"The environment itself is rendered (hopefully in real time!) with apparent triggers throughout the game. For example wondering up to a waterfall where your heartrate increases by a small factor could trigger a dolphin jumping in the water...."
Just what I need... the likes of me will probably end up downing three double espresso's before visiting the waterfall just so I can see that god-damned dolphin.
It'd be more along the lines of 'Accused hacked into a game server providing entertainment to 250.000+ subscribers, and disrupted game play for a number of hours. Incidently your honour, this is a business with a $3.000.000 a month revenue' (actual figures for a different MMORPG).
I doubt anyone will be laughing. In fact, people have already brought suit against scammers who conned them out of in-game assets. In most cases no criminal charges were filed because the real-world value of the virtual items was quite low, but the scammer was prosecuted nonetheless.
In the MMORPG worlds, people are beginning to re-discover the age-old wisdom that Time is Money. Just check Ebay and you'll find plenty of auctions for game accounts with trained-up characters, or for in-game assets. That is only natural: if you have lots of cash but little time, why spent ages building your character or walking the virtual world to find a spot to build your house, when you can just plonk down some cash and be in business, ready to 'just play the game'?
People are starting to attach real-world value to in-game assets. For Ultima Online there's even a common exchange rate for in-game Gold to Dollars. In the heyday of housing shortage, a castle in Ultima Online might sell for as much as $5000,-, and find plenty of buyers.
Now some 'poor kid' comes along and deletes your $5000 castle for shits and giggles. I'd be royally pissed about that and I'd be real happy if the game company would throw the book at him. Such kids do more than cause a minor inconvenience to a few players: they may cause damage in in-game assets or characters that have a real-world dollar value attached to them. In addition, they cause the game company a bad headache and a bad press, plus the efforts for fixing the servers incur real costs, which can be quite high.
"While computers can extend dive times because you don't spend all your time at maximum depth, you also increase risk in doing so. Whether you decide to use the dive computers or not, you should ALSO have the mechanical pressure and depth guages, and manually calculate your dives.
Solely relying on a computer for diving is sheer stupidity and absolutely reckless. The minimal increase in bottom time is not worth the risk of an embolism, or the bends, which can be a debilitating condition for the rest of your life, or even fatal."
I disagree. Just like computers, mechanical gauges are subject to failure especially when not maintained properly (rental gear from a dodgy dive shop). Computers are not inherently more unsafe than tables: they use the same models and are usually more conservative than the dive tables. Using a computer is really just like taking the Wheel with you underwater and working out a multilevel dive profile as you go along.
The danger in diving does NOT come from relying on computers, but on pushing your limits. Whether you usually dive until the Remaining Bottom Time on your computer reaches 0, or usually plan dives using the tables to pressure group Z, you are diving to the absolute limits... and your risk will be greater in both cases. Remember that your personal limit may actually be lower than the tables or computer indicate, that is why dive organisations recommend you avoid the table or computer limits. I think you'll find that most cases of divers contracting the Bends were pushing their limits, using tables and/or computers. I have never heard of someone contracting the Bends by using only a computer to plan his dives, staying well within its limits. The case mentioned in the article was different: in this case it was a computer error, and from the sound of it these divers were pushing the limits anyway.
By the way: the dive tables suffer from some of the same problems as the computers: recently, PADI recalled a number of dive tables because of a misprint.
There are already a few phones out there that combine a regular cell phone and the functionality of a PDA. While I like the idea of carrying one device instead of two, I hate every signle one of these phone PDA's that I have tried. Why? Mainly because the PDA functions aren't very good. I guess that phone companies are lousy at making PDA's, and they seem to focus on phone-related functionality.
Here's what I would do if I were them: start with a really good PDA, much like the current line of PDA's from the well-known brands. That means you have Java, you could add GPS and whatever, you already have an address and phone book, and a means to enter phone numbers and SMS messages easily. To add phone functionality, all you need is a GSM/GPRS module, and perhaps a mike and loudspeaker.
Another thing: PDA's are fully programmable. Here's a tip for mobile data providers, we don't need proprietary mobile data applications, we just need data transport. Once we have that and our programmable PDA's, we can build our own apps. We don't have or want to rely on silly protocols such as SMS or MMS either: just let us send regular emails, perhaps with an attachment.
In other words, try making a cell phone out of an organiser, not the other way around.
"They should be taking it to Japan, where toilets are already equipped with countless unimaginable electronic doodads."
...Including the thingy that spritzes hot water up your butt. Heh such fun we had the first time "Eh a remote for the toilet?? Hmm what's this button do...ooooohhh! whoaah!". I bet the controls weren't labelled in English on purpose...
Most Microsoft stuff ends up in the crapper anyway.
Seriously... I think this is a good idea for toilets anywhere but those at festivals, or places where you can expect long lines. But having these at restaurants (nip off to the john to escape a boring conversation), at home (don't miss that last-minute bid on Ebay), or at work (forget bringing a newspaper, go for an hour-long Slashdot posting spree) would suit me just fine.
Putting another computer on the outside of this thing isn't going to help the queue. Much better would be to put a screen outside to show just what the hell you're doing in there. Erm, I don't mean a camera, I mean a second screen to show what you're looking at on the web.
Such stories are always a good read, and put things into perspective nicely. Here are a bunch of guys doing payroll on a machine that probably has less computing power than the battery in my laptop!
And here I sit, watching the secretary on her 2,4GHz P4... playing freakin' freecell.
"You really don't need MisterHouse to do that. That's an unnecessary level of complexity."
Dammit, you are not going to talk me out of buying cool little LCD panels and other assorted hardware and fiddling with this for weeks on end to get it going.
It looks like an interesting project, and going by the FAQ you don't need that beefy a machine to run it, especially when it's dormant. This could happily co-exist on my existing house server (doing web, firewall, mail, etc. etc).
I don't need it to tell me "Notice, the sun is bright at 32 percent, and it is cold outside at 24 degrees, so I am opening the curtains at 8:07 AM", though. Especially not at 8:07.
I've been waiting for something like this for a bit, something that integrates controls, small LCDs, scripting, remote control and such features into one package. Maybe I'll give it a go. I've always wanted to fit each radiator with a solenoid valve and put a temperature sensor in each room. That way I can *finally* have each room at the right temperature and choose to heat only certain parts of the house depending on the time of day.
Having a pretty good defence case doesn't mean spit in court. You'll need the war chest to fund your legal battle as well.
Hell, at least over here, it's 'Loser pays winner's legal costs'. Even if these guys would win in court, they'd end up deep in debts... and the RIAA knows that. Small wonder such an incredible amount of cases is settled in the US, even the ones that seem like a clear win for the defense.
Re:Double density floppy anyone?
on
High Density CDs
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
"at the moment few people i know use DVD media for back-up storage, since the cost is prohibitive."
Prohibitive? $/MB cost is more or less comparable to CD, I'd think.
"with this new improvement in the data density of a CD, DVD media might be set to go the way of the MD. it could have been something good, but was never became something more than a novelty due to corporate greed."
MD is *big* in Japan (no pun intended). In fact I'm a bit surprised that it never caught on here, perhaps it's due to the few problems they had at first. MD was (and still is) perfect for portable audio, offering long play times and low power comsumption in a small and convenient form factor, long before MP3 players became commonplace. I have a portable MD player that I'm very happy with.
I think DVD's will be replaced with improved technology such a blue-laser optical storage, not with a technology that'll let you squeeze a bit of extra data on existing CDs.
My quess is that she'll help draft proposals for new IP laws. It's not (well, it is my fervent hope that it isn't) likely that her writing will be turned directly into law.
Holland did the same for post-communist Russia: we helped rewrite some of their laws, including IP laws. The difference is of course that our proposals were already laws in Holland, and had become laws by a (hopefully) fair and impartial process. But Hillary will probably not stop at proposing the existing US IP laws, but something far worse from the darkest depths of her imagination.
Stopping short of Hillary actually writing these laws, she will still have a significant influence in the thrust of those laws. I doubt the words 'fair use' will come up much in the draft.
Here's another interesting issue for small-time inventors: taxes!
A friend of mine patented an interesting improvement to some method of industrial production, which he hoped to sell to other companies. The next year, he (or rather: his company) received the estimate for that year's tax from the tax office (which you will have to pay up front!). In the statement was a sizable amount listed, with an explanation: 'Your patent #123 will by our estimates generate x euro's in revenue in Holland. Your patent is also valid in Germany and Belgium, where it will generate an estimated y euro's. We estimate the tax on those revenues to be z Euro's.' Mind, this is and advance on estimated taxes, payable before (possibly years before) you'll gross dollar one on your patent.
It is very hard for companies to get a reprieve from paying this tax advance, and even harder to contest the estimates. My friend's company had the cash to cover it, and he paid, but if his patent would have had world-wide validity...
I'd go for something that looks interesting but is not too reliable. A good example are the older model Citroën cars: very popular, at least in Europe. They've always been innovators (they made the first front wheel drive for example), they look unusual, but overall they are rather unreliable, mostly due to being overengineered. Already it's hard to find decently-running older models and there will always be a large market: every self-respecting architect wants a Citroën. Shame their recent models have been Japanized: they look boring and are very reliable. Yawn.
Anyway, back to the topic. Indeed, wireless is not a killer app... what you need is a killer app that will make wireless something that everybody'll want. Same mistake that the phone companies made with WAP and I-mode. These things are only interesting because of the services they can provide, and so far the telcos have failed to come up with a killer app for these protocols. Even the popular apps from Japan that have been made available here have failed to strike an interest in I-mode with the general public.
Therefore my prediction is that ubiquitous wireless will not come into being before someone discovers the killer app that is 'killer' because it is wireless. (Disclaimer: if and when wireless becomes the cheaper solution to deliver net access to the masses, I will withdraw my prediction).
Exactly the right approach. Hey, if they can charge investors in Napster with aiding illegal file-sharing, the case against spamvertising scum in court should be a walkover.
Agreed, the article is rather sloppy in describing what they are actually comparing. One thing they do mention is swings in actual performance. To me, advertised vs. actual performance would be a key indicator, sadly they don't mention these numbers. This article is worthless for determining which of these options to choose.
When I sign up for such a service, I would like to know
- Average speed vs. advertised speed (ie. what you're paying for);
- Hours/month downtime;
- Services included (Shell access, mail, web hosting, game servers, NNTP servers etc)
I hardly ever see comparisons between services that include this info, instead they compare things like having a good helpdesk and providing manuals for the cable modems in Dutch. Hey, I can read English and I would rather have a lousy helpdesk that I never need to call, than a brilliant one that I have to rely on.
Interestingly, over here I found the situation to be the reverse: cable offers 512kbps to 1.5mbps, but I rarely got those speeds out of it. The downtime on cable was horrible, with frequent outages of several hours, and very frequent disconnects. Services were bad as well, a mininum NNTP service, mail, 10MB of webspace, that's it.
In contrast, most DSL providers over a wide range of services and the ones I have had experience with usually run good servers and a good network as well. My current provider offers uncapped (8 Mbps) DSL, a speed which I frequently get on account of me living next to the 'phone exchange. Best of all, there's almost no downtime, and when it does go down it is always a scheduled, announced outage for maintenance. Hell, I'll choose DSL over cable anytime, having used both.
The main technical problem with the cable is performance: if they oversell subscriptions on a segment, performance degrades catastrophically and there's no easy way for the company to fix it. DSL on the other hand pretty much delivers the advertised rates, it all depends on the capacity of the backbone network behind the DSL line, and upgrading that is not that hard.
"The legislation introduced recently in the Senate would try to make many practices used by spammers illegal. It would force commercial e-mail to identify the true sender, have an accurate subject line and offer recipients easy removal from marketing lists. And it would impose fines for violators.
For her part, e-mail marketer Sachs says that any such move will only end up making it harder to run a legitimate business."
So Ms. Sachs, tell me, what kind of "legitimate business" necessitates hiding the true sender of those email?
Slashdot Mirror
"The environment itself is rendered (hopefully in real time!) with apparent triggers throughout the game. For example wondering up to a waterfall where your heartrate increases by a small factor could trigger a dolphin jumping in the water...."
Just what I need... the likes of me will probably end up downing three double espresso's before visiting the waterfall just so I can see that god-damned dolphin.
It'd be more along the lines of 'Accused hacked into a game server providing entertainment to 250.000+ subscribers, and disrupted game play for a number of hours. Incidently your honour, this is a business with a $3.000.000 a month revenue' (actual figures for a different MMORPG).
I doubt anyone will be laughing. In fact, people have already brought suit against scammers who conned them out of in-game assets. In most cases no criminal charges were filed because the real-world value of the virtual items was quite low, but the scammer was prosecuted nonetheless.
In the MMORPG worlds, people are beginning to re-discover the age-old wisdom that Time is Money. Just check Ebay and you'll find plenty of auctions for game accounts with trained-up characters, or for in-game assets. That is only natural: if you have lots of cash but little time, why spent ages building your character or walking the virtual world to find a spot to build your house, when you can just plonk down some cash and be in business, ready to 'just play the game'?
People are starting to attach real-world value to in-game assets. For Ultima Online there's even a common exchange rate for in-game Gold to Dollars. In the heyday of housing shortage, a castle in Ultima Online might sell for as much as $5000,-, and find plenty of buyers.
Now some 'poor kid' comes along and deletes your $5000 castle for shits and giggles. I'd be royally pissed about that and I'd be real happy if the game company would throw the book at him. Such kids do more than cause a minor inconvenience to a few players: they may cause damage in in-game assets or characters that have a real-world dollar value attached to them. In addition, they cause the game company a bad headache and a bad press, plus the efforts for fixing the servers incur real costs, which can be quite high.
Fry 'im, I say...
"While computers can extend dive times because you don't spend all your time at maximum depth, you also increase risk in doing so. Whether you decide to use the dive computers or not, you should ALSO have the mechanical pressure and depth guages, and manually calculate your dives.
Solely relying on a computer for diving is sheer stupidity and absolutely reckless. The minimal increase in bottom time is not worth the risk of an embolism, or the bends, which can be a debilitating condition for the rest of your life, or even fatal."
I disagree. Just like computers, mechanical gauges are subject to failure especially when not maintained properly (rental gear from a dodgy dive shop). Computers are not inherently more unsafe than tables: they use the same models and are usually more conservative than the dive tables. Using a computer is really just like taking the Wheel with you underwater and working out a multilevel dive profile as you go along.
The danger in diving does NOT come from relying on computers, but on pushing your limits. Whether you usually dive until the Remaining Bottom Time on your computer reaches 0, or usually plan dives using the tables to pressure group Z, you are diving to the absolute limits... and your risk will be greater in both cases. Remember that your personal limit may actually be lower than the tables or computer indicate, that is why dive organisations recommend you avoid the table or computer limits. I think you'll find that most cases of divers contracting the Bends were pushing their limits, using tables and/or computers. I have never heard of someone contracting the Bends by using only a computer to plan his dives, staying well within its limits. The case mentioned in the article was different: in this case it was a computer error, and from the sound of it these divers were pushing the limits anyway.
By the way: the dive tables suffer from some of the same problems as the computers: recently, PADI recalled a number of dive tables because of a misprint.
There are already a few phones out there that combine a regular cell phone and the functionality of a PDA. While I like the idea of carrying one device instead of two, I hate every signle one of these phone PDA's that I have tried. Why? Mainly because the PDA functions aren't very good. I guess that phone companies are lousy at making PDA's, and they seem to focus on phone-related functionality.
Here's what I would do if I were them: start with a really good PDA, much like the current line of PDA's from the well-known brands. That means you have Java, you could add GPS and whatever, you already have an address and phone book, and a means to enter phone numbers and SMS messages easily. To add phone functionality, all you need is a GSM/GPRS module, and perhaps a mike and loudspeaker.
Another thing: PDA's are fully programmable. Here's a tip for mobile data providers, we don't need proprietary mobile data applications, we just need data transport. Once we have that and our programmable PDA's, we can build our own apps. We don't have or want to rely on silly protocols such as SMS or MMS either: just let us send regular emails, perhaps with an attachment.
In other words, try making a cell phone out of an organiser, not the other way around.
Hey, for some it's easier than for others...
"They should be taking it to Japan, where toilets are already equipped with countless unimaginable electronic doodads."
...Including the thingy that spritzes hot water up your butt. Heh such fun we had the first time "Eh a remote for the toilet?? Hmm what's this button do...ooooohhh! whoaah!". I bet the controls weren't labelled in English on purpose...
Most Microsoft stuff ends up in the crapper anyway.
Seriously... I think this is a good idea for toilets anywhere but those at festivals, or places where you can expect long lines. But having these at restaurants (nip off to the john to escape a boring conversation), at home (don't miss that last-minute bid on Ebay), or at work (forget bringing a newspaper, go for an hour-long Slashdot posting spree) would suit me just fine.
Putting another computer on the outside of this thing isn't going to help the queue. Much better would be to put a screen outside to show just what the hell you're doing in there. Erm, I don't mean a camera, I mean a second screen to show what you're looking at on the web.
Such stories are always a good read, and put things into perspective nicely. Here are a bunch of guys doing payroll on a machine that probably has less computing power than the battery in my laptop!
And here I sit, watching the secretary on her 2,4GHz P4... playing freakin' freecell.
"You really don't need MisterHouse to do that. That's an unnecessary level of complexity."
Dammit, you are not going to talk me out of buying cool little LCD panels and other assorted hardware and fiddling with this for weeks on end to get it going.
MisterHouse seems to use controllers using the X10 protocol, which is widely available in 220V. Here for example.
"Lights turn on as you enter a room and turn off as you leave it"
...leaving your guests sitting in the dark, muttering.
;-)
Of course most people who implement this in their own homes are not the types who entertain often
It looks like an interesting project, and going by the FAQ you don't need that beefy a machine to run it, especially when it's dormant. This could happily co-exist on my existing house server (doing web, firewall, mail, etc. etc).
I don't need it to tell me "Notice, the sun is bright at 32 percent, and it is cold outside at 24 degrees, so I am opening the curtains at 8:07 AM", though. Especially not at 8:07.
I've been waiting for something like this for a bit, something that integrates controls, small LCDs, scripting, remote control and such features into one package. Maybe I'll give it a go. I've always wanted to fit each radiator with a solenoid valve and put a temperature sensor in each room. That way I can *finally* have each room at the right temperature and choose to heat only certain parts of the house depending on the time of day.
I know, that was my point *grins*. I should have qualified 'over here', by which I meant the Netherlands.
Having a pretty good defence case doesn't mean spit in court. You'll need the war chest to fund your legal battle as well.
Hell, at least over here, it's 'Loser pays winner's legal costs'. Even if these guys would win in court, they'd end up deep in debts... and the RIAA knows that. Small wonder such an incredible amount of cases is settled in the US, even the ones that seem like a clear win for the defense.
"at the moment few people i know use DVD media for back-up storage, since the cost is prohibitive."
Prohibitive? $/MB cost is more or less comparable to CD, I'd think.
"with this new improvement in the data density of a CD, DVD media might be set to go the way of the MD. it could have been something good, but was never became something more than a novelty due to corporate greed."
MD is *big* in Japan (no pun intended). In fact I'm a bit surprised that it never caught on here, perhaps it's due to the few problems they had at first. MD was (and still is) perfect for portable audio, offering long play times and low power comsumption in a small and convenient form factor, long before MP3 players became commonplace. I have a portable MD player that I'm very happy with.
I think DVD's will be replaced with improved technology such a blue-laser optical storage, not with a technology that'll let you squeeze a bit of extra data on existing CDs.
My quess is that she'll help draft proposals for new IP laws. It's not (well, it is my fervent hope that it isn't) likely that her writing will be turned directly into law.
Holland did the same for post-communist Russia: we helped rewrite some of their laws, including IP laws. The difference is of course that our proposals were already laws in Holland, and had become laws by a (hopefully) fair and impartial process. But Hillary will probably not stop at proposing the existing US IP laws, but something far worse from the darkest depths of her imagination.
Stopping short of Hillary actually writing these laws, she will still have a significant influence in the thrust of those laws. I doubt the words 'fair use' will come up much in the draft.
Here's another interesting issue for small-time inventors: taxes!
A friend of mine patented an interesting improvement to some method of industrial production, which he hoped to sell to other companies. The next year, he (or rather: his company) received the estimate for that year's tax from the tax office (which you will have to pay up front!). In the statement was a sizable amount listed, with an explanation: 'Your patent #123 will by our estimates generate x euro's in revenue in Holland. Your patent is also valid in Germany and Belgium, where it will generate an estimated y euro's. We estimate the tax on those revenues to be z Euro's.' Mind, this is and advance on estimated taxes, payable before (possibly years before) you'll gross dollar one on your patent.
It is very hard for companies to get a reprieve from paying this tax advance, and even harder to contest the estimates. My friend's company had the cash to cover it, and he paid, but if his patent would have had world-wide validity...
I'd go for something that looks interesting but is not too reliable. A good example are the older model Citroën cars: very popular, at least in Europe. They've always been innovators (they made the first front wheel drive for example), they look unusual, but overall they are rather unreliable, mostly due to being overengineered. Already it's hard to find decently-running older models and there will always be a large market: every self-respecting architect wants a Citroën. Shame their recent models have been Japanized: they look boring and are very reliable. Yawn.
Anyway, back to the topic. Indeed, wireless is not a killer app... what you need is a killer app that will make wireless something that everybody'll want. Same mistake that the phone companies made with WAP and I-mode. These things are only interesting because of the services they can provide, and so far the telcos have failed to come up with a killer app for these protocols. Even the popular apps from Japan that have been made available here have failed to strike an interest in I-mode with the general public.
Therefore my prediction is that ubiquitous wireless will not come into being before someone discovers the killer app that is 'killer' because it is wireless. (Disclaimer: if and when wireless becomes the cheaper solution to deliver net access to the masses, I will withdraw my prediction).
Exactly the right approach. Hey, if they can charge investors in Napster with aiding illegal file-sharing, the case against spamvertising scum in court should be a walkover.
No, really. Not trying to troll here, I'm curious what people hope to achieve with this.
Agreed, the article is rather sloppy in describing what they are actually comparing. One thing they do mention is swings in actual performance. To me, advertised vs. actual performance would be a key indicator, sadly they don't mention these numbers. This article is worthless for determining which of these options to choose.
When I sign up for such a service, I would like to know
- Average speed vs. advertised speed (ie. what you're paying for);
- Hours/month downtime;
- Services included (Shell access, mail, web hosting, game servers, NNTP servers etc)
I hardly ever see comparisons between services that include this info, instead they compare things like having a good helpdesk and providing manuals for the cable modems in Dutch. Hey, I can read English and I would rather have a lousy helpdesk that I never need to call, than a brilliant one that I have to rely on.
Interestingly, over here I found the situation to be the reverse: cable offers 512kbps to 1.5mbps, but I rarely got those speeds out of it. The downtime on cable was horrible, with frequent outages of several hours, and very frequent disconnects. Services were bad as well, a mininum NNTP service, mail, 10MB of webspace, that's it.
In contrast, most DSL providers over a wide range of services and the ones I have had experience with usually run good servers and a good network as well. My current provider offers uncapped (8 Mbps) DSL, a speed which I frequently get on account of me living next to the 'phone exchange. Best of all, there's almost no downtime, and when it does go down it is always a scheduled, announced outage for maintenance. Hell, I'll choose DSL over cable anytime, having used both.
The main technical problem with the cable is performance: if they oversell subscriptions on a segment, performance degrades catastrophically and there's no easy way for the company to fix it. DSL on the other hand pretty much delivers the advertised rates, it all depends on the capacity of the backbone network behind the DSL line, and upgrading that is not that hard.
Interview Question:
1. Collect underpants.
2. ???
3. Profit!
What is step 2?
Nice...
"The legislation introduced recently in the Senate would try to make many practices used by spammers illegal. It would force commercial e-mail to identify the true sender, have an accurate subject line and offer recipients easy removal from marketing lists. And it would impose fines for violators.
For her part, e-mail marketer Sachs says that any such move will only end up making it harder to run a legitimate business."
So Ms. Sachs, tell me, what kind of "legitimate business" necessitates hiding the true sender of those email?
Slashdot needs a new story topic: Dupes! Suggestions for an icon, anyone?