Part of my major complaint in the 21century is the fact that modem technology has not really improved a whole hell of alot. Sure we have Cable and xDSL service if you are lucky enough to live near a place where they saw fit to actually upgrade.
When I see stuff like this, I get this warm happy feeling inside when it seems like it's actually a *good* idea to actually upgrade from our old vintage phone system to something that can do a hell of alot more useful things. Datapackets can be uniquely identified as "voice" "fax" or "data", which could in theory make a whole slew of things possible...
Though it makes me wonder, if the telcos are going for packet based voice communications, why the hell would I bother placing a long distance call through them when I can use VoIP software. Don't get me wrong, i'll all for the idea digital packet based phone service, if for nothing else but making all phones with that service high speed internet ready.
The problem I see when ever any reads an article like this is the fact that they think, "oh well, that's so long away, I won't worry about it", when in reality the danger is real. Not nessicarly 1950 DA, but earth asteroid impact is a realistic happening, though pretty rare. Given our present technology, it takes months to prep a shuttle, and we don't really have much experence beyond sending probes to the outer / inner planets, let alone anything close to a game plan in the event that that a huge object is set to smack into the earth.
We spend much time monitoring volcanos, fault lines, things that have proven to cause a danger to man, yet we still don't have much in the way of program to reliably spot dangers from our own solar system, which while we haven't had a trully catastrophic event in human history, there is enough in the way of evidence that this sorta event does take place.
Even the smaller meteor strikes which are much more common place, though less destrictive then many forms of earth natural disaster, are much more common place, and near as I can tell, there pretty much isn't any program to detect and alert people as to the danger. The best thing we got are amature astrometers, who have been great, but are limited to earth bound telescopes.
This is why we need a space program... if but for nothing else but to provide simple observation satalights in orbit to help detect such threats in advance.
A moon base would also be somewhat spiffy too as far as creating a staging area in the event we do actually find a huge rock with a destination of earth.
This is what I don't exactly understand about the plan that's being implemented. If the person is a thief, then chances are they have no moral issues with pirating / aquiring an operating system. Seems pretty pointless to me. About as pointless as this compaq laptop I have that allows you to enter your serial number into the bios.
Typicaly, newly purchaced machines have modems in them, perhaps they are in use, perhaps not. Wouldn't it make a fair amount of sence to phone the police or some form of enforcement agency? Phoning 911 and using voice features, is capable would be a dandy away of alterting authorities. "Hello, i've been stolen, please retrieve me". I would say TDD features, but i'm unaware if any modems support this established standard.
If using the lan interface, this wouldn't work all too well, but it could at the very least send out requests that would log IP address, where enforcement agencys could request caller ID logs, and establish a physical location.
This is assuming a theif isn't quite smart enough to reformat the system that is... such features pretty much would pretty much have to exist on the operating system level.
I hear people here rant about the evils of microsoft, which I will be the first to agree they are a big evil, but seldom do I hear about the BIOS monopoly.
I'm i'm not mistaken, award, ami, and pheonix are owned by the same company. Atleast Award and Pheonix seem to be at anyrate. I could be wrong about this, but this would be due to the lack of attention on this little piece of software you are required to buy.
Unlike the Microsoft software where you at least (all though arguably) have a choice to buy a system without it... the same can't be said about the BIOS. Now they have a good product... worth paying for, though I wish they would have added some more *nix like features quite frankly, and it's a pain when one motherboard has for example the Symbios boot for cheep scsi cards feature, where another motherboard with the same make bios is missing that feature, dispite the fact that it's been shown this could be added with ease, and heaven forbid any end user requests for these features present in one and not the other.
So, when Pheonix decides to be most irrating and implement systems like this, who are you going to turn to? I honestly don't know the actual cost of the bios licensing and it's cost per PC motherboard, but I'd wager to guess it's pretty cheep... based on what i've seen in old computer shopers, some companies were charging like $20 a chip. I assume it's a sub $20 per chip fee. I personaly am happy to pay it, as these companies pretty much became comercialy viable because they undersold Compaq and IBM, and dispite their flaws they are the lesser of the big blue and wannabe blue.
This is one of those products that you pretty much either *assume* you have legit license for, based on faith that the motherboard maker. For your average geek, it's pretty much a simple task to establish wether or not you have license for the product.
It's also one of those products that the end user doesn't typicaly pirate. Pirated, or rather, bootleged bios are typical found on the cheepest motherboards available. I do not feel that this is the solution as it's not typicaly the end user pirating their product, it's little no name companies that buy their product bulk from the likes of PC Chips and resell them without a licensed bios.
*SOLUTION* why not ask for cash? You may say what you will about these companies, but unless the freebios projects mature enough there isn't really much of an alternative, and it is a product worth paying for as it does make the system work, and i'm all for supporting them as they pretty much are, in part, responcible for the whole clone market, until something better comes out. If their product is indeed typicaly sub $20.00 for that little holographic sticker, this is a VERY small price to pay for updates. During y2k, they would have made a KILLING on all those cheep ass funky motherboards if they were able to provide on their website the correct bios based on it's ID number, explain that you need to pay $20.00 to download it, rather then the more foolish end users who bought copies of that Symantic product to compensate for only level 2 complience.
The alternative is getting bad press about some little old lady who bought a system on good faith, who in good faith bought a system, getting her hard drive wiped because of someone else bootleging a product she doesn't understand exists.
@home, dispite their flaws, actually mandated as part of the install that users used their proxy server. Say what you will about proxy, but can help out a good deal to converve bandwidth.
I still find it somewhat shocking that, from what I can see no one brought up news servers, which are also responcible for while not nessicarly end user bandwidth to the level that kazza is, but definatly responcible for backbone useage. Say what you will about the newsgroups, but I see there being an advantage of having this content cached on local servers.
As far as metering, I don't believe it's really the solution. Problem being the fact that any isp who I knew metered always had their numbers wrong, and the accounting required is enmormous, and it's not like they can actually PROVE you used that level of bandwidth. And it goes without saying, based on typical attitudes on telephone, you typicaly don't get charged for incomming calls [exception places like america and canada where mobile users do get charged for air time, rather then the caller being charged to talk to a mobile]. A nasty aspect to metering is the fact that simple system diagnostics, such as PING can be exploited to charge up the bill of someone you don't like.
I would be most annoyed if for example, comcast cable decided to change their pricing structure to a metered model. Their advertisments tell you specificly you can use their services to download music, e-mail pictures, see movies, generally do all these things that people are no complaining about, using services that consume butt loads of bandwidth. I would strongly argue the fact that users who actually download are using their service as advertised, right or wrong the marketing tells you always on, flat rate, unlimited downloads. I would also argue based on this marketing the fact that users who do choose to actually share files are providing the content that justifies the existance of the ISP in the first place.
To this end... wouldn't it make a fair amount of sence for ISPs to actually run P2P services them selves, and cache what the users of their little chuck on the net use, if the concern is getting this information out on the primary gateway?
Remarkably enough, telephone technology hasn't really changed all that much since it's invention. the infrastructure has changed vastly, but for the most part, you can still use a first generation telephone over copper, with the exception of the cellular model. This is probally why it's no great shock to me that mobile phones are the first to actually experiment with adapting.
My first reaction to this move to tcp/ip based voice communication is great, dispite the fact that the telephone it self has a remarkable level of simplisity to it. Speaker, amp, microphone, even without a touch tone generator most networks i'm familar with still permit the rotery system, a call can be placed by touching wires together in that rythmic fasion.
So what is there to be gained by TCP/IP transport for telephone use, assuming we are talking about the classic land line as well as the mobile, a great deal i'd say. Fax machines for one thing will no longer be barred by that pesky 9600/14000 bandwidth issue, color faxing can be an option. A "mobile" could in theory be jacked into a land line and calls can be recieved regardless of reception, eliminating the need for features like call forwarding. A push to upgrade to this cheeper form of transport could push the telcos to actually upgrade way out of the way regions to this new digital system, so even Farmer Joe miles away from the CO could get reliable network access. Let alone the boom to the deaf community.. even with present mobile text and instent messaging it has practicaly rendered ye old TDD terminal obsolete.
But... there is a major downside. It puts control of network access back to the telcos, well not like they don't have it already. We create a dependence on high technology, requiring all homes being essentally wired for network. We also create a dependence on power, not that classic telephone doesn't take a bit of juice, but imagine if everyone's house had additional DA converters, and essentally hubs rather then splitters. Privacy could be made a think of the past, as packet sniffers could be employed to actually track specific people without the physical access that is presently required.
But I'm leaning more tward the side of the fact that there is just so much crap I want rendered obsolete, and a level of digital intrigration I would like to achieve. I no longer want to be barred by the limits of dialup service being the only thing that can be actived on demand, I want phones to be TCP/IP ready.
And yes... I want mobile phones to actually provide high speed internet and I want it everywhere! And if this means I can't use my circa 1970's phone that I bought specificly to be compatable with my first acustic(sp) modem and so be it.
The spyware didn't bother me so much... I'm pretty boring.. most of my e-mail is done under pine so pretty immune from software minning from my win box, I guess a miner program could find out what websites I visit, even those are pretty tame. Mostly hardware related stuff, the newspaper, and once and a while that porn popup from hell cause I do a typo on the address. My major complaint was that the spyware degraded system peformance to such an extent that the product I wanted in the first place was rendered unuseable. And what the hell is all this spam from brazil, and why am I getting gay canadian studs in my inbox?
Well, if you were actually reading into it, you'd note that that is the going rate for a single copy of windows oem edition, and ms office SB... which is typical. And yes, a user would have to multiply it among additional machines, and I made sure to point out that my price quotes were comming from a local shop.
But yea, just because you don't want Microsoft Office for linux doesn't mean other people wouldn't enjoy it. I have a copy of Open Office, I sorta lump star office / open office.
And as far as not having a fundamental misunderstanding GNU/linux users... I believe Linus him self has been quoted as being a user of Microsoft office. And what of this Wine project? I think you are stereotyping GNU/linux basicly lumping them some sorta group. I use linux because I quite like it. I like apache, I love samba, sendmail is adquate, and I love having spiffy commandline support. My only reason for keeping a win box around is for Office. I prefer word over open office, and if I had a linux version of microsoft office, I really wouldn't have any reason to run windows.
Not every Linux user is fundimentaly anti-microsoft, though at times it seems like the vast majority of them are. I my self respect some of the decent products they produce, and dislike the (MSN) crap they produce. They have produced alot of crap, esp ms-basic for the amiga that was generally a bugridden piece of filth. I find that this attutide of "gnu/linux community" to be one of the stifling factors why linux isn't more often accepted for what it is, a *viable platorm* rather then some exclusive club. This is the primary reason why I'd support the idea of Office for linux, because it would validate linux as a viable solution to a great many people. And hell, microsoft might make a buck too, which being a business is what they are in the business for.
In the case of MS Office, sure it's a propriority standard, but one which is in such common use that it's become the de facto standard like it or not. If you support *choice* you wouldn't protest any user who makes the choice to use a product you don't like.
And you can protest all you like, but *I* would enjoy seeing some power applications for linux. Like Photoshop, which was very spiffy under Solaris BTW. While you might dislike adobe, you have to admit it's is a power application.
Ummm, why would anyone want that? Cause dispite the rampent hate for microsoft, Office is a good product in many people's eyes. So good, people are willing to pay bucks for it.
Well... let me check my local prices on OEM editions of Office and Windows
Between $94.90 - $139.90 for win98/winxp win2k/xp pro respectifly
$185.90 for Office XP Small business edition $309.90 for MS OFFICE XP PRO (OEM)
So let's say, just to be lazy.. $100 for the os and $200 for office SBE. That's $300. A 90% discount of that would be $30.00, a kick ass price.
While office typicaly costs 2x to 3x more then the OS (assuming Oem editions) it is a product worth paying for.
I don't presume to judge why this city is going linux, but as an average joe cost saving manover, I see a *tremdious* market for Office for linux. If this wasn't the case, the Wine project wouldn't be nearly so popular.
The very reason it's a marketable product is because of the fact that it's propriotory, and *popular*. I.e. it would be worth it to many businesses and administration bodies to buy a copy of office just to be compatable with everyone else. Plus the fact that people are typicaly trained in these power applications that pretty much justify the expence in the machine and operating system.
"One could say that Munich has decided to use open file formats and can therefore freely choose the operating system and applications"
One could say that, but one can also say people actually choose Microsoft Word over other choices in the market place. One of the reasons I still run windows is because I like Microsoft Word, and i've used a vast number of word processing programs among many platforms. One of the major reasons I switched to the PC was the fact that I wanted to run Microsoft Word. I would not want to run Word Perfect for example, nor am I 100% a fan of Star/Open office.
Microsoft is a software company, who have made a choice, I personaly feel the wrong one, to try to practicly give away their product so people don't make the switch to Linux. If they were actually to sell somthing of value to linux users, they wouldn't have to play that game. Besides, as you say, Office costs more then Windows.
It's only common sence, if you can't get users to buy your os to use your products, make your products for their os.
They "could" actually release "microsoft office" for linux. That would be an idea!
Seriously... while it is a comercial product, it is one that is actually *used* by a great many people. What better way from profiting from the free software movement then actually releasing comercial products for it. Rather then offering a discount of 90%... offer them a product they will buy.
Assuming the price is the same... city saves money on operating system, but doesn't have to spend money on migrating documents.
You know, I was looking into Estes model rockets just now. They pretty much are among the only consumer grade projectile that i'm aware that can be used without a license, and without much in the of worry about arrest.
But alas... they max range atleast for the level 1 model kits is typicaly about 300meters. Perhaps 500meters for a two stage model, and about 800meters for 3 stage models.
But, this is using their rocket engines.
"7. SIZE. My model rocket will not weigh more than 53 ounces (1500 grams) at liftoff and will not contain more than 4.4 ounces (125 grams) of propellant or 71.9 pound-seconds (320 N-sec) of total impulse. If my model rocket weighs more than one pound (453 grams) at liftoff or has more than 4 ounces (113 grams) of propellant, I will check and comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations before flying." http://www.commonwealth.net/rocketstore/estescat /c diestes.pdf
A typical civil trial in America takes like 2 years at least. But what I find interesting about this move is assuming one can press criminal charges agenst SCO, they are guaranteed speedy trial, unless they wave that right.
I'm unsure about a few aspects of this though.
Can LinuxTag press criminal charges in Germany and have SCO expedited to that venue to face charges of criminal liable?
Can a plantif in a criminal trial in America actually wave the right to a speedy trial? I'm not a lawyer, nor do I know of any situation where I've seen it in the best interest of the plantif to actually request a slow trial. I have known of cases where the plantif's car broke down, but nothing on this scale.
To be honest... I took my course in like 1985/1986 or so. I don't know how long consumer enhanced air have been around. The only form of enhanced air I was familar with was that helium mix used on trully deep sea dives
I think a wide spread issue of this ability to reproduce bills would be a problem if they were good enough to fool change machines.
I know the local gas station accepts bills in their outdoor machines, let alone do it your self carwashes that provide coins for change to use in the machines, though some are switching to tokens rather then quarters. I've never tried something I knew was counterfit, but i'd imagine that, given that these vending machines use scanners to identify a bill, i'd think they'd be easier to fool.
Further more, small time counterfitting is less likely to raise an eyebrow. A $20, $50, $100 will be looked at most carefuly... where a $5, or a $10 isn't going to be considered as much of a threat.
While I wouldn't want to buy, let's say a car, with quarters, they are indeed legal tender, and no human is going to argue about a quarter being counterfit, and quarters don't have any serial numbers to boot.
This is what i'd be concerned about, a flood of sub $20 counterfit currency.
Looks like the "padi dive tables" are your friend
on
When Bad Software Can Kill
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· Score: 4, Informative
I don't dive much, but I still have my padi dive table.
"For flying up to 8,000 feet after diving: Less then one hour TBT (Total bottom time) , wait 4 hours; less then 4 hours TBT, wait 12 hours." *PADI tive tables (C) 1983
[where TBT = RNT Residual nitrogen time) + Actual Bottom time ]
I dont have my padi manual onhand to estimate how long the folks were down as my table doesn't cover flight, only covers up to 24hours reccomended desaturation time, and doesn't cover this Nitrox stuff.
http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~playboy/diving/diving.h tm l
My old PADI book wouldn't cover Nitrox either, so if I were to use it, I would have no choice but to accept their information as fact, or buy new tables.
I imagine it's most possible. When I was a kid, there was a system of radio positioning I used on ship, pretty much was installed for the first time. Pretty much just used two broadcast towers to peform simple triangulation. I want to say it was called Lomar, but I honestly can't remember, but nightly I would use a sextant and verify it with the device what ever it happened to be called. The device was only a few min off of what I gathered with my sextant, more then accurate enough to make establish when to head into port. That with knowing some local broadcast stations near the destination point.
But this isn't my field really, I have no idea how many satalights would be needed for the level of accuracy this project requires, I just know two points of reference are needed for triangulation. It's prefered that these reference points be fixed, it makes the trigometery much easier, but so long as you are able to predict how these reference points move in relation to each other, let's say an orbit, shouldn't be much of a problem. Even an earth based signal in conjuction with some mars orbital signal would give some clue as to an object's position.. but i'm too lazy to look up facts like how how large earth is and margin of error given it's size.
But some form of "positioning system" seems like a pretty good idea for exploring another planet. or our own solar system.
And there's a good reason to believe that you own the file. That being that only you can access the contents of the file
To me, this seems somewhat reasonable. I pay.99 cents for a file, it's my file. I can burn onto a CD, which I presume negates the id and restrictions so I can use in thoery legacy CD players.
A subscription based service sounds far less spiffy if the files expire. At present, I can listen to the radio, over the cable line I get really good FM or digital based music.
At present, I can record off the air/wire via either my sound card (analog to digital) or via an analog recording device (tape recorder).
While comercial radio typicaly has DJs, the vast number of digital solutions simply do not. While not nearly so cool as a searchable system, there is much less in the way of red tape.
From what I understand... xterminals don't really support sound, not in any meaningful way. Could this simple solution be used with a typical x-terminal to provide... well, local sound?
Ok, back about 20 years ago, we were under the dillusion that we actually owned the music that we bought in a typical store. You paid money, you got music. It's was what we thought a simple concept, even the little disclaimer that it was for private expoition only in the rare cases an album actually had one. Still, there was a level of simplisity of it all.
However based on what I read about many contries, it's been established that you don't own a copy of the song to do with as you please, but rather you own the media but not the contents, making it illegal to make a copy (aka a backup) for use in other media players.
The apple i-tunes system gives you music in a file that can be placed on a CD if desired. This sounds very simple like it was in the 20th century. From what I can see, you buy a file, not the media. I assume you own the file and have the right to private use. Too me this is fair and reasonable.
I would not support a microsoft system where files have an experation date. While I've never been an audiophile, I do own some tapes, CDs, vinyl, and the odd 8track. I own them, they are mine. While there is some argument about end user rights, I can if I so desire it place media on a player and play it when ever I wish without additional license fees, cause I bought a copy.
While I am a fan of the idea of something subscription based... what I desire is the ability to actually support the folks who made the music. I would pay money for stuff I downloaded in order to get a jewel case, and an offical sleave for a particular release. Only diffrence being, I don't have to go to the store.
Optical mouse technology might be the key in atleast determining speed. Assuming there is enough in the way of magnetics on mars, atleast some means of determining direction, in conjuction with an altermeter to determine it's relative height based on known factors. And provided you did some form of arial recon to verify it's position in reality at any given time, the location of such a device can be determined on a planet and (just about) any given time, assuming you have adquate maps to begin with.
Steering, or some form of manual control to actually get this device into or out of a specific location seems somewhat vague to me... but one *could* do it with gyros.
Seems like a great means of getting a land scanner about, provided you happy with where the wind takes you.
I think the major diffrence between the euro market for entertainment and the american market is the availablity of bathrooms.
I think this goes back to the fact that america was founded by religious zelots, fanatics who were so off the mark they were ejected from their motherland for just being too freaky weird, many who were considered too strict to be part of civilized culture.
In america, it's uncommon to see public restrooms. A recent bus trip I took between cities, there just wasn't a bathroom available that I could use. The city doesn't provide it for their public transport, store staff glare at you for the request, and it's generally a pain in the butt. I feel this is a result of a slightly more pure living attitude left over from some of our founders.
Theaters pretty much have to provide them, as you are traped in a building for atleast two hours, drinking that super size soda that cost just 25cents more. I see more access to facilities limiting the demand on theaters, where as in america, they paid their money and can't go anyplace else.
I imagine that the euro market differs from the american model in the restroom department as there can be some spillage if the level of facilities are inadquate to facilities that exist out side the theater walls. Less in the way of maintance i'd imagine.
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Part of my major complaint in the 21century is the fact that modem technology has not really improved a whole hell of alot. Sure we have Cable and xDSL service if you are lucky enough to live near a place where they saw fit to actually upgrade.
When I see stuff like this, I get this warm happy feeling inside when it seems like it's actually a *good* idea to actually upgrade from our old vintage phone system to something that can do a hell of alot more useful things. Datapackets can be uniquely identified as "voice" "fax" or "data", which could in theory make a whole slew of things possible...
Though it makes me wonder, if the telcos are going for packet based voice communications, why the hell would I bother placing a long distance call through them when I can use VoIP software. Don't get me wrong, i'll all for the idea digital packet based phone service, if for nothing else but making all phones with that service high speed internet ready.
The problem I see when ever any reads an article like this is the fact that they think, "oh well, that's so long away, I won't worry about it", when in reality the danger is real. Not nessicarly 1950 DA, but earth asteroid impact is a realistic happening, though pretty rare. Given our present technology, it takes months to prep a shuttle, and we don't really have much experence beyond sending probes to the outer / inner planets, let alone anything close to a game plan in the event that that a huge object is set to smack into the earth.
We spend much time monitoring volcanos, fault lines, things that have proven to cause a danger to man, yet we still don't have much in the way of program to reliably spot dangers from our own solar system, which while we haven't had a trully catastrophic event in human history, there is enough in the way of evidence that this sorta event does take place.
Even the smaller meteor strikes which are much more common place, though less destrictive then many forms of earth natural disaster, are much more common place, and near as I can tell, there pretty much isn't any program to detect and alert people as to the danger. The best thing we got are amature astrometers, who have been great, but are limited to earth bound telescopes.
This is why we need a space program... if but for nothing else but to provide simple observation satalights in orbit to help detect such threats in advance.
A moon base would also be somewhat spiffy too as far as creating a staging area in the event we do actually find a huge rock with a destination of earth.
This is what I don't exactly understand about the plan that's being implemented. If the person is a thief, then chances are they have no moral issues with pirating / aquiring an operating system. Seems pretty pointless to me. About as pointless as this compaq laptop I have that allows you to enter your serial number into the bios.
Typicaly, newly purchaced machines have modems in them, perhaps they are in use, perhaps not. Wouldn't it make a fair amount of sence to phone the police or some form of enforcement agency? Phoning 911 and using voice features, is capable would be a dandy away of alterting authorities. "Hello, i've been stolen, please retrieve me". I would say TDD features, but i'm unaware if any modems support this established standard.
If using the lan interface, this wouldn't work all too well, but it could at the very least send out requests that would log IP address, where enforcement agencys could request caller ID logs, and establish a physical location.
This is assuming a theif isn't quite smart enough to reformat the system that is... such features pretty much would pretty much have to exist on the operating system level.
I hear people here rant about the evils of microsoft, which I will be the first to agree they are a big evil, but seldom do I hear about the BIOS monopoly.
I'm i'm not mistaken, award, ami, and pheonix are owned by the same company. Atleast Award and Pheonix seem to be at anyrate. I could be wrong about this, but this would be due to the lack of attention on this little piece of software you are required to buy.
Unlike the Microsoft software where you at least (all though arguably) have a choice to buy a system without it... the same can't be said about the BIOS. Now they have a good product... worth paying for, though I wish they would have added some more *nix like features quite frankly, and it's a pain when one motherboard has for example the Symbios boot for cheep scsi cards feature, where another motherboard with the same make bios is missing that feature, dispite the fact that it's been shown this could be added with ease, and heaven forbid any end user requests for these features present in one and not the other.
So, when Pheonix decides to be most irrating and implement systems like this, who are you going to turn to? I honestly don't know the actual cost of the bios licensing and it's cost per PC motherboard, but I'd wager to guess it's pretty cheep... based on what i've seen in old computer shopers, some companies were charging like $20 a chip. I assume it's a sub $20 per chip fee. I personaly am happy to pay it, as these companies pretty much became comercialy viable because they undersold Compaq and IBM, and dispite their flaws they are the lesser of the big blue and wannabe blue.
This is one of those products that you pretty much either *assume* you have legit license for, based on faith that the motherboard maker. For your average geek, it's pretty much a simple task to establish wether or not you have license for the product.
It's also one of those products that the end user doesn't typicaly pirate. Pirated, or rather, bootleged bios are typical found on the cheepest motherboards available. I do not feel that this is the solution as it's not typicaly the end user pirating their product, it's little no name companies that buy their product bulk from the likes of PC Chips and resell them without a licensed bios.
*SOLUTION* why not ask for cash? You may say what you will about these companies, but unless the freebios projects mature enough there isn't really much of an alternative, and it is a product worth paying for as it does make the system work, and i'm all for supporting them as they pretty much are, in part, responcible for the whole clone market, until something better comes out. If their product is indeed typicaly sub $20.00 for that little holographic sticker, this is a VERY small price to pay for updates. During y2k, they would have made a KILLING on all those cheep ass funky motherboards if they were able to provide on their website the correct bios based on it's ID number, explain that you need to pay $20.00 to download it, rather then the more foolish end users who bought copies of that Symantic product to compensate for only level 2 complience.
The alternative is getting bad press about some little old lady who bought a system on good faith, who in good faith bought a system, getting her hard drive wiped because of someone else bootleging a product she doesn't understand exists.
I agree with you 100%... the whole concept of actually "bringing" media with you is so 20th century.
Can't you VPN to your home box? Shouldn't this solve the issue of restriction, yet maintain old fuctionality?
@home, dispite their flaws, actually mandated as part of the install that users used their proxy server. Say what you will about proxy, but can help out a good deal to converve bandwidth.
I still find it somewhat shocking that, from what I can see no one brought up news servers, which are also responcible for while not nessicarly end user bandwidth to the level that kazza is, but definatly responcible for backbone useage. Say what you will about the newsgroups, but I see there being an advantage of having this content cached on local servers.
As far as metering, I don't believe it's really the solution. Problem being the fact that any isp who I knew metered always had their numbers wrong, and the accounting required is enmormous, and it's not like they can actually PROVE you used that level of bandwidth. And it goes without saying, based on typical attitudes on telephone, you typicaly don't get charged for incomming calls [exception places like america and canada where mobile users do get charged for air time, rather then the caller being charged to talk to a mobile]. A nasty aspect to metering is the fact that simple system diagnostics, such as PING can be exploited to charge up the bill of someone you don't like.
I would be most annoyed if for example, comcast cable decided to change their pricing structure to a metered model. Their advertisments tell you specificly you can use their services to download music, e-mail pictures, see movies, generally do all these things that people are no complaining about, using services that consume butt loads of bandwidth. I would strongly argue the fact that users who actually download are using their service as advertised, right or wrong the marketing tells you always on, flat rate, unlimited downloads. I would also argue based on this marketing the fact that users who do choose to actually share files are providing the content that justifies the existance of the ISP in the first place.
To this end... wouldn't it make a fair amount of sence for ISPs to actually run P2P services them selves, and cache what the users of their little chuck on the net use, if the concern is getting this information out on the primary gateway?
Remarkably enough, telephone technology hasn't really changed all that much since it's invention. the infrastructure has changed vastly, but for the most part, you can still use a first generation telephone over copper, with the exception of the cellular model. This is probally why it's no great shock to me that mobile phones are the first to actually experiment with adapting.
My first reaction to this move to tcp/ip based voice communication is great, dispite the fact that the telephone it self has a remarkable level of simplisity to it. Speaker, amp, microphone, even without a touch tone generator most networks i'm familar with still permit the rotery system, a call can be placed by touching wires together in that rythmic fasion.
So what is there to be gained by TCP/IP transport for telephone use, assuming we are talking about the classic land line as well as the mobile, a great deal i'd say. Fax machines for one thing will no longer be barred by that pesky 9600/14000 bandwidth issue, color faxing can be an option. A "mobile" could in theory be jacked into a land line and calls can be recieved regardless of reception, eliminating the need for features like call forwarding. A push to upgrade to this cheeper form of transport could push the telcos to actually upgrade way out of the way regions to this new digital system, so even Farmer Joe miles away from the CO could get reliable network access. Let alone the boom to the deaf community.. even with present mobile text and instent messaging it has practicaly rendered ye old TDD terminal obsolete.
But... there is a major downside. It puts control of network access back to the telcos, well not like they don't have it already. We create a dependence on high technology, requiring all homes being essentally wired for network. We also create a dependence on power, not that classic telephone doesn't take a bit of juice, but imagine if everyone's house had additional DA converters, and essentally hubs rather then splitters. Privacy could be made a think of the past, as packet sniffers could be employed to actually track specific people without the physical access that is presently required.
But I'm leaning more tward the side of the fact that there is just so much crap I want rendered obsolete, and a level of digital intrigration I would like to achieve. I no longer want to be barred by the limits of dialup service being the only thing that can be actived on demand, I want phones to be TCP/IP ready.
And yes... I want mobile phones to actually provide high speed internet and I want it everywhere! And if this means I can't use my circa 1970's phone that I bought specificly to be compatable with my first acustic(sp) modem and so be it.
The spyware didn't bother me so much... I'm pretty boring.. most of my e-mail is done under pine so pretty immune from software minning from my win box, I guess a miner program could find out what websites I visit, even those are pretty tame. Mostly hardware related stuff, the newspaper, and once and a while that porn popup from hell cause I do a typo on the address. My major complaint was that the spyware degraded system peformance to such an extent that the product I wanted in the first place was rendered unuseable. And what the hell is all this spam from brazil, and why am I getting gay canadian studs in my inbox?
Looking for the .mp3 file of you saying what the fuck do you think you are doing :P
Well, if you were actually reading into it, you'd note that that is the going rate for a single copy of windows oem edition, and ms office SB... which is typical. And yes, a user would have to multiply it among additional machines, and I made sure to point out that my price quotes were comming from a local shop.
But yea, just because you don't want Microsoft Office for linux doesn't mean other people wouldn't enjoy it. I have a copy of Open Office, I sorta lump star office / open office.
And as far as not having a fundamental misunderstanding GNU/linux users... I believe Linus him self has been quoted as being a user of Microsoft office. And what of this Wine project? I think you are stereotyping GNU/linux basicly lumping them some sorta group. I use linux because I quite like it. I like apache, I love samba, sendmail is adquate, and I love having spiffy commandline support. My only reason for keeping a win box around is for Office. I prefer word over open office, and if I had a linux version of microsoft office, I really wouldn't have any reason to run windows.
Not every Linux user is fundimentaly anti-microsoft, though at times it seems like the vast majority of them are. I my self respect some of the decent products they produce, and dislike the (MSN) crap they produce. They have produced alot of crap, esp ms-basic for the amiga that was generally a bugridden piece of filth. I find that this attutide of "gnu/linux community" to be one of the stifling factors why linux isn't more often accepted for what it is, a *viable platorm* rather then some exclusive club. This is the primary reason why I'd support the idea of Office for linux, because it would validate linux as a viable solution to a great many people. And hell, microsoft might make a buck too, which being a business is what they are in the business for.
In the case of MS Office, sure it's a propriority standard, but one which is in such common use that it's become the de facto standard like it or not. If you support *choice* you wouldn't protest any user who makes the choice to use a product you don't like.
And you can protest all you like, but *I* would enjoy seeing some power applications for linux. Like Photoshop, which was very spiffy under Solaris BTW. While you might dislike adobe, you have to admit it's is a power application.
Ummm, why would anyone want that? Cause dispite the rampent hate for microsoft, Office is a good product in many people's eyes. So good, people are willing to pay bucks for it.
Well... let me check my local prices on OEM editions of Office and Windows
Between $94.90 - $139.90 for win98/winxp win2k/xp pro respectifly
$185.90 for Office XP Small business edition
$309.90 for MS OFFICE XP PRO (OEM)
So let's say, just to be lazy.. $100 for the os and $200 for office SBE. That's $300. A 90% discount of that would be $30.00, a kick ass price.
While office typicaly costs 2x to 3x more then the OS (assuming Oem editions) it is a product worth paying for.
I don't presume to judge why this city is going linux, but as an average joe cost saving manover, I see a *tremdious* market for Office for linux. If this wasn't the case, the Wine project wouldn't be nearly so popular.
The very reason it's a marketable product is because of the fact that it's propriotory, and *popular*. I.e. it would be worth it to many businesses and administration bodies to buy a copy of office just to be compatable with everyone else. Plus the fact that people are typicaly trained in these power applications that pretty much justify the expence in the machine and operating system.
"One could say that Munich has decided to use open file formats and can therefore freely choose the operating system and applications"
One could say that, but one can also say people actually choose Microsoft Word over other choices in the market place. One of the reasons I still run windows is because I like Microsoft Word, and i've used a vast number of word processing programs among many platforms. One of the major reasons I switched to the PC was the fact that I wanted to run Microsoft Word. I would not want to run Word Perfect for example, nor am I 100% a fan of Star/Open office.
Microsoft is a software company, who have made a choice, I personaly feel the wrong one, to try to practicly give away their product so people don't make the switch to Linux. If they were actually to sell somthing of value to linux users, they wouldn't have to play that game. Besides, as you say, Office costs more then Windows.
It's only common sence, if you can't get users to buy your os to use your products, make your products for their os.
They "could" actually release "microsoft office" for linux. That would be an idea!
Seriously... while it is a comercial product, it is one that is actually *used* by a great many people. What better way from profiting from the free software movement then actually releasing comercial products for it. Rather then offering a discount of 90%... offer them a product they will buy.
Assuming the price is the same... city saves money on operating system, but doesn't have to spend money on migrating documents.
You know, I was looking into Estes model rockets just now. They pretty much are among the only consumer grade projectile that i'm aware that can be used without a license, and without much in the of worry about arrest.
t /c diestes.pdf
But alas... they max range atleast for the level 1 model kits is typicaly about 300meters. Perhaps 500meters for a two stage model, and about 800meters for 3 stage models.
But, this is using their rocket engines.
"7. SIZE. My model rocket will not weigh more than 53 ounces (1500 grams) at liftoff and will not contain more than 4.4 ounces (125 grams) of propellant or 71.9 pound-seconds (320 N-sec) of total impulse. If my model rocket weighs more than one pound (453 grams) at liftoff or has more than 4 ounces (113 grams) of propellant, I will check and comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations before flying."
http://www.commonwealth.net/rocketstore/estesca
A typical civil trial in America takes like 2 years at least. But what I find interesting about this move is assuming one can press criminal charges agenst SCO, they are guaranteed speedy trial, unless they wave that right.
I'm unsure about a few aspects of this though.
Can LinuxTag press criminal charges in Germany and have SCO expedited to that venue to face charges of criminal liable?
Can a plantif in a criminal trial in America actually wave the right to a speedy trial? I'm not a lawyer, nor do I know of any situation where I've seen it in the best interest of the plantif to actually request a slow trial. I have known of cases where the plantif's car broke down, but nothing on this scale.
To be honest... I took my course in like 1985/1986 or so. I don't know how long consumer enhanced air have been around. The only form of enhanced air I was familar with was that helium mix used on trully deep sea dives
Ok.. let me explain again
1. Counterfit a $5 or a $10 bill
2. Put in change vending machine, get back quarters.
3. Profit
I think a wide spread issue of this ability to reproduce bills would be a problem if they were good enough to fool change machines.
I know the local gas station accepts bills in their outdoor machines, let alone do it your self carwashes that provide coins for change to use in the machines, though some are switching to tokens rather then quarters. I've never tried something I knew was counterfit, but i'd imagine that, given that these vending machines use scanners to identify a bill, i'd think they'd be easier to fool.
Further more, small time counterfitting is less likely to raise an eyebrow. A $20, $50, $100 will be looked at most carefuly... where a $5, or a $10 isn't going to be considered as much of a threat.
While I wouldn't want to buy, let's say a car, with quarters, they are indeed legal tender, and no human is going to argue about a quarter being counterfit, and quarters don't have any serial numbers to boot.
This is what i'd be concerned about, a flood of sub $20 counterfit currency.
I don't dive much, but I still have my padi dive table.
h tm l
"For flying up to 8,000 feet after diving: Less then one hour TBT (Total bottom time) , wait 4 hours; less then 4 hours TBT, wait 12 hours." *PADI tive tables (C) 1983
[where TBT = RNT Residual nitrogen time) + Actual Bottom time ]
I dont have my padi manual onhand to estimate how long the folks were down as my table doesn't cover flight, only covers up to 24hours reccomended desaturation time, and doesn't cover this Nitrox stuff.
http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~playboy/diving/diving.
My old PADI book wouldn't cover Nitrox either, so if I were to use it, I would have no choice but to accept their information as fact, or buy new tables.
My pid is Inigo Montoya. You "kill -9" my parent process. Prepare to vi!
I imagine it's most possible. When I was a kid, there was a system of radio positioning I used on ship, pretty much was installed for the first time. Pretty much just used two broadcast towers to peform simple triangulation. I want to say it was called Lomar, but I honestly can't remember, but nightly I would use a sextant and verify it with the device what ever it happened to be called. The device was only a few min off of what I gathered with my sextant, more then accurate enough to make establish when to head into port. That with knowing some local broadcast stations near the destination point.
But this isn't my field really, I have no idea how many satalights would be needed for the level of accuracy this project requires, I just know two points of reference are needed for triangulation. It's prefered that these reference points be fixed, it makes the trigometery much easier, but so long as you are able to predict how these reference points move in relation to each other, let's say an orbit, shouldn't be much of a problem. Even an earth based signal in conjuction with some mars orbital signal would give some clue as to an object's position.. but i'm too lazy to look up facts like how how large earth is and margin of error given it's size.
But some form of "positioning system" seems like a pretty good idea for exploring another planet. or our own solar system.
And there's a good reason to believe that you own the file. That being that only you can access the contents of the file
.99 cents for a file, it's my file. I can burn onto a CD, which I presume negates the id and restrictions so I can use in thoery legacy CD players.
To me, this seems somewhat reasonable. I pay
A subscription based service sounds far less spiffy if the files expire. At present, I can listen to the radio, over the cable line I get really good FM or digital based music.
At present, I can record off the air/wire via either my sound card (analog to digital) or via an analog recording device (tape recorder).
While comercial radio typicaly has DJs, the vast number of digital solutions simply do not. While not nearly so cool as a searchable system, there is much less in the way of red tape.
From what I understand... xterminals don't really support sound, not in any meaningful way. Could this simple solution be used with a typical x-terminal to provide... well, local sound?
Ok, back about 20 years ago, we were under the dillusion that we actually owned the music that we bought in a typical store. You paid money, you got music. It's was what we thought a simple concept, even the little disclaimer that it was for private expoition only in the rare cases an album actually had one. Still, there was a level of simplisity of it all.
However based on what I read about many contries, it's been established that you don't own a copy of the song to do with as you please, but rather you own the media but not the contents, making it illegal to make a copy (aka a backup) for use in other media players.
The apple i-tunes system gives you music in a file that can be placed on a CD if desired. This sounds very simple like it was in the 20th century. From what I can see, you buy a file, not the media. I assume you own the file and have the right to private use. Too me this is fair and reasonable.
I would not support a microsoft system where files have an experation date. While I've never been an audiophile, I do own some tapes, CDs, vinyl, and the odd 8track. I own them, they are mine. While there is some argument about end user rights, I can if I so desire it place media on a player and play it when ever I wish without additional license fees, cause I bought a copy.
While I am a fan of the idea of something subscription based... what I desire is the ability to actually support the folks who made the music. I would pay money for stuff I downloaded in order to get a jewel case, and an offical sleave for a particular release. Only diffrence being, I don't have to go to the store.
Optical mouse technology might be the key in atleast determining speed. Assuming there is enough in the way of magnetics on mars, atleast some means of determining direction, in conjuction with an altermeter to determine it's relative height based on known factors. And provided you did some form of arial recon to verify it's position in reality at any given time, the location of such a device can be determined on a planet and (just about) any given time, assuming you have adquate maps to begin with.
Steering, or some form of manual control to actually get this device into or out of a specific location seems somewhat vague to me... but one *could* do it with gyros.
Seems like a great means of getting a land scanner about, provided you happy with where the wind takes you.
I think the major diffrence between the euro market for entertainment and the american market is the availablity of bathrooms.
I think this goes back to the fact that america was founded by religious zelots, fanatics who were so off the mark they were ejected from their motherland for just being too freaky weird, many who were considered too strict to be part of civilized culture.
In america, it's uncommon to see public restrooms. A recent bus trip I took between cities, there just wasn't a bathroom available that I could use. The city doesn't provide it for their public transport, store staff glare at you for the request, and it's generally a pain in the butt. I feel this is a result of a slightly more pure living attitude left over from some of our founders.
Theaters pretty much have to provide them, as you are traped in a building for atleast two hours, drinking that super size soda that cost just 25cents more. I see more access to facilities limiting the demand on theaters, where as in america, they paid their money and can't go anyplace else.
I imagine that the euro market differs from the american model in the restroom department as there can be some spillage if the level of facilities are inadquate to facilities that exist out side the theater walls. Less in the way of maintance i'd imagine.