As soon as the RIAA et al thugs can find the locations they will fill the devices up with garbage, pr0n, incorrectly named and incredibly distorted music/video files. Nice idea but too easy to corrupt
I am both a musician and a geek and I've been there - i do my arranging and the playback from an arranging program (Finale/Sibelius) is pretty sophisticated these days. Software + synth will replace an average performance pretty well, but a great performance is great because it pushes the limits of the players and the environment. A great performance requires great individual performances and will be on the risky side. Typically a great performance (I've occasionally been lucky and been there, great performances are very rare) works this way: you are playing along and someone, perhaps the conductor, perhaps not, makes a proposal: "Lets go for it on this one"" and plays a stunningly great phrase. The proposal is answered by another wonderful phrase, and from then on to the end (if it goes right) everybody is concentrating at a rare level. I've occasionally heard performances that start great & finish ordinary, too.
Want a couple of examples? These are from the classical area but I've heard it happen in jazz too. Try:
Leonard Bernstein+NY Phil, Mahler Symphony #2, the version with Lee Venora singing. The brass playing is superb too.
Same conductor & orchestra, Sibelius Symphony #2, The great phrase is the oboe solo.
What we have now is software that gives us the most of the nuances and produces a polished copy of a fine performance. I can imagine software that would give us true greatness but not any time soon.
These guys are out of good ideas, they are trying to get something (anything) to stick so they can sue someone, anyone. I know nothing about UK law so I don't know if this will stick but it looks as if they are at their wit's end, not a difficult task by the looks of it.
is that it can be built by anyone with intermediate carpentry/model-making skills. This is not the case with Enigma, for example, that is in the advanced electromechanical category. Definitely deserves an A for excellent design and first-rate results with minimally advanced technology.
From previous:
We do NOT have an electrical grid that can support all the new electric cars you would love to see. Sorry, its just not there, and not likely to be there for several decades.
This is a correct statement and IMO the best argument for investing in distributed solar (rooftop panels) I have ever seen. I know it will not pay back for a number of years but it does pay back for most locations in the US. There are even companies that will let you lease their solar cell panels on your roof in return for a long-term commitment. There are also juicy Federal (US) subsidies on the horizon.
Somehow or other I think this will happen for ordinary folks. And as a longtime geek, the thought of an all-electric Le Mans strikes me as a good thing, there should be some sort of relationship between the race cars for a race like that and the cars that ordinary people drive. Maybe if they let Danica Patrick drive (she placed third at Indy this year) an electric car could win IF the rules gave them a chance.
For racing of course you don't worry about the long term, just get your car across the line first.
There will be effects, you can't do only one thing.
"These devices would be deployed in groups of 20 or even more providing cheap electricity without harming our environment."
Not quite. I remember reading an article on a study that was performed in the 1980s and reported in Scientific American. The purpose of the study was to discover the effects of putting tidal power units at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, in Nova Scotia. This bay has enormous tides, over 40 feet difference between low and high tide levels, making it a candidate for a tidal plant power.
The overall environment was definitely affected, one of the big effects was that there was a "reflection" of the tide at the Bay of Fundy that affected tides in Boston, over 400 km away. Specifically tides in Boston were stronger and somewhat later in the day. The total amount of energy on the coastline was the same, of course, but distributed somewhat differently.
Also see http://www.ems.psu.edu/~elsworth/courses/cause2003/finalprojects/canutepaper.pdf
Add in a rising sea level and things could get interesting in Beantown.
It's really simple. Run ten different studies, all honest, on Linux vs MS software. Let's say that the result (hypothetically of course) is 8 favor MS, 2 favor Linux. Bury the eight unfavorable to MS, advertise the 2 that favor MS. This is just common sense. You need to look at the studies carefully to see whether the cases they cite are typical or not. Actually IMO MS's reputation is not so good these days, people know that they are convicted monopolists that lie, cheat & steal; as a result these claims are regarded as "less than honest" advercapola and disregarded by many. MS can't even fool all of the people part of the time these days, those days are over.
Built my first computer in 1977
on
First Computers
·
· Score: 1
A Southwest Tech 6800 with all of 16K of RAM, 2 floppy drives. Included handwiring every connection on 4KB memory boards and then debugging it when it failed to run. Its time is past and I don't regret leaving it behind, but it sure was fun then.
A suggestion - there exist steganography tools that will embed jpeg images into audio files, usually by tweaking the lower order bit of some of the 16-bit samples in the wave file. If you embedded a jpeg of something appropriate (a big poster that read "Fsck the RIAA" somehow seems right) then it would totally confuse any fingerprinting of a wave file.
Note that the RIAA's fingerprint generation may not operate on the whole CD track but rather on certain parts of it, so you would really want something that would affect most of the song. A well-designed stegano picture-camouflager would probably not affect the sound quality of the final result even to most golden audiofile ears. I believe something similar could be used for MP3 files.
As far as I can tell from reading the description of the law (IANAL), they made it illegal to enforce the ban on cartridge refills, and it probably does conflict with federal law. What they should have done, with no conflict with the federal statute, was to ban the sale of printers with that sort of restriction. AFAIK a state can ban the sale of various items on whatever grounds it feels are correct, and the feds have nothing to say about it.
but it can be done. I am an eldergeek, 60 last year, who just got an MCP cert in VB and expect to get another cert this year. The key is, you've got to keep up. If you don't learn a new discipline every year or so you're dead. I've always been on the techie end, so agility is mandatory. But then so is working for the right company when a crunch happens. I think chances are best in a midsize company, they can change course quicker and with less disruption. Many of those yelling "age discrimination" are just dinosaurs who didn't keep up - I see them at work daily.
Don't bother making spam illegal - it's a waste of time, there are too many ways around it even with a bounty. Instead, make it illegal to sell a product using spam ads (we need a careful definition of electronic trespass here). AND make it illegal to collaborate in financial transactions for companies that use spam. In other words VISA, MC, Discover, Amex etc, can't collect for any transaction for a product or service that used spam to advertise it.
Hit them where it hurts - in the pocketbook. And don't bother with the senders, it's the people that employ the senders that should be targeted.
I think the detection of steganography in an image file, given reasonable smarts on the part of the stego software designers, is totally impossible. A typical plain text email message might have 1k words, to be generous. This works out to about 40k bits (5 characters per word, 8 bits per character). A 2048x1536 tiff file, common with today's digital cameras, is about 10+ MB in size. I think that hiding the 40k bits in 10MB of binary image file would result in a file that would pass any practical test, statistical or otherwise.
Also consider this technique, you (the encryptor) could run the statistical tests on the output file and tweak garbage bits at random until it would not raise any alarms. The design principle would be: 1. Encrypt your message, 2. Insert a compensating set of (probably ordered) bits into the image. 3. Test for randomness, you want to have the final encrypted/hidden output look like the original by every statistical measure you can test for. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until done.
The basic principle is that you keep the number of encrypted bits in the hidden part buried in the file low relative to the size of the file the message is buried in; I am not a crypto guy but maybe someone who is would care to comment. I would not bet on the TLAs in this race, it's too easy to hide stuff.
Of course IANAL, but doesn't Microsoft's status of being found guilty of maintinaing a monopoly put some rather severe limits on what they can do? For example there are some lawsuits that are trying to stop the Windows XP release, and they can certainly use this monopoly status as ammunition. I would think that MS's trying to use.NET in this way (bait & switch) would instantly draw fire from a lot of areas.
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As soon as the RIAA et al thugs can find the locations they will fill the devices up with garbage, pr0n, incorrectly named and incredibly distorted music/video files. Nice idea but too easy to corrupt
I am both a musician and a geek and I've been there - i do my arranging and the playback from an arranging program (Finale/Sibelius) is pretty sophisticated these days. Software + synth will replace an average performance pretty well, but a great performance is great because it pushes the limits of the players and the environment. A great performance requires great individual performances and will be on the risky side. Typically a great performance (I've occasionally been lucky and been there, great performances are very rare) works this way: you are playing along and someone, perhaps the conductor, perhaps not, makes a proposal: "Lets go for it on this one"" and plays a stunningly great phrase. The proposal is answered by another wonderful phrase, and from then on to the end (if it goes right) everybody is concentrating at a rare level. I've occasionally heard performances that start great & finish ordinary, too. Want a couple of examples? These are from the classical area but I've heard it happen in jazz too. Try: Leonard Bernstein+NY Phil, Mahler Symphony #2, the version with Lee Venora singing. The brass playing is superb too. Same conductor & orchestra, Sibelius Symphony #2, The great phrase is the oboe solo. What we have now is software that gives us the most of the nuances and produces a polished copy of a fine performance. I can imagine software that would give us true greatness but not any time soon.
These guys are out of good ideas, they are trying to get something (anything) to stick so they can sue someone, anyone. I know nothing about UK law so I don't know if this will stick but it looks as if they are at their wit's end, not a difficult task by the looks of it.
is that it can be built by anyone with intermediate carpentry/model-making skills. This is not the case with Enigma, for example, that is in the advanced electromechanical category. Definitely deserves an A for excellent design and first-rate results with minimally advanced technology.
From previous: We do NOT have an electrical grid that can support all the new electric cars you would love to see. Sorry, its just not there, and not likely to be there for several decades. This is a correct statement and IMO the best argument for investing in distributed solar (rooftop panels) I have ever seen. I know it will not pay back for a number of years but it does pay back for most locations in the US. There are even companies that will let you lease their solar cell panels on your roof in return for a long-term commitment. There are also juicy Federal (US) subsidies on the horizon. Somehow or other I think this will happen for ordinary folks. And as a longtime geek, the thought of an all-electric Le Mans strikes me as a good thing, there should be some sort of relationship between the race cars for a race like that and the cars that ordinary people drive. Maybe if they let Danica Patrick drive (she placed third at Indy this year) an electric car could win IF the rules gave them a chance. For racing of course you don't worry about the long term, just get your car across the line first.
There will be effects, you can't do only one thing. "These devices would be deployed in groups of 20 or even more providing cheap electricity without harming our environment." Not quite. I remember reading an article on a study that was performed in the 1980s and reported in Scientific American. The purpose of the study was to discover the effects of putting tidal power units at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, in Nova Scotia. This bay has enormous tides, over 40 feet difference between low and high tide levels, making it a candidate for a tidal plant power. The overall environment was definitely affected, one of the big effects was that there was a "reflection" of the tide at the Bay of Fundy that affected tides in Boston, over 400 km away. Specifically tides in Boston were stronger and somewhat later in the day. The total amount of energy on the coastline was the same, of course, but distributed somewhat differently. Also see http://www.ems.psu.edu/~elsworth/courses/cause2003/finalprojects/canutepaper.pdf Add in a rising sea level and things could get interesting in Beantown.
It's really simple. Run ten different studies, all honest, on Linux vs MS software. Let's say that the result (hypothetically of course) is 8 favor MS, 2 favor Linux. Bury the eight unfavorable to MS, advertise the 2 that favor MS. This is just common sense. You need to look at the studies carefully to see whether the cases they cite are typical or not. Actually IMO MS's reputation is not so good these days, people know that they are convicted monopolists that lie, cheat & steal; as a result these claims are regarded as "less than honest" advercapola and disregarded by many. MS can't even fool all of the people part of the time these days, those days are over.
A Southwest Tech 6800 with all of 16K of RAM, 2 floppy drives. Included handwiring every connection on 4KB memory boards and then debugging it when it failed to run. Its time is past and I don't regret leaving it behind, but it sure was fun then.
A suggestion - there exist steganography tools that will embed jpeg images into audio files, usually by tweaking the lower order bit of some of the 16-bit samples in the wave file. If you embedded a jpeg of something appropriate (a big poster that read "Fsck the RIAA" somehow seems right) then it would totally confuse any fingerprinting of a wave file.
Note that the RIAA's fingerprint generation may not operate on the whole CD track but rather on certain parts of it, so you would really want something that would affect most of the song. A well-designed stegano picture-camouflager would probably not affect the sound quality of the final result even to most golden audiofile ears. I believe something similar could be used for MP3 files.
As far as I can tell from reading the description of the law (IANAL), they made it illegal to enforce the ban on cartridge refills, and it probably does conflict with federal law. What they should have done, with no conflict with the federal statute, was to ban the sale of printers with that sort of restriction. AFAIK a state can ban the sale of various items on whatever grounds it feels are correct, and the feds have nothing to say about it.
but it can be done. I am an eldergeek, 60 last year, who just got an MCP cert in VB and expect to get another cert this year. The key is, you've got to keep up. If you don't learn a new discipline every year or so you're dead. I've always been on the techie end, so agility is mandatory. But then so is working for the right company when a crunch happens. I think chances are best in a midsize company, they can change course quicker and with less disruption. Many of those yelling "age discrimination" are just dinosaurs who didn't keep up - I see them at work daily.
Don't bother making spam illegal - it's a waste of time, there are too many ways around it even with a bounty. Instead, make it illegal to sell a product using spam ads (we need a careful definition of electronic trespass here). AND make it illegal to collaborate in financial transactions for companies that use spam. In other words VISA, MC, Discover, Amex etc, can't collect for any transaction for a product or service that used spam to advertise it.
Hit them where it hurts - in the pocketbook. And don't bother with the senders, it's the people that employ the senders that should be targeted.
I think the detection of steganography in an image file, given reasonable smarts on the part of the stego software designers, is totally impossible. A typical plain text email message might have 1k words, to be generous. This works out to about 40k bits (5 characters per word, 8 bits per character). A 2048x1536 tiff file, common with today's digital cameras, is about 10+ MB in size. I think that hiding the 40k bits in 10MB of binary image file would result in a file that would pass any practical test, statistical or otherwise.
Also consider this technique, you (the encryptor) could run the statistical tests on the output file and tweak garbage bits at random until it would not raise any alarms. The design principle would be: 1. Encrypt your message, 2. Insert a compensating set of (probably ordered) bits into the image. 3. Test for randomness, you want to have the final encrypted/hidden output look like the original by every statistical measure you can test for. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until done.
The basic principle is that you keep the number of encrypted bits in the hidden part buried in the file low relative to the size of the file the message is buried in; I am not a crypto guy but maybe someone who is would care to comment. I would not bet on the TLAs in this race, it's too easy to hide stuff.
Of course IANAL, but doesn't Microsoft's status of being found guilty of maintinaing a monopoly put some rather severe limits on what they can do? For example there are some lawsuits that are trying to stop the Windows XP release, and they can certainly use this monopoly status as ammunition. I would think that MS's trying to use .NET in this way (bait & switch) would instantly draw fire from a lot of areas.