I think you are correct. In the past, Nintendo has stumbled with innovation (Gameboy VR anyone?) but as I haven't bought a console in a generation and haven't really played since the Super Nintendo. I waiting for the consoles to make games fun again (I can't control 3d FPS games too well), other than Metal Gear Solid series, Sony doesn't offer much what I want.
I hope Nintendo Wii's new controller is as innovative as they say. And that it will help developers get the beginning players into the games easily, perhaps a return to the simplicity of the 80's/early 90s.
As such, judging the new media based on existing media may not be valid. We'll have to wait and see. It is worth noting that Durabis can be used on CDs and DVDs as well -- hopefully we'll eventually see some (and at reasonable prices) so that a longetivity comparison can be done between them.
I bought some under $1 a piece online after I found out that 1 out of every 3 backup DVDs didn't work because of scratches (not because of faulty burning nor age).
Up to now, it works fairly well. Now, they claim it stands up to screwdriver or steelwool, I don't know about that, possibly.
But none of those extensively used backup DVD-Rs are even scratched slightly (40+ of these DVDs). And there are no fingerprints because I can take a paper towel and clean them - good as new! On a normal DVD this would definitely cause scratches.
Now I only wish they covered my DVD movies in this stuff. Why the industry doesn't is beyond my guess. Perhaps they want to force me to buy their movies multiple times (which I won't). Someone gave me Pirates of the Carribean brand new a while back and that just died of a multitude of scratches - don't even know how it got on there:(
Take it in context. Gaming isn't an inherently dangerous activity, like say, mountain climbing, bungee-jumping, or even driving.
The danger they are describing isn't a physical one (for the most part) but a social, personal and pyschological one primarily - the deaths simply highlight how extreme the problem is in some people.
Replace the word gaming with internet, wouldn't you sit up and take notice if several people died from internet addiction?
That said, I don't blame gaming, because it might as well be replaced with the word internet. But as in everything else, learn (and teach the kids) moderation.
As far as per capita tax, I did a search on Google. It really doesn't look like somthing that is widely practiced. I've lived in 4 US states myself and have never run into it.
I'll try to find a link later, but my relatives have tenant houses in 3 different townships (in the same state) and the procedure is the same in each one. I'm not surprised you, as a tenant, are unaware of the information being sent, (confirmed) every three months in this case, as the landlords usually have this information on hand for convenience. It's not something that confronts the tenant head-on.
After that, Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel.
The reason I recommend lisp is this: I started on C/C++ and those languages were always a pain to program in, I was wrestling them to translate the ideas in my head to the screen. Lisp is pretty easy once learned (easier than most languages I find), especially when you have to learn about Algorithms and Data Structures, a language like lisp is a godsend compared to C or C++ (as lists are a built in type, you can concentrate on the algorith, not the code, mallocing or free correctly, etcetera).
The same goes for scheme (different dialent still lisp) or dylan (though I prefer prefix notation.)
Yes. For example there are about 100 nations including France and Germany that have national ID cards.
One of which I'm a citizen of through my parents. Here, instead of one equivalent are multiple. Without IDs, I cannot work (SS#) nor drive (license with photo) - so what difference does it make?
If I really don't want to work or drive, I still have to ID myself with a birth certificate.
In general there seems to be a correlation between the use of common law and the lack of a national ID card. Those countries that don't have such a card always have something equivalent to the US social security card, which is considerably better because it is at least ostensibly a single purpose (tax and social benefit ID). You are going to have to tell me how a tax system is going to work without smoething like an SS number.
I'm not arguing against IDs, just the reasoning people have saying America is freer of them than Europe.
The SS# was supposed to be for a single purpose, but because of no laws regulating, has been tied to everything these days. I need it to get a passport, job, credit and any other application I can think of. Supposed to be and reality are two different thing, and sadly, the government is responsible for this situation by not passing laws from the beginning forbidding the rampant use of SS# for things it was never intended for.
Really? Do you have documentation of that? I've never heard of such a thing.
My relatives (landlord) are legally obligated to register who lives in their buildings every three months to their township. It is done for purposes of "per capita" tax. Because it's local (and local law), as I said it in many areas, not all of them. Look it up for your local area.
How is a tax system going to work without a SS#? Well, since it was introduced in the 1930, and income tax came in around early 1900 - the US government seemed to work fine for 30 years without it.
You have a point. But look at how Microsoft, Ebay, AOL, etcetera are running around lately like headless chickens all looking for the next pot o' gold (fad) at the end of the rainbow to defeat Google. They are all truly scared what Google is going to do next and are reacting with little thought, wasting resources and energy shadow boxing google.
How many worthless initiatives does MS alone announce these days to defeat Google? Run read/. to find out.
And google can spend it's time conserving resources and energy, developing, innovating, and not paying attention/reacting to every little move the competition makes.
I don't think Google being completely transparent would be a strategic advantage right now. Let MS and the other wear themselves out first chasing rainbows.
Do you think America is any less of an ID culture?
In most areas, your landlord is required to report who lives at his apartements to the township/county. If you want to work, you need a social security card and number. Bank account? Even if it's only a positive balance (where the bank gives you no credit) - fill out 15 forms please, and 3 forms of ID. Want to go to community college, same thing + certificate of residence. Oh, and to get a blockbuster card (at my local blockbuster) is probably harder to get than security clearance in some areas (at least back in the 90's, before I got Netflix).
What can you really do without ID? Drive around? Nope. Oh, yeah, walk to places (with our great public transport comparable to Europe) like a bar, where they check your ID in some places if you "look" under 30. *SNORT*
So, in the end, this is business as usual. What I do care about are stolen identities - because CC companies and the same don't check ID and anybody can take your mail, fill in information that may be correct or not, get your SS# (not so hard as it's ubiquitously used these days) and, without one face to face meeting with anybody verifying their ID before approval, ride your good credit rating down the drainpipe.
I wonder if Europe is any better in this direction at least.
The summary does a poor job of presenting the article. The article is more about the poor job Google is doing with communicating with their customers, especially when things go wrong. Customers in this sense are paying advertisers, not search engine users, picasa users, google earth users, etcetera.
That said, secrecy is useful for an organization. When you are telling the world what you are doing, so you are telling your competition. So it's not all bad.
According to PJ, the ruling will be hard to overturn as the 'submitters knew about the prior art but failed to tell the USPTO about it.'"
Even if they didn't know about the prior art, why should it affect the ruling if prior art was involved? Since they knew about prior art but didn't report it, they should be fined.
First off- what does the density of transistors on silicon have to do with processing power?
Oh no, the overly-serious tech Nazi, a cousin of the grammar/spelling nazi.
First off- A lot. Particularly with how many transistors you can fit on a chip. Is it any coincidence that the number of transistors increases with every generation of chips? Yes, there are other factors involved but there is a reason they try for smaller die processes every time.
Secondly- even using the false version of Moore's law (power doubling every 18 months) a 2-3x increase is all you ought to expect. By plain math, 5 years is 3 periods, or a factor of 8. However, the processor is not the bottleneck in the system- the RAM is, particularly RAM latency. It doesn't matter if you can do 1 billion operations per second or 1 trillion if you can only read 1 million from RAM in that time. And RAM latency is not decreasing at anything near a Moore's law rate- its hardly going down at all. A 2-3x increase over 5 years is a pretty solid increase, if you were to benchmark a 5 year old PC against a modern one you'd see about the same difference.
This really depends on the metric you are using.
For instance, on the PS2 vs PS3
Memory Bandwidth: 3.2GB vs 20-25GB
There are 5.5+ years between those systems though, but it seems on track with 8x.
With that $11 price tag, you are assuming they are using regular flash memory. Perhaps they want the 40x flash, which is faster and more expensive. About $40-50 for a 512MB unit. That might make more sense in a multimedia system for faster load times.
The Jaguar, Saturn, Neo-Geo, and Turbografix were all consoles that were on the cutting edge of technology. They all lost out to consoles that were inexpensive, built with off-the-shelf components (plus/minus a custom part or two), and were easily manufactured using less-than-cutting-edge technology.
I believe the Jaguar was based on Motorala 6800 CPU (16 bit, Mac). My friend had one. I was under the distinct impression, compared to the Sony PS, that it was a cheap PoS with no 3rd party support. Neo-Geo was just too expensive compared to the competition. Saturn was designed to be the ultimate 2D monster, and they started scrambling back to R&D when Playstation changed the game into 3D games.
Also notice, that unlike Windows, your installation probably came with useful software devoid of nag registration screens. Windows comes almost completely bare (at least now it has a CD burning utility right?), unless it's from a Dell or somebody, in which case it would be full of bloatware - 99% of which would be useless.
And even if it was missing something, many distros let you download software from central repositories instead of hunting around for it. Other than it's own self-sustaining monopoly, Windows doesn't have any great competitive edge.
I think it would be better if they had it at $200, buy 1 and give 1 situation. With an option to pay the $200 and giving both to needy children.
$300 seems like a steep pricepoint to me to get in as a consumer or a donator. $199 sounds affordable to me either way - cheap for a gadget I might like and cheap as a total donation.
Looking at the pricing of consoles (a generation past) and the Nintendo Wii might show this.
No, it's not plagiarism but possibly copyright infringement if carried to the extreme.
Plagiarism is specifically taking another's work and presenting it as your own. Of course, if you give a professor an essay consisting only of one long attributed quote - he won't fail you for plagiarism, but for having no original content of your own, perhaps also for not showing any original thought either.
I know there are some rights you can lose if you are convicted of a felony, even after serving time. IIRC, you also don't get a passport, meaning you can't travel outside the country.
Those laws are the basis of a pending case against two lobbyists, but they have never been used to prosecute journalists.
Some legal scholars say that even if the plain language of the laws could be read to reach journalists, the laws were never intended to apply to the press. In any event, these scholars say, prosecuting reporters under the laws might violate the First Amendment.
Why is it not okay to prosecute Journalists but okay to prosecute lobbyists?
No, I'm not for prosecuting journalists, but the 1st amendment gives us all freedom of speech and freedom of the press - narrowing down who gets freedom of the press - in this case journalists - only serves to defeat the amendment. I'm tired of seeing the press get a free ticket because they are "real professionals" and people like bloggers get written off, as if the founding fathers intended the right to apply to only those who attended journalism school.
And what are lobbyists doing with state secrets anyhow? Shouldn't the people who gave them this info, who swore an oath to the government, and signed confidentiality agreements be the ones prosecuted?
In a somewhat similiar situation - I hope in a few years inventory for 1-of-a-kind (not mass) items will become more automatic and economic to do all this via RFID tags when the readers become cheaper. I know my household would need it, just for the amount of books that go missing (have over 3K books and 2K magazines, many out of print) that are important for my wife's job in antiquities research.*
*Yes, it would be easier to have it all stay in a designated library room, but then reality hits.
in the past, also on previous slashdot posts when patents came up.
I would also think a bounty for disproving the application (showing prior art, that the application is too vague or obvious or whatnot), coming directly from a percentage of the applicant fee would be wise - $250 to $5000. Applicant fees should also be raised, individual applicants within a certain income bracket should have to pay the lowest, while mega-corps have to pay the highest fee (within reason) - and this fee would also be reflected in the bounty.
Let's face it: Altruism is great, but a little incentive goes a long way. Just as most Linux Kernel contributors are employed by a company directly benefitting from Linux, I think it's ridiculous for the government to try to unload the work they are doing poorly on us without some compensation (and who best than those providing the work, the applicants) - didn't the government do the same with the Iraqi documents now?
Slashdot Mirror
I think you are correct. In the past, Nintendo has stumbled with innovation (Gameboy VR anyone?) but as I haven't bought a console in a generation and haven't really played since the Super Nintendo. I waiting for the consoles to make games fun again (I can't control 3d FPS games too well), other than Metal Gear Solid series, Sony doesn't offer much what I want.
I hope Nintendo Wii's new controller is as innovative as they say. And that it will help developers get the beginning players into the games easily, perhaps a return to the simplicity of the 80's/early 90s.
You can get scratchproof DVD-Rs already.
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=dvd+scratchpr
I bought some under $1 a piece online after I found out that 1 out of every 3 backup DVDs didn't work because of scratches (not because of faulty burning nor age).
Up to now, it works fairly well. Now, they claim it stands up to screwdriver or steelwool, I don't know about that, possibly.
But none of those extensively used backup DVD-Rs are even scratched slightly (40+ of these DVDs). And there are no fingerprints because I can take a paper towel and clean them - good as new! On a normal DVD this would definitely cause scratches.
Now I only wish they covered my DVD movies in this stuff. Why the industry doesn't is beyond my guess. Perhaps they want to force me to buy their movies multiple times (which I won't). Someone gave me Pirates of the Carribean brand new a while back and that just died of a multitude of scratches - don't even know how it got on there:(
Take it in context. Gaming isn't an inherently dangerous activity, like say, mountain climbing, bungee-jumping, or even driving.
The danger they are describing isn't a physical one (for the most part) but a social, personal and pyschological one primarily - the deaths simply highlight how extreme the problem is in some people.
Replace the word gaming with internet, wouldn't you sit up and take notice if several people died from internet addiction?
That said, I don't blame gaming, because it might as well be replaced with the word internet. But as in everything else, learn (and teach the kids) moderation.
I'll try to find a link later, but my relatives have tenant houses in 3 different townships (in the same state) and the procedure is the same in each one. I'm not surprised you, as a tenant, are unaware of the information being sent, (confirmed) every three months in this case, as the landlords usually have this information on hand for convenience. It's not something that confronts the tenant head-on.
You left out a language like Lisp.
/ www/LispBook/index.html
I recommend the free book Common Lisp: A Gentle Guide to Symbolic Computation.
http://www-cgi.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/dst
After that, Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel.
The reason I recommend lisp is this: I started on C/C++ and those languages were always a pain to program in, I was wrestling them to translate the ideas in my head to the screen. Lisp is pretty easy once learned (easier than most languages I find), especially when you have to learn about Algorithms and Data Structures, a language like lisp is a godsend compared to C or C++ (as lists are a built in type, you can concentrate on the algorith, not the code, mallocing or free correctly, etcetera).
The same goes for scheme (different dialent still lisp) or dylan (though I prefer prefix notation.)
Taking your reasoning to the end, though, I am left with the question "Who created the creator?"
One of which I'm a citizen of through my parents. Here, instead of one equivalent are multiple. Without IDs, I cannot work (SS#) nor drive (license with photo) - so what difference does it make?
If I really don't want to work or drive, I still have to ID myself with a birth certificate.
I'm not arguing against IDs, just the reasoning people have saying America is freer of them than Europe.
The SS# was supposed to be for a single purpose, but because of no laws regulating, has been tied to everything these days. I need it to get a passport, job, credit and any other application I can think of. Supposed to be and reality are two different thing, and sadly, the government is responsible for this situation by not passing laws from the beginning forbidding the rampant use of SS# for things it was never intended for.
My relatives (landlord) are legally obligated to register who lives in their buildings every three months to their township. It is done for purposes of "per capita" tax. Because it's local (and local law), as I said it in many areas, not all of them. Look it up for your local area.
How is a tax system going to work without a SS#? Well, since it was introduced in the 1930, and income tax came in around early 1900 - the US government seemed to work fine for 30 years without it.
You have a point. But look at how Microsoft, Ebay, AOL, etcetera are running around lately like headless chickens all looking for the next pot o' gold (fad) at the end of the rainbow to defeat Google. They are all truly scared what Google is going to do next and are reacting with little thought, wasting resources and energy shadow boxing google.
/. to find out.
How many worthless initiatives does MS alone announce these days to defeat Google? Run read
And google can spend it's time conserving resources and energy, developing, innovating, and not paying attention/reacting to every little move the competition makes.
I don't think Google being completely transparent would be a strategic advantage right now. Let MS and the other wear themselves out first chasing rainbows.
Do you think America is any less of an ID culture?
In most areas, your landlord is required to report who lives at his apartements to the township/county. If you want to work, you need a social security card and number. Bank account? Even if it's only a positive balance (where the bank gives you no credit) - fill out 15 forms please, and 3 forms of ID. Want to go to community college, same thing + certificate of residence. Oh, and to get a blockbuster card (at my local blockbuster) is probably harder to get than security clearance in some areas (at least back in the 90's, before I got Netflix).
What can you really do without ID? Drive around? Nope. Oh, yeah, walk to places (with our great public transport comparable to Europe) like a bar, where they check your ID in some places if you "look" under 30. *SNORT*
So, in the end, this is business as usual. What I do care about are stolen identities - because CC companies and the same don't check ID and anybody can take your mail, fill in information that may be correct or not, get your SS# (not so hard as it's ubiquitously used these days) and, without one face to face meeting with anybody verifying their ID before approval, ride your good credit rating down the drainpipe.
I wonder if Europe is any better in this direction at least.
The summary does a poor job of presenting the article. The article is more about the poor job Google is doing with communicating with their customers, especially when things go wrong. Customers in this sense are paying advertisers, not search engine users, picasa users, google earth users, etcetera.
That said, secrecy is useful for an organization. When you are telling the world what you are doing, so you are telling your competition. So it's not all bad.
Because AT&T is playing along when they don't have to. I believe at least one major phone company (QWest?) was reported as not playing along.
Even if they didn't know about the prior art, why should it affect the ruling if prior art was involved? Since they knew about prior art but didn't report it, they should be fined.
Oh no, the overly-serious tech Nazi, a cousin of the grammar/spelling nazi.
First off- A lot. Particularly with how many transistors you can fit on a chip. Is it any coincidence that the number of transistors increases with every generation of chips? Yes, there are other factors involved but there is a reason they try for smaller die processes every time.
This really depends on the metric you are using.
For instance, on the PS2 vs PS3
Memory Bandwidth:
3.2GB vs 20-25GB
There are 5.5+ years between those systems though, but it seems on track with 8x.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3#Hardwa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2#Techni
I think William Zinsser would have something to say on this topic:
c es/zinsser.htm
http://www.cla.wayne.edu/polisci/kdk/general/sour
Only 2-3x more powerful? That seems a little weak for being an upgrade to a system that is over 5 years old and considering Moore's law.
I believe the Jaguar was based on Motorala 6800 CPU (16 bit, Mac). My friend had one. I was under the distinct impression, compared to the Sony PS, that it was a cheap PoS with no 3rd party support. Neo-Geo was just too expensive compared to the competition. Saturn was designed to be the ultimate 2D monster, and they started scrambling back to R&D when Playstation changed the game into 3D games.
I don't remember the Turbografx too well though.
Also notice, that unlike Windows, your installation probably came with useful software devoid of nag registration screens. Windows comes almost completely bare (at least now it has a CD burning utility right?), unless it's from a Dell or somebody, in which case it would be full of bloatware - 99% of which would be useless.
And even if it was missing something, many distros let you download software from central repositories instead of hunting around for it. Other than it's own self-sustaining monopoly, Windows doesn't have any great competitive edge.
I think it would be better if they had it at $200, buy 1 and give 1 situation. With an option to pay the $200 and giving both to needy children.
$300 seems like a steep pricepoint to me to get in as a consumer or a donator. $199 sounds affordable to me either way - cheap for a gadget I might like and cheap as a total donation.
Looking at the pricing of consoles (a generation past) and the Nintendo Wii might show this.
No, it's not plagiarism but possibly copyright infringement if carried to the extreme.
Plagiarism is specifically taking another's work and presenting it as your own. Of course, if you give a professor an essay consisting only of one long attributed quote - he won't fail you for plagiarism, but for having no original content of your own, perhaps also for not showing any original thought either.
Perhaps he meant permanently?
I know there are some rights you can lose if you are convicted of a felony, even after serving time. IIRC, you also don't get a passport, meaning you can't travel outside the country.
Then shouldn't both parties be prosecuted:)
I hope Microsoft really goes for this bigtime. Hopefully it will become pay-as-they-go as everyone goes for a Mac or Linux.
Why is it not okay to prosecute Journalists but okay to prosecute lobbyists?
No, I'm not for prosecuting journalists, but the 1st amendment gives us all freedom of speech and freedom of the press - narrowing down who gets freedom of the press - in this case journalists - only serves to defeat the amendment. I'm tired of seeing the press get a free ticket because they are "real professionals" and people like bloggers get written off, as if the founding fathers intended the right to apply to only those who attended journalism school.
And what are lobbyists doing with state secrets anyhow? Shouldn't the people who gave them this info, who swore an oath to the government, and signed confidentiality agreements be the ones prosecuted?
In a somewhat similiar situation - I hope in a few years inventory for 1-of-a-kind (not mass) items will become more automatic and economic to do all this via RFID tags when the readers become cheaper. I know my household would need it, just for the amount of books that go missing (have over 3K books and 2K magazines, many out of print) that are important for my wife's job in antiquities research.*
*Yes, it would be easier to have it all stay in a designated library room, but then reality hits.
in the past, also on previous slashdot posts when patents came up.
I would also think a bounty for disproving the application (showing prior art, that the application is too vague or obvious or whatnot), coming directly from a percentage of the applicant fee would be wise - $250 to $5000. Applicant fees should also be raised, individual applicants within a certain income bracket should have to pay the lowest, while mega-corps have to pay the highest fee (within reason) - and this fee would also be reflected in the bounty.
Let's face it: Altruism is great, but a little incentive goes a long way. Just as most Linux Kernel contributors are employed by a company directly benefitting from Linux, I think it's ridiculous for the government to try to unload the work they are doing poorly on us without some compensation (and who best than those providing the work, the applicants) - didn't the government do the same with the Iraqi documents now?