Sweet! So this means the next time that kid, Timmy, that mows my lawn takes the grass clippings to use in his vegetable garden, I can sue him for millions! Never mind the fact that he has no money, I'm going to be a millionaire! I can hardly wait for the next boy-scout bottle drive!
Now just hope that they win their case and set a precident before someone wakes up and realizes that this is another of the stupidest cases in legal history!!
But if you read anything beyond a high-school physics textook you very quickly realise that there are hundreds of facets to Physics and the behaviour of the universe cannot be summed up into a brief, spoon-fed book. Then go read "A Brief History of Time". Hawking puts across a lot of good points about just that topic and (unless I'm just mashing theories together (somebody clear up exactly who said this if it wasn't Hawking)) that our knowledge of physics actually breaks down as we theorize back to the "Big Bang". It isn't at all as simple as "this is how atoms behave and anything that I didn't learn in 'basic' physics is fundamentally wrong". Look at antimatter. "Basic" physics would say that you cannot have a inversely-charged atom, but oh wait!, we have them.
Then start reading about string theory. Now that's deep.
Nice to see they mentioned the good ol' Atari ST! I managed to get one a couple years back and it's quite possibly the coolest antiquated piece of technology I own today, and the GUI is very, very impressive for the time. It works, (although finding discs for the 720k floppy drive is a pain in the ass) and has one of the best versions of Monopoly available today, not to mention that the OS is just as stable as Win98, and about 1/500th the size. Yeah, yeah, it doesn;t support everything, but then again, who wants a USB printer on a 16-year-old machine?
Just need to figure out a hack to hook it into my network now/* extreme sarcasm */. . . ..
But by "the web" you mean High School, which really just means hundreds of horny, 15-year-old boys trying to download pr0n, and from my experiences, pr0n is pretty much platform-independent.
Pr0n is pr0n is pr0n.
On linux or Win or Mac, it's really all the same.
Then I actually read the article
on
Mob Software
·
· Score: 5, Funny
At first glance, I thought he was talking about a database to keep track of whose kneecaps to break, with a friendly MS Word'esque helper with the face of Tony Soprano telling you "It looks like you're tryin' to write a fsckin' business letter." Then I actually read the article. ..
Now for once and for all, since it's only a sig: (and for some strange reason people just don't get it)
I always thought it was more of an "I'm a geek and like girls in general." I think we can all follow the logic from there and most of us can relate to it somewhere back there.
Now back to your regularly scheduled RAMBUS-related-discussion. Sorry to have wasted your time.
But even if they're not criminally liable, the amount of bad publicity they've recieved in the last little while can't be anything but bad for busines. What with the fraud cases themselves as well as Intel dropping support, added to the cost difference between Rambus and SDRAM, they've distanced themselves from the majority of the geek community, something that other notable companies can afford to do, but they can't. When SDRAM is less than CDN$35 for 128mb, It's just impossible to sell on truse alone when you have no more trust.
Now it's just sit back and wait for more bad news for Rambus.
I can't imagine what I'd do without online comics! I think the 'net is indespensible for any artist who doesn't want to compromise ideas for mass media. Yes, I love Dilbert just as much as the rest, but it's rarely that I get a real laugh out of it anymore. Most of the paper comics (and I'm thinking newspaper, mostly because I'm too cheap to buy comic books/manga/graphic novels) just don't have the same ability to adapt and don't have the "edge" that online comics do.
Sit down and read PVP. It is likely one of the funniest comics (paper or e-) available today. And, conveniently, it's also one that has bridged the gap, releasing a comic book as well as the online content. However it wouldn't have happened without the 'net. Back in the day when "For better or for worse" came out with a gay character, (it's the best example I can think of), a LOT of newspapers dropped it. Now compare that to something like PVP or Penny Arcade. If it were up to the syndicates, these would have never happened. We need online comics to support creativity, and not have to pander to the masses.
And if you're looking for edge (WARNING: this is extreme edge), there;s always Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles. It's as close to "edge" as you can get, but in a depraved, violent way. NOT recommended for kids.
I don't see how it could be a problem, I mean, logically only something like a DoS attack or the like can't be "undone". If it's a bug in the individual system then it should be able to be fixed. The problem arises with the media stigma of a virus.
Now this just goes right back to the whole "but I thought a virus was bad" response that your typical user will tell you. For the most part, it could work wonderfully, but the big thing is, the only people who will need it are those who did not patch a system for the bug (since if they patched it, then the retrovirus (if you will) will not be able to use the same vulnerablilty). Those are most often the same people that opened 40 SirCam attachments even though they were warned ("But it came from my best friend!"). To these people, a virus is something to be afraid of, regardless of purpose. A virus is always a bad thing that will "break the computer" and we don't want to "break the computer" because we can't "fix the computer" <Cue ominous music>
But then again, if these people are so oblivious as to how they're infected, then it just may work as long as the media doesn't blow it out of proportion again.
Firstly, it mentions Brian Feeney as Canada's first civilian astronaut, not the first, but that's just really technicalities.
The important thing is that Canada's finally using some of our precious few research dollars to do something that we should have been working on for quite some time. The benefits are clear and many:
The mission uses less fuel, since overcoming the first half can be done with a reusable balloon.
With the advantages of the balloon, it should be less of a problem as to where the launch site is, thus eliminating the need to ship everything to the deep south
We can finally paint a space vehicle red and white and have an onboard beer-cooler, potentially powered By the engines if we get the Kiwis onboard.
It saves on having to pay NASA for payload capacity to run our countless zero-G experiments
The X prize is potentially more than the entire gov't-funded budget.
Hell, this is exactly what I want to do with an Engineering degree!
Since this is Slashdot, somebody out there should be able to come up with a computer mod that lets you hook into an old 12' dish and descramble the signal. I'd imagine that you can pick up an analog dish for a couple of bucks these days.
If DirecTV wants to crack down on the pirates, what's stopping a few interested/.ers from going off and getting the feeds from analog.
FOX, Sci-fi, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, and piles of other stuff are already available for feeds on analog, why not save ourselves the trouble?
The question is, why is it that Code Red was trumpeted as the "End of the entire Internet as It Is", with no mention that it only affects MS IIS servers. The news story I heard made no mention of the systems affected, simply summarizing it as "Webservers everywhere". No, this isn't intended to be Microsoft-bashing, but what would have been the situation had it gone off and the world realized that only a certain server configuration was affected? Would that have been glossed over in the same way that the vulnerablilty was?
It's just like Y2K. It's a problem that is basically centred around a specific flaw that is NOT present in all computers, yet trupmeted by the media as "The Be All and End All" of computer problems "destined to destroy our information-superhighway society". Yet, when you look into it, it's not as large as it's supposed to be. Could this be the reason that the vast majority of the population is afraid to click the mouse too fast in fear that they "break" their computer?
If anything, this oughta keep the kids busy for a couple weeks trading more new "nude" pictures on just about any IRC, ICQ, messageboard, etc. channel that can be found. l337h4XX0r_69: h3Y! j00 g0tz n00d p1X7uRz 0f n3w x-ph1l3z ch1ck?
Oh fox, you're the masters at using sex appeal in everything. Now that the lead female (read: sex object (read: this is how network execs work)) character's leaving a major show, the need to fill the place with another character with equal fan following (read: horny teenage boys).
Well, seems I'm the minority spending most of my time online reading Slashdot or just downloading things in the background.
Oh well. That's the perks of a summer student job designing and maintaining a website for a small town. If I were to get a serious job, though, I imagine it would change. As far as monitoring employee traffic, I don't think it's uncalled for, it's exactly the same as using security cameras in a grocery store to watch employees. The only adverse thing it does is give off a serious impression of distrust in your employee morals and work habits.
But then again, reading slashdot and downloading hardcore Pr0n at work are two completely different sides of the same coin.
If they have remote surgery developments, how long before someone takes this and just tweaks it a bit to work with a kung-fu program. You could have an entire class of virtual students learning Shaolin techniques (for example) over the net. Sign me up!
Or it'd be the world's greatest version of DanceDance Revolution, one of the most addicting games of all time. Better than Evercrack? Very, very likely.
And hook up a pair of VR goggles? Don't get me started. Maybe I'll lose some weight afterall. . . . .
Finally I'll be able to drive home on that damn gravel without having to wash the car every time it rains! Just fly over it!
But seriously, you put your average AC "Phl4m3-m4St3R" in one of these and just wait until the deathtoll racks up.
Or wait. . ..is that a good thing? I mean, sometimes people can survive a head-on collision at 100km/h. If they can do that, it should be a cakewalk to survive a 200km/h collision and then a 100m fall.
This could officially be Darwin in action.
I send you this first contact. . . .
on
Optical SETI
·
· Score: 1
You can just see it already:
Mr. Smith! We have confirmation of an extra-terrestrial signal! Well? Can you decipher it? It seems to be in. . . ..english, Sir! And? It says "I send you this file so I may have your advice", sir. After that it just has this first_contact.doc file attached. Damn! And we just installed outlook!
Yeah, I know it's a lame joke, but it had to be done.
Considering that I'm still trying to finish this Engineering/CompSci degree, there's time to take a couple of second(third/fourth) language classes and try something like this. The argument was that how many people over in North America/Europe/Austraila/NZ/etc. have the technical skills coupled with a knowledge of the local languages?
The majority of the world is NOT connected to any sort of half-decent online services (if any) and in the next few years I can see a lot more of this sort of "go overseas and help set up infrastructure" thing happening as governments begin bringing in professionals to get their services running.
Don't know how widely accepted this is, but I for one am going to hit this opening in the tech sector hard. Travel a couple years, get my P.Eng, and then move back to Canada with experience, cash, a couple of languages, and the travel bug potentially out of my system for a while. (Not to mention the weather!) Now just to get into that Mandarin class. . . . . .
Bloody 'ell. I'd be boycotting Adobe left right and centre if Photoshop wasn't the best image-editing program available on a WinXX platform. . ..Oh, wait. . . . Never mind. It seems I'm pirating it anyway.
But this is the thing. Whilst talking with my Dad about this, he made a few very valid points about the arrest. In his opinion, he should have been arrested since he did commit an illegal act. I personally don't agree, but I do see his point and can see how people can agree. It's only the/.-inclined person, really, who sees this as an unfair arrest. To the vast majority of the population this is either not news or just another person being arrested for something that he did that was illegal. It's going to take a lot of protesting and explanation before the non-/. audience truly believes that this is an unjust arrest.
The scary thing is, Dad is not one of the average people who's of the opinion that the 'net is "scary" and that people who break even the smallest online law are "dangers to society and will be causing anarchy in a week". He does understand the web and I imagine he'd be more inclined to look at it differently than the common denominator.
But I could have sworn that Microsoft software was safer out of the box than linux. I just can't find the paper where they explained it. Oh well. I'm sure you remember the post.
There's no way they could have let something like this happen with their knowledge. I have faith in Microsoft. They've always made my life easier.
I have to agree wholeheartedly. It's the idiots that give the scene a bad name (and by scene, I primarily mean linux but that can be pretty much anything). These are the people that demand massive tax cuts for no reason or who still think you can revive Aeris (random FF7 reference) in the Japanese version. Whatever you do there are people who feel that they need to "vent" in a much less civil manner than our good author.
Gotta love democracy. Everyone gets a say, even those who by all logical argument shouldn't.
At the moment, it's only a hobby to go throw up an antenna, etc. But we have to remember that for the most part, unless you can get it quite widespread, easy to use and secure, the vast majority (read: the people needed to make this thing fly) aren't going to use it, in favour of something that they can set up (or get a cable guy to set up) or just AOL. And the only people using it outdoors are the techno-savant (read: geeks).
Now on the other hand, this could be quite easily adapted for handheld devices in more business-related centres or universities, where you can set up an antenna set to a specific drive that offers not internet but information partaining to a specific area. The amount a university could save (in the long run as books become more electronic) by simply placing an antenna in every building with building-relevant info and access to the LAN rather than building a huge central library is quite a bit.
With a little work, this could also get applied to the tourism industry (read: walking tours - $10.00. Includes handheld guide rental).
Now yes, this is probably better suited to the more advanced technologies appearing in the near future, but this is here now, and the experience that we gain from it could be extremely useful in applying wireless public networks when the masses are finally converted.
I don't know about the rest of you, but my Sound Blaster Live has this really nifty little feature that records whatever goes through the sound card, etc. Yes, it is in WAV, but then you just run it through SoundForge and compress it yourself. If it sounds good, then it most likely will turn out good, if only a little longer than it takes normally. I've never used it to record off of CD's, but it worked fantastically with recording off the 'net, so I can see no difficulties with CD's
Can't let this event go by without putting in my two cents
After following the movie production reports for a good three years, I find it quite impressive what they managed to accomplish in the time, considering they already went through one complete script re-write and the amount of computing power it took to just render what they did. Apparently the rendering of characters was detailed enough that each individual hair on the character's head was attached by itself. Now, that could explain the "not-so-hot" background character rendering, mostly since if they were to render each character in that way it would be 2002 before we see the movie.
As for the use of Linux for the rendering can only serve to strengthen the growing use of linux (etc) in the industry. Maybe someone can fill in the link, but I vaguely remember something about SGI moving to a MS-based platform. If that is the case, then this only serves to further the proof that you don't need Windows to do an exceptional job, (and I've seen very few, if no projects that look this good)
So in closing, If you have friends, neighbours, or just people on the street, drag them in to see this. I've very rarely known Square to disappoint either in story or visuals, so give it a chance, even if you aren't a game fan.
Oh. A pile of depleted uranium. But I wanted money. Quiet, you fool. With the uranium, you can have a lot of money.
Really? Explain. Uranium can be exchanged for monetary compensation on the black market.
Ohhh! Riight!
Yeah, I know it was a Simpsons' line, but it just fits the situation. And why did it take so long to report? Could it be that the people who originally discovered the bug were too busy exchanging uranium for monetary compensation?
Slashdot Mirror
Sweet! So this means the next time that kid, Timmy, that mows my lawn takes the grass clippings to use in his vegetable garden, I can sue him for millions! Never mind the fact that he has no money, I'm going to be a millionaire! I can hardly wait for the next boy-scout bottle drive!
Now just hope that they win their case and set a precident before someone wakes up and realizes that this is another of the stupidest cases in legal history!!
But if you read anything beyond a high-school physics textook you very quickly realise that there are hundreds of facets to Physics and the behaviour of the universe cannot be summed up into a brief, spoon-fed book. Then go read "A Brief History of Time". Hawking puts across a lot of good points about just that topic and (unless I'm just mashing theories together (somebody clear up exactly who said this if it wasn't Hawking)) that our knowledge of physics actually breaks down as we theorize back to the "Big Bang". It isn't at all as simple as "this is how atoms behave and anything that I didn't learn in 'basic' physics is fundamentally wrong". Look at antimatter. "Basic" physics would say that you cannot have a inversely-charged atom, but oh wait!, we have them.
Then start reading about string theory. Now that's deep.
Nice to see they mentioned the good ol' Atari ST! I managed to get one a couple years back and it's quite possibly the coolest antiquated piece of technology I own today, and the GUI is very, very impressive for the time. It works, (although finding discs for the 720k floppy drive is a pain in the ass) and has one of the best versions of Monopoly available today, not to mention that the OS is just as stable as Win98, and about 1/500th the size. Yeah, yeah, it doesn;t support everything, but then again, who wants a USB printer on a 16-year-old machine?
/* extreme sarcasm */. . . . .
Just need to figure out a hack to hook it into my network now
But by "the web" you mean High School, which really just means hundreds of horny, 15-year-old boys trying to download pr0n, and from my experiences, pr0n is pretty much platform-independent.
Pr0n is pr0n is pr0n.
On linux or Win or Mac, it's really all the same.
At first glance, I thought he was talking about a database to keep track of whose kneecaps to break, with a friendly MS Word'esque helper with the face of Tony Soprano telling you "It looks like you're tryin' to write a fsckin' business letter." Then I actually read the article. . .
Now for once and for all, since it's only a sig: (and for some strange reason people just don't get it)
I always thought it was more of an "I'm a geek and like girls in general." I think we can all follow the logic from there and most of us can relate to it somewhere back there.
Now back to your regularly scheduled RAMBUS-related-discussion. Sorry to have wasted your time.
But even if they're not criminally liable, the amount of bad publicity they've recieved in the last little while can't be anything but bad for busines. What with the fraud cases themselves as well as Intel dropping support, added to the cost difference between Rambus and SDRAM, they've distanced themselves from the majority of the geek community, something that other notable companies can afford to do, but they can't. When SDRAM is less than CDN$35 for 128mb, It's just impossible to sell on truse alone when you have no more trust.
Now it's just sit back and wait for more bad news for Rambus.
I can't imagine what I'd do without online comics! I think the 'net is indespensible for any artist who doesn't want to compromise ideas for mass media. Yes, I love Dilbert just as much as the rest, but it's rarely that I get a real laugh out of it anymore. Most of the paper comics (and I'm thinking newspaper, mostly because I'm too cheap to buy comic books/manga/graphic novels) just don't have the same ability to adapt and don't have the "edge" that online comics do.
Sit down and read PVP. It is likely one of the funniest comics (paper or e-) available today. And, conveniently, it's also one that has bridged the gap, releasing a comic book as well as the online content. However it wouldn't have happened without the 'net. Back in the day when "For better or for worse" came out with a gay character, (it's the best example I can think of), a LOT of newspapers dropped it. Now compare that to something like PVP or Penny Arcade. If it were up to the syndicates, these would have never happened. We need online comics to support creativity, and not have to pander to the masses.
And if you're looking for edge (WARNING: this is extreme edge), there;s always Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles. It's as close to "edge" as you can get, but in a depraved, violent way. NOT recommended for kids.
I don't see how it could be a problem, I mean, logically only something like a DoS attack or the like can't be "undone". If it's a bug in the individual system then it should be able to be fixed. The problem arises with the media stigma of a virus.
Now this just goes right back to the whole "but I thought a virus was bad" response that your typical user will tell you. For the most part, it could work wonderfully, but the big thing is, the only people who will need it are those who did not patch a system for the bug (since if they patched it, then the retrovirus (if you will) will not be able to use the same vulnerablilty). Those are most often the same people that opened 40 SirCam attachments even though they were warned ("But it came from my best friend!"). To these people, a virus is something to be afraid of, regardless of purpose. A virus is always a bad thing that will "break the computer" and we don't want to "break the computer" because we can't "fix the computer" <Cue ominous music>
But then again, if these people are so oblivious as to how they're infected, then it just may work as long as the media doesn't blow it out of proportion again.
The important thing is that Canada's finally using some of our precious few research dollars to do something that we should have been working on for quite some time. The benefits are clear and many:
The mission uses less fuel, since overcoming the first half can be done with a reusable balloon.
With the advantages of the balloon, it should be less of a problem as to where the launch site is, thus eliminating the need to ship everything to the deep south
We can finally paint a space vehicle red and white and have an onboard beer-cooler, potentially powered By the engines if we get the Kiwis onboard.
It saves on having to pay NASA for payload capacity to run our countless zero-G experiments
The X prize is potentially more than the entire gov't-funded budget.
Hell, this is exactly what I want to do with an Engineering degree!
Since this is Slashdot, somebody out there should be able to come up with a computer mod that lets you hook into an old 12' dish and descramble the signal. I'd imagine that you can pick up an analog dish for a couple of bucks these days.
/.ers from going off and getting the feeds from analog.
If DirecTV wants to crack down on the pirates, what's stopping a few interested
FOX, Sci-fi, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, and piles of other stuff are already available for feeds on analog, why not save ourselves the trouble?
The question is, why is it that Code Red was trumpeted as the "End of the entire Internet as It Is", with no mention that it only affects MS IIS servers. The news story I heard made no mention of the systems affected, simply summarizing it as "Webservers everywhere". No, this isn't intended to be Microsoft-bashing, but what would have been the situation had it gone off and the world realized that only a certain server configuration was affected? Would that have been glossed over in the same way that the vulnerablilty was?
It's just like Y2K. It's a problem that is basically centred around a specific flaw that is NOT present in all computers, yet trupmeted by the media as "The Be All and End All" of computer problems "destined to destroy our information-superhighway society". Yet, when you look into it, it's not as large as it's supposed to be. Could this be the reason that the vast majority of the population is afraid to click the mouse too fast in fear that they "break" their computer?
If anything, this oughta keep the kids busy for a couple weeks trading more new "nude" pictures on just about any IRC, ICQ, messageboard, etc. channel that can be found.
l337h4XX0r_69: h3Y! j00 g0tz n00d p1X7uRz 0f n3w x-ph1l3z ch1ck?
Oh fox, you're the masters at using sex appeal in everything. Now that the lead female (read: sex object (read: this is how network execs work)) character's leaving a major show, the need to fill the place with another character with equal fan following (read: horny teenage boys).
Well, seems I'm the minority spending most of my time online reading Slashdot or just downloading things in the background.
Oh well. That's the perks of a summer student job designing and maintaining a website for a small town. If I were to get a serious job, though, I imagine it would change. As far as monitoring employee traffic, I don't think it's uncalled for, it's exactly the same as using security cameras in a grocery store to watch employees. The only adverse thing it does is give off a serious impression of distrust in your employee morals and work habits.
But then again, reading slashdot and downloading hardcore Pr0n at work are two completely different sides of the same coin.
If they have remote surgery developments, how long before someone takes this and just tweaks it a bit to work with a kung-fu program. You could have an entire class of virtual students learning Shaolin techniques (for example) over the net. Sign me up!
Or it'd be the world's greatest version of DanceDance Revolution, one of the most addicting games of all time. Better than Evercrack? Very, very likely.
And hook up a pair of VR goggles? Don't get me started. Maybe I'll lose some weight afterall. . . . .
Finally I'll be able to drive home on that damn gravel without having to wash the car every time it rains! Just fly over it!
.is that a good thing? I mean, sometimes people can survive a head-on collision at 100km/h. If they can do that, it should be a cakewalk to survive a 200km/h collision and then a 100m fall.
But seriously, you put your average AC "Phl4m3-m4St3R" in one of these and just wait until the deathtoll racks up.
Or wait. . .
This could officially be Darwin in action.
You can just see it already:
.english, Sir!
Mr. Smith! We have confirmation of an extra-terrestrial signal!
Well? Can you decipher it?
It seems to be in. . . .
And?
It says "I send you this file so I may have your advice", sir. After that it just has this first_contact.doc file attached.
Damn! And we just installed outlook!
Yeah, I know it's a lame joke, but it had to be done.
Considering that I'm still trying to finish this Engineering/CompSci degree, there's time to take a couple of second(third/fourth) language classes and try something like this. The argument was that how many people over in North America/Europe/Austraila/NZ/etc. have the technical skills coupled with a knowledge of the local languages?
The majority of the world is NOT connected to any sort of half-decent online services (if any) and in the next few years I can see a lot more of this sort of "go overseas and help set up infrastructure" thing happening as governments begin bringing in professionals to get their services running.
Don't know how widely accepted this is, but I for one am going to hit this opening in the tech sector hard. Travel a couple years, get my P.Eng, and then move back to Canada with experience, cash, a couple of languages, and the travel bug potentially out of my system for a while. (Not to mention the weather!) Now just to get into that Mandarin class. . . . . .
Bloody 'ell. I'd be boycotting Adobe left right and centre if Photoshop wasn't the best image-editing program available on a WinXX platform. . . .Oh, wait. . . . Never mind. It seems I'm pirating it anyway.
/.-inclined person, really, who sees this as an unfair arrest. To the vast majority of the population this is either not news or just another person being arrested for something that he did that was illegal. It's going to take a lot of protesting and explanation before the non-/. audience truly believes that this is an unjust arrest.
But this is the thing. Whilst talking with my Dad about this, he made a few very valid points about the arrest. In his opinion, he should have been arrested since he did commit an illegal act. I personally don't agree, but I do see his point and can see how people can agree. It's only the
The scary thing is, Dad is not one of the average people who's of the opinion that the 'net is "scary" and that people who break even the smallest online law are "dangers to society and will be causing anarchy in a week". He does understand the web and I imagine he'd be more inclined to look at it differently than the common denominator.
But I could have sworn that Microsoft software was safer out of the box than linux. I just can't find the paper where they explained it. Oh well. I'm sure you remember the post.
There's no way they could have let something like this happen with their knowledge. I have faith in Microsoft. They've always made my life easier.
I have to agree wholeheartedly. It's the idiots that give the scene a bad name (and by scene, I primarily mean linux but that can be pretty much anything). These are the people that demand massive tax cuts for no reason or who still think you can revive Aeris (random FF7 reference) in the Japanese version. Whatever you do there are people who feel that they need to "vent" in a much less civil manner than our good author.
Gotta love democracy. Everyone gets a say, even those who by all logical argument shouldn't.
At the moment, it's only a hobby to go throw up an antenna, etc. But we have to remember that for the most part, unless you can get it quite widespread, easy to use and secure, the vast majority (read: the people needed to make this thing fly) aren't going to use it, in favour of something that they can set up (or get a cable guy to set up) or just AOL. And the only people using it outdoors are the techno-savant (read: geeks).
Now on the other hand, this could be quite easily adapted for handheld devices in more business-related centres or universities, where you can set up an antenna set to a specific drive that offers not internet but information partaining to a specific area. The amount a university could save (in the long run as books become more electronic) by simply placing an antenna in every building with building-relevant info and access to the LAN rather than building a huge central library is quite a bit.
With a little work, this could also get applied to the tourism industry (read: walking tours - $10.00. Includes handheld guide rental).
Now yes, this is probably better suited to the more advanced technologies appearing in the near future, but this is here now, and the experience that we gain from it could be extremely useful in applying wireless public networks when the masses are finally converted.
I don't know about the rest of you, but my Sound Blaster Live has this really nifty little feature that records whatever goes through the sound card, etc. Yes, it is in WAV, but then you just run it through SoundForge and compress it yourself. If it sounds good, then it most likely will turn out good, if only a little longer than it takes normally. I've never used it to record off of CD's, but it worked fantastically with recording off the 'net, so I can see no difficulties with CD's
Can't let this event go by without putting in my two cents
After following the movie production reports for a good three years, I find it quite impressive what they managed to accomplish in the time, considering they already went through one complete script re-write and the amount of computing power it took to just render what they did. Apparently the rendering of characters was detailed enough that each individual hair on the character's head was attached by itself. Now, that could explain the "not-so-hot" background character rendering, mostly since if they were to render each character in that way it would be 2002 before we see the movie.
As for the use of Linux for the rendering can only serve to strengthen the growing use of linux (etc) in the industry. Maybe someone can fill in the link, but I vaguely remember something about SGI moving to a MS-based platform. If that is the case, then this only serves to further the proof that you don't need Windows to do an exceptional job, (and I've seen very few, if no projects that look this good)
So in closing, If you have friends, neighbours, or just people on the street, drag them in to see this. I've very rarely known Square to disappoint either in story or visuals, so give it a chance, even if you aren't a game fan.
Oh. A pile of depleted uranium. But I wanted money.
Quiet, you fool. With the uranium, you can have a lot of money.
Really? Explain.
Uranium can be exchanged for monetary compensation on the black market.
Ohhh! Riight!
Yeah, I know it was a Simpsons' line, but it just fits the situation. And why did it take so long to report? Could it be that the people who originally discovered the bug were too busy exchanging uranium for monetary compensation?