Well I've heard of a 'sugar high', but this really is taking the piss.
The summary misses one rather important point from the original article: 'It's more of an art piece'. We are now entering the realm of sharks in formaldeyde, paintings rendered in HIV-positive blood, and unmade beds exhibited in galleries. In other news, an Artist is crafting Teddy bears from cured placentas (no, really). Normal rules do not apply.
From the official site - 'Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.'. There are several key applications which, if disabled, would effectively cripple the device (on my phone, even 'Android System' is listed as an app, though I've no idea if Google has the ability to disable it remotely). Are any of these apps potentially subject to Oracle's patent attack?
"After the researcher voluntarily removed these applications from Android Market, we decided, per the Android Market Terms of Service, to exercise our remote application removal feature on the remaining installed copies to complete the cleanup...The remote application removal feature is one of many security controls Android possesses to help protect users from malicious applications. In case of an emergency, a dangerous application could be removed from active circulation in a rapid and scalable manner to prevent further exposure to users. While we hope to not have to use it, we know that we have the capability to take swift action on behalf of users' safety when needed."
'Really? The subtitle A New Hope has been in use since 1981.'
'In use' at Skywalker Ranch and as a shibboleth on fan forums, perhaps, but nobody else actually called it that (even if they noticed the phrase in the opening crawl). There was no subtitle on (e.g.) the VHS cover until the late 90s edition, and it's still 'Star Wars' to pretty much everyone of my advanced age ('Get off my lawn, rebel scum!').
In UK English just 'tabloid' would be fine here. My impression was that even in US English there's a distinction between 'tabloid' (NY Post, etc.) and 'supermarket tabloid' (National Enquirer):
In UK English just 'tabloid' would be fine here. My impression was that even in US English there's a distinction between 'tabloid' (NY Post, etc.) and 'supermarket tabloid' (National Enquirer style):
'Yes, assuming first past the post voting remains, it's hard to see how the Con-Dems or the Tories can possibly win the election in 4 years time.'
Which is probably why they've set the new fixed term at 5 years:-)
Even the Alternative Vote system that the referendum will decide on might not benefit the LibDems that much in this situation, as there'll be a reduced incentive for labour supporters to select LibDem even as their second preference. A true proportional system like STV would help them much more, but that isn't on the table. And of course the potential loss of the left of centre tactical vote could really hurt the LibDems if first past the post remains in place.
'...and is in danger of a back-bench rebellion by the LibDem MPs who'd rather pander to popular opinion than get on with running the country.'
Or, to put it another way, 'is in danger of a back-bench rebellion by the LibDem MPs who actually remember what was in the manifesto they were elected on, which bears almost no resemblance to the set of policies they are now supporting in return for a taste of power'.
Much has been made of the (laudable) measures taken by the Coalition to repeal some of Labour's more intrusive Big Brother legislation, and of how this is a victory for Liberal politics. This conveniently ignores that many of these policies were already in the Conservative manifesto, or were at least fully in accord with the views of PM Cameron's wing of the Tory party (the Coalition gives him a plausible reason to ignore the more rabid elements in his own party). Meanwhile, the LibDems have to lend queasy support to some of the most savage public sector spending cuts in history, as well as measures like the VAT increase they vehemently campaigned against before the election. Of course, Nick Clegg gets to call himself Deputy PM, and his party has been given a dubious shot at a minor reform in the voting system (which his Senior Partners have already said they won't support). But will this be a price worth paying at the next election, when voters are likely to see the LibDems merely as 'Tory Lite' candidates? Some of the LibDem back benchers are beginning to ask the same question.
Oops, sorry for the dupe. While I'm here, here's a link to an interesting article on the kind of approaches creative engineers have been taking to restore old and largely out of copyright recordings:
This is particularly annoying as we currently have a thriving European re-issue industry, where budget labels often treat pre-1960 classical, jazz and early rock with more care and respect than the original copyright holders. See for example:
Which will be a terrible shame for the thriving re-issue industry that currently gives us reasonably priced high-quality CDs of pre-1960 classical, jazz and early rock recordings, especially as the budget labels that do this often treat the material with much more care and respect than the original copyright holders. See for example:
which (rather ironically in the circumstances) is a report which urges intelligence gathering agencies to 'Create a culture of collaboration' and 'Accelerate information sharing'.
Incidentally, if the feds are worried about the public distribution of high resolution seal images, why aren't they going after the Director of National Intelligence for making them available in the first place?
'The smallest it ever got was when they'd have lab set up in the back of a semi-trailer to do on-site processing at the World Series, Kentucky Derby, and similar events.'
They actually got as far as building a commercial Kodachrome minilab ('Requiring only 46 square feet of floor space, the K-LAB Processor can fit through a standard 32-inch doorway') that automated the whole thing:
Which is great if you have a 3G signal when planning your route, and at any point en route where you might have to make a significant change. Otherwise...
'As yet, there's also no way of downloading [Google] maps to a memory card for offline navigation, so you could have major problems in areas without a 3G signal'
'The dude dropped too much acid back in the 70's . . . he hears voices . . . and has hallucinations about baseball fields, and shit . ..'
Yeah, stay away from that stuff. I had a really bad trip a few months back - ended up in a movie theatre where they must have been showing 'Dances With Wolves', but it looked like all the Sioux had changed into weird blue aliens who were COMING OUT OF THE SCREEN at me. Someone gave me a pair of shades but they just made it worse. Crazy shit.
'If you wanted to use the 80s version of Google Maps, you were stuck doing it on one and only one platform because most companies didn't want to bother with supporting multiple platforms. That is basically what Steve Jobs and all of his little Fanboys are pushing us into.'
Fortunately, I don't think we'll be pushed into anything. Jobs has positioned the iPhone rather like the Mac back in the 80s, as a well-designed but expensive high-end platform that will end up being used by an 'elite' (or so perhaps they imagine) minority. I don't know what the author of the original article uses, but it reads like something written from this sort of 'closed ecosystem' perspective, which probably won't become the industry standard. It seems rather more likely that we'll see the market flooded with cheap Android handsets much as commodity PCs came to predominate in the late 80s and 90s. And Android users can install what they like, including (e.g.) multiple alternatives to Google Maps that pull in data from alternative sources (some completely free and open).
Of course, things might change if Jobs decides to make the iPhone more of a mass-market item (just as he did with the iPod), but with strong competition from Android the opportunity to own this market sector (and control what everyone installs) may already have been lost. The author is also writing from the rather distorted perspective of a user of US cellphone networks, where everyone seems to be locked into outrageously expensive data plans. In the UK, I can currently get all the bandwidth I actually need on a (PAYG) smartphone for 40 GBP a year.
'The shift of the digital frontier from the Web, where the browser ruled supreme, to the smart phone, where the app and the pricing plan now hold sway, signals a radical shift from openness to a degree of closed-ness that would have been remarkable even before 1995'
I guess this is a bit far-fetched, but I wonder if it would be possible to design a phone that could somehow access the 'free' web so we could 'browse' it anywhere without having to carry a PC around? And maybe even introduce some sort of flat-rate monthly 'internet access charge' like those we have for broadband? Or how about a really crazy idea - might it even be possible to persuade people to buy proprietary 'applications' for home computers?
'Google lets us have porn on our handsets, so we look the other way. Because Google is cool like that unlike that prude Steve Jobs that suggests that we shouldn't be watching hardcore pornography on the bus.'
Now it all makes sense! Steve Jobs doesn't allow this material on the iPhone to discourage anyone from holding it with their left hand.
Slashdot Mirror
Plenty of ideas here:
http://www.villainsource.com/lairs.html
Well I've heard of a 'sugar high', but this really is taking the piss.
The summary misses one rather important point from the original article: 'It's more of an art piece'. We are now entering the realm of sharks in formaldeyde, paintings rendered in HIV-positive blood, and unmade beds exhibited in galleries. In other news, an Artist is crafting Teddy bears from cured placentas (no, really). Normal rules do not apply.
'The 400x part is usually meaningless. It's just 40x objective and a 10x eye piece.'
Yeah, but our eyepiece goes to 11.
From the official site - 'Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.'. There are several key applications which, if disabled, would effectively cripple the device (on my phone, even 'Android System' is listed as an app, though I've no idea if Google has the ability to disable it remotely). Are any of these apps potentially subject to Oracle's patent attack?
'How does this work? would google have to hunt down every single android phone and destroy/wipe its software?'
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/06/exercising-our-remote-application.html
"After the researcher voluntarily removed these applications from Android Market, we decided, per the Android Market Terms of Service, to exercise our remote application removal feature on the remaining installed copies to complete the cleanup...The remote application removal feature is one of many security controls Android possesses to help protect users from malicious applications. In case of an emergency, a dangerous application could be removed from active circulation in a rapid and scalable manner to prevent further exposure to users. While we hope to not have to use it, we know that we have the capability to take swift action on behalf of users' safety when needed."
'I vote for Cthulhu shaped pylons.'
Pylons are frightening enough already, as anyone exposed to scary UK children's TV in the 70s can tell you:
http://www.bilderberg.org/changes.htm
'Really? The subtitle A New Hope has been in use since 1981.'
'In use' at Skywalker Ranch and as a shibboleth on fan forums, perhaps, but nobody else actually called it that (even if they noticed the phrase in the opening crawl). There was no subtitle on (e.g.) the VHS cover until the late 90s edition, and it's still 'Star Wars' to pretty much everyone of my advanced age ('Get off my lawn, rebel scum!').
Hmm, looks like Martians Made Me Mess Up My Post! I should write to the Daily Sport about it...
In UK English just 'tabloid' would be fine here. My impression was that even in US English there's a distinction between 'tabloid' (NY Post, etc.) and 'supermarket tabloid' (National Enquirer):
In UK English just 'tabloid' would be fine here. My impression was that even in US English there's a distinction between 'tabloid' (NY Post, etc.) and 'supermarket tabloid' (National Enquirer style):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarket_tabloid
'Yes, assuming first past the post voting remains, it's hard to see how the Con-Dems or the Tories can possibly win the election in 4 years time.'
Which is probably why they've set the new fixed term at 5 years :-)
Even the Alternative Vote system that the referendum will decide on might not benefit the LibDems that much in this situation, as there'll be a reduced incentive for labour supporters to select LibDem even as their second preference. A true proportional system like STV would help them much more, but that isn't on the table. And of course the potential loss of the left of centre tactical vote could really hurt the LibDems if first past the post remains in place.
'...and is in danger of a back-bench rebellion by the LibDem MPs who'd rather pander to popular opinion than get on with running the country.'
Or, to put it another way, 'is in danger of a back-bench rebellion by the LibDem MPs who actually remember what was in the manifesto they were elected on, which bears almost no resemblance to the set of policies they are now supporting in return for a taste of power'.
Much has been made of the (laudable) measures taken by the Coalition to repeal some of Labour's more intrusive Big Brother legislation, and of how this is a victory for Liberal politics. This conveniently ignores that many of these policies were already in the Conservative manifesto, or were at least fully in accord with the views of PM Cameron's wing of the Tory party (the Coalition gives him a plausible reason to ignore the more rabid elements in his own party). Meanwhile, the LibDems have to lend queasy support to some of the most savage public sector spending cuts in history, as well as measures like the VAT increase they vehemently campaigned against before the election. Of course, Nick Clegg gets to call himself Deputy PM, and his party has been given a dubious shot at a minor reform in the voting system (which his Senior Partners have already said they won't support). But will this be a price worth paying at the next election, when voters are likely to see the LibDems merely as 'Tory Lite' candidates? Some of the LibDem back benchers are beginning to ask the same question.
Oops, sorry for the dupe. While I'm here, here's a link to an interesting article on the kind of approaches creative engineers have been taking to restore old and largely out of copyright recordings:
http://www.stokowski.org/March%2011%202001%20Philadelphia%20Inquirer.htm
And here are some suggestions about what to do if you're not a fan of EU copyright term extension:
http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension
'Copyright in recordings lasts for 50 years.'
Unfortunately an EU-wide extension to 70 years is already at the draft stage:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/eu-extends-musical-copyrights-by-20-years-eyes-movies-next.ars
This is particularly annoying as we currently have a thriving European re-issue industry, where budget labels often treat pre-1960 classical, jazz and early rock with more care and respect than the original copyright holders. See for example:
http://www.naxos.com/labels/naxos_historical-cd.htm
'Copyright in recordings lasts for 50 years.'
Until we (and the rest of the EU) approve this draft legislation:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/eu-extends-musical-copyrights-by-20-years-eyes-movies-next.ars
Which will be a terrible shame for the thriving re-issue industry that currently gives us reasonably priced high-quality CDs of pre-1960 classical, jazz and early rock recordings, especially as the budget labels that do this often treat the material with much more care and respect than the original copyright holders. See for example:
http://www.naxos.com/labels/naxos_historical-cd.htm
There's a suitably harsh analysis here:
http://industrypace.com/frontpage/2010/8/4/who-can-you-trust-interactive-advertising-is-dangerous.html
'Does the arm cost 6 Million dollars, or do we get a full set for that amount?'
Well, $34.5M / 5 subjects = $6.9M, but the full set will cost you an arm and a leg.
According to Wikipedia/Wikimedia, the original source is this pdf:
http://www.dni.gov/100-day-plan/100_FOLLOW_UP_REPORT.pdf
which (rather ironically in the circumstances) is a report which urges intelligence gathering agencies to 'Create a culture of collaboration' and 'Accelerate information sharing'.
Incidentally, if the feds are worried about the public distribution of high resolution seal images, why aren't they going after the Director of National Intelligence for making them available in the first place?
'The smallest it ever got was when they'd have lab set up in the back of a semi-trailer to do on-site processing at the World Series, Kentucky Derby, and similar events.'
They actually got as far as building a commercial Kodachrome minilab ('Requiring only 46 square feet of floor space, the K-LAB Processor can fit through a standard 32-inch doorway') that automated the whole thing:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/klabs/index.shtml
Unfortunately it never caught on, though someone has/had one for sale:
http://www.rockymountainfilm.com/equipment/klab.htm
(worthless without support and consumables from Kodak, of course).
Which is great if you have a 3G signal when planning your route, and at any point en route where you might have to make a significant change. Otherwise...
With the enormous caveat that:
'As yet, there's also no way of downloading [Google] maps to a memory card for offline navigation, so you could have major problems in areas without a 3G signal'
'The dude dropped too much acid back in the 70's . . . he hears voices . . . and has hallucinations about baseball fields, and shit . . .'
Yeah, stay away from that stuff. I had a really bad trip a few months back - ended up in a movie theatre where they must have been showing 'Dances With Wolves', but it looked like all the Sioux had changed into weird blue aliens who were COMING OUT OF THE SCREEN at me. Someone gave me a pair of shades but they just made it worse. Crazy shit.
'Except that it's not paper, which is usually made from ground-up trees.'
Usually, but not always. Enjoy:
http://www.elephantdungpaper.com/process.html
'If you wanted to use the 80s version of Google Maps, you were stuck doing it on one and only one platform because most companies didn't want to bother with supporting multiple platforms. That is basically what Steve Jobs and all of his little Fanboys are pushing us into.'
Fortunately, I don't think we'll be pushed into anything. Jobs has positioned the iPhone rather like the Mac back in the 80s, as a well-designed but expensive high-end platform that will end up being used by an 'elite' (or so perhaps they imagine) minority. I don't know what the author of the original article uses, but it reads like something written from this sort of 'closed ecosystem' perspective, which probably won't become the industry standard. It seems rather more likely that we'll see the market flooded with cheap Android handsets much as commodity PCs came to predominate in the late 80s and 90s. And Android users can install what they like, including (e.g.) multiple alternatives to Google Maps that pull in data from alternative sources (some completely free and open).
Of course, things might change if Jobs decides to make the iPhone more of a mass-market item (just as he did with the iPod), but with strong competition from Android the opportunity to own this market sector (and control what everyone installs) may already have been lost. The author is also writing from the rather distorted perspective of a user of US cellphone networks, where everyone seems to be locked into outrageously expensive data plans. In the UK, I can currently get all the bandwidth I actually need on a (PAYG) smartphone for 40 GBP a year.
'The shift of the digital frontier from the Web, where the browser ruled supreme, to the smart phone, where the app and the pricing plan now hold sway, signals a radical shift from openness to a degree of closed-ness that would have been remarkable even before 1995'
I guess this is a bit far-fetched, but I wonder if it would be possible to design a phone that could somehow access the 'free' web so we could 'browse' it anywhere without having to carry a PC around? And maybe even introduce some sort of flat-rate monthly 'internet access charge' like those we have for broadband? Or how about a really crazy idea - might it even be possible to persuade people to buy proprietary 'applications' for home computers?
'Google lets us have porn on our handsets, so we look the other way. Because Google is cool like that unlike that prude Steve Jobs that suggests that we shouldn't be watching hardcore pornography on the bus.'
Now it all makes sense! Steve Jobs doesn't allow this material on the iPhone to discourage anyone from holding it with their left hand.