I don't think that some kind of net "traffic cops" would be a good idea. In fact, adding that kind of regulation to th internet would be the worst thing one could do for reasons besides a) It's impossible. Nothing on the planet can analyze that much traffic effectively. b) Any laws would only take effect on US lines... all I'd have to do would be to lease a server in russia and I can pirate all I want. I feel that attacking the internet is the wrong way to address piracy. What if I telephone a friend with a serial number for some software program? Should we be concerned about this and have some regulatory agency listen in on phone calls to keep me from disclosing such information? Unfortunately, while I agree (with about a million other people) that the net should not be regulated, I can't come up with any effective way to address piracy. I can throw some ideas out there involving open source or more effective ways to copy-protect software, but we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. What kind of solution will encompass the software (or whatever) manufacturer's desire to make money while at the same time not inconveniencing the consumer or over-regulatizing the net? Beats me.
We need an x-box killer... looking at Microsoft strategy for the last decade, if the X-box gains any kind of market dominance there won't be any other gaming platforms anymore.
I can certainly see this happening: here's how. Make internet access a utility. If there was a law like there is for the US Mail, telephony, and I'm sure many other public services that stated that everyone had to have access to the internet (as long as they wanted to pay) then usage would skyrocket. Cel towers would sprout digital antennae and you'd be able to get access from anywhere you now get cel access. Small receivers for these towers would appear on the market, and people would snap them up so that they could check their e-mail from their palm or laptop. Router and firewall sales would go through the roof as everyone (read: geek) who cannot currently get decent access (like me!) suddenly was able to, inexpensively, route WAN packets across their home LAN. The web as a communication tool would be much more viable, since once a critical mass of users was reached, the user base would snowball because nobody with a computer could be without speedy access. I don't expect to have days when I wake up and only get 90 volts worth of electricity to my house. If someone told my I had to use morse code instead of voice because my lines were cheap or I was too far from the central office, I'd get my gun. The fact that a huge number of users are still stuck with 56k (or less) dialup access is unacceptable. I don't know why some company doesn't realize that there is a huge demand for 10 megabit access and people are willing to pay for it. I know if someone called me and said "would you like 10-T access run to your house for, say, $60 a month, I'd ask where to sign. I see all this access... Cable, DSL, ISDN, and none of it is available where I live. My options are 56k (which is more like 28k) or satellite (which sucks for reasons I won't explain here). The first company that runs fiber to neighborhoods stuck out in the boonies wins... go!
This is embarrasing. Is the US ahead of other nations in any field now? I've been hoping for some access faster than 56k for a few years now, and I'm hearing that third-world countries can get voIP? Grrrrr.
I find it positively disgusting that these companies are installing this level of spyware on users machines. I mean, collecting demographics is one thing (obviously a massive invasion of privacy, but not really destructive) but stealing CPU cycles and hard drive space? I am appalled. Have these people no decency? My computer is my castle.. If I found out one day that a piece of software I'd just installed was allowing someone else to take control of my computer, I'd lose it. I don't know what needs to be done about this, but somehow these software companies need to be shown that this is not OK. Now that people are finding out, there should be a lot of bad sentiment around, and so hopefully these types of invasions will decrease in number.
The question is: Will this juts make it easier for PC game developers to port their software to the Mac while ignoring users user interface desires? I'm cautious... a little voice in my head thinks this could mean cheap ports of good PC games.
It comes with firewire. USB 2.0 is, as a friend of mine says, "Silly". USB was originally intended for things like keyboards, joysticks, floppy drives, modems, and other low-bandwidth devices. Hard drives, movie cameras, etc. are supposed to go over firewire. Just because the industry overloaded the USB 1.1 standard with HDDs and CD-ROMs doesn't mean we should agree with it. Boycott USB 2.0! Use firewire instead!
Most server farms own bandwidth far in excess of what they'll ever use. Check out www.rackspace.com... they say they use something like 13% of their available bandwidth. It's not bandwidth that slashdot eats as much a CPU cycles... it takes a lot to process 10,000 requests.
I don't agree. I think that Palm OS has a niche to fill, and it does it very well. If you're looking to replace your daytimer, then a Palm OS device is perfect. This is not an organizer, it's a teensy laptop. With wireless. And a color screen. And a 10GB HDD... 256MB RAM... Drool.
"We see this as 'This is your only computer,'" said Colin Hunter, executive vice president of OQO. "It isn't a PDA (personal digital assistant). With this device you can dock it in and it is your PC."
I don't see this as my only computer... I just see it as taking up where handhelds leave off. Anyone remember the Apple Newton? That's what I want in a handheld. A fully functional computer with great battery life. I'm not looking for a desktop replacement ("portable desktop" might be more accurate) since I need a desktop for a lot of what I do. I'm not looking for a Palm/WinCE device, since I want more features than they offer. I'm looking for an instant-on, compact, take-anywhere, digital notebook. I'm out to replace pens and paper.
The question is:
Does linux install on it easily? For most distros, 10GB HDD and 256MB RAM is kick-ass. Add a wireless card and the sick battery life that machine should get, and I'm looking at a perfect take-everywhere client machine. As long as you have a server somewhere that's holding all your big files, this machine is the perfect portable.
I agree.. I'd even be willing to pay a buck a song. I know that from time to time I want a very specific song, and a buck is a fine price to pay. Considering how much it costs to print and ship actual CDS, the labels would be raking it in. I've tried this with a couple of sites (like cdnow.com) that claim to support "downloadable MP3s", but they are always crippled. Getting these MP3s to play, even under Windows (which is always the only OS supported) requires a net connection, a special player, and all sorts of authorization. In short, let me buy and download MP3s for a buck (real MP3s that will play on any platform) and I'll stop about 75% of my pirating... it's not that I"m not willing to pay, I"m just too lazy to get to the record store, and I don't always want the whole album.
Slashdot Mirror
What about remote control congresspersons? No! No! DMCA bad...
I don't think that some kind of net "traffic cops" would be a good idea. In fact, adding that kind of regulation to th internet would be the worst thing one could do for reasons besides
a) It's impossible. Nothing on the planet can analyze that much traffic effectively.
b) Any laws would only take effect on US lines... all I'd have to do would be to lease a server in russia and I can pirate all I want.
I feel that attacking the internet is the wrong way to address piracy. What if I telephone a friend with a serial number for some software program? Should we be concerned about this and have some regulatory agency listen in on phone calls to keep me from disclosing such information?
Unfortunately, while I agree (with about a million other people) that the net should not be regulated, I can't come up with any effective way to address piracy. I can throw some ideas out there involving open source or more effective ways to copy-protect software, but we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. What kind of solution will encompass the software (or whatever) manufacturer's desire to make money while at the same time not inconveniencing the consumer or over-regulatizing the net? Beats me.
We need an x-box killer... looking at Microsoft strategy for the last decade, if the X-box gains any kind of market dominance there won't be any other gaming platforms anymore.
I can certainly see this happening: here's how.
Make internet access a utility.
If there was a law like there is for the US Mail, telephony, and I'm sure many other public services that stated that everyone had to have access to the internet (as long as they wanted to pay) then usage would skyrocket. Cel towers would sprout digital antennae and you'd be able to get access from anywhere you now get cel access. Small receivers for these towers would appear on the market, and people would snap them up so that they could check their e-mail from their palm or laptop. Router and firewall sales would go through the roof as everyone (read: geek) who cannot currently get decent access (like me!) suddenly was able to, inexpensively, route WAN packets across their home LAN. The web as a communication tool would be much more viable, since once a critical mass of users was reached, the user base would snowball because nobody with a computer could be without speedy access.
I don't expect to have days when I wake up and only get 90 volts worth of electricity to my house. If someone told my I had to use morse code instead of voice because my lines were cheap or I was too far from the central office, I'd get my gun. The fact that a huge number of users are still stuck with 56k (or less) dialup access is unacceptable.
I don't know why some company doesn't realize that there is a huge demand for 10 megabit access and people are willing to pay for it. I know if someone called me and said "would you like 10-T access run to your house for, say, $60 a month, I'd ask where to sign. I see all this access... Cable, DSL, ISDN, and none of it is available where I live. My options are 56k (which is more like 28k) or satellite (which sucks for reasons I won't explain here). The first company that runs fiber to neighborhoods stuck out in the boonies wins... go!
What about RADIUS authentication?
P.S. You spelled tolerance wrong in your signature... I'm assuming it's a joke?
This is embarrasing. Is the US ahead of other nations in any field now? I've been hoping for some access faster than 56k for a few years now, and I'm hearing that third-world countries can get voIP? Grrrrr.
I find it positively disgusting that these companies are installing this level of spyware on users machines. I mean, collecting demographics is one thing (obviously a massive invasion of privacy, but not really destructive) but stealing CPU cycles and hard drive space? I am appalled. Have these people no decency? My computer is my castle.. If I found out one day that a piece of software I'd just installed was allowing someone else to take control of my computer, I'd lose it.
I don't know what needs to be done about this, but somehow these software companies need to be shown that this is not OK. Now that people are finding out, there should be a lot of bad sentiment around, and so hopefully these types of invasions will decrease in number.
The question is: Will this juts make it easier for PC game developers to port their software to the Mac while ignoring users user interface desires? I'm cautious... a little voice in my head thinks this could mean cheap ports of good PC games.
Yeah.. i'm assuming that the first thing I'd do to this machine would be to run fdisk and install Debian.
It comes with firewire. USB 2.0 is, as a friend of mine says, "Silly". USB was originally intended for things like keyboards, joysticks, floppy drives, modems, and other low-bandwidth devices. Hard drives, movie cameras, etc. are supposed to go over firewire. Just because the industry overloaded the USB 1.1 standard with HDDs and CD-ROMs doesn't mean we should agree with it.
Boycott USB 2.0! Use firewire instead!
Yes, you can, but think of all the proprietary hardware that machine must have. Even configuring APM (advanced power management) will be a bitch.
Most server farms own bandwidth far in excess of what they'll ever use. Check out www.rackspace.com... they say they use something like 13% of their available bandwidth. It's not bandwidth that slashdot eats as much a CPU cycles... it takes a lot to process 10,000 requests.
Mmm... high gain directional antennas... Or perhaps 3G wireless? (Or 2G if you have too much money)
I don't agree. I think that Palm OS has a niche to fill, and it does it very well. If you're looking to replace your daytimer, then a Palm OS device is perfect. This is not an organizer, it's a teensy laptop. With wireless. And a color screen. And a 10GB HDD... 256MB RAM...
Drool.
"We see this as 'This is your only computer,'" said Colin Hunter, executive vice president of OQO. "It isn't a PDA (personal digital assistant). With this device you can dock it in and it is your PC."
I don't see this as my only computer... I just see it as taking up where handhelds leave off. Anyone remember the Apple Newton? That's what I want in a handheld. A fully functional computer with great battery life. I'm not looking for a desktop replacement ("portable desktop" might be more accurate) since I need a desktop for a lot of what I do. I'm not looking for a Palm/WinCE device, since I want more features than they offer. I'm looking for an instant-on, compact, take-anywhere, digital notebook. I'm out to replace pens and paper.
Transmeta is a processor that trades speed for efficiency (great for laptops when battery life is everything).
The question is:
Does linux install on it easily? For most distros, 10GB HDD and 256MB RAM is kick-ass. Add a wireless card and the sick battery life that machine should get, and I'm looking at a perfect take-everywhere client machine. As long as you have a server somewhere that's holding all your big files, this machine is the perfect portable.
I agree.. I'd even be willing to pay a buck a song. I know that from time to time I want a very specific song, and a buck is a fine price to pay. Considering how much it costs to print and ship actual CDS, the labels would be raking it in. I've tried this with a couple of sites (like cdnow.com) that claim to support "downloadable MP3s", but they are always crippled. Getting these MP3s to play, even under Windows (which is always the only OS supported) requires a net connection, a special player, and all sorts of authorization.
In short, let me buy and download MP3s for a buck (real MP3s that will play on any platform) and I'll stop about 75% of my pirating... it's not that I"m not willing to pay, I"m just too lazy to get to the record store, and I don't always want the whole album.