The belief that 'You Gets What You Pays For' is one to live by. I have to wonder how long one of these $100 or sub-$100 burners will last.
The entire attitude of "Just toss it when it fails and get a new one" is a poor excuse. That sort of mindset is exactly why there's such a huge problem with solid waste (much of it old electronics) in the world.
While I like a bargain as much as the proverbial 'Next Guy,' I also expect equipment I buy to last a bare minimum of five years, more if the price is above a couple of hundred. I don't mind paying a bit more for stuff that's better built.
...the quality of computer hardware will only get better, and that prices will continue to fall, until (following that theory to the extreme) you're being paid to take home top-rate hardware.
That's when I keep hearing horror stories about thing like huge (capacity) hard drives that barely last a year, or that expire shortly after their warranties do.
It's true with computers, it's true with test equipment, it's true with cars, consumer electronics, food, and anything else that can be bought, sold, rented, leased, traded, or stolen:
Off-topic, granted. However, in the context of a fantastic show like 'Farscape,' I think "excuses for stopping Farscape" would be a better way to put it.
I think our country getting active in space exploration again is a great idea. HOWEVER -- Is it just my paranoia, or does this seem like one of many diversionary tactics of the current administration, designed solely to pull public attention away from the fact(s) that:
(1) bin Laden ('Old Salami BinBox' to me and some of my friends) is still at large.
(2) No matter how much spin has been put on it, the Iraqi war never had any solid justification that I can see. And Hussein ('Saddened HoseHead') is still at large as well.
(3) Our economy is still a shambles.
(4) The 'YOU-CAN-SPAM' bill is all but signed into law, thus (very possibly) bringing about the end of viable E-mail as we know it.
(5) The RIAA and MPAA continue to run roughshod over fair use rights.
I could go on, but I think we all get the idea. This is an election year coming up. The Shrub will pull out anything he or his advisors can think of to try and get himself reelected, and I really think that this is just one example.
Mod this down if you want. Heck, label it "Flamebait" if you want. I don't pretend to have even a hint of one answer, let alone all of them, but it certainly seems to me like there are other more pressing problems that need dealing with than making another trip to one very dead and airless rock.
...that one of the book's authors is the same one who tried to inflict the (in)famous "Dvorak Keyboard" on an unsuspecting world, the fact that the book itself is full of errors comes as no surprise whatsoever.
Heck, Dvorak probably wrote his portion on one of his goofball keyboards...
...for Uncle Bill and Uncle Steve to test out their new Long-Range Anti-Software Piracy Laser Array (LORANASPLAY). The thing takes advantage of the GPS and radiolocation transmitter chips built into motherboards that were secretly marketed months ago in only the highest-risk (for piracy) countries.
After all, you gotta have targets before you can test any weapon, right? For those would-be early adopters of Longhorn who would like a countermeasure, you can dress yourself in armor made out of AOL 9.0 CDs (shiny side out). The reflective surface will keep the laser shots from doing you any lasting harm.
When you take a device that was originally designed to perform ONE function -- in this context, to be a good portable communications tool -- and you start loading it up with all kinds of useless bloat that is completely UNRELATED to being a communications tool, this is exactly the kind of crap you're going to run into.
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone thinks highly of downloadable ring tones, color screens, web access, gaming capability, or text messaging. I know, because I'm one of them. I would be perfectly happy with a simple, rugged, and RELIABLE mobile phone that was exactly that: A mobile phone, perhaps with the voice-activated calling feature, a good-sized speed dial directory, and the ability to snap into a fixed-mount handsfree cradle in the car.
The last thing I need is a ton of "features" that I don't want, don't need, and DON'T want to have to pay extra for just because they're present. Don't even get me started on the insane "Smaller is Better!" craze. It has served only to give us keypads that are so small that Tinkerbell would have problems with them.
I have a couple of thoughts. First, on this comment:
"...and it is flat-out IMPOSSIBLE to sell hardware if it can't run Windows."
Gosh... I'm sure all the used computer stores are going to be horrified to hear that all the Sun SPARC and other non-PC systems they've been selling regularly never really sold at all. And how about all those systems from SGI?
My own Internet presence? 101% dependent on a series of hardware platforms that (with one exception) cannot, due to their architecture, run any MS Windows product at all. The folks that sold me the equipment had no problem taking my money, and I had no problem putting it out.
Sarcasm aside, what I'm saying is that it is far from "impossible" to sell hardware that does not run Windows. It's just a matter of what audience it gets sold to.
My second thought has to do with the encryption/DRM/whatever hardware that, supposedly, is going to be built into future motherboard hardware. I will grant that I'm fairly paranoid, perhaps more so than others, but even I have to wonder if we're not taking the molehill of Phoenix's announcement and turning it into another Mt. Rainier.
More specifically: It strikes me that it will be up to OS makers to determine what hardware features of a motherboard their OS will use, and which ones it will not. There will always be OS choices, and I have zero evidence at this time that open-source (notably the BSDs) will not run on systems using Phoenix's CSS.
On the other wing, it's a given that Bill-ware OS's will take advantage of every hardware feature that they can in terms of DRM and other such crap, all designed to limit fair use rights. Even so, there's going to be a ton of people that Just Want to Run Windows, and that's not going to change either.
Know what? THAT'S OK TOO! If someone is bound and determined (and lazy enough) to let themselves be led around by the nose, computing-wise, then that's their thing. Let 'em have it!
Once again, it all comes down to knowledge. The amount of control you have over the technology in your life is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how much you choose to learn about how it works (or how much of it you even choose -- or not -- to use at all).
Keep the peace(es).
It certainly covers me...
on
Who Is An ISP?
·
· Score: 1
...considering that the only thing I depend on from my upstream is six static addresses and my bandwidth. I take care of everything else, DNS included.
By that measure, and the language referenced, I could indeed sue for damages if I chose, since I am running an entire bank of servers and providing "Information Services" to myself and others (my life-mate and a close friend in another state -- he gets in through a VPN tunnel).
However, I find it much more fun simply to block spammers out of our network, and watch them bang their metaphorical heads against our firewall and blocklist. Makes for entertaining reading in the reject logs.
Yes, it's a sucky law in that it pre-empts state laws, allows NO right of private court action on the part of individuals (only ISPs) against spammers, and (worst of all) has adopted an opt-out model.
Here's why it may be a Good Thing in the long term.
If this bill passes into law in its current form, the huge influx of spam that results will serve to bring the entire E-mail network to its electronic knees. The effect will be similar to what happens when too many cars try to use a two-lane highway simultaneously. This includes the very systems that 'Big Business' uses to communicate with their branch offices, employees in the field, telecommuters, etc.
It also includes many U.S. government servers. Military networks -might- be more immune than the public Internet, but unclassified military E-mail still flows over that same public Internet at some point. It even includes the very systems that the spammers want to send their traffic over.
Come to think of it, ANYone who uses E-mail is going to be affected.
See where I'm going with this? When E-mail, as a system, is brought to a standstill by those who would cheerfully abuse other people's private property for their own ends (the spammers and "mainsleaze" businesses that want so badly to make spam legal), how long do you think it will take for Tauzin's "Legalize Spam" act to be repealed, and for the sponsors of it to realize what an awful mistake it was?
Sometimes, you just have to let things fall before you can pick them up.
Meanwhile, I've never been more grateful that I have the resources to be self-hosted, server-wise, including DNS. ANYone, individual or business, that spams me or any of my other users will only get to do it once (assuming their initial attempt even makes it through our filter and blocklist setup).
T-Online has a big problem with spammer infestations and mucho compromised broadband-connected systems being (ab)used as spammer zombies. I've got large chunks of their IP space blocked locally because of these issues, mostly T-Dialin.net.
In contrast, though I may think AOL is nothing more than training wheels for the real Internet, I see maybe one or two spams a year from them, and the moron responsible quickly disappears once a report is made to AOL abuse.
Given these two obviously contrasting views, I think a buyout is going to be most interesting to watch. I wonder if Steve Case has taught himself German yet?
...and I'll say it again. My entire Internet presence is based on open-source software (NetBSD, Apache, Postfix, NNTPCache, Samba). Without it, I would not be able to run my side business. I wouldn't be able to afford to do so.
With that said, I also make use of a mix of MS-DOS 6.x, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000, all on various workstations and my laptop. NONE of my 'net-connected servers responsible for any Internet serving function are based on M$ (or even on the PC platform for that matter, with one exception).
I've faced this issue many times. I finally gave up and bought one of these when they were on sale at half price (CSC was having a moving sale at the time).
This little hardware wonder doesn't care WHAT is on the hard drive, or what structure it is. You can have anything on the drive from MS-DOS 2.0 to OS/2 to Linux to BSD to OS/9 RTOS... well, you get the idea. It will duplicate it to another drive, in its entirety, as bootable as the original.
Granted, it can't work over the network. However, for applications where you need to do an absolute binary image of any given drive, they can't be beat. There are larger models available for imaging a whole stack of drives from one master.
There are plenty of existing laws already on the books to deal with misuse of these devices. As one example, in my own home area, RCW 46.37.190, Section 4, clearly states (among other things) that "Optical strobe light devices shall not be installed or used on any vehicle other than an emergency vehicle authorized by the state patrol, a publicly owned law enforcement or emergency vehicle, a department of transportation, city, or county maintenance vehicle, or a public transit vehicle."
The section goes on to define, in very specific detail, what the state of Washington considers to be an "Optical strobe light," and it explicitly includes devices to control traffic signals.
As another example, the California Vehicle Code, Section 25258(a), explicitly authorizes traffic control strobes only for emergency vehicles.
Final example: Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 816, Section 12, prohibits any kind of flashing light, other than the normal turn signals or hazard lights, on any vehicle other than an emergency or school bus type.
Now, you might be thinking "Hey, these things emit in the infrared region, so they're not visible to the unaided human eye. No problem!"
Well, there is a problem. First, 'unaided' is the keyword here. Normal video cameras see into the infrared region very well indeed (I know -- I've experimented along those lines), and many intersections now have these cameras installed in the interests of catching red light jumpers, speeders, etc.
That same camera will, if you're using one of these devices, pick up your strobe flash, IR or no IR, with no problems at all.
As if that's not enough, lots of cities have remote telemetry and monitoring of their traffic signals, and that monitoring includes an indicator that the pre-emption device has been tripped. Couple that trip indication with an image from the intersection camera, showing a nice bright white light from your dashboard where there's not supposed to be one, and you could be in big trouble really quick.
The thing that'll really kill the sales of these things is digital encoding of the strobe flash. King County (WA state again) has already done this. I've noticed that the Opticom emitters on our local fire and PD vehicles are all flashing in a very distinctive pattern, compared with six or so years ago where they were simply flashing at a certain frequency.
I guess the short way to say it is that there's going to be an awful lot of ticked-off people when they discover that their $300 time-saver either gets them at least the same amount in a traffic ticket, or when said device suddenly ceases to have any effect.
My web site visits are, 98% of the time, done in order to hunt down technical support information (drivers, documentation, service bulletins, firmware, patches, etc.) for electronic test equipment or computing hardware. This is the exact same kind of service that dial-up BBS's, operated by equipment manufacturers, provided for years before the Internet came into the public eye.
The last thing I need, when I'm hunting for important stuff like that, is to be bombarded by irrelevant banner ads. As it is, there are far too many hardware manufacturer web sites that are so crammed full of graphics bloat, unnecessary FLASH animations, and JavaCrap, that they're nearly impossible to use.
You'll never convince me that banner ads are needed for something like a tech support site. It still costs far less to run such a site than it does to have experienced techies taking calls and stuffing floppies or CD-ROMs into envelopes.
Banner ad blocking is indeed a decision best left to the computing consumer. Personally, I would never depend on such ads as any source of critical income.
I find it significant (and maybe a little alarming as well) that it was Japan, and not the U.S., who made this apparent breakthrough. To my eyes, although I would say "Congrats!" to the Japanese, it makes a pretty sad statement about how our own industrial base (read: large companies) values (or doesn't) heavy R&D and engineering.
How much engineering and R&D has been "outsourced" or "downsized" in the past two decades, in favor of delivering short-term "Shareholder Value?"
What happened to long-term survival and growth of a company vs. short-term profits? Just as two examples, Bell Labs is a pale shadow of what they once were, as is Boeing. How much further is it going to go before the U.S. is merely a mass "user" of the products that our "global partners" think up and turn out?
Instead of making all kinds of noise about privacy, tracking, profiling, etc., consider this: I would think an awful lot of slashdot's readers are pretty savvy people in the technical arena. This includes networking, programming, electronics hardware, software, etc.
With all these smarts running around, consider all the different kinds of fun and mischief that could be had if said smarts were to be pooled into finding a way to broadcast one's own messages to these chatty carts.
Think about it: You're pushing a cart through the beer aisle, and all of a sudden its speaker emits this rip-roaring belch.
Or how about this? You're pushing it down the deodorant aisle, and you hear a couple of sniffing noises from the speaker, followed by 'Eewww, what's that smell?'
As a final touch, imagine visiting the fish counter, and the speaker issues forth with the chorus from 'Fish Heads' (as heard on the Dr. Demento show).
People, the possibilities are endless. Companies are going to try and foist this stuff on the buying public whether we want it or not, so I figure we may as well have some fun with it.
Like Jimmy Buffett says in one of his more recent songs: "You've only got two options; Havin' fun or freakin' out!"
Tauzin was also co-sponsor (or was it co-author?) of an utterly spineless anti-spam bill some years ago. Fortunately, the thing died stillborn. It would pretty much have legitimized spamming.
This guy is no friend of the consumer, as others have already pointed out.
...is that it pre-empts existing (and much stronger) state laws. At least one known spammer (Netcreations) is already licking their collective chops about its passage.
Another bad thing is that there is no right of private action for spam recipients. Only ISPs.
It's important to set a precedent, but this bill is not the way to go about it. Not without some modifications in any case.
Actually... this link gets you loads of weather information. Free. No pop-ups, no fluff, no spyware, no ads. The site doesn't even care if you have cookies disabled. Just lots of nice weather info, straight from the source.
[Awesome! I hate being.0006566547866787 pico seconds late for meetings!]
I solved that problem ages ago by simply ignoring meetings.;-)
A precision time reference does have its uses (Ebay sniping). However, I don't see why we should depend on Gator for it when wonderful freeware like this exists.
I just popped in to be annoying. Your other comments are dead-center on, and most amusing.;-)
I mean, c'mon! Fan & disk noise are some of the best sedatives I've ever come across, especially on a warm afternoon with just a bit of a breeze blowing through the lab. Get comfortable in your chair, and a high enough level of white noise from your systems, and you'll be out like a light in ten minutes, tops.
Seriously, folks, this works a lot better than counting sheep (cybernetic or otherwise). Take it from one who knows. Silence that stuff, and you'll have no easy way to fall asleep on your keyboard.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
The belief that 'You Gets What You Pays For' is one to live by. I have to wonder how long one of these $100 or sub-$100 burners will last.
The entire attitude of "Just toss it when it fails and get a new one" is a poor excuse. That sort of mindset is exactly why there's such a huge problem with solid waste (much of it old electronics) in the world.
While I like a bargain as much as the proverbial 'Next Guy,' I also expect equipment I buy to last a bare minimum of five years, more if the price is above a couple of hundred. I don't mind paying a bit more for stuff that's better built.
...the quality of computer hardware will only get better, and that prices will continue to fall, until (following that theory to the extreme) you're being paid to take home top-rate hardware.
That's when I keep hearing horror stories about thing like huge (capacity) hard drives that barely last a year, or that expire shortly after their warranties do.
It's true with computers, it's true with test equipment, it's true with cars, consumer electronics, food, and anything else that can be bought, sold, rented, leased, traded, or stolen:
YOU GETS WHAT YOU PAYS FOR.
Off-topic, granted. However, in the context of a fantastic show like 'Farscape,' I think "excuses for stopping Farscape" would be a better way to put it.
I think our country getting active in space exploration again is a great idea. HOWEVER -- Is it just my paranoia, or does this seem like one of many diversionary tactics of the current administration, designed solely to pull public attention away from the fact(s) that:
(1) bin Laden ('Old Salami BinBox' to me and some of my friends) is still at large.
(2) No matter how much spin has been put on it, the Iraqi war never had any solid justification that I can see. And Hussein ('Saddened HoseHead') is still at large as well.
(3) Our economy is still a shambles.
(4) The 'YOU-CAN-SPAM' bill is all but signed into law, thus (very possibly) bringing about the end of viable E-mail as we know it.
(5) The RIAA and MPAA continue to run roughshod over fair use rights.
I could go on, but I think we all get the idea. This is an election year coming up. The Shrub will pull out anything he or his advisors can think of to try and get himself reelected, and I really think that this is just one example.
Mod this down if you want. Heck, label it "Flamebait" if you want. I don't pretend to have even a hint of one answer, let alone all of them, but it certainly seems to me like there are other more pressing problems that need dealing with than making another trip to one very dead and airless rock.
...that one of the book's authors is the same one who tried to inflict the (in)famous "Dvorak Keyboard" on an unsuspecting world, the fact that the book itself is full of errors comes as no surprise whatsoever.
Heck, Dvorak probably wrote his portion on one of his goofball keyboards...
...that we're going to start seeing encrypted spam now?
;-)
(Sorry, couldn't resist).
...for Uncle Bill and Uncle Steve to test out their new Long-Range Anti-Software Piracy Laser Array (LORANASPLAY). The thing takes advantage of the GPS and radiolocation transmitter chips built into motherboards that were secretly marketed months ago in only the highest-risk (for piracy) countries.
After all, you gotta have targets before you can test any weapon, right? For those would-be early adopters of Longhorn who would like a countermeasure, you can dress yourself in armor made out of AOL 9.0 CDs (shiny side out). The reflective surface will keep the laser shots from doing you any lasting harm.
I think I'll go take some more meds...
King = Windows (Yeah, I know that's ridiculous... Just bear with me a minute...)
Queen = Linux (I know, I know... Hush up a minute, willya?)
Dead = *BSD (QUIET ALREADY!!!)
Now, to put it all together, this wonderful little quote once voiced by Judy Karne(sp?) on 'Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In"...
"The King is Queen. God save the Dead..."
Now why am I not surprised this happened?
[rant]
When you take a device that was originally designed to perform ONE function -- in this context, to be a good portable communications tool -- and you start loading it up with all kinds of useless bloat that is completely UNRELATED to being a communications tool, this is exactly the kind of crap you're going to run into.
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone thinks highly of downloadable ring tones, color screens, web access, gaming capability, or text messaging. I know, because I'm one of them. I would be perfectly happy with a simple, rugged, and RELIABLE mobile phone that was exactly that: A mobile phone, perhaps with the voice-activated calling feature, a good-sized speed dial directory, and the ability to snap into a fixed-mount handsfree cradle in the car.
The last thing I need is a ton of "features" that I don't want, don't need, and DON'T want to have to pay extra for just because they're present. Don't even get me started on the insane "Smaller is Better!" craze. It has served only to give us keypads that are so small that Tinkerbell would have problems with them.
[/rant]
I have a couple of thoughts. First, on this comment:
"...and it is flat-out IMPOSSIBLE to sell hardware if it can't run Windows."
Gosh... I'm sure all the used computer stores are going to be horrified to hear that all the Sun SPARC and other non-PC systems they've been selling regularly never really sold at all. And how about all those systems from SGI?
My own Internet presence? 101% dependent on a series of hardware platforms that (with one exception) cannot, due to their architecture, run any MS Windows product at all. The folks that sold me the equipment had no problem taking my money, and I had no problem putting it out.
Sarcasm aside, what I'm saying is that it is far from "impossible" to sell hardware that does not run Windows. It's just a matter of what audience it gets sold to.
My second thought has to do with the encryption/DRM/whatever hardware that, supposedly, is going to be built into future motherboard hardware. I will grant that I'm fairly paranoid, perhaps more so than others, but even I have to wonder if we're not taking the molehill of Phoenix's announcement and turning it into another Mt. Rainier.
More specifically: It strikes me that it will be up to OS makers to determine what hardware features of a motherboard their OS will use, and which ones it will not. There will always be OS choices, and I have zero evidence at this time that open-source (notably the BSDs) will not run on systems using Phoenix's CSS.
On the other wing, it's a given that Bill-ware OS's will take advantage of every hardware feature that they can in terms of DRM and other such crap, all designed to limit fair use rights. Even so, there's going to be a ton of people that Just Want to Run Windows, and that's not going to change either.
Know what? THAT'S OK TOO! If someone is bound and determined (and lazy enough) to let themselves be led around by the nose, computing-wise, then that's their thing. Let 'em have it!
Once again, it all comes down to knowledge. The amount of control you have over the technology in your life is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how much you choose to learn about how it works (or how much of it you even choose -- or not -- to use at all).
Keep the peace(es).
...considering that the only thing I depend on from my upstream is six static addresses and my bandwidth. I take care of everything else, DNS included.
By that measure, and the language referenced, I could indeed sue for damages if I chose, since I am running an entire bank of servers and providing "Information Services" to myself and others (my life-mate and a close friend in another state -- he gets in through a VPN tunnel).
However, I find it much more fun simply to block spammers out of our network, and watch them bang their metaphorical heads against our firewall and blocklist. Makes for entertaining reading in the reject logs.
...before I even consider allowing any such implant. I'll go live in another country first!
Yes, it's a sucky law in that it pre-empts state laws, allows NO right of private court action on the part of individuals (only ISPs) against spammers, and (worst of all) has adopted an opt-out model.
Here's why it may be a Good Thing in the long term.
If this bill passes into law in its current form, the huge influx of spam that results will serve to bring the entire E-mail network to its electronic knees. The effect will be similar to what happens when too many cars try to use a two-lane highway simultaneously. This includes the very systems that 'Big Business' uses to communicate with their branch offices, employees in the field, telecommuters, etc.
It also includes many U.S. government servers. Military networks -might- be more immune than the public Internet, but unclassified military E-mail still flows over that same public Internet at some point. It even includes the very systems that the spammers want to send their traffic over.
Come to think of it, ANYone who uses E-mail is going to be affected.
See where I'm going with this? When E-mail, as a system, is brought to a standstill by those who would cheerfully abuse other people's private property for their own ends (the spammers and "mainsleaze" businesses that want so badly to make spam legal), how long do you think it will take for Tauzin's "Legalize Spam" act to be repealed, and for the sponsors of it to realize what an awful mistake it was?
Sometimes, you just have to let things fall before you can pick them up.
Meanwhile, I've never been more grateful that I have the resources to be self-hosted, server-wise, including DNS. ANYone, individual or business, that spams me or any of my other users will only get to do it once (assuming their initial attempt even makes it through our filter and blocklist setup).
T-Online has a big problem with spammer infestations and mucho compromised broadband-connected systems being (ab)used as spammer zombies. I've got large chunks of their IP space blocked locally because of these issues, mostly T-Dialin.net.
In contrast, though I may think AOL is nothing more than training wheels for the real Internet, I see maybe one or two spams a year from them, and the moron responsible quickly disappears once a report is made to AOL abuse.
Given these two obviously contrasting views, I think a buyout is going to be most interesting to watch. I wonder if Steve Case has taught himself German yet?
...and I'll say it again. My entire Internet presence is based on open-source software (NetBSD, Apache, Postfix, NNTPCache, Samba). Without it, I would not be able to run my side business. I wouldn't be able to afford to do so.
With that said, I also make use of a mix of MS-DOS 6.x, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000, all on various workstations and my laptop. NONE of my 'net-connected servers responsible for any Internet serving function are based on M$ (or even on the PC platform for that matter, with one exception).
Micro$platt's flunky asked the wrong people.
I've faced this issue many times. I finally gave up and bought one of these when they were on sale at half price (CSC was having a moving sale at the time).
This little hardware wonder doesn't care WHAT is on the hard drive, or what structure it is. You can have anything on the drive from MS-DOS 2.0 to OS/2 to Linux to BSD to OS/9 RTOS... well, you get the idea. It will duplicate it to another drive, in its entirety, as bootable as the original.
Granted, it can't work over the network. However, for applications where you need to do an absolute binary image of any given drive, they can't be beat. There are larger models available for imaging a whole stack of drives from one master.
There are plenty of existing laws already on the books to deal with misuse of these devices. As one example, in my own home area, RCW 46.37.190, Section 4, clearly states (among other things) that "Optical strobe light devices shall not be installed or used on any vehicle other than an emergency vehicle authorized by the state patrol, a publicly owned law enforcement or emergency vehicle, a department of transportation, city, or county maintenance vehicle, or a public transit vehicle."
The section goes on to define, in very specific detail, what the state of Washington considers to be an "Optical strobe light," and it explicitly includes devices to control traffic signals.
As another example, the California Vehicle Code, Section 25258(a), explicitly authorizes traffic control strobes only for emergency vehicles.
Final example: Oregon Revised Statutes, Chapter 816, Section 12, prohibits any kind of flashing light, other than the normal turn signals or hazard lights, on any vehicle other than an emergency or school bus type.
Now, you might be thinking "Hey, these things emit in the infrared region, so they're not visible to the unaided human eye. No problem!"
Well, there is a problem. First, 'unaided' is the keyword here. Normal video cameras see into the infrared region very well indeed (I know -- I've experimented along those lines), and many intersections now have these cameras installed in the interests of catching red light jumpers, speeders, etc.
That same camera will, if you're using one of these devices, pick up your strobe flash, IR or no IR, with no problems at all.
As if that's not enough, lots of cities have remote telemetry and monitoring of their traffic signals, and that monitoring includes an indicator that the pre-emption device has been tripped. Couple that trip indication with an image from the intersection camera, showing a nice bright white light from your dashboard where there's not supposed to be one, and you could be in big trouble really quick.
The thing that'll really kill the sales of these things is digital encoding of the strobe flash. King County (WA state again) has already done this. I've noticed that the Opticom emitters on our local fire and PD vehicles are all flashing in a very distinctive pattern, compared with six or so years ago where they were simply flashing at a certain frequency.
I guess the short way to say it is that there's going to be an awful lot of ticked-off people when they discover that their $300 time-saver either gets them at least the same amount in a traffic ticket, or when said device suddenly ceases to have any effect.
My web site visits are, 98% of the time, done in order to hunt down technical support information (drivers, documentation, service bulletins, firmware, patches, etc.) for electronic test equipment or computing hardware. This is the exact same kind of service that dial-up BBS's, operated by equipment manufacturers, provided for years before the Internet came into the public eye.
The last thing I need, when I'm hunting for important stuff like that, is to be bombarded by irrelevant banner ads. As it is, there are far too many hardware manufacturer web sites that are so crammed full of graphics bloat, unnecessary FLASH animations, and JavaCrap, that they're nearly impossible to use.
You'll never convince me that banner ads are needed for something like a tech support site. It still costs far less to run such a site than it does to have experienced techies taking calls and stuffing floppies or CD-ROMs into envelopes.
Banner ad blocking is indeed a decision best left to the computing consumer. Personally, I would never depend on such ads as any source of critical income.
I find it significant (and maybe a little alarming as well) that it was Japan, and not the U.S., who made this apparent breakthrough. To my eyes, although I would say "Congrats!" to the Japanese, it makes a pretty sad statement about how our own industrial base (read: large companies) values (or doesn't) heavy R&D and engineering.
How much engineering and R&D has been "outsourced" or "downsized" in the past two decades, in favor of delivering short-term "Shareholder Value?"
What happened to long-term survival and growth of a company vs. short-term profits? Just as two examples, Bell Labs is a pale shadow of what they once were, as is Boeing. How much further is it going to go before the U.S. is merely a mass "user" of the products that our "global partners" think up and turn out?
Instead of making all kinds of noise about privacy, tracking, profiling, etc., consider this: I would think an awful lot of slashdot's readers are pretty savvy people in the technical arena. This includes networking, programming, electronics hardware, software, etc.
;-)
With all these smarts running around, consider all the different kinds of fun and mischief that could be had if said smarts were to be pooled into finding a way to broadcast one's own messages to these chatty carts.
Think about it: You're pushing a cart through the beer aisle, and all of a sudden its speaker emits this rip-roaring belch.
Or how about this? You're pushing it down the deodorant aisle, and you hear a couple of sniffing noises from the speaker, followed by 'Eewww, what's that smell?'
As a final touch, imagine visiting the fish counter, and the speaker issues forth with the chorus from 'Fish Heads' (as heard on the Dr. Demento show).
People, the possibilities are endless. Companies are going to try and foist this stuff on the buying public whether we want it or not, so I figure we may as well have some fun with it.
Like Jimmy Buffett says in one of his more recent songs: "You've only got two options; Havin' fun or freakin' out!"
I vote to have fun.
Tauzin was also co-sponsor (or was it co-author?) of an utterly spineless anti-spam bill some years ago. Fortunately, the thing died stillborn. It would pretty much have legitimized spamming.
This guy is no friend of the consumer, as others have already pointed out.
...is that it pre-empts existing (and much stronger) state laws. At least one known spammer (Netcreations) is already licking their collective chops about its passage.
Another bad thing is that there is no right of private action for spam recipients. Only ISPs.
It's important to set a precedent, but this bill is not the way to go about it. Not without some modifications in any case.
Primus_sucks inhaled deeply, and then bellowed...
.0006566547866787 pico seconds late for meetings!]
;-)
;-)
[Cool, no more endless searching of weather.com!]
Actually... this link gets you loads of weather information. Free. No pop-ups, no fluff, no spyware, no ads. The site doesn't even care if you have cookies disabled. Just lots of nice weather info, straight from the source.
[Awesome! I hate being
I solved that problem ages ago by simply ignoring meetings.
A precision time reference does have its uses (Ebay sniping). However, I don't see why we should depend on Gator for it when wonderful freeware like this exists.
I just popped in to be annoying. Your other comments are dead-center on, and most amusing.
Great! Soon as I get the things downloaded, I'll pick an appropriate group and post them.
;-)
Let's see Die-mold try to silence that one!
I mean, c'mon! Fan & disk noise are some of the best sedatives I've ever come across, especially on a warm afternoon with just a bit of a breeze blowing through the lab. Get comfortable in your chair, and a high enough level of white noise from your systems, and you'll be out like a light in ten minutes, tops.
;-)
Seriously, folks, this works a lot better than counting sheep (cybernetic or otherwise). Take it from one who knows. Silence that stuff, and you'll have no easy way to fall asleep on your keyboard.