No, but you should be earning extra "download credits" from the people you're uploading to.
This is how eMule's credit system works: as you upload chunks to thousands of people swarming off you, you earn "IOU" credit that gets you bumped of their upload queue as a reward. The only problem with this is that eMule's ids unique clients based on a spoofable userhash, so all you'd have to do is view your local creditfile and spoof the most generous uploader on the assumption that he uploads just as much to other clients and has more credit due. (should be using GPG here; which can later be extended to webs of trust).
BitTorrent will most likely evolve to not require the hassle of needing a complete.torrent hashfile before downloading. The tracker should instead hand out the (tree)hashset file given its smaller top-level id hash.
This is how eDonkey, Overnet, and Shareaza work, and it's the Right Way(tm) to do it; it also makes weblinking easy.
(Oh, and to combat leeching, BitTorrent could really use a credit system ala eMule, though it should use GPG to securely id people, instead of eMules spoofable userhash.)
summary: "programming is counterintuitive; arcane knowledge also required"... news at 11.
The trend over the years, though, has been toward higher and higher levels of abstraction. So, it is getting easier, but maybe you haven't noticed?
I started with nightmarish x86 assembly, moved to ***pointer-hell C, then to OO Java & Python (skipped C++... yay).
You used to have to config apache via 3 separate config files, which were then rolled into httpd.conf, which now has gui frontends to make it even easier.
I guess what you were getting at is that are always little bits of arcane real-world knowledge which can't be taught, but which you have to pick up (google groups!:) in order to be effective. But there are tricks to every trade. A mechanic might know to my left-front tire with a hammer to fix the stuck blinker light, but I wouldn't.
That's because the cost of razors is so much lower that it's not really noticable.
Ink cartridges on the other hand cross a financial pain threshold. If the legit cartridges were instead sold for, say, $2 each, and the knockoffs for $1, most people would just buy the legit version.
If your face is hemmoraging blood after shaving then you're doing it all wrong.
I use the El Cheapo double bladed razors and suffer hardly a nick most of the time. The trick is to soften up your whiskers with steam'n hot water beforehand, and to learn the optimal stroke vector to use over time.
It sounds arab, and *MY* company doesn't support terrorist organizations! We can't take the risk that General Asscroft may raid the FSF and seize *our* assets too!
</humor impaired>
--
Re:Not only that, some people like to have the ori
on
Games on Demand
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I bet you old cards like that will be come like old baseball cards down the road.
And I'll bet you that 15 to 30 years down the road, almost all material possessions - including most antiques, caviar, diamond, and SLI voodoo's - will become almost worthless thanks to nanotechnology being able to manipulate atoms like bits.
The only way to help preserve the value of a one-of-a-kind material object is to make sure that NO ONE EVER gets their hands on the master molecular scan backup(s) (and there WILL have to backups for insurance purposes). All it takes is one leak and the Mona Lisa can be perfectly copied by anyone who fancies a copy hanging on their wall (recycling the consituent molecules to be found in the garbage).
Objects made of rare earth elements like gold will still hold a higher BASE VALUE though, because Au is rare in comparison to more common matter like the carbon that makes up diamond.
So.... would you mind sharing your voodoo's molecular blueprint with me?:)
Well, see, in a web of trust that would be a good thing. The whiners would be distancing themselves from the really good players, and the really good players would be befriending other skillful players, and also using their experience to spot and shitlist the true cheaters.
But since the wounded-ego whiners wouldn't trust the good players out of spite, they also wouldn't get access to the (theoretically) more accurate shitlist of real cheaters... which isn't good.
at least I can bribe the Mexican Federales when (not if) I get caught "pirating" a hundred year old e-book. Whereas the virtuous U.S. police can't be bought (usually), and I'd be sent to Federal "pound me in the ass" Prison for the harmless corporate crime of copyright infringment!
I have to use foreign news sources for less 'rose-colored' news, and P2P for uncensored video & photos. And if you want an accurate death toll you have to add the U.S. estimate with the Iraqi estimate and divide by two since the truth lies in the middle.
It's a damn good thing that top-down media control is increasingly a thing of the past...
''nonlethal weapon,'' the Pentagon now prefers to stress the friendlier-sounding ''hailing intruders'' function.
I fucking hate nicey-nice euphemisms! But just as "Carnivore" is still called Carnivore, rather than their new unemotional term, I expect people will still keep the "nonlethal weapon" meme despite what the pentagon would like.
Hmm. I think I'm going to pitch a show called "Totally Hidden Voices" and hope Howard Stern doesn't sue me for stealing "his idea".:)
Imagine the pranks you could pull with a hidden directional speaker and camera:
You tape a friend's voice saying nasty things, and replay it to the person he's talking to when his back his turned.
Direct the screech of tires at J-walkers illegally crossing the street (as you suggested).
Make it seem like people really *are* talking behind someone's self-conscious back. "What a doofus" "Did you see the car he drives?" "Why is he going out with that bitch?" "I bet he's a drunk" "He smells like a wet rag"
At a Star Wars convention, have endless fun with "Feel the force, Luke"
Gunfire in a bank.
The popsicle jingle from the icecream truck that never shows up. Everybody laugh at the disapointed kid waiting on the curb!
"Stick 'em up!"
Obligitory Real Genius prank.
... my imagination's tired already.
The possibilities are endless! I'll take the good with the bad, even if I have to stick an icepick through my eardrums to silence the ads & gov't propaganda.:)
An unmistakable startup disclaimer on betas would go a long way in combatting the perception that the software "sucks" among people who got a leaked copy and didn't know any better. Of course, the REALLY ignorant will STILL bitch.
I once had a night were someone quit 2 seconds before the game was about to end just because I was winning.
In real life, that's the same as knocking all the chess pieces off the board, but it doesn't happen that often, even if you're playing a complete stranger.
The reason it's more common online is lack of accountablility; you don't have to face anyone, and your reputation isn't known.
Reputation systems would help a lot... like how "Yahoo Games" shows you how many games a particular user has abandoned.
when information can be published (and marketed and sold) without significant cost, there is no point in significantly burdening the public with copyright obligations.
<devil's advocate>
But making a near-zero-cost instance of information artificially scarce allows for some really great profit margins, and it's only that enforced promise to profit that gives me an incentive to take the time, money, and effort to create an original work at all.
Instead of information, imagine if in a few decades nanotechnology allows people to make cheap copies of cars, clothes and food from infinitely recyclable molecules + sunlight (stored in hydrogen fuel cells). But if the car designers don't get paid, they won't be able to design new cars or clothe their kids! And if the fashion designers don't get paid, they won't be able design new clothes or eat! And if farmers don't get paid, they won't be able to farm... oh wait, they can make their own food like everybody else... and clothes... and machinery... and have enough free time to contribute their own open source -- s/w & h/w -- back to the community.
I don't want to discurage anyone, but CMU has been working on this problem for at least 12 years
Why would that be discouraging? New and different ways of looking at the problem might just prove those were 12 myopic years. (Or maybe the solution is simply in waiting for enough horsepower to do the pattern recognition fast enough).
Slashdot Mirror
This is how eMule's credit system works: as you upload chunks to thousands of people swarming off you, you earn "IOU" credit that gets you bumped of their upload queue as a reward. The only problem with this is that eMule's ids unique clients based on a spoofable userhash, so all you'd have to do is view your local creditfile and spoof the most generous uploader on the assumption that he uploads just as much to other clients and has more credit due. (should be using GPG here; which can later be extended to webs of trust).
--
This is how eDonkey, Overnet, and Shareaza work, and it's the Right Way(tm) to do it; it also makes weblinking easy.
(Oh, and to combat leeching, BitTorrent could really use a credit system ala eMule, though it should use GPG to securely id people, instead of eMules spoofable userhash.)
--
The trend over the years, though, has been toward higher and higher levels of abstraction. So, it is getting easier, but maybe you haven't noticed?
I started with nightmarish x86 assembly, moved to ***pointer-hell C, then to OO Java & Python (skipped C++ ... yay).
You used to have to config apache via 3 separate config files, which were then rolled into httpd.conf, which now has gui frontends to make it even easier.
I guess what you were getting at is that are always little bits of arcane real-world knowledge which can't be taught, but which you have to pick up (google groups! :) in order to be effective. But there are tricks to every trade. A mechanic might know to my left-front tire with a hammer to fix the stuck blinker light, but I wouldn't.
--
--
--
Ink cartridges on the other hand cross a financial pain threshold. If the legit cartridges were instead sold for, say, $2 each, and the knockoffs for $1, most people would just buy the legit version.
(*snipped radio + overpriced CD analogy*)
--
I use the El Cheapo double bladed razors and suffer hardly a nick most of the time. The trick is to soften up your whiskers with steam'n hot water beforehand, and to learn the optimal stroke vector to use over time.
--
Have you thought about how the zebra's friends and family must feel?
Please support the wildlife by sticking to CNN and away from National Geographic!
--
Ravi Khanna? What kind of name is that?!
It sounds arab, and *MY* company doesn't support terrorist organizations! We can't take the risk that General Asscroft may raid the FSF and seize *our* assets too!
</humor impaired>
--
And I'll bet you that 15 to 30 years down the road, almost all material possessions - including most antiques, caviar, diamond, and SLI voodoo's - will become almost worthless thanks to nanotechnology being able to manipulate atoms like bits.
The only way to help preserve the value of a one-of-a-kind material object is to make sure that NO ONE EVER gets their hands on the master molecular scan backup(s) (and there WILL have to backups for insurance purposes). All it takes is one leak and the Mona Lisa can be perfectly copied by anyone who fancies a copy hanging on their wall (recycling the consituent molecules to be found in the garbage).
Objects made of rare earth elements like gold will still hold a higher BASE VALUE though, because Au is rare in comparison to more common matter like the carbon that makes up diamond.
So.... would you mind sharing your voodoo's molecular blueprint with me? :)
--
But since the wounded-ego whiners wouldn't trust the good players out of spite, they also wouldn't get access to the (theoretically) more accurate shitlist of real cheaters ... which isn't good.
Hmm. Complicated.
--
--
--
My fembot struts around the neighborhood chanting, "Panties. Panties. Panties", for some reason I know *nothing* about, and I can't get it to stop!
--
I have to use foreign news sources for less 'rose-colored' news, and P2P for uncensored video & photos. And if you want an accurate death toll you have to add the U.S. estimate with the Iraqi estimate and divide by two since the truth lies in the middle.
It's a damn good thing that top-down media control is increasingly a thing of the past...
--
Well, you know what they say: one part perspiration, nine parts inspiration.
--
I fucking hate nicey-nice euphemisms! But just as "Carnivore" is still called Carnivore, rather than their new unemotional term, I expect people will still keep the "nonlethal weapon" meme despite what the pentagon would like.
Long live George Carlin.
--
Imagine the pranks you could pull with a hidden directional speaker and camera:
- You tape a friend's voice saying nasty things, and replay it to the person he's talking to when his back his turned.
- Direct the screech of tires at J-walkers illegally crossing the street (as you suggested).
- Make it seem like people really *are* talking behind someone's self-conscious back. "What a doofus" "Did you see the car he drives?" "Why is he going out with that bitch?" "I bet he's a drunk" "He smells like a wet rag"
- At a Star Wars convention, have endless fun with "Feel the force, Luke"
- Gunfire in a bank.
- The popsicle jingle from the icecream truck that never shows up. Everybody laugh at the disapointed kid waiting on the curb!
- "Stick 'em up!"
- Obligitory Real Genius prank.
- ... my imagination's tired already.
The possibilities are endless! I'll take the good with the bad, even if I have to stick an icepick through my eardrums to silence the ads & gov't propaganda.--
An unmistakable startup disclaimer on betas would go a long way in combatting the perception that the software "sucks" among people who got a leaked copy and didn't know any better. Of course, the REALLY ignorant will STILL bitch.
--
In real life, that's the same as knocking all the chess pieces off the board, but it doesn't happen that often, even if you're playing a complete stranger.
The reason it's more common online is lack of accountablility; you don't have to face anyone, and your reputation isn't known.
Reputation systems would help a lot ... like how "Yahoo Games" shows you how many games a particular user has abandoned.
--
<devil's advocate>
But making a near-zero-cost instance of information artificially scarce allows for some really great profit margins, and it's only that enforced promise to profit that gives me an incentive to take the time, money, and effort to create an original work at all.
Instead of information, imagine if in a few decades nanotechnology allows people to make cheap copies of cars, clothes and food from infinitely recyclable molecules + sunlight (stored in hydrogen fuel cells). But if the car designers don't get paid, they won't be able to design new cars or clothe their kids! And if the fashion designers don't get paid, they won't be able design new clothes or eat! And if farmers don't get paid, they won't be able to farm ... oh wait, they can make their own food like everybody else ... and clothes ... and machinery ... and have enough free time to contribute their own open source -- s/w & h/w -- back to the community.
</devil>
--
And I've yet to see an AI that can spray its goatse.cx decal as strategically as a human.
--
Morrowind on steroids then?
--
Quit wasting water you masturbating whale.
Why would that be discouraging? New and different ways of looking at the problem might just prove those were 12 myopic years. (Or maybe the solution is simply in waiting for enough horsepower to do the pattern recognition fast enough).
--