You could design the Microsoft in-car coffee maker to be safe by making it a closed loop sealed system. Extracting the coffee so that it could be drunk would be a version 3 feature
I'm not saying there's no sound difference between good quality gear and crap - clearly there is - but there is an awful lot of voodoo around. Think of the CD (or whatever distribution channel) as the division between producer and consumer of audio.
On the producer side, there are proven, standard, engineering-based ways to get good quality sound: balanced audio; XLR jacks; good but not exotic components; reference speakers under-driven by high-power amps. All the really difficult stuff is done on the producer side - think of a large audio mixer where you must avoid cross-talk between many signals, avoid hum, etc, etc. And that's without mentioning all the work that's done in the digital domain. Mostly, the environments are setup with clarity and objectivity in mind.
On the consumer side, all you have to do is decode the CD, amplify the signal, and reproduce it through speakers. As someone who's spent a lot of time in studios and making music, I know good quality sound and I've heard many audiophiles demo their tweaked systems and frankly they were often very expensive ways to achieve 'pleasing' or 'musical' third harmonic distortion. Fine, if that's what you like but it's clearly subjective.
The article referenced exemplifies the voodoo approach as the difference between a cheapo CD and a well-engineered (but not voodoo-exotic) unit will be apparent in things like attention to ground planes, circuit routing to minimise crosstalk, etc. Swapping a few components isn't going to rectify any shortcomings of poor engineering.
There's an anecdote about the Quad company (who have always held good engineering principles to be paramount) attending a hi-fi show and receiving many queries about their 'exotic' speaker inter-connects. This amused them as it was nothing more than orange exterior mains cable from the local DIY store. A little common sense goes a long way in the world of audio!
(That's RSS as in arse). As has already been pointed out, RSS is XML and therefore extensible. In order to cope with any arbitrary extensions that anyone cares to add, why not just bolt the concept of a schema onto RSS? That way, my RSS reader would know how to parse and sort any metadata your RSS feed cared to send me, and all options are kept open. Something like that is surely better than some self-appointed overlords attempting to mandate their own extensions. It would also open up many more machine-to-machine communications possibilities.
Curses! Note, however, that it says 'A person who infringes copyright in a work by communicating the work to the public'. So the offender is still the uploader, not the downloader.
In the UK, this is not seen as theft for one simple reason: legally, it is not theft. Sorry for all those who want to debate whether this is or isn't so, but in UK law, there is no debate. It is copyright infringement. Theft is a criminal offense, for which you can be fined or imprisoned. Copyright infringement is a civil offense for which you can be sued. All talk of FAST, BPA or whoever, fining offenders is nonsense since they have no legal powers. They can ask for a payment, and back up with a threat to sue, but that's it. Until the law is changed, unauthorised copying of software is not theft, it's infringement. And the infringer is the person who publishes the unauthorised copy, not the downloader or buyer. That's why they only try to sue uploaders. When FAST 'busts' an office full of hooky software, they do it on the basis that unauthroised copying took place in the office. If the owners could show they bought the right number of 'pirate' copies, FAST wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
I have to wonder why Microsoft would be interested in P2P technology. But perhaps they are following the precedent of the BBC's Interactive Media Player in finding efficient ways to distribute their own product. For example, Windows Software Update might work very well as a P2P network. Also, with their DRM attached to all files on the network, and the P2P protocol built into Windows Media Player, it would then be very easy for them (or their affiliates) to open up an online video store offering very fast downloads. However, there's also nothing to stop anyone who doesn't have an inbuilt bias against open source from doing those exact same things today. So I'd expect Apple to beat them to the punch - again.
Which is why some have relabelled SF as 'speculative fiction'. Many science fiction writers have zero interest in the scientific plausibility of their invented past/present/future. For them, SF is just an enabler that has allowed them to explore different notions of reality, or insights into the human condition. In the stories of Philip K. Dick, the super-computers run on vacuum tubes - clearly that science is all wrong, and yet his characters are complex and real, and in novels like 'Flow my tears...' and 'A scanner darkly', he achieves moments of almost unbearable poignancy. Conversely, and all too often, those writers who get the hard science right have characters of laughable wooden-ness. I'd say 80% of the SF I've read/watched, has a rather autistic notion of human interactions. All subjective of course, but I'll take Barrington J. Bayley over Isaac Asimov any day.
As someone who's built database publishing systems interfacing with both programs, I can tell you that it's much easier to get data in & out of InDesign thanks to it's openness - XML, scripting support, etc - which far exceeds Quark. I've done some stuff with travel industry pricing grids in InDesign that would have driven me to suicide in Quark.
Too bad they never got to the next stage of their project - PA-8000 emulator, running on PA-8000 emulator. This is the true future of computing. If I can run an emulator on an emulator, I no longer need the physical computer and end up with an infinitely fast computer with zero energy requirements. Just need to crack the problem of input and display devices...
A Nazi world better? It would have been a world full of blonde, blue-eyed people listening to nothing but Strauss & Wagner. This achieved at an unimaginable price in human suffering and death. So - no, it would not have been better. Unless of course the above appeals to you?
iPod - market = anyone in whole world who wants an MP3 player
iPod w/Sirius - market = subset of above who are US-based Sirius subscribers.
The only way this makes sense is if the iPod has a software radio that can easily be configured for country specific services like DAB in the UK. And reconfigured when you travel. But having to do that would make it too hard to use.
So, in the same way that Chinese manufacturers relesed cheap region-free DVD players, how long till they release cheap DRM-busiting audio players? After all, DRM is not going to sell well in their home market.
"standard-def tv masters" are... stored on videotape, which, the last time i checked, was an analog medium that had a fixed aspect ratio.
Then you must have checked a very long time ago because no serious broadcaster has shot in analog for years - it's all digital and flexible regarding formats.
Dvorak's prophetic genius is awesome. Microsoft is working on Linux under Windows and it will run on the Intel-powered Mac that he predicted with 100% certainty a couple of years ago. No doubt the power source will be derived from the manure dropped by flying pigs.
There may be a way to independently verify that the actions of a collective consciousness can influence random number generators. In the UK, a government run savings bank (www.nsandi.com) sells Premium Bonds that each month pay out a prize of one million pounds. The draw is run on a random number generator called ERNIE (the original of which was buit at Dollis Hill where COLOSSUS was born). As you can imagine, great care is taken to ensure the randomness of the results. However, if we all concentrate on a single bond number (which I will be happy to supply), I believe we can demonstrate that these machines can be influenced. The arrival of the cheque on my doormat will be conclusive proof.
The form factor of the Mac mini seems to invite the idea of producing matching, perhaps stackable, peripherals (with the Mac at the top of the stack, naturally). I can imagine several -
An AV receiver that raises the stack height to a cube with matching cube speakers; a pvr/tuner; hard disk and dvd burner; musician's breakout box (Asteroid?)... So far, so ordinary - what else could be made that is perhaps not so obvious? An espresso machine? Bagel toaster? Or perhaps a scientific data acquisition module? Photo printer? But it's very clear to me that this is all part of the marketing plan - this thing is deliberately made to a spec and style that will help to creat an eco-system in the exact way the iPod did. I think this is a genuine tipping point - the first real mass-market consumer's computer that goes some way towards the 'it just works' philosophy of consumer goods. Don't be surprised if Apple owns the living room space in a few years.
Then they'll have to release spyware-removal software for their spyware-removal software for their spyware-removal software for their spyware-removal software for their spyware-removal software for their etc...
Slashdot Mirror
You could design the Microsoft in-car coffee maker to be safe by making it a closed loop sealed system. Extracting the coffee so that it could be drunk would be a version 3 feature
First I would organise a steering comittee
Thanks for posting that quote. It's a rare treat to read such cogent reasoning, and so elegantly expressed, on Slashdot.
On the producer side, there are proven, standard, engineering-based ways to get good quality sound: balanced audio; XLR jacks; good but not exotic components; reference speakers under-driven by high-power amps. All the really difficult stuff is done on the producer side - think of a large audio mixer where you must avoid cross-talk between many signals, avoid hum, etc, etc. And that's without mentioning all the work that's done in the digital domain. Mostly, the environments are setup with clarity and objectivity in mind.
On the consumer side, all you have to do is decode the CD, amplify the signal, and reproduce it through speakers. As someone who's spent a lot of time in studios and making music, I know good quality sound and I've heard many audiophiles demo their tweaked systems and frankly they were often very expensive ways to achieve 'pleasing' or 'musical' third harmonic distortion. Fine, if that's what you like but it's clearly subjective.
The article referenced exemplifies the voodoo approach as the difference between a cheapo CD and a well-engineered (but not voodoo-exotic) unit will be apparent in things like attention to ground planes, circuit routing to minimise crosstalk, etc. Swapping a few components isn't going to rectify any shortcomings of poor engineering.
There's an anecdote about the Quad company (who have always held good engineering principles to be paramount) attending a hi-fi show and receiving many queries about their 'exotic' speaker inter-connects. This amused them as it was nothing more than orange exterior mains cable from the local DIY store. A little common sense goes a long way in the world of audio!
(That's RSS as in arse). As has already been pointed out, RSS is XML and therefore extensible. In order to cope with any arbitrary extensions that anyone cares to add, why not just bolt the concept of a schema onto RSS? That way, my RSS reader would know how to parse and sort any metadata your RSS feed cared to send me, and all options are kept open. Something like that is surely better than some self-appointed overlords attempting to mandate their own extensions. It would also open up many more machine-to-machine communications possibilities.
Curses! Note, however, that it says 'A person who infringes copyright in a work by communicating the work to the public'. So the offender is still the uploader, not the downloader.
In the UK, this is not seen as theft for one simple reason: legally, it is not theft. Sorry for all those who want to debate whether this is or isn't so, but in UK law, there is no debate. It is copyright infringement. Theft is a criminal offense, for which you can be fined or imprisoned. Copyright infringement is a civil offense for which you can be sued. All talk of FAST, BPA or whoever, fining offenders is nonsense since they have no legal powers. They can ask for a payment, and back up with a threat to sue, but that's it. Until the law is changed, unauthorised copying of software is not theft, it's infringement. And the infringer is the person who publishes the unauthorised copy, not the downloader or buyer. That's why they only try to sue uploaders. When FAST 'busts' an office full of hooky software, they do it on the basis that unauthroised copying took place in the office. If the owners could show they bought the right number of 'pirate' copies, FAST wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
I have to wonder why Microsoft would be interested in P2P technology. But perhaps they are following the precedent of the BBC's Interactive Media Player in finding efficient ways to distribute their own product. For example, Windows Software Update might work very well as a P2P network. Also, with their DRM attached to all files on the network, and the P2P protocol built into Windows Media Player, it would then be very easy for them (or their affiliates) to open up an online video store offering very fast downloads. However, there's also nothing to stop anyone who doesn't have an inbuilt bias against open source from doing those exact same things today. So I'd expect Apple to beat them to the punch - again.
Which is why some have relabelled SF as 'speculative fiction'. Many science fiction writers have zero interest in the scientific plausibility of their invented past/present/future. For them, SF is just an enabler that has allowed them to explore different notions of reality, or insights into the human condition. In the stories of Philip K. Dick, the super-computers run on vacuum tubes - clearly that science is all wrong, and yet his characters are complex and real, and in novels like 'Flow my tears...' and 'A scanner darkly', he achieves moments of almost unbearable poignancy. Conversely, and all too often, those writers who get the hard science right have characters of laughable wooden-ness. I'd say 80% of the SF I've read/watched, has a rather autistic notion of human interactions. All subjective of course, but I'll take Barrington J. Bayley over Isaac Asimov any day.
As someone who's built database publishing systems interfacing with both programs, I can tell you that it's much easier to get data in & out of InDesign thanks to it's openness - XML, scripting support, etc - which far exceeds Quark. I've done some stuff with travel industry pricing grids in InDesign that would have driven me to suicide in Quark.
Too bad they never got to the next stage of their project - PA-8000 emulator, running on PA-8000 emulator. This is the true future of computing. If I can run an emulator on an emulator, I no longer need the physical computer and end up with an infinitely fast computer with zero energy requirements. Just need to crack the problem of input and display devices...
A Nazi world better? It would have been a world full of blonde, blue-eyed people listening to nothing but Strauss & Wagner. This achieved at an unimaginable price in human suffering and death. So - no, it would not have been better. Unless of course the above appeals to you?
iPod w/Sirius - market = subset of above who are US-based Sirius subscribers.
The only way this makes sense is if the iPod has a software radio that can easily be configured for country specific services like DAB in the UK. And reconfigured when you travel. But having to do that would make it too hard to use.
So - case disproved?
...especially those built into Angelina Jolie's house.
So, in the same way that Chinese manufacturers relesed cheap region-free DVD players, how long till they release cheap DRM-busiting audio players? After all, DRM is not going to sell well in their home market.
"standard-def tv masters" are ... stored on videotape, which, the last time i checked, was an analog medium that had a fixed aspect ratio.
Then you must have checked a very long time ago because no serious broadcaster has shot in analog for years - it's all digital and flexible regarding formats.
but since I flight-tested my helicopter beanie-hat, I ended up looking ver my shoulder all the time.
Acromedobia; Madobeacromia; Crow-dobe-doobie-doo... Wait - split the difference! Madobe Macrobat - as used by Madonna.
iPod is international. Satellite radio is US only.
Dvorak's prophetic genius is awesome. Microsoft is working on Linux under Windows and it will run on the Intel-powered Mac that he predicted with 100% certainty a couple of years ago. No doubt the power source will be derived from the manure dropped by flying pigs.
There may be a way to independently verify that the actions of a collective consciousness can influence random number generators. In the UK, a government run savings bank (www.nsandi.com) sells Premium Bonds that each month pay out a prize of one million pounds. The draw is run on a random number generator called ERNIE (the original of which was buit at Dollis Hill where COLOSSUS was born). As you can imagine, great care is taken to ensure the randomness of the results. However, if we all concentrate on a single bond number (which I will be happy to supply), I believe we can demonstrate that these machines can be influenced. The arrival of the cheque on my doormat will be conclusive proof.
Why? Why, oh why? Why would he do this? Why?
The form factor of the Mac mini seems to invite the idea of producing matching, perhaps stackable, peripherals (with the Mac at the top of the stack, naturally). I can imagine several - An AV receiver that raises the stack height to a cube with matching cube speakers; a pvr/tuner; hard disk and dvd burner; musician's breakout box (Asteroid?)... So far, so ordinary - what else could be made that is perhaps not so obvious? An espresso machine? Bagel toaster? Or perhaps a scientific data acquisition module? Photo printer? But it's very clear to me that this is all part of the marketing plan - this thing is deliberately made to a spec and style that will help to creat an eco-system in the exact way the iPod did. I think this is a genuine tipping point - the first real mass-market consumer's computer that goes some way towards the 'it just works' philosophy of consumer goods. Don't be surprised if Apple owns the living room space in a few years.
No. My finger, like everybody else! Apologies for obsolete references in that very old joke. I guess it's past retirement age now.
Then they'll have to release spyware-removal software for their spyware-removal software for their spyware-removal software for their spyware-removal software for their spyware-removal software for their etc...