This must be stopped until HDCP is implemented for the visual cortex. Otherwise people will be able to see protected content without DRM! Of course once reliable HDCP is implemented it should then be mandatory, plugging the analog hole once and for all!
Um, Democracy Player?, cross platform, integrates bitorrent and VLC. Plays anything, automatically caches torrents, sweet GUI, zero configuration. All you have to do is download the installer run it and select or provide channel feeds. Search for content, get a listing and click the download arrow. When the file is ready just click on the listing and it plays. Doesn't get simpler than that!
Of course Bob's saying that this is going to not be DRMed. So if Apple is sending me pre-release videos which aren't DRMed without my consent, how do they charge me for it? If Suncoast did this via fedex they wouldn't have a leg to stand on when they billed me.
Distributed Grid Emergency Response: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6364301.stm They're cheap, take a lot of punishment, automatically form ad-hoc wifi meshes, and can be recharged via hand cranking or solar power. With a firmware add-on and an emergency mode switch they could be used for emergency broadcast, first responder requests, and local disaster coordination.
Toss on a dirt cheap low power cellphone GPS for location awareness, and implement traffic control (and using compressed text messages) to optimize bandwidth. Local meshes which have been separated from the rest of the net can be reattached by airdropping battery powered wifi repeaters into the affected area.
Distribute broadly and you have a highly resilient emergency infrastructure which degrades gracefully.
Dead on. The problem 'tho isn't the digital nature of the connection, it's the bloody DRM that everybody is trying to ram down our throats on any new standard. In 5-10 years, the cascade of failures and incompatibilities arising from DRM coupled with it's complete failure to protect content will make it the Edsel of computing.
And thank goodness for that! Just recently I had to grind through some VRML files. Miserable, crufty junk. Having gone through that I actually enjoyed doing the same with the COLADA dae files in KML.
Gentlemen, I present you the Walkman! We've been running around with tape and CD Walkmans for 28 years now, crossing the street and everything. If we haven't adapted to this in one generation something's seriously wrong.
Got a cell phone? Most have GPS incorporated due to the E911 requirements. De facto broad surveillance of the population. But they're all terrorists anyway.
If they are really going to use the device revocation option, things are going to get way fun. Players which will only play certain discs and not others, instant obsolescence for entire classes of $1000 players. This makes the format wars look like a sales promotion!
With a proper respect for their betters (Physicists). Best to beat all that curiosity out of them, and geld them. Once their skills become obsolete, it's off to the Soylent Green plant for them.
Actually some of us slashdot readers have Ph.D.s in physics and have literally "done the math". But I frankly did say WTF? at first. While this won't replace optical fibers, it does have very interesting implications for phase shifting and the like.
I just got A Palm TX to replace my Clie that just died, and I'm using it more. It's got a big screen, plays video and mp3s wonderfully w/ TCPMP, surfs the web, and with Palm Fiction and PalmPDF is a great ebook reader. Also the WiFi and bluetooth are very low power. I have a prepaid cell, and I hate the level of control that the cell companies impose.
Scanning a book is easy, it simply involves taking pictures. You can splice the spine off an take pictures of each page or use one of the panoply of non-destructive machines to correct the page warping effects of an open book. This is not particularly hard or expensive.
Only if the book is expendable. In the case of many pre-1920 books (i.e. out of copyright) any sane library wouldn't even let you push it flat against the glass of a flatbed scanner. Ideally you need a scanner that keeps the book from opening appreciably, with filtered illumination.
Now you've got a real problem. How does one know if a page of a book is OCRed correctly? Now that's simple. Distributed proofreading. Just the sort of thing Google is good at.
While Collada is a way neat concept, the specification/documentation sucks big time. Having implemented a parser/importer in Python from scratch I can attest to a huge amount of ambiguity in the 1.4 spec. That said, once you figure it out COLLADA is really sweet.
Perfect! This is another reason that this needs to be sold in the first world. If you give people a system that they can not break and let them play with it, and code on it, they will learn computers much more quickly and effectively. in addition this is a perfect system for rental/kinkos/hotel systems, When the customer is done with the system just do a hard reset and you have a pristine system for the next customer. If you keep all data (as opposed to executable code/macros/etc) on a usb key or the web, all support comes down to a hard reset. Bubblepack computing.
These aren't costs, they're investments and profit centers. For all but the poorest third world child, training in the operation of computers, networks and wireless is pure gold in terms of potential career choices. In the same manner, training in hardware has the potential to be equally precious. Once an initial cadre of IT personnel are trained, they teach others providing essential vocational training. Providing basic internet connectivity (which is then automatically expanded by the meshing of each laptop) provides a digital communications infrastructure for the country. One may then piggyback weather forecasts, crop prices, tsunami alerts, world news and postal and telephone services over this network with a fraction of the bandwidth required by analog voice channels.
Essentially, it's a jumpstart for a country's digital infrastructure while training a generation of EE and IT personnel. It's a modern day Marshal plan.
The only question is when are we going to commit to the same costs. A laptop for every child, municipal WiFi/WiMax, and training in operation and repair of computers and wireless. The payback down the line would be enormous.
Slashdot Mirror
This must be stopped until HDCP is implemented for the visual cortex. Otherwise people will be able to see protected content without DRM! Of course once reliable HDCP is implemented it should then be mandatory, plugging the analog hole once and for all!
Um, Democracy Player?, cross platform, integrates bitorrent and VLC. Plays anything, automatically caches torrents, sweet GUI, zero configuration. All you have to do is download the installer run it and select or provide channel feeds. Search for content, get a listing and click the download arrow. When the file is ready just click on the listing and it plays. Doesn't get simpler than that!
Already does this in a decentralized fashion w/o the DRM. Check it out http://www.getdemocracy.com/.
Of course Bob's saying that this is going to not be DRMed. So if Apple is sending me pre-release videos which aren't DRMed without my consent, how do they charge me for it? If Suncoast did this via fedex they wouldn't have a leg to stand on when they billed me.
Distributed Grid Emergency Response:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6364301.stm
They're cheap, take a lot of punishment, automatically form ad-hoc wifi meshes, and can be recharged via hand cranking or solar power. With a firmware add-on and an emergency mode switch they could be used for emergency broadcast, first responder requests, and local disaster coordination.
Toss on a dirt cheap low power cellphone GPS for location awareness, and implement traffic control (and using compressed text messages) to optimize bandwidth. Local meshes which have been separated from the rest of the net can be reattached by airdropping battery powered wifi repeaters into the affected area.
Distribute broadly and you have a highly resilient emergency infrastructure which degrades gracefully.
Dead on.
The problem 'tho isn't the digital nature of the connection, it's the bloody DRM that everybody is trying to ram down our throats on any new standard. In 5-10 years, the cascade of failures and incompatibilities arising from DRM coupled with it's complete failure to protect content will make it the Edsel of computing.
I always wondered why they added the event horizon nullifier in swiss army knives!
And thank goodness for that! Just recently I had to grind through some VRML files. Miserable, crufty junk. Having gone through that I actually enjoyed doing the same with the COLADA dae files in KML.
Or are you just happy to see me?
Gentlemen, I present you the Walkman! We've been running around with tape and CD Walkmans for 28 years now, crossing the street and everything. If we haven't adapted to this in one generation something's seriously wrong.
Yeah, but will they be able to get through airport security?
Got a cell phone? Most have GPS incorporated due to the E911 requirements. De facto broad surveillance of the population. But they're all terrorists anyway.
If they are really going to use the device revocation option, things are going to get way fun.
Players which will only play certain discs and not others, instant obsolescence for entire classes of $1000 players.
This makes the format wars look like a sales promotion!
LyME a calculator/grapher/programming language which verges on MATLAB for matrix processing is available for free on the PalmOS.
Very handy.
Dead on. But it gets worse, the remaining R&D is focused on short term Iraq related technology particularly IED countermeasures.
Welcome our new well-heeled big-piped overlords.
With a proper respect for their betters (Physicists). Best to beat all that curiosity out of them, and geld them. Once their skills become obsolete, it's off to the Soylent Green plant for them.
How many times have terrorists crashed planes into skyscrapers?
One or two MANPAD shootdowns and the airliners are economic toast. And we don't have an alternate long range transportation system in place.
While an expensive system, in comparison with the BMD program or a week of the quagmire in Iraq this is a relatively wise investment.
Actually some of us slashdot readers have Ph.D.s in physics and have literally "done the math". But I frankly did say WTF? at first. While this won't replace optical fibers, it does have very interesting implications for phase shifting and the like.
In Soviet Russia Cows eat Hindus!
I just got A Palm TX to replace my Clie that just died, and I'm using it more. It's got a big screen, plays video and mp3s wonderfully w/ TCPMP, surfs the web, and with Palm Fiction and PalmPDF is a great ebook reader. Also the WiFi and bluetooth are very low power. I have a prepaid cell, and I hate the level of control that the cell companies impose.
Scanning a book is easy, it simply involves taking pictures. You can splice the spine off an take pictures of each page or use one of the panoply of non-destructive machines to correct the page warping effects of an open book. This is not particularly hard or expensive.
Only if the book is expendable. In the case of many pre-1920 books (i.e. out of copyright) any sane library wouldn't even let you push it flat against the glass of a flatbed scanner. Ideally you need a scanner that keeps the book from opening appreciably, with filtered illumination.
Now you've got a real problem. How does one know if a page of a book is OCRed correctly?
Now that's simple. Distributed proofreading. Just the sort of thing Google is good at.
While Collada is a way neat concept, the specification/documentation sucks big time.
Having implemented a parser/importer in Python from scratch I can attest to a huge amount of ambiguity in the 1.4 spec.
That said, once you figure it out COLLADA is really sweet.
It doesn't stop there. Extreme space weather can induce failures in the electrical grid resulting in large scale blackouts.
Perfect! This is another reason that this needs to be sold in the first world. If you give people a system that they can not break and let them play with it, and code on it, they will learn computers much more quickly and effectively. in addition this is a perfect system for rental/kinkos/hotel systems, When the customer is done with the system just do a hard reset and you have a pristine system for the next customer. If you keep all data (as opposed to executable code/macros/etc) on a usb key or the web, all support comes down to a hard reset. Bubblepack computing.
These aren't costs, they're investments and profit centers. For all but the poorest third world child, training in the operation of computers, networks and wireless is pure gold in terms of potential career choices. In the same manner, training in hardware has the potential to be equally precious. Once an initial cadre of IT personnel are trained, they teach others providing essential vocational training. Providing basic internet connectivity (which is then automatically expanded by the meshing of each laptop) provides a digital communications infrastructure for the country. One may then piggyback weather forecasts, crop prices, tsunami alerts, world news and postal and telephone services over this network with a fraction of the bandwidth required by analog voice channels.
Essentially, it's a jumpstart for a country's digital infrastructure while training a generation of EE and IT personnel. It's a modern day Marshal plan.
The only question is when are we going to commit to the same costs. A laptop for every child, municipal WiFi/WiMax, and training in operation and repair of computers and wireless. The payback down the line would be enormous.