... you own a CD, you're allowed to play the CD whereever you want (as long as it isn't public performance, broadcast etc.) since you paid the copyright holder (or their agent) the fee to have that CD and use it for personal use. And under section 109 you're permitted to sell or otherwise dispose of your CD without permission of the copyright holder.
You own the CD, you can do anything you want with the CD... however copyright law still applies (or so most legal interpretations of the copyright law would say) and so you don't have the right to make another copy (on CD, MP3 or other) without the copyright holder's permission... now you and I may agree that that law sucks, but it's what the wording is trying to say. As far as I can tell, US copyright law doesn't allow you to photocopy a whole book or scan it into your computer to read on a PDA except under some very strict conditions (e.g. visually impaired or as part of an educational course at an appropriate institution and then only for the purposes of the course). You buy a book, it's yours, and if you want to tear the hard cover off and put on a soft cover, that's fine. But (according to my reading of copyright) you don't have the right to make a copy of a hardback (even one you own) and bind the copy in softback, even for your own use (no commercial value and no resale). Same for music.
Change (or clarify) the law. It's your government, they work for *you*. The law, as it stands, is for the benefit of the big corporations and copyright holders.
... it's perfectly legal to make an interpretive "copy", so as long as they don't succeed in too accurate a portrayal of your conversation, they are safe, as far as the "performance" copyright is concerned. "The exclusive rights of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clauses (1) and (2) of section 106 do not extend to the making or duplication of another sound recording that consists entirely of an independent fixation of other sounds, even though such sounds imitate or simulate those in the copyrighted sound recording."
114 (b) The exclusive right of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clause (1) of section 106 is limited to the right to duplicate the sound recording in the form of phonorecords or copies that directly or indirectly recapture the actual sounds fixed in the recording. The exclusive right of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clause (2) of section 106 is limited to the right to prepare a derivative work in which the actual sounds fixed in the sound recording are rearranged, remixed, or otherwise altered in sequence or quality. The exclusive rights of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clauses (1) and (2) of section 106 do not extend to the making or duplication of another sound recording that consists entirely of an independent fixation of other sounds, even though such sounds imitate or simulate those in the copyrighted sound recording. http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#114
As I understand things (and IANAL) your speech would be a public performance rather than a sound recording and so would have different protection. Now if you record your speech first and then play them that recording, then if they can reproduce those actual sounds, you'd have a case!
You said "in my understadnding, once you buy a CD, you have a license to play it's songs in any format, in as many devices as you want and as many cars you have."
According to what I can find on US law, that's not true. You have the right to play your CD wherever you want, but you have not got the right to make a copy of it (in the same or any other format)... though I recall that there was an exception for making a tape for a car (which I can't find at the moment), but the ARHA put in specific laws about digital copies (as did the DCMA)... so it's at least a fuzzy area.
"Copyright in a sound recording protects the particular series of sounds "fixed" (embodied in a recording) against unauthorized reproduction and revision" http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ56.html#what
I didn't say anything that equates to you don't use OUTDATED experience to suggest you were correct in your representation of units
I said "Fair enough" which meant I agreed with you, or is that the first time that that has happened and you're not used to it. I also explained that claiming these were SI units I should have learned in 9th grade was wrong as they aren't SI units and they weren't even IEC/IEEE units when I was in 9th grade.
I have heard of HTML, I've also used lots of other sites that are clever enough to convert URLs into clickable links without requiring the user to type the stuff, obviously/. isn't that "clever". Which is often good, I had sites that try to guess what I mean and then change what I've typed.
And perhaps you should spend your time doing something constructive rather than picking at other people who have made a mistake? I agreed with you, it was a mistake, I should have used a capital "B". But no... that's not good enough for you, it isn't enough that you win, others must lose.
Anyway, have a lovely evening, I'm off home now from my job where I write technical documentation (and yes, I am embarrassed I typed the wrong case for the "B", but to err is human, to really screw things up... you know...):-)
... I've looked up the SI units, and MB, Mb etc. are not there. They are, however, IEEE standards, which is nearly the same, but since you insist on precise accuracy, you're wrong.
It is important to recognize that the new prefixes for binary multiples are not part of the International System of Units (SI) http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
And this NON-SI standard dates all the way back to when you were in nappies, i.e. 2000.
And in fact, I believe my camera has a 64MiB (mebibyte) buffer according to this standard.
Oh, and "b" for bit is IEEE, it's "bit" for IEC, and "B" is usually an octet, but not necessarily. So we could/should be using "o" instead for definitely 8-bit bytes. This means my camera has a 64Mio buffer memory. http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj/binprefixes .html
Love, Grandpa. p.s. I've enjoyed looking up and finding out this stuff, I hope you've enjoyed it equally.
you're throwing your own cultural assumptions around.
Or maybe I'm just older than you.
I grew up in the UK and the US (moved back and forth) and my first computer predated the IBM PC (I used my first computer in 1976, I wrote my first graphics programs in 1979) and I can tell you for sure that MB, Mb and mb were interchangeable in those days, because only hard disks had Mb/MB/mb. Modems worked at 300bits per second, if you were lucky... and we used acoustic couplers to connect the Heathkit terminal we built (from transistors and resistors and such, all soldered by hand onto circuit boards) to the dial up mini-computer. The biggest memory I used up until 1983 was 64KB and it wasn't called "64KB", it was 64K.
So yes, I said I should have used MB since that's the usage NOW, but it was just flame bait to throw in that The concepts of capital and small letters used in abbreviations was something everyone should have learned before grade 9 science bit.
"m" and "M" are perfectly standard metric abbreviations, but the "b" and "B" thing is probably less than ten years old as any kind of general standard (outside of, say, telecoms or computer hardware design)
... a number of people do use "Mb" for Megabyte, but you're right, it has become far more common to use an upper case B for byte.
So my camera actually has 64megabytes of built in frame buffer, but I think the card that comes with it actually only holds about 16bits!
It's ridiculous when a camera comes (as standard) with less memory than an equivalent disposable film camera (in terms of number of frames you can take), but it shaves an extra 10 or 20 dollars off the price and that's all that matters when you're selling cameras.
The first thing I did when I bought the camera was go out and buy a 1GB CF card.
... why in some groups a "hacker" is someone who breaks into computer systems, while in others it's someone who "hacks" code fast and well (but not necessarily pre-plans the code)
And "cracker" is often used for someone who breaks the copy-protection on software products.
------------ The great thing about standards, is that there are so many of them
... but if you are using RAW mode, the time from shutter release until the light goes off on the card writing is 25 seconds (on CF cards, 15 seconds on a microdrive)
My Minolta Dimage 7Hi (5 megapixel) has a 64Mb buffer (and comes with a 16Mb card, go figure!)
taking 1.3Mp images at 7 frames a second, it can take about 140 pictures (so about 20 seconds) but then takes two minutes to write them to the memory card.
at 5Mp (fine) it can do about 2 frames a second for about nine seconds (18 5Mp images) which then takes an additional five seconds before the next picture can be taken
... it's really hard to meet the 1:1 etc. requirements unless you get there early.
The number of torrents I start downloading and then find that there's no more seeds etc. so I get 90% of a large file and then I'm stuck... I can stay up and be prepared to feed that 90% downstream but that just means more people with an incomplete RAR/ZIP/AVI whatever.
And if I get to a download late, I can sit there and download, say 100Mb fairly quickly from all those nice seeders (say 10 seeders and just two new downloaders), but then anyone new that comes along has 12 sites feeding and since 10 have 100% and then there's me with whatever I've downloaded so far, I hardly ever get a chance to feed downstream, so I sit there for days and never get anywhere near 1:1)
There needs to be a better way of rating people who want to be good torrent users... for example, keeping a torrent open should count for 4% an hour, so that if you keep the torrent open for a day after you've finished downloading, even if no-one feeds from you, you still get credit for making the torrent available.
I've just been looking at ordering a new PC and several of my suppliers now offer desktop and tower PCs without a floppy as standard, ditto laptops.
I've actually had to pick up a USB floppy drive "just in case" though usually if there's a USB port, I'll use the USB hard disk or memory stick instead.
... donors can state where they want the money used. The Red Cross has rules about how it uses the money it receives.
And the 9/11 victims families are already millionaries.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F 60 F1EF63B580C7A8CDDA80994DC404482&incamp=archive:sea rch families or loved ones of civilians killed on Sept 11 received, on average, $3.1 million in government and charitable awards; families of uniformed personnel received average of $4.2 million
The Red Cross says Between September 11 and November 9, the Red Cross has provided direct assistance amounting to $143.4 million.
All money that Americans have donated to the Liberty Fund is being used for its intended purpose: to help everyone across the country touched and impacted by these tragedies. Millions of dollars in financial assistance is going to families who lost a precious breadwinner. Facilities that are open 24 hours a day are helping the rescue workers with important needs such as food, shelter and emotional support. As well, countless volunteers are helping thousands of individuals and families who lost their living environment. http://www.redcross.org/news/ds/0109wtc/donation wo rk/myths.html
this article at BBC News states that a cyclone in 1970 killed up to 500,000 people in Bangladesh.
Also China suffered similar losses when an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 almost obliterated the north-eastern city of Tangshan in 1976. The official number of people killed was put at around 250,000, although some said the figure was more like 750,000.
And not much over 100 years ago In 1887, about 900,000 people died when [China's] Yellow River burst its banks in the worst-ever recorded flooding
Or, in terms of real catastrophe that *might* be human-created/contributed The droughts that swept across sub-Saharan African in the 1980s led to the starvation of an estimated one million people. They are threatening to do the same again
The making for private and domestic use of a recording of a broadcast or cable programme solely for the purpose of enabling it to be viewed or listened to at a more convenient time does not infringe any copyright in the broadcast or cable programme or in any work included in it.
Because without GPS how is the terrorist going to find New York city and the really big buildings... oh wait, I bet they could, like, use a map and ask directions, yeah that would do... of course once the terrorists have to produce ID cards (with the word TERRORIST across it in big letters) then people will stop pointing at the big buildings and going "over there" (sarcasm:off)
You are absolutely correct. I can't say for certain, but I'd be surprised if GPS played a big part in 9/11...... the problem with working out a decent risk assessment is that you have to have 1) Identify a risk 2) probability of that event occurring 3) cost/damage if that event occurs 4) cost/damage to prevent that event (or a set of possible solutions, each costed and each with a percentage probability of preventing the event)
And then someone has to make a decision about how much to spend and how much risk that removes.
1) So a suitcase nuke would indeed be a risk. 2) What is the probability of someone getting hold of such a device and using it against the US? Dunno. 3) Cost if it goes off, massive 4) Cost to prevent it... money, and potentially civil liberties, bomb shelters, freedom... or some percentage of those... or possibly changing US foreign policy to reduce the anti-American feeling in the rest of the world so that step 2 is reduced.
It's a dangerous world. Being able to switch off GPS and Galileo (or to degrade or encrypt their output so that only approved military and civilian forces can access the accurate signals) is a vital tool in the armoury, but it won't stop suitcase nukes or 9/11 style attacks. It won't stop biological attacks either. But it might stop the equivalent of a cruise missle or armed UAV from accurately targetting, say, the White House.
... I believe Article VI is the most appropriate reference... which includes the words
"The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty."
So for US based companies, the US would be required to supervise (though they could do this by joining an international space flight control organisation).
There is wording in Article VI to cover international organisations as well.
IANAL... and certainly you can't patent an idea, *but* you can lose the right to patent something in Europe if it becomes publicly published before you submit your patent. I believe that in the US you have up to twelve months after publishing to submit your patent application.
This is certainly what I was told by my company's patent lawyers, that we were not to announce new software concepts or techniques in our products until they had a chance to submit the patent application.
By announcing a novel method in a public forum, these pundits could remove the IP protection from that idea prior to the patent being awarded, certainly in Europe.
Amazon.co.uk has the 20Gb 4th Gen iPod for 207 pounds (which, even at the really wonderful/poor exchange rate of $1.90/£1 is under 400 dollars)
Personal imports from the US of items like iPods attract a customs duty of around 5%, a VAT of 17.5%, a handling charge of between five and ten pounds, a shipping cost and (optionally) an insurance cost. Usually you're looking at around 30% on top of the US price. And for many items you will not qualify for local technical support so if it arrives DOA, then you have to ship it back to the US for repairs/replacement.
So to make it worthwhile for me to buy an iPod from the US, I either have to be travelling and carry it with me (and "forget" to declare it on return, which is illegal of course), or the US price has to be significantly under 300 dollars (and it's currently 294 dollars on amazon.com).
So, for personal import, the UK and US prices on iPods are pretty much the same for me in the UK.
... speeding, drug taking, discharging a firearm in a public place, taking a gun on board an airplane, running a red light, driving without insurance, using a false passport, yelling "fire" in a crowded theater etc.
Part of being a member of society, is that you accept that society places restrictions ("laws") on what is and isn't acceptable behaviour. I have a right to LIFE as well as Liberty (according to the Constitution) and sometimes those contradict.
Liberty is not selfishness. Liberty is about each person taking personal responsibility, and when enough people show that they can't exercise their freedom and liberty in a safe and sensible manner, then, for the safety and freedom of all, restrictions (I believe) are sensible though regrettable.
I may feel perfectly safe using a cellphone while driving... but there are enough idiots out there that feel exactly the same but are not safe (several of whom have nearly hit my car in the last year or two).
Couple of starter points: 1) There are two antennas involved, the one on the access point/base station and the one on the individual computer/PDA etc. (let's call it "the receiver")
2) There is a maximum power allowed under the certified specification.
Given those two things above then you can have situations like the following:
a) you have a WiFi access point that is centrally located and receivers that don't know/care where the base station is. For example you have a WiFi access point on the second floor of a building and it is used by people in the basement and on the fourth floor as well as on the second floor.
b) you have a WiFi access point and receivers that are all on the same floor of a building (or near enough)
c) you have a WiFi access point and receiver that need to communicate over a fixed route (e.g. the LAN in building one connects to the LAN in building two over a WiFi link)
For case a) you need to radiate your signal in every direction including up and down. For case b) it only spreads out in a horizontal plane, so you can use the same amount of energy but get more range. For case c) you can use very directional antenna and get even greater range for the same distance.
And then there are things like, radio transmission takes battery power, so if you don't mind pointing your PDA antenna at the base station, you can use less power to send the signals and extend your battery life.
If you use an FM radio you probably already know that you can get a better (or worse) signal by adjusting the aerial direction and that you can get better reception by using an external aerial etc. but that's reception only... with the advances in aerial technology I wouldn't be surprised to find that someone has designed an antenna array that can figure out the direction that it receives the strongest signal and then chooses to use particular aerial elements to send back a signal, using just those elements pointing in the right direction to allow the maximum power to be "beamed" in the right direction.
I haven't read the specs for the Neuros II yet, but the problems with the Neuros 1 which stopped me buying one for the UK were:
1) The FM transmitter is illegal in the UK 2) The FM tuner could only (IIRC) get "odd" frequencies (like 102.3, 102.5, 102.7 etc.) and in the UK we have stations like 100.0 and 102.2 which it wouldn't be able to tune in 3) It only had USB1.0/1.1 (Neuros II fixes that) and transferring 20Gb (or 80Gb) on USB1 is something that I would only do ONCE! 4) With the hard disk backpack it was bigger than the iPod and similar 5) The 128Mb base unit could be used separately but if you then put the backpack on it, it erased the 128Mb of files in RAM to use it for the HD buffer (or so the forum stated).
But it was definitely on my "top 5" list when I was looking a few months back, but I ended up buying a cheap Archos on Amazon (180 bucks with a 50 dollar rebate bringing it down to 130, for the 20Gb V2 Recorder... it's heavy, a little flaky and I can empty the batteries with one hard day at work, but it's great for the price!)
There are several MP3/AVI players out there, plus the new ones from M$ etc. that can output a perfectly good audio and visual signals. They have a built in LCD screen, but there's no reason you couldn't plug in your Olympus EyeTrek or other heads up display, or (if the wristwatch supports a video in) on your wristwatch (and if it doesn't, then the equivalent of the iRock but a video transmitter that plugs into your MP3/AVI player should be simple (if power hungry even for the 3 yard range required)).
The Sony version is supposed to integrate nicely with HD/DVD recorders etc. so that you can leave your cable box recording all your shows, have them dumped down to the player over night and watch them on the train on the way into work in the morning (and no, not while you're driving!)
I don't have the figures to hand, but I'm sure someone will correct me...
I believe that Flash memory can be rewritten 100k times before failure... now that's a lot of saving new music files! However hard disks can be rewritten millions of times, which is really good for things like FAT tables, windows swap files etc.
For things like music, photographs etc. Flash is a much better technology, just a fair bit more expensive than hard disks (at the moment). But for computer storage and in particular swap file space, flash could fail (in particular memory locations) faster than an iPod battery! Of course this may be bypassed by some sort of checksum/bad sector system or a usage balance across flash so that the swap file doesn't use the same physical memory address for long before moving onto another area of memory...... just a pondering, no real point!
The gift certificate linked to says "So . . . here's what we've come up with for you. For $379, you get the following:
1. A very nice gift certificate worth $425 towards the purchase of a TAZ I. (We have not announced a suggested retail price for TAZ I yet.)"
And on another page "TAZ I will be available in limited quantities in early 2004".
So at the moment you can pay 379 dollars towards a product that isn't shipping yet and hasn't got a price announced yet.
But if you go through the Tight Talk discussion they are suggesting more than 650 dollars, see http://www.tightsystems.com/bb/showthread.php?s=dd 71268a60568efdaa275d86f1e86c46&threadid=347 for example.
Slashdot Mirror
... you own a CD, you're allowed to play the CD whereever you want (as long as it isn't public performance, broadcast etc.) since you paid the copyright holder (or their agent) the fee to have that CD and use it for personal use. And under section 109 you're permitted to sell or otherwise dispose of your CD without permission of the copyright holder.
... however copyright law still applies (or so most legal interpretations of the copyright law would say) and so you don't have the right to make another copy (on CD, MP3 or other) without the copyright holder's permission ... now you and I may agree that that law sucks, but it's what the wording is trying to say. As far as I can tell, US copyright law doesn't allow you to photocopy a whole book or scan it into your computer to read on a PDA except under some very strict conditions (e.g. visually impaired or as part of an educational course at an appropriate institution and then only for the purposes of the course). You buy a book, it's yours, and if you want to tear the hard cover off and put on a soft cover, that's fine. But (according to my reading of copyright) you don't have the right to make a copy of a hardback (even one you own) and bind the copy in softback, even for your own use (no commercial value and no resale). Same for music.
You own the CD, you can do anything you want with the CD
Change (or clarify) the law. It's your government, they work for *you*. The law, as it stands, is for the benefit of the big corporations and copyright holders.
... it's perfectly legal to make an interpretive "copy", so as long as they don't succeed in too accurate a portrayal of your conversation, they are safe, as far as the "performance" copyright is concerned. "The exclusive rights of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clauses (1) and (2) of section 106 do not extend to the making or duplication of another sound recording that consists entirely of an independent fixation of other sounds, even though such sounds imitate or simulate those in the copyrighted sound recording."
114
(b) The exclusive right of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clause (1) of section 106 is limited to the right to duplicate the sound recording in the form of phonorecords or copies that directly or indirectly recapture the actual sounds fixed in the recording. The exclusive right of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clause (2) of section 106 is limited to the right to prepare a derivative work in which the actual sounds fixed in the sound recording are rearranged, remixed, or otherwise altered in sequence or quality. The exclusive rights of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clauses (1) and (2) of section 106 do not extend to the making or duplication of another sound recording that consists entirely of an independent fixation of other sounds, even though such sounds imitate or simulate those in the copyrighted sound recording.
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#114
As I understand things (and IANAL) your speech would be a public performance rather than a sound recording and so would have different protection. Now if you record your speech first and then play them that recording, then if they can reproduce those actual sounds, you'd have a case!
You said "in my understadnding, once you buy a CD, you have a license to play it's songs in any format, in as many devices as you want and as many cars you have."
... though I recall that there was an exception for making a tape for a car (which I can't find at the moment), but the ARHA put in specific laws about digital copies (as did the DCMA) ... so it's at least a fuzzy area.
According to what I can find on US law, that's not true. You have the right to play your CD wherever you want, but you have not got the right to make a copy of it (in the same or any other format)
"Copyright in a sound recording protects the particular series of sounds "fixed" (embodied in a recording) against unauthorized reproduction and revision"
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ56.html#what
not what you think I wrote
/. isn't that "clever". Which is often good, I had sites that try to guess what I mean and then change what I've typed.
... that's not good enough for you, it isn't enough that you win, others must lose.
... you know...) :-)
I didn't say anything that equates to
you don't use OUTDATED experience to suggest you were correct in your representation of units
I said "Fair enough" which meant I agreed with you, or is that the first time that that has happened and you're not used to it. I also explained that claiming these were SI units I should have learned in 9th grade was wrong as they aren't SI units and they weren't even IEC/IEEE units when I was in 9th grade.
I have heard of HTML, I've also used lots of other sites that are clever enough to convert URLs into clickable links without requiring the user to type the stuff, obviously
And perhaps you should spend your time doing something constructive rather than picking at other people who have made a mistake? I agreed with you, it was a mistake, I should have used a capital "B". But no
Anyway, have a lovely evening, I'm off home now from my job where I write technical documentation (and yes, I am embarrassed I typed the wrong case for the "B", but to err is human, to really screw things up
... I've looked up the SI units, and MB, Mb etc. are not there. They are, however, IEEE standards, which is nearly the same, but since you insist on precise accuracy, you're wrong.
s .html
It is important to recognize that the new prefixes for binary multiples are not part of the International System of Units (SI)
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
And this NON-SI standard dates all the way back to when you were in nappies, i.e. 2000.
And in fact, I believe my camera has a 64MiB (mebibyte) buffer according to this standard.
Oh, and "b" for bit is IEEE, it's "bit" for IEC, and "B" is usually an octet, but not necessarily. So we could/should be using "o" instead for definitely 8-bit bytes.
This means my camera has a 64Mio buffer memory.
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj/binprefixe
Love, Grandpa.
p.s. I've enjoyed looking up and finding out this stuff, I hope you've enjoyed it equally.
you're throwing your own cultural assumptions around.
... and we used acoustic couplers to connect the Heathkit terminal we built (from transistors and resistors and such, all soldered by hand onto circuit boards) to the dial up mini-computer. The biggest memory I used up until 1983 was 64KB and it wasn't called "64KB", it was 64K.
Or maybe I'm just older than you.
I grew up in the UK and the US (moved back and forth) and my first computer predated the IBM PC (I used my first computer in 1976, I wrote my first graphics programs in 1979) and I can tell you for sure that MB, Mb and mb were interchangeable in those days, because only hard disks had Mb/MB/mb. Modems worked at 300bits per second, if you were lucky
So yes, I said I should have used MB since that's the usage NOW, but it was just flame bait to throw in that
The concepts of capital and small letters used in abbreviations was something everyone should have learned before grade 9 science
bit.
"m" and "M" are perfectly standard metric abbreviations, but the "b" and "B" thing is probably less than ten years old as any kind of general standard (outside of, say, telecoms or computer hardware design)
... a number of people do use "Mb" for Megabyte, but you're right, it has become far more common to use an upper case B for byte.
So my camera actually has 64megabytes of built in frame buffer, but I think the card that comes with it actually only holds about 16bits!
It's ridiculous when a camera comes (as standard) with less memory than an equivalent disposable film camera (in terms of number of frames you can take), but it shaves an extra 10 or 20 dollars off the price and that's all that matters when you're selling cameras.
The first thing I did when I bought the camera was go out and buy a 1GB CF card.
... why in some groups a "hacker" is someone who breaks into computer systems, while in others it's someone who "hacks" code fast and well (but not necessarily pre-plans the code)
And "cracker" is often used for someone who breaks the copy-protection on software products.
------------
The great thing about standards, is that there are so many of them
... but if you are using RAW mode, the time from shutter release until the light goes off on the card writing is 25 seconds (on CF cards, 15 seconds on a microdrive)
My Minolta Dimage 7Hi (5 megapixel) has a 64Mb buffer (and comes with a 16Mb card, go figure!)
i /p age9.asp
taking 1.3Mp images at 7 frames a second, it can take about 140 pictures (so about 20 seconds) but then takes two minutes to write them to the memory card.
at 5Mp (fine) it can do about 2 frames a second for about nine seconds (18 5Mp images) which then takes an additional five seconds before the next picture can be taken
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/minoltadimage7h
... it's really hard to meet the 1:1 etc. requirements unless you get there early.
... I can stay up and be prepared to feed that 90% downstream but that just means more people with an incomplete RAR/ZIP/AVI whatever.
... for example, keeping a torrent open should count for 4% an hour, so that if you keep the torrent open for a day after you've finished downloading, even if no-one feeds from you, you still get credit for making the torrent available.
The number of torrents I start downloading and then find that there's no more seeds etc. so I get 90% of a large file and then I'm stuck
And if I get to a download late, I can sit there and download, say 100Mb fairly quickly from all those nice seeders (say 10 seeders and just two new downloaders), but then anyone new that comes along has 12 sites feeding and since 10 have 100% and then there's me with whatever I've downloaded so far, I hardly ever get a chance to feed downstream, so I sit there for days and never get anywhere near 1:1)
There needs to be a better way of rating people who want to be good torrent users
I've just been looking at ordering a new PC and several of my suppliers now offer desktop and tower PCs without a floppy as standard, ditto laptops.
I've actually had to pick up a USB floppy drive "just in case" though usually if there's a USB port, I'll use the USB hard disk or memory stick instead.
... donors can state where they want the money used. The Red Cross has rules about how it uses the money it receives.
F 60 F1EF63B580C7A8CDDA80994DC404482&incamp=archive:sea rch
n wo rk/myths.html
And the 9/11 victims families are already millionaries.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=
families or loved ones of civilians killed on Sept 11 received, on average, $3.1 million in government and charitable awards; families of uniformed personnel received average of $4.2 million
The Red Cross says
Between September 11 and November 9, the Red Cross has provided direct assistance amounting to $143.4 million.
All money that Americans have donated to the Liberty Fund is being used for its intended purpose: to help everyone across the country touched and impacted by these tragedies. Millions of dollars in financial assistance is going to families who lost a precious breadwinner. Facilities that are open 24 hours a day are helping the rescue workers with important needs such as food, shelter and emotional support. As well, countless volunteers are helping thousands of individuals and families who lost their living environment.
http://www.redcross.org/news/ds/0109wtc/donatio
this article at BBC News
states that a cyclone in 1970 killed up to 500,000 people in Bangladesh.
Also China suffered similar losses when an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 almost obliterated the north-eastern city of Tangshan in 1976. The official number of people killed was put at around 250,000, although some said the figure was more like 750,000.
And not much over 100 years ago In 1887, about 900,000 people died when [China's] Yellow River burst its banks in the worst-ever recorded flooding
Or, in terms of real catastrophe that *might* be human-created/contributed
The droughts that swept across sub-Saharan African in the 1980s led to the starvation of an estimated one million people. They are threatening to do the same again
I always thought it was illegal in the UK, but checking the appropriate government website I find that I was wrong
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48), section 70 says
The making for private and domestic use of a recording of a broadcast or cable programme solely for the purpose of enabling it to be viewed or listened to at a more convenient time does not infringe any copyright in the broadcast or cable programme or in any work included in it.
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/Ukpga_1988004 8_en_4.htm#mdiv70
Because without GPS how is the terrorist going to find New York city and the really big buildings ... oh wait, I bet they could, like, use a map and ask directions, yeah that would do ... of course once the terrorists have to produce ID cards (with the word TERRORIST across it in big letters) then people will stop pointing at the big buildings and going "over there" (sarcasm:off)
... ... the problem with working out a decent risk assessment is that you have to have
... money, and potentially civil liberties, bomb shelters, freedom ... or some percentage of those ... or possibly changing US foreign policy to reduce the anti-American feeling in the rest of the world so that step 2 is reduced.
You are absolutely correct. I can't say for certain, but I'd be surprised if GPS played a big part in 9/11
1) Identify a risk
2) probability of that event occurring
3) cost/damage if that event occurs
4) cost/damage to prevent that event (or a set of possible solutions, each costed and each with a percentage probability of preventing the event)
And then someone has to make a decision about how much to spend and how much risk that removes.
1) So a suitcase nuke would indeed be a risk.
2) What is the probability of someone getting hold of such a device and using it against the US? Dunno.
3) Cost if it goes off, massive
4) Cost to prevent it
It's a dangerous world. Being able to switch off GPS and Galileo (or to degrade or encrypt their output so that only approved military and civilian forces can access the accurate signals) is a vital tool in the armoury, but it won't stop suitcase nukes or 9/11 style attacks. It won't stop biological attacks either. But it might stop the equivalent of a cruise missle or armed UAV from accurately targetting, say, the White House.
... I believe Article VI is the most appropriate reference ... which includes the words
"The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty."
So for US based companies, the US would be required to supervise (though they could do this by joining an international space flight control organisation).
There is wording in Article VI to cover international organisations as well.
IANAL ... and certainly you can't patent an idea, *but* you can lose the right to patent something in Europe if it becomes publicly published before you submit your patent. I believe that in the US you have up to twelve months after publishing to submit your patent application.
This is certainly what I was told by my company's patent lawyers, that we were not to announce new software concepts or techniques in our products until they had a chance to submit the patent application.
By announcing a novel method in a public forum, these pundits could remove the IP protection from that idea prior to the patent being awarded, certainly in Europe.
Amazon.co.uk has the 20Gb 4th Gen iPod for 207 pounds (which, even at the really wonderful/poor exchange rate of $1.90/£1 is under 400 dollars)
Personal imports from the US of items like iPods attract a customs duty of around 5%, a VAT of 17.5%, a handling charge of between five and ten pounds, a shipping cost and (optionally) an insurance cost. Usually you're looking at around 30% on top of the US price. And for many items you will not qualify for local technical support so if it arrives DOA, then you have to ship it back to the US for repairs/replacement.
So to make it worthwhile for me to buy an iPod from the US, I either have to be travelling and carry it with me (and "forget" to declare it on return, which is illegal of course), or the US price has to be significantly under 300 dollars (and it's currently 294 dollars on amazon.com).
So, for personal import, the UK and US prices on iPods are pretty much the same for me in the UK.
... speeding, drug taking, discharging a firearm in a public place, taking a gun on board an airplane, running a red light, driving without insurance, using a false passport, yelling "fire" in a crowded theater etc.
... but there are enough idiots out there that feel exactly the same but are not safe (several of whom have nearly hit my car in the last year or two).
Part of being a member of society, is that you accept that society places restrictions ("laws") on what is and isn't acceptable behaviour. I have a right to LIFE as well as Liberty (according to the Constitution) and sometimes those contradict.
Liberty is not selfishness. Liberty is about each person taking personal responsibility, and when enough people show that they can't exercise their freedom and liberty in a safe and sensible manner, then, for the safety and freedom of all, restrictions (I believe) are sensible though regrettable.
I may feel perfectly safe using a cellphone while driving
YMMV
Couple of starter points:
... with the advances in aerial technology I wouldn't be surprised to find that someone has designed an antenna array that can figure out the direction that it receives the strongest signal and then chooses to use particular aerial elements to send back a signal, using just those elements pointing in the right direction to allow the maximum power to be "beamed" in the right direction.
1) There are two antennas involved, the one on the access point/base station and the one on the individual computer/PDA etc. (let's call it "the receiver")
2) There is a maximum power allowed under the certified specification.
Given those two things above then you can have situations like the following:
a) you have a WiFi access point that is centrally located and receivers that don't know/care where the base station is. For example you have a WiFi access point on the second floor of a building and it is used by people in the basement and on the fourth floor as well as on the second floor.
b) you have a WiFi access point and receivers that are all on the same floor of a building (or near enough)
c) you have a WiFi access point and receiver that need to communicate over a fixed route (e.g. the LAN in building one connects to the LAN in building two over a WiFi link)
For case a) you need to radiate your signal in every direction including up and down. For case b) it only spreads out in a horizontal plane, so you can use the same amount of energy but get more range. For case c) you can use very directional antenna and get even greater range for the same distance.
And then there are things like, radio transmission takes battery power, so if you don't mind pointing your PDA antenna at the base station, you can use less power to send the signals and extend your battery life.
If you use an FM radio you probably already know that you can get a better (or worse) signal by adjusting the aerial direction and that you can get better reception by using an external aerial etc. but that's reception only
I haven't read the specs for the Neuros II yet, but the problems with the Neuros 1 which stopped me buying one for the UK were:
... it's heavy, a little flaky and I can empty the batteries with one hard day at work, but it's great for the price!)
1) The FM transmitter is illegal in the UK
2) The FM tuner could only (IIRC) get "odd" frequencies (like 102.3, 102.5, 102.7 etc.) and in the UK we have stations like 100.0 and 102.2 which it wouldn't be able to tune in
3) It only had USB1.0/1.1 (Neuros II fixes that) and transferring 20Gb (or 80Gb) on USB1 is something that I would only do ONCE!
4) With the hard disk backpack it was bigger than the iPod and similar
5) The 128Mb base unit could be used separately but if you then put the backpack on it, it erased the 128Mb of files in RAM to use it for the HD buffer (or so the forum stated).
But it was definitely on my "top 5" list when I was looking a few months back, but I ended up buying a cheap Archos on Amazon (180 bucks with a 50 dollar rebate bringing it down to 130, for the 20Gb V2 Recorder
There are several MP3/AVI players out there, plus the new ones from M$ etc. that can output a perfectly good audio and visual signals. They have a built in LCD screen, but there's no reason you couldn't plug in your Olympus EyeTrek or other heads up display, or (if the wristwatch supports a video in) on your wristwatch (and if it doesn't, then the equivalent of the iRock but a video transmitter that plugs into your MP3/AVI player should be simple (if power hungry even for the 3 yard range required)).
The Sony version is supposed to integrate nicely with HD/DVD recorders etc. so that you can leave your cable box recording all your shows, have them dumped down to the player over night and watch them on the train on the way into work in the morning (and no, not while you're driving!)
I don't have the figures to hand, but I'm sure someone will correct me ...
... now that's a lot of saving new music files! However hard disks can be rewritten millions of times, which is really good for things like FAT tables, windows swap files etc.
... ... just a pondering, no real point!
I believe that Flash memory can be rewritten 100k times before failure
For things like music, photographs etc. Flash is a much better technology, just a fair bit more expensive than hard disks (at the moment). But for computer storage and in particular swap file space, flash could fail (in particular memory locations) faster than an iPod battery! Of course this may be bypassed by some sort of checksum/bad sector system or a usage balance across flash so that the swap file doesn't use the same physical memory address for long before moving onto another area of memory
The gift certificate linked to says
d 71268a60568efdaa275d86f1e86c46&threadid=347 for example.
"So . . . here's what we've come up with for you. For $379, you get the following:
1. A very nice gift certificate worth $425 towards the purchase of a TAZ I. (We have not announced a suggested retail price for TAZ I yet.)"
And on another page "TAZ I will be available in limited quantities in early 2004".
So at the moment you can pay 379 dollars towards a product that isn't shipping yet and hasn't got a price announced yet.
But if you go through the Tight Talk discussion they are suggesting more than 650 dollars, see http://www.tightsystems.com/bb/showthread.php?s=d