I know that we've got CD-bootable Knoppix out there, but with networks like this, wouldn't it pay to have a network-bootable version of Linux floating around out there? I mean, every PC made today has a network boot option. It would be nice to see someone make use of it, since Microsoft never will.
For things like repair and security, this would be great. I can see the day when spyware makes the average PC so insecure that online banking and other institutions *require* users to boot from a secured distro. Having it available on the network would just make it that much easier. In a few years, it will be trivial for a home router to hold the image.
Broadband... well... more like cable and DSL just became obsolete. I, for one, welcome our new broadband overlords. I can't wait for the day that I can call Comcrap and let them really know how I feel about their pathetically poor service.
Re:Registration site
on
NYT on Spam Cops
·
· Score: 3, Informative
All a pirate has to do is pay the kid making minimum wage running the projector a couple hundred pounds to let the pirate sit in the booth and record from there!
And what if the pirate *is* the kid running the projector? I know of at least one of these instances.
OK - stick a setting in the router to turn the feature off. The bottom line is that security could be on BY DEFAULT if it were easy enough while more technical people could get into the nitty-gritty and customize whatever they require. Use your head here.
I do a lot of side work for friends, family and other strangers who beg me for help when they find out that I have The Knack.
In the end, I leave all security off by default because they will inevitably:
1) get a new PC 2) play with the settings on the PC 3) require a "hard reset" on the router
If Microsoft and the hardware vendors could make this stuff easier, it wouldn't be so much of a problem. I suggest the following:
The router redirects unsecured wireless users to a webpage that requires log-on prior to accessing ANYTHING ELSE. Problem solved. At this point, I could simply set a password (or passwords, for families / surf monitoring / etc) and the user would have to use it every time (no forgetting). Just make a label and stick it on the freakin' router for those times that the idiots do forget.
Well, if they hadn't removed the Bluetooth from the TH-55, I'd have bought one. *sigh*
Once again, people seem to be forgetting that Sony doesn't cater to the "one percenters" here on slashdot. The fact of the matter is that Sony probably put a lot of money into researching this decision. I bet that they've found that most of the market will be going into PDA phones and the like.
If you haven't worked in an enterprise environment, then you haven't witnessed the dominance of Blackberries as of late. This is the future. Combined with Intel's upcoming personal server, people will have a "local replica" of all of their data to take with them. As they say in Soviet Russia, "the PC will log onto YOU". It won't matter if it isn't your PC - as long as it is "digital briefcase" compliant, it will wirelessly recognize your personal server and give you the option to log into your data set.
so they wouldn't have to replace their board when upgrading to the newer chip.
Who still does this?
I've never upgraded without swapping both the processor and mobo. This isn't a troll but rather just curiosity - I'd like to know if there is any significant percentage of non-gamers that upgrade *only* the processor. I'dathunk that the "processor bottleneck" was just a myth.
I actually underclocked my Athlon 1800+ because it ran much cooler/lower power without any noticeable decrease in average usage habbits. Now, moving from a 5400rpm hard drive to a 7200rpm unit was a huge upgrade. I can't wait for cheap, desktop-oriented 10k and 15krpm units.
Re:not gonna happen, the lobbies are too powerful
on
Do-It-Yourself VOIP Telco
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
It won't happen - but not because the lobbies are too powerful. It won't happen because its gonna take a long time before we can get five nines reliability and an organized E911 service for VoIP.
Right now, Intel, TI and Motorola (among others) are working furiously on WiFi/VoIP roaming for their cellular chips. Once such a device is developed and, most importantly, perfected, it is only a matter of time before the PSTN falls into a state of unsustainability. The PSTN (public, switched telephone network) is bulky - requiring about 40 - 60 percent more cost to operate than a typical packet-switching network like the internet.
However, I shudder when I say "perfected". Like many other technologies, the *theory* will always seem great while everyone will count on someone else for the execution. Currently, there is no system in place for VoIP users to adequately call each other using non-PSTN based dialing. Certainly, we could all start using dynamic DNS based services but without a centralized, non-greedy institution for creation and allocation, it will be a big fat mess that nobody will want to touch.
I agree that VoIP should be charged telecom taxes BUT ONLY WHEN THE USER INTERFACES WITH THE PSTN. Right now, that is just about every call, aside from the few geeks who are dialing with IP. And that brings up another problem - who's gonna stop spammers from dialing my VoIP phone from China for the sake of playing a pre-recorded advertisement in my ear?
The problem with propane (or natural gas, for that matter) is two-fold:
1) You are still burning nitrogen, which creates NOx emissions (bad). 2) Nonrenewable
Hydrogen and fuel cells are clearly the future. My vision is that some enterprising inventor will come up with a high-density method for storing hydrogen, at which point high-capacity hydrogen batteries will be possible. As I pointed out yesterday, NiMH batteries are just closed loop hydrogen fuel cells. With a high-density hydrogen storage solution, you could have a battery-powered car which could travel several thousand miles between charges, which would likely consist of swapping out the battery pack.
This would work well with out existing infrastructure. Power plants typically idle down to very inefficient ranges during the night time hours. These plants could simply use the excess electrical capacity at night in order to separate hydrogen from water. This hydrogen could be stored in said high-density storage solution and stored in battery packs. These battery packs could be used in all sorts of stuff from automobiles to houses (making note that the "grid" is where most of our energy is consumed today - it is very inefficient).
But this opens up a whole new world to the independents. Shrek2 just shattered all kinds of records in terms of cash. And there are no real actors.
So what happens when a few talented indies get their paws on the processing power required to blow the doors off of convetional actors? It won't be goodbye to Hollywood just yet but I can't wait for the first CG/Anime crossover. I can't imagine how Cowboy Bebop would fare if it didn't have the cartoon stigma.
Perhaps Im jaded, but why, exactly, cant we economically synthesize fuel?
We can. But there is one problem.
We can economically synthesize electricity. Electricity can be applied to water in order to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen can later be rejoined (in a fuel cell) to produce electricity. This seems very simple but there are two big problems:
1) Today's fuel cells require large amounts of platinum. Although some companies sell fuel cells today, they are nothing more than a lab curiosity - you'll never see them powering more than a few prototype cars on the road because nobody will be able to afford them.
2) Hydrogen storage - hydrogen would be the perfect fuel if you could store lots of it with good gravimetric and volumetric densities. Right now, there is no method to stick a bunch (mass) of hydrogen into a small package. Even liquid hydrogen is lighter than air, not to mention that it would freeze the hell out of everything in the event of an accident. Right now, solid hydrogen is the most promising but still has a long way to go.
So yes - we can economically synthesize fuel. We just can't store it or make economical use of it. FWIW, today's nickel-metal hydride batteries are nothing more than closed-loop fuel cells. They contain water which is separated into hydrogen and oxygen when they are charged. The hydrogen and oxygen are recombined to produce electricity on-demand. The inventor of the NiMH battery is working on making this into an open-loop fuel cell. Since the battery version uses no precious metals, this is the most promising (IMHO) fuel cell for economical, volume fuel cell devices.
Think of it as a refillable battery instead of rechargeable.
If they were committed to anything open source, they would have release OS2 into GPL long ago. But now it will die in some closet somewhere and any useful code will die as well.
If you don't like "John Doe" lawsuits, then don't join "John Doe" P2P networks. It is only a matter of time before someone makes a P2P client with private, invite-only style membership. Yeah, it'll suck at first because there won't be nearly the content but once the social circle becomes large enough, it will all work out. Isn't it possible to EULA out the RIAA from these networks?
And while we're at it, would someone build a portable 802.11x box that will automagically share and leech data from available clients? Just a walk through campus would be enough to pick up the latest and greatest.
I know that I'm just being stupid here but some history:
When callerID was invented, the phone companies were making money on two fronts: first, they charged consumers for the service (which eventually became free) and they charged telemarketters for an "Unknown" callerID listing. Money on two fronts.
It doesn't surprise me that Microsoft is behind this latest version of callerID for email. I'm sure that there's money in it for them somewhere.
But they are obviously joking. They'll likely just assign a team to target the top 5 percent of users who use the most space. My whole mail file from the past year is under a gig because people simply can't send large attachments from most accounts.
Anyone know what the email attachment size limit is?
I believe that she may have a case. Not to say that you are wrong but this is the "American Way", these days. I'd probably do the same and I'm sure that many here would.
The fact of the matter is that public companies are evil(tm) and deserve every bit of this. Is the company running out of money? Why do they need to go public?
Greed is the only reason that they are going public. Nothing more. They deserve every bit of what they get.
I think the one thing that we're all waiting for is the introduction of on-chip system memory. Currently, the cache of a high-performance processor consumes more than half of the chip area because the penalty for a cache miss is so large. For decades now, memory frequency scaling has lagged that of the microprocessor. Although there has been some great strides recently, latency is still rearing its ugly head. External DRAM is too electrically distant to remain at the heart of any high-performance system.
Once we get processor and memory combined, we'll see performance increasing by several orders of magnatude. Processor architecture will matter even less, since emulation of *any* architecture will become trivial in terms of available processing speed. Your Thumb-like prediction will most certainly pan out to some magnatude.
We really don't need these for high-traffic areas. Ya' see, most cars these days are just huge rolling sensors with wheels and seats. Add bluetooth or wifi and allow the cars to communicate with a centralized data-acquisition system and you've got massive amounts of good, useful data. ABS kicking in on multiple cars in the same area? Warn other drivers of slick conditions (GPS sensor required). Air-bag deployed? Warn other drivers of potential debris/flotsam. Speedo registering well under the limit for all cars? Warn other drivers of congestion.
But I'm sure that some idiot with a patent will keep this from being deployed on a wide scale for decades to come, causing unnecessary deaths, injuries or otherwise reducing quality of life for all drivers.
Slashdot Mirror
I know that we've got CD-bootable Knoppix out there, but with networks like this, wouldn't it pay to have a network-bootable version of Linux floating around out there? I mean, every PC made today has a network boot option. It would be nice to see someone make use of it, since Microsoft never will.
For things like repair and security, this would be great. I can see the day when spyware makes the average PC so insecure that online banking and other institutions *require* users to boot from a secured distro. Having it available on the network would just make it that much easier. In a few years, it will be trivial for a home router to hold the image.
Not in America it ain't.
Phone, agreed.
Broadband... well... more like cable and DSL just became obsolete. I, for one, welcome our new broadband overlords. I can't wait for the day that I can call Comcrap and let them really know how I feel about their pathetically poor service.
No Need - plenty of other sources out there.
All a pirate has to do is pay the kid making minimum wage running the projector a couple hundred pounds to let the pirate sit in the booth and record from there!
And what if the pirate *is* the kid running the projector? I know of at least one of these instances.
Argh...
OK - stick a setting in the router to turn the feature off. The bottom line is that security could be on BY DEFAULT if it were easy enough while more technical people could get into the nitty-gritty and customize whatever they require. Use your head here.
Amen...
I do a lot of side work for friends, family and other strangers who beg me for help when they find out that I have The Knack.
In the end, I leave all security off by default because they will inevitably:
1) get a new PC
2) play with the settings on the PC
3) require a "hard reset" on the router
If Microsoft and the hardware vendors could make this stuff easier, it wouldn't be so much of a problem. I suggest the following:
The router redirects unsecured wireless users to a webpage that requires log-on prior to accessing ANYTHING ELSE. Problem solved. At this point, I could simply set a password (or passwords, for families / surf monitoring / etc) and the user would have to use it every time (no forgetting). Just make a label and stick it on the freakin' router for those times that the idiots do forget.
Well, if they hadn't removed the Bluetooth from the TH-55, I'd have bought one. *sigh*
Once again, people seem to be forgetting that Sony doesn't cater to the "one percenters" here on slashdot. The fact of the matter is that Sony probably put a lot of money into researching this decision. I bet that they've found that most of the market will be going into PDA phones and the like.
If you haven't worked in an enterprise environment, then you haven't witnessed the dominance of Blackberries as of late. This is the future. Combined with Intel's upcoming personal server, people will have a "local replica" of all of their data to take with them. As they say in Soviet Russia, "the PC will log onto YOU". It won't matter if it isn't your PC - as long as it is "digital briefcase" compliant, it will wirelessly recognize your personal server and give you the option to log into your data set.
Nice!
so they wouldn't have to replace their board when upgrading to the newer chip.
Who still does this?
I've never upgraded without swapping both the processor and mobo. This isn't a troll but rather just curiosity - I'd like to know if there is any significant percentage of non-gamers that upgrade *only* the processor. I'dathunk that the "processor bottleneck" was just a myth.
I actually underclocked my Athlon 1800+ because it ran much cooler/lower power without any noticeable decrease in average usage habbits. Now, moving from a 5400rpm hard drive to a 7200rpm unit was a huge upgrade. I can't wait for cheap, desktop-oriented 10k and 15krpm units.
It won't happen - but not because the lobbies are too powerful. It won't happen because its gonna take a long time before we can get five nines reliability and an organized E911 service for VoIP.
Right now, Intel, TI and Motorola (among others) are working furiously on WiFi/VoIP roaming for their cellular chips. Once such a device is developed and, most importantly, perfected, it is only a matter of time before the PSTN falls into a state of unsustainability. The PSTN (public, switched telephone network) is bulky - requiring about 40 - 60 percent more cost to operate than a typical packet-switching network like the internet.
However, I shudder when I say "perfected". Like many other technologies, the *theory* will always seem great while everyone will count on someone else for the execution. Currently, there is no system in place for VoIP users to adequately call each other using non-PSTN based dialing. Certainly, we could all start using dynamic DNS based services but without a centralized, non-greedy institution for creation and allocation, it will be a big fat mess that nobody will want to touch.
I agree that VoIP should be charged telecom taxes BUT ONLY WHEN THE USER INTERFACES WITH THE PSTN. Right now, that is just about every call, aside from the few geeks who are dialing with IP. And that brings up another problem - who's gonna stop spammers from dialing my VoIP phone from China for the sake of playing a pre-recorded advertisement in my ear?
The problem with propane (or natural gas, for that matter) is two-fold:
1) You are still burning nitrogen, which creates NOx emissions (bad).
2) Nonrenewable
Hydrogen and fuel cells are clearly the future. My vision is that some enterprising inventor will come up with a high-density method for storing hydrogen, at which point high-capacity hydrogen batteries will be possible. As I pointed out yesterday, NiMH batteries are just closed loop hydrogen fuel cells. With a high-density hydrogen storage solution, you could have a battery-powered car which could travel several thousand miles between charges, which would likely consist of swapping out the battery pack.
This would work well with out existing infrastructure. Power plants typically idle down to very inefficient ranges during the night time hours. These plants could simply use the excess electrical capacity at night in order to separate hydrogen from water. This hydrogen could be stored in said high-density storage solution and stored in battery packs. These battery packs could be used in all sorts of stuff from automobiles to houses (making note that the "grid" is where most of our energy is consumed today - it is very inefficient).
But this opens up a whole new world to the independents. Shrek2 just shattered all kinds of records in terms of cash. And there are no real actors.
So what happens when a few talented indies get their paws on the processing power required to blow the doors off of convetional actors? It won't be goodbye to Hollywood just yet but I can't wait for the first CG/Anime crossover. I can't imagine how Cowboy Bebop would fare if it didn't have the cartoon stigma.
Perhaps Im jaded, but why, exactly, cant we economically synthesize fuel?
We can. But there is one problem.
We can economically synthesize electricity. Electricity can be applied to water in order to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen can later be rejoined (in a fuel cell) to produce electricity. This seems very simple but there are two big problems:
1) Today's fuel cells require large amounts of platinum. Although some companies sell fuel cells today, they are nothing more than a lab curiosity - you'll never see them powering more than a few prototype cars on the road because nobody will be able to afford them.
2) Hydrogen storage - hydrogen would be the perfect fuel if you could store lots of it with good gravimetric and volumetric densities. Right now, there is no method to stick a bunch (mass) of hydrogen into a small package. Even liquid hydrogen is lighter than air, not to mention that it would freeze the hell out of everything in the event of an accident. Right now, solid hydrogen is the most promising but still has a long way to go.
So yes - we can economically synthesize fuel. We just can't store it or make economical use of it. FWIW, today's nickel-metal hydride batteries are nothing more than closed-loop fuel cells. They contain water which is separated into hydrogen and oxygen when they are charged. The hydrogen and oxygen are recombined to produce electricity on-demand. The inventor of the NiMH battery is working on making this into an open-loop fuel cell. Since the battery version uses no precious metals, this is the most promising (IMHO) fuel cell for economical, volume fuel cell devices.
Think of it as a refillable battery instead of rechargeable.
For those looking for a working link, try here or here.
If they were committed to anything open source, they would have release OS2 into GPL long ago. But now it will die in some closet somewhere and any useful code will die as well.
If you don't like "John Doe" lawsuits, then don't join "John Doe" P2P networks. It is only a matter of time before someone makes a P2P client with private, invite-only style membership. Yeah, it'll suck at first because there won't be nearly the content but once the social circle becomes large enough, it will all work out. Isn't it possible to EULA out the RIAA from these networks?
And while we're at it, would someone build a portable 802.11x box that will automagically share and leech data from available clients? Just a walk through campus would be enough to pick up the latest and greatest.
It is no coincidence that Cisco's own naming convention is HFR. I think that we all know what HFR means.
I know that I'm just being stupid here but some history:
When callerID was invented, the phone companies were making money on two fronts: first, they charged consumers for the service (which eventually became free) and they charged telemarketters for an "Unknown" callerID listing. Money on two fronts.
It doesn't surprise me that Microsoft is behind this latest version of callerID for email. I'm sure that there's money in it for them somewhere.
Just kidding.
Attachments are limited to 100kb.
Kidding...
But they are obviously joking. They'll likely just assign a team to target the top 5 percent of users who use the most space. My whole mail file from the past year is under a gig because people simply can't send large attachments from most accounts.
Anyone know what the email attachment size limit is?
God Bless America
(mirror)
SCO's new restaurant
Googol
I believe that she may have a case. Not to say that you are wrong but this is the "American Way", these days. I'd probably do the same and I'm sure that many here would.
The fact of the matter is that public companies are evil(tm) and deserve every bit of this. Is the company running out of money? Why do they need to go public?
Greed is the only reason that they are going public. Nothing more. They deserve every bit of what they get.
The article lost all credibility when they used the word, "invent" to describe the process by which software is created.
Software is developed, not invented. This is also one of the main reasons that the patent world is all screwed up.
Oh well...
I think the one thing that we're all waiting for is the introduction of on-chip system memory. Currently, the cache of a high-performance processor consumes more than half of the chip area because the penalty for a cache miss is so large. For decades now, memory frequency scaling has lagged that of the microprocessor. Although there has been some great strides recently, latency is still rearing its ugly head. External DRAM is too electrically distant to remain at the heart of any high-performance system.
Once we get processor and memory combined, we'll see performance increasing by several orders of magnatude. Processor architecture will matter even less, since emulation of *any* architecture will become trivial in terms of available processing speed. Your Thumb-like prediction will most certainly pan out to some magnatude.
We really don't need these for high-traffic areas. Ya' see, most cars these days are just huge rolling sensors with wheels and seats. Add bluetooth or wifi and allow the cars to communicate with a centralized data-acquisition system and you've got massive amounts of good, useful data. ABS kicking in on multiple cars in the same area? Warn other drivers of slick conditions (GPS sensor required). Air-bag deployed? Warn other drivers of potential debris/flotsam. Speedo registering well under the limit for all cars? Warn other drivers of congestion.
But I'm sure that some idiot with a patent will keep this from being deployed on a wide scale for decades to come, causing unnecessary deaths, injuries or otherwise reducing quality of life for all drivers.
Are these robots going to be powered by fish flatulence, by chance?