Since we're on the subject of Nintendo failures, what about the Virtual Boy (as I think it was called)? This was supposed to be the next gen of portable system, with the display being one of those "virtual reality" headsets you put on. Not much came out of them because they got hot for the users quickly. I don't think they made it out of Japan (but someone can correct me on this).
Hey. I was just thinking since everybody has taken down the servers at the moment, why don't people use P2P to get the software distributed. It could be shown that this would be quite a efficient way of distribution (multiple download "sites") for software rather than a piracy tool. OK, there might be problems verifying if someone had tampered with the software or not, but wouldn't it be a better way of releasing software?
It may be communist by name but facism, I believe, is the authoritarian form of government. Besides China has rampant capitalism in Hong Kong, or Shanghai (I think). I would also have thought entry to the WTO meant they were becoming capitalist anyway.
I wonder (like all the other posters are) what the authors were thinking when they wrote this article. I can only come to the conclusion that when they wrote the term "IIS" in the article, they were thinking of the personal web server (PWS) program that has come with the last few version of windows. Looking at it that way, it would be true that the web server would have no impact because it's rubbish, and only home users would use it (and why would they anyway). Really, criticising (spelling?) MS because they don't include IIS in XP Home - must be a very slow news day.
... in the UK anyway. Instead of trying to argue with the store or ship it back to them, you can actually take it to one of the Sony repair centres (located in quite a few towns and cities). They'll fix it right up for you, and if it doesn't work they'll order a replacement for you. None of this ship it back to them garbage.
Just for the info, the register has an article detailing how the police in Tampa have stopped using face recogntion as it hasn't identified any criminal while still giving false positives.
Ok, someone got Quake 2 to run on a pocket pc... But is it really worthwhile to do such a thing? I mean it might be a good programming challenge, but playing the game might not be so much fun. It would have been better to program a dedicated engine that would be optimised for PocketPC. YOu could make the engine so that it could use the four(?) buttons on a PPC unit, as well as having small runtimes and maps or whatever.
If you really wanted gaming on the move why not try the Gameboy Advance. It might not run quake (and it might cost a bit), but the games are tailored to the Gameboy, and the system is built just for games. I've heard that the game Ecks vs Sever is good, while there is still Doom for the GBA.
In the desktop? Well OS X wipes the floor with anything (and this includes win xp). I'm in the UK and the first time i tried OS X was the other day in this specialised high-street technology shop. Was i bloody amazed! (as you can tell by reading this post)
Desktop linux is workable, but for home users (who don't want a fuss) OS X rocks, plus it is eye candy. I was using it on a G3 iBook with 128mb ram and was it smooth running. The interface is great - i was amazed at how you can type a couple of numbers into the calculator application, minimize it to the dock, and when pointing to the calculator in the dock, see the exact numbers you typed in. It's a very small thing, but has wow factor!
Then there is the fact that for the Mac there are many office apps, plus that with source code many free-software packages can be ported easily.
For the scientific markets things are not so clear cut. Windows will be widely used (as Macs seem to be a bit foreign) but for research i would expect Linux would be used a lot for its ability to be customised. Plus it runs on cheaper (maybe faster?) x86 hardware, which can be replaced with ease. This would give it a slight edge over hard-to-customise macs.
Re:Ahhh Shut The Hell Up Already
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Sony vs Modchips
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· Score: 1
Well, I stand corrected... I can't argue with experience, although i would like other people's viewpoints.
I thought that you could make the UK PS2 play region 1 DVDs with the special DVD memory cards you can get (~£20 from Virgin Megastores i think). Oh well, but I've taken down your link for dvdboxoffice.com - if its cheap im off there. Thanks!!
Re:Ahhh Shut The Hell Up Already
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Sony vs Modchips
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· Score: 1
Well, to get a system from outside your home country, the importers usually put a massive mark up on them. Then there is the power conversion you have to do to make it work, then get the TV signal converter (NTSC -> PAL for the UK, or even worse, SECAM in france).
The games would have a smaller mark-up, or might not even be available in PAL versions (or then badly translated versions, rnning slower, with borders). It's just easier to get the home system, and then imported games. Sometimes it could be aesthetic - i remember the SNES/super famicom - the Japanese and European versions were the lovely curved versions, while the US one was a butt-ugly cube thingy - what was up with that?
(N.B. in no way am i trying to justify "backing-up" or "importing" games if you know what i mean. It's just that unless you are a diehard gamer with loads of ca$h, its easier getting the native system with imported games, rather than the imported system.
Really now, I've read some of the arguments here about freeing documentation, and im wondering who really will make the effort to create the docs for this project. I'm of the persuasion of making minimal docs and then allowing other companies to sell it as a service (or even as a "For Dummies" book). This way Linux could be viable and all the "windows heretics" could see the light of a free OS.
I mean making everything free would just make people homeless. And it would take up a lot of man hours. I think people should get the basics, or then look us newsgroups or whatever, or get a proper manual for the info. An example is the recent debate of QT vs Gtk on slashdot (can't find the link for some reason). People complain Gtk is really badly documented compared to QT. Well all that is needed is minimum documentation to work - companies should be encouraged to develop full documentation (and maybe tidy the source up). The work can be copyrighted and sold for all I care (can't think of disadvantages), with people getting jobs due to open-source. This should encourage others to take it more seriously.
... as for one thing it needs a radio to work. So you need to be physically beside a radio playing a song that you don't know, which isn't very useful, as the announcer would probably announce the name of the song before or after they played it.
What would be more useful is where you could hum a song into the phone, and it could tell you what it was. I personally need something like this as i've got this song in my head (with no lyrics so you can't use Google to find it) that is driving me nuts as I try looking for it. The ability to hum it in and give it further parameters to search for would be good.
Got to agree with you. The NHS (National Health Service) in the UK just linked up with Microsoft to use their software on all their computers. This includes office as well. The article is from BBC News.
The NHS is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) employers in the UK so a deal like this means a massive increase in income for MS - £5 billion according to the article (with discount!).
As the article says medical records need confidentiality and having MS "own" the system required to read it is potentially disasterous. The other computer projects that the NHS has undertaken have not been too great of a success e.g. the "NHSnet" (an internal network) which was buggy and used old protocols instead of using newer email protocols (i.e. they didn't use POP3).
I think that MS one this contract cause they are in bed with president tony (blair). I can't see how it is good for the health service if every machine is ms-dependent. They really should have tried splitting the system between different contractors (ms could still be involved) so that there is redundancy in the system. The thing is everybody attack IIS systems, and for some reason I think it will be a major hassle trying to locate and patch every single server the NHS has.
Hey this is actually very cool - 20 years of postings archived (as long as they're not used against you). Hopefuly google will try as hard as possible to make them more complete; some people were complaining of no alt.binaries groups, and hopefully will archive them (all the legal ones that is) to make a complete data set.
Hopefully some public body could sponsor google for this service to make sure it doesn't disappear again. I mean apart from the historical bit and the info for us geeks, I don't see how they make money out of it. Maybe buying shares in Google will help them, since we all know its the best.
Well, there are the alternative rootservers, but you have to persuade people to use them. Either this is done by doing it the ISP level, or getting individuals to point their DNS lookups elsewhere. Most people either don't know about this, or think it is a waste of time. However, the control of the domains is now under a company with no guarantee that domain disputes are still going to be settled impartially. Still not much better than WIPO arbitration.
My point was if countries think it is unfair that the US controls such a system they should make their own DNS system - that is maybe with their own.com's as well, entirely separate from the US DNS (only thing in common would be ip addresses). Maybe each company should make their own DNS system, and individuals can choose which one they point to. I would leave it up to individuals to decide which directory to check up, so maybe allowing people to use registries with more ethical policies on disputes.
Well, the US government did set up the foundations of the internet, and I do recall that the U.S. Department of Commerce still has overall control over ICANN. So technically they do control the internet. A lot of rootservers are in the US, and the root-servers are the fundamental resource for control over the internet.
I live in the UK and i'm fine with the system. Like another poster said the courts are a lot better than WIPO. And if you're so unhappy with the situation why not go and set up your own DNS system that you will have control over. Why don't other countries do that as well? They have an idea that the internet is freedom, wherein fact they are connected to a US network which has gone global. (ignoring the fact that country TLD's are probably in the jurisdiction of a country's court system as they are based there - but IANAL)
If other countries want control of "the internet" they can make their own networks with their own DNS systems. Of course this would lead to namespace fragmentation and (maybe) duplication. And they might also have to block access to sites who in their opinion are "bad" or are "cybersquatters". In my opinion this would not make it an internet anymore.
Maybe someone should campaign for a change in the DNS system so that there is a seperate system for every country... Making a micro-government (whatever that is) wouldn't help. They'll still be a goverment, and liable to corruption. How will they be elected? Who is the electorate? These have to be thought through before setting anything up, and then there is the question of who is going to give them the power and legitimacy anyway. In that case, ICANN can be called a "micro-goverment" - even though IMO it's no good at all.
I'm a bit late to the discussion but these are not new. 3D action planet (and probably the rest of the gamespy network) have had these things for a while. Their advertising page mentions DHTML adverts - these really do suck. Imagine reading an interesting article - all of sudden, your machine freezes for 2 seconds, and then this big ad blocks the text. You can't close it or move it so you can read the article. You have to watch it (and hear it).
These are bad, and the only thing they do is manage to alienate their readers. The last thing we need is these things becoming more popular. And that name is terrible - pop-overs maybe better (it 'pops-over' all the interesting info you see, rather than pop-up). I hope these can be disabled, or sites persuaded not to use these. Unfortunately i think its a bit late - once one person does it, others will follow.
I don't think regrowing nerve tissue is that hard (as long as the original cell body of the nerve is still intect). It's making the nerve grow so that it regains its previous function which is the hard part.
Nerves are hard to regenerate once cut - the actual nerve cells only proliferate at birth, so if you lost a nerve cell that's them gone forever. (That's why there so much research into trying to get stem cells to differentiate in vitro - they can be used to replace these cells which cannot divide)
However, if you cut the axon of the cell (the bit which connects to other cells put very simply) it can regrow, but don't expect it to take the same function. The part of the axon which is cut off will die, and the cell should make new synapses. As I said these might not be of the same function.
The technique described could work for spinal axons, but there are a lot more of these than in the eye. So you would have to get each cell to connect to its exact axon in the first place and then stimulate them to reconnect. I would think it would be quite difficult to do the above.
Anyway after this the patient would have to learn to regain control of their body. Note how they said it only partially regenerates the nerve. You're still not going to get all sensation or motor control - the potential for damage to a person who undergoes this and cannot control themselves properly is massive. I can't see this working for a time, and then there will have to be years of trials (after persuading ethics committees that this is a good ides). I think they'll have to find a way of improving the technique first.
I have no clue who Rush Limbaugh is - is he metaphorically deaf? His deafness might not be due to damage to nervous tissue anyway, but could be due to damage to the actual ear.
(Some of the above is IMHO, and some of the facts may be wrong - or oversimplified - as science moves very fast; try searching biomedical databases for yourself to see how hard it is. Correct me if i've got anything wrong please)
Is it really going to matter for the amateur in the bedroom? They talk about concerts in the article, and as I don't have any experiences of concert management at all I couldn't comment on how difficult it would be to set up. 64 signals per cable? Not for me - I only need 3 max. The emphasis in the article seems to be for live bands, and probably then only ones who do big concerts (not the cosy wee stage venue type).
This won't change the experience at all for most people (IMHO anyway). The only thing this would be useful for was to hook up to your computer to make home-brewed music (i hope this is in the specs anyway). I wonder what else anyway one could do with these - a competition is required me thinks. Since ethernet cards are quite cheap these should become standard quite soon anyhow, but still there's something more comforting in thinking the sound is analogue - another poster did mention people abandoned digital to go back to analogue. There's not really enough information to see what useful stuff could be done with this. Are they going to rob us of our analogue cables in this move as well?
What about the risk of explosion in a fuel cell? Hydrogen is very volatile - you need a really good system that prevents tampering, leakage, electrical activity outside the plane, and can withstand crashes. I'm thinking about the Hindenburg airship disaster here when making comparison at the moment. I'm not an expert on these things so I would really like to know how the gas used in the auxiliary unit would "burn" in comparison to hydrogen in the event of a disaster. If it's just a safe (and maybe quieter) I wouldn't mind having it at as a power source - i mean it doesn't actually power the engines themselves so we should be quite safe.
It's good to see that they are changing over to some environmentally friendly stuff. Most people have this stereotypical view that US companies are not very "green" - this might set them straight (although it's interesting that they've based the work in Europe...) Testing the fuel cell on cars would be a good idea as well - someone's probably already done this, but if hydrogen can be cheaply produced (cheaper than oil that is - nobody's going to change over to a new fuel source unless it is cheap) it should be an excellent fuel (practically no pollution).
I really don't see how you could achieve this. First the connection (in my area anyway) is promoted as unlimited (ntl in the UK). This applies to the data transfer (up to a reasonable point i suppose). Only the bandwidth (upload/download rates)is restricted. And once you have the connection you can clearly use it for more than one computer - you have that right.
I also don't why they want to talk to all cable devices in the system. I'm unsure of their aim as i only have one which is their cable tv box (which has the modem packaged inside it). This "troubleshooting" point seems fairly suspicious (maybe a power grab) unless the USA has a different cable system from here in the UK.
I can't see why after you have your router they should complain. If you want to share it between different computers in your house you should be allowed to do so. This CAT system seems to be making a mockery of home network security. The involvement of the cable company should stop at the cable modem. They have no right to access your own internal network.
I do agree sharing the system between your neighbours is wrong. But maybe this is an indication of high cost wherever the system is being deployed (like i said, i don't know the costs in the US). Instead of trying to screw around with home networks, they should lower prices instead - make it a bit more affordable. Maybe then people won't share it's bandwidth and they can make a profit.
Running any operating system that we desire is a great advantage of people who "know" computers (and i'm really including everybody reading this).
However, getting people who don't know how to use a computer that well (i.e. relatives or parents etc.) should really get the simplest computer system possible. I've tried teaching people how to use a computer with the win9x GUI system, and it can be exasperating. Teaching them linux (or even dropping them into MS DOS) would be hell compared to this - its just easier with a system that takes care of everything for you (i.e. winxp). It'll get the relatives out of your hair and doing something productive.
Okay i know if we restrict people to kde or gnome things should be fine, but installing programs and devices can be a hassle, and beyond "home" users. And besides most computers will come free with XP. And i don't see people upgrading that often if at all - only external printer, maybe memory, and if its too slow, getting a new computer altogether, so what's the chance of an OS change? Too much hassle.
You're right - the average user will use whatever is put in front of them - but a basic level they're not going to upgrade the computer, and will need all the help they can get (which i'm sure XP will hand-hold them for). I don't know what kind of problems there will be with crashes as XP is an updated version of Win2K which for me is very stable (only crashed twice, using HP's funky riptide soundcard/modem combo).
As most people get XP "free" with the computer, I think it should be used for learning the computer - once they're confident to a stage where they can change internal hardware, I'm sure they will also be able to see they're OS choices. Nobody's forcing us to use XP so don't - if you're confident to use something else do it. But if a change in OS makes a computer useless, or too difficult to use, for you then there's no point.
And for you having to "pay to use a proprietary one[OS] simply because the rest of the world believes that there is no alternative", you should also be getting it free with a computer. I mean if that is your work computer, i don't think you really should be upgrading it with hi-performance gaming accesories - do it to the personal system. You'll keep the work machine stable and won't have to reactivate winxp (IMHO anyway).
M$ seem to be on to a winner here
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XBox Netplay Already
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· Score: 3, Informative
I'm getting more and more tempted into getting one of these things now. Anandtech reported the DVD playback was better than the PS2s which boosts its cred. All that is needed are some great games (i'd like to see midtown madness and maybe championship manager for it) and a crack to play multi-region DVDs, then I should be begging for one.
After this they just need to buy up bleem and release it so I can play my old PS games on the machine. If they can get EA, Namco and Capcom to support them they should make a killing.
The problem is that in America there is no price differential between the PS2 and XBox (both $299 me thinks). In the UK the Xbox should be coming out at £299, with the PS2 already at £199. There seems to be no incentive in the US for people to favour the PS2. But even over here I'm wanting a Xbox now. Oh well - only have to wait till next spring!
I think the security services do strict checks on this kind of thing. I was watching on TV the other day a programme about amateur (if such a thing exists) rocketry. Different clubs were trying to compete in an amateur competition on rocketry.
However the knowledge needed to actually do rocketry was so specialised that the FBI did background checks on everybody wanting to even join one of these clubs, in case they were there to steal information on rockets. According to the programme (as far as i remember) from a rocket, you could relatively easily then modify a rocket to become a missile, a missile being a guided rocket in this case. The problem is not flying into space - its basically home-brew missiles aimed at anything and everything.
Slashdot Mirror
Since we're on the subject of Nintendo failures, what about the Virtual Boy (as I think it was called)? This was supposed to be the next gen of portable system, with the display being one of those "virtual reality" headsets you put on. Not much came out of them because they got hot for the users quickly. I don't think they made it out of Japan (but someone can correct me on this).
Hey. I was just thinking since everybody has taken down the servers at the moment, why don't people use P2P to get the software distributed. It could be shown that this would be quite a efficient way of distribution (multiple download "sites") for software rather than a piracy tool. OK, there might be problems verifying if someone had tampered with the software or not, but wouldn't it be a better way of releasing software?
It may be communist by name but facism, I believe, is the authoritarian form of government. Besides China has rampant capitalism in Hong Kong, or Shanghai (I think). I would also have thought entry to the WTO meant they were becoming capitalist anyway.
I wonder (like all the other posters are) what the authors were thinking when they wrote this article. I can only come to the conclusion that when they wrote the term "IIS" in the article, they were thinking of the personal web server (PWS) program that has come with the last few version of windows. Looking at it that way, it would be true that the web server would have no impact because it's rubbish, and only home users would use it (and why would they anyway). Really, criticising (spelling?) MS because they don't include IIS in XP Home - must be a very slow news day.
... in the UK anyway. Instead of trying to argue with the store or ship it back to them, you can actually take it to one of the Sony repair centres (located in quite a few towns and cities). They'll fix it right up for you, and if it doesn't work they'll order a replacement for you. None of this ship it back to them garbage.
Just for the info, the register has an article detailing how the police in Tampa have stopped using face recogntion as it hasn't identified any criminal while still giving false positives.
Ok, someone got Quake 2 to run on a pocket pc... But is it really worthwhile to do such a thing? I mean it might be a good programming challenge, but playing the game might not be so much fun. It would have been better to program a dedicated engine that would be optimised for PocketPC. YOu could make the engine so that it could use the four(?) buttons on a PPC unit, as well as having small runtimes and maps or whatever.
If you really wanted gaming on the move why not try the Gameboy Advance. It might not run quake (and it might cost a bit), but the games are tailored to the Gameboy, and the system is built just for games. I've heard that the game Ecks vs Sever is good, while there is still Doom for the GBA.
In the desktop? Well OS X wipes the floor with anything (and this includes win xp). I'm in the UK and the first time i tried OS X was the other day in this specialised high-street technology shop. Was i bloody amazed! (as you can tell by reading this post)
Desktop linux is workable, but for home users (who don't want a fuss) OS X rocks, plus it is eye candy. I was using it on a G3 iBook with 128mb ram and was it smooth running. The interface is great - i was amazed at how you can type a couple of numbers into the calculator application, minimize it to the dock, and when pointing to the calculator in the dock, see the exact numbers you typed in. It's a very small thing, but has wow factor!
Then there is the fact that for the Mac there are many office apps, plus that with source code many free-software packages can be ported easily.
For the scientific markets things are not so clear cut. Windows will be widely used (as Macs seem to be a bit foreign) but for research i would expect Linux would be used a lot for its ability to be customised. Plus it runs on cheaper (maybe faster?) x86 hardware, which can be replaced with ease. This would give it a slight edge over hard-to-customise macs.
Well, I stand corrected... I can't argue with experience, although i would like other people's viewpoints.
I thought that you could make the UK PS2 play region 1 DVDs with the special DVD memory cards you can get (~£20 from Virgin Megastores i think). Oh well, but I've taken down your link for dvdboxoffice.com - if its cheap im off there. Thanks!!
Well, to get a system from outside your home country, the importers usually put a massive mark up on them. Then there is the power conversion you have to do to make it work, then get the TV signal converter (NTSC -> PAL for the UK, or even worse, SECAM in france).
The games would have a smaller mark-up, or might not even be available in PAL versions (or then badly translated versions, rnning slower, with borders). It's just easier to get the home system, and then imported games. Sometimes it could be aesthetic - i remember the SNES/super famicom - the Japanese and European versions were the lovely curved versions, while the US one was a butt-ugly cube thingy - what was up with that?
(N.B. in no way am i trying to justify "backing-up" or "importing" games if you know what i mean. It's just that unless you are a diehard gamer with loads of ca$h, its easier getting the native system with imported games, rather than the imported system.
Really now, I've read some of the arguments here about freeing documentation, and im wondering who really will make the effort to create the docs for this project. I'm of the persuasion of making minimal docs and then allowing other companies to sell it as a service (or even as a "For Dummies" book). This way Linux could be viable and all the "windows heretics" could see the light of a free OS.
I mean making everything free would just make people homeless. And it would take up a lot of man hours. I think people should get the basics, or then look us newsgroups or whatever, or get a proper manual for the info. An example is the recent debate of QT vs Gtk on slashdot (can't find the link for some reason). People complain Gtk is really badly documented compared to QT. Well all that is needed is minimum documentation to work - companies should be encouraged to develop full documentation (and maybe tidy the source up). The work can be copyrighted and sold for all I care (can't think of disadvantages), with people getting jobs due to open-source. This should encourage others to take it more seriously.
... as for one thing it needs a radio to work. So you need to be physically beside a radio playing a song that you don't know, which isn't very useful, as the announcer would probably announce the name of the song before or after they played it.
What would be more useful is where you could hum a song into the phone, and it could tell you what it was. I personally need something like this as i've got this song in my head (with no lyrics so you can't use Google to find it) that is driving me nuts as I try looking for it. The ability to hum it in and give it further parameters to search for would be good.
Got to agree with you. The NHS (National Health Service) in the UK just linked up with Microsoft to use their software on all their computers. This includes office as well. The article is from BBC News.
The NHS is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) employers in the UK so a deal like this means a massive increase in income for MS - £5 billion according to the article (with discount!).
As the article says medical records need confidentiality and having MS "own" the system required to read it is potentially disasterous. The other computer projects that the NHS has undertaken have not been too great of a success e.g. the "NHSnet" (an internal network) which was buggy and used old protocols instead of using newer email protocols (i.e. they didn't use POP3).
I think that MS one this contract cause they are in bed with president tony (blair). I can't see how it is good for the health service if every machine is ms-dependent. They really should have tried splitting the system between different contractors (ms could still be involved) so that there is redundancy in the system. The thing is everybody attack IIS systems, and for some reason I think it will be a major hassle trying to locate and patch every single server the NHS has.
more links
500,000 winxp licenses for Uk.gov
NHS email system not working
Gates talks to NHS managers about using ms products
Doctors forced to use Hotmail for confidential medical records
Hey this is actually very cool - 20 years of postings archived (as long as they're not used against you). Hopefuly google will try as hard as possible to make them more complete; some people were complaining of no alt.binaries groups, and hopefully will archive them (all the legal ones that is) to make a complete data set.
Hopefully some public body could sponsor google for this service to make sure it doesn't disappear again. I mean apart from the historical bit and the info for us geeks, I don't see how they make money out of it. Maybe buying shares in Google will help them, since we all know its the best.
Well, there are the alternative rootservers, but you have to persuade people to use them. Either this is done by doing it the ISP level, or getting individuals to point their DNS lookups elsewhere. Most people either don't know about this, or think it is a waste of time. However, the control of the domains is now under a company with no guarantee that domain disputes are still going to be settled impartially. Still not much better than WIPO arbitration.
.com's as well, entirely separate from the US DNS (only thing in common would be ip addresses). Maybe each company should make their own DNS system, and individuals can choose which one they point to. I would leave it up to individuals to decide which directory to check up, so maybe allowing people to use registries with more ethical policies on disputes.
My point was if countries think it is unfair that the US controls such a system they should make their own DNS system - that is maybe with their own
Well, the US government did set up the foundations of the internet, and I do recall that the U.S. Department of Commerce still has overall control over ICANN. So technically they do control the internet. A lot of rootservers are in the US, and the root-servers are the fundamental resource for control over the internet.
I live in the UK and i'm fine with the system. Like another poster said the courts are a lot better than WIPO. And if you're so unhappy with the situation why not go and set up your own DNS system that you will have control over. Why don't other countries do that as well? They have an idea that the internet is freedom, wherein fact they are connected to a US network which has gone global. (ignoring the fact that country TLD's are probably in the jurisdiction of a country's court system as they are based there - but IANAL)
If other countries want control of "the internet" they can make their own networks with their own DNS systems. Of course this would lead to namespace fragmentation and (maybe) duplication. And they might also have to block access to sites who in their opinion are "bad" or are "cybersquatters". In my opinion this would not make it an internet anymore.
Maybe someone should campaign for a change in the DNS system so that there is a seperate system for every country... Making a micro-government (whatever that is) wouldn't help. They'll still be a goverment, and liable to corruption. How will they be elected? Who is the electorate? These have to be thought through before setting anything up, and then there is the question of who is going to give them the power and legitimacy anyway. In that case, ICANN can be called a "micro-goverment" - even though IMO it's no good at all.
I'm a bit late to the discussion but these are not new. 3D action planet (and probably the rest of the gamespy network) have had these things for a while. Their advertising page mentions DHTML adverts - these really do suck. Imagine reading an interesting article - all of sudden, your machine freezes for 2 seconds, and then this big ad blocks the text. You can't close it or move it so you can read the article. You have to watch it (and hear it).
These are bad, and the only thing they do is manage to alienate their readers. The last thing we need is these things becoming more popular. And that name is terrible - pop-overs maybe better (it 'pops-over' all the interesting info you see, rather than pop-up). I hope these can be disabled, or sites persuaded not to use these. Unfortunately i think its a bit late - once one person does it, others will follow.
I don't think regrowing nerve tissue is that hard (as long as the original cell body of the nerve is still intect). It's making the nerve grow so that it regains its previous function which is the hard part.
Nerves are hard to regenerate once cut - the actual nerve cells only proliferate at birth, so if you lost a nerve cell that's them gone forever. (That's why there so much research into trying to get stem cells to differentiate in vitro - they can be used to replace these cells which cannot divide)
However, if you cut the axon of the cell (the bit which connects to other cells put very simply) it can regrow, but don't expect it to take the same function. The part of the axon which is cut off will die, and the cell should make new synapses. As I said these might not be of the same function.
The technique described could work for spinal axons, but there are a lot more of these than in the eye. So you would have to get each cell to connect to its exact axon in the first place and then stimulate them to reconnect. I would think it would be quite difficult to do the above.
Anyway after this the patient would have to learn to regain control of their body. Note how they said it only partially regenerates the nerve. You're still not going to get all sensation or motor control - the potential for damage to a person who undergoes this and cannot control themselves properly is massive. I can't see this working for a time, and then there will have to be years of trials (after persuading ethics committees that this is a good ides). I think they'll have to find a way of improving the technique first.
I have no clue who Rush Limbaugh is - is he metaphorically deaf? His deafness might not be due to damage to nervous tissue anyway, but could be due to damage to the actual ear.
(Some of the above is IMHO, and some of the facts may be wrong - or oversimplified - as science moves very fast; try searching biomedical databases for yourself to see how hard it is. Correct me if i've got anything wrong please)
Is it really going to matter for the amateur in the bedroom? They talk about concerts in the article, and as I don't have any experiences of concert management at all I couldn't comment on how difficult it would be to set up. 64 signals per cable? Not for me - I only need 3 max. The emphasis in the article seems to be for live bands, and probably then only ones who do big concerts (not the cosy wee stage venue type).
This won't change the experience at all for most people (IMHO anyway). The only thing this would be useful for was to hook up to your computer to make home-brewed music (i hope this is in the specs anyway). I wonder what else anyway one could do with these - a competition is required me thinks. Since ethernet cards are quite cheap these should become standard quite soon anyhow, but still there's something more comforting in thinking the sound is analogue - another poster did mention people abandoned digital to go back to analogue. There's not really enough information to see what useful stuff could be done with this. Are they going to rob us of our analogue cables in this move as well?
What about the risk of explosion in a fuel cell? Hydrogen is very volatile - you need a really good system that prevents tampering, leakage, electrical activity outside the plane, and can withstand crashes. I'm thinking about the Hindenburg airship disaster here when making comparison at the moment. I'm not an expert on these things so I would really like to know how the gas used in the auxiliary unit would "burn" in comparison to hydrogen in the event of a disaster. If it's just a safe (and maybe quieter) I wouldn't mind having it at as a power source - i mean it doesn't actually power the engines themselves so we should be quite safe.
It's good to see that they are changing over to some environmentally friendly stuff. Most people have this stereotypical view that US companies are not very "green" - this might set them straight (although it's interesting that they've based the work in Europe...) Testing the fuel cell on cars would be a good idea as well - someone's probably already done this, but if hydrogen can be cheaply produced (cheaper than oil that is - nobody's going to change over to a new fuel source unless it is cheap) it should be an excellent fuel (practically no pollution).
I really don't see how you could achieve this. First the connection (in my area anyway) is promoted as unlimited (ntl in the UK). This applies to the data transfer (up to a reasonable point i suppose). Only the bandwidth (upload/download rates)is restricted. And once you have the connection you can clearly use it for more than one computer - you have that right.
I also don't why they want to talk to all cable devices in the system. I'm unsure of their aim as i only have one which is their cable tv box (which has the modem packaged inside it). This "troubleshooting" point seems fairly suspicious (maybe a power grab) unless the USA has a different cable system from here in the UK.
I can't see why after you have your router they should complain. If you want to share it between different computers in your house you should be allowed to do so. This CAT system seems to be making a mockery of home network security. The involvement of the cable company should stop at the cable modem. They have no right to access your own internal network.
I do agree sharing the system between your neighbours is wrong. But maybe this is an indication of high cost wherever the system is being deployed (like i said, i don't know the costs in the US). Instead of trying to screw around with home networks, they should lower prices instead - make it a bit more affordable. Maybe then people won't share it's bandwidth and they can make a profit.
Running any operating system that we desire is a great advantage of people who "know" computers (and i'm really including everybody reading this).
However, getting people who don't know how to use a computer that well (i.e. relatives or parents etc.) should really get the simplest computer system possible. I've tried teaching people how to use a computer with the win9x GUI system, and it can be exasperating. Teaching them linux (or even dropping them into MS DOS) would be hell compared to this - its just easier with a system that takes care of everything for you (i.e. winxp). It'll get the relatives out of your hair and doing something productive.
Okay i know if we restrict people to kde or gnome things should be fine, but installing programs and devices can be a hassle, and beyond "home" users. And besides most computers will come free with XP. And i don't see people upgrading that often if at all - only external printer, maybe memory, and if its too slow, getting a new computer altogether, so what's the chance of an OS change? Too much hassle.
You're right - the average user will use whatever is put in front of them - but a basic level they're not going to upgrade the computer, and will need all the help they can get (which i'm sure XP will hand-hold them for). I don't know what kind of problems there will be with crashes as XP is an updated version of Win2K which for me is very stable (only crashed twice, using HP's funky riptide soundcard/modem combo).
As most people get XP "free" with the computer, I think it should be used for learning the computer - once they're confident to a stage where they can change internal hardware, I'm sure they will also be able to see they're OS choices. Nobody's forcing us to use XP so don't - if you're confident to use something else do it. But if a change in OS makes a computer useless, or too difficult to use, for you then there's no point.
And for you having to "pay to use a proprietary one[OS] simply because the rest of the world believes that there is no alternative", you should also be getting it free with a computer. I mean if that is your work computer, i don't think you really should be upgrading it with hi-performance gaming accesories - do it to the personal system. You'll keep the work machine stable and won't have to reactivate winxp (IMHO anyway).
I'm getting more and more tempted into getting one of these things now. Anandtech reported the DVD playback was better than the PS2s which boosts its cred. All that is needed are some great games (i'd like to see midtown madness and maybe championship manager for it) and a crack to play multi-region DVDs, then I should be begging for one.
After this they just need to buy up bleem and release it so I can play my old PS games on the machine. If they can get EA, Namco and Capcom to support them they should make a killing.
The problem is that in America there is no price differential between the PS2 and XBox (both $299 me thinks). In the UK the Xbox should be coming out at £299, with the PS2 already at £199. There seems to be no incentive in the US for people to favour the PS2. But even over here I'm wanting a Xbox now. Oh well - only have to wait till next spring!
I think the security services do strict checks on this kind of thing. I was watching on TV the other day a programme about amateur (if such a thing exists) rocketry. Different clubs were trying to compete in an amateur competition on rocketry.
However the knowledge needed to actually do rocketry was so specialised that the FBI did background checks on everybody wanting to even join one of these clubs, in case they were there to steal information on rockets. According to the programme (as far as i remember) from a rocket, you could relatively easily then modify a rocket to become a missile, a missile being a guided rocket in this case. The problem is not flying into space - its basically home-brew missiles aimed at anything and everything.