The idea is that VCDs are an excellent medium for any instance that require you to distribute video.
I admit that in most cases, video is not the best medium for instruction. However, there are many more applications:
1) Archives of videotaped university lectures at the library [my school had real videotapes and I found this extremely helpful, but they were somewhat jelaously guarded]
2) Sharing video with semi-computer-literate family: Sending out cousin Larry's first piano recital to all the aunts and uncles, mailing a copy of the wedding to all the guests, etc.
3) Distributing underground "cult classic" movies, favorite TV episodes, etc. Demos for independent filmmakers
4) "Handouts" for students in film/advertising class
4) Ticking off the MPAA
5) etc.
I'm sure you can think of more. What kind of geeks are you???
This could have some really awesome uses in Teleimmersion and Virtual Reality.
Think about the last videoconference you attended: it was probably a far cry from being face to face. Adding simple stereo vision to that probably would not do much for interacting with your peers. However, a system like the following might change things.
Here's what I'd propose, if I could build my "dream system":
Set up the following: *Two conference rooms equipped with the cameras mentioned in the article *Optical See-through HMDs that the users would wear *A very fast network connection between the two locations *Software to make it work.
This way, individuals in disparate locations could walk around, talk to each other, and do everything but shake hands. Actually, get one of these and that might even be possible:)
You would also somehow do a similar trick with the audio to enable "private" conversations between individuals sitting next to each other.
This could be the first really useful immersive application. Think about how much travel time would be saved.
Software "leasing" is a lot more common in the industry than you realize.
Most commercial UNIXes as well as other "enterprise" level software (databases, specialized APIs, runtime licenses, etc.) that does not need to be upgraded every 3 months is usually under "maintenance" for 100K+/year.
This is a pain to deal with sometimes (esp. with node-locked licenses) but the big companies manage to handle it transparently. I hope the idea never hits it big on the consumer market.
Don't you people see that this is what you get when you have Java programmers designing real world stuff? The world is finally becoming Object Oriented!!! Argh...
What I find most troubling about these Media Company vs. New Technology cases is that the companies are seeking legal protection for their business model.
It is patently unfair to sue someone because they make a product that is _too useful_ (such as a PVR, mp3 player, file sharing program, etc.).
The law is not there to guarantee the viability of a business model. If advertising fails, then use something else (such as product placement), but do not seek to destroy or block technology that gives the users more power. If I were to invent a car that ran on cold fusion, the oil companies would not have a legal case against me, even if I end up destroying their business model.
Of course, this has not kept companies from trying to save their business model in the past. A good example of this is the "Red Flag" laws that were passed in the 1860s to block the automobile industry:
As the world leader in steam propulsion during the 1860s, for example, Britain might have expected to pioneer many of the automotive advances that in fact were made on continental Europe and in America over the following decades. But British railroad and stage-coach companies recognized that the automobile was a threat to their future, and lobbied for the notorious red flag laws. These prohibitive laws, which insisted every self-propelled vehicle be preceded by a pedestrian waving a red flag, were on the statute books for 31 years. By the time they were repealed, Britain had missed a huge opportunity.
You guys are making light of the situation, but it is not so funny for those of us who have been through it...
It started in middle school with the Apple][. Addiction to BASIC kept me from the smell of sweet, sweet glue...
Back in the early 90's, I had to forego many high school drinking parties to play Civilization...
In college, I never went to a rave because I was too busy MUDding--never got to taste Ecstasy
And now that I am gainfully employed, I spend all my spare cash on broadband internet connections and online games--my drug dealer is getting really upset with me!!!
Of course, the proper way to encode the key would be on something like Fruit Roll-Ups (TM), which are like paper but edible. That way, both you and the recipient could eat the key after using it.
Cryptograpy has never been so delicious!!!
slow glass...
on
Stopping Light
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
There was an old sci-fi story about "slow glass" where people would let these light-storing windows in interesting places and then sell them.
This really sounds like a cool way of storing holographic data (which means storing a LOT of information in a small space)
Working for a large phone company who shall remain nameless (Truest of all Horizons), I had to deal with the Mattel-built firewall denying me access to sites like freshmeat.net, peacefire.org, or some IP for a tech site that used to belong to a pornographer...
The result was many screens saying "you have been caught downloading pornography/practicing terrorism/wasting company time. Internet is for BUSINESS ONLY. Upper management is being notified" and wasting a great deal of time trying to get my actual work done.
We still managed to get to CNN, Dilbert, etc.:)
So, if they want to make themselves feel good (self-gratification?) and make life a pain for their employees, I will take my time-wasting to the water cooler!
(stupid touchpad...hit submit too soon, I'm afraid)
For those of you who have read the article, you actually have the right to formally object to this until May 18 or so...
(2) You can also file a formal objection. This form of participa- tion requires that you abide by certain rules. You will enjoy a certain number of rights, and will undertake a certain number of duties. You will be required to file a written statement of case opposing the proposed tariff and to provide any evidence in sup- port thereof. You will be entitled to receive a copy of every document filed with the Board in these proceedings and will be expected to provide copies of the documents that you file with the Board to all other participants. You will be allowed to ask ques- tions and obtain information from other participants and be ex- pected to answer questions and provide information to them. You will be allowed, but not required, to appear before the Board at a public hearing to present evidence and ask questions from witnesses. (2) Vous pouvez aussi déposer une opposition formelle. Cette façon de participer au processus comporte plusieurs exigences. Vous acquerrez certains droits mais vous devrez aussi assumer certaines obligations. Vous devrez déposer un énoncé de cause qui fait opposition au projet de tarif et fournir toute preuve au soutien de cette opposition. Vous aurez droit de recevoir copie de chaque document que la Commission recevra, et vous devrez fournir à tous les autres participants copie des documents que vous déposerez vous-même. Vous pourrez aussi poser des ques- tions et obtenir des renseignements des autres participants, et vous devrez répondre aux questions et demandes de renseigne- ments qui vous seront adressées. Vous pourrez comparaître de- vant la Commission, dans le cadre d(TM)une audience publique, pour présenter de la preuve et poser des questions aux témoins.
OK...this is great and stuff, but if I detected the ones and zeroes on my radio telescope, and wasn't particularly interested in intelligence, I don't think I'd bother to look. We seem to be making a LOT of assumptions.
Why not send out a much simpler message: the first N primes in unary.
What I mean is (imagine each dot as a flash of light, delimited by a pause)
and so on. No number system convesions, no pictures cryptic even to our own race. Something you'd recognize as intelligent if you were out stargazing one night.
Besides, what if it's a devolved civilization that's using our equivalent of MFC and Java, instead of Perl? How would they hack the script to decode the message???
I, for one, will pay for this provided it works reasonably well:
1) I have a need to run certain Windows Apps on a regular basis.
2) I _would_ like to have a Linux system that I don't need to boot out of (to run a web server, mail, etc.) On the other hand, I do NOT care if the windows apps crash once in a while (they already do this in their native environment).
3) I only have one machine, and don't feel like getting another one for more than $99...
You all sound like the well-intentioned folk who insist on pronouncing GigaBytes as [JigaBytes] since that is supposed to be the standard way of doing it (reference: Emmett Brown in Back to The Future talking about 'Jigawatts').
I'm a geek and I'm not even going to change. Don't expect the manufacturers to...
Ximian is asking you to pay $119.40 per year for software that is functionally on par with Microsoft Windows. I wouldn't pay $120 per year for Windows, and I'm not going to pay $120 for Ximian GNOME, either.
This is incorrect, as far as I understand. Ximian is asking us to pay for a support service for their free product. This is kind of like purchasing the Microsoft Technet service.
Even though I won't be getting it, I believe it's good for a company that gives away a free product to make money with an optional service that companies would definitely pay for.
Joel: Actually they made a worse mistake: they spent something like 18 months trying to squeeze 123/3.0 into 640KB. By the time the 18 months were up, they hadn't succeeded, and in the meantime, everybody bought 386s with 4 megs. Microsoft always figured that it's better to let the hardware catch up with the software rather than spending time writing code for old computers owned by people who aren't buying much software any more.
The _only_ reason I use p2p clients is to find obscure music. If you're stuck with something like GnuTella (decent idea, but slow searches), try an OpenNap client (like winMX)....
Of course, human ears can't directly sense radio signals. If Keay is right, something on the ground
a "transducer" must be converting radiowaves into sound waves. In laboratory tests, Keay finds that suitable transducers are surprisingly common. Simple materials like aluminum foil, thin
wires, pine needles -- even dry or frizzy hair -- can intercept and respond to a VLF field.
Does this mean that you could transmit audio to someone wearing braces?
I shudder at the possibilities. Now excuse me while I put my tinfoil hat back on...:)
I wonder how well it holds up to being jerked around. I mean, would it be a good replacement for my CD player batterry if I'm going to go jogging with it?
Still, I'd love to have something like this that you could power with ethanol...
just have something like Casio's databank watches with an added IR link.
I know the sentiment has been echoed here before, but I own CASIO's PC-Unite, which syncs with the PC via an infrared connection. Since it does not have a keypad, it's [almost] utterly useless for entering stuff on the fly.
Are the marketing people at CASIO and Fossil so dense that they do not see the need for a databank/PDA type of watch with an IR link AND a keypad???
Slashdot Mirror
The idea is that VCDs are an excellent medium for any instance that require you to distribute video.
I admit that in most cases, video is not the best medium for instruction. However, there are many more applications:
1) Archives of videotaped university lectures at the library [my school had real videotapes and I found this extremely helpful, but they were somewhat jelaously guarded]
2) Sharing video with semi-computer-literate family: Sending out cousin Larry's first piano recital to all the aunts and uncles, mailing a copy of the wedding to all the guests, etc.
3) Distributing underground "cult classic" movies, favorite TV episodes, etc. Demos for independent filmmakers
4) "Handouts" for students in film/advertising class
4) Ticking off the MPAA
5) etc.
I'm sure you can think of more. What kind of geeks are you???
I was actually hoping for this.
This could have some really awesome uses in Teleimmersion and Virtual Reality.
:)
Think about the last videoconference you attended: it was probably a far cry from being face to face. Adding simple stereo vision to that probably would not do much for interacting with your peers. However, a system like the following might change things.
Here's what I'd propose, if I could build my "dream system":
Set up the following:
*Two conference rooms equipped with the cameras mentioned in the article
*Optical See-through HMDs that the users would wear
*A very fast network connection between the two locations
*Software to make it work.
This way, individuals in disparate locations could walk around, talk to each other, and do everything but shake hands. Actually, get one of these and that might even be possible
You would also somehow do a similar trick with the audio to enable "private" conversations between individuals sitting next to each other.
This could be the first really useful immersive application. Think about how much travel time would be saved.
Any thoughts?
Software "leasing" is a lot more common
in the industry than you realize.
Most commercial UNIXes as well as other "enterprise" level software (databases, specialized APIs, runtime licenses, etc.) that does not need to be upgraded every 3 months is usually under "maintenance" for 100K+/year.
This is a pain to deal with sometimes (esp. with node-locked licenses) but the big companies manage to handle it transparently. I hope the idea never hits it big on the consumer market.
(XP is a disturbing path towards that trend).
They might be Kzinti, be careful!
et cetera.
Simply abominable...
It is patently unfair to sue someone because they make a product that is _too useful_ (such as a PVR, mp3 player, file sharing program, etc.).
The law is not there to guarantee the viability of a business model. If advertising fails, then use something else (such as product placement), but do not seek to destroy or block technology that gives the users more power. If I were to invent a car that ran on cold fusion, the oil companies would not have a legal case against me, even if I end up destroying their business model.
Of course, this has not kept companies from trying to save their business model in the past. A good example of this is the "Red Flag" laws that were passed in the 1860s to block the automobile industry:
(taken from http://www.dana.com/corporate/history/history3.ht
"...then rewarded them by stimulating a pleasure center in the brain."
They've finally invented the Tasp. Now you have to deal with people "making your day" and current addiction.
We will really need to crack down on crime commited by wireheads!
You guys are making light of the situation, but it is not so funny for those of us who have been through it...
It started in middle school with the Apple][. Addiction to BASIC kept me from the smell of sweet, sweet glue...
Back in the early 90's, I had to forego many high school drinking parties to play Civilization...
In college, I never went to a rave because I was too busy MUDding--never got to taste Ecstasy
And now that I am gainfully employed, I spend all my spare cash on broadband internet connections and online games--my drug dealer is getting really upset with me!!!
Of course, the proper way to encode the key
would be on something like Fruit Roll-Ups (TM),
which are like paper but edible. That way, both you and the recipient could eat the key after using it.
Cryptograpy has never been so delicious!!!
There was an old sci-fi story about "slow glass" where people would let these light-storing windows in interesting places and then sell them.
This really sounds like a cool way of storing holographic data (which means storing a LOT of information in a small space)
For those of you who actually looked at the page, the interesting thing seems to be the algorithm they are using.
Does anyone know how
1) one would read the digital camera contents from a program (i.e., what API to use)
2) how they are extracting the features?
it'd be really cool to play with something like this on your own. Anyone else have any experience building home-grown recognition systems?
I'm sure many of you will agree.
:)
Working for a large phone company who shall
remain nameless (Truest of all Horizons), I had to deal with the Mattel-built firewall denying me access to sites like freshmeat.net, peacefire.org, or some IP for a tech site that used to belong to a pornographer...
The result was many screens saying "you have been caught downloading pornography/practicing terrorism/wasting company time. Internet is for BUSINESS ONLY. Upper management is being notified" and wasting a great deal of time trying to get my actual work done.
We still managed to get to CNN, Dilbert, etc.
So, if they want to make themselves feel good (self-gratification?) and make life a pain for their employees, I will take my time-wasting to the water cooler!
(stupid touchpad...hit submit too soon, I'm afraid)
For those of you who have read the article, you actually have the right to formally object to this until May 18 or so...
(2) You can also file a formal objection. This form of participa-
tion requires that you abide by certain rules. You will enjoy a
certain number of rights, and will undertake a certain number of
duties. You will be required to file a written statement of case
opposing the proposed tariff and to provide any evidence in sup-
port thereof. You will be entitled to receive a copy of every
document filed with the Board in these proceedings and will be
expected to provide copies of the documents that you file with the
Board to all other participants. You will be allowed to ask ques-
tions and obtain information from other participants and be ex-
pected to answer questions and provide information to them. You
will be allowed, but not required, to appear before the Board
at a public hearing to present evidence and ask questions from
witnesses.
(2) Vous pouvez aussi déposer une opposition formelle. Cette
façon de participer au processus comporte plusieurs exigences.
Vous acquerrez certains droits mais vous devrez aussi assumer
certaines obligations. Vous devrez déposer un énoncé de cause
qui fait opposition au projet de tarif et fournir toute preuve au
soutien de cette opposition. Vous aurez droit de recevoir copie de
chaque document que la Commission recevra, et vous devrez
fournir à tous les autres participants copie des documents que
vous déposerez vous-même. Vous pourrez aussi poser des ques-
tions et obtenir des renseignements des autres participants, et
vous devrez répondre aux questions et demandes de renseigne-
ments qui vous seront adressées. Vous pourrez comparaître de-
vant la Commission, dans le cadre d(TM)une audience publique, pour
présenter de la preuve et poser des questions aux témoins.
If not, I say "BLAME CANADA!"
Listerine would not kill all the new bacteria.
In fact, if brushing or using a mouthwash killed all the bacteria in your mouth, you would not have the tooth decay problems you have now.
(Of course, you would have other problems since you probably need some bacteria in your mouth, but that's a different story)
OK...this is great and stuff, but if I detected the ones and zeroes on my radio telescope, and wasn't particularly interested in intelligence, I don't think I'd bother to look. We seem to be making a LOT of assumptions.
..
...
.....
.......
..........
.............
Why not send out a much simpler message: the first N primes in unary.
What I mean is (imagine each dot as a flash of light, delimited by a pause)
2
3
5
7
11
13
and so on. No number system convesions, no pictures cryptic even to our own race. Something you'd recognize as intelligent if you were out stargazing one night.
Besides, what if it's a devolved civilization that's using our equivalent of MFC and Java, instead of Perl? How would they hack the script to decode the message???
I, for one, will pay for this provided it works reasonably well:
1) I have a need to run certain Windows Apps on a regular basis.
2) I _would_ like to have a Linux system that I don't need to boot out of (to run a web server, mail, etc.) On the other hand, I do NOT care if the windows apps crash once in a while (they already do this in their native environment).
3) I only have one machine, and don't feel like getting another one for more than $99
</luser mode>
You all sound like the well-intentioned folk who insist on pronouncing GigaBytes as [JigaBytes] since that is supposed to be the standard way of doing it (reference: Emmett Brown in Back to The Future talking about 'Jigawatts').
I'm a geek and I'm not even going to change. Don't expect the manufacturers to...
Actually, that'd be quite handy for a One Time Pad.
That notwithstanding, excellent article.
The _only_ reason I use p2p clients is to find obscure music. If you're stuck with something like GnuTella (decent idea, but slow searches), try an OpenNap client (like winMX) ....
[and we laughed at those people all this time!!!]
I wonder how well it holds up to being jerked around. I mean, would it be a good replacement for my CD player batterry if I'm going to go jogging with it?
Still, I'd love to have something like this that you could power with ethanol...
just have something like Casio's databank watches with an added IR link.
I know the sentiment has been echoed here before, but I own CASIO's PC-Unite, which syncs with the PC via an infrared connection. Since it does not have a keypad, it's [almost] utterly useless for entering stuff on the fly.
Are the marketing people at CASIO and Fossil so dense that they do not see the need for a databank/PDA type of watch with an IR link AND a keypad???