It's not perfect, and the landscape is constantly changing. How often do they plan to refresh? How will they even do that?
A block in NYC can change dramatically in a year. Kind of hard to keep those pics up to date. Take a building down, put a new one up, or just remove the scafolding, and it looks like a different block.
Just my $0.02, but I think keeping that up to date and useful is going to be nearly impossible.
I did some video work for a very well known media company... one 99% of slashdotters here would likely recognize.
Here was my analysis:
QuickTime had the best quality, bandwidth, compatibility for the largest target audience. The player is of equal quality on platforms, and performs very well.
RealPlayer supports more Platforms that QT, but it's player is at different levels on different platforms, so customizing the appearance of functionality may cause some funny behavior on some operating systems.
If you want to make sure 100% of the audience can see the media, mpg is still the best format... though be aware that it's not exactly prefered.
IMHO if you want to get your entire audience, push towards quicktime, and give the option for real player (alternate).
You'll get most of your audience that way, with the greatest quality video, and the least bandwidth.
QuickTime pro is only $29, realPlayer producer basic is free. Players for both are free, and widely installed.
It's very easy to get going on that platform. IMHO it's the best bet this day and age.
If Apple would support Linux with Quicktime, I would push QuickTime 100%.
QuickTime's plugin on Windows and Mac OS X is very stable, and reliable. The media quality is also very good.
Real has compatibility problems on non-windows players. Not everything is implemented on them. Hence they are 2nd class.
That's great, but that's about BTO (Built to order)
How about the ability to purchase parts such as:
- WiFi Card - Bigger HD - Keyboard - Mouse
At a lower cost?
I can get the WiFi card BTO cheaper, but I still can't but it on my own and add it in later. I need to choose now, or use a third party.
IMHO Apple would win some more "do it yourself" people if they offered upgrades and parts.
I'm still suprised they didn't create an "accessory bundle"
Buy Keyboard, Mouse, and Display, and get X dollars off your purchase. Considering it's a headless computer, they could have made some good cash by making the consumer inclined to purchase all that from Apple, rather than get a cheap logitech Keyboard/Mouse set, and a Dell Display.
There's no doubt this guy is the man when it comes to UI. He's got the reputation, and he's very insightful.
Unlike some of the dumber "new UI" things we've seen over the past few years (anyone remember the OpenGL one with the 3D windows).
I've got a good vibe about this one. It's been a long time since anyone even approached the UI with something "new".
Desktop Window Menu Bar Scroll Bar Maximize Minimize
That has been our UI for over a decade. Nobody has successfully thought outside the box in over 10 years.
The good thing about this one is that Microsoft is pretty dedicated to their own UI. Meaning Linux could gain a new feature by supporting this new Interface. Microsoft isn't likely to drop what they have. So if it is good, Linux could pick it up, and pretty much have the exclusive advantage of this revolutionary new way to interact with computers.
There have been dozens of tools. Just scan one of the many software archives around full of freeware/shareware (download.com, versiontracker.com, tucows.com, etc. etc.)
This is hardly a new concept... and definately there are prior arts.
I've got a feeling if they actually attempt this, the courts will step in:
1. Companies extreme power in the industry could cause national security issues.
2. Public safety/greater good (software failure could cause criticial system failure).
3. Liability of future exploits that take advantage of these unpatched systems.
I don't think the US, in this paranoid time would allow this to take place. At least not in the court system.
Microsoft's only recourse against pirated software is legal. They need to face that. What Microsoft needs to do is use their political swing to encourage congress to adopt stricter laws and enforcement policies for pirated software. THe software industry is a large industry in the US. It not only powers our country, but employs signifigant sums of people. It's in their interest to ensure that profit isn't undermined by piracy.
Slashdot is an amazingly popular site, and still only represents a microscopic fraction of people involved in theindusty.
1. Proprietary apps (I'm sure they have some) need to be ported. Some may be old Win NT4 programs. You know the corporate rule: if it ain't broke, don't replace it. So old stuff tends to lie around.
2. Focus. Unless a company has a high priority, it normally doesn't get done. For a switch like this to happen, it needs some high ranking executive championing it, and *pushing it*.
This isn't really a geek issue, it's a management issue.
I'm sure the whole IBM->Lenvo thing didn't help the project either.
Business degrees have much more versatility than any science degree (which tend to only be worth something if your specifically in that field).
I went with Business Management Information Systems because:
1. Ability to move into management, since I have proper training. 2. Allows me to "geek it up" as much as I want, since I do need to know the IT industry. 3. Versatility. The management and business part of that apply in non-IT environments.
A CS degree is great for programming, but little else. Same with any "science" degree.
That's why today, most guidance counselors encourage you to consider a double if you choose a science, in particular CS, which highly interacts with management (unlike an astrophysicist who interacts more with politicans). Or at a minimum, a minor.
That said:
There's no reason why you can't go back and take a couple of courses.
With real world experience, and geek knowledge, a few course will take you far. Even if you don't persue a degree.. something like:
Management Management Intl. Business Ops. Management Legal Env.
and to really push ahead: Accounting I,II Finance (in that order obviously)
lots of companies would even cover most if not all of the costs (except legal env, which apparantly nothing on earth covers except your own wallet).
Are they port blocking? Or just not making it available through AOL itself.
I could understand AOL wanting to cut support (so it's not so easy for amatures to visit and say "hey, why is there pornography here?").
Though I wonder if AOL will block ports for it's dialup users.
Either way, google groups will be around.
So I don't think it will be such a big deal.
As for a "large media organization to protect it". Don't think that's necessary. The groups stand for what they contain. As long as users use them legitimately, no question. Many linux groups, mozilla, even microsoft have run them with no problem.
It's the ones infested with kiddy porn and copyrighted material that end up in trouble... and they just need to figure things out.
IMHO it would be great if someone would weed out the garbage and restore them *all* to a useful state.
Things that will happen before it's a real service
on
Google Moves Into Video
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I don't doubt this will become a non-beta, homepage service. Just like GIS....though a few things will happen:
1. Facial recognition will be around. It already exists, several companies have offered such products for video, mainly for the purpose of the entertainment industry.
2. Speech Recognition for indexing.
I've got a feeling right now they are just trying to see what type of reaction 'video' gets. Just to guage the interest.
It's not bad already, it's pretty cool. But I'm betting this is only the beginning.
Nobody ever argued the legality of the bittorrent protocol.
It's used by quite a few software companies. Games for example, since they are large in size.
A knife is a perfectly legal tool. It can cut us free when we are trouble, cut our food, or in the hands of a surgon can save lives.... it's when that knife is in the hands of a serial killer that it becomes illegal.
No knives have ever been accused of murder. Only the person who intentionally uses it for the act.
Same with bittorent. It never did anything wrong. It's users were the ones breaking copyright laws.
Same for HTTP. Some use it for kiddy porn. But that doesn't mean Yahoo is illegal, or illegitimate.
Accountability is the only thing that will stop spam:
- don't want your mail servers to be blocked? Secure them so spammers can't use them.
- don't want to be considered a "spamvertising company"? choose a legitimate ad agency.
IMHO a multi-level effort is needed:
- ISP's need to have a blacklist of customers who are known spammers. They need to share info.
- Consumers need to have a website where they can check the legitimacy of a website, and see if it spams to advertise.
- Registrar's need to stop issuing a bazillion domains to known spammers. When a dozen of a person's domains are referred to as spam sites... no more registration. Share data among registrars.
The problem now is that there are no consequences for spamming. An extremely low chance of a lawsuit or jail. Extremely low.
Spam is cheap, and apparantly somewhat effective.
Until you make it not worth the time... people will do it.
Nobody holds the companies who advertise in spam responsible. Nobody holds ISP's who turn a blind eye to it responsible.
AdSense has a flaw that it can't serve ads behind a password, since the spider can't scan password protected sites.
I'd like to see an API webmasters can implement that would be able to feed the spider safe data (as deemed by the webApp developer) so it can serve ads behind passwords.
Create a PHP, Perl, Java class that can easily be used to feed keywords, and text to google so it can generate relevent ads, in a secure way.
There's millions of pageviews behind online services that could use adsense.
Adsense is pretty profitable for a webmaster, so this ability could help defray costs of some online services.
Works produced by employees of the United States federal government in the scope of their employment are public domain by statute. However, note that, despite popular misconception, the U.S. Federal Government can own copyrights that are assigned to it by others. As a general rule photographs on.mil and.gov sites are public domain. However there are some notable exceptions. Check the privacy and security notice of the website. It should also be noted that governments outside the U.S. often do claim copyright over works produced by their employees (for example, Crown Copyright in the United Kingdom). Also, most state governments in the United States do not place their work into the public domain and do in fact own the copyright to their work. Please be careful to check ownership information before copying.
Data our taxes pay for, is public domain.
I don't think the courts would allow it any other way (should it get that far). If it does... think about what this could lead to:
- private companies like lexis-nexus being the only access to things like the Library of congress?
- private news networks the only way to read bills proposed on the state or federal level?
- Law Student need to read cases? Be prepaired to pay CourtTV several hundred dollars a month for access.
The Supreme Court is pretty conservative by any account, and tend to favor business over citizens rights (in the past 10 years)... but there's no way even they would let this one slip by.
Slashdot Mirror
Though I do wonder how useful that will ever be.
It's not perfect, and the landscape is constantly changing. How often do they plan to refresh? How will they even do that?
A block in NYC can change dramatically in a year. Kind of hard to keep those pics up to date. Take a building down, put a new one up, or just remove the scafolding, and it looks like a different block.
Just my $0.02, but I think keeping that up to date and useful is going to be nearly impossible.
That way for 1 fee:
Howard Stern
Opie & Anthony
awesome!
Personally I don't mind it.
I'm sure it will upset the creepy people in this world... the ones who stalk celebreties, stalk children, etc. etc.
But for most people, what are the real implications of this?
No more voyeger cam's showing people's faces? Oh no!
No more pictures of celebreties without their makeup when they go to the store? Oh no!
IMHO I'd go for something a bit more like this:
Security camera's are exempt from respecting such technology (since facial recognition is important for things like robbery).
For personal, or commercial use, it's fair.
If you really need a picture of someone's face... ask.
Should deter some of the more pathetic individuals in our society.
I did some video work for a very well known media company... one 99% of slashdotters here would likely recognize.
Here was my analysis:
QuickTime had the best quality, bandwidth, compatibility for the largest target audience. The player is of equal quality on platforms, and performs very well.
RealPlayer supports more Platforms that QT, but it's player is at different levels on different platforms, so customizing the appearance of functionality may cause some funny behavior on some operating systems.
If you want to make sure 100% of the audience can see the media, mpg is still the best format... though be aware that it's not exactly prefered.
IMHO if you want to get your entire audience, push towards quicktime, and give the option for real player (alternate).
You'll get most of your audience that way, with the greatest quality video, and the least bandwidth.
QuickTime pro is only $29, realPlayer producer basic is free. Players for both are free, and widely installed.
It's very easy to get going on that platform. IMHO it's the best bet this day and age.
If Apple would support Linux with Quicktime, I would push QuickTime 100%.
QuickTime's plugin on Windows and Mac OS X is very stable, and reliable. The media quality is also very good.
Real has compatibility problems on non-windows players. Not everything is implemented on them. Hence they are 2nd class.
A USB Keyboard/mouse will work (Such as the ones that came with the Blue&WHite G3).
The beige G3's used ADB (Apple Desktop Bus), so they will *not* work on the Mini, which only supports USB.
That's great, but that's about BTO (Built to order)
How about the ability to purchase parts such as:
- WiFi Card
- Bigger HD
- Keyboard
- Mouse
At a lower cost?
I can get the WiFi card BTO cheaper, but I still can't but it on my own and add it in later. I need to choose now, or use a third party.
IMHO Apple would win some more "do it yourself" people if they offered upgrades and parts.
I'm still suprised they didn't create an "accessory bundle"
Buy Keyboard, Mouse, and Display, and get X dollars off your purchase. Considering it's a headless computer, they could have made some good cash by making the consumer inclined to purchase all that from Apple, rather than get a cheap logitech Keyboard/Mouse set, and a Dell Display.
There's no doubt this guy is the man when it comes to UI. He's got the reputation, and he's very insightful.
Unlike some of the dumber "new UI" things we've seen over the past few years (anyone remember the OpenGL one with the 3D windows).
I've got a good vibe about this one. It's been a long time since anyone even approached the UI with something "new".
Desktop
Window
Menu
Bar
Scroll Bar
Maximize
Minimize
That has been our UI for over a decade. Nobody has successfully thought outside the box in over 10 years.
The good thing about this one is that Microsoft is pretty dedicated to their own UI. Meaning Linux could gain a new feature by supporting this new Interface. Microsoft isn't likely to drop what they have. So if it is good, Linux could pick it up, and pretty much have the exclusive advantage of this revolutionary new way to interact with computers.
Ping
Traceroute
There have been dozens of tools. Just scan one of the many software archives around full of freeware/shareware (download.com, versiontracker.com, tucows.com, etc. etc.)
This is hardly a new concept... and definately there are prior arts.
I've got a feeling if they actually attempt this, the courts will step in:
1. Companies extreme power in the industry could cause national security issues.
2. Public safety/greater good (software failure could cause criticial system failure).
3. Liability of future exploits that take advantage of these unpatched systems.
I don't think the US, in this paranoid time would allow this to take place. At least not in the court system.
Microsoft's only recourse against pirated software is legal. They need to face that. What Microsoft needs to do is use their political swing to encourage congress to adopt stricter laws and enforcement policies for pirated software. THe software industry is a large industry in the US. It not only powers our country, but employs signifigant sums of people. It's in their interest to ensure that profit isn't undermined by piracy.
Slashdot is an amazingly popular site, and still only represents a microscopic fraction of people involved in theindusty.
I'm suprised google didn't hire/buy/aquire it.
1. Fast RAM is still expensive.
2. RAN changes to quick. I buy RAM for one computer, it's only for that computer. No portability.
I get a hard drive, I can put that in my new system. I get a new mouse, can use that on my new system. Display? Yep. Graphics card? Most likely.
RAM? Not likely.
IMHO they need to standardize RAM like AGP or PCI-X. That way users feel more comfortable investing in it... you can upgrade and keep your RAM.
That would be my bet on the true reason:
1. Proprietary apps (I'm sure they have some) need to be ported. Some may be old Win NT4 programs. You know the corporate rule: if it ain't broke, don't replace it. So old stuff tends to lie around.
2. Focus. Unless a company has a high priority, it normally doesn't get done. For a switch like this to happen, it needs some high ranking executive championing it, and *pushing it*.
This isn't really a geek issue, it's a management issue.
I'm sure the whole IBM->Lenvo thing didn't help the project either.
Business degrees have much more versatility than any science degree (which tend to only be worth something if your specifically in that field).
I went with Business Management Information Systems because:
1. Ability to move into management, since I have proper training.
2. Allows me to "geek it up" as much as I want, since I do need to know the IT industry.
3. Versatility. The management and business part of that apply in non-IT environments.
A CS degree is great for programming, but little else. Same with any "science" degree.
That's why today, most guidance counselors encourage you to consider a double if you choose a science, in particular CS, which highly interacts with management (unlike an astrophysicist who interacts more with politicans). Or at a minimum, a minor.
That said:
There's no reason why you can't go back and take a couple of courses.
With real world experience, and geek knowledge, a few course will take you far. Even if you don't persue a degree.. something like:
Management
Management Intl. Business
Ops. Management
Legal Env.
and to really push ahead:
Accounting I,II
Finance
(in that order obviously)
lots of companies would even cover most if not all of the costs (except legal env, which apparantly nothing on earth covers except your own wallet).
They would likely prove useful.
Are they port blocking? Or just not making it available through AOL itself.
I could understand AOL wanting to cut support (so it's not so easy for amatures to visit and say "hey, why is there pornography here?").
Though I wonder if AOL will block ports for it's dialup users.
Either way, google groups will be around.
So I don't think it will be such a big deal.
As for a "large media organization to protect it". Don't think that's necessary. The groups stand for what they contain. As long as users use them legitimately, no question. Many linux groups, mozilla, even microsoft have run them with no problem.
It's the ones infested with kiddy porn and copyrighted material that end up in trouble... and they just need to figure things out.
IMHO it would be great if someone would weed out the garbage and restore them *all* to a useful state.
I don't doubt this will become a non-beta, homepage service. Just like GIS... .though a few things will happen:
1. Facial recognition will be around. It already exists, several companies have offered such products for video, mainly for the purpose of the entertainment industry.
2. Speech Recognition for indexing.
I've got a feeling right now they are just trying to see what type of reaction 'video' gets. Just to guage the interest.
It's not bad already, it's pretty cool. But I'm betting this is only the beginning.
Correct.
And there are P2P products used legitimately.
Linux just so happens to be in the forefront of technology. Mozilla.org does too.
So do many gaming companies.
P2P is also used in products such as Skype.
All completely legal.
Nobody ever argued the legality of the bittorrent protocol.
It's used by quite a few software companies. Games for example, since they are large in size.
A knife is a perfectly legal tool. It can cut us free when we are trouble, cut our food, or in the hands of a surgon can save lives.... it's when that knife is in the hands of a serial killer that it becomes illegal.
No knives have ever been accused of murder. Only the person who intentionally uses it for the act.
Same with bittorent. It never did anything wrong. It's users were the ones breaking copyright laws.
Same for HTTP. Some use it for kiddy porn. But that doesn't mean Yahoo is illegal, or illegitimate.
Accountability is the only thing that will stop spam:
- don't want your mail servers to be blocked? Secure them so spammers can't use them.
- don't want to be considered a "spamvertising company"? choose a legitimate ad agency.
IMHO a multi-level effort is needed:
- ISP's need to have a blacklist of customers who are known spammers. They need to share info.
- Consumers need to have a website where they can check the legitimacy of a website, and see if it spams to advertise.
- Registrar's need to stop issuing a bazillion domains to known spammers. When a dozen of a person's domains are referred to as spam sites... no more registration. Share data among registrars.
The problem now is that there are no consequences for spamming. An extremely low chance of a lawsuit or jail. Extremely low.
Spam is cheap, and apparantly somewhat effective.
Until you make it not worth the time... people will do it.
Nobody holds the companies who advertise in spam responsible. Nobody holds ISP's who turn a blind eye to it responsible.
But I wonder what encoding they will use?
Will it be usable if say I have a media PC? Would it look decent if I downloaded a movie and hooked my computer up to a TV?
If they can do that, and make download decent... it's got a good shot.
Unlike Kazaa, Napster is clean of viruses, trojans, and other garbage infecting files in hopes of getting a loophole in your buggy media player.
Yea, it's been here on slashdot before, the infamous Google Web Browser, based on Firefox...
bla bla bla.
Ben + Google = Firefox?
For some reason, I think Google will be playing more of a role like SUN, IBM, or RedHat...
rather than try to be an other Netscape.
not necessaraly.
If you feed it bad data, you get irrelevent ads that won't be clicked on.
Feed it good data, and you'll make money.
Yes, people can abuse and click on ads for cash... but that has nothing to do with creating such an API.
The Wired cover is available here:
Wired.com
It's posted, just not linked up.
Per Asa Dotzler's blog
AdSense has a flaw that it can't serve ads behind a password, since the spider can't scan password protected sites.
I'd like to see an API webmasters can implement that would be able to feed the spider safe data (as deemed by the webApp developer) so it can serve ads behind passwords.
Create a PHP, Perl, Java class that can easily be used to feed keywords, and text to google so it can generate relevent ads, in a secure way.
There's millions of pageviews behind online services that could use adsense.
Adsense is pretty profitable for a webmaster, so this ability could help defray costs of some online services.
It's good to see Microsoft did at least one appearance on TV without Windows Crashing.
Data our taxes pay for, is public domain.
I don't think the courts would allow it any other way (should it get that far). If it does... think about what this could lead to:
- private companies like lexis-nexus being the only access to things like the Library of congress?
- private news networks the only way to read bills proposed on the state or federal level?
- Law Student need to read cases? Be prepaired to pay CourtTV several hundred dollars a month for access.
The Supreme Court is pretty conservative by any account, and tend to favor business over citizens rights (in the past 10 years)... but there's no way even they would let this one slip by.
Even their statements: public domain.
Data government creates is for the people.