Why not - in a few years, for having a half a second of black screen on our hard drive, you could be conviced of: Copyright Infringement (all your money), Pre-release Piracy (3 years), Intent to Pirate (5 years), Market Disruption (2.5 years), Improper Parody (3 years), Insult to Film Makers (1 year), Improper Use of a Computer (5 months), Use of a computer in a Crime (1 year, banned from Computer Use), Use of the Internet in a crime (2 years). In addition, your rights to vote are revoked, you must tithe 30% of your income as reparations perpetually, and you are forbidden from watching any MPAA-produces movies once you are released from prison without special piracy-prevention equipment.
Nope. Heheh. I remember the many problems relating to corruption of leads on cartridge connections, wearing away of contact points on the reader and cartridges, and similar things. I also remember the fall of video gaming in general that Atari once brought. Not that a format did all this, or this one would have those problems... it just evokes that feeling. And FYI, I've had much direct experience with Atari game consoles and computers when they were new. The earier consoles were fun because you could rapidly switch the system from near-on to near-off, then get the game to glitch in a random, and often very entertaining way, sometimes bringing new modes of play - one thing that has not made it through to the emulation. But I do enjoy those ROMs too, thank you very much.
The form of this device is 3-dimensional, with roughly one gig/centimeter. It's very unlikely that the storage size of these devices would be kept at one gig. More likely would be some convenient-to-cary size, or even a dynamic size with one side designated as the interface to the reader, and the opposite end would grow for increasing sizes. That means the reader would have to be built to hold the largest size that might go in it, else be open-ended, and a user will have to insert the data end into the device. There would also likely be a shell around the data unit to protect from blunt damage. This is all presumption, but at least mechanically, if this becomes popular, we could see the return of cartridge-style packaging of games. This combined with the return of the Atari brandname for some reason makes me uneasy.:^)
This was (in parody - don't want to get sued!) taken from a Diebold computer system with weak network security.
+_BEGIN_PRESS_RELEASE
As with all things so important to the basis of democracy, we must make sure that the decisions we make are wise and in the interests of the people.
Therefore, we call upon you, the people, to go to your local voting places* next tuesday. There, a voting location will be set up with Genuine Diebold Vote-tech (TM) booths, for you to vote if Diebold units should be used in national and local elections. We Sincerely hope you take advantage of your precious right to speak your mind this tuesday - and are honored that we have this chance to prove ourselves to you, The People!
+_INSERT_OFFICIAL_NAME_
* Your local voting places will be listed in your phonebook as "Diebold Warehouse", and are only available in select cities. If your "Official" voting location does not help you for the sake of this vote, consider moving to Texas - some states are not as interested in voting rights as others.
+_BEGIN_INTERNAL_MEMO_
Boss - this still needs to go through legal, and we need to work on in some shame for anyone questioning the vote itself, without actually mentioning that people are against this.
I'm no Microsoft hater - I honestly doubt most Slashdot readers are either.
I've read the 20 claims. None of them contradict the idea that any news site's weather report could meet any and all of these claims.
1 describes a an abstract computer connection with persistant state and cookie setup and use - it is actually the most specific claim
2 describes the storage of the cookie on the user's system
3 clarifies that the cookie can help identify the connecting system
4 states that HTML is used
5 states that the cookie will contain data about user preferences relative to the site
6 states that information in the cookie may relate to one or more of the following: news, sports, financial matters, entertainment, science and technology, life, and weather
7 states that the form to select preferences will be in html
8 says that the internet may be used in this system
9 says that they may database user information
10 URL's may be used to state addresses
11 cookies may be used to send custom data to the user
12 the cookie can be used to identify the user in step 11
13 the cookie may (again) store this identifier used in step 11
14 again, the user may use a form to set preferences
15 again, topical groupings may be used in this form
16 again, this can take place on the internet
17 this process uses a client-server model, with cookies
18 requests may be cached along the way (happens on any network)
19 again - there is code that allows content to be customized based on the cookies
20 different computers may have different cookies, and they can both still access the system...So, there you have it. There are no claims that could not be applied to any news site, any weather site, any sports site, any entertainment site, any science site, or any combination that uses cookies and customization. Indeed, all of the claims are much more general than that. If anyone has any ideas on how this could NOT be applied to any of these, I'd definetly be interested in hearing any other interpretations - I can't see any other way of differentiating based on this document.
Note: I have intellectual property lawyer relatives I speak with, yet I am not a lawyer myself.
Their mention of McBride making some soon-to-be-published "top 5 influential executives list"...And recently Linus Torvalds made #5 on the list of most influential people. Perhaps they are saying that because he became influencial by virtue of "Their Work", that they, by proxy, have the world's most influential executive?
Of course Linus wouldn't be the most "powerful" - he lets others make up their own damn minds. He doesn't own any companies, and he lets others use his ideas with only the agreement to give credit where credit is due, and use derrivative ideas in just the same way. The power is not in the man, but in the ideas. This "ranking" shouldn't be counted as an insult to open source in any way - powerful men are not a particularly valid way to rank ideas.
About a year ago, I moved to Florida to help my parents out with a business they purchased. After they were set up, I went to finish my CS degree. I attempted to transfer in with a 3.6 GPA coming from Purdue University in Fort Wayne.
I tried one Florida college, drove over, spoke with a Computer Science advisor. One of the first things he told me was that he knew many graduates that had to work as McDonalds. He was very heavy in his implied assertion that I should not come to this school. After attempting to transfer in my transcript, my GPA was dropped from a 3.6 down to less than a 3.1 - and I was denied admission to the school. I was shocked and disgusted.
So, I tried another Florida college in a nearby city. I was able to transfer my credits and gain acceptance into the college... but then I learned what I'd have to do to graduate. I was expecting perhaps an extra semester... but instead I learned that I'd have to take several classes over again. Ones I'd already taken for a larger number of credits. But in order to even take those classes, I'd have to re-take many pre-requisites. But in order to take those, I'd have to be allowed into the CS program. In order to get into the CS program, I'd have to take gateway courses (which I'd already taken effectively), in order to take the gateway courses, I'd have to take pre-requisites which I'd already taken. Their program would not allow me to take any of these programs at the same time. So, instead of one extra semester, I would have to take 3 extra years of classes. This was told to me directly by the head of their department.
At this point, I knew I just had to leave Florida. I love helping the folks out, but it's just impossible to transfer classes. And it's not like I haven't had experience with this - I've transferred to two other colleges without incident, without any major loss in credits either. It's just that Florida seems to have gone insane.
Drew: Damn that Nigel! I swear - he's stealing money from the company children's softball fund we started last week. I just wish there was a way we could get a look at his computer, and maybe stick it to him!
Lewis: You know - I found this program last night while looking for... stuff... online, and I think it could let you know what's on his system!
Drew: Really? Let's get to it then! [random typing-motions on the keyboard]
Drew: It's true - he DID steal those funds! Wait until everyone sees this!
[The Next Day, drew shows up to work with the local softball team.]
Drew: Nigel - we're onto you! I want you to fess up and appologize to these children.
Nigel: Ah, Mr. Carey. Hi kids. Yes - I'd like to appologise for what you're about to see. Allright boys - take him away!
[Police swarm in, grabbing Drew Carry violently. ]
Drew: What? What's all this - he's the one that's stealing from these kids!
Police officer: Yeah - just the kind of slander I'd expect to hear from a dirty HACKER!
Announcer: Next episode on the Drew Carry show - Day one of Drew's 25 year prison sentence. Remember kids - don't use computers!
That's the thing about innocence until proof of guilt. One has to show evidence that the presumed innocent logically has to be guilty. Not that they COULD be guilty. Not that they might as well be guilty. Not if they have the tools that would allow them to be guilty. Not even if the prosecution can't find anyone else that they think might be guilty.
It's things like these that can make harrassing people a real bummer for a litigious group in the long run. Still - fear and respectful loathing may still "work" in the short term. But again, that short-term respect and fear will die down if cases are ruled against them.
Actaully, the actor has since moved onto working behind the scenes in such shows as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and the wonderful Invader Zim. Anyway - the character was mostly one of a parody of a stupid mad scientist sidekick. Most of the larger bittorrent sites will have a few MST3k movies available... see most any of the pre-624 episodes to see him in action. He was a great character.:^)
One thing that got me. In that first "trinity" fight scene, was that white-haired security guard played by... TV's Frank? Wow - so, second-banana heaven is The Matrix fan movies!
Definetly a perfect role for bar-dwelling goths.:^)
But there are some ports (e.g. 135, 5353) that are intended solely to provide services over a LAN, and if this information is ever going across the internet, it's a mistake. What is the downside to blocking this?
You are probably correct that it wouldn't hurt people to not have internet access to ports that are generally expected to be LAN-only... but it still doesn't seem to me to be something one should expect all ISP's to always check every packet for.
I'm no internet protocol expert, but all of this is just communication. The vulnerabilities that exist exist because people for some reason set up (or allow to be set up) systems of logic that automatically commit actions based on that communication. That doesn't mean that one should simply not listen to a channel of communication - that means that one should not automatically commit actions based on what is heard from that channel of communication.
If a service providing internet communication starts preventing it's users from even being able to hear some channel of communication for fear of the automatic actions of it's users' systems... well, that is actually understandable for some isolated temporary conditions like some massive virus or vulnerability, but it would be a huge waste in all other cases. In general though, it probably shouldn't be the job of the communication provider to prevent "bad" communication. After all, it's not the job of the wire to interpret the signal - that's the processor's job - communication just isn't efficient otherwise.
And when the smoke cleared in the dusty street outside the courthouse, Microsoft was left, a few bullets short, still smirking.
The old judge watched on and winced at the display of street "justice", knowing he had no role in this display. Still, he spoke: "You aught to be careful, Mr. Microsoft. Your...attitude may bring such antagonism that even your... formidible arsenal might not be enough to protect you someday. Dead men like these do say something about you, you know."
"Bah", Microsoft said, turning. Soon, Mr. Microsoft's gun barrel wavered towards the judge's general direction, "Dead men tell no tales." Mr. Microsoft then promptly holstered his weapon, tipped his hat, and rode away, honor still officially intact.
The idea is that once the TV is virtually created on the wall, it's there forever, until you remove it. The whole reason to go over to the wall is if you want to manually determine the size that the TV would be. This allows you to compensate for limitations like furniture that is in the way, comfortable height based on sitting position, and others. If you want a clock on the wall, you'd do the same thing. The whole process could be done with remote control too (pointer following where the remote is pointing), but people might prefer to intuitively draw their own sizes and shapes manually for many reasons too.
I hope that systems become cheap enough for computing to become even more ubiquitous. Go to a resturant, there's a cheap, elegant system, completely display, as the menu. If it needs replaced, it's only $30, most of that for the custom software for the menu display itself. Want to watch TV?
Walk up to the wall with the special wallpaper, drag your finger as a rectangle forms to the size you want, select TV from the menu, then grab the remote. The special wallpaper cost $175 a roll last year, now it costs $120.
Computers themselves will become more lego-like as they grow smaller. Because the components are so small, sensitive, and solid state, they will have to be contained in a protective case. Because of this, you won't have to have the computer intelf in a case, you just have to put the parts together somehow, have some connection to your outputs, to your inputs, to power, and to your network. As interconnection standards between parts becomes more robust and tolerant, computer parts will become more than ever, completely interchangeable along with software. Eventually, even average grandparents will be able to intuitively put together a system based on what they need to do with it, and the parts will be everywhere from checkout lanes to garden supply stores.
That is, unless we learn that we aren't really the same physical "being" throughout our whole lives. That sense of "you" may just be one atom that switches to the next one every few milliseconds, compeltely replaced after two days, whatever. In the future, perhaps the "you" that matters, even to yourself, will be the informational you, the "you" with continguity of memory from event to event.
Actually, this very same sentiment will likely be the motivation that brings about many advances in biotechnology.
It's not too hard to imagine a system where your memories reside in several locations, redundantly backed up, with your body replaceable.
Then people can go on the ski slopes, hit a few trees, engage in a friendly sword-fight, etc., so long as they have a spare body lying around, ready to be awakened when the current one wears out.
I wonder how much these new shells would theoretically cost. I wonder how much of this cost would be for various intellectual property issues. Anyone know how the approximate cost of a current steel-and-explosive shell?
I'd definetly prefer soldiers using the best equipment that is feasible, and I support the basic research here, of course, but I'm just curious.
With books, the price isn't so high - really. The price of printing out a whole book for convenient consumption would be high for most individuals already. And no one wants to show up anywhere with a huge pile of large black-and-white pages binded together, complete with scanning artifacts and no cover. The effort and time to wait for the book to print would be prohibitive also. And books still have the advantage of being easier to use than an handheld electronic device while sitting in, um, random places. The only advantages to an electronic device is searcheability, backlight, and weight - most of the time, those aren't needed.
The only real role I could see for "piracy" for literature is:
1. Books on audio - those things are EXPENSIVE. And because they are mostly just a golden voice over a work you can get for much cheaper, the price seems a bit silly to most people. The most appropriate way to semi-legally "pirate" such a work would be to have individuals form an online community to make their own recordings, as a media transfer mechanism. After all, if reading a book to a group of friends is legal, and reading a book over a phone to a friend would be legal, why would not reading a book over a network to many friends be legal?
2. College textbooks - also very expensive. Here, searcheability and weight would be the key issue. If it were available, expecially at a cheaper cost than real textbooks, I'd definetly prefer to have my textbooks on laptop. I definetly wouldn't be surprised to see a community of textbook scanners spring up eventually if online books are not made available.
3. Archiving. Already being done. See Project Gutenburg and other sites.
4. Translating works not available in other nations/languages. Also known more popularly as "scanlating". See ToriyamaWorld, and many, many others to find sites that generally respect the copyright of authors, but want to share works that have not been licenced in the U.S..
Now, as a time-saving measure, right next to the "post reply" button, there will be a "Me Too" button, and a "Send me the link username@hotmail.com" button.:^)
Such systems would have to be built to inherently limit the ammount of actual human interaction. But if that could be done, and each robot could be kept at a cost of, say a modern luxury automobile, then even with replacements, maintenence and repairs, then it wouldn't be inconceivable for one "manager" to be the only human at a popular urban resturant.
The problem would be that said resturant would act like a giant vending machine, with a hole for money, and a hole food appears in, and you have to find a (busy) manager if something goes wrong. This is definetly fine for McDonalds-style food distribution, but not a place you'd take business clients, relatives, or dates to. It's a niche, though a popular one.
On the subject of McDonalds, I've tried the new automated ordering kiosks. They work well. They do not reduce the need for human labor, they increase it slightly - someone still has to make the food, put it together on a tray, and even find the correct customer to give it to, then exchange money. Then there has to be another employee ready to help people with the kiosk itself. The kiosk is merely a tool to keep lines shorter, and people happier. It works rather well that way, and since labor is cheap, it ends up efficient for McDonalds even though it requires more people on average to run it. But that's just my observation.
Slashdot Mirror
Why not - in a few years, for having a half a second of black screen on our hard drive, you could be conviced of: Copyright Infringement (all your money), Pre-release Piracy (3 years), Intent to Pirate (5 years), Market Disruption (2.5 years), Improper Parody (3 years), Insult to Film Makers (1 year), Improper Use of a Computer (5 months), Use of a computer in a Crime (1 year, banned from Computer Use), Use of the Internet in a crime (2 years). In addition, your rights to vote are revoked, you must tithe 30% of your income as reparations perpetually, and you are forbidden from watching any MPAA-produces movies once you are released from prison without special piracy-prevention equipment.
Ryan Fenton
Nope. Heheh. I remember the many problems relating to corruption of leads on cartridge connections, wearing away of contact points on the reader and cartridges, and similar things. I also remember the fall of video gaming in general that Atari once brought. Not that a format did all this, or this one would have those problems... it just evokes that feeling. And FYI, I've had much direct experience with Atari game consoles and computers when they were new. The earier consoles were fun because you could rapidly switch the system from near-on to near-off, then get the game to glitch in a random, and often very entertaining way, sometimes bringing new modes of play - one thing that has not made it through to the emulation. But I do enjoy those ROMs too, thank you very much.
Ryan Fenton
The form of this device is 3-dimensional, with roughly one gig/centimeter. It's very unlikely that the storage size of these devices would be kept at one gig. More likely would be some convenient-to-cary size, or even a dynamic size with one side designated as the interface to the reader, and the opposite end would grow for increasing sizes. That means the reader would have to be built to hold the largest size that might go in it, else be open-ended, and a user will have to insert the data end into the device. There would also likely be a shell around the data unit to protect from blunt damage. This is all presumption, but at least mechanically, if this becomes popular, we could see the return of cartridge-style packaging of games. This combined with the return of the Atari brandname for some reason makes me uneasy. :^)
Ryan Fenton
This was (in parody - don't want to get sued!) taken from a Diebold computer system with weak network security.
+_BEGIN_PRESS_RELEASE
As with all things so important to the basis of democracy, we must make sure that the decisions we make are wise and in the interests of the people.
Therefore, we call upon you, the people, to go to your local voting places* next tuesday. There, a voting location will be set up with Genuine Diebold Vote-tech (TM) booths, for you to vote if Diebold units should be used in national and local elections. We Sincerely hope you take advantage of your precious right to speak your mind this tuesday - and are honored that we have this chance to prove ourselves to you, The People!
+_INSERT_OFFICIAL_NAME_
* Your local voting places will be listed in your phonebook as "Diebold Warehouse", and are only available in select cities. If your "Official" voting location does not help you for the sake of this vote, consider moving to Texas - some states are not as interested in voting rights as others.
+_BEGIN_INTERNAL_MEMO_
Boss - this still needs to go through legal, and we need to work on in some shame for anyone questioning the vote itself, without actually mentioning that people are against this.
Bill, from Marketing.
+_END_
I'm no Microsoft hater - I honestly doubt most Slashdot readers are either.
...So, there you have it. There are no claims that could not be applied to any news site, any weather site, any sports site, any entertainment site, any science site, or any combination that uses cookies and customization. Indeed, all of the claims are much more general than that. If anyone has any ideas on how this could NOT be applied to any of these, I'd definetly be interested in hearing any other interpretations - I can't see any other way of differentiating based on this document.
I've read the 20 claims. None of them contradict the idea that any news site's weather report could meet any and all of these claims.
1 describes a an abstract computer connection with persistant state and cookie setup and use - it is actually the most specific claim
2 describes the storage of the cookie on the user's system
3 clarifies that the cookie can help identify the connecting system
4 states that HTML is used
5 states that the cookie will contain data about user preferences relative to the site
6 states that information in the cookie may relate to one or more of the following: news, sports, financial matters, entertainment, science and technology, life, and weather
7 states that the form to select preferences will be in html
8 says that the internet may be used in this system
9 says that they may database user information
10 URL's may be used to state addresses
11 cookies may be used to send custom data to the user
12 the cookie can be used to identify the user in step 11
13 the cookie may (again) store this identifier used in step 11
14 again, the user may use a form to set preferences
15 again, topical groupings may be used in this form
16 again, this can take place on the internet
17 this process uses a client-server model, with cookies
18 requests may be cached along the way (happens on any network)
19 again - there is code that allows content to be customized based on the cookies
20 different computers may have different cookies, and they can both still access the system
Note: I have intellectual property lawyer relatives I speak with, yet I am not a lawyer myself.
Ryan Fenton
Their mention of McBride making some soon-to-be-published "top 5 influential executives list" ...And recently Linus Torvalds made #5 on the list of most influential people. Perhaps they are saying that because he became influencial by virtue of "Their Work", that they, by proxy, have the world's most influential executive?
Ryan Fenton
Of course Linus wouldn't be the most "powerful" - he lets others make up their own damn minds. He doesn't own any companies, and he lets others use his ideas with only the agreement to give credit where credit is due, and use derrivative ideas in just the same way. The power is not in the man, but in the ideas. This "ranking" shouldn't be counted as an insult to open source in any way - powerful men are not a particularly valid way to rank ideas.
Ryan Fenton
...And penguins will fly!
[Looks at a model of the space shuttle, thinks of what animal the shuttle most closely resembles.]
Um... never mind.
Ryan Fenton
Story on How the Budget Crunch is Affecting Florida Admissions and Forced Expulsions
About a year ago, I moved to Florida to help my parents out with a business they purchased. After they were set up, I went to finish my CS degree. I attempted to transfer in with a 3.6 GPA coming from Purdue University in Fort Wayne.
I tried one Florida college, drove over, spoke with a Computer Science advisor. One of the first things he told me was that he knew many graduates that had to work as McDonalds. He was very heavy in his implied assertion that I should not come to this school. After attempting to transfer in my transcript, my GPA was dropped from a 3.6 down to less than a 3.1 - and I was denied admission to the school. I was shocked and disgusted.
So, I tried another Florida college in a nearby city. I was able to transfer my credits and gain acceptance into the college... but then I learned what I'd have to do to graduate. I was expecting perhaps an extra semester... but instead I learned that I'd have to take several classes over again. Ones I'd already taken for a larger number of credits. But in order to even take those classes, I'd have to re-take many pre-requisites. But in order to take those, I'd have to be allowed into the CS program. In order to get into the CS program, I'd have to take gateway courses (which I'd already taken effectively), in order to take the gateway courses, I'd have to take pre-requisites which I'd already taken. Their program would not allow me to take any of these programs at the same time. So, instead of one extra semester, I would have to take 3 extra years of classes. This was told to me directly by the head of their department.
At this point, I knew I just had to leave Florida. I love helping the folks out, but it's just impossible to transfer classes. And it's not like I haven't had experience with this - I've transferred to two other colleges without incident, without any major loss in credits either. It's just that Florida seems to have gone insane.
Ryan Fenton
Drew: Damn that Nigel! I swear - he's stealing money from the company children's softball fund we started last week. I just wish there was a way we could get a look at his computer, and maybe stick it to him!
Lewis: You know - I found this program last night while looking for... stuff... online, and I think it could let you know what's on his system!
Drew: Really? Let's get to it then! [random typing-motions on the keyboard]
Drew: It's true - he DID steal those funds! Wait until everyone sees this!
[The Next Day, drew shows up to work with the local softball team.]
Drew: Nigel - we're onto you! I want you to fess up and appologize to these children.
Nigel: Ah, Mr. Carey. Hi kids. Yes - I'd like to appologise for what you're about to see. Allright boys - take him away!
[Police swarm in, grabbing Drew Carry violently. ]
Drew: What? What's all this - he's the one that's stealing from these kids!
Police officer: Yeah - just the kind of slander I'd expect to hear from a dirty HACKER!
Announcer: Next episode on the Drew Carry show - Day one of Drew's 25 year prison sentence. Remember kids - don't use computers!
Ryan Fenton
That's the thing about innocence until proof of guilt. One has to show evidence that the presumed innocent logically has to be guilty. Not that they COULD be guilty. Not that they might as well be guilty. Not if they have the tools that would allow them to be guilty. Not even if the prosecution can't find anyone else that they think might be guilty.
It's things like these that can make harrassing people a real bummer for a litigious group in the long run. Still - fear and respectful loathing may still "work" in the short term. But again, that short-term respect and fear will die down if cases are ruled against them.
Ryan Fenton
One explanation of the wonder that was... TV's Frank.
:^)
Actaully, the actor has since moved onto working behind the scenes in such shows as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and the wonderful Invader Zim. Anyway - the character was mostly one of a parody of a stupid mad scientist sidekick. Most of the larger bittorrent sites will have a few MST3k movies available... see most any of the pre-624 episodes to see him in action. He was a great character.
Ryan Fenton
It's the Matrix meets Sam Raimi... which I like.
:^)
One thing that got me. In that first "trinity" fight scene, was that white-haired security guard played by... TV's Frank? Wow - so, second-banana heaven is The Matrix fan movies!
Definetly a perfect role for bar-dwelling goths.
Ryan Fenton
Dear Open Source Community
Look over here. It's a monkey! Look at the cute little monkey!
[A few slashdotters' heads explode]
Ryan Fenton
You are probably correct that it wouldn't hurt people to not have internet access to ports that are generally expected to be LAN-only... but it still doesn't seem to me to be something one should expect all ISP's to always check every packet for.
Ryan Fenton
I'm no internet protocol expert, but all of this is just communication. The vulnerabilities that exist exist because people for some reason set up (or allow to be set up) systems of logic that automatically commit actions based on that communication. That doesn't mean that one should simply not listen to a channel of communication - that means that one should not automatically commit actions based on what is heard from that channel of communication.
If a service providing internet communication starts preventing it's users from even being able to hear some channel of communication for fear of the automatic actions of it's users' systems
Ryan Fenton
And when the smoke cleared in the dusty street outside the courthouse, Microsoft was left, a few bullets short, still smirking.
... formidible arsenal might not be enough to protect you someday. Dead men like these do say something about you, you know."
The old judge watched on and winced at the display of street "justice", knowing he had no role in this display. Still, he spoke: "You aught to be careful, Mr. Microsoft. Your...attitude may bring such antagonism that even your
"Bah", Microsoft said, turning. Soon, Mr. Microsoft's gun barrel wavered towards the judge's general direction, "Dead men tell no tales." Mr. Microsoft then promptly holstered his weapon, tipped his hat, and rode away, honor still officially intact.
Ryan Fenton
The idea is that once the TV is virtually created on the wall, it's there forever, until you remove it. The whole reason to go over to the wall is if you want to manually determine the size that the TV would be. This allows you to compensate for limitations like furniture that is in the way, comfortable height based on sitting position, and others. If you want a clock on the wall, you'd do the same thing. The whole process could be done with remote control too (pointer following where the remote is pointing), but people might prefer to intuitively draw their own sizes and shapes manually for many reasons too.
Anyway, it's just an idea.
Ryan Fenton
My random guess:
I hope that systems become cheap enough for computing to become even more ubiquitous. Go to a resturant, there's a cheap, elegant system, completely display, as the menu. If it needs replaced, it's only $30, most of that for the custom software for the menu display itself. Want to watch TV?
Walk up to the wall with the special wallpaper, drag your finger as a rectangle forms to the size you want, select TV from the menu, then grab the remote. The special wallpaper cost $175 a roll last year, now it costs $120.
Computers themselves will become more lego-like as they grow smaller. Because the components are so small, sensitive, and solid state, they will have to be contained in a protective case. Because of this, you won't have to have the computer intelf in a case, you just have to put the parts together somehow, have some connection to your outputs, to your inputs, to power, and to your network. As interconnection standards between parts becomes more robust and tolerant, computer parts will become more than ever, completely interchangeable along with software. Eventually, even average grandparents will be able to intuitively put together a system based on what they need to do with it, and the parts will be everywhere from checkout lanes to garden supply stores.
Ryan Fenton
That is, unless we learn that we aren't really the same physical "being" throughout our whole lives. That sense of "you" may just be one atom that switches to the next one every few milliseconds, compeltely replaced after two days, whatever. In the future, perhaps the "you" that matters, even to yourself, will be the informational you, the "you" with continguity of memory from event to event.
Or perhaps not.
Ryan Fenton
Actually, this very same sentiment will likely be the motivation that brings about many advances in biotechnology.
It's not too hard to imagine a system where your memories reside in several locations, redundantly backed up, with your body replaceable.
Then people can go on the ski slopes, hit a few trees, engage in a friendly sword-fight, etc., so long as they have a spare body lying around, ready to be awakened when the current one wears out.
Ryan Fenton
I wonder how much these new shells would theoretically cost. I wonder how much of this cost would be for various intellectual property issues. Anyone know how the approximate cost of a current steel-and-explosive shell?
I'd definetly prefer soldiers using the best equipment that is feasible, and I support the basic research here, of course, but I'm just curious.
Ryan Fenton
With books, the price isn't so high - really. The price of printing out a whole book for convenient consumption would be high for most individuals already. And no one wants to show up anywhere with a huge pile of large black-and-white pages binded together, complete with scanning artifacts and no cover. The effort and time to wait for the book to print would be prohibitive also. And books still have the advantage of being easier to use than an handheld electronic device while sitting in, um, random places. The only advantages to an electronic device is searcheability, backlight, and weight - most of the time, those aren't needed.
The only real role I could see for "piracy" for literature is:
1. Books on audio - those things are EXPENSIVE. And because they are mostly just a golden voice over a work you can get for much cheaper, the price seems a bit silly to most people. The most appropriate way to semi-legally "pirate" such a work would be to have individuals form an online community to make their own recordings, as a media transfer mechanism. After all, if reading a book to a group of friends is legal, and reading a book over a phone to a friend would be legal, why would not reading a book over a network to many friends be legal?
2. College textbooks - also very expensive. Here, searcheability and weight would be the key issue. If it were available, expecially at a cheaper cost than real textbooks, I'd definetly prefer to have my textbooks on laptop. I definetly wouldn't be surprised to see a community of textbook scanners spring up eventually if online books are not made available.
3. Archiving. Already being done. See Project Gutenburg and other sites.
4. Translating works not available in other nations/languages. Also known more popularly as "scanlating". See ToriyamaWorld, and many, many others to find sites that generally respect the copyright of authors, but want to share works that have not been licenced in the U.S..
Ryan Fenton
Now, as a time-saving measure, right next to the "post reply" button, there will be a "Me Too" button, and a "Send me the link username@hotmail.com" button.
Ryan Fenton
Such systems would have to be built to inherently limit the ammount of actual human interaction. But if that could be done, and each robot could be kept at a cost of, say a modern luxury automobile, then even with replacements, maintenence and repairs, then it wouldn't be inconceivable for one "manager" to be the only human at a popular urban resturant.
The problem would be that said resturant would act like a giant vending machine, with a hole for money, and a hole food appears in, and you have to find a (busy) manager if something goes wrong. This is definetly fine for McDonalds-style food distribution, but not a place you'd take business clients, relatives, or dates to. It's a niche, though a popular one.
On the subject of McDonalds, I've tried the new automated ordering kiosks. They work well. They do not reduce the need for human labor, they increase it slightly - someone still has to make the food, put it together on a tray, and even find the correct customer to give it to, then exchange money. Then there has to be another employee ready to help people with the kiosk itself. The kiosk is merely a tool to keep lines shorter, and people happier. It works rather well that way, and since labor is cheap, it ends up efficient for McDonalds even though it requires more people on average to run it. But that's just my observation.
Ryan Fenton