You don't need nanotechnology to see that things like desktop CNC mills, and desktop stereolithography will soon cross over from prototyping services into custom self retooling factories in your garage.
(by soon, I mean within the next twenty years)
When that happens, I think you'll find manufacturing corporations outsourcing their core business even more than they are now, or face extiction. In the end, all that GM will really have is it's brand and it's IP.
While it's true that no-one is going to build a 767 in their garage, most manufactured goods are much smaller. --
One of the things that I found most intrigueing about Islands In The Net was the corporate structure and culture of the Rizome corporation.
Recently we've seen companies with radical new business models (such as Redhat and VA Linux) hiring developers to work on whatever they want, and corporate HR departments focusing on 'recruiting from within' to minimize employee turnover. Both these trends may be extrapolated to lead to Rizome type corporations.
So here's the question: What do you currently think future business entities will look like, and what can we do to make those future entities as human-friendly as possible? --
Perhaps I am merely exposing my prejudices here, but I don't think so.
Example: Asian publishers spend more $$$ on high quality scanners to scan in printed pictures and re-use them then they would to simply pay the royalty and obtain the source file.
Even a drum scan of a 200 lpi print will not recapture the quality of the original. But Asian publishers do this routinely, and then spend more time and effort to remove the moire patterns, in order to circumvent the royalty payments.
I have come across many other examples over the years, in several industries. --
It seems as though in asian cultures respect for intellectual property on the part of governments, corporations and individuals is much lower than in the west (This is an overbroad generalization, but one supported by a lot of anectodal evidence that has come my way over the years).
Currently, this expresses itself as endemic piracy of closed source software, music CDs, movies, etc., but I suspect that when Open Source wins over closed source software, rampant violations of the GPL will ensue from asian corporations and developers.
What will we be able to do to protect the GPL in the arena of international law and a global marketplace? --
It seems as though in asian cultures respect for intellectual property on the part of governments, corporations and individuals is much lower than in the west (This is an overbroad generalization, but one supported by a lot of anectodal evidence that has come my way over the years).
Currently, this expresses itself as endemic piracy of closed source software, music CDs, movies, etc., but I suspect that when Open Source wins over closed source software, rampant violations of the GPL will ensue from asian corporations and developers.
What will we be able to do to protect the GPL in the arena of international law and a global marketplace?
look, when I say make the collectors flimsy, I mean like a plastic bag. so what if it gets some holes punched in it? it still retains almost all of it's structural integrity.
The same goes for the transmitting array. The only reason that these arrays are so rigid on earth is beacause they have to maintain their shape in a gravitational field. In orbit, the transmitter can be as large and as flimsy as you like.
Actually there are several reasons to put it in space:
No clouds or other atmospheric disturbances interfereing with the first-stage power generation (I believe that microwaves are not affected as much)
A satellite in GeoSync is in sunlight longer than the surface is, allowing for more power to be generated
the best places to capture solar power on earth are typically in very inconvenient locations, SPSs can beam their power much closer to urban centers.
Vandalism/Terrorism. Keeping the power generating equipment in orbit where 'Freedom Fighters' can't get to it is pretty comforting to the powers-that-be. The only stuff on the ground is a bunch of cheap metal antennas that can be easily replaced. Worst case scenario is you have to redirect the beam to a secondary antenna farm somewhere else.
You end up using a lot less material when manufacturing the collecting elements. As someone noted here already, there's lots of debris floating around up there, and it's moving pretty fast. Armouring against this stuff is impossible, so why bother at all? On the contrary, make it as flimsy as possible. On earth, there are too many low grade dangers such as windstorms, earthquakes, hikers, and other stuff, that you can't get away with making structures flimsy at all.
Dirt. do you know how time consuming (and therefore expensive) it is to keep solar collectors clean? you don't have to worry about that in space.
Note that although the radiation is probably safe for unmodified humans, if you've been cyborged at all, say with a pacemaker, I really wouldn't recomend stepping into the path of the beam.
Listening to it now... about 19 minutes into the show, Philip Greenspun called in. He's written a book called 'Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing', available for free on the web at the previous link. This is probably the best text on creating high value community sites and web applications such as www.scorecard.org using open source software.
I wonder what the consequences will be for the lawsuit against MP3.com and Nullsoft? AOL certainly has very deep pockets, lots of lawyers, and the willingness to use them.
If you're looking for a free, cross-platform, open-source Object DB, take a look at Zope. It's actually a complete object-oriented web application server, but as it is open source, you could pull out the ODB part for your own use. It's written in Python, with a little C++ for performance critical code.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone know how much of Billy Boy's net worth is still tied up in MS stock?
Regardless, he's still turned a pretty profit on the million dollar trust fund he started with.
meanwhile, check out the Bill Gates Personal Weath Clock
--
You don't need nanotechnology to see that things like desktop CNC mills, and desktop stereolithography will soon cross over from prototyping services into custom self retooling factories in your garage.
(by soon, I mean within the next twenty years)
When that happens, I think you'll find manufacturing corporations outsourcing their core business even more than they are now, or face extiction. In the end, all that GM will really have is it's brand and it's IP.
While it's true that no-one is going to build a 767 in their garage, most manufactured goods are much smaller.
--
Who'd a thunk that the show would eventually have a computer language named after it?
--
I think you mean FIJAGH, or Fandom Is Just A Goshdarn Hobby ;^)
--
Recently we've seen companies with radical new business models (such as Redhat and VA Linux) hiring developers to work on whatever they want, and corporate HR departments focusing on 'recruiting from within' to minimize employee turnover. Both these trends may be extrapolated to lead to Rizome type corporations.
So here's the question: What do you currently think future business entities will look like, and what can we do to make those future entities as human-friendly as possible?
--
Perhaps I am merely exposing my prejudices here, but I don't think so.
Example: Asian publishers spend more $$$ on high quality scanners to scan in printed pictures and re-use them then they would to simply pay the royalty and obtain the source file.
Even a drum scan of a 200 lpi print will not recapture the quality of the original. But Asian publishers do this routinely, and then spend more time and effort to remove the moire patterns, in order to circumvent the royalty payments.
I have come across many other examples over the years, in several industries.
--
It seems as though in asian cultures respect for intellectual property on the part of governments, corporations and individuals is much lower than in the west (This is an overbroad generalization, but one supported by a lot of anectodal evidence that has come my way over the years).
Currently, this expresses itself as endemic piracy of closed source software, music CDs, movies, etc., but I suspect that when Open Source wins over closed source software, rampant violations of the GPL will ensue from asian corporations and developers.
What will we be able to do to protect the GPL in the arena of international law and a global marketplace?
--
It seems as though in asian cultures respect for intellectual property on the part of governments, corporations and individuals is much lower than in the west (This is an overbroad generalization, but one supported by a lot of anectodal evidence that has come my way over the years).
Currently, this expresses itself as endemic piracy of closed source software, music CDs, movies, etc., but I suspect that when Open Source wins over closed source software, rampant violations of the GPL will ensue from asian corporations and developers.
What will we be able to do to protect the GPL in the arena of international law and a global marketplace?
--
look, when I say make the collectors flimsy, I mean like a plastic bag. so what if it gets some holes punched in it? it still retains almost all of it's structural integrity.
The same goes for the transmitting array. The only reason that these arrays are so rigid on earth is beacause they have to maintain their shape in a gravitational field. In orbit, the transmitter can be as large and as flimsy as you like.
Note that although the radiation is probably safe for unmodified humans, if you've been cyborged at all, say with a pacemaker, I really wouldn't recomend stepping into the path of the beam.
Try Geheimnis (previously kPGPShell). It may suit your needs if you're on a Linux box.
Listening to it now... about 19 minutes into the show, Philip Greenspun called in. He's written a book called 'Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing', available for free on the web at the previous link. This is probably the best text on creating high value community sites and web applications such as www.scorecard.org using open source software.
Go to Here to listen to the show. (requires RealAudio)
I wonder what the consequences will be for the lawsuit against MP3.com and Nullsoft? AOL certainly has very deep pockets, lots of lawyers, and the willingness to use them.
If you're looking for a free, cross-platform, open-source Object DB, take a look at Zope. It's actually a complete object-oriented web application server, but as it is open source, you could pull out the ODB part for your own use. It's written in Python, with a little C++ for performance critical code.