Yes, but sadly, they have no Metallica available for download.
I beg to differ. Check out
http://www.emusic.com/cd/10600/10600642.html
Hit the lights is in this collection.
I actually like Emusic. It has a lot of stuff I wouldn't even dream of getting in the stores, lots of comedy and blues and such. Also, it has underground stuff that I have never heard before, and it doesn't cost me anything (more than my normal fee) to get it. Hey, without it, I would have never found Big Star (they wrote the song that the theme for "That 70's Show" is a small snip of).
I can't see the actual LED on my optical mouse (a basic Logitech), but the light does glow through the case, which is a translucent plastic. And it glows brighter while it's being used, goes dim when not in use (powersaving feature, I'm sure). However, I aggree that this isn't exactly news, especially since I saw this mod on a mod site (can't remember which one) nearly a year ago, and I think at that time it was already an old article.
Uhm... actually I think in the long run they might choose the car that doesn't fall apart within the first year
People also tend to buy cars that are available. I can buy a hybrid right now, and in 5 years or so I could probably even get one that has some good power out of Honda or Toyota.
Don't get me wrong, I am geeked at the idea of a true, powerful, zero-emissions vehicle. But, not only do the cars have to be produced, but the infrastructure needs to be put in place (since you need Hydrogen and Oxygen for a fuel cell, you need a good way to get this, not just creation, but distribution. Oxygen is easy, Hydrogen, not so much.)
All that said, this has me very excited. I want to get a truck, but I get discouraged when most trucks I have looked at get only around 20-25mgp highway! A truck, with great power and great gas milage, would sell like hotcakes (I hope).
There are enough Linux based Office-equivalent alternatives, what's wrong with these? I'm sure they work much better than the Office and are much more stable!
Unfortunately, for most people the problem is that they are not named Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word. People like to stick with what's familiar, and the basic office apps (Word, Excel) have remained pretty much the same for a majority of users at least since version 6 (the earliest one I can remember using). Most of what has been added is fluff and feature creep. Also, a lot of people like to use the same program for the same task no matter where they are. My wife, for example, will only write her papers for school in Word because that's what they have at her school, and if she happens to need to make some last minute changes while on campus, she needs to be able to use the camups computer labs. I've tried to get her to switch to OpenOffice, but she won't-because it's not Word.
Why bother? The MAC address is usually stored in flash eprom. Besides, whats to stop you from writing your own rogue '3rd party' program which is reverese engineered from the original, only reports a random MAC address.
Implementing security/restrictions client side doesnt work. period.
Not everybody knows how/has the ability to change the MAC address of their NIC. Also, three things stop people from writing that rogue program-Time, Skill (in both programming and reverse engineering), and Desire. Not being a huge online gamer I cannot say with 100% confidence, but I doubt that the majority of gamers using this system want to cheat.
As for the statement that client side security doesn't work, well that isn't completely true. No, this system is not foolproof as I understand it, but that does not mean that there is absolutely no way this could work 90% of the time, which for a gaming network is not that bad. Sure, for the slashdot crowd, this might be easy to crack, but joe-average on the street probably doesn't have a clue what a MAC address is (or they think they don't have one because they use Windows).
In a way, one company has done something like this. Emusic.com uses a similar business model--putting out files for download that (it seems) have not done well on the shelves, or are old and either out of print or not carried much because record stores have a limited amount of shelf space. And there are some very good songs out there. What do they offer over a P2P network? Some selection, since they have older songs that might not even be available on CD; Quality (it's all 128 kbit MP3's, and if a download fails, you can re-download it); a few convenience things (you can specify how you want your filenames--i.e., just song title, or song title with artist and album, whatever); the ability to download whole albums with the help of Freeamp/ZINF (open-source and cross-platform (I have used it on WinXX and Linux), 2 things the/. crowd gets excited about), and a lot of other things as well--this is by no means an all-inclusive list (see their marketing stuff for details). Also, this is all available for just a monthly fee, with no track limit. Though I probably could get this on a P2P, I haven't found one that I like. Napster was good, Morpheus was great until Kaaza shafted them, Kaaza is full of spyware and addware (plus, it just doesn't have the feel Morpheus had), and Bearshare can just be a pain to use sometimes.
I just wish other record companies would follow suit, or buy-in to this, creating a similar situation to what is suggested in this article.
First off, make sure you have a lot of visibility going both ways. We have had good luck with having short meetings 2-3 times a week. This is a forum for anybody who has questions to ask them. It also is a status-update thing. Let everyone know where you are and what you have beend doing. A schedule is almsot a must here. Everyone needs to know what they need to do and when it needs to be done by (this is not as easy as you would think-a good schedule is hard to make up, especially if you start working on the project before the schedule!). Also, create an atmosphere where everyone knows it's okay if you don't know the answer. Someone else might. This is easier in small groups than large ones, but should be possible in any case. Another thing you can do is to have design and code reviews. If they know that their peers will be critiquing their code, especially some of the more experienced programmers, they will be more likely to get into the habit of writing legible code. You could even come up with coding style guidelines for your project, maybe even the entire devision. Most languages I have worked with don't force any part of a style on you (the closest I've come to a language forcing a style on me was Fortran77 or Prolog), so it's really easy to code like they do here : http://www.ioccc.org/ (The International Obfuscated C Code Contest). You just have to be sure to do these reviews-it's too easy to just say "the stuff works, we can skip the review to get the product out on time" (See recent news story, I think it was on slashdot, about how software sucks).
The bad news is that these are things that need to be done from the get-go. It's too late to save the project you're on now, the schedule has slipped too much. But you now have some experience. The best thing you can do is to learn from the mistakes made on this project by all involved, and when you are put in charge of another project, fix those mistakes, or at least attempt to.
I think the default install of major distrs need a limited, free up2date type feature that runs nightly, or at least weekly, in a cron job to check for and automatically install the major security patches. Or maybe at least tell the user there is a security update, and click OK to install. The power users can turn this off and do their own manual stuff, but Joe Average isn't going to care and rarely will patch the system manually. MS already does this by default on XP and for better or worse it's probably a good thing for the average user, security-wise. And it should happen whether or not the Linux distro is officially "registered" or just an ISO copy from a friend.
The Redhat function mentioned does this (First seen by me in 7.3, don't know if it's in earlier versions). It is strikingly similar to the Windows Update feature of Win XP (which I also run), but by default it does not automatically download updates, like Windows is set to. And I downloaded the iso's and burned them myself, no money has changed hands between me & redhat. I just had to register with them to use the service.
However, this service is not perfect, especially compared to the WinXP version. It's just not as slick. There is one program monitoring if there are any updates, and another that actually gets them. This is not bad, but the two don't interact seamlessly. When there are updates, you get a list. Then you click the button to get them. The second program launches, leaving the first window up (even though you don't need it anymore). It then presents you a list of patches (that looks strikingly familiar...) and allows you to select the patches you want to install. There are two completely unneccessary steps in there. They aren't much, but it's enough to annoy me after a handfull of uses. It doesn't mean I'm going to stop using Linux, but it would stop some people.
I aggree that banning copy protected CDs is not the best way to handle this. The problem is with the existence of both copy protected CDs and the DMCA. These take away our fair-use rights (which a bunch of other posters replying to this comment have outlined, so I won't go into them here). If we have the right to circumvent the copy protection in order to exercise fair use, copy protected CDs are fine by me (and kinda useless, eh?).
also, the market can't truely police itself. If an artist comes out with a new record, you can't say "so-and-so's new album rocks! just don't buy the Sony version, it's copy protected. Buy the MCA release instead". Record companies have somewhat of a monopoly on an artist's records. While they have a contract, you can't get their music from anyone else (except maybe older albums from companies they had a previous contract with, but the point is a new album is only sold on one label). So your only choice is to buy or not. And I don't think the majority of people will not buy something because they can't do something they don't do already (make backup copies/rip to another format).
Mobile phones really don't need a mouse/trackball thing. I'd like to see an example of one that does (My phone has a "mouse" button, which is basically like a game controller touchpad. I think they did it to be able to put a cute little mouse picture on the box)
Now, the real advantage would come with the second item mentioned: Laptop. I have used laptop trackballs, touchpads, and the little nipple thing. Touchpads are the best IMHO, but after about 5 hours working with one, my hand would cramp up and my finger would go numb. With this thing, I'd just have the hand cramp. It's a step in the right direction.
Plus, you get the gee-wiz factor of it looking like something out of a sci-fi movie (see, I wave my finger over this spot, and something happens!)
For PDA's, take it or leave it, Personally, I'd leave it, since a stylus is more versitile than a mouse.
Actually, a system like this could work with the (main) power off. It simply can use the battery on the motherboard, though I don't know if this particular system does. My company makes products that are required to have secure cabinets, even able to detect tampering with the power off. It is done in a similar way to this, though we have a separate board that we use for security (that was developed ~10 years ago)
I think the point of this guys paper was more for the enthusiast that sees their new MB has security features and wants to use them, for whatever reason. Still don't think this is extremely newsworthy, but this could find a good home on a modding site.
Slashdot Mirror
I beg to differ. Check out
http://www.emusic.com/cd/10600/10600642.html
Hit the lights is in this collection. I actually like Emusic. It has a lot of stuff I wouldn't even dream of getting in the stores, lots of comedy and blues and such. Also, it has underground stuff that I have never heard before, and it doesn't cost me anything (more than my normal fee) to get it. Hey, without it, I would have never found Big Star (they wrote the song that the theme for "That 70's Show" is a small snip of).
I can't see the actual LED on my optical mouse (a basic Logitech), but the light does glow through the case, which is a translucent plastic. And it glows brighter while it's being used, goes dim when not in use (powersaving feature, I'm sure). However, I aggree that this isn't exactly news, especially since I saw this mod on a mod site (can't remember which one) nearly a year ago, and I think at that time it was already an old article.
People also tend to buy cars that are available. I can buy a hybrid right now, and in 5 years or so I could probably even get one that has some good power out of Honda or Toyota.
Don't get me wrong, I am geeked at the idea of a true, powerful, zero-emissions vehicle. But, not only do the cars have to be produced, but the infrastructure needs to be put in place (since you need Hydrogen and Oxygen for a fuel cell, you need a good way to get this, not just creation, but distribution. Oxygen is easy, Hydrogen, not so much.)
All that said, this has me very excited. I want to get a truck, but I get discouraged when most trucks I have looked at get only around 20-25mgp highway! A truck, with great power and great gas milage, would sell like hotcakes (I hope).
Unfortunately, for most people the problem is that they are not named Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word. People like to stick with what's familiar, and the basic office apps (Word, Excel) have remained pretty much the same for a majority of users at least since version 6 (the earliest one I can remember using). Most of what has been added is fluff and feature creep. Also, a lot of people like to use the same program for the same task no matter where they are. My wife, for example, will only write her papers for school in Word because that's what they have at her school, and if she happens to need to make some last minute changes while on campus, she needs to be able to use the camups computer labs. I've tried to get her to switch to OpenOffice, but she won't-because it's not Word.
Not everybody knows how/has the ability to change the MAC address of their NIC. Also, three things stop people from writing that rogue program-Time, Skill (in both programming and reverse engineering), and Desire. Not being a huge online gamer I cannot say with 100% confidence, but I doubt that the majority of gamers using this system want to cheat.
As for the statement that client side security doesn't work, well that isn't completely true. No, this system is not foolproof as I understand it, but that does not mean that there is absolutely no way this could work 90% of the time, which for a gaming network is not that bad. Sure, for the slashdot crowd, this might be easy to crack, but joe-average on the street probably doesn't have a clue what a MAC address is (or they think they don't have one because they use Windows).
In a way, one company has done something like this. Emusic.com uses a similar business model--putting out files for download that (it seems) have not done well on the shelves, or are old and either out of print or not carried much because record stores have a limited amount of shelf space. And there are some very good songs out there. What do they offer over a P2P network? Some selection, since they have older songs that might not even be available on CD; Quality (it's all 128 kbit MP3's, and if a download fails, you can re-download it); a few convenience things (you can specify how you want your filenames--i.e., just song title, or song title with artist and album, whatever); the ability to download whole albums with the help of Freeamp/ZINF (open-source and cross-platform (I have used it on WinXX and Linux), 2 things the /. crowd gets excited about), and a lot of other things as well--this is by no means an all-inclusive list (see their marketing stuff for details). Also, this is all available for just a monthly fee, with no track limit. Though I probably could get this on a P2P, I haven't found one that I like. Napster was good, Morpheus was great until Kaaza shafted them, Kaaza is full of spyware and addware (plus, it just doesn't have the feel Morpheus had), and Bearshare can just be a pain to use sometimes.
I just wish other record companies would follow suit, or buy-in to this, creating a similar situation to what is suggested in this article.
First off, make sure you have a lot of visibility going both ways. We have had good luck with having short meetings 2-3 times a week. This is a forum for anybody who has questions to ask them. It also is a status-update thing. Let everyone know where you are and what you have beend doing. A schedule is almsot a must here. Everyone needs to know what they need to do and when it needs to be done by (this is not as easy as you would think-a good schedule is hard to make up, especially if you start working on the project before the schedule!).
Also, create an atmosphere where everyone knows it's okay if you don't know the answer. Someone else might. This is easier in small groups than large ones, but should be possible in any case.
Another thing you can do is to have design and code reviews. If they know that their peers will be critiquing their code, especially some of the more experienced programmers, they will be more likely to get into the habit of writing legible code. You could even come up with coding style guidelines for your project, maybe even the entire devision. Most languages I have worked with don't force any part of a style on you (the closest I've come to a language forcing a style on me was Fortran77 or Prolog), so it's really easy to code like they do here : http://www.ioccc.org/ (The International Obfuscated C Code Contest). You just have to be sure to do these reviews-it's too easy to just say "the stuff works, we can skip the review to get the product out on time" (See recent news story, I think it was on slashdot, about how software sucks).
The bad news is that these are things that need to be done from the get-go. It's too late to save the project you're on now, the schedule has slipped too much. But you now have some experience. The best thing you can do is to learn from the mistakes made on this project by all involved, and when you are put in charge of another project, fix those mistakes, or at least attempt to.
I think the default install of major distrs need a limited, free up2date type feature that runs nightly, or at least weekly, in a cron job to check for and automatically install the major security patches. Or maybe at least tell the user there is a security update, and click OK to install. The power users can turn this off and do their own manual stuff, but Joe Average isn't going to care and rarely will patch the system manually. MS already does this by default on XP and for better or worse it's probably a good thing for the average user, security-wise. And it should happen whether or not the Linux distro is officially "registered" or just an ISO copy from a friend.
The Redhat function mentioned does this (First seen by me in 7.3, don't know if it's in earlier versions). It is strikingly similar to the Windows Update feature of Win XP (which I also run), but by default it does not automatically download updates, like Windows is set to. And I downloaded the iso's and burned them myself, no money has changed hands between me & redhat. I just had to register with them to use the service.
However, this service is not perfect, especially compared to the WinXP version. It's just not as slick. There is one program monitoring if there are any updates, and another that actually gets them. This is not bad, but the two don't interact seamlessly. When there are updates, you get a list. Then you click the button to get them. The second program launches, leaving the first window up (even though you don't need it anymore). It then presents you a list of patches (that looks strikingly familiar...) and allows you to select the patches you want to install. There are two completely unneccessary steps in there. They aren't much, but it's enough to annoy me after a handfull of uses. It doesn't mean I'm going to stop using Linux, but it would stop some people.
I aggree that banning copy protected CDs is not the best way to handle this. The problem is with the existence of both copy protected CDs and the DMCA. These take away our fair-use rights (which a bunch of other posters replying to this comment have outlined, so I won't go into them here). If we have the right to circumvent the copy protection in order to exercise fair use, copy protected CDs are fine by me (and kinda useless, eh?).
also, the market can't truely police itself. If an artist comes out with a new record, you can't say "so-and-so's new album rocks! just don't buy the Sony version, it's copy protected. Buy the MCA release instead". Record companies have somewhat of a monopoly on an artist's records. While they have a contract, you can't get their music from anyone else (except maybe older albums from companies they had a previous contract with, but the point is a new album is only sold on one label). So your only choice is to buy or not. And I don't think the majority of people will not buy something because they can't do something they don't do already (make backup copies/rip to another format).
Mobile phones really don't need a mouse/trackball thing. I'd like to see an example of one that does (My phone has a "mouse" button, which is basically like a game controller touchpad. I think they did it to be able to put a cute little mouse picture on the box) Now, the real advantage would come with the second item mentioned: Laptop. I have used laptop trackballs, touchpads, and the little nipple thing. Touchpads are the best IMHO, but after about 5 hours working with one, my hand would cramp up and my finger would go numb. With this thing, I'd just have the hand cramp. It's a step in the right direction. Plus, you get the gee-wiz factor of it looking like something out of a sci-fi movie (see, I wave my finger over this spot, and something happens!) For PDA's, take it or leave it, Personally, I'd leave it, since a stylus is more versitile than a mouse.
Actually, a system like this could work with the (main) power off. It simply can use the battery on the motherboard, though I don't know if this particular system does.
My company makes products that are required to have secure cabinets, even able to detect tampering with the power off. It is done in a similar way to this, though we have a separate board that we use for security (that was developed ~10 years ago)
I think the point of this guys paper was more for the enthusiast that sees their new MB has security features and wants to use them, for whatever reason. Still don't think this is extremely newsworthy, but this could find a good home on a modding site.