Lets look at it from the point of view of a cable company:
Right now, ntl in the UK offer telephone, catv, and broadband. Their system is all completely fiber up until around 100-200 yards from the customers' houses.
I see fiber not just for increasing internet speeds - eventually I see a single fiber line into the home, offering VoIP, or a higher-quality telephone connection; Tivo capabilities built into the headend; pausable PPV on demand (not every 30 mins); and of course, our ever increasing internet access speeds. With next-gen games consoles, you could even have these connected so that new levels/game updates are automatically applied (is that a good thing?)
Thinking 'outside the box' can increase our thoughts on what sort of services are available via fiber lines straight into the home.
The floppy drive is quite possibly the one component inside a computer that most users trust the most.
They've been around for many a year, and imho, many people would be reluctant to see them go - three months ago I wired my mum's computer onto Tim-Net (my home network and information control system) and she still believes in sneakernet as opposed to drag and drop through shared directories.
Yes, the floppy drive is obsolete, however - it's not ready to give up the ghost yet simply because there is no replacement for it yet. (Boot disk when the system fails, transferring files to and from work/college).
UI is all a matter of user preference. Personally, I prefer my Kicker bar over the quick launch in Windows, I prefer Mosfet's Liquid over Luna and Classic.
Granted, the way most of the Windows applications use the same theming in a way I've not seen with any consistency within any Linux-based windows environment is a very compelling feature, however, the benefits for me in other areas outweigh the inconsistencies.
A "next-generation secure computing base" doesn't sound bad to Joe Consumer - if I hadn't read on/. that it was the new buzzphrase for Palladium I might have thought it was good.
Don't mistake me for a Microsoft hater - I'm sure there are many worthy concepts and ideas in Palladium (for lack of a better title), and I can't really have many complaints about some of their applications, but due to previous experience and bad business practices, they have got themselves a bad reputation among many/,ers and techies.
But I don't think the U.S. military would look for a hospital to test it on, or even a traffic intersection.
No - maybe not. However, certain incidents and other accidents, such as the wedding party bombing, have certainly caused some people to lose confidence with the US Military forces - and that's not mentioning the crimes and human rights violations by the US Military which took place in Vietnam.
when this generation leave school and get jobs tech support will be a thing of the past...
In my opinion, I don't see tech support jobs being a thing of the past. Certainly - the overcharging of certain companies to solve problems might slowly fizzle away as home users would be knowledgeble with general maintanence problems, but in the office scene, there are so many variables like Exchange servers, Intranet servers, and a whole host of different systems integrated - this is where tech support of the future will still be needed.
I don't run a non-profit, but have undertaken consulting work for various non-profits in the past.
Some non-profits are like Debian - a community effort with volunteers, however I have worked with a few who do have a normal board structure: Chief Executive, Managing Director, a full board, and also other admin staff. As far as I understand, the only stipulation is that a non-profit org can't make a profit and reinvest all its "profits" into other avenues.
There's the whole matter of how you make free software profitable.
If Microsoft were to base Windows on GNU/Linux, why would they need to give Windows away, or indeed release the entire source code to a Windows release? If they built their own closed X Windowing system and a GUI similar to what they have right now, this wouldn't necessarily need to be GPL'd - similar to how OS X is based on Darwin, although Quartzextreme and Aqua are still proprietary.
Perhaps a way to look at DOS and Explorer is that they are both (for lack of a better title) Window Managers. Explorer provides a GUI interface similar to KDE/Gnome, whereas DOS provides a text-based interface, similar to something like Twin.
...a built in way of being forced into silent mode...
Bluetooth? Many of the new mobile phones being produced include bluetooth as standard. Perhaps tunes in the future will have a function where a signal can switch phones from "General" to "Vibrate".
But does the ruling seem to say that a EULA is not a contract?
From what I understand from the article, it was ruled that the specific clause was unenforceble as it violated customers' free speech. If anything, I think the ruling creates a basis which says that a EULA can be a contract, ie. the judge ruled that a clause in the EULA was not enforceble and therefore not valid - this is a feature of contract law in many countries.
Tim
Re:This is good, but..
on
Spammers Busted
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I don't think we necessarily need a governing body who controls spam, or any aspect of the Internet for that matter.
IMO, what might work would be a redesigning of the STMP and possibly the POP3 protocols or an entirely new protocol. What I would suggest would be:
1. Client-server authentication for all outgoing mail transactions. This would help a great deal with the problem of open relays.
2. A specification to stop the masking of all headers, especially origination IP address and the senders e-mail address. This way, if spammers do continue their tricks, the recipients would have all their details to report to ISPs or local authorities.
3. E-mail applications which allow users to specify whether they want to receive mail using solely the new protocol, or whether the also wish to allow "old" POP3/smtp mail.
3) Does not have server farms distributing illegal MP3s unlike Napster.
AFAIK, Napster didn't distribute any illegal MP3s - it's centralised server farms merely handled the many thousands (millions?) of queries and transactions per day. It was the users' computers which were responsible for the illegal MP3s which were transmitted every day.
Fair enough, Shawn Fanning may have had hundreds of MP3s connected to a high bandwidth connection, but it wasn't specifically Napster.
Orange UK offer 10 meg transfer rate over GPRS for 4 GBP per month. After that, they offer the service in bundles of 0.5meg, with the cost decreasing per Mb as you purchase more.
It's ideal for using over the mobile phone, ie, to check email and news updates, but would soon mount up if connected to a laptop/PDA via bluetooth.
Reminds me of the Ordnance Survey and the AA in the UK. Ordnance Survey sucessfully sued AA for copyright infringement since there were deliberate mistakes on roadmaps, which the AA had correctly copied.
Tim
Re:I still haven't filled my 60GB HDD...
on
1.5 TB DVD by 2010
·
· Score: 1
you probably won't ever need anything larger than 40gb
I beg to differ. Lets say you have a music collection of 100 CDs, and a DVD collection of maybe 30 DVDs. 30 DVDs would run to over 100GB, and the CDs would come to 5GB encoded at 160kbps. Coupled with an ever-growing collection of media, there is no maximum amount of hard drive that we would need.
This is, of course, assuming that we are able to exercise our fair use rights and make backups of DVDs and CDs to our computers.
People spend their money on products they like. Currently, this is Microsoft's products, and to a lesser extend RedHat.
Let's say I go to Dell, as many people do, for a new computer system. I don't get Microsoft Windows because I like it. I get MS Windows because OEMs have agreements with Microsoft, and it's not possible at present to get a home system from a major OEM with Linux pre-installed. IMHO, people don't spend their money on products they like: people spend their money on products which have been well marketed. ie, one of the reasons why Microsoft, and not a Linux based OS is installed on the majority of personal computer systems around the world.
The company I work for has a little of a reputation, and was getting bad press from nthellworld.com with regard to our broadband service. So instead of getting the site shut down, ntl bought it and kept it in the same format, while publishing guidelines for employees wishing to post, and employed the gentleman responsible for the site in a consulting post.
Slashdot is a tech site. To hear about the stories where people die, and other such tragedies, I'll watch the nine o'clock news. It's not likely we'll hear much about University of Twente or other *important* tech buildings burning down in the mainstream press.
I have yet to see the usefulness of internet on the run.
IMO, there are a few good uses of the Internet on the run. I commute, as do many people, by train to work. During the 15 minute ride I have a few options: I can look out of the window at houses and offices I can try and make eye contact with the various passengers near to me or I can visit various news sites using my mobile device and pass the time by reading interesting stories.
There can be a use for mobile browsing, but I believe that the devices will need to get better, and connectivity options (GPRS/WiFi) will also need to get cheaper.
IMHO, I don't see anything wrong with these drivers being "secret-ware". ATI have released these drivers, and, IIRC, they've also released the specs of their boards so third-parties can also develop device drivers.
There's nothing wrong with mixing free and closed software. If these drivers enable me to play the likes of UT 2003, then so much the better.
Here on/. I see many posts about driver support for Linux-based Operating Systems lacking - here's one of the market leaders producing drivers for Linux. IMO, we should be congratulating ATI.
Slashdot Mirror
Lets look at it from the point of view of a cable company:
Right now, ntl in the UK offer telephone, catv, and broadband. Their system is all completely fiber up until around 100-200 yards from the customers' houses.
I see fiber not just for increasing internet speeds - eventually I see a single fiber line into the home, offering VoIP, or a higher-quality telephone connection; Tivo capabilities built into the headend; pausable PPV on demand (not every 30 mins); and of course, our ever increasing internet access speeds. With next-gen games consoles, you could even have these connected so that new levels/game updates are automatically applied (is that a good thing?)
Thinking 'outside the box' can increase our thoughts on what sort of services are available via fiber lines straight into the home.
Tim
They've been around for many a year, and imho, many people would be reluctant to see them go - three months ago I wired my mum's computer onto Tim-Net (my home network and information control system) and she still believes in sneakernet as opposed to drag and drop through shared directories.
Yes, the floppy drive is obsolete, however - it's not ready to give up the ghost yet simply because there is no replacement for it yet. (Boot disk when the system fails, transferring files to and from work/college).
Just my thoughts,
Tim
Just for your information, the best colour to get is the Indigo color. :-)
Tim
Granted, the way most of the Windows applications use the same theming in a way I've not seen with any consistency within any Linux-based windows environment is a very compelling feature, however, the benefits for me in other areas outweigh the inconsistencies.
Tim
Don't mistake me for a Microsoft hater - I'm sure there are many worthy concepts and ideas in Palladium (for lack of a better title), and I can't really have many complaints about some of their applications, but due to previous experience and bad business practices, they have got themselves a bad reputation among many /,ers and techies.
Tim
No - maybe not. However, certain incidents and other accidents, such as the wedding party bombing, have certainly caused some people to lose confidence with the US Military forces - and that's not mentioning the crimes and human rights violations by the US Military which took place in Vietnam.
No, it's not flamebait: it's the simple truth.
In my opinion, I don't see tech support jobs being a thing of the past. Certainly - the overcharging of certain companies to solve problems might slowly fizzle away as home users would be knowledgeble with general maintanence problems, but in the office scene, there are so many variables like Exchange servers, Intranet servers, and a whole host of different systems integrated - this is where tech support of the future will still be needed.
Tim
Some non-profits are like Debian - a community effort with volunteers, however I have worked with a few who do have a normal board structure: Chief Executive, Managing Director, a full board, and also other admin staff. As far as I understand, the only stipulation is that a non-profit org can't make a profit and reinvest all its "profits" into other avenues.
Tim
If Microsoft were to base Windows on GNU/Linux, why would they need to give Windows away, or indeed release the entire source code to a Windows release? If they built their own closed X Windowing system and a GUI similar to what they have right now, this wouldn't necessarily need to be GPL'd - similar to how OS X is based on Darwin, although Quartzextreme and Aqua are still proprietary.
Tim
Tim
Bluetooth? Many of the new mobile phones being produced include bluetooth as standard. Perhaps tunes in the future will have a function where a signal can switch phones from "General" to "Vibrate".
Tim
From what I understand from the article, it was ruled that the specific clause was unenforceble as it violated customers' free speech. If anything, I think the ruling creates a basis which says that a EULA can be a contract, ie. the judge ruled that a clause in the EULA was not enforceble and therefore not valid - this is a feature of contract law in many countries.
Tim
IMO, what might work would be a redesigning of the STMP and possibly the POP3 protocols or an entirely new protocol. What I would suggest would be:
1. Client-server authentication for all outgoing mail transactions. This would help a great deal with the problem of open relays.
2. A specification to stop the masking of all headers, especially origination IP address and the senders e-mail address. This way, if spammers do continue their tricks, the recipients would have all their details to report to ISPs or local authorities.
3. E-mail applications which allow users to specify whether they want to receive mail using solely the new protocol, or whether the also wish to allow "old" POP3/smtp mail.
Any thoughts?
Tim
AFAIK, Napster didn't distribute any illegal MP3s - it's centralised server farms merely handled the many thousands (millions?) of queries and transactions per day. It was the users' computers which were responsible for the illegal MP3s which were transmitted every day.
Fair enough, Shawn Fanning may have had hundreds of MP3s connected to a high bandwidth connection, but it wasn't specifically Napster.
Tim
IIRC, I believe a US judge ruled that the France vs Yahoo ruling didn't stand.
It's ideal for using over the mobile phone, ie, to check email and news updates, but would soon mount up if connected to a laptop/PDA via bluetooth.
Tim
No. Because it will limit our fair-use rights protected by law.
Tim
I beg to differ. Lets say you have a music collection of 100 CDs, and a DVD collection of maybe 30 DVDs. 30 DVDs would run to over 100GB, and the CDs would come to 5GB encoded at 160kbps. Coupled with an ever-growing collection of media, there is no maximum amount of hard drive that we would need.
This is, of course, assuming that we are able to exercise our fair use rights and make backups of DVDs and CDs to our computers.
Tim
Let's say I go to Dell, as many people do, for a new computer system. I don't get Microsoft Windows because I like it. I get MS Windows because OEMs have agreements with Microsoft, and it's not possible at present to get a home system from a major OEM with Linux pre-installed. IMHO, people don't spend their money on products they like: people spend their money on products which have been well marketed. ie, one of the reasons why Microsoft, and not a Linux based OS is installed on the majority of personal computer systems around the world.
Tim
800mhz Via Eden CPU, 256mb RAM, 40GB HDD, v92 modem.
Tim
Tim
IMO, there are a few good uses of the Internet on the run. I commute, as do many people, by train to work. During the 15 minute ride I have a few options:
I can look out of the window at houses and offices
I can try and make eye contact with the various passengers near to me
or I can visit various news sites using my mobile device and pass the time by reading interesting stories.
There can be a use for mobile browsing, but I believe that the devices will need to get better, and connectivity options (GPRS/WiFi) will also need to get cheaper.
Tim
There's nothing wrong with mixing free and closed software. If these drivers enable me to play the likes of UT 2003, then so much the better.
Here on /. I see many posts about driver support for Linux-based Operating Systems lacking - here's one of the market leaders producing drivers for Linux. IMO, we should be congratulating ATI.
Tim