the question should be 'show us the successes of the PATRIOT Act!'
there have been exactly *zero* successful prosecutions of terrorists in the USA under this act--so, was it really worth it, or even necessary to pass this bill? what *good* has it done?
this is just a classic example of 'lowering expectations'...
and of course, the Bush disinformation machine continues cranking at high speed--even the network news is delivered prepacked and 'on message':
Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News
so forgive me if i don't breathe a sigh of relief about this 'news'...
the guv'nor must be thinking 'hmmm, these people *voluntarily* pay a tax to Microsoft, and get very little in return--i'd like to get in on that racket!
wow, i bet CEO Chris Gorog must be raking in millions in compensation for this *brilliant* plan...
it's amazing to me that while the dot-bomb killed off programmers and rank and file employees, while executives keep making more and more...for this?
good businesses are built by innovation, not by looking in the 'what's hot' section of the paper to come up with ideas...
a few years ago, while everybody and their brother was trying to figure out how to be the 'next Napster,' Apple was busy innovating, and that's why they are the lead dog in this race...
meanwhile, my wife and i, who are stupid enough to own 3 iPods, and 30,000 songs (some bought from iTunes) will never be stupid enough to subscribe to Napster!
as a long-time mac user, i really don't know what the big deal is about the one-button mouse--my left hand is always on the keyboard anyway, to use key commands, so...
inquiring mac minds want to know--what are you 2-button mouse people doing with your other hand anyway???
my wife and I (both iPod and Mac owners) attended the opening of the new Museum of Modern Art here in NYC, and were happy to see that the original iPod (along with a G4 iBook) made it into the museum's design collection, next to other icons of product design.
didn't see any Rios or Dell laptops, though--go figure;>
basically, he said citizens have a duty to oppose unjust laws by breaking them...
not to intrude on your idealism, but there are degrees of injustice, and i'd contend that the injustice done to the public good by the Sonny Bono Act is magnitudes greater than the injustice done to the record cartel's bottom line!
while this is a great victory for both 'the people,' and 'common sense,' it may just be the swan song of 'name' works in the Public Domain--in other words, it's one of the last works with any widespread name recognition and/or cultural currency--this is especially true in the 'IP mad' era we are now in, where corporate lawyers are busy gobbling up any 'assets' that can be 'monetized'...
perhaps the Creative Commons will gain enough momentum to reverse this, but at the rate we're going, there will be precious little in the Public Domain from the period 1930-present...
ps. were Woody alive today, he'd be singing the praises of FOSS!
java is an incredibly versatile language, but the load time is ridiculous on the net--i HATE sitting there and watching that stupid coffee cup for 20 seconds, or however long it takes...
it's funny how many trolls here can't stand Flash, but they'll willingly sit and stare at that freakin' coffee cup, and twiddle their thumbs while java takes it's sweet time loading...
i hate to tell ya, but you know what's cool? Actionscript 2.0--/. trolls may hate it, but the chicks dig it!;>
RMS knew exactly what he was doing--the GPL is about something greater than profit motive, and the GPL has protected the contributions of thousands of programmers around the world, something that could not have been accomplished in any other way...bravo!
witness the SCOasaur go through its death spasms, choking on the GPL's dust!
Businesses, as always, you face a choice--innovate, or die!
where's the beef here? big deal--the guy sat around and thought up some clever ideas--just like any science fiction writer--and with about as much standing to turn his idea into reality--check me if i'm wrong here, but i thought you couldn't patent an idea, only an application of said idea...
so, Mr...Rotwang is it? let's see your 'ethical robot'!
also, good thing for the Bush regime that lying to the American people isn't considered to be perjury, or Gitmo would be holding mssers Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith et al...
despite the legal spinning and political bs, the facts remain:
Clinton lied about a blowjob in the Oval Office--total monetary cost to the American people--$80 Million
Bush lied about the 'clear and present danger' of Saddam Hussein--total monetary cost to the American people:
$130 Billion and growing
thanks for your insights--along with the other posts, it's given me new insights outside of my own, and made me question my own assumptions...(a constructive dialog on slashdot--imagine that!)
i think this discussion shows the multiplicity of color phenomena--that there are many different modes of understanding and manipulating it--of course, when engineering systems, the scientific pov rules (i'd love to play with some of these toys, like the violet LEDs)
my point, coming from the 'artisitic' perspective, is that there are many ways to use the viewer's precognitive color response to 'trick' them into seeing 'more 'color than is really there...beyond proportion, balance and perspective, there are many 'pure' color tricks that have been employed subtly by artists for the past 300 years--think about a JWM Turner sunset, vs. a photograph--while the quality of the pigments does indeed play a part, it's not the whole deal (in fact, Turner's reds were made of some particularly unstable pigments, and are now faded, yet the paintings retain their impact!)
having spent my earlier years patiently explaining to an inflamed art director why a color doesn't 'match' the original, and later years delving into research on color phenomena is why i tend to think that the ultimate color isn't found by 'accurately displaying color'--otoh, coming from your perspective, it is the only way to go--fortunately, the world of color is big enough for both of us!
btw, here's one last color tidbit that questions the physics of color--find a bright, primary colored object, stare at it directly for a minute or two, then close your eyes--you'll see a shape vaguely similar to the original, filled with that color's compliment--where did this color come from, and what is its wavelength?;>
Where you make the mistake of RGB vs. CMY is that the two are just colors slightly offset in frequency from one another. Combinations of colors from either system can be used to "mimic" the primary colors of the other one, but in fact they are specific frequencies that fall on the EM frequency from near infared to near ultraviolet. Trying to get something that reproduces a specific color as perceived by your eye is a neat trick, and usually it can't be done although it can often come quite close using just a simple RGB color coordinate system.
errrr, no--i think that you are applying a purely scientific understanding of the problem, and misunderstanding my own comments...
first, the cmy/subtractive/reflective color model is synonomous with pigments, as rgb/additive/transmissive is with phosphors--second, all color models are human representations of a natural phenomena, that is to say they don't 'map' perfectly at all...you're correct from a physics standpoint when you say that cgyrmb all have wavelength values, but this doesn't negate the artist's model of yrb color mixing, rgb color mixing, or the 'complementary' relationships of colors (which is the proper way of saying 'cyan is the opposite of red)
third, and most importantly here, your explanation ignores my point that there is research out there that indicates that the human brain doesn't perceive a difference between a 'pure'/spectral color, and its tri-color representative (sorry to not have a source available to back this up, but all my color materials are at my studio)
btw, i'm quite familiar with hexachrome printing and 'high-end digital art studios,' having worked as both a production artist/retoucher for large agencies/clients on hex and other high-end printing projects in the mid-late 90s--in my experience, it's the resolution of the scanner and the Photoshop expertise of the operator that are important--on hex printing projects, its not that there are 'hidden' colors that are brought out, but that brighter, more vivid colors are represented on the extra printing plates, which is a Photoshop operation, not physics, and the result, as i said in my earlier post, is that brighter, more vivid colors and higher contrast are perceived as 'more colorful'...
again, i stand by my original point, which is that the 'scientific' viewpoint of color is only part of the wholistic system of color and color perception, and that good color work goes beyond mere physics...try looking into the work done in the arts community, by artists such as Josef Albers, Johannes Itten, and Faber Birren, as well as the seminal research done by the Gestalt psychologists into color perception, and you'll find that the 'answer' isn't just about science and technology!
the problem with a scientific view of color is that it deals with the definition of discrete colors--while the CIELAB xyz model is an excellent way to map color in the lab, it doesn't necessarily transfer into a better way to represent colors, because there are many different factors that go into the sum of color perception:
color perception is a learned phenomena--bright, primary colors are more easily perceived, which is why they are popular with small children and sports teams;> while color is a universal phenomenon, our individual perceptions of it vary, depending on our physiological and sociological and cultural development (eg some primitive societies only identify 3 colors--black, white and red)
individuallly speaking, color perception is also relative--we rarely experience a single color, but many different colors all at once--it has been proven, starting with M. Chevruel in the 19th century, that perception of color(s) are influenced by neighboring colors--for example, a red object on a neutral gray background will cause the viewer to perceive a bluish cast on the gray!
the brain also employs some precognitive tricks to aid in perception--for instance, an object can be perceived as 'white' even in a low light situation, due to this compensation--
furthermore, color is influenced by atmospheric/volume conditions (eg the 'color' of a swimming pool), as well as surface texture and refraction effects...
also, as has been noted by many here today, transmissive (RGB) colors are additive, and therefore much brighter than reflective (CMY) colors, and contain a larger gamut (cmy does have some colors that rgb does not, but relatively few)
to counter some of the claims made by other posters, the human brain cannot distinguish between a 'pure' ie. spectral color, and a tri-color representation of said color (unfortunately, i'm away from my studio today, so i can't give more detailed references to back up my points)
and, to those who'd like to expand to a 6-color system, while this has its advantages, it also has its disadvantages, namely in color definition--in an RGB system, each color has one and only one RGB value, while in a CMYK system (in printing, K, or black, has to be added because CMY adds up to muddy brown) means that a color can often be defined in more than one color combination, which can lead to other problems (ask the printing world!)
ultimately 'good color' in consumer electronics is usually due to increased contrast and brightness/saturation of colors, not accurate reproduction of colors, because the goal isn't really to reproduce reality, but to create a vivid impression on the brain!
so, despite the breathless headline and PR, the 'revolution' here is more akin to the inkjet printers of the world adding additional colors to extend the CMYK gamut--an advance, but not a breakthrough...
seriously,most of the posted comments mostly provide a compelling reason why y'all aren't working in Product R&D...
gee, d'ya really think apple's going to release Newton2004? yes, you're right, MS already HAS a tablet PC, so why would Apple want to reinvent the wheel? didn't smartphones take the place of the PDA? Apple hardware's already so gosh-darn expensive, who'd buy it, when (cough) Dell can sell you the (pretty much) the same thing cheaper?
and lastly, who'd want to buy a mp3 player from Apple? it's already been done, they'd charge too much, etc. (ooops, good thing they didn't listen to/. on this one, eh?)
it's times like these that remind me why i come to slashdot...and it ain't for the futuristic prognostications or the dating advice!
count me as one who's interested, and hopeful that Apple's coming out with something that once again knocks 'conventional wisdom' on its ass! personally, i'd love to be able to control itunes remotely, browse the web and be able to access other nodes on my network and perform basic file operations from a tablet...yes, i'm a proud '3%er' and yes, top-notch product design, quality hardware, seamless integration and ease-of-use is indeed worth a few extra bucks to me;>
more likely, why hasn't he been arrested and sent to solitary confinement in Gitmo? you know the RIAA is the linchpin of American democracy and freedom;>
the original expletive-laced version was sanitized early yesterday--you can still see the invective, but they've removed the four-letter words, thus taking it down from profane and delusional to merely delusional....
i'm afraid Mandelbrot is out of his element...it's a nice idea in theory, but it ignores the 'reality' of the markets--insider trading, collusion, Enron style tricks, et al are the 'dirty little secrets' of Wall Street, where the markets are definitely stacked against the individual investor--of course, you'll never hear this from the suits, who have a big interest in getting Other People's Money to fund the bottom of their pyramid scheme...
even chaos theory can't predict the effects of corruption--and, if it did, do you think Wall Street would let the results see the light of day?
i can't say enough good things about http://NYCwireless.org these guys have done an amazing job at building up a free as in beer wireless network all around New York City--take a look at the coverage map...Starbucks? hah!
Slashdot Mirror
there have been exactly *zero* successful prosecutions of terrorists in the USA under this act--so, was it really worth it, or even necessary to pass this bill? what *good* has it done? this is just a classic example of 'lowering expectations'...
and of course, the Bush disinformation machine continues cranking at high speed--even the network news is delivered prepacked and 'on message': Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News
so forgive me if i don't breathe a sigh of relief about this 'news'...
the guv'nor must be thinking 'hmmm, these people *voluntarily* pay a tax to Microsoft, and get very little in return--i'd like to get in on that racket!
i always thought it was just the people who rented his VHS tapes at Reel Life on Bedford avenue...
that's the power of the internet for you--his is a truly a niche market (and an acquired taste;>
it's amazing to me that while the dot-bomb killed off programmers and rank and file employees, while executives keep making more and more...for this?
good businesses are built by innovation, not by looking in the 'what's hot' section of the paper to come up with ideas...
a few years ago, while everybody and their brother was trying to figure out how to be the 'next Napster,' Apple was busy innovating, and that's why they are the lead dog in this race...
meanwhile, my wife and i, who are stupid enough to own 3 iPods, and 30,000 songs (some bought from iTunes) will never be stupid enough to subscribe to Napster!
good luck--see you on the way down, Gorog...
inquiring mac minds want to know--what are you 2-button mouse people doing with your other hand anyway???
didn't see any Rios or Dell laptops, though--go figure;>
basically, he said citizens have a duty to oppose unjust laws by breaking them...
not to intrude on your idealism, but there are degrees of injustice, and i'd contend that the injustice done to the public good by the Sonny Bono Act is magnitudes greater than the injustice done to the record cartel's bottom line!
perhaps the Creative Commons will gain enough momentum to reverse this, but at the rate we're going, there will be precious little in the Public Domain from the period 1930-present...
ps. were Woody alive today, he'd be singing the praises of FOSS!
GPL-this License kills fascists!;>
it's funny how many trolls here can't stand Flash, but they'll willingly sit and stare at that freakin' coffee cup, and twiddle their thumbs while java takes it's sweet time loading...
i hate to tell ya, but you know what's cool? Actionscript 2.0-- /. trolls may hate it, but the chicks dig it!;>
witness the SCOasaur go through its death spasms, choking on the GPL's dust!
Businesses, as always, you face a choice--innovate, or die!
so, Mr...Rotwang is it? let's see your 'ethical robot'!
like software, sex can be given away for free, or its providers can charge mid to large sums of money for it...
the people who do it because they love it, are less likely to charge people they like...
while those at the high-end of the market demand large sums of money, often because of the unattractive nature of the buyer...
a street-level bargain can often be had, if you're willing to give up some features...
catching a virus can be a problem, especially from a vendor who is servicing multiple customers...
if you do it wrong, you'll get in trouble with the law!
so, as with many things, the question boils down to who you are, and how much it's worth to you...
so, in conclusion, i expect to see the emergence of the Next Big Slashdot argument:
"Sex should always be Free" vs. "Don't trust Free Sex!" ;>
also, good thing for the Bush regime that lying to the American people isn't considered to be perjury, or Gitmo would be holding mssers Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith et al...
despite the legal spinning and political bs, the facts remain:
Clinton lied about a blowjob in the Oval Office--total monetary cost to the American people--$80 Million
Bush lied about the 'clear and present danger' of Saddam Hussein--total monetary cost to the American people: $130 Billion and growing
hope you're getting your money's worth!
seriously.
i think this discussion shows the multiplicity of color phenomena--that there are many different modes of understanding and manipulating it--of course, when engineering systems, the scientific pov rules (i'd love to play with some of these toys, like the violet LEDs)
my point, coming from the 'artisitic' perspective, is that there are many ways to use the viewer's precognitive color response to 'trick' them into seeing 'more 'color than is really there...beyond proportion, balance and perspective, there are many 'pure' color tricks that have been employed subtly by artists for the past 300 years--think about a JWM Turner sunset, vs. a photograph--while the quality of the pigments does indeed play a part, it's not the whole deal (in fact, Turner's reds were made of some particularly unstable pigments, and are now faded, yet the paintings retain their impact!)
having spent my earlier years patiently explaining to an inflamed art director why a color doesn't 'match' the original, and later years delving into research on color phenomena is why i tend to think that the ultimate color isn't found by 'accurately displaying color'--otoh, coming from your perspective, it is the only way to go--fortunately, the world of color is big enough for both of us!
btw, here's one last color tidbit that questions the physics of color--find a bright, primary colored object, stare at it directly for a minute or two, then close your eyes--you'll see a shape vaguely similar to the original, filled with that color's compliment--where did this color come from, and what is its wavelength?;>
errrr, no--i think that you are applying a purely scientific understanding of the problem, and misunderstanding my own comments...
first, the cmy/subtractive/reflective color model is synonomous with pigments, as rgb/additive/transmissive is with phosphors--second, all color models are human representations of a natural phenomena, that is to say they don't 'map' perfectly at all...you're correct from a physics standpoint when you say that cgyrmb all have wavelength values, but this doesn't negate the artist's model of yrb color mixing, rgb color mixing, or the 'complementary' relationships of colors (which is the proper way of saying 'cyan is the opposite of red)
third, and most importantly here, your explanation ignores my point that there is research out there that indicates that the human brain doesn't perceive a difference between a 'pure'/spectral color, and its tri-color representative (sorry to not have a source available to back this up, but all my color materials are at my studio) btw, i'm quite familiar with hexachrome printing and 'high-end digital art studios,' having worked as both a production artist/retoucher for large agencies/clients on hex and other high-end printing projects in the mid-late 90s--in my experience, it's the resolution of the scanner and the Photoshop expertise of the operator that are important--on hex printing projects, its not that there are 'hidden' colors that are brought out, but that brighter, more vivid colors are represented on the extra printing plates, which is a Photoshop operation, not physics, and the result, as i said in my earlier post, is that brighter, more vivid colors and higher contrast are perceived as 'more colorful'...
again, i stand by my original point, which is that the 'scientific' viewpoint of color is only part of the wholistic system of color and color perception, and that good color work goes beyond mere physics...try looking into the work done in the arts community, by artists such as Josef Albers, Johannes Itten, and Faber Birren, as well as the seminal research done by the Gestalt psychologists into color perception, and you'll find that the 'answer' isn't just about science and technology!
color perception is a learned phenomena--bright, primary colors are more easily perceived, which is why they are popular with small children and sports teams;> while color is a universal phenomenon, our individual perceptions of it vary, depending on our physiological and sociological and cultural development (eg some primitive societies only identify 3 colors--black, white and red)
individuallly speaking, color perception is also relative--we rarely experience a single color, but many different colors all at once--it has been proven, starting with M. Chevruel in the 19th century, that perception of color(s) are influenced by neighboring colors--for example, a red object on a neutral gray background will cause the viewer to perceive a bluish cast on the gray!
the brain also employs some precognitive tricks to aid in perception--for instance, an object can be perceived as 'white' even in a low light situation, due to this compensation-- furthermore, color is influenced by atmospheric/volume conditions (eg the 'color' of a swimming pool), as well as surface texture and refraction effects...
also, as has been noted by many here today, transmissive (RGB) colors are additive, and therefore much brighter than reflective (CMY) colors, and contain a larger gamut (cmy does have some colors that rgb does not, but relatively few)
to counter some of the claims made by other posters, the human brain cannot distinguish between a 'pure' ie. spectral color, and a tri-color representation of said color (unfortunately, i'm away from my studio today, so i can't give more detailed references to back up my points)
and, to those who'd like to expand to a 6-color system, while this has its advantages, it also has its disadvantages, namely in color definition--in an RGB system, each color has one and only one RGB value, while in a CMYK system (in printing, K, or black, has to be added because CMY adds up to muddy brown) means that a color can often be defined in more than one color combination, which can lead to other problems (ask the printing world!)
ultimately 'good color' in consumer electronics is usually due to increased contrast and brightness/saturation of colors, not accurate reproduction of colors, because the goal isn't really to reproduce reality, but to create a vivid impression on the brain!
so, despite the breathless headline and PR, the 'revolution' here is more akin to the inkjet printers of the world adding additional colors to extend the CMYK gamut--an advance, but not a breakthrough...
seriously,most of the posted comments mostly provide a compelling reason why y'all aren't working in Product R&D...
/. on this one, eh?)
gee, d'ya really think apple's going to release Newton2004? yes, you're right, MS already HAS a tablet PC, so why would Apple want to reinvent the wheel? didn't smartphones take the place of the PDA? Apple hardware's already so gosh-darn expensive, who'd buy it, when (cough) Dell can sell you the (pretty much) the same thing cheaper?
and lastly, who'd want to buy a mp3 player from Apple? it's already been done, they'd charge too much, etc. (ooops, good thing they didn't listen to
it's times like these that remind me why i come to slashdot...and it ain't for the futuristic prognostications or the dating advice!
count me as one who's interested, and hopeful that Apple's coming out with something that once again knocks 'conventional wisdom' on its ass! personally, i'd love to be able to control itunes remotely, browse the web and be able to access other nodes on my network and perform basic file operations from a tablet...yes, i'm a proud '3%er' and yes, top-notch product design, quality hardware, seamless integration and ease-of-use is indeed worth a few extra bucks to me;>
more likely, why hasn't he been arrested and sent to solitary confinement in Gitmo? you know the RIAA is the linchpin of American democracy and freedom;>
the original expletive-laced version was sanitized early yesterday--you can still see the invective, but they've removed the four-letter words, thus taking it down from profane and delusional to merely delusional....
even chaos theory can't predict the effects of corruption--and, if it did, do you think Wall Street would let the results see the light of day?
how do you think their $1.99 per song pricing structure will work out?
...of course, the three packs of Marlboros that Wayne smoked every day for 40 years had nothing to do with it...
i can't say enough good things about http://NYCwireless.org these guys have done an amazing job at building up a free as in beer wireless network all around New York City--take a look at the coverage map...Starbucks? hah!