On the morn of Sept. 12, people went straight to the newstand to pick up the paper where we found far more in-depth coverage than we could get off the web.
The problem with print media is that you are limited to what they put out. They don't have links to additional information. While a newspaper can devote pages and pages of text, pictures, and tables to a story, they are still limited to those physical pages. Whereas, a media site such as Wired can provide links to the actual documents being discussed, links to the homepages of the people/groups involved, and links to video and audio. Certainly not all web media do this. But the ones that do, I think, provide a better information source than the newspapers.
I'm thinking of the bosses of the nerds weighing the choices they have in information technology...but if those bosses don't know about the huge variety of options they have, then they won't even consider any options. That, of course, would be a failing of the IT staff if they didn't inform management of the options.
To branch off, what x86 alternatives are there that are certified (or whatever it is) for extremely critical computing tasks and can run open-source software?
Speaking of "critical" software, I thought I once read somewhere that the two big chip makers didn't make x86 chips that were supposed to be used in critical situations such as hospital life support. Might that also hamper the adoption of the *nixes, since the hardware is harder to come by?
Is it just me, or does that demonstrate that our implementation of "representative democracy" is badly flawed?
No, it means that for the first time, it is overwhelmingly simple to actually get in touch with your representative from just about any place on the planet. Of course, "overwhelmingly simple" has been the case since we were taught how to research information in school. Such as, how to read a phone book, look up items in a library, and talk to clerks at information desks. But since that's probably too much to ask this day and age, busting out a well-formatted, honest, and to-the-point e-mail should be just as good. It's still coming from his/her constituents and it should still require a response.
The FastTrack network designates (perhaps automatically) certain peers - more powerful computers with high-bandwidth connections - as "supernodes." [because of the system's encrypted communication, we are unable to determine how supernodes are designated]. Several hundred "ordinary" peers connect to any one
supernode. A supernode also connects to other supernodes. [because of the system's encrypted communication, we are unable to determine how one supernode knows how to locate other supernodes]. ...
Significantly, the FastTrack system encrypts all communications (a) between a
peer and the log-in server, (b) between a peer and its supernode, (c) between a
supernode and the central servers, and (d) between supernodes [we do not know
the nature of the encryption]. ...
Our claims would likely be strengthened by learning more about the designation
of supernodes and the content of communications within the system. However, the
encryption of this communication precludes further learning absent cooperation
from one of these companies or court ordered discovery.
Having some trouble, Ms. Rosen? Wish you could circumvent that encryption?
Does anyone think this may be a catalyst/excuse for the MPAA/RIAA lobbyists to push for a ban on backdoorless crypto software? The thought of the government and the industry inforcers going hand-in-hand...
I'm pretty sure the lab work NASA wants to do simply cannot be done if the equipment must be squished into a small surface lander. Besides, I'm certain they want to LOOK at it in person. I'd want to.:)
How many copies do you allow people to make?
It's up to the record company, but six is the standard right now. So they can make six copies; as long as their disc is in the tray of their computer, they can make those copies...
*cough*
Looks like I spoke prematurely. He goes into more detail on the second page. Of course...I'd like to know how to copy a CD without it being in the CD drive of the computer with the burner in it.;)
They're punishing all users for the actions of some.
That's the effect of most criminal laws these days, unfortunately. Speed limits, gun registration, age limits on alcohol, etc.
Does anyone think this was inevitable? Let's assume (in some mythical different dimension) that illegally-distributed music isn't a problem for the industry. Digital piracy, in this hypothetical world, is minimal enough to not alarm the record companies.
Do you think they would go ahead and slip in these copy protection technologies for the hell of it...as a preventive measure? Meaning, do you think that regardless of the current climate, would the major labels have implemented these measures as time went along?
"The 53-year-old former on-air radio personality heads Phoenix-based SunnComm, one of dozens of digital rights management companies aiming to thwart would-be pirates from distributing copyrighted material over the Web."
...nice to forget about those of us who want to backup our CDs. I guess it doesn't bother this guy when his collection gets scratched over the years and slowly become unplayable.
OST 1 has the full-length theme song along with some of the more upbeat jazzier tracks and notable background music from the series. I'd buy this first for the variety within. If you are more into electronica, then I'd suggest getting Music for Freelance. It has remixes by DJ Vadim, Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ), Mr. Scruff, and Fila Brazilia. The other CD I have is Blue. Buy it for the beautiful ending song and to round out the rest of the music from the series. I have not heard No Disc, so I can't say what's on there, but it appears there are quite a few tracks to listen to.
Cowboy Bebop has some awesome music. Even if I wasn't a huge fan of the series, I'd still buy the CDs.
Also in SFTD, there is a scene that shows a character falling from a high-rise window to his death a few minutes later. No, the impact isn't what kills him...Spike catches him with the Swordfish. Tenuous connection to WTC, but one that can be taken the wrong way nontheless.
What's interesting is that on Monday, the new Dragonball Z epsiode "The Newest Super Saiyan" opened up with an aircraft on a crash course with Satan City with closeups of an engine on fire and lots of passengers staring in fear out the windows. That, to me, has much more of a connection with WTC than anything you'd find in "Sympathy for the Devil."
A few days ago, I read a question online where the person wanted to know the fastest processor he could find to replace his (unbranded) 166MHz. He gave the impression of being ignorant (I mean this in the politest sense possible) to the current processor market and seemed to be unaware of the insane prices we see today. Why scrounge around for a PII 300MHz (for $30 admittedly) when you can buy a much more powerful PIII 650MHz for ~$90...or a Duron 950MHz for $58? Sure, toss in a new motherboard, but that also means USB, better and current product support, and a longer upgrade life.
I dunno if you were joking or not, but humans are mammals, just like a whole bunch of other beings that we refer to as animals. Cats, apes, eagles, alligators, dolphins, humans...we are all animals. We just have the ability and the desire to take what this planet provides for us and utilize it more efficiently than anything else out there.
Anyway, I'm happy Bush didn't cave to either side on this. I'd rather we have some continued federal funding than none. Some of the reaction Yahoo posted up is interesting though:
Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops - ``The trade-off he has announced is morally unacceptable: The federal government, for the first time in history, will support research that relies on the destruction of some defenseless human beings for the possible benefit to others.''
Kate Michelman, president, National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League President - ``The president tonight offered a weak and limited compromise on stem-cell research. In an attempt to politically straddle the issue, the president has pleased no one. Americans must now turn to Congress for the support needed to continue this vital research.''
Who wants to stick THESE two in an invitro lab together?
From the article: "Raw XML is very verbose -- it's not a good technology for the telecommunication of data unless you combine it with ASN.1," said Scott. "Together they can solve the problem without wasting bandwidth. An XML data set encoded into ASN.1 will be orders of magnitude less verbose than the raw XML." How much depends on the application, he said. "In one benchmark I have read about, a 200-byte message was reduced to 20 bytes with normal compression methods, but ASN.1 encoded it into just 2 bytes and a few bits," said [Bancroft] Scott.
Pretty impressive compression. Think anyone will reconsider it now?
Of particular interest to the advertising industry is the finding that the same percentage of viewers skip through television commercials with PVRs as fast-forward through them with VCRs. According to Mr. Wallace, that figure is around 25 percent in both cases.
Just about a quarter? That surprises me...you'd think that FF'ing through the commercials is something more consumers would rather do. What, do they enjoy watching car ad after car ad after car ad?
I can imagine the MPAA loosing the sphincter floodgates when you wrote that.;)
I agree with you, especially when an actor is in the news recently. All the hype surrounding big-name stars gets distracting at times, and I can't help but carry some predjudices with me when I see some of them. Of course, the same thing could happen to voice actors, and already does in some cases.
I disagree. The first Crichton book I read was Sphere, and some of the concepts and ideas behind that are very interesting. The movie was OK, but the book was a compelling read. Some of the plot twists were totally out of left field, the images he used to describe what the scientists and military personnel saw were vivid, and the ending was a seat-clencher. Rising Sun was also above-average...again, the movie was OK. My humble opinion...of course.;)
I use my PS2 as my DVD player. I bought one of those DVD remotes (Pelican? I think) w/ a pass-thru port so you can still use both controllers. Didn't like the remote much. But I'm sure there are better ones out there. I've gotten used to the Sony controller. My main gripe is that it's easy to accidentally hit a button and mess something up.
As for the DVD controls on the Sony controller:
Start is Pause/Play
Select brings up the Menu
R1/L1 are Chapter Forward/Skip
R2/L2 are Fast Forward/Rewind
R3/L3 (the analogue sticks, press'em like a button) are Language Select/Subtitle Select
Triangle is Main DVD Menu
Circle is Accept/Enter
Square is DVD Title menu
What are they up to now...1000 hours over 45 days? Geez, half that time is spent wondering why you're putting up with it.:)
I can see the AOL/Timewarner congolmerate eyeing the idea mentioned below about premium networks. Since you can get your cable, net, and virtually all your information and entertainment *vomit* from them, why not have a massive portal site set up where you pay a single fee of 79.99 a month which gets you cable TV, cable net access, and all the content you want? Most consumers I know (that aren't informed about much) just want simplicity and relative quality.
I'd been on the fence about this. But if someone who doesn't understand that amination is a medium and not a genre gives the movie such a negative review, I'm going to see it. I don't care how bad it is; I want this thing to succeed, and perhaps spread the word that animation isn't just kids' stuff.
I agree. I haven't seen the movie, nor have I read any reviews of it (skipped Katz's review as well). I don't want the experience to be spoiled by critics that cannot understand that animation is not a genre of movie, it's a way of acomplishing a theatrical goal in a different way. Any retorts that animation was a genre up until recently can go to Disney and complain about that.
Maybe so, but I tend to think of the information available on the Net as aggregately much more cheaper to find and view than doing what those who came before us had to do. Like jedidiah siad above, the larger the distribution, the cheaper per unit. Who knows how many webpages there are out there, each with content? That's where the Internet's "free lunch" came from, the impossibly huge bank of data that is freely available to the end-user. What the business, the webmaster, the government agency cringe at are the start-up costs and the way that their own popularity can strangle them.
"Most of the games out there are artistically and stylistically impressive, but not entirely faithful to real human behavior," [Dr. Silverman] said. "We can't take those games and easily replace their made-up forces with ones we'd like to fight against."
Maybe they should model some of the tactics of online gamers to "sample" random human reactions to certain situations, such as suddenly being confronted by 6 armed men in a hallway...do you reach for your bazooka, toss a grenade, or run the other way? OTOH, if you are presented with a nice sniping position, do you attack with rockets or heavy machine gun fire? Simple decisions that we all make in realtime, but are taken for granted. Give the enemy programs more "human" reactions.
Once you are footing the bill for hosting, chances are, you've got metered bandwidth. Go above your ammount, and you start getting charged extra.
For a site that acquires a vast readership - that load can be a lot to bear, and many sites are starting to fold under the burden of bandwidth bills.
It's like you get punished for having a popular site - unless you can fund it.
Some sites turned to banner ads and popups - annoying, but they were supposed to pay the bills. Unfortunately, many of the ad companies didn't pay, or paid far less than they promised. Only now are sites seeing that they can't rely on banners alone.
Some sites turn to donations to pay their bills - while some can become quite successful this way - eventually, that money will dry up too.
A forum I frequent regularly, Animeboards.com, is going through these growing pains. At first the webmaster relied on your standard Net advertising plan...which subsequently dried up and folded under him a month ago. He then had to close the forums down and leave open only one...one relating to idea to keep the place running. He got some great ideas for the first few days...and then something became apparent to everyone:
Hardly anyone *wanted* to pay for the services.
"Yeah, so?" you're probably saying. "We all know people want stuff for free."
And that's my point. A small core of supporters is keeping the site alive with PayPal donations and the Webmaster has found some short-term solutions...but the vast majority of the posters either don't feel like it's worth their time or lack the means to pay: no extra money/no convienient way to ship checks (it's an Australian site)/etc.
The challenge is to give the visitors something worth visiting. Fresh and original content, neato graphics, downloads, etc. The costs of running your site are directly related to it's popularity. Mom-and-Pop outfits, single people running things from their bedrooms, and even small companies are learning that being popular is expensive. That's why they fold or get bought out. Are we too cheap these days to pay for the things we use? Or are the costs too much for these sites to handle...and why?
Slashdot Mirror
On the morn of Sept. 12, people went straight to the newstand to pick up the paper where we found far more in-depth coverage than we could get off the web.
The problem with print media is that you are limited to what they put out. They don't have links to additional information. While a newspaper can devote pages and pages of text, pictures, and tables to a story, they are still limited to those physical pages. Whereas, a media site such as Wired can provide links to the actual documents being discussed, links to the homepages of the people/groups involved, and links to video and audio. Certainly not all web media do this. But the ones that do, I think, provide a better information source than the newspapers.
Not to mention the 2000 Election debacle. That was when I first stumbled upon FOX NEWS' website, among others.
Yes, I realize that. :)
I'm thinking of the bosses of the nerds weighing the choices they have in information technology...but if those bosses don't know about the huge variety of options they have, then they won't even consider any options. That, of course, would be a failing of the IT staff if they didn't inform management of the options.
To branch off, what x86 alternatives are there that are certified (or whatever it is) for extremely critical computing tasks and can run open-source software?
Speaking of "critical" software, I thought I once read somewhere that the two big chip makers didn't make x86 chips that were supposed to be used in critical situations such as hospital life support. Might that also hamper the adoption of the *nixes, since the hardware is harder to come by?
Is it just me, or does that demonstrate that our implementation of "representative democracy" is badly flawed?
No, it means that for the first time, it is overwhelmingly simple to actually get in touch with your representative from just about any place on the planet. Of course, "overwhelmingly simple" has been the case since we were taught how to research information in school. Such as, how to read a phone book, look up items in a library, and talk to clerks at information desks. But since that's probably too much to ask this day and age, busting out a well-formatted, honest, and to-the-point e-mail should be just as good. It's still coming from his/her constituents and it should still require a response.
From the memo:
...
...
The FastTrack network designates (perhaps automatically) certain peers - more powerful computers with high-bandwidth connections - as "supernodes." [because of the system's encrypted communication, we are unable to determine how supernodes are designated]. Several hundred "ordinary" peers connect to any one supernode. A supernode also connects to other supernodes. [because of the system's encrypted communication, we are unable to determine how one supernode knows how to locate other supernodes].
Significantly, the FastTrack system encrypts all communications (a) between a peer and the log-in server, (b) between a peer and its supernode, (c) between a supernode and the central servers, and (d) between supernodes [we do not know the nature of the encryption].
Our claims would likely be strengthened by learning more about the designation of supernodes and the content of communications within the system. However, the encryption of this communication precludes further learning absent cooperation from one of these companies or court ordered discovery.
Having some trouble, Ms. Rosen? Wish you could circumvent that encryption?
Does anyone think this may be a catalyst/excuse for the MPAA/RIAA lobbyists to push for a ban on backdoorless crypto software? The thought of the government and the industry inforcers going hand-in-hand...
I'm pretty sure the lab work NASA wants to do simply cannot be done if the equipment must be squished into a small surface lander. Besides, I'm certain they want to LOOK at it in person. I'd want to. :)
*cough*
Looks like I spoke prematurely. He goes into more detail on the second page. Of course...I'd like to know how to copy a CD without it being in the CD drive of the computer with the burner in it.
That's the effect of most criminal laws these days, unfortunately. Speed limits, gun registration, age limits on alcohol, etc.
Does anyone think this was inevitable? Let's assume (in some mythical different dimension) that illegally-distributed music isn't a problem for the industry. Digital piracy, in this hypothetical world, is minimal enough to not alarm the record companies.
Do you think they would go ahead and slip in these copy protection technologies for the hell of it...as a preventive measure? Meaning, do you think that regardless of the current climate, would the major labels have implemented these measures as time went along?
OST 1 has the full-length theme song along with some of the more upbeat jazzier tracks and notable background music from the series. I'd buy this first for the variety within. If you are more into electronica, then I'd suggest getting Music for Freelance. It has remixes by DJ Vadim, Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ), Mr. Scruff, and Fila Brazilia. The other CD I have is Blue. Buy it for the beautiful ending song and to round out the rest of the music from the series. I have not heard No Disc, so I can't say what's on there, but it appears there are quite a few tracks to listen to.
Cowboy Bebop has some awesome music. Even if I wasn't a huge fan of the series, I'd still buy the CDs.
Also in SFTD, there is a scene that shows a character falling from a high-rise window to his death a few minutes later. No, the impact isn't what kills him...Spike catches him with the Swordfish. Tenuous connection to WTC, but one that can be taken the wrong way nontheless.
What's interesting is that on Monday, the new Dragonball Z epsiode "The Newest Super Saiyan" opened up with an aircraft on a crash course with Satan City with closeups of an engine on fire and lots of passengers staring in fear out the windows. That, to me, has much more of a connection with WTC than anything you'd find in "Sympathy for the Devil."
A few days ago, I read a question online where the person wanted to know the fastest processor he could find to replace his (unbranded) 166MHz. He gave the impression of being ignorant (I mean this in the politest sense possible) to the current processor market and seemed to be unaware of the insane prices we see today. Why scrounge around for a PII 300MHz (for $30 admittedly) when you can buy a much more powerful PIII 650MHz for ~$90...or a Duron 950MHz for $58? Sure, toss in a new motherboard, but that also means USB, better and current product support, and a longer upgrade life.
Anyway, I'm happy Bush didn't cave to either side on this. I'd rather we have some continued federal funding than none. Some of the reaction Yahoo posted up is interesting though:
Who wants to stick THESE two in an invitro lab together?
From the article: "Raw XML is very verbose -- it's not a good technology for the telecommunication of data unless you combine it with ASN.1," said Scott. "Together they can solve the problem without wasting bandwidth. An XML data set encoded into ASN.1 will be orders of magnitude less verbose than the raw XML." How much depends on the application, he said. "In one benchmark I have read about, a 200-byte message was reduced to 20 bytes with normal compression methods, but ASN.1 encoded it into just 2 bytes and a few bits," said [Bancroft] Scott.
Pretty impressive compression. Think anyone will reconsider it now?
Of particular interest to the advertising industry is the finding that the same percentage of viewers skip through television commercials with PVRs as fast-forward through them with VCRs. According to Mr. Wallace, that figure is around 25 percent in both cases.
Just about a quarter? That surprises me...you'd think that FF'ing through the commercials is something more consumers would rather do. What, do they enjoy watching car ad after car ad after car ad?
I can imagine the MPAA loosing the sphincter floodgates when you wrote that. ;)
I agree with you, especially when an actor is in the news recently. All the hype surrounding big-name stars gets distracting at times, and I can't help but carry some predjudices with me when I see some of them. Of course, the same thing could happen to voice actors, and already does in some cases.
Crichton has never written a good book.
;)
I disagree. The first Crichton book I read was Sphere, and some of the concepts and ideas behind that are very interesting. The movie was OK, but the book was a compelling read. Some of the plot twists were totally out of left field, the images he used to describe what the scientists and military personnel saw were vivid, and the ending was a seat-clencher. Rising Sun was also above-average...again, the movie was OK. My humble opinion...of course.
I use my PS2 as my DVD player. I bought one of those DVD remotes (Pelican? I think) w/ a pass-thru port so you can still use both controllers. Didn't like the remote much. But I'm sure there are better ones out there. I've gotten used to the Sony controller. My main gripe is that it's easy to accidentally hit a button and mess something up.
As for the DVD controls on the Sony controller:
Start is Pause/Play
Select brings up the Menu
R1/L1 are Chapter Forward/Skip
R2/L2 are Fast Forward/Rewind
R3/L3 (the analogue sticks, press'em like a button) are Language Select/Subtitle Select
Triangle is Main DVD Menu
Circle is Accept/Enter
Square is DVD Title menu
What are they up to now...1000 hours over 45 days? Geez, half that time is spent wondering why you're putting up with it. :)
I can see the AOL/Timewarner congolmerate eyeing the idea mentioned below about premium networks. Since you can get your cable, net, and virtually all your information and entertainment *vomit* from them, why not have a massive portal site set up where you pay a single fee of 79.99 a month which gets you cable TV, cable net access, and all the content you want? Most consumers I know (that aren't informed about much) just want simplicity and relative quality.
I'd been on the fence about this. But if someone who doesn't understand that amination is a medium and not a genre gives the movie such a negative review, I'm going to see it. I don't care how bad it is; I want this thing to succeed, and perhaps spread the word that animation isn't just kids' stuff.
I agree. I haven't seen the movie, nor have I read any reviews of it (skipped Katz's review as well). I don't want the experience to be spoiled by critics that cannot understand that animation is not a genre of movie, it's a way of acomplishing a theatrical goal in a different way. Any retorts that animation was a genre up until recently can go to Disney and complain about that.
Maybe so, but I tend to think of the information available on the Net as aggregately much more cheaper to find and view than doing what those who came before us had to do. Like jedidiah siad above, the larger the distribution, the cheaper per unit. Who knows how many webpages there are out there, each with content? That's where the Internet's "free lunch" came from, the impossibly huge bank of data that is freely available to the end-user. What the business, the webmaster, the government agency cringe at are the start-up costs and the way that their own popularity can strangle them.
From the article:
"Most of the games out there are artistically and stylistically impressive, but not entirely faithful to real human behavior," [Dr. Silverman] said. "We can't take those games and easily replace their made-up forces with ones we'd like to fight against."
Maybe they should model some of the tactics of online gamers to "sample" random human reactions to certain situations, such as suddenly being confronted by 6 armed men in a hallway...do you reach for your bazooka, toss a grenade, or run the other way? OTOH, if you are presented with a nice sniping position, do you attack with rockets or heavy machine gun fire? Simple decisions that we all make in realtime, but are taken for granted. Give the enemy programs more "human" reactions.
I agree. How easy and cheap (license-wise) is it to take a trial run with most MS products (warez notwithstanding)?
Once you are footing the bill for hosting, chances are, you've got metered bandwidth. Go above your ammount, and you start getting charged extra.
For a site that acquires a vast readership - that load can be a lot to bear, and many sites are starting to fold under the burden of bandwidth bills.
It's like you get punished for having a popular site - unless you can fund it.
Some sites turned to banner ads and popups - annoying, but they were supposed to pay the bills. Unfortunately, many of the ad companies didn't pay, or paid far less than they promised. Only now are sites seeing that they can't rely on banners alone.
Some sites turn to donations to pay their bills - while some can become quite successful this way - eventually, that money will dry up too.
A forum I frequent regularly, Animeboards.com, is going through these growing pains. At first the webmaster relied on your standard Net advertising plan...which subsequently dried up and folded under him a month ago. He then had to close the forums down and leave open only one...one relating to idea to keep the place running. He got some great ideas for the first few days...and then something became apparent to everyone:
Hardly anyone *wanted* to pay for the services.
"Yeah, so?" you're probably saying. "We all know people want stuff for free."
And that's my point. A small core of supporters is keeping the site alive with PayPal donations and the Webmaster has found some short-term solutions...but the vast majority of the posters either don't feel like it's worth their time or lack the means to pay: no extra money/no convienient way to ship checks (it's an Australian site)/etc.
The challenge is to give the visitors something worth visiting. Fresh and original content, neato graphics, downloads, etc. The costs of running your site are directly related to it's popularity. Mom-and-Pop outfits, single people running things from their bedrooms, and even small companies are learning that being popular is expensive. That's why they fold or get bought out. Are we too cheap these days to pay for the things we use? Or are the costs too much for these sites to handle...and why?