Since they are releasing "upgrades"/features on every generation of iPod - I think it's time for Apple to release a PDA, perhaps integrated into the iPod (since they are making bigger screens for movies anyway).
I would snap one of those up if it played.ogg as well. All the Windows CE devices on the market have a clunky OS and Palm (the company) seems unstable.
Right now, I don't think watching movies on a tiny screen is a great incentive for most people, though I'd love to be able to share short clips of things ala youtube.
[quote]From its launch five years ago its sales graph showed a consistent upward curve, culminating in a period around last Christmas that saw a record 14 million sold. But sales fell to 8.5 million in the following quarter, and down to 8.1 million in the most recent three-month period. Wall Street is reportedly starting to worry that the bubble will burst.[/quote]
could just mean that iPod sales skyrocket around X-mas time.
Though perhaps the iPod market really is saturated. I think generic 1GB mp3 players on ebay are only like $30-50 including shipping that are better than a $200, plus have the benefit of being FM transmitters (for playing in the car stereo without no installation), act as USB sticks, etcetera.
I don't know how reliable those 3rd party devices are, though.
Maybe it's the "You get what you pay for" meme instead.
Afterall, as a Windows user, you pay for and recieve the finest viruses, trojans, and spyware in the world!
The linux world doesn't get this but Steve Ballmer does, as he screamed out about Developers! Developers! Developers! That's a man that doesn't ignore the people who scratch his back!
Linux, OTOH, not only ignores virus writers, script-kiddies, and malware developers, but by default they are also turning their back to Anti-Virus, and anti-malware (incidentally often 1 and the same with malware) developers.
In contrast, Microsoft even has an in-house team supporting script kiddies with programs such as Visual Basic and releasing multiple deployment environments for such programs such as Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Microsoft Office so that everyone can easily enjoy their work.
I see no such combined effort on the Linux front.
I'm sorry, but until the time comes when I hear about a major virus outbreak on Linux, I cannot take them so called Operating System seriously.
Thanks, however I would like to minimize all the windows in order and then click on the program (say Firefox) to bring up all of it's Windows into view. F11 doesn't allow me to do that AFAIK (otherwise Finder->Desktop would be fine just to see the desktop), and click on the icon on the bottom usually only brings one window back in front.
I could select the windows I want one by one from the icon, but's that's pretty slow. Maybe I'm just used to a gnome/windows toolbar in this regard.
I'm getting a Mac Book Pro for myself (after getting one for the parents) but I'm going to triple boot it, using Linux predominantly.
I need very few Windows programs (actually, I'm just thinking of running Windows in OS X). I actually use Windows only about 5-10% as much as I used to 2 years back, it's getting less usable by the year since Win2K in some aspects.
And Mac OS X is okay, I like the hardware/software integration the most. That and how installing programs is just drag and drop. It's really good for my parents because no viruses/spyware, etc. I mean, it's nice in some other things and I like Aquamacs (an Aqua-ized emacs tweaked to make it native to OS X) better than Emacs but that is about it.
The major downside is just hoping the various *nix programs are compiled for it, otherwise it's a major PITA if I have to go through something like Fink Commander. Aquamacs is native and no problem, but things like Gnucash has to be run by seperately starting a X session and then starning the *nix program. Even then, things like printing don't go as smoothly.
I actually prefer Ubuntu with some linux programs like Digikam than OSX. OS X has some minor issues, like having no "show desktop" button that I'd have to get a script for that doesn't always work correct. I also prefer Digikam for storing pictures over iPhoto (is it me or is that the most overhyped, unintuitive kludge of a program? Get's in my way so many times.)
I don't really use the rest of the mac programs (itunes, imovie, etcetera) so I may be one of the few that don't really care about that stuff.
After reading the article, which briefly mentioned small scale plants in Japan and failures in other countries like Germany, it's starting to sound a bit to good to be true.
BTW, does this mean trash powered Deloreans will be out in a few years? I won't even ask for time travel to be standard, it can be optional.
I think this actually comes with every new medium. I'm sure when film first came into mainstream, there were people asking "But is it art?" But the question is inane anyway, as far a I am concerned. The summary asks "Is Shadow of the Colossus comparable to Leaves of Grass or Citizen Kane?" Why do they always trot out the most highly esteemed movies as representative of that medium?
They never ask if something is as/more worthy of art status than, say, Battlefield Earth? The reply may be that it's not a good movie, that it is in fact crap. That then only shows that there is nothing inherently magical in films as a medium that automatically elevates them to art.
Any creative endeavor can be art. Asking the question on every new medium does not make the question any more original.
My experience is that people who support EFF tend to run a free OS/software where this is much less a problem. As such, they are standing up for themselves in other ways.
If only more people supported the EFF. United We Stand, Divide We Fall (as applicable to political movements as to revolutions).
You always have to wonder why business professors -- if they know so much about how to read the market -- aren't out there making a fortune instead of making less as a professor.
Why do some engineers work at companies instead of inventing things on their own? Why do some programmers become overworked code monkeys for someone else instead of on their own? Etcetera.
To branch out on your own takes some initiative, willingless to take hassles of entreprenuership that a 9-5 job doesn't have, and some guts.
Also, being a Professor has incentives on its own. It's more "pure," you get to deal in your subject all day if that is really your interest. You get to interact with a young crowd, some with fresh ideas - the rest looking at you with the wide eyes of a deer caught in the headlights when you ask them a question, or perhaps that perpetually bored/dumb expression of a zombie, some drool hanging off the sides of their mouth, as they wade through your lecture and are just waiting for the end of class to bolt out of the class they are only taking to fulfill requirements.:D At least it's better than being a high school teacher, as you can legally date the students!
I agree with most of your sentiment but this caught my eye:
My brother-in-law, who is a teacher in Philadelphia, mentioned that they had to block Wikipedia on their school computers because kids would just copy the articles verbatim for book reports, make up a few sources, and hand them in.
Isn't that a little shortsighted? Wouldn't the appropriate thing to do is punish the student? Because if they don't copy wikipedia, they same student will just copy another website or perhaps a book which is harder to track.
Anyway, on the issue of tech in the classroom - it's actually good in areas where technology just works. Think, for instance, about Graphing Calculators. Aren't they pretty good? I know I probably checked out a lot more functions than if I had to draw it by hand. Of course, I still know how to draw it by hand..... (thinking of all the cashier in places who can't add/subtract change w/o the register).
Technology tends to break down in the classroom when it stops being a pretty focused tool that's simply convenient and turns into some ill-defined and ill-focused panacea and prevent the student from thinking on their own.
There were lots of uses of technology which gave me a better understanding of the subject material, like in science classes there was Carl Sagan's excellent Cosmos series (I still consider the simple TV&VCR tech in the classroom). And Lego's mindstorms are pretty damn creative and a good intro to programming (thinking in that way).
But I haven't seen that many good software titles. When learning foreign languages, I'm still looking for a decent Japanese software title - but most edutainment (is that what they still call it?) sucks.
And learning/thinking still is hard work for many people. You can't sit the student in front of the computer and expect them to be taught. The programs/tools need to be focused on the job, and environments where you can just fire up the ICQ/browser when you should be working (speaking of which....) is a terrible temptation - especially for the young.
Privacy shouldn't be such a concern with most businesses one deals with (exceptions such as the doctor and ATT should but don't always apply) because you would have the option of telling them nothing and therefore they couldn't sell it (it always astounds me how much info people give out @ radio shack's checkout - i tell them to fuck off unless they want to lose a sale) except that they demand and verify information based on numbers (SSN primarily) that were never designed for such a purposes to do certain transactions.
The EU has much better privacy laws in this regard and it is correct to impose this if I as a consumer have no choice in what info I have to give out to even get service.
It disturbs me on how much damage that can be done to someone simply by knowing their SSN and a few pieces of publicly verifiable data.
One other way is that rather than banning software patents have them patentable for a shorter amount of time and actively enforce the non-obvious rules.
When I hear that methods for swinging on a swing get patented, I think one major problem to preventing the nonobvious is all the bullshit and jargon speak that's there to confuse the clerks. If the confusing jargon were to be actively punished in the patent system (no fines, just take the lawyer/his client in the back and paddle them, ala Singapore) a lot of taxpayer expense would be spared.
How to turn this idea into a workable system is left as an excersise for overpaid lawyers.
I think this is what got us into all this mess in the first place.....
One of the problems of this country is that Congressmen and Senators is inhabited 90% by lawyers. Lawyers almost always fix the system so their kind profit the most.
Imagine if 90% of congress were butchers, doctors, etcetera.
by religning their administration to the original stated goals. We have to reevaluate what we have patents for. When the founding fathers put them in the constitution, it was to promote progress and the sciences. They stated this themselves.
Yet, during WW2, the government invalidated many radio patents to spur progress (and help the war effort) and radio considerably advanced in that period. Also, computer science advanced very nicely in the US until software patents showed up.
It seems that, if anything, patents hinder progress in many cases. It seems to me that patents help in situations where there is no market yet or is very research heavy (drug industry) and help funnel research in such an area, but once a competitive market is established, it only hinders progress in many instances.
So a blanket ban on patents seem unfeasible but perhaps there should be a ban of patent by industry. Industries with rapid progress should have no patents because the promotion of science and advancement is obviously not needed.
OTOH, where there is very little market or industry itself has a high upfront/continuing costs - an extra incentive is needed (protection at the marketplace) and thus patents are necessary.
In other words, patents will be considered almost like tax incentives.
The problem with patents today, in lieu of manufacturing going overseas, is that the US is trying to pad its economy with IP, so the government as a whole has no incentive to be sparing of patents. This path is problematic and will impoverish us all over time. We really need to overhaul the patent system.
I would be particularly interested in hearing the opinions of historians who have studied scientific revolutions/industrial revolutions/economic upheavals of the past and what their opinions about the environment/variables that time has shown truly promote advancement/progress.
(I actually think that if they made the CueCat into a normal or optical mouse at the same time, more people would have readily used it and eventually used the scanning device more too, and it would have had the benefits of not adding more crap onto the desk, wouldn't have added much to the manufacturing cost, etcetera).
And then you punish that guy who comes from a poor background and has to work 3 jobs while doing classes.
Then you're at issue with the original poster's school - with whom attendance was a concern.
Also, I think you present a false dillema and extreme situations.
The more you cram, the less you truly know the material, the worse off you are prepared for later classes. This is cover extensively in psychology and is known as overlearning. Cramming may be okay for the classes you take only to fill requirements, but it isn't a good model for the stuff you need to know.
Also, with flexible class times, you may take less than a full semester (2-3 classes) and graduate in 5-6 years instead of 4. The student who sets themselves up with too much often only has themselves to blame.
Depending on class size, the deterrent is already built in.
Small Classes - If they skip, the students will not be able to ask the professor questions. A podcast is just not the same.
Big Classes - What, then is the difference? Students can rarely ask questions or interact with the professor anyway.
If you really need a deterrent, make attendance affect their grade slightly. Like 5-10%. Allow 3 or 4 free classes free a semester.
If the professor/school wants attendance, you really need to build it into policy. Not encumber the technical solution with so much baggage as to make it too much hassle to use. That's counterproductive.
From my observations, the continued abuses on our Freedoms comes from the bottom up in society in a lot of situations. I mean, a lot of things ingrained in our basic groupthink (as a country) about things allows this sort of thing to happen. Many of the defiencies in the legal system (mostly that it seems Justice is bought, and that courts seem to care more about protocol than right or wrong anymore) stem from English Common Law and works it's way up from there - sort of like how Microsoft's security problems continually stem from the same sources. Until we address more than the symptoms, the problem continue to happen.
But you should specify where in the EU you are from. I recently hosted an Englishman at my place, and he says that while England is a police state and none of the younger generation want to live there any longer, he's for more draconian reforms since "if you have nothing to hide, what do you have to worry about?" Funny that, since he's moving out of England soon.
I think a countersuit is necessary to collect that sort of thing. Of course, the RIAA may offer to pay your lawyer fees as part of the settlement if they decide the best course of action is to withdraw and withdraw quickly.
On the case itself, wouldn't the best course of action be to make a few exact copies of that harddrive, just in case the original craps out if nothing else and also so the data can't be slightly altered by the "expert" witnesses.
Slashdot Mirror
OTOH,
.ogg as well. All the Windows CE devices on the market have a clunky OS and Palm (the company) seems unstable.
Since they are releasing "upgrades"/features on every generation of iPod - I think it's time for Apple to release a PDA, perhaps integrated into the iPod (since they are making bigger screens for movies anyway).
I would snap one of those up if it played
Right now, I don't think watching movies on a tiny screen is a great incentive for most people, though I'd love to be able to share short clips of things ala youtube.
Or the graph they mention?
The article doesn't tell me much as this
[quote]From its launch five years ago its sales graph showed a consistent upward curve, culminating in a period around last Christmas that saw a record 14 million sold. But sales fell to 8.5 million in the following quarter, and down to 8.1 million in the most recent three-month period. Wall Street is reportedly starting to worry that the bubble will burst.[/quote]
could just mean that iPod sales skyrocket around X-mas time.
Though perhaps the iPod market really is saturated. I think generic 1GB mp3 players on ebay are only like $30-50 including shipping that are better than a $200, plus have the benefit of being FM transmitters (for playing in the car stereo without no installation), act as USB sticks, etcetera.
I don't know how reliable those 3rd party devices are, though.
Maybe it's the "You get what you pay for" meme instead.
Afterall, as a Windows user, you pay for and recieve the finest viruses, trojans, and spyware in the world!
The linux world doesn't get this but Steve Ballmer does, as he screamed out about Developers! Developers! Developers! That's a man that doesn't ignore the people who scratch his back!
Linux, OTOH, not only ignores virus writers, script-kiddies, and malware developers, but by default they are also turning their back to Anti-Virus, and anti-malware (incidentally often 1 and the same with malware) developers.
In contrast, Microsoft even has an in-house team supporting script kiddies with programs such as Visual Basic and releasing multiple deployment environments for such programs such as Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Microsoft Office so that everyone can easily enjoy their work.
I see no such combined effort on the Linux front.
I'm sorry, but until the time comes when I hear about a major virus outbreak on Linux, I cannot take them so called Operating System seriously.
Thanks, however I would like to minimize all the windows in order and then click on the program (say Firefox) to bring up all of it's Windows into view. F11 doesn't allow me to do that AFAIK (otherwise Finder->Desktop would be fine just to see the desktop), and click on the icon on the bottom usually only brings one window back in front.
I could select the windows I want one by one from the icon, but's that's pretty slow. Maybe I'm just used to a gnome/windows toolbar in this regard.
I'm getting a Mac Book Pro for myself (after getting one for the parents) but I'm going to triple boot it, using Linux predominantly.
I need very few Windows programs (actually, I'm just thinking of running Windows in OS X). I actually use Windows only about 5-10% as much as I used to 2 years back, it's getting less usable by the year since Win2K in some aspects.
And Mac OS X is okay, I like the hardware/software integration the most. That and how installing programs is just drag and drop. It's really good for my parents because no viruses/spyware, etc. I mean, it's nice in some other things and I like Aquamacs (an Aqua-ized emacs tweaked to make it native to OS X) better than Emacs but that is about it.
The major downside is just hoping the various *nix programs are compiled for it, otherwise it's a major PITA if I have to go through something like Fink Commander. Aquamacs is native and no problem, but things like Gnucash has to be run by seperately starting a X session and then starning the *nix program. Even then, things like printing don't go as smoothly.
I actually prefer Ubuntu with some linux programs like Digikam than OSX. OS X has some minor issues, like having no "show desktop" button that I'd have to get a script for that doesn't always work correct. I also prefer Digikam for storing pictures over iPhoto (is it me or is that the most overhyped, unintuitive kludge of a program? Get's in my way so many times.)
I don't really use the rest of the mac programs (itunes, imovie, etcetera) so I may be one of the few that don't really care about that stuff.
After reading the article, which briefly mentioned small scale plants in Japan and failures in other countries like Germany, it's starting to sound a bit to good to be true.
BTW, does this mean trash powered Deloreans will be out in a few years? I won't even ask for time travel to be standard, it can be optional.
You know, I was actually going to mention FF7 but believed my biases were too much in play to mention it (last FF that I played).
It's following still astounds me today, as I figured years ago that it's popularity would have waned with the new games/systems.
Indeed!
I think this actually comes with every new medium. I'm sure when film first came into mainstream, there were people asking "But is it art?" But the question is inane anyway, as far a I am concerned. The summary asks "Is Shadow of the Colossus comparable to Leaves of Grass or Citizen Kane?" Why do they always trot out the most highly esteemed movies as representative of that medium?
They never ask if something is as/more worthy of art status than, say, Battlefield Earth? The reply may be that it's not a good movie, that it is in fact crap. That then only shows that there is nothing inherently magical in films as a medium that automatically elevates them to art.
Any creative endeavor can be art. Asking the question on every new medium does not make the question any more original.
My experience is that people who support EFF tend to run a free OS/software where this is much less a problem. As such, they are standing up for themselves in other ways.
If only more people supported the EFF. United We Stand, Divide We Fall (as applicable to political movements as to revolutions).
Why do some engineers work at companies instead of inventing things on their own? Why do some programmers become overworked code monkeys for someone else instead of on their own? Etcetera.
To branch out on your own takes some initiative, willingless to take hassles of entreprenuership that a 9-5 job doesn't have, and some guts.
Also, being a Professor has incentives on its own. It's more "pure," you get to deal in your subject all day if that is really your interest. You get to interact with a young crowd, some with fresh ideas - the rest looking at you with the wide eyes of a deer caught in the headlights when you ask them a question, or perhaps that perpetually bored/dumb expression of a zombie, some drool hanging off the sides of their mouth, as they wade through your lecture and are just waiting for the end of class to bolt out of the class they are only taking to fulfill requirements.
The landfill or Chase?
Imagine if Blockbuster patented renting out movies. Where would netflix be?
SCO is suing Netflix for stealing its business method....
Maybe it's because she understood it to be a wee mote, not like a wiimote.
Isn't that a little shortsighted? Wouldn't the appropriate thing to do is punish the student? Because if they don't copy wikipedia, they same student will just copy another website or perhaps a book which is harder to track.
Anyway, on the issue of tech in the classroom - it's actually good in areas where technology just works. Think, for instance, about Graphing Calculators. Aren't they pretty good? I know I probably checked out a lot more functions than if I had to draw it by hand. Of course, I still know how to draw it by hand..... (thinking of all the cashier in places who can't add/subtract change w/o the register).
Technology tends to break down in the classroom when it stops being a pretty focused tool that's simply convenient and turns into some ill-defined and ill-focused panacea and prevent the student from thinking on their own.
There were lots of uses of technology which gave me a better understanding of the subject material, like in science classes there was Carl Sagan's excellent Cosmos series (I still consider the simple TV&VCR tech in the classroom). And Lego's mindstorms are pretty damn creative and a good intro to programming (thinking in that way).
But I haven't seen that many good software titles. When learning foreign languages, I'm still looking for a decent Japanese software title - but most edutainment (is that what they still call it?) sucks.
And learning/thinking still is hard work for many people. You can't sit the student in front of the computer and expect them to be taught. The programs/tools need to be focused on the job, and environments where you can just fire up the ICQ/browser when you should be working (speaking of which....) is a terrible temptation - especially for the young.
Privacy shouldn't be such a concern with most businesses one deals with (exceptions such as the doctor and ATT should but don't always apply) because you would have the option of telling them nothing and therefore they couldn't sell it (it always astounds me how much info people give out @ radio shack's checkout - i tell them to fuck off unless they want to lose a sale) except that they demand and verify information based on numbers (SSN primarily) that were never designed for such a purposes to do certain transactions.
The EU has much better privacy laws in this regard and it is correct to impose this if I as a consumer have no choice in what info I have to give out to even get service.
It disturbs me on how much damage that can be done to someone simply by knowing their SSN and a few pieces of publicly verifiable data.
When I hear that methods for swinging on a swing get patented, I think one major problem to preventing the nonobvious is all the bullshit and jargon speak that's there to confuse the clerks. If the confusing jargon were to be actively punished in the patent system (no fines, just take the lawyer/his client in the back and paddle them, ala Singapore) a lot of taxpayer expense would be spared.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2178
I think this is what got us into all this mess in the first place.....
One of the problems of this country is that Congressmen and Senators is inhabited 90% by lawyers. Lawyers almost always fix the system so their kind profit the most.
Imagine if 90% of congress were butchers, doctors, etcetera.
by religning their administration to the original stated goals. We have to reevaluate what we have patents for. When the founding fathers put them in the constitution, it was to promote progress and the sciences. They stated this themselves.
Yet, during WW2, the government invalidated many radio patents to spur progress (and help the war effort) and radio considerably advanced in that period. Also, computer science advanced very nicely in the US until software patents showed up.
It seems that, if anything, patents hinder progress in many cases. It seems to me that patents help in situations where there is no market yet or is very research heavy (drug industry) and help funnel research in such an area, but once a competitive market is established, it only hinders progress in many instances.
So a blanket ban on patents seem unfeasible but perhaps there should be a ban of patent by industry. Industries with rapid progress should have no patents because the promotion of science and advancement is obviously not needed.
OTOH, where there is very little market or industry itself has a high upfront/continuing costs - an extra incentive is needed (protection at the marketplace) and thus patents are necessary.
In other words, patents will be considered almost like tax incentives.
The problem with patents today, in lieu of manufacturing going overseas, is that the US is trying to pad its economy with IP, so the government as a whole has no incentive to be sparing of patents. This path is problematic and will impoverish us all over time. We really need to overhaul the patent system.
I would be particularly interested in hearing the opinions of historians who have studied scientific revolutions/industrial revolutions/economic upheavals of the past and what their opinions about the environment/variables that time has shown truly promote advancement/progress.
can they do this without paying royalties to him?
Perhaps the Cuecat.
I don't know if it failed because it was too low of a price, but it was free and still failed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat
(I actually think that if they made the CueCat into a normal or optical mouse at the same time, more people would have readily used it and eventually used the scanning device more too, and it would have had the benefits of not adding more crap onto the desk, wouldn't have added much to the manufacturing cost, etcetera).
Then you're at issue with the original poster's school - with whom attendance was a concern.
Also, I think you present a false dillema and extreme situations.
The more you cram, the less you truly know the material, the worse off you are prepared for later classes. This is cover extensively in psychology and is known as overlearning. Cramming may be okay for the classes you take only to fill requirements, but it isn't a good model for the stuff you need to know.
Also, with flexible class times, you may take less than a full semester (2-3 classes) and graduate in 5-6 years instead of 4. The student who sets themselves up with too much often only has themselves to blame.
Depending on class size, the deterrent is already built in.
Small Classes - If they skip, the students will not be able to ask the professor questions. A podcast is just not the same.
Big Classes - What, then is the difference? Students can rarely ask questions or interact with the professor anyway.
If you really need a deterrent, make attendance affect their grade slightly. Like 5-10%. Allow 3 or 4 free classes free a semester.
If the professor/school wants attendance, you really need to build it into policy. Not encumber the technical solution with so much baggage as to make it too much hassle to use. That's counterproductive.
From my observations, the continued abuses on our Freedoms comes from the bottom up in society in a lot of situations. I mean, a lot of things ingrained in our basic groupthink (as a country) about things allows this sort of thing to happen. Many of the defiencies in the legal system (mostly that it seems Justice is bought, and that courts seem to care more about protocol than right or wrong anymore) stem from English Common Law and works it's way up from there - sort of like how Microsoft's security problems continually stem from the same sources. Until we address more than the symptoms, the problem continue to happen.
But you should specify where in the EU you are from. I recently hosted an Englishman at my place, and he says that while England is a police state and none of the younger generation want to live there any longer, he's for more draconian reforms since "if you have nothing to hide, what do you have to worry about?" Funny that, since he's moving out of England soon.
I think a countersuit is necessary to collect that sort of thing. Of course, the RIAA may offer to pay your lawyer fees as part of the settlement if they decide the best course of action is to withdraw and withdraw quickly.
On the case itself, wouldn't the best course of action be to make a few exact copies of that harddrive, just in case the original craps out if nothing else and also so the data can't be slightly altered by the "expert" witnesses.