You cannot force people to share your beliefs, especially a community that values freedom as much as the Linux crowd
According to the Article, Stallman won't speak to the SIGlinux crowd unless they acknowledge his existence. Barr seems to think that this amounts to "force." I should wish the IRS forced us to pay taxes the same way.
So the bottom line is that instead of having one copy of a piece of code every app maker will simply hedge their bets and statically compile every possible dependency into their app. The result is that every app will have every library.
Which at the end of the day is probably not as bad as it sounds. Programs would work reliably - and the cost would be a few mils worth of diskspace. OR we could save all that memory and use just two digits to represent dates.
In todays reality - memory is next to free. Even cycles are cheap - it's realiability that expensive - so what's the complaint?
First of all, Door and window sensors are in my opinion overrated. Magnetic sensors won't detect someone putting their foot through the glass and coming straight through.
So you have to add glass breakage detectors - which is already four times the effort of a single infrared motion detector.
One of the best looking - best performing passive infrared detector is the sharpshooter from Sentrol It is built on an asic and incorporates years of professional experience.
The beauty of the PIR is that it is highly effective with minimal false alarms. The sun moving across the sky, casting a hot spot on an interior wall for example may trigger a camera system, as may the a/c system moving a curtain. A good pir - properly placed in an outside corner looking in is very trustworthy.
If you want easy - ITI makes the best wireless system - now in their third design iteration of asic based transmitters - they have far surpassed the garage door opener days of wireless.
Professional over the counter system
One problem with PC based security is battery life. Many burglars either shut off the power or take advantage of power outages to improve vulnerability. Professional systems can run several days without power.
The weakest link in most security systems though isn't the detectors or the batteries - it's the phone line. The salesmen learns quickly to ignore this point because the solutions are expensive, and once raised - their isn't much point to paying 30 buck a month for monitoring when a simple screwdriver can unhook the telephone.
In most places the phone company insists on placing the connection outside, where they and anyone else can easily get to it when you're not at home.
The Siren is completely useless - worn thin by the mass production of car alarms with their characteristic sequence of pseudo police siren sounds. You can forget anyone caring about your house until about two hours later when it finally makes them angry enough to want your head shrunk and placed on a pole.
Cellphone connections are expensive - as are radio systems in most places. People have tried direct connections, but if the wire gets broken - too aften they just send the repairmen out to fix it - so what's the gain? Constant IP monitoring would generate the same kind of false positives everytime At&t cable internet goes down - every police car in town would be dispatched to check on "suspicious loss of service".
Thus you need a staged warning system with an off-site mayday server.
Put infrared detectors outside especially on the side of the house with the service connections - connect them to lights and enjoy the benefit of a house that welcomes you. In Addition, have the system send a mayday signal to the server whenever activity is detected around the house. Maintain this connection until either the house is entered and the system turned off - or the connection is cut - thus triggering a genuinly suspicious disconnection. In this case - the mayday server calls you - then the cops - your mother-in-law etc . . .
Bottom line - and the reason i left the business - the most effective part of the system is the stickers on the window. The technology is mostly smoke and mirrors.
When I was in Kiev - I used several VoIP - especially the options which dialed numbers in the US for almost free (AolPhone and another which I forget)
Obviously they intenede to mke money on Ads - but the demographics - Third World Cafe users - probably aren't very promising to advertisers.\\This must explain the restructuring and otherwise discontinuation of those systems.
In the US - most cellphones are National Plans with cheap rates at night - I presume the people who would have wanted to chat cheap here - just use their cells - I do.
If you were a large government agency and you wanted powered flight - your best bet would have been the uneducated wright brothers. We don't know what the best bet will be for cancer - but the odds are about even that when we find a solution - it will come without education.
Personally - I suspect that the most curious people are the most likely to reject institutions of every kind as being constrictive - including college - which leads to its own conclusion.
I generally agree that college should not be used as a measuring stick. There is less evidence to suggest that "educated" people do better jobs than "uneducated" people - than there is that "colored" people do poorer that "whites."
Indeed the list of people with truncated education who nonetheless contributed great things - Wright Brothers - Michael Faraday - Jonas Salk - Einstein - Edison - HP - Lincoln - Even Bill Gates - Woz etc. . . underlines the point - as of course does the accomplishments by persons of color. Furthermore - since college continues to be available on an nonegalitarian basis - and serves primarily as a tool to protect the establishment - then any policy which includes education as an input will perpetuate the same inequalities.
In general principle - you should not do business with companies or people who would not - were the roles reversed - do business with you. If a company embraces a nonegalitarian principle - such as requiring or including as pertainent nonegalitarian education for promotion - that company is not observing this general principle - and should be shunned.
It is a great arrogance to believe that people cannot learn important lessons any place other than in colleges which clearly favor the establishment.
The reality however is that Companies are not called on the carpet for susbscribing to agents of discrimination such as colleges - and they are called on the carpet for "Due Dilligence" which in some cases means making sure the CFO has an MBA.
Thus until that changes - companies with anything to lose will prefer the insurance of "accredidation".
"Too Smart for College" is a euphimism for my parents didn't donate a wing at harvard, they didn't prepare me from the age of eight to be the Valedictorian - and by the time i realized what i wanted to do - it was too late to go back and work for free, solve old problems, listen to a Prof who last studied computers before dirt and compete with kids half my age.
The purpose of college is illustrated best by the Wizard of Oz. You have a brain - what you lack is the confidence to go out into the world and use it. If a paper with long words in latin does it for you - I'll sell you the paper. But this is a world built by people largely without "education." Education is merely the study of what "real" people have discoved with only curiosity.
Re:Why can't anyone see the implications of this?
on
This is IT?
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· Score: 1
Actually I have to agree. Apparently Dean Kamen hasn't done enough for free software to deserve honorable mention on Slashdot, But this melding of biosciences and transportation will I believe on retrospect amount to a watershed event. In reality - this is a great invention - it is since its conception a standup wheelchair which restores almost full mobility and dignity to a class of persons which Dean has honorably served. The fact that it has uses for mainstream "ped"estrians is a great bonus.
The big benefit is the opportunity to mix modes of transportation. Trains, busses and subways are in themselves all great - but they require the sacrifice of other modes - electric scooters, bicycles etc. What Dean has done, is shown that we can use biosciences to simplify motorized transport to an extent which allows it to be INTEGRATED with mass transit. The declaration that there may be a place in the world for two or three of these will turn out to be as short sighted as it in the case of Steve Jobs PC. remember this is the biggest, slowest, and least effecient model.
As a watershed event - I predict that this will lead to large "Walking Districts" in the center of cities, served by mass transit. Even at 3k they are a lot cheaper than cars, and we must admit that for the most part, a car is used to move one person and a briefcase a short distance on small streets and some additional distance on a route which could effeciently be served by subway. I for one would gladly turn in my car to live in a city with less noise - street musicians - and clean regular mass transit.
Well almost - In addition to buying risk, Insurance companies leverage their group as buying power, so they can actually pay less than street value for insured goods.
Medical Insurance for example.
The bet is that you will pay the insurance company less than you would pay on your own. It may not be a bad one.
First of all, nothing wrong with photos that provide their own light source - sure a dynamic display is an obvious goal, but so is a 3D display with built-in surround sound.
Assuming little more than decent dynamic range, Photographs with their own light source could break the current 3.0 dynamic range barrior of modern museum prints.
Imagine Ansel Adams with 30 zones.
Even without dynamic range, they would make highly effecient lights. - solar powered billboards that light all night.
As for conductive traces - they are in all probability not using the ink that came with the printer. Which raising an interesting point - what else could you put in a printer that would be interesting. If you could built up a few (thousand?) layers of rigid material, you could create model airplanes, houses, any 3 model etc. I sure hope my daughter has a 3d print set from HP when she is old enough to use a computer.
RE: Universal penetration. Everyone in the USA has a postal address.
In many countries, the likelyhood that your mail will be opened, read, and converted to cash if possible is very high. On the other hand, I have reliably received Email in Egypt, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, etc . . .
RE: Universal transmission. I can send a postal letter around the world and assume that the recipient will be able to recieve it.
The software to translate Email is ubiquitous - especially in non-English countries - thus Email is most readily converted to the local language.
RE: Frankly I trust the folks of the USPS to transport my mail securely & reliably far more then I do the monkeys at my ISP and the servers between me & my email's destination.
True only in western countries.
RE: Most postal addresses are good for both letters & package deliveries, neither of which is true for email.
Which implies an inverse risk - To recieve Snail Mail you have to expose your physical address. What would be cool is a private reverse lookup which would allow delivery companies to deliver to email addresses. Once FedEx knows your address, anyone can send packages to Somebody@aol.com without knowing where you live.
RE: Postal mail is free to recieve and only costs the sender some change. Email requires either a computer system and ISP or access to a public facility offering this.
The cost of mail goes up with distance - sending mail halfway around the world carries no additional costs.
RE: Courts don't recognize email as a delivery mechanism and certianly not for material that must be signed for.
This is a technical problem which could be solved with technology. We know how to accomplish validation, but we need agreement on standards and protocals. This would be a useful role of government.
When I was in Hurghada - smallish beach-side resort on the Red Sea in Egypt, some entrepeneurs had come in with a satelitte dish and were offering dial-up service. The only alternative at the time would have been long distance dial-up to Cairo. Throughput Solutions is offering a similar service here
Microsoft needs the corporate buyer, but corporations buy the software their employees can most easily use - so Microsoft needs first to be ubiquitous. (Everyone know Windows.Word/Excell etc . . . )
So anything they do to stop average people from getting a copy to learn on etc. . . plays against their chief selling point.
Re:Beauty for beauty's sake makes crappy software
on
Software Aesthetics
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· Score: 1
The Bridge analogy is weak - as most bridge builders are granted a monopoly (contract) before they build.
A better analogy would be a. A chasm with thousands of people waiting to cross, b. multiple bridge building teams competing to be the first to get a crossable bridge in place.
Each bridge leads to a seperate island, so the first to be crossable leads to the only inhabitaed island - later bridges may be safer and bigger - but they will lead to uninhabited islands.
That's the Bridge metaphor - I'd like to see the example in reality. In this context - I do agree that current product quality laws would help - and should apply - this would punish the sloppy bridge builder and encourage teams which focus of quality.
It goes without saying that the only weapon here is an Airplane (Sheesh - a boxknife is a toy).
We know that the Hijackers used Credit Cards Rental Cars, Hotels, Sportsbars, and Strip bars.
Airbus builds planes which refuse to respond to a pilots direction to fly into stall or into the ground. It would seem a trivial change to preclude the ability of a fly-by-wire airplane to be steered into a landmark building - and should have already be done. The 2000 cia agents responsible for preventing this stuff could have earned their coffee by working with Boeing and Airbus to prevent Airlines from becoming bombs.
PGP - hardly important. For one thing the CIA warned the FBI about these people by name - this wan't exactly a secret.
As we speak, England is considering a national identification card to counteract illegal immigration. It a small step to connect facial recognition to a national database of legitimate citizens.
That is your difference.
The beat cop with a mug shot under his hat is looking for someone in connection with a crime. The computer could simply be looking for anyone whose face is NOT on the good people list.
That is a very different reality than the presumed innocence of the Constitution under which personal freedom and expanding diversity has flourished.
Do you think my conviction for protesting the police would preclude me from the good list, and would that mean wherever I go, that the police will see "34201" burned on my virtual chest? And if so, what is the so called chilling effect on the first amendment?
That is the difference, and the risk. The benefit is total conformity to social norms in all places public.
Isn't the expected demise of Richocet a direct parallel to the demise of proprietary software companies?
Therefore - isn't the solution (at least in this crowd) obviously Open Source.
The technology has previously been discussed on slashdot. In a nutshell each node is capable of connecting to the others directly using an open source protocal.
About 10% of users need a wired connection.
If we don't have an Open-Source network - why aren't we at least talking about it?
At some point the EULA begins to forbid all or nearly all uses and users. Then of course, the license holder is free to decide whom it will bury in litigation and whom it will endure.
While this is essentially the status que is non-developing democracies such as Russia where the legal tax rate is higher than 100%, it has not yet pervaded the criminal judicial system in the west. It seems to me, (See Rainman comment previously) that this would cross that threshold in the civil system. That would of course be intereresting to the ACLU, but it should also serve as a reminder than as corporations are replacing government as the power broker in society that basic human rights - hard won in the previous sphere, should not be abandoned in the new.
It is pretty clear that MS intends to defame its competitors by pronouncing Linux to be a virus. That in itself seems to be a pretty shaky move. I think knowingly providing false information as a means of competition would be unlawful.
I think as long as the goal of Open Source are the same as Closed Source, the optimum organization structure will remain unchanged. So long as it is mandatory to resolve all conflict as a criterion for shipping useful product, then the necessity of a dictatorial heirarchy is preserved.
Is there an alternative - I think so. Forking seems bad, but if forking were managed in a sophisticated manner, it may be better than reverting to traditional admin (arbitrary, whimsical, and capricious.)
say you fork the api. There then exist three api sets, api1, api2 and the common set which is those api which if not the same, can be cross-translated automatically using regular expressions. People using the api can vote with their feet, using any of the three sets (common api for general use programs, and specific api for special needs)
In time, one will prove superior, at this point it can extend the common api by embracing the other or not, either way programs using the least popular will migrate or limp along on the old code.
It may be tricky but in the end, keeping two good ideas may be better than letting a stuffed shirt decide what ideas will see the light of day.
In his famous essay Tragedy of the Commons Garrett Hardin raises the issue of pollution as a Commons problem for his time. I see in the
Web-Nazi a certain parallel. Garrett is satisfied that fences solve the Tragedy of the Commons in its literal form, but leaves for us Pollution which cannot, as cannot information on the internet, be fenced. Thus it is inappropriate to ask the question from whence this foul
odor comes? The French, or the Taliban for that matter have every right to set rules on pollution and to prosecute violators who set foot on their soil and/or do business within the boundaries of their jurisdiction.
Imagine that a Canadian oil tanker was dumping crude into the pacific, such that some of it washed ashore in
Washington, it would not matter that the ships were bound for Vancouver, the pollution was experienced by the state of Washington, thus if Washington has laws against crude dumping AND the company and or its subsidiaries/partners does business in Washington, they would
obviously be liable there (IANAL).
Enter the most interesting case of the genre Doe vs. Unocal another French Connection. In this case some very bad stuff done in Burma by the corrupt military (mostly slave
labor to build pipelines) was connected to the French and the French is connected to the hipbone and the hipbone is connected to California - so the class of
Burmese slaves is suing Unocal in California for actions of the military in Burma. They have won for now the issue of
jurisdiction. Subject to final ruling these cases will mean that International companies will need to comply with the most restrictive rules on human rights, pollution, and speech which are common to the countries
in which they choose to operate legitimately. CNN for example may choose to
operate illegally in Baghdad - which I believe they did during the gulf war -
they don't however _do_ business in Iraq, their Arab broadcasts are based in
India and available by satellite. The US has set the precedent in this case - by allowing a suit against a Company in
the U.S. for actions outside its borders.
The US court faces a conundrum here for which they only conclusion can be American Hegemony:
France cannot fine companies outside its jurisdiction, but it can fine companies inside its jurisdictions for the known
behavior of its benefactors/partners/subsidiaries wherever the behaviors occurred and, ala Doe vs. Unocal, Irregardless of the nationality of the afflicted. By simply getting involved, the US has declared itself to have the right to meddle in the affairs of France - by telling France that she hasn't the same right to meddle in the affairs of the US, while simultaneously reserving for itself the right to meddle in the affairs of Burma via the same mechanism. What the world hears: "we can meddle - you can't." That's hegemony.
I believe very strongly that the US court should differ this as a political matter, rather than a legal one, as our legal system does not have jurisdiction on the French system of government.
This is not a question of Free Speech - the issue of guilt is not before the
court - only the question of jurisdiction and here it would be doublespeak for
the U.S. to tell the French they cannot interfere while the U.S. is doing the
same thing (indirectly to France) Yahoo should either not do business in France,
obey their laws, or build better fences.
"If you do behave as we ask, we will secretly condemn you for a simpleton who can be shamed into standing aside while the rest of us exploit the commons." Garrett Hardin (1968)
While I agree in theory that leaving history where it is has a certain appeal - underwater safari's are really lousy by nature. Having been on Egypt's very popular Sinbad Submarine in Hurghada, Red Sea - I can say it was nearly the most boring hour we spent in the place - not as bad as the video-bus-from-hell, but hardly the introduction to the beauty of the underwater I was hoping would inspire the fiancee to join me for Scuba. Underwater visability is usually only a few meters, and submarines can't get all that close, so you're left with a very mediocre view which rarely lives up to the professional photographs advertising the trip - just watch the video from the hotel lobby (it loops constantly) - and save the trouble. If you really want to see something learn Scuba, at 6 to 10 meters this stuff is trivial to access. I would imagine Egypt will be quick to embrace this find as yet-another-reason to come to Egypt - Tourism is the second source of cash in Egypt (Foriegn Remittances being first). They will likely put the originals in museums in Cairo and create duplicates for scuba divers.
Ipix is really only popular with large companies with the same thing to sell again and again. Probably because they want $50 per image (or did last I cared).
My Sony Vaio and my Olympus Camera both came with panarama stichers. For a web viewer I just use a HTML frame with a background image and a super long table (usually empty) so the image wraps automatically, the image can then be panned several times around using the scrollbar. This way there is no Plug-in to install etc.
It's pretty obvious that IPIX is bluffing since Sony distributes a web VR control, and every 3D engine known would be illegal. I'm sorry to see someone closed their website - P2P anyone?
In up and coming countries, the wired infrastructure is a shambles, but people are getting cellphones in droves.
Wireless internet may be more feasible than generally thought. We can start with the obvious: G3 Phones or Starbucks' free 801.b. The next obvious step is an extension technology which lets you connect to the guy who's connected to starbucks - extending the range. Soon enough someone connects to you.
The obvious problem is spectrum saturation - but there is an interesting fact - in P2P models - actual saturation and power consumption goes *down* as node density increases. This is because distance is *much* more important than bandwidth in power calculations causing increasing returns.
P2P radio as a cooperative "free" solution for the DSL leg of the journey is a much better "OpenSource" and/or shared resource solution than fee services and it's surface at the speed of light so it's much faster than satellite.
I was just about to order Eternal Life when I realized I had the choice of Super 21,000 gauss Neodymium Eternal Life. I'm not Taiwanese and I would like to know if Super 21,000 gauss Neodymium Eternal Life lasts longer than Ordinary Eternal Life.
The logo appears to be a DNA double helix. If it's a double entendre - so much the better. I'm a Dance fiend and I missed it. That site would hold me a lot longer if they had an animated gif of the progress. a still of nothing is a little too zen for my blood. Either way i'm interested to see the place and I hope they capitalize on a fortunate acronym.
Slashdot Mirror
According to the Article, Stallman won't speak to the SIGlinux crowd unless they acknowledge his existence. Barr seems to think that this amounts to "force." I should wish the IRS forced us to pay taxes the same way.
AIK
Which at the end of the day is probably not as bad as it sounds. Programs would work reliably - and the cost would be a few mils worth of diskspace. OR we could save all that memory and use just two digits to represent dates.
In todays reality - memory is next to free. Even cycles are cheap - it's realiability that expensive - so what's the complaint?
AIK
So you have to add glass breakage detectors - which is already four times the effort of a single infrared motion detector. One of the best looking - best performing passive infrared detector is the sharpshooter from Sentrol It is built on an asic and incorporates years of professional experience.
The beauty of the PIR is that it is highly effective with minimal false alarms. The sun moving across the sky, casting a hot spot on an interior wall for example may trigger a camera system, as may the a/c system moving a curtain. A good pir - properly placed in an outside corner looking in is very trustworthy.
If you want easy - ITI makes the best wireless system - now in their third design iteration of asic based transmitters - they have far surpassed the garage door opener days of wireless. Professional over the counter system
ITI Home
One problem with PC based security is battery life. Many burglars either shut off the power or take advantage of power outages to improve vulnerability. Professional systems can run several days without power.
The weakest link in most security systems though isn't the detectors or the batteries - it's the phone line. The salesmen learns quickly to ignore this point because the solutions are expensive, and once raised - their isn't much point to paying 30 buck a month for monitoring when a simple screwdriver can unhook the telephone. In most places the phone company insists on placing the connection outside, where they and anyone else can easily get to it when you're not at home.
The Siren is completely useless - worn thin by the mass production of car alarms with their characteristic sequence of pseudo police siren sounds. You can forget anyone caring about your house until about two hours later when it finally makes them angry enough to want your head shrunk and placed on a pole.
Cellphone connections are expensive - as are radio systems in most places. People have tried direct connections, but if the wire gets broken - too aften they just send the repairmen out to fix it - so what's the gain? Constant IP monitoring would generate the same kind of false positives everytime At&t cable internet goes down - every police car in town would be dispatched to check on "suspicious loss of service".
Thus you need a staged warning system with an off-site mayday server. Put infrared detectors outside especially on the side of the house with the service connections - connect them to lights and enjoy the benefit of a house that welcomes you. In Addition, have the system send a mayday signal to the server whenever activity is detected around the house. Maintain this connection until either the house is entered and the system turned off - or the connection is cut - thus triggering a genuinly suspicious disconnection. In this case - the mayday server calls you - then the cops - your mother-in-law etc . . .
Bottom line - and the reason i left the business - the most effective part of the system is the stickers on the window. The technology is mostly smoke and mirrors.
AIK
When I was in Kiev - I used several VoIP - especially the options which dialed numbers in the US for almost free (AolPhone and another which I forget)
Obviously they intenede to mke money on Ads - but the demographics - Third World Cafe users - probably aren't very promising to advertisers.\\This must explain the restructuring and otherwise discontinuation of those systems.
In the US - most cellphones are National Plans with cheap rates at night - I presume the people who would have wanted to chat cheap here - just use their cells - I do.
AIK
If you were a large government agency and you wanted powered flight - your best bet would have been the uneducated wright brothers. We don't know what the best bet will be for cancer - but the odds are about even that when we find a solution - it will come without education.
Personally - I suspect that the most curious people are the most likely to reject institutions of every kind as being constrictive - including college - which leads to its own conclusion.
AIK
Indeed the list of people with truncated education who nonetheless contributed great things - Wright Brothers - Michael Faraday - Jonas Salk - Einstein - Edison - HP - Lincoln - Even Bill Gates - Woz etc. . . underlines the point - as of course does the accomplishments by persons of color. Furthermore - since college continues to be available on an nonegalitarian basis - and serves primarily as a tool to protect the establishment - then any policy which includes education as an input will perpetuate the same inequalities.
In general principle - you should not do business with companies or people who would not - were the roles reversed - do business with you. If a company embraces a nonegalitarian principle - such as requiring or including as pertainent nonegalitarian education for promotion - that company is not observing this general principle - and should be shunned.
It is a great arrogance to believe that people cannot learn important lessons any place other than in colleges which clearly favor the establishment.
The reality however is that Companies are not called on the carpet for susbscribing to agents of discrimination such as colleges - and they are called on the carpet for "Due Dilligence" which in some cases means making sure the CFO has an MBA.
Thus until that changes - companies with anything to lose will prefer the insurance of "accredidation".
"Too Smart for College" is a euphimism for my parents didn't donate a wing at harvard, they didn't prepare me from the age of eight to be the Valedictorian - and by the time i realized what i wanted to do - it was too late to go back and work for free, solve old problems, listen to a Prof who last studied computers before dirt and compete with kids half my age.
The purpose of college is illustrated best by the Wizard of Oz. You have a brain - what you lack is the confidence to go out into the world and use it. If a paper with long words in latin does it for you - I'll sell you the paper. But this is a world built by people largely without "education." Education is merely the study of what "real" people have discoved with only curiosity.
Read life of James Watt AIK
Actually I have to agree. Apparently Dean Kamen hasn't done enough for free software to deserve honorable mention on Slashdot, But this melding of biosciences and transportation will I believe on retrospect amount to a watershed event. In reality - this is a great invention - it is since its conception a standup wheelchair which restores almost full mobility and dignity to a class of persons which Dean has honorably served. The fact that it has uses for mainstream "ped"estrians is a great bonus.
The big benefit is the opportunity to mix modes of transportation. Trains, busses and subways are in themselves all great - but they require the sacrifice of other modes - electric scooters, bicycles etc. What Dean has done, is shown that we can use biosciences to simplify motorized transport to an extent which allows it to be INTEGRATED with mass transit. The declaration that there may be a place in the world for two or three of these will turn out to be as short sighted as it in the case of Steve Jobs PC. remember this is the biggest, slowest, and least effecient model.
As a watershed event - I predict that this will lead to large "Walking Districts" in the center of cities, served by mass transit. Even at 3k they are a lot cheaper than cars, and we must admit that for the most part, a car is used to move one person and a briefcase a short distance on small streets and some additional distance on a route which could effeciently be served by subway. I for one would gladly turn in my car to live in a city with less noise - street musicians - and clean regular mass transit.
Well almost - In addition to buying risk, Insurance companies leverage their group as buying power, so they can actually pay less than street value for insured goods.
Medical Insurance for example.
The bet is that you will pay the insurance company less than you would pay on your own. It may not be a bad one.
First of all, nothing wrong with photos that provide their own light source - sure a dynamic display is an obvious goal, but so is a 3D display with built-in surround sound.
Assuming little more than decent dynamic range, Photographs with their own light source could break the current 3.0 dynamic range barrior of modern museum prints.
Imagine Ansel Adams with 30 zones.
Even without dynamic range, they would make highly effecient lights. - solar powered billboards that light all night.
As for conductive traces - they are in all probability not using the ink that came with the printer. Which raising an interesting point - what else could you put in a printer that would be interesting. If you could built up a few (thousand?) layers of rigid material, you could create model airplanes, houses, any 3 model etc. I sure hope my daughter has a 3d print set from HP when she is old enough to use a computer.
AIK
RE: Universal penetration. Everyone in the USA has a postal address.
In many countries, the likelyhood that your mail will be opened, read, and converted to cash if possible is very high. On the other hand, I have reliably received Email in Egypt, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, etc . . .
RE: Universal transmission. I can send a postal letter around the world and assume that the recipient will be able to recieve it.
The software to translate Email is ubiquitous - especially in non-English countries - thus Email is most readily converted to the local language.
RE: Frankly I trust the folks of the USPS to transport my mail securely & reliably far more then I do the monkeys at my ISP and the servers between me & my email's destination.
True only in western countries.
RE: Most postal addresses are good for both letters & package deliveries, neither of which is true for email.
Which implies an inverse risk - To recieve Snail Mail you have to expose your physical address. What would be cool is a private reverse lookup which would allow delivery companies to deliver to email addresses. Once FedEx knows your address, anyone can send packages to Somebody@aol.com without knowing where you live.
RE: Postal mail is free to recieve and only costs the sender some change. Email requires either a computer system and ISP or access to a public facility offering this.
The cost of mail goes up with distance - sending mail halfway around the world carries no additional costs.
RE: Courts don't recognize email as a delivery mechanism and certianly not for material that must be signed for.
This is a technical problem which could be solved with technology. We know how to accomplish validation, but we need agreement on standards and protocals. This would be a useful role of government.
When I was in Hurghada - smallish beach-side resort on the Red Sea in Egypt, some entrepeneurs had come in with a satelitte dish and were offering dial-up service. The only alternative at the time would have been long distance dial-up to Cairo. Throughput Solutions is offering a similar service here
Microsoft needs the corporate buyer, but corporations buy the software their employees can most easily use - so Microsoft needs first to be ubiquitous. (Everyone know Windows.Word/Excell etc . . . )
So anything they do to stop average people from getting a copy to learn on etc. . . plays against their chief selling point.
The Bridge analogy is weak - as most bridge builders are granted a monopoly (contract) before they build.
A better analogy would be a. A chasm with thousands of people waiting to cross, b. multiple bridge building teams competing to be the first to get a crossable bridge in place.
Each bridge leads to a seperate island, so the first to be crossable leads to the only inhabitaed island - later bridges may be safer and bigger - but they will lead to uninhabited islands.
That's the Bridge metaphor - I'd like to see the example in reality. In this context - I do agree that current product quality laws would help - and should apply - this would punish the sloppy bridge builder and encourage teams which focus of quality.
It goes without saying that the only weapon here is an Airplane (Sheesh - a boxknife is a toy).
We know that the Hijackers used Credit Cards Rental Cars, Hotels, Sportsbars, and Strip bars.
Airbus builds planes which refuse to respond to a pilots direction to fly into stall or into the ground. It would seem a trivial change to preclude the ability of a fly-by-wire airplane to be steered into a landmark building - and should have already be done. The 2000 cia agents responsible for preventing this stuff could have earned their coffee by working with Boeing and Airbus to prevent Airlines from becoming bombs.
PGP - hardly important. For one thing the CIA warned the FBI about these people by name - this wan't exactly a secret.
As we speak, England is considering a national identification card to counteract illegal immigration. It a small step to connect facial recognition to a national database of legitimate citizens.
That is your difference.
The beat cop with a mug shot under his hat is looking for someone in connection with a crime. The computer could simply be looking for anyone whose face is NOT on the good people list.
That is a very different reality than the presumed innocence of the Constitution under which personal freedom and expanding diversity has flourished.
Do you think my conviction for protesting the police would preclude me from the good list, and would that mean wherever I go, that the police will see "34201" burned on my virtual chest? And if so, what is the so called chilling effect on the first amendment?
That is the difference, and the risk. The benefit is total conformity to social norms in all places public.
Isn't the expected demise of Richocet a direct parallel to the demise of proprietary software companies?
Therefore - isn't the solution (at least in this crowd) obviously Open Source.
The technology has previously been discussed on slashdot. In a nutshell each node is capable of connecting to the others directly using an open source protocal.
About 10% of users need a wired connection.
If we don't have an Open-Source network - why aren't we at least talking about it?
It is pretty clear that MS intends to defame its competitors by pronouncing Linux to be a virus. That in itself seems to be a pretty shaky move. I think knowingly providing false information as a means of competition would be unlawful.
Is there an alternative - I think so. Forking seems bad, but if forking were managed in a sophisticated manner, it may be better than reverting to traditional admin (arbitrary, whimsical, and capricious.)
say you fork the api. There then exist three api sets, api1, api2 and the common set which is those api which if not the same, can be cross-translated automatically using regular expressions. People using the api can vote with their feet, using any of the three sets (common api for general use programs, and specific api for special needs)
In time, one will prove superior, at this point it can extend the common api by embracing the other or not, either way programs using the least popular will migrate or limp along on the old code.
It may be tricky but in the end, keeping two good ideas may be better than letting a stuffed shirt decide what ideas will see the light of day.
Imagine that a Canadian oil tanker was dumping crude into the pacific, such that some of it washed ashore in Washington, it would not matter that the ships were bound for Vancouver, the pollution was experienced by the state of Washington, thus if Washington has laws against crude dumping AND the company and or its subsidiaries/partners does business in Washington, they would obviously be liable there (IANAL).
Enter the most interesting case of the genre Doe vs. Unocal another French Connection. In this case some very bad stuff done in Burma by the corrupt military (mostly slave labor to build pipelines) was connected to the French and the French is connected to the hipbone and the hipbone is connected to California - so the class of Burmese slaves is suing Unocal in California for actions of the military in Burma. They have won for now the issue of jurisdiction. Subject to final ruling these cases will mean that International companies will need to comply with the most restrictive rules on human rights, pollution, and speech which are common to the countries in which they choose to operate legitimately. CNN for example may choose to operate illegally in Baghdad - which I believe they did during the gulf war - they don't however _do_ business in Iraq, their Arab broadcasts are based in India and available by satellite. The US has set the precedent in this case - by allowing a suit against a Company in the U.S. for actions outside its borders.
The US court faces a conundrum here for which they only conclusion can be American Hegemony: France cannot fine companies outside its jurisdiction, but it can fine companies inside its jurisdictions for the known behavior of its benefactors/partners/subsidiaries wherever the behaviors occurred and, ala Doe vs. Unocal, Irregardless of the nationality of the afflicted. By simply getting involved, the US has declared itself to have the right to meddle in the affairs of France - by telling France that she hasn't the same right to meddle in the affairs of the US, while simultaneously reserving for itself the right to meddle in the affairs of Burma via the same mechanism. What the world hears: "we can meddle - you can't." That's hegemony.
I believe very strongly that the US court should differ this as a political matter, rather than a legal one, as our legal system does not have jurisdiction on the French system of government. This is not a question of Free Speech - the issue of guilt is not before the court - only the question of jurisdiction and here it would be doublespeak for the U.S. to tell the French they cannot interfere while the U.S. is doing the same thing (indirectly to France) Yahoo should either not do business in France, obey their laws, or build better fences.
"If you do behave as we ask, we will secretly condemn you for a simpleton who can be shamed into standing aside while the rest of us exploit the commons." Garrett Hardin (1968)
While I agree in theory that leaving history where it is has a certain appeal - underwater safari's are really lousy by nature. Having been on Egypt's very popular Sinbad Submarine in Hurghada, Red Sea - I can say it was nearly the most boring hour we spent in the place - not as bad as the video-bus-from-hell, but hardly the introduction to the beauty of the underwater I was hoping would inspire the fiancee to join me for Scuba. Underwater visability is usually only a few meters, and submarines can't get all that close, so you're left with a very mediocre view which rarely lives up to the professional photographs advertising the trip - just watch the video from the hotel lobby (it loops constantly) - and save the trouble. If you really want to see something learn Scuba, at 6 to 10 meters this stuff is trivial to access. I would imagine Egypt will be quick to embrace this find as yet-another-reason to come to Egypt - Tourism is the second source of cash in Egypt (Foriegn Remittances being first). They will likely put the originals in museums in Cairo and create duplicates for scuba divers.
My Sony Vaio and my Olympus Camera both came with panarama stichers. For a web viewer I just use a HTML frame with a background image and a super long table (usually empty) so the image wraps automatically, the image can then be panned several times around using the scrollbar. This way there is no Plug-in to install etc.
It's pretty obvious that IPIX is bluffing since Sony distributes a web VR control, and every 3D engine known would be illegal. I'm sorry to see someone closed their website - P2P anyone?
Wireless internet may be more feasible than generally thought. We can start with the obvious: G3 Phones or Starbucks' free 801.b. The next obvious step is an extension technology which lets you connect to the guy who's connected to starbucks - extending the range. Soon enough someone connects to you.
The obvious problem is spectrum saturation - but there is an interesting fact - in P2P models - actual saturation and power consumption goes *down* as node density increases. This is because distance is *much* more important than bandwidth in power calculations causing increasing returns.
P2P radio as a cooperative "free" solution for the DSL leg of the journey is a much better "OpenSource" and/or shared resource solution than fee services and it's surface at the speed of light so it's much faster than satellite.
I was just about to order Eternal Life when I realized I had the choice of Super 21,000 gauss Neodymium Eternal Life. I'm not Taiwanese and I would like to know if Super 21,000 gauss Neodymium Eternal Life lasts longer than Ordinary Eternal Life.
Please Help.
Need I say more?
The logo appears to be a DNA double helix. If it's a double entendre - so much the better. I'm a Dance fiend and I missed it. That site would hold me a lot longer if they had an animated gif of the progress. a still of nothing is a little too zen for my blood. Either way i'm interested to see the place and I hope they capitalize on a fortunate acronym.