Name Space is already doing something similiar. Pick from any of their 500 top level domains, and register your domain name. The only gotcha is that you have to use their DNS servers, "Until the new gTLDs are visible to the entire internet". They don't give any clue when that might actually be however.
Subject: [7-15] Where can I find CD-ROM business cards? (1999/07/18)
You can find CD-ROMs in interesting shapes, including business cards. These are functional CD-ROMs that are, for example, the same size and shape as a traditional business card (well, a really thick business card). They can have your name and contact information printed on the front, and can hold a modest amount of data, typically about 40MB.
As with 80mm CDs (see section (7-14)), you may have trouble playing these "discs" on CD-ROM drives that use caddies or have a "slot-in" design.
What's wrong with the word that has meant the same thing since English began: idea? Is it just to be extra l33t, or is there some hidden meaning that has escaped me?
I actually had to look this one up, but the definition prooves rather intresting, and imo, quite different from just "idea": (from our friends at www.dictionary.com)
meme
/meem/ [By analogy with "gene"] Richard Dawkins's term for an idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that memes parasitise people into propagating them much as viruses do.
Memes can be considered the unit of cultural evolution. Ideas can evolve in a way analogous to biological evolution. Some ideas survive better than others; ideas can mutate through, for example, misunderstandings; and two ideas can recombine to produce a new idea involving elements of each parent idea.
The term is used especially in the phrase "meme complex" denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organised belief system, such as a religion. However, "meme" is often misused to mean "meme complex".
Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has become more important than biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.
How about an electonic book that virtually never runs down.
I keep hearing that company x is releasing an electronic book that you can fill up via the Internet. I have yet to see such a device. What I have dealt with is PeanutPress, which is a nice service. They let you buy books online, and download them to your Palm or WinCE device. I've read quite a few books this way. Also there's Audible, which does the books on tape thing for WinCE devices.
There are two big problems with PDA's today, battery power and input. Most of the color devices that chew through batteries use rechargeables, but that still means you need to dock it daily. And I've never seen a great input method for palm-sized devices (though, some good ones, like calligrapher).
Fix those two things and I think you'll see the market change rapidly.
Here's a cute example for those of you logged in right now (Not sure this will work in every browser, it should). It doesn't actually do anything, but it would be trivial to redirect you to another page, and log the information.
Even though I kind find it useful, I think running a script like this should at least be an option in the browser.
MS Windows supports this sort of notion with the SetBoundsRect API, and it creates more problems than it solves. I've seen programs use this to atempt to limit the user to their app, or "help" the user out as you suggest. Not only do you not have infinite depth on the menu bars (they aren't at the top of the window), but now it becomes more difficult to manuver around the screen. You've got to ask permission before you leave a window, which is just annoying (and damnded frustrating if this program in question freezes).
Luckily, I was given the source to these programs, so I got to rip out that code, I felt sorry for the users.
They've even taken this a step further, and the WA DOT has provided the data file that they create for the traffic information to the public. Someone has written a Palm VII app that allows you to view traffic conditions while you're out and about.
This is actually very nice, it doesn't really let me avoid the traffic problems, but at least it gives me an idea how long it'll take to get somewhere, so I'm not late that often.
You can easily use RegisterServiceProcess to hide the process from the task list in 9x. Also, many of these type of programs use a couple of tricks even then, for instance, they give themselves inoccent sounding names, and/or use shell hooks, which means the application's DLL is injected into other processes, no new processes created. A knowledgeable win32 developer can play a cat and mouse game to disable these applications, but the real issue should be with the employer, and why they feel the need for this. My employeer just runs a proxy to monitor what URL's I visit, and I think much more than that would be grounds to find a new job.
Slashdot Mirror
Name Space is already doing something similiar. Pick from any of their 500 top level domains, and register your domain name. The only gotcha is that you have to use their DNS servers, "Until the new gTLDs are visible to the entire internet". They don't give any clue when that might actually be however.
Subject: [7-15] Where can I find CD-ROM business cards? (1999/07/18)
You can find CD-ROMs in interesting shapes, including business cards. These are functional CD-ROMs that are, for example, the same size and shape as a traditional business card (well, a really thick business card). They can have your name and contact information printed on the front, and can hold a modest amount of data, typically about 40MB.
As with 80mm CDs (see section (7-14)), you may have trouble playing these "discs" on CD-ROM drives that use caddies or have a "slot-in" design.
Some net.vendors:
http://www.cdshapes.com/
http://www.pocketcd.com/
Check out the second one, you can actually buy them online, though at the time of this posting, the link for pricing info is broken.
I actually had to look this one up, but the definition prooves rather intresting, and imo, quite different from just "idea": (from our friends at www.dictionary.com)
meme
Memes can be considered the unit of cultural evolution. Ideas can evolve in a way analogous to biological evolution. Some ideas survive better than others; ideas can mutate through, for example, misunderstandings; and two ideas can recombine to produce a new idea involving elements of each parent idea.
The term is used especially in the phrase "meme complex" denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organised belief system, such as a religion. However, "meme" is often misused to mean "meme complex".
Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has become more important than biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.
See also memetic algorithm.
(1996-08-11)
Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2000 Denis Howe
I keep hearing that company x is releasing an electronic book that you can fill up via the Internet. I have yet to see such a device. What I have dealt with is PeanutPress, which is a nice service. They let you buy books online, and download them to your Palm or WinCE device. I've read quite a few books this way. Also there's Audible, which does the books on tape thing for WinCE devices.
There are two big problems with PDA's today, battery power and input. Most of the color devices that chew through batteries use rechargeables, but that still means you need to dock it daily. And I've never seen a great input method for palm-sized devices (though, some good ones, like calligrapher).
Fix those two things and I think you'll see the market change rapidly.
Even though I kind find it useful, I think running a script like this should at least be an option in the browser.
MS Windows supports this sort of notion with the SetBoundsRect API, and it creates more problems than it solves. I've seen programs use this to atempt to limit the user to their app, or "help" the user out as you suggest. Not only do you not have infinite depth on the menu bars (they aren't at the top of the window), but now it becomes more difficult to manuver around the screen. You've got to ask permission before you leave a window, which is just annoying (and damnded frustrating if this program in question freezes).
Luckily, I was given the source to these programs, so I got to rip out that code, I felt sorry for the users.
The seattle area is doing the same thing.
They've even taken this a step further, and the WA DOT has provided the data file that they create for the traffic information to the public. Someone has written a Palm VII app that allows you to view traffic conditions while you're out and about.
This is actually very nice, it doesn't really let me avoid the traffic problems, but at least it gives me an idea how long it'll take to get somewhere, so I'm not late that often.
From what I remember, legOS was a replacement operating system from the MindStorms kit that let you program C applications for your robots.
Check it out here for yourself.
You can easily use RegisterServiceProcess to hide the process from the task list in 9x.
Also, many of these type of programs use a couple of tricks even then, for instance, they give themselves inoccent sounding names, and/or use shell hooks, which means the application's DLL is injected into other processes, no new processes created. A knowledgeable win32 developer can play a cat and mouse game to disable these applications, but the real issue should be with the employer, and why they feel the need for this. My employeer just runs a proxy to monitor what URL's I visit, and I think much more than that would be grounds to find a new job.