I'm still waiting for the frige that keeps track of what's inside and orders what's needed in an online-store.
I remember another predicted technology which I found in a mid-50's childrens book on robots: They said that within 20 years nuclear powered sport-boats would become available.. Somehow I don't see that happening in my lifetime..
It's not imposible at all. The german computer magazine "c't" had two articles about how to build an mp3-decoder for the parallel port back in 1999.. You can find the details on their website [heise.de, german only, sorry].
On the site I found a link to http://www.mp3pump.de/ which looks rather interesting. This "Pump II" named project supports ide for harddisc(s) and/or cdrom-drive(s), ethernet for network-access, serial ports for keyboard and mouse and, of course, digital and analog outputs. Additionally you can attach a display to it. I didn't take a close look yet, but it looks quite grown up.. According to the website it shouldn't be a problem to run linux on it and since everybody's welcome to develop their own software for this device I think it's a very interesting alternative to, let's say, audiotron..
It doesn't ship yet, though, but they already built 100 devices and are testing the software now.
Copy protected cd were released in germany quite some months ago. It was a CD by the band "HiM". The CD really crashed my CD-playing-programs such as "workbone", "tcd" or even XMMS. And just for the record: Yes, of course, the windows players couldn't handle the CD either.. I ended up playing the CD in my CD-Player and record it via the optical (digital) link to my computer to get a digital copy. By the way: This procedure isn't illigal in Germany, you're even allowed to give 10 copies away AFAIK
This is not about music. This is not about Warez. And this is not about German thinking (as i saw in other nodes).
But this is about censoring the internet, blocking other's thoughts and modifying a whole nation's point of view. The music companies will survive. They start do make contracts with napster and start to see what they have to do. They needed a long time but they're about to get started. Warez won't die either. I think cheaper bandwidth will cause a lot more warez-sites. And I know for sure that this is not german thinking. I've lived there for 17 years..
This is the first step for governments to control the net. To be honest: That scares me a lot! Who/What gives them the right to do this? The internet lives because people (mostly companies) share there connections. That are private connections. Why should a government be allowed to control "private communication"? It's not like you sign a contract for an ISP that you agree to get filtered sites. And who decides what sites get blocked??
But let's face it, what can they do? All they can do is filtering unencrypted connections. Since you can't get you MP3s/warez/[insert the crap you get here] via normal connections anymore you start using SSL/https/PGP/GPG/[whatever encryption]. Is this bad? I don't think so. Maybe it will increase the use of napster-like networks, too (freenet, gnutella, etc..). Since there isn't a central server they don't have much power. However, there are only about 10 fibre-optic cables between Europe and North America (maybe some more by now, but a countable number anyway). Although I really don't like the idea of a nation-wide blocking system, it might cause some cool improvements.
There will always be a struggle between the 'good' and the 'bad' guys. The bad guys make the first step, intropducing/using a new/better technology. Then the good guys need a little and then they introduce a new, tested, unbreakable and crackprove technology. So the bad guys have to change strategy (or simply crack the crackprove technology) and it begins again.
Let's hope they don't go that silly step
Regards,
octopus
Has anybody of you two ever thought/heard about SMIL (pronounce like "smile")??? Yeah, I know, it's not supported at all and it's in development etc.., but it fits about all your points:
native?? Come on guys! How native is Java? You need a Virtual Machine to run that code. Doesn't look live a native ability to me.. But if it's so important then go for it and send a mail to the guys at mozilla.org..
The is no company involoved (like in flash, java and even C! and who runs perl.com??). And Netscape and Micro$oft haven't messed it up yet..
According to the w3c "SMIL presentations can be written using a simple text-editor".. I don't think I have to tell you: As soon as we have something that can be written using a text-editor we can parse it. Meaning: It's searchable!
Well, if you know less enough you can create crap using every standard. HTML: It's really hard to find a website that is written with the exact definitions (all attributes quoted, e.g.); JS: pop-up windows!?; JAVA: about half of them actually run on my system..; and so on..
And to say a word about flash, too: Flash is a great toy, as long as it doesn't carry any information. And these look-we-got-flash-too-intros are a pain in the ass.
Might be i can answer some of the aspects of your question. I am 17, senior at HS and have been working with computers for 10 years now. So I consider myself as fitting into that cathegory of HS-geeks..
respect: well, when I moved here I heard within the first week at the new school: "Are you smart or so? I hate smart people." (I never answered that question). But that's not what you hear everyday. It's like you are known as the computer person at school, but no one, except for those who are in computers, too, will ever talk to you about computers. Well, unless they have a problem with their very own ones. Then the secretary will be happy to give you all the passwords you need (and you have to ask, otherwise it's proven that you have 'em) to solve her problem. You are kinda like the reserve for the computer guy at school, but it's a volunteer-job so it won't be recognized as easyly as a good football player e.g.
sex symbol: well, that would just be awsome! Could somebody explain that to the cicks at my school, please?!;) But seriously: You won't have much success by talking about computers when you go out with one. But it's a nice "tool" anyway: As soon as she's listening to what you are talking about computer-related stuff, you can be pretty sure that she wants ya;) It's always very nice to know, that you just have to sit back, be known as the "computer guy that can fix everything" and they'll come to you (with their problems). You have the possibility to know her parents, sieblings etc. before you try to get any chances and that's really neat, cause: the first step is made, and not even by youself;)
I'd love too read some comments by girls at my age (if there exist female slashdot-readers on this planet..)
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I'm still waiting for the frige that keeps track of what's inside and orders what's needed in an online-store.
I remember another predicted technology which I found in a mid-50's childrens book on robots: They said that within 20 years nuclear powered sport-boats would become available.. Somehow I don't see that happening in my lifetime..
DivX 4/5 ist MPEG4 compliant, so you don't need the DivX 5 decoder to watch an MPEG4 stream whose creator happened to use the DivX 5 encoder..
It's not imposible at all. The german computer magazine "c't" had two articles about how to build an mp3-decoder for the parallel port back in 1999.. You can find the details on their website [heise.de, german only, sorry].
On the site I found a link to http://www.mp3pump.de/ which looks rather interesting. This "Pump II" named project supports ide for harddisc(s) and/or cdrom-drive(s), ethernet for network-access, serial ports for keyboard and mouse and, of course, digital and analog outputs. Additionally you can attach a display to it. I didn't take a close look yet, but it looks quite grown up.. According to the website it shouldn't be a problem to run linux on it and since everybody's welcome to develop their own software for this device I think it's a very interesting alternative to, let's say, audiotron..
It doesn't ship yet, though, but they already built 100 devices and are testing the software now.
Copy protected cd were released in germany quite some months ago. It was a CD by the band "HiM". The CD really crashed my CD-playing-programs such as "workbone", "tcd" or even XMMS. And just for the record: Yes, of course, the windows players couldn't handle the CD either.. I ended up playing the CD in my CD-Player and record it via the optical (digital) link to my computer to get a digital copy. By the way: This procedure isn't illigal in Germany, you're even allowed to give 10 copies away AFAIK
This is not about music. This is not about Warez. And this is not about German thinking (as i saw in other nodes).
But this is about censoring the internet, blocking other's thoughts and modifying a whole nation's point of view. The music companies will survive. They start do make contracts with napster and start to see what they have to do. They needed a long time but they're about to get started. Warez won't die either. I think cheaper bandwidth will cause a lot more warez-sites. And I know for sure that this is not german thinking. I've lived there for 17 years..
This is the first step for governments to control the net. To be honest: That scares me a lot! Who/What gives them the right to do this? The internet lives because people (mostly companies) share there connections. That are private connections. Why should a government be allowed to control "private communication"? It's not like you sign a contract for an ISP that you agree to get filtered sites. And who decides what sites get blocked??
But let's face it, what can they do? All they can do is filtering unencrypted connections. Since you can't get you MP3s/warez/[insert the crap you get here] via normal connections anymore you start using SSL/https/PGP/GPG/[whatever encryption]. Is this bad? I don't think so. Maybe it will increase the use of napster-like networks, too (freenet, gnutella, etc..). Since there isn't a central server they don't have much power. However, there are only about 10 fibre-optic cables between Europe and North America (maybe some more by now, but a countable number anyway). Although I really don't like the idea of a nation-wide blocking system, it might cause some cool improvements.
There will always be a struggle between the 'good' and the 'bad' guys. The bad guys make the first step, intropducing/using a new/better technology. Then the good guys need a little and then they introduce a new, tested, unbreakable and crackprove technology. So the bad guys have to change strategy (or simply crack the crackprove technology) and it begins again.
Let's hope they don't go that silly step
Regards,
octopus
- it is a "real" standard by the w3c
- native?? Come on guys! How native is Java? You need a Virtual Machine to run that code. Doesn't look live a native ability to me.. But if it's so important then go for it and send a mail to the guys at mozilla.org..
- The is no company involoved (like in flash, java and even C! and who runs perl.com??). And Netscape and Micro$oft haven't messed it up yet..
- According to the w3c "SMIL presentations can be written using a simple text-editor".. I don't think I have to tell you: As soon as we have something that can be written using a text-editor we can parse it. Meaning: It's searchable!
- Well, if you know less enough you can create crap using every standard. HTML: It's really hard to find a website that is written with the exact definitions (all attributes quoted, e.g.); JS: pop-up windows!?; JAVA: about half of them actually run on my system..; and so on..
And to say a word about flash, too: Flash is a great toy, as long as it doesn't carry any information. And these look-we-got-flash-too-intros are a pain in the ass.- respect: well, when I moved here I heard within the first week at the new school: "Are you smart or so? I hate smart people." (I never answered that question). But that's not what you hear everyday. It's like you are known as the computer person at school, but no one, except for those who are in computers, too, will ever talk to you about computers. Well, unless they have a problem with their very own ones. Then the secretary will be happy to give you all the passwords you need (and you have to ask, otherwise it's proven that you have 'em) to solve her problem. You are kinda like the reserve for the computer guy at school, but it's a volunteer-job so it won't be recognized as easyly as a good football player e.g.
- sex symbol: well, that would just be awsome! Could somebody explain that to the cicks at my school, please?!
;) But seriously: You won't have much success by talking about computers when you go out with one. But it's a nice "tool" anyway: As soon as she's listening to what you are talking about computer-related stuff, you can be pretty sure that she wants ya ;) It's always very nice to know, that you just have to sit back, be known as the "computer guy that can fix everything" and they'll come to you (with their problems). You have the possibility to know her parents, sieblings etc. before you try to get any chances and that's really neat, cause: the first step is made, and not even by youself ;)
I'd love too read some comments by girls at my age (if there exist female slashdot-readers on this planet..)