Strangeberry released a java version of Rendezvous/Zeroconf. It actually works. The code is now open at sourceforge. I've used the code and the discovery works well, even under windows.
Having something like Rendezvous/Zeroconf working for Tivo is key to making it even simpler to intergrate a Tivo into a home network.
WASTE is a secured P2P file sharing system that allows for IM and Chat inside it. You need to exchange PGP keys somehow, but once your P2P network is up, it is for all intents, secure from eavesdropping.
Blu-ray has all the good stuff, more storage (50GB+), RW capability, etc.
But it is still a new tech and is very fragile. Leaving it in a hot car will destroy it. Bending it will destroy it. It is tough to manufacture.
Blu-ray needs several more years to work out the kinks and bring the costs down. The consumer electronics companies want a DVD replacement NOW. With US$30 DVD players in the stor enow, they aren't making money on them.
The media companies see more years of milking the DVD libraries of profit before they need to convince the public to buy new hi-def versions.
Whose greed will win out? CE or the media companies?
WTF is any IT staff letting a civilian admin his own box in this situation?
In our environment of Windows, Mac, and linux, the only boxes connected are COMPANY BOXES under COMPANY ADMINSTRATION.
The only real problem with a Mac in a Windows environment is Outlook/Exchange and that's an application problem, not an infrastructure problem. Everything else is fairly smooth and handled by simple scripts for server connections.
No user in a company should be attaching personal computers to a comapny LAN without a very good reason. Any IT group that allows it is begging for security risks up the ying yang. Not to mention the software licensing issues involved.
The author simply reinforces the the stereotype of the righteous Mac user with low knowledge and big attitude.
If MAE-WEST blew up one day, you'd expect a/. post about it. Cut the guy some slack.
de-TV Geeked translation
on
Telstar 4 is Down
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Telstar 4 is/was a satellite in geosynchronous orbit over the US. The satellite is used for television transmission. Signals are sent up from television facilities, bounced off the bird (nick for a satellite), and then the signal is recieved by cable companies and TV stations for relay to your house.
The main power bus on Telstar 4 died. This means it does not have the power to rebroadcast (bounce) the signals back to earth.
Kinda like the Enterprise losing the warp drive, but still having impulse power to putter around.
These birds cost US$200-300 million to build and US$100-150 million to launch. Failure of this type is a huge loss for Intelsat and a costly transition for the broadcasters.
The companies that used that bird need to switch to other ones. This causes two problems.
1) Antennas - The recievers all need to repoint their antennas at new birds. This is a pain in the ass to do precisely.
2) Bumps - Due to agreements, some companies on Telstar 4 have the right to 'bump' others off the backup birds and take their places. If you get bumped, you are fuxxored.
I do agree that more people need to read science fiction. I would hazard a guess that people are reading less overall now-a-days.
People need to see the challenge of the future. A goal bigger than a single person that requires the effort of an entire nation or world to undertake. Sadly, the leadership is not there to help the people see the importance of venturing into the unknown.
The traditional Sci-Fi of rocket ships, blaster guns, and aliens may be on decline, but there many new sci-fi (not fantasy) books coming out all the time.
The focus of much of the Sci-Fi these days is on the relationship of the technology to society and the long term effects of the technology on the path of humanity.
Take a look at Vernor Vinge, John Varley, John Wright, Cory Doctorow, John Barnes, Bruce Sterling, Ken MacLeod, and Dan Simmons if you are interested in some recent sci-fi. No elves or magic swords there.
Just because it's not 60s style, libertarian - free love stuff of the past doesn't mean it's not sci-fi.
Agreed, it's a worthless shoot-out missing Sony
on
DVD Burner Round-up
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The Sony models that do four formats (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW) at 4x speed are going for US$225.
None of the reviewed burners do that.
To be left out of the compairision is like discussing hard drives without mentioning Western Digital.
The major US cell phone companies are actually looking at WiFi as a way to increase their service.
They are looking at techniques to 'hand off' a cell phone call from the 2.5G or 3G networks to WiFi networks to maximize call volume.
Imagine that you are walking down the street, chatting on your cell phone and enter a Starbucks. The phone could switch to use the tmobile WiFi instead of using the broader cell phone network.
I saw a presentation by the cafe.com guys where they think the WiFi hotspot companies like them and boingo will get bought up by the Telcos to get access to WiFi for expanded phone service.
If we were starting our broadcasting systems today, he'd be right. There are many better ways to do it today.
However when radio and television began, there were no computers or even transistors, there were no phase-locked oscillators or QAM modulation, and there were only a handful of broadcasters.
Yes, some of the frequency hopping and CDMA type concepts have been around for a while, but only in the last 10 years available at a price that anyone but the government could afford.
Mr. Reed's ideas are insightful, but not very practical. Our entire telecommunications infrastructure relies on spectrum assignments. The technology does encounter interference. To simply point the finger at bad planning and blaming the decisionmakers from the 50s for not predicting the state of technology fifty years later is ludicrous.
Reasonable proposals to more forward with UWB that doesn't interfere with traditional infrastructures should be pushed. Eventually the old technologies will fade away like the telegraph.
But to simply rant that "It sucks. Cooler, better tech exists." doesn't do anything.
I work as a CIO in large corp and know the costs involved with running a Microsoft centric enterprise. The TCO (total cost of ownership) is unsustainable. Microsoft is increasing these costs yearly with limited benefit outside the Outlook/Exchange arena.
Money, not reliability or security, will be the reason corporations switch to linux. The upcoming rise of network computers ala Citrix will also reduce the value of a Windows-centric enterprise.
Slashdot Mirror
Strangeberry released a java version of Rendezvous/Zeroconf. It actually works. The code is now open at sourceforge. I've used the code and the discovery works well, even under windows.
Having something like Rendezvous/Zeroconf working for Tivo is key to making it even simpler to intergrate a Tivo into a home network.
Simpler to use = deeper consumer penetration
WASTE is a secured P2P file sharing system that allows for IM and Chat inside it. You need to exchange PGP keys somehow, but once your P2P network is up, it is for all intents, secure from eavesdropping.
Blu-ray has all the good stuff, more storage (50GB+), RW capability, etc.
But it is still a new tech and is very fragile. Leaving it in a hot car will destroy it. Bending it will destroy it. It is tough to manufacture.
Blu-ray needs several more years to work out the kinks and bring the costs down. The consumer electronics companies want a DVD replacement NOW. With US$30 DVD players in the stor enow, they aren't making money on them.
The media companies see more years of milking the DVD libraries of profit before they need to convince the public to buy new hi-def versions.
Whose greed will win out? CE or the media companies?
I've played Waste the encrypted private network tool started by Justin Frankel.
MUTE sounds similar. Has anyone tried both? How do they compare?
"lo be the day when trusted men are bent to evil ways..."
WTF is any IT staff letting a civilian admin his own box in this situation?
In our environment of Windows, Mac, and linux, the only boxes connected are COMPANY BOXES under COMPANY ADMINSTRATION.
The only real problem with a Mac in a Windows environment is Outlook/Exchange and that's an application problem, not an infrastructure problem. Everything else is fairly smooth and handled by simple scripts for server connections.
No user in a company should be attaching personal computers to a comapny LAN without a very good reason. Any IT group that allows it is begging for security risks up the ying yang. Not to mention the software licensing issues involved.
The author simply reinforces the the stereotype of the righteous Mac user with low knowledge and big attitude.
Back in my day, I used to dial up the school mainframe with a 110 baud acoustically coupled modem with a teletype.
"clackety, clackety, clack" for hours on end.
Some of us get paid to worry about this.
/. post about it. Cut the guy some slack.
If MAE-WEST blew up one day, you'd expect a
Telstar 4 is/was a satellite in geosynchronous orbit over the US. The satellite is used for television transmission. Signals are sent up from television facilities, bounced off the bird (nick for a satellite), and then the signal is recieved by cable companies and TV stations for relay to your house.
The main power bus on Telstar 4 died. This means it does not have the power to rebroadcast (bounce) the signals back to earth.
Kinda like the Enterprise losing the warp drive, but still having impulse power to putter around.
These birds cost US$200-300 million to build and US$100-150 million to launch. Failure of this type is a huge loss for Intelsat and a costly transition for the broadcasters.
The companies that used that bird need to switch to other ones. This causes two problems.
1) Antennas - The recievers all need to repoint their antennas at new birds. This is a pain in the ass to do precisely.
2) Bumps - Due to agreements, some companies on Telstar 4 have the right to 'bump' others off the backup birds and take their places. If you get bumped, you are fuxxored.
Make some sense now?
Perhaps I misread your essay earlier.
I do agree that more people need to read science fiction. I would hazard a guess that people are reading less overall now-a-days.
People need to see the challenge of the future. A goal bigger than a single person that requires the effort of an entire nation or world to undertake. Sadly, the leadership is not there to help the people see the importance of venturing into the unknown.
I read the book too and was impressed. It was a good crime/noir novel that just happened to be written in a sci-fi setting.
Well worth the read.
The traditional Sci-Fi of rocket ships, blaster guns, and aliens may be on decline, but there many new sci-fi (not fantasy) books coming out all the time.
The focus of much of the Sci-Fi these days is on the relationship of the technology to society and the long term effects of the technology on the path of humanity.
Take a look at Vernor Vinge, John Varley, John Wright, Cory Doctorow, John Barnes, Bruce Sterling, Ken MacLeod, and Dan Simmons if you are interested in some recent sci-fi. No elves or magic swords there.
Just because it's not 60s style, libertarian - free love stuff of the past doesn't mean it's not sci-fi.
The Sony models that do four formats (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW) at 4x speed are going for US$225.
None of the reviewed burners do that.
To be left out of the compairision is like discussing hard drives without mentioning Western Digital.
The major US cell phone companies are actually looking at WiFi as a way to increase their service.
They are looking at techniques to 'hand off' a cell phone call from the 2.5G or 3G networks to WiFi networks to maximize call volume.
Imagine that you are walking down the street, chatting on your cell phone and enter a Starbucks. The phone could switch to use the tmobile WiFi instead of using the broader cell phone network.
I saw a presentation by the cafe.com guys where they think the WiFi hotspot companies like them and boingo will get bought up by the Telcos to get access to WiFi for expanded phone service.
I made a page of a few of my geocaching exploits. Read a couple and you will get the idea...
l
http://www.cruftbox.com/cruft/docs/cachelinks.htm
The Internet Streaming Media Alliance has released a spec for DRM that is vendor-neutral and involves no royalties.
Not truly open source, but perhaps better than Windows of Real DRM,
If we were starting our broadcasting systems today, he'd be right. There are many better ways to do it today.
However when radio and television began, there were no computers or even transistors, there were no phase-locked oscillators or QAM modulation, and there were only a handful of broadcasters.
Yes, some of the frequency hopping and CDMA type concepts have been around for a while, but only in the last 10 years available at a price that anyone but the government could afford.
Mr. Reed's ideas are insightful, but not very practical. Our entire telecommunications infrastructure relies on spectrum assignments. The technology does encounter interference. To simply point the finger at bad planning and blaming the decisionmakers from the 50s for not predicting the state of technology fifty years later is ludicrous.
Reasonable proposals to more forward with UWB that doesn't interfere with traditional infrastructures should be pushed. Eventually the old technologies will fade away like the telegraph.
But to simply rant that "It sucks. Cooler, better tech exists." doesn't do anything.
Do you have an more details on this episode, I'd love to see it. Original series or current?
With all the possiblities for Known Space movies and television programs, especially the Man/Kzin Wars, why have none been made?
The only show episode to incorporate your vision I know of was The Slaver Weapon in the Star Trek Animated Series. It was based on your short story, The Soft Weapon.
Have stories been optioned and live in development limbo?
How can you have Giant Robot Week without Johnny Sokko and His Giant Robot?
All subjective tests show that 720p makes a better picture than 1080i.
Most of what you say is dead on, but someone would be making a mistake if they didn't buy a native 720p HD monitor.
If so, perhaps spamware like SpamAssassin could be modified to intentionally bounce mail?
Many celebrities present a technologically aloof public persona.
A few, like you, Wil, Bill Shatner, Moby, Adam Curry, etc. openly embrace technology and don't fear the 'geek' label.
What's your take on the state of celebrity & personal technology. Are most celebrities to dumb to run a Tivo or use eBay?
I work as a CIO in large corp and know the costs involved with running a Microsoft centric enterprise. The TCO (total cost of ownership) is unsustainable. Microsoft is increasing these costs yearly with limited benefit outside the Outlook/Exchange arena.
Money, not reliability or security, will be the reason corporations switch to linux. The upcoming rise of network computers ala Citrix will also reduce the value of a Windows-centric enterprise.
Banks's novels are extremely well done. THe poster is right on target.