The entire point of the telco existing is to squeeze maximum profit from each customer for minimum service. Without competition in the market, you can be 100% sure that there will be no improvements in speed or service, while they try and clamp-down on people doing anything useful (that usually requires bandwidth).
If they could get away with charging people $100/month just for checking their email, you better believe they'd be doing it...
I was thinking more of this (would work for email and document distribution):
Journalist gives out public PGP key to the world at large on their newspaper (or whatever) webpage, as well as information on using freenet and a particular "frost" group to send messages in.
Whistleblower gets public key and encrypts their comment/document/evidence with it, and uploads it to freenet.
Journalist checks freenet and downloads messages addressed to him in a certain group (ala Frost). Uses PGP to decrypt the message. Replies to the sender could also be PGP'd and reposted back to freenet if required.
Absolutely untraceable. The only downside is that Freenet is a bit cludgy by modern standards - but for files and documents, it's not too bad.
I suppose they did secretly propose it to the UN, but just because it's the US (and perhaps right now, BECAUSE it's the US), people aren't going to just blindly follow them...
Oh? The local stores I were at had signs up saying that the price of the players had an extra $25 (or other levy amount) included in the store's price.
So you're saying that if the manufacturer or importer had to pay the levy, it wasn't just passed-along to the consumer?
Mighty generous of them...
Now I suppose you could argue that consumers should go after the manufacturers, but let's be honest, the CPCC should be the ones paying to cut-out the middle man.
Yup. There are LOTS of stores that don't bother charging the levy... And I sometimes wonder how many that DO "charge" the levy just keep it for themselves without reporting.
So the levy has been overturned, but they've still collected MILLIONS of dollars on it in the meantime...
Consumers should sue the CPCC to get their money back - it shouldn't be going back to the importers and manufacturers... Do I hear class-action?
And in the meantime, has anyone heard of the CPCC actually giving out any of the money they've stolen from consumers yet? Last I heard, they were sitting on it and just funding themselves (and not releasing the books because they're a private entity - why the HELL should our government give levy-power to a private entity without any sort of public accountability on where the money goes...)
BTW: If you import your media into Canada from another country (the U.S. springs to mind), you pay no levy on media.
And Canada Customs will NOT collect the levy at the border (they've said that it's "someone else's problem to collect" - quote from a customs officer when I asked him).
The problem here is that a smart designer would think of that ahead of time.
Here's what I'd do if I designed the printer:
Encode the yellow-dot serial into a solid black part of the image. Even if yellow is printed over black, it should be possible by close examination (or perhaps the variable wavelength lightsource method sthat police/investigators use to examine forged documents) to see the yellow-dot pattern overtop (or inside) of the black part of the image.
And if you send that part of the image to the printer as "black", it's not going to have any yellow background or any other toner colour to interfere with whatever serial number the printer is laying-down.
Well, now that people know how the security system works (Info on detection system), it seems that any photographer who wants to protect their originals from being reproduced could find a way of putting the same pattern in their photograph to prevent duplication (incase you're wondering, if it was me, I'd use a plastic stencil cut with the appropriate pattern, and an airbrush with yellow paint/ink/pigment to add them to the background of something I had already printed a clean copy of).
Seems like there might be a business opportunity in this - commercial photographers protecting their images from being duplicated by customers, etc.
Still got my A1200 sitting on a shelf in my bedroom. I still fire it up occasionally when I want to play some games without using emulators.
My first machine was an A500 though, and I'm still kind of nostalgic about it. Had a lot of fun with that machine when I was younger (sold that off to finance the A1200).
Actually, you're exactly right. There are a number of encryption programs that create secondary encrypted containers within another primary encrypted container.
You keep the "real" stuff on the secondary, and something you don't really mind releasing on the primary.
When they force you to hand-over your keys, you reluctantly give them the primary key to "comply" with their "guilty until proven innocent" assault on your freedoms ("Terrorists Win!").
In the meantime, there is absolutely NO way for them to prove that another encrypted container exists inside the primary container.
This is the benefit over stenography, where experts could argue that excessive amounts of randomness in a file are actually the result of embedding encrypted data.
Infact, there was an old encryption package called "rubberhose" that was specifically designed to utilize the "container within a container" encryption system. (note: the website has disappeared, so I don't know if the project has been dropped, or if the US has locked-up the programmer somewhere).
I was actually pleasantly surprised when ADV released the City Hunter series on DVD (although I can't find it on their site anywhere at the moment). It's one of my favorite series of all-time, and the opportunity to get the entire show (~120 episodes) at a fairly reasonable price was great.
I was more than a little surprised when I noticed how good the translations were, as well as what I consider to be an excellent subbing job - good quality with minimal "over-production" (seeing as I how I fansubbed many of the episodes myself over a decade ago, the ADV version was more or less 'how I woulda done it' if I had the time:).
In other words: I want NO extras, NO english dialogue, NO fancy menus. Just good translations, clean video and clear "soft" subtitles (and preferably clean opening/closes).
WMV Encoded files that you need to briefly connect to their authorization server to play?
Here's how I'd do it:
Encode the WMV files so that after you've purchased them online, your player gets a key allowing playback on your machine(s) (say, up to 3 simultaneous machines?) for the period of 2 years.
After 2 years, the server re-issues a permanent, unlimited key (or allows re-download of an unencrypted ver of the series), so you own the content and can do any futher playback you want (or presumably share it with lusers who have waited 2 years just to copy it for free). That sort of policy would ease my fears about DRM abuse.
I dunno, but I think they're getting closer to "being on the right track", and when they get it right, the floodgates will open (both in terms of content, and revenue).
For example, I'd pay $2.50 per-episode to get an entire series delivered to me over a few weeks/months (weekly downloads?). Over the course of a full 24-episode series, that would be $60 in revenue, which I'd think is appropriate considering there would be absolutely no manufacturing or distribution costs for them. $5 per episode would not be approprite IMHO.
Really? Try doing a repair on the system drive in windows on a NTFS drive without rebooting...
Linux doesn't need to reboot to add or remove software or drivers - something I hope will make it's way to Windows eventually.
The problem with using hibernation is that it requires shutting down your machine in a controlled state. Why can't you make a "startup hibernation image" that's loaded every single time the machine is turned on, rather than when it's powered-off. Stuff like the registry and such would need to be updated at each load to take care of changes since the image was made, but surely there's a way to do this...
Ya, no kidding. Let's try for something a little deeper and farther-reaching than fans and cases...
How about an operating system that never needs to be rebooted to check/repair disks, or to add/remove software or drivers.
Also an OS that takes a snapshot of it's "completely loaded" environment (kind of like a laptop hibernation) and store that to HD, so the next time it boots, it just loads the image to a default state, then updates the clock and other housekeeping tasks.
Oh, I know what happened to HP... It was a certain exec who decided that the way to success (cawf) was making a few changes...
As you said, HP used to be the absolute king of laser printers. There was absolutely nothing that even came close to their durability and reliability - and consumables were fairly reasonable too...
Then the big changes started happening. HP saw that Epson, Canon and others were starting to make big big profits in the inkjet business. The old "razor blades" model. Make your hardware dirt cheap and make consumables expensive.
Likewise, the cost-cutting started the erosion of the perceived reliability of their products. I couldn't believe when I saw a Laserjet 6 - it was absolute garbage. All breakable plastic and cheap parts. I think the one that someone bought for our office lasted less than 6 months (a LJ-4 that was in a much higher-traffic area with much less-responsible users lasted a good 6 years).
I've got a HP sheet-feeding scanner sitting right beside me (until I replace it with an Epson, hopefully soon). Slow, awful software (who writes a scanner interface in farking JAVASCRIPT), and the scan quality is poor (not to mention that the "well-sealed" unit that I got now somehow has dust underneath the glass bed, making it impossible to clean).
You want to know why HP has tanked? Because they stopped making GOOD hardware and GOOD software, and started trying to play the "make our money off of cheap disposable crap" hardware game.
Do I sound bitter? Hell yes - I used to love their products and actively promote them anywhere I saw a use for their hardware. Now they are second only to Lexmark for being at the bottom of my list of vendors I will buy from if nothing else is available.
I also went with Mandrake when I moved from my Win2k/apache server to a Linux system.
Their installation process is very intuitive and the system (running in secure server mode) seems pretty solid. I'd rather spend some time figuring out how to poke holes in the security to allow stuff I want to happen, rather than having to spend time figuring out how to make the system secure in the first place.
I tried debian a short time later, but I was kind of surprised how poor their installer was. Not taking cheap shots here, but put side-by-side, mandrake was much easier to use and understand.
(Now, I realize that the underlying OS is different in various ways that I'm not going to be familiar with, simply from installing a system, but as someone who's sort of comfortable in a unix environment from a user's pespective, if not an admin perspective, Mandrake made a much better "first impression" on me than any of the others that I tried).
I think many of these distros would benefit from placing someone who is comfortable in windows, but has never even heard of linux, in a closed room by themselves with a computer and see where they have problems when it comes to installing the system and setting-up applications.
Built a new windows box for my mom a couple weeks back (no linux griping, she needs applications that run under windows), and after everything was fully set-up and configured, I used a popular disk imaging program to create my own "emergency restore partition" on the drive.
So if it really tanks after a year or two, it's just a matter of rebooting and pressing a few keys before windows begins to load in order to completely recover the system. Of course if the HD crashes, we're back to square-one, but otherwise I figure it was a smart move...
Slashdot Mirror
Yup, I was thinking of exactly your product :)
:)
:P
I just wish you guys made a Mac version as well, because I got a free powerbook 15" from work
BTW: I didn't know that Serious Magic was formed by the Play folk... I would've hung around the booth at NAB to shoot the bull more
N.
You hit the nail on the head with that one!
The entire point of the telco existing is to squeeze maximum profit from each customer for minimum service. Without competition in the market, you can be 100% sure that there will be no improvements in speed or service, while they try and clamp-down on people doing anything useful (that usually requires bandwidth).
If they could get away with charging people $100/month just for checking their email, you better believe they'd be doing it...
Fibre to every home? BULLSHIT.
N.
But still, if you really want some Japanese Pop tunes, the iTunes iTMS would be fairly useful.
Really? I was under the impression that iTunes didn't let you purchase music from other regions due to licensing restrictions.
Is that not the case?
N.
I was thinking more of this (would work for email and document distribution):
Journalist gives out public PGP key to the world at large on their newspaper (or whatever) webpage, as well as information on using freenet and a particular "frost" group to send messages in.
Whistleblower gets public key and encrypts their comment/document/evidence with it, and uploads it to freenet.
Journalist checks freenet and downloads messages addressed to him in a certain group (ala Frost). Uses PGP to decrypt the message. Replies to the sender could also be PGP'd and reposted back to freenet if required.
Absolutely untraceable. The only downside is that Freenet is a bit cludgy by modern standards - but for files and documents, it's not too bad.
N.
Global?
I suppose they did secretly propose it to the UN, but just because it's the US (and perhaps right now, BECAUSE it's the US), people aren't going to just blindly follow them...
N.
Oh? The local stores I were at had signs up saying that the price of the players had an extra $25 (or other levy amount) included in the store's price.
So you're saying that if the manufacturer or importer had to pay the levy, it wasn't just passed-along to the consumer?
Mighty generous of them...
Now I suppose you could argue that consumers should go after the manufacturers, but let's be honest, the CPCC should be the ones paying to cut-out the middle man.
N.
Yup. There are LOTS of stores that don't bother charging the levy... And I sometimes wonder how many that DO "charge" the levy just keep it for themselves without reporting.
N.
Waaaait a second...
So the levy has been overturned, but they've still collected MILLIONS of dollars on it in the meantime...
Consumers should sue the CPCC to get their money back - it shouldn't be going back to the importers and manufacturers... Do I hear class-action?
And in the meantime, has anyone heard of the CPCC actually giving out any of the money they've stolen from consumers yet? Last I heard, they were sitting on it and just funding themselves (and not releasing the books because they're a private entity - why the HELL should our government give levy-power to a private entity without any sort of public accountability on where the money goes...)
N.
BTW: If you import your media into Canada from another country (the U.S. springs to mind), you pay no levy on media.
And Canada Customs will NOT collect the levy at the border (they've said that it's "someone else's problem to collect" - quote from a customs officer when I asked him).
N.
The problem here is that a smart designer would think of that ahead of time.
Here's what I'd do if I designed the printer:
Encode the yellow-dot serial into a solid black part of the image. Even if yellow is printed over black, it should be possible by close examination (or perhaps the variable wavelength lightsource method sthat police/investigators use to examine forged documents) to see the yellow-dot pattern overtop (or inside) of the black part of the image.
And if you send that part of the image to the printer as "black", it's not going to have any yellow background or any other toner colour to interfere with whatever serial number the printer is laying-down.
N.
Well, now that people know how the security system works (Info on detection system), it seems that any photographer who wants to protect their originals from being reproduced could find a way of putting the same pattern in their photograph to prevent duplication (incase you're wondering, if it was me, I'd use a plastic stencil cut with the appropriate pattern, and an airbrush with yellow paint/ink/pigment to add them to the background of something I had already printed a clean copy of).
Seems like there might be a business opportunity in this - commercial photographers protecting their images from being duplicated by customers, etc.
N.
Still got my A1200 sitting on a shelf in my bedroom. I still fire it up occasionally when I want to play some games without using emulators.
My first machine was an A500 though, and I'm still kind of nostalgic about it. Had a lot of fun with that machine when I was younger (sold that off to finance the A1200).
N.
Mecha-grampa will be able to whoop some ass when the damn kids are on the lawn!
N.
Then something is wrong with your system. None of the 3 machines I use on regular basis have this problem.
N.
Actually, you're exactly right. There are a number of encryption programs that create secondary encrypted containers within another primary encrypted container.
You keep the "real" stuff on the secondary, and something you don't really mind releasing on the primary.
When they force you to hand-over your keys, you reluctantly give them the primary key to "comply" with their "guilty until proven innocent" assault on your freedoms ("Terrorists Win!").
In the meantime, there is absolutely NO way for them to prove that another encrypted container exists inside the primary container.
This is the benefit over stenography, where experts could argue that excessive amounts of randomness in a file are actually the result of embedding encrypted data.
Infact, there was an old encryption package called "rubberhose" that was specifically designed to utilize the "container within a container" encryption system. (note: the website has disappeared, so I don't know if the project has been dropped, or if the US has locked-up the programmer somewhere).
N.
N.
I was actually pleasantly surprised when ADV released the City Hunter series on DVD (although I can't find it on their site anywhere at the moment). It's one of my favorite series of all-time, and the opportunity to get the entire show (~120 episodes) at a fairly reasonable price was great.
:).
I was more than a little surprised when I noticed how good the translations were, as well as what I consider to be an excellent subbing job - good quality with minimal "over-production" (seeing as I how I fansubbed many of the episodes myself over a decade ago, the ADV version was more or less 'how I woulda done it' if I had the time
In other words: I want NO extras, NO english dialogue, NO fancy menus. Just good translations, clean video and clear "soft" subtitles (and preferably clean opening/closes).
N.
WMV Encoded files that you need to briefly connect to their authorization server to play?
Here's how I'd do it:
Encode the WMV files so that after you've purchased them online, your player gets a key allowing playback on your machine(s) (say, up to 3 simultaneous machines?) for the period of 2 years.
After 2 years, the server re-issues a permanent, unlimited key (or allows re-download of an unencrypted ver of the series), so you own the content and can do any futher playback you want (or presumably share it with lusers who have waited 2 years just to copy it for free). That sort of policy would ease my fears about DRM abuse.
I dunno, but I think they're getting closer to "being on the right track", and when they get it right, the floodgates will open (both in terms of content, and revenue).
For example, I'd pay $2.50 per-episode to get an entire series delivered to me over a few weeks/months (weekly downloads?). Over the course of a full 24-episode series, that would be $60 in revenue, which I'd think is appropriate considering there would be absolutely no manufacturing or distribution costs for them. $5 per episode would not be approprite IMHO.
N.
Yup, it was a 6L. I wasn't aware that they even made a 6P.
N.
Really? Try doing a repair on the system drive in windows on a NTFS drive without rebooting...
Linux doesn't need to reboot to add or remove software or drivers - something I hope will make it's way to Windows eventually.
The problem with using hibernation is that it requires shutting down your machine in a controlled state. Why can't you make a "startup hibernation image" that's loaded every single time the machine is turned on, rather than when it's powered-off. Stuff like the registry and such would need to be updated at each load to take care of changes since the image was made, but surely there's a way to do this...
N.
Ya, no kidding. Let's try for something a little deeper and farther-reaching than fans and cases...
How about an operating system that never needs to be rebooted to check/repair disks, or to add/remove software or drivers.
Also an OS that takes a snapshot of it's "completely loaded" environment (kind of like a laptop hibernation) and store that to HD, so the next time it boots, it just loads the image to a default state, then updates the clock and other housekeeping tasks.
N.
Oh, I know what happened to HP... It was a certain exec who decided that the way to success (cawf) was making a few changes...
As you said, HP used to be the absolute king of laser printers. There was absolutely nothing that even came close to their durability and reliability - and consumables were fairly reasonable too...
Then the big changes started happening. HP saw that Epson, Canon and others were starting to make big big profits in the inkjet business. The old "razor blades" model. Make your hardware dirt cheap and make consumables expensive.
Likewise, the cost-cutting started the erosion of the perceived reliability of their products. I couldn't believe when I saw a Laserjet 6 - it was absolute garbage. All breakable plastic and cheap parts. I think the one that someone bought for our office lasted less than 6 months (a LJ-4 that was in a much higher-traffic area with much less-responsible users lasted a good 6 years).
I've got a HP sheet-feeding scanner sitting right beside me (until I replace it with an Epson, hopefully soon). Slow, awful software (who writes a scanner interface in farking JAVASCRIPT), and the scan quality is poor (not to mention that the "well-sealed" unit that I got now somehow has dust underneath the glass bed, making it impossible to clean).
You want to know why HP has tanked? Because they stopped making GOOD hardware and GOOD software, and started trying to play the "make our money off of cheap disposable crap" hardware game.
Do I sound bitter? Hell yes - I used to love their products and actively promote them anywhere I saw a use for their hardware. Now they are second only to Lexmark for being at the bottom of my list of vendors I will buy from if nothing else is available.
Grr...
N.
Guess I'll have to go read the Harry Potter book then... :P
N.
I also went with Mandrake when I moved from my Win2k/apache server to a Linux system.
Their installation process is very intuitive and the system (running in secure server mode) seems pretty solid. I'd rather spend some time figuring out how to poke holes in the security to allow stuff I want to happen, rather than having to spend time figuring out how to make the system secure in the first place.
I tried debian a short time later, but I was kind of surprised how poor their installer was. Not taking cheap shots here, but put side-by-side, mandrake was much easier to use and understand.
(Now, I realize that the underlying OS is different in various ways that I'm not going to be familiar with, simply from installing a system, but as someone who's sort of comfortable in a unix environment from a user's pespective, if not an admin perspective, Mandrake made a much better "first impression" on me than any of the others that I tried).
I think many of these distros would benefit from placing someone who is comfortable in windows, but has never even heard of linux, in a closed room by themselves with a computer and see where they have problems when it comes to installing the system and setting-up applications.
N.
Built a new windows box for my mom a couple weeks back (no linux griping, she needs applications that run under windows), and after everything was fully set-up and configured, I used a popular disk imaging program to create my own "emergency restore partition" on the drive.
So if it really tanks after a year or two, it's just a matter of rebooting and pressing a few keys before windows begins to load in order to completely recover the system. Of course if the HD crashes, we're back to square-one, but otherwise I figure it was a smart move...
N.
Ok, because it's late and I'm tired, I'll geek a bit...
I figure they didn't transmit the plans because it would've pinpointed how they were planning the rebel attack.
And then the empire could've just put some chickenwire over the exhaust port.
Then they would've failed and died. Which wouldn't have made Lucas nearly as much money.
N.