Netflix has a good foothold. Sony and Microsoft have a direct financial interest in IPTV now. If the Cable companies try to hamstring it there would be immediate anti-trust objections. I doubt ISPs can get the genie back in the bottle.
I can't imagine how research could dispel the risk of unanticipated consequences from this type of environmental research, even so the only "research ban" I would agree with is banning actual large-scale testing of the ideas in the open environment.
I think the linked article is just confused, and this story isn't about broadband over powerlines at all. Check the NIST link: it's about setting network protocols for the exchange of information needed to link smart power nodes, so they can do load balancing or whatever. I don't see anything there that says they wouldn't just have fiber optic data links to send information, and power lines to send power.
I could be wrong here, but I checked the links in the story and couldn't find any confirmation that anybody really thinks IP over powerlines is part of the Smart Grid.
Not sure whether I'm in the green community, but I do think NOT damaging the environment is better than going ahead and damaging it with impunity in the hopes of patching it back up with some unproven scheme.
Worker's wages account for the vast majority of people directly involved. Does it really matter whether the fat cats who keep all the profits are here or in Japan? The taxes on the profits, if any, are probably paid in the Cayman islands either way. And even if you still believe in trickle-down economics, money has no trouble trickling across borders.
I don't attend parties (LAN or otherwise) that are hosted by someone I don't know, I've never been into the club or bar scene, and during any "compromising" situation I'm in, I'm generally surrounded by people just as paranoid about it as I am.
Good grief, is that what we've come to? You think you're not affected by facebook (because of your "common sense"), but actually it sounds like facebook is controlling your life.
Oh, just calm down. It's France, not the US. We all know they haven't whole-heartedly embraced US-style capitalism. They seem to be getting along just fine, and just because they did something doesn't mean we will.
I hate the alarming tone of these passe "war driving" articles. A car or home can be broken into in 5 seconds by breaking a window. Most mailboxes where I live (including mine) are just boxes with a little non-locking door on the front that anybody can open.
And yet, the world keeps on turning.
Hopping onto somebody's wifi doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean you can get their personal documents, or banking info, or anything else.
Windows is more centralized. BSD dissipated and basically died due to fragmentation. Linux, due to the GPL, seems to be treading a middle ground - with enough work most apps can be compiled for any distro, but to be useful to most people, each distro must have a maintainer for each application. And the end user is exposed to a mish-mash of widget sets, file dialogs, printer configurations, etc... which some find annoying.
It's not like Wi-Fi in a TV is a new thing, most Sony TVs already have Wi-Fi because they can play the Bravia Internet Video service which includes netflix, youtube, hulu plus (soon), and a bunch of other junky little video sources that appear half-baked.
PS, Sony's page I linked already features the GoogleTV, so I guess they are serious.
I can't speak for google TV, but playing from Netflix is great. It's very convenient, and the HD stream looks better than DVD. (I do still have a PVR connected as well, but it's linux so it can't play Netflix). I doubt google TV will be a better computer than a PC-based PVR with a wireless mouse/keyboard, but then again I didn't think the iPad would catch on either:)
The main reason most of those things cannot be done is because voters don't want them to be done.
Voters do not want a sudden, humiliating withdrawl from Afghanistan that would be an admission of defeat. (Others would argue saving face isn't worth sacrificing lives, but I digress...)
Voters do not want to balance the budget. What they want is to pay no taxes when young, and receive full benefits when old. And who they vote for is whoever promises to do that.
It's just human nature. Almost every person thinks THEY are the one doing more than their fair share, and what they want is for everybody else to start bucking up and being more like them. Just like a big marriage among 300,000,000 people.
On the other hand, it's pretty ridiculous to imagine that without Edison's invention of the lightbulb we'd all be sitting typing away on our computers in the dark (or by the light of oil-burning lanterns).
Another famous example is the invention of television... those guys fought over the credit for a lifetime, and I quote: "Zworykin had a patent, but Farnsworth had a picture."
Except we already have *manned* missions, whose decision tree is mysterious and seemingly unbounded, and navigated by a bunch of chemicals sloshing around in a bag of water.
There's no reason automated systems couldn't eventually earn the same level of trust that we place in humans.
Like hiding valuables out of sight when locking your car. My wife still insisted she hide her handbag under the seat despite assuring her that security experts beg to differ. *Sigh*
Are you joking? Leaving valuables out of sight definitely is a good precaution. It wouldn't work if thieves were allowed to methodically search through each car (akin to a port scan) but they aren't.
I think "screwed over" was referring to NASA over authority issues and budget allocations, not necessarily the budget itself.
Well, what does that mean? In the US, it is Congress that has federal budget authority. Congress decides how tax money is spent and how much budget authority to delegate downwards, e.g. to NASA management. NASA didn't give itself the mission to go to the moon in the 1960's, either; it doesn't work that way. If you offered a plumber $90 to un-clog your kitchen sink and he demanded $200 to install a new toilet instead you'd think he was crazy.
"In other words, things that cable and phone companies don't really want customers on the residential plan doing in the first place, as explained in the terms of service."
They might not want it, but I don't think they care much either. I've been my own mailserver, webserver, and (of course!) ssh server on @home / Comcast for over 10 years now. (Around $8000 total in monthly payments... wow).
I would be really bummed if I were trapped behind ISP NAT. It would definitely be grounds for shopping around for a new ISP.
I agree counting of this nature is somewhat dubious since it's hard to sample the web uniformly. That said, the milestone matters less than the trend, which is most likely reflected accurately so long as they don't change how they count. In other words, it doesn't really matter whether the absolute percentage is now 50%, 60%, or 40%; what's certain is the web monoculture Microsoft wanted so badly and nearly achieved at the height of their power has failed. And that's a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Netflix has a good foothold. Sony and Microsoft have a direct financial interest in IPTV now. If the Cable companies try to hamstring it there would be immediate anti-trust objections. I doubt ISPs can get the genie back in the bottle.
That is, research itself I would not ban, unless it gets to the point of large-scale testing in the open environment.
I can't imagine how research could dispel the risk of unanticipated consequences from this type of environmental research, even so the only "research ban" I would agree with is banning actual large-scale testing of the ideas in the open environment.
I could be wrong here, but I checked the links in the story and couldn't find any confirmation that anybody really thinks IP over powerlines is part of the Smart Grid.
Not sure whether I'm in the green community, but I do think NOT damaging the environment is better than going ahead and damaging it with impunity in the hopes of patching it back up with some unproven scheme.
Worker's wages account for the vast majority of people directly involved. Does it really matter whether the fat cats who keep all the profits are here or in Japan? The taxes on the profits, if any, are probably paid in the Cayman islands either way. And even if you still believe in trickle-down economics, money has no trouble trickling across borders.
It's the viewing of everything in life as a football game that's problematic.
Good grief, is that what we've come to? You think you're not affected by facebook (because of your "common sense"), but actually it sounds like facebook is controlling your life.
Oh, just calm down. It's France, not the US. We all know they haven't whole-heartedly embraced US-style capitalism. They seem to be getting along just fine, and just because they did something doesn't mean we will.
And yet, the world keeps on turning.
Hopping onto somebody's wifi doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean you can get their personal documents, or banking info, or anything else.
Windows is more centralized. BSD dissipated and basically died due to fragmentation. Linux, due to the GPL, seems to be treading a middle ground - with enough work most apps can be compiled for any distro, but to be useful to most people, each distro must have a maintainer for each application. And the end user is exposed to a mish-mash of widget sets, file dialogs, printer configurations, etc... which some find annoying.
PS, Sony's page I linked already features the GoogleTV, so I guess they are serious.
I can't speak for google TV, but playing from Netflix is great. It's very convenient, and the HD stream looks better than DVD. (I do still have a PVR connected as well, but it's linux so it can't play Netflix). I doubt google TV will be a better computer than a PC-based PVR with a wireless mouse/keyboard, but then again I didn't think the iPad would catch on either :)
Voters do not want a sudden, humiliating withdrawl from Afghanistan that would be an admission of defeat. (Others would argue saving face isn't worth sacrificing lives, but I digress...)
Voters do not want to balance the budget. What they want is to pay no taxes when young, and receive full benefits when old. And who they vote for is whoever promises to do that.
It's just human nature. Almost every person thinks THEY are the one doing more than their fair share, and what they want is for everybody else to start bucking up and being more like them. Just like a big marriage among 300,000,000 people.
More importantly... pimple removal!
On the other hand, it's pretty ridiculous to imagine that without Edison's invention of the lightbulb we'd all be sitting typing away on our computers in the dark (or by the light of oil-burning lanterns).
Another famous example is the invention of television... those guys fought over the credit for a lifetime, and I quote: "Zworykin had a patent, but Farnsworth had a picture."
There's no reason automated systems couldn't eventually earn the same level of trust that we place in humans.
Are you joking? Leaving valuables out of sight definitely is a good precaution. It wouldn't work if thieves were allowed to methodically search through each car (akin to a port scan) but they aren't.
Well, what does that mean? In the US, it is Congress that has federal budget authority. Congress decides how tax money is spent and how much budget authority to delegate downwards, e.g. to NASA management. NASA didn't give itself the mission to go to the moon in the 1960's, either; it doesn't work that way. If you offered a plumber $90 to un-clog your kitchen sink and he demanded $200 to install a new toilet instead you'd think he was crazy.
I meant, the baseless assertion that NASA's budget has been cut.
So many posts are buying into the baseless assertion that China's budget has been cut. Where did this idea come from?
Which (along with the story summary) is wrong; NASA's budget has not taken a hit any time recently nor is it planned to do so.
"In other words, things that cable and phone companies don't really want customers on the residential plan doing in the first place, as explained in the terms of service."
They might not want it, but I don't think they care much either. I've been my own mailserver, webserver, and (of course!) ssh server on @home / Comcast for over 10 years now. (Around $8000 total in monthly payments... wow).
I would be really bummed if I were trapped behind ISP NAT. It would definitely be grounds for shopping around for a new ISP.
I agree counting of this nature is somewhat dubious since it's hard to sample the web uniformly. That said, the milestone matters less than the trend, which is most likely reflected accurately so long as they don't change how they count. In other words, it doesn't really matter whether the absolute percentage is now 50%, 60%, or 40%; what's certain is the web monoculture Microsoft wanted so badly and nearly achieved at the height of their power has failed. And that's a good thing.
Websurfing is not going to raise any nation from poverty.