Its true. Mostly. People in Procurement generaly have some idea as to what it is their job is about, and some idea about the items they need to buy. Sure, anyone can buy trash bags and styrofoam cups, but you expect them to pick an open-source package over, say, a Microsoft package?
Its not very likely to happen, mostly because of the FUD factor, and that, IMHO, Microsoft is a "sure thing" at least in terms of keeping their jobs. For example, choosing Windows over Linux -- the buyer knows Microsoft will be around tomorrow, and thats what everyone knows, so damnit, if it costs more and its insecure, its what people want and expect. Except the people "in the know."
It comes down to the people who need the software to sit down and convince the buyers why this or that open source package is comparable, if not superior.
[quote]Although currently demonstrating its technology on very small bit strings, ZeoSync expects to overcome the existing temporal restraints of its technology and optimize its algorithms to lead to significant changes in how data is stored and transmitted.[endquote]
The key here is its on "very small bit strings." It is significantly harder to reduce larger bit strings in this fashion.
What it appears, from the limited documentation they have provided, is transform random data, and then use a formula to express that data. This have been proven ineffective. If you could find some sort of polynomial that would represent a file, you may indeed find polynomials shorter than the file, but at least half of them are going to be longer than the file, and more difficult to find.
I've dabbled enough with data compression to at least be able to spot this.
What the end result always turns out to be is that you *can* compress random data, but however, you can't always compress all random data. It may, actually, be possible to compress random data, but not in a 100:1 ratio, consistently. I've written some code that (IMHO) is a novel approach to compressing random data with moderate success, but never at 100:1.
"You can compress all data half the time, or you can compress half the data all the time."
It seems to me you can divide mp3 supporters in three camps:
"I want my music but I don't want to pay for it"
"The music industy is a big cabal and they're not getting another red cent because they make too much and besides I don't want to pay for it."
"Music wants to be free, and therefore I don't want to pay for it."
Artists aren't forced to sign any contract. They know they're getting screwed. Tough. If you're that good, build yourself from the ground up. It happens. Rarely, but it happens.
If you really want to change the music industry, start your own distribution system. Pay artists for their music. Napster et. al. have only done one of the two.
The sad fact is that for every 1 person that believes there are ethical reasons for not paying for music, there are 99 that just want the music for free. People look at copyright laws and say, "Well, I'm just copying it between friends which is legal under copyright law" -- but is it right? Loopholes, loopholes...
Silent drives will certainly make it harder to tell if your drive has stiction. Since you can't hear it, you can't just listen to it and hear the drive motor spin up to speed or fail.
IMHO thats the real reason. If I'm going to bury fiber coast to coast, am I going to bury one fiber and hope its enough? No, you're going to bury a bunch. That way you can increase bandwidth, lease fiber, and have backups in case something goes screwy.
Fiber is cheap. Its the installation thats expensive. It costs more per foot to dig a trench than to buy a foot of fiber.
"When I'm not offline pking, I like to spend my time offline playerbeerdrinking and offline playerautoeroticasphyxiating."
I think it is time for the youth of korea to make that long hard journey out of their parent's basement. Oh, and I've never spent an extraodinary amount of time playing TFC. *cough* Never.
Perhaps if it wasn't for the popularity of the WWW, Unix might have indeed been relegated to the boneyards. I didn't exactly predict the coming of the web back in '86. Shucks, I was still typing:
10 PRINT "I AM KOOL"
20 GOTO 10
on C-64's at the local K-mart.
I'd expect more from a "visonary." I think where he fails is in associating "fresh college kids" with impending failure of technology. I know I'm not too hopeful of the products people graduating with C.I.S. degrees are feverishly working away at in Visual Basic. I've little respect for C.I.S. people and even less for VB, but that doesn't mean a.) there won't be fresh-meat-hot-shot programmers, and b.) cumbersome bloated awful programs.
Predicting the future is better left to weathermen and 1-900 fortune tellers.
Sure it is the fan that is making the noise. But sometimes it is the environment that you run your computer in. I previously had one of my computers set up in my living room and you could hardly hear it. I moved it to another room, a much much smaller one and the noise difference was very noticable. Carpeting and other sound dampeners (curtains, etc) make a difference.
I've had the idea of a 3-D GUI ever since I got my first mouse with a wheel. The glove would make it easier and cooler. Imagine layers of files and, for the glove less, you go up and down layers with your mouse's wheel. With the glove, you'd simply make a "come hither" or pushing motion to go up and down levels.
As for use in FPS, I'm doubtful. I came *this* close to ordering one of those "fin rings" -- which are wireless mice that you war on your hand... you tilt them one way or the other to move the mouse pointer.
Unless there is a gesture for "Kill Heavy Weapons Guy" I imagine the glove will work the same way. Tilting your hand one way or the other might not be the most accurate or responsive method. I read a review of the fin ring and its use in FPSs and it didn't sound too promising. Since the concept is similar, I think the usage will be limited.
This comparision is invalid if the fin ring is digital instead of analog (i.e. you're moving left or you're not moving left, no inbetween).
Slashdot Mirror
Its true. Mostly. People in Procurement generaly have some idea as to what it is their job is about, and some idea about the items they need to buy. Sure, anyone can buy trash bags and styrofoam cups, but you expect them to pick an open-source package over, say, a Microsoft package?
Its not very likely to happen, mostly because of the FUD factor, and that, IMHO, Microsoft is a "sure thing" at least in terms of keeping their jobs. For example, choosing Windows over Linux -- the buyer knows Microsoft will be around tomorrow, and thats what everyone knows, so damnit, if it costs more and its insecure, its what people want and expect. Except the people "in the know."
It comes down to the people who need the software to sit down and convince the buyers why this or that open source package is comparable, if not superior.
Form of... an ice dildo!
Form of... Goatse Man!
that would be caused if they patented something like, say, the .GIF format.
We'd all be paying out the ass!
I built a flatbed scanner port for my Timex-Sinclair over the weekend. I can scan in any post stamp ever made.
correction
1:1 for 8 bit random
[quote]Although currently demonstrating its technology on very small bit strings, ZeoSync expects to overcome the existing temporal restraints of its technology and optimize its algorithms to lead to significant changes in how data is stored and transmitted.[endquote]
The key here is its on "very small bit strings." It is significantly harder to reduce larger bit strings in this fashion.
What it appears, from the limited documentation they have provided, is transform random data, and then use a formula to express that data. This have been proven ineffective. If you could find some sort of polynomial that would represent a file, you may indeed find polynomials shorter than the file, but at least half of them are going to be longer than the file, and more difficult to find.
I've dabbled enough with data compression to at least be able to spot this.
What the end result always turns out to be is that you *can* compress random data, but however, you can't always compress all random data. It may, actually, be possible to compress random data, but not in a 100:1 ratio, consistently. I've written some code that (IMHO) is a novel approach to compressing random data with moderate success, but never at 100:1.
"You can compress all data half the time, or you can compress half the data all the time."
It seems to me you can divide mp3 supporters in three camps:
"I want my music but I don't want to pay for it"
"The music industy is a big cabal and they're not getting another red cent because they make too much and besides I don't want to pay for it."
"Music wants to be free, and therefore I don't want to pay for it."
Artists aren't forced to sign any contract. They know they're getting screwed. Tough. If you're that good, build yourself from the ground up. It happens. Rarely, but it happens.
If you really want to change the music industry, start your own distribution system. Pay artists for their music. Napster et. al. have only done one of the two.
The sad fact is that for every 1 person that believes there are ethical reasons for not paying for music, there are 99 that just want the music for free. People look at copyright laws and say, "Well, I'm just copying it between friends which is legal under copyright law" -- but is it right? Loopholes, loopholes...
Exactly. Support the artist by buying $35.00 concert tees.
Silent drives will certainly make it harder to tell if your drive has stiction. Since you can't hear it, you can't just listen to it and hear the drive motor spin up to speed or fail.
IMHO thats the real reason. If I'm going to bury fiber coast to coast, am I going to bury one fiber and hope its enough? No, you're going to bury a bunch. That way you can increase bandwidth, lease fiber, and have backups in case something goes screwy. Fiber is cheap. Its the installation thats expensive. It costs more per foot to dig a trench than to buy a foot of fiber.
http://playpal.com, coming to a radio station near you.
I think it is time for the youth of korea to make that long hard journey out of their parent's basement. Oh, and I've never spent an extraodinary amount of time playing TFC. *cough* Never.
"The day star! It burns us! It burns!"
on C-64's at the local K-mart.
I'd expect more from a "visonary." I think where he fails is in associating "fresh college kids" with impending failure of technology. I know I'm not too hopeful of the products people graduating with C.I.S. degrees are feverishly working away at in Visual Basic. I've little respect for C.I.S. people and even less for VB, but that doesn't mean a.) there won't be fresh-meat-hot-shot programmers, and b.) cumbersome bloated awful programs.
Predicting the future is better left to weathermen and 1-900 fortune tellers.
Sure it is the fan that is making the noise. But sometimes it is the environment that you run your computer in. I previously had one of my computers set up in my living room and you could hardly hear it. I moved it to another room, a much much smaller one and the noise difference was very noticable. Carpeting and other sound dampeners (curtains, etc) make a difference.
As for use in FPS, I'm doubtful. I came *this* close to ordering one of those "fin rings" -- which are wireless mice that you war on your hand... you tilt them one way or the other to move the mouse pointer.
Unless there is a gesture for "Kill Heavy Weapons Guy" I imagine the glove will work the same way. Tilting your hand one way or the other might not be the most accurate or responsive method. I read a review of the fin ring and its use in FPSs and it didn't sound too promising. Since the concept is similar, I think the usage will be limited.
This comparision is invalid if the fin ring is digital instead of analog (i.e. you're moving left or you're not moving left, no inbetween).
"It appears that you're searching for ancient treasure! Would you like me to:
But I still can't find my car keys. There is something wrong here.