Thats why I run Gentoo and use xf86-video-nv (the box only has a GeForce 4 MX or so therefore its next-to-useless for 3D so xf86-video-nv is fine. If I wanted 3D, I would run Noveau) I don't run any binary blobs (including Flash) on the box. And I dont update the BIOS or any firmware (why would I need to when the box works fine, plus, its not like Intel releases BIOS updates for a motherboard that old)
All I need now is for someone to bring the Gentoo "everything is compiled yourself" philosophy to a mobile phone:) (with a minimum set of sensitive radio bits on a seperate CPU and/or DSP if that's what it takes to make it legal to use) Maemo on the N900 is no good, too many critical parts (battery charging code, power management code, telephony code and others) are closed source. Android is no good either, all android phones to date have (as far as I know) binary blobs for the radio part.
OpenMoko is (AFAIK) the only phone that doesn't have closed source parts running on the main CPU that are essential to the running of the phone. But the hardware sucks (it cant even do quad band GSM, let alone 3G) as does the form factor (I want a phone with physical keys, not a touchscreen)
What Comcast was doing would be similar to the phone company deciding they didnt like the phone call you were making and cutting off both parties in such a way as to make each party think the other party had hung up the call.
The problem is that no filtering system in use (or suggested by) any government anywhere in the world will stop the hardcore pedophiles from accessing their encrypted dark-nets and p2p networks where they get all their child porn from.
Show me a filtering system that even attempts to block the real sources of Child Pornography and maybe I will listen to governments trying to push it. Until then, forget about it:)
If the total amount of money paid by customers to the ISP is not enough to cover the bandwidth costs in the YouTube age, instead of going after Google, they should increase their prices so what the customer pays is enough to cover the outgoing bandwidth costs.
But they dont want to do that because they will loose customers.
There are a number of emulators on the App Store such as the C64 one and IIRC some Genesis stuff (emulators that are OK under the previous rules because they don't have any way for the user to control the code being run by the emulator). Will such things be removed from the App Store by Apple?
Microsoft has given away its C++ compiler for years now. They started giving it away as part of the Windows SDK and as part of the Visual C++ Command Line Toolkit. These days they give it away as part of the Express Edition of Visual C++. The compiler in that version is identical to the version included in the paid version of Visual C++, as are the C and C++ run-times. You dont get all the fancy stuff like MFC in the free version though.
The info on this specifically says its DIFFERENT to Cygwin (which is a translation layer to allow Unix-esque apps to be compiled on Windows), Mingw (which is a way to use GCC to build Windows apps) and Microsoft Systems For Unix (which is a posix compatible subsystem for Windows that allows specially written apps to run)
As some have said, the biggest obstacle these guys are going to face is the body of OSS software that wont compile in anything other than GCC (FFMPEG is one fairly big example)
Instead of trying to ban or restrict online gambling, why not simply license these sites on the condition that they pay the same gambling taxes as would be paid by a physical casino.
So if someone from Massachusetts plays on a site, the site has to pay gambling taxes to Massachusetts.
To pirate for the 360 requires you to hack the firmware of the DVD drive (risky and may not even be possible if your 360 has the wrong kind of DVD drive, plus it will cause you to be banned from XBOX live if you connect to that)
To pirate for the DS requires a flash cart which costs money.
I dont know about piracy for PSP but last I checked, it still requires replacing bits of the PSP firmware and may lock you out of newer firmware versions or features (or games that need those versions)
With PC, all you need to do is to download a single ISO from BitTorrent which will likely include a simple crack (usually all you have to do is to copy the crack into the games folder)
The right answer for the military would have been to publish the video and show exactly where the soldiers are indicating that they believe the other party has a weapon and that taking them out is the safest option.
If the military was more open about collateral damage (when it happens) and showed clearly where the military forces on the ground had reason to believe that the guys on the ground WERE hostile, it might help change people's opinion in cases like this.
Java (specifically J2EE with an Oracle or similar database back-end) seems to be second only to.NET/ASP.NET/C#/VB.NET with SQL Server in terms of jobs I see when I look on the job sites here in Australia.
Plus Java is still the #1 mobile language. Not just on Android but on the 1000s of feature phones out there running various incompatible versions of J2ME for applications (I have owned 3 feature phones, all of which have supported Java apps in some form)
Java on the desktop is dead (if it was ever anything but stillborn in the first place). Java for client side web development died and got replaced with ActiveX, Flash and other technologies.
But Java in the enterprise and mobile spaces is far from dead.
If anything, Oracle should be pushing J2EE even harder (Oracle is the dominant choice of database to use alongside J2EE)
1.It gives exemptions for flex-fuel cars. This is WRONG. The correct step is to mandate flex-fuel in all cars (with limited exemptions for cars where flex-fuel is not possible). By changing this, car companies cant simply make their gas guzzling SUVs flex-fuel and avoid the need to make them more efficient. (or simply to make and sell less of them) 2.It does nothing to address the fuel efficiency of big rigs, garbage trucks, utility trucks, buses, construction equipment and other heavy vehicles. 3.It gives companies like Jeep that make large amounts of SUVs higher targets than companies that make more fuel efficient cars. Numbers need to be lower to force a shift of the aggregate fleet (i.e. all new cars available for sale and sold in the US) towards more fuel efficient cars (which would hopefully mean smaller cars too)
Also, the rules for what counts as a "truck" should be revised and properly enforced so that things like the PT Cruiser do not count as "trucks". To be counted as a "truck", a vehicle must either be able to take more than 10 passengers or it must have at least 50% of the floorspace of the vehicle permanently dedicated to cargo. Anything else would be considered a "car".
The difference is that this group has permission from the copyright holders of these films to download any and all parts of the film as part of the process of identifying copyright violations.
Better 3G chip to go with all the carriers that have rolled out various kinds of HSDPA Same CPU as the iPad (or more likely a version that cuts back the speed and power consumption to account for the smaller battery on the iPhone) No multitasking (regardless of battery life concerns, Apple would need to "ruin" its perfect UI with some kind of task switcher feature) No front facing camera (video calling has not taken off in the way phone carriers would like, especially in the US. AFAIK its almost non-existent on AT&T) Rewritten bootloaders and security to make jailbreaking and unlocking harder I suspect 802.11n will appear IF apple can find a low power chip that doesn't require devoting too much of the internal space of the iPhone to the antenna.
I predict that there will still be no support for: Loading apps without going through the app store Fast 2D drawing APIs (CoreSurface or whatever it is) being able to be used in official apps External keyboards of any kind Any peripheral where Apple doesn't get a cut from every unit sold. Any kind of ability for apps to share data files with each other Any kind of ability to load arbitrary files onto an iPhone (i.e. a generic "documents" folder)
I also predict that there will continue to be many reasons Apple will reject your app submission, all of which exist as official policy at Apple (and are known to the app store reviewers) and none of which Apple will ever disclose to developers. One of these "unwritten rules" is likely "no apps that mean less revenue for Apple carrier partners such as AT&T"
I have seen many el-cheapo machines from various places where adding a decent PCIe graphics card would be difficult (either due to lack of slots, lack of space or lack of power/airflow). Dell for example, I have seen a number of Dell models that would be unable to accept ANY PCIe graphics card at all. All of these models contained Intel integrated graphics.
Most computers being sold today contain crappy integrated graphics (Intel GMA etc). Only the high end expensive machines tend to come with graphics good enough to play modern 3D games on.
If you want a machine with 3D graphics capabilities, you need to either build one yourself or buy a high-end expensive machine. If you just buy your typical "house brand" PC from stores like Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot etc, you will get crappy graphics.
Whereas, for the price of a typical "gaming" PC, you could likely buy an XBOX 360 or PS3 AND 1/2 dozen games (if you buy the cheaper titles instead of the latest and greatest that is)
BMP came about as a way to store data on disk (and in the resources of exe files) that could easily be rendered directly through windows GDI. You can take the BMP data and feed it straight into GDI to display.
What do you do for all the users of Windows XP who dont have OS support for H.264? Or all the people who are using a distro that doesn't ship patented codecs?
Netscape 4.x had the WORST HTML rendering engine of ANY browser I have ever used. Which is why they threw it away and wrote the Gecko rendering engine.
My fridge/freezer has a "star rating" label on it. This label says it draws 524Kwh per year under a specific set of test conditions and that it has a 2.5 star rating out of a possible 6 (more stars mean more energy efficient). All fridges and freezers are tested to the same standard and are all given the same label (its required by law). Washing machines and clothes dryers also have these ratings as do air conditioners and other things.
Unlike Energy Star, its an actual rating of how energy efficient the device is. The consumers can choose to buy the one with more stars or the one with less stars. If the manufacturers game the system and bribe the testing agency (as would happen if this system was adopted in the US), it wont make a difference because everyone will be doing it therefore the "device A is more efficient than device B" information will be preserved.
I just wish they would extend the Star Ratings to the things they dont currently appear on like TV sets, computers and computer hardware, stereo systems, set top boxes, DVD/blu-ray players, PVRs, home theater, games consoles, electric fans and heaters, electric hot water heaters, electric ovens and cookers and vacuum cleaners.
Someone should set up a demonstration. Get a computer, place it behind the best and most expensive filtering system money can buy. Demonstrate how easy it is to bypass the filter and access blocked content. Demonstrate that the filter does not block anywhere near all the "bad content" out there. Demonstrate the filter blocking legitimate content (content which even the most conservative parents would have no objection to and which has genuine educational value).
Show the politicians and conservative parents that the filter is totally useless and that kids who want to get to porn will do it anyway.
If they say "we just need a better and more effective filter", point out that the filter you used for the demonstration is the best filter money can buy and that there IS nothing better.
Also point out just how much of the limited resources of underfunded school districts has to be spent on buying, maintaining, upgrading and administering these filters (and list a bunch of other educational things that could be bought instead)
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Maybe they plan to post more photos later (to get more ad revenue)
Maybe there is something inside the phone that, if posted, would give away details of just which phone it is (and allow Apple to show who lost it)
Thats why I run Gentoo and use xf86-video-nv (the box only has a GeForce 4 MX or so therefore its next-to-useless for 3D so xf86-video-nv is fine. If I wanted 3D, I would run Noveau)
I don't run any binary blobs (including Flash) on the box.
And I dont update the BIOS or any firmware (why would I need to when the box works fine, plus, its not like Intel releases BIOS updates for a motherboard that old)
All I need now is for someone to bring the Gentoo "everything is compiled yourself" philosophy to a mobile phone :) (with a minimum set of sensitive radio bits on a seperate CPU and/or DSP if that's what it takes to make it legal to use)
Maemo on the N900 is no good, too many critical parts (battery charging code, power management code, telephony code and others) are closed source.
Android is no good either, all android phones to date have (as far as I know) binary blobs for the radio part.
OpenMoko is (AFAIK) the only phone that doesn't have closed source parts running on the main CPU that are essential to the running of the phone. But the hardware sucks (it cant even do quad band GSM, let alone 3G) as does the form factor (I want a phone with physical keys, not a touchscreen)
What Comcast was doing would be similar to the phone company deciding they didnt like the phone call you were making and cutting off both parties in such a way as to make each party think the other party had hung up the call.
The problem is that no filtering system in use (or suggested by) any government anywhere in the world will stop the hardcore pedophiles from accessing their encrypted dark-nets and p2p networks where they get all their child porn from.
Show me a filtering system that even attempts to block the real sources of Child Pornography and maybe I will listen to governments trying to push it. :)
Until then, forget about it
If the total amount of money paid by customers to the ISP is not enough to cover the bandwidth costs in the YouTube age, instead of going after Google, they should increase their prices so what the customer pays is enough to cover the outgoing bandwidth costs.
But they dont want to do that because they will loose customers.
There are a number of emulators on the App Store such as the C64 one and IIRC some Genesis stuff (emulators that are OK under the previous rules because they don't have any way for the user to control the code being run by the emulator). Will such things be removed from the App Store by Apple?
Microsoft has given away its C++ compiler for years now. They started giving it away as part of the Windows SDK and as part of the Visual C++ Command Line Toolkit. These days they give it away as part of the Express Edition of Visual C++. The compiler in that version is identical to the version included in the paid version of Visual C++, as are the C and C++ run-times. You dont get all the fancy stuff like MFC in the free version though.
The info on this specifically says its DIFFERENT to Cygwin (which is a translation layer to allow Unix-esque apps to be compiled on Windows), Mingw (which is a way to use GCC to build Windows apps) and Microsoft Systems For Unix (which is a posix compatible subsystem for Windows that allows specially written apps to run)
As some have said, the biggest obstacle these guys are going to face is the body of OSS software that wont compile in anything other than GCC (FFMPEG is one fairly big example)
Instead of trying to ban or restrict online gambling, why not simply license these sites on the condition that they pay the same gambling taxes as would be paid by a physical casino.
So if someone from Massachusetts plays on a site, the site has to pay gambling taxes to Massachusetts.
To pirate for the 360 requires you to hack the firmware of the DVD drive (risky and may not even be possible if your 360 has the wrong kind of DVD drive, plus it will cause you to be banned from XBOX live if you connect to that)
To pirate for the DS requires a flash cart which costs money.
I dont know about piracy for PSP but last I checked, it still requires replacing bits of the PSP firmware and may lock you out of newer firmware versions or features (or games that need those versions)
With PC, all you need to do is to download a single ISO from BitTorrent which will likely include a simple crack (usually all you have to do is to copy the crack into the games folder)
The right answer for the military would have been to publish the video and show exactly where the soldiers are indicating that they believe the other party has a weapon and that taking them out is the safest option.
If the military was more open about collateral damage (when it happens) and showed clearly where the military forces on the ground had reason to believe that the guys on the ground WERE hostile, it might help change people's opinion in cases like this.
Java (specifically J2EE with an Oracle or similar database back-end) seems to be second only to .NET/ASP.NET/C#/VB.NET with SQL Server in terms of jobs I see when I look on the job sites here in Australia.
Plus Java is still the #1 mobile language. Not just on Android but on the 1000s of feature phones out there running various incompatible versions of J2ME for applications (I have owned 3 feature phones, all of which have supported Java apps in some form)
Java on the desktop is dead (if it was ever anything but stillborn in the first place). Java for client side web development died and got replaced with ActiveX, Flash and other technologies.
But Java in the enterprise and mobile spaces is far from dead.
If anything, Oracle should be pushing J2EE even harder (Oracle is the dominant choice of database to use alongside J2EE)
1.It gives exemptions for flex-fuel cars. This is WRONG. The correct step is to mandate flex-fuel in all cars (with limited exemptions for cars where flex-fuel is not possible). By changing this, car companies cant simply make their gas guzzling SUVs flex-fuel and avoid the need to make them more efficient. (or simply to make and sell less of them)
2.It does nothing to address the fuel efficiency of big rigs, garbage trucks, utility trucks, buses, construction equipment and other heavy vehicles.
3.It gives companies like Jeep that make large amounts of SUVs higher targets than companies that make more fuel efficient cars. Numbers need to be lower to force a shift of the aggregate fleet (i.e. all new cars available for sale and sold in the US) towards more fuel efficient cars (which would hopefully mean smaller cars too)
Also, the rules for what counts as a "truck" should be revised and properly enforced so that things like the PT Cruiser do not count as "trucks". To be counted as a "truck", a vehicle must either be able to take more than 10 passengers or it must have at least 50% of the floorspace of the vehicle permanently dedicated to cargo. Anything else would be considered a "car".
Care to provide a link to some details of those components essential to running OpenSolaris but which are not open source?
Libc for example, I see code here for it
http://src.opensolaris.org/source/xref/onnv/onnv-gate/usr/src/lib/libc/
Or is that not complete code for libc?
The difference is that this group has permission from the copyright holders of these films to download any and all parts of the film as part of the process of identifying copyright violations.
Better 3G chip to go with all the carriers that have rolled out various kinds of HSDPA
Same CPU as the iPad (or more likely a version that cuts back the speed and power consumption to account for the smaller battery on the iPhone)
No multitasking (regardless of battery life concerns, Apple would need to "ruin" its perfect UI with some kind of task switcher feature)
No front facing camera (video calling has not taken off in the way phone carriers would like, especially in the US. AFAIK its almost non-existent on AT&T)
Rewritten bootloaders and security to make jailbreaking and unlocking harder
I suspect 802.11n will appear IF apple can find a low power chip that doesn't require devoting too much of the internal space of the iPhone to the antenna.
I predict that there will still be no support for:
Loading apps without going through the app store
Fast 2D drawing APIs (CoreSurface or whatever it is) being able to be used in official apps
External keyboards of any kind
Any peripheral where Apple doesn't get a cut from every unit sold.
Any kind of ability for apps to share data files with each other
Any kind of ability to load arbitrary files onto an iPhone (i.e. a generic "documents" folder)
I also predict that there will continue to be many reasons Apple will reject your app submission, all of which exist as official policy at Apple (and are known to the app store reviewers) and none of which Apple will ever disclose to developers. One of these "unwritten rules" is likely "no apps that mean less revenue for Apple carrier partners such as AT&T"
Except that anyone using a secure USB stick as the only copy of important data deserves to loose it if they loose the password.
The thing that surprised me about HFCS is that its added to things like bread and cereals and other things that arent sweetened.
Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if one of the Kernels secret spices is derived from corn somehow (that or the oils they use to fry the chicken with)
Answer is for libraries to require parents to supervise their kids at all times.
I have seen many el-cheapo machines from various places where adding a decent PCIe graphics card would be difficult (either due to lack of slots, lack of space or lack of power/airflow).
Dell for example, I have seen a number of Dell models that would be unable to accept ANY PCIe graphics card at all. All of these models contained Intel integrated graphics.
Most computers being sold today contain crappy integrated graphics (Intel GMA etc). Only the high end expensive machines tend to come with graphics good enough to play modern 3D games on.
If you want a machine with 3D graphics capabilities, you need to either build one yourself or buy a high-end expensive machine. If you just buy your typical "house brand" PC from stores like Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot etc, you will get crappy graphics.
Whereas, for the price of a typical "gaming" PC, you could likely buy an XBOX 360 or PS3 AND 1/2 dozen games (if you buy the cheaper titles instead of the latest and greatest that is)
BMP came about as a way to store data on disk (and in the resources of exe files) that could easily be rendered directly through windows GDI.
You can take the BMP data and feed it straight into GDI to display.
What do you do for all the users of Windows XP who dont have OS support for H.264? Or all the people who are using a distro that doesn't ship patented codecs?
Netscape 4.x had the WORST HTML rendering engine of ANY browser I have ever used.
Which is why they threw it away and wrote the Gecko rendering engine.
My fridge/freezer has a "star rating" label on it. This label says it draws 524Kwh per year under a specific set of test conditions and that it has a 2.5 star rating out of a possible 6 (more stars mean more energy efficient).
All fridges and freezers are tested to the same standard and are all given the same label (its required by law). Washing machines and clothes dryers also have these ratings as do air conditioners and other things.
Unlike Energy Star, its an actual rating of how energy efficient the device is. The consumers can choose to buy the one with more stars or the one with less stars. If the manufacturers game the system and bribe the testing agency (as would happen if this system was adopted in the US), it wont make a difference because everyone will be doing it therefore the "device A is more efficient than device B" information will be preserved.
I just wish they would extend the Star Ratings to the things they dont currently appear on like TV sets, computers and computer hardware, stereo systems, set top boxes, DVD/blu-ray players, PVRs, home theater, games consoles, electric fans and heaters, electric hot water heaters, electric ovens and cookers and vacuum cleaners.
Someone should set up a demonstration. Get a computer, place it behind the best and most expensive filtering system money can buy. Demonstrate how easy it is to bypass the filter and access blocked content. Demonstrate that the filter does not block anywhere near all the "bad content" out there. Demonstrate the filter blocking legitimate content (content which even the most conservative parents would have no objection to and which has genuine educational value).
Show the politicians and conservative parents that the filter is totally useless and that kids who want to get to porn will do it anyway.
If they say "we just need a better and more effective filter", point out that the filter you used for the demonstration is the best filter money can buy and that there IS nothing better.
Also point out just how much of the limited resources of underfunded school districts has to be spent on buying, maintaining, upgrading and administering these filters (and list a bunch of other educational things that could be bought instead)