The in-store custom CD setup... I vaguely remember such a thing, too, though I thought it was early 90s.
The reasoning I remember for not letting it go forward was predictable, and familiar. Too many people would grab the 2 good songs from 5 different albums, and pay $15 for a single CD, instead of $15 for 5 different CDs to get those decent songs. The record labels were convinced they'd lose too much money, so they canned it.
I also heard there were difficulties with how to do royalties for CDs created with multiple artists' work.
Sort of makes you think they were aware they were shovelling crap on the public, doesn't it?
Are you sure? Quote:
"You can copy the CD, but without the card the software won't run." That sure sounds like it could be used as a runtime dongle to me.
I interpreted that as "the installation software won't run". But I have to agree, you can read it your way too.
Ick.
Depends on the desired purpose of the technology. Do you want to just prevent people from making copies to hand to friends, or do you want to ensure that the original CD is available every time the program is run?
Note that, at least for something like MS Office, it is more likely to be used only during installation. Too many large corporations don't even have original CDs near the office machines, the corporate IT people just image the machines' harddrives when they are received, and pay for licenses every year.
For software like Autodesk's AutoCAD, which has always required a dongle anyway... they might just use it that way.
That could make it lots of fun trying to open several programs at once. The CD had better only be required on initial program load, or it could get seriously annoying.
The smartcard will only need to supply a decryption key when you install the program. After the (special) installation program gets the key from the smartcard, it will use that key to decrypt the encrypted data on the CD, install the program on the harddrive, and then you won't need the cd any more. Just like installing programs now.
Except, of course, for the fact that you took the default install of MS Office, and it didn't install the Equation Editor, and you need to put the CD back in for that. Oh, and MS Photo Editor, which really isn't all that bad. Oh, and the extra import filter for those files in WordPerfect 5.1 that you thought you'd never need again.
This is just to control access to the data on the CD. It won't be required to run the program after it is installed, any more than the CD is needed to run programs now after you install them. This is just a key for installation, not a runtime dongle.
Can we legistlate away the *default* format being proprietary? I don't think that will fly.
Actually, I don't see a problem with the government buying something where the default format cannot be proprietary.
There is nothing wrong with selling 2 versions of the software, one for the private sector with proprietary formats default, and one for the public sector with open formats default. You *can* legislate (or executive order or FIPS) that the government (and government contractors) must use the government (open format default) version.
You see this in computer hardware sales already... Dell/Gateway have categories for their models. Home, Corporate, and Government. Doing the same for software is not at all a stretch. As far as that goes, Microsoft does it already. Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.
Now, this doesn't mean that the government will actually pay attention to its own rules... The DoD had rules about "all software will be written in Ada" for quite a while... and the most common piece of paperwork for any system was the "Ada Waiver".
It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck... it must be a duck.
Purchasing software or movies... It looks like a sale, it acts like a sale... it must be a sale.
You are still limited by what copyright law allows. But copyright law allows an awful lot.
Yes, to run a program that you purchase on CD, you copy from the CD to the CD-ROM cache, to the computer RAM, to the computer HD, then run it and copy to the computer HD cache, to the computer RAM, to the CPU L2 cache, to the CPU L1 cache, to the CPU registers.
Guess what... to watch a VCR tape, your VCR does much the same thing. It reads an analog signal off a tape, transmits it through several filters to a wire connecting it to your tv, into the tv and through several filters, to an electron beam gun. Lots of copies for that, and 20 years history that this is all completely legal, no license required.
All the copying required to run a computer program is covered under copyright law and fair use. Copyright law basically says you can do one of two things... you can copy something, or you can distribute it. But you can't do both. I can make as many copies as needed or desired of something in order to use it, and so long as I don't distribute any of those copies to other people, I'm within the law.
(Yes, exact legal opinions don't precisely say that... but they are close enough to work that way in practice. That's why the media companies are trying to buy new laws to prevent this.)
Licenses are not required to legally run software you *buy*. Ditto for movies you buy. You are still limited by copyright law, but in no way do you need a license in order to legally use this product you bought.
The problem with this argument is that at this quality level, no digital protections are going to make any difference as it is achievable, with just a little ingenuity, even with off-the-screen capture... and the degradation, while real, is not
in practice a limiting factor with quality equipment, even over several generations.
Yep.
And this is why most people that understand this also say that Hollywood's business model is dead. This is also why Hollywood's real "solution" to this isn't so much control of content, as it is control of *all* copying and p2p services.
The solution requires that, instead of "you are allowed to copy/view anything unless specifically marked denied" you must have "you can only copy/view things that are specifically marked allowed". Note the "view" in there. For Hollywood's business model to be preserved, your media viewers (your tv) *must* be configured to only allow viewing of media that is properly watermarked. And your miniDV handycam *cannot* output properly watermarked content.
Most people don't care about a perfect copy of a digitally-broadcast movie.
You're thinking of things wrong. People don't trade WAV files of cd audio data (a "perfect copy" of cd audio). They trade MP3s of cd audio data. They aren't trading a perfect copy, they are trading a good enough copy that can then be copied infinitely perfectly.
The same thing with video is the concern here. dvd ripping software takes a 5gb mpeg-2 movie (720x480 @ 29.97fps) and converts it into a 700MB DIVX avi file (720x480 @29.97fps), conveniently sized to fit on a 80-min cd-r. And that's a size that people can and do trade on the net.
They aren't worried about people trading perfect copies. They are concerned about people trading "good enough" copies that don't degrade with each copy generation.
That is a serious concern. I don't think they are trying to fix it the right way, but it is still a serious concern.
Hmm... Banks and Banks are different too. Oh my. That can't be good.
Banks lend money to other banks.
Even worse. Banks and banks *are* the same here. That can't be good either.
Would you like to re-design the English language?
A lot of information in language comes from context. In a filesystem, context is, unfortunately, usually lacking. Rather, context is usually provided by the directory/path and the file extension. That is insufficient information to tell the difference between/usr/home/letter.txt and/usr/home/Letter.txt.
This discussion isn't properly about capitalization... it is about context (i.e., metadata) for files.
I can offer a practical reason. I doubt it's right, but it makes some sense.
Ice you can make on premises from water and a freezer. No extra stocking required.
Fill the cup mostly with pop (what is it with your northerners... I live in the South, it's 'soda'. Sorry, couldn't resist. Almost got myself an ice cream soda when I asked "what sodas do you have?" in a diner in Pennsylvania.) where was I? Oh yeah...
Fill the cup mostly with pop, and you'll go through twice as much syrup. You have to get that syrup delivered by the semi truck, and you have to store that syrup on the premises in a closet, shed, storage room, or whatever.
Anything that reduces the amount of space you have to devote to on-premises storage is a good thing.
Your issue with extra ints on unformatted writes of Fortran file io... I've worked on Fortran development on 2 platforms: 1) DEC/Compaq Alphas running OpenVMS with DEC compilers 2) Windows NT4/2K with MS Powerstation v4 and Compaq Visual Fortran v6 compilers.
The DEC compilers on OpenVMS did *not* do those extra ints on unformatted file io. My C code to read the output file worked with no extra steps, and could read data structures with few problems. The MS/Compaq compilers *did* write extra ints on the Windows platform. Drove me buggy when I was trying to port some software from VMS to Windows. (Don't ask why, I was ordered to do it.)
Incidentally, the MS Powerstation v4 compiler wrote a 16-bit int before and after, and the Compaq Visual Fortran v6 compiler wrote a 32-bit int before and after. That change also drove me nutty. This had some extra issues... an array declared as
integer(4) MYVAR(1000) was *larger* than the 16-bit int could specify... so the compiler broke it up into 128-byte chunks. Yes, a 4000-byte array was written as a series of 31 128-byte chunks (each with its own leading and trailing 16-bit ints), followed by a 32-byte chunk with its own leading and trailing 16-bit ints. Making C code to read this mess hurt my brain. At least switching to the Compaq v6 compiler took that issue away.
I didn't look up the Fortran language spec to see which one was actually complying with the spec. Having seen all three methods, I decided none were correct.
Incidentally, when doing unformatted writes of structures where one language is writing, and another language is reading the file... Make sure both compilers are using the same memory/data alignment rules. My Fortran compiler was doing align=byte, and my C compiler was doing align=word, and my structures with some logical*1 and integer*2 variables were messing up my read routines.
Ahh... the dangers and joys of multi-language development projects.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but hollowpoints expand on impact.
Wear a winter coat... the cloth will clog the hollowpoint and it will act just like ball. (Yes, this is why tests are done on more than just bare gelatin, and they're getting better.)
You *do* change your ammunition with the seasons, right?
I can legally record a show off my cable system onto a recording media of my choice (usually VHS tape) to watch later. I can take this media (tape) to my neighbor's house and watch it there with him. I can leave the tape with him for his kids to watch, without me there. I can watch this tape more than once. I can put this tape on my shelf, and watch it again 5 years later. I can fast-forward through parts that don't interest me.
Now, would you like to discuss how many of these legal activities Jack Valenti wants you to be allowed to do? (Let me give you a hint... rhymes with 'Nero' the wacko Roman Emperor who fiddled while his empire's capital city burned...)
This is not about putting in protections for creators. This is about putting in control measures to decrease consumer rights and increase profits, for the simple reason that they think they can get away with it.
I'm curious, where do you live that you get free electricity? Where buildings require no maintenance? Where infrastructure never needs repairs or upkeep?
I'm really curious about this. I would have hoped "an econ student" would know better than this.
I can almost see where software costs might reduce towards zero. System costs would not. Facility costs would not. And as those wonderful TCO studies love pointing out, initial system costs are usually not the largest part of lifecycle costs.
I'm not saying OSS wouldn't reduce costs for governments. I expect it will/would. But don't try to sell it as "reduce transaction costs to zero." That is simply dishonest.
Check carefully into the power supply for on-ship electronics. One of the interesting things with computers on US Navy ships is the power supplies they have. Navy ships do things slightly differently for supplying electricity.
The guarantee for shipbaord power is very different from your standard land-based poewr company. Shipboard power is (or at least was 15 years ago) guaranteed as "the difference between these 2 wires is 120Volts, at 60Hz". Note that carefully. No reference to what the actual voltage levels will be, just the voltage difference between the 2 wires.
Most computer power supplies assume "the difference between these 2 wires is 120Volts (actually 116volts, I think) AND the actual voltage levels will be approximately 0volts and 120volts".
The Navy burned out a lot of computer power supplies before some bright boy realized this. Having voltage levels of -80volts and +40volts did bad things.
There's a reason MILSPEC costs as much as it does.
Of course, if you're looking to power it off a 12VDC line, this isn't really a concern, is it?
I want my interface built into my sunglasses. Paint the display on the inside of the lenses, so only I can see it. Cameras on the corners of the shades, so the computer can see everything I can see.
I say "keyboard" and point at a flat surface, and it paints a keyboard on that surface. I type, it sees where my fingers are on that painted keyboard, and knows what I typed. Displays are similarly on any flat surface, or just hanging in midair.
It sees what I see... This gives me a wonderful prompt for people's names, I'm horrible with names. (Yes, I'm assuming real face recognition...) Lots of other cool things you can do with this.
Storage? I don't care, use molecular storage in the sunglass's arms or something. Power it from body heat from my head and ears, or just steal power from all these EM broadcasts we are doing. (Ever seen a crystal radio? Audio output with no power source... cool.) Sure, give it a wireless link.
Okay, I'll look silly "typing" on a briefcase sitting on a subway... but I'm used to looking silly.
Of course, with this... It would suck even more to lose your sunglasses.
Two columns of text longer than a screen...
on
GUIs for Everyone
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· Score: 2
I actually found that 2 columns of text interesting from a different viewpoint.
Getting to the bottom of the first column, you have 4 options (who wants to volunteer with the 5th option?)
1) Click the 'more' link that takes you to the anchor at the top of the same page (he can get page-read stats with this link, to know how many visitors to that page read through to the end, compare page-views of osgui.html vs osgui.html#top)
2) move the scroll bar to the top with the mouse (or use the scroll wheel) to get to the top, because you noticed the column continues there.
3) hit ctrl-home or whatever keyboard shortcut you have that moves you to the top of a page.
4) leave in disgust because you couldn't stand that color text on that color background.
Who wants a poll to see which of these was the most popular navigation method? (And yes, saying option 5 == cowboyneal is too obvious, try again.)
Don't know if it is his provider or his hardware, but my cablemodem connection does the same thing. And it seems to be dependent on the cablemodem hardware.
When I first got my cablemodem connection, it was with an older hybrid cablemodem. Got about 1.8mbit/sec downstream, and about 500kbit/sec upstream, and I could use all of that upstream and it didn't affect my downstream at all.
About a year after signing up for the cablemodem, my ISP "upgraded" their network, and I got a new cablemodem. DOCSIS 1.0 (1.1?) 3Com USRobotics Cable Modem CMX. It maxed out at about 2.2mbit/sec downstream, but only about 256kbit/sec upstream, and now, when I use all of the upstream, my downstream drops to about 350kbit/sec. (I say "maxed" because I think they dropped the max downstream to about 1.5mbit/sec 6 months ago, a year after I got the new cablemodem.) The computer connected to the cablemodem did not change at all, so this was purely from the cablemodem change.
So I would also be interested in something that can prioritize the packet ACKs, since the cablemodem doesn't seem to do it itself anymore.
I do tend to regard this as a hardware issue with the cablemodem. From reading this, you can probably understand why.
Use one of those nice temp dns services, and you just ssh to mymom.dyndns.org or something like that. Check out www.dyndns.org and see what they offer.
Set up a script on the linux box that updates the dyndns entry every time it connects, and you don't even have to ask mom to read anything off the screen. And you don't ahve to worry about your own typos when she reads the numbers out either.
Re:Except libraries pay for the books they lend...
on
RIAA to Sue You Now
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In the US, libraries pay for the books they buy. They practically overpay for the books they buy.
A normal hardcover bestseller that you would pay $25 or $30 for in a bookstore, a library in the US will buy for about $80. Paperbacks have a similar markup for libraries.
But there is no additional fee charged to the library for every time a book is checked out. It is, at least, a one-time cost for them.
Yours thoughts here sound good in theory, and I wish they were workable... In practice, I would fear them almost more than the current state of affairs.
being forced to reveal the initial source of the story
Reporters quite literally go to prison rather than being forced to reveal the sources for some of their stories. Who decides which stories have to have sources revealed? How many whistleblowers wouldn't under these rules?
I like the idea of a trademarked category. The FCC does enough regulation now. But the company that controls this trademark... How will they run it? What kind of license fees? Will it be useful, like Underwriters Lab, who tests a crazy number of consumer products? Or just another useless rubber stamp like the TrustE?
Regarding disasters... This rule seems to be "after you report 'news' tell why it isn't really news-worthy" which just makes me go "huh???". Yes, I understand the point here, but this "putting things in context" can make invalid comparisons.
Quotes are made to be taken out of context. This is understood. If you don't understand that, hearing/seeing the surrounding statement won't really help that much.
national news unless it affects at lest 1/3 of the population
Have you heard the saying "All politics is local"? All news is local too. National news is local. Any barrier like this... You'll get into some nasty fights over the definition of "affects." Does a major forest fire in Colorado affect anyone outside that state? Well, if you were thinking of vacationing there, maybe. If it occurred in a US National Forest, does that automatically affect all US citizens? Is a fire that burns a state park less worthy of national news coverage than one in a national park?
no advertising related to a story will appear in the broadcast
Yipes. Congratulations, you have a story about house fires and you are not allowed to advertise home fire extinguishers. This rule doesn't make a lot of sense.
Concerning press releases... serious research organizations do press releases too. Who gets to define "independent/objective" here?
This sounds good in theory, but I fear it in practice. Too much of it depends on people exercising some intelligence and reasonableness on the topic, but simply requiring something like this has the built-in assumption that no one is exercising intelligence nad reasonableness.
Notice the "2065" and "2063" at the end of the URL. Those are version numbers. Does make you wonder what happened to 2064, it comes up "not found" at yahoo.
Slashdot Mirror
The in-store custom CD setup... I vaguely remember such a thing, too, though I thought it was early 90s.
The reasoning I remember for not letting it go forward was predictable, and familiar. Too many people would grab the 2 good songs from 5 different albums, and pay $15 for a single CD, instead of $15 for 5 different CDs to get those decent songs. The record labels were convinced they'd lose too much money, so they canned it.
I also heard there were difficulties with how to do royalties for CDs created with multiple artists' work.
Sort of makes you think they were aware they were shovelling crap on the public, doesn't it?
I interpreted that as "the installation software won't run". But I have to agree, you can read it your way too.
Ick.
Depends on the desired purpose of the technology. Do you want to just prevent people from making copies to hand to friends, or do you want to ensure that the original CD is available every time the program is run?
Note that, at least for something like MS Office, it is more likely to be used only during installation. Too many large corporations don't even have original CDs near the office machines, the corporate IT people just image the machines' harddrives when they are received, and pay for licenses every year.
For software like Autodesk's AutoCAD, which has always required a dongle anyway... they might just use it that way.
That could make it lots of fun trying to open several programs at once. The CD had better only be required on initial program load, or it could get seriously annoying.
Looking through the interview, I noticed that Andreas actually said "Microsoft" once.
Whenever he discussed them, it was always
When did "Microsoft" become one of the Seven Dirty Words???
The smartcard will only need to supply a decryption key when you install the program. After the (special) installation program gets the key from the smartcard, it will use that key to decrypt the encrypted data on the CD, install the program on the harddrive, and then you won't need the cd any more. Just like installing programs now.
Except, of course, for the fact that you took the default install of MS Office, and it didn't install the Equation Editor, and you need to put the CD back in for that. Oh, and MS Photo Editor, which really isn't all that bad. Oh, and the extra import filter for those files in WordPerfect 5.1 that you thought you'd never need again.
This is just to control access to the data on the CD. It won't be required to run the program after it is installed, any more than the CD is needed to run programs now after you install them. This is just a key for installation, not a runtime dongle.
Actually, I don't see a problem with the government buying something where the default format cannot be proprietary.
There is nothing wrong with selling 2 versions of the software, one for the private sector with proprietary formats default, and one for the public sector with open formats default. You *can* legislate (or executive order or FIPS) that the government (and government contractors) must use the government (open format default) version.
You see this in computer hardware sales already... Dell/Gateway have categories for their models. Home, Corporate, and Government. Doing the same for software is not at all a stretch. As far as that goes, Microsoft does it already. Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.
Now, this doesn't mean that the government will actually pay attention to its own rules... The DoD had rules about "all software will be written in Ada" for quite a while... and the most common piece of paperwork for any system was the "Ada Waiver".
It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck... it must be a duck.
Purchasing software or movies... It looks like a sale, it acts like a sale... it must be a sale.
You are still limited by what copyright law allows. But copyright law allows an awful lot.
Yes, to run a program that you purchase on CD, you copy from the CD to the CD-ROM cache, to the computer RAM, to the computer HD, then run it and copy to the computer HD cache, to the computer RAM, to the CPU L2 cache, to the CPU L1 cache, to the CPU registers.
Guess what... to watch a VCR tape, your VCR does much the same thing. It reads an analog signal off a tape, transmits it through several filters to a wire connecting it to your tv, into the tv and through several filters, to an electron beam gun. Lots of copies for that, and 20 years history that this is all completely legal, no license required.
All the copying required to run a computer program is covered under copyright law and fair use. Copyright law basically says you can do one of two things... you can copy something, or you can distribute it. But you can't do both. I can make as many copies as needed or desired of something in order to use it, and so long as I don't distribute any of those copies to other people, I'm within the law.
(Yes, exact legal opinions don't precisely say that... but they are close enough to work that way in practice. That's why the media companies are trying to buy new laws to prevent this.)
Licenses are not required to legally run software you *buy*. Ditto for movies you buy. You are still limited by copyright law, but in no way do you need a license in order to legally use this product you bought.
Yep.
And this is why most people that understand this also say that Hollywood's business model is dead. This is also why Hollywood's real "solution" to this isn't so much control of content, as it is control of *all* copying and p2p services.
The solution requires that, instead of "you are allowed to copy/view anything unless specifically marked denied" you must have "you can only copy/view things that are specifically marked allowed". Note the "view" in there. For Hollywood's business model to be preserved, your media viewers (your tv) *must* be configured to only allow viewing of media that is properly watermarked. And your miniDV handycam *cannot* output properly watermarked content.
6-9 months? Don't you mean 6-9 days?
Most people don't care about a perfect copy of a digitally-broadcast movie.
You're thinking of things wrong. People don't trade WAV files of cd audio data (a "perfect copy" of cd audio). They trade MP3s of cd audio data. They aren't trading a perfect copy, they are trading a good enough copy that can then be copied infinitely perfectly.
The same thing with video is the concern here. dvd ripping software takes a 5gb mpeg-2 movie (720x480 @ 29.97fps) and converts it into a 700MB DIVX avi file (720x480 @29.97fps), conveniently sized to fit on a 80-min cd-r. And that's a size that people can and do trade on the net.
They aren't worried about people trading perfect copies. They are concerned about people trading "good enough" copies that don't degrade with each copy generation.
That is a serious concern. I don't think they are trying to fix it the right way, but it is still a serious concern.
Hmm... Banks and Banks are different too. Oh my. That can't be good.
Even worse. Banks and banks *are* the same here. That can't be good either.
Would you like to re-design the English language?
A lot of information in language comes from context. In a filesystem, context is, unfortunately, usually lacking. Rather, context is usually provided by the directory/path and the file extension. That is insufficient information to tell the difference between
This discussion isn't properly about capitalization... it is about context (i.e., metadata) for files.
Why fill the cup half full of ice?
I can offer a practical reason. I doubt it's right, but it makes some sense.
Ice you can make on premises from water and a freezer. No extra stocking required.
Fill the cup mostly with pop (what is it with your northerners... I live in the South, it's 'soda'. Sorry, couldn't resist. Almost got myself an ice cream soda when I asked "what sodas do you have?" in a diner in Pennsylvania.) where was I? Oh yeah...
Fill the cup mostly with pop, and you'll go through twice as much syrup. You have to get that syrup delivered by the semi truck, and you have to store that syrup on the premises in a closet, shed, storage room, or whatever.
Anything that reduces the amount of space you have to devote to on-premises storage is a good thing.
Your issue with extra ints on unformatted writes of Fortran file io... I've worked on Fortran development on 2 platforms:
1) DEC/Compaq Alphas running OpenVMS with DEC compilers
2) Windows NT4/2K with MS Powerstation v4 and Compaq Visual Fortran v6 compilers.
The DEC compilers on OpenVMS did *not* do those extra ints on unformatted file io. My C code to read the output file worked with no extra steps, and could read data structures with few problems. The MS/Compaq compilers *did* write extra ints on the Windows platform. Drove me buggy when I was trying to port some software from VMS to Windows. (Don't ask why, I was ordered to do it.)
Incidentally, the MS Powerstation v4 compiler wrote a 16-bit int before and after, and the Compaq Visual Fortran v6 compiler wrote a 32-bit int before and after. That change also drove me nutty. This had some extra issues... an array declared as
integer(4) MYVAR(1000)
was *larger* than the 16-bit int could specify... so the compiler broke it up into 128-byte chunks. Yes, a 4000-byte array was written as a series of 31 128-byte chunks (each with its own leading and trailing 16-bit ints), followed by a 32-byte chunk with its own leading and trailing 16-bit ints. Making C code to read this mess hurt my brain. At least switching to the Compaq v6 compiler took that issue away.
I didn't look up the Fortran language spec to see which one was actually complying with the spec. Having seen all three methods, I decided none were correct.
Incidentally, when doing unformatted writes of structures where one language is writing, and another language is reading the file... Make sure both compilers are using the same memory/data alignment rules. My Fortran compiler was doing align=byte, and my C compiler was doing align=word, and my structures with some logical*1 and integer*2 variables were messing up my read routines.
Ahh... the dangers and joys of multi-language development projects.
You *do* change your ammunition with the seasons, right?
First, let's discuss what is legal now.
I can legally record a show off my cable system onto a recording media of my choice (usually VHS tape) to watch later.
I can take this media (tape) to my neighbor's house and watch it there with him.
I can leave the tape with him for his kids to watch, without me there.
I can watch this tape more than once.
I can put this tape on my shelf, and watch it again 5 years later.
I can fast-forward through parts that don't interest me.
Now, would you like to discuss how many of these legal activities Jack Valenti wants you to be allowed to do? (Let me give you a hint... rhymes with 'Nero' the wacko Roman Emperor who fiddled while his empire's capital city burned...)
This is not about putting in protections for creators. This is about putting in control measures to decrease consumer rights and increase profits, for the simple reason that they think they can get away with it.
I'm curious, where do you live that you get free electricity? Where buildings require no maintenance? Where infrastructure never needs repairs or upkeep?
I'm really curious about this. I would have hoped "an econ student" would know better than this.
I can almost see where software costs might reduce towards zero. System costs would not. Facility costs would not. And as those wonderful TCO studies love pointing out, initial system costs are usually not the largest part of lifecycle costs.
I'm not saying OSS wouldn't reduce costs for governments. I expect it will/would. But don't try to sell it as "reduce transaction costs to zero." That is simply dishonest.
Check carefully into the power supply for on-ship electronics. One of the interesting things with computers on US Navy ships is the power supplies they have. Navy ships do things slightly differently for supplying electricity.
The guarantee for shipbaord power is very different from your standard land-based poewr company. Shipboard power is (or at least was 15 years ago) guaranteed as "the difference between these 2 wires is 120Volts, at 60Hz". Note that carefully. No reference to what the actual voltage levels will be, just the voltage difference between the 2 wires.
Most computer power supplies assume "the difference between these 2 wires is 120Volts (actually 116volts, I think) AND the actual voltage levels will be approximately 0volts and 120volts".
The Navy burned out a lot of computer power supplies before some bright boy realized this. Having voltage levels of -80volts and +40volts did bad things.
There's a reason MILSPEC costs as much as it does.
Of course, if you're looking to power it off a 12VDC line, this isn't really a concern, is it?
Do I have to use current tech?
I want my interface built into my sunglasses. Paint the display on the inside of the lenses, so only I can see it. Cameras on the corners of the shades, so the computer can see everything I can see.
I say "keyboard" and point at a flat surface, and it paints a keyboard on that surface. I type, it sees where my fingers are on that painted keyboard, and knows what I typed. Displays are similarly on any flat surface, or just hanging in midair.
It sees what I see... This gives me a wonderful prompt for people's names, I'm horrible with names. (Yes, I'm assuming real face recognition...) Lots of other cool things you can do with this.
Storage? I don't care, use molecular storage in the sunglass's arms or something. Power it from body heat from my head and ears, or just steal power from all these EM broadcasts we are doing. (Ever seen a crystal radio? Audio output with no power source... cool.) Sure, give it a wireless link.
Okay, I'll look silly "typing" on a briefcase sitting on a subway... but I'm used to looking silly.
Of course, with this... It would suck even more to lose your sunglasses.
I actually found that 2 columns of text interesting from a different viewpoint.
Getting to the bottom of the first column, you have 4 options (who wants to volunteer with the 5th option?)
1) Click the 'more' link that takes you to the anchor at the top of the same page (he can get page-read stats with this link, to know how many visitors to that page read through to the end, compare page-views of osgui.html vs osgui.html#top)
2) move the scroll bar to the top with the mouse (or use the scroll wheel) to get to the top, because you noticed the column continues there.
3) hit ctrl-home or whatever keyboard shortcut you have that moves you to the top of a page.
4) leave in disgust because you couldn't stand that color text on that color background.
Who wants a poll to see which of these was the most popular navigation method? (And yes, saying option 5 == cowboyneal is too obvious, try again.)
Yes, this is mostly a joke.
Don't know if it is his provider or his hardware, but my cablemodem connection does the same thing. And it seems to be dependent on the cablemodem hardware.
When I first got my cablemodem connection, it was with an older hybrid cablemodem. Got about 1.8mbit/sec downstream, and about 500kbit/sec upstream, and I could use all of that upstream and it didn't affect my downstream at all.
About a year after signing up for the cablemodem, my ISP "upgraded" their network, and I got a new cablemodem. DOCSIS 1.0 (1.1?) 3Com USRobotics Cable Modem CMX. It maxed out at about 2.2mbit/sec downstream, but only about 256kbit/sec upstream, and now, when I use all of the upstream, my downstream drops to about 350kbit/sec. (I say "maxed" because I think they dropped the max downstream to about 1.5mbit/sec 6 months ago, a year after I got the new cablemodem.) The computer connected to the cablemodem did not change at all, so this was purely from the cablemodem change.
So I would also be interested in something that can prioritize the packet ACKs, since the cablemodem doesn't seem to do it itself anymore.
I do tend to regard this as a hardware issue with the cablemodem. From reading this, you can probably understand why.
Okay, you've given me a conumdrum... I've got mod points, and I have a problem...
:)
I can't decide if this is flamebait or funny.... and there's not a category for both.
So instead, I'll simply reply, and say "yeah, scary, isn't it?"
Why even do that much?
Use one of those nice temp dns services, and you just ssh to mymom.dyndns.org or something like that. Check out www.dyndns.org and see what they offer.
Set up a script on the linux box that updates the dyndns entry every time it connects, and you don't even have to ask mom to read anything off the screen. And you don't ahve to worry about your own typos when she reads the numbers out either.
In the US, libraries pay for the books they buy. They practically overpay for the books they buy.
A normal hardcover bestseller that you would pay $25 or $30 for in a bookstore, a library in the US will buy for about $80. Paperbacks have a similar markup for libraries.
But there is no additional fee charged to the library for every time a book is checked out. It is, at least, a one-time cost for them.
Yours thoughts here sound good in theory, and I wish they were workable... In practice, I would fear them almost more than the current state of affairs.
being forced to reveal the initial source of the story
Reporters quite literally go to prison rather than being forced to reveal the sources for some of their stories. Who decides which stories have to have sources revealed? How many whistleblowers wouldn't under these rules?
I like the idea of a trademarked category. The FCC does enough regulation now. But the company that controls this trademark... How will they run it? What kind of license fees? Will it be useful, like Underwriters Lab, who tests a crazy number of consumer products? Or just another useless rubber stamp like the TrustE?
Regarding disasters... This rule seems to be "after you report 'news' tell why it isn't really news-worthy" which just makes me go "huh???". Yes, I understand the point here, but this "putting things in context" can make invalid comparisons.
Quotes are made to be taken out of context. This is understood. If you don't understand that, hearing/seeing the surrounding statement won't really help that much.
national news unless it affects at lest 1/3 of the population
Have you heard the saying "All politics is local"? All news is local too. National news is local. Any barrier like this... You'll get into some nasty fights over the definition of "affects." Does a major forest fire in Colorado affect anyone outside that state? Well, if you were thinking of vacationing there, maybe. If it occurred in a US National Forest, does that automatically affect all US citizens? Is a fire that burns a state park less worthy of national news coverage than one in a national park?
no advertising related to a story will appear in the broadcast
Yipes. Congratulations, you have a story about house fires and you are not allowed to advertise home fire extinguishers. This rule doesn't make a lot of sense.
Concerning press releases... serious research organizations do press releases too. Who gets to define "independent/objective" here?
This sounds good in theory, but I fear it in practice. Too much of it depends on people exercising some intelligence and reasonableness on the topic, but simply requiring something like this has the built-in assumption that no one is exercising intelligence nad reasonableness.
No thanks.
If you read Yahoo wire reports, Reuters or AP, the stories still have version numbers on them.
r y&ncid=5 86&e=3&cid=586&u=/nm/20020509/wl_nm/mideast_dc_206 5
d =5 86&e=3&cid=586&u=/nm/20020509/wl_nm/mideast_dc_206 3
From the current "World News" Reuters feed (no, I'm not going to bother making this a link):
Israel mideast story:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto
Which superceded the previous version:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&nci
Notice the "2065" and "2063" at the end of the URL. Those are version numbers. Does make you wonder what happened to 2064, it comes up "not found" at yahoo.
But some services still do that.
"When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
Congress has the ability to pass laws. Therefore, every "problem" must have a solution found by passing a new law.
If the solution does not include passing a new law, then you must have the wrong solution.