It's just a shame that in the most mighty economy in the world the cost is still prohibitive for a good segment of its population.
I can look out the window and see 3 places offering free wireless internet access (Seattle, WA - USA). Granted, it's being offered by evil, for-profit companies and not the all-loving government - but it's free to consumers just the same.
Since the people who actually run corporations have no personal responsiblity for their actions, they have no sense of same. Elected officials at least can go to jail, lose their jobs, be exposed as lying jackasses.
Is this a joke? Are you saying that leaders of corporations can't go to jail (Martha Stewart), lose their jobs (Worldcom leaders - also went to jail), or be exposed as lying jackasses (Enron leaders - also are on their way to jail)?
I'm happy that I have fairly high-speed internet access from Comcast now, and happier that WiMax is on the way in my area courtesy of Speakeasy, happier still that Verizon FIOS was becoming available where I used to live before moving, and still happier that all of that is happening without huge chunks of my paycheck going to pay for the government to build the infrastructure so someone else can download porn as fast as they want at my expense.
Free-market capitalism will rarely, if ever, get you the best thing possible instantaneously. It is a gradual process that evolves as demand increases for certain things and people find ways to provide it at reasonable costs - where "reasonable" is determined by how much people are willing to pay. You won't get lightning-fast nationwide internet access overnight. And that's not a bad thing. You'll end up getting an infrastructure that's not overly expensive because companies aren't going to build it unless it's worth it to them - ie. unless it's worth it to *us*. They aren't going to spend $100 million if it's only going to bring in $10 million. Nor should they. Nor should the government. It's fiscally irresponsible and it's not someplace I want my tax dollars going. The fact that the public is NOT paying for something that it does not NEED is what I'd consider the "public good."
Keeping multiple calendars that can be seen by others and can show busy/free times on a per-user/resource basis is inherintly a client/server relationship.
I'd agree that this is *typically* done via the client-server architecture, but there's nothing inherent about that unless you've got that architecture in your head beforehand. I can imagine this sort of thing behing handled via a P2P architecture if one wanted.
For most enterprise calendaring apps (like Exchange, even MeetingMaker) there is a requirement that you be able to look at at least *your* calendar offline. For that reason I know in my organization a web-based calendar would likely be insufficient unless it had a thick-client portion with cached data (either via a standalone app or e-mail client integration).
I know a number of people have pointed out existing solutions to this problem. One I didn't see mentioned (but have running on my desktop as we speak) is LeanOnMe:
http://www.312inc.com/3_sol_prod_LOM.html
It's pretty neat. I'm not worried about hurricanes per se. I really just wanted to back up some stuff on multiple computers and thought - why do I need yet *another* device to handle backups when I can just copy this information across all my computers? So, that's what I did. The app is pretty nice. I'm still in the trial period.
Thumbs down to not having high definition. Comcast doesn't offer it in my area yet - and the few HD broadcasts don't justify buying an HD tuner at this point.
Incidentally, even if Comcast did offer it, that wouldn't buy you anything unless you used their PVR (which may come long after HDTV to your area).
They are only now coming out with tuner cards that will work with the type of encoding used by HD streams over cable (QAM). As far as I know there is *no* PVR software available for those cards yet.
As a matter of fact, I can't think of *any* PVR software that supports cards which use even OTA HD signals (including Media Center) *except* MythTV and the pchdtv card on Linux.
The HD cards that Windows supports may have some rudimentary software, but by no means a complete PVR/HTPC system. So, Linux has the advantage here for now (which is one of the primary reasons I chose MythTV over the windows counterparts).
We've had the opportunity and the ability to deliver "rich client experience in the browser" for five years (Flash, Java, DHTML, ActiveX), and users/execs haven't demanded it yet. Why do you think anything will change?
Looking through the specs that this group appears to be focused on, I think it's clear a number of them deal with web-based *applications* which are in many ways different from web *pages.*
Web-based applications have long since demanded a rich client experience in a browser, and they've gotten it. The thing is, Joe web surfer doesn't see it because they're not on the Internet - they're in web-based applications that companies use.
Some examples - Seibel's apps use ActiveX extensively for rich client experiences (because it was demanded by users/execs). Most/All of the reporting industry (Cognos, MicroStrategy, Crystal, Business Objects, etc.) makes huge use of these technologies (primarily DHTML) in their applications to provide drag and drop capabilities in the browser for manipulating data. These are companies who sell products that work on intranets but use web standards.
There is a big need here in web-based applications. It has been demanded, and it has been delivered, but it would be nice to have *standards* so we don't all have to reinvent the wheel each time.
Re:What a silly question
on
Is Caps Lock Dead?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
If you're going to get rid of a key, maybe scroll lock would be a better one. I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone use it for anything besides playing with the pretty lights.
I use it every day - it's a common shortcut key for KVM switches (Belkin, at least). Scroll Lock - Scroll Lock - Machine #.
That's still somewhat a testament to it's uselessness though. I'm fairly sure the KVM makers thought to themselves "we need a shortcut key on the keyboard... one that is almost never used for anything else..."
Correct, but that's totally different from what's described in this posting. You also need a second computer (the backend) to do a lot of the actual work.
(FYI it's called KnoppMyth)
I feel like everyone's missing something... like the fact that it has zero in the way of playing actual live TV, much less pausing, rewinding, or recording it.
I think the terms "media pc" and/or "media center" are getting overloaded... it's not clear what features they entail anymore. MythTV and Windows Media Center all have the rest of the actual TV features. They require more horespower because they're doing more than just playing videos.
Comparing these "media center" applications to this Xbox "media center" based on cost of hardware is an apples to oranges excercise.
That's kind of funny... I guess it doesn't pay to write "proper" (X)HTML.
I wonder if they skipped the doctype tag because it's relatively pointless for this level of basic HTML, and wasn't worth the bandwith demands to include it.
According to that commercial where the interns accidentally shut off the lights during one of their zany misadvantures, Dell's call centers are in the USA. I knew I couldn't trust those interns!
Ha, the real question is - where is that "huge universe" of documents? That's the input that will eventually spur on such innovations. As long as there are a total of about 6 documents worldwide written in StarOffice format, I wouldn't hold my breath for neat tools to slice and dice them.
It's really an advantage to them, when it is supposed to punish them. [...] They could give the stuff away and still make money just by charging for upgrades...
You have to realize what you're saying isn't exactly true. If this were in fact an "advantage" for them, they would have done it ALREADY. If Microsoft thought that handing out copies to these schools would eventually yeild them more profits than selling to them (and you'll have a tough time convincing me that they never thought of this idea) then they would have done that by now.
It wouldn't matter if there were. For the most part, big media is one way or another connected with RIAA members.
So since "big media" is connected to these RIAA members, and as such should be acting in their own interests, then they shouldn't be reporting all this news about the RIAA going after a 12 year old right? Jeez, where do you think Slashdot got the links from? Yesterday the initial report came from Fox News, and today the follow up came from the AP. It's not like we're heading underground for this news because there's some conspiracy going on with "big media." If you read those articles, and the quotes they extracted, it's pretty clear that they're embarrassing the hell out of the RIAA.
Unfortunately, in the united corporations of america, all you have to do is go to your local congresscritter, tell them, we're losing money becuasse people are downloading songs instead of buying them, and they prop up your failing business model.
The RIAA should not have to go to any lawmakers to prop up their "failing business model." Laws about copyright infringement have been on the books for years. I dislike the RIAA as much as anyone, but the fact of the matter is that people are making *illegal* copies of their product and spreading them around. It just so happens that a digital product (much like software) has zero marginal cost so it doesn't cost anything to reproduce. That doesn't mean that the product itself is worth $0, or that they should look the other way when they see people still enjoying all the benefits of it without paying for it.
It also sounds similar to how Opera handles mail with the M2 e-mail client. It defines "access points" that can (but don't have to) look like folders for jumping into messages that meet a certain criteria. For example, all messages with an attached image are grouped together, as are all messages from a specific person, and all messages meeting some sort of user-defined criteria might also be lumped together under an "access point." In the end though, there really is only one mail box, these tools just allow you to "slice and dice" through your mail.
Slashdot Mirror
"The iSee screen is 320 x 240, but is held internally in 640 x 480 resolution."
Interesting, maybe someone can explain to me how 320x240, or even 640x480, is High Definition.
If that's chapter 2, I know as a diehard Gentoo user that Chapter 3 is: Pray.
I can look out the window and see 3 places offering free wireless internet access (Seattle, WA - USA). Granted, it's being offered by evil, for-profit companies and not the all-loving government - but it's free to consumers just the same.
I'm happy that I have fairly high-speed internet access from Comcast now, and happier that WiMax is on the way in my area courtesy of Speakeasy, happier still that Verizon FIOS was becoming available where I used to live before moving, and still happier that all of that is happening without huge chunks of my paycheck going to pay for the government to build the infrastructure so someone else can download porn as fast as they want at my expense.
Free-market capitalism will rarely, if ever, get you the best thing possible instantaneously. It is a gradual process that evolves as demand increases for certain things and people find ways to provide it at reasonable costs - where "reasonable" is determined by how much people are willing to pay. You won't get lightning-fast nationwide internet access overnight. And that's not a bad thing. You'll end up getting an infrastructure that's not overly expensive because companies aren't going to build it unless it's worth it to them - ie. unless it's worth it to *us*. They aren't going to spend $100 million if it's only going to bring in $10 million. Nor should they. Nor should the government. It's fiscally irresponsible and it's not someplace I want my tax dollars going. The fact that the public is NOT paying for something that it does not NEED is what I'd consider the "public good."
I for one am glad my tax dollars aren't being spent to provide you with internet access because you choose to move.
"...most of that price is paid by the government for us"
Interesting. So, where is it that your government gets it's money?
Keeping multiple calendars that can be seen by others and can show busy/free times on a per-user/resource basis is inherintly a client/server relationship.
I'd agree that this is *typically* done via the client-server architecture, but there's nothing inherent about that unless you've got that architecture in your head beforehand. I can imagine this sort of thing behing handled via a P2P architecture if one wanted.
For most enterprise calendaring apps (like Exchange, even MeetingMaker) there is a requirement that you be able to look at at least *your* calendar offline. For that reason I know in my organization a web-based calendar would likely be insufficient unless it had a thick-client portion with cached data (either via a standalone app or e-mail client integration).
I believe apt-rpm still won't run on AMD64... that's why I have to run Yum on mine. I do like apt-rpm on the 32 bit systems though.
It's pretty neat. I'm not worried about hurricanes per se. I really just wanted to back up some stuff on multiple computers and thought - why do I need yet *another* device to handle backups when I can just copy this information across all my computers? So, that's what I did. The app is pretty nice. I'm still in the trial period.
Incidentally, even if Comcast did offer it, that wouldn't buy you anything unless you used their PVR (which may come long after HDTV to your area).
They are only now coming out with tuner cards that will work with the type of encoding used by HD streams over cable (QAM). As far as I know there is *no* PVR software available for those cards yet.
As a matter of fact, I can't think of *any* PVR software that supports cards which use even OTA HD signals (including Media Center) *except* MythTV and the pchdtv card on Linux.
The HD cards that Windows supports may have some rudimentary software, but by no means a complete PVR/HTPC system. So, Linux has the advantage here for now (which is one of the primary reasons I chose MythTV over the windows counterparts).
Looking through the specs that this group appears to be focused on, I think it's clear a number of them deal with web-based *applications* which are in many ways different from web *pages.*
Web-based applications have long since demanded a rich client experience in a browser, and they've gotten it. The thing is, Joe web surfer doesn't see it because they're not on the Internet - they're in web-based applications that companies use.
Some examples - Seibel's apps use ActiveX extensively for rich client experiences (because it was demanded by users/execs). Most/All of the reporting industry (Cognos, MicroStrategy, Crystal, Business Objects, etc.) makes huge use of these technologies (primarily DHTML) in their applications to provide drag and drop capabilities in the browser for manipulating data. These are companies who sell products that work on intranets but use web standards.
There is a big need here in web-based applications. It has been demanded, and it has been delivered, but it would be nice to have *standards* so we don't all have to reinvent the wheel each time.
I use it every day - it's a common shortcut key for KVM switches (Belkin, at least). Scroll Lock - Scroll Lock - Machine #.
That's still somewhat a testament to it's uselessness though. I'm fairly sure the KVM makers thought to themselves "we need a shortcut key on the keyboard... one that is almost never used for anything else..."
Correct, but that's totally different from what's described in this posting. You also need a second computer (the backend) to do a lot of the actual work. (FYI it's called KnoppMyth)
I feel like everyone's missing something... like the fact that it has zero in the way of playing actual live TV, much less pausing, rewinding, or recording it.
I think the terms "media pc" and/or "media center" are getting overloaded... it's not clear what features they entail anymore. MythTV and Windows Media Center all have the rest of the actual TV features. They require more horespower because they're doing more than just playing videos.
Comparing these "media center" applications to this Xbox "media center" based on cost of hardware is an apples to oranges excercise.
http://dealcatcher.com/
Good stuff.
That's kind of funny... I guess it doesn't pay to write "proper" (X)HTML.
I wonder if they skipped the doctype tag because it's relatively pointless for this level of basic HTML, and wasn't worth the bandwith demands to include it.
As of this Saturday morning, Libertarian candidate Gary Nolan had earned more donations than any of the other presidential candidates at that site.
As far as I can see (noon on Saturday):
Nolan - $2,640.00
Kerry - $2,399.00
Clark - $2,100.00
Dean - $1,390.01
Edwards - $1,370.01
According to that commercial where the interns accidentally shut off the lights during one of their zany misadvantures, Dell's call centers are in the USA. I knew I couldn't trust those interns!
(yes, I said 6... I am exaggerating)
So since "big media" is connected to these RIAA members, and as such should be acting in their own interests, then they shouldn't be reporting all this news about the RIAA going after a 12 year old right? Jeez, where do you think Slashdot got the links from? Yesterday the initial report came from Fox News, and today the follow up came from the AP. It's not like we're heading underground for this news because there's some conspiracy going on with "big media." If you read those articles, and the quotes they extracted, it's pretty clear that they're embarrassing the hell out of the RIAA.
The RIAA should not have to go to any lawmakers to prop up their "failing business model." Laws about copyright infringement have been on the books for years. I dislike the RIAA as much as anyone, but the fact of the matter is that people are making *illegal* copies of their product and spreading them around. It just so happens that a digital product (much like software) has zero marginal cost so it doesn't cost anything to reproduce. That doesn't mean that the product itself is worth $0, or that they should look the other way when they see people still enjoying all the benefits of it without paying for it.
It also sounds similar to how Opera handles mail with the M2 e-mail client. It defines "access points" that can (but don't have to) look like folders for jumping into messages that meet a certain criteria. For example, all messages with an attached image are grouped together, as are all messages from a specific person, and all messages meeting some sort of user-defined criteria might also be lumped together under an "access point." In the end though, there really is only one mail box, these tools just allow you to "slice and dice" through your mail.
Sadly, we can't help but have mixed emotions about the SCO babe these days.