Perhaps for companies that would like to advertise in games like Counter-Strike they can do things such as:
Create their own maps which incorporate their advertising [Of course it would still have to be a good map or no one will play it]. That way the consumer gets something of 'value', a good map to play, and the company gets to advertise.
And they can even run their own server which runs the maps they created to incorporate their product. Then we also get a stable, low-latency server to play on out of the deal. I guess I wouldn't mind that so much.
Of course, they would never go for it, since they'd have to hire people to create decent maps, and perhaps a full-time admin staff to monitor the servers. And I'm sure the legal department wouldn't be up for it since people can do/say just about anything in the server, etc etc...
So basically the conclusion is that we're screwed, and the only real solution is a complete overthrown of the current government [in the US anyway]? To hopefully be replaced with one that actually values freedom, and doesn't value the almighty corporate dollar?
I think I can live with that.
ender-
PS. The 'benevolent monopoly' could also be a non-profit with a freely elected governing board etc etc. Just a possibility.
he payload may be encrypted, but the headers sure aren't. They just need to look at the port numbers.
Unless you're using some type of VPN or encrypted tunnel. Then they can't see what traffic is going over it. Of course then they'll probably just force all encrypted tunnels to the lowest QOS tier.
The difference you are paying a single price for bandwidth to YOUR house. YOU choose what has priority - i.e you accept that if you are streaming video, your other page loads, etc will be slower.
Compare that to your ISP dictating that because Company X paid them more money, their content gets to you faster than Company Y who didn't pay them as much.
The issue isn't on the user side - it's on the provider side.
Which is stupid because this is already happening! Company Y may be only paying $1000/month for a 1.54mbps T1, while Company X is forking over $10,000/month for a T3. So they are already paying the telco more money in order to provide faster service. The telco's just want to add a little more to that to include a higher priority for Company X's packets if they go through a busy router.
Not that I agree with that, but it's not really all that different. The telco's are just trying to sqeeze a bit more money out of both sides of the connection.
ender-
PS. I pulled those prices out of my @ss, I haven't priced T1 or T3's in quite a long time.
Maybe it's time to create the Othernet where the rest of the world is networked.
I'm quite surprised that out of so many competitions, like GPS, satellite, Space program etc., which cost huge amount of money, no country is yet to create another internet.
I've pondered this sort of thing before. Each time the government or some corporation did things to make the internet less free, less useful or more expensive I think about people getting together to make a new global network.
The conclusion I've come to is that wireless will probably make this somewhat feasible. Private citizens would have trouble coming up with the resources to create their own global wired network, but it's not that difficult for everyone to pop a wireless antenna on their roof for free, anonymous access. At first it might have to be connected to the internet and would probably resemble the old dial-up BBS's at first, but if a critical mass is reached, it could become its own sustainable network. The biggest problem might be connecting to other continents over large oceans. Sorry Australia, you're on your own:)
That's not to say the govt's won't just pass opressive laws to govern that, but perhaps it's worth a shot.
I've also considered the limitations of trying to set up a free, open network since the government's can just try to legislate it out of existance. But maybe it would be more resistant to outside legislation if it was a completely privately held entity [ie a private company] that granted access under self-defined [albeit non-evil] rules and regulations? For instance if I set up a private access network, can the government pass laws regarding what I can and can't do on that totally private network? [Aside from things that are already illegal like kiddie-porn]. Even if the only requirement for access is agreeing to follow all the rules and regulations of that network? Unfortunately every time I come up with one question on how it could be made to work, 10 other possible issues pop up in my head. I think geeks of the world should start brainstorming on this kind of thing.
Of course this would depend on a benevolent entity having a monopoly and not abusing it.
Give me a break of COURSE the drivers are going to have trouble with the old beemer on this track. It's not called the "Ultimate Car Control training school" for nothing. It's probably a very very difficult track. Do you honestly think that someone who bought this car originally 15 years ago would have done significantly better?
And just because a car is new doesn't mean it's loaded with auto-driving doodads. I have a 2005 Nissan Altima. No ABS, no traction control. I put 168,000 miles on a 1997 200SX 5-speed. No whiz-bang gizmo's on that sucker. Somehow I managed to drive in all conditions from 1/2" ice-cover, to snow, to rain, to black-ice etc without ever crashing into anything. [Although I did come close to sliding into a telephone pole at 2mph, stupid crowned road with 1/2" solid ice. But ABS wouldn't have saved me there either]. Did I lose traction? Sure, but I knew how to control my car. If I was suddenly dropped into an unfamiliar car and onto the track at "Graham Griffiths Ultimate Car Control training school" would I lose control? Yeah I probably would. And most people who aren't professional drivers probably would too.
Of course, I think my old car was easier to control with the 5-speed than an automatic since I could also modulate the clutch a bit to help control what the wheels were doing but even with an automatic I think I'd be in trouble if I ever get ABS. It's just second nature for me to start pumping the brakes if I start to lose traction. I know the ABS would be much more effective than I could ever get with my foot but that will be a hard habit to break.
I have long since moved out and continued to use my screen name for years via AIM.....well, the parents were finally smart enough to loose aol...but with that, i lost my SN and could not get it back for the life of me. Anyways, to make a long story short...they switched back to aol and I still can't get my sn back..
Interesting. I had an AIM nick [created independently of AOL] which I then transferred to my parents AOL account. They long ago got rid of the AOL account, but I still have no trouble using AIM with that nick.
And I haven't had my MSN account since around 1998 but I still can use it as my MSN Messenger login. Actually I can still use it to log into Expedia as well even though they aren't owned by MS anymore. And yet it won't let me use it as an MS Passport login, which I haven't figured out yet, but I'm not really that heartbroken over it.
The unnamed senior tearfully admitted to the hoax after UMD history professor Brian Glyn Williams confronted him with inconsistencies in his story at his parents' home...
The confrontation was at the home of Professor Brian Glyn Williams?
No, it was at the home of Professor Brian Glyn Williams' parents.:)
I searched for an artist, then i drilled down for an album i liked, then the tracks of that album are displayed, and if you click in one of them, a snippet of the lyrics appears, along with the lyrics link(s).
Maybe it's just me, but it seems easier to just type: "song name lyrics" or "artist name lyrics" to find the lyrics in the first place.
I've never failed to find the correct lyrics in the first page of results, and there was no drilling down required.
That said, I still think it is great that Google is doing it, but I don't find it significantly easier than in the past.
For good reason. Dreamcast, GameCube, and XBox were all 32-bit consoles, and PS2 was 64-bit*. None surpassed the N64 bit-wise, so the bits were kept quiet.
Actually the Dreamcast was definitely NOT 32-bit. It had a CPU with a 64-bit FP unit, a 64-bit external bus and had a 128-bit graphics computation engine. The only thing that was 32-bit was the sound card.
What fun is it to enter an online session just to be killed 5 seconds after you entered? Not much...
This has been considered and dealt with. PGR3 apparrently has an online mode where drivers are rated based on their skill. You go online, and it will automatically match you with other drivers of similar skill. I'm not sure if other games have or plan to have this kind of capability, but I think it is pretty cool, and I hope other game houses implement that kind of feature. It seems like it would work well for many types of games [sports, puzzle, RPG, FPS [except I can't play FPS on a console, ugh] ].
Generally I can't stand Microsoft. The only MS product I've ever had that didn't suck is my Intellimouse Optical [5+ years and going strong]. But against all better judgement, I've been finding myself really drawn to the XBox 360 because of the degree of integration of the online play. It seems to me to be a good step towards the kind of online gaming I've always read about in SF books and thought "gee, I wish we had that kind of online gaming integration". Well now it appears that we are starting to. I just wish it hadn't been Microsoft that brought it to us.:)
but just because a hardware DVD player can be had for $29 at Walmart doesn't mean software DVD players should cost less. They will charge whatever the market will bear. Both WinDVD and PowerDVD charge $40 for their cheapest software.
Even if someone came out with a legal Linux DVD player, you would complain it costs too much and that it's not Open Source and you wouldn't buy it. Linux users have just gotten so used to having all their software both free and Free that they will scorn anything proprietary. Even if only the DVD decryption/region coding algorithms were in a closed source library and every other aspect of the software was Open Source you would still complain. Tell me what you would be willing to pay for (and how much) in a legal Linux DVD player.
And the reason I don't own a copy of WinDVD [aside from the fact that Windows isn't even installed on my home computer] is because I'm not going to pay $40 for it. Not when a) I usually get a windows dvd player for free with the drive and b) even if I don't, I can pay $15-20 [damn it used to be $10!] for a plugin [from several 3rd party vendors] to Windows Media Player that allows it to play DVDs. The result is that I *WOULD* pay $10-20 for a legal DVD Player in Linux regardless of whether or not it is open source. Yes, I would prefer it to be OSS, but I'm not a total OSS zealot. I'd be perfectly willing to pay a reasonable cost for proprietary legal software rather than use illegal open source software.
I know there are certainly a lot of people who would still use the illegal open source software but those people are going to use whatever is free no matter what. Unfortunately the MPAA is just lumping those of us who would rather use legal software into the same group as those who will cheat the system no matter what. They haven't even given us a chance to prove that we'd buy the software.
So until either a legal, free, open-source player comes out [the best option certainly], or a legal player is available I will continue to use deCSS to watch the DVD's that I have paid my hard earned money for.
I think the problem (from their perspective) is that Linux users don't want to play DVDs in the way the RIAA wants to let them. Also, most Linux users will reject any proprietary / non-Free solution and worship the ground "DVD-John" walks on. On the other hand, many Linux users don't have a problem using the NVIDIA binaries, so maybe there is a place for proprietary dvd playback software on Linux.
That may or may not be the case, but how can they possibly know? There is *STILL* no sign of legal DVD Player software for linux that can be purchased by anyone. The MPAA DVD FAQ uses the excuse that there are two legal DVD players that have been "announced" giving links to SigmaDesigns and InterVideo [The makers of WinDVD]. I challenge you to find and purchase a copy of DVD Player software from either of those websites. A google search for "legal linux dvd player" comes up with some news items from November 2000 mentioning the announcement of LinDVD from InterVideo. But as you can see from the link, it is still not available to be purchased by end users. Gee, it's only been FIVE FARKING YEARS PEOPLE!!!
So until there is a legal Linux DVD player available for me to purchase at a reasonable price [if a hardware DVD player only costs $29 at Walmart, I should be able to get some software for quite a bit less than that], the MPAA will just have to deal with me using deCSS. They have no excuse and no choice in the matter.
Usenet is attracting few new real users, which is a shame. The problem is that most users don't even know usenet is there.
Exactly my feeling as well. The ISP's certainly don't go out of their way to make it known to their users that Usenet exists. As a matter of fact, whenever I change ISP's [I've moved alot], I know I'm in for an adventure of digging through their tech support pages trying to find the settings for their Usenet servers.
I usually find it in the basement where the lights and stairs have gone out, in a locked filing cabinet in the disused lavatory with a sign on the door that says "Beware of the Leopard":)
I would be perfectly happy if the ISP's limited their Usenet access to non-binary groups [perhaps even non alt* groups] and made more effort to inform users what Usenet is and how to use it.
So what's your point, that Windows and Linux really are interchangeable? I'm pretty sure MS doens't see it that way, and they certainly don't want their customers to see it that way.
And why should we care what MS wants? That's like saying, "Well, Castro wants the whole world to be Communist, so we'd better just go the way he sees it."
Forget what MS wants. Use the OS that lets you get your work done easily, stabley[sp?] and securely.
Second of all, am I the only one who finds it ironic that a DRM program designed to protect someone's copyrighted information is itself infringing on someone's copyright?
Well I suspect that if you *were* the only one who felt that way, this story wouldn't be on the front page of Slashdot. So no, you're probably not the only one.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Besides, I don't think you change service provider every week.
No, but when a good portion of your computing devices are mobile [PDA/Phone/iPod/laptop, etc] and networkable, wouldn't it be nice to have a single, non-changing IP address? So that no matter where you are, and traffic that needs to get to your device can get there immediately?
The only other method I can think of for doing this type of thing is a robust dynamic dns system with a effectively 0TTL and instant updates. But that just seems like yet another kludge.
What educationally useful things will the child do with the laptop?
As an ex-CS college professor, let me suggest that it would be better to spend that $100 on the developing world on more teachers, education for teachers, roof for schools, etc.
Technology is not the answer to every problem. Remember all those silly computer labs back in high schools in the '80s? Did anyone get any real educational value out of them?
Certainly a good teacher is one of the best uses of money, but sometimes there just aren't enough *good* teachers to go around. In the 80's [and even into the 90's] we really hadn't figured out how to make the best use out of computers so of course they weren't all that useful.
At this point in time however, I *REALLY* believe that we've gotten to the point where every child having a computer could be very useful. Take for instance a company I used to work for. [Electronic Education, a division of Addison Wesley Longman]. Our main product was called "The Waterford Early Reading Program". It was developed at the Waterford Institute. I have to say that this was a spectacular program. Two or three computers would be put in a Kindergarten classroom [eventually they expanded to 1st and 2nd grades as well]. The kids would each get 15 minutes a day on the computer, and it would help to teach them to read. Each kid also got a set of books, music CD's and Videos that went along with the lessons. It was totally self paced. It would regularly test them on concepts, and if they didn't understand it, they would get reinforcing lessons until they got it. It wasn't a dull collection of lessons either. Everything was fun and engaging for the kids. The kids loved it and it worked great, especially in low income areas. I believe Waterford has since also expanded to a Math and Science program as well. This was after I left so I haven't used it myself, but I'm sure it holds up to the high level of quality that the Early Reading program displayed.
Sadly they charged a lot for it, but it stands as proof that computers can be made VERY useful as an educational tool. And that is one thing I think perhaps open source software can help with. These countries that the $100 laptop is geared towards don't have the funds to afford commercial software. That is the key to this whole thing fulfilling its potential. If we can get some quality, free [as in beer & speech] educational software to go with these laptops, then this program will work. Otherwise I fear that it is doomed to failure. Unfortunately, this includes not only the software itself, but the artwork [there was a LOT of GREAT artwork in the ERP which helped significantly to hold the childrens attention]., music, audio, AND the boring QA and testing required to develop a decent educational program.
So which of you Open Source programmers are going to volunteer to help educate the world?
Oops. Obviously I meant symmetric. Hehe. The post I replied to used symmetric, I even did the searches on Google using symmetric. Then I go to write the post, and like a complete putz, used sychronous... [sigh].
I'm so glad my occasional idiocy will now live forever on Slashdot.:)
Even old-fashion dial-up's been asymmetric since the beginning.
The first commercial modems [1962] were 300bps and were synchronous. As were all the subsequent modems through 28.8k. It wasn't until the 33.6k modems [and accompanying dial-up access] started being asynchronous. [33.6down, 28.8 up]. And of course the 56k modems were as well.
So unless you don't consider 'dial-up' to have started until after 1996 [around the time the 33.6k modems were becoming popular] I'd have to say that's a bogus statement.
ender- {Dialing into the internet since 1991 [starting at 2400bps], and I consider myself a late starter}
I really do have fond memories of Slackware. For years I ran Slackware [7/8/9.0] on all of my linux boxes, server or desktop. However I eventually got tired of finding too many of the programs I wanted didn't have packages, and spending too much time compiling.
I've since switched to Debian [and Ubuntu to a lesser degree]. It to has its downsides, but for now, it just takes less time.
I will however give Slackware ALL the credit for teaching me about Linux. I've heard it said that if you need help with Linux, ask someone who uses Slackware as they're the most likely to REALLY know how linux works under the hood.:)
If you're going for "best money can buy", then why use SATA disks and not SCSI (maybe in the form of SAS) ones?
You're right. I'm so used to discounting SCSI due to its cost, that it didn't even cross my mind. In that case, subtract the 8 500GB SATA HD's @ $373.50ea and replace them with 8 300GB U320 HD's @ $985.00each.
$99,355... wheeee:) Then again, you are losing 1.6TB of raw space by doing that so I guess it depends on if you're going for speed or space with the HD's.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but just for kicks, I spec'd out the ULTIMATE system using that board. 8 dual-core Opterons, 128GB RAM, 8 500GB SATA2 HD's with HW RAID... Final price [NOT including monitor/lcd]: $95,000! Yeah, definitely need to be an independantly wealthy geek.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps for companies that would like to advertise in games like Counter-Strike they can do things such as:
Create their own maps which incorporate their advertising [Of course it would still have to be a good map or no one will play it]. That way the consumer gets something of 'value', a good map to play, and the company gets to advertise.
And they can even run their own server which runs the maps they created to incorporate their product. Then we also get a stable, low-latency server to play on out of the deal. I guess I wouldn't mind that so much.
Of course, they would never go for it, since they'd have to hire people to create decent maps, and perhaps a full-time admin staff to monitor the servers. And I'm sure the legal department wouldn't be up for it since people can do/say just about anything in the server, etc etc...
So basically the conclusion is that we're screwed, and the only real solution is a complete overthrown of the current government [in the US anyway]? To hopefully be replaced with one that actually values freedom, and doesn't value the almighty corporate dollar?
I think I can live with that.
ender-
PS. The 'benevolent monopoly' could also be a non-profit with a freely elected governing board etc etc. Just a possibility.
he payload may be encrypted, but the headers sure aren't. They just need to look at the port numbers.
Unless you're using some type of VPN or encrypted tunnel. Then they can't see what traffic is going over it. Of course then they'll probably just force all encrypted tunnels to the lowest QOS tier.
The difference you are paying a single price for bandwidth to YOUR house. YOU choose what has priority - i.e you accept that if you are streaming video, your other page loads, etc will be slower.
Compare that to your ISP dictating that because Company X paid them more money, their content gets to you faster than Company Y who didn't pay them as much.
The issue isn't on the user side - it's on the provider side.
Which is stupid because this is already happening! Company Y may be only paying $1000/month for a 1.54mbps T1, while Company X is forking over $10,000/month for a T3. So they are already paying the telco more money in order to provide faster service. The telco's just want to add a little more to that to include a higher priority for Company X's packets if they go through a busy router.
Not that I agree with that, but it's not really all that different. The telco's are just trying to sqeeze a bit more money out of both sides of the connection.
ender-
PS. I pulled those prices out of my @ss, I haven't priced T1 or T3's in quite a long time.
Maybe it's time to create the Othernet where the rest of the world is networked.
:)
I'm quite surprised that out of so many competitions, like GPS, satellite, Space program etc., which cost huge amount of money, no country is yet to create another internet.
I've pondered this sort of thing before. Each time the government or some corporation did things to make the internet less free, less useful or more expensive I think about people getting together to make a new global network.
The conclusion I've come to is that wireless will probably make this somewhat feasible. Private citizens would have trouble coming up with the resources to create their own global wired network, but it's not that difficult for everyone to pop a wireless antenna on their roof for free, anonymous access. At first it might have to be connected to the internet and would probably resemble the old dial-up BBS's at first, but if a critical mass is reached, it could become its own sustainable network. The biggest problem might be connecting to other continents over large oceans. Sorry Australia, you're on your own
That's not to say the govt's won't just pass opressive laws to govern that, but perhaps it's worth a shot.
I've also considered the limitations of trying to set up a free, open network since the government's can just try to legislate it out of existance. But maybe it would be more resistant to outside legislation if it was a completely privately held entity [ie a private company] that granted access under self-defined [albeit non-evil] rules and regulations? For instance if I set up a private access network, can the government pass laws regarding what I can and can't do on that totally private network? [Aside from things that are already illegal like kiddie-porn]. Even if the only requirement for access is agreeing to follow all the rules and regulations of that network? Unfortunately every time I come up with one question on how it could be made to work, 10 other possible issues pop up in my head. I think geeks of the world should start brainstorming on this kind of thing.
Of course this would depend on a benevolent entity having a monopoly and not abusing it.
Give me a break of COURSE the drivers are going to have trouble with the old beemer on this track. It's not called the "Ultimate Car Control training school" for nothing. It's probably a very very difficult track. Do you honestly think that someone who bought this car originally 15 years ago would have done significantly better?
And just because a car is new doesn't mean it's loaded with auto-driving doodads. I have a 2005 Nissan Altima. No ABS, no traction control. I put 168,000 miles on a 1997 200SX 5-speed. No whiz-bang gizmo's on that sucker. Somehow I managed to drive in all conditions from 1/2" ice-cover, to snow, to rain, to black-ice etc without ever crashing into anything. [Although I did come close to sliding into a telephone pole at 2mph, stupid crowned road with 1/2" solid ice. But ABS wouldn't have saved me there either]. Did I lose traction? Sure, but I knew how to control my car. If I was suddenly dropped into an unfamiliar car and onto the track at "Graham Griffiths Ultimate Car Control training school" would I lose control? Yeah I probably would. And most people who aren't professional drivers probably would too.
Of course, I think my old car was easier to control with the 5-speed than an automatic since I could also modulate the clutch a bit to help control what the wheels were doing but even with an automatic I think I'd be in trouble if I ever get ABS. It's just second nature for me to start pumping the brakes if I start to lose traction. I know the ABS would be much more effective than I could ever get with my foot but that will be a hard habit to break.
I have long since moved out and continued to use my screen name for years via AIM.....well, the parents were finally smart enough to loose aol...but with that, i lost my SN and could not get it back for the life of me. Anyways, to make a long story short...they switched back to aol and I still can't get my sn back..
Interesting. I had an AIM nick [created independently of AOL] which I then transferred to my parents AOL account. They long ago got rid of the AOL account, but I still have no trouble using AIM with that nick.
And I haven't had my MSN account since around 1998 but I still can use it as my MSN Messenger login. Actually I can still use it to log into Expedia as well even though they aren't owned by MS anymore. And yet it won't let me use it as an MS Passport login, which I haven't figured out yet, but I'm not really that heartbroken over it.
The unnamed senior tearfully admitted to the hoax after UMD history professor Brian Glyn Williams confronted him with inconsistencies in his story at his parents' home...
The confrontation was at the home of Professor Brian Glyn Williams?
No, it was at the home of Professor Brian Glyn Williams' parents.
I searched for an artist, then i drilled down for an album i liked, then the tracks of that album are displayed, and if you click in one of them, a snippet of the lyrics appears, along with the lyrics link(s).
Maybe it's just me, but it seems easier to just type: "song name lyrics" or "artist name lyrics" to find the lyrics in the first place.
I've never failed to find the correct lyrics in the first page of results, and there was no drilling down required.
That said, I still think it is great that Google is doing it, but I don't find it significantly easier than in the past.
For good reason. Dreamcast, GameCube, and XBox were all 32-bit consoles, and PS2 was 64-bit*. None surpassed the N64 bit-wise, so the bits were kept quiet.
Actually the Dreamcast was definitely NOT 32-bit. It had a CPU with a 64-bit FP unit, a 64-bit external bus and had a 128-bit graphics computation engine. The only thing that was 32-bit was the sound card.
What fun is it to enter an online session just to be killed 5 seconds after you entered? Not much...
:)
This has been considered and dealt with. PGR3 apparrently has an online mode where drivers are rated based on their skill. You go online, and it will automatically match you with other drivers of similar skill. I'm not sure if other games have or plan to have this kind of capability, but I think it is pretty cool, and I hope other game houses implement that kind of feature. It seems like it would work well for many types of games [sports, puzzle, RPG, FPS [except I can't play FPS on a console, ugh] ].
Generally I can't stand Microsoft. The only MS product I've ever had that didn't suck is my Intellimouse Optical [5+ years and going strong]. But against all better judgement, I've been finding myself really drawn to the XBox 360 because of the degree of integration of the online play. It seems to me to be a good step towards the kind of online gaming I've always read about in SF books and thought "gee, I wish we had that kind of online gaming integration". Well now it appears that we are starting to. I just wish it hadn't been Microsoft that brought it to us.
Wow, nice troll.
Too bad Ubuntu gets its software from Debian. So in effect, Ubuntu is causing the most growth for Debian.
Sentance #1 from TFA: Coffee and tea may reduce the risk of serious liver damage in people who drink too much alcohol,
Of course, they could just stop drinking so much alcohol...
but just because a hardware DVD player can be had for $29 at Walmart doesn't mean software DVD players should cost less. They will charge whatever the market will bear. Both WinDVD and PowerDVD charge $40 for their cheapest software.
Even if someone came out with a legal Linux DVD player, you would complain it costs too much and that it's not Open Source and you wouldn't buy it. Linux users have just gotten so used to having all their software both free and Free that they will scorn anything proprietary. Even if only the DVD decryption/region coding algorithms were in a closed source library and every other aspect of the software was Open Source you would still complain. Tell me what you would be willing to pay for (and how much) in a legal Linux DVD player.
And the reason I don't own a copy of WinDVD [aside from the fact that Windows isn't even installed on my home computer] is because I'm not going to pay $40 for it. Not when a) I usually get a windows dvd player for free with the drive and b) even if I don't, I can pay $15-20 [damn it used to be $10!] for a plugin [from several 3rd party vendors] to Windows Media Player that allows it to play DVDs. The result is that I *WOULD* pay $10-20 for a legal DVD Player in Linux regardless of whether or not it is open source. Yes, I would prefer it to be OSS, but I'm not a total OSS zealot. I'd be perfectly willing to pay a reasonable cost for proprietary legal software rather than use illegal open source software.
I know there are certainly a lot of people who would still use the illegal open source software but those people are going to use whatever is free no matter what. Unfortunately the MPAA is just lumping those of us who would rather use legal software into the same group as those who will cheat the system no matter what. They haven't even given us a chance to prove that we'd buy the software.
So until either a legal, free, open-source player comes out [the best option certainly], or a legal player is available I will continue to use deCSS to watch the DVD's that I have paid my hard earned money for.
I think the problem (from their perspective) is that Linux users don't want to play DVDs in the way the RIAA wants to let them. Also, most Linux users will reject any proprietary / non-Free solution and worship the ground "DVD-John" walks on. On the other hand, many Linux users don't have a problem using the NVIDIA binaries, so maybe there is a place for proprietary dvd playback software on Linux.
That may or may not be the case, but how can they possibly know? There is *STILL* no sign of legal DVD Player software for linux that can be purchased by anyone. The MPAA DVD FAQ uses the excuse that there are two legal DVD players that have been "announced" giving links to SigmaDesigns and InterVideo [The makers of WinDVD]. I challenge you to find and purchase a copy of DVD Player software from either of those websites. A google search for "legal linux dvd player" comes up with some news items from November 2000 mentioning the announcement of LinDVD from InterVideo. But as you can see from the link, it is still not available to be purchased by end users. Gee, it's only been FIVE FARKING YEARS PEOPLE!!!
So until there is a legal Linux DVD player available for me to purchase at a reasonable price [if a hardware DVD player only costs $29 at Walmart, I should be able to get some software for quite a bit less than that], the MPAA will just have to deal with me using deCSS. They have no excuse and no choice in the matter.
Usenet is attracting few new real users, which is a shame. The problem is that most users don't even know usenet is there.
:)
Exactly my feeling as well. The ISP's certainly don't go out of their way to make it known to their users that Usenet exists. As a matter of fact, whenever I change ISP's [I've moved alot], I know I'm in for an adventure of digging through their tech support pages trying to find the settings for their Usenet servers.
I usually find it in the basement where the lights and stairs have gone out, in a locked filing cabinet in the disused lavatory with a sign on the door that says "Beware of the Leopard"
I would be perfectly happy if the ISP's limited their Usenet access to non-binary groups [perhaps even non alt* groups] and made more effort to inform users what Usenet is and how to use it.
So what's your point, that Windows and Linux really are interchangeable? I'm pretty sure MS doens't see it that way, and they certainly don't want their customers to see it that way.
And why should we care what MS wants? That's like saying, "Well, Castro wants the whole world to be Communist, so we'd better just go the way he sees it."
Forget what MS wants. Use the OS that lets you get your work done easily, stabley[sp?] and securely.
Second of all, am I the only one who finds it ironic that a DRM program designed to protect someone's copyrighted information is itself infringing on someone's copyright?
Well I suspect that if you *were* the only one who felt that way, this story wouldn't be on the front page of Slashdot. So no, you're probably not the only one.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
ender-
Besides, I don't think you change service provider every week.
No, but when a good portion of your computing devices are mobile [PDA/Phone/iPod/laptop, etc] and networkable, wouldn't it be nice to have a single, non-changing IP address? So that no matter where you are, and traffic that needs to get to your device can get there immediately?
The only other method I can think of for doing this type of thing is a robust dynamic dns system with a effectively 0TTL and instant updates. But that just seems like yet another kludge.
What educationally useful things will the child do with the laptop?
As an ex-CS college professor, let me suggest that it would be better to spend that $100 on the developing world on more teachers, education for teachers, roof for schools, etc.
Technology is not the answer to every problem. Remember all those silly computer labs back in high schools in the '80s? Did anyone get any real educational value out of them?
Certainly a good teacher is one of the best uses of money, but sometimes there just aren't enough *good* teachers to go around.
In the 80's [and even into the 90's] we really hadn't figured out how to make the best use out of computers so of course they weren't all that useful.
At this point in time however, I *REALLY* believe that we've gotten to the point where every child having a computer could be very useful. Take for instance a company I used to work for. [Electronic Education, a division of Addison Wesley Longman]. Our main product was called "The Waterford Early Reading Program". It was developed at the Waterford Institute. I have to say that this was a spectacular program. Two or three computers would be put in a Kindergarten classroom [eventually they expanded to 1st and 2nd grades as well]. The kids would each get 15 minutes a day on the computer, and it would help to teach them to read. Each kid also got a set of books, music CD's and Videos that went along with the lessons. It was totally self paced. It would regularly test them on concepts, and if they didn't understand it, they would get reinforcing lessons until they got it. It wasn't a dull collection of lessons either. Everything was fun and engaging for the kids. The kids loved it and it worked great, especially in low income areas. I believe Waterford has since also expanded to a Math and Science program as well. This was after I left so I haven't used it myself, but I'm sure it holds up to the high level of quality that the Early Reading program displayed.
Sadly they charged a lot for it, but it stands as proof that computers can be made VERY useful as an educational tool. And that is one thing I think perhaps open source software can help with. These countries that the $100 laptop is geared towards don't have the funds to afford commercial software. That is the key to this whole thing fulfilling its potential. If we can get some quality, free [as in beer & speech] educational software to go with these laptops, then this program will work. Otherwise I fear that it is doomed to failure. Unfortunately, this includes not only the software itself, but the artwork [there was a LOT of GREAT artwork in the ERP which helped significantly to hold the childrens attention]., music, audio, AND the boring QA and testing required to develop a decent educational program.
So which of you Open Source programmers are going to volunteer to help educate the world?
Oops. Obviously I meant symmetric. Hehe. The post I replied to used symmetric, I even did the searches on Google using symmetric. Then I go to write the post, and like a complete putz, used sychronous... [sigh].
:)
I'm so glad my occasional idiocy will now live forever on Slashdot.
Even old-fashion dial-up's been asymmetric since the beginning.
The first commercial modems [1962] were 300bps and were synchronous. As were all the subsequent modems through 28.8k. It wasn't until the 33.6k modems [and accompanying dial-up access] started being asynchronous. [33.6down, 28.8 up]. And of course the 56k modems were as well.
So unless you don't consider 'dial-up' to have started until after 1996 [around the time the 33.6k modems were becoming popular] I'd have to say that's a bogus statement.
ender-
{Dialing into the internet since 1991 [starting at 2400bps], and I consider myself a late starter}
I really do have fond memories of Slackware. For years I ran Slackware [7/8/9.0] on all of my linux boxes, server or desktop.
:)
However I eventually got tired of finding too many of the programs I wanted didn't have packages, and spending too much time compiling.
I've since switched to Debian [and Ubuntu to a lesser degree]. It to has its downsides, but for now, it just takes less time.
I will however give Slackware ALL the credit for teaching me about Linux. I've heard it said that if you need help with Linux, ask someone who uses Slackware as they're the most likely to REALLY know how linux works under the hood.
If you're going for "best money can buy", then why use SATA disks and not SCSI (maybe in the form of SAS) ones?
:)
You're right. I'm so used to discounting SCSI due to its cost, that it didn't even cross my mind.
In that case, subtract the 8 500GB SATA HD's @ $373.50ea and replace them with 8 300GB U320 HD's @ $985.00each.
$99,355... wheeee
Then again, you are losing 1.6TB of raw space by doing that so I guess it depends on if you're going for speed or space with the HD's.
A drool-worthy system either way you go.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but just for kicks, I spec'd out the ULTIMATE system using that board.
8 dual-core Opterons, 128GB RAM, 8 500GB SATA2 HD's with HW RAID...
Final price [NOT including monitor/lcd]: $95,000!
Yeah, definitely need to be an independantly wealthy geek.