thorbo is right. The speed of sound at sea level is something like 700 miles per hour (Mach 1). If I've done the math right, that is 1,026.67 feet per second. A 10-foot separation will cause a 10 millisecond delay. I believe a 50-millisecond delay is heard as echo. Can anyone help about this?
Flash has software designed to connect to the Internet. Other software doesn't. That's the difference. We've seen, extensively, how much difficulty Microsoft has in making communication software bug-free. Far less energy is expended in finding Macromedia bugs, but the potential for bugs must be considered to be the same.
However, I don't agree with the method. It is adversarial. It invites retaliation.
The patient, but firm, non-adversarial way takes longer to get the first results. It requires a lot more creativity. However, there is no danger that it will be merely the first shot in a long-running battle.
Now I always record TV programs, so I can skip ALL the commercials when I play them back. I agree, this is theft, except that I would not buy the things advertised even if I did watch the commercials.
I would gladly pay to have commercial-free TV. However, they would probably ruin the idea by charging too much. My share of the cost of a TV program is probably 10 cents, and they would probably want to charge $5.00. It is common that business people destroy their own good ideas with greed.
Over a two year period I considered how commercials on TV had affected my buying. During that two years, I spent $6.81 because of having seen commercials.
Have you ever noticed that the things that are advertised on TV are usually things you should not buy, if you care about spending your money wisely? For example, they're always pushing legal drugs. I don't think I really need more hair, especially if it must be surgically implanted. In the U.S., used cars provide much better value for the money.
Back in the day of INI files, they were all over the place. They were inconsistent. That was because Microsoft had inadequate standards.
The registry is a trade-off, but a different trade-off, in my opinion. The registry (which is in all versions of Microsoft Windows from 95 to XP) works perfectly as copy protection. It also causes all versions of Windows to be unstable.
One thing is good to keep in mind about Microsoft. By its anti-customer
actions, Microsoft is buying itself an unprecedented amount of bad feeling. At
present feelings against Microsoft are so negative that the company has
business only because it has a virtual monopoly. If there ever becomes a real
alternative to MS software (like the Open Office suite, for example), Microsoft will rapidly collapse.
(I have written this comment so that it includes information that most readers
here already know, but that the average computer user needs. That way, if you
like the comment, you can pass it on to your less knowledgeable friends.)
The first paragraph may sound like an exaggerated opinion, but collapse of a
computer company's business has happened before. IBM had, at one time, almost
100% of the personal computer business. But it was surprising at the time how
much people didn't like IBM. People who supplied cement to the building
industry and people who ran dry cleaners and students who played with Basic
all knew that IBM was in court for anti-trust violations. It was often
shocking how much negative feeling toward IBM there was among people who had
little understanding of the technical issues behind the violations.
As soon as an alternative to buying PCs from IBM was available, IBMs business
dropped rapidly. The magazine articles at the time exaggerated IBM's
percentage of the market because they failed to count the computers that were
made by very small businesses. The alternatives to IBM PCs were called clones,
and thousands of companies built them. IBMs business quickly dropped to 8% of
the market, and then below that.
Now history is poised to repeat itself, this time with software. Linux is
still not easy enough to configure. Open Office has, for the needs of many
people, arrived. The Mozilla browser
will soon be released, but it doesn't have a calendar or a spell-checker yet,
and these are important to many people who use Microsoft Outlook. Events are
moving fast, and it won't be long before the selfless love of the open source
programmers overthrows the world's most abusive software dictator.
Often people with little technical knowledge don't understand that underlying
the negative feeling toward Microsoft are strong technical failings. For
example, Windows XP, Microsoft's newest operating system, has a file called
the Registry. This file contains settings for the operating system and almost
every other program that is installed. The registry file is a single point of
failure. If something goes wrong in the registry, as it sometimes does, the
only method of recovery is to re-install Windows XP, all the programs, all the
drivers, and all the patches again. This can take days, during which the user
is not able to work normally.
Why does Microsoft have such a flawed design? Why put information for many
programs in one file? Why not put each program's settings in separate files,
so that one cannot destroy the others? Apparently because having all the
settings in one file accomplishes a kind of copy protection. Someone who
copies a program's folder will not be able to operate that program on another
computer because the settings are hidden in Windows XP's registry file. So,
all the honest customers suffer because of Microsoft's desire to extract the
most money from the world. That kind of offensive defensiveness actually
lowers long-term profit, something the company executives have not learned.
"To date, there has been *three* potential security holes found. None of them have been exploited."
A machine for which I am responsible was taken over by someone exploiting a Flash security hole. Even Macromedia managers admit that this is sometimes a problem.
Thanks, Kierthos, for what you said. It is what I would have said.
It was typical, I thought, that the lawyer for the school did not try to talk to the student. I can imagine that the reason is conflict of interest. The lawyer makes more money if there is legal action. I have observed that often lawyers don't care about resolving the real problem. They care about having as much legal trouble as possible. This is abusive, and it is widespread abuse, in my experience.
Here are additional considerations concerning the use of Macromedia Flash:
Flash presents unknown security risks. Sometimes Flash and other Macromedia
products have been the point of entry of trojans and viruses, as mentioned in
this documentation of a very serious bug, Macromedia
Flash Activex Buffer overflow.
Flash on a website advertises Flash. There must always be some notice that
says "Download Flash if you don't have it", and a link to Macromedia, so that
web site viewers can get the latest version. This forced added content
distracts from the intended content.
Flash is nearly always used to provide images that are irrelevant to the
content. Except for those who care about bright, shiny things more than
content, Flash gets in the way. Flash authors are seldom qualified to provide
moving picture content, and, even if they were, Flash is a very limited
cinematic tool.
Flash often causes long load times. Long load times communicate that the
website viewer's time is less important than the website creator's love of
movement. Flash often causes Website viewers to look at "Loading..." messages.
For website viewers who do not want to run Flash and other Macromedia
software, or cannot, web sites using it are broken.
By using Flash, authors of Flash content may cause the URL of their customers
to be transmitted to Macromedia. If some disloyal Macromedia employee, or
Macromedia itself, thought of some profitable reason to approach those
customers directly, Flash content authors could lose customers.
Flash content is proprietary content. It is the money-making scheme of one
company. This tends to undermine web standards like HTML. The Internet is a
public utility for all of us to use. Proprietary methods go against that
spirit.
Parallel ports can control electrical devices.
on
Home Made Alarm Systems?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It is easy to write a program to control parallel printer ports. A system can
have up to three of them. Each parallel port has eight latchable output lines,
so you can turn 16 devices on or off and still use LPT1: for a printer.
Game ports can be used as input devices.
The lines can be coupled to a high-power device, or any electrical device,
with opto-couplers. That way there is complete isolation between the computer
and the powered device. The isolation provides complete assurance that
anything that happens on the power lines will not affect the computer.
Opto-couplers are available, at a high price, at Radio Shack. Look for an
electronics supply company for better selection and prices. (Computers
themselves achieve isolation from the power lines magnetically.)
If you have an old VCR and video camera, you could turn that on so
that you would have a record of the intrusion. Since you probably don't often
use your video camera, it could stay looking toward the door most of the time.
It is possible to buy a new VCR for $60.
This would not be significant work for a computer, so it could also be an
always-on firewall. It could also be an answering machine and fax receiver. It
would need a battery backup power supply, of course. Otherwise power line
fluctuations would occasionally cause computer lock-ups.
Here is a summary of the reasons not to use Macromedia Flash:
Flash presents unknown security risks. Sometimes Flash and other Macromedia
products have been the point of entry of trojans, as mentioned in this story.
Flash on a web site advertises Flash more than it advertises the web site's
own content. There must always be some notice that says "Download Flash if you
don't have it", and a link to Macromedia, so that web site viewers can get the
latest version. This distracts from the content.
Flash is nearly always used to provide images that are irrelevant to the
content. Except for those who care about content less than bright, shiny
things, Flash gets in the way.
Flash often causes long load times. This communicates that the web site
viewer's time is worth less than the web site creator's love of distraction.
For web site viewers who do not want to run Flash and other Macromedia
software, or cannot, web sites using it are broken.
Users of Flash give the URL of their customers to Macromedia.
Flash is nearly always used to provide images that are irrelevant to the content. Except for those who care about content less than bright, shiny things, Flash gets in the way.
Flash on your web site advertises Flash more than it advertises your own content. There must always be some notice that says "Flash", and a link to Macromedia. Flash distracts from your content.
Flash presents unknown security risks. Sometimes Flash and other Macromedia products have been the point of entry of trojans.
Flash often causes long load times. This says that the viewer's time is worth less than the web site creator's love of distraction.
Slashdot Mirror
thorbo is right. The speed of sound at sea level is something like 700 miles per hour (Mach 1). If I've done the math right, that is 1,026.67 feet per second. A 10-foot separation will cause a 10 millisecond delay. I believe a 50-millisecond delay is heard as echo. Can anyone help about this?
But those are not echos. Those are real signals picked up by other microphones. It might be difficult to DSP that.
Flash has software designed to connect to the Internet. Other software doesn't. That's the difference. We've seen, extensively, how much difficulty Microsoft has in making communication software bug-free. Far less energy is expended in finding Macromedia bugs, but the potential for bugs must be considered to be the same.
I'd love to see a list of all the other software you have found.
Wow, hplasm, you are an excellent writer!
However, I don't agree with the method. It is adversarial. It invites retaliation.
The patient, but firm, non-adversarial way takes longer to get the first results. It requires a lot more creativity. However, there is no danger that it will be merely the first shot in a long-running battle.
Teach, don't sneak. Teach, don't fight.
"The fact is, we are becoming stronger with our ability to obtain information for free."
I strongly agree with this.
Yes, block the P2P ports with a firewall. However, this is also a social problem that must be handled in a skillful way.
Now I always record TV programs, so I can skip ALL the commercials when I play them back. I agree, this is theft, except that I would not buy the things advertised even if I did watch the commercials.
I would gladly pay to have commercial-free TV. However, they would probably ruin the idea by charging too much. My share of the cost of a TV program is probably 10 cents, and they would probably want to charge $5.00. It is common that business people destroy their own good ideas with greed.
Over a two year period I considered how commercials on TV had affected my buying. During that two years, I spent $6.81 because of having seen commercials.
Have you ever noticed that the things that are advertised on TV are usually things you should not buy, if you care about spending your money wisely? For example, they're always pushing legal drugs. I don't think I really need more hair, especially if it must be surgically implanted. In the U.S., used cars provide much better value for the money.
Back in the day of INI files, they were all over the place. They were inconsistent. That was because Microsoft had inadequate standards.
The registry is a trade-off, but a different trade-off, in my opinion. The registry (which is in all versions of Microsoft Windows from 95 to XP) works perfectly as copy protection. It also causes all versions of Windows to be unstable.
One thing is good to keep in mind about Microsoft. By its anti-customer actions, Microsoft is buying itself an unprecedented amount of bad feeling. At present feelings against Microsoft are so negative that the company has business only because it has a virtual monopoly. If there ever becomes a real alternative to MS software (like the Open Office suite, for example), Microsoft will rapidly collapse.
(I have written this comment so that it includes information that most readers here already know, but that the average computer user needs. That way, if you like the comment, you can pass it on to your less knowledgeable friends.)
The first paragraph may sound like an exaggerated opinion, but collapse of a computer company's business has happened before. IBM had, at one time, almost 100% of the personal computer business. But it was surprising at the time how much people didn't like IBM. People who supplied cement to the building industry and people who ran dry cleaners and students who played with Basic all knew that IBM was in court for anti-trust violations. It was often shocking how much negative feeling toward IBM there was among people who had little understanding of the technical issues behind the violations.
As soon as an alternative to buying PCs from IBM was available, IBMs business dropped rapidly. The magazine articles at the time exaggerated IBM's percentage of the market because they failed to count the computers that were made by very small businesses. The alternatives to IBM PCs were called clones, and thousands of companies built them. IBMs business quickly dropped to 8% of the market, and then below that.
Now history is poised to repeat itself, this time with software. Linux is still not easy enough to configure. Open Office has, for the needs of many people, arrived. The Mozilla browser will soon be released, but it doesn't have a calendar or a spell-checker yet, and these are important to many people who use Microsoft Outlook. Events are moving fast, and it won't be long before the selfless love of the open source programmers overthrows the world's most abusive software dictator.
Often people with little technical knowledge don't understand that underlying the negative feeling toward Microsoft are strong technical failings. For example, Windows XP, Microsoft's newest operating system, has a file called the Registry. This file contains settings for the operating system and almost every other program that is installed. The registry file is a single point of failure. If something goes wrong in the registry, as it sometimes does, the only method of recovery is to re-install Windows XP, all the programs, all the drivers, and all the patches again. This can take days, during which the user is not able to work normally.
Why does Microsoft have such a flawed design? Why put information for many programs in one file? Why not put each program's settings in separate files, so that one cannot destroy the others? Apparently because having all the settings in one file accomplishes a kind of copy protection. Someone who copies a program's folder will not be able to operate that program on another computer because the settings are hidden in Windows XP's registry file. So, all the honest customers suffer because of Microsoft's desire to extract the most money from the world. That kind of offensive defensiveness actually lowers long-term profit, something the company executives have not learned.
And Epson bought itself a cheap reputation.
The above post is a VERY good idea. I hope Dell management reads Slashdot.
"To date, there has been *three* potential security holes found. None of them have been exploited."
A machine for which I am responsible was taken over by someone exploiting a Flash security hole. Even Macromedia managers admit that this is sometimes a problem.
Thanks, Kierthos, for what you said. It is what I would have said.
It was typical, I thought, that the lawyer for the school did not try to talk to the student. I can imagine that the reason is conflict of interest. The lawyer makes more money if there is legal action. I have observed that often lawyers don't care about resolving the real problem. They care about having as much legal trouble as possible. This is abusive, and it is widespread abuse, in my experience.
Lawyers are the biggest abusers of the law, I've noticed.
Here are additional considerations concerning the use of Macromedia Flash:
Flash presents unknown security risks. Sometimes Flash and other Macromedia products have been the point of entry of trojans and viruses, as mentioned in this documentation of a very serious bug, Macromedia Flash Activex Buffer overflow.
Flash on a website advertises Flash. There must always be some notice that says "Download Flash if you don't have it", and a link to Macromedia, so that web site viewers can get the latest version. This forced added content distracts from the intended content.
Flash is nearly always used to provide images that are irrelevant to the content. Except for those who care about bright, shiny things more than content, Flash gets in the way. Flash authors are seldom qualified to provide moving picture content, and, even if they were, Flash is a very limited cinematic tool.
Flash often causes long load times. Long load times communicate that the website viewer's time is less important than the website creator's love of movement. Flash often causes Website viewers to look at "Loading..." messages.
For website viewers who do not want to run Flash and other Macromedia software, or cannot, web sites using it are broken.
By using Flash, authors of Flash content may cause the URL of their customers to be transmitted to Macromedia. If some disloyal Macromedia employee, or Macromedia itself, thought of some profitable reason to approach those customers directly, Flash content authors could lose customers.
Flash content is proprietary content. It is the money-making scheme of one company. This tends to undermine web standards like HTML. The Internet is a public utility for all of us to use. Proprietary methods go against that spirit.
The above poster should have said that a Basic Stamp is a cheap computer. Maybe $39 to $59 total.
Google is your friend.
It is easy to write a program to control parallel printer ports. A system can have up to three of them. Each parallel port has eight latchable output lines, so you can turn 16 devices on or off and still use LPT1: for a printer.
Game ports can be used as input devices.
The lines can be coupled to a high-power device, or any electrical device, with opto-couplers. That way there is complete isolation between the computer and the powered device. The isolation provides complete assurance that anything that happens on the power lines will not affect the computer. Opto-couplers are available, at a high price, at Radio Shack. Look for an electronics supply company for better selection and prices. (Computers themselves achieve isolation from the power lines magnetically.)
If you have an old VCR and video camera, you could turn that on so that you would have a record of the intrusion. Since you probably don't often use your video camera, it could stay looking toward the door most of the time. It is possible to buy a new VCR for $60.
This would not be significant work for a computer, so it could also be an always-on firewall. It could also be an answering machine and fax receiver. It would need a battery backup power supply, of course. Otherwise power line fluctuations would occasionally cause computer lock-ups.
Here is a summary of the reasons not to use Macromedia Flash:
Flash presents unknown security risks. Sometimes Flash and other Macromedia products have been the point of entry of trojans, as mentioned in this story.
Flash on a web site advertises Flash more than it advertises the web site's own content. There must always be some notice that says "Download Flash if you don't have it", and a link to Macromedia, so that web site viewers can get the latest version. This distracts from the content.
Flash is nearly always used to provide images that are irrelevant to the content. Except for those who care about content less than bright, shiny things, Flash gets in the way.
Flash often causes long load times. This communicates that the web site viewer's time is worth less than the web site creator's love of distraction.
For web site viewers who do not want to run Flash and other Macromedia software, or cannot, web sites using it are broken.
Users of Flash give the URL of their customers to Macromedia.
Is Flash a "good product", as the story says?
Flash is nearly always used to provide images that are irrelevant to the content. Except for those who care about content less than bright, shiny things, Flash gets in the way.
Flash on your web site advertises Flash more than it advertises your own content. There must always be some notice that says "Flash", and a link to Macromedia. Flash distracts from your content.
Flash presents unknown security risks. Sometimes Flash and other Macromedia products have been the point of entry of trojans.
Flash often causes long load times. This says that the viewer's time is worth less than the web site creator's love of distraction.
Very good idea.
Mod parent up. Excellent ideas.
Once, just once, I would like to see a fruit fly turn to the camera and say, "Can't you see we need some privacy?"
Over a two year period I considered how commercials on TV affected my buying. During that two years, I spent $6.81 because of having seen commercials.
Have you ever noticed that the things that are advertised on TV are usually things you should not buy, if you care about spending your money wisely?
"As much as I dislike the MS machine, they do create great applications."
Microsoft Word is not a great application, in my opinion. It is quirky, very quirky.