Talking to a wireless engineer at Sony, they are really interested in finding a way of having ubiquitous 802.11 access everywhere. With devices like this, who can blame them.
Trouble is, he also said Sony wants a piece of the service market offering that access. Seems to me I would stick with being a hardware provider and let the ISPs sort out the delivery. Of course, with Sony being in the content business as well........
Yeah, exactly proves the point! It's designed to protect against just that. Either 3 doses go in or it doesn't... the Nurse doesn't need to know what the doses are, or really even what drug it is, or if the patient will have a reaction... the system does all of that on the backend.
--D
p.s. The patient's armbands are barcoded too. Truly taking the "you're not just a number" addage to heart... you're not just a number, you're a barcoded number!
It will happen eventually, the cost/benefit is just too great to be ignored. With the volume that Walmart handles, it will only be a matter of time before the upstart cost will be acceptable for Walmart. Once they say do it, you can guarantee that all the manufacturers will play along, and then every other store can take advantage.
On a related note, I work at a hospital that is starting a barcode initiative on drugs. We only just now had the power to convince the drug companies that they need to supply us their drugs in individual doses, prelabeled and barcoded.
We had a t-shirt discussion on another mailing list I'm part of. Everybody wanted different designs with different slogans and different artists were submitting different concepts.
Turns out anybody with a JPG file can open a store on cafepress and sell various merchandise with their choice of logos. Either at cost (about $15 for a t-shirt) or with some built-in profit.
Why don't we just do that here?
--D
p.s. I know people will bitch about me spamvertising (that's why I didn't link it), but it was a site I hadn't heard about until last week (and that's super-rare!) and seems to fulfill an awesome purpose for a pretty reasonable price (for one-offs) and handles all the billing and shipping. You're welcome to submit similar alternatives.
Did anybody watch the Osbournes this week? Ozzie's new bimmer doesn't understand a word he says... especially where he swears at it. Think it will understand his gestures any better?????:)
I think what it comes down to is not wanting to lose out sales to someone else. If their competetors are making at least 1 sale with something, most companies will want to try and steal away that sale... almost at any cost!
Of course, it looks like they're not going to put a huge effort behind it until there is some momentum... but then do expect them market the hell out of it.
What I want to know with all of these spam penalty ideas, is how do you bill them? Does the state send one big bill at the end of the year? At taxtime? What if the spammer is in a foreign country? Does this only apply to spammers located in California?? etc. etc.
If we can track them down to bill them, why not just beat the living s out of them then?
--D
p.s. Craigslist fricking rocks! I just wish more people in Sacramento knew about it (and knew how to use computers actually).
I couldn't agree with you more! That's exactly the way we watch TV!
However, have you ever seen the end of an interesting commercial, backed up, tried to find the beginning of it, watched the whole commercial, and not understand why the ending bit was funny or interesting in the first place? Most commercials are such a disappointment!
Incorrect. Ads will be made that appeal to a larger set of people. Unfortunately, most of us on here are not going to enjoy the same commercials that appeal to the general public. (Example = NASCAR).
--D
Why complain? Make money!
on
RFID Explained
·
· Score: 0, Troll
I don't know why all you slashdotters are complaining about this. RFID is powerful technology that corporations want to purchase. The ROI is super-quick and super-obvious to even the dumbest CFO.
MAKE MONEY!
Read up about this stuff. Learn the upsides, and the downsides. Build some useful software around this (more than just inventory and asset tracking). Apply for jobs at these companies! Quit bitching, and take advantage of the situation.
Absolutely correct! The problem is trying to make bluetooth do things it was never designed to do. It was not meant to compete directly with 802.11... it was meant for locally connecting peripherals (whether those are headsets or whole other devices, they are peripheral in nature).
And contrary to popular opinion, 802.11 and BT can coexist... it's those damn spread spectrum 2.4ghz phones that get in the way!
...because there isn't enough use to actually impact anyones bandwidth costs YET. As soon as you start trying to use IP phones and such, the upstream providers are going to have to start charging the people using the bandwidth more, and those costs will trickle down.
Now, infrastructure costs may be less with 802.11, or at least the perceived cost to value is less... but there are downsides to that as well (availability, performance, reliability, upgrades, etc.)
Isn't that what they did with electric cars? They'll give you the car reasonably cheap, but you're on the hook for the battery replacements 2 years down the road at anywhere between $700 and $4000.
Of course, that's one of the main reasons why GM (Saturn) were only leasing the EV1.
The EFF is fighting for a way for us not to be forcefed the crap that the movie studios are forcing on us. We win the rights to edit out the sex and violence, and we also win the right to actually control the media we purchase.
I do wish the EFF had more (some) power sometimes though...
Several of the hard-drive based MP3 players have connections for CF cards. The Archos Multimedia has a module with SMC and CF readers, and even a photo module that has a cheap crappy camera. You can then upload from the CF cards (buying only as much as you'll shoot before you get a chance to dump them to the MP3 player). A side benefit of this is that they often include a voice recorder so that you can diary things and track them by date.
For film, why not just send the film directly back to one of the online photo processing/image hosting sites? They'll get it developed and posted without any intervention from you, so your friends and family can check them out and you can also take a look when you do find Internet connectivity.
What would I do? Get a Canon EOS Elan II (or the more modern equivalent with metal parts, not the cheaper Rebels) and a Canon digital SLR (is it the D60 or is there something newer?) and a couple of lenses: 50mm prime, 28-110mm, 80-300mm... and just swap the backs between them as needed. Add the 20gig Archos MM w/ the correct card reader and you're good to go. Then if you're out of battery or film at least you have another option.
Of course then your pack is considerably heavier, but I wouldn't want to be without some kind of photographic means on a trip like that! I would skip the bulky/fragile laptop in favor of this setup.
Nobody is really "sharing" as we traditionally think of the term. Sharing involves lending something to somebody, and while it is on loan, the owner no longer has it. "Sharing" in the P2P context has become a euphemism for "copying." That copying is neither legal nor ethical.
So if somebody had a technology to really "check out" music, from say a consolidated source of millions of users with say a few hundred thousand legit copies..... think that would be OK with Mr. RIAA? Didn't some company have a technology similar to this, or was that for warez?
Just curious (in a serious way), is anybody actually using a beowolf cluster for anything important? Anything that couldn't be done with a super-powerful single machine?
So they taketh away outright sharing, but it sounds like you can still access your recordings on another device to finish viewing the recording in another room, etc. It accomplishes almost the same thing... so is that an acceptable compromise?
The major side of me says absolutely not. I paid to receive it, I recorded it myself, I'm storing it on my own purchased hardware, I can do what I want with it... but a small part of me says you have to be able to protect copyrights to some extent, so as long as they're giving me some reasonable options that let me do what I want to do then Ok.....
Now, I would like to be able to quickly/easily share something I've watched with a coworker or friend (like "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" on TNN, the best show you're not watching) or have kids watch the same show as we're watching in our bedroom... so if they let me do that, and play anywhere in my house.... what do I care about DRM?
Those groups are the ones that have to get pissed off before action will ever get taken. Who is going to give much weight to the comparatively tiny geek population that is actually aware of the underlying morality, freedom, and competition issues? When the public at large gets interested in an issue (say the cancellation of Felicity for example, blech) they will make a stand and _then_ companies will listen!
--D
Whose quote was "Never underestimate the stupidity of the American Public"???
For the amount of money the cellphone companies have collectively spent on lobbying and fighting court battles, they could have hired a bunch of the out-of-work slashdotters and solved teh problem once and for all.
I currently own the Multimedia 020. It's great, but you have to downconvert all your DivX files to their preferred resolution. It's a limitation of the chip they use... looks like the 340 will be better in that regard, but what's really needed is somethign where you can take any DivX file straight of Kazaa onto the JBMM and have it play correctly at the resolution they need for the their screen.
There currently is no alternative firmware for the Multimedia's yet... and it doesn't sound like the Rockbox people are very interested in working on them (at least while there's still work to be done on the regular Jukebox's).
However, the good news is that since I bought my Multimedia 020 4 months ago, there has been a couple of firmware updates that have fixed the majority of my complaints and gripes. Sure, open source firmware would be cool, but as long as the company provides semi-regular updates and apparently listens to their users.
Slashdot Mirror
Talking to a wireless engineer at Sony, they are really interested in finding a way of having ubiquitous 802.11 access everywhere. With devices like this, who can blame them.
Trouble is, he also said Sony wants a piece of the service market offering that access. Seems to me I would stick with being a hardware provider and let the ISPs sort out the delivery. Of course, with Sony being in the content business as well........
--D
Yeah, exactly proves the point! It's designed to protect against just that. Either 3 doses go in or it doesn't... the Nurse doesn't need to know what the doses are, or really even what drug it is, or if the patient will have a reaction... the system does all of that on the backend. --D p.s. The patient's armbands are barcoded too. Truly taking the "you're not just a number" addage to heart... you're not just a number, you're a barcoded number!
It will happen eventually, the cost/benefit is just too great to be ignored. With the volume that Walmart handles, it will only be a matter of time before the upstart cost will be acceptable for Walmart. Once they say do it, you can guarantee that all the manufacturers will play along, and then every other store can take advantage.
On a related note, I work at a hospital that is starting a barcode initiative on drugs. We only just now had the power to convince the drug companies that they need to supply us their drugs in individual doses, prelabeled and barcoded.
--D
We had a t-shirt discussion on another mailing list I'm part of. Everybody wanted different designs with different slogans and different artists were submitting different concepts.
Turns out anybody with a JPG file can open a store on cafepress and sell various merchandise with their choice of logos. Either at cost (about $15 for a t-shirt) or with some built-in profit.
Why don't we just do that here?
--D
p.s. I know people will bitch about me spamvertising (that's why I didn't link it), but it was a site I hadn't heard about until last week (and that's super-rare!) and seems to fulfill an awesome purpose for a pretty reasonable price (for one-offs) and handles all the billing and shipping. You're welcome to submit similar alternatives.
Did anybody watch the Osbournes this week? Ozzie's new bimmer doesn't understand a word he says... especially where he swears at it. Think it will understand his gestures any better????? :)
--D
I think what it comes down to is not wanting to lose out sales to someone else. If their competetors are making at least 1 sale with something, most companies will want to try and steal away that sale... almost at any cost!
Of course, it looks like they're not going to put a huge effort behind it until there is some momentum... but then do expect them market the hell out of it.
--D
What I want to know with all of these spam penalty ideas, is how do you bill them? Does the state send one big bill at the end of the year? At taxtime? What if the spammer is in a foreign country? Does this only apply to spammers located in California?? etc. etc.
If we can track them down to bill them, why not just beat the living s out of them then?
--D
p.s. Craigslist fricking rocks! I just wish more people in Sacramento knew about it (and knew how to use computers actually).
I couldn't agree with you more! That's exactly the way we watch TV!
However, have you ever seen the end of an interesting commercial, backed up, tried to find the beginning of it, watched the whole commercial, and not understand why the ending bit was funny or interesting in the first place? Most commercials are such a disappointment!
--D
Incorrect. Ads will be made that appeal to a larger set of people. Unfortunately, most of us on here are not going to enjoy the same commercials that appeal to the general public. (Example = NASCAR).
--D
I don't know why all you slashdotters are complaining about this. RFID is powerful technology that corporations want to purchase. The ROI is super-quick and super-obvious to even the dumbest CFO.
MAKE MONEY!
Read up about this stuff. Learn the upsides, and the downsides. Build some useful software around this (more than just inventory and asset tracking). Apply for jobs at these companies! Quit bitching, and take advantage of the situation.
--D
Absolutely correct! The problem is trying to make bluetooth do things it was never designed to do. It was not meant to compete directly with 802.11... it was meant for locally connecting peripherals (whether those are headsets or whole other devices, they are peripheral in nature).
And contrary to popular opinion, 802.11 and BT can coexist... it's those damn spread spectrum 2.4ghz phones that get in the way!
--D
...because there isn't enough use to actually impact anyones bandwidth costs YET. As soon as you start trying to use IP phones and such, the upstream providers are going to have to start charging the people using the bandwidth more, and those costs will trickle down.
Now, infrastructure costs may be less with 802.11, or at least the perceived cost to value is less... but there are downsides to that as well (availability, performance, reliability, upgrades, etc.)
Of course, as bandwidth becomes cheaper.......
--D
Isn't that what they did with electric cars? They'll give you the car reasonably cheap, but you're on the hook for the battery replacements 2 years down the road at anywhere between $700 and $4000.
Of course, that's one of the main reasons why GM (Saturn) were only leasing the EV1.
--D
The EFF is fighting for a way for us not to be forcefed the crap that the movie studios are forcing on us. We win the rights to edit out the sex and violence, and we also win the right to actually control the media we purchase.
I do wish the EFF had more (some) power sometimes though...
--D
Sooner or later, umpires are going to be out of a job... "You can not be serious" --John McEnroe
Several of the hard-drive based MP3 players have connections for CF cards. The Archos Multimedia has a module with SMC and CF readers, and even a photo module that has a cheap crappy camera. You can then upload from the CF cards (buying only as much as you'll shoot before you get a chance to dump them to the MP3 player). A side benefit of this is that they often include a voice recorder so that you can diary things and track them by date.
For film, why not just send the film directly back to one of the online photo processing/image hosting sites? They'll get it developed and posted without any intervention from you, so your friends and family can check them out and you can also take a look when you do find Internet connectivity.
What would I do? Get a Canon EOS Elan II (or the more modern equivalent with metal parts, not the cheaper Rebels) and a Canon digital SLR (is it the D60 or is there something newer?) and a couple of lenses: 50mm prime, 28-110mm, 80-300mm... and just swap the backs between them as needed. Add the 20gig Archos MM w/ the correct card reader and you're good to go. Then if you're out of battery or film at least you have another option.
Of course then your pack is considerably heavier, but I wouldn't want to be without some kind of photographic means on a trip like that! I would skip the bulky/fragile laptop in favor of this setup.
--D
So if somebody had a technology to really "check out" music, from say a consolidated source of millions of users with say a few hundred thousand legit copies..... think that would be OK with Mr. RIAA? Didn't some company have a technology similar to this, or was that for warez?
--D
Just curious (in a serious way), is anybody actually using a beowolf cluster for anything important? Anything that couldn't be done with a super-powerful single machine?
--D
So they taketh away outright sharing, but it sounds like you can still access your recordings on another device to finish viewing the recording in another room, etc. It accomplishes almost the same thing... so is that an acceptable compromise?
The major side of me says absolutely not. I paid to receive it, I recorded it myself, I'm storing it on my own purchased hardware, I can do what I want with it... but a small part of me says you have to be able to protect copyrights to some extent, so as long as they're giving me some reasonable options that let me do what I want to do then Ok.....
Now, I would like to be able to quickly/easily share something I've watched with a coworker or friend (like "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" on TNN, the best show you're not watching) or have kids watch the same show as we're watching in our bedroom... so if they let me do that, and play anywhere in my house.... what do I care about DRM?
Tough thoughts........
--D
Those groups are the ones that have to get pissed off before action will ever get taken. Who is going to give much weight to the comparatively tiny geek population that is actually aware of the underlying morality, freedom, and competition issues? When the public at large gets interested in an issue (say the cancellation of Felicity for example, blech) they will make a stand and _then_ companies will listen!
--D
Whose quote was "Never underestimate the stupidity of the American Public"???
For the amount of money the cellphone companies have collectively spent on lobbying and fighting court battles, they could have hired a bunch of the out-of-work slashdotters and solved teh problem once and for all.
:)
Oh, it's not _truly_ a technology problem?
--D
I can guarantee that my dream room of the future sure as hell isn't in El Segundo :)
--D
Nope, seems to be working just fine.... :)
--D
I currently own the Multimedia 020. It's great, but you have to downconvert all your DivX files to their preferred resolution. It's a limitation of the chip they use... looks like the 340 will be better in that regard, but what's really needed is somethign where you can take any DivX file straight of Kazaa onto the JBMM and have it play correctly at the resolution they need for the their screen.
--D
There currently is no alternative firmware for the Multimedia's yet... and it doesn't sound like the Rockbox people are very interested in working on them (at least while there's still work to be done on the regular Jukebox's).
However, the good news is that since I bought my Multimedia 020 4 months ago, there has been a couple of firmware updates that have fixed the majority of my complaints and gripes. Sure, open source firmware would be cool, but as long as the company provides semi-regular updates and apparently listens to their users.
--D