It seems that WMG are more interested than cutting off their nose to spite their face than they are in actually leveraging YT for profit.
Likewise, I would have thought that Google's "smart guys" would have already twigged to the revenues they could make by putting a "one-click licensing" button on the "Upload" screen. If I could license a commercial track for (say) $5 I'd spring for it, and I suspect many others would too.
I've been trying hard to get the mainstream media to alert the public to the growing number of fuel-saver scams that are appearing on the Net since gas prices started skyrocketing - but they seem totally disinterested.
In fact a local TV channel here ran a piece last week effectively endorsing those lame HHO systems that anyone with half a brain knows is just bad science.
So I've set up a few webpages to try and educate the great unwashed as to the nature of these scams.
Unlike the scammers, I've used some *real* science and pretty simple math to prove that these scams do not, can not and will not work.
The cruel irony (for the scammers) is that the Google-ads which appear on those pages are invariably hawking HHO systems. They help subsidize the cost of the pages that expose their scams.
I love it!
But seriously, I find it really hard to believe that so many otherwise sane people get hooked up with these lame scams.
Well if anything's going to turn me off using the Net (well the Web anyway) it's things like the full-page ad that interupts viewing of the referenced article.
I notice that Wired.com has also started spitting those annoying ads recently too.
When confronted with such an ad I just hit the back button and don't return.
I'm happy to accept banner ads (even skyscrapers) but any site that dishes up pop-up/under/over ads and full-page interstitials immediately gets crossed off my list of "sites worth visiting"
Am I the only one who got that ad on the BWO site -- or doesn't anyone else care that the Net is becoming increasingly like TV in respect to the intrusiveness of advertising?
For the past 10 years I've written a daily internet colum (aardvark.co.nz) and have strongly resisted the temptation to load it up with advertising.
Instead of obtrusive ads I've gone the sponsorship route, something which I realise few sites can do but, if it can be done, is great for both publisher, sponsor (they get exclusivity) and readers alike.
My visitors aren't blasted with skyscrapers, Flash or even banners - just a little sponsor's spot-ad. Fortunately for me, quite a few of my regulars visit the sponsor's website by clicking on their spot, so we all win.
I wonder if more small bloggers and publishers might not look more closely at sponsorship as an option to the more common "load the page up with as many ads as will fit" option?
In Australia, we have much higher UV levels than you do in the northern hemisphere
Ain't that the truth!
I've been to the UK and California (during the northern hemisphere mid-summer) and could not believe how hazy the sky was compared to Australia and NZ.
I went from mid-winter here (NZ) to mid-summer in the northern hemisphere and (my then lilly-white body) didn't even get pink, despite spending several full days in the "blazing" sun.
Down these parts (as the original poster said), you can get lobsterized in under half an hour through direct exposure to sunlight, any time from October through March (mid-spring to mid fall).
What's more -- the sky is *really* blue and clear (you can even see the horizon:-) down on this part of the globe.
I'm surprised that nobody else has noticed that this craft isn't a helicopter -- it's a gyrocopter, and there's a huge difference!
Yes, the Mu still applies, but gyrocopters pre-date helicopters by several decades and are far simpler in design.
Except when pre-rotating, an autogyro's rotors are un-powered and are not connected to the engine.
A gyrocopter's rotors simply windmill in the airflow generated by the craft's forward motion or passage through the air.
In theory, gyrocopters are safer than helicopters (since they're already autorotating/gliding) at all times, thus reducing the risks associated with engine failure) but the reality is that there are far more autogyro crashes per craft-flying than there are helicopter crashes.
Just around these parts alone there have been two serious autogyro crashes in the past 12 months.
The autogyro concept has been revised and reinvented numerous times since the mid 1930s, but none of these new incarnations have ever been a commercial success of any scale.
Actually I've never found that method to be too effective at all -- the problem is that it's nearly impossible to pack the sand hard enough that it won't compact further under the pressure produced by the bending process -- and thus allow the collapse of the pipe.
A *much* better way is to fill the pipe with water and freeze it. This way, when you bend the pipe the ice will be incompressible and thus ensure that the walls remain apart. And, even if the pressure is so great as to melt the ice at the point where the pipe is bending, the plugs of ice at each end will stop it from moving -- so the pipe still won't kink or collapse.
Hey, even though the levels of X-ray emission are very low -- won't this cause cancer in the state of California? I mean -- just about everything else does!
I live in NZ and almost *everything* I buy that comes from California carries a little warning label informing me that if I lived in California, this item would cause me to die a slow and lingering death from some form of cancer.
Don't Californians live in a constant state of fear because of this?:-)
George Fritz was arrested today on charges of conspiring to commit crimes.
Police were first alerted to Fritz's activities when he dialed 911 to report a burglary in progress at his home in Elmwood drive.
On arriving at the scene, police observed that the doors to Fritz's house were locked and that the intruder had been forced to break a window to gain entry.
After aprehending and speaking with the intruder, police decided not to arrest him, relying on his promise not to re-offend.
Fritz *was* arrested however, on suspicion of being involved in a crime or crimes unknown. Prosecutors say they have a pretty strong case against him -- after all, if he had nothing to hide, why did he lock his doors and draw his curtains -- thus forcing the would-be burglar to break a window?
I stayed up late (live on the dateline) just to watch the webcast coverage of the probe's descent and have pawed over the images that came back with amazement.
This is truly a fantastic achievement, something I would rate right up their with man's landing on the moon.
These are also the most astounding images I think I've ever seen from another celestial body.
Sure, the ultra-high precision pictures that astronauts took while walking on the moon were amazing (expecially for their time) and the results send back from the Mars rovers have been truly stupendous -- but to see the mountains, rivers and seas of another world is an experience that's truly hard to beat.
The most disappointing thing is that the vast majority of (non-geek) people to who I've posed the question "what do you think of the pictures from Titan" have replied with "what?"
Hell, when man first landed on the moon I remember that the world came to a complete halt -- as it almost did when the first Mars probes touched down on "the red planet".
Now we have a first glimpse at a new world with mroe earth-like features than any other -- and people just aren't even interested.
Ask these same people about "reality" TV programs like Survivor, Pop Idol or whatever and they'll get all enthusiastic and rave on for hours.
What does this say about us?
I fear we've become shallow creatures on so many levels:-)
If they're going to try and lock up their content by way of DRM -- so that regular folks can't rip it to MP3 for their portable player -- or make backup copies of disks they've legally purchased then many of them will simply be *forced* to turn to the Net and download "freed" copies.
Once they've downloaded a "freed" copy, why would they even bother going out and buying a DRM'd disk?
The idiots are making piracy the only option if you want to listen to music where you want, when you want.
If you are really concerned about your "precious intellectual property" getting posted on the Internet DO NOT PUBLISH IT. Lock it up in your safe and don't let anyone see it
But then you'd have no copyright protection because such protection applies from the date of first publication:-)
Hell, for that price you can buy a nice full-featured transmitter *and* a laptop or pocket PC along with the necessary cord to connect the two together.
If Futaba had half a clue and were more interested in providing a functional cost-effective solution than a "gee whiz!" box of tricks, they'd have separated the fancy LCD screen and WinCE bits from the transmitter itself.
This alternative approach would have meant that the system was just as powerful and configurable but with the added bonus that if you had more than one transmitter (and many fliers do) you would not be unnecessarily duplicating the cost and functionality of all that user-interface stuff.
What's more, if you wanted to transfer your own settings to another modeller's transmitter it would be a very simple task to do so.
Nobody needs a honking great color LCD display in the bottom of their transmitter (making it heavier and bulkier) when they're actually flying because the kind of plane that warrants a 14-channel set like this is *not* the kind of plane you can afford to take your eyes off for any length of time while you try to read such a screen.
No, I'm afraid that this is *bad* ergonomics and gross overpricing.
Well if their MP3 players turn out to be anything like there more recent VCRs then I won't be wasting my money on them.
I bought a top-of-the-line Sony VHS VCR back in 1991 and it lasted 10 years, giving an exceptional picture and brilliant audio.
The top-of-the-line Sony VHS VCR I bought in 1999 gave nowhere near as good a picture and just died, lasting only half as long as the previous one.
The top-of-the-line Sony VHS VCR I bought in 2000 was even worse in respect to its performance and died back in late 2001 -- lasting less than two years.
The 21" Sony TV I bought back in 1992 is still going strong and gives an excellent picture. The 29" set I bought in 1999 has crapped out twice and the tube is showing pronounced signs of softness. The picture geometry has also gone to hell in a handbasket.
If this trend continues, that Sony MP3 player probably won't make it to the shop doorway before it craps out.
As an electronics tech I took a look at the Sony VCRs and have to say that the standards of design and construction have fallen significantly in the 10 year period from my first to most recent purchase.
I don't buy Sony gear any more -- they used to be a premium brand with excellent quality but now it's actually worse than some of the cheaper stuff on the market. The budget 2-head NEC VCR I bought at the same time as the 2000-model Sony is still going strong.
When it came time to buy a new camcorder, I bought a Panasonic and have been *very* pleased with the results. Even my friends who spent 50% more on a Sony camera are very impressed (and kicking themselves a little:-)
I've been aggregating news headlines and links on the Net for longer than I care to remember (I'm in my tenth year) and I can tell you that this is nothing new.
Way back in 1998 I had a battle with The Nando Times when I was running 7am.com which was one of the most successful aggregators of all time.
Nando said "pay us $100 per month for the right to link or we'll sue"
I said "bring it on"
They said "um, err, well okay we won't" and then attributed their back-down to the fact that I was in New Zealand and they were in the USA so such a legal battle would be too hard to wage.
The reality was that I formed an informal group of other online publishers and aggregators who simply stood up to these ridiculous tactics. Seeing they were outnumbered and copping a heap of flack in the media, they gave up their ill-conceived efforts.
When I asked the head of Nando.Net why they were averse to me effectively extending their reach and delivering huge numbers of eager-eyes to their ad-laden pages I was told that their ad revenues weren't enough to cover the cost of serving up those pages so more traffic meant more cost.
Someone ought to have taught those guys how to run an online publishing business!
I've also had similar battles with other publishers such as Television New Zealand here in NZ who simlarly threatened me with all manner of dire consequences if I didn't stop linking to them.
Once again I invited them to do their worst and they backed down.
At one stage I was involved in (and winning) so many battles over the issue of hypertext linking and the intellectual property rights associated with such things that I regularly was invited to talk to the legal profession (some of my stuff even scoring a mention in the US Bar Association's Journal) and other online publishers.
I should point out that at all times I linked ethically -- this meant no framing, full attributions and only ever using the headline and sometimes the first line of the article.
One thing *all* publishers should do is publish a linking policy on their website so as to let other sites know what they consider to be fair and reasonable. I do this on my Aardvark daily internet commentary and I also continue to aggregate headlines (including some from eWeek when they're running something worth a mention). The funny thing is that these days, nobody tries to pick a fight with me:-)
But, if Ziff Davis/eWeek are thinking about doing so, I once again say "Bring it on! And let the good times roll (again:-)
That means training & educating US engineers & not foreign ones
But hang on -- who's educating who? Surely the people who make the winning vehicle will actually be bringing their technology or implementations to DARPA.
It's not about driving a car through the desert, it's about developing technologies for military applications. Those technologies are better kept in the US (from DARPA's point of view) with US workers & companies
So why allow any non-US citizens to be involved in the challenge?
As I read the rules, the only team member who actually needs to be a US citizen is the leader. This means a foreign team could simply find some schmuck off the street, name him as leader and still compete.
This smacks of simply avoiding the situation where dozens of US teams are roundly trounced by a team from elsewhere. At least under DARPA's rules they can still claim that it was a "US-lead team" that won.
Plus, it's their tax money so they should probably give it back to their own citizens
So is this really a search for cool technology and implementation or is it simply a tax rebate -- DARPA should make up their minds.
Slashdot Mirror
As an experiment, I deliberately posted a video to my YT channel with copyrighted music in the audio track (just happened to be a WMG artist).
Sure enough, I got a message telling me that the audio had bee muted -- no surprise there and I'm not "outraged" or upset.
As the second part of this experiment, I tried to get a legal license to use the offending track in that video.
You can read about my frustration and ultimate failure in that endeavor in a column I wrote called Why does the music industry want you to "steal"?.
It seems that WMG are more interested than cutting off their nose to spite their face than they are in actually leveraging YT for profit.
Likewise, I would have thought that Google's "smart guys" would have already twigged to the revenues they could make by putting a "one-click licensing" button on the "Upload" screen. If I could license a commercial track for (say) $5 I'd spring for it, and I suspect many others would too.
I've been trying hard to get the mainstream media to alert the public to the growing number of fuel-saver scams that are appearing on the Net since gas prices started skyrocketing - but they seem totally disinterested.
In fact a local TV channel here ran a piece last week effectively endorsing those lame HHO systems that anyone with half a brain knows is just bad science.
So I've set up a few webpages to try and educate the great unwashed as to the nature of these scams.
The Great "run your car on water" scam
and
More fuel saver scams
Unlike the scammers, I've used some *real* science and pretty simple math to prove that these scams do not, can not and will not work.
The cruel irony (for the scammers) is that the Google-ads which appear on those pages are invariably hawking HHO systems. They help subsidize the cost of the pages that expose their scams.
I love it!
But seriously, I find it really hard to believe that so many otherwise sane people get hooked up with these lame scams.
Well if anything's going to turn me off using the Net (well the Web anyway) it's things like the full-page ad that interupts viewing of the referenced article.
I notice that Wired.com has also started spitting those annoying ads recently too.
When confronted with such an ad I just hit the back button and don't return.
I'm happy to accept banner ads (even skyscrapers) but any site that dishes up pop-up/under/over ads and full-page interstitials immediately gets crossed off my list of "sites worth visiting"
Am I the only one who got that ad on the BWO site -- or doesn't anyone else care that the Net is becoming increasingly like TV in respect to the intrusiveness of advertising?
For the past 10 years I've written a daily internet colum (aardvark.co.nz) and have strongly resisted the temptation to load it up with advertising.
Instead of obtrusive ads I've gone the sponsorship route, something which I realise few sites can do but, if it can be done, is great for both publisher, sponsor (they get exclusivity) and readers alike.
My visitors aren't blasted with skyscrapers, Flash or even banners - just a little sponsor's spot-ad. Fortunately for me, quite a few of my regulars visit the sponsor's website by clicking on their spot, so we all win.
I wonder if more small bloggers and publishers might not look more closely at sponsorship as an option to the more common "load the page up with as many ads as will fit" option?
I totally agree on the decline in Sony's quality and standards.
These days I consider the reliability and quality of their products to be worse than many of the noname OEM Chinese manufacturers.
Time was when buying Sony meant a guarantee of quality and performance. These days it's just the same as taping a "kick me" sign to your backside.
In Australia, we have much higher UV levels than you do in the northern hemisphere
:-) down on this part of the globe.
Ain't that the truth!
I've been to the UK and California (during the northern hemisphere mid-summer) and could not believe how hazy the sky was compared to Australia and NZ.
I went from mid-winter here (NZ) to mid-summer in the northern hemisphere and (my then lilly-white body) didn't even get pink, despite spending several full days in the "blazing" sun.
Down these parts (as the original poster said), you can get lobsterized in under half an hour through direct exposure to sunlight, any time from October through March (mid-spring to mid fall).
What's more -- the sky is *really* blue and clear (you can even see the horizon
I'm surprised that nobody else has noticed that this craft isn't a helicopter -- it's a gyrocopter, and there's a huge difference!
Yes, the Mu still applies, but gyrocopters pre-date helicopters by several decades and are far simpler in design.
Except when pre-rotating, an autogyro's rotors are un-powered and are not connected to the engine.
A gyrocopter's rotors simply windmill in the airflow generated by the craft's forward motion or passage through the air.
In theory, gyrocopters are safer than helicopters (since they're already autorotating/gliding) at all times, thus reducing the risks associated with engine failure) but the reality is that there are far more autogyro crashes per craft-flying than there are helicopter crashes.
Just around these parts alone there have been two serious autogyro crashes in the past 12 months.
The autogyro concept has been revised and reinvented numerous times since the mid 1930s, but none of these new incarnations have ever been a commercial success of any scale.
Actually I've never found that method to be too effective at all -- the problem is that it's nearly impossible to pack the sand hard enough that it won't compact further under the pressure produced by the bending process -- and thus allow the collapse of the pipe.
A *much* better way is to fill the pipe with water and freeze it. This way, when you bend the pipe the ice will be incompressible and thus ensure that the walls remain apart. And, even if the pressure is so great as to melt the ice at the point where the pipe is bending, the plugs of ice at each end will stop it from moving -- so the pipe still won't kink or collapse.
Hey, even though the levels of X-ray emission are very low -- won't this cause cancer in the state of California? I mean -- just about everything else does!
:-)
I live in NZ and almost *everything* I buy that comes from California carries a little warning label informing me that if I lived in California, this item would cause me to die a slow and lingering death from some form of cancer.
Don't Californians live in a constant state of fear because of this?
George Fritz was arrested today on charges of conspiring to commit crimes.
Police were first alerted to Fritz's activities when he dialed 911 to report a burglary in progress at his home in Elmwood drive.
On arriving at the scene, police observed that the doors to Fritz's house were locked and that the intruder had been forced to break a window to gain entry.
After aprehending and speaking with the intruder, police decided not to arrest him, relying on his promise not to re-offend.
Fritz *was* arrested however, on suspicion of being involved in a crime or crimes unknown. Prosecutors say they have a pretty strong case against him -- after all, if he had nothing to hide, why did he lock his doors and draw his curtains -- thus forcing the would-be burglar to break a window?
Film at eleven.
Here's something I published nearly three years ago and it's every bit as relevant today.
There's no way for the RIAA to track this source of free music and video either.
I stayed up late (live on the dateline) just to watch the webcast coverage of the probe's descent and have pawed over the images that came back with amazement.
:-)
This is truly a fantastic achievement, something I would rate right up their with man's landing on the moon.
These are also the most astounding images I think I've ever seen from another celestial body.
Sure, the ultra-high precision pictures that astronauts took while walking on the moon were amazing (expecially for their time) and the results send back from the Mars rovers have been truly stupendous -- but to see the mountains, rivers and seas of another world is an experience that's truly hard to beat.
The most disappointing thing is that the vast majority of (non-geek) people to who I've posed the question "what do you think of the pictures from Titan" have replied with "what?"
Hell, when man first landed on the moon I remember that the world came to a complete halt -- as it almost did when the first Mars probes touched down on "the red planet".
Now we have a first glimpse at a new world with mroe earth-like features than any other -- and people just aren't even interested.
Ask these same people about "reality" TV programs like Survivor, Pop Idol or whatever and they'll get all enthusiastic and rave on for hours.
What does this say about us?
I fear we've become shallow creatures on so many levels
Phew, almost "GAME OVER" -- but saved by Slashdot's bad editing :-)
the drug Modafinil, which seems to sharpen attention and mental agility
Cool, faster task-switching, now I'll *really* be able to multi-task!
Are these people stupid or something?
If they're going to try and lock up their content by way of DRM -- so that regular folks can't rip it to MP3 for their portable player -- or make backup copies of disks they've legally purchased then many of them will simply be *forced* to turn to the Net and download "freed" copies.
Once they've downloaded a "freed" copy, why would they even bother going out and buying a DRM'd disk?
The idiots are making piracy the only option if you want to listen to music where you want, when you want.
If you are really concerned about your "precious intellectual property" getting posted on the Internet DO NOT PUBLISH IT. Lock it up in your safe and don't let anyone see it
:-)
But then you'd have no copyright protection because such protection applies from the date of first publication
Look at the price!
Hell, for that price you can buy a nice full-featured transmitter *and* a laptop or pocket PC along with the necessary cord to connect the two together.
If Futaba had half a clue and were more interested in providing a functional cost-effective solution than a "gee whiz!" box of tricks, they'd have separated the fancy LCD screen and WinCE bits from the transmitter itself.
This alternative approach would have meant that the system was just as powerful and configurable but with the added bonus that if you had more than one transmitter (and many fliers do) you would not be unnecessarily duplicating the cost and functionality of all that user-interface stuff.
What's more, if you wanted to transfer your own settings to another modeller's transmitter it would be a very simple task to do so.
Nobody needs a honking great color LCD display in the bottom of their transmitter (making it heavier and bulkier) when they're actually flying because the kind of plane that warrants a 14-channel set like this is *not* the kind of plane you can afford to take your eyes off for any length of time while you try to read such a screen.
No, I'm afraid that this is *bad* ergonomics and gross overpricing.
When it comes to spammers and their email harvesting software, why not fight fire with fire?
:-)
Set up your own payback page then check your server logs and smile every time those on that page get added to another spammer's list
Iyay etbay obodyyay ancay igurefay histay utoay!
Uggerbay, hatway oday ouyay eanmay "veryeay oneyay owsknay igpay atlinlay?"
Mr German government man, why are you taxing the internet?
Shut up! Vee ask all zee kvestions!
Well if their MP3 players turn out to be anything like there more recent VCRs then I won't be wasting my money on them.
:-)
I bought a top-of-the-line Sony VHS VCR back in 1991 and it lasted 10 years, giving an exceptional picture and brilliant audio.
The top-of-the-line Sony VHS VCR I bought in 1999 gave nowhere near as good a picture and just died, lasting only half as long as the previous one.
The top-of-the-line Sony VHS VCR I bought in 2000 was even worse in respect to its performance and died back in late 2001 -- lasting less than two years.
The 21" Sony TV I bought back in 1992 is still going strong and gives an excellent picture. The 29" set I bought in 1999 has crapped out twice and the tube is showing pronounced signs of softness. The picture geometry has also gone to hell in a handbasket.
If this trend continues, that Sony MP3 player probably won't make it to the shop doorway before it craps out.
As an electronics tech I took a look at the Sony VCRs and have to say that the standards of design and construction have fallen significantly in the 10 year period from my first to most recent purchase.
I don't buy Sony gear any more -- they used to be a premium brand with excellent quality but now it's actually worse than some of the cheaper stuff on the market. The budget 2-head NEC VCR I bought at the same time as the 2000-model Sony is still going strong.
When it came time to buy a new camcorder, I bought a Panasonic and have been *very* pleased with the results. Even my friends who spent 50% more on a Sony camera are very impressed (and kicking themselves a little
Sony? I don't think so.
currently, our storage capacity for electricity is zero
:-)
God damn it man -- we can store electricity. All we need are a goodly number of these devices
And why not resurect the dinosaurs using reminents of their DNA (just like jurasic park) -- then oil would become a renewable resource!
----
When your an idiot, anything is possible!
Does someone have a copy of that old favourite: "Lunar Lander" which runs on this emulator? :-)
Hell, even my Texas Instruments card-programmable calculator played that game!
I've been aggregating news headlines and links on the Net for longer than I care to remember (I'm in my tenth year) and I can tell you that this is nothing new.
:-)
:-)
Way back in 1998 I had a battle with The Nando Times when I was running 7am.com which was one of the most successful aggregators of all time.
Nando said "pay us $100 per month for the right to link or we'll sue"
I said "bring it on"
They said "um, err, well okay we won't" and then attributed their back-down to the fact that I was in New Zealand and they were in the USA so such a legal battle would be too hard to wage.
The reality was that I formed an informal group of other online publishers and aggregators who simply stood up to these ridiculous tactics. Seeing they were outnumbered and copping a heap of flack in the media, they gave up their ill-conceived efforts.
When I asked the head of Nando.Net why they were averse to me effectively extending their reach and delivering huge numbers of eager-eyes to their ad-laden pages I was told that their ad revenues weren't enough to cover the cost of serving up those pages so more traffic meant more cost.
Someone ought to have taught those guys how to run an online publishing business!
I've also had similar battles with other publishers such as Television New Zealand here in NZ who simlarly threatened me with all manner of dire consequences if I didn't stop linking to them.
Once again I invited them to do their worst and they backed down.
At one stage I was involved in (and winning) so many battles over the issue of hypertext linking and the intellectual property rights associated with such things that I regularly was invited to talk to the legal profession (some of my stuff even scoring a mention in the US Bar Association's Journal) and other online publishers.
I should point out that at all times I linked ethically -- this meant no framing, full attributions and only ever using the headline and sometimes the first line of the article.
One thing *all* publishers should do is publish a linking policy on their website so as to let other sites know what they consider to be fair and reasonable. I do this on my Aardvark daily internet commentary and I also continue to aggregate headlines (including some from eWeek when they're running something worth a mention). The funny thing is that these days, nobody tries to pick a fight with me
But, if Ziff Davis/eWeek are thinking about doing so, I once again say "Bring it on! And let the good times roll (again
That means training & educating US engineers & not foreign ones
But hang on -- who's educating who? Surely the people who make the winning vehicle will actually be bringing their technology or implementations to DARPA.
It's not about driving a car through the desert, it's about developing technologies for military applications. Those technologies are better kept in the US (from DARPA's point of view) with US workers & companies
So why allow any non-US citizens to be involved in the challenge?
As I read the rules, the only team member who actually needs to be a US citizen is the leader. This means a foreign team could simply find some schmuck off the street, name him as leader and still compete.
This smacks of simply avoiding the situation where dozens of US teams are roundly trounced by a team from elsewhere. At least under DARPA's rules they can still claim that it was a "US-lead team" that won.
Plus, it's their tax money so they should probably give it back to their own citizens
So is this really a search for cool technology and implementation or is it simply a tax rebate -- DARPA should make up their minds.