To properly license something, it needs to have periodical payments or something like that to make a proper distinction between a sale. You can't just sell something, and call it "licensing".
But if a terrorist attacked a mall or a restaurant, only that mall or that restaurant elicits fear from the public
If it's one isolated attack, you're probably right. If it's a series of attacks, all on similar targets, people will start avoiding those kinds of targets. It may not cripple the economy, but it would make a big difference in daily life. Look at what happened during the Beltway sniper attacks. Now imagine he was using bombs instead.
I'd be more worried anyone at my credit card company selling my info to credit card thieves. Or perhaps my car dealer selling copies of my keyfob to car thieves, or my travel agent selling my travel data to house thieves, or my ISP selling my passwords to on-line thieves, or my phone company selling all my location data and call details, or my doctor selling my medical records.... etc... etc...
So, no need to worry about crude stuff like power usage to guesstimate when my wife is home, and I'm gone. They can just buy the phone location data from our cell phones, which should be much more valuable.
With the cell phone data, they can see exactly how many persons are in the house, or, if they are away, they can see how long before they can reach the house.
I guess that most people requiring these clocks are not really interesting in having a correct absolute time, but rather a very low drift to allow measuring intervals at really high precision.
And if absolute time matters, you can always calibrate it with another atomic clock, or GPS signal.
Having a local known good time would reduce the GPS error by itself. It would also allow 3D position to be determined with 3 visible satellites instead of 4.
How does the window salesman get my income data, my power usage for that day, and my purchasing history ? Do you envision that all this data is just for sale for any random stranger ?
I think the Federal Government might be interested to know why you are suddenly consuming several thousand watts an hour in off peak time on a perfect 12 hours on/ 12 hours off schedule.
Well, I would certainly like to know that too! Maybe some malfunctioning appliance. What do you think ?
It is if you're a Linux distributer, and you want to include the archiver as a standard package.
Also, with the source code available, you could modify the archiver. For instance, you could make/modify an open media player with the capability of automatically downloading Usenet archives, unpacking those, and playing the media file.
I wouldn't even want to automate the lights or the coffee pot. It's trivially easy to flick a switch when you enter/leave a room, and it's also easy to prepare the coffee, and do something else (fix a sandwich, use the bathroom, comb your hair), while it is busy. The advantage is that the coffee is guaranteed to be fresh and hot, exactly when you need it, even when I decide to snooze for an extra 15 minutes.
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To properly license something, it needs to have periodical payments or something like that to make a proper distinction between a sale. You can't just sell something, and call it "licensing".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/11/28/us_court_ruling_nixes_software/
If it's one isolated attack, you're probably right. If it's a series of attacks, all on similar targets, people will start avoiding those kinds of targets. It may not cripple the economy, but it would make a big difference in daily life. Look at what happened during the Beltway sniper attacks. Now imagine he was using bombs instead.
If the emergency is serious enough, it will still be there in the morning.
A simple survey, followed by extrapolation.
"I was just keeping the lights on because I missed you so much, honey"
I'd be more worried anyone at my credit card company selling my info to credit card thieves. Or perhaps my car dealer selling copies of my keyfob to car thieves, or my travel agent selling my travel data to house thieves, or my ISP selling my passwords to on-line thieves, or my phone company selling all my location data and call details, or my doctor selling my medical records.... etc... etc...
Like anybody gives a rat's ass.
My toilet water tank is built into the wall, which is pretty common around here.
However, it is very unlikely to cause significant spilling without making a noticeable sound.
As long as you know your speed, it's not a problem to compensate for relativistic effects. GPS systems must already do that anyway.
So, no need to worry about crude stuff like power usage to guesstimate when my wife is home, and I'm gone. They can just buy the phone location data from our cell phones, which should be much more valuable.
With the cell phone data, they can see exactly how many persons are in the house, or, if they are away, they can see how long before they can reach the house.
I guess that most people requiring these clocks are not really interesting in having a correct absolute time, but rather a very low drift to allow measuring intervals at really high precision.
And if absolute time matters, you can always calibrate it with another atomic clock, or GPS signal.
Having a local known good time would reduce the GPS error by itself. It would also allow 3D position to be determined with 3 visible satellites instead of 4.
How does the window salesman get my income data, my power usage for that day, and my purchasing history ? Do you envision that all this data is just for sale for any random stranger ?
Well, I would certainly like to know that too! Maybe some malfunctioning appliance. What do you think ?
From TFA:
The power company doesn't know who I work for. Also, I can't imagine anything in my power usage that any employer would consider valuable information.
I think I would notice a camera set up inside my house.
It is if you're a Linux distributer, and you want to include the archiver as a standard package.
Also, with the source code available, you could modify the archiver. For instance, you could make/modify an open media player with the capability of automatically downloading Usenet archives, unpacking those, and playing the media file.
You can't repair corrupted/missing archives with md5/sha1. The .rar format is perfect for usenet, where missing parts is very common.
Isn't it the same with all open source projects, running on a highly proprietary CPU ?
So I could upload a noisy recording I made with my phone in a nightclub and download the same song from Google's server in a much better quality ?
I think a major part of a successful outcome is to ask a world class athlete to fly the thing.
10 lines of Perl, plus installing the hardware, and rewiring the lights, you mean ?
I wouldn't even want to automate the lights or the coffee pot. It's trivially easy to flick a switch when you enter/leave a room, and it's also easy to prepare the coffee, and do something else (fix a sandwich, use the bathroom, comb your hair), while it is busy. The advantage is that the coffee is guaranteed to be fresh and hot, exactly when you need it, even when I decide to snooze for an extra 15 minutes.
But the gas is "natural", so that's fine.