A spokesman for Connexion by Boeing, the subsidiary that produces the system, said it would allow the use of palmtop-based e-mail service in addition to laptops, and speeds far higher than the Swift 64 system, 20 gigabits per second.
Looks like the New York Times thinks Amazon.com should set up shop on aerial servers.. Seriously, who edits these articles?
Let's face it, the only reason why Napster et. al. came into being was that it was friggin difficult to find mp3 music! Had the record industry been there with every song ever made for.20 a track, they would have probably expanded sales considerably.
Music has never been 'secure.' Whether it's a dual deck casette boom box or a cd burner, people have always copied music. But the industry managed to still sell it when it was reasonably priced. I believe the same would have occured had the industry flat out adopted MP3.
Hopefully this will be one instance where the lobbyists for the media and drive producers should shield us from taxes.
I think both the RIAA and MPAA have to prove that their copied digital media is actually causing damages. Quite honestly, I think their worst enemy is the audio casette and VHS tape!
I wonder what will happen once this inevitable result occurs and DVD ISO's are free for the taking.. Divx is one thing (it sure isn't easy for average Joe Schmoe to attach a PC to a TV), but a burnable play-everywhere disc with 5.1 channel sound is going to be a problem.
Could the MPAA's lawyers effectively kill broadband providers (and thus broadband itself) for transporting this content over their networks?
I got news for ya... The space race will begin in earnest again very soon. Once the Chinese start their manned missions the US better get its act together and get something established on the moon. China will be there in ten years if we don't. Mars will only be a hop skip and a jump beyond that.
Quite honestly, as great as the ISS is, I wish NASA put its money and research into some sort of moon base. Some congressmen had pushed for this as an alternative plan of action. We would have kept ourselves a few generations ahead of nations developing their own space program while at the same time advancing science.. Now we'll have to play catch-up once another communist power begins its reach for the stars.
I for one am happy about Yenc's rapid adoption. My newsreader ( Xnews )software supports it, and I have noticed no difference in using Yenc over traditional binary encoding.
In fact, Yenc will help pay-per-gigabyte Usenet users achieve a greater bang for their buck. Anything that saves money is a good thing!!
If you still have to carry around a piece of hardware, what good is it?
Hopefully they will work on making it smaller so it can be integrated into PDA's and cell phones. From the article it looks like the direction they want to head.
I for one think he did see the flick. I don't know much about Harry, but he's developed quite a following by his fellow overly excited armchair movie buffs. Being the 'experts' that they are, I highly doubt any of them would let this kind of hoax by without leaving his site in droves.
My guess is that this was orchestrated by the studios to get those 'opinion leaders' disappointed by Ep 1 excited about Ep 2. Most of the nutjobs that talk about movies all day long probably flock to his site and participate in the forums, so they figure a positive review by Harry is good enough to get the word of mouth hype machine moving. Any entry level PR class teaches this tactic to get people talking about a particular issue, starting with the opinion leaders.
There is also a distinct possibility that Harry is in fact on the payroll of the movie makers. We've heard about the studios creating a number of 'fan sites' to build up momentum for various flicks, so we should at least entertain the idea that Harry is a more permanent shadow marketing tactic. In the end a bulk of the ads on his site are from the studios, so they are paying him one way or the other:).
If there was a legititmate 'leaked' version of the film (i.e. not an orchestrated leak), there'd be a VCD traveling throughout the vast expanse of cyberspace this morning. This sort of stuff doesn't happen 'by accident.' George Lucas had to approve this or it wouldn't have happened.
You say don't let greed stand in the way. That's the problem plaguing us now with MP3s. Everyone says the RIAA is greedy and wants only money. That may be true, but are we not also greedy (and arrogant) for wanting everything for free?
You're missing the point. 'Free' isn't about the media itself, but how the information is distributed. The larger issue is not whether or not I paid for the mp3, it's more about who's managing and filtering the distributed content.
The battles against online movies, music, books, etc are not about the content in play now, it's the risk that these enormous entities lose control of control! For the first time in the history of the world, every man, woman, and child can freely communicate with the entire world for free. That alone is significant. No gatekeeper, no censor, no way to hinder the thoughts and ideas of the individual.
By restricting means to distribute our speech, we also restrict the speech itself. This is regardless of whether or not it's an mp3 player, wireless network, or even a piece of open source code. That's the issue. It seems every time we develop a way to bypass the corporate gatekeeping system, somebody comes along and tries to stop it.
Since free wireless networks potentially open the Internet to everybody (even without access to a phone), could it be argued that restricting 802.11 networks is a violation of our first amendment rights? Technically a free 802.11 network is a public forum.
Free wireless are about to become as big as open source, MP3, and even the Internet itself. Let's hope greed will not get in the way.
But if worse comes to worse I'll buy up a bunch of microwave ovens, trip the door sensor, point a million pringles cans towards the sky, and show them what real 2.4 ghz interference is like:).
I remember reading somewhere that everybody's favorite MPEG encoder (TMPGenc) supported a distributed model for encoding.
That said, with the three computers I have at my place (a p3 desktop, a celeron I use as a low grade server, and my p3 notebook) I'd love to be able to set up a cluster for encoding. Such operations will be the killer app for clustered systems IMHO.
And it won't be compatible with the current DVD standard. So now we have DVD/DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD-RAM/& now Blu-Ray!! They've tried to eliminate confusion of standards by creating another standard? I don't think so..
Blockbuster is making way too much money ripping us off for late fees!! They'll never adopt such a technology..
I did start using Netflix though, and I'm quite happy with the service. Blockbuster is a good 15 minutes from my place, so the mailbox makes a lot more sense.
I think the scariest thing is the ability to use malicious code. I'm sure a smart terrorist can already set up an ad hoc 802.11 network and accomplish the same goal.
Viruses and worms that could spread through human contact (much like biological viruses) are far more threatening. A simple walk through a major city could wreak havoc, as many of these PDA's sync up far behind a firewall (and are often authenticated onto the network automatically).
This sounds like a great way to spread worms and viruses!:).
Could you imagine? Catch a computer virus out on the street just like a cold or flu.. It could collapse our entire economy. Scary...
Oh, and yes, the antiquated copyright laws are not going to mean squat in ten years...
They are giving away a free stream of 'hollywood confidential' that worked fine on my adsl connection.
It looks like they went out and bought a bunch of bootleg VCD's and put them online:). I agree, let's give these dudes a week before the government closes up their shop.
I want missiles, explosives, and all out warfare! Hopefully as this mechanized destruction genre grows, we'll start seeing some extreme versions with projectiles, high explosives and pleny of gasoline.
Enough of this panzy safety stuff:).
Give the game away for free at least!
on
Pay to Play
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· Score: 2, Interesting
My biggest complaint is the costs involved here... If you're going to charge me $15-$20 a month to play your game, don't make me pay $50 to join the club! That $50 is a leap of faith, especially after seeing a number of multiplayer online games fail (like WWII online).
In a perfect world the only charge would be the $50, but I for one don't like the idea of paying $50 up front, and then having to pay monthly fee.. These game companies should adopt the aol model and give the software away for free. It'll give them a much broader audience to work with.
Ah! But you can! Go here and you can download a fully functional Apple ][+ emulator for your PocketPC. It's great stuff and I believe the current version even works with the Targus stowaway keyboard.
Anybody know if this is IIGS compatible? I'd like to get my old friend fired up again with some 'large' storage. SCSI cards are hard to come by for the Apples.
This is not entirely true. Many times people elect representatives to government who have knowledge in a specific area (like IT). Typically these officials are able to find a niche and quickly rise above others who do not know much beyond the law. It's also a good selling point. Waldo here will be the point man for IT issues on his city council. Right off the bat he has the potential to garner more responsbility than other members. I've seen this happen many times.
As a political consultant and future candidate myself, here's some pointers that should work for you. First, I must say that it's good to have candidates running for office who have a speciality that doesn't involve being a lawyer. Those with a niche tend to be very successful in public service since they have knowledge and skills others don't. Here are some points to consider for your campaign:
1. The electorate doesn't know nor could care less about what open source is vs. Microsoft. Further, it's likely to go over their heads. Remember these folks buy their computers from the Home Shopping Club or their local Staples supply store. Operating systems and terminiology won't win votes. You will need to get the term 'open source' out there, but make it simple so people understand its meaning. Come up with a real-world analogy to better describe it.
2. What will win votes are the economics of open source. How much money in property taxes are these people paying to support an inefficient IT infrastructure? How many millions are being wasted by software licenses that are not necessary?
3. Know that a city council MACRO manages and does not micromanage. Communicate that knowledge to the electorate. Also know that you will have very little power as a single voice on the council (not to mention you'll be a freshman member). Hopefully your political party will be in control of things so you won't be a complete lame duck. Because the council manages in the macro sense (it steers vs. rows) you have no authority to fire the current IT manager. In other words, your political future rides on this man or woman. Set up a meeting, be nice, and most importantly sell your plan to him (or her) before the election heats up.
4. Understand the bureaucratic environment. Government is based on the basic idea that money needs to be spent and not saved. Public managers work hard at the end of the fiscal year to not leave much on the books in order to prevent losing their funding the next year. So know that there will no support among the city managers to go after cost saving alternatives. The public will have to demand they investigate such avenues.
6. Run an effective grass roots campaign using your IT skills as a foundation. Get the voter registration list from your registrar in disk format. Put it into a mysql database with voter history (priming data). Take your message door-to-door effectively, and track individual voters so you know who to call on election day. Only visit people who vote! You have a leg up on your competition due to your ability to effectively manager voter contacts.
The tick was alright.. But it was missing something. It focused too much on their individual trials and tribulations than destroying evil villains. While probably good for hard core tick fans, 'the general public' probably wasn't impressed.
Slashdot Mirror
Looks like the New York Times thinks Amazon.com should set up shop on aerial servers.. Seriously, who edits these articles?
Let's face it, the only reason why Napster et. al. came into being was that it was friggin difficult to find mp3 music! Had the record industry been there with every song ever made for .20 a track, they would have probably expanded sales considerably.
Music has never been 'secure.' Whether it's a dual deck casette boom box or a cd burner, people have always copied music. But the industry managed to still sell it when it was reasonably priced. I believe the same would have occured had the industry flat out adopted MP3.
I think both the RIAA and MPAA have to prove that their copied digital media is actually causing damages. Quite honestly, I think their worst enemy is the audio casette and VHS tape!
Could the MPAA's lawyers effectively kill broadband providers (and thus broadband itself) for transporting this content over their networks?
Discuss.
Quite honestly, as great as the ISS is, I wish NASA put its money and research into some sort of moon base. Some congressmen had pushed for this as an alternative plan of action. We would have kept ourselves a few generations ahead of nations developing their own space program while at the same time advancing science.. Now we'll have to play catch-up once another communist power begins its reach for the stars.
In fact, Yenc will help pay-per-gigabyte Usenet users achieve a greater bang for their buck. Anything that saves money is a good thing!!
Hopefully they will work on making it smaller so it can be integrated into PDA's and cell phones. From the article it looks like the direction they want to head.
My guess is that this was orchestrated by the studios to get those 'opinion leaders' disappointed by Ep 1 excited about Ep 2. Most of the nutjobs that talk about movies all day long probably flock to his site and participate in the forums, so they figure a positive review by Harry is good enough to get the word of mouth hype machine moving. Any entry level PR class teaches this tactic to get people talking about a particular issue, starting with the opinion leaders.
There is also a distinct possibility that Harry is in fact on the payroll of the movie makers. We've heard about the studios creating a number of 'fan sites' to build up momentum for various flicks, so we should at least entertain the idea that Harry is a more permanent shadow marketing tactic. In the end a bulk of the ads on his site are from the studios, so they are paying him one way or the other :).
If there was a legititmate 'leaked' version of the film (i.e. not an orchestrated leak), there'd be a VCD traveling throughout the vast expanse of cyberspace this morning. This sort of stuff doesn't happen 'by accident.' George Lucas had to approve this or it wouldn't have happened.
You're missing the point. 'Free' isn't about the media itself, but how the information is distributed. The larger issue is not whether or not I paid for the mp3, it's more about who's managing and filtering the distributed content.
The battles against online movies, music, books, etc are not about the content in play now, it's the risk that these enormous entities lose control of control! For the first time in the history of the world, every man, woman, and child can freely communicate with the entire world for free. That alone is significant. No gatekeeper, no censor, no way to hinder the thoughts and ideas of the individual.
By restricting means to distribute our speech, we also restrict the speech itself. This is regardless of whether or not it's an mp3 player, wireless network, or even a piece of open source code. That's the issue. It seems every time we develop a way to bypass the corporate gatekeeping system, somebody comes along and tries to stop it.
Since free wireless networks potentially open the Internet to everybody (even without access to a phone), could it be argued that restricting 802.11 networks is a violation of our first amendment rights? Technically a free 802.11 network is a public forum.
Free wireless are about to become as big as open source, MP3, and even the Internet itself. Let's hope greed will not get in the way.
But if worse comes to worse I'll buy up a bunch of microwave ovens, trip the door sensor, point a million pringles cans towards the sky, and show them what real 2.4 ghz interference is like :).
That said, with the three computers I have at my place (a p3 desktop, a celeron I use as a low grade server, and my p3 notebook) I'd love to be able to set up a cluster for encoding. Such operations will be the killer app for clustered systems IMHO.
I did start using Netflix though, and I'm quite happy with the service. Blockbuster is a good 15 minutes from my place, so the mailbox makes a lot more sense.
Viruses and worms that could spread through human contact (much like biological viruses) are far more threatening. A simple walk through a major city could wreak havoc, as many of these PDA's sync up far behind a firewall (and are often authenticated onto the network automatically).
Oh, and yes, the antiquated copyright laws are not going to mean squat in ten years...
They are giving away a free stream of 'hollywood confidential' that worked fine on my adsl connection. It looks like they went out and bought a bunch of bootleg VCD's and put them online :). I agree, let's give these dudes a week before the government closes up their shop.
Enough of this panzy safety stuff :).
In a perfect world the only charge would be the $50, but I for one don't like the idea of paying $50 up front, and then having to pay monthly fee.. These game companies should adopt the aol model and give the software away for free. It'll give them a much broader audience to work with.
I think the big question is whether or not it'll be compatible with GS/OS. If memory serves there was a driver needed for non-apple disk interfaces.
Ah! But you can! Go here and you can download a fully functional Apple ][+ emulator for your PocketPC. It's great stuff and I believe the current version even works with the Targus stowaway keyboard.
Anybody know if this is IIGS compatible? I'd like to get my old friend fired up again with some 'large' storage. SCSI cards are hard to come by for the Apples.
Maybe instead of bailing out the airlines we should have fined them for making their planes and airports insecure...
1. The electorate doesn't know nor could care less about what open source is vs. Microsoft. Further, it's likely to go over their heads. Remember these folks buy their computers from the Home Shopping Club or their local Staples supply store. Operating systems and terminiology won't win votes. You will need to get the term 'open source' out there, but make it simple so people understand its meaning. Come up with a real-world analogy to better describe it.
2. What will win votes are the economics of open source. How much money in property taxes are these people paying to support an inefficient IT infrastructure? How many millions are being wasted by software licenses that are not necessary?
3. Know that a city council MACRO manages and does not micromanage. Communicate that knowledge to the electorate. Also know that you will have very little power as a single voice on the council (not to mention you'll be a freshman member). Hopefully your political party will be in control of things so you won't be a complete lame duck. Because the council manages in the macro sense (it steers vs. rows) you have no authority to fire the current IT manager. In other words, your political future rides on this man or woman. Set up a meeting, be nice, and most importantly sell your plan to him (or her) before the election heats up.
4. Understand the bureaucratic environment. Government is based on the basic idea that money needs to be spent and not saved. Public managers work hard at the end of the fiscal year to not leave much on the books in order to prevent losing their funding the next year. So know that there will no support among the city managers to go after cost saving alternatives. The public will have to demand they investigate such avenues.
6. Run an effective grass roots campaign using your IT skills as a foundation. Get the voter registration list from your registrar in disk format. Put it into a mysql database with voter history (priming data). Take your message door-to-door effectively, and track individual voters so you know who to call on election day. Only visit people who vote! You have a leg up on your competition due to your ability to effectively manager voter contacts.
Most of all: BE YOURSELF.
The tick was alright.. But it was missing something. It focused too much on their individual trials and tribulations than destroying evil villains. While probably good for hard core tick fans, 'the general public' probably wasn't impressed.