Re:So Did Jesus walk on water using cornstarch?
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I've heard the ice explanation before, but it's simply not plausible given the information in the text of Matthew 14:22-33.
If the lake was solidified enough for someone to walk across it, a wind-powered wooden boat wouldn't be able to sail across it.
It's very difficult for ice to make waves.
Most people forget that not only did Jesus walk on the water, but so did Peter. Peter jumped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus while Jesus was still approaching. At first, Peter did fine, but once he started to notice the waves, he began to sink, something that is also difficult to do on ice. Once Jesus caught him, though, they walked into the boat. If, as some may contend, there was ice under the surface of the water, why would it sink under the weight of one person, then suddenly bouy back up with the weight of an additional person?
Finally, there's nothing miraculous about walking on ice. I'm sure there are hundreds of Canadians walking on frozen lakes right now. No one in their right mind would go up to one of them and claim that they are the Son of God.
Please make sure that this information doesn't make it back to Microsoft; otherwise, they will immediately institute a poorly-implemented QRM (Quantum Rights Management) to restrict teleporation to only approved Partner(TM) destinations using "Quantum Genuine Advantage", and the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" will take on a much more literal meaning!
What exactly do you mean by which of the creation myths? There's only one creation story in the Bible.
Genesis chapter 1 tells the story of the whole creation, from day 1 to day 6, in very general terms. Genesis chapter 2 retells the story of day 6 and forward in greater detail. It's very clear that Adam was created first, and Eve was created from Adam's rib (Genesis 2:18-23).
I don't know if Tennessee will have much much impact on ocean currents, since it's the only place on your list not on the ocean! However, Nashville is one of the most popular entertainment centers in the world, and it is often called the Third Coast (with New York and Hollywood on the other two coasts).
The Tennessee Valley Authority has three nuclear plants which produce about 30% of the power TVA generates. Tennessee has some of the cheapest electricity rates in the nation.
In addition, we have Oak Ridge, which produced the uranium used for the world's first atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project. They even have a festival now celebrating their secret past.
Is your quantum giving you trouble? I'll work on all quanta, foreign or domestic! I've got a fully loaded Snap-On tool chest, some dirty coveralls, a couple of Schrodinger's cats, an air wrench, and a singularity compressor. You can trust me to treat your quantum with the greatest of care, and I promise I won't put metal shavings in your finite square well transmission when you're not looking. Plus, you'll get the best warranty in the business, valid in all 50 eigenstates!
So, if you see some maintenance on your event horizon, give me a call!
According to slangsite.com, and also pseudodictionary.com, the word is contrafibularity, not contrafribularity.
Interesting word, though. Made famous by Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder, evidently.
Sorry for the segue! Now, back to our regularly scheduled topic!
The British show "Brainiac" (which airs on the gamer "G4" cable channel in the US) also did a show on the brown note. If I remember correctly, they even noted that MythBusters tried to do the same thing (although I could be mistaken on that; I am sure, however, that they have quoted MythBusters on at least one segment). However, on their show, they claimed to have a piece of military equipment on loan, they named the specific frequency (down to 4 decimal places, as I recall), and they claimed that their test was successful. They also claimed that you had to be within 1.5 meters of the speaker for it to work, so they put the speaker in a port-a-john with the victim. At the end of the segment, they asked for a water hose to clean up. They never showed Mr. Poopy-Pants, however, which was quite a disappointment.
It's not the first time that Brainiac has duplicated experiments previously done by MythBusters. I've counted at least four so far. Although, I'm not really sure which one originally aired first, so I suppose it could be the other way around. In either case, they tend to blow up much more stuff on Brainiac, and it's a bit wilder.
My Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses just turned totally black! It's a good thing that I'm a touch-typist. Now where's that torrent? And why does this tea taste almost, but not entirely, quite unlike tea?:-)
The above link to the CDRinfo site was very informative. The test results of the new firmware are very promising. This could be a good deal!
However, I haven't seen anyone else yet mention the following quote from that link:
Note: There doesn't seem to be a BookType setting for DVD-ROM DL with current firmware revision.
I for one have a settop DVD player which will not play discs burned without the DVD-ROM BookType setting. Does this apparent lack of the DVD-ROM DL BookType setting mean that double layer discs cannot be BookTyped yet? It appears that single-layer DVDs can be booktyped, however, from what I can glean from the article and from the firmware site.
As most Slashdotters are aware, the real millenium will start in 3001, while the great unwashed masses will be celebrating in the year 3000. Make your reservations early!:-)
I can see it now: toilet seats in public restrooms that play back embarassing sounds when patrons stay too long, coffee mugs with chemical sensors that say "You're drinking Maxwell House decaffinated" or "Wait a minute, that's not Maxwell House, this cup will self-destruct in five seconds" and then vibrate and shatter themselves, and talking windshields that say "Clean me, I'm dirty" or "It's time to replace your windshield wipers".
Perhaps this technology is best left on the shelf!
I agree with YrWrstNtmr, paid email will never work, particularly on a global scale.
Even if some ridiculous central spam consortium is set up, it's most likely going to be headquartered in a single country. Given the global nature of the Internet, spammers wishing to bypass the consortium will simply use foreign accounts. It would take global cooperation between every country in the world for such an entity to work, with each country's laws engineered for cross-country prosecution of offenders.
I find the whole idea of paid email abhorrent. It's collective punishment on the entire global community just because of a few really irresponsible people.
Who would decide the cost of each email message? How would that translate into other world currencies? Countries with a weaker currency would be adversely affected by charges which may seem minimal to more affluent societies, yet they have just as much a right to communicate as the rest of the world. Who would collect the money, and who would ensure that the collected monies are used responsibly? Surely self-governance among spammers, who already flout the law, is not a viable option. Who would oversee this "benevolent dictator"?
The minute that our current email system becomes a paid commodity, many users are simply going to switch to a new protocol for communication, whether it be in existence now or created specifically to counter the loss of email as we know it, just as Napster users switched to Kazaa or Morpheus or Gnutella when the axe came down. Most Internet users are willing to pay for Internet access, but that's it. There are plenty of highly-motivated, talented people out there who would do their best to retain the functionality they have now without having to pay extra for it.
There is no easy answer to this problem. Until there is One World Government with Big Brother watching each and every user (a thought which I do not relish), spam is simply going to have to be a reality we'll have to deal with. Passing strict laws against spam and prosecuting as many people as possible would help a little, but would not end the situation. Several countries doing this, however, would help a great deal.
Don't you know the Slashdot audience? Overweight all-talk do-nothing airchair warriors. If you had some sort of porn watching or complaining challenge - then this would be the place.
Are you suggesting -- PornYard Wars? What a great idea! Take two teams, make them construct a video camera and film the best porn movie, all in 10 hours. The hosts will, of course, stack the junkyard with cheesy second-rate jazz musicians for the background tracks. They also might place creative costumes in inconspicuous places -- skimpy bikinis, schoolgirl uniforms, nurses uniforms, tennis outfits, etc.
The male/female ratio would definitely need to improve for this show to take off, though.:-)
As you said, the middle of WWII was probably the worst time for us to destroy badly needed war materiel, if in fact we did nuke Port Chicago. What if, however, Port Chicago was indeed exposed to a very small, primitive nuclear explosion, but not by us?
During World War II, the United States was in a race with the Germans to develop the first nuclear bomb. What if the Germans blew up Port Chicago with a primitive test device? Perhaps our intelligence community learned of this after the fact, and informed Los Alamos that a working prototype had successfully been detonated by the Germans. That would also explain why our scientists went straight for large scale nuclear fission without first testing small scale nuclear fission, and why Paul Masters referred to the resulting explosion as being in "typical Port Chicago fashion", having already been told about the German device.
Or, if you're super-paranoid, perhaps it really WAS our own government, who knew that if any nuclear explosion was detected, they could blame it on the Germans, because surely no one would believe that we would blow up our own munitions depot in the middle of a war. It just wouldn't make sense, would it?
Conspiracy theories can be so much fun! They themselves can keep "blowing up" out of proportion!
From the snippet that you posted above, it indeed does seem that he wanted people to call him in regard to the story; however, he only states his direct number, not the 800 number. Every call to the 800 number costs his company money. If ten thousand people called him, and each one paid for their own call, that might not be too bad. If ten thousand people called him on the 800 number, however, his company's phone bill would take a significant jump this month. Theoretically, I suppose, you could Slashdot someone into bankruptcy, although that would take a heck of a lot of calls, and they'd probably disconnect the number before then.
While his company may be able to afford the higher phone bill, if the 800 number calls placed to him are charged against his personal monthly budget, it may place a crimp on him personally, if indeed incoming 800 calls are budgeted to person or department.
My mother works for a small company, and she has to reimburse the company for any personal calls that she receives on the 800 number. It may be best to check with someone before posting an 800 number that is not heavily advertised already.
Ah, but bandwidth is highly relevant! That's why the computer you're using now doesn't have 8-bit ISA slots anymore. The huge increases in speed since 1980 have allowed computers and their peripherals to do things that simply wouldn't be feasible if we were still running at 0.89 MHz like my 1983 TRS-80 Color Computer II.
Take your car analogy, for example. Say you have a rusty Ford Pinto. You might be able to hit 60 MPH if you're lucky and have a tailwind, but it will get you from Point A to Point B (eventually). Later, you upgrade to a Dodge Viper. It's still a car, and will still get you from Point A to Point B, but the huge increase in speed (bandwidth) will most certainly change your driving habits. It will probably change your dating habits, too, if you're single. Not that a Firewire port will appeal to the ladies, of course, unless you use it creatively. With the ladies, it's not the size of the port, it's how you use it that matters.:-)
With a Pinto, you have transportation, but you won't be allowed anywhere near the Autobahn. With a Viper, you can not only drive the Autobahn, you may even manage to pass a few cars. With the ability to move massive amounts of data hundreds of times more quickly than with a normal serial port, a Firewire port enables you to deal with data sets which heretofore would have been unrealistically big (such as full motion video, etc.) True, there will be (and are) technologies faster than Firewire, and when those technologies become accepted and affordable for the average user, Firewire will fall by the wayside, having served its purpose.
To say that bandwidth is irrelevant is the opposite of true. Bandwidth is speed. Everyone wants faster, bigger, better, for cheaper. Faster data links will enable portable devices to eventually hold far more information than they do now and transfer that information in less time. Being able to deal with increased information faster and more easily will enable us to use technologies in ways almost unimaginable now. What if our Palm Pilots had the same power and speed as a 1024-way SMP supercomputer? We could each do our own weather modeling, nuclear simulations, protein folding, or play a killer game of Quake 2^14 while checking our email and downloading the latest DVDs. Would you still want to hotsync over a 9600-baud serial port? I think not.
Some people may think it's slick, but I could have done butter than that. In fact, I think it's udderly distoastful. The dairy thought of someone buying this is enough to make four stomachs churn. I guess they're just milking it for all it's worth.
But hay, if they spread some of that cash around, it'd be like a sweet cream come true!
I can honestly say that people who break copyright laws and abuse their kids are more hurtful than people who use cocaine and abuse their kids, and that copyright infringement cartels that regularly assassinate people are worse than Columbian drug cartels that regularly assassinate people.
That's absolutely ludicrous. Please give an example of a single copyright infringement cartel that has ever assasinated a person. I can pull several news stories on drug cartel killings. Also, the instance of child abuse and neglect among drug users is far higher than the average population, including copyright infringers. I understand that you're all for drugs, but the act of copyright infringement does not significantly alter your brain chemistry, cause physical addiction, impair your motor reflexes or judgment, or generally lead to increases in armed robberies or prostitution, as drugs do. It's not even in the same league.
...a cocaine manufacturer may or may not be guilty of using cocaine.
A cocaine manufacturer, however, is directly responsible for manufacturing an illegal product with known serious health effects and which has a negative impact not only on the user but on those around him. A book, whether electronic or not, does not have such effects. In fact, the effects of books foster increased literacy, learning, and exchange of ideas. That's why city governments fund libraries (which loan out copyrighted books every day to the general public) and vice squads (which arrest drug dealers).
The drug manufacturer is likewise guilty of manufacturing a useful consumer tool.
Once again, moving a book that I purchased from one of my computers to another one of my computers does not even come close to comparing to manufacturing an illegal and harmful substance that leads to increases in crime and child abuse.
Further, the primary purpose of his product is for a judge and a jury to decide.
Unfortunately, it seems that you are correct in that this will surely happen.
Just because it can also be used for mass redistribution doesn't make it illegal.
I'm sure that mass redistribution of copyrighted material is illegal under the DMCA and other existing copyright laws. That's not the issue here. Frankly, I think that mass redistribution *should* be illegal. The point is, however, that they've not only outlawed mass redistribution, but are now making claims against fair use rights which have been in place since the founding of copyright law in this country in 1791, such as limited copying for education or research, and "first sale" rights which allow for the purchaser of a copyrighted work to do anything he wishes with said work save redistribute unauthorized copies for a profit. Sklyarov's tool is necessary for the exercise of these rights in the e-book's current form. The DMCA is attempting to outlaw this and other tools, thus effectively eliminating fair use rights altogether. A good link for more information is this story from MSNBC
The difference is that the primary purpose of this tool is to circumvent copyright protection.
Wait a minute, you said above that the primary purpose was for a judge and a jury to decide. Did you suddenly change your mind? I believe that the evidence will show that the primary purpose of this tool is to take back fair use rights which were unfairly removed from the product. As you said, however, the judge and jury will be deciding that.
What planet are you from? Do you honestly think that breaking copyright law is equivalent to selling cocaine? And can you honestly say that people who break copyright laws are more hurtful than crack whores who abuse their kids, or Columbian drug cartels that regularly assasinate people? I think you were on cocaine when you posted that message! Either that, or you're a troll for Adobe.
When it comes down to it, Sklyarov isn't even guilty of circumventing copyright protection measures. He's guilty of writing a useful consumer tool. This product was not designed to copy e-books for mass distribution, it was designed to take back fair use rights which were unfairly removed from the product.
As you may have heard, there haven't been any mass distributions of e-books because of this program. Its primary use is as a consumer tool (moving a book from one of your computers to another one of your computers, or running the text through a text-to-speech program for blind people). Just because it can also be used for mass redistribution shouldn't make it illegal. The primary use of a hammer is for driving nails; if I use a hammer to crack your skull, does that make the hammer illegal? After all, it could be used for unlawful purposes. What's the difference between a hammer and this tool?
I think you misunderstand how the Adobe e-book reader works. In your example, Mary copies an e-book file and gives it to John. You're correct in that the file copies perfectly. John then tries to open the e-book in his own reader, but it won't let him. You see, when Mary bought the e-book, her e-book program sent a unique key to the online bookstore, who encrypted the specific file which she purchased so that only her e-book reader could unencrypt it. John's program has a different unique key (as does every Adobe e-book reader), therefore he can't unencrypt the same file. All this happens automatically behind the scenes, without Mary's knowledge.
The program which Sklyarov wrote is very helpful for someone who purchased an e-book on one computer (say, a desktop computer with a fast broadband connection) but really would like to move it to another computer (say, their laptop). It's also helpful if you want to run an e-book through a text-to-speech processor (especially for blind people).
Adobe is mad because Sklyarov's program allows people to make useful copies. In the long run, they really just want to screw the consumer out of as much money as possible.
My thought in regard to using this material in space was that they would somehow use the resonance to create mechanical energy, which they would then convert to electrical energy in order to power the propulsion system. If the material flexed enough, those flexes could push a fixed piston which ran a generator.
Of course, I could be way off base, but that was the initial impression that I had when I read about its uses in space.
Slashdot Mirror
I've heard the ice explanation before, but it's simply not plausible given the information in the text of Matthew 14:22-33.
Please make sure that this information doesn't make it back to Microsoft; otherwise, they will immediately institute a poorly-implemented QRM (Quantum Rights Management) to restrict teleporation to only approved Partner(TM) destinations using "Quantum Genuine Advantage", and the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" will take on a much more literal meaning!
Genesis chapter 1 tells the story of the whole creation, from day 1 to day 6, in very general terms. Genesis chapter 2 retells the story of day 6 and forward in greater detail. It's very clear that Adam was created first, and Eve was created from Adam's rib (Genesis 2:18-23).
I don't know if Tennessee will have much much impact on ocean currents, since it's the only place on your list not on the ocean! However, Nashville is one of the most popular entertainment centers in the world, and it is often called the Third Coast (with New York and Hollywood on the other two coasts).
:-)
The Tennessee Valley Authority has three nuclear plants which produce about 30% of the power TVA generates. Tennessee has some of the cheapest electricity rates in the nation.
In addition, we have Oak Ridge, which produced the uranium used for the world's first atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project. They even have a festival now celebrating their secret past.
But we don't have any oceans. Sorry!
Is your quantum giving you trouble? I'll work on all quanta, foreign or domestic! I've got a fully loaded Snap-On tool chest, some dirty coveralls, a couple of Schrodinger's cats, an air wrench, and a singularity compressor. You can trust me to treat your quantum with the greatest of care, and I promise I won't put metal shavings in your finite square well transmission when you're not looking. Plus, you'll get the best warranty in the business, valid in all 50 eigenstates!
So, if you see some maintenance on your event horizon, give me a call!
Sorry for the segue! Now, back to our regularly scheduled topic!
The British show "Brainiac" (which airs on the gamer "G4" cable channel in the US) also did a show on the brown note. If I remember correctly, they even noted that MythBusters tried to do the same thing (although I could be mistaken on that; I am sure, however, that they have quoted MythBusters on at least one segment). However, on their show, they claimed to have a piece of military equipment on loan, they named the specific frequency (down to 4 decimal places, as I recall), and they claimed that their test was successful. They also claimed that you had to be within 1.5 meters of the speaker for it to work, so they put the speaker in a port-a-john with the victim. At the end of the segment, they asked for a water hose to clean up. They never showed Mr. Poopy-Pants, however, which was quite a disappointment.
It's not the first time that Brainiac has duplicated experiments previously done by MythBusters. I've counted at least four so far. Although, I'm not really sure which one originally aired first, so I suppose it could be the other way around. In either case, they tend to blow up much more stuff on Brainiac, and it's a bit wilder.
My Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses just turned totally black! It's a good thing that I'm a touch-typist. Now where's that torrent? And why does this tea taste almost, but not entirely, quite unlike tea? :-)
The last release of XV, 3.10a, was on December 29, 1994. The last patch for XV on the site that you linked to above was September 16, 2000.
Perhaps this small snippet from his website says it all:
Looks like he's been having fun with his Playstation for nine years!
However, I haven't seen anyone else yet mention the following quote from that link:
Note: There doesn't seem to be a BookType setting for DVD-ROM DL with current firmware revision.
I for one have a settop DVD player which will not play discs burned without the DVD-ROM BookType setting. Does this apparent lack of the DVD-ROM DL BookType setting mean that double layer discs cannot be BookTyped yet? It appears that single-layer DVDs can be booktyped, however, from what I can glean from the article and from the firmware site.
I get emails almost every day showing how to increase my pipe, but they usually get caught in the spam filter. :-)
In this case, I believe the proper term would be "rigorware".
By the way, it might be a good idea to be careful where you locate the ethernet jack...
I think you may be mistaken, it's still available at SourceForge. Maybe they had heavy usage when you tried to connect?
As most Slashdotters are aware, the real millenium will start in 3001, while the great unwashed masses will be celebrating in the year 3000. Make your reservations early! :-)
I can see it now: toilet seats in public restrooms that play back embarassing sounds when patrons stay too long, coffee mugs with chemical sensors that say "You're drinking Maxwell House decaffinated" or "Wait a minute, that's not Maxwell House, this cup will self-destruct in five seconds" and then vibrate and shatter themselves, and talking windshields that say "Clean me, I'm dirty" or "It's time to replace your windshield wipers".
Perhaps this technology is best left on the shelf!
I agree with YrWrstNtmr, paid email will never work, particularly on a global scale.
Even if some ridiculous central spam consortium is set up, it's most likely going to be headquartered in a single country. Given the global nature of the Internet, spammers wishing to bypass the consortium will simply use foreign accounts. It would take global cooperation between every country in the world for such an entity to work, with each country's laws engineered for cross-country prosecution of offenders.
I find the whole idea of paid email abhorrent. It's collective punishment on the entire global community just because of a few really irresponsible people.
Who would decide the cost of each email message? How would that translate into other world currencies? Countries with a weaker currency would be adversely affected by charges which may seem minimal to more affluent societies, yet they have just as much a right to communicate as the rest of the world. Who would collect the money, and who would ensure that the collected monies are used responsibly? Surely self-governance among spammers, who already flout the law, is not a viable option. Who would oversee this "benevolent dictator"?
The minute that our current email system becomes a paid commodity, many users are simply going to switch to a new protocol for communication, whether it be in existence now or created specifically to counter the loss of email as we know it, just as Napster users switched to Kazaa or Morpheus or Gnutella when the axe came down. Most Internet users are willing to pay for Internet access, but that's it. There are plenty of highly-motivated, talented people out there who would do their best to retain the functionality they have now without having to pay extra for it.
There is no easy answer to this problem. Until there is One World Government with Big Brother watching each and every user (a thought which I do not relish), spam is simply going to have to be a reality we'll have to deal with. Passing strict laws against spam and prosecuting as many people as possible would help a little, but would not end the situation. Several countries doing this, however, would help a great deal.
Don't you know the Slashdot audience?
:-)
Overweight all-talk do-nothing airchair warriors.
If you had some sort of porn watching or complaining challenge - then this would be the place.
Are you suggesting -- PornYard Wars? What a great idea! Take two teams, make them construct a video camera and film the best porn movie, all in 10 hours. The hosts will, of course, stack the junkyard with cheesy second-rate jazz musicians for the background tracks. They also might place creative costumes in inconspicuous places -- skimpy bikinis, schoolgirl uniforms, nurses uniforms, tennis outfits, etc.
The male/female ratio would definitely need to improve for this show to take off, though.
As you said, the middle of WWII was probably the worst time for us to destroy badly needed war materiel, if in fact we did nuke Port Chicago. What if, however, Port Chicago was indeed exposed to a very small, primitive nuclear explosion, but not by us?
During World War II, the United States was in a race with the Germans to develop the first nuclear bomb. What if the Germans blew up Port Chicago with a primitive test device? Perhaps our intelligence community learned of this after the fact, and informed Los Alamos that a working prototype had successfully been detonated by the Germans. That would also explain why our scientists went straight for large scale nuclear fission without first testing small scale nuclear fission, and why Paul Masters referred to the resulting explosion as being in "typical Port Chicago fashion", having already been told about the German device.
Or, if you're super-paranoid, perhaps it really WAS our own government, who knew that if any nuclear explosion was detected, they could blame it on the Germans, because surely no one would believe that we would blow up our own munitions depot in the middle of a war. It just wouldn't make sense, would it?
Conspiracy theories can be so much fun! They themselves can keep "blowing up" out of proportion!
From the snippet that you posted above, it indeed does seem that he wanted people to call him in regard to the story; however, he only states his direct number, not the 800 number. Every call to the 800 number costs his company money. If ten thousand people called him, and each one paid for their own call, that might not be too bad. If ten thousand people called him on the 800 number, however, his company's phone bill would take a significant jump this month. Theoretically, I suppose, you could Slashdot someone into bankruptcy, although that would take a heck of a lot of calls, and they'd probably disconnect the number before then.
While his company may be able to afford the higher phone bill, if the 800 number calls placed to him are charged against his personal monthly budget, it may place a crimp on him personally, if indeed incoming 800 calls are budgeted to person or department.
My mother works for a small company, and she has to reimburse the company for any personal calls that she receives on the 800 number. It may be best to check with someone before posting an 800 number that is not heavily advertised already.
Ah, but bandwidth is highly relevant! That's why the computer you're using now doesn't have 8-bit ISA slots anymore. The huge increases in speed since 1980 have allowed computers and their peripherals to do things that simply wouldn't be feasible if we were still running at 0.89 MHz like my 1983 TRS-80 Color Computer II.
:-)
Take your car analogy, for example. Say you have a rusty Ford Pinto. You might be able to hit 60 MPH if you're lucky and have a tailwind, but it will get you from Point A to Point B (eventually). Later, you upgrade to a Dodge Viper. It's still a car, and will still get you from Point A to Point B, but the huge increase in speed (bandwidth) will most certainly change your driving habits. It will probably change your dating habits, too, if you're single. Not that a Firewire port will appeal to the ladies, of course, unless you use it creatively. With the ladies, it's not the size of the port, it's how you use it that matters.
With a Pinto, you have transportation, but you won't be allowed anywhere near the Autobahn. With a Viper, you can not only drive the Autobahn, you may even manage to pass a few cars. With the ability to move massive amounts of data hundreds of times more quickly than with a normal serial port, a Firewire port enables you to deal with data sets which heretofore would have been unrealistically big (such as full motion video, etc.) True, there will be (and are) technologies faster than Firewire, and when those technologies become accepted and affordable for the average user, Firewire will fall by the wayside, having served its purpose.
To say that bandwidth is irrelevant is the opposite of true. Bandwidth is speed. Everyone wants faster, bigger, better, for cheaper. Faster data links will enable portable devices to eventually hold far more information than they do now and transfer that information in less time. Being able to deal with increased information faster and more easily will enable us to use technologies in ways almost unimaginable now. What if our Palm Pilots had the same power and speed as a 1024-way SMP supercomputer? We could each do our own weather modeling, nuclear simulations, protein folding, or play a killer game of Quake 2^14 while checking our email and downloading the latest DVDs. Would you still want to hotsync over a 9600-baud serial port? I think not.
Some people may think it's slick, but I could have done butter than that. In fact, I think it's udderly distoastful. The dairy thought of someone buying this is enough to make four stomachs churn. I guess they're just milking it for all it's worth.
But hay, if they spread some of that cash around, it'd be like a sweet cream come true!
I can honestly say that people who break copyright laws and abuse their kids are more hurtful than people who use cocaine and abuse their kids, and that copyright infringement cartels that regularly assassinate people are worse than Columbian drug cartels that regularly assassinate people.
That's absolutely ludicrous. Please give an example of a single copyright infringement cartel that has ever assasinated a person. I can pull several news stories on drug cartel killings. Also, the instance of child abuse and neglect among drug users is far higher than the average population, including copyright infringers. I understand that you're all for drugs, but the act of copyright infringement does not significantly alter your brain chemistry, cause physical addiction, impair your motor reflexes or judgment, or generally lead to increases in armed robberies or prostitution, as drugs do. It's not even in the same league.
A cocaine manufacturer, however, is directly responsible for manufacturing an illegal product with known serious health effects and which has a negative impact not only on the user but on those around him. A book, whether electronic or not, does not have such effects. In fact, the effects of books foster increased literacy, learning, and exchange of ideas. That's why city governments fund libraries (which loan out copyrighted books every day to the general public) and vice squads (which arrest drug dealers).
The drug manufacturer is likewise guilty of manufacturing a useful consumer tool.
Once again, moving a book that I purchased from one of my computers to another one of my computers does not even come close to comparing to manufacturing an illegal and harmful substance that leads to increases in crime and child abuse.
Further, the primary purpose of his product is for a judge and a jury to decide.
Unfortunately, it seems that you are correct in that this will surely happen.
Just because it can also be used for mass redistribution doesn't make it illegal.
I'm sure that mass redistribution of copyrighted material is illegal under the DMCA and other existing copyright laws. That's not the issue here. Frankly, I think that mass redistribution *should* be illegal. The point is, however, that they've not only outlawed mass redistribution, but are now making claims against fair use rights which have been in place since the founding of copyright law in this country in 1791, such as limited copying for education or research, and "first sale" rights which allow for the purchaser of a copyrighted work to do anything he wishes with said work save redistribute unauthorized copies for a profit. Sklyarov's tool is necessary for the exercise of these rights in the e-book's current form. The DMCA is attempting to outlaw this and other tools, thus effectively eliminating fair use rights altogether. A good link for more information is this story from MSNBC
The difference is that the primary purpose of this tool is to circumvent copyright protection.
Wait a minute, you said above that the primary purpose was for a judge and a jury to decide. Did you suddenly change your mind? I believe that the evidence will show that the primary purpose of this tool is to take back fair use rights which were unfairly removed from the product. As you said, however, the judge and jury will be deciding that.
What planet are you from? Do you honestly think that breaking copyright law is equivalent to selling cocaine? And can you honestly say that people who break copyright laws are more hurtful than crack whores who abuse their kids, or Columbian drug cartels that regularly assasinate people? I think you were on cocaine when you posted that message! Either that, or you're a troll for Adobe.
When it comes down to it, Sklyarov isn't even guilty of circumventing copyright protection measures. He's guilty of writing a useful consumer tool. This product was not designed to copy e-books for mass distribution, it was designed to take back fair use rights which were unfairly removed from the product. As you may have heard, there haven't been any mass distributions of e-books because of this program. Its primary use is as a consumer tool (moving a book from one of your computers to another one of your computers, or running the text through a text-to-speech program for blind people). Just because it can also be used for mass redistribution shouldn't make it illegal. The primary use of a hammer is for driving nails; if I use a hammer to crack your skull, does that make the hammer illegal? After all, it could be used for unlawful purposes. What's the difference between a hammer and this tool?
I think you misunderstand how the Adobe e-book reader works. In your example, Mary copies an e-book file and gives it to John. You're correct in that the file copies perfectly. John then tries to open the e-book in his own reader, but it won't let him. You see, when Mary bought the e-book, her e-book program sent a unique key to the online bookstore, who encrypted the specific file which she purchased so that only her e-book reader could unencrypt it. John's program has a different unique key (as does every Adobe e-book reader), therefore he can't unencrypt the same file. All this happens automatically behind the scenes, without Mary's knowledge.
The program which Sklyarov wrote is very helpful for someone who purchased an e-book on one computer (say, a desktop computer with a fast broadband connection) but really would like to move it to another computer (say, their laptop). It's also helpful if you want to run an e-book through a text-to-speech processor (especially for blind people).
Adobe is mad because Sklyarov's program allows people to make useful copies. In the long run, they really just want to screw the consumer out of as much money as possible.
My thought in regard to using this material in space was that they would somehow use the resonance to create mechanical energy, which they would then convert to electrical energy in order to power the propulsion system. If the material flexed enough, those flexes could push a fixed piston which ran a generator.
Of course, I could be way off base, but that was the initial impression that I had when I read about its uses in space.