Although plenty of dongles exist to let you use an old NTSC TV as your monitor, any text thereupon needed at least a 40pt font for the barest of legibility, and the flickering of any sharp transitions (such as the edges of those huge letters) would give you a headache after five minutes.
I won't argue with you that VGA->NTSC/PAL TV scan converters can be "crap" as far as output - I know I have seen my share to realize that (although AverMedia has put out some nice products in this area). I also won't argue that you need large font sizes on a TV, and that they can "flicker".
But the truth is that many of these problems can be fixed (to a certain degree) by changing settings (brightness/contrast, mainly) on the TV, as well as by changing the color levels being output by the video card. It is a well known fact that the white output to an NTSC TV actually needs to be more "grey" for it to render properly (indeed, if it is too "white", you get wierd color fringing effects, and in severe cases, the "white" bleeds into the audio side of things, producing noise in the sound).
In a properly designed system, you can actually have an "OK" experience using a TV as a monitor. Yes, you need to have fonts of a certain size, and the color/white levels need to be properly set. Your TV needs to be properly calibrated for this as well. All of this is known, and has been known for quite a while.
Back in the day, home computers regularly used (and abused) NTSC televisions for video output, as a "monitor". Many computers even allowed for NTSC composite output (which made things better for the video by separating out the audio side of things from the video). Some home computers (the TRS-80 Color Computer and an Apple IIe with an 80-column card running in "hi-res" 16 color mode are two notable examples, although many others also existed) even abused the NTSC standard by playing with "color artifacts" to generate false "colors" on the screen (basically, if you had a high enough resolution display, you could space single color pixels in various patterns and "magically" a different color from the pixels would appear or be blended in - your resolution would be dropped, but you got the extra colors).
While none of these were perfect uses of TVs as monitors, and I certainly wouldn't reccommend going back to them (indeed, I just purchased an SVGA converter for my Color Computer 3's RGBd output, to replace my aging CM-8, and free up some desktop space), they weren't "headache inducing" after 5 minutes - of course, maybe it was because I was young and could stand the strain better (or worse, considering I have to wear eyeglasses or contacts now constantly)...
I know that there are standalone cd recorders, yet at the same time, they seem like something "useless". It seems like every time I see something in consumer electronics that makes me go "neat!", at the same time I think "but I could my PC to do that"...
For instance (not a very good example), I have often thought that if I had a CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM) jukebox device, it would be great. Current ones are expensive (niche product), and I have given a lot of thought on building one. However, I always come back to an inevitable conclusion: It would be simpler to just have a PC with a set of large hard drives and a CD/DVD-RW drive, with a few back-end ripping scripts working to take whatever disc I stick in, and make an ISO of it. Tack on Samba and/or a web-based front end, and there you go.
Consumer cd recorders strike the same note with me - if I need to record or copy a CD, I can do it with my computer. Just about everything can be done with a computer, so why bother with other devices? Of course, Joe Consumer doesn't know this, which is why such devices exist, I suppose...
Look into things that Actuate Software is doing - their stuff is expensive, but they have recognized the issue and are moving their reporting/analysis tools to take advantage of the metaphor. Last thing I saw (almost 2 years ago), they were working on a system that looked and acted like excel, but it was really an excel-like view into a database via their reporting engine. When the database backend changed, the spreadsheet would update as well. A ton of more complex stuff was also handled.
Anyhow, they recognized the issue of "everyone using spreadsheets" - and the issue of "different people all purporting to have the same spreadsheet, but each was different from the others" - they also had a term for this problem: "spreadmart"...
I wouldn't say welding moves it outside of "amateur" territory - as long as you know how to weld (plug: my site has a "beginning welding" textfile, if you are interested in learning). Welders aren't terribly expensive (even a 220VAC AC/DC wirefeed welder can be had for under $1000.00 - stick welders are considerably less expensive).
What I wonder about is how you can weld the thing in under 30 minutes. Unless they aren't including setup time for welding (getting parts, tools and safety equipment together, setting up the welding jig(s), etc)...
I'm sure he's got a computer-driven CNC machine by now.
I understand your point, but CNC machines are actually fairly cheap, considering what can be done with them. A homebrew machine can be built (provided you already have at least a drill press and a table saw - necessary for the precision cuts) for around $500-1000 (numerous details are available on the internet - many people have built them - in the past, Nuts and Volts magazine had a series of articles detailing homebrew CNC). A kit machine (all the machining done for you - you still need to supply the computer) will run between $1000 - 2000 (maybe a little less, depending on the size of the machine). Even a large scale 4' x 8' CNC router is under $20,000.
Don't get me wrong, I don't expect everyone to run out and buy that last machine. If you need it, though, spending $1000-2000 on a kit machine is not outlandish (you can buy many woodworking tools in that range). Or, if you already have a wood shop (with a drill press and table saw or similar) and the skills to use the tools, then building a homebrew CNC machine is not very expensive, and you might learn a lot, too. If you manage to build the whole thing and get it working well, you will have learned a bunch about machining, electronics, computer interfacing, and robotics - all in one fell swoop. Most of these homebrew machines can work on any kind of old PC that has a parallel port. Dig that old 386 out (you do have one, don't you?), hook the printer port up to some servos and limit switches, load up some GPL'd software (or buy some), and start milling!
To be truthful, the work and expense isn't in the machine or building it - the real work is in learning to use it. Learning to use a CNC machine (and needing one, actually) is only useful if you absolutely need to manufacture multiple identical parts, and they need accuracy in their production (most home machines, including well-built hombrew devices, have an error of +/-.001 inches). CNC is typically not needed for single, one-off jobs, with the exception of tasks which are similar to printing: vinyl sign cutting and the like. So if you have a need for such a task, you need to be willing to learn how to use the software (CAD software for the design, and the translation software which converts the DXF files into g-code for the CNC machine, amongst other software)...
When the FBI starts praying to God in order to crack cases and find suspects, then I'll be worried. Until then, I have faith in science and technology.
You, sir, need to read Database Nation if you really think computer databases are infallible. It is one thing to have "faith" in an invisible sky-being, but you shouldn't have "faith" in science and technology - you should, instead, have accurate and quantifiable knowledge of those domains...
I dunno how people these days make a "wired house", but isn't that a pain in the ass to do, with wires running everywhere?
Not if you run the wires in the wall, as the parent poster seems to have done. On modern, new-built houses it can be more of a pain, since most walls have horizontal "firewall" joists between the verticals in the walls - which means a lot of fishing and drilling, possibly some drywall work, too.
In my house, built in the early 1970's (block construction, too), the interior walls are simple - top and bottom plate, vertical joists, no firewall horizontals (these are put in today to slow a fire down from reaching the attic space) - so, just drill a hole in the top plate, and drop the line. Takes a lot of attic work, but once again, worth it.
None of this is easy, and since I am in Phoenix, I only work in the attic in the winter when I have to - the attic is dusty, hot, and ugly to work in. But, ultimately, I feel it is worth it. There isn't wires running everywhere, everything is socketed in wallplates, and I run cat5e carefully so at some point, I could (in theory) run GigE over it (too expensive still for me right now). I do have plans, though, of adding some wireless in the future - mainly for a 802.11x connected robot I have been planning on building...
Something you may not know, but to keep in mind for the future...
If your back pain gets so bad that a doctor reccommends "disc fusion" or similar, look into "artificial disc replacement". I first heard about this last year on NPR, but it looks like research and development of this technology has been going on for at least 20 years.
Unfortunately, I think they are still working on the surgical technique - the method described on NPR seemed to indicate that they had to operate from the abdominal side, moving your organs out of the way, to fit the implants in, because from the backside the spinal cord was in the way. Hopefully, by the time you need this they will have the problem solved, and it won't be as "major" of surgery (not that anything involving the spine and surgery isn't major)...
In the case of file sharing, no money changes hands!
Not only that, but the original is never deprived of use from the original owner. If the bully instead was said to have made "perfect copies" of the original owners art, and sold that for a quarter, that would be a more accurate comic. The original artist could easily start selling his work for ten cents, undercutting the guy who copied his work.
Ultimately, this leads to a "race to the bottom", because in a world of data which can be perfectly copied, potential revenue and/or profits become zero. Today it is music and video, but increasingly it is becoming real-world items. You are beginning to see this most effectively in the cheap goods coming from overseas. All of those goods rely on data that backs them up. A run of 10,000 "legal" copies from the plant, then at night run another 2,000 "grey market" copies to be sold elsewhere.
Someday, sooner than you think, such fabrication ability will be available on the desktop. For many simpler items, it already is (you can buy desktop fabrication and rapid prototyping systems for under $10,000 (US) today - simpler fabrication systems can be home built for under $1000.00, and the software to drive them is GPL'd).
"Well, because that's stealing. I'd rather pay so that the artists I like get some money for the work they do, and stealing is wrong."
If anything is being stolen, it's potential revenue. The only thing being violated by copying bits is copyright - which once used to be a civil matter.
Stealing something (theft), implies that when one person takes another person's stuff, that the second person is deprived of the use and ownership of that stuff. Copying bits is intrinsically different, as no one is deprived of anything other than potential revenue or profit - the original owner still has his "thing", and the other person has a "copy".
Let's take a potential real world example - something that someone could actually do themselves, today, if they wanted to.
I go to the local Ikea, and I purchase a "dresser", and bring it home. I take the pieces out of the box, I measure them fully and accurately - all measurements, including locations of holes, etc. I then return the dresser back to Ikea, and they refund me my money. I then go to Lowe's or Home Depot, or my other big box lumberyard, and I purchase everything needed on the list I made from my measurements. I take it all home, and I build the exact same dresser that I saw at Ikea. Now the question is, have I stolen anything from Ikea?
The measuring of the Ikea product is analogous to the copying of the bits. The purchasing of the materials to make the item is analogous to the cost of the storage medium used to copy the bits onto. The effort I put into building the item is analogous to the effort to move those bits from one area onto the storage media.
Please note, that today it is almost possible (maybe not at home unless you are one hell of a CAD/CAM enthusiast) to take the Ikea parts, scan everything into a computer, then have the computer cut those same parts out using a computer controlled 3D router. Look up "homebrew rapid prototyping" if you don't believe me. For most things at Ikea, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to build a laser scanning system to take the measurements, then have a computer plot the lines onto wood (you would later cut out) using a "turtle" line-drawing robot. Over, and over, and over again.
Once again, what has been stolen from Ikea? One thing, and one thing only: loss of potential revenue. As far as I am aware, businesses are NOT GUARANTEED REVENUE throughout their lives, but they sure want it to turn out that way, it seems...
I am not Canadian, but here is how I understand the differences between the "tax" on media for copyright issues, and how it differs between Canada and America:
In Canada, all media has the tax on it - hard drives, floppies, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs - I think there was even a thing about the ipod as well not too long ago.
In the United States, however, the tax is only levied on media meant to be used for music. This is why, when you drop in at Fry's Electronics or whatnot, there are "Music CD-Rs", and then just "CD-Rs". See if you can find two different packs (same brand and number) - compare the price. The ones sold for "Music" will be higher in cost than the standard "data" CD-Rs. The difference is the tax.
Now, I am sure that the consumer public in the US probably does buy those "music" CD-Rs to store their MP3s (otherwise, they would have stopped making them a long time ago). However, most people buy the cheapest brand they can find, which are most often the "data" CD-Rs. From what I remember, this split occurred because of an uproar when the tax was being passed that people storing just regular non-music data on CD-Rs were going to be unfairly taxed when nothing that went on the disc was music...
Between everyone downloading, how much of the data is redundant?
In other words, if each of you are sitting in a room on a computer, downloading to thier individual hard drive, and at different points in the day each downloads the same or similar file, wouldn't it be better if it was downloaded once, and stored to a fileserver for the others to access?
If it can be determined that is true, you could then set up a multi-protocol "downloading server" where you can queue up the downloads to the fileserver, perhaps with alerts back to the person who queued the download (to let them know it is done). I know - easier said than done, but it might get Speakeasy off your back (which is strange - your story is the first negative thing I had heard about them) if you can set it up.
First step, though, would be "comparing notes" with your friends to see if there are any commonalities in the download arena. If there are, and they are significant (spot check a few single random days in a month, to get an "average" idea), then the download server might be the way to go.
Or, talk with Speakeasy, ask about your plan, and whether they offer a similar plan with less restriction on the amount of data (maybe a business class plan).
All pedophiles are sex offenders, but not all sex offenders are pedophiles.
Are you seriously proposing we track, for life, those individuals labeled as "sex offenders" simply because they were caught pissing on the side of a bar in public? What about the 18 year old guy convicted of the "statutory rape" of his willing 17 year, 364 day old girlfriend?
Both of these examples, and many others, are all lumped into the category of "sex offender". Furthermore, more often than not the various "type your zip code in and see the boogeymen" sites do not do anything to differentiate between the two (one could argue this is because the data the State provides typically doesn't, either)...
Ford's second incarnation of the Pinto - the Ford Crown Victoria...
Both of these vehicles suffer from the same exact problem: a "saddle" fuel tank.
Basically, what this means is that the fuel tank sits above and "wraps" slightly around the rear axle of the vehicle. In a rear end collision, the force can cause the axle to push into the tank, rupturing it and spilling fuel, possibly with ignition of the gasoline. In the case of the Pinto, this was also compounded by a fitting on or near the axle (I have heard "bolthead", but I am not sure exactly what it was) putting point pressure on the tank as well, facilitating the rupture. A similar issue might be the case with the Crown Vic, but I don't honestly know.
In the Pinto's case, a part that would likely cost 10 cents could have saved people's lives, but Ford likely figured it was cheaper to deal with the lawsuits than deal with the issue. In the Crown Vic case, however, a Phoenix Police Officer (now a detective) was severely disfigured when his police car was rear-ended during a traffic stop. Many municipalities around the country use Crown Vics with the "Interceptor Package" as police cruisers, and (IIRC) a lawsuit was brought against Ford for the issue by the City of Phoenix. From what I remember, it was settled out of court, with Ford installing racing bladders into the tanks of the Crown Vics used by municipal fleets (or maybe only Police fleets?) - but for the consumer version of the Crown Vic, I am not sure *anything* was done...
BTW - from what I understand, if you can get a Crown Vic with the Interceptor package, it is a pretty fun ride, if you can afford the gas - I have seen such vehicles on the used market, mainly from government auctions...
It's too bad tho, because I think I'd still rather have DSL service than cable. Not to mention the fact that comcast and verizon, and I'm sure others, block inbound ports to keep users from running servers. I pay for my internet access so I want to be able to use it as I see fit. I don't really see why they should care if i want to tie up my personal bandwidth with a personal website.
I agree with you wholeheartedly! What bothers me most about this, and the whole "Net Neutrality" thing, is that by mucking with all of this, they are fundamentally breaking one of the main things that keep stable networks (from a network theory POV) stable: keeping the intelligence at the ends. By putting more "intelligence" in the network, the network won't get better - it will (more likely than not) "break" more often. By "breaking", I mean from the viewpoint of the intelligent "ends" - not from the viewpoint of the network. Slowdowns, loss of packets, etc - degrading the network, and ultimately causing some of those ends to say "fsck it", and drop the service. This devalues the network over time, ultimately causing it to unravel if left to go long enough.
This problem started with asymetric bandwidth to users, continued with port blocking, and now the debate is on "net neutrality".
I want to do with my bandwidth as I see fit, just like you. One thing to recognize is that not all ports are generally blocked (YMMV) - many are kept open - just the "popular" ones are blocked. Say you want to run a webserver at home - ports 80, 8080, 8000, and other variants are typically blocked - but nothing says you can't port-forward from your firewall port 6354 to your webserver. Now, most people wouldn't know this port, of course, so you would need some kind of outside entity doing some translation (probably dynamic DNS providers offer this, haven't checked because I use a vhost - Hurricane Electric, BTW, great provider - for my site - but I know it can be done).
But yeah - it would be nice if things worked the way they should work, and we were treated like real internet nodes instead of mere consumers. I am even willing to pay for the ability. Which brings up other craziness. Here in Phoenix, we have mainly Cox (cable) or Qwest (DSL) to choose from. Both offer business services. I currently have Cox residential high speed, but in order to get the business package (where I could run servers without violating the TOS), I have to pay a LOT more money - something like $400.00 for install (the last I checked) and around $100.00 or so a month. Now, the monthly isn't to big of an issue - but the install is retarded. They don't do anything other than change some settings at the head-end - the cable "modem" likely stays the same, as any other changes allowed by DOCSIS are pushed down to the modem. So just where is this $400.00 going to? Different scenario (maybe) if you don't have the modem, otherwise it just seems like a scam. Qwest DSL only recently became available at my house (unfortunately, Speakeasy isn't available - unless I want a T1) - so in theory I could get their business package, which they have been offering on TV for $90.00 - free install, business DSL and business phone package (whatever that is). Seems like a better deal than the cable, but I haven't looked into it fully.
I just don't see why I can't use the bandwidth how I want when I want, for a flat fee, and then if I go over some usage limit, I pay for the gigabit or whatever based on current rates. I also gave thought to the idea of why not change the rates based on site popularity (ie, price goes up if you browse google a lot, less if you use Ask Jeeves or something). In my half-baked plan, I also had this idea that maybe you could set up a "stock market", whereby prices per gigabit change/fluctuate based on popularity - so if you host a site at your home, it is cheap to transfer bits if it isn't popular, but as popularity rises, you get charged less, or you accrue download "credits" or something - like I said, the whole idea was "half-baked", but in essence I was thinking of a method by which *everyone* benefits.
Which of course means it will never be adopted or implemented ever, because the idea makes sense and doesn't allow any particular entity to dominate others - the greedy bastards.
You have a point about SOX - I just know that despite all best efforts, typically the time you find out your backup is bad is the time you need it most - your typical "Murphy's Law" scenario.
Hmm, I guess what this will mean is the development (probably already exists in some manner) of RAID for tape backup of encrypted data...
But lets not remember that it is the left who also teaches "intelligent design" (Gaia Earth Theory, anyone!?)
As far as the "Gaia Earth Theory" is concerned, I will say it went "downhill" into the religious side of things during the 60's and 70's, but I honestly don't see where "intelligent design" fits into it. Maybe I need to read up more on it, to understand what you mean...
From what I understand, the idea behind the "Gaia Earth Theory" is just an earlier example of what we know today as chaos theory, network theory, and the theory of emergent behavior. Combined, these theories seem to represent the same thing as Gaia Earth Theory, only backed by real science and learning. Furthermore, they have more accessible names, and not a name that brings in a bunch of religious relics and ideas with it (Mono/Dual Goddess/Earth worship, mainly)...
I was recently at a conference the company I work for hosted, and one of the speakers during the conference performed a "party trick" that illuminated the concept of bias. We all have biases, but the problem is that most people don't know that they have them, and furthermore they don't know what they are. However, through studies of groups of people, others DO KNOW what those biases are, and how to subsequently trigger them to achieve results, if they so wish.
The "trick" the presenter used was this - before he spoke, he passed out 3 or 4 sealed envelopes to 3 or 4 randome people as they came in to listen to him speak. There were about 200 people attending the presentation. He spoke a little about bias, and told people about the envelopes, and that he had wrote down a number between 1 and 10 on cards in the envelopes. He then asked the audience members to think of a number between 1 and 10, and write it down. After that was done, he asked for a show of hands of who wrote down each number. The majority of the hands that went up was for the number "3". He then asked those people who he had passed out the envelopes to, to open them, and read the card inside. The first person read "3". The second person read "3", and so on for the third and fourth person.
How did he know that the number picked by the audience was "3"? Because he knew that for that particular audience (mainly CEOs and similar), they had a bias towards the number "3". Whether they knew that or not, is another question.
By being aware of biases in our lives, and discussing them, we can all learn to avoid them rather than subcumb to them. Unfortunately, for most people in the world, they don't realize what biases (most nearly unconcious, by the way) they have. Furthermore, they don't discuss this possibility, or ways to deal with it so that their social interactions are more fair, and, well - unbiased.
Unfortunately, there are individuals and groups who know what other group's biases are - and can use this knowledge to manipulate and influence these individuals and groups. Manipulation via lack of discourse, in other words...
I wonder what the possibility (probably nearly impossible?) is of taking one of these, loading it up with a very, very small webserver hardware setup with a largish hard drive (maybe the whole thing potted in epoxy with a heatsink sticking out?), a several watt 802.11g AP and antenna, then getting it put up in orbit by the Russians? I bet you could get this done for about $250,000.00 (US) if you really wanted to (for the sat, hardware, launch costs, and of course, bribes)...
Would you get arrested for grand theft auto if you took a car for a test drive, decided you liked it, and then never returned it to the lot?
Would you still be arrested if you took it home (let's say it is a Ferrari), ran it through a "magic" 3D scanner system (that could identify, tag, and locate every atom of the vehicle), store it in a computer, and then "rebuild" it via another "magic 3D printing" system - after returning the original vehicle to the dealer, because you couldn't afford it?
What has the dealer lost? They still have their original car, you didn't steal it. All they have lost is potential revenue. At that point in the argument, they might as well jail you for NOT buying their product.
For a small additional fee, you can ensure your tape data is encrypted.
The problem with encrypting backups is that if - on the backup - one bit of data becomes corrupted, the entire backup is likely to be worthless. Since most times when doing a restoration of data, this corruption happens when you need the data most (Murphy's Law), you will come to regret the decision. At least on an unencrypted tape, you can sometimes (with a lot of work) start in the middle of the tape (or other backup medium) and work around the damaged portion, and only lose a bit of the backup.
With an encrypted backup, you could lose it all.
Unless your backup medium is completely foolproof (I know of no such medium), encrypting the backup seems foolhardy, unless you can stand the potential loss and/or the data, should the backup fall into the wrong hands, is valuable enough. Most data isn't this valuable, and the process for backup should take this into account, and only backup the valuable data separately (and possibly encrypted) from the main backup - so that in the event the backup is needed, the entire thing isn't hosed if an errant bit is corrupted.
BTW - I know I have simplified things a tad and an errant bit isn't likely to corrupt an entire backup, but I am using this as an illustration. If you have ever messed around with backups, you know that in the heat of the moment is when things are found to not work as planned (which should make you test your backups before needing them, but I digress) - so you know that what I am talking about is a real possibility...
...and not knowing anything about you (so forgive me if this is not your "thing"), you might enjoy reading (or listening to, if you like audiobooks) Dean Koontz's book "Life Expectancy"...
BTW, that is just a link to the book on Amazon, not a click-back or whatever they call their tracking "make money fast" system...
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I won't argue with you that VGA->NTSC/PAL TV scan converters can be "crap" as far as output - I know I have seen my share to realize that (although AverMedia has put out some nice products in this area). I also won't argue that you need large font sizes on a TV, and that they can "flicker".
But the truth is that many of these problems can be fixed (to a certain degree) by changing settings (brightness/contrast, mainly) on the TV, as well as by changing the color levels being output by the video card. It is a well known fact that the white output to an NTSC TV actually needs to be more "grey" for it to render properly (indeed, if it is too "white", you get wierd color fringing effects, and in severe cases, the "white" bleeds into the audio side of things, producing noise in the sound).
In a properly designed system, you can actually have an "OK" experience using a TV as a monitor. Yes, you need to have fonts of a certain size, and the color/white levels need to be properly set. Your TV needs to be properly calibrated for this as well. All of this is known, and has been known for quite a while.
Back in the day, home computers regularly used (and abused) NTSC televisions for video output, as a "monitor". Many computers even allowed for NTSC composite output (which made things better for the video by separating out the audio side of things from the video). Some home computers (the TRS-80 Color Computer and an Apple IIe with an 80-column card running in "hi-res" 16 color mode are two notable examples, although many others also existed) even abused the NTSC standard by playing with "color artifacts" to generate false "colors" on the screen (basically, if you had a high enough resolution display, you could space single color pixels in various patterns and "magically" a different color from the pixels would appear or be blended in - your resolution would be dropped, but you got the extra colors).
While none of these were perfect uses of TVs as monitors, and I certainly wouldn't reccommend going back to them (indeed, I just purchased an SVGA converter for my Color Computer 3's RGBd output, to replace my aging CM-8, and free up some desktop space), they weren't "headache inducing" after 5 minutes - of course, maybe it was because I was young and could stand the strain better (or worse, considering I have to wear eyeglasses or contacts now constantly)...
I know that there are standalone cd recorders, yet at the same time, they seem like something "useless". It seems like every time I see something in consumer electronics that makes me go "neat!", at the same time I think "but I could my PC to do that"...
For instance (not a very good example), I have often thought that if I had a CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM) jukebox device, it would be great. Current ones are expensive (niche product), and I have given a lot of thought on building one. However, I always come back to an inevitable conclusion: It would be simpler to just have a PC with a set of large hard drives and a CD/DVD-RW drive, with a few back-end ripping scripts working to take whatever disc I stick in, and make an ISO of it. Tack on Samba and/or a web-based front end, and there you go.
Consumer cd recorders strike the same note with me - if I need to record or copy a CD, I can do it with my computer. Just about everything can be done with a computer, so why bother with other devices? Of course, Joe Consumer doesn't know this, which is why such devices exist, I suppose...
Anyhow, they recognized the issue of "everyone using spreadsheets" - and the issue of "different people all purporting to have the same spreadsheet, but each was different from the others" - they also had a term for this problem: "spreadmart"...
What I wonder about is how you can weld the thing in under 30 minutes. Unless they aren't including setup time for welding (getting parts, tools and safety equipment together, setting up the welding jig(s), etc)...
...fixed it for ya!
I understand your point, but CNC machines are actually fairly cheap, considering what can be done with them. A homebrew machine can be built (provided you already have at least a drill press and a table saw - necessary for the precision cuts) for around $500-1000 (numerous details are available on the internet - many people have built them - in the past, Nuts and Volts magazine had a series of articles detailing homebrew CNC). A kit machine (all the machining done for you - you still need to supply the computer) will run between $1000 - 2000 (maybe a little less, depending on the size of the machine). Even a large scale 4' x 8' CNC router is under $20,000.
Don't get me wrong, I don't expect everyone to run out and buy that last machine. If you need it, though, spending $1000-2000 on a kit machine is not outlandish (you can buy many woodworking tools in that range). Or, if you already have a wood shop (with a drill press and table saw or similar) and the skills to use the tools, then building a homebrew CNC machine is not very expensive, and you might learn a lot, too. If you manage to build the whole thing and get it working well, you will have learned a bunch about machining, electronics, computer interfacing, and robotics - all in one fell swoop. Most of these homebrew machines can work on any kind of old PC that has a parallel port. Dig that old 386 out (you do have one, don't you?), hook the printer port up to some servos and limit switches, load up some GPL'd software (or buy some), and start milling!
To be truthful, the work and expense isn't in the machine or building it - the real work is in learning to use it. Learning to use a CNC machine (and needing one, actually) is only useful if you absolutely need to manufacture multiple identical parts, and they need accuracy in their production (most home machines, including well-built hombrew devices, have an error of +/- .001 inches). CNC is typically not needed for single, one-off jobs, with the exception of tasks which are similar to printing: vinyl sign cutting and the like. So if you have a need for such a task, you need to be willing to learn how to use the software (CAD software for the design, and the translation software which converts the DXF files into g-code for the CNC machine, amongst other software)...
You, sir, need to read Database Nation if you really think computer databases are infallible. It is one thing to have "faith" in an invisible sky-being, but you shouldn't have "faith" in science and technology - you should, instead, have accurate and quantifiable knowledge of those domains...
Not if you run the wires in the wall, as the parent poster seems to have done. On modern, new-built houses it can be more of a pain, since most walls have horizontal "firewall" joists between the verticals in the walls - which means a lot of fishing and drilling, possibly some drywall work, too.
In my house, built in the early 1970's (block construction, too), the interior walls are simple - top and bottom plate, vertical joists, no firewall horizontals (these are put in today to slow a fire down from reaching the attic space) - so, just drill a hole in the top plate, and drop the line. Takes a lot of attic work, but once again, worth it.
None of this is easy, and since I am in Phoenix, I only work in the attic in the winter when I have to - the attic is dusty, hot, and ugly to work in. But, ultimately, I feel it is worth it. There isn't wires running everywhere, everything is socketed in wallplates, and I run cat5e carefully so at some point, I could (in theory) run GigE over it (too expensive still for me right now). I do have plans, though, of adding some wireless in the future - mainly for a 802.11x connected robot I have been planning on building...
If your back pain gets so bad that a doctor reccommends "disc fusion" or similar, look into "artificial disc replacement". I first heard about this last year on NPR, but it looks like research and development of this technology has been going on for at least 20 years.
Unfortunately, I think they are still working on the surgical technique - the method described on NPR seemed to indicate that they had to operate from the abdominal side, moving your organs out of the way, to fit the implants in, because from the backside the spinal cord was in the way. Hopefully, by the time you need this they will have the problem solved, and it won't be as "major" of surgery (not that anything involving the spine and surgery isn't major)...
Not only that, but the original is never deprived of use from the original owner. If the bully instead was said to have made "perfect copies" of the original owners art, and sold that for a quarter, that would be a more accurate comic. The original artist could easily start selling his work for ten cents, undercutting the guy who copied his work.
Ultimately, this leads to a "race to the bottom", because in a world of data which can be perfectly copied, potential revenue and/or profits become zero. Today it is music and video, but increasingly it is becoming real-world items. You are beginning to see this most effectively in the cheap goods coming from overseas. All of those goods rely on data that backs them up. A run of 10,000 "legal" copies from the plant, then at night run another 2,000 "grey market" copies to be sold elsewhere.
Someday, sooner than you think, such fabrication ability will be available on the desktop. For many simpler items, it already is (you can buy desktop fabrication and rapid prototyping systems for under $10,000 (US) today - simpler fabrication systems can be home built for under $1000.00, and the software to drive them is GPL'd).
If anything is being stolen, it's potential revenue. The only thing being violated by copying bits is copyright - which once used to be a civil matter.
Stealing something (theft), implies that when one person takes another person's stuff, that the second person is deprived of the use and ownership of that stuff. Copying bits is intrinsically different, as no one is deprived of anything other than potential revenue or profit - the original owner still has his "thing", and the other person has a "copy".
Let's take a potential real world example - something that someone could actually do themselves, today, if they wanted to.
I go to the local Ikea, and I purchase a "dresser", and bring it home. I take the pieces out of the box, I measure them fully and accurately - all measurements, including locations of holes, etc. I then return the dresser back to Ikea, and they refund me my money. I then go to Lowe's or Home Depot, or my other big box lumberyard, and I purchase everything needed on the list I made from my measurements. I take it all home, and I build the exact same dresser that I saw at Ikea. Now the question is, have I stolen anything from Ikea?
The measuring of the Ikea product is analogous to the copying of the bits. The purchasing of the materials to make the item is analogous to the cost of the storage medium used to copy the bits onto. The effort I put into building the item is analogous to the effort to move those bits from one area onto the storage media.
Please note, that today it is almost possible (maybe not at home unless you are one hell of a CAD/CAM enthusiast) to take the Ikea parts, scan everything into a computer, then have the computer cut those same parts out using a computer controlled 3D router. Look up "homebrew rapid prototyping" if you don't believe me. For most things at Ikea, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to build a laser scanning system to take the measurements, then have a computer plot the lines onto wood (you would later cut out) using a "turtle" line-drawing robot. Over, and over, and over again.
Once again, what has been stolen from Ikea? One thing, and one thing only: loss of potential revenue. As far as I am aware, businesses are NOT GUARANTEED REVENUE throughout their lives, but they sure want it to turn out that way, it seems...
In Canada, all media has the tax on it - hard drives, floppies, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs - I think there was even a thing about the ipod as well not too long ago.
In the United States, however, the tax is only levied on media meant to be used for music. This is why, when you drop in at Fry's Electronics or whatnot, there are "Music CD-Rs", and then just "CD-Rs". See if you can find two different packs (same brand and number) - compare the price. The ones sold for "Music" will be higher in cost than the standard "data" CD-Rs. The difference is the tax.
Now, I am sure that the consumer public in the US probably does buy those "music" CD-Rs to store their MP3s (otherwise, they would have stopped making them a long time ago). However, most people buy the cheapest brand they can find, which are most often the "data" CD-Rs. From what I remember, this split occurred because of an uproar when the tax was being passed that people storing just regular non-music data on CD-Rs were going to be unfairly taxed when nothing that went on the disc was music...
Between everyone downloading, how much of the data is redundant?
In other words, if each of you are sitting in a room on a computer, downloading to thier individual hard drive, and at different points in the day each downloads the same or similar file, wouldn't it be better if it was downloaded once, and stored to a fileserver for the others to access?
If it can be determined that is true, you could then set up a multi-protocol "downloading server" where you can queue up the downloads to the fileserver, perhaps with alerts back to the person who queued the download (to let them know it is done). I know - easier said than done, but it might get Speakeasy off your back (which is strange - your story is the first negative thing I had heard about them) if you can set it up.
First step, though, would be "comparing notes" with your friends to see if there are any commonalities in the download arena. If there are, and they are significant (spot check a few single random days in a month, to get an "average" idea), then the download server might be the way to go.
Or, talk with Speakeasy, ask about your plan, and whether they offer a similar plan with less restriction on the amount of data (maybe a business class plan).
Are you seriously proposing we track, for life, those individuals labeled as "sex offenders" simply because they were caught pissing on the side of a bar in public? What about the 18 year old guy convicted of the "statutory rape" of his willing 17 year, 364 day old girlfriend?
Both of these examples, and many others, are all lumped into the category of "sex offender". Furthermore, more often than not the various "type your zip code in and see the boogeymen" sites do not do anything to differentiate between the two (one could argue this is because the data the State provides typically doesn't, either)...
Both of these vehicles suffer from the same exact problem: a "saddle" fuel tank.
Basically, what this means is that the fuel tank sits above and "wraps" slightly around the rear axle of the vehicle. In a rear end collision, the force can cause the axle to push into the tank, rupturing it and spilling fuel, possibly with ignition of the gasoline. In the case of the Pinto, this was also compounded by a fitting on or near the axle (I have heard "bolthead", but I am not sure exactly what it was) putting point pressure on the tank as well, facilitating the rupture. A similar issue might be the case with the Crown Vic, but I don't honestly know.
In the Pinto's case, a part that would likely cost 10 cents could have saved people's lives, but Ford likely figured it was cheaper to deal with the lawsuits than deal with the issue. In the Crown Vic case, however, a Phoenix Police Officer (now a detective) was severely disfigured when his police car was rear-ended during a traffic stop. Many municipalities around the country use Crown Vics with the "Interceptor Package" as police cruisers, and (IIRC) a lawsuit was brought against Ford for the issue by the City of Phoenix. From what I remember, it was settled out of court, with Ford installing racing bladders into the tanks of the Crown Vics used by municipal fleets (or maybe only Police fleets?) - but for the consumer version of the Crown Vic, I am not sure *anything* was done...
BTW - from what I understand, if you can get a Crown Vic with the Interceptor package, it is a pretty fun ride, if you can afford the gas - I have seen such vehicles on the used market, mainly from government auctions...
I agree with you wholeheartedly! What bothers me most about this, and the whole "Net Neutrality" thing, is that by mucking with all of this, they are fundamentally breaking one of the main things that keep stable networks (from a network theory POV) stable: keeping the intelligence at the ends. By putting more "intelligence" in the network, the network won't get better - it will (more likely than not) "break" more often. By "breaking", I mean from the viewpoint of the intelligent "ends" - not from the viewpoint of the network. Slowdowns, loss of packets, etc - degrading the network, and ultimately causing some of those ends to say "fsck it", and drop the service. This devalues the network over time, ultimately causing it to unravel if left to go long enough.
This problem started with asymetric bandwidth to users, continued with port blocking, and now the debate is on "net neutrality".
I want to do with my bandwidth as I see fit, just like you. One thing to recognize is that not all ports are generally blocked (YMMV) - many are kept open - just the "popular" ones are blocked. Say you want to run a webserver at home - ports 80, 8080, 8000, and other variants are typically blocked - but nothing says you can't port-forward from your firewall port 6354 to your webserver. Now, most people wouldn't know this port, of course, so you would need some kind of outside entity doing some translation (probably dynamic DNS providers offer this, haven't checked because I use a vhost - Hurricane Electric, BTW, great provider - for my site - but I know it can be done).
But yeah - it would be nice if things worked the way they should work, and we were treated like real internet nodes instead of mere consumers. I am even willing to pay for the ability. Which brings up other craziness. Here in Phoenix, we have mainly Cox (cable) or Qwest (DSL) to choose from. Both offer business services. I currently have Cox residential high speed, but in order to get the business package (where I could run servers without violating the TOS), I have to pay a LOT more money - something like $400.00 for install (the last I checked) and around $100.00 or so a month. Now, the monthly isn't to big of an issue - but the install is retarded. They don't do anything other than change some settings at the head-end - the cable "modem" likely stays the same, as any other changes allowed by DOCSIS are pushed down to the modem. So just where is this $400.00 going to? Different scenario (maybe) if you don't have the modem, otherwise it just seems like a scam. Qwest DSL only recently became available at my house (unfortunately, Speakeasy isn't available - unless I want a T1) - so in theory I could get their business package, which they have been offering on TV for $90.00 - free install, business DSL and business phone package (whatever that is). Seems like a better deal than the cable, but I haven't looked into it fully.
I just don't see why I can't use the bandwidth how I want when I want, for a flat fee, and then if I go over some usage limit, I pay for the gigabit or whatever based on current rates. I also gave thought to the idea of why not change the rates based on site popularity (ie, price goes up if you browse google a lot, less if you use Ask Jeeves or something). In my half-baked plan, I also had this idea that maybe you could set up a "stock market", whereby prices per gigabit change/fluctuate based on popularity - so if you host a site at your home, it is cheap to transfer bits if it isn't popular, but as popularity rises, you get charged less, or you accrue download "credits" or something - like I said, the whole idea was "half-baked", but in essence I was thinking of a method by which *everyone* benefits.
Which of course means it will never be adopted or implemented ever, because the idea makes sense and doesn't allow any particular entity to dominate others - the greedy bastards.
Hmm, I guess what this will mean is the development (probably already exists in some manner) of RAID for tape backup of encrypted data...
...and then magically, a 14 year old becomes an adult!
As far as the "Gaia Earth Theory" is concerned, I will say it went "downhill" into the religious side of things during the 60's and 70's, but I honestly don't see where "intelligent design" fits into it. Maybe I need to read up more on it, to understand what you mean...
From what I understand, the idea behind the "Gaia Earth Theory" is just an earlier example of what we know today as chaos theory, network theory, and the theory of emergent behavior. Combined, these theories seem to represent the same thing as Gaia Earth Theory, only backed by real science and learning. Furthermore, they have more accessible names, and not a name that brings in a bunch of religious relics and ideas with it (Mono/Dual Goddess/Earth worship, mainly)...
The "trick" the presenter used was this - before he spoke, he passed out 3 or 4 sealed envelopes to 3 or 4 randome people as they came in to listen to him speak. There were about 200 people attending the presentation. He spoke a little about bias, and told people about the envelopes, and that he had wrote down a number between 1 and 10 on cards in the envelopes. He then asked the audience members to think of a number between 1 and 10, and write it down. After that was done, he asked for a show of hands of who wrote down each number. The majority of the hands that went up was for the number "3". He then asked those people who he had passed out the envelopes to, to open them, and read the card inside. The first person read "3". The second person read "3", and so on for the third and fourth person.
How did he know that the number picked by the audience was "3"? Because he knew that for that particular audience (mainly CEOs and similar), they had a bias towards the number "3". Whether they knew that or not, is another question.
By being aware of biases in our lives, and discussing them, we can all learn to avoid them rather than subcumb to them. Unfortunately, for most people in the world, they don't realize what biases (most nearly unconcious, by the way) they have. Furthermore, they don't discuss this possibility, or ways to deal with it so that their social interactions are more fair, and, well - unbiased.
Unfortunately, there are individuals and groups who know what other group's biases are - and can use this knowledge to manipulate and influence these individuals and groups. Manipulation via lack of discourse, in other words...
I wonder what the possibility (probably nearly impossible?) is of taking one of these, loading it up with a very, very small webserver hardware setup with a largish hard drive (maybe the whole thing potted in epoxy with a heatsink sticking out?), a several watt 802.11g AP and antenna, then getting it put up in orbit by the Russians? I bet you could get this done for about $250,000.00 (US) if you really wanted to (for the sat, hardware, launch costs, and of course, bribes)...
Would you still be arrested if you took it home (let's say it is a Ferrari), ran it through a "magic" 3D scanner system (that could identify, tag, and locate every atom of the vehicle), store it in a computer, and then "rebuild" it via another "magic 3D printing" system - after returning the original vehicle to the dealer, because you couldn't afford it?
What has the dealer lost? They still have their original car, you didn't steal it. All they have lost is potential revenue. At that point in the argument, they might as well jail you for NOT buying their product.
Someday, they probably will...
The problem with encrypting backups is that if - on the backup - one bit of data becomes corrupted, the entire backup is likely to be worthless. Since most times when doing a restoration of data, this corruption happens when you need the data most (Murphy's Law), you will come to regret the decision. At least on an unencrypted tape, you can sometimes (with a lot of work) start in the middle of the tape (or other backup medium) and work around the damaged portion, and only lose a bit of the backup.
With an encrypted backup, you could lose it all.
Unless your backup medium is completely foolproof (I know of no such medium), encrypting the backup seems foolhardy, unless you can stand the potential loss and/or the data, should the backup fall into the wrong hands, is valuable enough. Most data isn't this valuable, and the process for backup should take this into account, and only backup the valuable data separately (and possibly encrypted) from the main backup - so that in the event the backup is needed, the entire thing isn't hosed if an errant bit is corrupted.
BTW - I know I have simplified things a tad and an errant bit isn't likely to corrupt an entire backup, but I am using this as an illustration. If you have ever messed around with backups, you know that in the heat of the moment is when things are found to not work as planned (which should make you test your backups before needing them, but I digress) - so you know that what I am talking about is a real possibility...
BTW, that is just a link to the book on Amazon, not a click-back or whatever they call their tracking "make money fast" system...
Kitty Genovese