Renting a pay-per-view movie, or pay-per-use software.
You only need some sort of effective micro-payment strategy to make this work. A dime might be bit much though: 2c would work.
Personally I think a micropayment system could be very useful for all sorts of purposes and could make an effective revenue stream for Open Souce software etc. I'm not going to pay a once-off hit of $100 for using Fire Fox or OpenOffice, but I'd happily (voluntarily) pay 5c or 10c per day that I use these.
You're using the argument that every software sequence is equivalent to a mathematical algorithm and thus should be disqualified.
Taking this argument to the extreme, any biochemical, chemical, physical etc entities, and the relationships between them, can be described in mathematical terms. Therefore everything in this world is just equivalent to a set of mathematical algorithms and therefore all patents should be disqualified.
You can also advance the counter argument. Software is often just an abstraction of real-world (physical) entities and thus it is difficult to justify allowing physical patents, but not software patents.
What this pretty much boils down to is either get rid of patents entirely or allow software patents. It is difficult to justify only half measures.
The subject is technical innovation. That is very much different to people buying new PCs etc.
Reduction in technical innovation is caused far more by offshoring development than it is by an economic downturn. It is getting easier to develop products offshore and will continue to get easier. This means that American companies are become more about branding and less about development.
The biggest innovation booms happen when people pull together for a common cause. War time (real wars, not Iraq etc) brings on big innovation because any advantage is worth finding and exploiting. Cold war fear fueled the space race which in turn seeded many tech companies. Where are the new booms going to come from?
Development is just seen as cost and high risk. It is far easier, cheaper and more predictable to buy in a design and rebadge it. Take a $2 Chinese designed and built phone, put a well known brabnd name on it and sell it at branded prices. That kind of thinking will not generate any really useful innovation.
Sure embedded folk have been using FSMs for years. Sure embedded folk have been using arrays for many years,
But a FSM-controlled data access for multi-threading is a bit different. The closest I've seen is the implementation of dual-port RAM which uses hardware state machines to control access to the underlying shared RAM.
Oh, I've been doing embedded for over 20 years too.
I'm guessing you're a member of "Generation-Me".... everything is about you and what you want.
Don't like your life? Get off your ass and do something for yourself and maybe others too. Don't like the government? Vote.
Your damn country is largely a result of what baby boomers built. If the baby boomers had been little whining generation-me types like you then there would be nothing for you to want.
Copied disks sold as retail are counterfeit. Copying disks breaks copyright. But it is a stretch to see how you could tell if the stuff on an MP3 player came from counterfeited or original sources.
One of the biggest hurdles to bus usage is that the customers don't know when the next bus is coming. Here in NZ we have a bus monitoring system that addresses this. At each bus stop, there's a low cost and reasonably vandal proof display with a wireless link. It tells you when the next bus is expected to arrive. This uses real-time bus tracking information which is pretty accurate. Each bus has a GPS and sends data to a central machine which does the tracking and sends out info updates to the terminals every minute or so.
The result has been a huge improvement in bus user satisfaction (and the number of passengers).
The system as a whole tracks bus speeds, congestion etc and the longer term data is used to plan extra buses etc.
if you measure them on a per pound of cargo basis. Way, way better than any car carrying a few pounds of cargo.
If you look at the emissions associated with the delivery of a new TV, most of it is in the last leg from the store to the buyer's home. Trucking 500 TVs across the state using a big rig produces less emissions per TV than that last ride home.
Big rig trucks are very expensive to operate. Time is money. As a result, big rig operators have always been looking for anything that can help them improve efficiency a performance and this makes them into early adopters.
Communications (CB radios and trunked radio) have always been associated with truckers.
Big rigs were also the first to use significant engine management. J1939 (one of first uses of CAN) was originally done for big rigs.
That's why there are still 10-20 year old texts on the market. It's a chicken and egg problem: schools don't have the budget to spend so nobody writes new books so there is nothing worth buying so the schools don't budget for new books.
Mostly little 8-bitters (PIC and AVR), but there are many processors that tend towards the RISC end of the spectrum (ARM, MIPS etc) which clearly have RISC roots. ARM, MIPS etc dominate in mobile space because they switch less transistors to achieve the same function (one of the goals of RISC design) and thus use less power.
The only real point in x86 is Windows compatability. Linux runs fine on ARM and many other architectures. There are probably more ARM Linux systems than x86-based Linux systems (all those Linux cellphones run ARM).
Apart from some very low level stuff, modern code tends to be very CPU agnostic.
Sure, you have a choice of PC with windows or nothing. It is a packaged deal, but they don't offer choices apart from the monopolistic one.
Unlike USA - where the DOJ's anti-trust ruling has no real impact on MS's business - the Eurpoeans take this more seriously. They feel that there should be options other than the monopolistic one.
Forcing vendors to give back more than the XP cost sends a clear message: give non-MS options or feel the pain.
Software, electronic minaturaisation, battery technology, wireless connectivity - all at reasonable prices... plus convincing user scenarios.
Most technologies take a while to become mainstream. NAND flash was invented in 1988 and took almost 20 years to become mainstream. Linux was started in 1991?? and is almost mainstream.
Slashdot Mirror
You only need some sort of effective micro-payment strategy to make this work. A dime might be bit much though: 2c would work.
Personally I think a micropayment system could be very useful for all sorts of purposes and could make an effective revenue stream for Open Souce software etc. I'm not going to pay a once-off hit of $100 for using Fire Fox or OpenOffice, but I'd happily (voluntarily) pay 5c or 10c per day that I use these.
Taking this argument to the extreme, any biochemical, chemical, physical etc entities, and the relationships between them, can be described in mathematical terms. Therefore everything in this world is just equivalent to a set of mathematical algorithms and therefore all patents should be disqualified.
You can also advance the counter argument. Software is often just an abstraction of real-world (physical) entities and thus it is difficult to justify allowing physical patents, but not software patents.
What this pretty much boils down to is either get rid of patents entirely or allow software patents. It is difficult to justify only half measures.
Reduction in technical innovation is caused far more by offshoring development than it is by an economic downturn. It is getting easier to develop products offshore and will continue to get easier. This means that American companies are become more about branding and less about development.
The biggest innovation booms happen when people pull together for a common cause. War time (real wars, not Iraq etc) brings on big innovation because any advantage is worth finding and exploiting. Cold war fear fueled the space race which in turn seeded many tech companies. Where are the new booms going to come from?
Development is just seen as cost and high risk. It is far easier, cheaper and more predictable to buy in a design and rebadge it. Take a $2 Chinese designed and built phone, put a well known brabnd name on it and sell it at branded prices. That kind of thinking will not generate any really useful innovation.
But a FSM-controlled data access for multi-threading is a bit different. The closest I've seen is the implementation of dual-port RAM which uses hardware state machines to control access to the underlying shared RAM.
Oh, I've been doing embedded for over 20 years too.
Don't like your life? Get off your ass and do something for yourself and maybe others too. Don't like the government? Vote.
Your damn country is largely a result of what baby boomers built. If the baby boomers had been little whining generation-me types like you then there would be nothing for you to want.
Kids... learn to say please and thank you!
Copied disks sold as retail are counterfeit. Copying disks breaks copyright. But it is a stretch to see how you could tell if the stuff on an MP3 player came from counterfeited or original sources.
The result has been a huge improvement in bus user satisfaction (and the number of passengers).
The system as a whole tracks bus speeds, congestion etc and the longer term data is used to plan extra buses etc.
because they're still trying to find the power switch on their keyboards.
Rail sure is way better where it can be used.
If you look at the emissions associated with the delivery of a new TV, most of it is in the last leg from the store to the buyer's home. Trucking 500 TVs across the state using a big rig produces less emissions per TV than that last ride home.
Communications (CB radios and trunked radio) have always been associated with truckers.
Big rigs were also the first to use significant engine management. J1939 (one of first uses of CAN) was originally done for big rigs.
http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/
Take some of those fur-lined handcuffs too. Do it on a Friday and get the weekend.
around my belly mainly.
is typically not prime agricultural land. THerefore farmers will often not be giving up their best lands for this anyway.
That's why there are still 10-20 year old texts on the market. It's a chicken and egg problem: schools don't have the budget to spend so nobody writes new books so there is nothing worth buying so the schools don't budget for new books.
The only real point in x86 is Windows compatability. Linux runs fine on ARM and many other architectures. There are probably more ARM Linux systems than x86-based Linux systems (all those Linux cellphones run ARM).
Apart from some very low level stuff, modern code tends to be very CPU agnostic.
The healing is at a micro level (ie fixing tiny stress cracks in the material). THis wouldnot fix bullet holes.
Standardisation is a great thing!
Unlike USA - where the DOJ's anti-trust ruling has no real impact on MS's business - the Eurpoeans take this more seriously. They feel that there should be options other than the monopolistic one.
Forcing vendors to give back more than the XP cost sends a clear message: give non-MS options or feel the pain.
This will force the PC vendors (in France anyway) to provide better Linux options.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateration
Every time you eat a Californian tomato you're exploiting low-wage Mexican workers.
Alternatively, you're a philanthropist providing people in developing countries with much-needed income.
The facts are fixed, but you can spin it any way you want to.
Most technologies take a while to become mainstream. NAND flash was invented in 1988 and took almost 20 years to become mainstream. Linux was started in 1991?? and is almost mainstream.
Load two OSs and you need more disk space to do anything useful.