You obviously have no understanding of "work made for hire." This has a *specific* legal definition that involves *employment*, of the "withholding-taxes-from-your-paycheck" variety. Even long-term contractors working in an office are the holders of copyright of their work unless their contract says otherwise. Photographers aren't exploiting a loophole, they are making sure people understand the nature of the work.
Disclaimer: I'm am a professional photographer on the side (day job = programmer), and I deliver the final print-quality JPEGs on CD to my customers and a signed release for reproduction. I charge for my time rather than playing copyright cop on prints.
We had a flat tax in the beginning. Then the beaurocrats got ahold of it and carving out special-interest exemptions and nanny-government incentives and look what we have today.
Besides, a flat tax *does* hurt the poor. While *your* tax dollars come out of the money you make above and beyond your needs, *their* tax dollars come out of rent money, healthcare, and food. If you make the tax rate low enough for the poor (who pay essentially nothing now), you aren't collecting enough from everyone else to fund our tax-and-spend two-party system.
Which is one reason I support the FairTax: it removes the hidden payroll and SS taxes from the poor's paycheck and gives them a strong incentive to invest that money. In addition, any taxes they *do* spend on necessities are refunded.
Under FairTax, new goods and services sold over the Internet would be taxed at the federal rate and collected by one of the two states involved in the transaction. It's not clear which state should be considered the POS yet. Used goods would be exempt.
Adds a bit of complexity to shopping carts, but gets rid of our economy having to tediously fill out and process billions of pages of federal tax forms just to fund the government--a fair trade in my estimation.
As one of the people who replied in the original thread, my post was not meant so much as a flame as it was an admonishment. I didn't attack his character, only the idea that he was proud of his employer's activity. However, I did not think less of him for closing the comments--I know I opened a can of worms on his site, and I don't expect his blog to be the forum for a national debate on the viability and limitations of software patents.
'Marking' software patents will work about as well as 'marking' spam--without a "spam filter", the conjestion and abuse are not improved because the incentive for such abuse is still there.
The problem is that, whether by laziness, incompetance, or corruption, the USPTO has exceeded its Constitutional mandate and is extending protection to companies for "inventions" outside the litmus tests that are required by law.
We also have really decent campaign finance disclosure regulations here in the US, but does that really stop politicians from being beholden to [insert evil special interest]?
Companies claim that they are just "keeping up with the flow of traffic"--filing frivolous patents for defensive protection against other frivolous patents (Eolas, etc.).
The sad fact is that, under the current system, this *is* necessary. But, like a stampede, the *individual* defensive solution only makes things worse for *everyone* in the end.
I think I have a solution that would solve the problem, I posted it to my blog (too much detail to repeat here):
I'm also a FairTax supporter and generally agreed with your post, but I have to point out that even after EIC and other refundable credits, the very poor still pay taxes, in the form of Social Ponzi tax and Medicare, and in the form of reduced wages passed on by their employer (who pays the other half of those taxes).
Under the FairTax, however, they are refunded the *entire* tax on necessities, including the 15.3% currently withheld under FICA.
Like my grandfather always said, "Money ain't money 'till you spend it."
But even if they aren't spending it, they *ARE* investing it (unless they are really, really dumb). Investments create growth, provide jobs, bolster the economy, etc., and the government *will* get its share when those people (or their heirs) spend the money.
Refactor the tax code--support the FairTax: http://www.fairtax.org/
I got the same letter from GoDaddy (former customer, love how they don't let me unsubscribe without snail-mail), but though I am a HUGE believer in privacy/speech rights, I had a different reaction to it:
1. This is only the.US TLD, a limited (if artificial) resource, just like frequency spectrum, real estate, game animals, trademarks, etc. You are trading some public registration information for a monopoly on a domain name. Get over it.
2. If you have a legitimate need to be private, don't register a domain name. Not all URLs must be in the form "www\.[^.]{3,}\.us".
3. GoDaddy makes a FREAKING CRAPLOAD of money with their "unlisted" domain "feature." Even if there are NO spammers among their customers, GoDaddy has a huge incentive to spread FUD about information anyone could find in a phone book anyway.
The main patent is #6,686,926 (linked above, this incorporates an earlier patent). Another related patent they have is #6,515,659.
In short: someone manually draws lines around each object and scoots it over for the right eye, background-cloning the gap. Their software assists in adjusting the object placements from one frame to the next, saving what would otherwise be a monumental task. Their "shift" algorithm is capable of assigning a bump-map-like distortion so the objects have a natural curve rather than being sprite cut-outs.
Side-note: to get a similar effect (for a few minutes at least), watch a movie with a pair of cheap sunglasses with one glass removed.
While generally I would agree, the situation here is that the "mega-corporation" is letting you use 20% of *their* paid-for time to be a part of the R&D that interests you.
"Personal stuff" for me also includes photography, music, politics, blogging, etc. While those interests would likely influence I would spend my "20%" if I worked for Google, the "personal stuff" itself remains mine.
If you are paid as a software developer, it's not healthy career-wise to have all of your "personal stuff" also be programming as well. If you feel the need to draw lines in the sand between work tasks and personal R&D in the same field, you should consider self-employment--you'll be happier if your loyalties are not split between the job that pays you and the one you wish would do so.
Or, go work for Google, where you can be paid to work on the cool stuff, leaving more time for family and non-programming "personal stuff" that you won't have to feel like you are hoarding from your employer.
As a semi-pro photographer, I can see the benefit of connecting a headless hard drive to a camera, but I wouldn't like the idea of waiting for USB-speed transfers from my camera.
Instead, I use a similar device (the X's Drive Pro), which is an external hard drive (USB) that includes several built-in card readers. Connected to the PC, the card readers and hard drives are individually mounted, but when not connected to the computer, the device itself can copy everything on the connected memory cards to the hard drive with a single button click.
This workflow allows me to fill up a CF card, put another in the camera and keep shooting, and put the full CF card in the drive and let it make the backup copy while sitting in the camera bag.
I then *only* reuse cards if I run out, thus protecting against a hard drive drop/failure, errored-out copy, dead hard drive battery, etc.
When you are serious about photography, having an hard drive backup with automated copy capability is a MUST. I just got a call this morning from a friend whose photographer accidently lost some wedding ceremony pictures due to a failed copy to his laptop--he reused the card for Christmas before realizing it, so 15 shots couldn't be recovered (I was there as well in a non-pro capacity and got a few keepers). It's also a heckuva lot cheaper than having an endless supply of CF cards to travel with.
My favorite quote from the article is, 'The company argues that the improvements are important enough that applications should be changed to accommodate them.'
1. You've never had to fiddle with code, edit make files, and recompile libraries, drivers, or applications for a new major kernel revision? Whatever.
2. The addition of NOOP-capable processor support is a Good Thing(tm) (except, potentially, for DRM research and fair-use overrides). Any application broken by enforcement of such a basic premise of good programming deserved to be broken, and its developers should be soundly thrashed by a wet noodle.
3. I have Windows XP SP2, which implements the same basic changes, and have not had any apps go south on me because of these changes. I'm no fan of the software firewall (better to turn of the *&$*# insecure listening daemons, not leave them running and add another layer of potential vulnerability, and I won't get into the snake oil beliefs people have about firewalls in general), but it does actually work and is a breeze to configure.
4. As others have said, I really wish they would add more device support (i.e., make the server product basically a souped-up version of XP Pro) so I could use it on my main machine at home.
5. I manage a Win2k3 web server at work and am tickled pink by the performance, maintainability, etc., especially w/r/t IIS. Comparisons to NT or even later SPs of 2k don't hold water. I'm not saying Linux/FreeBSD/etc. aren't worthy competitors, but I spend about 1/20th of the time administrating my Win2k3 box as I did my FreeBSD and Linux boxen a few years ago.
6. Most of the companies who will be affected by these changes adversely are probably the sort that are still stuck in NT or 2kSP3 (with Windows 98 or IE5/6 on the client) due to crappy custom applications.
Probably not exactly what you are looking for, but I have a FusionHDTV3 HD tuner card and I'm pretty happy with it.
Pros: - Supports OTA ATSC, as well as some support for QAM64 and QAM256 (unencrypted only). - No broadcast flag hoops to jump through. - Recorded DTV programming is saved directly to disk as non-DRM'd MPEG-2 TP files (with full AC3 audio) that are easily converted to MPEG-2 PS format. - Recorded NTSC (analog) programming is saved in MPEG-2 PS that could be transcoded easily for DVD. - Image captures are saved as TIFF at full resolution. - Cheap: ~$150
Caveats: - Output is only via your video card (overlay). Works with DVI, but tweaking video card resolutions to those that "HDTV-ready" televisions like might be a pain. - Only RF inputs, no component/DVI - No Linux support that I'm aware of - Works best with ATi RADEON-based video cards (can offload more CPU work) - The recording scheduler is buggy--like first year compsci student buggy. - Slow tech support response - Haven't tried using it with any of the popular HTPC apps yet - Needs a decently-strong HD signal (18db+), a Radio Shack amplifier
You should be ashamed of yourself for attaching your name to the letter set out recently by the National Association of Attorneys General to P2P software companies. Your ignorance about P2P technology and the Internet in general is proven by the ridiculous factual misrepresentations in the letter.
As a software developer who is interested in legal and innovative uses of P2P technology, I am deeply saddened by the sheer Joe Sixpack-level stupidity about technology issues in the highest levels of our governments. P2P is not "an alternative" to the Internet, it is the Internet as it was originally intended: in the hands of the public. I would think that in a state that considers concealed handguns a concept worthy of legal protection, the Attorney General might have some backbone about conservative ideals such as personal responsibility.
Also, I'm personally offended that you refer to Texas citizens as "your consumers." I'm not your consumer, you are a public servant. At the very next opportunity I have, you can be sure that I'll be casting my vote towards someone who has a clue about how government officials should not simply regurgitate every piece of prose handed to them by Hollywood companies pretending to be interested in "protecting the children."
Basically, their battle cry is "consumer protection," claiming that people need to be "protected" from the content they may find on P2P networks. Oh, the children! Oh, those unsuspecting parents who suddenly find out there is PORN on the INTERNET!
Reading the letter proves these people are completely clueless about technology. A few choice quotes:
"P2P file-sharing technology can allow its users to access the files of other
users, even when the computer is "off" if the computer itself is connected to the Internet via
broadband."
Look, Ma, no power!
"Market forces and technological limitations of the Internet (e.g., the need to pay for web space and bandwidth) have combined to make peer-topeer software a more attractive alternative to the Internet as a means of disseminating pornography."
First of all, the whole point of P2P is to empower normal Internet users to share information without fear of being swamped with traffic. The "popularity" of your shared information could be because it is illegal or purient, but it could also be because of your artistic talents or the importance of your political or social message. Sure, it's a small baby in a very large bathtub, but you can't dismiss an entire technology on the count that it might actually accomplish its goal.
Second, legal porn, like anything else sold on the Internet, is sold through web sites, not P2P, because P2P doesn't have any built-in ecommerce capability. Anything on the P2P networks is either (a) pirated, (b) advertising, or (c) truly amateur. A porn company would have to be out of their minds to share their archives on a P2P network.
"The Business Software Alliance estimates that its members lost $13 billion in revenue last year due to software piracy."
If you count every 3l33t h@x0r who downloaded a serial number as a "lost sale," you're either being disenginuous or you are a fool.
There is absolutely no proof that any significant chunk of software piracy has anything to do with P2P. Most software piracy is within small businesses and among people "sharing disks" with their families.
"...more needs to be done by your companies to warn your P2P users as to the specific legal and personal risks they face when they use P2P technology for the illegal ends of disseminating pornography and "sharing" copyrighted music, movies, and software."
And since over half a million people died in auto accidents last year, perhaps the auto manufacturers should be forced to do more to "educate their users" in how to not drink and drive, or at least how to safely hold a Bic Mac in one hand, a cell phone in the other, and the steering wheel with their knees.
"However, the undertaking of enforcement actions against individual users does not excuse your companies from fostering deceptive practices on our consumers that invade their privacy
and threaten their security."
So, by "deceptive practices," they mean distributing file-sharing software that might, if you aren't careful, share your files. Are we assuming that all P2P users are also Florida voters?
"Nor do they excuse your companies from
avoiding software design changes that deliberately prevent law enforcement in our States from prosecuting P2P users for violations of the law." [my emphasis]
And auto manufacturers avoid software design changes such as automatically calling the cops when you break the speed limit. Every useful tool has potentially illegal uses, and any attempts to regulate that tool will also decrease its legal usefulness.
"In the past, we have initiated enforcement actions against Internet web sites that, without the knowledge of our consumers, placed "cookies" on their computers designed to track their use of the Inter
Aspie's are only one part of the so-called "smart" population. We're "smart" in a different way than many other "smart" people--not better or worse, but focused differently. But personality is a combination of brain chemistry and choice. I know Aspies who are bitter and egotistical, and others who are gregarious and loving. Where you start != where you are.
Labeling *symptoms* leads to stereotypes and bigotry (fat="lazy", dyslexic="stupid", etc.), but finding root *causes* and labeling them, I think, gives people an understanding of *why* they are how they are and thus *how* to improve. Without the attempt and desire to improve and work within your gifts and limitations, the label simply becomes and excuse.
Beyond normal INTP, there is a chance that you (and some other posters here) have undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome. I didn't know until less than a year ago, and I'm 28 now. Fortunately I've coped well over the years and adjusted for the rough stuff (social cues, facial recognition, pushing myself through college, etc.), but it's still a conscious struggle.
On the good side, though, I enjoy above-average intelligence, a voracious appetite for learning (at least learning about the stuff I'm interested in at the time), and a great memory for numbers and oddball facts (counterbalanced by a terrible memory for nearly everything else).
Not to fear: Asperger's, like its cousins Autism and possible Schizophrenia, it a "continuum" disorder: some people have it bad, others have it just enough for diagnosis but not enough to greatly affect their lives. It's often mis-diagnosed as ADD, ADHD, or just plain smartass.
Google for it and read up. There was an article in Wired recently that made the statistical tie from technies to Aspies, for instance. If you have it bad enough, you may be able to receive some accomodation from your university, but even if not, understanding the potential issues can help you make a conscious effort to work around inside your rewired brain to achieve your goals.
Re:Definately a bad choice on the part of the devs
on
A New Look For Firefox
·
· Score: 1
If this post is correct, I'm definitely pissed. These look like total crap, like some sort of third-rate antivirus software. These were obviously designed by someone who has no clue about the standards for Windows XP. A clue for the artists: it doesn't matter what you personally think about the Microsoft standards on palette and perspective. What matters is making a beautiful theme so Firefox can succeed in the Windows market. Qute is the closest I've seen, and this is several steps backwards.
ReplayTV: - Same price after subscription as TiVo. - Ethernet connection *and* dialup (your choice). - Offload shows in MPEG2 format via said Ethernet port, tweak, burn to DVD. - Fast menus and scrolling. - No need to recompile every few weeks. - Pause live TV. - Record on a schedule--time or show-based. - Integrates with other Replays on the same LAN.
Agree, I just suggested this on my blog... I'm reading through it again now. The entire Perelandra series by Lewis is highly underrated, likely because it was *not* targeted to children, yet still has Lewis' distinctive allegorical bent.
I have an old Dell 233MHz Celeron-based laptop running Windows XP Pro and with a 802.11g card. For roughly half the price of the airpad (used at half.com), I still use RDP to connect to my desktop most of the time, but I get 5x the network speed (54Mbps) and a perfectly-capable (if somewhat outdated) independent machine that I travel with. Since I'm not *required* to use RDP, I can also pop open Mozilla in the living room if my wife is already on the desktop in the office (XP doesn't allow simultaneous console and RDP sessions).
Personally, I thought the review's take on RDP was a little harsh. It's light-years ahead of VNC (which I'm also a fan of but only for cross-platform situations), etc., transparently connects your local printers, USB devices, etc. to the remote machine, and is perfectly usable even over a dialup connection. There's even a freeware third-party utility to transfer small files w/o resorting to FTP, etc. Anyone expecting top-notch multimedia performance over a remote control via wireless is a friggin' moron. You either have to send uncompressed streams (BIG), aggressively recompress (as RDP does, leading to lag and quality loss), or implement fully-functional media playback at the local end (with all of the same codecs, etc.).
Anyway, I use RDP daily, and for general coding and browsing, I often forget that I'm running remotely.
The Achilles Heel for this device, IMHO, is price (I have a beautiful 19" Samsung LCD that was cheaper) and lack of VGA/DVI input (can't use it as a regular monitor). If I'm going to pay that much, I want a fully-functional tablet PC, not just a wirelessly-tethered LCD screen.
While looking up Judge Wilson from this article, someone with some respect for the difference between a technology and its application, I noticed that the page template looked familiar. Turns out that ol' Judge Charles F. Eick is a few floors down from Judge Wilson in the same building.
In case your memory is decaffinated at the moment, Eick is the judge that ruled to force SonicBlue to spy on its ReplayTV owners to collect copyright infringement proof against them for movie studios plaintiffs in a lawsuit, a ruling fortunately overturned by another judge.
Well, it turns out that a citizen's panel is reviewing Judge Eick for reappointment and needs our opinion regarding his judicial conduct. Deadline is May 5. Maybe the first step to winning the war for privacy is to make sure judges sitting on benches understand that whole 4th amendment thingie?
Yes, the guide data protocol (RNP) has been reverse-engineered and people have been successful at retrieving guide data and setting the internal clock through some proxy tricks. Check the AVS Forum for more details. One caveat: no one is sure exactly how monthly-subscribed units (vs. lifetime) will end up reacting if/when SB's activation servers go offline. I'm sure someone will figure that out, but it is an open question for now.
External guide data may actually be a boon for Replay users, the existing Replay guide database does not support "big-dish" systems, Canadian cable systems, PPV channels, etc., and it would be really neat to be able to tweak the channel-renumbering scheme. In addition, by running your own "guide server," you'll have infinite control over which channels appear, how the guide data is formatted and truncated for space, filtering, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
You obviously have no understanding of "work made for hire." This has a *specific* legal definition that involves *employment*, of the "withholding-taxes-from-your-paycheck" variety. Even long-term contractors working in an office are the holders of copyright of their work unless their contract says otherwise. Photographers aren't exploiting a loophole, they are making sure people understand the nature of the work.
Disclaimer: I'm am a professional photographer on the side (day job = programmer), and I deliver the final print-quality JPEGs on CD to my customers and a signed release for reproduction. I charge for my time rather than playing copyright cop on prints.
We had a flat tax in the beginning. Then the beaurocrats got ahold of it and carving out special-interest exemptions and nanny-government incentives and look what we have today.
Besides, a flat tax *does* hurt the poor. While *your* tax dollars come out of the money you make above and beyond your needs, *their* tax dollars come out of rent money, healthcare, and food. If you make the tax rate low enough for the poor (who pay essentially nothing now), you aren't collecting enough from everyone else to fund our tax-and-spend two-party system.
Which is one reason I support the FairTax: it removes the hidden payroll and SS taxes from the poor's paycheck and gives them a strong incentive to invest that money. In addition, any taxes they *do* spend on necessities are refunded.
Under FairTax, new goods and services sold over the Internet would be taxed at the federal rate and collected by one of the two states involved in the transaction. It's not clear which state should be considered the POS yet. Used goods would be exempt.
Adds a bit of complexity to shopping carts, but gets rid of our economy having to tediously fill out and process billions of pages of federal tax forms just to fund the government--a fair trade in my estimation.
As one of the people who replied in the original thread, my post was not meant so much as a flame as it was an admonishment. I didn't attack his character, only the idea that he was proud of his employer's activity. However, I did not think less of him for closing the comments--I know I opened a can of worms on his site, and I don't expect his blog to be the forum for a national debate on the viability and limitations of software patents.
'Marking' software patents will work about as well as 'marking' spam--without a "spam filter", the conjestion and abuse are not improved because the incentive for such abuse is still there.
0 6d2ed56-6e64-480d-81e7-b4e7b41d074a
2 fd0f532-e606-4381-a953-a56030723d00 b 24816d0-ffc9-46e9-a6b4-f6ae8bda9dad d 2cb7e55-8aa1-44bc-ad2e-d16f536f1a77 0 0cec4db-87c1-4335-81c6-446c8612b528 7 01f454d-3310-4df5-8b12-8d8363cdb8e7
The problem is that, whether by laziness, incompetance, or corruption, the USPTO has exceeded its Constitutional mandate and is extending protection to companies for "inventions" outside the litmus tests that are required by law.
We also have really decent campaign finance disclosure regulations here in the US, but does that really stop politicians from being beholden to [insert evil special interest]?
Companies claim that they are just "keeping up with the flow of traffic"--filing frivolous patents for defensive protection against other frivolous patents (Eolas, etc.).
The sad fact is that, under the current system, this *is* necessary. But, like a stampede, the *individual* defensive solution only makes things worse for *everyone* in the end.
I think I have a solution that would solve the problem, I posted it to my blog (too much detail to repeat here):
http://www.tallent.us/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=
More rantings on this subject (yeah, I'm a broken record):
http://www.tallent.us/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=
http://www.tallent.us/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=
http://www.tallent.us/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=
http://www.tallent.us/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=
http://www.tallent.us/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=
I'm also a FairTax supporter and generally agreed with your post, but I have to point out that even after EIC and other refundable credits, the very poor still pay taxes, in the form of Social Ponzi tax and Medicare, and in the form of reduced wages passed on by their employer (who pays the other half of those taxes).
Under the FairTax, however, they are refunded the *entire* tax on necessities, including the 15.3% currently withheld under FICA.
Like my grandfather always said, "Money ain't money 'till you spend it."
But even if they aren't spending it, they *ARE* investing it (unless they are really, really dumb). Investments create growth, provide jobs, bolster the economy, etc., and the government *will* get its share when those people (or their heirs) spend the money.
Refactor the tax code--support the FairTax: http://www.fairtax.org/
I got the same letter from GoDaddy (former customer, love how they don't let me unsubscribe without snail-mail), but though I am a HUGE believer in privacy/speech rights, I had a different reaction to it:
.US TLD, a limited (if artificial) resource, just like frequency spectrum, real estate, game animals, trademarks, etc. You are trading some public registration information for a monopoly on a domain name. Get over it.
2 864defd-c34b-403b-a789-6172ffe61186
1. This is only the
2. If you have a legitimate need to be private, don't register a domain name. Not all URLs must be in the form "www\.[^.]{3,}\.us".
3. GoDaddy makes a FREAKING CRAPLOAD of money with their "unlisted" domain "feature." Even if there are NO spammers among their customers, GoDaddy has a huge incentive to spread FUD about information anyone could find in a phone book anyway.
More on my blog:
http://www.tallent.us/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm &r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,686,926.WKU.&OS=PN/6,686,926&RS =PN/6,686,926
The main patent is #6,686,926 (linked above, this incorporates an earlier patent). Another related patent they have is #6,515,659.
In short: someone manually draws lines around each object and scoots it over for the right eye, background-cloning the gap. Their software assists in adjusting the object placements from one frame to the next, saving what would otherwise be a monumental task. Their "shift" algorithm is capable of assigning a bump-map-like distortion so the objects have a natural curve rather than being sprite cut-outs.
Side-note: to get a similar effect (for a few minutes at least), watch a movie with a pair of cheap sunglasses with one glass removed.
While generally I would agree, the situation here is that the "mega-corporation" is letting you use 20% of *their* paid-for time to be a part of the R&D that interests you.
"Personal stuff" for me also includes photography, music, politics, blogging, etc. While those interests would likely influence I would spend my "20%" if I worked for Google, the "personal stuff" itself remains mine.
If you are paid as a software developer, it's not healthy career-wise to have all of your "personal stuff" also be programming as well. If you feel the need to draw lines in the sand between work tasks and personal R&D in the same field, you should consider self-employment--you'll be happier if your loyalties are not split between the job that pays you and the one you wish would do so.
Or, go work for Google, where you can be paid to work on the cool stuff, leaving more time for family and non-programming "personal stuff" that you won't have to feel like you are hoarding from your employer.
Here's another warning. I'm adding some text here to bypass the lameness filter, which obviously has no taste for proper styling of legal cautions.
WARNING: THIS SITE HAS NOT CONDUCTED DNA OR PHYSICAL CONFIRMATION TESTS ON THIS INDIVIDUAL. SHE MIGHT BE A DUDE.
As a semi-pro photographer, I can see the benefit of connecting a headless hard drive to a camera, but I wouldn't like the idea of waiting for USB-speed transfers from my camera.
Instead, I use a similar device (the X's Drive Pro), which is an external hard drive (USB) that includes several built-in card readers. Connected to the PC, the card readers and hard drives are individually mounted, but when not connected to the computer, the device itself can copy everything on the connected memory cards to the hard drive with a single button click.
This workflow allows me to fill up a CF card, put another in the camera and keep shooting, and put the full CF card in the drive and let it make the backup copy while sitting in the camera bag.
I then *only* reuse cards if I run out, thus protecting against a hard drive drop/failure, errored-out copy, dead hard drive battery, etc.
When you are serious about photography, having an hard drive backup with automated copy capability is a MUST. I just got a call this morning from a friend whose photographer accidently lost some wedding ceremony pictures due to a failed copy to his laptop--he reused the card for Christmas before realizing it, so 15 shots couldn't be recovered (I was there as well in a non-pro capacity and got a few keepers). It's also a heckuva lot cheaper than having an endless supply of CF cards to travel with.
And now, for a movie that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the books...
*ducks*
I for one looking forward to it. It will be a welcome antidote to SW:ROTS.
1. You've never had to fiddle with code, edit make files, and recompile libraries, drivers, or applications for a new major kernel revision? Whatever.
2. The addition of NOOP-capable processor support is a Good Thing(tm) (except, potentially, for DRM research and fair-use overrides). Any application broken by enforcement of such a basic premise of good programming deserved to be broken, and its developers should be soundly thrashed by a wet noodle.
3. I have Windows XP SP2, which implements the same basic changes, and have not had any apps go south on me because of these changes. I'm no fan of the software firewall (better to turn of the *&$*# insecure listening daemons, not leave them running and add another layer of potential vulnerability, and I won't get into the snake oil beliefs people have about firewalls in general), but it does actually work and is a breeze to configure.
4. As others have said, I really wish they would add more device support (i.e., make the server product basically a souped-up version of XP Pro) so I could use it on my main machine at home.
5. I manage a Win2k3 web server at work and am tickled pink by the performance, maintainability, etc., especially w/r/t IIS. Comparisons to NT or even later SPs of 2k don't hold water. I'm not saying Linux/FreeBSD/etc. aren't worthy competitors, but I spend about 1/20th of the time administrating my Win2k3 box as I did my FreeBSD and Linux boxen a few years ago.
6. Most of the companies who will be affected by these changes adversely are probably the sort that are still stuck in NT or 2kSP3 (with Windows 98 or IE5/6 on the client) due to crappy custom applications.
Probably not exactly what you are looking for, but I have a FusionHDTV3 HD tuner card and I'm pretty happy with it.
Pros:
- Supports OTA ATSC, as well as some support for QAM64 and QAM256 (unencrypted only).
- No broadcast flag hoops to jump through.
- Recorded DTV programming is saved directly to disk as non-DRM'd MPEG-2 TP files (with full AC3 audio) that are easily converted to MPEG-2 PS format.
- Recorded NTSC (analog) programming is saved in MPEG-2 PS that could be transcoded easily for DVD.
- Image captures are saved as TIFF at full
resolution.
- Cheap: ~$150
Caveats:
- Output is only via your video card (overlay). Works with DVI, but tweaking video card resolutions to those that "HDTV-ready" televisions like might be a pain.
- Only RF inputs, no component/DVI
- No Linux support that I'm aware of
- Works best with ATi RADEON-based video cards (can offload more CPU work)
- The recording scheduler is buggy--like first year compsci student buggy.
- Slow tech support response
- Haven't tried using it with any of the popular HTPC apps yet
- Needs a decently-strong HD signal (18db+), a Radio Shack amplifier
You should be ashamed of yourself for attaching your name to the letter set out recently by the National Association of Attorneys General to P2P software companies. Your ignorance about P2P technology and the Internet in general is proven by the ridiculous factual misrepresentations in the letter.
As a software developer who is interested in legal and innovative uses of P2P technology, I am deeply saddened by the sheer Joe Sixpack-level stupidity about technology issues in the highest levels of our governments. P2P is not "an alternative" to the Internet, it is the Internet as it was originally intended: in the hands of the public. I would think that in a state that considers concealed handguns a concept worthy of legal protection, the Attorney General might have some backbone about conservative ideals such as personal responsibility.
Also, I'm personally offended that you refer to Texas citizens as "your consumers." I'm not your consumer, you are a public servant. At the very next opportunity I have, you can be sure that I'll be casting my vote towards someone who has a clue about how government officials should not simply regurgitate every piece of prose handed to them by Hollywood companies pretending to be interested in "protecting the children."
Basically, their battle cry is "consumer protection," claiming that people need to be "protected" from the content they may find on P2P networks. Oh, the children! Oh, those unsuspecting parents who suddenly find out there is PORN on the INTERNET!
Reading the letter proves these people are completely clueless about technology. A few choice quotes:
Look, Ma, no power!
First of all, the whole point of P2P is to empower normal Internet users to share information without fear of being swamped with traffic. The "popularity" of your shared information could be because it is illegal or purient, but it could also be because of your artistic talents or the importance of your political or social message. Sure, it's a small baby in a very large bathtub, but you can't dismiss an entire technology on the count that it might actually accomplish its goal.
Second, legal porn, like anything else sold on the Internet, is sold through web sites, not P2P, because P2P doesn't have any built-in ecommerce capability. Anything on the P2P networks is either (a) pirated, (b) advertising, or (c) truly amateur. A porn company would have to be out of their minds to share their archives on a P2P network.
And since over half a million people died in auto accidents last year, perhaps the auto manufacturers should be forced to do more to "educate their users" in how to not drink and drive, or at least how to safely hold a Bic Mac in one hand, a cell phone in the other, and the steering wheel with their knees.
So, by "deceptive practices," they mean distributing file-sharing software that might, if you aren't careful, share your files. Are we assuming that all P2P users are also Florida voters?
And auto manufacturers avoid software design changes such as automatically calling the cops when you break the speed limit. Every useful tool has potentially illegal uses, and any attempts to regulate that tool will also decrease its legal usefulness.
Aspie's are only one part of the so-called "smart" population. We're "smart" in a different way than many other "smart" people--not better or worse, but focused differently. But personality is a combination of brain chemistry and choice. I know Aspies who are bitter and egotistical, and others who are gregarious and loving. Where you start != where you are.
Labeling *symptoms* leads to stereotypes and bigotry (fat="lazy", dyslexic="stupid", etc.), but finding root *causes* and labeling them, I think, gives people an understanding of *why* they are how they are and thus *how* to improve. Without the attempt and desire to improve and work within your gifts and limitations, the label simply becomes and excuse.
Beyond normal INTP, there is a chance that you (and some other posters here) have undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome. I didn't know until less than a year ago, and I'm 28 now. Fortunately I've coped well over the years and adjusted for the rough stuff (social cues, facial recognition, pushing myself through college, etc.), but it's still a conscious struggle.
On the good side, though, I enjoy above-average intelligence, a voracious appetite for learning (at least learning about the stuff I'm interested in at the time), and a great memory for numbers and oddball facts (counterbalanced by a terrible memory for nearly everything else).
Not to fear: Asperger's, like its cousins Autism and possible Schizophrenia, it a "continuum" disorder: some people have it bad, others have it just enough for diagnosis but not enough to greatly affect their lives. It's often mis-diagnosed as ADD, ADHD, or just plain smartass.
Google for it and read up. There was an article in Wired recently that made the statistical tie from technies to Aspies, for instance. If you have it bad enough, you may be able to receive some accomodation from your university, but even if not, understanding the potential issues can help you make a conscious effort to work around inside your rewired brain to achieve your goals.
If this post is correct, I'm definitely pissed. These look like total crap, like some sort of third-rate antivirus software. These were obviously designed by someone who has no clue about the standards for Windows XP. A clue for the artists: it doesn't matter what you personally think about the Microsoft standards on palette and perspective. What matters is making a beautiful theme so Firefox can succeed in the Windows market. Qute is the closest I've seen, and this is several steps backwards.
ReplayTV:
- Same price after subscription as TiVo.
- Ethernet connection *and* dialup (your choice).
- Offload shows in MPEG2 format via said Ethernet port, tweak, burn to DVD.
- Fast menus and scrolling.
- No need to recompile every few weeks.
- Pause live TV.
- Record on a schedule--time or show-based.
- Integrates with other Replays on the same LAN.
Agree, I just suggested this on my blog... I'm reading through it again now. The entire Perelandra series by Lewis is highly underrated, likely because it was *not* targeted to children, yet still has Lewis' distinctive allegorical bent.
I have an old Dell 233MHz Celeron-based laptop running Windows XP Pro and with a 802.11g card. For roughly half the price of the airpad (used at half.com), I still use RDP to connect to my desktop most of the time, but I get 5x the network speed (54Mbps) and a perfectly-capable (if somewhat outdated) independent machine that I travel with. Since I'm not *required* to use RDP, I can also pop open Mozilla in the living room if my wife is already on the desktop in the office (XP doesn't allow simultaneous console and RDP sessions).
Personally, I thought the review's take on RDP was a little harsh. It's light-years ahead of VNC (which I'm also a fan of but only for cross-platform situations), etc., transparently connects your local printers, USB devices, etc. to the remote machine, and is perfectly usable even over a dialup connection. There's even a freeware third-party utility to transfer small files w/o resorting to FTP, etc. Anyone expecting top-notch multimedia performance over a remote control via wireless is a friggin' moron. You either have to send uncompressed streams (BIG), aggressively recompress (as RDP does, leading to lag and quality loss), or implement fully-functional media playback at the local end (with all of the same codecs, etc.).
Anyway, I use RDP daily, and for general coding and browsing, I often forget that I'm running remotely.
The Achilles Heel for this device, IMHO, is price (I have a beautiful 19" Samsung LCD that was cheaper) and lack of VGA/DVI input (can't use it as a regular monitor). If I'm going to pay that much, I want a fully-functional tablet PC, not just a wirelessly-tethered LCD screen.
While looking up Judge Wilson from this article, someone with some respect for the difference between a technology and its application, I noticed that the page template looked familiar. Turns out that ol' Judge Charles F. Eick is a few floors down from Judge Wilson in the same building.
In case your memory is decaffinated at the moment, Eick is the judge that ruled to force SonicBlue to spy on its ReplayTV owners to collect copyright infringement proof against them for movie studios plaintiffs in a lawsuit, a ruling fortunately overturned by another judge.
Well, it turns out that a citizen's panel is reviewing Judge Eick for reappointment and needs our opinion regarding his judicial conduct. Deadline is May 5. Maybe the first step to winning the war for privacy is to make sure judges sitting on benches understand that whole 4th amendment thingie?
Yes, the guide data protocol (RNP) has been reverse-engineered and people have been successful at retrieving guide data and setting the internal clock through some proxy tricks. Check the AVS Forum for more details. One caveat: no one is sure exactly how monthly-subscribed units (vs. lifetime) will end up reacting if/when SB's activation servers go offline. I'm sure someone will figure that out, but it is an open question for now.
External guide data may actually be a boon for Replay users, the existing Replay guide database does not support "big-dish" systems, Canadian cable systems, PPV channels, etc., and it would be really neat to be able to tweak the channel-renumbering scheme. In addition, by running your own "guide server," you'll have infinite control over which channels appear, how the guide data is formatted and truncated for space, filtering, etc.