If you don't like this, don't use your MAC address to generate the last 64 bits. Sure, you might have some address collisions, but that's what you get for not using a globally-unique number. There's nothing that says you have to use your MAC address, it's just easier.
I suppose, but it'd be pretty hard on routers... I guess a global network of mobile devices like that would work best with some sort of satelite-broadcast or cellular system.
Why are all you people complaining about IPv6 not having global addresses that work everywhere? The whole point of router discovery is so that stateless autoconfiguration can make renumbering instantaneous and transparent. If you don't use stateless autoconfiguration, you're either using DHCP (in which case you have no problem), or static addresses (which is kind of stupid). Taking the idea of a unique global address to its extreme, every router in the world would have to know how to route data to every single device in the world. Plugging your device into a network jack somewhere else requires updating the routing table on every single backbone router on the Internet, which is infeasable.
Write up an RFC on a network architecture where every device could get a one-time fixed address and then you could plug that device into any network jack in the world and have it instantly work. You'll probably find it harder than you think.
Hopefully the huge volume of complaints will get them to change. It only takes one ISP to provide a/48 for a similar price ("and you'll get 2^80 - 1 additional addresses absolutely FREE!!!"), and everyone will switch over.
I just posted this in response to somebody else, but a while ago my friend pointed me to this page on digital cash systems that seem to describe and solve exactly the problems you state. If the government provided a public list of tokens used to vote, anyone could verify that the total is correct, and any individual could verify that his or her token is in the list, although nobody can match any token but his own to anybody else. It seems to me like a system like this could work really well.
Under a system like this, it would be possible to issue a blind-signed token to everyone who wants to vote. You provide ID and a blinded token, and the government verifies the ID and signs the token. You get it back and unblind it, and you now have a provably valid token, even though nobody but you knows what you originally sent to the gov't. Then, you take it to a polling place and vote with it. Trying to vote with the same token twice is exactly the same as trying to double-spend a digital cash token - you have a 1 in 2^k (I think) chance of it working, where k is the "security parameter" discussed by Chaum in his paper.
What I want to see is a smartcard / digital cash agent plugin Springboard module or some such, that can communicate with voting boothes, ATM's, vending machines, etc. through an IR port and uses the UI from the palmtop for it's interface. That way you can put a bunch of invasive biometric identification systems into your PDA (like a thumbprint scanner) without invading anyone's privacy (it's your own PDA doing the scanning, after all).
That's what anonymous digital "cash" is for. The anti-double-spending mechanisms in digital cash systems would be perfect for voting. Just get a token at your neighborhood DOT or library or something, and vote with it. Try to double-vote, and you give away your identity.
The problem I have with WMA is that it's impossible to play it on systems that Microsoft doesn't want to let me play it on. I could port mpg123 or ogg123 to my calculator and nobody would care, but I can't do that with a WMA player because the format is closed..WMA's are useless to me because I have to reboot into Windows to play them, and usually I just don't bother. No matter how amazing WMA's sound is, this fact makes it suck more than pretty much any other format (except maybe Liquid Audio).
I know this is redundant, but please read the official page and get your facts straight before pretending to be an authoritative source of information:
"The Ogg project has nothing to do with the common surname 'Ogg'. Nor is it named after 'Nanny Ogg' from the Terry Pratchett book _Wyrd Sisters_."
That's why the GPL says you should add something like the following to interactive programs:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
Don't convert mp3's to oggs unless the original is lost and you absolutely MUST sell/stream it for a profit. If all those conditions are met, there are various mp3 to Vorbis converters on freshmeat.net, but it's not possible to convert from MP3 to Vorbis without losing quality, so don't do it unless you absolutely have to.
I remember a while back that Monty said he was going to try to get Ogg Vorbis 1.0 out towards the end of this year. Features are still being added, by the way. Vorbis won't be 1.0 until bitrate peeling and channel coupling are done. Once 1.0 comes out (which it will, fairly soon) expect to see a plethora of software and devices with Ogg Vorbis capabilities (The next version of Winamp will have a Vorbis player, various hardware manufacturers are already dedicated to making Vorbis-playing hardware, etc.)
Because when companies start streaming and selling music in Vorbis format, you won't be able to listen if you don't get some sort of Vorbis player. Hopefully by then player manufacturers will start adding Vorbis support to their devices. Computers already make excellent Ogg Vorbis players. It's only a matter of time until hardware Ogg Vorbis players become available.
So far as I know, the Ogg Vorbis codec isn't geared toward streaming, though. I don't know if you could stream with it or what it'd take to adapt it to do that.
Icecast2 is designed to stream Vorbis and is nearing release quality.
Slashdot Mirror
If you don't like this, don't use your MAC address to generate the last 64 bits. Sure, you might have some address collisions, but that's what you get for not using a globally-unique number. There's nothing that says you have to use your MAC address, it's just easier.
I suppose, but it'd be pretty hard on routers... I guess a global network of mobile devices like that would work best with some sort of satelite-broadcast or cellular system.
Why are all you people complaining about IPv6 not having global addresses that work everywhere? The whole point of router discovery is so that stateless autoconfiguration can make renumbering instantaneous and transparent. If you don't use stateless autoconfiguration, you're either using DHCP (in which case you have no problem), or static addresses (which is kind of stupid). Taking the idea of a unique global address to its extreme, every router in the world would have to know how to route data to every single device in the world. Plugging your device into a network jack somewhere else requires updating the routing table on every single backbone router on the Internet, which is infeasable.
Write up an RFC on a network architecture where every device could get a one-time fixed address and then you could plug that device into any network jack in the world and have it instantly work. You'll probably find it harder than you think.
Hopefully the huge volume of complaints will get them to change. It only takes one ISP to provide a /48 for a similar price ("and you'll get 2^80 - 1 additional addresses absolutely FREE!!! "), and everyone will switch over.
Try reading Slashdot.
I just posted this in response to somebody else, but a while ago my friend pointed me to this page on digital cash systems that seem to describe and solve exactly the problems you state. If the government provided a public list of tokens used to vote, anyone could verify that the total is correct, and any individual could verify that his or her token is in the list, although nobody can match any token but his own to anybody else. It seems to me like a system like this could work really well.
A little. It sounds exactly like the problems in a digital cash system. Try this page, especially the section on blind signatures and double spending.
Under a system like this, it would be possible to issue a blind-signed token to everyone who wants to vote. You provide ID and a blinded token, and the government verifies the ID and signs the token. You get it back and unblind it, and you now have a provably valid token, even though nobody but you knows what you originally sent to the gov't. Then, you take it to a polling place and vote with it. Trying to vote with the same token twice is exactly the same as trying to double-spend a digital cash token - you have a 1 in 2^k (I think) chance of it working, where k is the "security parameter" discussed by Chaum in his paper.
What I want to see is a smartcard / digital cash agent plugin Springboard module or some such, that can communicate with voting boothes, ATM's, vending machines, etc. through an IR port and uses the UI from the palmtop for it's interface. That way you can put a bunch of invasive biometric identification systems into your PDA (like a thumbprint scanner) without invading anyone's privacy (it's your own PDA doing the scanning, after all).
That's what anonymous digital "cash" is for. The anti-double-spending mechanisms in digital cash systems would be perfect for voting. Just get a token at your neighborhood DOT or library or something, and vote with it. Try to double-vote, and you give away your identity.
Those are only a few that I could think of off the top of my head.
Plus, once the encoder supports channel coupling, expect to see quality-to-bitrate increase considerably, putting Vorbis ahead of Lame (I hope...)
Ok. I'm sorry about the harsh language I used. That was pretty uncalled for.
Aaron
The problem I have with WMA is that it's impossible to play it on systems that Microsoft doesn't want to let me play it on. I could port mpg123 or ogg123 to my calculator and nobody would care, but I can't do that with a WMA player because the format is closed. .WMA's are useless to me because I have to reboot into Windows to play them, and usually I just don't bother. No matter how amazing WMA's sound is, this fact makes it suck more than pretty much any other format (except maybe Liquid Audio).
What about when your HD crashes and you have to go through a tricky restore process before you can play your music?
What about when you have more than one PC and you want to listen to your music on a different machine than your home one?
What if you want to take it to your friend's house and play it for him/her?
Face it, digital rights management is bad.
Let me rephrase that: Vorbis-supporting hardware will be available soon after Vorbis becomes 1.0, which will happen before the end of the year.
I could listen to the Icecast2 test server with the XMMS Vorbis plugin for hours on end until they took it down. No problems there.
Don't convert mp3's to oggs unless the original is lost and you absolutely MUST sell/stream it for a profit. If all those conditions are met, there are various mp3 to Vorbis converters on freshmeat.net, but it's not possible to convert from MP3 to Vorbis without losing quality, so don't do it unless you absolutely have to.
I remember a while back that Monty said he was going to try to get Ogg Vorbis 1.0 out towards the end of this year. Features are still being added, by the way. Vorbis won't be 1.0 until bitrate peeling and channel coupling are done. Once 1.0 comes out (which it will, fairly soon) expect to see a plethora of software and devices with Ogg Vorbis capabilities (The next version of Winamp will have a Vorbis player, various hardware manufacturers are already dedicated to making Vorbis-playing hardware, etc.)
Because when companies start streaming and selling music in Vorbis format, you won't be able to listen if you don't get some sort of Vorbis player. Hopefully by then player manufacturers will start adding Vorbis support to their devices. Computers already make excellent Ogg Vorbis players. It's only a matter of time until hardware Ogg Vorbis players become available.
So far as I know, the Ogg Vorbis codec isn't geared toward streaming, though. I don't know if you could stream with it or what it'd take to adapt it to do that.
Icecast2 is designed to stream Vorbis and is nearing release quality.
In Unix, you can use vorbiscomment, which I think comes standard with vorbis-tools now.
Yes, but nobody's charging me a royalty everytime I link a program with libc or another royalty every time I distribute something linked with libc.