These are typically in the format of RAM images, rather than as audio files. I know that there are various tools around suitable for the 48K Spectrum for turning these into audio (I'm also writing one of my own), though I don't know if there is anything out there for the ZX81.
What if an unscrupulous company then decides to knock their competitors out of the search results? All they would have to do is repeatedly do a search, then demote their competitors out of the results.
Would Slashdot mirroring a site (at least without permission) have any implications with respect to any copyrights held on the material on the original site? At the very least, I would expect that Slashdot would have to request permission from the owner of the contents before mirroring it, and also (maybe) honour any later requests to have the mirrored material removed.
Though, on the other hand, Google saves cached copies of web pages (admittedly, no images), and then serves those back on demand.
Here in New Zealand, it isn't a government agency, but our main telecommunications provider, Telecom, that has decided all people using dialup ISPs though a local telephone number have to pay a per-minute charge, unless they use a specific range of telephone numbers. The charge is 2 cents per minute, after the first 10 hours in each month. Up until now, all local calls from residential telephones in this country have been free.
The reason, according to Telecom, is that it will allow them to "manage internet traffic on the [telephone] network more efficiently", though a number of people believe that this will allow Telecom to degrade the quality of the connections people get to their ISPs.
Telecom's points out that calls to the new phone numbers will be able to be routed automatically so that they are able to balance the load between telephone exchanges, and to "pioritise voice calls in times of network overload or emergency". I'm fairly sure that a number of existing residential telephone exchanges don't support this feature.
Telecom's reason for deciding to apply a charge is that it will "encourage" customers to change to the new phone numbers.
Telecom also provides an ISP service of their own. It is interesting to see that the telephone number used by the Telecom ISP (starting with 0863...), is different to that of other ISPs (0867...). Another ISP points out that that this may potentially allow Telecom to re-route competing ISP's phone calls through different pipes, so it can be degraded as Telecom wishes while its own customers' traffic is managed differently.
However, Telecom has guaranteed that there won't be any disparity in the connection quality for the two sets of telephone numbers. There is a clause to this effect in the agreement (DOC file) that is signed between Telecom and the ISPs.
The other main telecommunications provider in this country, Clear, also provide an ISP service and are going to provide rebate to their customers who get charged this 2 cent/minute charge. Other smaller ISPs are essentially being forced to comply against their will.
This move by Telecom also raises a number of questions:
- What is their stance on modem to modem calls made between friends? Will Telecom apply the charge for these calls? If so, does that mean that they monitor all calls for modem traffic?
- How do that know that a local number you're dialling is or isn't an ISP? I assume that an ISP will be given away by the fact that they have potentially 1000 lines for a given telephone number.
In summary, Telecom has provided a new range of numbers for ISPs to use, and will charge people if they don't use them. Some think that this is the thin end of the wedge for charging for local calls, and will allow Telecom to provide a substandard service for other calls to other ISPs. Other people claim that the change will enable Telecom to provide a better service, due to them being able to manage the calls more efficiently.
A web search on "Richard Scheps" reveals that he's associated with the "Space and Naval Warfare Systems Ctr., San Diego", whatever that is.:) Looks like his area of expertise/interest is high powered lasers.
A search of the ISI Citation Database of reveals he has about 28 publications to his name, mostly related to lasers.
So, at least this person exists: just maybe not where the article says he does.
Something very similar has been done with some interesting results. This link http://foner.www. media.mit.edu/people/foner/Julia/section3_3.html takes you to a description of a bot named "Julia" who did a good job of impersonating a human on a Mud. It took one person 13 days to figure out that it really wasn't a human he was trying to chat up.
Slashdot Mirror
There is an archive of many sinclair computer programs at ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/sinclair, for the ZX81, 48K, Spectrum+, and others.
These are typically in the format of RAM images, rather than as audio files. I know that there are various tools around suitable for the 48K Spectrum for turning these into audio (I'm also writing one of my own), though I don't know if there is anything out there for the ZX81.
Steve.
Heres a link to a page with details for building your own ZX80/ZX81 from scratch:h tml
http://www.home-micros.freeserve.co.uk/zx80/zx80.
What if an unscrupulous company then decides to knock their competitors out of the search results? All they would have to do is repeatedly do a search, then demote their competitors out of the results.
http://newssearch.pilum.net
Would Slashdot mirroring a site (at least without permission) have any implications with respect to any copyrights held on the material on the original site? At the very least, I would expect that Slashdot would have to request permission from the owner of the contents before mirroring it, and also (maybe) honour any later requests to have the mirrored material removed.
Though, on the other hand, Google saves cached copies of web pages (admittedly, no images), and then serves those back on demand.
Here in New Zealand, it isn't a government agency, but our main telecommunications provider, Telecom, that has decided all people using dialup ISPs though a local telephone number have to pay a per-minute charge, unless they use a specific range of telephone numbers. The charge is 2 cents per minute, after the first 10 hours in each month. Up until now, all local calls from residential telephones in this country have been free.
The reason, according to Telecom, is that it will allow them to "manage internet traffic on the [telephone] network more efficiently", though a number of people believe that this will allow Telecom to degrade the quality of the connections people get to their ISPs.
Telecom's points out that calls to the new phone numbers will be able to be routed automatically so that they are able to balance the load between telephone exchanges, and to "pioritise voice calls in times of network overload or emergency". I'm fairly sure that a number of existing residential telephone exchanges don't support this feature.
Telecom's reason for deciding to apply a charge is that it will "encourage" customers to change to the new phone numbers.
Telecom also provides an ISP service of their own. It is interesting to see that the telephone number used by the Telecom ISP (starting with 0863...), is different to that of other ISPs (0867...). Another ISP points out that that this may potentially allow Telecom to re-route competing ISP's phone calls through different pipes, so it can be degraded as Telecom wishes while its own customers' traffic is managed differently.
However, Telecom has guaranteed that there won't be any disparity in the connection quality for the two sets of telephone numbers. There is a clause to this effect in the agreement (DOC file) that is signed between Telecom and the ISPs.
The other main telecommunications provider in this country, Clear, also provide an ISP service and are going to provide rebate to their customers who get charged this 2 cent/minute charge. Other smaller ISPs are essentially being forced to comply against their will.
This move by Telecom also raises a number of questions:
- What is their stance on modem to modem calls made between friends? Will Telecom apply the charge for these calls? If so, does that mean that they monitor all calls for modem traffic?
- How do that know that a local number you're dialling is or isn't an ISP? I assume that an ISP will be given away by the fact that they have potentially 1000 lines for a given telephone number.
In summary, Telecom has provided a new range of numbers for ISPs to use, and will charge people if they don't use them. Some think that this is the thin end of the wedge for charging for local calls, and will allow Telecom to provide a substandard service for other calls to other ISPs. Other people claim that the change will enable Telecom to provide a better service, due to them being able to manage the calls more efficiently.
A web search on "Richard Scheps" reveals that he's associated with the "Space and Naval Warfare Systems Ctr., San Diego", whatever that is. :) Looks like his area of expertise/interest is high powered lasers.
A search of the ISI Citation Database of reveals he has about 28 publications to his name, mostly related to lasers.
So, at least this person exists: just maybe not where the article says he does.
Something very similar has been done with some interesting results. This link http://foner.www. media.mit.edu/people/foner/Julia/section3_3.html takes you to a description of a bot named "Julia" who did a good job of impersonating a human on a Mud. It took one person 13 days to figure out that it really wasn't a human he was trying to chat up.