Windows 2000 Server is the 1 - 4 CPU version. Windows 2000 Advanced Server is the up-to-8 CPU version, and includes clustering services.
No mention of 64 bit for either version to my knowledge. They may have some wacko datacentre edition version for 64 bit but that's hardly a commonly used business piece of software.
Hmmm. "Final" digits of pi, eh? Hey, the comment was a reasonably funny idea, and the flamebait mod is a bit harsh, but have a think about it for a second.
I read in Q Magazine (music mag from the UK) a column by Blur's bassist in which he wrote that he was doing some thinking about the value of pi, which as we know is an infinite decimal. No, not in the style of "one ninth" which is, also, an infinite decimal (0.1111... recurring), but rather, an infinite, random sequence of digits, that occurs in a precise order.
Now think about that for a second. He pointed out that if you were to take the number 6 and repeat it a million times, and then string together the phone numbers of everyone in your nation's capital city, then that sequence of digits WILL occur somewhere within pi. In fact, it will occur an infinite number of times, but let's not labour the point.
Taking his original concept, it occurred to me that you could use a system whereby a sender and receiver both have a whizz-bang algorithm for calculating pi. Now, no doubt the maths graduates in Slashdot will chime in with how this can be done, but let's imagine that both you and I have some method of reliably generating a sequence from pi (e.g. start at the millionth digit within pi's sequence, and then crank out the next 100,000 values).
So imagine, say, if you were to take some digital media, e.g. the entire source code for Windows, and zip it up into a single archive. The sequence of values that represent the archive would also occur somewhere within the sequence of pi. Now assuming (ah! a big ask) I can FIND that sequence somewhere in there (may take a while...) I can effectively represent ANY binary stream by simply knowing where to start within pi's sequence, and for how many digits (known beforehand by having access to the original file). This way, the binary stream can be "stored" simply by reference to its starting digit, and its length.
This is a pretty mad concept when you think about it. Data transmissions for previously analysed, static data would become immediate (only two numbers to send) although the burden of using this technique naturally falls on the originator host to find the sequence within pi, and for the recipient to have a method of regenerating those digits. Hopefully, it would be easier to regenerate the sequence for the recipient. So a central computer with access to the media and a staggering quantity of poke (hey! The Earth Simulator!) can scan through the sequence of pi to find the starting point, but once that job is done, the recipients may not have to trawl through all of pi in order to regenerate the sequence (assuming you have an algorith that can start at an arbitrary location within the digit sequence... although this may not turn out to be the case. I don't know what algorithms people use to calculate pi to these levels of accuracy).
All digital media could be stored by those two values, irrespective of size. No DRM concerns for accessing digital media (hey, it's just two parameters to the pi algorithm, and I'd be fairly confident on the 'prior art' argument against patents prohibiting this if they tried to patent any restrictions). No media degredation in storage (e.g. CD-Rs not being readable after a few years). Who would need terabytes of storage, when a terabyte could be represented by two numbers? Unless, of couse, the starting point itself is so far into the sequence of pi that it takes MORE space to store the starting point than the size of the binary stream itself.
Anyway this comment is always going to languish in the -1 off-topic silt at the bottom of the Slashdot pond, but this occurred to me not so long ago and so I fancied sharing.
We apologise for this break in transmission, normal service will now be resumed.
Sort of. I know the guy was under pressure taking the photos (e.g. no grovelling around in the back of the cabinets, rooting around under the raised server room floors etc) but it didn't look like the server cluster was approximating 1km in size, which after all was the granularity of the model.
However no doubt these fellas would be pumping out a bit of heat, so that could be factored into that cubic kilometre in the model.
When I was using Lotus Notes back in '97 or so (R4.5) they had a feature whereby you could flag an email as being prohibited from being printed or from forwarded on, to restrict unauthorised circulation. Similarly you can definitely restrict access to PDFs you create by tweaking settings in Acrobat Distiller (e.g. cannot print, cannot copy text).
I don't think either technique could circumvent the screen-grabbing method as referenced elsewhere in the comments, however.
Anyway, if you call your boss a dick you can always play email Russian Roulette by sending the message, waiting as long as you dare, then recalling the message (of course, assuming you are running Outlook / Exchange). On second thoughts, no doubt they'll have a DRM switch to prevent that, too.
You might like to have a look at fibre channel. Not sure of the extent of support in Linux, but Windows has it already supported (as you'd imagine).
Fibre channel is expensive but notable due to higher %age usage in real-world use. The max throughput on Ethernet (you refer to IP) is somewhere between 30% and 50%, whereas fibre channel can realistically get up to about 80% usage. So, on a 1Gb card, that's not too shabby.
Anyway, others will have better hands on experience but it might serve as a useful alternative avenue to explore.
Interesting thread RE comparisons between RPM, apt, ports etc which I have some familiarity with but not enough to argue with the beards. However what I would like to see is some work on how an admin can centralise package distribution to internal users.
From personal experience, most of these package managers are focused on the end user making the decision to instigate an upgrade, however that is achieved. The execution of the upgrade is also within the hands of the end-user. However consider the scenario where you have a number of open source desktops and you have responsibility for ensuring that your users (a) have access to the applications they need (which will vary from user to user), (b) incorporate upgrades on a mandatory basis based upon criteria that you specify (e.g. security patches, other app patches you decide are required), (c) these applications are available to users wherever they log in, (d) they integrate well with whatever window manager you choose to use.
Now, I know this is easy to say and represents a lot of work, especially the WM integration (exactly how many WMs are there out there?) but consider from a corporate perspective - it's not going to look to good when you start advocating the current methodologies for obtaining packaged software for desktops when compared with MS Group Policy package distribution, Novell ZENworks, IBM Tivoli...
If you're going to review the current approaches to package distribution, and hopefully build an open standard at some point to fit in with LSB, then at least keep the door open for a centralised software distribution mechanisms.
As the differentiators between ISPs boil down to access speed, reliability, price and location, assuming you have a reasonable enough ISP for a reasonable price, there's little to encourage you to move to the competition.
Promoting 802.11b hotspots and general connection sharing skews the usage up beyond statistical averages for a single user, but it DOES get more customers - in terms of new connections, or swings from competitors, as well as building community rapport. After all, no one likes being EULA-ed out of getting the best value for money.
I'd be interested in comments from those that have set up a communal wireless area where the connection is priced per byte, rather than a flat rate, where EULAs prevent this sort of thing from maxing out the line.
Aegilops
Re:Why do we need wearable computers anyways?
on
Heads-Up Wearable Display
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Couldn't agree more about the inviting derision / theft / 'ass kicking' aspect, but I think we should remain a bit broad-minded about potential future uses.
Given that they will eventually make them as innocuous as, say, glasses (either normal corrective ones or Matrix-style RayBans) and perhaps get around to using wireless comms so you don't have the tell-tale (and rather ridiculous) umbilical cord trailing down from your ear to some main unit, I can think of some useful future applications if they integrate with GPS.
Ever been out on the streets looking for something or someone? Imagine a discreet heads-up navigation aid. I'm not suggesting anything so fancy as face recognition nonsense or whatever (e.g. for security people tracking faces against known offenders) - that can wait. But a simple integration of GPS with a pair of smart sunnies could easily result in - 'turn left here for a shortcut to the nearest public Gents' and so on.
I assume that the slideshow screengrab was for significantly scaled down original images. I draw your attention to the curvature on the corners of the "Slideshow" button area - pretty smooth and well displayed. But compare to the images displayed within the slideshow itself, particularly the red garment worn in the bottom left image - strong pixellation.
OK, it's conceivable that the original image was drawn out of Duplo bricks, but if so, frankly, I've seen better ASCII art.
Don't forget the obligatory unification of these future races all speaking with American accents.
Re:disks not suitable for heavy duty applications
on
Linux On HP Blades
·
· Score: 1
This post almost certainly too late to get anyone's attention, but there you go...
It doesn't surprise me that the blade servers come with fairly ho-hum internal disks. We have a large Citrix farm of 1U servers (we call them "pizza boxes") which are all attached to our SAN, which is only a step back from blade servers. We'd ideally not use any disk storage in the servers themselves, preferring to get it all from the SAN, and I imagine that this is a direction the blade servers will be going in.
We've found that in practice we can't happily get our pizza boxes to boot from the SAN disk images, hence we have internal disks for the operating system, with the application data itself residing on the SAN fabric. The 1U boxes we buy only have a single fibre-channel card at present, which is a bit worrying for true redundancy.
If you are using an internal disk for booting a blade you'd want it to be at least adequate for the OS (latency etc). The comments about the hard disk being a bit underwhelming still apply, unless these blades can boot straight off a fibre-channel card.
This post is three days old and buried long after the rest of the Slashdot world has moved on, but Hell it's my opinion anyway.
Recall that MS make more money from Office than Windows. I believe they should publish the.DOC format to facilitate office document interoperability. Otherwise I think your two remedies are bang on the money.
Aegilops
Re:Subscriptions should add value
on
Slashdot Updates
·
· Score: 1
An excellent suggestion. However extend this by incorporating some of the other ideas about targetted ads. I.e. your subscription charges vary depending on the amount of business you do with the affiliate sites (not just click-throughs). That is, I often have browsed Think Geek because I like their product range, but have yet to make a purchase. So what's the value of their ad? Zero (at this stage) other than fostering a positive feeling towards them as a vendor. So I may well be buying something from them in the future, but at this stage they haven't derived revenue from their ad. If Slashdot and ThinkGeek (or others) could sort out the user ID link (Hey! Let's use.NET!) then the model would work. Similarly, who hasn't bought something from Amazon?
Consider also allowing subscribers to choose no ads at all (incurring top dollar subscription charges), targetted ads (price varies depending on business with other sites as detailed above) or generic ads. Use that suggestion about customising Slashboxes with the advertisers. Moderate adverts by the loyal faithful. Pull ads that simply irritate everyone. Good quality, non-intrusive targetted ads don't grate on your soul.
Finally, make it a Slashdot poll. Just do something that people can live with and don't lose critical mass.
Consider its use as a home device management "brain". A gadget doesn't have to look smart or pretty, or have particular high throughput - it just needs to have the right I/O and never go wrong.
Consider this: you arrive at work, and ask yourself "Did I lock the front door?" Well, by using simple devices like this, wired in to your home security system (which, of course, we all have) you could find out. How about - the 'fridge door hasn't shut properly, and now your Jolt Colas (or whatever) are getting too warm. Better send an alarm (SNMP...) to you - while you're at work. Someone rings the front door bell at your house, and your webcam above the door switches on, streams video to your PC at work (naturally, as blessed by your local Firewall obergruppenfuhrer) for you to either remotely unlock the front door, or for you to choose to ignore it, and finally, schedule a random light activation pattern for when you go on holiday.
OK, this device isn't really all about these developments, but simple, I/O enabled boxes, which are ready to go through a web interface, can SNMP on to your domestic home appliances, and are secure enough would represent a good market. They don't have to look all that sexy, but just be cheap and functional, and WORK.
Two parenthetical comments in closing, however:
1) I don't expect for a second that all those white goods manufacturers will agree to an open standard, and we'll end up with a plethora of separate boxes controlling different sub-systems at home (a bit like any control panel near the computer room), and
2) Am I really that forgetful when I leave the house? Hey - now did I lock the car door...
I'm sure 1e5 Slashdot readers can give their two penneth in advice for project management, but suffice it to say that nailing scope for your project is a major win. Get stakeholders or key significant people to agree to what you are trying to achieve, what you include in scope, and specifically, what you exclude as out of scope.
Then, for each product or deliverable (something you can touch, or something that now exists when it didn't before etc) that you need to produce, classify them via the acronym MoSCoW:
Must
Should
Could
Won't (i.e. not in this release)
Helps to focus the mind on priorities. Otherwise, an excellent idea and full marks for the announcement so far.
We read recently elsewhere about people buying cheapo 802.11b kit and simply plugging it in, essentially giving their neighbours [sic] a free leg-up on to the Internet. How does this compare with what you're proposing, that local municipalities deploy a public service style network?
I would think that a public sector MAN would be somewhere between the two extremes that we currently have. On one end, corporate cable provided by the usual suspects, and on the other extreme the so-called "parasitic grid". What would happen instead if a local county council (or US equivalent) subsidised cheap 802.11b receivers / transmitters? The expensive bit would be for the up-link which could potentially be a cost shared more equally across the community. For instance, your electricity shouldn't cost more simply because you live further from the power station, so why not employ a similar equality scheme for 'net traffic?
Personally I can't help but think that the ultimate direction for all this is for the "swarm effect" written about in the lamented Rapidly Changing Face of Computing, where personal transmitting devices effectively become a collosal wireless network.
This is probably even more off-topic, but bear with me:
Just managed to get the company to buy a Mac. This is for a 700 employee MS-purity site (MS everything bar HP-UX boxes for Oracle). Have to say the experience made me go "ohh" in a quiet little voice of stunned amazement. Incredible combination of Linux/*BSD internals with a glorious user interface, and the whole thing reeking of design and quality.
However the relevant bit about all this was the rather groovy way the desktop is displayed, with all the natty minimise / maximise animations. Apparently this is all done on a PDF variant called Quartz. Seemed pretty good to me.
We've already been hearing from AtheOSnot using X. Perhaps (and this is where I come marginally more on-topic) there's some mileage in merging the current efforts on xPDF, or some open alternative, the great work on Quartz from the Apple fellows, and binning the antiquated X interface. You could allow for all sorts of more up-to-date features a la Citrix's ICA, e.g. encryption, compression and the like, plus allowing better app serving in the ASP model.
What with the recent proliferation in alternative hardware for future Linux platforms (I'm thinking here of PS2, Xbox) this sounds like a further extrapolation towards the consumer IT device. Surely the end-user expectation is to just plug the thing in and get on with it. Issues such as DHCP, Broadband / PPP etc will have to work very well, particularly in all target areas in which they hope to sell this stuff (e.g. regional differences).
In what way do you think the Linux.4TV platform will simplify configuration and updates for the end user? With an environment that revs as frequently as Linux, a purely automated system that keeps the kit up to date would be a major boon, and very much at odds with the normal end-user expectation for electrical devices - they're great for a few months but before you know it, they're yesteryear's technology and the only option is to junk them.
Will these guys be paying attention to security, too? An automated "keep it current, keep it secure" mechanism a la Ximian Red Carpet would be another major selling point.
Good point RE incremental costs vs incremental value. However, although a touch off-topic, while thinking about marginal increases in your value, what about typing proficiency?
A constant source of irritation in the IT workplace is seeing all this scorching hardware, and highly (note - not over-) paid professionals hunting and pecking at approximately 15wpm.
Sure, not all tasks are typing rate intensive. However, for whatever reason I ended up at over 80wpm, and there's little to beat the feeling when you're deep in the groove at the command prompt, firing in a sequence of commands as fast as you think them, punctuating each command with a decisive punch on the return key as per Bishop in Aliens.
And then you look across at your colleage, hunting around on the keyboard, typing in the same commands with an error in the first dozen characters.
So - good point RE processor upgrade, and I'm all in favour of more coal on the fire, but think about the increase in your value to your employer by bumping up your WPM. In any event, there's a great personal return to you by being able to painlessly touch-type.
Slashdot Mirror
Not entirely convinced that this is correct.
Windows 2000 Server is the 1 - 4 CPU version. Windows 2000 Advanced Server is the up-to-8 CPU version, and includes clustering services.
No mention of 64 bit for either version to my knowledge. They may have some wacko datacentre edition version for 64 bit but that's hardly a commonly used business piece of software.
Aegilops
Hmmm. "Final" digits of pi, eh? Hey, the comment was a reasonably funny idea, and the flamebait mod is a bit harsh, but have a think about it for a second.
... although this may not turn out to be the case. I don't know what algorithms people use to calculate pi to these levels of accuracy).
I read in Q Magazine (music mag from the UK) a column by Blur's bassist in which he wrote that he was doing some thinking about the value of pi, which as we know is an infinite decimal. No, not in the style of "one ninth" which is, also, an infinite decimal (0.1111... recurring), but rather, an infinite, random sequence of digits, that occurs in a precise order.
Now think about that for a second. He pointed out that if you were to take the number 6 and repeat it a million times, and then string together the phone numbers of everyone in your nation's capital city, then that sequence of digits WILL occur somewhere within pi. In fact, it will occur an infinite number of times, but let's not labour the point.
Taking his original concept, it occurred to me that you could use a system whereby a sender and receiver both have a whizz-bang algorithm for calculating pi. Now, no doubt the maths graduates in Slashdot will chime in with how this can be done, but let's imagine that both you and I have some method of reliably generating a sequence from pi (e.g. start at the millionth digit within pi's sequence, and then crank out the next 100,000 values).
So imagine, say, if you were to take some digital media, e.g. the entire source code for Windows, and zip it up into a single archive. The sequence of values that represent the archive would also occur somewhere within the sequence of pi. Now assuming (ah! a big ask) I can FIND that sequence somewhere in there (may take a while...) I can effectively represent ANY binary stream by simply knowing where to start within pi's sequence, and for how many digits (known beforehand by having access to the original file). This way, the binary stream can be "stored" simply by reference to its starting digit, and its length.
This is a pretty mad concept when you think about it. Data transmissions for previously analysed, static data would become immediate (only two numbers to send) although the burden of using this technique naturally falls on the originator host to find the sequence within pi, and for the recipient to have a method of regenerating those digits. Hopefully, it would be easier to regenerate the sequence for the recipient. So a central computer with access to the media and a staggering quantity of poke (hey! The Earth Simulator!) can scan through the sequence of pi to find the starting point, but once that job is done, the recipients may not have to trawl through all of pi in order to regenerate the sequence (assuming you have an algorith that can start at an arbitrary location within the digit sequence
All digital media could be stored by those two values, irrespective of size. No DRM concerns for accessing digital media (hey, it's just two parameters to the pi algorithm, and I'd be fairly confident on the 'prior art' argument against patents prohibiting this if they tried to patent any restrictions). No media degredation in storage (e.g. CD-Rs not being readable after a few years). Who would need terabytes of storage, when a terabyte could be represented by two numbers? Unless, of couse, the starting point itself is so far into the sequence of pi that it takes MORE space to store the starting point than the size of the binary stream itself.
Anyway this comment is always going to languish in the -1 off-topic silt at the bottom of the Slashdot pond, but this occurred to me not so long ago and so I fancied sharing.
We apologise for this break in transmission, normal service will now be resumed.
Aegilops
Sort of. I know the guy was under pressure taking the photos (e.g. no grovelling around in the back of the cabinets, rooting around under the raised server room floors etc) but it didn't look like the server cluster was approximating 1km in size, which after all was the granularity of the model.
However no doubt these fellas would be pumping out a bit of heat, so that could be factored into that cubic kilometre in the model.
Aegilops
When I was using Lotus Notes back in '97 or so (R4.5) they had a feature whereby you could flag an email as being prohibited from being printed or from forwarded on, to restrict unauthorised circulation. Similarly you can definitely restrict access to PDFs you create by tweaking settings in Acrobat Distiller (e.g. cannot print, cannot copy text).
I don't think either technique could circumvent the screen-grabbing method as referenced elsewhere in the comments, however.
Anyway, if you call your boss a dick you can always play email Russian Roulette by sending the message, waiting as long as you dare, then recalling the message (of course, assuming you are running Outlook / Exchange). On second thoughts, no doubt they'll have a DRM switch to prevent that, too.
Aegilops
You might like to have a look at fibre channel. Not sure of the extent of support in Linux, but Windows has it already supported (as you'd imagine).
Fibre channel is expensive but notable due to higher %age usage in real-world use. The max throughput on Ethernet (you refer to IP) is somewhere between 30% and 50%, whereas fibre channel can realistically get up to about 80% usage. So, on a 1Gb card, that's not too shabby.
Anyway, others will have better hands on experience but it might serve as a useful alternative avenue to explore.
Aegilops
Interesting thread RE comparisons between RPM, apt, ports etc which I have some familiarity with but not enough to argue with the beards. However what I would like to see is some work on how an admin can centralise package distribution to internal users.
...
From personal experience, most of these package managers are focused on the end user making the decision to instigate an upgrade, however that is achieved. The execution of the upgrade is also within the hands of the end-user. However consider the scenario where you have a number of open source desktops and you have responsibility for ensuring that your users (a) have access to the applications they need (which will vary from user to user), (b) incorporate upgrades on a mandatory basis based upon criteria that you specify (e.g. security patches, other app patches you decide are required), (c) these applications are available to users wherever they log in, (d) they integrate well with whatever window manager you choose to use.
Now, I know this is easy to say and represents a lot of work, especially the WM integration (exactly how many WMs are there out there?) but consider from a corporate perspective - it's not going to look to good when you start advocating the current methodologies for obtaining packaged software for desktops when compared with MS Group Policy package distribution, Novell ZENworks, IBM Tivoli
If you're going to review the current approaches to package distribution, and hopefully build an open standard at some point to fit in with LSB, then at least keep the door open for a centralised software distribution mechanisms.
Aegilops
Promoting 802.11b hotspots and general connection sharing skews the usage up beyond statistical averages for a single user, but it DOES get more customers - in terms of new connections, or swings from competitors, as well as building community rapport. After all, no one likes being EULA-ed out of getting the best value for money.
I'd be interested in comments from those that have set up a communal wireless area where the connection is priced per byte, rather than a flat rate, where EULAs prevent this sort of thing from maxing out the line.
Aegilops
Couldn't agree more about the inviting derision / theft / 'ass kicking' aspect, but I think we should remain a bit broad-minded about potential future uses.
Given that they will eventually make them as innocuous as, say, glasses (either normal corrective ones or Matrix-style RayBans) and perhaps get around to using wireless comms so you don't have the tell-tale (and rather ridiculous) umbilical cord trailing down from your ear to some main unit, I can think of some useful future applications if they integrate with GPS.
Ever been out on the streets looking for something or someone? Imagine a discreet heads-up navigation aid. I'm not suggesting anything so fancy as face recognition nonsense or whatever (e.g. for security people tracking faces against known offenders) - that can wait. But a simple integration of GPS with a pair of smart sunnies could easily result in - 'turn left here for a shortcut to the nearest public Gents' and so on.
Aegilops
OK, it's conceivable that the original image was drawn out of Duplo bricks, but if so, frankly, I've seen better ASCII art.
Aegilops
Don't forget the obligatory unification of these future races all speaking with American accents.
This post almost certainly too late to get anyone's attention, but there you go...
It doesn't surprise me that the blade servers come with fairly ho-hum internal disks. We have a large Citrix farm of 1U servers (we call them "pizza boxes") which are all attached to our SAN, which is only a step back from blade servers. We'd ideally not use any disk storage in the servers themselves, preferring to get it all from the SAN, and I imagine that this is a direction the blade servers will be going in.
We've found that in practice we can't happily get our pizza boxes to boot from the SAN disk images, hence we have internal disks for the operating system, with the application data itself residing on the SAN fabric. The 1U boxes we buy only have a single fibre-channel card at present, which is a bit worrying for true redundancy.
If you are using an internal disk for booting a blade you'd want it to be at least adequate for the OS (latency etc). The comments about the hard disk being a bit underwhelming still apply, unless these blades can boot straight off a fibre-channel card.
Aegilops
Recall that MS make more money from Office than Windows. I believe they should publish the
Aegilops
An excellent suggestion. However extend this by incorporating some of the other ideas about targetted ads. I.e. your subscription charges vary depending on the amount of business you do with the affiliate sites (not just click-throughs). That is, I often have browsed Think Geek because I like their product range, but have yet to make a purchase. So what's the value of their ad? Zero (at this stage) other than fostering a positive feeling towards them as a vendor. So I may well be buying something from them in the future, but at this stage they haven't derived revenue from their ad. If Slashdot and ThinkGeek (or others) could sort out the user ID link (Hey! Let's use .NET!) then the model would work. Similarly, who hasn't bought something from Amazon?
Consider also allowing subscribers to choose no ads at all (incurring top dollar subscription charges), targetted ads (price varies depending on business with other sites as detailed above) or generic ads. Use that suggestion about customising Slashboxes with the advertisers. Moderate adverts by the loyal faithful. Pull ads that simply irritate everyone. Good quality, non-intrusive targetted ads don't grate on your soul.
Finally, make it a Slashdot poll. Just do something that people can live with and don't lose critical mass.
Aegilops
Consider its use as a home device management "brain". A gadget doesn't have to look smart or pretty, or have particular high throughput - it just needs to have the right I/O and never go wrong.
Consider this: you arrive at work, and ask yourself "Did I lock the front door?" Well, by using simple devices like this, wired in to your home security system (which, of course, we all have) you could find out. How about - the 'fridge door hasn't shut properly, and now your Jolt Colas (or whatever) are getting too warm. Better send an alarm (SNMP...) to you - while you're at work. Someone rings the front door bell at your house, and your webcam above the door switches on, streams video to your PC at work (naturally, as blessed by your local Firewall obergruppenfuhrer) for you to either remotely unlock the front door, or for you to choose to ignore it, and finally, schedule a random light activation pattern for when you go on holiday.
OK, this device isn't really all about these developments, but simple, I/O enabled boxes, which are ready to go through a web interface, can SNMP on to your domestic home appliances, and are secure enough would represent a good market. They don't have to look all that sexy, but just be cheap and functional, and WORK.
Two parenthetical comments in closing, however:
1) I don't expect for a second that all those white goods manufacturers will agree to an open standard, and we'll end up with a plethora of separate boxes controlling different sub-systems at home (a bit like any control panel near the computer room), and
2) Am I really that forgetful when I leave the house? Hey - now did I lock the car door...
Aegilops
Then, for each product or deliverable (something you can touch, or something that now exists when it didn't before etc) that you need to produce, classify them via the acronym MoSCoW:
Must
Should
Could
Won't (i.e. not in this release)
Helps to focus the mind on priorities. Otherwise, an excellent idea and full marks for the announcement so far.
Aegilops
We read recently elsewhere about people buying cheapo 802.11b kit and simply plugging it in, essentially giving their neighbours [sic] a free leg-up on to the Internet. How does this compare with what you're proposing, that local municipalities deploy a public service style network?
I would think that a public sector MAN would be somewhere between the two extremes that we currently have. On one end, corporate cable provided by the usual suspects, and on the other extreme the so-called "parasitic grid". What would happen instead if a local county council (or US equivalent) subsidised cheap 802.11b receivers / transmitters? The expensive bit would be for the up-link which could potentially be a cost shared more equally across the community. For instance, your electricity shouldn't cost more simply because you live further from the power station, so why not employ a similar equality scheme for 'net traffic?
Personally I can't help but think that the ultimate direction for all this is for the "swarm effect" written about in the lamented Rapidly Changing Face of Computing, where personal transmitting devices effectively become a collosal wireless network.
Aegilops
This is probably even more off-topic, but bear with me:
Just managed to get the company to buy a Mac. This is for a 700 employee MS-purity site (MS everything bar HP-UX boxes for Oracle). Have to say the experience made me go "ohh" in a quiet little voice of stunned amazement. Incredible combination of Linux/*BSD internals with a glorious user interface, and the whole thing reeking of design and quality.
However the relevant bit about all this was the rather groovy way the desktop is displayed, with all the natty minimise / maximise animations. Apparently this is all done on a PDF variant called Quartz. Seemed pretty good to me.
We've already been hearing from AtheOS not using X. Perhaps (and this is where I come marginally more on-topic) there's some mileage in merging the current efforts on xPDF, or some open alternative, the great work on Quartz from the Apple fellows, and binning the antiquated X interface. You could allow for all sorts of more up-to-date features a la Citrix's ICA, e.g. encryption, compression and the like, plus allowing better app serving in the ASP model.
Aegilops
What with the recent proliferation in alternative hardware for future Linux platforms (I'm thinking here of PS2, Xbox) this sounds like a further extrapolation towards the consumer IT device. Surely the end-user expectation is to just plug the thing in and get on with it. Issues such as DHCP, Broadband / PPP etc will have to work very well, particularly in all target areas in which they hope to sell this stuff (e.g. regional differences).
In what way do you think the Linux.4TV platform will simplify configuration and updates for the end user? With an environment that revs as frequently as Linux, a purely automated system that keeps the kit up to date would be a major boon, and very much at odds with the normal end-user expectation for electrical devices - they're great for a few months but before you know it, they're yesteryear's technology and the only option is to junk them.
Will these guys be paying attention to security, too? An automated "keep it current, keep it secure" mechanism a la Ximian Red Carpet would be another major selling point.
Aegilops
Good point RE incremental costs vs incremental value. However, although a touch off-topic, while thinking about marginal increases in your value, what about typing proficiency?
A constant source of irritation in the IT workplace is seeing all this scorching hardware, and highly (note - not over-) paid professionals hunting and pecking at approximately 15wpm.
Sure, not all tasks are typing rate intensive. However, for whatever reason I ended up at over 80wpm, and there's little to beat the feeling when you're deep in the groove at the command prompt, firing in a sequence of commands as fast as you think them, punctuating each command with a decisive punch on the return key as per Bishop in Aliens.
And then you look across at your colleage, hunting around on the keyboard, typing in the same commands with an error in the first dozen characters.
So - good point RE processor upgrade, and I'm all in favour of more coal on the fire, but think about the increase in your value to your employer by bumping up your WPM. In any event, there's a great personal return to you by being able to painlessly touch-type.
Aegilops