The link leads to a 6 years old posting. The shirt isn't avaliable there anymore. The link describes the shirt, and I am asking if people know where the shirt can be purchased today.
For those of you who are not donating your clock cycles to seti@home, you might want to try distributed.net. Right now, they are working on cracking a 64bit encryption key, which is also a contest from RSA securities. They are also working on finding more Optimal Golomb Rulers, so it seems that trying to factor this really huge number would be a nice fit. Take a look at the RC5 stats here. They are nifty.
It may be problematic insomuch as they are already working on three projects, and spliting off into another project would be troublesome. But, there are no other serious efforts going on towards these types of projects, so I suppose us d.net fans will just have to wait and see.
That graphic is very cool. Seeing how a computer worm can spread is a wake up call. I am convinced that people won't patch with regularity until a worm comes along that *really* screws things up and billions of dollars are lost in cost of data. That will be a sad day.
As long as I am on the graphic, did it remind anyone else of the scene in Wargames where the computer is plotting out all the nuke scenarios? It gave me a cool flashback:)
I tend to agree with you. As people who read my prior posts might know, I am a pretty happy-go-lucky free trade kinda guy. However, I do not like monopolies for the very reason they were outlawed: they tend to eliminate competition and discourage innovation. Free trade is good, and so is free competition.
AOL already had the ISP market. Then they took TW cable. The regulators we worried this would prevent other companies from competing. So, the government said AOL-TW had to allow other companies to access their cable lines, sort of like the deal the regulators made when they made AT&T share all their wiring with competitors.
If you throw in AT&T's cable, you have one huge cable company. Who is left to compete? AOL already has so much of the market. It will be a hard sell for AOL-TW to convince the regulators that getting a bigger share of the market will not tend to make AOL-TW a monopoly or stifle competition.
There has got to be a half dozen programs out there that offer a variety of different services. I use ICQ (unfortunately now owned by AOL (*sigh*)) because I consider it to be a more powerful client. Like it or not, AOL is the industry leader. If AOL can develop a protocol that everyone else can follow, that's a good thing. AOL is worried about lag time over the net, but I don't see this as a problem...IM will go from "Instant" to "Really Fast." There is also the worry about Spam. If AOL makes this a standard, then people should be able to modify the standard to resist any type of spamming problems.
The thing that makes me breath a little easier is that AOL has to do it right, because this is something AOL customers want the ability to do. AOL would like to get everyone else using AOL products, but now that that is an impossibility due to the limits the FCC placed on AOL, and AOL will have to make a product that AOL customers will be able to interact with (I hope). I do not understand AOL's apprehension to a unified standard...AOL has benefited from open email as much as anyone, and if AOL offers a superior product, people will want to use their IM client.
We shall see if this AOL offering becomes everything I know the community wants it to become.
Think about this for a moment. Who are the primary targets of Video Game consoles? I would think young kids. There was this article on slashdot the other day that talked about how video games can be beneficial to young kids as it teaches them coordination, problem solving, and allows them to imagine and fantasize. What if at the same time we were also teaching them how to use the Linux OS?
How great a day would that be? From a young age, kids will use the Linux OS and teach themselves, without knowing it. Most kids would want to play with the system and see how it works. Instead of teaching them how to use GUI only, we can show them the command prompt. Kids can, and will, teach themselves how to use the system. If we get into networking, the kids can learn about root and how to set up an effective network. Yes, these kids *can* imagine a cluster of these machines, and they just might try it.
For us slightly older folks, I think we would enjoy this system. It would be cool if I get my choice of distributions too:). I think Sony should go for it, and perhaps include as a manual a small primer on Linux to get people started. Though I never read a manual when I was young and figured out DOS just fine, so I imagine kids will do the same. Then when the kids figure out the system, they can teach there parents, not only how to play games, but how the OS works. Could be a good way to expand the community.
Of course it does, and that is what our Australian friends have understood. They were thinking to themselves one day "Hmmm. I need a computer tool to count votes, and I need to make sure that no vendor biases the code to favor a given party. So I need to see the code. What vendor will let me see the code to insure the voting is fair, and how can I insure the public that there isn't a RNG in the code affecting their vote?" Why, use the GPL, of course! You can publish the code to the public to insure accuracy. Maybe someone will see a small flaw and fix it for you too. People can be assured their vote is being counter fairly.
Perhaps the States of the US will go this route too to help count our ballots. I never got a look at the machine code that counted those Florida ballots after all. I know there are plenty in the GPL community that would love to have a shot at the code, and to submit suggestions to the state equivalent of the NIST for enchantments of the code. Its nice to see a national government recognize the GPL can be a great asset to their problems, and they get all that code for free to boot! Save a dime and get better software! Perhaps Australia will donate a little cash to a GPL project to give back to the community as well? I am happy Australia has picked up on the GPL solution.
HDTV infastructure is just not there
on
The Joys of HDTV
·
· Score: 2
HDTV is a relatively new thing that the government has taken a long time to adopt as a standard because they wanted to get it right the first time. Getting HDTV is an real difficulty, as the article alludes. Digital cable is a possibility for those of you that have access to it and are willing to pony up a little more, but it is not as hideously expensive as HDTV, and can provide some of the quality that you might be looking for until HDTV is avaliable.
HDTV sets are still very expensive and ill worth the cost because the basic infrastructure is still being designed. I have seen the costs of HDTV sets drop though as the market becomes bigger and bigger, as you would expect in any market. Face it, people want to sell TVs, but most people aren't going to buy at the current price. The people that are laying the groundwork have an incentive to do so as fast as possible. HDTV will be more practical in 5 years then it is today, just like any comparable invention (TV, color TV, cable TV, the internet) takes time to be widely available and get better with time as more and more people demand higher quality products. As this occurs, the price will drop and ease of use will increase.
HDTV will of course replace all TV as the standard, as color TV did. As we get closer to that point, the effort to get HDTV sets and signals will become easier and more accessible to the average consumer.
"At any rate, they were afraid," Blair said. "The Russians were very concerned that this posed a grave problem on the U.S. side."
You think so? Why would the Russians be worried about United States operations? After all, we have the Microsoft database server to protect our data and nuclear weapon reserves, and the DMCA to protect our free speech.
I have seen the graphic. I was orginally produced by a college student, who I do not think had any affiliation with the EFF (can't be sure). I will drop my good friends at the EFF a line and ask though! Never thought to ask them before; guess I am not thinking!
Man, when I saw that topic, I took a double take. That is so far from convention, its almost flamebait! Of course its not, but rather a thoughtful analysis of when Obscurity is a tool, and in what contexts Obscurity is not only permitted, but the prefered option. It made me rethink my preconseptions a little.
The key (pun intended) is to remember that no single tool will provide you security. Obscurity is the most trivial example. PGP won't provide you security either if you have a crummy password. So, you have to remember all the factors that are inhibiting security.
We have seen examples in the past where closed source software has proven itself insecure. I remember the RNG weakness in Netscape. But even open source software can't totally save you. Open source is no more a cure-all then obscurity is an absolute forbidden. Designing good algorithms, educating your users not to circumvent "annoying" security measures, and the like remain integral to the problem of security.
That was very insightful and true. Good point. Might also save Nasa some cash in AI development. I suppose there are two problems with your suggestion though.
1) Lag time. Radio travels at speed of light, so you are going to incur some delay. Say a half second of delay round trip. Is this a problem? Could be. Also, when the ISS is on the otherside of the earth, you can't send it a signal (unless you have more then one transmitter, of course)
2) Repair. Can't fix the bot from the ground. You will have to train the crew to fix the bot (which you would have to do anyway).
And for those of you who remember Tito's comments about his trip to the ISS, they sure need it. According to him (and others), the astronaughts spend a great deal of time with mundane tasks. Any slack a droid can pick up is a little more time the scientists can study science and make life more comportable for the early pioneers of living in space. Of course, alot of non-mission related work was probably expected by Nasa in the early years of the project for trying to make the whole thing work. Perhaps later more science will take place. Any tool Nasa can provide to speed along this process I am sure will be appreciated by the people who live up there.
I agree with the author's comments too. There are probably enough people who would want to pick this up that Nasa could make a little loose change. Not a bad idea...hope Nasa was listening.
I am impressed this is being covered by a major newspaper. I wouldn't think they would pick up on this. Its also nice to see that there are some senators and congressman that took notice and said "Hold on just a moment." I bet the commerce secretary didn't expect there to be this much negative feedback.
Its always nice to see the folks in Washington working hard to make sure that things are handled correctly.
I don't want to see SuSE die anymore then the next man, but this condition in the Linux market is good I think. You put out 10 competing distros in the market. Consumers say what they like and don't like. Distributions react by modifying their product. Over time, consumers begin to get attached to a particular distribution. Other distributions suffer.
So, what's left at the end of this? Less distributions. As less popular (or less well-funded) distributions go under or get bought out, the Linux distributions begin to look more alike. A standard emerges for the distributions. The superior product comes out on top. A product that the consumers have voted on (with dollars) as the product that has the features they want, the tools they want, the support they want, the
resources they want, etc. The Linux market has behaved like every other free market.
Us slashdotters seem to be the free market types. No interference, may the best distribution win. So SuSE is hurting right now. The market doesn't lie, so it seems to imply people are looking elsewhere. I believe this is good for Linux overall. Linux companies have to compete like real companies, develop a superior product, and offer their customers more. Maybe SuSE will come out on top in the end, or perhaps not. But if SuSE takes a buyout from another Linux manufacture and the result is one less distribution (which will hopefully combine the best aspects of both systems), I believe the Linux community is benefited. The end result of this will tend towards a Linux distribution for the masses, which is exactly what the open source advocacy really needs.
Very cool EFF! The EFF jumped right on the ball on this one. As the EFF home page indicates, they have already begun to assemble a legal team for Dmitri. Perhaps all those emails that the/. crowd sent in helped? I am sure the attention that/. created to this issue helped in the EFF getting to speak with abobe.
This is just like the Microsoft stuff we have seen recently. I have said it before, and I will say it again. No company is so huge that is can stop listening to its customers. I will chalk up a partial credit to Adobe for agreeing to the meeting. The EFF and Adobe may not come out of the first meeting agreeing, but at least Adobe is willing to discuss the issue, and that is a fine start.
Kudos again to the EFF! I am a member, and if you are not, throw a little cash their way. Time and time again they fight for the interests of the plurality of/. readers. You can join at https://www.eff.org/support/
You'll also notice the use of voice in the game. While Square first began dabbling in voice work with The Bouncer, FFX is the first FF game to use voice acting.
This strikes me as something I would both like and dislike. First, the dislike. As someone else pointed out, those early final fantasy games had something in them that made them truly fantastic. I personally like FFII the best, but the stories were great, and I remember caring about the character and what happened to them. I remember in FFVII when the woman got killed by the Antagonist: I was pissed. The early games had this same quality.
Having voices attached to the characters may remove some of this appeal. It's sort of like reading a book. You have to imagine the characters' voices in your head. It's sort of like when you are chatting online with someone for a while and then get sent a picture of him or her. Somehow, I never imagined them looking that way. I want to be able to imagine what characters sound like and what the tone is like. Somehow being given that information seems like it could ruin that aspect of the game.
As for the good, well, it is obvious. This game continues the proud tradition of high quality story lines that are non-linear. Side games, and being able to do things out of a strict sequence appeal to me. The graphics look fantastic, and voice-overs are just an extension of the technology, just like high graphics were. In the end, I think this development will add to the overall story line. I guess I am buying a PSII so I can check this out!
That makes sense for those of us US citizens who might like a home page..com doesn't work (I'm not a corporation),.net doesn't work (I'm not an ISP),.org doesn't work (I'm not an organization)..us just says "I am in the US somewhere.".us might be nice for us purists who don't want to use the other top-level domains because they don't quite apply.
I (despite the fact I am not catholic) would pay a premium for a.va just because it would be cool. Only 700 people live in Vatican City anyway, so I would think they could sell a.va to me:)
And I am very excited about this news. I got my palm for $160, and most Linux handhelds are a little more expensive then that:)
This means I can install Linux without changing hardware. I wonder if the Linux OS for Palm comes with dual boot for the current Palm OS. A dual boot handheld....that would be awesome!
Simultaneous video and voice? Sounds alot like the Ricochet service to me. At least AT&T is charging for bandwidth, not time spent online. We all know how expensive cellular plans can be. Also, AT&T's potential network for such a system is huge. Hopefully this will lead to fast & reliable portable data communications for those junkies that absolutly have to have their Internet everwhere:)
AI is a tool, and nothing more. I think that it is just like any other tool that has revolutionized the way humanity has lived. The printing press, the Internet, the phone, the wheel, and musical instruments have all changed mankind. At each stage of something new, someone has always come forward and said, "This will be the end of humanity." This is the very definition of FUD.
AI is a tool. Humans will use it as such. To run things in an oversight capacity, or to work when humans can't. To check human decisions for rationality. To be alert to problems we would never see and to automatically address them. And so on.
AI is a tool. Humans will probably integrate themselves with machines. The artificial heart transplant is a step in this direction. Humans will retain consensus, but machines will help us process the information, and to let us know when we our bodies are in trouble. Most people are reluctant to see doctors, so AI can be used as a tool to let us know when we are ill and we don't know it. AI will help replace our worn out minds with parts that won't wear out. AI could help automatically regulate blood pressure and regulate 100 other functions we are totally oblivious too.
AI is a tool. Like every other tool that has come before it, there are those who will say that *this* is the tool that will dominate us and take us over. I just don't see that happening. AI will be used to solve our problems, just like every tool before. Perhaps AI will be able to solve more of our problems then any other tool has been able to. But then it would just be a great tool. Humans are too selfish to let something else dominate them anyway.
The patents say the system deliberately gives some of the digital code on the CD "grossly erroneous values", adding bursts of hiss to the audio signal. In addition, the error-correction codes on the CD, which would normally correct such errors, are distorted. So error correction fails, leaving tiny gaps in the music.
Sounds like they are trying to distort the sound to me. From later in the article:
When this happens, a consumer CD player bridges the gaps. It looks at the music on either side of the gap and interpolates a replacement section. A computer does the same when playing CDs for listening.
But the computer's CD drive cannot repair the digital data going to the hard disc. So the hard disc copies nothing, or a nasty noise.
It seems to me that if the CD player can automaticly compensate for the missing piece while playing, it shouldn't be too hard to write a piece of code that can do it while on-the-fly to the hard drive instead of doing it on-the-fly to the standard output
Sounds to me like this is a micropayment system of sorts. Whether the article is talking about ISP's having to pay for the bandwidth of sites or the contents of sites is irrelevant. It is the same thing; a way to compensate sites for the costs incurred in running a site. There are a lot of people that would like to post free content, but we all know how expensive running a site can be. So, ISPs pay a buck, and no banner ads. Or the sites can still use banner ads to help pay for the actual content. This implies artists could finally be getting paid. Sound great to me.
I also just have to mention that I do believe that is one of the longest stories I have seen on the main page ever. Usually, you have the snippet, then more detail when you click the link. Wow, that was shocking to my eyes trying to read all that text in one paragraph.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't want to set up a store to sell these, and custom printings at most stores require a minimun quanity of six in most cases.
The link leads to a 6 years old posting. The shirt isn't avaliable there anymore. The link describes the shirt, and I am asking if people know where the shirt can be purchased today.
For those of you who are not donating your clock cycles to seti@home, you might want to try distributed.net. Right now, they are working on cracking a 64bit encryption key, which is also a contest from RSA securities. They are also working on finding more Optimal Golomb Rulers, so it seems that trying to factor this really huge number would be a nice fit. Take a look at the RC5 stats here. They are nifty.
It may be problematic insomuch as they are already working on three projects, and spliting off into another project would be troublesome. But, there are no other serious efforts going on towards these types of projects, so I suppose us d.net fans will just have to wait and see.
That graphic is very cool. Seeing how a computer worm can spread is a wake up call. I am convinced that people won't patch with regularity until a worm comes along that *really* screws things up and billions of dollars are lost in cost of data. That will be a sad day.
:)
As long as I am on the graphic, did it remind anyone else of the scene in Wargames where the computer is plotting out all the nuke scenarios? It gave me a cool flashback
I tend to agree with you. As people who read my prior posts might know, I am a pretty happy-go-lucky free trade kinda guy. However, I do not like monopolies for the very reason they were outlawed: they tend to eliminate competition and discourage innovation. Free trade is good, and so is free competition.
AOL already had the ISP market. Then they took TW cable. The regulators we worried this would prevent other companies from competing. So, the government said AOL-TW had to allow other companies to access their cable lines, sort of like the deal the regulators made when they made AT&T share all their wiring with competitors.
If you throw in AT&T's cable, you have one huge cable company. Who is left to compete? AOL already has so much of the market. It will be a hard sell for AOL-TW to convince the regulators that getting a bigger share of the market will not tend to make AOL-TW a monopoly or stifle competition.
There has got to be a half dozen programs out there that offer a variety of different services. I use ICQ (unfortunately now owned by AOL (*sigh*)) because I consider it to be a more powerful client. Like it or not, AOL is the industry leader. If AOL can develop a protocol that everyone else can follow, that's a good thing. AOL is worried about lag time over the net, but I don't see this as a problem...IM will go from "Instant" to "Really Fast." There is also the worry about Spam. If AOL makes this a standard, then people should be able to modify the standard to resist any type of spamming problems.
The thing that makes me breath a little easier is that AOL has to do it right, because this is something AOL customers want the ability to do. AOL would like to get everyone else using AOL products, but now that that is an impossibility due to the limits the FCC placed on AOL, and AOL will have to make a product that AOL customers will be able to interact with (I hope). I do not understand AOL's apprehension to a unified standard...AOL has benefited from open email as much as anyone, and if AOL offers a superior product, people will want to use their IM client.
We shall see if this AOL offering becomes everything I know the community wants it to become.
Think about this for a moment. Who are the primary targets of Video Game consoles? I would think young kids. There was this article on slashdot the other day that talked about how video games can be beneficial to young kids as it teaches them coordination, problem solving, and allows them to imagine and fantasize. What if at the same time we were also teaching them how to use the Linux OS?
:). I think Sony should go for it, and perhaps include as a manual a small primer on Linux to get people started. Though I never read a manual when I was young and figured out DOS just fine, so I imagine kids will do the same. Then when the kids figure out the system, they can teach there parents, not only how to play games, but how the OS works. Could be a good way to expand the community.
How great a day would that be? From a young age, kids will use the Linux OS and teach themselves, without knowing it. Most kids would want to play with the system and see how it works. Instead of teaching them how to use GUI only, we can show them the command prompt. Kids can, and will, teach themselves how to use the system. If we get into networking, the kids can learn about root and how to set up an effective network. Yes, these kids *can* imagine a cluster of these machines, and they just might try it.
For us slightly older folks, I think we would enjoy this system. It would be cool if I get my choice of distributions too
Of course it does, and that is what our Australian friends have understood. They were thinking to themselves one day "Hmmm. I need a computer tool to count votes, and I need to make sure that no vendor biases the code to favor a given party. So I need to see the code. What vendor will let me see the code to insure the voting is fair, and how can I insure the public that there isn't a RNG in the code affecting their vote?" Why, use the GPL, of course! You can publish the code to the public to insure accuracy. Maybe someone will see a small flaw and fix it for you too. People can be assured their vote is being counter fairly.
Perhaps the States of the US will go this route too to help count our ballots. I never got a look at the machine code that counted those Florida ballots after all. I know there are plenty in the GPL community that would love to have a shot at the code, and to submit suggestions to the state equivalent of the NIST for enchantments of the code. Its nice to see a national government recognize the GPL can be a great asset to their problems, and they get all that code for free to boot! Save a dime and get better software! Perhaps Australia will donate a little cash to a GPL project to give back to the community as well? I am happy Australia has picked up on the GPL solution.
HDTV is a relatively new thing that the government has taken a long time to adopt as a standard because they wanted to get it right the first time. Getting HDTV is an real difficulty, as the article alludes. Digital cable is a possibility for those of you that have access to it and are willing to pony up a little more, but it is not as hideously expensive as HDTV, and can provide some of the quality that you might be looking for until HDTV is avaliable.
HDTV sets are still very expensive and ill worth the cost because the basic infrastructure is still being designed. I have seen the costs of HDTV sets drop though as the market becomes bigger and bigger, as you would expect in any market. Face it, people want to sell TVs, but most people aren't going to buy at the current price. The people that are laying the groundwork have an incentive to do so as fast as possible. HDTV will be more practical in 5 years then it is today, just like any comparable invention (TV, color TV, cable TV, the internet) takes time to be widely available and get better with time as more and more people demand higher quality products. As this occurs, the price will drop and ease of use will increase.
HDTV will of course replace all TV as the standard, as color TV did. As we get closer to that point, the effort to get HDTV sets and signals will become easier and more accessible to the average consumer.
"At any rate, they were afraid," Blair said. "The Russians were very concerned that this posed a grave problem on the U.S. side."
You think so? Why would the Russians be worried about United States operations? After all, we have the Microsoft database server to protect our data and nuclear weapon reserves, and the DMCA to protect our free speech.
I have seen the graphic. I was orginally produced by a college student, who I do not think had any affiliation with the EFF (can't be sure). I will drop my good friends at the EFF a line and ask though! Never thought to ask them before; guess I am not thinking!
Man, when I saw that topic, I took a double take. That is so far from convention, its almost flamebait! Of course its not, but rather a thoughtful analysis of when Obscurity is a tool, and in what contexts Obscurity is not only permitted, but the prefered option. It made me rethink my preconseptions a little.
The key (pun intended) is to remember that no single tool will provide you security. Obscurity is the most trivial example. PGP won't provide you security either if you have a crummy password. So, you have to remember all the factors that are inhibiting security.
We have seen examples in the past where closed source software has proven itself insecure. I remember the RNG weakness in Netscape. But even open source software can't totally save you. Open source is no more a cure-all then obscurity is an absolute forbidden. Designing good algorithms, educating your users not to circumvent "annoying" security measures, and the like remain integral to the problem of security.
That was very insightful and true. Good point. Might also save Nasa some cash in AI development. I suppose there are two problems with your suggestion though.
1) Lag time. Radio travels at speed of light, so you are going to incur some delay. Say a half second of delay round trip. Is this a problem? Could be. Also, when the ISS is on the otherside of the earth, you can't send it a signal (unless you have more then one transmitter, of course)
2) Repair. Can't fix the bot from the ground. You will have to train the crew to fix the bot (which you would have to do anyway).
But a great suggestion none the less.
And for those of you who remember Tito's comments about his trip to the ISS, they sure need it. According to him (and others), the astronaughts spend a great deal of time with mundane tasks. Any slack a droid can pick up is a little more time the scientists can study science and make life more comportable for the early pioneers of living in space. Of course, alot of non-mission related work was probably expected by Nasa in the early years of the project for trying to make the whole thing work. Perhaps later more science will take place. Any tool Nasa can provide to speed along this process I am sure will be appreciated by the people who live up there.
I agree with the author's comments too. There are probably enough people who would want to pick this up that Nasa could make a little loose change. Not a bad idea...hope Nasa was listening.
I am impressed this is being covered by a major newspaper. I wouldn't think they would pick up on this. Its also nice to see that there are some senators and congressman that took notice and said "Hold on just a moment." I bet the commerce secretary didn't expect there to be this much negative feedback.
Its always nice to see the folks in Washington working hard to make sure that things are handled correctly.
I don't want to see SuSE die anymore then the next man, but this condition in the Linux market is good I think. You put out 10 competing distros in the market. Consumers say what they like and don't like. Distributions react by modifying their product. Over time, consumers begin to get attached to a particular distribution. Other distributions suffer.
So, what's left at the end of this? Less distributions. As less popular (or less well-funded) distributions go under or get bought out, the Linux distributions begin to look more alike. A standard emerges for the distributions. The superior product comes out on top. A product that the consumers have voted on (with dollars) as the product that has the features they want, the tools they want, the support they want, the
resources they want, etc. The Linux market has behaved like every other free market.
Us slashdotters seem to be the free market types. No interference, may the best distribution win. So SuSE is hurting right now. The market doesn't lie, so it seems to imply people are looking elsewhere. I believe this is good for Linux overall. Linux companies have to compete like real companies, develop a superior product, and offer their customers more. Maybe SuSE will come out on top in the end, or perhaps not. But if SuSE takes a buyout from another Linux manufacture and the result is one less distribution (which will hopefully combine the best aspects of both systems), I believe the Linux community is benefited. The end result of this will tend towards a Linux distribution for the masses, which is exactly what the open source advocacy really needs.
Very cool EFF! The EFF jumped right on the ball on this one. As the EFF home page indicates, they have already begun to assemble a legal team for Dmitri. Perhaps all those emails that the /. crowd sent in helped? I am sure the attention that /. created to this issue helped in the EFF getting to speak with abobe.
/. readers. You can join at https://www.eff.org/support/
This is just like the Microsoft stuff we have seen recently. I have said it before, and I will say it again. No company is so huge that is can stop listening to its customers. I will chalk up a partial credit to Adobe for agreeing to the meeting. The EFF and Adobe may not come out of the first meeting agreeing, but at least Adobe is willing to discuss the issue, and that is a fine start.
Kudos again to the EFF! I am a member, and if you are not, throw a little cash their way. Time and time again they fight for the interests of the plurality of
You'll also notice the use of voice in the game. While Square first began dabbling in voice work with The Bouncer, FFX is the first FF game to use voice acting.
This strikes me as something I would both like and dislike. First, the dislike. As someone else pointed out, those early final fantasy games had something in them that made them truly fantastic. I personally like FFII the best, but the stories were great, and I remember caring about the character and what happened to them. I remember in FFVII when the woman got killed by the Antagonist: I was pissed. The early games had this same quality.
Having voices attached to the characters may remove some of this appeal. It's sort of like reading a book. You have to imagine the characters' voices in your head. It's sort of like when you are chatting online with someone for a while and then get sent a picture of him or her. Somehow, I never imagined them looking that way. I want to be able to imagine what characters sound like and what the tone is like. Somehow being given that information seems like it could ruin that aspect of the game.
As for the good, well, it is obvious. This game continues the proud tradition of high quality story lines that are non-linear. Side games, and being able to do things out of a strict sequence appeal to me. The graphics look fantastic, and voice-overs are just an extension of the technology, just like high graphics were. In the end, I think this development will add to the overall story line. I guess I am buying a PSII so I can check this out!
That makes sense for those of us US citizens who might like a home page. .com doesn't work (I'm not a corporation), .net doesn't work (I'm not an ISP), .org doesn't work (I'm not an organization). .us just says "I am in the US somewhere." .us might be nice for us purists who don't want to use the other top-level domains because they don't quite apply.
.va just because it would be cool. Only 700 people live in Vatican City anyway, so I would think they could sell a .va to me :)
I (despite the fact I am not catholic) would pay a premium for a
Is there video avalable from the Keynote address instead of one text highlights?
And I am very excited about this news. I got my palm for $160, and most Linux handhelds are a little more expensive then that :)
This means I can install Linux without changing hardware. I wonder if the Linux OS for Palm comes with dual boot for the current Palm OS. A dual boot handheld....that would be awesome!
Simultaneous video and voice? Sounds alot like the Ricochet service to me. At least AT&T is charging for bandwidth, not time spent online. We all know how expensive cellular plans can be. Also, AT&T's potential network for such a system is huge. Hopefully this will lead to fast & reliable portable data communications for those junkies that absolutly have to have their Internet everwhere :)
AI is a tool, and nothing more. I think that it is just like any other tool that has revolutionized the way humanity has lived. The printing press, the Internet, the phone, the wheel, and musical instruments have all changed mankind. At each stage of something new, someone has always come forward and said, "This will be the end of humanity." This is the very definition of FUD.
AI is a tool. Humans will use it as such. To run things in an oversight capacity, or to work when humans can't. To check human decisions for rationality. To be alert to problems we would never see and to automatically address them. And so on.
AI is a tool. Humans will probably integrate themselves with machines. The artificial heart transplant is a step in this direction. Humans will retain consensus, but machines will help us process the information, and to let us know when we our bodies are in trouble. Most people are reluctant to see doctors, so AI can be used as a tool to let us know when we are ill and we don't know it. AI will help replace our worn out minds with parts that won't wear out. AI could help automatically regulate blood pressure and regulate 100 other functions we are totally oblivious too.
AI is a tool. Like every other tool that has come before it, there are those who will say that *this* is the tool that will dominate us and take us over. I just don't see that happening. AI will be used to solve our problems, just like every tool before. Perhaps AI will be able to solve more of our problems then any other tool has been able to. But then it would just be a great tool. Humans are too selfish to let something else dominate them anyway.
The patents say the system deliberately gives some of the digital code on the CD "grossly erroneous values", adding bursts of hiss to the audio signal. In addition, the error-correction codes on the CD, which would normally correct such errors, are distorted. So error correction fails, leaving tiny gaps in the music.
Sounds like they are trying to distort the sound to me. From later in the article:
When this happens, a consumer CD player bridges the gaps. It looks at the music on either side of the gap and interpolates a replacement section. A computer does the same when playing CDs for listening.
But the computer's CD drive cannot repair the digital data going to the hard disc. So the hard disc copies nothing, or a nasty noise.
It seems to me that if the CD player can automaticly compensate for the missing piece while playing, it shouldn't be too hard to write a piece of code that can do it while on-the-fly to the hard drive instead of doing it on-the-fly to the standard output
Sounds to me like this is a micropayment system of sorts. Whether the article is talking about ISP's having to pay for the bandwidth of sites or the contents of sites is irrelevant. It is the same thing; a way to compensate sites for the costs incurred in running a site. There are a lot of people that would like to post free content, but we all know how expensive running a site can be. So, ISPs pay a buck, and no banner ads. Or the sites can still use banner ads to help pay for the actual content. This implies artists could finally be getting paid. Sound great to me.
For those of you who would like to read past commentary on the subject, please check out Micropayments: Effective Replacement For Ads Or ?, the Slashdot thread on Scott's Cartoon and the actual cartoon, the Slashdot thread on the second Scott cartoon, and the actual second cartoon, and here is the result of a google search on the topic.
I also just have to mention that I do believe that is one of the longest stories I have seen on the main page ever. Usually, you have the snippet, then more detail when you click the link. Wow, that was shocking to my eyes trying to read all that text in one paragraph.