That was the idea Gene Rodenberry had that ended up being used (after he died) for Andromeda.
The original story idea (before it morphed into what it was), was someone in a far flung future of the Start Trek universe where things have all gone to heck in a hand-basket.
This was combined with another idea he had of someone waking up after 500 years in suspended animation and exploring their new universe, and then the universe was switched to something that wasn't Star Trek since it was an independent enterprise (pun intended).
Apparently residents from Manhattan will be watching closely and anxiously taking notes on how this gets resolved.
Laugh all you want but if the seas really start to rise Manhattan is in for a change. Much of lower manhattan such as Battery City (built on landfill from orignal WTC construction) and the Financial District would be more underwater than most people's stock.
Once you get further uptown though, the island starts to rise quite a bit.
The face of Manhattan might change, but its not likely to be wiped from the map like the Maldives. Besides, if Manhattan starts to disappear, large parts of the Eastern Seaboard (and almost all of Florida), will be much bigger stories (although perhaps not as good photos as the Statue of Liberty's pedestal under water).
But we've only walked erect a few million years. The face of this planet in that space of time has changed. In a billion years this planet's face has changed dramatically. So change is a constant. We just don't adapt as well as other species. We like finding blame and do not seem to flow well this type of change.
Mankind's greatest advantage is that we are the kings at controlling our environment, to the point of traveling under the seas, in the skies, and in outer space.
The problem when you are used to controlling ones environment is that adapting to the environment instead has become an alien way of thinking to a lot of us. We can do it (take a look at how many diverse groups of humans lived in vastly different conditions over the face of the earth). As a species we'll do just fine. As individuals?
Some will inevitably do better than others, and sometimes the luck of where their born DOES factor into the equation.
Misinterpret what you wrote. Its difficult to track the nuances of writing, especially in an internet age where multiple different conventions abound.
Technically they are still in competition, and if they see Linux as a competitor, so much the better. I am sure the GPL community will come up with an alternative to ZFS as soon as they can. The fact that BSD and OS X can incorporate ZFS though, does imply a certain amount of "legal compatibility" on the part of CDDL though. OS X is even a commercial product, that could arguably be considered a competitor against Sun's workstations.
True, I wouldn't treat them as just another contributor, but since they've based their license on MPL, I assume all the work of the Mozilla community should be similarly viewed?
No company since Sony with the rootkit fiasco has had more contempt for their legitimate paying customers.
You think Sony's rootkit fiasco are the be-all end-all of contempt for customers?
1) It happened a while ago. 2) customers balked (rightly so). 3) Sony stopped.
There are many more current abuses of customers that should really hold peoples attention more than something Sony did over three years ago (and has since recalled the product, gave a link to a class action settlement on their website, and attempted as best they could to rectify the situation).
How about the DRM on MS XBox360 that kept players from playing their own purchased content on a replacement 360 if they weren't logged into the internet? Not only were users affected by system that died prematurely, but due to their DRM policy, replacement consoles had to be connected to the internet in order to utilize the content (content was flagged for use by either the original console downloaded to, or by the user, but only when logged in). Connection down? No content for you. I hear the Wii is about as forgiving on downloaded content, even taking it to further extremes by not letting you edit your Miis if you've created they've been imported. They at least have had far fewer failures so I see it as less of an issue. In fact, the only console whose done DRM "right" this generation is Sony (5 licensed systems at a given time, redownload anytime you want). Maybe they learned from their mistakes.
Or Have you taken a look at the ridiculous DRM being used CURRENTLY by companies like EA did in SPORE? This is a a much worse affront to users. Not only does it install code that disables several legitimate systems in the computer, and can destabilize a system, it also imposes an install limit on the end-user.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm just sick and tired of people dredging up the "Sony rootkit fiasco" as the "worst thing in customer relations" when we've seen current abuses of consumers that are worse.
... The license they chose, and the patents they hold, allow them to call it "open source" while avoiding the possibility of native support in the most popular open-source alternative to their own Solaris operating system. I don't think that's a coincidence....
(emphesis mine)
I agree with what you're saying, but remember two things:
1) Its the license they chose. The developed the code, and they can choose how they license it.
2) I object to enclosing open source in quotes. The CDDL IS in fact Open Source.
The fact that something is incompatible with GPL (which is an aspect of the CDDL inherited from the MPL it was based on), does not mean its not Open Source, anymore than the fact that you can't freely use GPL code with proprietary code without opening up the proprietary code within certain guidelines means that GPL code is less open than BSD code.
Files licensed under the CDDL can be combined with files licensed under other licenses, whether open source or proprietary[1]. The Free Software Foundation considers it a free license incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL).[2] The incompatibility arises from a complex interaction of several clauses that the CDDL inherited from the MPL.[3] The CDDL was submitted for approval to the Open Source Initiative on December 1, 2004 and approved as an open source license in mid January 2005.
Stafford and PLUS loans, however, were not a fixed rate until recently (AFAIK anyway, I could be wrong on that).
Interesting to know Stafford and PLUS switched to fixed rates.
When I took out a Stafford back in the 90s the rate was variable, with a hard cap, so it couldn't get more than X% (6 or 7 I think), but if the rates went down, then the loans rate went down also. I think I remember it dropping as low as 3.5% (with another quarter or half point knocked off for switching to an automated payment system).
Personally this was the best of both worlds. You knew you weren't going to be paying more than X%, but if the mortgage rates dropped, you didn't feel the need to run out and refinance since your loan adjusted.
And only costs three times as much as the other vendors, in addition to randomly overheating and melting down. No thank you.
On the other hand, after four-five different routers I played with before, this is the first one that just let me set it up, and then forget about it.
I haven't had it meltdown since I got it (about 2 years so far), Its been incredibly reliable in a very mixed environment (Linux, Windows, OSX, TiVo, GameSystems), and its taken almost zero maintenance since I set it up.
As opposed to my previous experience with home routers, which usually needed to be reset every now and then, or needed the antennas adjusted, system rebooted, on occasion, for me at least Apple's product has worked without a problem, or complaint.
It also provided a better signal quality when I first set it up (probably since the antennas don't need alignment since they are built into the case).
Yeah... cost is an issue, but as far as I've seen, its the only one, and I don't mind paying more for a product that actually performs as advertised and has been problem free (and much more friendly to set up than LinkSys and the like).
When I decided to extend the network in my house, adding an airport extreme as a repeater was painless. I had tried it with LinkSys (both their firmware and the Linux ones), and it was flakey and prone to freezing.
My only complaint is that configuration is done through a GUI application for either Windows or OSX. Not so great if you're a Linux only shop.
C# is an iso standard language, which puts it in the same league as C/C++.....
...and OOXML.
Not exactly. MS didn't have to buy votes for C# because it was actually a well defined standard with multiple implementations, and went through the committee process without being fast-tracked.
As an "Enterprise Application Developer", unless you are being handed requirements that preclude cross-platform compatibility, campaign for it instead.
Instead of using the.NET framework, code to Mono, that way you can have a higher potential customer base, with less work.
Its similar to when Perl on Windows started becoming popular. Code developed on Win32 tended to hook in calls to platform specific libraries instead of using the generic ways of doing things (or... even worse... system calls). Code developed for *NIX (Linux, Unix, BSD), tended to have much less of that and be more cross-platform with a greater chance of running on Windows with fewer "gotchas".
The largest part of the problem though, is "Programmer Education".
If a programmer doesn't even think about running a program on another platform, then why should they leave their ecosystem?
You're right. I'm one of those users who doesn't want to get into Homebrew (seems too complicated to set up and deal with upgrading firmware for later games). I want my electronics to "just work", which the PSP has been pretty good about doing.
Hadn't thought about extending the eBook library to a webserver. Neat idea. Most of the time I'm using it, I'm stuck either underground (commuter train), or in the air, both of which preclude a network connection.:)
I haven't done that to mine, and probably wont. One of the things I liked about the HTML approach was that it didn't require anything more than simple File copying, and editing one HTML page to set up a main index.:)
Now the DRM issue. You can in fact get open formats onto the Kindle, its just that there's not as much legal and open stuff out there, and you cant exactly 'rip' a book as easily as a CD. It just sucks.
Well... there is at least SOME stuff out there if you look in the Mobibook format (and like SciFi/Fantasy).
And then has both a free library as well as release a fair amount of their older catalog in a Freely distributable format on "bonus CDs" you can even find online (the first fix is free:) ).
I'll admit that most of what I read is SciFi/Fantasy. Having said that, at least 80-90% of what I've read in the past few years could have been gotten in eBook form (and ~50% of it has been). I'd imagine that the number is probably higher, but I still prefer "dead tree" books some of the time. (Haven't tried to get an author to sign an eReader yet:) )
If you can get the eBook in HTML format, you can load it onto the PSPs memory card, and then browse to it directly.
Because its hard to type in addresses, I'd suggest making a "home page" for the eBooks (like a Table of Contents), add a Bookmark for the "Contents page" and then just add a link to each eBook's home page from there.
I've been using the eBook's from Baen that way for a year or two.
Yeah... it would be easier if Sony just incorporated a Moby-book reader, but this works really easily.
Saab does a good job of keeping their product line fairly stable with only minor tweaks. Its one of the things I like about them (besides their being outside my price range and the fact that I'm not looking for a car right now:) ).
The way I've usually heard it described is that, with a more expensive bottle of wine, you are usually more likely to get a "good" bottle of wine. With a cheap bottle of wine, you can also get a "good" bottle of wine, but on average its much more of a crap shoot.
Considering some of the ones I've enjoyed the most have started out cheap, and then become more expensive as other people have discovered them and demand increased, I'd tend to accept that as true.:)
The corollary to this is that when you are buying Champagne, either buy expensive or cheap, not in the middle. The more expensive are usually worth it, and if not, the price will make you believe it is. The cheap may be worth it, but for the price you won't care.;)
On the one hand, you don't get paid for the long hours you put in. On the other hand, your employer can't make you report how many hours you worked.
This is just plan wrong.
I know of lots of people in IT who are payed a regular salary, not paid overtime, and then have to submit timesheets (usually for tracking of hours against projects).
Who says not paying you overtime means you don't have to report on hours worked? You think the company only cares about hours from an overtime perspective? There is still the issue of "Employee Productivity"
I agree. For me I prefer to turn things on and set it up.
On the other hand, for your average Joe User, its great. Bluntly, the possibility of an attack via UPnP is minimal, and for an average user, who has no idea how to set up port forwarding, UPnP and other protocols like it are a terrific thing and allow NAT to work for the average user.
The problem will then become how to two homes talk to each other when they both have a device named "xbox.local"?
I hear Nintendo has already been researching this problem by getting people used to ridiculous strings they need to enter to play on-line (see: FriendCode).
Slashdot Mirror
That was the idea Gene Rodenberry had that ended up being used (after he died) for Andromeda.
The original story idea (before it morphed into what it was), was someone in a far flung future of the Start Trek universe where things have all gone to heck in a hand-basket.
This was combined with another idea he had of someone waking up after 500 years in suspended animation and exploring their new universe, and then the universe was switched to something that wasn't Star Trek since it was an independent enterprise (pun intended).
Laugh all you want but if the seas really start to rise Manhattan is in for a change. Much of lower manhattan such as Battery City (built on landfill from orignal WTC construction) and the Financial District would be more underwater than most people's stock.
Once you get further uptown though, the island starts to rise quite a bit.
The face of Manhattan might change, but its not likely to be wiped from the map like the Maldives. Besides, if Manhattan starts to disappear, large parts of the Eastern Seaboard (and almost all of Florida), will be much bigger stories (although perhaps not as good photos as the Statue of Liberty's pedestal under water).
Mankind's greatest advantage is that we are the kings at controlling our environment, to the point of traveling under the seas, in the skies, and in outer space.
The problem when you are used to controlling ones environment is that adapting to the environment instead has become an alien way of thinking to a lot of us. We can do it (take a look at how many diverse groups of humans lived in vastly different conditions over the face of the earth). As a species we'll do just fine. As individuals?
Some will inevitably do better than others, and sometimes the luck of where their born DOES factor into the equation.
Somehow the beginning of my message got cut off (thats what I get for not hitting "preview"). Should have started:
"Sorry to misinterpret what you wrote."
Misinterpret what you wrote. Its difficult to track the nuances of writing, especially in an internet age where multiple different conventions abound.
Technically they are still in competition, and if they see Linux as a competitor, so much the better. I am sure the GPL community will come up with an alternative to ZFS as soon as they can. The fact that BSD and OS X can incorporate ZFS though, does imply a certain amount of "legal compatibility" on the part of CDDL though. OS X is even a commercial product, that could arguably be considered a competitor against Sun's workstations.
True, I wouldn't treat them as just another contributor, but since they've based their license on MPL, I assume all the work of the Mozilla community should be similarly viewed?
You think Sony's rootkit fiasco are the be-all end-all of contempt for customers?
1) It happened a while ago.
2) customers balked (rightly so).
3) Sony stopped.
There are many more current abuses of customers that should really hold peoples attention more than something Sony did over three years ago (and has since recalled the product, gave a link to a class action settlement on their website, and attempted as best they could to rectify the situation).
How about the DRM on MS XBox360 that kept players from playing their own purchased content on a replacement 360 if they weren't logged into the internet? Not only were users affected by system that died prematurely, but due to their DRM policy, replacement consoles had to be connected to the internet in order to utilize the content (content was flagged for use by either the original console downloaded to, or by the user, but only when logged in). Connection down? No content for you. I hear the Wii is about as forgiving on downloaded content, even taking it to further extremes by not letting you edit your Miis if you've created they've been imported. They at least have had far fewer failures so I see it as less of an issue. In fact, the only console whose done DRM "right" this generation is Sony (5 licensed systems at a given time, redownload anytime you want). Maybe they learned from their mistakes.
Or Have you taken a look at the ridiculous DRM being used CURRENTLY by companies like EA did in SPORE? This is a a much worse affront to users. Not only does it install code that disables several legitimate systems in the computer, and can destabilize a system, it also imposes an install limit on the end-user.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm just sick and tired of people dredging up the "Sony rootkit fiasco" as the "worst thing in customer relations" when we've seen current abuses of consumers that are worse.
(emphesis mine)
I agree with what you're saying, but remember two things:
1) Its the license they chose. The developed the code, and they can choose how they license it.
2) I object to enclosing open source in quotes. The CDDL IS in fact Open Source.
The fact that something is incompatible with GPL (which is an aspect of the CDDL inherited from the MPL it was based on), does not mean its not Open Source, anymore than the fact that you can't freely use GPL code with proprietary code without opening up the proprietary code within certain guidelines means that GPL code is less open than BSD code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDL
There are different licenses with different goals.
Best new idea for Holiday Stocking Stuffers:
Giftcards from companies about to file for bankruptcy.
Hey, its not YOUR problem if the $100 giftcard (that you only paid $5 for), is worthless by the time the recipient can actually use it.
It's the thought that counts ... right? :)
On the other hand, after four-five different routers I played with before, this is the first one that just let me set it up, and then forget about it.
I haven't had it meltdown since I got it (about 2 years so far), Its been incredibly reliable in a very mixed environment (Linux, Windows, OSX, TiVo, GameSystems), and its taken almost zero maintenance since I set it up.
As opposed to my previous experience with home routers, which usually needed to be reset every now and then, or needed the antennas adjusted, system rebooted, on occasion, for me at least Apple's product has worked without a problem, or complaint.
It also provided a better signal quality when I first set it up (probably since the antennas don't need alignment since they are built into the case).
Yeah ... cost is an issue, but as far as I've seen, its the only one, and I don't mind paying more for a product that actually performs as advertised and has been problem free (and much more friendly to set up than LinkSys and the like).
When I decided to extend the network in my house, adding an airport extreme as a repeater was painless. I had tried it with LinkSys (both their firmware and the Linux ones), and it was flakey and prone to freezing.
My only complaint is that configuration is done through a GUI application for either Windows or OSX. Not so great if you're a Linux only shop.
You could always go for an Airport Extreme from apple.
Support IPv6, and decent options.
Not too geeked out, but pretty reliable and plays very nicely with the rest of the network.
Ah ... so its even fully functional.
(yes ... this was a joke, I know XBoxes don't experience the RRoD as often as they used to)
Not exactly. MS didn't have to buy votes for C# because it was actually a well defined standard with multiple implementations, and went through the committee process without being fast-tracked.
As an "Enterprise Application Developer", unless you are being handed requirements that preclude cross-platform compatibility, campaign for it instead.
Instead of using the .NET framework, code to Mono, that way you can have a higher potential customer base, with less work.
Its similar to when Perl on Windows started becoming popular. Code developed on Win32 tended to hook in calls to platform specific libraries instead of using the generic ways of doing things (or ... even worse ... system calls). Code developed for *NIX (Linux, Unix, BSD), tended to have much less of that and be more cross-platform with a greater chance of running on Windows with fewer "gotchas".
The largest part of the problem though, is "Programmer Education".
If a programmer doesn't even think about running a program on another platform, then why should they leave their ecosystem?
Sorry ... we use Boeings here. Can you give me the conversion rate?
You're right. I'm one of those users who doesn't want to get into Homebrew (seems too complicated to set up and deal with upgrading firmware for later games). I want my electronics to "just work", which the PSP has been pretty good about doing.
Hadn't thought about extending the eBook library to a webserver. Neat idea. Most of the time I'm using it, I'm stuck either underground (commuter train), or in the air, both of which preclude a network connection. :)
Does Bookr rely on a homebrew "cracked" PSP?
I haven't done that to mine, and probably wont. One of the things I liked about the HTML approach was that it didn't require anything more than simple File copying, and editing one HTML page to set up a main index. :)
Well ... there is at least SOME stuff out there if you look in the Mobibook format (and like SciFi/Fantasy).
From Kindle's Tech Specs
(emphesis mine)
Baen has devoted a whole page to using the Kindle with their eBooks http://www.webscription.net/t-kindle.aspx
And then has both a free library as well as release a fair amount of their older catalog in a Freely distributable format on "bonus CDs" you can even find online (the first fix is free :) ).
I'll admit that most of what I read is SciFi/Fantasy. Having said that, at least 80-90% of what I've read in the past few years could have been gotten in eBook form (and ~50% of it has been). I'd imagine that the number is probably higher, but I still prefer "dead tree" books some of the time. (Haven't tried to get an author to sign an eReader yet :) )
You can sort of do this already.
If you can get the eBook in HTML format, you can load it onto the PSPs memory card, and then browse to it directly.
Because its hard to type in addresses, I'd suggest making a "home page" for the eBooks (like a Table of Contents), add a Bookmark for the "Contents page" and then just add a link to each eBook's home page from there.
I've been using the eBook's from Baen that way for a year or two.
Yeah ... it would be easier if Sony just incorporated a Moby-book reader, but this works really easily.
Saab does a good job of keeping their product line fairly stable with only minor tweaks. Its one of the things I like about them (besides their being outside my price range and the fact that I'm not looking for a car right now :) ).
The way I've usually heard it described is that, with a more expensive bottle of wine, you are usually more likely to get a "good" bottle of wine. With a cheap bottle of wine, you can also get a "good" bottle of wine, but on average its much more of a crap shoot.
Considering some of the ones I've enjoyed the most have started out cheap, and then become more expensive as other people have discovered them and demand increased, I'd tend to accept that as true. :)
The corollary to this is that when you are buying Champagne, either buy expensive or cheap, not in the middle. The more expensive are usually worth it, and if not, the price will make you believe it is. The cheap may be worth it, but for the price you won't care. ;)
This is just plan wrong.
I know of lots of people in IT who are payed a regular salary, not paid overtime, and then have to submit timesheets (usually for tracking of hours against projects).
Who says not paying you overtime means you don't have to report on hours worked? You think the company only cares about hours from an overtime perspective? There is still the issue of "Employee Productivity"
I agree. For me I prefer to turn things on and set it up.
On the other hand, for your average Joe User, its great. Bluntly, the possibility of an attack via UPnP is minimal, and for an average user, who has no idea how to set up port forwarding, UPnP and other protocols like it are a terrific thing and allow NAT to work for the average user.
I hear Nintendo has already been researching this problem by getting people used to ridiculous strings they need to enter to play on-line (see: FriendCode).
Well, there are tools to let "SOHO" routers be auto-configured by server/other devices for just that reason.
Perhaps you've heard of IGN over UPnP perhaps? Or maybe NAT-PMP?
Personally I like the idea of PMP-ing my NAT, but that's just me. :)