I have been checking Crutchfield every day on the AIWA CDC-mp3 and have NEVER seen it in stock. I assume its not TOTAL vaporware, but I won't know that until I hear from someone who actually has one.
One of my favorite online cartoons, The Adventures of Beverlee, just got into a similar situation.
They use Barbie dolls, starring the infamous "Share-A-Smile Becky" (Beverlee, the paraplegic-wannabe) to make the most wonderfully perverted cartoon you could ever see.
It seems to me that they have a good case for fair use, and just no desire to fight the Man (woman, doll)?
Check out the letter for yourself at Cripworld. Unfortunately, you won't be able to see the cartoon that I've laughed at so many times...=(
Next thing you know, Doubleclick will be sending you ads for metamucil and high-fiber foods, based on data collected from your toilet and your refridgerator.
I have noticed in my work with Samba that there seem to be issues with File- and Record-locking using older database sytems (Specifically Dbase), that can only be solved by turning off Samba file locking (which causes its own problems, of course).
Do you know what the cause of this incompatibility is, and is this something that will be fixed in the future?
Well, there is absolutely no reason why those artists can't post their music as shareware; but that shareware will have to be done on the honor system. Some software companies do well with this kind of system (take a look at ambrosiasoftware.com).
Enhanced ID3 tags which contained information on how to contact an artist to pay a shareware fee might be a good idea...
The point is that the old business models are going away; there is no way to make money by restricting the flow of information: information itself will no longer be a "good." to be bought or sold.
Shareware fees would simply be a way of helping to support the production of the information that you like to get, much in the same way that one donates to the salvation army, or pay a tip.
=)
OOoohh...I like that, Tipping the musician for a good song I got online! Like a worldwide open mike night!
That's an easy enough position to take, but progress can't be halted.
The fact is, electronic communication is making the commoditization of information obsolete. It will become very difficult to make money in the future on the distribution of creative work...as the distribution of information is no longer a value-added process; instead, it is an AUTOMATIC process.
The only way to keep information out of someone's hands will be to keep it a secret, which would negate the point of the creative work.
This can be a boon, and it can be a problem, but it WILL happen; given the direction of computer internetworking, it is inevitible.
New business models for musicians and other artists creating informational work will have to be formed.
Musicians, for instance, will be able to use the self-publishing capabilities of the net to increase their visibility without having to go through the interference of the record companies. Instead of making money from recordings, musicians will make their money from touring and promotions.
The hundreds of companies making money by leeching funds from creative artists for the service of distribution of the artists' work will go out of business, unless they get their heads out of the sand, and change their business model to perform a real service for both consumer and artist.
In short: Non-secret information will be free, and you might as well get used to the idea, because the consequences are vast.
I fail to understand how the Beam-It system compromises the user's privacy...although they certainly suffer from the Ralph's Club syndrome, it does not seem like this is something that would constitute a full-scale privacy breach, especially if there is an option to opt out...certainly not on the same scale as the doubleclick cookie issue.
Maybe I'm just missing something. But then I still use my Ralph's Club card too.
Not that I find Beam It to be the most useful thing in the world. I much prefer keeping everything on my 36GB HD =)
The Integrated circuit was not NEARLY the invention that the Vacuum Tube was. The IC was simply a synthesis of existing transistor and photographic technologies.
The Vacuum tube was something entirely new, and nothing had ever been developed before that could do what it could do. Without this invention the field of electronics would not even exist.
Um...Sony is a MEMBER of the RIAA. That would be why the RIAA does not go after them.
But the key point is that there is no way that the spread of Digital music can be controlled. The RIAA's efforts to sue Napster, Lycos and the others are all futile...
The information is there, and easily accessible. as long as people have access to the internet, and can directly contact others on the internet, there is no way to stop the spread of this digital information, since it is easily copied from the very products it is sold on.
It is as if books were sold as ASCII files, and then the publishing industry tried to stop people from transferring compressed text files to each other, because they might contain copyrighted books.
It wouldn't work! The record companies have their heads in the sand, and will end up going out of business because of it.
The old paradigm of record companies selling music for a profit is over.
New buisiness models will appear...probably without the middlemen. Bands will make money doing personal appearances.
There seems to be a misunderstanding here regarding the principle of free speech. Given that free speech is a good thing, it is odd that some people feel that all ideas must be weighted equally, and, as been stated elsewhere, people are more likely to defend unpopular ideas then popular ones.
It is true that people who express repugnant ideas should neither be prosecuted nor physically harmed for expressing their opinions.
But IT IS AS MUCH MY RIGHT TO DISAGREE AS IT IS FOR HIM TO HAVE HIS OPINION, DAMMIT!
If you try to surpress my right to flame back at this guy for his opinion. By doing so, you are trying to repress MY freedom of speech. How dare you!
The Majority has as much right to express its opinion as the Minority.
Good point though, I should have compared the idea of killing disabled children to be in the same category as the Genocide of the Jews, and Gypsies for "Eugenics". Inhumane, Morally repugnant, and societally dangerous. Still makes for a whacko idea, though.
Question for all: Why should a repugnant idea be granted the same weight as an idea that is obviously good? Just because one person holds an opinion, does that mean that all of society has to think that this opinion is worthwhile, or even listen to it?
My answer: No. We just don't have the right to prosecute or harm this person for having that opinion. We do, however, have as much right to disagree (and express our disagreement) as this person has to express their opinion.
American society has NEVER been a place where it has been acceptible to deviate too far from the norm. One might argue that this is why those old white guys in the 1700s felt comfortable releaseing a large portion of control over to the masses; they knew that they wouldn't let the crazies dominate.
Katz: What do you expect? When people hear an idea that they are passionately opposed to, they will try to SHOOT IT DOWN. This is typical of debate.
People who make their living on controversy, whether you call them pundits or trolls, should not be surprised when there is a negative backlash to their ideas. The more controversial the idea, the more flamed that person is likely to get. This is a tradition of the internet, and is a controlling influence on those who would like to bombard us with their opinions, no matter how insane they might be.
I personally consider the idea of killing off disabled children to fall into the Whacko category, along with those folks who try to tell me that the holocaust didn't happen, the moon mission was a fake, and that the Earth is really flat. People who push these kinds of ideas in front of me tend to get pushed right back. The more I care about an issue, the harder I will push. Surprise!
When do we get to have an article saying how it would be better if we killed all kids at birth who might grow up to be lawyers? I could get behind that one:-)
There almost seems to be a rule amongst journalists that it is wrong to gain a thorough understanding of the issues involved. Cringly is essentially saying that journalism that does not present a shallow, poorly-understood version of the facts isn't doing their job.
I always thought that getting the facts correct was the #1 priority...at least that is what my Journalism professor taught me. I Guess Mr. Cringely has forgotten his basics.
Or maybe Cringely feels that we are benefitting somehow...that by running the article by the slashdotters, that the slashdotters look better within the text of the article? Cringely needs to get a clue. This article was not about Slashdot, therefore running it by the slashdotters should not pose a problem for a journalist.
This case is no different than a grad student having their thesis destroyed by a review board.
Well, once again, I am underwhelmed by the slashdotters inability to see to the core of the issue.
The thing is, as most of the Able-bodied forget, that disabled folks are HUMAN BEINGS, with human feelings and desires.
It is easy to look at a disabled person and see only the equipment that helps them stay mobile or keeps them alive. thats certainly all the average person does. But this does not make the sum total of a person's being, and this kind of dehumanization is the sort of thing that allows for the genocide of entire minorities.
The Nazis certainly had a similar set of principles that told them why it was sensible, from a eugenics point of view, to eliminate the handicapped, homosexuals, Jews and Gypsies. Their science said that they were inferior, after all.
The hole you are looking into goes a lot further down than you are seeing.
I guarantee to all of you, that your opinion on what to do with the disabled will change when it is YOU with the spinal cord injury.
Yes, this is an angry post. But that is the only way to react when you see your people being oppressed. The disabled are my people. We will not stand by and allow ourselves to be exterminated at birth. Just as we have forced an unwilling society to allow us into your public buildings, your public transportation, protected those of us that refused to go into nursing homes, we will protect the children too. The ones with Spinabifida, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Distrophy, and many other conditions. We will not LET you kill them, for they are our brothers and sisters.
It seems to me that the best reason to go IDE instead of SCSI is a price/performance issue.
Assuming that the do not need the other benefits of SCSI (more units per bus, longer cable lengths) then they get a better price/performance ratio from IDE.
Looking at the Chart on my wall, a UDMA-66 drive gets 66 mb/sec. this is better than SCSI UW, but not as good as Ultra2 SCSI.
Now, a 10 GB UDMA66 drive from maxtor at 7200 RPM costs about $110. An equivalent drive using either of the above SCSI technologies costs about $225, and this does not include the cost of the motherboard bus.
Since USB/Firewire is Apple's solution of choice for external drives, it is no wonder they went with IDE.
All this means is that the legal team (for Corel Corporation, as well as many others) needs to be educated on the full ramifications of the Gnu Public License before they trot out the same old License Agreements/Beta Test restrictions that they have always used.
The GPL is going to require a lot of rethinking of standard legal department processes in the years to come.
The mistakes Corel made are not due to any attempt to subvert the GPL, merely a lack of understanding of it (or even knowledge of it) amongst key personnel.
--"You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think."
Per the article I read in 2600 a few months ago, (and other sources) any packet in the subnet can be sniffed when the NIC is put into promiscuous mode.
But per the Salon article, some Cable Modems filter the packets based on what is destined for the given ethernet address.
MediaOne does limit their connection to a single MAC address...you cannot simply switch ethernet cards attatched to their cable modem...so this is a technical possibility.
So without actually switching my own NIC to promiscuous mode (which definately IS AGAINST the TOS), I see no way to verify which is the case.
--M
P.S. Aside from not giving any real support for Linux, MediaOne has not been unfreindly to me running a non-supported OS.
I dont know about anyone else, but I would be very interested to see some benchmarking of the G4 machine (running, say Linux PPC) vs. an equivalently-priced, single-processor x86 system (Athlon 650?) running a Pentium-optimized Linux distro, e.g. Linux Mandrake.
Although a cursory Deja search shows me that nobody seems to know whether Linux PPC will run on ths machine yet, or whether there need to be major tweaking first. The 400 MHz system uses a Yosemite motherboard, but the 450 and 500 Mhz machines do not...so who knows.
The point here though, is that gauging the superiority (or inferiority) of the hardware by comparing Mac OS performance to Windows performance is a fairly ludicrous thing to do. Using two optimized Linux Distros seems far more fair, and can lead to a rational cost-benefit analysis for someone interested in buying the hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
(Score -5, Flamebait)
Ah well...just shows you how out of touch I am
=)
Gotta admit...I like the Fear and Hacking acticle...
This is the way to go to defcon.
I have been checking Crutchfield every day on the AIWA CDC-mp3 and have NEVER seen it in stock. I assume its not TOTAL vaporware, but I won't know that until I hear from someone who actually has one.
I wouldn't exactly call it "available"
-M
One of my favorite online cartoons, The Adventures of Beverlee, just got into a similar situation.
They use Barbie dolls, starring the infamous "Share-A-Smile Becky" (Beverlee, the paraplegic-wannabe) to make the most wonderfully perverted cartoon you could ever see.
It seems to me that they have a good case for fair use, and just no desire to fight the Man (woman, doll)?
Check out the letter for yourself at Cripworld. Unfortunately, you won't be able to see the cartoon that I've laughed at so many times...=(
Next thing you know, Doubleclick will be sending you ads for metamucil and high-fiber foods, based on data collected from your toilet and your refridgerator.
Well, I am interested, if it is possible I can get my specific dbase app to run on a samba server.
The app in question is using the Clipper/Codebase command set. (Don't ask why).
Feel free to email me (remove the ANTISPAM).
I have noticed in my work with Samba that there seem to be issues with File- and Record-locking using older database sytems (Specifically Dbase), that can only be solved by turning off Samba file locking (which causes its own problems, of course).
Do you know what the cause of this incompatibility is, and is this something that will be fixed in the future?
Well, there is absolutely no reason why those artists can't post their music as shareware; but that shareware will have to be done on the honor system. Some software companies do well with this kind of system (take a look at ambrosiasoftware.com).
Enhanced ID3 tags which contained information on how to contact an artist to pay a shareware fee might be a good idea...
The point is that the old business models are going away; there is no way to make money by restricting the flow of information: information itself will no longer be a "good." to be bought or sold.
Shareware fees would simply be a way of helping to support the production of the information that you like to get, much in the same way that one donates to the salvation army, or pay a tip.
=)
OOoohh...I like that, Tipping the musician for a good song I got online! Like a worldwide open mike night!
That's an easy enough position to take, but progress can't be halted.
The fact is, electronic communication is making the commoditization of information obsolete. It will become very difficult to make money in the future on the distribution of creative work...as the distribution of information is no longer a value-added process; instead, it is an AUTOMATIC process.
The only way to keep information out of someone's hands will be to keep it a secret, which would negate the point of the creative work.
This can be a boon, and it can be a problem, but it WILL happen; given the direction of computer internetworking, it is inevitible.
New business models for musicians and other artists creating informational work will have to be formed.
Musicians, for instance, will be able to use the self-publishing capabilities of the net to increase their visibility without having to go through the interference of the record companies. Instead of making money from recordings, musicians will make their money from touring and promotions.
The hundreds of companies making money by leeching funds from creative artists for the service of distribution of the artists' work will go out of business, unless they get their heads out of the sand, and change their business model to perform a real service for both consumer and artist.
In short: Non-secret information will be free, and you might as well get used to the idea, because the consequences are vast.
I fail to understand how the Beam-It system compromises the user's privacy...although they certainly suffer from the Ralph's Club syndrome, it does not seem like this is something that would constitute a full-scale privacy breach, especially if there is an option to opt out...certainly not on the same scale as the doubleclick cookie issue.
Maybe I'm just missing something. But then I still use my Ralph's Club card too.
Not that I find Beam It to be the most useful thing in the world. I much prefer keeping everything on my 36GB HD =)
Just to reply to one section of your comment:
The Integrated circuit was not NEARLY the invention that the Vacuum Tube was. The IC was simply a synthesis of existing transistor and photographic technologies.
The Vacuum tube was something entirely new, and nothing had ever been developed before that could do what it could do. Without this invention the field of electronics would not even exist.
Modify that to "Young Country" and you've got a deal.
Anyone who calls Mearle Haggard soulless just don't know soul.
There are three Allen robot books, and I'm of the opinion that they are not as poorly written as you say.
My feeling is that Allen has done a good job of replicating the Asimov feel. It'll never be as good as the original, of course.
You want poorly written, take a look at Greg Bear's Foundation novel (yeughh!)
Um...Sony is a MEMBER of the RIAA. That would be why the RIAA does not go after them.
But the key point is that there is no way that the spread of Digital music can be controlled. The RIAA's efforts to sue Napster, Lycos and the others are all futile...
The information is there, and easily accessible. as long as people have access to the internet, and can directly contact others on the internet, there is no way to stop the spread of this digital information, since it is easily copied from the very products it is sold on.
It is as if books were sold as ASCII files, and then the publishing industry tried to stop people from transferring compressed text files to each other, because they might contain copyrighted books.
It wouldn't work! The record companies have their heads in the sand, and will end up going out of business because of it.
The old paradigm of record companies selling music for a profit is over.
New buisiness models will appear...probably without the middlemen. Bands will make money doing personal appearances.
Information will be free!
Does anyone know if the new hotsync manager will work with a Pilot running PalmOS 3.0? (I've got a III and a IIIe...)
There seems to be a misunderstanding here regarding the principle of free speech. Given that free speech is a good thing, it is odd that some people feel that all ideas must be weighted equally, and, as been stated elsewhere, people are more likely to defend unpopular ideas then popular ones.
It is true that people who express repugnant ideas should neither be prosecuted nor physically harmed for expressing their opinions.
But IT IS AS MUCH MY RIGHT TO DISAGREE AS IT IS FOR HIM TO HAVE HIS OPINION, DAMMIT!
If you try to surpress my right to flame back at this guy for his opinion. By doing so, you are trying to repress MY freedom of speech. How dare you!
The Majority has as much right to express its opinion as the Minority.
Good point though, I should have compared the idea of killing disabled children to be in the same category as the Genocide of the Jews, and Gypsies for "Eugenics". Inhumane, Morally repugnant, and societally dangerous. Still makes for a whacko idea, though.
Question for all: Why should a repugnant idea be granted the same weight as an idea that is obviously good? Just because one person holds an opinion, does that mean that all of society has to think that this opinion is worthwhile, or even listen to it?
My answer: No. We just don't have the right to prosecute or harm this person for having that opinion. We do, however, have as much right to disagree (and express our disagreement) as this person has to express their opinion.
American society has NEVER been a place where it has been acceptible to deviate too far from the norm. One might argue that this is why those old white guys in the 1700s felt comfortable releaseing a large portion of control over to the masses; they knew that they wouldn't let the crazies dominate.
:-)
Katz: What do you expect? When people hear an idea that they are passionately opposed to, they will try to SHOOT IT DOWN. This is typical of debate.
People who make their living on controversy, whether you call them pundits or trolls, should not be surprised when there is a negative backlash to their ideas. The more controversial the idea, the more flamed that person is likely to get. This is a tradition of the internet, and is a controlling influence on those who would like to bombard us with their opinions, no matter how insane they might be.
I personally consider the idea of killing off disabled children to fall into the Whacko category, along with those folks who try to tell me that the holocaust didn't happen, the moon mission was a fake, and that the Earth is really flat. People who push these kinds of ideas in front of me tend to get pushed right back. The more I care about an issue, the harder I will push. Surprise!
When do we get to have an article saying how it would be better if we killed all kids at birth who might grow up to be lawyers? I could get behind that one
There almost seems to be a rule amongst journalists that it is wrong to gain a thorough understanding of the issues involved. Cringly is essentially saying that journalism that does not present a shallow, poorly-understood version of the facts isn't doing their job.
I always thought that getting the facts correct was the #1 priority...at least that is what my Journalism professor taught me. I Guess Mr.
Cringely has forgotten his basics.
Or maybe Cringely feels that we are benefitting somehow...that by running the article by the slashdotters, that the slashdotters look better within the text of the article? Cringely needs to get a clue. This article was not about Slashdot, therefore running it by the slashdotters should not pose a problem for a journalist.
This case is no different than a grad student having their thesis destroyed by a review board.
I have been moping around for the last few weeks because I lost my Leatherman II...now I know exactly what I want as a replacement...MwaHAHAHAHA
Well, once again, I am underwhelmed by the slashdotters inability to see to the core of the issue.
The thing is, as most of the Able-bodied forget, that disabled folks are HUMAN BEINGS, with human feelings and desires.
It is easy to look at a disabled person and see only the equipment that helps them stay mobile or keeps them alive. thats certainly all the average person does. But this does not make the sum total of a person's being, and this kind of dehumanization is the sort of thing that allows for the genocide of entire minorities.
The Nazis certainly had a similar set of principles that told them why it was sensible, from a eugenics point of view, to eliminate the handicapped, homosexuals, Jews and Gypsies. Their science said that they were inferior, after all.
The hole you are looking into goes a lot further down than you are seeing.
I guarantee to all of you, that your opinion on what to do with the disabled will change when it is YOU with the spinal cord injury.
Yes, this is an angry post. But that is the only way to react when you see your people being oppressed. The disabled are my people. We will not stand by and allow ourselves to be exterminated at birth. Just as we have forced an unwilling society to allow us into your public buildings, your public transportation, protected those of us that refused to go into nursing homes, we will protect the children too. The ones with Spinabifida, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Distrophy, and many other conditions. We will not LET you kill them, for they are our brothers and sisters.
Why not ask the people who actually LIVE with disability what they think?
--M
It seems to me that the best reason to go IDE instead of SCSI is a price/performance issue.
Assuming that the do not need the other benefits of SCSI (more units per bus, longer cable lengths) then they get a better price/performance ratio from IDE.
Looking at the Chart on my wall, a UDMA-66 drive gets 66 mb/sec. this is better than SCSI UW, but not as good as Ultra2 SCSI.
Now, a 10 GB UDMA66 drive from maxtor at 7200 RPM costs about $110. An equivalent drive using either of the above SCSI technologies costs about $225, and this does not include the cost of the motherboard bus.
Since USB/Firewire is Apple's solution of choice for external drives, it is no wonder they went with IDE.
All this means is that the legal team (for Corel Corporation, as well as many others) needs to be educated on the full ramifications of the Gnu Public License before they trot out the same old License Agreements/Beta Test restrictions that they have always used.
The GPL is going to require a lot of rethinking of standard legal department processes in the years to come.
The mistakes Corel made are not due to any attempt to subvert the GPL, merely a lack of understanding of it (or even knowledge of it) amongst key personnel.
--"You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think."
Now this is the crux of the security argument:
Per the article I read in 2600 a few months ago, (and other sources) any packet in the subnet can be sniffed when the NIC is put into promiscuous mode.
But per the Salon article, some Cable Modems filter the packets based on what is destined for the given ethernet address.
MediaOne does limit their connection to a single MAC address...you cannot simply switch ethernet cards attatched to their cable modem...so this is a technical possibility.
So without actually switching my own NIC to promiscuous mode (which definately IS AGAINST the TOS), I see no way to verify which is the case.
--M
P.S. Aside from not giving any real support for Linux, MediaOne has not been unfreindly to me running a non-supported OS.
I dont know about anyone else, but I would be very interested to see some benchmarking of the G4 machine (running, say Linux PPC) vs. an equivalently-priced, single-processor x86 system (Athlon 650?) running a Pentium-optimized Linux distro, e.g. Linux Mandrake.
Although a cursory Deja search shows me that nobody seems to know whether Linux PPC will run on ths machine yet, or whether there need to be major tweaking first. The 400 MHz system uses a Yosemite motherboard, but the 450 and 500 Mhz machines do not...so who knows.
The point here though, is that gauging the superiority (or inferiority) of the hardware by comparing Mac OS performance to Windows performance is a fairly ludicrous thing to do. Using two optimized Linux Distros seems far more fair, and can lead to a rational cost-benefit analysis for someone interested in buying the hardware.