And no, I don't find FLAC->WAV->ALC to be a pain in the ass (to get FLACed songs onto my iPod). You must suffer for your sound quality, if you're into that sort of thing.:)
Yeah, it is great looking and I really love the baby blue leather case but when, oh when, will Steve Jobs let me buy music from somewhere other than the Apple iTunes store and put it on my iPod?
You can buy DRM-free MP3s from bleep, the online music store for Warp Records and other electronic music labels. You can even get Autechre's latest in DRM-free FLAC!
Oh wait, she wants the Top-40 garbage... Whatever.
The problem is not the information on the card, per se, but the information systems that will be built to support the identification infrastructure. Presumably the systems to be put in place will use your RealID # (contained in the card) to query your "status" vis-a-vis a federal database. This "query" will be logged, along with metadata regarding the context of the query (time, location, etc.). Got a tingling sensation? Yeah, it's a tracking system where tracking capability is available to not only the Feds (who perhaps already have some of these capabilities, only with much greater expense per subject tracked) but also the "gatekeepers" (i.e. any private firm who wants to join the RealID-swiping game).
Right now you have a credit score based on your loan repayment behavior. The uses of this little number are ubiquitous. Do you look forward to the day when you'll have a terror-threat score based on your everyday activities, facilitated by your RealID, which you have to present in order to participate in a wealth of activities (e.g. b33r and guns)?
"every convenience store learns to grab that data and sell it to Big Data for a nickel" Right. Because every time I got to the convenience store I have to present my license. Oh, wait, no I don't. FUD.
The only reason your convenience stored doesn't is b/c any system compatible with the licenses of all 50 states would be expensive. RealID "solves" that problem, so this is really NOT FUD. Private dataveillence can only increase with the availability of a coercive federal standard for driver licenses.
RealID is a Statist (note the capital 'S'), anti-immigration measure masquerading as counterterrorism legislation. It will increase the power of the federal government at the expense of state budgets and your privacy, and will do little if anything to fight terrorism.
If you want to play the commercial license game, then there are superior DBMSs, like, pretty much every other DBMS out there (Oracle, DB2, SQL Server,...). The business case for MySQL is "free as in beer."
I care because the system will become significantly more oppressive.
You're right: at the current moment, there is somewhat of a universal requirement to show state-issued ID under certain circumstances (e.g airports). However, these IDs are manufactured to disparate standards and even the machine-readable cards have different formats. This soon-to-be-passed law requires any state-issued ID to be machine-readable vis-a-vis the federal standard.
Sure, the powers-that-be could "track a person across the country" with today's relatively low-tech ID, but that's expensive for all but the big players. Post-RealID, this cost will decrease dramatically, and it will be trivial for any of the players to monitor a person's movement and behavior.
Frequency of Fishing Expeditions = constant / Cost of "Tracking" Large Numbers of Subjects
This is essentially my fear. The cheaper it is to acquire "real-time" information about the whereabouts and habits of people, and cross-correlate said info with at database of attributes, the easier it is for the powers-that-be to engage in "pre-emptive policing", all in the name of fighting terrorism.
Illegal immigrants will be first, because it is hard for anyone to make a case for their civil rights. Sex offenders have already been taken care of, but I'm sure some aspect of the "sex offender flag" will be rolled into RealID. Then the fun starts when insurance companies, probably with bipartisan assistance from Congress, decide to reduce rates for companies/buildings that refuse association/entry to persons with a "high threat index". Arabs and Muslims will be next, especially those who reside in "certain zip codes". Then the leftists, later the conservatives who still believe in freedom with a capital 'F'.
Let me put this is clear for you as I can. The founders of this country had their own little "Secular elites vs. Jesusland" conflict some 200+ years ago. Guess which side Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson, and Franklin were on, given that the latter two spent quite a bit of time in France? For all intents and purposes, the founders who have monuments built in their names thought that the Thumpers of their time were nutjobs and lost (intellectually) causes. The people they had the least respect for were folks who had "conversations with Jesus". These founders are all rolling in their graves now.
Where I think we really have problems is in our educational system.
If you were in school, and your advisor told you that the number of jobs in field x (say, marketing) were increasing, and those in field y (say, science/engineering) were dramatically decreasing, which field would you choose to study?
We have a bit of a "chicken and egg" problem among business leaders in the US. Bill Gates, Carly, etc. have complained about the lack of tech graduates, but their outsourcing practices only exacerbate the problem.
Anyway, it bothers me how few young people that I talk with have any desire what so ever to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Perhaps the young folks are smarter than we think they are: they know which way the wind is blowing.
If a case is put forward in which an Apple file format has to be opened up for other companies, then it would be a precedent for Microsoft file formats like Microsoft Office files to be opened up for other companies. It could mean that commercially distributed software has to work on different platforms which could probably be done by the use of fat binaries or Java. Also, if Apple's DRM codec and encryption has to be opened up, then wouldn't that be an argument to open up the Windows source code to competitors?
This is an assinine idea. How far does the political theory of freeshitism extend? How many platforms must a vendor of (unfortunately) popular software support? Must M$ support as many platforms as NetBSD, or run the risk of lawsuits and children crying to Congress?
Stop whining. There are a large number of music services, especially those related to independent label, that will sell you DRM-less mp3s (e.g bleep.com), and these will, of course, run just fine on your iPod. You could also fill your iPod by *gasp*, ripping your CD collection to iTunes in any number of formats. But you have a WMA file and felt the need to cry. What about transcoding, or purchasing a music player (yes there are others) that PlaysForSure(TM)?
I don't see why Americans should continue to be able to get away without even owning a passport when practically every other citizen of the civilized world carries one pretty much wherever they go. There's no reason for us to be smug about our backwardness.
The U.S. also lacks a national "identity" card and state speech controls (although with more and more statists like you, who knows...). Feel free to get the fuck out of this free country and migrate to some "paradise" of state control that's more to your liking. Perhaps Singapore or China is right for you.
I regularly fly from coast to coast, so if'n it can't handle a 5 hour flight, and another 5 hours back (because I always forget my charger), then it sounds like a no-go for me.
The battery is removable, so you can pop in a spare when the first one dies.:)
The first PSX's were shoddy and broke alot, likewise with the V1 PS2s.
I know, I had to buy a second PS1 to fix the worn-out cd track "issue". I'm crossing my fingers with the PSP.
I have a DS and a Japanese PSP and several games for each (including one US game - Wipeout Pure - for the PSP). In response to a few of your concerns I can say the following:
- First party development The PSP has better launch titles than the DS currently has DS-specific games. I say this as a Nintendo fanboy (my opinion will change when Kart and Zelda games are released).
- The discs. My PSP has handled the not-exactly smooth NYC subway for a month w/o skipping (the disc only spins during loads, not continuously during play). This could be an issue with movies, but that is what high-capacity MemoryStick Duos are for.:) YMMV.
- The battery life. Battery life is decent, enough for one or two gaming "sessions" (i.e. 1+ hrs. of gaming in one sitting) a day. If you want to whip out the PSP for a quick race or ten (of Wipeout, for instance), while sitting in the cafe, battery life is not an issue.
Technically, the PSP is superb and the screen is to die for. The games will be there, though PS1/2 games may not make the console->handheld transition as well as SNES titles did. The cost is going to set folks back $350+ (assuming they want to use their new toys), and whether folks are willing to pay is the real issue.
Whether or not Linux gets into the game is not the real issue. IBM, Novell, HP, etc. would happily vend a trusted and signed distribution of Linux. Such a distribution would probably work with whatever locked-down BIOSes hardware vendors release. The "rub" is that Trusted Linux would be unmodifiable in any interesting way. The devices would be "trusted": driver hacks and user-created devices would make your OS "untrusted". You would be able to install only "trusted" packages and binaries, lest your OS become "untrusted". For our friends who like to build from source, we have trusted-emerge, which will connect to "trusted" servers and limit the user to "trusted" makefiles/configure scripts.
Perhaps, as a sign of "openness", said IT giants will offer "developer licenses" (for the appropriate $fee) to those persons who wish to *gasp* use their computers as computers instead of media consumption devices. You can forget using nmap, ettercap, or anything other program that plays with frames (as opposed to the corporate-approved InterWeb), unless you procure a "registered security analyst" license (also available for the appropriate $fee). Perhaps you will be able to obtain a "hobbyist license", but be ready to pay the $fee and submit to a background check.*
Sure, you can run Linux, but your actions will still be under the control of the "trust" system. "Trusted Linux" is just a way to pacify those in the OSS community who don't have enough distrust of corporations that care for little more than profit and control.
* This is more than mere speculation. Try purchasing a non cell-frequency-blocked radio receiver in the United States without the proper "credentials" (you have to have a "need to use" the equipment, or be a member of certain authoritarian groups (police, FBI, etc.)).
When implemented in Linux using Open Source software, TC gives you new options for securing and expanding the capabilities of your computer.
If the upstream routers at my ISP require me to have trusted hardware/software in order to access the Internet, how is my freedom enhanced? If national/international laws are passed requiring all ISPs to restrict my communications in such fashion, how do I choose another ISP in the "marketplace"? Furthermore, if "untrusted" hardware is similarly illegal, am I still free?
Although you can probably built almost all of the same programs by hand on Net- or OpenBSD, it's nice to be able to let someone else do the hard work for you
Slashdot Mirror
*shivers* This brings back bad high school memories of System 7 (Mac) programming with the syntax-heavy and feature-deficient THINK Pascal.
And no, I don't find FLAC->WAV->ALC to be a pain in the ass (to get FLACed songs onto my iPod). You must suffer for your sound quality, if you're into that sort of thing. :)
Oh wait, she wants the Top-40 garbage... Whatever.
The problem is not the information on the card, per se, but the information systems that will be built to support the identification infrastructure. Presumably the systems to be put in place will use your RealID # (contained in the card) to query your "status" vis-a-vis a federal database. This "query" will be logged, along with metadata regarding the context of the query (time, location, etc.). Got a tingling sensation? Yeah, it's a tracking system where tracking capability is available to not only the Feds (who perhaps already have some of these capabilities, only with much greater expense per subject tracked) but also the "gatekeepers" (i.e. any private firm who wants to join the RealID-swiping game).
Right now you have a credit score based on your loan repayment behavior. The uses of this little number are ubiquitous. Do you look forward to the day when you'll have a terror-threat score based on your everyday activities, facilitated by your RealID, which you have to present in order to participate in a wealth of activities (e.g. b33r and guns)?
RealID is a Statist (note the capital 'S'), anti-immigration measure masquerading as counterterrorism legislation. It will increase the power of the federal government at the expense of state budgets and your privacy, and will do little if anything to fight terrorism.
If you want to play the commercial license game, then there are superior DBMSs, like, pretty much every other DBMS out there (Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, ...). The business case for MySQL is "free as in beer."
You're right: at the current moment, there is somewhat of a universal requirement to show state-issued ID under certain circumstances (e.g airports). However, these IDs are manufactured to disparate standards and even the machine-readable cards have different formats. This soon-to-be-passed law requires any state-issued ID to be machine-readable vis-a-vis the federal standard.
Sure, the powers-that-be could "track a person across the country" with today's relatively low-tech ID, but that's expensive for all but the big players. Post-RealID, this cost will decrease dramatically, and it will be trivial for any of the players to monitor a person's movement and behavior.
This is essentially my fear. The cheaper it is to acquire "real-time" information about the whereabouts and habits of people, and cross-correlate said info with at database of attributes, the easier it is for the powers-that-be to engage in "pre-emptive policing", all in the name of fighting terrorism.
Illegal immigrants will be first, because it is hard for anyone to make a case for their civil rights. Sex offenders have already been taken care of, but I'm sure some aspect of the "sex offender flag" will be rolled into RealID. Then the fun starts when insurance companies, probably with bipartisan assistance from Congress, decide to reduce rates for companies/buildings that refuse association/entry to persons with a "high threat index". Arabs and Muslims will be next, especially those who reside in "certain zip codes". Then the leftists, later the conservatives who still believe in freedom with a capital 'F'.
No one else will care.
Corporations don't give a fuck about you, so why should you give a fuck about them?
Your standards would condemn most of Congress!? Wait, that's not such a bad idea!
Let me put this is clear for you as I can. The founders of this country had their own little "Secular elites vs. Jesusland" conflict some 200+ years ago. Guess which side Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson, and Franklin were on, given that the latter two spent quite a bit of time in France? For all intents and purposes, the founders who have monuments built in their names thought that the Thumpers of their time were nutjobs and lost (intellectually) causes. The people they had the least respect for were folks who had "conversations with Jesus". These founders are all rolling in their graves now.
A person who informs on his peers is scum. Would you want to have one as a friend?
We have a bit of a "chicken and egg" problem among business leaders in the US. Bill Gates, Carly, etc. have complained about the lack of tech graduates, but their outsourcing practices only exacerbate the problem. Perhaps the young folks are smarter than we think they are: they know which way the wind is blowing.
This is an assinine idea. How far does the political theory of freeshitism extend? How many platforms must a vendor of (unfortunately) popular software support? Must M$ support as many platforms as NetBSD, or run the risk of lawsuits and children crying to Congress?
Stop whining. There are a large number of music services, especially those related to independent label, that will sell you DRM-less mp3s (e.g bleep.com), and these will, of course, run just fine on your iPod. You could also fill your iPod by *gasp*, ripping your CD collection to iTunes in any number of formats. But you have a WMA file and felt the need to cry. What about transcoding, or purchasing a music player (yes there are others) that PlaysForSure(TM)?
Which one of the two consumers complained? We can send them a free iPod.
I have a DS and a Japanese PSP and several games for each (including one US game - Wipeout Pure - for the PSP). In response to a few of your concerns I can say the following:
:) YMMV.
- First party development
The PSP has better launch titles than the DS currently has DS-specific games. I say this as a Nintendo fanboy (my opinion will change when Kart and Zelda games are released).
- The discs.
My PSP has handled the not-exactly smooth NYC subway for a month w/o skipping (the disc only spins during loads, not continuously during play). This could be an issue with movies, but that is what high-capacity MemoryStick Duos are for.
- The battery life.
Battery life is decent, enough for one or two gaming "sessions" (i.e. 1+ hrs. of gaming in one sitting) a day. If you want to whip out the PSP for a quick race or ten (of Wipeout, for instance), while sitting in the cafe, battery life is not an issue.
Technically, the PSP is superb and the screen is to die for. The games will be there, though PS1/2 games may not make the console->handheld transition as well as SNES titles did. The cost is going to set folks back $350+ (assuming they want to use their new toys), and whether folks are willing to pay is the real issue.
Whether or not Linux gets into the game is not the real issue. IBM, Novell, HP, etc. would happily vend a trusted and signed distribution of Linux. Such a distribution would probably work with whatever locked-down BIOSes hardware vendors release. The "rub" is that Trusted Linux would be unmodifiable in any interesting way. The devices would be "trusted": driver hacks and user-created devices would make your OS "untrusted". You would be able to install only "trusted" packages and binaries, lest your OS become "untrusted". For our friends who like to build from source, we have trusted-emerge, which will connect to "trusted" servers and limit the user to "trusted" makefiles/configure scripts.
Perhaps, as a sign of "openness", said IT giants will offer "developer licenses" (for the appropriate $fee) to those persons who wish to *gasp* use their computers as computers instead of media consumption devices. You can forget using nmap, ettercap, or anything other program that plays with frames (as opposed to the corporate-approved InterWeb), unless you procure a "registered security analyst" license (also available for the appropriate $fee). Perhaps you will be able to obtain a "hobbyist license", but be ready to pay the $fee and submit to a background check.*
Sure, you can run Linux, but your actions will still be under the control of the "trust" system. "Trusted Linux" is just a way to pacify those in the OSS community who don't have enough distrust of corporations that care for little more than profit and control.
* This is more than mere speculation. Try purchasing a non cell-frequency-blocked radio receiver in the United States without the proper "credentials" (you have to have a "need to use" the equipment, or be a member of certain authoritarian groups (police, FBI, etc.)).
Son of Quadra!
Food for thought
$5 says this kind of thing (computer credentials linked to your "papers") finds its way into the various trusted computing initiatives...