The point of the busts on December 11 is to put case law on the books. Who is going to defend a bunch of criminals, after all? The point of the bust is to prove that the DMCA and the new powers granted to the FBI are 'legal.' Once that is done they can go after people who you probably wouldn't think of as criminals. Such as open source programmers trying to make DVD player software for linux.
By the way, don't think that even one of these warez people is going to get away without any jail time. If every piece of evidence collected by the FBI were ruled to be obtained illegally, there are dozens of civil court lawsuits that could be brought for billions of dollars against them. Civil court doesn't require the same standards on evidence, but if you can't pay a billion dollar fine you're going to spend time in jail anyways.
The difference is that if the FBI wins these people will get life in Federal 'pound you up the ass' prison. The FBI will also have an unholy amount of power to wiretap etc. If the FBI loses then the warez people will get into the local prison system, probably because their lawyer managed to defend them from an outrageous fine that noone could ever hope to pay. As a side benefit everyone will have more freedom if the FBI looses.
One final thing 'Innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.' The powers granted to the FBI effectively take that away. They can treat you as guilty without needing a court of law to intervene.
Linux users who celebrate the loss of freedom deserve the fate that will befall them should Microsoft manage to make linux as illegal as warez. The loss of freedom is not in reference to these warez busts, but rather the laws that were passed which enabled them. They were busted on December 11 for a reason. The FBI wants people to think of warez groups as they think of the taliban. The fact that these busts will enforce the rule of law that breaking encryption == a terrorist act. You may as well stop watching DVDs under linux, unless you use closed source apps like PowerDVD. The power the FBI now has allows them to go after the people who Make open source DVD players. And when the MPAA pushes them to do so, who will be there to defend you? If they can convince the average person that a warez group = terrorists, then they can damn well convince them that a linux user is a criminal.
Need I remind you that making an open source DVD player Is a violation of the DMCA? Which means they could now prosecute you as a terrorist, which means they Can Extradite you from your native country and put you on trial Here in the US. Assuming your country allows you to put on trial here.
Of course the DMCA can also be interperted to mean that it is illegal to provide copies of the US constitution. How convenient, since it's clearly in violation of the US constitution.
Re:I must be missing something
on
Review: SliMP3
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· Score: 1
Just my 2 cents here... I've been using my FreeBSD box to control music in 2 rooms for ages now. I don't even use an alarm clock anymore because crontabs are so much more reliable. It is also pretty damn hard to turn the alarm off accidently when you have to log in via telnet to turn it off.
Also, I can run as many stream outputs as my number of soundcards/CPU allows. Currently that would be 2, since the motherboard has built-in sound and I have a cheap ISA SB AWE card.
FWIW I probably paid around $500 total for the server when I set it up, and I'm not limited to just mp3s.
I think the only thing 'missing' is id3 support really and a console mode mp3 player can fix that easily. If you've got money to burn and are a geek the above toy looks cool. For the rest of us I think we can live with putting an old 286 next to the stereo so we can see what mp3 we're playing, or just memorize our playlists.
I guess it's to be expected. FFX came out and some of the/. crew are too absorbed with the game to actually find articles to post, putting more pressure on the rest of them to find articles.
That and it's not like there is anything really newsworthy to make it easier. Besides news is always about repetition, ever watched CNN before? I was going through my old VHS archive and found a bunch of stuff I taped off of News channels during an election for school. Other than the fact it was about an old election it coulda passed for some current coverage.
My only argument with you is that $800 isn't 'low-end.' $800 is enough to buy a lot of very reasonable hardware. A $500 computer is low-end. So, if you're paying full price, it's doubling the price of a mid-range PC.
Another thing is Microsft just wishes it could force you to pay every single year for your OS. So how long until XP activation is turned into a 'Subscription' model. "Windows will stop booting until you send a $50 payment to Microsoft." Every 30 days... "Pricing subject to change without notice..."
"This is the first network-based, remote compromise that I'm aware of for Windows desktop systems," said Scott Culp, manager of Microsoft's security response center.
Apparently he never heard of the Windows File sharing exploits.
Well you could read my book when I finish writing it. It's fictional, but it is based on the notion that America is on the verge of it's Third revolutionary war. The civil war being the second, for those who didn't know. I'm still in the research stage, and don't have a publisher yet. I also can't reveal any more specific details, since I want my book to be plagurized. Also since I haven't entirely decided very much.
If anyone knows of any good open source software for generating complex timelines, or other tools useful for authors please let me know.
e-mail = 'echo qrvsdp@nhvxnl.gyqgqv.ruj |/usr/bin/tr ad-y 3a-z' linux syntax may vary, but this works on FreeBSD.
While you Do have to complete a CD-R session for any data to be written, and there is a penalty in capacity for writing multi-session. You can 'burn' dozens of 'sessions' onto a CD-r.
Obviously the problem with this new media is that to be 100% compatible with flash the TOC area needs to be Rewritable. Otherwise each burn is going to require a new TOC is written, in a new spot, and the OS will need to support this.
It would be interesting if they could use burn-proof technology along with a hybrid cd-r/cd-rw disc where the TOC area was RW and the data area was cd-r. A disc that appeared to be a 'single' session even though you had written to it several times. Which only saves a few dozen MBs... oh well.
I did find that in november they did have the browser OS shown, but that hadn't come up as default in the past 3-4 times I went there.
I guess I missed it.
Other posters brought up the important issue that browser strings need to be forged to get into many sites. Only way I know that can absolutely determine version is a javascript applet -- which leaves out non-java browsers.
I guess browsers need to make sure that google always gets the correct browser string. Put an option 'exempt search engines' from the the custom browser string.
How the most popular websites like yahoo and google never have statistics on the Operating system of browsers used to visit them?
Google's Zeitgeist often has what language and what country surfers are from, but I have yet to see the 'operating system' of browsers shown.
I wonder just how much money paid and/or legal threats microsoft has used against them to keep these numbers quiet.
If any one site can reflect the demographics of a true internet experience, then Yahoo would be that site. And as such knowing what browser or operating system people Really use would be dangerous, because Microsoft dosen't command as much of a monopoly as they would like to, in the browser space.
The Congress shall have Power...
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for
limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their
respective Writings and Discoveries.
Afterall what part of 'Limited Times' does 'forever' fall under.
and what part of 'to Authors' does 'Recording industry cartel' fall under.
Just submitted that... What better source than the constitution... Wait isn't it illegal to redistribute the constitution under the DMCA?
It is if they include it on a DVD and I'm sure that one of the 10,000 movies on DVD has a reference or a shot of the constitution.
20-30 years is about right. AT&T proved the posibility of optical computing I can't remember the exact year but It was somewhere between 1980 and 1997. How long after that did it take for galium-arsenide optical processors to get put into DVD-rom drives. Anyways, I full well expect the Playstation 7 or the Xbox 5 to be using quantum-computers so that those 3-d games can be played with some kinda full immersion system with real physics. At the rate we're going now we won't need encryption, since noone outside the NSA or the FBI or the military will be allowed to use it. In fact it will probably be illegal to choose an operating system or modify any hardware device purchased.
Microsoft was backing the comcast deal.
I read about it before, and the article above mentioned it. In fact Microsoft was offering cash on 3 of the 4 possible outcomes for what AT&T would end up doing. Why is microsoft offering cash to 3 of the 4 parties? remember that whole 'set top box' software debate? I wouldn't be at all suprized if comcast announced that microsoft was now going to be providing them with set top box software.
A galactic habitable zone is the zone within a galaxy where stars around which planets that could support life can form. A solar habitable zone is a zone within a stable solar system that plantets may form and sustain life. This extends the latter, but not the former.
I see one X-box selling for $375 none of the other auctions have been bitten on. I see about 12 camecube auctions that are closing with sales, most in the $220-250 range. Most of the Playstation 2 auctions are on used systems going for $250. Based on the 'Ebay' factor, most people are finding the systems they want. Unlike last year where Sony cut PS2 production by 50% because of 'manufacturing problems.' If any conclusions can be drawn from the 'Ebay factor' it is that gamecube are selling out better than X box, probably because they have under a million units in the supply chain. Some PS2 owners are willing to part with their systems after a year of fruitless searching for games. More likely though these are people who have to be the first on the block to have anything new, and are selling the old PS2 units because they can't afford the xbox otherwise. Unless they're selling broken out of warranty PS2 units.
Game cube and Xbox are selling as fast as they're being manufactured, with the exception of about 20% of the markets which for whatever reason received higher volume than demand. If nintendo sold 800,000 Game cube and Retailers sold nearly 700,000 units that means strictly mathematically that they're 90% sold out. Nintendo can't crank out an extra million units to flood the supply chain, beause it just came out. PS2 has been out a year, sony ironed out most of the kinks in production, and 95% of all markets have PS2 units available. Considering the mumbo jumbo of how retail supply chains Don't work... each store receives a fixed number of units, then high level managment is allowed a little bit of leeway in ordering product. Most product is kept in warehouses to refill high demand markets as they sell out.
All things considered nintendo and microsoft both seem to be doing as good or better than planned. While personally I'm sticking with my SPCH-1001 PSX (with fans added to preserve the life of the unit.) It does seem like the market is going to be a tight 3-way race - for the next few years.
Sony is the clear market leader, and isn't going away. Nintendo has the portable market locked up, and isn't going away. Microsoft keeps winning in court and isn't going away.
Sony has the RPG market, buy PS2 if you like those games. Nintendo has the best overal design teams, stick with them for solid gaming. Microsoft has well a 6 GB HD stick linux on it be happy. Compitition means you really can't loose.
The profitability of DRAM chips depends highly on the cost and availability of
Low ESR Tantalum. While not the only factor in profitability, this is quite often more than 75% of the cost of materials in a DRAM chip. Any shift in the price of low ESR tantalum will shift the cost of building each DRAM chip.
the easiest way to 'save' money is a die shrink since it dramatically reduces the amount of materials used to build the same quantity of RAM.
If you're using 64-mbit chips and the competitor can fit 256-mbit per chip, (because of a die shrink) they have the advantage in materials. The downside is the cost of developing such high densities and then deploying them.
Also, I beleive that micron is loosing money mostly on the development of new density chips etc. The pricing on crucial.com seems to compensate adequately for manfacturing costs, other than research.
Compared to a lot of technology companies, going from a 1.5 billion profit to a.625 billion loss isn't bad. There was officially a recession in 2001 after all, in addition to a lot of market volitility. Micron also has an edge over other manufacturers. They have a crucial.com, a popular place to aquire good memory. Since they're selling directly that cuts out middle-men meaning a higher margin of profit. Also, the best time to aquire competitors is during a recession.
Keep in mind that building a new fab can cost Billions, acquiring one at a firesale could give micron a huge edge over competitors. Considering that Windows keeps driving up RAM requirements, there should eventually be a stable point in the market again sometime soon.
All those people buying XP boxes with only 128MB of RAM are going to find out how painful XP is with less than 320 megs. Still, it is only a small chance that enough people will upgrade to make a dent in the oversupply of ram.
Then again there could be an earthquake tomorrow and RAM prices could triple overnight if just one multi-billion dollar plant was destroyed.
By 'Illegal Software Producers' They mean Linux coders. Since Microsoft has a patent on "Digital Rights Management Operating Systems" Our friends at the MPAA and RIAA are busy lobbying congress to make it illegal to produce non-DRM software/hardware, so this must be what they're talking about when they say 'Illegal software producers.' We all know 'pirates' steal software, not produce it after all.
When I'm using unix I tend to use command line, because the GUIs are too slow/unstable. For a task I do frequently I either use an alias or a shell script or something like that. On windows I enable a nifty 'toolbar' called "desktop" It turns the desktop analogy into one giant menu. The weakness of this is the size of your screen limits how many folder/files you can see in a glance, but moving the mouse half way across the screen and with 2 clicks I can open just about any folder I need access to. Since programs don't overlap the toolbar I never need to hunt for the desktop. It also saves on clicks because moving the mouse is the 'navigation.'
Of course the usefulness of this tool is pretty much dependant on having a directory viewer tool that is both fast and either loaded at boot, or small. The main issue I have with most GUI interfaces on linux is that they try to be everything to everyone. All I really want is a directory navigation tool is to execute my xterm in the directory I choose with ls done as the first command, and does it in a simple fast loading menu. Perhaps it already exists, but in general the stuff I've seen tries to create a desktop environment or else has hundreds of megs of source code and libraries.
Two words "Linux Ready" I'm pretty sure that the current OEM License doesn't prohibit leaving empty space on the hard drive, or shipping a CD with the system that includes another OS. If I could find a site that had the infamous OEM Licence on it I could be certain. Worst case scenario they would have to ship the Linux CD seperately. Those OEMs that provide Linux-only models could overnight add a 'linux ready' option to thier windows PCs. A modified linux CD that installed linux in one click setup correctly for that model of PC could be shipped either seperatly or if the license allows with the PC itself.
Of course since this is posted to/. Microsoft could well be reading it and sending the legal staff to draft up a New OEM license as we speak. However, I doubt that even Microsoft could win a court battle about leaving a hard drive partially unformatted as a user option. The trade secret status process should also delay things long enough that an OEM could start shipping systems with the 'linux ready' option before Microsoft could act, and could then SUE Microsoft for damages ala the Dr. DOS case.
Which lawsuit do you mean? The only lawsuit I can find on the 'net is the connectix VGS one, which sony lost horribly, forcing them to buy them out. Mod chips, reverse engineering, emulation are All Perfectly legal, and we have legal precedence for this. As long as you aren't 'damaging' the company. It is also impossible to 'prove' that a modchip harms a company, since you had to buy the hardware in the first place to mod it. There are also Substantial Non-Infringing uses for a mod-chip. Such as the playback of other region DVDs or the use of Backup Discs. Just as the VCR has the ability to copy movies. The substantial non-infringing uses for a VCR, time shifting Television for one, makes it legal.
If sony could win a lawsuit agains modchip makers they would sue them until they were blue in the face. But they can't win. That is why the same modchip people from 3-4 years ago are still selling modchips today. Sony and panasonic can't touch them.
Start with two racks, fill them with servers, Put the towers in the middle. Now, stuff those in to a small closet. You're running these all a bit OC'd, right? Great, now got to the store and pick up a product called "Cake Mix." Follow the directions on the box. It will likley need milk, water, and eggs. Put this solution in a pan and then you've got an oven that can play quake.
Ahh the recipe for an EasyQuake oven... you forgot to patent it though.
Excuse me but the law says you hack an encryption code you're a terrorist. Now if hackers got treated the same as a guy who robs a 7-11 we wouldn't HAVE anything to complain about. Instead they're discriminated against, treated the way kevin mitnick was, and told their crimes are as bad as murder in the first degree.
Think salem witch trial because that is the way society treats 'crackers.' It isn't witchcraft understanding how computers work, and the fact that there are multi-million dollar raids on warez people. Who again are going to be treated as terrorists under US law any of them that aren't lucky enough to have thier own countries refuse to let them be prosecuted under US law that is. Well, all things considered when was the last time you saw an FBI goon checking your bags to make sure you didn't shoplift anything from wal-mart? you know in some areas shoplifting can account for some serious losses. And they're loosing actual goods that they had to pay for, not 'revenue streams.' which are tricky at best to determine.
Considering that the rise and fall of napster nicely coincide with a rise and drop in CD sales I'd say most people out there are honest and will buy anything that they feel is worth thier hard earned bucks.
The fact is that as a reslut of septemper 11 the laws that were pushed through congress make hacking an act of terrorism. The FBI is out for blood. These people NEED good lawers because they don't deserve to be treated like murders or terrorists. They stole software, and lots of it. They don't deserve Life in prision without any parole though.
As for rich kid hah, I'm below the poverty line. I made $8,000 last year. The only reason I can live on that little is because my family is helping me out. My budget is why I love linux/BSD (free and runs great on cheap old hardware.) And FreeBSD and linux are really what kept me out of the warez scene because I can't afford to run state of the art hardware or $100+ programs.
Slashdot Mirror
My money is on this title.
Final Fantasy: The Bankruptcy Within.
The point of the busts on December 11 is to put case law on the books. Who is going to defend a bunch of criminals, after all? The point of the bust is to prove that the DMCA and the new powers granted to the FBI are 'legal.' Once that is done they can go after people who you probably wouldn't think of as criminals. Such as open source programmers trying to make DVD player software for linux.
By the way, don't think that even one of these warez people is going to get away without any jail time. If every piece of evidence collected by the FBI were ruled to be obtained illegally, there are dozens of civil court lawsuits that could be brought for billions of dollars against them. Civil court doesn't require the same standards on evidence, but if you can't pay a billion dollar fine you're going to spend time in jail anyways.
The difference is that if the FBI wins these people will get life in Federal 'pound you up the ass' prison. The FBI will also have an unholy amount of power to wiretap etc. If the FBI loses then the warez people will get into the local prison system, probably because their lawyer managed to defend them from an outrageous fine that noone could ever hope to pay. As a side benefit everyone will have more freedom if the FBI looses.
One final thing 'Innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.' The powers granted to the FBI effectively take that away. They can treat you as guilty without needing a court of law to intervene.
Linux users who celebrate the loss of freedom deserve the fate that will befall them should Microsoft manage to make linux as illegal as warez. The loss of freedom is not in reference to these warez busts, but rather the laws that were passed which enabled them. They were busted on December 11 for a reason. The FBI wants people to think of warez groups as they think of the taliban. The fact that these busts will enforce the rule of law that breaking encryption == a terrorist act. You may as well stop watching DVDs under linux, unless you use closed source apps like PowerDVD. The power the FBI now has allows them to go after the people who Make open source DVD players. And when the MPAA pushes them to do so, who will be there to defend you? If they can convince the average person that a warez group = terrorists, then they can damn well convince them that a linux user is a criminal.
Need I remind you that making an open source DVD player Is a violation of the DMCA? Which means they could now prosecute you as a terrorist, which means they Can Extradite you from your native country and put you on trial Here in the US. Assuming your country allows you to put on trial here.
Of course the DMCA can also be interperted to mean that it is illegal to provide copies of the US constitution. How convenient, since it's clearly in violation of the US constitution.
Just my 2 cents here... I've been using my FreeBSD box to control music in 2 rooms for ages now. I don't even use an alarm clock anymore because crontabs are so much more reliable. It is also pretty damn hard to turn the alarm off accidently when you have to log in via telnet to turn it off.
Also, I can run as many stream outputs as my number of soundcards/CPU allows. Currently that would be 2, since the motherboard has built-in sound and I have a cheap ISA SB AWE card.
FWIW I probably paid around $500 total for the server when I set it up, and I'm not limited to just mp3s.
I think the only thing 'missing' is id3 support really and a console mode mp3 player can fix that easily. If you've got money to burn and are a geek the above toy looks cool. For the rest of us I think we can live with putting an old 286 next to the stereo so we can see what mp3 we're playing, or just memorize our playlists.
I guess it's to be expected. FFX came out and some of the /. crew are too absorbed with the game to actually find articles to post, putting more pressure on the rest of them to find articles.
That and it's not like there is anything really newsworthy to make it easier. Besides news is always about repetition, ever watched CNN before? I was going through my old VHS archive and found a bunch of stuff I taped off of News channels during an election for school. Other than the fact it was about an old election it coulda passed for some current coverage.
My only argument with you is that $800 isn't 'low-end.' $800 is enough to buy a lot of very reasonable hardware. A $500 computer is low-end. So, if you're paying full price, it's doubling the price of a mid-range PC.
Another thing is Microsft just wishes it could force you to pay every single year for your OS. So how long until XP activation is turned into a 'Subscription' model. "Windows will stop booting until you send a $50 payment to Microsoft." Every 30 days... "Pricing subject to change without notice..."
"This is the first network-based, remote compromise that I'm aware of for Windows desktop systems," said Scott Culp, manager of Microsoft's security response center.
Apparently he never heard of the Windows File sharing exploits.
Well you could read my book when I finish writing it. It's fictional, but it is based on the notion that America is on the verge of it's Third revolutionary war. The civil war being the second, for those who didn't know. I'm still in the research stage, and don't have a publisher yet. I also can't reveal any more specific details, since I want my book to be plagurized. Also since I haven't entirely decided very much.
/usr/bin/tr ad-y 3a-z' linux syntax may vary, but this works on FreeBSD.
If anyone knows of any good open source software for generating complex timelines, or other tools useful for authors please let me know.
e-mail = 'echo qrvsdp@nhvxnl.gyqgqv.ruj |
While you Do have to complete a CD-R session for any data to be written, and there is a penalty in capacity for writing multi-session. You can 'burn' dozens of 'sessions' onto a CD-r.
Obviously the problem with this new media is that to be 100% compatible with flash the TOC area needs to be Rewritable. Otherwise each burn is going to require a new TOC is written, in a new spot, and the OS will need to support this.
It would be interesting if they could use burn-proof technology along with a hybrid cd-r/cd-rw disc where the TOC area was RW and the data area was cd-r. A disc that appeared to be a 'single' session even though you had written to it several times. Which only saves a few dozen MBs... oh well.
I did find that in november they did have the browser OS shown, but that hadn't come up as default in the past 3-4 times I went there.
I guess I missed it.
Other posters brought up the important issue that browser strings need to be forged to get into many sites. Only way I know that can absolutely determine version is a javascript applet -- which leaves out non-java browsers.
I guess browsers need to make sure that google always gets the correct browser string. Put an option 'exempt search engines' from the the custom browser string.
How the most popular websites like yahoo and google never have statistics on the Operating system of browsers used to visit them?
Google's Zeitgeist often has what language and what country surfers are from, but I have yet to see the 'operating system' of browsers shown.
I wonder just how much money paid and/or legal threats microsoft has used against them to keep these numbers quiet.
If any one site can reflect the demographics of a true internet experience, then Yahoo would be that site. And as such knowing what browser or operating system people Really use would be dangerous, because Microsoft dosen't command as much of a monopoly as they would like to, in the browser space.
The Congress shall have Power ...
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for
limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their
respective Writings and Discoveries.
Afterall what part of 'Limited Times' does 'forever' fall under.
and what part of 'to Authors' does 'Recording industry cartel' fall under.
Just submitted that... What better source than the constitution... Wait isn't it illegal to redistribute the constitution under the DMCA?
It is if they include it on a DVD and I'm sure that one of the 10,000 movies on DVD has a reference or a shot of the constitution.
20-30 years is about right. AT&T proved the posibility of optical computing I can't remember the exact year but It was somewhere between 1980 and 1997. How long after that did it take for galium-arsenide optical processors to get put into DVD-rom drives. Anyways, I full well expect the Playstation 7 or the Xbox 5 to be using quantum-computers so that those 3-d games can be played with some kinda full immersion system with real physics. At the rate we're going now we won't need encryption, since noone outside the NSA or the FBI or the military will be allowed to use it. In fact it will probably be illegal to choose an operating system or modify any hardware device purchased.
Microsoft was backing the comcast deal.
I read about it before, and the article above mentioned it. In fact Microsoft was offering cash on 3 of the 4 possible outcomes for what AT&T would end up doing. Why is microsoft offering cash to 3 of the 4 parties? remember that whole 'set top box' software debate? I wouldn't be at all suprized if comcast announced that microsoft was now going to be providing them with set top box software.
A galactic habitable zone is the zone within a galaxy where stars around which planets that could support life can form. A solar habitable zone is a zone within a stable solar system that plantets may form and sustain life. This extends the latter, but not the former.
I see one X-box selling for $375 none of the other auctions have been bitten on. I see about 12 camecube auctions that are closing with sales, most in the $220-250 range. Most of the Playstation 2 auctions are on used systems going for $250. Based on the 'Ebay' factor, most people are finding the systems they want. Unlike last year where Sony cut PS2 production by 50% because of 'manufacturing problems.' If any conclusions can be drawn from the 'Ebay factor' it is that gamecube are selling out better than X box, probably because they have under a million units in the supply chain. Some PS2 owners are willing to part with their systems after a year of fruitless searching for games. More likely though these are people who have to be the first on the block to have anything new, and are selling the old PS2 units because they can't afford the xbox otherwise. Unless they're selling broken out of warranty PS2 units.
Game cube and Xbox are selling as fast as they're being manufactured, with the exception of about 20% of the markets which for whatever reason received higher volume than demand. If nintendo sold 800,000 Game cube and Retailers sold nearly 700,000 units that means strictly mathematically that they're 90% sold out. Nintendo can't crank out an extra million units to flood the supply chain, beause it just came out. PS2 has been out a year, sony ironed out most of the kinks in production, and 95% of all markets have PS2 units available. Considering the mumbo jumbo of how retail supply chains Don't work... each store receives a fixed number of units, then high level managment is allowed a little bit of leeway in ordering product. Most product is kept in warehouses to refill high demand markets as they sell out.
All things considered nintendo and microsoft both seem to be doing as good or better than planned. While personally I'm sticking with my SPCH-1001 PSX (with fans added to preserve the life of the unit.) It does seem like the market is going to be a tight 3-way race - for the next few years.
Sony is the clear market leader, and isn't going away. Nintendo has the portable market locked up, and isn't going away. Microsoft keeps winning in court and isn't going away.
Sony has the RPG market, buy PS2 if you like those games. Nintendo has the best overal design teams, stick with them for solid gaming. Microsoft has well a 6 GB HD stick linux on it be happy. Compitition means you really can't loose.
The profitability of DRAM chips depends highly on the cost and availability of
Low ESR Tantalum. While not the only factor in profitability, this is quite often more than 75% of the cost of materials in a DRAM chip. Any shift in the price of low ESR tantalum will shift the cost of building each DRAM chip.
the easiest way to 'save' money is a die shrink since it dramatically reduces the amount of materials used to build the same quantity of RAM.
If you're using 64-mbit chips and the competitor can fit 256-mbit per chip, (because of a die shrink) they have the advantage in materials. The downside is the cost of developing such high densities and then deploying them.
Also, I beleive that micron is loosing money mostly on the development of new density chips etc. The pricing on crucial.com seems to compensate adequately for manfacturing costs, other than research.
Compared to a lot of technology companies, going from a 1.5 billion profit to a .625 billion loss isn't bad. There was officially a recession in 2001 after all, in addition to a lot of market volitility. Micron also has an edge over other manufacturers. They have a crucial.com, a popular place to aquire good memory. Since they're selling directly that cuts out middle-men meaning a higher margin of profit. Also, the best time to aquire competitors is during a recession.
Keep in mind that building a new fab can cost Billions, acquiring one at a firesale could give micron a huge edge over competitors. Considering that Windows keeps driving up RAM requirements, there should eventually be a stable point in the market again sometime soon.
All those people buying XP boxes with only 128MB of RAM are going to find out how painful XP is with less than 320 megs. Still, it is only a small chance that enough people will upgrade to make a dent in the oversupply of ram.
Then again there could be an earthquake tomorrow and RAM prices could triple overnight if just one multi-billion dollar plant was destroyed.
By 'Illegal Software Producers' They mean Linux coders. Since Microsoft has a patent on "Digital Rights Management Operating Systems"
Our friends at the MPAA and RIAA are busy lobbying congress to make it illegal to produce non-DRM software/hardware, so this must be what they're talking about when they say 'Illegal software producers.' We all know 'pirates' steal software, not produce it after all.
When I'm using unix I tend to use command line, because the GUIs are too slow/unstable. For a task I do frequently I either use an alias or a shell script or something like that. On windows I enable a nifty 'toolbar' called "desktop" It turns the desktop analogy into one giant menu. The weakness of this is the size of your screen limits how many folder/files you can see in a glance, but moving the mouse half way across the screen and with 2 clicks I can open just about any folder I need access to. Since programs don't overlap the toolbar I never need to hunt for the desktop. It also saves on clicks because moving the mouse is the 'navigation.'
Of course the usefulness of this tool is pretty much dependant on having a directory viewer tool that is both fast and either loaded at boot, or small. The main issue I have with most GUI interfaces on linux is that they try to be everything to everyone. All I really want is a directory navigation tool is to execute my xterm in the directory I choose with ls done as the first command, and does it in a simple fast loading menu. Perhaps it already exists, but in general the stuff I've seen tries to create a desktop environment or else has hundreds of megs of source code and libraries.
Two words "Linux Ready" I'm pretty sure that the current OEM License doesn't prohibit leaving empty space on the hard drive, or shipping a CD with the system that includes another OS. If I could find a site that had the infamous OEM Licence on it I could be certain. Worst case scenario they would have to ship the Linux CD seperately. Those OEMs that provide Linux-only models could overnight add a 'linux ready' option to thier windows PCs. A modified linux CD that installed linux in one click setup correctly for that model of PC could be shipped either seperatly or if the license allows with the PC itself.
/. Microsoft could well be reading it and sending the legal staff to draft up a New OEM license as we speak. However, I doubt that even Microsoft could win a court battle about leaving a hard drive partially unformatted as a user option. The trade secret status process should also delay things long enough that an OEM could start shipping systems with the 'linux ready' option before Microsoft could act, and could then SUE Microsoft for damages ala the Dr. DOS case.
Of course since this is posted to
Which lawsuit do you mean? The only lawsuit I can find on the 'net is the connectix VGS one, which sony lost horribly, forcing them to buy them out. Mod chips, reverse engineering, emulation are All Perfectly legal, and we have legal precedence for this. As long as you aren't 'damaging' the company. It is also impossible to 'prove' that a modchip harms a company, since you had to buy the hardware in the first place to mod it. There are also Substantial Non-Infringing uses for a mod-chip. Such as the playback of other region DVDs or the use of Backup Discs. Just as the VCR has the ability to copy movies. The substantial non-infringing uses for a VCR, time shifting Television for one, makes it legal.
If sony could win a lawsuit agains modchip makers they would sue them until they were blue in the face. But they can't win. That is why the same modchip people from 3-4 years ago are still selling modchips today. Sony and panasonic can't touch them.
Start with two racks, fill them with servers, Put the towers in the middle. Now, stuff those in to a small closet. You're running these all a bit OC'd, right? Great, now got to the store and pick up a product called "Cake Mix." Follow the directions on the box. It will likley need milk, water, and eggs. Put this solution in a pan and then you've got an oven that can play quake.
Ahh the recipe for an EasyQuake oven... you forgot to patent it though.
Excuse me but the law says you hack an encryption code you're a terrorist. Now if hackers got treated the same as a guy who robs a 7-11 we wouldn't HAVE anything to complain about. Instead they're discriminated against, treated the way kevin mitnick was, and told their crimes are as bad as murder in the first degree.
Think salem witch trial because that is the way society treats 'crackers.' It isn't witchcraft understanding how computers work, and the fact that there are multi-million dollar raids on warez people. Who again are going to be treated as terrorists under US law any of them that aren't lucky enough to have thier own countries refuse to let them be prosecuted under US law that is. Well, all things considered when was the last time you saw an FBI goon checking your bags to make sure you didn't shoplift anything from wal-mart? you know in some areas shoplifting can account for some serious losses. And they're loosing actual goods that they had to pay for, not 'revenue streams.' which are tricky at best to determine.
Considering that the rise and fall of napster nicely coincide with a rise and drop in CD sales I'd say most people out there are honest and will buy anything that they feel is worth thier hard earned bucks.
The fact is that as a reslut of septemper 11 the laws that were pushed through congress make hacking an act of terrorism. The FBI is out for blood. These people NEED good lawers because they don't deserve to be treated like murders or terrorists. They stole software, and lots of it. They don't deserve Life in prision without any parole though.
As for rich kid hah, I'm below the poverty line. I made $8,000 last year. The only reason I can live on that little is because my family is helping me out. My budget is why I love linux/BSD (free and runs great on cheap old hardware.) And FreeBSD and linux are really what kept me out of the warez scene because I can't afford to run state of the art hardware or $100+ programs.