It looks to me like Mirror Image's original "transparent supercache" system is what's described in this newest patent (not so much their Content Delivery Network). The patent looks like its fairly broadly worded, and probably covers some similar models too, but on the other hand, they cite plenty of prior art in their own patent. So overall I would guess that "ordinary" transparent caching is not covered by this patent, but then again IANAL, and in particular IANAPA.
Mirror Image's original business plan was to provide a client-side supercache service to client-side ISPs in places where upstream bandwidth was scarce/expensive (ie, Europe in the 90s). MII would 'mirror' popular high traffic (American) content onto supercaches located just a few hops from the ISPs. ISPs subscribing to the MII service could then configure their proxies to do a "look aside" and access popular content from the local MII supercache rather than have to sent requests across the ocean and pull the content all the way back. It worked nicely for ISPs that needed it, but there were fewer and fewer client-side ISPs willing to pay for access to the MII supercaches. So MII expanded into the server-side part of the caching business: "Content Delivery Networks".
In 2001, MII bought an existing CDN technology company (Clearway Technologies) and in the process acquired a nifty server-side software agent (your choice of Apache module or IIS plug-in) that automatically "Mirrorizes" *coughcoughlikeAkamizescough* all of the output from an origin Web server, so getting your server's content onto the MII CDN only takes a couple of minutes and you don't have to alter any of your Web content. That agent and its associated methods are covered by the other patents mentioned in MII's press release.
Personally, I believe that if MII wanted to sue Akamai for patent infringement, they probably could make a case for it these days, but --as always-- it's unclear that that would be the best use of their resources.
-Mark Kriegsman
Former Chief Scientist, Mirror Image Internet;
Founder, Clearway Technologies;
Inventor, US Patents 5,991,809, 6,370,580 and 6,480,893 (now assigned to MII)
I don't know if they still do, but for a while at the beginning of the PowerPC era Adobe was using the AIX compiler to generate its PowerPC binaries for Photoshop.
Admittedly, this was when the PowerPC was pretty new, and the choices were the IBM/AIX compiler which was robust and produced fast code but required an AIX box in addition to a Power Mac, or the nacent Metrowerks CodeWarrior compiler which run natively on the Power Mac, but generated poorly optimized code.
If I recall my history timeline correctly, after CodeWarrior came
the Apple MPW "MrC" compiler (better code than CodeWarrior 1.0, but with a wacky command-line "IDE"), then
gcc for PowerPC (cruddy code back then), then
the Motorola PowerPC compiler (better code than Apple's compiler, with NO IDE - it plugged into the CodeWarrior or MPW IDE).
Then Motorola inexplicably stopped selling their compiler.
Later Motorola bought Metrowerks.
Somewhere along the line, gcc learned to generate better PowerPC code.
Eventually, Apple pretty much shelved their "MrC" compiler, and settled on using gcc for Mac OS X
Monday, Apple released their "Xcode" environment -- still using gcc, I believe.
Apple's MPW tools are still available (free) here for Mac OS 7/8/9. The new Mac OS X tools including Xcode are available here.
As a side note, it's really nice to see Apple giving away a full development suite for free, and continuing to put development time and effort into improving it.
-Mark
AD[H]D: Superpowers, with a steep price to pay
on
Working with ADHD?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
AD[H]D often confers a number of superpowers on those who have it: incredible memory for detail, ability to hyperfocus for long periods, ambidexterousness(!), and others.
However, in adults, especially adults who were not diagnosed as children, AD[H]D often co-occurs with a pervasive (mild) clinical depression, and a tremendous dose of ego damage resulting from having been told repeatedly in myriad ways that you're "not working up to your potential". (i.e., you could be good, but instead you're being bad, and obviously it's your fault.)
Learning to live really happily as an AD[H]D person can involve accepting all kinds of help: support from family, friends, and co-workers; psychotherapy; and medications such as Ritalin to help give the brain a more balanced level attentiveness (instead of only hyperfocused or totally scattered), and antidepressant medications (SSRIs), to help ease some of the inner self-flagellation that adult AD[H]Ders can do to themselves.
But fundamentally, there's one big lesson you and everyone around you have to learn: you don't perceive or process the world quite the same way other people do, regardless of what you (or they) wish. Acknowledge that, and you've started down a good path: finding your superpowers, living with your weaknesses, and getting support from people around you.
The software/system -buying public has been conditioned that the proper response to buggy software is to wait for and often pay for a new 'upgraded' version.
Speaking as something of a software/Internet industry veterann, given the habits that we've instilled in our customers, it's no surprise that we now feel it's apporpriate to focus on time-to-market as the most important criteria for new software.
Here's a useful how-to on powering wireless base stations using Power-Over-Ethernet (POE). Several wireless vendors already sell POE kits for wireless APs. Here's a POE kit for the AirPort.
Power+Ethernet over one wire is a great combination for settting up APs, because many of the interesting places to put a wireless access point (e.g., in the attic, by the pool, in the middle of the ceiling) may not have a power outlet nearby, or you may simply not want to run two sets of wires (AC power + ethernet) to the location.
-Mark
See also MacOSXHints.com
on
OS X Hacks
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I've seen this book a couple of times, but I have not bought it because Web sites like Mac OS X Hints seem to cover much of the same material.
The book looks pretty good for people beginning to explore what they can do with their Mac beyond iTunes, iPhoto, Mail and Safari. However, "experts" will probably be more satisfied with on-line sites like Mac OS X Hints, which have other benefits over the book as well: they have search engines, offer discussion forums, and are lighter to carry in your knapsack than a book -- even a paperback.
-Mark
Wait- Who said the stripper was a woman?
on
ScavHunt211
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
A "mobius stripper"? Why is it always with the nerdy population that we find such blatant sexism and a desire to exploit women? ...
Wait, wait, wait. Where did it say that the stripper had to be a woman? Please review:
#46 Mobius stripper. Must be non-orientable. Must not emphasize the one-dimensionality of the stripper's personality. [28 points].
Unless I'm missing something, the requirements for Item #46 on the list could be fulfulled by either a man or a woman, as long as they're "a stripper." So who's making the sexist assumptions now?
And topologically speaking, it might actually be easier to construct a Mobius strip from a man's body anyway, assuming of course that he's limber, big *ahem*, and stupid (1/2 gen[i]us).
Actually, I'm referring to the Get Info dialog inside iTunes. You run iTunes, and then in the iTunes window click on one of your purchased songs, and then choose Get Info. Doing a Get Info on one of my purchased m4p files from inside iTunes shows:
I tried this just now on one of the AAC (.m4p) files I've purchased and found, among other things:
my name
my e-mail address
"com.apple.iTunes"
the artists name, the album name, etc.
There's a less invasive way to demonstrate that the m4p file contains the name/address of the purchaser: buy a song and e-mail the file to a friend who also has a Mac and iTunes4. When they double-click it open, they will be prompted to "authorize" their computer to play this song -- and the text of the prompt includes the e-mail address of the original purchaser, and prompts for their password. That the files contain the identity of the purchaser is not really a secret, especially given that it displays it prominently in the password challenge dialog box when m4p files are moved to a new computer. I found this the first time when my wife mailed me some songs she had bought, and I had to ask her to come over to my computer and enter her password.
But the easiest way to see that the songs contain the purchaser's name is this: open iTunes, click on a song you've purchased, and choose Get Info... and there's your name!
There are ways out there to play AACs other than iTunes 4 or an iPod (like VideoLAN Client, for example).
BUT the AAC files you buy from Apple are "locked down" to your Macs (you can authorize up to three Macs to play your music), so sharing them is of "limited value", to say the least.
AND all the files you buy from Apple are watermarked with YOUR name/e-mail address -- not exactly the kind of thing that makes you eager to put them up on the public p2p networks.
Yes, you can burn the AACs as plain audio onto a blank CD-R, and then re-rip and re-encode them as MP3s and then manually re-tag them, but as a file-conversion technique, this process takes a lot of time. And uses up an awful lot of plastic, too.
Apple's done a pretty good job of making it "appropriately difficult" for you to share the music you've bought with the entire planet. Now if only I could play those AACs on my Archos Jukebox, or in my car, or...
My guess is that it's less than a week before we see someone write a drag-and-drop tool for doing this that also copies all the tags, etc. An binary executable converter wrapped in a friendly iTunes AppleScript would be great, but that might take two weeks.
I know a couple of Apple developers who are already looking at the problem from a coding point of view, since they, also, own devices that can only play MP3s.
Converting AAC (".m4p") to MP3?
on
AAC vs. OGG vs. MP3
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
My portable HD music jukebox, and my car stereo, and tons of other devices out there ONLY play MP3s.
But any new music I buy through Apple is AAC encoded, in an m4p "protected" file.
So here's a purely technical question: What's the shortest path to convert these shiny new "protected" ACC files into plain MP3s so that I can take the music that I've just paid for and listen to it on my Archos MP3 Jukebox? I've already successfully gone from AACs to audio CD, and then re-ripped and re-encoded the album as MP3 but... ew. There's got to be a better way.
And yes, I know Apple and Big Music and the RIAA and Homeland Security don't want me to be able to do this (easily, or maybe at all) but at this point I'd like to sidestep the politics and focus on a technological solution that works for me- a legit, paying user.
So: what's the closest we can get to "acc2mp3", or better yet "m4p2mp3"?
iTunes 4 does appear to 'break' iCommune -- at least the original version of iCommune; the new version is unaffected, I'm sure, but works very differently.
And iCommune (old version) had a huge feature that iTunes 4 does not -- the ability not only to play a streamed file from another machine but also the ability to copy a song from one machine onto another; just drag the file from the "remote" iTunes library to the "local" one, and iCommune copied the file.
If you're running a server and need a static IP address, or multiple IP addresses, you need DSL (or ISDN, or a T-1, or *gasp* dedicated dialup -- don't ask.)
On the other hand, if what you want is the highest possible download speed for the lowest price (Kb per sec per dollar per month), cable is the way to go.
I know a few server-at-home geeks who actually have both DSL and cable: DSL for the static IPs for their servers, and cable for surfing. I'm thinking about going this way myself. The really interesting project will be setting up a dual-homed box to do intelligent routing of traffic across the DSL with the static IP and the (presumably faster) cable modem with the dynamic IP.
Before you decide you need one of these, you must read The Horror of Blimps. It seems that not all blimps are as innocent as they're like you to think...
I actually own a few items from each company (Mathmos and Color Kinetics). The CK items give off a more steady, uniform light than the Mathmos products, but I'm really hooked on the built-in rechargable-ness of the Mathmos gadgets, and the frosted glass look is pretty nice, too.
FWIW, the "functional" part of a CK Sauce color wand is about only about 1.5cm x 1.5cm x 1.5cm, and it's powered by a single AA battery: very easy to repackage and repurpose.
Color Kinetics (aka CK Sauce) makes a line of color-changing LED balls, wands, lights, etc.. They have several "modes", and presumably could be hacked to do whatever you wanted. Some of them run on batteries, some run on AC current, and all are cool. Chiasso carries their stuff. Fun.
Excellent point. A solid chunk of the time the answer will be no.
However, if you can get "the right guy" on the phone once or twice a day, you could probably sign up a one or two new customers each week -- not a bad business model, IMHO.
Twenty minutes is plenty. Clearway always advertised that our "FireSite" system could CDN-enable your Web site in "less than ten minutes"; in practice, a typical sysadmin could be walked through it in about five minutes on the phone. And FireSite always replicated the biggest/hottest/most important stuff out to the (previously deployed) network servers first -- the goal was always to minimize the load on the primary origin server and the associated Internet uplink.
Even without all that mumbo-jumbo, a standard reverse-caching-proxy server type CDN (ie, Akamai) can be set up in minutes, too, just by changing a couple of URLs on your own HTML pages.
Not, mind you, that an out-of-band solution wouldn't be good, too; it's just that in-band (regular HTTP) solutions are a couple of orders of magnitude easier today.
Slashdot Mirror
It looks to me like Mirror Image's original "transparent supercache" system is what's described in this newest patent (not so much their Content Delivery Network). The patent looks like its fairly broadly worded, and probably covers some similar models too, but on the other hand, they cite plenty of prior art in their own patent. So overall I would guess that "ordinary" transparent caching is not covered by this patent, but then again IANAL, and in particular IANAPA.
Mirror Image's original business plan was to provide a client-side supercache service to client-side ISPs in places where upstream bandwidth was scarce/expensive (ie, Europe in the 90s). MII would 'mirror' popular high traffic (American) content onto supercaches located just a few hops from the ISPs. ISPs subscribing to the MII service could then configure their proxies to do a "look aside" and access popular content from the local MII supercache rather than have to sent requests across the ocean and pull the content all the way back. It worked nicely for ISPs that needed it, but there were fewer and fewer client-side ISPs willing to pay for access to the MII supercaches. So MII expanded into the server-side part of the caching business: "Content Delivery Networks".
In 2001, MII bought an existing CDN technology company (Clearway Technologies) and in the process acquired a nifty server-side software agent (your choice of Apache module or IIS plug-in) that automatically "Mirrorizes" *coughcoughlikeAkamizescough* all of the output from an origin Web server, so getting your server's content onto the MII CDN only takes a couple of minutes and you don't have to alter any of your Web content. That agent and its associated methods are covered by the other patents mentioned in MII's press release.
Personally, I believe that if MII wanted to sue Akamai for patent infringement, they probably could make a case for it these days, but --as always-- it's unclear that that would be the best use of their resources.
-Mark Kriegsman
Former Chief Scientist, Mirror Image Internet;
Founder, Clearway Technologies;
Inventor, US Patents 5,991,809, 6,370,580 and 6,480,893 (now assigned to MII)
Admittedly, this was when the PowerPC was pretty new, and the choices were the IBM/AIX compiler which was robust and produced fast code but required an AIX box in addition to a Power Mac, or the nacent Metrowerks CodeWarrior compiler which run natively on the Power Mac, but generated poorly optimized code.
If I recall my history timeline correctly, after CodeWarrior came
- the Apple MPW "MrC" compiler (better code than CodeWarrior 1.0, but with a wacky command-line "IDE"), then
- gcc for PowerPC (cruddy code back then), then
- the Motorola PowerPC compiler (better code than Apple's compiler, with NO IDE - it plugged into the CodeWarrior or MPW IDE).
- Then Motorola inexplicably stopped selling their compiler.
- Later Motorola bought Metrowerks.
- Somewhere along the line, gcc learned to generate better PowerPC code.
- Eventually, Apple pretty much shelved their "MrC" compiler, and settled on using gcc for Mac OS X
- Monday, Apple released their "Xcode" environment -- still using gcc, I believe.
Apple's MPW tools are still available (free) here for Mac OS 7/8/9. The new Mac OS X tools including Xcode are available here.As a side note, it's really nice to see Apple giving away a full development suite for free, and continuing to put development time and effort into improving it.
-Mark
AD[H]D often confers a number of superpowers on those who have it: incredible memory for detail, ability to hyperfocus for long periods, ambidexterousness(!), and others.
However, in adults, especially adults who were not diagnosed as children, AD[H]D often co-occurs with a pervasive (mild) clinical depression, and a tremendous dose of ego damage resulting from having been told repeatedly in myriad ways that you're "not working up to your potential". (i.e., you could be good, but instead you're being bad, and obviously it's your fault.)
Learning to live really happily as an AD[H]D person can involve accepting all kinds of help: support from family, friends, and co-workers; psychotherapy; and medications such as Ritalin to help give the brain a more balanced level attentiveness (instead of only hyperfocused or totally scattered), and antidepressant medications (SSRIs), to help ease some of the inner self-flagellation that adult AD[H]Ders can do to themselves.
But fundamentally, there's one big lesson you and everyone around you have to learn: you don't perceive or process the world quite the same way other people do, regardless of what you (or they) wish. Acknowledge that, and you've started down a good path: finding your superpowers, living with your weaknesses, and getting support from people around you.
-Mark, diagnosed at age 30
The software/system -buying public has been conditioned that the proper response to buggy software is to wait for and often pay for a new 'upgraded' version.
Speaking as something of a software/Internet industry veterann, given the habits that we've instilled in our customers, it's no surprise that we now feel it's apporpriate to focus on time-to-market as the most important criteria for new software.
-Mark
Here's a useful how-to on powering wireless base stations using Power-Over-Ethernet (POE). Several wireless vendors already sell POE kits for wireless APs. Here's a POE kit for the AirPort.
Power+Ethernet over one wire is a great combination for settting up APs, because many of the interesting places to put a wireless access point (e.g., in the attic, by the pool, in the middle of the ceiling) may not have a power outlet nearby, or you may simply not want to run two sets of wires (AC power + ethernet) to the location.
-Mark
I've seen this book a couple of times, but I have not bought it because Web sites like Mac OS X Hints seem to cover much of the same material.
The book looks pretty good for people beginning to explore what they can do with their Mac beyond iTunes, iPhoto, Mail and Safari. However, "experts" will probably be more satisfied with on-line sites like Mac OS X Hints, which have other benefits over the book as well: they have search engines, offer discussion forums, and are lighter to carry in your knapsack than a book -- even a paperback.
-Mark
A "mobius stripper"? Why is it always with the nerdy population that we find such blatant sexism and a desire to exploit women? ...
Wait, wait, wait. Where did it say that the stripper had to be a woman? Please review:
#46 Mobius stripper. Must be non-orientable. Must not emphasize the one-dimensionality of the stripper's personality. [28 points].
Unless I'm missing something, the requirements for Item #46 on the list could be fulfulled by either a man or a woman, as long as they're "a stripper." So who's making the sexist assumptions now?
And topologically speaking, it might actually be easier to construct a Mobius strip from a man's body anyway, assuming of course that he's limber, big *ahem*, and stupid (1/2 gen[i]us).
-Mark
Hubzilla!
Of all the file-format conversion processes I know of, this is the one that consumes the most plastic.
Right- the m4p file contains your e-mail address (and other tidbits), but I don't think the AAC audio data itself is "watermarked".
There's a less invasive way to demonstrate that the m4p file contains the name/address of the purchaser: buy a song and e-mail the file to a friend who also has a Mac and iTunes4. When they double-click it open, they will be prompted to "authorize" their computer to play this song -- and the text of the prompt includes the e-mail address of the original purchaser, and prompts for their password. That the files contain the identity of the purchaser is not really a secret, especially given that it displays it prominently in the password challenge dialog box when m4p files are moved to a new computer. I found this the first time when my wife mailed me some songs she had bought, and I had to ask her to come over to my computer and enter her password.
But the easiest way to see that the songs contain the purchaser's name is this: open iTunes, click on a song you've purchased, and choose Get Info... and there's your name!
-Mark
I actually don't know. I have a paleolithic AJB6000 - the original 6GB, non-FM, non-video version.
There are ways out there to play AACs other than iTunes 4 or an iPod (like VideoLAN Client, for example).
...
BUT the AAC files you buy from Apple are "locked down" to your Macs (you can authorize up to three Macs to play your music), so sharing them is of "limited value", to say the least.
AND all the files you buy from Apple are watermarked with YOUR name/e-mail address -- not exactly the kind of thing that makes you eager to put them up on the public p2p networks.
Yes, you can burn the AACs as plain audio onto a blank CD-R, and then re-rip and re-encode them as MP3s and then manually re-tag them, but as a file-conversion technique, this process takes a lot of time. And uses up an awful lot of plastic, too.
Apple's done a pretty good job of making it "appropriately difficult" for you to share the music you've bought with the entire planet. Now if only I could play those AACs on my Archos Jukebox, or in my car, or
-Mark
Thanks for the info.
My guess is that it's less than a week before we see someone write a drag-and-drop tool for doing this that also copies all the tags, etc. An binary executable converter wrapped in a friendly iTunes AppleScript would be great, but that might take two weeks.
I know a couple of Apple developers who are already looking at the problem from a coding point of view, since they, also, own devices that can only play MP3s.
My portable HD music jukebox, and my car stereo, and tons of other devices out there ONLY play MP3s.
... ew. There's got to be a better way.
But any new music I buy through Apple is AAC encoded, in an m4p "protected" file.
So here's a purely technical question: What's the shortest path to convert these shiny new "protected" ACC files into plain MP3s so that I can take the music that I've just paid for and listen to it on my Archos MP3 Jukebox? I've already successfully gone from AACs to audio CD, and then re-ripped and re-encoded the album as MP3 but
And yes, I know Apple and Big Music and the RIAA and Homeland Security don't want me to be able to do this (easily, or maybe at all) but at this point I'd like to sidestep the politics and focus on a technological solution that works for me- a legit, paying user.
So: what's the closest we can get to "acc2mp3", or better yet "m4p2mp3"?
-Mark
iTunes 4 does appear to 'break' iCommune -- at least the original version of iCommune; the new version is unaffected, I'm sure, but works very differently.
And iCommune (old version) had a huge feature that iTunes 4 does not -- the ability not only to play a streamed file from another machine but also the ability to copy a song from one machine onto another; just drag the file from the "remote" iTunes library to the "local" one, and iCommune copied the file.
-Mark
This time the duplicate is deliberate: they're trying to double-slashdot That Company's servers.
-Mark
If you're running a server and need a static IP address, or multiple IP addresses, you need DSL (or ISDN, or a T-1, or *gasp* dedicated dialup -- don't ask.)
On the other hand, if what you want is the highest possible download speed for the lowest price (Kb per sec per dollar per month), cable is the way to go.
I know a few server-at-home geeks who actually have both DSL and cable: DSL for the static IPs for their servers, and cable for surfing. I'm thinking about going this way myself. The really interesting project will be setting up a dual-homed box to do intelligent routing of traffic across the DSL with the static IP and the (presumably faster) cable modem with the dynamic IP.
-Mark
Before you decide you need one of these, you must read The Horror of Blimps. It seems that not all blimps are as innocent as they're like you to think...
-Mark
I actually own a few items from each company (Mathmos and Color Kinetics). The CK items give off a more steady, uniform light than the Mathmos products, but I'm really hooked on the built-in rechargable-ness of the Mathmos gadgets, and the frosted glass look is pretty nice, too.
FWIW, the "functional" part of a CK Sauce color wand is about only about 1.5cm x 1.5cm x 1.5cm, and it's powered by a single AA battery: very easy to repackage and repurpose.
Color Kinetics (aka CK Sauce) makes a line of color-changing LED balls, wands, lights, etc.. They have several "modes", and presumably could be hacked to do whatever you wanted. Some of them run on batteries, some run on AC current, and all are cool. Chiasso carries their stuff. Fun.
-Mark
Excellent point. A solid chunk of the time the answer will be no.
However, if you can get "the right guy" on the phone once or twice a day, you could probably sign up a one or two new customers each week -- not a bad business model, IMHO.
Heh. Or maybe like a scene from a spoof of a Keanu Reeves movie...
Twenty minutes is plenty. Clearway always advertised that our "FireSite" system could CDN-enable your Web site in "less than ten minutes"; in practice, a typical sysadmin could be walked through it in about five minutes on the phone. And FireSite always replicated the biggest/hottest/most important stuff out to the (previously deployed) network servers first -- the goal was always to minimize the load on the primary origin server and the associated Internet uplink.
Even without all that mumbo-jumbo, a standard reverse-caching-proxy server type CDN (ie, Akamai) can be set up in minutes, too, just by changing a couple of URLs on your own HTML pages.
Not, mind you, that an out-of-band solution wouldn't be good, too; it's just that in-band (regular HTTP) solutions are a couple of orders of magnitude easier today.
-Mark