I had a smallish 4 line BBS (CNet Amiga) here in Tacoma, WA.. it was once called Lost Sword of X-Calibur, then X-Calibur, then Shards of Sanity.
I really miss the sense of 'community' that the BBS brings. Calling up your few local favorites to check your email and the message boards.. trading *ahem* files with your friends. Spending massive amounts of money on phone bills at times.
Mine was going for a few years.. the last year I even had a brand new dedicated 28.8k link to the Internet offering PPP/shell access for my users (one 28.8k line was fine because 14.4k was the norm, 3 users max) - but then came a HD crash that I never really recovered from, or wanted to recover from. My own Internet usage got to me.. and I saw the 'future.' - too bad it was largely owned by AOL and the faceless corporations that we hated.
Jason Fisher
(Lord of Flies, King Arthur, BloodHawk.)
I can stick my little network station logo on the bottom right of the screen. These people swapping have a chance of seeing *my* advertisements. (which makes me look good to my advertisers)
I have this feeling that this will be accepted more so than Napster has. This isn't about stealing movies and giving movies to your friends -- this is about sharing *sitcoms* with your friends. (or atleast let's let them think that, for these exact reasons)
Let's say Seinfeld is running. I record it and send it to a friend -- does that remove income from the company providing Seinfeld to me? No. Because next week they are going to show a new episode -- so the question is, what is the half-life of a sitcom episode?.. Much less than that of a movie. A show in-running has a new episode every week.
Popular networks are going to stand behind this. More people watching my shows = more popularity for that show = more advertising dollars I can charge once Neilsen starts providing rating figures.
It was nearly free (as in beer) -- I had never played with it, but always wanted to. The thought of licensing an engine for $100 was always intriguing to me, even if they didn't have a Linux port (blasphemy!).
What will happen to these licensenees? Will GarageGames.com continue?
.. and more importantly..
Who will support my copy of Stellar 7 for the Amiga?!
You have it backwards from the situation as it stands.
Microsoft is in a comfort zone. They're in a happy position, because they are about to release a product that will make the proverbial Anti-Trust Jury shit their pants.
This is not about Operating Systems.
Microsoft has already bulled the school-yard on that one, there is no one left to play with. They have gotten bored and moved on..
.. and AOL sees them coming. AOL is sweating bullets knowing that Microsoft could strong-arm 1/4 - 1/2 of their customer base out from under them. How? Windows XP, IE,.NET, HailStorm, MSN. Microsoft still has the same old mindset, just new playground partners and they've graduated to Junior High. Each of Microsoft's coming technologies is aimed/squarely/ at the AOL market. We all know what Microsoft is capable of when they are focused on a single target.
You tell me they shouldn't be frightened. AOL has just woken up to the fact that they are on the defensive.
(Meanwhile, AOL is striving to keep/grow their ISP share by expanding into the OS field. Enter PlayStation 2 and Linux. This is also a defensive move.)
'The Invicta system uses special cards to link protected computers to a central control unit. It lets clients decide how often they wish to vary IP addresses and specify which applications may be accessed on their network.'"
What they fail to mention is that their Central Control Unit is running an out-of-the-box copy of RedHat 6.0.
-
Seriously; how secure can this be if it is revolving around a single (or cluster) of control units that dictate, record, log, and monitor the IP addresses?
Sounds to me like they're selling us NSA-quality security, along with NSA-approved backdoors and line tapping capability.
-
How about this--instead of having a single control center managing the IP pool, we create a peer-to-peer network where, upon joining, you effectively 'donate' your 'IP address' (some form of tunneling/enscapulation would be in use?) to the community pool.
The network client continuously searches for a new partner to exchange addresses with, based on specified variables, and trades your address with theirs.
Instead of being a one-to-one swap, it's going to be take an address, pass it on.. the first few may be easy to track, but once you've done your 10th or 40th swap (each sequential exchange gives the new partner the address you procured in the last exchange), the paper trail is extensive.
Just a random thought, it may be effective when combined with some existing solutions.
Many of the comparisons, or feelings in this article are more applicable to societies outside of America. Latin America, the Mediterranean, Asia.
I am currently in India (business, vacation, et al), and have been here for about 3 months now.
The culture, the feel.. of India (Hyderabad), I compare to the US in the 1950's.
It's conservativeness, family-oriented structure. Hyderabad is in the transition stage between large families (monetary support, good company, security) and true independent wealth.
We get electricity here, probably about 20 hours of the day on average. We get running water (not drinkable, but showers, toilet [no toilet paper. *paper is too expensive*] etc.) probably 16 hours of the day on a good day.
There are no wooden buildings. It's all concrete -- why do you think New Delhi had such problems during that earthquake? Concrete can do nothing but crumble. Some plastics, but it's rare. Furniture is kept very simple.
IT is rampant -- there are training courses everywhere; 1,000+ technology companies in this city. Petrol is nearly $5/gallon -- motorcycles and scooters are insanely popular. If you have a car, it's probably a diesel.
The biggest change that I feel from the last 50 years, exists not in technology, but within our mindsets; we have become inherently competitive by nature. Everything is about increasing productivity. Our daily lives have been accelerated to cope. To find a more apt comparison to the 'future' of this article, we should be looking for the society that has the technological 'capability' of his forecast, BUT with the mindset of the 1950's. India comes close.
On a lighter note, I am enthralled that he predicted the invention of edible underwear:
Discarded paper table "linen" and rayon underwear are bought by chemical factories to be converted into candy.
Maybe.. There are two points and possibilities here, please read them both before moderating:
1)
Lieberman proposed this to gain the votes of the exponentially growing technology-aware crowd. He is running for President the next term, and this could surely give him some points. Meanwhile, the republicans realize this and don't want it to be construed as a democrat "innovation," so they throw someone at the mix hoping to gain some recognition -- but alas, that person will be forgotten. He doesn't have the 'mindshare' of Lieberman, nor he is a major candidate for the next presidential race.
2)
In the real world, IMHO, this is a bad thing -- we don't need *more* government on the Internet, we need *less*. Government regulation has, to a degree, stunted our growth in regions of technology, infrastructure, and mindset. They jump in to regulate things, they jump into the bubble (they even try to take credit for it!); and when things go awry, they offer to make a committee to 'fix' things and bring 'innovation.'
Unfortunately this is nonsense.
Government, do you want to help your country, its people, and the Internet?
You [government] need to change your mindset, to begin with.
Please use that money to furnish those unable to access computers/the Internet/necessary education with such.
5-10 years from now, when the 10% of the people you've helped have become reasonably capable, allow them the chance to provide a service to the government and the people of the country. Education and competition have driven us very far.
It seems we have forgotten about capitalism. If the government really wants to offer new 'services,' it simply needs to become *ITSELF* more open to ideas presented by the capitalist society.
If I'm a company and I can foreseeably provide the government with a service to allow them to take speeding ticket payments through a web site, take an ICANN approach to it and let me make X amount per ticket, or a %, and provide you with the service while providing the people you've spent money training with a job.
Jason Fisher
feroxtech.com
TECH-COMMUNITY: SOMEBODY SET UP US THE COMMUNISM
GOVERNMENT: MAKE YOUR TIME
Hmm. Looks like they can't pinpoint what's causing it, and where it's coming from.
Maybe they need to rethink the actual composition of a planet's core.
".. If I put soy oil into my diesel engine, and my diesel engine still runs -- wait, my engine is running? I didn't put diesel fuel in? Impossible. The fuel must be diesel, our math is wrong. Case closed."
I propose a physics/astrophysics/theoretical etc 'school' be established whose only purpose is to refute currently-accepted laws and theories -- NOT by examining the current theories, but by examining the properties they define; abstract everything and ask ourselves the questions once more. Please, at least once a century this needs to happen. How often, during the development of a program (especially one that is many thousands of years old.;)) do you trash it all and, in 20% of the time it took to create the original, come up with something 200% better?
Some good reading that can incite both in-depth discussion and controversy: http://www.hollowplanets.com - nothing I actively advocate, but a few chapters and subjects are mind-openers (I prefer the physics and astrophysics-related topics, personally.)
Great. So now they're going to dig up concrete and run antiquated CAT-5 to my house.
This is a complete waste. The cabling itself is not causing the logistical nightmare of the last mile, digging up that concrete ($$) is what's bringing us down. (IIRC, CAT-5's nominal length doesn't even come close to a mile anyway;))
That solution that is evolving with competition is the most obvious, and most profitable; utilizing existing infrastructure to get down the last 'mile.' -- be it over telephone, cable, or powerlines -- or a combination of the three.
Digging isn't an option, and unfortunately neither is wireless. I would dig it (no pun intended) if the power companies in the US began to put whatever connectivity into their substations and fed us 2mbs+ power-line networking.
This would also push JINI, etc. into my household devices - if your TV can get online through the same socket it gets its power, it may actually begin to have useful networking features (ie. program channel 82 to browse to so-and-so URL. Maybe the URL for my baby monitor, whatever.)
Think about it. If you want to talk in private about the commercial aspects of anything mentioned, let me know.;)
Wrong. You would definitely *NOT* charge people that post MORE money, you would, in fact, give people who post *credit* and a DISCOUNT for posting.
Why wouldn't you? They contribute, they are essentially working for you and paying YOUR bills.
I would subscribe to Slashdot for $4.95/month, or $12.95/year -- if they paid me for:
Posting a story they use (A fair amount. $50? $100? $500? $1000?)
Posting a story they DON'T use (these are my thoughts and ideas)
Posting a comment, paid based on the score it receives (will this comment make me rich? Doubtful.;) )
Buying a product through their advertisers -- YES, they can still advertise. I don't care, I don't look at them anyway. When I do, it's because I enjoy it. Big deal.
I want Slashdot to be successful, and for everyone truly involved to make a living off of it. Why? Because if they don't, it may one day fail, and we definitely do not want that.
What would *THIS* post be worth? $1? $5?
It would be interesting. I would also like to see 'top scores' for people who post good content; if I click on their name, I see an index of their best posts. I also get to see a banner ad if they have one, and a link to their home page. Why not? They earned it.
Slashdot Mirror
I had a smallish 4 line BBS (CNet Amiga) here in Tacoma, WA.. it was once called Lost Sword of X-Calibur, then X-Calibur, then Shards of Sanity.
I really miss the sense of 'community' that the BBS brings. Calling up your few local favorites to check your email and the message boards.. trading *ahem* files with your friends. Spending massive amounts of money on phone bills at times.
Mine was going for a few years.. the last year I even had a brand new dedicated 28.8k link to the Internet offering PPP/shell access for my users (one 28.8k line was fine because 14.4k was the norm, 3 users max) - but then came a HD crash that I never really recovered from, or wanted to recover from. My own Internet usage got to me.. and I saw the 'future.' - too bad it was largely owned by AOL and the faceless corporations that we hated.
Jason Fisher
(Lord of Flies, King Arthur, BloodHawk.)
If numbers cannot be copyrighted..
and MP3s are just a series of numbers..
therefore..
MP3s are made of wood!
Free advertising.
.. Much less than that of a movie. A show in-running has a new episode every week.
I can stick my little network station logo on the bottom right of the screen. These people swapping have a chance of seeing *my* advertisements. (which makes me look good to my advertisers)
I have this feeling that this will be accepted more so than Napster has. This isn't about stealing movies and giving movies to your friends -- this is about sharing *sitcoms* with your friends. (or atleast let's let them think that, for these exact reasons)
Let's say Seinfeld is running. I record it and send it to a friend -- does that remove income from the company providing Seinfeld to me? No. Because next week they are going to show a new episode -- so the question is, what is the half-life of a sitcom episode?
Popular networks are going to stand behind this. More people watching my shows = more popularity for that show = more advertising dollars I can charge once Neilsen starts providing rating figures.
Jason
It was nearly free (as in beer) -- I had never played with it, but always wanted to. The thought of licensing an engine for $100 was always intriguing to me, even if they didn't have a Linux port (blasphemy!).
..
What will happen to these licensenees? Will GarageGames.com continue?
.. and more importantly
Who will support my copy of Stellar 7 for the Amiga?!
Jason F
You have it backwards from the situation as it stands.
..
.NET, HailStorm, MSN. Microsoft still has the same old mindset, just new playground partners and they've graduated to Junior High. Each of Microsoft's coming technologies is aimed /squarely/ at the AOL market. We all know what Microsoft is capable of when they are focused on a single target.
Microsoft is in a comfort zone. They're in a happy position, because they are about to release a product that will make the proverbial Anti-Trust Jury shit their pants.
This is not about Operating Systems.
Microsoft has already bulled the school-yard on that one, there is no one left to play with. They have gotten bored and moved on
.. and AOL sees them coming. AOL is sweating bullets knowing that Microsoft could strong-arm 1/4 - 1/2 of their customer base out from under them. How? Windows XP, IE,
You tell me they shouldn't be frightened. AOL has just woken up to the fact that they are on the defensive.
(Meanwhile, AOL is striving to keep/grow their ISP share by expanding into the OS field. Enter PlayStation 2 and Linux. This is also a defensive move.)
Jason
'The Invicta system uses special cards to link protected computers to a central control unit. It lets clients decide how often they wish to vary IP addresses and specify which applications may be accessed on their network.'"
What they fail to mention is that their Central Control Unit is running an out-of-the-box copy of RedHat 6.0.
-
Seriously; how secure can this be if it is revolving around a single (or cluster) of control units that dictate, record, log, and monitor the IP addresses?
Sounds to me like they're selling us NSA-quality security, along with NSA-approved backdoors and line tapping capability.
-
How about this--instead of having a single control center managing the IP pool, we create a peer-to-peer network where, upon joining, you effectively 'donate' your 'IP address' (some form of tunneling/enscapulation would be in use?) to the community pool.
The network client continuously searches for a new partner to exchange addresses with, based on specified variables, and trades your address with theirs.
Instead of being a one-to-one swap, it's going to be take an address, pass it on.. the first few may be easy to track, but once you've done your 10th or 40th swap (each sequential exchange gives the new partner the address you procured in the last exchange), the paper trail is extensive.
Just a random thought, it may be effective when combined with some existing solutions.
Jason Fisher
Many of the comparisons, or feelings in this article are more applicable to societies outside of America. Latin America, the Mediterranean, Asia.
I am currently in India (business, vacation, et al), and have been here for about 3 months now.
The culture, the feel.. of India (Hyderabad), I compare to the US in the 1950's.
It's conservativeness, family-oriented structure. Hyderabad is in the transition stage between large families (monetary support, good company, security) and true independent wealth.
We get electricity here, probably about 20 hours of the day on average. We get running water (not drinkable, but showers, toilet [no toilet paper. *paper is too expensive*] etc.) probably 16 hours of the day on a good day.
There are no wooden buildings. It's all concrete -- why do you think New Delhi had such problems during that earthquake? Concrete can do nothing but crumble. Some plastics, but it's rare. Furniture is kept very simple.
IT is rampant -- there are training courses everywhere; 1,000+ technology companies in this city. Petrol is nearly $5/gallon -- motorcycles and scooters are insanely popular. If you have a car, it's probably a diesel.
The biggest change that I feel from the last 50 years, exists not in technology, but within our mindsets; we have become inherently competitive by nature. Everything is about increasing productivity. Our daily lives have been accelerated to cope. To find a more apt comparison to the 'future' of this article, we should be looking for the society that has the technological 'capability' of his forecast, BUT with the mindset of the 1950's. India comes close.
On a lighter note, I am enthralled that he predicted the invention of edible underwear:
Discarded paper table "linen" and rayon underwear are bought by chemical factories to be converted into candy.
Jason Fisher
Maybe.. There are two points and possibilities here, please read them both before moderating:
;))
1)
Lieberman proposed this to gain the votes of the exponentially growing technology-aware crowd. He is running for President the next term, and this could surely give him some points. Meanwhile, the republicans realize this and don't want it to be construed as a democrat "innovation," so they throw someone at the mix hoping to gain some recognition -- but alas, that person will be forgotten. He doesn't have the 'mindshare' of Lieberman, nor he is a major candidate for the next presidential race.
2)
In the real world, IMHO, this is a bad thing -- we don't need *more* government on the Internet, we need *less*. Government regulation has, to a degree, stunted our growth in regions of technology, infrastructure, and mindset. They jump in to regulate things, they jump into the bubble (they even try to take credit for it!); and when things go awry, they offer to make a committee to 'fix' things and bring 'innovation.'
Unfortunately this is nonsense.
Government, do you want to help your country, its people, and the Internet?
You [government] need to change your mindset, to begin with.
Please use that money to furnish those unable to access computers/the Internet/necessary education with such.
5-10 years from now, when the 10% of the people you've helped have become reasonably capable, allow them the chance to provide a service to the government and the people of the country. Education and competition have driven us very far.
It seems we have forgotten about capitalism. If the government really wants to offer new 'services,' it simply needs to become *ITSELF* more open to ideas presented by the capitalist society.
If I'm a company and I can foreseeably provide the government with a service to allow them to take speeding ticket payments through a web site, take an ICANN approach to it and let me make X amount per ticket, or a %, and provide you with the service while providing the people you've spent money training with a job.
Jason Fisher
feroxtech.com
TECH-COMMUNITY: SOMEBODY SET UP US THE COMMUNISM
GOVERNMENT: MAKE YOUR TIME
(Sorry for that.
Maybe they need to rethink the actual composition of a planet's core.
".. If I put soy oil into my diesel engine, and my diesel engine still runs -- wait, my engine is running? I didn't put diesel fuel in? Impossible. The fuel must be diesel, our math is wrong. Case closed."
I propose a physics/astrophysics/theoretical etc 'school' be established whose only purpose is to refute currently-accepted laws and theories -- NOT by examining the current theories, but by examining the properties they define; abstract everything and ask ourselves the questions once more. Please, at least once a century this needs to happen. How often, during the development of a program (especially one that is many thousands of years old. ;)) do you trash it all and, in 20% of the time it took to create the original, come up with something 200% better?
Some good reading that can incite both in-depth discussion and controversy: http://www.hollowplanets.com - nothing I actively advocate, but a few chapters and subjects are mind-openers (I prefer the physics and astrophysics-related topics, personally.)
Jason
SOMEBODY SET US UP THE IONS!
Yeah, they're upgrading us to 256k upstream-limited cablemodem. Wee!
Great. So now they're going to dig up concrete and run antiquated CAT-5 to my house.
This is a complete waste. The cabling itself is not causing the logistical nightmare of the last mile, digging up that concrete ($$) is what's bringing us down. (IIRC, CAT-5's nominal length doesn't even come close to a mile anyway
That solution that is evolving with competition is the most obvious, and most profitable; utilizing existing infrastructure to get down the last 'mile.' -- be it over telephone, cable, or powerlines -- or a combination of the three.
Digging isn't an option, and unfortunately neither is wireless. I would dig it (no pun intended) if the power companies in the US began to put whatever connectivity into their substations and fed us 2mbs+ power-line networking.
This would also push JINI, etc. into my household devices - if your TV can get online through the same socket it gets its power, it may actually begin to have useful networking features (ie. program channel 82 to browse to so-and-so URL. Maybe the URL for my baby monitor, whatever.)
Think about it. If you want to talk in private about the commercial aspects of anything mentioned, let me know.
Jason (jfisher AT feroxtech.com)
Wrong. You would definitely *NOT* charge people that post MORE money, you would, in fact, give people who post *credit* and a DISCOUNT for posting.
;) )
Why wouldn't you? They contribute, they are essentially working for you and paying YOUR bills.
I would subscribe to Slashdot for $4.95/month, or $12.95/year -- if they paid me for:
Posting a story they use (A fair amount. $50? $100? $500? $1000?)
Posting a story they DON'T use (these are my thoughts and ideas)
Posting a comment, paid based on the score it receives (will this comment make me rich? Doubtful.
Buying a product through their advertisers -- YES, they can still advertise. I don't care, I don't look at them anyway. When I do, it's because I enjoy it. Big deal.
I want Slashdot to be successful, and for everyone truly involved to make a living off of it. Why? Because if they don't, it may one day fail, and we definitely do not want that.
What would *THIS* post be worth? $1? $5?
It would be interesting. I would also like to see 'top scores' for people who post good content; if I click on their name, I see an index of their best posts. I also get to see a banner ad if they have one, and a link to their home page. Why not? They earned it.
Jason
feroxtech.com