A solution for me (In New Brunswick)
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More Tivo Hacking
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· Score: 4
You can get a lot of the functionality of the TiVo with an ATI All-In-Wonder, a reasonably fast celeron box, a wireless keyboard and mouse, and a huge hard drive. Admittedly, the case doesn't look as nice, but I don't mind a tower sitting by the TV that much.
The ATI can be configured to download to a schedule, it's TV out lets you use the computer to browse/play games, you can play DVDs on it with a DVD drive with great quality, it has MPEG compression accelleration so you don't get old encoding stuff for later, and with the box, you can even play mp3's on your stereo (I center everything in the living room stereo wise).
This combination is much more flexible than the TiVo IMHO. The only downsides are that it doesn't work on linux, so you need windows (not that bad) and it doesn't look as nice as a system component (although if you got a bookshelf PC and pearl-painted it it would look pretty cool). I'm working on a couple things to make it more tivo like, I'd like to have a server so I could program it over the net, automatically record programs of choice, and maybe a client for the palm so that you could configure what to record on the fly.
The solution to this sort of problem isn't to talk to elected officials about freedom-- it's to talk to your teachers and your school board. Explain to them the advantages the internet would bring to you, maybe make some suggestions for supervised web access. Hey, they might turn out to be be reasonable people who are just underinformed. Who knows.
Oh, I forgot, high school students don't have the same rights as the rest of us. That's a good way to have responsible young adults. That student has EVERY RIGHT to go to his elected representatives if the school isn't responding or is acting in an inappropriate manner. You can explain until the cows come home, but if you're going to get expelled for getting forwarded off a bad link, it's not going to do you any good.
This attitude really bothered me when I was in high school. Of course, I didn't get searched at the door with a metal detector, either - although if they had done that, I would have screamed about that, too.
Fact is, that's not the way it works. Teachers _do_ have the right to look over students' shoulders -- because students can, and will, abuse the resources
We're not talking about abuse of resources, unless it's an abuse by the school. We're talking about a bunch of computers with internet access that can't be used because of incompetent teachers. That's a waste of taxpayer money, and the taxpayers should know about it. Teach kids to use resources responsibly - it should be obvious if the kids are looking at pr0n as opposed to looking for real material, and no, a banner ad doesn't count.
Wireless internet access via cellular networks isn't happening in my area. We're only just getting digital service rolled out this summer (it's only available on a trial basis now, and only in the two cities of the province).
Europe, on the other hand, has all sorts of neat wireless toys. I wonder if the reason for this is the high tariffs on the use of local phone calls - if people are used to paying big bucks, then maybe the wireless service isn't so bad? (I'd love to have it, but I know it'll be costing a pretty penny).
We've got competition rules here to make sure the well funded Telcos don't stomp the other company (Cantel/AT&T/Whoever owns it this month) into the ground (NBTel does all sorts of nifty new things - pioneered CallerID and other digital services in the early 90's, is a major developer on cable-over-phone tech (plug, I work doing that:), but we don't have wireless internet. And anything under 56k doesn't count (my ham radio can do 9600:).
Open up the airwaves and let's see some blood. If telcos won't do it, then let a third party.
Do we need to create separate childrens' libraries, so there IS someplace that I, as a parent, can send my children without worrying that they'll see (insert favorite porn site here)?
If your kids have a favorite porn site, you're in trouble already! *kidding*
These are public libraries, funded by yours and my tax dollars. Ergo, they are bound not by the standards of a few, but by the constitution (in the USA, anyhow). Ironically, most of the libraries in Canada don't use filtering software, at least not on the East Coast - and we don't have a consitution per se. (The charter of rights and freedoms is close, but most people couldn't even tell you who wrote it let alone what's on it). Common sense, people.
You are free to start a privately funded library for kids if you want, hell, fill it with religious propaganda-of-choice if you're paying for running it. Public libraries are different.
Something else people are missing is that most 10 year olds aren't that interested in pr0n. Sex, maybe, but that's not a problem, that's healthy. It's not until you get hormones into the mix a couple years later, and by that point, most of 'em are probably playing around anyhow, geeks or no. Unless of course, you as a parent have imparted your moral values to them, in which case, they'll make up their own minds. God forbid.
The irony is that you can get GRAPHIC depictions of violence anywhere, yet this isn't seen as a problem, but looking at n3kk1d breasts is. Go figure.
This is actually a good thing because at school, we are not allowed to go online because the teachers are
afraid we're going to look at porn.
You don't have to take this, eh. Go write your local elected officials and then write a press release for the local paper asking why you're not allowed to use equipment that's been paid for by taxpayers for the purpose of futhering your education.
Students have "accidentally" went to porn sites and I, as a student am VERY
afraid I'll search for something and the result is a porn site because I may get disaplined.
Again, you shouldn't even have to surf with someone looking at you. The librarians aren't allowed to read over your shoulders, are they? Illustrate this double standard to the people in power and more importantly the press, asking why people in power aren't doing something about it. You'll see results.
This law is a license
for every political interest group to keep subjects they don't like out of local
libraries and schools. The victims would be kids with nowhere but libraries
to go for Net access.
Bingo. Or, the disadvanges, or the mass of americans that don't have access to computers. I'm wondering why the lobby groups for the poor (are there those in the USA? Or do you have to be a representable minority? *sarcasm*) aren't freaking out, because they will be disproportionaly affected by this bill. Alternate names for this bill have been suggested already, but how about "Let's censor poor electorate, oh wait, they don't vote anyhow!" -> boy, I'd love to see online voting happen. Maybe a few terms of WWF representatives in Washington put some good 'n proper fear into elected officials, just like the old days (tm).
If you don't want your kids being exposed to pr0n, they shouldn't be in a library unsurpervised, unless they started censoring books since I was a library rat. There's lots of good stuff if you know where to look:).
A couple points I've learned in my interviewing experience (and I've never been turned down for a position I've interviewed for. Ever.)
If you're interviewing at a place that is going to quiz you on the spot, you're not going to be happy. I can see maybe showing you some code and asking you to explain what it does - but your educational qualifications and prior experience should be enough to demonstrate you are capable. I don't remember 1001 buzzwords well. This is usually a mistake that first-time or inexperienced interviewers will make.
What you do to land a cool job is you get a chord struck with the interviewer on a personal level. You take the opportunity to talk about the cool mp3 system you programmed for your car. You talk about the challenges you had going through school. Talk about the moment when object oriented programming became clear to you. You want to avoid the horrible standard questions like what do you want to do with your career - if you're reading a cookie cutter answer, you're going to be like everyone else.
When I get asked questions like that, I talk about experiences I've had in the field, positive and negative, and how I'd make sure that they happen/don't happen again. Demonstrate to the interviewer you're personable and they can work with you - you don't need to prove yourself at this stage, a mistake many people make. If you're being interviewed, you're good on paper. They want to see if they can trust and deal with you on a daily basis. Let your personality come through.
This is something you'll never see taught in a resume course. BE YOURSELF. If you're not, you won't be happy in the job - because they didn't hire you, they hired that person in the book.
See if any of them are interested in neural networks. It's not a beginning project, but some students are likely to have some experience with programming and AP math should be enough to get started. Here's some reasons:
It's an area that's actively being researched commercially, and has lots of interest from academia and the public.
The difficulty can scale from trivial to PhD Graduate work depending on how smart the students are.
You can do useful things that interest kids at that age, like, show them how to find patterns in stock prices. (There's a book I have that does this as an example; Email me and I'll hunt for the ISBN)
The results and propagations through the network are great for graphical representations! So you can see what's going on in a picture instead of just number crunching, and it gives the game programmers a problem: How to visualize the network? (Hint: 3D works real kick ass)
There's LOTS of sample code and problems/learning sets to get you started.
Not to be discounted, but a cool project might get you national or state attention.
Just some ideas. I don't think it's beyond the scope of some bright high school students.
I do a lot of embedded programming (settop boxes, so they're got a little bit more power than the devices here, but...) and one of the things that's a problem is finding a good, fast way to communicate between applications and processes that doesn't result in a mess. CORBA is one good solution for this, and gnome makes heavy use of these principles in it's design.
What would be really useful is a transportable environment that makes use of these design principles, and since there's a lot of work done and lessons learned with Gnome, and the code is open - go GPL - there's a great opportunity for linux to become more widespread. The linux kernel itself is stable, it's not the smallest, but that's not as big an issue as you might think.
JG: Gnome and/or KDE are more than just a particular application set: they are really application frameworks. These frameworks are applicable to handhelds, even if some of the particular applications need significant change for handheld use. For example, I believe we need a hand-held specific window manager, but some parts of the panels these systems provide may be useful, as well as the toolkits. Many/most applications will need some or extensive rework for the 1/4 VGA screens we're seeing on the new crop of handhelds.
I think what's being poked at is the idea of taking Gnome, making a Gnome-Lite(tm), maybe trimming down GTK or something for a widget set, and then using that as a base to develop more applications on. Obviously, as is, nobody is talking about running full-fledged gnome apps or environments!
He doesn't make much mention of PalmOS, which is a bigger problem for these kinds of initiatives than he might think. PalmOS has TREMENDOUS third-party developer support. This is what's beating back the WindowsCE devices - the sheer volume of nifty applications you can get for the Palm. A new device will have to contend with this, and the sheer utility of that third party software library combined with the Palm is a MAJOR force to be reckoned with.
The other potential benefits include being able to develop code once and deploy both on handhelds and desktops with little or no trouble, and interoperate well with other network devices and a developer's desktop. This isn't true for either WindowsCE or PalmOS..
WindowsCE does, I believe, make it easier because they're still using some subset of MFC (correct me if I'm wrong). This is what he's talking about doing with Gnome (or KDE), but basing the handheld device on a much more fundamental level with the desktop OS. A noble goal, but I don't think that it's going to affect this generation of devices. I don't want to run desktop stuff on a handheld. I want to run handheld stuff on a handheld, that makes me more productive! That's the point, right? I think the third-party software support on the palm is evidence of this.. I don't know that there's that much overlap. Maybe in the future if the handheld device plays a much more fundamental role with the desktop, perhaps as a "mobile virtual desktop", where you plug your device in and start working right where you left off, on whatever machine happens to be nearby. Until then:)
Why are people flipping out about mozilla? It's not like you paid money for it. The developers working on it are doing so because they enjoy it and think it's a good thing for the future of free computing. Bagging on them for being ambitious is ignorant. If you want a trimmed down browser, then you go, take the Gecko engine, pop it onto a canvas, and get something like Galeon.
I could see this if it was an upgrade to something you paid money for. It isn't. You should be thanking the developers for even trying! If it's not happening fast enough for you, go see how you can help Moz, Galeon, or any of the other alternatives out there. Otherwise, sit down, shut up, use Internet Explorer like a good lemming, and stew, because bitching about things isn't helping. Maybe bitch at RedHat if you bought it for not having a stable, argueably critical, component of their operating system present. Or, hell, contribute to Mozilla!
Kudos to the developers on Moz for trying; Shame on anyone complaining.
Re:Katz writes about things without having 2 clues
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Selfish Society
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· Score: 1
You chose to work at a lunch counter. Life sucks, improve it. What do you want me to do? I'm already taxed at near 50% - much higher than you are. I shovelled rotten sawdust to make enough money to buy an Amiga 500 one summer. Try that trick. It sucked, so I made sure I did well in school.
Your life sucks, you make it better. Don't try to make _me_ feel bad. Life's not fair.
Re:Katz writes about things without having 2 clues
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Selfish Society
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You, I, most of/. live in the probably the single most privileged culture on earth -- ever -- and yet you claim it's a meritocracy. How many women write code with you? How many minorities? How many, to refer to Katz, elderly, the poor, foreign-born do you work with?
On my team (4 people) there's one fellow who grew up and was educated in Nigeria. You are right however - but, the question is flawed. The minimum qualifications for what I do are a post secondary degree - and if you do this kind of work, you're not poor (well, I won't be poor. Still gotta eat KD every now and then to pay off student loans). You still have the problem that not everyone has the intelligence to do this job, should we hire anyone who walks in off the street, because they want a tech job? Of course not. But that's where this arguement leads. Life ain't fair. IMHO, in *Canada*, there's enough opportunity for anyone who wants to sacrifice to get ahead. If they're *lucky* enough to have parents who *encourage* reading and math when they're little. If not - it's NOT MY PROBLEM. If these people need to lead a life of crime, we have prisons. That's the american model. It's not as bad in Canada, but only because we're a little more socialist than you guys. And got the taxes to prove it.
Katz's point (while strangely symptomatic of the generational narcissism he faults us for) is much more general (and subtle) than 'we owe the world 'x';' and I have little or no patience for those who whine 'I was treated badly in junior high.' At least have the courage to help those who were like you (you generally, not you xtal).
Who's whining? I'm happy with my world, as I've stated many times. It seems from the replies I get that you poke around, you hit lots of raw nerves. What do you propose we do, then? Remove those nasty qualifications from jobs? Let gutter bums preform brain surgury? Why not lobby your congress for more taxes to subsidise post secondary education for all those poor kids? That's one of the things we have here in Canada.
Technology is thus what Foucault referred to in The Order of Things as a discousre of power.
Now, you have a good point. If you want to talk about real power - real power comes from the barrel of a gun. The right for the state to take your life - Government is a monopoly on violence. Violence, or the threat thereof, is what our socieities were built on.
Your mastery of technology means nothing if the elderly, poor, and foreign-born break into your home and destroy your computers and burn down your house.
That's why roughly 47% of my income is taxed (in Canada), to maintain reasonably good standards of living for those people. You will note that a good percentage of that buys guns, chemical weapons, and military forces (SWAT, Police, Militia (Canadian Reserve), etc, to guarantee that if someone takes what's mine, the government will enforce their monopoly on violence and lock their bitch asses in jail. Didn't take long for that right to get exercised in LA. If society breaks down, and I don't get killed in the process, we'll cross that road then.
That is to say: look beyond the code to see the effect that your excercise of technological prowess has upon the world at large.
What, stop coding and go live in a field? There's a divide in our society that's centered around intelligence, it sucks for equality, but it's there. Am I to be faulted for that? Not everyone is economically equal in a capitialist society. They can't be. These arguements smack of much more socialism than I'm willing to put up with.
Maybe society will switch and value living on farms more. Then I'll be screwed (maybe). Till then.
Re:You are the selfish person the article refers t
on
Selfish Society
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· Score: 1
Warning: Extreme ranting.
I have been lucky because my situation/family/background/financial situation enabled me to have the opportunity to use computers. Some people aren't so lucky. Some people may have been able to afford a computer but without having any guidance or inspiration, they have been shown what their potential could have achieved using computers. I originally trained to be an engineer but switched to computer science after I realised that this is what I truly liked. Some people can't afford to do this.
Maybe I'm the equivicable bad example. My family isn't rich, middle class at best. I didn't grow up in a big city. I grew up in the woods. (Seriously; Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.)
My grandfather was a coal miner. My father, grew up on the bad side of town - they were POOR. My dad got through university the hard way - on complete scholarships and picking tobacco in the summer. He stopped with with PhD in Genetics from Yale, and one of his big accomplishments is being in that blue book. But, much like myself, my old man is eccentric to say the least, and we're not wealthy.
I have an Electrical Engineering degree. I got that degree through busting my ass in the summers and racking up loans through the year. Don't talk to me about privilige. I'll show you debt. This is one thing about Canada, though - Post Secondary education is about 10% the cost, a lot more accessable, and on average, the public education system is good. I'm not framiliar with the USA, so YMMV, of course.
Computers? I saved every penny I was given from the time I started elementary school until Grade 5 when I could afford a Commodore 64. No storage media. That was a year later. My parents actively discouraged involvement; They thought it was a passing fad and a waste of money. I goad them about that even today:).
There are a lot of reasons why people never find out about their options when it comes to IT.
This is their own fault. Go to a fscking library. They're everywhere. If you're one of the few that lives in a inner city, life is hard, yes. But the vast majority of those whining now are whining because they made bad choices going through school, bad choices in university, and bad choices all around. Not my problem (Tm). For the record - everytime I meet someone young who I might be able to influence, I nudge them in that direction.
As far as "discovering" IT - I can remember _vividly_ the first time I saw a computer. Everything else fell into place from there, and it's a good arguement for computers in classrooms today. I work with someone from Nigeria who has a similar experience - you think we have it bad HERE - and fought his way up, knowing there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Am I selfish? No. I help others, and I bloody well pay my taxes, and I'm sure the time I spend helping out the odd kid is a good investment. Arrogant? Intellectually arrogant, hell yes. That's what got me this far. I certainly don't mind helping others, especially if I can open a few doors that might otherwise not be. People still need to walk through those doors themselves, though.
What bothers me is people like Katz who write about and claim to speak for the techno crowd and don't understand the people at it's core. As one poster pointed out, everyone is different here, but there are certainly common threads.
Rant mode off..
Re:Katz writes about things without having 2 clues
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Selfish Society
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· Score: 2
I peronsally see this article as proof of what Katz is trying to say, that the social graces of the "normal world" do not seem to exist in the techno-culture.
Bingo! That's because techno-culture isn't the normal world - you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. I got a kick in the ass from the "normal world" when I was 5 or so and realized that 95% of the people on this planet don't give two shits about learning anything. The sheer time investment it has taken me to get where I am - the thousands and thousands of hours in front of computers and reading books in my early teens will of course affect how I percieve the world and the culture I live in. There's lots of other people who feel the same, and I suspect for similar reasons.
What Katz is trying to do is make it seem like the techno-culture needs to encompass the slack-asses of the world. I respect intelligence and skill - at something. If you haven't got either, I'm not going to respect you. That's just the way it goes in my world.
One of the things I believe is that everyone has something they're good at, and they should do that, or they're not going to be happy. Spend your time doing something you like, work to be the best at it, and you'll get respect from the "techno-culture" because they respect that. Nothing pisses me off more than the sterotypical blonde bimbette without two clues in her head. Or, not to be sexist, Rocco, her male counterpart. Not to whore for karma, but I suggest Katz, you, and anyone else having difficulty read A Portrait of J. Random Hacker.
Isn't this a little harsh? The natural gift of intelligence is scarcly different than the gift of athleticism or being attractive.
Oh, the irony. I didn't see any of the "beautiful people" sharing their social networks - I still don't. Do what you like and do it well. I could be a lot more harsh - harsh was public school - but I've mellowed in my old age.
Katz writes about things without having 2 clues
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Selfish Society
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· Score: 5
This techno-elite, taking sophisticated knowledge of technology for granted, has lost touch with the vast numbers of people in the world -- the elderly, the poor, foreign-born -- who don't share their skills and confidence.
One of the reasons that tech culture seems "selfish" and "arrogant" to others is that the people that run it and work in it have worked HARD to get what they have. Posers, idiots, and other creatures are thrown to the side, because difficult as though it may be to grasp, this culture is a meritocracy. You get what you work for. If you don't know squat, this is easily demonstrable (even by others, to you). This concept is completely foriegn to most people, especially those that have been coddled through life.
You want to be good with tech? You have to be smart and dedicated. If you're not, tough noogies. There aren't armies of geeks wanting to come to your door and baby your email when it doesn't work. The problem is that, of course, everyone is not smart and dedicated. This isn't my problem.
You will find some of the richest in this industry - Gates, being the prime example - are more than happy to give money to worthy causes. Like libraries and feeding starving people. Not coddling idiots.
This sentiment runs deep, I suspect, because most of us got the shaft from "popular culture" when we were young (myself included). Well, the tides are turning, and no, I won't hand things to you on a silver platter. Go bust your ass and then come and talk to me. I'm happy with my world.
As a culture, it mistakes mechanical skills -- like programming an operating system -- with technological knowledge and power. It tolerates an alarming amount of hostility and abuse, both of which make any political communications -- at least those in public -- nearly impossible.
What kind of non-sensical babble is this? The ability to manipulate information processing machines to do what you want (programming) IS power. It's just not a power that's equally distributed. It's a power some of us might have even been born with. "Political communications" - is that what this drivel is? Make sense, man!
Arrgh. I can't deal with this anymore. Get a clue, Katz.
That will never work. It assumes that all existing playback and record devices will somehow cease to exist.
This is one of the amusing things. Does the RIAA think that they will ever be able to stop selling compact discs? Do you know how many players there are out there? I couldn't believe the public outcry if CDs got stopped - there's be riots in the streets. The RIAA, like the MPAA, in their greed, has made the default format a perfect unencrypted copy. Doh. What's to stop me from ripping the CD? (Like I do now?). You're going to watermark it, oooh, big deal. Going to ban cash purchases, too?
I can't help but wonder if these people are in a deep, deep, deep case of denial. They need pills, or something. Can't they see that they're fscked? I'd guess terabytes of mp3's swap hands every single day. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle. For some unknown reason, sales still are up. What, people are maybe at their core honest?
There is no digital protection scheme short of implanting an RIAA chip in your head that will would because you need to hear the music. This guy has a degree from Cornell. He's still an idiot, he's just an idiot with a degree. If there's a watermark, you can bet there's a pissed off hacker out there who's better than you who's going to take care of your watermark real fast.
The format is too widespread, there's no control over players and the numbers of people make it impossible and possibly not legal to sue everyone collectively. (Civil disobediance, who?)
Find a model that doesn't rape consumers and makes people happy for once, find a model that makes the artists happy - no, not Lars and his happy gang, but the 99% that get fscked when they sign on with the labels. Or face a horrible, horrible obsolecence. You won't be missed.
Doing my part to end RIAA monopolistic practices since 1996.:)
I'm not sure that they released register level information on the hardware in the cube. I would be DELIGHTED to be found incorrect on that one.. but just because the code is released doesn't mean that all the drivers are:(. Although it would most certainly be in the community spirit, especially concidering where some of that code came from!:)
I always wondered why Amiga didn't get together, take some cutting edge hardware like the GeForce or Voodoo5 chips, and release a real Linux box with full sound, 3D, MPEG, TV, blah blah blah support. I think the old amiga in 92 had more third-party hardware manufacturer support than Linux does now - we just happen to have a lot more dedicated people making code happen. It would certainly solve all the qualms about NDAs and the like, and provide demonstrable market share to people who SHOULD be writing drivers. *cough* diamond *cough* handspring *cough* insert-nifty-usb-device here *ahem*.
I've always lamented about the lack of a real home architecture for linux. I used to run amigas, and one of the things I liked was that the Operating System was intimately tuned for a specific set of hardware - that's one of the things that made the amiga great. The OS complimented the hardware and orchestrated it like a symphony, not a drill instructor:).
I *Drooled* over the NeXT hardware when it came out, but it was too freaking expensive. But hell, I *like* nice looking hardware.:) Clones are ugly. High powered, but inelgant:). I'm not dissing the goals of cross-platform compatibility - that's a great thing - but it would be nice to have a box that does linux best. It would also get rid of the problems people have - especially newbies - getting linux running. "Here, buy this, put this CD in, wait an hour, and then you're running linux. Voila!"
If you took one of those little cubes, added in one of those beautiful LCDs that apple has - the big ass one - that might be my linux dream machine, and I can give up dual booting and put my Athlon in the closet out of sight.
You just need a distribution of linux with the appropriate level of support, and you most certainly will need support from apple to get the required information. I don't really see either happening. While I'm not too sure about the cube's preformance, I suspect it will be lackluster in price/preformance to my Athlon with 256 megs.
Price isn't everything. One of the reasons these packages can cost so much is that software purchaces are 100% tax deductible. Microsoft et al. lobbied HARD for that one. Because it's not amortized over time, companies really get a bonus here. So to a company making a couple million a year, a hundred grand worth of software after deductions is almost free.
Also, to (badly) quote AutoCAD for Dummies (tm): "If you made the cost of the software back in a month, you're probably not using it right". Artists for the most part aren't the target here. It's engineering and design companies. You think 3D Studio is freaking expensive, check out a commercial liscence for AutoCAD 2000, unfortunately only available on Windows (after decades on Linux). BLETCH. My GF is in Mechanical Engineering and bitches about Windows constantly, but it's got AutoCAD and Linux doesn't.:(
These companies are concerned about having professional versions of the software flying around out there because it is possible someone might get real commerical profit from using it. It might even lower their ability to procecute in a criminal trial a company using it if the company can prove there's lots of other people using the software that aren't being hassled.
The real benefit from having a noncommerical version of the software that's highly usable is what I call "Wordperfect Syndrome". Wordperfect, back in the day, was one of the most pirated programs I could think of. This pirating led to the software becoming framiliar to almost anyone with a PC.
Now, you're a business, say, and hire people to, uh, process words. You're going to buy the package they know, because you can't afford to get nailed for using pirated software (and you should have your ass nailed for making money off pirated software, IMHO). The reason you bought the software was because your user base knew it, and a good percentage of them picked it up through pirate or quasi-legal copies.
This is like the widespread pirating of 3D studio and AutoCad that goes on in Academia - students learn the high power tools, then when they have their engineering degrees and get their high paying jobs, what do you think gets bought? Of course, AutoCad and 3D studio. I see 3D studio being used in a lot more places than you might think - it's used a LOT for animating engineering drawings produced in Autocad, as the two work seamlessly together.
In any case, the company makes no more money by getting rid of piracy. All they've done is transform it from piracy to using a free version
EXACTLY. Now all those future purchasers of your software don't have to act like felons (in the US, anyhow). This is a smarter move than you might think.
Do you really want to make a difference? Don't just go and vote once. Get all of your friends together and organize. Then you might get a couple hundred votes. A couple hundred votes by a couple hundred cities is a LOT of votes. It's called a "lobby group", and people use them all the time. If you don't have money - the RIAA are a bunch of RAT ASS BASTARDS, so they use money - you can use VOTES.
You get a dozen dedicated guys to haul in a dozen other not-so-dedicated guys who might haul in 3 or 4 guys. Mainly people who wouldn't bother to vote. My mom did this last time because our MP was a bastard (We're in Canada). It worked.
The trick is to take that power and make the weasels you elect dance. You do that by getting each person in your organization to write, the old fashioned way, a letter and mail it, or hand-deliver it. If you mail it registered so they have to sign for it, all the better. BELIEVE ME, your reps will at least give you the time of day. I did this when that CDR tax was being passed; I at least got listened too and a two page letter (not a form letter, either) back.
Laws like this are going to fuck up the economy and technological developments of tomorrow. This ruling will set a precdent that could shut down IRC, shut down USENET, shut down a LOT of things. Think about it and get mobilized.
I would suspect any system capable of real-time monitoring, decryption and filtering of terabytes of data is sophisticated enough to avoid a simple spam keyword attack. It might get by the quick filter, but I would imagine that the profiles of terrorist activity are much better. I don't know many (intelligent) terrorists who would communicate about C4 in email without disguising it; For example, "I got the baloney (C4).. we just need some mustard (Detonators) and bread (casing).
I've done a little "signals gathering" of my own. It's very easy to decode pager traffic in your area (In my case, I can get the whole freaking province!) using a sound card and a good scanner. You can tell who's doing what by the number codes they leave (you just drop a lookup table off to each of your "associates", and I would assume any monitoring by the NSA also works along these lines. It's interesting though. Maybe I need a life.
It is also quite possible to distingush who wrote a particular paragraph from the syntax and vocabulary used; I would expect for longer emails it would be as good as a fingerprint. I was invovled in a project to post-process digital elevation data taken from a plane. You could tell what data was taken by different pilots by the "error signature". Nifty. I assume liguists can/do the same.
I for one am sick of it. We need to stop this kind of thing before it gets out of hand.
Unfortunately, the deal is done, signed, sealed, and delivered. I'm reminded of a Denis Leary song; "...Why? 'Cause we got the bomb, that's why, two words, Nuclear fucking weapons..". In a way it's sad, but the power structure that exists currently will likely be in place until the end of (our) civilization. There's too many countries with nukes and other even nastier weapons of mass destruction (It amazes me this dropped right off the radar with the "end" of the cold war; Oh well). It is extremely unlikely that any of the nuclear-capable nations will fall without unloading their aresnals. For the kind of change you're talking about, you're effectively talking about an outight revolution, which is no longer possible. The right to bear arms was not taken; It was made moot.
I get more jaded by the day, but I'm happy I can write what I want, for now. Unless I reverse engineered something. Or if I want to talk about drug or improvised weapons manufacture. (Anyone remember the *real* Improvised Field Munitions Handbook, published by the US Gov?) Or if I want to write excessively explicit or amoral thoughts down. Oh well.
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You can get a lot of the functionality of the TiVo with an ATI All-In-Wonder, a reasonably fast celeron box, a wireless keyboard and mouse, and a huge hard drive. Admittedly, the case doesn't look as nice, but I don't mind a tower sitting by the TV that much.
The ATI can be configured to download to a schedule, it's TV out lets you use the computer to browse/play games, you can play DVDs on it with a DVD drive with great quality, it has MPEG compression accelleration so you don't get old encoding stuff for later, and with the box, you can even play mp3's on your stereo (I center everything in the living room stereo wise).
This combination is much more flexible than the TiVo IMHO. The only downsides are that it doesn't work on linux, so you need windows (not that bad) and it doesn't look as nice as a system component (although if you got a bookshelf PC and pearl-painted it it would look pretty cool). I'm working on a couple things to make it more tivo like, I'd like to have a server so I could program it over the net, automatically record programs of choice, and maybe a client for the palm so that you could configure what to record on the fly.
The solution to this sort of problem isn't to talk to elected officials about freedom-- it's to talk to your teachers and your school board. Explain to them the advantages the internet would bring to you, maybe make some suggestions for supervised web access. Hey, they might turn out to be be reasonable people who are just underinformed. Who knows.
Oh, I forgot, high school students don't have the same rights as the rest of us. That's a good way to have responsible young adults. That student has EVERY RIGHT to go to his elected representatives if the school isn't responding or is acting in an inappropriate manner. You can explain until the cows come home, but if you're going to get expelled for getting forwarded off a bad link, it's not going to do you any good.
This attitude really bothered me when I was in high school. Of course, I didn't get searched at the door with a metal detector, either - although if they had done that, I would have screamed about that, too.
Fact is, that's not the way it works. Teachers _do_ have the right to look over students' shoulders -- because students can, and will, abuse the resources
We're not talking about abuse of resources, unless it's an abuse by the school. We're talking about a bunch of computers with internet access that can't be used because of incompetent teachers. That's a waste of taxpayer money, and the taxpayers should know about it. Teach kids to use resources responsibly - it should be obvious if the kids are looking at pr0n as opposed to looking for real material, and no, a banner ad doesn't count.
Wireless internet access via cellular networks isn't happening in my area. We're only just getting digital service rolled out this summer (it's only available on a trial basis now, and only in the two cities of the province).
Europe, on the other hand, has all sorts of neat wireless toys. I wonder if the reason for this is the high tariffs on the use of local phone calls - if people are used to paying big bucks, then maybe the wireless service isn't so bad? (I'd love to have it, but I know it'll be costing a pretty penny).
We've got competition rules here to make sure the well funded Telcos don't stomp the other company (Cantel/AT&T/Whoever owns it this month) into the ground (NBTel does all sorts of nifty new things - pioneered CallerID and other digital services in the early 90's, is a major developer on cable-over-phone tech (plug, I work doing that :), but we don't have wireless internet. And anything under 56k doesn't count (my ham radio can do 9600 :).
Open up the airwaves and let's see some blood. If telcos won't do it, then let a third party.
Do we need to create separate childrens' libraries, so there IS someplace that I, as a parent, can send my children without worrying that they'll see (insert favorite porn site here)?
If your kids have a favorite porn site, you're in trouble already! *kidding*
These are public libraries, funded by yours and my tax dollars. Ergo, they are bound not by the standards of a few, but by the constitution (in the USA, anyhow). Ironically, most of the libraries in Canada don't use filtering software, at least not on the East Coast - and we don't have a consitution per se. (The charter of rights and freedoms is close, but most people couldn't even tell you who wrote it let alone what's on it). Common sense, people.
You are free to start a privately funded library for kids if you want, hell, fill it with religious propaganda-of-choice if you're paying for running it. Public libraries are different.
Something else people are missing is that most 10 year olds aren't that interested in pr0n. Sex, maybe, but that's not a problem, that's healthy. It's not until you get hormones into the mix a couple years later, and by that point, most of 'em are probably playing around anyhow, geeks or no. Unless of course, you as a parent have imparted your moral values to them, in which case, they'll make up their own minds. God forbid.
The irony is that you can get GRAPHIC depictions of violence anywhere, yet this isn't seen as a problem, but looking at n3kk1d breasts is. Go figure.
This is actually a good thing because at school, we are not allowed to go online because the teachers are afraid we're going to look at porn.
You don't have to take this, eh. Go write your local elected officials and then write a press release for the local paper asking why you're not allowed to use equipment that's been paid for by taxpayers for the purpose of futhering your education.
Students have "accidentally" went to porn sites and I, as a student am VERY afraid I'll search for something and the result is a porn site because I may get disaplined.
Again, you shouldn't even have to surf with someone looking at you. The librarians aren't allowed to read over your shoulders, are they? Illustrate this double standard to the people in power and more importantly the press, asking why people in power aren't doing something about it. You'll see results.
This law is a license for every political interest group to keep subjects they don't like out of local libraries and schools. The victims would be kids with nowhere but libraries to go for Net access.
Bingo. Or, the disadvanges, or the mass of americans that don't have access to computers. I'm wondering why the lobby groups for the poor (are there those in the USA? Or do you have to be a representable minority? *sarcasm*) aren't freaking out, because they will be disproportionaly affected by this bill. Alternate names for this bill have been suggested already, but how about "Let's censor poor electorate, oh wait, they don't vote anyhow!" -> boy, I'd love to see online voting happen. Maybe a few terms of WWF representatives in Washington put some good 'n proper fear into elected officials, just like the old days (tm).
If you don't want your kids being exposed to pr0n, they shouldn't be in a library unsurpervised, unless they started censoring books since I was a library rat. There's lots of good stuff if you know where to look :).
Today's pr0n, tomorrow's Michelangelo!
A couple points I've learned in my interviewing experience (and I've never been turned down for a position I've interviewed for. Ever.)
If you're interviewing at a place that is going to quiz you on the spot, you're not going to be happy. I can see maybe showing you some code and asking you to explain what it does - but your educational qualifications and prior experience should be enough to demonstrate you are capable. I don't remember 1001 buzzwords well. This is usually a mistake that first-time or inexperienced interviewers will make.
What you do to land a cool job is you get a chord struck with the interviewer on a personal level. You take the opportunity to talk about the cool mp3 system you programmed for your car. You talk about the challenges you had going through school. Talk about the moment when object oriented programming became clear to you. You want to avoid the horrible standard questions like what do you want to do with your career - if you're reading a cookie cutter answer, you're going to be like everyone else.
When I get asked questions like that, I talk about experiences I've had in the field, positive and negative, and how I'd make sure that they happen/don't happen again. Demonstrate to the interviewer you're personable and they can work with you - you don't need to prove yourself at this stage, a mistake many people make. If you're being interviewed, you're good on paper. They want to see if they can trust and deal with you on a daily basis. Let your personality come through.
This is something you'll never see taught in a resume course. BE YOURSELF. If you're not, you won't be happy in the job - because they didn't hire you, they hired that person in the book.
Racing Destruction Set. First real game I ever played. Hooked instantly. That and international karate :)Looking at that ECA logo rocked. :)
See if any of them are interested in neural networks. It's not a beginning project, but some students are likely to have some experience with programming and AP math should be enough to get started. Here's some reasons:
Just some ideas. I don't think it's beyond the scope of some bright high school students.
I do a lot of embedded programming (settop boxes, so they're got a little bit more power than the devices here, but...) and one of the things that's a problem is finding a good, fast way to communicate between applications and processes that doesn't result in a mess. CORBA is one good solution for this, and gnome makes heavy use of these principles in it's design.
What would be really useful is a transportable environment that makes use of these design principles, and since there's a lot of work done and lessons learned with Gnome, and the code is open - go GPL - there's a great opportunity for linux to become more widespread. The linux kernel itself is stable, it's not the smallest, but that's not as big an issue as you might think.
JG: Gnome and/or KDE are more than just a particular application set: they are really application frameworks. These frameworks are applicable to handhelds, even if some of the particular applications need significant change for handheld use. For example, I believe we need a hand-held specific window manager, but some parts of the panels these systems provide may be useful, as well as the toolkits. Many/most applications will need some or extensive rework for the 1/4 VGA screens we're seeing on the new crop of handhelds.
I think what's being poked at is the idea of taking Gnome, making a Gnome-Lite(tm), maybe trimming down GTK or something for a widget set, and then using that as a base to develop more applications on. Obviously, as is, nobody is talking about running full-fledged gnome apps or environments!
He doesn't make much mention of PalmOS, which is a bigger problem for these kinds of initiatives than he might think. PalmOS has TREMENDOUS third-party developer support. This is what's beating back the WindowsCE devices - the sheer volume of nifty applications you can get for the Palm. A new device will have to contend with this, and the sheer utility of that third party software library combined with the Palm is a MAJOR force to be reckoned with.
The other potential benefits include being able to develop code once and deploy both on handhelds and desktops with little or no trouble, and interoperate well with other network devices and a developer's desktop. This isn't true for either WindowsCE or PalmOS..
WindowsCE does, I believe, make it easier because they're still using some subset of MFC (correct me if I'm wrong). This is what he's talking about doing with Gnome (or KDE), but basing the handheld device on a much more fundamental level with the desktop OS. A noble goal, but I don't think that it's going to affect this generation of devices. I don't want to run desktop stuff on a handheld. I want to run handheld stuff on a handheld, that makes me more productive! That's the point, right? I think the third-party software support on the palm is evidence of this.. I don't know that there's that much overlap. Maybe in the future if the handheld device plays a much more fundamental role with the desktop, perhaps as a "mobile virtual desktop", where you plug your device in and start working right where you left off, on whatever machine happens to be nearby. Until then :)
Why are people flipping out about mozilla? It's not like you paid money for it. The developers working on it are doing so because they enjoy it and think it's a good thing for the future of free computing. Bagging on them for being ambitious is ignorant. If you want a trimmed down browser, then you go, take the Gecko engine, pop it onto a canvas, and get something like Galeon.
I could see this if it was an upgrade to something you paid money for. It isn't. You should be thanking the developers for even trying! If it's not happening fast enough for you, go see how you can help Moz, Galeon, or any of the other alternatives out there. Otherwise, sit down, shut up, use Internet Explorer like a good lemming, and stew, because bitching about things isn't helping. Maybe bitch at RedHat if you bought it for not having a stable, argueably critical, component of their operating system present. Or, hell, contribute to Mozilla!
Kudos to the developers on Moz for trying; Shame on anyone complaining.
You chose to work at a lunch counter. Life sucks, improve it. What do you want me to do? I'm already taxed at near 50% - much higher than you are. I shovelled rotten sawdust to make enough money to buy an Amiga 500 one summer. Try that trick. It sucked, so I made sure I did well in school.
Your life sucks, you make it better. Don't try to make _me_ feel bad. Life's not fair.
You, I, most of /. live in the probably the single most privileged culture on earth -- ever -- and yet you claim it's a meritocracy. How many women write code with you? How many minorities? How many, to refer to Katz, elderly, the poor, foreign-born do you work with?
On my team (4 people) there's one fellow who grew up and was educated in Nigeria. You are right however - but, the question is flawed. The minimum qualifications for what I do are a post secondary degree - and if you do this kind of work, you're not poor (well, I won't be poor. Still gotta eat KD every now and then to pay off student loans). You still have the problem that not everyone has the intelligence to do this job, should we hire anyone who walks in off the street, because they want a tech job? Of course not. But that's where this arguement leads. Life ain't fair. IMHO, in *Canada*, there's enough opportunity for anyone who wants to sacrifice to get ahead. If they're *lucky* enough to have parents who *encourage* reading and math when they're little. If not - it's NOT MY PROBLEM. If these people need to lead a life of crime, we have prisons. That's the american model. It's not as bad in Canada, but only because we're a little more socialist than you guys. And got the taxes to prove it.
Katz's point (while strangely symptomatic of the generational narcissism he faults us for) is much more general (and subtle) than 'we owe the world 'x';' and I have little or no patience for those who whine 'I was treated badly in junior high.' At least have the courage to help those who were like you (you generally, not you xtal).
Who's whining? I'm happy with my world, as I've stated many times. It seems from the replies I get that you poke around, you hit lots of raw nerves. What do you propose we do, then? Remove those nasty qualifications from jobs? Let gutter bums preform brain surgury? Why not lobby your congress for more taxes to subsidise post secondary education for all those poor kids? That's one of the things we have here in Canada.
Technology is thus what Foucault referred to in The Order of Things as a discousre of power.
Now, you have a good point. If you want to talk about real power - real power comes from the barrel of a gun. The right for the state to take your life - Government is a monopoly on violence. Violence, or the threat thereof, is what our socieities were built on.
Your mastery of technology means nothing if the elderly, poor, and foreign-born break into your home and destroy your computers and burn down your house.
That's why roughly 47% of my income is taxed (in Canada), to maintain reasonably good standards of living for those people. You will note that a good percentage of that buys guns, chemical weapons, and military forces (SWAT, Police, Militia (Canadian Reserve), etc, to guarantee that if someone takes what's mine, the government will enforce their monopoly on violence and lock their bitch asses in jail. Didn't take long for that right to get exercised in LA. If society breaks down, and I don't get killed in the process, we'll cross that road then.
That is to say: look beyond the code to see the effect that your excercise of technological prowess has upon the world at large.
What, stop coding and go live in a field? There's a divide in our society that's centered around intelligence, it sucks for equality, but it's there. Am I to be faulted for that? Not everyone is economically equal in a capitialist society. They can't be. These arguements smack of much more socialism than I'm willing to put up with.
Maybe society will switch and value living on farms more. Then I'll be screwed (maybe). Till then.
Warning: Extreme ranting.
I have been lucky because my situation/family/background/financial situation enabled me to have the opportunity to use computers. Some people aren't so lucky. Some people may have been able to afford a computer but without having any guidance or inspiration, they have been shown what their potential could have achieved using computers. I originally trained to be an engineer but switched to computer science after I realised that this is what I truly liked. Some people can't afford to do this.
Maybe I'm the equivicable bad example. My family isn't rich, middle class at best. I didn't grow up in a big city. I grew up in the woods. (Seriously; Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.)
My grandfather was a coal miner. My father, grew up on the bad side of town - they were POOR. My dad got through university the hard way - on complete scholarships and picking tobacco in the summer. He stopped with with PhD in Genetics from Yale, and one of his big accomplishments is being in that blue book. But, much like myself, my old man is eccentric to say the least, and we're not wealthy.
I have an Electrical Engineering degree. I got that degree through busting my ass in the summers and racking up loans through the year. Don't talk to me about privilige. I'll show you debt. This is one thing about Canada, though - Post Secondary education is about 10% the cost, a lot more accessable, and on average, the public education system is good. I'm not framiliar with the USA, so YMMV, of course.
Computers? I saved every penny I was given from the time I started elementary school until Grade 5 when I could afford a Commodore 64. No storage media. That was a year later. My parents actively discouraged involvement; They thought it was a passing fad and a waste of money. I goad them about that even today :).
There are a lot of reasons why people never find out about their options when it comes to IT.
This is their own fault. Go to a fscking library. They're everywhere. If you're one of the few that lives in a inner city, life is hard, yes. But the vast majority of those whining now are whining because they made bad choices going through school, bad choices in university, and bad choices all around. Not my problem (Tm). For the record - everytime I meet someone young who I might be able to influence, I nudge them in that direction.
As far as "discovering" IT - I can remember _vividly_ the first time I saw a computer. Everything else fell into place from there, and it's a good arguement for computers in classrooms today. I work with someone from Nigeria who has a similar experience - you think we have it bad HERE - and fought his way up, knowing there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Am I selfish? No. I help others, and I bloody well pay my taxes, and I'm sure the time I spend helping out the odd kid is a good investment. Arrogant? Intellectually arrogant, hell yes. That's what got me this far. I certainly don't mind helping others, especially if I can open a few doors that might otherwise not be. People still need to walk through those doors themselves, though.
What bothers me is people like Katz who write about and claim to speak for the techno crowd and don't understand the people at it's core. As one poster pointed out, everyone is different here, but there are certainly common threads.
Rant mode off..
I peronsally see this article as proof of what Katz is trying to say, that the social graces of the "normal world" do not seem to exist in the techno-culture.
Bingo! That's because techno-culture isn't the normal world - you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. I got a kick in the ass from the "normal world" when I was 5 or so and realized that 95% of the people on this planet don't give two shits about learning anything. The sheer time investment it has taken me to get where I am - the thousands and thousands of hours in front of computers and reading books in my early teens will of course affect how I percieve the world and the culture I live in. There's lots of other people who feel the same, and I suspect for similar reasons.
What Katz is trying to do is make it seem like the techno-culture needs to encompass the slack-asses of the world. I respect intelligence and skill - at something. If you haven't got either, I'm not going to respect you. That's just the way it goes in my world.
One of the things I believe is that everyone has something they're good at, and they should do that, or they're not going to be happy. Spend your time doing something you like, work to be the best at it, and you'll get respect from the "techno-culture" because they respect that. Nothing pisses me off more than the sterotypical blonde bimbette without two clues in her head. Or, not to be sexist, Rocco, her male counterpart. Not to whore for karma, but I suggest Katz, you, and anyone else having difficulty read A Portrait of J. Random Hacker.
Isn't this a little harsh? The natural gift of intelligence is scarcly different than the gift of athleticism or being attractive.
Oh, the irony. I didn't see any of the "beautiful people" sharing their social networks - I still don't. Do what you like and do it well. I could be a lot more harsh - harsh was public school - but I've mellowed in my old age.
This techno-elite, taking sophisticated knowledge of technology for granted, has lost touch with the vast numbers of people in the world -- the elderly, the poor, foreign-born -- who don't share their skills and confidence.
One of the reasons that tech culture seems "selfish" and "arrogant" to others is that the people that run it and work in it have worked HARD to get what they have. Posers, idiots, and other creatures are thrown to the side, because difficult as though it may be to grasp, this culture is a meritocracy. You get what you work for. If you don't know squat, this is easily demonstrable (even by others, to you). This concept is completely foriegn to most people, especially those that have been coddled through life.
You want to be good with tech? You have to be smart and dedicated. If you're not, tough noogies. There aren't armies of geeks wanting to come to your door and baby your email when it doesn't work. The problem is that, of course, everyone is not smart and dedicated. This isn't my problem.
You will find some of the richest in this industry - Gates, being the prime example - are more than happy to give money to worthy causes. Like libraries and feeding starving people. Not coddling idiots.
This sentiment runs deep, I suspect, because most of us got the shaft from "popular culture" when we were young (myself included). Well, the tides are turning, and no, I won't hand things to you on a silver platter. Go bust your ass and then come and talk to me. I'm happy with my world.
As a culture, it mistakes mechanical skills -- like programming an operating system -- with technological knowledge and power. It tolerates an alarming amount of hostility and abuse, both of which make any political communications -- at least those in public -- nearly impossible.
What kind of non-sensical babble is this? The ability to manipulate information processing machines to do what you want (programming) IS power. It's just not a power that's equally distributed. It's a power some of us might have even been born with. "Political communications" - is that what this drivel is? Make sense, man!
Arrgh. I can't deal with this anymore. Get a clue, Katz.
That will never work. It assumes that all existing playback and record devices will somehow cease to exist.
This is one of the amusing things. Does the RIAA think that they will ever be able to stop selling compact discs? Do you know how many players there are out there? I couldn't believe the public outcry if CDs got stopped - there's be riots in the streets. The RIAA, like the MPAA, in their greed, has made the default format a perfect unencrypted copy. Doh. What's to stop me from ripping the CD? (Like I do now?). You're going to watermark it, oooh, big deal. Going to ban cash purchases, too?
I can't help but wonder if these people are in a deep, deep, deep case of denial. They need pills, or something. Can't they see that they're fscked? I'd guess terabytes of mp3's swap hands every single day. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle. For some unknown reason, sales still are up. What, people are maybe at their core honest?
There is no digital protection scheme short of implanting an RIAA chip in your head that will would because you need to hear the music. This guy has a degree from Cornell. He's still an idiot, he's just an idiot with a degree. If there's a watermark, you can bet there's a pissed off hacker out there who's better than you who's going to take care of your watermark real fast.
The format is too widespread, there's no control over players and the numbers of people make it impossible and possibly not legal to sue everyone collectively. (Civil disobediance, who?)
Find a model that doesn't rape consumers and makes people happy for once, find a model that makes the artists happy - no, not Lars and his happy gang, but the 99% that get fscked when they sign on with the labels. Or face a horrible, horrible obsolecence. You won't be missed.
Doing my part to end RIAA monopolistic practices since 1996. :)
I'm not sure that they released register level information on the hardware in the cube. I would be DELIGHTED to be found incorrect on that one.. but just because the code is released doesn't mean that all the drivers are :(. Although it would most certainly be in the community spirit, especially concidering where some of that code came from! :)
I always wondered why Amiga didn't get together, take some cutting edge hardware like the GeForce or Voodoo5 chips, and release a real Linux box with full sound, 3D, MPEG, TV, blah blah blah support. I think the old amiga in 92 had more third-party hardware manufacturer support than Linux does now - we just happen to have a lot more dedicated people making code happen. It would certainly solve all the qualms about NDAs and the like, and provide demonstrable market share to people who SHOULD be writing drivers. *cough* diamond *cough* handspring *cough* insert-nifty-usb-device here *ahem*.
I've always lamented about the lack of a real home architecture for linux. I used to run amigas, and one of the things I liked was that the Operating System was intimately tuned for a specific set of hardware - that's one of the things that made the amiga great. The OS complimented the hardware and orchestrated it like a symphony, not a drill instructor :).
I *Drooled* over the NeXT hardware when it came out, but it was too freaking expensive. But hell, I *like* nice looking hardware. :) Clones are ugly. High powered, but inelgant :). I'm not dissing the goals of cross-platform compatibility - that's a great thing - but it would be nice to have a box that does linux best. It would also get rid of the problems people have - especially newbies - getting linux running. "Here, buy this, put this CD in, wait an hour, and then you're running linux. Voila!"
If you took one of those little cubes, added in one of those beautiful LCDs that apple has - the big ass one - that might be my linux dream machine, and I can give up dual booting and put my Athlon in the closet out of sight.
You just need a distribution of linux with the appropriate level of support, and you most certainly will need support from apple to get the required information. I don't really see either happening. While I'm not too sure about the cube's preformance, I suspect it will be lackluster in price/preformance to my Athlon with 256 megs.
Price isn't everything. One of the reasons these packages can cost so much is that software purchaces are 100% tax deductible. Microsoft et al. lobbied HARD for that one. Because it's not amortized over time, companies really get a bonus here. So to a company making a couple million a year, a hundred grand worth of software after deductions is almost free.
Also, to (badly) quote AutoCAD for Dummies (tm): "If you made the cost of the software back in a month, you're probably not using it right". Artists for the most part aren't the target here. It's engineering and design companies. You think 3D Studio is freaking expensive, check out a commercial liscence for AutoCAD 2000, unfortunately only available on Windows (after decades on Linux). BLETCH. My GF is in Mechanical Engineering and bitches about Windows constantly, but it's got AutoCAD and Linux doesn't. :(
I think you're missing the point here a bit.
These companies are concerned about having professional versions of the software flying around out there because it is possible someone might get real commerical profit from using it. It might even lower their ability to procecute in a criminal trial a company using it if the company can prove there's lots of other people using the software that aren't being hassled.
The real benefit from having a noncommerical version of the software that's highly usable is what I call "Wordperfect Syndrome". Wordperfect, back in the day, was one of the most pirated programs I could think of. This pirating led to the software becoming framiliar to almost anyone with a PC.
Now, you're a business, say, and hire people to, uh, process words. You're going to buy the package they know, because you can't afford to get nailed for using pirated software (and you should have your ass nailed for making money off pirated software, IMHO). The reason you bought the software was because your user base knew it, and a good percentage of them picked it up through pirate or quasi-legal copies.
This is like the widespread pirating of 3D studio and AutoCad that goes on in Academia - students learn the high power tools, then when they have their engineering degrees and get their high paying jobs, what do you think gets bought? Of course, AutoCad and 3D studio. I see 3D studio being used in a lot more places than you might think - it's used a LOT for animating engineering drawings produced in Autocad, as the two work seamlessly together.
In any case, the company makes no more money by getting rid of piracy. All they've done is transform it from piracy to using a free version
EXACTLY. Now all those future purchasers of your software don't have to act like felons (in the US, anyhow). This is a smarter move than you might think.
Do you really want to make a difference? Don't just go and vote once. Get all of your friends together and organize. Then you might get a couple hundred votes. A couple hundred votes by a couple hundred cities is a LOT of votes. It's called a "lobby group", and people use them all the time. If you don't have money - the RIAA are a bunch of RAT ASS BASTARDS, so they use money - you can use VOTES.
You get a dozen dedicated guys to haul in a dozen other not-so-dedicated guys who might haul in 3 or 4 guys. Mainly people who wouldn't bother to vote. My mom did this last time because our MP was a bastard (We're in Canada). It worked.
The trick is to take that power and make the weasels you elect dance. You do that by getting each person in your organization to write, the old fashioned way, a letter and mail it, or hand-deliver it. If you mail it registered so they have to sign for it, all the better. BELIEVE ME, your reps will at least give you the time of day. I did this when that CDR tax was being passed; I at least got listened too and a two page letter (not a form letter, either) back.
Laws like this are going to fuck up the economy and technological developments of tomorrow. This ruling will set a precdent that could shut down IRC, shut down USENET, shut down a LOT of things. Think about it and get mobilized.
Biggest threat - accidentally triggering the damn thing. :) bomb, president, anarchy, nuclear storage, timing....
I would suspect any system capable of real-time monitoring, decryption and filtering of terabytes of data is sophisticated enough to avoid a simple spam keyword attack. It might get by the quick filter, but I would imagine that the profiles of terrorist activity are much better. I don't know many (intelligent) terrorists who would communicate about C4 in email without disguising it; For example, "I got the baloney (C4).. we just need some mustard (Detonators) and bread (casing).
I've done a little "signals gathering" of my own. It's very easy to decode pager traffic in your area (In my case, I can get the whole freaking province!) using a sound card and a good scanner. You can tell who's doing what by the number codes they leave (you just drop a lookup table off to each of your "associates", and I would assume any monitoring by the NSA also works along these lines. It's interesting though. Maybe I need a life.
It is also quite possible to distingush who wrote a particular paragraph from the syntax and vocabulary used; I would expect for longer emails it would be as good as a fingerprint. I was invovled in a project to post-process digital elevation data taken from a plane. You could tell what data was taken by different pilots by the "error signature". Nifty. I assume liguists can/do the same.
I for one am sick of it. We need to stop this kind of thing before it gets out of hand.
Unfortunately, the deal is done, signed, sealed, and delivered. I'm reminded of a Denis Leary song; "...Why? 'Cause we got the bomb, that's why, two words, Nuclear fucking weapons..". In a way it's sad, but the power structure that exists currently will likely be in place until the end of (our) civilization. There's too many countries with nukes and other even nastier weapons of mass destruction (It amazes me this dropped right off the radar with the "end" of the cold war; Oh well). It is extremely unlikely that any of the nuclear-capable nations will fall without unloading their aresnals. For the kind of change you're talking about, you're effectively talking about an outight revolution, which is no longer possible. The right to bear arms was not taken; It was made moot.
I get more jaded by the day, but I'm happy I can write what I want, for now. Unless I reverse engineered something. Or if I want to talk about drug or improvised weapons manufacture. (Anyone remember the *real* Improvised Field Munitions Handbook, published by the US Gov?) Or if I want to write excessively explicit or amoral thoughts down. Oh well.
Heh, that's kinda depressing. Oh well. :)