If you have modpoints, give them to the parent please. It's the most often made mistake people make in this thread and he's the first to point people to it.
I agree, I think they're influenced in some way, maybe bribery.
The Dutch minister of economic matters did some strange things. He is in the European Council and he voted for software patents. He did this even though his political party is against software patents. Even though he said he'd vote against or abstain. And even though it's logical and proven that adopting software patents, of which America has a lot more, would be bad for the Dutch/European software industry and economy.
His actions just don't make logical sense. Unless you start with the premise that he's somehow influenced to act against logic and the best interests of his constituency. Microsoft would be the prime beneficiary of software patents in Europe. Everyone's assuming that they're going to use patents to do battle against open source (TM). Also it's not unthinkable because they've shown they have done evil things in the past. It's not proof but it's a theory that fits.
Luckily he's been called back by the Dutch parliament and now he's trying to prevent from having to change his vote in the European council. He's saying it would be a bad precedent to show that a Dutch minister can change his mind on a EU council vote.
The longer we wait the better things look in the software patent situation. And the vote has been postponed again. Maybe a sense of reality and justice will prevail.
Mobiles will transform into the all-in-one devices the article talks about.
Mobiles will get harddrives. The first one of these is already announced.
Once those micro HDs get cheaper and implemented in more mobiles, mobiles will be at least as functional as an iPod mini.
The reason mobiles will win over all other devices: 1. You might leave home without your music player, but you will always take your mobile. Mobiles far outsell mp3 players. The mobile is the primary gadget, others are secondary. This means mobiles will get more upgrades and get them faster because there's just more money in it. 2. Smartphones are much more flexible than consumer devices like an iPod. They're basically pocket computers. You can just install a java program to teach a mobile how to play.ogg. You can't do that with an iPod (without hacking). You don't worry that your PC won't play a certain video file, you just download the codec, same with a mobile. People have to beg apple to extend the iPod with.ogg playback support, and they STILL won't add it! 3. Because of Java Micro Edition (J2ME) MIDP2.0 and higher, the mobile is a universal platform. Unlike the iPod, Creative, iRiver, Rio, PC, Mac, Linux which all need a platform specific program. You can just create one type of program, J2ME, and it will run on all mobiles regardless of processor or operating system. And unlike the PC where Java is held back because of Microsoft's opposition and Sun's mistakes. Java on mobiles is pre-installed. You just cannot easily program/extend consumer (mp3) gadgets like you can a mobile.
In my opinion geeks should go for mobiles because of these reasons. In addition, mobiles will give you the same way to escape DRM hell like you're escaping it on your PC. You just use non-DRM playback software and content sources because you're able to. The cool futuristic features the article is talking about like: "we should be able to share songs from one person's player to another. How cool is that?" Are already possible with a bluetooth mobile, Java MIDP2.0 and the bluetooth API for MIDP2.0
At the moment, mobile manufacturers and network operators are often putting up barriers to freely use them any way you like, as you are using your PC. This is because the phone network operators are afraid people will not download their DRM content. However, as people discover their mobiles can be their mobile PCs, phonemakers who don't free up their products from restrictions will lose market share because in the end, the public is the customer. I also think operators will win bigger by a free mobile market than with a restricted one.
Am I missing something important? I don't think so, and so mobiles will be the future all-in-one gadgets.
My next phone/music player/organizer/whatever will be a Nokia 7710. If it's not hobbled.
By the way, for the "I just want a simple phone" naggers: 1. What are you doing on Slashdot? 2. Powerful doesn't automatically mean difficult to use. 3. There ARE simple phones so buy those and don't try to force your view on mobiles on us. Be happy we love our gadgets.
Exactly, the PC is there to serve us, the human. The PC should adapt to how we humans do things. Humans view a program as a whole. It should be in 1 directory!
Once we are forced to jump through hoops we are slaves to the PC. Just because the PC wants to use HD space efficiently we should put with the "program files all over the place" nightmare? Things go wrong if done that way, that's why I'm not going to Linux, I'm going to OSX after this Windows PC.
PC's server 2 purposes: 1. To make things possible which were impossible before 2. Serve us humans as best as possible.
And NOT to make us slaves to how they want things done.
Humans want things done the OSX way. If there are any problems with that approach, fix those problems but you should start from there.
It depends on your personal preference but I think sorting files according to filetype is wrong. Better to sort according to the content of the file.
For example: a text file can be a book but so can an audio file (audio book). If you sort according to filetype they will end up in a different directory. Even if they're the same book.
In my directory structure they're in documents\books because they're both books. I have.txt.pdf.html and audio files in there because they belong together.
There will always be new filetypes in the future. 3D desktop files, virtual reality files, force feedback recording files. new kinds of XML files etc. do they all get their own directory in the future? On the other hand, the category/class of files doesn't change much. I have:
- documents - files.of.programs (e-mail, counter-strike, PGP keys, copy of my bookmarks.html file) - images (things to look at that stand still, any filetype) - movies.and.video (normally entertainment, but stuff that doesn't belong ANYWHERE but is still a vid, goes in here too) - music.and.audio (sometimes, an audio file is not music and not a book, that's why the.and.audio is there) - projects (this can be any type of file, every project has a subdir like projects\fanless.computer) - virtual.crypto.drive (a PGPdisk)
I also have a "downloaded" directory but that doesn't belong in my personal directory. My personal directory is what definitely gets backed up, only precious stuff goes in there. My downloaded dir still has to be sorted out and the files distributed over my home directory (if I want to keep it) so it stays seperate. My temp directory stays outside my personal dir for the same reason, it doesn't get backed up.
The reason I use "." dots instead of spaces is because I can then easily put those files online behind a URL. I only use characters that are allowed in a URL. IUsedToUseCamelCaseToNameFiles but the dots are easier to read for non-programmers and camelCase sometimes gets confusing if you have acronyms in the filename.
Another reason to sort according to class/content is that a program like spotlight for OSX will easily sort files for you according to filetype (all.txt are easy to find for it) but programs like that will be unable to sort according to content. They won't be able to open a document and determine if it's a book or a recipe or a program. That's definitely a human's job and another reason you should sort according to class/category. If you really want a big list of all the videos on your HD, then you can use OSX spotlight search for that.
Finally, sometimes a file belongs in 2 different categories AT THE SAME TIME. What do you do? You can have 2 copies but then they won't be synchronized. A document in 1 dir won't get the updates that you make to it's copy in another dir. it also takes up 2x the space on your HD.
Another way is to use shortcuts/symlinks but I found it doesn't always work like that. The link to the file is treated like a seperate file, so if you tell a program to load that shortcut, it will say the file is not a.psd. Maybe that's just Windows.
What we need, is a way for the same file to exist in 2 directories at once. I realized how this would work the best after I used WinAmp playlists. If you put your.mp3s in seperate files according to artist/album/whatever you will run into the same "a file needs to be at 2 spots at the same time" problems. Sometimes a song needs to be in an album dir and the "urban" dir at the same time. You can make copies but that's bad because it's 2x the space and not synchronized.
What you should do is put all songs in 1 big dir. Then make playlists your directories. You'll have a Prodigy/ playlist/dir, An electronic/ playlist/dir and those 2 dirs will be able to contain the exact same file. In other words, directories are now not spaces on your HD but just
Sister magazine of C'T (Computer Technik) which is in German and Dutch.
C'T is the highest quality computer magazine I've read. Proof of German "grundlichkeit" (thoroughness). Not only in-depth but an amazing amount of reading material every 2 weeks. I don't know how they do it.
Anyway, if C'T is any indication of iX's quality, you should buy it if you're into networking and servers. It may be a bit dryer to read than C'T but that's because I wasn't into servers when I read 1 edition a long time ago. Also comes with the territory of servers I guess.
Title of parent-post: Before the M$ Bashing Begins
WTF? you sound as if you approve of patents on algorithms/software.
By the way, even if they did patent algorithms used in TCP/IP, then they've only got the American and Japanese part of the internet. Not (yet) the European part.
Businesses will lose millions more than patents will bring in. When that happens, patents will disappear quicker than a lobbyist can count to $100,000.-
You're right, I read that phase-change was more stable in MO (Magneto-Optical) drives for example. I als thought I read that organic dye will lose it's recording in sun/UV light faster than phase change.
But the site behind your 2nd link says: Among the manufacturers that have done testing, there is consensus that, under recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more; CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years or more.
I will definitely keep it in mind when I'm re-evaluating a DVD burner, maybe DVD-RAM is the better answer because of proper error-correction.
Thanks for the info, and thanks to all other posters as well (just remapping with +MRW).
You're right, but let's hope democrats will catch on and when they "do everything it takes to win" like the republicans did, do it for the right reasons, to serve the Americans. In other words, not get infected by the naughtyness they used to win.
Tell me, if you guys are so damn smart, then why are you out the presidency, why are you out more senate seats, and why are you out a few more house seats too?
You're right, smarter people would think of a better plan. Mayber there is such a plan but that plan might involve evil deeds. Which would be better, winning at all costs or losing while keeping your soul?
(Note: Americans are dumb is not an acceptable answer.)
Thanks for the info, it helped because I was waiting for Mt. Rainier (Easy Write logo) on DVD drives.
I want to use DVD's for backing up. I'm going to use DVD+RW because they'll keep their info intact longer, they've got a phase change recording layer instead of the more unstable dye recording layers of DVD+R. But even then, stability will be even better with Mt. Rainier because it's got redundancy as part of the specification. Extra safety in return for less recording space.
Apart from that, Mt. Rainier has background formatting (start recording immediately) and a standard way of accessing it like a HD/floppy drive. None of that stupid "burning" shit. Just the OS drive access like it's supposed to be.
I read that only the newest 90 nanometer versions have on-die thermal throttling. The earlier versions work by BIOS which, I can imagine, are not as good as the faster reacting on-die variant.
I think it's a mandatory feature for any server, if the fan/heatsink combo can't cut it on a hot summer day, your server will still keep running, only a bit slower. In the evening your server will run at full speed again, all without you noticing. And all without the server dying.
I don't have confirmation on this fact (on-die thermal throttling) yet though.
Made it up myself, you see it in the actions of a lot of corporations.
Some Japanese companies "get it" and try to increase profit by increasing the market for their product as much as possible. Low price, don't try to take too much of the cake yourself and share some of the profit so others have a stake in helping it to make a success. Mobile phone game makers get 90% of the profit for example.
Other companies let some accountants and market researchers loose on the product with the order to: "maximize profit". Out of their equations often comes a price that is too high and restrictions that are too limiting for the product to succeed. They're thinking, 500 people will buy it for 25 dollars and 1000 people will buy it for 10 dollars so we'll go for the 25 dollar price.
In order to "maximize profits" they make the product too unattractive and it doesn't sell. They're too optimistic about their own product and also too greedy, and therefore "too greedy to make money". You see it happening in a lot of companies. I think mobile phone internet access is an example.
The best way to stay younger than you are is to take in less calories! this has been shown to be true in all mammals, including humans.
As long as you get all necessary nutrients, decreasing caloric intake is the fountain of youth. You might not be able to run a marathon but you'll understand that yourself when you hit that wall.
I saw this fact in a documentary with Alan Alda as the presenter. All aging is because of free radicals permanently destroying cell parts, free radicals are produced during metabolism, eating. The science looked good.
They tested various methods of longevity including inti-oxidants. The mice in the anti-oxidant cages looked lethargic and weak, normal for their age. The mice in the low caloric intake cages looked hyper and youthful, unlike their age.
Eat almost nothing and you'll live like a young'un for most of your life. Think of it like a machine, if you burn more fuel through it, it wears out sooner.
Maybe you can give us some help here. How exactly do you keep the politicians honest and concerned with public welfare in this place where you 'watch the US from a distance'?
This isn't a flamebait. It just a question; what do people do in the place you are to keep the political process working and balanced?
I'm writing to you from the Netherlands. Hi.
The best way to answer your question is to point out the differences between our countries:
- We don't allow anyone to give money to our politicians. In the US there are ways for someone to give money to politicians. This is the "legally bribed" part I mentioned earlier. Giving someone money is a good way to make them do your bidding so the most important part of your answer is already in your question.
- We have a culture of being very critical of everything in the Netherlands. We always have an opinion on everything and we need to know the ins and outs of a certain subject before we're satisfied that we've been told the truth. Handy for keeping our government honest, not so good in emergency situations (is that siren really indicating an emergency, i'm not so sure, investigation time).
- We have complete seperation of church and state, and as another poster noted, the US doesn't. When you think about it, religion isn't very democratic. The bible is full of kings and there's the ultimate king who's always right and who's word is always law. It's also a bit totalitarian (god is always watching and sees everything you do). Another reason religion has no place in government is because reality is always changing, the bible has only been updated once and that was a long time ago.
- Ofcourse we have corrupt politicians or people who want to be. The best way for them to keep their illegal income is to hide the fact that they're on the take. Like I said, we're critical in the Netherlands and it shows in the way we treat politicians. When you think about it, they're just human beings like you and me. Most of the time they're not even smarter than us, just more educated or better connected. In my country they have a certain level of fame, ofcourse, but mostly we have the attitude of: "do your job of managing the country, if you don't do it well or you lie about it, we fire you and you can find another job". In contrast, what I can see from the U.S. mindset, everyone's like: "OMG OMG, it's the president of the United States, a demi-god right here among us, WOW, I just saw the emperor of earth on TV". As far as I know, not enough people have been fired for lying or not doing their job (Irak, September 11). U.S. politicians are still lying and getting away with it. A sig from another/. poster comes to mind in this respect. Something like: Being a patriot is supporting your country always and your government sometimes. The current U.S. government is almost saying you're a traitor if you're critical of the government.
- The average education level of the population here is higher than the average level in the U.S. This, together with the religion thing, the non-firing of lyars and the uncritical thinking of the population. It leads to the bamboozling/spinning of the voters. If voters can be made to believe in this political disneyworld where everything is fine and the president is always right, then why would they need to be honest? They can just spin some more and everyone will still vote for them. As I said in my original post, most Dutch just can't believe so many people are voting for Republicans, I guess we're not in their "reality distortion field".
- Corporations have less influence on politics in the Netherlands, corporations are very organized and better connected than citizens. They can make a bigger lobbying fist than us.
My advice, Stop trying to fix symptoms like the Induce Act, you're spending precious political energy on the wrong thing. Use obvious wrongs like the induce act as examples of why the core issues should be tackled. The core issues, in my opinion
I'm watching the US from a distance, it's slowly going to hell. A real hell where real people live right now, not the imaginary one that doesn't exist.
I think the topic of this discussion is a side-effect. I think, the question this all starts with is: how can you stop American politicians from being legally bribed?
It's really obvious looking from the outside in that America is rotting, it's more difficult to see from the inside because the ones that are trying to control the government, and succeeding in my opinion, are the ones that feed you information through TV.
You guys and girls have to do something because it's going to influence the rest of the world when America, with it's giant military/industrial complex is going to hell. You either vote for Republicans so they speed up the nastyness and it's obvious to everyone. Or you have to slowly take back control. We've already had a Hitler and it gets pounded into us at school, the events that lead up to his rise to power. You want to have a live example before you realize? Or take our word for it that it's not such a good idea.
It's so obvious to outsiders that republicans are lyars, and we're like, "why can't Americans see the truth?".
Unfortunately, I think you're right. The Kodak situation is similar to what you're describing,/. posters say they're in trouble and that that's why they're playing the patent violation card now.
How about we adjust the plan to sending e-mails mainly to companies who aren't doing so well and could use an alternative source of income, like Kodak?
We should encourage companies to enforce their software patents. Drop an anonymous e-mail here and there, so they are notified of the infringements of other commercial companies.
Once the patent wars start, there'll be no stopping them (because of bad blood between companies) and there will be more money to be made from sueing non-open-source companies than open-source projects with volunteers.
Once companies are in multi-million dollar lawsuits. Then maybe the lobbyists working for the corporations will change their tune and push for abolishment of software patents.
My suggestion, get some good patents into the hands of EFF or similar organisations and start the conflict until it bleeds everyone dry in the US and Japan.
We know that software patents are bad because we're smarter than average, we're also knowledgeable of the industry. Others are not so forward-looking and they have to be SHOWN examples of why it's bad. This/. story is one example but we need lots more and worse ones.
We should encourage companies to enforce their software patents. Drop an anonymous e-mail here and there so they are notified of the infringements of other commercial companies.
Once the patent wars start, there'll be no stopping them (because of bad blood between companies) and there will be more money to be made from sueing non-open-source companies than open-source projects with volunteers.
Once companies are in multi-million dollar lawsuits. Then maybe the lobbyists working for the corporations will change their tune and push for abolishment of software patents.
My suggestion, get some good patents into the hands of EFF or similar organisations and start the conflict until it bleeds everyone dry in the US and Japan.
I know you didn't ask for this kind of answer but only online multiplayer games need a bought serial code that needs to be verified every time you use the program online.
All other programs can be cracked. Or get an open-source equivalent.
Unless it's a very high-value program with limited distribution like an expensive 3D or CAD package and you know the market so well that you know who's using your program and you can sic the BSA on non-payers.
I think it's better to sell either services or an online-only closed-source program for which you can check the serial every time it's used.
Slashdot Mirror
If you have modpoints, give them to the parent please. It's the most often made mistake people make in this thread and he's the first to point people to it.
" And how do you watch the screen with the phone pressed to your ear?
A hands-free/headset. Either wired or Bluetooth.
I agree, I think they're influenced in some way, maybe bribery.
The Dutch minister of economic matters did some strange things. He is in the European Council and he voted for software patents. He did this even though his political party is against software patents. Even though he said he'd vote against or abstain. And even though it's logical and proven that adopting software patents, of which America has a lot more, would be bad for the Dutch/European software industry and economy.
His actions just don't make logical sense. Unless you start with the premise that he's somehow influenced to act against logic and the best interests of his constituency. Microsoft would be the prime beneficiary of software patents in Europe. Everyone's assuming that they're going to use patents to do battle against open source (TM). Also it's not unthinkable because they've shown they have done evil things in the past. It's not proof but it's a theory that fits.
Luckily he's been called back by the Dutch parliament and now he's trying to prevent from having to change his vote in the European council. He's saying it would be a bad precedent to show that a Dutch minister can change his mind on a EU council vote.
The longer we wait the better things look in the software patent situation. And the vote has been postponed again. Maybe a sense of reality and justice will prevail.
Mobiles will transform into the all-in-one devices the article talks about.
.ogg. You can't do that with an iPod (without hacking). You don't worry that your PC won't play a certain video file, you just download the codec, same with a mobile. People have to beg apple to extend the iPod with .ogg playback support, and they STILL won't add it!
Mobiles will get harddrives. The first one of these is already announced.
Once those micro HDs get cheaper and implemented in more mobiles, mobiles will be at least as functional as an iPod mini.
The reason mobiles will win over all other devices:
1. You might leave home without your music player, but you will always take your mobile. Mobiles far outsell mp3 players. The mobile is the primary gadget, others are secondary. This means mobiles will get more upgrades and get them faster because there's just more money in it.
2. Smartphones are much more flexible than consumer devices like an iPod. They're basically pocket computers. You can just install a java program to teach a mobile how to play
3. Because of Java Micro Edition (J2ME) MIDP2.0 and higher, the mobile is a universal platform. Unlike the iPod, Creative, iRiver, Rio, PC, Mac, Linux which all need a platform specific program. You can just create one type of program, J2ME, and it will run on all mobiles regardless of processor or operating system. And unlike the PC where Java is held back because of Microsoft's opposition and Sun's mistakes. Java on mobiles is pre-installed. You just cannot easily program/extend consumer (mp3) gadgets like you can a mobile.
In my opinion geeks should go for mobiles because of these reasons. In addition, mobiles will give you the same way to escape DRM hell like you're escaping it on your PC. You just use non-DRM playback software and content sources because you're able to. The cool futuristic features the article is talking about like: "we should be able to share songs from one person's player to another. How cool is that?" Are already possible with a bluetooth mobile, Java MIDP2.0 and the bluetooth API for MIDP2.0
At the moment, mobile manufacturers and network operators are often putting up barriers to freely use them any way you like, as you are using your PC. This is because the phone network operators are afraid people will not download their DRM content. However, as people discover their mobiles can be their mobile PCs, phonemakers who don't free up their products from restrictions will lose market share because in the end, the public is the customer. I also think operators will win bigger by a free mobile market than with a restricted one.
Am I missing something important? I don't think so, and so mobiles will be the future all-in-one gadgets.
My next phone/music player/organizer/whatever will be a Nokia 7710. If it's not hobbled.
By the way, for the "I just want a simple phone" naggers:
1. What are you doing on Slashdot?
2. Powerful doesn't automatically mean difficult to use.
3. There ARE simple phones so buy those and don't try to force your view on mobiles on us. Be happy we love our gadgets.
So your butt will rot off, maybe. Depends on whether the dye layer is exposed.
Exactly, the PC is there to serve us, the human. The PC should adapt to how we humans do things. Humans view a program as a whole. It should be in 1 directory!
Once we are forced to jump through hoops we are slaves to the PC. Just because the PC wants to use HD space efficiently we should put with the "program files all over the place" nightmare? Things go wrong if done that way, that's why I'm not going to Linux, I'm going to OSX after this Windows PC.
PC's server 2 purposes:
1. To make things possible which were impossible before
2. Serve us humans as best as possible.
And NOT to make us slaves to how they want things done.
Humans want things done the OSX way. If there are any problems with that approach, fix those problems but you should start from there.
It depends on your personal preference but I think sorting files according to filetype is wrong. Better to sort according to the content of the file.
.txt .pdf .html and audio files in there because they belong together.
.and.audio is there)
.txt are easy to find for it) but programs like that will be unable to sort according to content. They won't be able to open a document and determine if it's a book or a recipe or a program. That's definitely a human's job and another reason you should sort according to class/category. If you really want a big list of all the videos on your HD, then you can use OSX spotlight search for that.
.psd. Maybe that's just Windows.
.mp3s in seperate files according to artist/album/whatever you will run into the same "a file needs to be at 2 spots at the same time" problems. Sometimes a song needs to be in an album dir and the "urban" dir at the same time. You can make copies but that's bad because it's 2x the space and not synchronized.
For example: a text file can be a book but so can an audio file (audio book). If you sort according to filetype they will end up in a different directory. Even if they're the same book.
In my directory structure they're in documents\books because they're both books. I have
There will always be new filetypes in the future. 3D desktop files, virtual reality files, force feedback recording files. new kinds of XML files etc. do they all get their own directory in the future? On the other hand, the category/class of files doesn't change much. I have:
- documents
- files.of.programs (e-mail, counter-strike, PGP keys, copy of my bookmarks.html file)
- images (things to look at that stand still, any filetype)
- movies.and.video (normally entertainment, but stuff that doesn't belong ANYWHERE but is still a vid, goes in here too)
- music.and.audio (sometimes, an audio file is not music and not a book, that's why the
- projects (this can be any type of file, every project has a subdir like projects\fanless.computer)
- virtual.crypto.drive (a PGPdisk)
I also have a "downloaded" directory but that doesn't belong in my personal directory. My personal directory is what definitely gets backed up, only precious stuff goes in there. My downloaded dir still has to be sorted out and the files distributed over my home directory (if I want to keep it) so it stays seperate.
My temp directory stays outside my personal dir for the same reason, it doesn't get backed up.
The reason I use "." dots instead of spaces is because I can then easily put those files online behind a URL. I only use characters that are allowed in a URL. IUsedToUseCamelCaseToNameFiles but the dots are easier to read for non-programmers and camelCase sometimes gets confusing if you have acronyms in the filename.
Another reason to sort according to class/content is that a program like spotlight for OSX will easily sort files for you according to filetype (all
Finally, sometimes a file belongs in 2 different categories AT THE SAME TIME. What do you do? You can have 2 copies but then they won't be synchronized. A document in 1 dir won't get the updates that you make to it's copy in another dir. it also takes up 2x the space on your HD.
Another way is to use shortcuts/symlinks but I found it doesn't always work like that. The link to the file is treated like a seperate file, so if you tell a program to load that shortcut, it will say the file is not a
What we need, is a way for the same file to exist in 2 directories at once. I realized how this would work the best after I used WinAmp playlists. If you put your
What you should do is put all songs in 1 big dir. Then make playlists your directories. You'll have a Prodigy/ playlist/dir, An electronic/ playlist/dir and those 2 dirs will be able to contain the exact same file. In other words, directories are now not spaces on your HD but just
Get a subscription
Sister magazine of C'T (Computer Technik) which is in German and Dutch.
C'T is the highest quality computer magazine I've read. Proof of German "grundlichkeit" (thoroughness). Not only in-depth but an amazing amount of reading material every 2 weeks. I don't know how they do it.
Anyway, if C'T is any indication of iX's quality, you should buy it if you're into networking and servers. It may be a bit dryer to read than C'T but that's because I wasn't into servers when I read 1 edition a long time ago. Also comes with the territory of servers I guess.
At least check out the free edition.
Title of parent-post:
Before the M$ Bashing Begins
WTF? you sound as if you approve of patents on algorithms/software.
By the way, even if they did patent algorithms used in TCP/IP, then they've only got the American and Japanese part of the internet. Not (yet) the European part.
No no, let the patent wars commence!
Businesses will lose millions more than patents will bring in. When that happens, patents will disappear quicker than a lobbyist can count to $100,000.-
You're right, I read that phase-change was more stable in MO (Magneto-Optical) drives for example. I als thought I read that organic dye will lose it's recording in sun/UV light faster than phase change.
But the site behind your 2nd link says:
Among the manufacturers that have done testing, there is consensus that, under recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more; CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years or more.
I will definitely keep it in mind when I'm re-evaluating a DVD burner, maybe DVD-RAM is the better answer because of proper error-correction.
Thanks for the info, and thanks to all other posters as well (just remapping with +MRW).
You're right, but let's hope democrats will catch on and when they "do everything it takes to win" like the republicans did, do it for the right reasons, to serve the Americans. In other words, not get infected by the naughtyness they used to win.
Tell me, if you guys are so damn smart, then why are you out the presidency, why are you out more senate seats, and why are you out a few more house seats too?
You're right, smarter people would think of a better plan. Mayber there is such a plan but that plan might involve evil deeds. Which would be better, winning at all costs or losing while keeping your soul?
(Note: Americans are dumb is not an acceptable answer.)
Why not? It's a possibility.
Thanks for the info, it helped because I was waiting for Mt. Rainier (Easy Write logo) on DVD drives.
I want to use DVD's for backing up. I'm going to use DVD+RW because they'll keep their info intact longer, they've got a phase change recording layer instead of the more unstable dye recording layers of DVD+R. But even then, stability will be even better with Mt. Rainier because it's got redundancy as part of the specification. Extra safety in return for less recording space.
Apart from that, Mt. Rainier has background formatting (start recording immediately) and a standard way of accessing it like a HD/floppy drive. None of that stupid "burning" shit. Just the OS drive access like it's supposed to be.
Anyway, thanks again.
I read that only the newest 90 nanometer versions have on-die thermal throttling. The earlier versions work by BIOS which, I can imagine, are not as good as the faster reacting on-die variant.
I think it's a mandatory feature for any server, if the fan/heatsink combo can't cut it on a hot summer day, your server will still keep running, only a bit slower. In the evening your server will run at full speed again, all without you noticing. And all without the server dying.
I don't have confirmation on this fact (on-die thermal throttling) yet though.
Made it up myself, you see it in the actions of a lot of corporations.
Some Japanese companies "get it" and try to increase profit by increasing the market for their product as much as possible. Low price, don't try to take too much of the cake yourself and share some of the profit so others have a stake in helping it to make a success. Mobile phone game makers get 90% of the profit for example.
Other companies let some accountants and market researchers loose on the product with the order to: "maximize profit". Out of their equations often comes a price that is too high and restrictions that are too limiting for the product to succeed. They're thinking, 500 people will buy it for 25 dollars and 1000 people will buy it for 10 dollars so we'll go for the 25 dollar price.
In order to "maximize profits" they make the product too unattractive and it doesn't sell. They're too optimistic about their own product and also too greedy, and therefore "too greedy to make money". You see it happening in a lot of companies. I think mobile phone internet access is an example.
I always say: "They're too greedy to make money".
The best way to stay younger than you are is to take in less calories! this has been shown to be true in all mammals, including humans.
As long as you get all necessary nutrients, decreasing caloric intake is the fountain of youth. You might not be able to run a marathon but you'll understand that yourself when you hit that wall.
I saw this fact in a documentary with Alan Alda as the presenter. All aging is because of free radicals permanently destroying cell parts, free radicals are produced during metabolism, eating. The science looked good.
They tested various methods of longevity including inti-oxidants. The mice in the anti-oxidant cages looked lethargic and weak, normal for their age. The mice in the low caloric intake cages looked hyper and youthful, unlike their age.
Eat almost nothing and you'll live like a young'un for most of your life. Think of it like a machine, if you burn more fuel through it, it wears out sooner.
Maybe you can give us some help here. How exactly do you keep the politicians honest and concerned with public welfare in this place where you 'watch the US from a distance'?
/. poster comes to mind in this respect. Something like: Being a patriot is supporting your country always and your government sometimes. The current U.S. government is almost saying you're a traitor if you're critical of the government.
This isn't a flamebait. It just a question; what do people do in the place you are to keep the political process working and balanced?
I'm writing to you from the Netherlands. Hi.
The best way to answer your question is to point out the differences between our countries:
- We don't allow anyone to give money to our politicians. In the US there are ways for someone to give money to politicians. This is the "legally bribed" part I mentioned earlier. Giving someone money is a good way to make them do your bidding so the most important part of your answer is already in your question.
- We have a culture of being very critical of everything in the Netherlands. We always have an opinion on everything and we need to know the ins and outs of a certain subject before we're satisfied that we've been told the truth. Handy for keeping our government honest, not so good in emergency situations (is that siren really indicating an emergency, i'm not so sure, investigation time).
- We have complete seperation of church and state, and as another poster noted, the US doesn't. When you think about it, religion isn't very democratic. The bible is full of kings and there's the ultimate king who's always right and who's word is always law. It's also a bit totalitarian (god is always watching and sees everything you do). Another reason religion has no place in government is because reality is always changing, the bible has only been updated once and that was a long time ago.
- Ofcourse we have corrupt politicians or people who want to be. The best way for them to keep their illegal income is to hide the fact that they're on the take. Like I said, we're critical in the Netherlands and it shows in the way we treat politicians. When you think about it, they're just human beings like you and me. Most of the time they're not even smarter than us, just more educated or better connected. In my country they have a certain level of fame, ofcourse, but mostly we have the attitude of: "do your job of managing the country, if you don't do it well or you lie about it, we fire you and you can find another job". In contrast, what I can see from the U.S. mindset, everyone's like: "OMG OMG, it's the president of the United States, a demi-god right here among us, WOW, I just saw the emperor of earth on TV". As far as I know, not enough people have been fired for lying or not doing their job (Irak, September 11). U.S. politicians are still lying and getting away with it. A sig from another
- The average education level of the population here is higher than the average level in the U.S. This, together with the religion thing, the non-firing of lyars and the uncritical thinking of the population. It leads to the bamboozling/spinning of the voters. If voters can be made to believe in this political disneyworld where everything is fine and the president is always right, then why would they need to be honest? They can just spin some more and everyone will still vote for them. As I said in my original post, most Dutch just can't believe so many people are voting for Republicans, I guess we're not in their "reality distortion field".
- Corporations have less influence on politics in the Netherlands, corporations are very organized and better connected than citizens. They can make a bigger lobbying fist than us.
My advice, Stop trying to fix symptoms like the Induce Act, you're spending precious political energy on the wrong thing. Use obvious wrongs like the induce act as examples of why the core issues should be tackled.
The core issues, in my opinion
I'm watching the US from a distance, it's slowly going to hell. A real hell where real people live right now, not the imaginary one that doesn't exist.
I think the topic of this discussion is a side-effect. I think, the question this all starts with is: how can you stop American politicians from being legally bribed?
It's really obvious looking from the outside in that America is rotting, it's more difficult to see from the inside because the ones that are trying to control the government, and succeeding in my opinion, are the ones that feed you information through TV.
You guys and girls have to do something because it's going to influence the rest of the world when America, with it's giant military/industrial complex is going to hell. You either vote for Republicans so they speed up the nastyness and it's obvious to everyone. Or you have to slowly take back control. We've already had a Hitler and it gets pounded into us at school, the events that lead up to his rise to power. You want to have a live example before you realize? Or take our word for it that it's not such a good idea.
It's so obvious to outsiders that republicans are lyars, and we're like, "why can't Americans see the truth?".
Unfortunately, I think you're right. The Kodak situation is similar to what you're describing, /. posters say they're in trouble and that that's why they're playing the patent violation card now.
How about we adjust the plan to sending e-mails mainly to companies who aren't doing so well and could use an alternative source of income, like Kodak?
We should encourage companies to enforce their software patents. Drop an anonymous e-mail here and there, so they are notified of the infringements of other commercial companies.
/. story is one example but we need lots more and worse ones.
Once the patent wars start, there'll be no stopping them (because of bad blood between companies) and there will be more money to be made from sueing non-open-source companies than open-source projects with volunteers.
Once companies are in multi-million dollar lawsuits. Then maybe the lobbyists working for the corporations will change their tune and push for abolishment of software patents.
My suggestion, get some good patents into the hands of EFF or similar organisations and start the conflict until it bleeds everyone dry in the US and Japan.
We know that software patents are bad because we're smarter than average, we're also knowledgeable of the industry. Others are not so forward-looking and they have to be SHOWN examples of why it's bad. This
We should encourage companies to enforce their software patents. Drop an anonymous e-mail here and there so they are notified of the infringements of other commercial companies.
Once the patent wars start, there'll be no stopping them (because of bad blood between companies) and there will be more money to be made from sueing non-open-source companies than open-source projects with volunteers.
Once companies are in multi-million dollar lawsuits. Then maybe the lobbyists working for the corporations will change their tune and push for abolishment of software patents.
My suggestion, get some good patents into the hands of EFF or similar organisations and start the conflict until it bleeds everyone dry in the US and Japan.
Just my personal opinion.
I know you didn't ask for this kind of answer but only online multiplayer games need a bought serial code that needs to be verified every time you use the program online.
All other programs can be cracked. Or get an open-source equivalent.
Unless it's a very high-value program with limited distribution like an expensive 3D or CAD package and you know the market so well that you know who's using your program and you can sic the BSA on non-payers.
I think it's better to sell either services or an online-only closed-source program for which you can check the serial every time it's used.