Nasa has to know full well how valuable HST is. From the very beginning, the little voice in my head has been telling me that NASA announced the abandonment of HST in order to leverage more funding.
Maybe I'm just spoiled being a hardware engineer, but it seems to me that the people who are crying about these RFID tags and privacy are just plain ignorant.
I can tell you it will be trivially easy to build a jammer for them. Maybe a little harder to build an RF source with enough energy to burn out their cute little itty-bitty diodes. And until they get wise and start putting challenge/responce encryption in them, building a box to spoof them would be a weekend project for your average Radio Shack hobbyist.
I might just wait until they're manditory in license plates and walk parking lots blowing them all out, (but probably not being a grownup and all.) Perhaps I should have posted as AC just for suggesting it. (Damned Patriot Act bastards.)
The voice in my head says this is an insidious government plot to keep people from communicating directly with each other rather than through servers that can easily be ordered to tap communications.
But that's nonsense.
Of course.
Anyway, if Orrin Hatch is able to draft this in a way that passes constitutional muster, I'll kiss him full on the lips.
There's no real reason that a free system can't be devised. The true value of a scientific journal is that it is a peer review process, something that isn't true of simply writing a paper and displaying it on your website.
Someone has to pay for the time and effort of the reviewers and someone has to qualify the reviewers. On the other hand, humans have an inherrent need to compete and rise to the top of the heirarchy, so I expect that a non-economic system of pecking order based on status and recognition can supplant the economic model.
Bloodthirsty politics is rampant in university acedemic settings with very little economic basis. The drive for that could be harnessed in this system.
There are some experimental review systems in place for budding writers to review each others' work -- something similar (yet better working) could be designed for this purpose.
That's really a false dichotomy. We aren't left with one or the other choice. Of course we should stay healthy and then also pursue wealth and power so we can get the treatments.
Because you can bet that if someone succeeds in getting the immortality thing worked out, someone else will attempt to control it for the good of humanity. You should strive to be the first in line.
Before you start calling people morons, you should get your facts straight.
Perhaps there are other reasons that you can't burn an analog signal than DRM.
And before you get defensive, let me assure you that I know more about it than you do.
From what I read on the Macrovision website, it looks like the technology requires special firmware in the CD player to work.
I sent a request in for the white paper, but I doubt they'll send it to me for fear of reverse-engineering.
If I get it, I'll post the results as an Anonymous Coward from the parking lot of a hotel somewhere.
Or maybe someone's driveway.
Rather, I once said (but got rejected) that I want a public face database. Presumably, your face is not subject to reasonable expectation of privacy, so people could compile face databases. I could use it to get the names and criminal records of my daughter's boyfriends, to help identify burglars in my home, to remember people I don't remember (with a little camera on my PDA?)
We need a central repository of names/faces which anyone could openly download.
THEN I will open a business selling IR reflective makeup to spoof the cameras, (because I'm a greedy bastard (Libertarian)).
Heck, I could even use it to identify undercover cops investigating my open WiFi!
We're just a few of years from being able to archive species DNA on a wholescale basis. The report is a scare tactic that is threatening to remove the promise of milder winters in my Michigan home. The BASTARDS!
On the other hand, my house in Texas is up for sale: BUY IT NOW!
Strategically, it's flawed. Sure stealing is stealing is stealing, but the value is so high en mass and the method of stealing is so easy (you don't even have to intrude or even interact with the person being stolen from) that people will find ways to circumvent it.
Since (I imagine) there are literally thousands of amoral people with enough programming talent, knowledge of network protocols, and spare time, I can't see a few "test cases" putting an end to sharing.
Essentially, the investigators will have to monitor the networks to see where files come from, then seize the computers to show that the file lists are the same as they monitored.
If one builds an IP spoofing scheme (similar to Triangle Boy, for example) into a P2P protocol, the actual IP of the sharer could be hidden. Then reasonable doubt goes out the window.
Prosecutions would then have to focus on the downloaders, which is a much more difficult problem because it takes quite a bit to get to the value trip points.
(Not that I'm trying to give anyone ideas or anything or trying to suggest that there may be a degree thesis in this scheme.)
I've been waiting for this to happen ever since I saw the report of the little remote controlled planes came out.
Local police departments will vie for the right to buzz around your neighborhood looking for loot from the sky, much the same way that they used to drive around with IR or microwave cameras looking into your houses (which they can't do (or at least use in court) anymore).
Simulated worlds online are already being done. My son's hooked on Runescape. Personally, it bores me to death, but it's roughly the same thing, only server based.
I don't see how this is supposed to be 'scary'. There have been plenty of other diversions sucking time out of lonely people's lives before the internet. At least they're not out getting toated and driving home.
New York has the highest population density in the US, comparable to the density of Paris and London. New York's cell service sucks, especially if you're on Sprint or Verizon which uses (surprise) Code Division Multiple Access instead of GSM (used in Europe).
You sound like a GSM network salesman. This problem is strictly an issue of investment in cells. Most operators are still suffering under the debt they took on to build out their networks and don't have the funds to upgrade existing cell designs. Add to this taking on as many subscribers as the network can handle (or more) and you get lousy service.
Things will improve when the market forces them to. Customer fluidity is the key to that:
1. Portable phone numbers.
2. Portable phones between networks
3. Elimination of commitment agreements.
The FCC could help by mandating all three. It could also mandate service quality, but that would eliminate possible secondary markets where the customer was willing to accept spotty service for reduced rates, so that's probably a bad idea.
> ***They don't want you to boot PalmOS, or WinCE, or whatever off the device and install something else.***
I really doubt it's Handspring being a big meanie and not letting you use the unit any way you wish. It's almost certainly a contractual constraint in their license of Palm's OS.
To identify the bad guys, look to the OS manufacturer.
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Nasa has to know full well how valuable HST is. From the very beginning, the little voice in my head has been telling me that NASA announced the abandonment of HST in order to leverage more funding.
The little voice has been wrong once or twice.
Maybe I'm just spoiled being a hardware engineer, but it seems to me that the people who are crying about these RFID tags and privacy are just plain ignorant.
I can tell you it will be trivially easy to build a jammer for them. Maybe a little harder to build an RF source with enough energy to burn out their cute little itty-bitty diodes. And until they get wise and start putting challenge/responce encryption in them, building a box to spoof them would be a weekend project for your average Radio Shack hobbyist.
Will someone please educate them about the technology so they can devote their time to something that really matters? (If they want something to bitch about, they can read my blog for ideas.)
I might just wait until they're manditory in license plates and walk parking lots blowing them all out, (but probably not being a grownup and all.) Perhaps I should have posted as AC just for suggesting it. (Damned Patriot Act bastards.)
The voice in my head says this is an insidious government plot to keep people from communicating directly with each other rather than through servers that can easily be ordered to tap communications.
But that's nonsense.
Of course.
Anyway, if Orrin Hatch is able to draft this in a way that passes constitutional muster, I'll kiss him full on the lips.
There's no real reason that a free system can't be devised. The true value of a scientific journal is that it is a peer review process, something that isn't true of simply writing a paper and displaying it on your website.
Someone has to pay for the time and effort of the reviewers and someone has to qualify the reviewers. On the other hand, humans have an inherrent need to compete and rise to the top of the heirarchy, so I expect that a non-economic system of pecking order based on status and recognition can supplant the economic model.
Bloodthirsty politics is rampant in university acedemic settings with very little economic basis. The drive for that could be harnessed in this system.
There are some experimental review systems in place for budding writers to review each others' work -- something similar (yet better working) could be designed for this purpose.
That's really a false dichotomy. We aren't left with one or the other choice. Of course we should stay healthy and then also pursue wealth and power so we can get the treatments.
Because you can bet that if someone succeeds in getting the immortality thing worked out, someone else will attempt to control it for the good of humanity. You should strive to be the first in line.
Before you start calling people morons, you should get your facts straight. Perhaps there are other reasons that you can't burn an analog signal than DRM. And before you get defensive, let me assure you that I know more about it than you do.
From what I read on the Macrovision website, it looks like the technology requires special firmware in the CD player to work. I sent a request in for the white paper, but I doubt they'll send it to me for fear of reverse-engineering. If I get it, I'll post the results as an Anonymous Coward from the parking lot of a hotel somewhere. Or maybe someone's driveway.
For a group that does 90% of the job, they do a damned good job at that 90%.
Rather, I once said (but got rejected) that I want a public face database. Presumably, your face is not subject to reasonable expectation of privacy, so people could compile face databases. I could use it to get the names and criminal records of my daughter's boyfriends, to help identify burglars in my home, to remember people I don't remember (with a little camera on my PDA?)
We need a central repository of names/faces which anyone could openly download.
THEN I will open a business selling IR reflective makeup to spoof the cameras, (because I'm a greedy bastard (Libertarian)).
Heck, I could even use it to identify undercover cops investigating my open WiFi!
Oops.
We're just a few of years from being able to archive species DNA on a wholescale basis. The report is a scare tactic that is threatening to remove the promise of milder winters in my Michigan home. The BASTARDS!
On the other hand, my house in Texas is up for sale: BUY IT NOW!
Now if we can get cell phones classified as GPS tracking devices, we'd be making progress.
If there's a physical key, a judge can make you give it up. I'll stick with software based encrypted disks, thanks anyway.
Strategically, it's flawed. Sure stealing is stealing is stealing, but the value is so high en mass and the method of stealing is so easy (you don't even have to intrude or even interact with the person being stolen from) that people will find ways to circumvent it.
Since (I imagine) there are literally thousands of amoral people with enough programming talent, knowledge of network protocols, and spare time, I can't see a few "test cases" putting an end to sharing.
Essentially, the investigators will have to monitor the networks to see where files come from, then seize the computers to show that the file lists are the same as they monitored.
If one builds an IP spoofing scheme (similar to Triangle Boy, for example) into a P2P protocol, the actual IP of the sharer could be hidden. Then reasonable doubt goes out the window.
Prosecutions would then have to focus on the downloaders, which is a much more difficult problem because it takes quite a bit to get to the value trip points.
(Not that I'm trying to give anyone ideas or anything or trying to suggest that there may be a degree thesis in this scheme.)
Local police departments will vie for the right to buzz around your neighborhood looking for loot from the sky, much the same way that they used to drive around with IR or microwave cameras looking into your houses (which they can't do (or at least use in court) anymore).
Maybe I'll start work on that jammer project...
What's the matter? There isn't a single link to a graph or a chart. What am I supposed to do, read it or what?
Simulated worlds online are already being done. My son's hooked on Runescape. Personally, it bores me to death, but it's roughly the same thing, only server based. I don't see how this is supposed to be 'scary'. There have been plenty of other diversions sucking time out of lonely people's lives before the internet. At least they're not out getting toated and driving home.
New York has the highest population density in the US, comparable to the density of Paris and London. New York's cell service sucks, especially if you're on Sprint or Verizon which uses (surprise) Code Division Multiple Access instead of GSM (used in Europe). You sound like a GSM network salesman. This problem is strictly an issue of investment in cells. Most operators are still suffering under the debt they took on to build out their networks and don't have the funds to upgrade existing cell designs. Add to this taking on as many subscribers as the network can handle (or more) and you get lousy service. Things will improve when the market forces them to. Customer fluidity is the key to that: 1. Portable phone numbers. 2. Portable phones between networks 3. Elimination of commitment agreements. The FCC could help by mandating all three. It could also mandate service quality, but that would eliminate possible secondary markets where the customer was willing to accept spotty service for reduced rates, so that's probably a bad idea.
> ***They don't want you to boot PalmOS, or WinCE, or whatever off the device and install something else.***
I really doubt it's Handspring being a big meanie and not letting you use the unit any way you wish. It's almost certainly a contractual constraint in their license of Palm's OS.
To identify the bad guys, look to the OS manufacturer.