Does anyone ever wonder why, in spite of many historical disasters, the US population in the principal earthquake regions continues to grow? Who profits from this?
>Yeah, I'm working on a worm to kill off the worm that was >supposed to fix Blaster, but I've been busy and haven't >gotten it out yet. Look for it in your mailboxes tomorrow!
Making the iPod available for Windows, is just another indication that Apple is opening up to a whole new market.
you're right, but you're wrong about the market: Apple didn't port iTunes to windows, they're using a 3rd party to give them software support (musicmatch jukebox). They're selling digital lifestyle devices that work on windows, but work better on a mac.
following the paradigm to StarOffice/OpenOffice, they'll be doing the same thing: selling (or bundling) something that works on windows/linux but works better on OS X.
by following that strategy, they're getting their foot in the door about how good their products are, without forcing people to switch overnight. That way, they attract more people to their products that have more lucrative margins. If they ported OS X to x86 hardware, they'd only cannibalize their margins that are keeping them in the black even in this economy, and place them in direct competition with microsoft over OS licenses. Not to say OS X wouldn't/couldn't win that, but the vast majority of computer users are idiots, creatures of habit. give them a choice between OS X - a wicked powerful OS that's a whole different story even to traditional mac users - and windows - the same thing they've been using for their whole lives, no matter how worthless it is - and they'll pick the one they've been using. even if it's more expensive. even if it's worse. hahaha, "if" hahaha.
>...and in a short time, we'll no longer be able >to put CD tracks directly into MP3 format.
What makes you say that? AFAIK, no one can make the format illegal/expensive to use, the only area of influence is in the codecs. So we may not have integrated-with-OS apps for ripping mp3, but we will still have open source alternatives for encoding.
the only reason i'm going to college is for the fast fast internet connections...maybe i should just quit college, get DSL or Cable and save a few 10s of thousands of dollars a year.....nah, what a silly idea.
WARNING
excessive and shameless advertising and gloating ahead
WARNING
reading the info on my new iPod, i can't help but recall that it states specifically that the iPod has upgradeable firmware. why? to fix bugs... and to support future audio formats, not just AIFF, WAV, and MP3.
it seems no one has mentioned a (perhaps the) definitive work on this subject (among others): Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence
It says that one of the major things wrong with society today (and yesterday and tomorrow) is the "leave it to the pros" mentality that many people adopt regarding 'technology,' be it a computer, a leaky faucet, a motorcycle, or a car. I think most slashdotters have a DIY frame of mind when it comes to computers, but I think limiting that attitude to computers alone is confusing. One of the key elements of a curious, enthusiastic, and gumptionful attitude is that it encompasses anything and everything it comes across. So, before you write off car maintainence, think about the zeal with which you would attack a similar problem on a computer, think about what knowledge and tools you are missing to perform said fix, and get to it!
limit as neat factor approaches zero
on
Textmode Quake 2
·
· Score: 1
seriously, the neat factor degrades in about the time it takes to render one frame as text...oh wait, i meant that to be a short period of time...
i'm not sure how many people know about the Tunney Act or what it means to the Microsoft settlement thing, but I for one can't imagine any positive reinforcement taking place in them.
"hmmm, Microsoft seems to have broken those silly antitrust laws again...what are we to do?"
"hey, i know! why don't we force them to sign something that says they'll be good little monopolies and at the same time make them pay their damages by expanding their marketshare in education...every one's a winner!"
>The new study found a variety of polyols in two meteorites, both thought to have originated in the main asteroid belt between >Mars and Jupiter.
I recall some theory about the origins of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter saying that it might have been a planet once upon a time, and then got destroyed for whatever reason...
...time for sci-fi theories galore...
this lends support to the Great Experiment Theory. Some higher being is experiementing with us...the previous experiment (planet betwen mars and jupiter) got too nosy for its own good so they had to destroy it, sort of like how penicillin is used to control bacteria reproduction. However, rather than start the whole thing over from scratch again, They just arranged for the essential elements of life to be transferred from the old experiment to the new one...Earth.
i think there was a sci-fi short story about this in a mag i read years ago...
problem is, how often are you going to have to buy the update to the book to stay on top of things, and how far behind 'the scene' is the book already by the time it's published? I would think the dynamic nature of these things would make books on web security a trifle behind the times and impractical, kind of like a dictionary of street slang: It'll get the general stuff right, but the details and inflection are always changing, and the world's in the details.
However, this ringing review would indicate otherwise. please enlighten?
all of this is very well an good, but what i keep seeing is [new] products that, even when they are better than the old standard, cheaper, etc, they are not adopted because there are way too many new options to choose from and none of them can be as 'universal' as the current standard. Case in point: any alternative to floppy drives. also, any competitor to Windows and/or MS Office. So we stick with something that is inferior because we've never done anything new and besides, everybody else is still doing it too.
Another article, from the Observer News Service, by Robin McKie, Titled "NASA mulls ways to move earth," may shed some light on where the funding is going:
it outlines how, in order to prevent/cease global warming, "a group of NASA engineers and American astronomers" are planning on altering the earth's orbit in favor of a "safer, colder part of the solar system."
Techniques for said plan include "carefully directing a comet or asteroid so that it sweeps close past our planet and transfers some of its gravitational energy to Earth."
the aforementioned engineers and astronomers do realize that "there is also the vexed question of the moon." which, apparently, would most likely be "stripped away from Earth...radically upsetting our planet's climate."
If we were to spend more time organising ourselves rationally through our government, and less time irrationally competing to produce slightly differently branded soft drinks, we would by now have a colony on Mars...
if we really spend more time organizing ourselves rationally through our government etc a colony on mars would be unecessary because the Earth would be a nice place to live...
after NASA has learned its lesson on metric vs imperial units on that mars mission that got lost, i can just see it...
"5km? how much is that?...Better move it just in case."
I have read "The Code Book" but don't have my copy with me, so please correct me if I am wrong. The impression I got from the section on Quantum Cryptography was that single photons would be used to securely transmit a full length random encryption key, where an eavesdropper could be detected and/or avoided. This key could then be used in a type of encryption known as a Vigenere Square, which (according to The Code Book) has been mathematically proven to be unbreakable when used with a full length random key. In this way, the LED in the article could be one component of a truly uncrackable encryption system. You still need a viable means of long range transmission and detection to make it practical though...
Slashdot Mirror
the architects do
>Yeah, I'm working on a worm to kill off the worm that was
>supposed to fix Blaster, but I've been busy and haven't
>gotten it out yet. Look for it in your mailboxes tomorrow!
there was an old lady, who swallowed a fly...
Making the iPod available for Windows, is just another indication that Apple is opening up to a whole new market.
you're right, but you're wrong about the market: Apple didn't port iTunes to windows, they're using a 3rd party to give them software support (musicmatch jukebox). They're selling digital lifestyle devices that work on windows, but work better on a mac.
following the paradigm to StarOffice/OpenOffice, they'll be doing the same thing: selling (or bundling) something that works on windows/linux but works better on OS X.
by following that strategy, they're getting their foot in the door about how good their products are, without forcing people to switch overnight. That way, they attract more people to their products that have more lucrative margins. If they ported OS X to x86 hardware, they'd only cannibalize their margins that are keeping them in the black even in this economy, and place them in direct competition with microsoft over OS licenses. Not to say OS X wouldn't/couldn't win that, but the vast majority of computer users are idiots, creatures of habit. give them a choice between OS X - a wicked powerful OS that's a whole different story even to traditional mac users - and windows - the same thing they've been using for their whole lives, no matter how worthless it is - and they'll pick the one they've been using. even if it's more expensive. even if it's worse. hahaha, "if" hahaha.
>...and in a short time, we'll no longer be able
>to put CD tracks directly into MP3 format.
What makes you say that? AFAIK, no one can make the format illegal/expensive to use, the only area of influence is in the codecs. So we may not have integrated-with-OS apps for ripping mp3, but we will still have open source alternatives for encoding.
am I missing something?
the only reason i'm going to college is for the fast fast internet connections...maybe i should just quit college, get DSL or Cable and save a few 10s of thousands of dollars a year.....nah, what a silly idea.
;^)
as long as form=content bands like nofx exist, i don't think we'll see the mass migration to electronica that you are predicting.
Downfall of the RIAA , commercial radio, and the general Decline of society, maybe, but good guitar noise will last longer than you think, i think.
WARNING
excessive and shameless advertising and gloating ahead
WARNING
reading the info on my new iPod, i can't help but recall that it states specifically that the iPod has upgradeable firmware. why? to fix bugs... and to support future audio formats, not just AIFF, WAV, and MP3.
problem solved.
it seems no one has mentioned a (perhaps the) definitive work on this subject (among others): Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence
It says that one of the major things wrong with society today (and yesterday and tomorrow) is the "leave it to the pros" mentality that many people adopt regarding 'technology,' be it a computer, a leaky faucet, a motorcycle, or a car. I think most slashdotters have a DIY frame of mind when it comes to computers, but I think limiting that attitude to computers alone is confusing. One of the key elements of a curious, enthusiastic, and gumptionful attitude is that it encompasses anything and everything it comes across. So, before you write off car maintainence, think about the zeal with which you would attack a similar problem on a computer, think about what knowledge and tools you are missing to perform said fix, and get to it!
seriously, the neat factor degrades in about the time it takes to render one frame as text...oh wait, i meant that to be a short period of time...
i'm not sure how many people know about the Tunney Act or what it means to the Microsoft settlement thing, but I for one can't imagine any positive reinforcement taking place in them. "hmmm, Microsoft seems to have broken those silly antitrust laws again...what are we to do?"
"hey, i know! why don't we force them to sign something that says they'll be good little monopolies and at the same time make them pay their damages by expanding their marketshare in education...every one's a winner!"
--
Isn't this the point where the government should be stepping in to do somethi...oh wait. nevermind.
>The new study found a variety of polyols in two meteorites, both thought to have originated in the main asteroid belt between
...time for sci-fi theories galore...
>Mars and Jupiter.
I recall some theory about the origins of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter saying that it might have been a planet once upon a time, and then got destroyed for whatever reason...
this lends support to the Great Experiment Theory. Some higher being is experiementing with us...the previous experiment (planet betwen mars and jupiter) got too nosy for its own good so they had to destroy it, sort of like how penicillin is used to control bacteria reproduction. However, rather than start the whole thing over from scratch again, They just arranged for the essential elements of life to be transferred from the old experiment to the new one...Earth.
i think there was a sci-fi short story about this in a mag i read years ago...
problem is, how often are you going to have to buy the update to the book to stay on top of things, and how far behind 'the scene' is the book already by the time it's published? I would think the dynamic nature of these things would make books on web security a trifle behind the times and impractical, kind of like a dictionary of street slang: It'll get the general stuff right, but the details and inflection are always changing, and the world's in the details.
However, this ringing review would indicate otherwise. please enlighten?
i can just see the interviews in the locker rooms after the games...
"You've just won the ultimate Quake tournament, what are you going to do next?"
"I'm gonna take my Sims to Disney Land!"
all of this is very well an good, but what i keep seeing is [new] products that, even when they are better than the old standard, cheaper, etc, they are not adopted because there are way too many new options to choose from and none of them can be as 'universal' as the current standard. Case in point: any alternative to floppy drives. also, any competitor to Windows and/or MS Office. So we stick with something that is inferior because we've never done anything new and besides, everybody else is still doing it too.
I love expressions of human individuality.
Another article, from the Observer News Service, by Robin McKie, Titled "NASA mulls ways to move earth," may shed some light on where the funding is going:
it outlines how, in order to prevent/cease global warming, "a group of NASA engineers and American astronomers" are planning on altering the earth's orbit in favor of a "safer, colder part of the solar system."
Techniques for said plan include "carefully directing a comet or asteroid so that it sweeps close past our planet and transfers some of its gravitational energy to Earth."
the aforementioned engineers and astronomers do realize that "there is also the vexed question of the moon." which, apparently, would most likely be "stripped away from Earth...radically upsetting our planet's climate."
hmmmmmm....don't you love self defeating plans?
If we were to spend more time organising ourselves rationally through our government, and less time irrationally competing to produce slightly differently branded soft drinks, we would by now have a colony on Mars...
if we really spend more time organizing ourselves rationally through our government etc a colony on mars would be unecessary because the Earth would be a nice place to live...
after NASA has learned its lesson on metric vs imperial units on that mars mission that got lost, i can just see it... "5km? how much is that? ...Better move it just in case."
I have read "The Code Book" but don't have my copy with me, so please correct me if I am wrong. The impression I got from the section on Quantum Cryptography was that single photons would be used to securely transmit a full length random encryption key, where an eavesdropper could be detected and/or avoided. This key could then be used in a type of encryption known as a Vigenere Square, which (according to The Code Book) has been mathematically proven to be unbreakable when used with a full length random key. In this way, the LED in the article could be one component of a truly uncrackable encryption system. You still need a viable means of long range transmission and detection to make it practical though...