Don't you mean unless it's software or music with a legally enforceable copyright? There is plenty of software which is fine to share (anything with the GNU plubic license for example). There is also a fair amount of music and writings for which the copyrights have either expired (yes, it is music from the 1920's) or have not been adequately defended (therefore putting them in the public domain). One of the big reasons why the RIAA and MPAA have been so nuts about trying to stop the material they control the copyrights of is that if they do not the copyrights expire automatically, similar in the way that patents expire if they are not defended.
The really stupid part of the music industry's approach is that it can only effectively prevent one digital copy. If one has a good soundcard, you can just put the output of the normal cd player into the input of the soundcard and digitize the analog ouptut. After that copy and encode away. Sure some quality is lost, but all traces of the musics origin is destroyed.
The holocost in WWII began with the Jews. Then the Nazis started going after other minority groups. I know that they also persecuted homosexuals and the disabled. I think that towards the end they had started persecuting Catholics.
If you think that you have anonymity now, try googling yourself. Unless you have a pretty common name (John Smith perhaps) or share a name with a famous person you'll probably find out more than you want. Right now, you don't have to be a hacker to get enough information to steal someone's identity. Most of the time, a first or last name, a location, and a profession are enough to figure out exactly who someone is, and ussually their home address.
The reason to make society and information more open isn't to allow people to find out more about a particular individual, but to make sure that no one can missuse the information about you (since you'll be able to see what they do with it).
But then the RIAA would be going after all of their best customers, not good for business. RIAA is hopeing that by making a couple of examples they can cow everyone else into submision. Personally, I won't buy an album unless I can listen to it first (at least part of it) and know I like it. This has limited my music purchases to Anime soundtracks, PS2 soundtracks, and what I've heard on NPR. I used to download music, listen to it, and if I liked it, buy the rest of the album.
The problem is that privacy is already eroding. It would be much better for everyone's skeletons to be exposed at once, than one or two people to have their closets aired out at a time. This way we avoid the situation in 1930's Germany where small groups (at first) lost minor rights one at a time until only the majority had any rights.
The argument that some people are protected only by anononimity only works so long as there is a reasonable expectation of anononimity, which I think there no longer is. Besides, it would be fantastic protection from hate-crimes if everything (including real life) was logged. The biggots couldn't get away with anything, neither could the pedofiles, or the rapists, or the murderers, or the theives...
Identity theft is only possible because of our current technology.
I disagree. Identity theft has always existed, it has just become more profitable and therefore more prevelant lately. In the past, when physical goods had to exchange hands for a transaction to take place, assuming someone else's identity didn't ussually get you very far. After all, the person would only extend you credit if they knew you. Credit cards, and the way they process applications has changed this. Now you merely have to say you are someone in order to get credit in their name.
If there really was no privacy, a credit card company could verify who you are by your physical location, or perhaps even by looking at you through the TV (1984 anyone?) thereby eliminating ID theft. If by some chance the ID thief got into your house at the exact moment the credit card company was calling, merchants and the bank, would still refuse to do business with them since he would be asking for money/goods to be shipped to a location different from yours.
Of course there is a down side to this. Just like when Airlines started to require Photo IDs. Banks would then eliminate your ability to hand off your credit card to a trusted friend or a trusted child to run an errand for you (which I think is technically illegal now, anyway).
I think that no matter what we do, technology will continue to erode privacy. The only thing that I can think of to do to help this problem is to make sure that no one has privacy and everyone's identities are obvious while using any technology. This would allow for a certain amount of privacy by autonimity because someone was likely to be doing something more interesting than you, but would also privide for a mechanism for preventing identity theft. If a company can easily check to see if you really do live in a rural province of China, or in Nigeria before shipping goods (or money) off to such a location ID theft could be greatly reduced. Or better yet, they could see that Mr. ID theif is using your ID instead of his own. Remeber that ID theives rely on corporations not being able to check to see that they are who they say they are.
Plus, if the ID theives don't have privacy either, we could find out who they are.
From the reading the story about KB toys. Apparently one of the requirements that they had (and admitadly they are a relatively large business with some technical staff) was the ability to modify the system for their future needs or in case of an emergancy (security breach) without having to rely on a vendor. I have seen the ads for MS's business management software (on TV no less), and while what they promise is very nice, it is comperable to a specialized (and probably somewhat custom made) OSS solution. The major advantage MSSBS (MicroSoft Small Business Solution) has over OSS alternatives is that it is pretty much ready to go out of the box. Provided you are doing exactly what MS intended. However, MSSBS has two major draw backs. First, you get locked into MS's proprietary data systems, exposing you to future extortion (err..product upgrade fees). Second, if you arn't doing exactly what MS intended for MSSBS it is difficult to use.
I think my wife said it best (and I'm paraphrasing), "MS stuff works 90% of the time, but if it doesn't you're screwed. OSS stuff works 80% of the time, on the first try, but if it doesn't you can fight with it until it works."
Switching to OSS to eliminate piracy would actually work, but I doubt that the BSA had that in mind.
If people started to use OSS instead of CSS local economies would be able to take what they are currently investing in CSS fees and invest them in the skills of the local labor force. This would ultimately be very good for local economies but would probably crush the economies of CA and WA especially near Seattle.
Re:Easy...
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BSA IDC FUD
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· Score: 2, Informative
Then IT industry will crash and the people that had cushy jobs because they were pseudo-wizards will get laid off, and companies will start using software that doesn't require wizards to run, and actually lets them focus on their business instead of their IT dept.
Which is why KB toys switched to Linux based systems for their cash registers and inventory maintience. Or the Mass. Dept. of Revenue switched to Linux because it costs them $200 a terminal vs. $400+ a terminal for Windows (after taking into consideration sysadmins and training).
In general compainies which are large enough to have to seriously pay attention to information technologies are large enough so that no matter what they will need to hire a sysadmin regaurdless of what software they are running. So for larger compainies OSS solutions really are cheaper. Small businesses should be able to choose either closed source or open source solutions since their needs are pretty much dealt with in Office Suite + Money Management software and then the choice really comes down to $80 for StarOffice, $500 for MS Office, or Open Office for free. Only the MS Office version requires closed source operating systems.
Of course the best solution for a small business would be if someone would make a simple specialized use system for inventory management and billing, regardless of weither or not it is open source. Kinda like the ones that KB Toys bought (which were Open Source).
The profit margin on office is apparently around 79% and costs around $500, so MS gets about 400$ per copy of office sold. But let's assume half that, so $200. Since an IMac costs about $1k (depending on options) including monitor (kinda has to since it is integrated), and Apple has to buy pretty much all of the hardware from someone else and then they provide some nice coustomer support, I doubt they make more than $100 per computer.
Since the stereotype of a Mac user is not of a technically savy person, I doubt that they would use OpenOffice, which unless something has happened, I think is the only alternative for MS Office for the Mac. Therefore, I think that there is a fair corelation between new Mac sales and new Office sales. Or are you implying that the stereotype of a Mac user should be either a software pirate or someone who doesn't do anything that requires documentation, spreadsheets, databases, or presentations, or that all Mac users are running yellowdog linux, in which case why do we care about OSX?
they're essentially the R&D division of every boxmaker and OS-maker on the planet.
I dispute the R&D for hardware. Apple gets its current hardware from IBM's research division and Motorola's manufacturing know-how. The original PPC deal was that IBM would do the research, Motorola would do the manufacturing, and Apple would sell the home computers. Currently Apple still sells the home computers, but since it ticked off Motorola and IBM by asking them to start paying for its software patents, it now has to pay for their hardware patents. IBM has tried to separate the hardware it developed for the PPC from Apple's software patents of late.
I'ld also like people to admit that appart from the GUI interface (which I still think was originated by XEROX, since they had the patent for the mouse in 1963, and the ATARI 9600 had the GUI the original MAC's GUI derived from) Apple hasn't done much for OS's. Heck! They've even abandoned their own OS in favor of one derived from BSD.
Really? Is that why 95% of home computers are IBM compatable? It makes as much sense to discount IBM's business sales you have to discount the Macs that are sold to graphics people since business is IBM's middle name (literally) and graphic arts is Apple's main push.
The IBM derived hardware standards were free as in free thought, not free as in free beer. Apple's hardware standards arn't free in any sense since you can only buy the hardware from Apple and they'll sue you if you try to break their vertical integration.
Guess I was off by a decade, but in the other direction. According to IBM's website it released the system/360 in 1964. This was the first line of computers with "open" hardware. By "open" it means that the system/360 could use hardware and software that wasn't built for a particular system. IBM also allowed other companies to produce hardware and software for the system/360 allowing other companies to enter the computer market without the enormous cost of producing their own systems (removing the oligopoly that existed previous to the system/360).
Didn't Apple move away from using ROM for their operating systems since it made it impossible to upgrade the OS passed the points where binary compatability was broken?
First, it doesn't look like these are real clones. They are still going to be using Apple guts. To end up with "real" clones Apple would have to release information about how their hardware works. Much as IBM did back in the 1970s. The effect of the IBM clones was for IBM to end up with a small slice of a very big pie. Apple took the other route by keeping their hardware closed. They ended up with the whole of a much smaller pie. Ironically, if you include IBM's big iron, IBM makes more money on computers than Apple. The other big effect of IBM opening their hardware in the 1970s was that computers became cheap. If all of Apple, IBM, Digital and the other early players kept their hardware systems closed instead of just one system becoming open their would be many fewer computers and they would be much more expensive. IBM opening its system is also the reason why 95% of home computers are running descendents of their archatecture instead of Apple's or Digital's archatecture.
BTW Microsoft makes more than Apple for each Mac sold. The profit margin on MS Office is larger than the profit margin on the hardware and OSX (or OS9, or OS10.2).
I run updatedb dayly. Also, I don't ussually forget where I just saved a file, but I'm a command prompt person. However, provided that the DB that updatedb updates is normalized, it should be pretty easy and fast to update individual entries everytime a file is added or moved. Maybe it would be faster to have a second, suplamentary database for storing short term updates. I don't think its done on file servers/default *nix systems because lots of users would mean lots of updating. For a single user system it should be practical however.
He is compairing it to a smiliarly price PC from the same point in time. That is a valid comparison. However, it is offtopic since this is supposed to be about the finder.
I don't know why people on both sides of the MAC vs WIntel debate are always tring to compair based on what X Mac does vs what Y PC does when X Mac costs $5000 and Y PC costs $2000. MacAdict had a laughable coverstory allong the lines of "Mac beats Windows in performance" and when you read it it turned out they were compairing $7k and $10k Macs to two $2k PCs (a Dell and a Gateway). People should be saying, "I really like my computer and use it all the time, that's why it is better than yours." Then, they respect eachother's opinions since both poeple can be right. Of course both camps are wrong, GNU/Linux is the way to go 8-)
Maybe this is showing my ignorance of Mac OSs, but why cannot Mac OSX simply have a graphical interface for locate? Locate looks at a database and very quickly returns all the matches (vs. searching through the whole disk). Since Mac OSX is supposed to be a close relative of NeXT this should be trivial.
I like the idea of a subscription based service for maintaining software because it supports the companies which develop the software. However, Microsoft's version, where the computer will cease to function and the files contained therein become inaccessable is not acceptable to me. One of the experiences I have had working at a Laboratory where some mission critical equiptment runs on propriatary software with expiring licenses is that the corporations are basically able to extort money from you. When they say, double the cost, you arn't able to switch to a competitor. An arangement where a subscription gaurantees that you have access to the most recent software but does not require you to pay to continue to use your existing software (like the lindows one) is definitely the way to go (at least as an consumer).
The description of Paypal's crimes seems to be for trafficing money know to have been aquire illegally and/or transfering money to people for illegal activities. I thought this was money laundering. How have the laws changed? Did the Patriot Act give a bigger penalty for this?
I don't think that the application would be for a desktop computer. However, it would be a handy for notebook computers where a good chunk of the volume of the device, and the surface area around the keyboard is occupied by speakers. Remember that for notebook computers space and weight are at a premium.
It turns out that the EPIA-M can use the 6-speaker out with the ALSA drivers. However, the TV card I got requres an external jumper from the TV card to the line-in input on the MB. Here is a list of the problems I had.
Sound. The drivers which ship with Mandrake 9.1 and Redhat 8.0 don't seem to work correctly. I fixed this problem using the ALSA drivers. I'm not sure which options I set to use the 6-speaker output, but I turned it on at least once, then turned it off for the above reason.
Gyration pointing device. For some reason the Gyration mouse-thing I got only works if a normal mouse is plugged into the USB system when the computer is turned on.
Networking. There is nothing wrong with the EPIA-M's networking under autodetect by Mandrake 9.1 and Redhat 8.0. However, if the ethernet cable is wrapped around the speaker wires from the stereo, there is too much interference for ethernet to work.
TV Card Autodetection. Redhat 8.0 didn't do it, Mandrake 9.1 did.
Everything else seemed to work. If you are really concerned about getting great sound, I'ld look for some system which will let you use the optical input to your stereo. I havn't seen a computer based sound system which is competative with a good component stereo. I think that thinkgeek.com has an external USB based sound system which can do that (for more $ than a EPIA-M 9000).
I'm using an EPIA-M with a 600 Mhz Eden processor. It seems to be fast tenough encoding and decoding stuff. However, the EPIA-M doesn't seem to be that well supported on Linux. I suggest using the ALSA drivers instead of the Open Source Sound drivers or those that come with either Mandrake 9.1 or Redhat 8.0. The embeded video card works fine with the standard EPIA drivers, but the direct mpeg2 doesn't work. Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but there are problems.
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Don't you mean unless it's software or music with a legally enforceable copyright? There is plenty of software which is fine to share (anything with the GNU plubic license for example). There is also a fair amount of music and writings for which the copyrights have either expired (yes, it is music from the 1920's) or have not been adequately defended (therefore putting them in the public domain). One of the big reasons why the RIAA and MPAA have been so nuts about trying to stop the material they control the copyrights of is that if they do not the copyrights expire automatically, similar in the way that patents expire if they are not defended.
Hmm.. Have I just broken the DCMA?
If you think that you have anonymity now, try googling yourself. Unless you have a pretty common name (John Smith perhaps) or share a name with a famous person you'll probably find out more than you want. Right now, you don't have to be a hacker to get enough information to steal someone's identity. Most of the time, a first or last name, a location, and a profession are enough to figure out exactly who someone is, and ussually their home address.
The reason to make society and information more open isn't to allow people to find out more about a particular individual, but to make sure that no one can missuse the information about you (since you'll be able to see what they do with it).
But then the RIAA would be going after all of their best customers, not good for business. RIAA is hopeing that by making a couple of examples they can cow everyone else into submision. Personally, I won't buy an album unless I can listen to it first (at least part of it) and know I like it. This has limited my music purchases to Anime soundtracks, PS2 soundtracks, and what I've heard on NPR. I used to download music, listen to it, and if I liked it, buy the rest of the album.
The argument that some people are protected only by anononimity only works so long as there is a reasonable expectation of anononimity, which I think there no longer is. Besides, it would be fantastic protection from hate-crimes if everything (including real life) was logged. The biggots couldn't get away with anything, neither could the pedofiles, or the rapists, or the murderers, or the theives...
I disagree. Identity theft has always existed, it has just become more profitable and therefore more prevelant lately. In the past, when physical goods had to exchange hands for a transaction to take place, assuming someone else's identity didn't ussually get you very far. After all, the person would only extend you credit if they knew you. Credit cards, and the way they process applications has changed this. Now you merely have to say you are someone in order to get credit in their name.
If there really was no privacy, a credit card company could verify who you are by your physical location, or perhaps even by looking at you through the TV (1984 anyone?) thereby eliminating ID theft. If by some chance the ID thief got into your house at the exact moment the credit card company was calling, merchants and the bank, would still refuse to do business with them since he would be asking for money/goods to be shipped to a location different from yours.
Of course there is a down side to this. Just like when Airlines started to require Photo IDs. Banks would then eliminate your ability to hand off your credit card to a trusted friend or a trusted child to run an errand for you (which I think is technically illegal now, anyway).
Plus, if the ID theives don't have privacy either, we could find out who they are.
I think my wife said it best (and I'm paraphrasing), "MS stuff works 90% of the time, but if it doesn't you're screwed. OSS stuff works 80% of the time, on the first try, but if it doesn't you can fight with it until it works."
..rip off it's fan (or clog up the air holes). It will stop soon enough.
Switching to OSS to eliminate piracy would actually work, but I doubt that the BSA had that in mind.
If people started to use OSS instead of CSS local economies would be able to take what they are currently investing in CSS fees and invest them in the skills of the local labor force. This would ultimately be very good for local economies but would probably crush the economies of CA and WA especially near Seattle.
Which is why KB toys switched to Linux based systems for their cash registers and inventory maintience. Or the Mass. Dept. of Revenue switched to Linux because it costs them $200 a terminal vs. $400+ a terminal for Windows (after taking into consideration sysadmins and training).
In general compainies which are large enough to have to seriously pay attention to information technologies are large enough so that no matter what they will need to hire a sysadmin regaurdless of what software they are running. So for larger compainies OSS solutions really are cheaper. Small businesses should be able to choose either closed source or open source solutions since their needs are pretty much dealt with in Office Suite + Money Management software and then the choice really comes down to $80 for StarOffice, $500 for MS Office, or Open Office for free. Only the MS Office version requires closed source operating systems.
Of course the best solution for a small business would be if someone would make a simple specialized use system for inventory management and billing, regardless of weither or not it is open source. Kinda like the ones that KB Toys bought (which were Open Source).
Since the stereotype of a Mac user is not of a technically savy person, I doubt that they would use OpenOffice, which unless something has happened, I think is the only alternative for MS Office for the Mac. Therefore, I think that there is a fair corelation between new Mac sales and new Office sales. Or are you implying that the stereotype of a Mac user should be either a software pirate or someone who doesn't do anything that requires documentation, spreadsheets, databases, or presentations, or that all Mac users are running yellowdog linux, in which case why do we care about OSX?
I dispute the R&D for hardware. Apple gets its current hardware from IBM's research division and Motorola's manufacturing know-how. The original PPC deal was that IBM would do the research, Motorola would do the manufacturing, and Apple would sell the home computers. Currently Apple still sells the home computers, but since it ticked off Motorola and IBM by asking them to start paying for its software patents, it now has to pay for their hardware patents. IBM has tried to separate the hardware it developed for the PPC from Apple's software patents of late.
I'ld also like people to admit that appart from the GUI interface (which I still think was originated by XEROX, since they had the patent for the mouse in 1963, and the ATARI 9600 had the GUI the original MAC's GUI derived from) Apple hasn't done much for OS's. Heck! They've even abandoned their own OS in favor of one derived from BSD.
Really? Is that why 95% of home computers are IBM compatable? It makes as much sense to discount IBM's business sales you have to discount the Macs that are sold to graphics people since business is IBM's middle name (literally) and graphic arts is Apple's main push.
The IBM derived hardware standards were free as in free thought, not free as in free beer. Apple's hardware standards arn't free in any sense since you can only buy the hardware from Apple and they'll sue you if you try to break their vertical integration.
Didn't Apple move away from using ROM for their operating systems since it made it impossible to upgrade the OS passed the points where binary compatability was broken?
BTW Microsoft makes more than Apple for each Mac sold. The profit margin on MS Office is larger than the profit margin on the hardware and OSX (or OS9, or OS10.2).
Guess making a smaller database or a flat file for temporary access would be the way to go then.
I run updatedb dayly. Also, I don't ussually forget where I just saved a file, but I'm a command prompt person. However, provided that the DB that updatedb updates is normalized, it should be pretty easy and fast to update individual entries everytime a file is added or moved. Maybe it would be faster to have a second, suplamentary database for storing short term updates. I don't think its done on file servers/default *nix systems because lots of users would mean lots of updating. For a single user system it should be practical however.
I don't know why people on both sides of the MAC vs WIntel debate are always tring to compair based on what X Mac does vs what Y PC does when X Mac costs $5000 and Y PC costs $2000. MacAdict had a laughable coverstory allong the lines of "Mac beats Windows in performance" and when you read it it turned out they were compairing $7k and $10k Macs to two $2k PCs (a Dell and a Gateway). People should be saying, "I really like my computer and use it all the time, that's why it is better than yours." Then, they respect eachother's opinions since both poeple can be right. Of course both camps are wrong, GNU/Linux is the way to go 8-)
Maybe this is showing my ignorance of Mac OSs, but why cannot Mac OSX simply have a graphical interface for locate? Locate looks at a database and very quickly returns all the matches (vs. searching through the whole disk). Since Mac OSX is supposed to be a close relative of NeXT this should be trivial.
I like the idea of a subscription based service for maintaining software because it supports the companies which develop the software. However, Microsoft's version, where the computer will cease to function and the files contained therein become inaccessable is not acceptable to me. One of the experiences I have had working at a Laboratory where some mission critical equiptment runs on propriatary software with expiring licenses is that the corporations are basically able to extort money from you. When they say, double the cost, you arn't able to switch to a competitor. An arangement where a subscription gaurantees that you have access to the most recent software but does not require you to pay to continue to use your existing software (like the lindows one) is definitely the way to go (at least as an consumer).
The description of Paypal's crimes seems to be for trafficing money know to have been aquire illegally and/or transfering money to people for illegal activities. I thought this was money laundering. How have the laws changed? Did the Patriot Act give a bigger penalty for this?
I don't think that the application would be for a desktop computer. However, it would be a handy for notebook computers where a good chunk of the volume of the device, and the surface area around the keyboard is occupied by speakers. Remember that for notebook computers space and weight are at a premium.
Sound. The drivers which ship with Mandrake 9.1 and Redhat 8.0 don't seem to work correctly. I fixed this problem using the ALSA drivers. I'm not sure which options I set to use the 6-speaker output, but I turned it on at least once, then turned it off for the above reason.
Gyration pointing device. For some reason the Gyration mouse-thing I got only works if a normal mouse is plugged into the USB system when the computer is turned on.
Networking. There is nothing wrong with the EPIA-M's networking under autodetect by Mandrake 9.1 and Redhat 8.0. However, if the ethernet cable is wrapped around the speaker wires from the stereo, there is too much interference for ethernet to work.
TV Card Autodetection. Redhat 8.0 didn't do it, Mandrake 9.1 did.
Everything else seemed to work. If you are really concerned about getting great sound, I'ld look for some system which will let you use the optical input to your stereo. I havn't seen a computer based sound system which is competative with a good component stereo. I think that thinkgeek.com has an external USB based sound system which can do that (for more $ than a EPIA-M 9000).
Good luck.
I'm using an EPIA-M with a 600 Mhz Eden processor. It seems to be fast tenough encoding and decoding stuff. However, the EPIA-M doesn't seem to be that well supported on Linux. I suggest using the ALSA drivers instead of the Open Source Sound drivers or those that come with either Mandrake 9.1 or Redhat 8.0. The embeded video card works fine with the standard EPIA drivers, but the direct mpeg2 doesn't work. Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but there are problems.