royalties. Most ringtones CAN't be more than that!.
I think micropayments are an interesting idea. But to be a viable option, it needs to be easier. If someone wants to pay me.10 because they liked something they can't. Most micropayment services like AMAZON have a minimum. Besides that, they have to get out their wallet, find their credit card, and type it in. If they don't already have a membership with that company, they may even have to signup! The person can avoid this of course by using an ewallet, but some people see that as a security risk.
It's not like tipping an artist, or a cab driver, or throwing some change into the muscicians case on the street, or in the coffe houses mug. There's no real way to toss 'a few quarters' online.
When you get to whole dollar values People see money in a different light.
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Wow! (I use Juno when I'm travelling in the US), otherwise I have broadband, and if all I need to do is check some mail really quick from where I am and get some email it works out just great. That's horrible though with the $30.00 a month. My parents cable modem costs that much. I don't think ANY dialup ('cept maybe a 1-800 for people who travel alot and in places where it's hard to get net access, and maybe not even then) is worth that much.:)
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The other thing that I felt I should mention (but forgot) is that Broadband prices, as they come down, are slowly killing all ISP's. People don't want to deal with the busy signals they get from free isps, and they don't want to have people not be able to get through to them when they are online. As broadband prices drop, we will slowly see the demise of local isps and even National ISP's. (Note: this is already slowly happening, however some local ISP's have managed to make it being local DSL resellers, etc.)
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We've seen this before. Ad based internet hosting just doesn't work. Reccently several news agencies on the web have even posted that banner ads are not as high impact as people think they are. (well of course not, especially when pages have 4 or 5! at least they aren't pop-up ads!)
It's a nice idea, but unfortunately it doesn't work. If people really want 'free' internet for life, I reccomend that they look around for community freenets like Seattle Community Network, Arbornet, Tallahassee Freenet, Alachua County Freenet just to name a few. Go and support these by donating 20.00 a year or something like that and get free dial-up internet access. It's a great way for people to get on the internet, and compared to most local isp's or national isp's, it's only one or two months cost.
Don't turn your back on the community networks that are still in place that gave us PPP access to the internet, and before that Terminal based access!
But ad based free internet just isn't a viable option, KMART, FREEI.net, and so many others have failed. Juno and NetZero are now one company, and if there not careful, it won't be long until they are gone. Juno was really cool when people just wanted email, but now people want internet access to from them. Those dialup lines and backbones cost money, per call, per month, and per meg. And in the end, the CPM and click throughs on those banner ads just don't pay, and people find work arounds so they don't have to deal with them.
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I know that most people think wearable computing is overrated. However, I felt like I should mention this. I always thought that it would be cool to go out and get a ricochet modem and there highspeed wireless service (this would probably be a bad idea now that they are Chapter 11) and build a little wearable computer and do voice over ip that way. It would kind of be neat. A cellphone that was also a computer, and free long distance. This is also a moot point because many cellphones now have free long distance.
Voice over IP also tends to have problems relating to bandwidth. When I have something important to talk about with something I will avoid using a VOIP application because often you may cut out or freeze up or sound like your using a 1980's cellphone. Don't get me wrong. The technology is improving, and as more people get broadband access at home it becomes a more viable option, however, it still needs some improvement. And when a company begins to sell you a device that you just plug into an ethernet jack you know it's going to cost per month or per call because you are most likely no longer seeing ads.
It's a neat technology. And I can just see call centers calling people about the new credit card deal that they are offering utilizing these!
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However, it would be interesting to see NASA look into the market of space tourism. NASA could possibly meet some costs this way, and increase national awarness. The Citizen Astronaut Program was a good idea that unfortunately got discontinued after the Challenger Disaster.
If the nation appears to be interested in space travel, and exploring space, and continuing to go further and further then we will see more funding for NASA. I don't like seeing people giving the ISS a hard time either. It's a good idea. To get farther without having problems with other countries on earth we need to work together. Sure, there will be problems, but perhaps we can work them out better.
NASA also needs to 'capture' the attention of Americans. They need to go to the moon again, or send a manned mission to MARS. They've been circling the earth for way to long in the Shuttle, and people are just like 'ooh, another shuttle launch on CNN' now. It doesn't fascinate people anymore, it's become to commonplace.
I reccomend that if people want to see more from NASA and in citizens in space like the citizen astronaut program, that they should send mail to congress, and NASA. I know that email seems tempting since it's fast and a good medium, however many people just delete stuff, ignore it, and don't read it as much. REAL letters, like POST OFFICE type, are tangible. They carry the weight that someone had to write them down. And even though your letter may get stuck under a pile of hundreds, if a congress person gets enough on a certain issue, that issue, and some of those letters, will get through to him/her.
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Maybe this means that NASA will look into sending citizens into space now. It worked for the Russians, or maybe they will at least consider doing more with private industries and individuals in the fields of space exploration. I like NASA and everything, but would like to see the atmospheric ceiling open to others too.
Break the Atmospheric Ceiling
That can be the cry of the new garage-based astronauts
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Slashdot Mirror
Ok. I want to start this comment by saying that I LOVE Linux and open-source. I think they are really cool. I run linux myself.
Now I want everyone to go look at the receptionists desk where they work, their mothers computer, and some *random persons on the street*.
I can unfortunately be sure that out of those 3, at least two of them were windows based for most people weren't they? Here's the point I am trying to make. The government is slowly backing down out of this Microsoft case. Microsoft is winning. Joe Average can't figure out linux, and isn't probably able to get it on his new computer he just bought at CompUSA/BestBuy preinstalled.
Microsoft is winning on the legal front. Hey, I've even heard jokes that were when Microsoft got broken up the two companies were going to be, Legal, and everything else. Having states drop out is not a good thing on this case. But there needs to be more than just this case going on.
First off, let me reccomend that you send PHYSICAL letters to the representatives in the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT from your state and the states involved in the Anti-Trust suit. Send 2 letters a day if you have to. Make them bring in mailbags from the open-source and technology in general communities. Don't send 'I hate Micrsoft they are evil' type letters. Send letters voicing your concern and supporting the movement to break up Microsofr. Feel free to send email. But send PHYSICAL letters to. The representatives are more likely to see a few of the physical letters if they get enough relating to a subject. Also, send these letters to the Department of Justice. Make our voice heard! Digital communication like email is great, but in the end it tends to be pushed to the side in Washington. Send physical mail and faxes.
Secondly, I am all for free software and open-source, but what I would really like to see our a few private, closed-source, traditional companies making browsers (netscape is gone so part of that whole trial is a moot point), a competitive commercial operating system, etc. Perhaps even make some of your products open-source, but some of the closed source. Just take on Microsoft on their own front.
We have to chip away at Microsoft at all angles if we are going to beat them. We can use this by supporting private companies, the movement by the Government to break Microsoft up, and by buying competitive commercial products instead of Microsoft ones.
On a final note, you may be tempted to, but if you send a letter about Microsoft to the department of Justice or your state representative, do not include the whole napster/RIAA thing in the same letter. Make that be a different letter. That way they'll be treated as two seperate issues, and more headway will be made.
Thank you...
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Hmmm... So the first guys went out and said that we were very similar in the number of genes to alot of other people. People were kinda taken by shock, much like people were when Darwin said we had evolved from apes/animals.
Now these guys have come along and said that the other guys were wrong, and that we have almost twice as many genomes as we thought we had, making us VERY different.
So who is right, can we know?
All I know is that I'd put my money on these reccent guys for getting their next round of government/private funding and the other guys will be scraping the couch for quarters. Why? because people want to think they are better than everyone/everything else. They see themselves as VERY different. They don't want to be told otherwise, regardless as to whether it is right or wrong.
"A closed mind is a wonderful thing to loose"
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. Moreover, most genes are split up into segments, known as exons, that are separated by long stretches of meaningless drivel. Although this drivel is copied during the first stage of the process by which genetic information is used to build the proteins that do the donkeywork of maintaining life, it is then cut out of the copies before they are transferred to the protein-making machinery
So they keep making errors, and there are these long segments that are considered 'MEANINGLESS'. They've doulbed their number! Perhaps humans AREN'T as complex as they thought we were. People find it hard to believe that we could be so closely related to other species. THEY LOOK for the things that seperate us. Humans, worms, and plants, at the base level, are still made up of the same 4 chemicals. Perhaps we are being overzealous in thinking that we are somehow so different.
I find it hard to accept any study also that claims a large portion of a DNA molecule to be 'DRIVEL'. Why is it so meaningless, just because you don't know what it does yet or what it's purpose is? Maybe that's the most important part that your looking over!
We'll see alot more in the field of biotechnology. It's definitely an interesting field of research with some pretty scary possibilities when we think about it. But until they can get a better handle on what the numbers are, and learn not to consider things meaningless, I'm not siding with either side.
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Necessity is the mother of invention. Limits are there. We will eventually reach them
But we will advance, just like we have before. I remember the over-used phrase '28k oughta be enough for anybody.' Nowadays your considered insane to try to run ANYTHING on system with less then 48-64mb. Your considered legacy hardware. As the need advances the technology will. The more IN DEMAND something is, the more R&D dollars that will be spent on it, the more important it will become. There are alternatives out there, and we will eventually find them. We just have to keep looking.
I'm personally surprised that we are still using magnetic storage. A few years ago people were predicting that OPTICAL would be the way to go. But apparently it wasn't. Magnetic devices prices got driven down as the technology became cheaper and more in-demand.
Who knows where we may be five to ten years from now, perhaps everything will be stored at a remote location for most people and it will be accessed via thin-clients. Perhaps everyone will have their own miniature raid-aray. Perhaps everything will be stored on miniature removable media, but applications will be served from the net. It will be interesting to find out. But I don't think that we need to worry, as long as we continue to inovate, we will find a solution.
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everything in the computer industry is 99.999%. You can't be 100% sure of anything. Nobody's perfect. Not even the judge.
I could change the titles of my songs to something that was allowed, If they scan the headers, I could modify those. It's just not possible in ANY industry or really ANYTHING AT ALL to be 100% secure, safe, or positive. Napster has done a very good job of blocking stuff, Out of several hundred MP3's on an individuals computer, they allow something like, maybe three. I have some no-name stuff that one of my friends did, and Napster won't even let THAT be transfered.
What hasn't been blocked, has been lost because Napster's members gave up. The Justice department has to understand this.
Even the Justice Department can't be 100% sure of anything. There is always a chance that someone can be wrong, or lie, or make a mistake. Nobody's perfect. Not even the judge.
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Before people go off ranting that computers will ALWAYS be 'hackable' from a point that CRACKERS can get into your machine. Read the article. They are talking about 'hacking' in the idea of tinkering.
I think though that I have to go with the writer of the article though. At the end he says that he's probably not gettina a new computer every year either. Personally, even if it's cheaper to get one of these boxes every year, I kinda like being able to get a case I like, build a nice computer, or spec one out that I like online, have some upgradability options, and use that computer fvor about 2-4 years.
What's great is that you might even be able to REUSE some of the computer parts.
Now, I can see where this might be an alright option for some people. People who aren't heavy users and just want a computer might not mind having a 'sealed case'.
However, this is kind of 'reverse engineering' and discourages people tinkering with stuff, which is how alot of the great minds in Science and Technology have learned about things. But we have to remember. A determined person who doesn't care about how it looks and is willing maybe to design their own case after they destroy the original, will be able to get in and tinker with stuff, but there may not be much to tinker with once someone gets there.
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"It's a brand new kind of hydrothermal system,"
Actually, it's probably been happening for hundreds of thousands of years....
The pictures are kind of neat though, and it's alway interesting to see what kinds of new life have turned up here on earth. (they mentioned they had reccently found some one-celled organisms living near the vents) It's hard to imagine sometimes, that even with all the technology like satellite imaging looking down on the earth, there are still places that are mysteries.
Looking at the description, they sound kinda like underwater hotsprings or geysers (like the ones out in Yellowstone) and they build a kind of dome or tower because of a build up of the minerals that are expunged from the opening. One would think that these would be larger and hotter being closer to earth's core, but apparently that's not the case.
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What is the point of attacking an IRC network with a DOS attack anyway?
It's not going to give you ops, your not going to achieve anything besides slowing down the network.
I have to wonder what the script kiddies problem is with EFNET, what's their beef with them? I'd like to see that posted here, or are they just doing it because they can.
I've seen some severs disappear off efnet and go private or join other networks too. People don't want to be associated with the unstable network, and they can't pay the bandwidth bills of a DOS atack. Remember, DOS sends a whole lot of information, which translates to bandwidth, which on servers, costs a pretty penny. And unless you own a telecom, that's money that your never going to see.
Whoever is doing this, just quit it. Attacking an IRC network (Which is free for people to connect to and use by the way) is just lame and stupid.
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Let me put it this way
They've killed off a good portion of the decent competition on the desktop enviroment in the WIN32 enviro. Mozilla is good, and I prefer it over Netscape, but it has some problems still, and I can't get shockwave or dialpad or several other similar internet plugins to work in it.
Microsoft got what they wanted, they snuffed out the competition. People are beginning to notice in the non-tech community, and now they are trying to candy-coat everything and make themselves look like this great company that supports competition.
I bet they just get back into the business of buying the competition.
All this really is in the end is a PR move. They know that as of right now, there is no worry of serious competition, so, at least for now, while they are under scrutiny, they are going to candy-coat everything. I still wouldn't trust them.
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Yes, so, wow, we won't HAVE to use I.E. in Windows anymore. Here's a problem though, they killed Netscape already. Netscape left the browser business remember? Now I won't say they're aren't alternatives. I use Mozilla (And love it) on all my computers. But besides Opera and Mozilla, how many actual alternatives for windows computers that aren't just shells of MSIE.
Perhaps Netscape will decide to get back in the browser buisiness now? Or even better, more browser companies will emerge producing browsers that are better than what we have now and won't have to worry about not being able to get desktop space.
Finally, maybe we won't have to deal with those MSN Internet Access icons on the desktop to start with to begin with.
I wonder though, if perhaps in the end Microsoft doesn't care anymore (which is probably the case) because they have already killed their primary competitors...
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Here's a question.
If a Satellite is 'dead' (as in a condition where the Satellites are out of fuel as stated in the end of an article) Is the person who owns them still required to pay taxes on them as one would have to on undeveloped or unused real estate?
I can see where a satellite thought that is active and being used could be considered as a business asset, and therefore be allowed to be taxed. I have to wonder though what the tax for a multi-million dollar earth-orbiting device is? Do they really have something in their books that describes this kind of item? Also, how many other people have satellites who they are going after, or is it just one guy.
Finally, if I were able to build a satellite out of spare parts, like one of the Ham Radio satellites and a couple of my friends interested in rocketry built me a rocket, what kind of taxes would my satellite be applicable to? It's interesting since this area is not usually considered, as outerspace is usually considered 'beyond jurisdiction'. But, does that mean that laws still do not apply, and if someone hacks into my satellite and takes over it, am I out of luck in that case if laws don't apply?
I'm guessing that even though it's kinda weird, that yes, in fact this is legal, however it's going to have to be decided what's really owed, and how something like this is taxed...
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Think about Hobbes social contract.
.NET. It is the companies responsibility to give us fair service, and tell us what's going on.
.NET and using all of the authorization features to access Microsoft's sites that require Passport/Messenger, just like in Hobbes social contract you are giving up some rights and some control. Your taking a risk. But remember, their are other choices.
'People give up certain rights and freedoms for a feeling of safety etc.'
This is the same sort of situation kinda. People give up having their own servers for communications and data storage in technologies like
If we do not like what's going on, it is our right and responsibility to seek alternatives.
Your always going to risk loss of data and loss of service if you let someone else handle your data, communications, authorization, etc. It's a risk that you take. You hope that the company is able to do a good job and maintain good service. Remember, if you start using
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Didn't these kinda keyboards exist on some machines back in like the mid-late 80's? They were called membrane keyboards?
....though......
I think if I remember properly they were annoying because you would still have to mash the keys, and if you didn't have to, you would be used to, and it would hurt! also, I remember that sometimes you would have to mash the keys several times to get a response. So, while they are a neat idea, I'm not sure I'll be getting one. They look, unique
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This was a concern a few years ago (About 8-10) during the end of the Bush administration, and the beginning of the Clinton administration. People made a big deal about Earth Day, there was the bio-dome, and people worried about aeorsol, cfc's, and students had big enviromental programs in schools.
But the world stopped caring as much.
Now people are driving SUV's which use tons of gas, aerosol can's are very prevelent, all though some are now enviro-friendly, and people are less likely to recycle unless their city requires them to.
People are just waking up again to the possibility that there may be some enviromental implications of what they are doing. There will be a period of concern, hopefully changes will be made and things will be improved, but unfortunately, people will probably begin to forget again.
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What I think is so great about this is that it's got tons of possibilities.
Writers trying to break into the market and writers who are writing books that might only have a local interest can have maybe 20-30 books printed up at a time instead of hundreds, or have their books printed on demand.
Textbooks can possibly become cheaper and be made available on demand to students at universities. No longer will shipping be a problem, if the book is out of stock, they'll print you one! I know alot of people see digital text as the future, but as it stands, it's not really a possibility. People don't want to sit in front of a monitor that long.
Finally, I think that this means that out-of-print books don't necessarily have to become 'not available'. If someone is interested in reading a book that has gone out of print or is not in demand enough for most stores to carry it, the store can print one up!
Perhaps eventually this will even be ported to newspapers, so that I can go and buy ANY NEWSPAPER that I want and get the full content (not just the stuff that they have online) from ANY city in the United States. Right now it's really only the big cities you can buy in any city, but if I wanted to say, read the news from Truth or Consequences, Nv. I wouldn't be able to.
Anyway, this technology has some pretty cool possibilities.
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I was just thinking. If someone owns the copyright to part or all of a single word, even a commonly used word or one that can have different meanings, then wouldn't .net be a copyright violation, or would everyone who owns a domain in the .net domain be in violation to Microsoft? I wonder if their could be a nice little class action suit here...
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Mono needs to be ported to more than just unicies. It'll need people to port it to Windows, the Macintosh, BEOS, Linux, Unix, BSD, and any other OS you might be able to think of. That's the secret of a successful open-source free project. Make it easy for them to install, make it available already built and packaged to as many different people as you can, and make the source code available so people can continue development, tweak, and improve upon your creation. If it's available on virtually all platforms, and is free, that will be even more the reason to choose it over .NET for home users and for businesses.
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I liked the books. The original Dune movie was kind of a disappointment. In many ways it was horrid!
:)
I thought that the Sci-Fi mini-series was fairly well done and that the effects were awesome. I guess computers have made it easier to do high-quality sci-fi films
I am surprised the Sci-Fi channel didn't do a theatrical release of it. It probably would have made it, and in the end the Sci-Fi channel could make better revenues off of movie sales, video sales, pay-per-view, and finally ad sales on their channel then they did off of those couple of nights probably.
But I could be wrong. Who knows what those ads went for besides the people who bought them, the people who sold them, and the IRS, and they'll probably make a bundle off the next ones.
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It's a really simple answer.
.10 because they liked something they can't. Most micropayment services like AMAZON have a minimum. Besides that, they have to get out their wallet, find their credit card, and type it in. If they don't already have a membership with that company, they may even have to signup! The person can avoid this of course by using an ewallet, but some people see that as a security risk.
Why would most people want to pay for something that they can get free?
The thing about the ringtones is stupid by the way. I thought I remember something like you can use a few bars (the little sections of sheet music, the things that make up the lines) (like 7 bars if I remember) of a song without pay royalties. Most ringtones CAN't be more than that!.
I think micropayments are an interesting idea. But to be a viable option, it needs to be easier. If someone wants to pay me
It's not like tipping an artist, or a cab driver, or throwing some change into the muscicians case on the street, or in the coffe houses mug. There's no real way to toss 'a few quarters' online.
When you get to whole dollar values People see money in a different light.
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Wow! (I use Juno when I'm travelling in the US), otherwise I have broadband, and if all I need to do is check some mail really quick from where I am and get some email it works out just great. That's horrible though with the $30.00 a month. My parents cable modem costs that much. I don't think ANY dialup ('cept maybe a 1-800 for people who travel alot and in places where it's hard to get net access, and maybe not even then) is worth that much. :)
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The other thing that I felt I should mention (but forgot) is that Broadband prices, as they come down, are slowly killing all ISP's. People don't want to deal with the busy signals they get from free isps, and they don't want to have people not be able to get through to them when they are online. As broadband prices drop, we will slowly see the demise of local isps and even National ISP's. (Note: this is already slowly happening, however some local ISP's have managed to make it being local DSL resellers, etc.)
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We've seen this before. Ad based internet hosting just doesn't work. Reccently several news agencies on the web have even posted that banner ads are not as high impact as people think they are. (well of course not, especially when pages have 4 or 5! at least they aren't pop-up ads!)
It's a nice idea, but unfortunately it doesn't work. If people really want 'free' internet for life, I reccomend that they look around for community freenets like Seattle Community Network, Arbornet, Tallahassee Freenet, Alachua County Freenet just to name a few. Go and support these by donating 20.00 a year or something like that and get free dial-up internet access. It's a great way for people to get on the internet, and compared to most local isp's or national isp's, it's only one or two months cost.
Don't turn your back on the community networks that are still in place that gave us PPP access to the internet, and before that Terminal based access!
But ad based free internet just isn't a viable option, KMART, FREEI.net, and so many others have failed. Juno and NetZero are now one company, and if there not careful, it won't be long until they are gone. Juno was really cool when people just wanted email, but now people want internet access to from them. Those dialup lines and backbones cost money, per call, per month, and per meg. And in the end, the CPM and click throughs on those banner ads just don't pay, and people find work arounds so they don't have to deal with them.
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I know that most people think wearable computing is overrated. However, I felt like I should mention this. I always thought that it would be cool to go out and get a ricochet modem and there highspeed wireless service (this would probably be a bad idea now that they are Chapter 11) and build a little wearable computer and do voice over ip that way. It would kind of be neat. A cellphone that was also a computer, and free long distance. This is also a moot point because many cellphones now have free long distance.
Voice over IP also tends to have problems relating to bandwidth. When I have something important to talk about with something I will avoid using a VOIP application because often you may cut out or freeze up or sound like your using a 1980's cellphone. Don't get me wrong. The technology is improving, and as more people get broadband access at home it becomes a more viable option, however, it still needs some improvement. And when a company begins to sell you a device that you just plug into an ethernet jack you know it's going to cost per month or per call because you are most likely no longer seeing ads.
It's a neat technology. And I can just see call centers calling people about the new credit card deal that they are offering utilizing these!
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Point taken.
However, it would be interesting to see NASA look into the market of space tourism. NASA could possibly meet some costs this way, and increase national awarness. The Citizen Astronaut Program was a good idea that unfortunately got discontinued after the Challenger Disaster.
If the nation appears to be interested in space travel, and exploring space, and continuing to go further and further then we will see more funding for NASA.
I don't like seeing people giving the ISS a hard time either. It's a good idea. To get farther without having problems with other countries on earth we need to work together. Sure, there will be problems, but perhaps we can work them out better.
NASA also needs to 'capture' the attention of Americans. They need to go to the moon again, or send a manned mission to MARS. They've been circling the earth for way to long in the Shuttle, and people are just like 'ooh, another shuttle launch on CNN' now. It doesn't fascinate people anymore, it's become to commonplace.
I reccomend that if people want to see more from NASA and in citizens in space like the citizen astronaut program, that they should send mail to congress, and NASA. I know that email seems tempting since it's fast and a good medium, however many people just delete stuff, ignore it, and don't read it as much. REAL letters, like POST OFFICE type, are tangible. They carry the weight that someone had to write them down. And even though your letter may get stuck under a pile of hundreds, if a congress person gets enough on a certain issue, that issue, and some of those letters, will get through to him/her.
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Break the Atmospheric Ceiling
That can be the cry of the new garage-based astronauts
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