No one is asking you to drive a mini. (Except BMW). You can buy a perfectly good VW, Toyota, Honda, base level Merc etc. with everything you need and still keep most of your cash in the bank. This guy actually drove a Saab. His point was about spending money simply to look flash, the fact that once you've done it the effect quickly wears off and yes, you have missed the point.
No one will read this...but the best CEO I ever worked with defined happiness as having enough cash in the bank to walk in off the street and buy a top of the range Mercedes with a personal check...and not do it, so when you're stuck in traffic next to the guy in the 600SEL you can think "You're going just as slowly as I am, and you're paying through the nose for it." Do I need to tell you he was British (PhD University of Cambridge)?
If he's reading this thread, he may be thinking the same thing about paying $$$$$ for what is, in the end, theatrical tat.
This is already happening. When I was a child, few adults even had access to power tools. Now they are common and ridiculously cheap. If you really want a small CNC milling machine, you can get one from a dealer, buy an invertor, and run it from household current. MIG welding machines are mainstream kit you can buy from any tool shop. The entry level for mechanical fabrication has dropped enormously in the last twenty years, but far from the technology being suppressed by large manufacturers, it just gets cheaper. I see no obvious social forces that would prevent that trend continuing.
Previous empires, like Rome and Byzantium, have tried to control everything from IP to the status of individuals, in an effort to protect the interests of the ruling classes. They all collapsed, but after hiccups progress continued.
IP and the threat of IP litigation is in the end an attempt to buck the free market. It gets represented as free-market economics (protecting property is the basis of rule of law etc.) but in reality ALL IP is shared to a greater or lesser degree. It's increasingly hard to point to any genuine "invention" because more and more shared, non-IP education is needed to get to the point of inventing anything (and music is the same - just about all music is now derivative of earlier work.) Once upon a time the calendar and writing were protected secrets. Once upon a time you needed to be a skilled plumber to connect a faucet, now you can get a couple of tools and some simple compression fittings and do it easily and safely yourself. People have not stopped writing, telling the time and plumbing because these are no longer secret. Far from it. The moral seems to be that extending knowledge and power to the people benefits everybody in the long run. It may cause painful readjustment to people who have got very rich by getting into positions of power, but ultimately the world owes nobody a free lunch.
Re:Engineers Always Invent The Best Stuff Over Bee
on
Another Beer Please
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Why? Because engineers are usually too inhibited to let their creative ideas out, normally. As a result, limited quantities of beer can be beneficial.
Unfortunately the problem with Marketing and Sales is that they usually aren't inhibited enough but they still drink...which explains most of the marketing campaigns you see around the place.
I would label this "troll" but I don't think it's meant to be. The writer talks about a "total revolution" but if it is I suspect it is beginning with one step. Both the sites mentioned are fringe ("degreed scientist and mystic" being one author's self description) though the first one does at least admit that what is being recommended is contrary to safety and environmental legislation in many places. The first site is also full of the vague alternative approach to marketing speak, with illdefined claims and a lot of words that don't seem to get anywhere near the subject. Personally, when I read the words "bacteria" and "synergistic" in the same sentence, I think of MRSA rather than organic farming.
Far too slow. Even as a jpeg decent digital camera pictures are well over a megabtye. A 10sec plus transfer time per shot, or over a minute in raw mode, is useless. Bluetooth is intended for exchanging small amounts of data, not truckloads
The way things are going at the moment, the main thrust of Linux deployment and development could end up in Germany. The apparent put up/shut up silencing of SCO in Germany is a case in point.
Currently Airbus Industrie is overtaking Boeing as the largest manufacturer of aircraft, a major transfer of skills and business from the "Advanced" US to the "Backward" EU (and, before the FUD starts, Airbus repaid its government loans long ago.) The US Government perhaps needs to consider whether the practices of US companies may cause the centre of technology innovation to move out of the US in the longer term - except that for the present administration, the long term is 2004. Oh well, Bill can afford to retire anytime. Pity his developers can't.
Yes, but are the Martians aware of this? Presumably they send the flying saucers over and abduct people so as to be able to update their geography textbooks.
We'll get a shock when we hear from whichever planet has the job of naming OUR features, and have to change all those names.
Membership of the BSG is voluntary and is open to corporations and organisations throughout the broadband value chain. This includes, but is not limited to: broadband service providers; broadband product suppliers; members of the broadband content industry; central Government departments; local government and RDAs; consumers and consumer representatives; trade unions and trade associations.
Totally agree. In fact, what keeps me from going back to a motorcycle is the appalling driving of cell phone users. I'm convinced some of them actually have a permanent set in their arms and a nokia-shaped depression in their faces. They also have IQs around room temperature. It's mostly dumbos like this that will USE in-car computers when moving because they are insufficiently intelligent to assess risk.
It's sad really - dinosaur evolution - ever bigger tin boxes to protect us from the morons that are allowed to drive around in big tin boxes.
The AC post is right but I'm reinforcing it because I have points.
Bluetooth works just fine and the Bluetake dongle works perfectly. I have the cradle on the desk machine and the dongle on the notebook, no problems. If you need longest battery life remember to turn off bluetooth when not in use.
Only catch is, the Tungsten will not work with my crappy company Nokia phone, whose Bluetooth is crippled.
Magnetic fields interfere with one another. If the tiny magnets that represent 1s and 0s get too close they can depolarise one another (=loss of signal).
Think of matchsticks flat on the floor and standing up. The ones standing up will be further apart, or you could pack more in the same floor area and have them the same distance apart.
The difficulty is, matchsticks have an easily distinguishable top and bottom end, but magnet ends are only distinguishable by the direction of flux. The bottom ends are buried in the media, so there are challenges in writing and reading the data because only one end of the magnet is accessible. Does this help?
SCO increasingly reminds me of the fake invoice scam. The one in which you get an invoice for your entry in a "Trade directory", the idea being that many corporations cannot be bothered to reconcile invoices to orders for invoices under, say, $100. Having realised that IBM is not simply going to buy them at an inflated share price to make them go away(using FUD to try and boost the share price) SCO then proceeds to this type of scam which has the advantage that if anyone decides to pay, you can write a contract which makes it legal (include a clause that if SCO is found not to have IP rights, they will refund the licence money).
I conclude that SCOs next step will be to write to Microsoft explaining that they have a large amount of IP tied up in a foreign software product but are unable to get it out themselves. In exchange for 15% of their share capital...oh wait, they already did that. I guess it's going to be buying Utah politicians and going round selling "insurance" against your server being ripped out of the rack and thrown out the window next.
The problem with so many of these solutions is that they present a single point of failure. It's the problem with "universal" smart cards: only one thing to be stolen to create identity theft. In this case the theft is likely to occur at point of issue: how is the passport holder going to be identified when the passport is created? Once you have a passport with a false name in your biometrics,either by your fraud or by the collusion of a corrupt official, you are through the system and can leverage it to create new assets for your false identity.
The best security relies on people knowing people and knowing things about people. An example: made to measure suits. If you belong to the social group that wears them, you will probably be able to recognise them on someone else. Unlike a car or credit card that can easily be stolen, a made to measure suit is effectively a biometric form of recognition. Nowadays, when a billionaire may wander around in jeans and T-shirt, it's harder for an investment banker to recognise a prospect. There are examples in the Bible (the ability to pronounce "shibboleth" being used to distinguish friend from foe.) and from WW2 (the Navajo talkers being used as an ultra-secure communications channel.) The upshot is that we now live in a society where people can be extremely anonymous, and this is a huge benefit to both terrorists and criminals.
If we want to live in a society with high levels of security - and on the whole we seem to - we have to sacrifice some of our anonymity somewhere. Is it better to sacrifice anonymity at the local level (nosy neighbours) and have lots of little things that identify you to small groups of people who may be small minded, annoying or intrusive, or to sacrifice anonymity at the highest level (have a single point of identification which is apparently secure, but which is available to many people in government who may be corrupt or criminal?)
In what world am I going to need 100 distinct and presumably public IP addresses? I'm not arguing that the present system does not need an eventual move to something better, even though half the world has never, apparently, made a phone call let alone used a web browser, but isn't this just talking up a problem that doesn't yet exist? If I need internet access to every gadget in my house, I would prefer them to be behind a firewall with some kind of remote control security system. I really do not want script kiddies emptying the paper bins on my printers. I don't want my washing machine engaging in IRC with a Whirlpool serviceperson without my having some sort of control over it. Or am I just paranoid?
Although the networked version is a bit above your price range, you can sometimes get HP BIs second user. The 2280 (entry level A4 model) is a good solid machine with reasonable ink prices and uses the HP dual tank system (longer life print heads and secondary larger ink tanks.)They are comparable in speed with "consumer" color laser.
Print quality is a complicated issue. Color lasers have greater sharpness but lower color resolution. And the cost of toner is even more eye-watering than that of a Lexmark ink cartridge. Unless someone else was paying, my preferred small office solution would be a cheap networked mono duplex laser like the Samsung 2151N, along with an HP 2280 or, if I needed 11" by 17", a 2600.
I'm sorry, it was supposed to be written by someone from the DHS who never got past French 101, and hasn't worked out the accents yet. It was supposed to be ironic...actually I don't care whether or not the French use courriel (or baladeur, or magnétoscope), except when I have to proofread a translation of a site, but I do care that someone thought it was sufficiently important to post to Yahoo and someone else thought it sufficiently important to post to Slashdot. It suggests a very insular world view from people who don't get out of their boxes enough, and just at the moment we could do with rather less of that, thank you very much.
I would also add that, were I able to moderate myself, I'd have awarded -1 Troll. If anyone else would do the honor, I would be delighted.
Incroyable, mais la plupart du monde ne parle pas Anglais. Et, plus incroyable que ca, l'ONU n'a pas interdit l'utilisation des langues non-Anglais. L'axis du mal, on devrait ajouter ces singes qui aiment le fromage et se rend toujours. Et l'ONU, c'est un ami des terroristes qui voulait supprimer la langue de Dieu avec ces termes diaboliques. Quand on ecrit "courriel", on donne support a Osama Bin Laden
This information brought to you by the French office of the Department of Homeland Security
Of course, this arises because supermarkets try to create as little added value as possible. They hire expensive psychologists who tell them that because we are basically hunter/gatherers, we can be conned into pushing the trolleys round the store and collecting the goods ourselves without realising that we are doing all the work, being exposed to all the advertising and subtle pressure to buy, and they are getting all the money. So, rather than prevent theft by the traditional means (sell things from behind the counter on request) they decide to try RFID - which we pay for - so we can have our privacy invaded at our expense.
No, I do not have a loyalty card. No, I do not want an application form. I would tell you why, but then I would have to charge you at my usual hourly rates...
Neurotic goes to psychiatrist and is shown Rorschach blots. First one reminds him of sex, second one reminds him of sex and so on. Eventually psychiatrist says "I think what we are seeing here is an obsession with sex." "What do you mean?" asks the man, "You're the one with the collection of pornography."
Based on this argument, start off with a password of sxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsx.
Seriously, the problem is that with this method the password gets written down. OK, what's rule 1 of security? A written password is a potentially compromised password.
Of course. Right up to the Supreme Court, scientific evidence is only acceptable in courts of law after lawyers have pronounced on it (which of course, as arts graduates, they are so well qualified to do).
In fact, a lawyer actually commented on a case won by Abraham Lincoln in which evidence of (I believe) the Nautical Almanac that the night in question was moonless, that the evidence should not have been accepted and that the defense should have summoned an astronomer who could have been cross-examined by the prosecution. Lawyers fundamentally do not understand scientific method (several in my immediate family.)
You make a good point. I wrote the original post with insufficient reflection before hitting keyboard, and I guess this is actually the most likely scenario.
Windows support for metadata has always sucked, recognised by every Mac user who moved to a PC and discovered that you had to tell the system what a file did by appending a clumsy tla to the end, and passing gently over the inconsistencies of the support for long and short filenames.
If Linux and related systems move to filesystems with really powerful metadata support, presumably the lockin would be much stronger. Moving a directory from Linux to a Windows system may be possible but the programming to do it will become increasingly painful and the risk of data loss will rise. And with mainframe integrity, why would you want to, Mr. customer?
Apart from the CS issues, is this an attempt to use the embrace, extend weapons of Microsoft against it by turning the Linux filesystem into a full mainframe system, effectively squeezing out Windows servers by a convergence between big tin and small boxes? I guess this is pretty pie in the sky but I'd like to think so.
Slashdot Mirror
No one is asking you to drive a mini. (Except BMW). You can buy a perfectly good VW, Toyota, Honda, base level Merc etc. with everything you need and still keep most of your cash in the bank. This guy actually drove a Saab. His point was about spending money simply to look flash, the fact that once you've done it the effect quickly wears off and yes, you have missed the point.
If he's reading this thread, he may be thinking the same thing about paying $$$$$ for what is, in the end, theatrical tat.
Previous empires, like Rome and Byzantium, have tried to control everything from IP to the status of individuals, in an effort to protect the interests of the ruling classes. They all collapsed, but after hiccups progress continued.
IP and the threat of IP litigation is in the end an attempt to buck the free market. It gets represented as free-market economics (protecting property is the basis of rule of law etc.) but in reality ALL IP is shared to a greater or lesser degree. It's increasingly hard to point to any genuine "invention" because more and more shared, non-IP education is needed to get to the point of inventing anything (and music is the same - just about all music is now derivative of earlier work.) Once upon a time the calendar and writing were protected secrets. Once upon a time you needed to be a skilled plumber to connect a faucet, now you can get a couple of tools and some simple compression fittings and do it easily and safely yourself. People have not stopped writing, telling the time and plumbing because these are no longer secret. Far from it. The moral seems to be that extending knowledge and power to the people benefits everybody in the long run. It may cause painful readjustment to people who have got very rich by getting into positions of power, but ultimately the world owes nobody a free lunch.
Unfortunately the problem with Marketing and Sales is that they usually aren't inhibited enough but they still drink...which explains most of the marketing campaigns you see around the place.
I would label this "troll" but I don't think it's meant to be. The writer talks about a "total revolution" but if it is I suspect it is beginning with one step. Both the sites mentioned are fringe ("degreed scientist and mystic" being one author's self description) though the first one does at least admit that what is being recommended is contrary to safety and environmental legislation in many places. The first site is also full of the vague alternative approach to marketing speak, with illdefined claims and a lot of words that don't seem to get anywhere near the subject. Personally, when I read the words "bacteria" and "synergistic" in the same sentence, I think of MRSA rather than organic farming.
Far too slow. Even as a jpeg decent digital camera pictures are well over a megabtye. A 10sec plus transfer time per shot, or over a minute in raw mode, is useless. Bluetooth is intended for exchanging small amounts of data, not truckloads
Currently Airbus Industrie is overtaking Boeing as the largest manufacturer of aircraft, a major transfer of skills and business from the "Advanced" US to the "Backward" EU (and, before the FUD starts, Airbus repaid its government loans long ago.) The US Government perhaps needs to consider whether the practices of US companies may cause the centre of technology innovation to move out of the US in the longer term - except that for the present administration, the long term is 2004. Oh well, Bill can afford to retire anytime. Pity his developers can't.
We'll get a shock when we hear from whichever planet has the job of naming OUR features, and have to change all those names.
The story in which Trurl builds an electropoet is possibly my second favorite Lem story (after the one about the machine which did Nothing)
It's sad really - dinosaur evolution - ever bigger tin boxes to protect us from the morons that are allowed to drive around in big tin boxes.
Bluetooth works just fine and the Bluetake dongle works perfectly. I have the cradle on the desk machine and the dongle on the notebook, no problems. If you need longest battery life remember to turn off bluetooth when not in use.
Only catch is, the Tungsten will not work with my crappy company Nokia phone, whose Bluetooth is crippled.
Think of matchsticks flat on the floor and standing up. The ones standing up will be further apart, or you could pack more in the same floor area and have them the same distance apart.
The difficulty is, matchsticks have an easily distinguishable top and bottom end, but magnet ends are only distinguishable by the direction of flux. The bottom ends are buried in the media, so there are challenges in writing and reading the data because only one end of the magnet is accessible. Does this help?
I conclude that SCOs next step will be to write to Microsoft explaining that they have a large amount of IP tied up in a foreign software product but are unable to get it out themselves. In exchange for 15% of their share capital...oh wait, they already did that. I guess it's going to be buying Utah politicians and going round selling "insurance" against your server being ripped out of the rack and thrown out the window next.
The best security relies on people knowing people and knowing things about people. An example: made to measure suits. If you belong to the social group that wears them, you will probably be able to recognise them on someone else. Unlike a car or credit card that can easily be stolen, a made to measure suit is effectively a biometric form of recognition. Nowadays, when a billionaire may wander around in jeans and T-shirt, it's harder for an investment banker to recognise a prospect.
There are examples in the Bible (the ability to pronounce "shibboleth" being used to distinguish friend from foe.) and from WW2 (the Navajo talkers being used as an ultra-secure communications channel.) The upshot is that we now live in a society where people can be extremely anonymous, and this is a huge benefit to both terrorists and criminals.
If we want to live in a society with high levels of security - and on the whole we seem to - we have to sacrifice some of our anonymity somewhere. Is it better to sacrifice anonymity at the local level (nosy neighbours) and have lots of little things that identify you to small groups of people who may be small minded, annoying or intrusive, or to sacrifice anonymity at the highest level (have a single point of identification which is apparently secure, but which is available to many people in government who may be corrupt or criminal?)
I don't know the answer, by the way
In what world am I going to need 100 distinct and presumably public IP addresses? I'm not arguing that the present system does not need an eventual move to something better, even though half the world has never, apparently, made a phone call let alone used a web browser, but isn't this just talking up a problem that doesn't yet exist? If I need internet access to every gadget in my house, I would prefer them to be behind a firewall with some kind of remote control security system. I really do not want script kiddies emptying the paper bins on my printers. I don't want my washing machine engaging in IRC with a Whirlpool serviceperson without my having some sort of control over it. Or am I just paranoid?
Print quality is a complicated issue. Color lasers have greater sharpness but lower color resolution. And the cost of toner is even more eye-watering than that of a Lexmark ink cartridge. Unless someone else was paying, my preferred small office solution would be a cheap networked mono duplex laser like the Samsung 2151N, along with an HP 2280 or, if I needed 11" by 17", a 2600.
I would also add that, were I able to moderate myself, I'd have awarded -1 Troll. If anyone else would do the honor, I would be delighted.
This information brought to you by the French office of the Department of Homeland Security
No, I do not have a loyalty card. No, I do not want an application form. I would tell you why, but then I would have to charge you at my usual hourly rates...
Based on this argument, start off with a password of sxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsx.
Seriously, the problem is that with this method the password gets written down. OK, what's rule 1 of security? A written password is a potentially compromised password.
In fact, a lawyer actually commented on a case won by Abraham Lincoln in which evidence of (I believe) the Nautical Almanac that the night in question was moonless, that the evidence should not have been accepted and that the defense should have summoned an astronomer who could have been cross-examined by the prosecution. Lawyers fundamentally do not understand scientific method (several in my immediate family.)
This is bbc.co.uk. NTK used to keep the score of lame pictures accompanying articles till there were just so many it got boring.
You make a good point. I wrote the original post with insufficient reflection before hitting keyboard, and I guess this is actually the most likely scenario.
If Linux and related systems move to filesystems with really powerful metadata support, presumably the lockin would be much stronger. Moving a directory from Linux to a Windows system may be possible but the programming to do it will become increasingly painful and the risk of data loss will rise. And with mainframe integrity, why would you want to, Mr. customer?
Apart from the CS issues, is this an attempt to use the embrace, extend weapons of Microsoft against it by turning the Linux filesystem into a full mainframe system, effectively squeezing out Windows servers by a convergence between big tin and small boxes? I guess this is pretty pie in the sky but I'd like to think so.