Eventually household robots are going to need to move beyond hoovers and require enough strength or dangerous tools to make them a safety hazard. I have a feeling that companies behind them are not going to want to be held liable at any level, so its probable that we will in fact never have domestic robots like 60's predictions and its probably for the best. oh well, along with flying cars theres another dream shattered by practicality...
I agree some of its programming has gone down hill but they themselves said only yesterday that they would have to stop chasing ratings for ratings sake and improve, i trust they will do it given the right push but i don't think its time to change the system. They just need to stop dumbing down - media should keep high standards and stupid people should bloody well 'smarten up' else we will end up with American TV:\
The BBC is pretty free from the government, if there was any political censorship going on then other channels would be all over it. Watching things like question time, journalists are not known for being polite and letting politicians get away with bullshitting - if a question is asked, a proper answer is expected no matter what part of the political spectrum. There have been plenty of occasions when the BBC has done things that pissed off the government and even other governments (Israel, Vanunu) they are absolutely not afraid to broadcast things that need to be seen, from lists of dead soldiers (censored in the US by some stations) to prisoner abuse (censored in the US for at least 2 weeks before it came out) to just taking the piss out of the establishment - if this was china every employee would have been publicly hanged - which is why i love the BBC.
As for decency standards, I really don't understand why the FCC is so tight assed, the BBC recently came under fire from Christian groups over Jerry Springer the Opera (with about 8000 fuck, shit, cunts etc and a gay Jesus), but the BBC did not cave in because they understood that they had to appeal to everyone but _not_ at the same time, so they showed it, the FCC would have had a heart attack.
Actually the phone is the bait to get people onto the network where they can be charged at profit margins that would make WalMart piss themselves. Think how much your phone bill for a year is and how much your phone is, now think how much the service you were given actually cost them to run for you and how much your phone actually cost to manufacture and ship. Telecomms = cashcow
WTF he actually got through and they managed to find you? thats like some sort of miricle, usually you'd be put on hold and passed around 4 separate places before someone in a thick Indian accent said "Heeeloo, what is your emergency please sir?" and then sent an ambulance to a random address that your bill was registered to 5 years ago.
This is such a pathetic gimmick, in 6 months no one will care about about it or be using it - how many people here even use voice dial? It doesn't even have a use to it, there is simply no problem with entering a pin number and facial recognition is simply not that good, even in good fixed lighting conditions with a good camera and lots of computing power its bad enough to be annoying, for security i give this about 3/10 - its better than setting your pin number to all zeros, usefulness is around 4/10 - maybe you could find some kind of novelty application for it? why wait 1 second when your pin number is checked instantly? why bother taking a picture when you can often tap yor keypad without even looking, why waste R&D on this when people really just want flat-rate fast net-access on their phones, to be honest.
after my racial outburst against Germany (i was just talking about the government though) id just like to add 3 words that will probably just aid to dig my hole deeper:
Yeah Germany never did fit in with the rest of Europe, that sort of thing is blaitently a violation of EU human rights and personally i'd like to see them kicked out of the union until they can fucking grow up.
Yet again this whole issue could have been settled when digital TV standards were being set, oh wait the FCC was too caught up in trying to push the broadcast flag, obviously thats more important than free speech and kids seeing extreme violence and hardcore porn. The standard im talking about is basically V-chip on steroids, with digital TV you'd be able to set your own TV to censor as much or as little as you liked - you could choose a rating and then choose to have either the entire show blanked out or just the dodgy scenes or even just have black boxes appear to cover things up or bleep words, it would essentially be the broadcast flag for decency, the tv networks could even do it on live tv with a small delay! and heres the best part! if the networks couldn't be assed, they could decide not to bother flagging stuff, no problem, you could set your TV to block any unflagged content and the networks would soon learn to maximise their viewers. This way parents would be able to set it how they wanted and everyone else would have the most important thing: free speech without draconian censorship that makes the rest of the world laugh at the US. But of course that would never happen, because that would actually be a good idea and we all know what retarded old-man out-raged by everything politicians think about good ideas.
Spot on except that you missed the entire point. This isn't about under-cutting business to spite it this is about the principle that America for example was _supposed_ to be founded upon: freedom/capitalism. A capitalist system is ment to balance itself for the most part, new technologies emerge all the time and that means business has to change all the time. If Telco X is free to sell phone calls by the minute then Telco Y is free to sell calls for a flat fee and I am free to email my friend or even... use a free voip program! the telcos have decided to rip me off and at my stage in life (student) i CANNOT afford to be ripped off like that because unless i grab onto the job market with both hands and get up to a comfortable lifestyle i wont have any money. so unless i get to work in that boat company or manage to get the VC for my own im not going to benefit from giving my money to Telco X and watching it filter down the economy, this is because of a thing known as 'slipping higher education and poor management of the nations next generation of professionals by a government lost in their ass' in order to make it in this society you can't settle for having just enough pay to balance your account or pay the rent, you have to push people aside a little, im cutting costs using voip so i can grow up to make more money later, the people who got to the top of the Telcos fucked over others to get there too and im not taking my chances, ill leave that to everyone else.
Although I agree IP law is stupid, your example makes no sense - the copies you had wern't legal, they had already been installed and if the number of installations of any particular serial number were checked it would come up as dodgy. Also im sure if the people involved found out they wouldnt be happy, but only IF they found out, just like only IF they find out you had made copies. The original owner probably wouldn't care if you had copies of their CDs as long as they wernt liable, but Microsoft would care about the 'potential lost sale'. In the end the potential lost sale is generally a load of crap and only applies to real pirates who want to make a proffit, the average joe is either well-off, in which case the cost of windows means nothing to them so they buy it, or they are some poor student whos going to be paying off their loan for the next 10 years and wouldnt actually be able to shell out the money anyway, hence no lost sale, but the gain of a windows user which is benificial to Microsoft - the more windows users they have the more foot hold they have on the market which is why they rarely go after people like that - just like with any software, if you learn to use it, stolen or not, your probably going to still want to use it when you can afford it or work at a company and that will eventually turn into a sale.
trying to find exactly the ringtone that expressed my personality with enough irony and enough coolness that I could live with it going off ten times a day
there is no such thing, people need to realise that ring tones are just not cool anymore (they were cool for about 5 minutes about 10 years ago). your bloody ring tone is not 'ironic', it doesn't express your personality and no-one wants to listen to it and your resulting phone call. put your phone on vibrate or a just loud enough beep so that you can hear it. what ever it is, how ever much you think its the latest craze or just so funny, its not, its gay, trust me, don't do it - remember the 80's? remember how stupid everyone looked now? you know it makes sense, put it on vibrate and get on with your life. oh and if you have that crazy frog ring tone, i swear to God i will stick your phone up your ass if i hear it, why do people waste money on these stupid scams? look if you want to pay for shit id be happy to sell you some?
I guess he is unaware how many types of finger-print scanners have been broken already, and how when you're finger print eventually is stolen (if you touch enough things or have it on enough data-bases its GOING to happen) it can't be 'changed' like your pin number. I bet he probably didnt bother thinking about what method of stealing biometrics might emerge - ie stealling your body parts! i havn't heard of a single report recommending that human rights law should give everyone the choice of biometrics or conventional security, its all gung-hoe because some bloody biometrics company wants to ship as many units as they can.
WMV is an absolutely disgusting format - not only does it not work with virtually any video editing software (because of the license) its stuck to Microsofts crappy decoder that can barely seek through files or rewind. WMV is often used by Iraqi beheading groups for their little sick games, which just goes to show the mind-set that uses it. To add insult to injury, perfectly good video cameras which store their video in the wonderful MPEG-2, won't let you get at that unless there crappy downloading program converts it to WMV for you!! a fucking joke.
I would prefer they established some much needed policy on the touchy world of biometrics first. At the moment the government (like allot of governments) has this crazy idea that iris and finger print scanning are totally ok and theres absolutely no issue both security and human rights wise. Also with the RFID. bloody hell, nano technology might be an important subject for humanity, but biometrics and stupid wireless policy is here right now and needs attention today. The problem is of course that we didnt tackle this subject 20 years ago so now its too late.
Well now its people like you that the new border control is trying to keep out - don't try and enter the US without full finger-printing, iris scanning, and being questioned for an hour, they will soon see through your commie liberalism and have you on a plane back home (chained to the seat i might add).
the needs of America overshadow the needs of you. im not quite sure why our fine boys left anyone alive at all in Iraq! we got Saddam out and this is the thanks we get? some idiots whining about how many babies we killed, friendly fire we made and how much depleted uranium we used - you've gotta break a few eggs to make me an omelette, just like you've got to show your papers when you get on a plane or train to prove your really a red white and blue.
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft should patent some of its security flaws, it could make a killing by licensing the ability to patch said flaws to anti-virus companies.
Eventually household robots are going to need to move beyond hoovers and require enough strength or dangerous tools to make them a safety hazard. I have a feeling that companies behind them are not going to want to be held liable at any level, so its probable that we will in fact never have domestic robots like 60's predictions and its probably for the best. oh well, along with flying cars theres another dream shattered by practicality...
I think most teenagers will want this integrated with real-doll in some way.
I agree some of its programming has gone down hill but they themselves said only yesterday that they would have to stop chasing ratings for ratings sake and improve, i trust they will do it given the right push but i don't think its time to change the system. They just need to stop dumbing down - media should keep high standards and stupid people should bloody well 'smarten up' else we will end up with American TV :\
The BBC is pretty free from the government, if there was any political censorship going on then other channels would be all over it. Watching things like question time, journalists are not known for being polite and letting politicians get away with bullshitting - if a question is asked, a proper answer is expected no matter what part of the political spectrum. There have been plenty of occasions when the BBC has done things that pissed off the government and even other governments (Israel, Vanunu) they are absolutely not afraid to broadcast things that need to be seen, from lists of dead soldiers (censored in the US by some stations) to prisoner abuse (censored in the US for at least 2 weeks before it came out) to just taking the piss out of the establishment - if this was china every employee would have been publicly hanged - which is why i love the BBC.
As for decency standards, I really don't understand why the FCC is so tight assed, the BBC recently came under fire from Christian groups over Jerry Springer the Opera (with about 8000 fuck, shit, cunts etc and a gay Jesus), but the BBC did not cave in because they understood that they had to appeal to everyone but _not_ at the same time, so they showed it, the FCC would have had a heart attack.
Wow, all i can say is, im glad the US isn't in the EU.
Actually the phone is the bait to get people onto the network where they can be charged at profit margins that would make WalMart piss themselves. Think how much your phone bill for a year is and how much your phone is, now think how much the service you were given actually cost them to run for you and how much your phone actually cost to manufacture and ship. Telecomms = cashcow
WTF he actually got through and they managed to find you? thats like some sort of miricle, usually you'd be put on hold and passed around 4 separate places before someone in a thick Indian accent said "Heeeloo, what is your emergency please sir?" and then sent an ambulance to a random address that your bill was registered to 5 years ago.
This is such a pathetic gimmick, in 6 months no one will care about about it or be using it - how many people here even use voice dial? It doesn't even have a use to it, there is simply no problem with entering a pin number and facial recognition is simply not that good, even in good fixed lighting conditions with a good camera and lots of computing power its bad enough to be annoying, for security i give this about 3/10 - its better than setting your pin number to all zeros, usefulness is around 4/10 - maybe you could find some kind of novelty application for it? why wait 1 second when your pin number is checked instantly? why bother taking a picture when you can often tap yor keypad without even looking, why waste R&D on this when people really just want flat-rate fast net-access on their phones, to be honest.
All phones let you make emergency calls even when they're locked..
er? why?
after my racial outburst against Germany (i was just talking about the government though) id just like to add 3 words that will probably just aid to dig my hole deeper:
German Shizer Porn.
Yeah Germany never did fit in with the rest of Europe, that sort of thing is blaitently a violation of EU human rights and personally i'd like to see them kicked out of the union until they can fucking grow up.
I don't have sat/cable so i wouldn't know but normal TV in the UK is way way ahead of normal TV in the US.
Yet again this whole issue could have been settled when digital TV standards were being set, oh wait the FCC was too caught up in trying to push the broadcast flag, obviously thats more important than free speech and kids seeing extreme violence and hardcore porn. The standard im talking about is basically V-chip on steroids, with digital TV you'd be able to set your own TV to censor as much or as little as you liked - you could choose a rating and then choose to have either the entire show blanked out or just the dodgy scenes or even just have black boxes appear to cover things up or bleep words, it would essentially be the broadcast flag for decency, the tv networks could even do it on live tv with a small delay! and heres the best part! if the networks couldn't be assed, they could decide not to bother flagging stuff, no problem, you could set your TV to block any unflagged content and the networks would soon learn to maximise their viewers. This way parents would be able to set it how they wanted and everyone else would have the most important thing: free speech without draconian censorship that makes the rest of the world laugh at the US. But of course that would never happen, because that would actually be a good idea and we all know what retarded old-man out-raged by everything politicians think about good ideas.
Except that in most of Europe you can show on normal TV what you can barely get away with on X-Rated cable in the US...
Spot on except that you missed the entire point. This isn't about under-cutting business to spite it this is about the principle that America for example was _supposed_ to be founded upon: freedom/capitalism. A capitalist system is ment to balance itself for the most part, new technologies emerge all the time and that means business has to change all the time. If Telco X is free to sell phone calls by the minute then Telco Y is free to sell calls for a flat fee and I am free to email my friend or even... use a free voip program! the telcos have decided to rip me off and at my stage in life (student) i CANNOT afford to be ripped off like that because unless i grab onto the job market with both hands and get up to a comfortable lifestyle i wont have any money. so unless i get to work in that boat company or manage to get the VC for my own im not going to benefit from giving my money to Telco X and watching it filter down the economy, this is because of a thing known as 'slipping higher education and poor management of the nations next generation of professionals by a government lost in their ass' in order to make it in this society you can't settle for having just enough pay to balance your account or pay the rent, you have to push people aside a little, im cutting costs using voip so i can grow up to make more money later, the people who got to the top of the Telcos fucked over others to get there too and im not taking my chances, ill leave that to everyone else.
Hahaha little does he know, the Queen has no intention 'tapping' the sword on his shoulder..
Although I agree IP law is stupid, your example makes no sense - the copies you had wern't legal, they had already been installed and if the number of installations of any particular serial number were checked it would come up as dodgy. Also im sure if the people involved found out they wouldnt be happy, but only IF they found out, just like only IF they find out you had made copies. The original owner probably wouldn't care if you had copies of their CDs as long as they wernt liable, but Microsoft would care about the 'potential lost sale'. In the end the potential lost sale is generally a load of crap and only applies to real pirates who want to make a proffit, the average joe is either well-off, in which case the cost of windows means nothing to them so they buy it, or they are some poor student whos going to be paying off their loan for the next 10 years and wouldnt actually be able to shell out the money anyway, hence no lost sale, but the gain of a windows user which is benificial to Microsoft - the more windows users they have the more foot hold they have on the market which is why they rarely go after people like that - just like with any software, if you learn to use it, stolen or not, your probably going to still want to use it when you can afford it or work at a company and that will eventually turn into a sale.
trying to find exactly the ringtone that expressed my personality with enough irony and enough coolness that I could live with it going off ten times a day
there is no such thing, people need to realise that ring tones are just not cool anymore (they were cool for about 5 minutes about 10 years ago). your bloody ring tone is not 'ironic', it doesn't express your personality and no-one wants to listen to it and your resulting phone call. put your phone on vibrate or a just loud enough beep so that you can hear it. what ever it is, how ever much you think its the latest craze or just so funny, its not, its gay, trust me, don't do it - remember the 80's? remember how stupid everyone looked now? you know it makes sense, put it on vibrate and get on with your life. oh and if you have that crazy frog ring tone, i swear to God i will stick your phone up your ass if i hear it, why do people waste money on these stupid scams? look if you want to pay for shit id be happy to sell you some?
I guess he is unaware how many types of finger-print scanners have been broken already, and how when you're finger print eventually is stolen (if you touch enough things or have it on enough data-bases its GOING to happen) it can't be 'changed' like your pin number. I bet he probably didnt bother thinking about what method of stealing biometrics might emerge - ie stealling your body parts! i havn't heard of a single report recommending that human rights law should give everyone the choice of biometrics or conventional security, its all gung-hoe because some bloody biometrics company wants to ship as many units as they can.
...who uses Quicktime in this little universe anyway?
ahahahahahahahahahahaha oh man thats funny.
WMV is an absolutely disgusting format - not only does it not work with virtually any video editing software (because of the license) its stuck to Microsofts crappy decoder that can barely seek through files or rewind. WMV is often used by Iraqi beheading groups for their little sick games, which just goes to show the mind-set that uses it. To add insult to injury, perfectly good video cameras which store their video in the wonderful MPEG-2, won't let you get at that unless there crappy downloading program converts it to WMV for you!! a fucking joke.
I would prefer they established some much needed policy on the touchy world of biometrics first. At the moment the government (like allot of governments) has this crazy idea that iris and finger print scanning are totally ok and theres absolutely no issue both security and human rights wise. Also with the RFID. bloody hell, nano technology might be an important subject for humanity, but biometrics and stupid wireless policy is here right now and needs attention today. The problem is of course that we didnt tackle this subject 20 years ago so now its too late.
Well now its people like you that the new border control is trying to keep out - don't try and enter the US without full finger-printing, iris scanning, and being questioned for an hour, they will soon see through your commie liberalism and have you on a plane back home (chained to the seat i might add).
the needs of America overshadow the needs of you. im not quite sure why our fine boys left anyone alive at all in Iraq! we got Saddam out and this is the thanks we get? some idiots whining about how many babies we killed, friendly fire we made and how much depleted uranium we used - you've gotta break a few eggs to make me an omelette, just like you've got to show your papers when you get on a plane or train to prove your really a red white and blue.