Have they been taken over by Corporate Bureaucrat Robots? Is there any real intelligence left behind all the Perl code or has it taken on a life of its own?
Things are sliding downhill here reeeal fast guys...
How about all 3? For some dumb reason I skimmed through the whole article, wondering where the meat was.
Its a sad day when Slashdot starts posting trivial crap like this (not that the article per-se was crap, but it was written for a complete web-newbie).
Anyone know of any geek sites with higher standards than Slashdot? I think its time to find a new place to get my nerd-news.
You may have problems trying to commercialize it, but it sure would be fun! They'll probably start lobbying congress to make software DVD players illegal because you can 'edit' their movies:>
Now if I someone would donate a DVD player I'd be glad to join the project.
Just a quick correction, the video store wan't selling edited copies. They were editing previously purchased copies for people. They were physically slicing the scene out of the tape and splicing it back together according to the stories they read.
And who are you to decide what they want their kids to see? Its about freedom, and since Hollywood has refused to give people the option to buy other 'edits' of a film they will find other ways to get what they want.
This is a great idea (not only because I too have been thinking about this). The PC provides a great way to allow users to 'mask' the playback so that, for example, they can let their kids watch a pretty good movie like Doc Hollywood and edit out the totally unneeded nude scene at the start.
If Hollywood were smart they would be releasing multiple ratings on DVD. Just like selecting sub-titles or commentary you could select the PG, PG-13, R or NR version of the movie. You could go so far as to have user ids in the DVD player so that your kids are locked from seeing the R rated version.
The previous posting should in no way be construed as attempting to drive 'hits', QUALITY or otherwise to LibertyNews.org as an attempt to instease AOL stock value so I can cash in on the new dot org boom.
Its true, really! Look for the invisible AOL logo and disclaimer on LibertyNews.org, a wildly popular news site for liberty and security minded individuals (100 hits a day, but they're QUALITY hits).
Finally I can retire to that mountaintop cabin in Idaho. I want to thank Bob and Steve and Sharon for all their hard work in putting together this deal -- AOL stock is going to be worth something in the future, isn't it?
Brian editor of the formerly privatly owned news site Libertynews.org
If I were a user of Morpheus I'd be looking at filing charges for cracking my computer and using it for unauthorized activities. Companies conducting business like this need to be naild HARD. Teach them a lesson and make an example of them.
And what about the programmers who wrote this 'feature'? Who are they? I wouldn't be opposed to blacklisting them, or at least smearing their names across the headlines. This is sleazy and unethical and shouldn't be tolerated by the rest of us 'respectible' programmers.
I wish I could say that this is unbelievable, but it isn't. After the hack job that Lucas did to re-release Star Wars (you CANNOT tell me that the new Jabba scene was any good, Han's arm passes thru his head for gosh sake!) to generate new revenue.
I cringe every time I hear Lucas say that he finally made Star Wars like he originally meant to. Gimme a break! And now he's branding guitars of all things? But really, it isn't a suprise, Star Wars was the first of the over-commercialized movies so there's no reason for them to stop now.
What's next? Cars? How about a Milennium Falcon SUV? I might buy one of those...
Now for a blatant plug, set a date and go visit my wife's Wedding Invitation business and order your invitations. We expect there to be lots of wedding pic stories soon.
Yes! I remember. we used that as our main editor until the project files started getting bigger than 64k. If it'd had large file support I would probably still be using it and passing it around.
and I pay for the software I used. I was one of the first to pay for Opera on Linux, even before it was completely useful. I need people to buy my software and programming services. This is really what happens when they buy software, they are paying you the amount it is worth to them to not have to write it themselves.
But I don't think that you can consider non-payment as piracy. These people want something for free and will never pay you for your work, no matter how low your price is. You really can't count them as lost revenue if there was no chance of revenue in the first place.
Morally these people shouldn't be using your software, but in the end there isn't anything you can do about it. The end result will be less available quality software. You have to be willing to support programmers, even if its $5 or so.
A previous poster made a good point about distribution. In the 'old days' you had to find a software publisher, or post it on BBSes. FidoNet helped software distribution greatly, and then along came the internet. The whole world is only a modem away and the cost of distribution is almost zero now -- So software prices should be reduced accordingly.
Take a look at the prices of PalmOS software, most are in the range of $5 to $20. For me the price break is around $10 for PalmOS apps. Similar pricing structures should be adopted for PC software. The market is huge, if you can lower your price and attract more users you are going to make up for those who aren't willing to pay.
Hey, thanks for remembering us! But we're not Vaporware, we're just not in production yet. Beta testers have real units and are using them as we speak.
Documentation and Open Source software is available from our website at www.shinemicro.com, and the author of PocketAPRS has one and is in the process of porting his program over to our module.
Brian Lane
Lead Programmer
Shine Micro Home of the SM2496 Visor Module
The SM2496 soundcard module for the Handspring Visor already has most of these features. It is still in Beta testing and we need to finish off the software, but it can record and play MP3s. It has a single MMC slot and fits flush in the Visor's Springboard slot. It can also be used as an amateur radio modem (1200bps APRS position reporting), or anything else you can use a PC soundcard for.
And it could support Ogg Vorbis if someone had the time to port it to the 160MHz TMS320C5416 DSP that we are using.
The reason why this project is so good is that it just works. you install the client and you can connect securely without screweing around with configuring a dozen different programs, etc. I had it up and running in the time it took to download the.rpm and install it.
You have to. When the manufacturer drops their product line people stop buying it, that means they won't be buying Springboard modules either. You can't afford to develop a new product if there isn't a market for it.
Yes, there are alot of Visors out there, but how comfortable are you going to feel spending more money on your now obsolete device? The Springboard market hasn't been doing as well as expected as it is, but now we will never know if it would have reached a critical mass, will we?
Brian Lane
Lead Programmer
Shine Micro Maker of the SM2496 DSP module
Handspring has just destroyed the Springboard and Visor markets with these statements. I am lead programmer for Shine Micro Shine Micro, maker of the SM2496 DSP module for the Visor, and we have been working hard to bring our product to market. Currently it is in Beta testing, but it now appears that we are going to have to redesign for a different platform, or dump the project entierly.
The quote was that the will be exiting the PDA market "but not today". That doesn't provide any kind of reassurance to any of the Springboard deleopers who have invested a great amount of time and effort into what is now a dead product line.
Yes, all product lines are finite. But you usually don't have the manufacturer announcing this fact prematurely. I don't see any reason for someone to buy a Visor or a Springboard module now that they know that the support will not be there sometime in the near future.
It sounds like Handspring is turning into a fancy cellphone company. I don't think that they will survive this move. The Visor and Springboard are a good product and would have carried them far into the future (just look at Palm).
Brian Lane
Lead Programmer
Shine Micro Maker of the SM2496 DSP module
How could it be otherwise? If they license the software that they used our tax money to produce are they then going to reduce our taxes accordingly? Send us all dividend checks? Ha! I don't think so.
The only reasonable way to do it is to release the software under the GPL so that it cannot ever become closed software when used by anyone else.
Flash/Java/WhizBang gimmicks are not what attracts 'normal' folks to the net. Flash doesn't work all that well across most people's links (there are still a very large number of people using 56k or less). Webpages that pop open dozens of advertisements as you try to leave their sphere of influence aren't likely to attract too many people either. Email and other person-to-person communications are what attract people. How many have relative that only know how to use AOL and AIM? See!
It isn't too suprising to see a Flash virus appear. The current system just wasn't designed with security in mind. Nothing can ever be safe, but until there is a redesign of the way that your local system trusts 'tainted' input from the outside world there isn't the faintest glimmer of 'safe'.
HTML is 'pretty safe' because its purpose and capabilities are well defined. When you start tacking on things like Visual Basic and Flash you should expect trouble to be lurking just around the corner.
What's the solution? Don't participate in the multi-mediaizing of the net. Don't open ANY attachments and don't install stupid programs like Flash. Fill your webpages with content, not eye candy -- leave that to Hollywood.
"Acting pursuant to federal search warrants, the F.B.I. on January 15, 1999, entered Scarfo and Paolercio's business office, Merchant Services of Essex County, to search for evidence of an illegal gambling and loansharking operation. During their search of Merchant Services, the F.B.I. came across a personal computer and attempted to access its various files. They were unable to gain entry to an encrypted file named ?Factors.?
Suspecting the ?Factors? file contained evidence of an illegal gambling and loansharking operation, the F.B.I. returned to the location and, pursuant to two search warrants, installed what is known as a ?Key Logger System? (?KLS?) on the computer and/or computer keyboard in order to decipher the passphrase to the encrypted file, thereby gaining entry to the file."
Note that the FBI has a warrent for the first entry, and returned with new warrents to install the KLS. I'm as paranoid as the next guy about government intrusion (hence my Libertynews.org website) but the FBI followed the rules here. And as detailed in previous articles they actually bent over backwards to make sure the KLS did not record any of his online keystrokes.
This is the kind of thing that civil libertarians should be applauding, proper use of warrents and use of technology to limit the scope of thier intrusion.
And thats why watching too much TV will rot your brain. Especially tomorrow with all the marathons going on.
I need a couple more Dish Network receivers...
Slashdot Mirror
Have they been taken over by Corporate Bureaucrat Robots? Is there any real intelligence left behind all the Perl code or has it taken on a life of its own?
Things are sliding downhill here reeeal fast guys...
Brian
How about all 3? For some dumb reason I skimmed through the whole article, wondering where the meat was.
Its a sad day when Slashdot starts posting trivial crap like this (not that the article per-se was crap, but it was written for a complete web-newbie).
Anyone know of any geek sites with higher standards than Slashdot? I think its time to find a new place to get my nerd-news.
Brian
You may have problems trying to commercialize it, but it sure would be fun! They'll probably start lobbying congress to make software DVD players illegal because you can 'edit' their movies :>
Now if I someone would donate a DVD player I'd be glad to join the project.
Brian
Just a quick correction, the video store wan't selling edited copies. They were editing previously purchased copies for people. They were physically slicing the scene out of the tape and splicing it back together according to the stories they read.
And who are you to decide what they want their kids to see? Its about freedom, and since Hollywood has refused to give people the option to buy other 'edits' of a film they will find other ways to get what they want.
Brian
This is a great idea (not only because I too have been thinking about this). The PC provides a great way to allow users to 'mask' the playback so that, for example, they can let their kids watch a pretty good movie like Doc Hollywood and edit out the totally unneeded nude scene at the start.
If Hollywood were smart they would be releasing multiple ratings on DVD. Just like selecting sub-titles or commentary you could select the PG, PG-13, R or NR version of the movie. You could go so far as to have user ids in the DVD player so that your kids are locked from seeing the R rated version.
This is an idea that consumers would buy.
Brian
Companies like these don't have a good track record for security. How long before the Kazaa/Brilliant virus sweeps the P2P sub-culture?
The previous posting should in no way be construed as attempting to drive 'hits', QUALITY or otherwise to LibertyNews.org as an attempt to instease AOL stock value so I can cash in on the new dot org boom.
Its true, really! Look for the invisible AOL logo and disclaimer on LibertyNews.org, a wildly popular news site for liberty and security minded individuals (100 hits a day, but they're QUALITY hits).
Finally I can retire to that mountaintop cabin in Idaho. I want to thank Bob and Steve and Sharon for all their hard work in putting together this deal -- AOL stock is going to be worth something in the future, isn't it?
Brian
editor of the formerly privatly owned news site Libertynews.org
You can do 1200bps/9600bps amateur packet with your Handspring Visor and a TNC using the Shine Micro SM2496 $99 TNC module. You can see my station running at www.findham.net
Brian Lane
(Yes, I'm lead programmer for Shine Micro, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a cool project).
If I were a user of Morpheus I'd be looking at filing charges for cracking my computer and using it for unauthorized activities. Companies conducting business like this need to be naild HARD. Teach them a lesson and make an example of them.
And what about the programmers who wrote this 'feature'? Who are they? I wouldn't be opposed to blacklisting them, or at least smearing their names across the headlines. This is sleazy and unethical and shouldn't be tolerated by the rest of us 'respectible' programmers.
Brian
I wish I could say that this is unbelievable, but it isn't. After the hack job that Lucas did to re-release Star Wars (you CANNOT tell me that the new Jabba scene was any good, Han's arm passes thru his head for gosh sake!) to generate new revenue.
I cringe every time I hear Lucas say that he finally made Star Wars like he originally meant to. Gimme a break! And now he's branding guitars of all things? But really, it isn't a suprise, Star Wars was the first of the over-commercialized movies so there's no reason for them to stop now.
What's next? Cars? How about a Milennium Falcon SUV? I might buy one of those...
Brian
Now for a blatant plug, set a date and go visit my wife's Wedding Invitation business and order your invitations. We expect there to be lots of wedding pic stories soon.
Brian
And a barcode scanner so I can log groceries into and out of the kitchen!
Brian
Yes! I remember. we used that as our main editor until the project files started getting bigger than 64k. If it'd had large file support I would probably still be using it and passing it around.
Brian
and I pay for the software I used. I was one of the first to pay for Opera on Linux, even before it was completely useful. I need people to buy my software and programming services. This is really what happens when they buy software, they are paying you the amount it is worth to them to not have to write it themselves.
But I don't think that you can consider non-payment as piracy. These people want something for free and will never pay you for your work, no matter how low your price is. You really can't count them as lost revenue if there was no chance of revenue in the first place.
Morally these people shouldn't be using your software, but in the end there isn't anything you can do about it. The end result will be less available quality software. You have to be willing to support programmers, even if its $5 or so.
A previous poster made a good point about distribution. In the 'old days' you had to find a software publisher, or post it on BBSes. FidoNet helped software distribution greatly, and then along came the internet. The whole world is only a modem away and the cost of distribution is almost zero now -- So software prices should be reduced accordingly.
Take a look at the prices of PalmOS software, most are in the range of $5 to $20. For me the price break is around $10 for PalmOS apps. Similar pricing structures should be adopted for PC software. The market is huge, if you can lower your price and attract more users you are going to make up for those who aren't willing to pay.
Brian Lane
Programmer, etc.
www.brianlane.com
Hey, thanks for remembering us! But we're not Vaporware, we're just not in production yet. Beta testers have real units and are using them as we speak.
Documentation and Open Source software is available from our website at www.shinemicro.com, and the author of PocketAPRS has one and is in the process of porting his program over to our module.
Brian Lane
Lead Programmer
Shine Micro
Home of the SM2496 Visor Module
And it could support Ogg Vorbis if someone had the time to port it to the 160MHz TMS320C5416 DSP that we are using.
Brian Lane
Lead Programmer
Shine Micro
Home of the SM2496 Visor module.
The reason why this project is so good is that it just works. you install the client and you can connect securely without screweing around with configuring a dozen different programs, etc. I had it up and running in the time it took to download the .rpm and install it.
No, no, we already know the answer (42). Its the bloody question that is so elusive!
Brian
You have to. When the manufacturer drops their product line people stop buying it, that means they won't be buying Springboard modules either. You can't afford to develop a new product if there isn't a market for it.
Yes, there are alot of Visors out there, but how comfortable are you going to feel spending more money on your now obsolete device? The Springboard market hasn't been doing as well as expected as it is, but now we will never know if it would have reached a critical mass, will we?
Brian Lane
Lead Programmer
Shine Micro
Maker of the SM2496 DSP module
Handspring has just destroyed the Springboard and Visor markets with these statements. I am lead programmer for Shine Micro Shine Micro, maker of the SM2496 DSP module for the Visor, and we have been working hard to bring our product to market. Currently it is in Beta testing, but it now appears that we are going to have to redesign for a different platform, or dump the project entierly.
The quote was that the will be exiting the PDA market "but not today". That doesn't provide any kind of reassurance to any of the Springboard deleopers who have invested a great amount of time and effort into what is now a dead product line.
Yes, all product lines are finite. But you usually don't have the manufacturer announcing this fact prematurely. I don't see any reason for someone to buy a Visor or a Springboard module now that they know that the support will not be there sometime in the near future.
It sounds like Handspring is turning into a fancy cellphone company. I don't think that they will survive this move. The Visor and Springboard are a good product and would have carried them far into the future (just look at Palm).
Brian Lane
Lead Programmer
Shine Micro
Maker of the SM2496 DSP module
How could it be otherwise? If they license the software that they used our tax money to produce are they then going to reduce our taxes accordingly? Send us all dividend checks? Ha! I don't think so.
The only reasonable way to do it is to release the software under the GPL so that it cannot ever become closed software when used by anyone else.
Flash/Java/WhizBang gimmicks are not what attracts 'normal' folks to the net. Flash doesn't work all that well across most people's links (there are still a very large number of people using 56k or less). Webpages that pop open dozens of advertisements as you try to leave their sphere of influence aren't likely to attract too many people either. Email and other person-to-person communications are what attract people. How many have relative that only know how to use AOL and AIM? See!
It isn't too suprising to see a Flash virus appear. The current system just wasn't designed with security in mind. Nothing can ever be safe, but until there is a redesign of the way that your local system trusts 'tainted' input from the outside world there isn't the faintest glimmer of 'safe'.
HTML is 'pretty safe' because its purpose and capabilities are well defined. When you start tacking on things like Visual Basic and Flash you should expect trouble to be lurking just around the corner.
What's the solution? Don't participate in the multi-mediaizing of the net. Don't open ANY attachments and don't install stupid programs like Flash. Fill your webpages with content, not eye candy -- leave that to Hollywood.
Brian
Here's the relavent part of the decision:
"Acting pursuant to federal search warrants, the F.B.I. on January 15, 1999, entered Scarfo and Paolercio's business office, Merchant Services of Essex County, to search for evidence of an illegal gambling and loansharking operation. During their search of Merchant Services, the F.B.I. came across a personal computer and attempted to access its various files. They were unable to gain entry to an encrypted file named ?Factors.?
Suspecting the ?Factors? file contained evidence of an illegal gambling and loansharking operation, the F.B.I. returned to the location and, pursuant to two search warrants, installed what is known as a ?Key Logger System? (?KLS?) on the computer and/or computer keyboard in order to decipher the passphrase to the encrypted file, thereby gaining entry to the file."
Note that the FBI has a warrent for the first entry, and returned with new warrents to install the KLS. I'm as paranoid as the next guy about government intrusion (hence my Libertynews.org website) but the FBI followed the rules here. And as detailed in previous articles they actually bent over backwards to make sure the KLS did not record any of his online keystrokes.
This is the kind of thing that civil libertarians should be applauding, proper use of warrents and use of technology to limit the scope of thier intrusion.
And thats why watching too much TV will rot your brain. Especially tomorrow with all the marathons going on.
I need a couple more Dish Network receivers...