The author thought it important to maintain consistancy with current linux development, therefore several personal email addressed to d.mcbride@sco.com have been included in the apendix for your reading pleasure.
Simple, something has value if people are willing to pay for it. Common sense has no place in this basic rule of economics.
The funny thing about economics in games like this is that no matter what is being 'sold' it all behaves based on the ecomonics of currency. Virtual real-estate can be created without limit. This is obviously not true of actual real estate as eventually we run out of space.
Currency on the other hand can be created from nothing, but if you double the amount of currency in circulation you half its value.
While I agree with you that buying 'virtual space' is a little daft... it must be fascinating for economists (even laymen like myself) who rarely get chance to study such a pure form of commerce without the complexities of modern day 'real-world' finacee clouding things.
I agree that this is a very inferior way of copying CDs. However, like I said, once you have the baseline method it just becomes a race to improve the quality of the recordings.
Unless the RIAA can come up with a way to prevent all types of copyings between recording the soundwaves with a mic and recording the bits directly they will never prevent copyings.
The route back to full scale coping will be..
Pirate A) "I can still copy with my computer mic"
Pirate B) "Well if you download this sound recording software your copies will be better"
What should the RIAA care if a small group at MIT can circumvent any copy protection?
Or anyone smart enough to realize that you can get a reasonable copy by holding a half decent sound recorder to the speakers?
Hell, plug a couple of headphones into your computer mic socket and place them next to the speakers and you will get some kind of copy. From there its just about improving the quaility.
When you can contact Microsoft or Sun sales and tell them that you want to take advantage of their free hardware offer but would prefer to leave the 'paid for' software without having the salesperson either immediately hang up or laugh uncontrollably, THEN they can call it 'free'.
Until then its just the 2 for 1 pizza offer that, strangely, is twice the price of a single pizza in the place two doors down.
I think that it would be even better to execute the senior management at companies that release their software to the general public while it is still full of holes that can be exploited by authors of malcious code...
Infact... wasnt this what Tarintinos new flick is about... I havent seen it yet!;o)
Re:Data from Startrek TNG played poker
on
Geeks and Poker?
·
· Score: 1
I did enjoy watching Data playing poker with Einstein, Newton and Hawking.
I wonder what they talked about... proably arguing over who had the lowest slashdot uid.:o)
'Dark matter' and 'Dark energy' are to modern day physists are god, allah, are to those of the religious persuasion...
An explanation for thing that are not properly understood but explanations that are very difficult to completely disprove even if they seem to be far-fetched.
I have a particle around here somewhere that I measured to find its precise speed was very slightly faster than c.... I would show it to you as proof but I cant seem to find it anywhere!;o)
But in the real world other factors may be more important to chose a coded, like for example general acceptance, freely available code and specs, and a large content base available....whether or not the worlds largest operating system vendor embraces said format, extends said format and includes said format in its media player which comes as standard on its 95% personal computer market share...
Not a bad guess. I do Geophyisical Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Ahhh... that clears things up. I can understand why you would require more advanced mathematics for a scientific field such as this...
However, its not that you need your maths skills to do your programming, but you need them to understand your problem domain.
A programmer writing an application that manages an eletricity grid would need to understand how that system worked for example.
The skill of 'programming' by itself, doesnt require any of these skills, and competancy with basic algebra and a comprehension of working in different bases are pretty much all that is required.
The area you specialize in presents its own requirements, and maths may be one of those, but that is peripheral.
And for a great many applications he'd've been right.
Bullshit! Go to your favourite Jobs database and list the programming jobs that require advanced mathematics. The most mathematically advanced algorithm I have EVER had to write during my career was a formula for converting lat-long to grid references and that was mostly converting well known formulas into the 'syntax-du-jour'!
I have never used the kind of maths that I was taught during my A-Level (infact I have forgotten 98% of it, a sure sign that its largely useless knowledge!), I still manage to be pretty successful as a software developer.
Either you are a student, or you work on shuttle launce/missle guidance systems... neither are good positions to view the software development industry as a whole.
During my time at schoool, I was told by a careers advisor that to become a software developer I would require at least an A-Level (Im not sure of the US equivilant) in Maths.
A-Level maths covers subjects like calculus and imaginary numbers.
After 5 years of professional software development, I cant remember one time where I have needed this level of mathematics.
Now a business course, that would have been useful, some kind of analyst training would have been ideal, but advanced maths.... definatly not.
Im sure there are exceptions in the development world, I figure those doing 3D simulation would require a basic grasp of newtonian physics, and there are obviously scientific systems that would require a bit more knowledge, but even for the fairly advanced finacial systems I have worked on, the most that was required was some floating point aritmatic and percentage calculation... and thats what the computer is for anyway!
A smile crept across my face after reading this story and then noticing a microsoft ad underneath informing the reader that Windows Server cost of ownership is lower than Linux cost of ownership!
The add server must be based on Microsoft's new Irony.NET framework!
Slashdot Mirror
Hahahaha... excellent!! I had the foresight not to use a hotmail address to conduct my business dealings, now those Nigerian millions are all mine!!!
Fancy conducting multi-million business deals using hotmail! Im glad im not as big a fool as you!
The author thought it important to maintain consistancy with current linux development, therefore several personal email addressed to d.mcbride@sco.com have been included in the apendix for your reading pleasure.
Simple, something has value if people are willing to pay for it. Common sense has no place in this basic rule of economics.
The funny thing about economics in games like this is that no matter what is being 'sold' it all behaves based on the ecomonics of currency. Virtual real-estate can be created without limit. This is obviously not true of actual real estate as eventually we run out of space.
Currency on the other hand can be created from nothing, but if you double the amount of currency in circulation you half its value.
While I agree with you that buying 'virtual space' is a little daft... it must be fascinating for economists (even laymen like myself) who rarely get chance to study such a pure form of commerce without the complexities of modern day 'real-world' finacee clouding things.
I agree that this is a very inferior way of copying CDs. However, like I said, once you have the baseline method it just becomes a race to improve the quality of the recordings.
Unless the RIAA can come up with a way to prevent all types of copyings between recording the soundwaves with a mic and recording the bits directly they will never prevent copyings.
The route back to full scale coping will be..
Pirate A) "I can still copy with my computer mic"
Pirate B) "Well if you download this sound recording software your copies will be better"
Pirate C) "Well... if you...." etc etc etc
Eventually you are back to where you started.
What should the RIAA care if a small group at MIT can circumvent any copy protection?
Or anyone smart enough to realize that you can get a reasonable copy by holding a half decent sound recorder to the speakers?
Hell, plug a couple of headphones into your computer mic socket and place them next to the speakers and you will get some kind of copy. From there its just about improving the quaility.
Bottom line... can hear... can record!
Exactly!
When you can contact Microsoft or Sun sales and tell them that you want to take advantage of their free hardware offer but would prefer to leave the 'paid for' software without having the salesperson either immediately hang up or laugh uncontrollably, THEN they can call it 'free'.
Until then its just the 2 for 1 pizza offer that, strangely, is twice the price of a single pizza in the place two doors down.
*chuckle*
Who was it who said "The US and the UK... two nations divided by a common language!"
I think that it would be even better to execute the senior management at companies that release their software to the general public while it is still full of holes that can be exploited by authors of malcious code...
;o)
Infact... wasnt this what Tarintinos new flick is about... I havent seen it yet!
I did enjoy watching Data playing poker with Einstein, Newton and Hawking.
:o)
I wonder what they talked about... proably arguing over who had the lowest slashdot uid.
The exchange rate is always moving so its hard to pin it down but...
1 Cup of tea is equals to about 0.12 Big mac and fries, depending on the current market price of pigs testicles.
Or to put it another way...
'Dark matter' and 'Dark energy' are to modern day physists are god, allah, are to those of the religious persuasion...
An explanation for thing that are not properly understood but explanations that are very difficult to completely disprove even if they seem to be far-fetched.
I have a particle around here somewhere that I measured to find its precise speed was very slightly faster than c.... I would show it to you as proof but I cant seem to find it anywhere! ;o)
a virus that can be spread by having sex, just like HIV
Dont worry guys... it will be available in tablet form soon...
But in the real world other factors may be more important to chose a coded, like for example general acceptance, freely available code and specs, and a large content base available. ...whether or not the worlds largest operating system vendor embraces said format, extends said format and includes said format in its media player which comes as standard on its 95% personal computer market share...
*chuckle*
;o)
As a bonus question, there is a word that doesnt belong in my quote either...
Anyone selling typing lessons?
"...and still gain a stable and secure operating system in the process"
One of the words in the above quote doesnt not belong there! Can you guess which one?
Good idea! ...and if they are looking for somebody to research the data for this application, I would like to be the first to volunteer!
Currently.... about 600 US dollars ;o)
I wonder how long it will be before microsoft add this technology to their list of requirements for longhorn!
Not a bad guess. I do Geophyisical Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Ahhh... that clears things up. I can understand why you would require more advanced mathematics for a scientific field such as this...
However, its not that you need your maths skills to do your programming, but you need them to understand your problem domain.
A programmer writing an application that manages an eletricity grid would need to understand how that system worked for example.
The skill of 'programming' by itself, doesnt require any of these skills, and competancy with basic algebra and a comprehension of working in different bases are pretty much all that is required.
The area you specialize in presents its own requirements, and maths may be one of those, but that is peripheral.
And for a great many applications he'd've been right.
Bullshit! Go to your favourite Jobs database and list the programming jobs that require advanced mathematics. The most mathematically advanced algorithm I have EVER had to write during my career was a formula for converting lat-long to grid references and that was mostly converting well known formulas into the 'syntax-du-jour'!
I have never used the kind of maths that I was taught during my A-Level (infact I have forgotten 98% of it, a sure sign that its largely useless knowledge!), I still manage to be pretty successful as a software developer.
Either you are a student, or you work on shuttle launce/missle guidance systems... neither are good positions to view the software development industry as a whole.
During my time at schoool, I was told by a careers advisor that to become a software developer I would require at least an A-Level (Im not sure of the US equivilant) in Maths.
A-Level maths covers subjects like calculus and imaginary numbers.
After 5 years of professional software development, I cant remember one time where I have needed this level of mathematics.
Now a business course, that would have been useful, some kind of analyst training would have been ideal, but advanced maths.... definatly not.
Im sure there are exceptions in the development world, I figure those doing 3D simulation would require a basic grasp of newtonian physics, and there are obviously scientific systems that would require a bit more knowledge, but even for the fairly advanced finacial systems I have worked on, the most that was required was some floating point aritmatic and percentage calculation... and thats what the computer is for anyway!
A smile crept across my face after reading this story and then noticing a microsoft ad underneath informing the reader that Windows Server cost of ownership is lower than Linux cost of ownership!
The add server must be based on Microsoft's new Irony.NET framework!
Just incase it wasnt clear...
What ever could I mean by big industry players?
Good to see big industry players using their expertise and experience to enable new market creation.