The distributors (and the Hollywood studios that provide them with content) will never accept an "alternative" that has no DRM.
So for Mozilla the choice wasn't "support EME" vs "promote a better DRM free alternative and convince websites to support it", it was "support EME" vs "tell users who want to use HuLu, Netflix etc to use a different browser"
I for one like the way Mozilla has done it, the browser plugin can't talk to anything other than a narrowly defined set of interfaces specified by Mozilla (so no direct network or disk access). Also, I believe the plugin will be available for Linux as well which means sites like Netflix will work on that platform.
Considering that Motorola basically INVENTED the cellphone with the original StarTac/DynaTac/MicroTac (and in fact was granted the patents for it way back when) it wouldn't surprise me if Motorola owned 3G patents that were genuinely innovative.
The job of the NSA in broad terms is to collect data (whether that be from cellphone companies, ISPs, web companies or wherever else) and then feed that to analysts who will take that data, sift through it and pull out useful pieces of information.
The problem the NSA has right now is that they seem to want to collect ever greater amounts of data (with no effort made to target the data that is most likely to contain useful information) yet the number of analysts they have turning that data into information is nowhere near what it needs to be to handle that data.
They should stop trying to collect every piece of digital data in the known universe and instead go on a recruitment drive to hire A.Experts who can help the NSA figure out which bits of data are most likely to contain the useful information so they can target those specifically and B.Expert analysts who can help them to turn that data into useful information.
The kiwis didn't specifically target the US, they went 100% anti-nuclear because of an act by the French government that (other than the fact that it was carried out by the French government) clearly fits the definition of a terrorist act.
The problem even in countries like New Zealand is that the only people who are willing to stand up and say NO to this kind of crap are fringe parties with no real chance of getting any political power.
Here in Australia the 2 big parties want to change the voting process to make it even harder for the little guys to get into parliament.
Whats it going to take to get some politicians elected in a country like New Zealand who will stand up and say NO to the USA (and to the spooks) on issues like warrantless surveillance, spying and all this other crap.
I LOVE the idea of Uber, especially if its possible to specify when you make the request what size vehicle you want (e.g. "I want a big car because I have 4 suitcases to carry")
Heck, someone should invent "Uber with UTEs/vans", it would be great for being able to pick up furniture or large items in cases where its not possible to have it home delivered (or where home delivery is expensive/would not be able to happen for ages) and where it wont fit in your normal car.
The only way to stop this mess is to completly outlaw ANY logging or surveillance by ANY agency (FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA, Homeland Security or whoever else) or by ANY private company on behalf of the government except where the surveillance or logging is being done on a specific identifiable entity (e.g. a Facebook account or a Google account or an ISP account or a cellphone number/account or whatever) AND a judge has granted a warrant.
Even the worst possible hypothetical attack (e.g. a terrorist with a nuclear bomb powerful enough to turn the entire eastern seaboard into a smoking crater) is not bad enough to justify any kind of monitoring, surveillance or logging of the communications of people who have not been classified as a threat by an independent judge.
HBO gets $x per month for every subscriber who subscribes to it via cable/satellite/etc.
If HBO offered an a-la-carte offering (basically the current HBO go streaming offering but available to anyone and not just those who subscribe to HBO) and charged $y for it (where $y is higher than $x) they could make MORE money than they do right now. Anyone who switched from HBO-via-cable to HBO-a-la-carte would be an increase in revenue. As would anyone who doesn't currently get HBO but who takes up the a-la-carte offering. They would however lose revenue from anyone who currently has HBO but chooses to drop it completly but this would probably be a relatively small number of people I suspect.
Anyone out there know more about the business than me and can explain why HBO doesn't do this? (offer its product a-la-carte at a price that is higher than what it gets from cable companies, thus ensuring that it doesn't lose revenue when a customer switches from HBO-via-cable to HBO a-la-carte)
Comcast is the largest TV company in America. (they certainly have more subscribers for Pay TV than any other provider in the US including Dish and DirecTV) In their eyes their network is doing exactly what it should be, namely keeping people from being able to replace TV with Internet content.
Their ownership of so much content through NBC, Universal and all their various subsidiaries is another reason Comcast is fighting so hard.
The feature phone wont die in the USA as long as carriers require people to purchase an overpriced "Data Plan" for even the most basic smartphone product (carriers will even do deep packet analysis on your traffic and detect that you are using a smartphone even when its a phone they haven't even heard of, much less sold)
Any website that doesn't hash the passwords in their database should fire whoever on their development team is responsible for security (although to be fair sometimes its not the fault of the dev team, its the fault of some no-nothing PHB that thinks users need to be able to get their passwords back for some reason)
+1 to this, using foreign language characters in a passphrase is a great idea, it makes things more secure since it increases the number of combinations hackers need to try (assuming they even have the foreign language characters in their data sets which I doubt they do)
The problem with the use of SMS for 2-factor auth is not that you have to pay for the messages (paying for incoming text messages is an artifact of the horridly broken pricing model for US cellphone service) but that SMS is unreliable (I have had instances of SMS messages not getting through, especially if my phone happens to be switching cells or entering a dead zone at the time) and also that with more people doing so much internet stuff on their cellphones, having the second authentication factor being the same device you are using to log into the web site makes things a lot less secure.
I have an uncle who owns a sheep station and (if all the house lights are turned off) the sky in that area is AMAZING. Its clear most of the time too (although I wish they had more rain, they really need it).
I hope to get back there sometime and stay with them again sometime and photography is something I intend to do if I do get out there (although I have no clue how well my little canon point & shoot would do with night sky photography).
You cant air-gap it but you CAN make sure that it isn't connected to the Internet, just to a local hospital LAN so data can be moved off it. And you CAN make sure its not used for anything other than what it has to be used for.
Except that (as Microsoft argued at the various anti-trust proceedings) Internet Explorer is part of the OS and cant be separated from it. So this IS a "system patch". Also, this is not really a patch to "Internet Explorer" but (from a quick look at the patch exe) a patch to mshtml.dll (the HTML rendering engine used by Internet Explorer and other things) which is very much part of the OS.
Isn't the Chevy Volt PHEV exactly like that? Its got a gasoline engine that powers a generator that powers an electric motor that powers the wheels. It also has batteries you can plug in and charge up though.
The best way to run Internet access would be to have the infrastructure e.g. fiber lines to every household) owned by the government (and run under a cost-recovery model only) and then any ISP that wants to being allowed to come in and run services over that link. The government would not be allowed to offer its own service over the links.
Its the best answer because: 1.You dont get any issues with lobbyists pressuring the government into doing stuff (e.g. political pressure from a special-interest-group to block porn or other "nasties") 2.You have fast efficient infrastructure with no incentive for the government as infrastructure owner to mess with things or be non-neutral in any way since they get no benefit from being non-neutral 3.Because there is competition at the retail level (and because the barriers to entry for new players would be low since the new player doesn't have to build actual infrastructure to people's homes) there is a disincentive for the retail ISPs to be non-neutral or to block things or whatever because if any ISP becomes sucky, people can switch.
There are many jobs that a machine cant do (at least not unless someone has invented a full Sci-Fi stye AI and not told anyone...) Machines cant be doctors. Or lawyers. Or CEOs. Or pilots. Or software developers. Or chefs. Or teachers. Or car dealers. Or football players.
Even the burger flipper at McDonalds cant be replaced with a machine using any technology that isn't Sci-Fi (if someone DID invent the Star Trek replicator though, you can bet the Golden Arches would be interested...
Plenty of job titles that have been made obsolete by the march of progress. Telegraph operators became obsolete due to Bell and the telephone. Telephone exchange operators became obsolete due to Strowger and his automatic telephone exchange. Flight engineers became obsolete because of improvements to airplane flight systems. Archers became obsolete because of the invention of the gun. Bus conductors became obsolete because of improvements to ticketing systems (meaning people can buy tickets before boarding, buy a ticket from the driver or use a preloaded smart card to pay).
Jobs becoming obsolete is just part of the technological advancement that has driven society for centuries. And just like the telegraph operators, telephone operators, flight engineers, archers, bus conductors and others involved in now-obsolete operations, the coal miners would have to adapt and find new jobs.
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The distributors (and the Hollywood studios that provide them with content) will never accept an "alternative" that has no DRM.
So for Mozilla the choice wasn't "support EME" vs "promote a better DRM free alternative and convince websites to support it", it was "support EME" vs "tell users who want to use HuLu, Netflix etc to use a different browser"
I for one like the way Mozilla has done it, the browser plugin can't talk to anything other than a narrowly defined set of interfaces specified by Mozilla (so no direct network or disk access). Also, I believe the plugin will be available for Linux as well which means sites like Netflix will work on that platform.
Considering that Motorola basically INVENTED the cellphone with the original StarTac/DynaTac/MicroTac (and in fact was granted the patents for it way back when) it wouldn't surprise me if Motorola owned 3G patents that were genuinely innovative.
The job of the NSA in broad terms is to collect data (whether that be from cellphone companies, ISPs, web companies or wherever else) and then feed that to analysts who will take that data, sift through it and pull out useful pieces of information.
The problem the NSA has right now is that they seem to want to collect ever greater amounts of data (with no effort made to target the data that is most likely to contain useful information) yet the number of analysts they have turning that data into information is nowhere near what it needs to be to handle that data.
They should stop trying to collect every piece of digital data in the known universe and instead go on a recruitment drive to hire A.Experts who can help the NSA figure out which bits of data are most likely to contain the useful information so they can target those specifically and B.Expert analysts who can help them to turn that data into useful information.
The kiwis didn't specifically target the US, they went 100% anti-nuclear because of an act by the French government that (other than the fact that it was carried out by the French government) clearly fits the definition of a terrorist act.
The problem even in countries like New Zealand is that the only people who are willing to stand up and say NO to this kind of crap are fringe parties with no real chance of getting any political power.
Here in Australia the 2 big parties want to change the voting process to make it even harder for the little guys to get into parliament.
Whats it going to take to get some politicians elected in a country like New Zealand who will stand up and say NO to the USA (and to the spooks) on issues like warrantless surveillance, spying and all this other crap.
I LOVE the idea of Uber, especially if its possible to specify when you make the request what size vehicle you want (e.g. "I want a big car because I have 4 suitcases to carry")
Heck, someone should invent "Uber with UTEs/vans", it would be great for being able to pick up furniture or large items in cases where its not possible to have it home delivered (or where home delivery is expensive/would not be able to happen for ages) and where it wont fit in your normal car.
The only way to stop this mess is to completly outlaw ANY logging or surveillance by ANY agency (FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA, Homeland Security or whoever else) or by ANY private company on behalf of the government except where the surveillance or logging is being done on a specific identifiable entity (e.g. a Facebook account or a Google account or an ISP account or a cellphone number/account or whatever) AND a judge has granted a warrant.
Even the worst possible hypothetical attack (e.g. a terrorist with a nuclear bomb powerful enough to turn the entire eastern seaboard into a smoking crater) is not bad enough to justify any kind of monitoring, surveillance or logging of the communications of people who have not been classified as a threat by an independent judge.
HBO gets $x per month for every subscriber who subscribes to it via cable/satellite/etc.
If HBO offered an a-la-carte offering (basically the current HBO go streaming offering but available to anyone and not just those who subscribe to HBO) and charged $y for it (where $y is higher than $x) they could make MORE money than they do right now. Anyone who switched from HBO-via-cable to HBO-a-la-carte would be an increase in revenue. As would anyone who doesn't currently get HBO but who takes up the a-la-carte offering. They would however lose revenue from anyone who currently has HBO but chooses to drop it completly but this would probably be a relatively small number of people I suspect.
Anyone out there know more about the business than me and can explain why HBO doesn't do this? (offer its product a-la-carte at a price that is higher than what it gets from cable companies, thus ensuring that it doesn't lose revenue when a customer switches from HBO-via-cable to HBO a-la-carte)
Bruce Springsteen got it even closer with "57 Channels and Nothing on"
I think the OP is talking about using GPL code in in-house-developed tools used in creating the game (level editors etc)
Comcast is the largest TV company in America. (they certainly have more subscribers for Pay TV than any other provider in the US including Dish and DirecTV) In their eyes their network is doing exactly what it should be, namely keeping people from being able to replace TV with Internet content.
Their ownership of so much content through NBC, Universal and all their various subsidiaries is another reason Comcast is fighting so hard.
The feature phone wont die in the USA as long as carriers require people to purchase an overpriced "Data Plan" for even the most basic smartphone product (carriers will even do deep packet analysis on your traffic and detect that you are using a smartphone even when its a phone they haven't even heard of, much less sold)
Heck, I dont even own a tripod.
Any website that doesn't hash the passwords in their database should fire whoever on their development team is responsible for security (although to be fair sometimes its not the fault of the dev team, its the fault of some no-nothing PHB that thinks users need to be able to get their passwords back for some reason)
+1 to this, using foreign language characters in a passphrase is a great idea, it makes things more secure since it increases the number of combinations hackers need to try (assuming they even have the foreign language characters in their data sets which I doubt they do)
The problem with the use of SMS for 2-factor auth is not that you have to pay for the messages (paying for incoming text messages is an artifact of the horridly broken pricing model for US cellphone service) but that SMS is unreliable (I have had instances of SMS messages not getting through, especially if my phone happens to be switching cells or entering a dead zone at the time) and also that with more people doing so much internet stuff on their cellphones, having the second authentication factor being the same device you are using to log into the web site makes things a lot less secure.
I have an uncle who owns a sheep station and (if all the house lights are turned off) the sky in that area is AMAZING. Its clear most of the time too (although I wish they had more rain, they really need it).
I hope to get back there sometime and stay with them again sometime and photography is something I intend to do if I do get out there (although I have no clue how well my little canon point & shoot would do with night sky photography).
You cant air-gap it but you CAN make sure that it isn't connected to the Internet, just to a local hospital LAN so data can be moved off it. And you CAN make sure its not used for anything other than what it has to be used for.
Except that (as Microsoft argued at the various anti-trust proceedings) Internet Explorer is part of the OS and cant be separated from it. So this IS a "system patch". Also, this is not really a patch to "Internet Explorer" but (from a quick look at the patch exe) a patch to mshtml.dll (the HTML rendering engine used by Internet Explorer and other things) which is very much part of the OS.
I generally prefer Coke but will drink Pepsi if its whats available (e.g. at KFC)
Isn't the Chevy Volt PHEV exactly like that? Its got a gasoline engine that powers a generator that powers an electric motor that powers the wheels. It also has batteries you can plug in and charge up though.
The best way to run Internet access would be to have the infrastructure e.g. fiber lines to every household) owned by the government (and run under a cost-recovery model only) and then any ISP that wants to being allowed to come in and run services over that link. The government would not be allowed to offer its own service over the links.
Its the best answer because:
1.You dont get any issues with lobbyists pressuring the government into doing stuff (e.g. political pressure from a special-interest-group to block porn or other "nasties")
2.You have fast efficient infrastructure with no incentive for the government as infrastructure owner to mess with things or be non-neutral in any way since they get no benefit from being non-neutral
3.Because there is competition at the retail level (and because the barriers to entry for new players would be low since the new player doesn't have to build actual infrastructure to people's homes) there is a disincentive for the retail ISPs to be non-neutral or to block things or whatever because if any ISP becomes sucky, people can switch.
There are many jobs that a machine cant do (at least not unless someone has invented a full Sci-Fi stye AI and not told anyone...)
Machines cant be doctors. Or lawyers. Or CEOs. Or pilots. Or software developers. Or chefs. Or teachers. Or car dealers. Or football players.
Even the burger flipper at McDonalds cant be replaced with a machine using any technology that isn't Sci-Fi (if someone DID invent the Star Trek replicator though, you can bet the Golden Arches would be interested...
Plenty of job titles that have been made obsolete by the march of progress. Telegraph operators became obsolete due to Bell and the telephone. Telephone exchange operators became obsolete due to Strowger and his automatic telephone exchange. Flight engineers became obsolete because of improvements to airplane flight systems. Archers became obsolete because of the invention of the gun. Bus conductors became obsolete because of improvements to ticketing systems (meaning people can buy tickets before boarding, buy a ticket from the driver or use a preloaded smart card to pay).
Jobs becoming obsolete is just part of the technological advancement that has driven society for centuries. And just like the telegraph operators, telephone operators, flight engineers, archers, bus conductors and others involved in now-obsolete operations, the coal miners would have to adapt and find new jobs.