Truly, the future of broadband is either fiber to everyone's doorstep, or some kind of pervasive wireless.
The cell phone companies are in a good position to get wireless broadband everywhere, since they already have the towers. Fiber...either the telcos or the cable providers will have to build that. My bet is on the telcos, since once they drop fiber everywhere, they can start offering TV service. You don't need a cable plant if everything is digital.
If one of the wireless users is sharing movies and crap, there is a distinct possibility that the MPAA will notify the ISP. The ISP is then legally required to either get rid of the file from the user's machine, or *shut off* that user. Which means the coffee shops access will be killed by the ISP.
Major hassle. Not to mention that the coffee shop will basically be an ISP. There will be users screwing the local network up with viruses, users who can't figure out how to get on and want help...all of which requires somebody who knows the tech side to keep things running well.
But....it's 40 years old! Wouldn't we all like to see a completely MODERN operating system? I know I would. Keep all the good stuff from Unix, update it, and throw out the bad stuff.
Of course, in the end, we'll still be stuck with Windows and MacOS and Linux because they're the only 3 that have developer support.
If you are typing your notes, you're doing it wrong.
Notes are supposed to be quick and dirty. Pen and paper are the best tools for note-taking, because you can cross things out, draw arrows, underline important ideas...all of which are impossible to do (in real-time, anyway) if you are typing.
A computer isn't the best tool for every job, guys.
Seriously. All of the serious problems with education stem from that fact that public schools don't have enough money. Or, if they *do*, they spend it on the wrong things. Sometimes they are *required* to spend it on the wrong things. The bureaucracy of the public education system is completely broken. But that's a different problem, and more money would alleviate a lot of the bureaucratic hijinks need to save a few bucks.
Good teachers, good textbooks, good facilities. All of which can be had for a price.
Blame the federal government, which is more than happy to ignore the education problem, because it's so easy to ignore.
I don't know who would run it. But proving they're a spammer is easy- since the registry would obviously know when every mail is checked for verification, if TONS of mails are verified, then that sender is sending a lot of mail. It's easy to check (manually) from that point if the mail is legit or not. If it's not, that server/domain is banned from the system.
The reason you have to pay is so that it costs at least SOMETHING to run a mailserver. You don't want clueless individuals running mailservers to casually send a few mails here and there, because they don't know what they're doing. Yes, I know that the Slashdot crowd would scream bloody murder if they couldn't run their own server for free. But honestly, e-mail is such a fundamental service, it should be left to professionals. If the "entry fee" is at least marginally expensive, you'd weed out the clueless users. Only people who REALLY wanted to run their own server and knew how to meet the requirements AND had the cash would be allowed in. Unfortunately, this would eliminate most mail servers out there. Running a tight ship withe regards to email is hard, and almost nobody really does it right. Not even me, in a lot of ways. I'd have to get my shit together to pass my theoretical "verification of competence test".
Yeah, I know it's totally impractical (for technical and political reasons), but something has to happen. I don't see any way around the spam problem as long as there is no accountability for e-mails. And that means a centralized system, somewhere, somehow.
Both SPF and Sender-ID solve only one problem: faked sender domains.
That's a problem that needs to be solved, but it doesn't account for a lot of spam, and spammers will just stop faking domains in their mass emails.
What we need, and what will NEVER happen, is a central database of mailservers. If you aren't in the "registry" of legit mailservers, then other mailservers won't accept your mail. To get in the registry, you'd have to pay a fee, and prove that your server are secure, and that you aren't a spammer. Obviously, each "legit" server would have to append some kind of digital signature to outgoing emails, so that the verification coudl take place.
In other words, a total revamp of the mail system protocols.;) We can dream.
A little fact about the "nanotech problem"
on
Nanotech Protests Begin
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
See, everybody seems to have this impression that nanotechnology is going to turn the whole world into a pile of grey-goo.
Problem is, nanotechnology is NOWHERE NEAR advanced enough to do that. And may never be. As it is right now, we don't know how to make intelligent, self-replicating machines AT ANY SCALE. We're not even CLOSE to being able to do that.
This is just an updated version of the "computers are evil" mindset that still is pretty prevalent thanks to HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey". People read some science-fiction, and mistakenly think it's REAL.
But...but...Apple is the greatest designer of computers EVER! It's so elegant, and...industrial design...and...elegance...and...iLife...and...RISC...and...elegance...I got nothing.
Why don't you just hire someone else to run those things?
Oh, I bet I know why. You're one of those bosses who owns a small company, and is a control freak who HATES the fact that he has to have employees at all, because everyone but you is an idiot, and it's impossible to train other people to do things exactly as YOU would do them. Because, as everyone knows, your way is the only right way.
So, yeah, good luck with the satellite pager search.
In most school districts, the money for "technology" comes from a special part of the budget, and from various Federal programs. If the school/district doesn't spend all their "technology money", they will get less of it the following year. They can't spend the money on anything but technology, and any money they would save by using FOSS would NOT be reallocated to buy other things. It would just disappear. it's very similar to the way federal funding for roads works. If you don't spend it, you don't get it next year, and you don't gain anything. You just have less roads. There is *incentive* to spend as much as possible every year, and FOSS fucks that up. Proprietary software, however, is perfect for racking up huge bills. Even better than hardware, because it doesn't take up any physical space.
Welcome to public education funding in the United States.
If you want to communicate with your fellow dissidents in secret, just broadcast it through a UPN affiliate. I guarantee NO ONE will ever see what you're up to.
I don't know if we're all going to be using Windows Mobile, but the "convergence" of the cell phone and music player is inevitable. It's already happening, and the only reason it hasn't happened MORE is that iTunes files will only play on your computer or on an iPod. If Apple ever licenses the AAC decoder to cell-phone manufacturers, or if one of the WMA-based music stores takes off, then people will start thinking twice before buying an iPod, when they can have that functionality in their phone and not have to carry around another device.
I agree. The real problem is with driving games that try to be driving "simulators". The "virtual" car in the game has all the correct physical responses to it's environment, but, as the driver, all you have is sight, or crappy force feedback. Which basically means you oversteer/understeer the whole time, until you learn how to visually gauge what the car is doing.
Flight sims have the same problem, but to a much lesser degree, since much of flying is done with instruments anyway. The "feel" isn't as necessary as it is for driving.
Me, I like Burnout 3. No real physics to worry about, you just need good reflexes.
It always did. Step back for a few moments, try to ignore the goodwill you have towards Joss because of the first 3 seasons of Buffy, and realize that Firefly was pretty lame. Better than a lot of stuff on TV, but still pretty lame.
See, you didn't need to put that software under the GPL. You should've got one of those PHP compilers, and hidden the code. Then, slap your code on some pre-configured Linux boxes, and start advertising the things in trade publications(whatever those may be).
By open-sourcing it, you've opened the floodgates. On of the big companies is going to take your code, add a bunch of features, and start selling it to their existing customers as a replacement for their current product. Yeah, it'll still be under the GPL, but the big company will offers support for the thing, and conversion of the data from their system to yours, which you aren't set up to do. Oops.
NEVER, EVER create niche-market software under the GPL. You'll get raped.
Well, bands have always been able to give their music away in MP3 format. I challenge you to name ONE band that "made their name" by doing this.
The RIAA is pure fucking evil, but without the distribution and marketing of a record label, it's hard to be a really successful band. You can make a living at it, even a good living, but if you plan on getting rich from your music, it can't be done without the labels. Unless you've got a rich uncle or something.
Slashdot Mirror
As we all know, the Pentium 4 is a pretty goofy, shlocky design. The Pentium M is good, but it's essentially a Pentium Pro. That's 10 years old.
Intle NEEDS to prove that they can still make a good x86 chip from "scratch".
Truly, the future of broadband is either fiber to everyone's doorstep, or some kind of pervasive wireless.
The cell phone companies are in a good position to get wireless broadband everywhere, since they already have the towers. Fiber...either the telcos or the cable providers will have to build that. My bet is on the telcos, since once they drop fiber everywhere, they can start offering TV service. You don't need a cable plant if everything is digital.
The next 10 years are gonna be interesting.
I don't get it either. I forced myself to watch the DVDs, because I thought that it would "get good any minute now". But it never did.
"Firefly" tried too hard to be clever and cute and funny, and failed. Much like the majority of post-Season 3 "Buffy" episodes.
Face it, Joss Whedon blew his whole wad on the first few seasons of "Buffy". Everything since then, including "Angel", has been a weak re-tread.
If one of the wireless users is sharing movies and crap, there is a distinct possibility that the MPAA will notify the ISP. The ISP is then legally required to either get rid of the file from the user's machine, or *shut off* that user. Which means the coffee shops access will be killed by the ISP.
Major hassle. Not to mention that the coffee shop will basically be an ISP. There will be users screwing the local network up with viruses, users who can't figure out how to get on and want help...all of which requires somebody who knows the tech side to keep things running well.
Not worth the trouble. AT ALL.
Unix is fine. It works.
But....it's 40 years old! Wouldn't we all like to see a completely MODERN operating system? I know I would. Keep all the good stuff from Unix, update it, and throw out the bad stuff.
Of course, in the end, we'll still be stuck with Windows and MacOS and Linux because they're the only 3 that have developer support.
We all know that the only 2 rules are going to be:
1. Any corporation can find out whatever they want to about you for whatever reason, and use that information for any purpose they see fit.
2. Rule number 1 also applies to city/state/federal governments
I wish I was joking, but I'm not.
If you are typing your notes, you're doing it wrong.
Notes are supposed to be quick and dirty. Pen and paper are the best tools for note-taking, because you can cross things out, draw arrows, underline important ideas...all of which are impossible to do (in real-time, anyway) if you are typing.
A computer isn't the best tool for every job, guys.
Okay. The Transformers toys were cool. Back when I was 11.
But the cartoon sucked. Always sucked. Even the new versions. The movie sucked, too.
I just don't understand how anyone can be nostalgiac for a BAD cartoon.
Sometimes, I think, it's better to overcome your inner-child than to embrace it.
Seriously. All of the serious problems with education stem from that fact that public schools don't have enough money. Or, if they *do*, they spend it on the wrong things. Sometimes they are *required* to spend it on the wrong things. The bureaucracy of the public education system is completely broken. But that's a different problem, and more money would alleviate a lot of the bureaucratic hijinks need to save a few bucks.
Good teachers, good textbooks, good facilities. All of which can be had for a price.
Blame the federal government, which is more than happy to ignore the education problem, because it's so easy to ignore.
Mittens.
I don't know who would run it. But proving they're a spammer is easy- since the registry would obviously know when every mail is checked for verification, if TONS of mails are verified, then that sender is sending a lot of mail. It's easy to check (manually) from that point if the mail is legit or not. If it's not, that server/domain is banned from the system.
The reason you have to pay is so that it costs at least SOMETHING to run a mailserver. You don't want clueless individuals running mailservers to casually send a few mails here and there, because they don't know what they're doing. Yes, I know that the Slashdot crowd would scream bloody murder if they couldn't run their own server for free. But honestly, e-mail is such a fundamental service, it should be left to professionals. If the "entry fee" is at least marginally expensive, you'd weed out the clueless users. Only people who REALLY wanted to run their own server and knew how to meet the requirements AND had the cash would be allowed in. Unfortunately, this would eliminate most mail servers out there. Running a tight ship withe regards to email is hard, and almost nobody really does it right. Not even me, in a lot of ways. I'd have to get my shit together to pass my theoretical "verification of competence test".
Yeah, I know it's totally impractical (for technical and political reasons), but something has to happen. I don't see any way around the spam problem as long as there is no accountability for e-mails. And that means a centralized system, somewhere, somehow.
Both SPF and Sender-ID solve only one problem: faked sender domains.
;) We can dream.
That's a problem that needs to be solved, but it doesn't account for a lot of spam, and spammers will just stop faking domains in their mass emails.
What we need, and what will NEVER happen, is a central database of mailservers. If you aren't in the "registry" of legit mailservers, then other mailservers won't accept your mail. To get in the registry, you'd have to pay a fee, and prove that your server are secure, and that you aren't a spammer. Obviously, each "legit" server would have to append some kind of digital signature to outgoing emails, so that the verification coudl take place.
In other words, a total revamp of the mail system protocols.
See, everybody seems to have this impression that nanotechnology is going to turn the whole world into a pile of grey-goo.
Problem is, nanotechnology is NOWHERE NEAR advanced enough to do that. And may never be. As it is right now, we don't know how to make intelligent, self-replicating machines AT ANY SCALE. We're not even CLOSE to being able to do that.
This is just an updated version of the "computers are evil" mindset that still is pretty prevalent thanks to HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey". People read some science-fiction, and mistakenly think it's REAL.
Duh.
Ah man. I take back what I said.
It's not that nerds are better lovers. It's that they know how to overclock a vibrator.
I've never said this about any poster on Slashdot: You're a comedic genius. Awesome.
You mean the MacMini isn't *perfect*?
C ...and...elegance...I got nothing.
But...but...Apple is the greatest designer of computers EVER! It's so elegant, and...industrial design...and...elegance...and...iLife...and...RIS
Why don't you just hire someone else to run those things?
Oh, I bet I know why. You're one of those bosses who owns a small company, and is a control freak who HATES the fact that he has to have employees at all, because everyone but you is an idiot, and it's impossible to train other people to do things exactly as YOU would do them. Because, as everyone knows, your way is the only right way.
So, yeah, good luck with the satellite pager search.
In most school districts, the money for "technology" comes from a special part of the budget, and from various Federal programs. If the school/district doesn't spend all their "technology money", they will get less of it the following year. They can't spend the money on anything but technology, and any money they would save by using FOSS would NOT be reallocated to buy other things. It would just disappear. it's very similar to the way federal funding for roads works. If you don't spend it, you don't get it next year, and you don't gain anything. You just have less roads. There is *incentive* to spend as much as possible every year, and FOSS fucks that up. Proprietary software, however, is perfect for racking up huge bills. Even better than hardware, because it doesn't take up any physical space.
Welcome to public education funding in the United States.
If you want to communicate with your fellow dissidents in secret, just broadcast it through a UPN affiliate. I guarantee NO ONE will ever see what you're up to.
I don't know if we're all going to be using Windows Mobile, but the "convergence" of the cell phone and music player is inevitable. It's already happening, and the only reason it hasn't happened MORE is that iTunes files will only play on your computer or on an iPod. If Apple ever licenses the AAC decoder to cell-phone manufacturers, or if one of the WMA-based music stores takes off, then people will start thinking twice before buying an iPod, when they can have that functionality in their phone and not have to carry around another device.
I agree. The real problem is with driving games that try to be driving "simulators". The "virtual" car in the game has all the correct physical responses to it's environment, but, as the driver, all you have is sight, or crappy force feedback. Which basically means you oversteer/understeer the whole time, until you learn how to visually gauge what the car is doing.
Flight sims have the same problem, but to a much lesser degree, since much of flying is done with instruments anyway. The "feel" isn't as necessary as it is for driving.
Me, I like Burnout 3. No real physics to worry about, you just need good reflexes.
It always did. Step back for a few moments, try to ignore the goodwill you have towards Joss because of the first 3 seasons of Buffy, and realize that Firefly was pretty lame. Better than a lot of stuff on TV, but still pretty lame.
See, you didn't need to put that software under the GPL. You should've got one of those PHP compilers, and hidden the code. Then, slap your code on some pre-configured Linux boxes, and start advertising the things in trade publications(whatever those may be).
By open-sourcing it, you've opened the floodgates. On of the big companies is going to take your code, add a bunch of features, and start selling it to their existing customers as a replacement for their current product. Yeah, it'll still be under the GPL, but the big company will offers support for the thing, and conversion of the data from their system to yours, which you aren't set up to do. Oops.
NEVER, EVER create niche-market software under the GPL. You'll get raped.
Well, bands have always been able to give their music away in MP3 format. I challenge you to name ONE band that "made their name" by doing this.
The RIAA is pure fucking evil, but without the distribution and marketing of a record label, it's hard to be a really successful band. You can make a living at it, even a good living, but if you plan on getting rich from your music, it can't be done without the labels. Unless you've got a rich uncle or something.