My home network is currently configured using an Apple AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS) running 802.11n at 5GHz and a WRT54G running 802.11g at 2.4GHz.
So yes, 802.11n can run at 5GHz. With Apple's wireless cards, anyway. The AEBS can be configured for 802.11n only on either frequency, 802.11n with 802.11a compatibility on 5Ghz or 802.11n with 802.11b/g compatibility on 2.4GHz.
I'll grant that HDCP is the problem, but it seems HDMI is the preferred vector chosen to distribute HDCP. While also doable over DVI, I don't see many products going into the marketplace with HDCP-encumbered DVI. But avoid that too. Since HDCP has to be licensed, hopefully HDCP infection is labeled. But to be safe I'm sticking with component video for HDTV.
I agree, people need to avoid buying bad products. For me that means not buying stuff from iTunes (I troll used CD stores instead) and avoiding one of the biggest DRM sneak-attacks going on, HDMI. People are getting snared by the HDMI trojan, because it's such a convenient way to interconnect devices. But as we're starting to see with HDMI implementations on TiVo Series 3 and Vista, HDMI is going to be used to screw everyone.
Note: I disagree that the iPod is defective by design, because it does not require DRM. It still works with the open formats of MP3, AAC and AIFF.
Reading the article, it seems this wasn't a partnership deal being considered so much as Microsoft wishfully thinking they could convince Apple to interoperate with Microsoft. I can sit in my office and dream of "what if..." scenarios where I partner with Apple or Cisco or IBM, but if I were to approach any of them I can't expect more than being laughed at.
This Bloomberg article says more about Microsoft's sense of desperation than anything.
Alternatively, consider that Apple would still be selling the music in AAC format, which it claims gives better quality in smaller file sizes than MP3.
Just to clarify a bit, AAC is as open a format as MP3. It's the MPEG group's successor to MP3. Apple adds their DRM to AAC, creating protected AAC. There's no reason for modern players to not support AAC. Apple's FairPlay is a separate issue.
Prior to this it was common to be able to buy tickets for cheap on the secondary market.
As a matter of fact airlines started using ID checks years prior to 9/11 in order to prevent people flying on cheap tickets purchased by others. It's asinine that this is now being called a "security measure" when it started out as a way for corporations to maximize profits. And now the government has ruled that these corporate rules can stand as basis for vague laws tracking behavior.
This arbitrary change is annoying, doesn't even accomplish what the original goals were (energy saving), and DST has outlived its utility. Simple solution, stop using DST! If Arizona can function, so should the rest of us be able to. I sort of joke, but I've made the decision to abandon DST usage in my personal life. No more adjusting my computers or running around the house resetting every appliance with a digital clock. I can easily adjust meeting times and such in my head when interacting with the DST-hobbled world.
While the features of the Olympus E-330 are new for a digital SLR (live view and electronic dust cleaner) , Panasonic's DMC-L1 has the same features described as #14 most innovative product. This isn't surprising at all, since Panasonic and Olympus share technology, including the Four Thirds lens mount. In fact, it would have been better to list Four Thirds instead of a specific camera, since it's a cross-platform lens system specifically for digital cameras.
Based on the meager info, slips from Disney execs and rumors, it seems like the iTV could be a lot less than a Mac mini. Sure, many are using the mini as a home theater server (I'm one of them). But it's a full-blown Mac OS X computing environment with user home directories and the ability to run any app. The idea of the iTV (from my understanding) is that it's a remote TV displayer with some internet capabilities and maybe a HD for storage.
Seeing how Steve Jobs like single-purpose devices, I could see the iTV being more like the Airport Express or even the WRT54G. An embedded device like that would be more reliable than a general Mac OS X system, since there are fewer breakable (software) parts. An embedded device also has the benefit of instant-on, which is what everyone expects from their consumer appliances.
It's all well and good that OOXML is a published standard, but how long until Microsoft decides they need some enhancement and just add it without going through a revision to the ECMA standard? It's one thing to get something to become a standard, quite another to adhere to it. Think of how Netscape decided they wanted new HTML features but didn't want to wait for W3C and just dreamt up stuff like the blink and marquee tags. Once Microsoft Office diverges from the OOXML standard we're right back to where we started—a proprietary document format.
Microsoft as a company may decide product features mean more to them than adhering to a standard, even one they created. I'll never forget Microsoft's FORTRAN compiler under MS-DOS described by Microsoft as "a superset of a subset of FORTRAN 77." In other words, whatever they hell they felt like implementing.
I've had plenty of success writing Java servers. With proper threading they can scale rather well. That said, it'll take some doing to scale up to WoW numbers. But I'll bet a server written in Java running on a unix platform is going to be a hell of a lot better than C-based code running on Windows servers. I was horrified to realize SWG servers ran on Windows, but I'm sure lots of these games do.
When I voted in the last election my polling place had about a dozen plastic voting booth tables on metal legs and one optical scan reader that instantly verified/tabulated/secured the paper ballot (mis-marked ballots are rejected by the reader). Imagine the costs for that single poll station if there were a dozen complex electronic voting machines instead of the plastic booths. It's also easier to train poll workers how to replace pens and issue new blank ballots than it is to get them to understand complex computing machinery.
Whether or not you think electronic voting can ever work, from a simple cost-effectiveness standpoint it is an asinine goal to pursue. The purpose was to simplify the voting process, but this has clearly been a failure. Costs have skyrocketed and results are worse than from poorly-maintained punch ballot installations. Now we hear the reason not to abandon this crappy technology is because it would cost too much to return to verified voting. And thus, yet another self-spiraling government system of waste and fraud becomes entrenched.
I used to work in the public safety industry and at trade shows at least five years ago companies started showing up, hawking exactly this. The sales pitch was that they'd drive these vans around to take street-level photos of the city so the fire or police departments could have these views when dispatching to a call. Kind of silly use of the technology back then, not sure how successful the companies were.
It seems maybe these companies might have sold Microsoft on the idea. Perhaps there were a whole bunch of data capture vans and no customer base. In the age of Google Earth and MSN Virtual Earth maybe spending money collecting these images are worthwhile. Or maybe just a waste of Microsoft's money.
Voter fraud is people voting under false identities. It rarely happens. Election fraud is the kind of mass voter suppression and dubious vote counting we've been seeing in this country. Even the most celebrated examples of "voter fraud" are really election fraud, such as Chicago Mayor Daley allegedly engineered dead people voting for JFK.
What I don't understand about the global warming skeptics is this unwillingness to say hey, we can generate energy in a better way. It's weird, really. There are huge financial opportunities to coming up with viable changes in the energy industries. We've seen changes throughout the decades in farming techniques (some good, some bad). Our desktop technology evolves. Does anyone still believe the GUI is a bad thing for computing like the skeptics decried in the mid-1980s? I still chuckle at people like Stan Kelly-Bootle writing endlessly in his Devil's Advocate column about how real men didn't use icons and the computer mouse would be the death of us all. But when it comes to burning coal and depending on petroleum it seems pursuing change is off-limits.
Whether or not one accepts global warming as a man-made phenomenon or just part of a natural cycle of the Earth, why wouldn't we still want to avoid contributing to making the situation worse? The drowning polar bears tell us there's definitely something happening. When your car is careening down a steep hill do you think it's smarter to use the brakes or the accelerator? We have achieved a technological level where we no longer need to generate energy the way we've done so since the 1800s. Time for a refresh.
I'm no statistician, but if the problems with electronic voting machines were simply crap software, and not intentional election rigging, wouldn't there be more evidence of errors in favor of Democratic candidates? Seeing everything always thrown to the GOP seems to be good signs of a conspiracy, factored with the CEOs of the voting machine companies promising to deliver votes to the GOP or getting elected by their machines.
Microsoft is just one of the highest-profile examples of a company viewing their customers as criminals (Sony Music also comes to mind). Most of the piracy comes from people who would never buy the products in the first place. Punishing legitimate users won't end piracy and it won't boost sales. What is wrong with these companies? The more Microsoft blocks the use of Office the more likely alternatives will gain stronger position in the market. Which is fine by me, I'm tired of getting simple text documents in doc format.
Aperture is a good reason for lots of RAM. Photographers like as responsive an editing experience as possible. Aperture enables handling large numbers of camera raw photos, creating a very easy workflow. So while Aperture will run okay on a machine with 1GB of RAM, when you're working on a lot of photos and maybe also using Photoshop for editing you use up that RAM in a hurry.
Lots of photographers take laptops with them to their shoots. I suspect video editing is the same. Apple's laptops are geared in part to meet the needs of this market. I am kind of surprised by the slower drive speeds in these new machines.
I'm enticed by the new iMacs -- particularly that juicy looking 24" -- but it would appear that it's impossible to add hardware to those machines. Over the years, I've gotten used to extending the life of a PC by upgrading components like memory, vidcard, etc.
The Mac world mindset is different, for one very basic reason. An out-of-the-box Macintosh has all the hardware (most) people need: built-in Bluetooth, wifi, USB, FireWire, DVD burning, etc. There's little need to have an upgradable machine because each Mac has just about everything already.
RAM and hard drive are the only components people really upgrade. RAM is pretty easy in all Macs. Hard drives (and optical drives) can be done, sometimes easily and sometimes not so much. I've personally replaced hard drives in "non-upgradable" iBooks and PowerBooks with little effort.
Video cards are really the main stumbling point of the closed Mac models. But the 24" iMac has an upgradable video card, so expect to see some third-party offerings eventually. Or go with the Mac Pro, which is the upgradable tower Mac. The reality is, though, that 3D gaming lags on the Mac platform and you probably don't need the hottest video cards for the available games. If you're into professional video or something you'd be wanting a Mac Pro anyway, where you can swap out the video card.
Celsius (warning, PR link) is the same idea, is already on the market and has a cola flavor. I've yet to locate some, but I do get tired of berry-flavored drinks. No idea how good Celsius is or Enviga will be, but that's what taste tests are for.
Since Diebold has a crappy track record with electronic voting, why should we as consumers have any confidence in their ATMs? Even if you don't buy that elections have been stolen, there's enough evidence that Diebold is at best sloppy with their design, implementation and support of their voting machines. With a corporate attitude this lax, how can any banking customer feel good about how Diebold treats money transactions? I've noticed Diebold rolling out more complex ATMs with a lot of useless features. It's not a positive trend.
When the company I used to work for moved into large office space with cubicles, we chose to create 4-6 person development pits instead of individual cubes. This worked rather well. Each pit basically had a separate team so team members could interact easily and naturally with each other, while providing enough space to avoid feeling crowded.
The openness allowed the developers to bounce ideas off each other and help each other out. Ad-hoc meetings for each team were a snap, everyone could just swivel their chairs to face the center. Meeting times were cut down to about one quarter what gathering everyone into a meeting room spends.
Depending on the personalities, you could try various sizes of pits and maybe have a few individual cubicles for those who really can't work well in open environments. But I think per-person cubicles create a lot of petty territorial issues, which was another thing avoided by the pits.
A friend was marveling over the weekend about how unbelievably fast the downloads from the iTunes Store were. He said he was getting TV shows at a much higher rate than data (not just video) from most other servers. And you can start watching while the download is taking place (streaming). So Apple's already got a lot of the pieces in place, at both the server and the client. I wonder if they're using the Google shipping containers Cringely talked about...
With this mad push to electronic voting the part of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon keeps coming to mind, where some "gnomes" trigger an electromagnetic pulse from the street and fry everything in a building. How hard would it be to disable huge geographic areas with something like that, if and when such a thing is put into practice? It's a high-tech spanner in the works.
At least when I voted yesterday I marked a paper ballot which was then read by an optical reader. Even if you fried the reader I could still mark my ballot and it could be hand-counted.
Gee, content freely accessible via URLs on the WWW? What a novel concept.
This is simply a matter of deep linking. Just because there's no page with a link to a URL doesn't magically make the accessible URL off-limits. Security through obscurity isn't. If the governator didn't want people to get it they shouldn't have posted it on their web site. Or at least put some form of authentication on it.
Slashdot Mirror
My home network is currently configured using an Apple AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS) running 802.11n at 5GHz and a WRT54G running 802.11g at 2.4GHz.
So yes, 802.11n can run at 5GHz. With Apple's wireless cards, anyway. The AEBS can be configured for 802.11n only on either frequency, 802.11n with 802.11a compatibility on 5Ghz or 802.11n with 802.11b/g compatibility on 2.4GHz.
I'll grant that HDCP is the problem, but it seems HDMI is the preferred vector chosen to distribute HDCP. While also doable over DVI, I don't see many products going into the marketplace with HDCP-encumbered DVI. But avoid that too. Since HDCP has to be licensed, hopefully HDCP infection is labeled. But to be safe I'm sticking with component video for HDTV.
I agree, people need to avoid buying bad products. For me that means not buying stuff from iTunes (I troll used CD stores instead) and avoiding one of the biggest DRM sneak-attacks going on, HDMI. People are getting snared by the HDMI trojan, because it's such a convenient way to interconnect devices. But as we're starting to see with HDMI implementations on TiVo Series 3 and Vista, HDMI is going to be used to screw everyone.
Note: I disagree that the iPod is defective by design, because it does not require DRM. It still works with the open formats of MP3, AAC and AIFF.
Reading the article, it seems this wasn't a partnership deal being considered so much as Microsoft wishfully thinking they could convince Apple to interoperate with Microsoft. I can sit in my office and dream of "what if..." scenarios where I partner with Apple or Cisco or IBM, but if I were to approach any of them I can't expect more than being laughed at.
This Bloomberg article says more about Microsoft's sense of desperation than anything.
Alternatively, consider that Apple would still be selling the music in AAC format, which it claims gives better quality in smaller file sizes than MP3.
Just to clarify a bit, AAC is as open a format as MP3. It's the MPEG group's successor to MP3. Apple adds their DRM to AAC, creating protected AAC. There's no reason for modern players to not support AAC. Apple's FairPlay is a separate issue.
Prior to this it was common to be able to buy tickets for cheap on the secondary market.
As a matter of fact airlines started using ID checks years prior to 9/11 in order to prevent people flying on cheap tickets purchased by others. It's asinine that this is now being called a "security measure" when it started out as a way for corporations to maximize profits. And now the government has ruled that these corporate rules can stand as basis for vague laws tracking behavior.
Security theater indeed.
This arbitrary change is annoying, doesn't even accomplish what the original goals were (energy saving), and DST has outlived its utility. Simple solution, stop using DST! If Arizona can function, so should the rest of us be able to. I sort of joke, but I've made the decision to abandon DST usage in my personal life. No more adjusting my computers or running around the house resetting every appliance with a digital clock. I can easily adjust meeting times and such in my head when interacting with the DST-hobbled world.
While the features of the Olympus E-330 are new for a digital SLR (live view and electronic dust cleaner) , Panasonic's DMC-L1 has the same features described as #14 most innovative product. This isn't surprising at all, since Panasonic and Olympus share technology, including the Four Thirds lens mount. In fact, it would have been better to list Four Thirds instead of a specific camera, since it's a cross-platform lens system specifically for digital cameras.
Based on the meager info, slips from Disney execs and rumors, it seems like the iTV could be a lot less than a Mac mini. Sure, many are using the mini as a home theater server (I'm one of them). But it's a full-blown Mac OS X computing environment with user home directories and the ability to run any app. The idea of the iTV (from my understanding) is that it's a remote TV displayer with some internet capabilities and maybe a HD for storage.
Seeing how Steve Jobs like single-purpose devices, I could see the iTV being more like the Airport Express or even the WRT54G. An embedded device like that would be more reliable than a general Mac OS X system, since there are fewer breakable (software) parts. An embedded device also has the benefit of instant-on, which is what everyone expects from their consumer appliances.
It's all well and good that OOXML is a published standard, but how long until Microsoft decides they need some enhancement and just add it without going through a revision to the ECMA standard? It's one thing to get something to become a standard, quite another to adhere to it. Think of how Netscape decided they wanted new HTML features but didn't want to wait for W3C and just dreamt up stuff like the blink and marquee tags. Once Microsoft Office diverges from the OOXML standard we're right back to where we started—a proprietary document format.
Microsoft as a company may decide product features mean more to them than adhering to a standard, even one they created. I'll never forget Microsoft's FORTRAN compiler under MS-DOS described by Microsoft as "a superset of a subset of FORTRAN 77." In other words, whatever they hell they felt like implementing.
I've had plenty of success writing Java servers. With proper threading they can scale rather well. That said, it'll take some doing to scale up to WoW numbers. But I'll bet a server written in Java running on a unix platform is going to be a hell of a lot better than C-based code running on Windows servers. I was horrified to realize SWG servers ran on Windows, but I'm sure lots of these games do.
When I voted in the last election my polling place had about a dozen plastic voting booth tables on metal legs and one optical scan reader that instantly verified/tabulated/secured the paper ballot (mis-marked ballots are rejected by the reader). Imagine the costs for that single poll station if there were a dozen complex electronic voting machines instead of the plastic booths. It's also easier to train poll workers how to replace pens and issue new blank ballots than it is to get them to understand complex computing machinery.
Whether or not you think electronic voting can ever work, from a simple cost-effectiveness standpoint it is an asinine goal to pursue. The purpose was to simplify the voting process, but this has clearly been a failure. Costs have skyrocketed and results are worse than from poorly-maintained punch ballot installations. Now we hear the reason not to abandon this crappy technology is because it would cost too much to return to verified voting. And thus, yet another self-spiraling government system of waste and fraud becomes entrenched.
I used to work in the public safety industry and at trade shows at least five years ago companies started showing up, hawking exactly this. The sales pitch was that they'd drive these vans around to take street-level photos of the city so the fire or police departments could have these views when dispatching to a call. Kind of silly use of the technology back then, not sure how successful the companies were.
It seems maybe these companies might have sold Microsoft on the idea. Perhaps there were a whole bunch of data capture vans and no customer base. In the age of Google Earth and MSN Virtual Earth maybe spending money collecting these images are worthwhile. Or maybe just a waste of Microsoft's money.
It should read, "Concerns of election fraud..."
Voter fraud is people voting under false identities. It rarely happens. Election fraud is the kind of mass voter suppression and dubious vote counting we've been seeing in this country. Even the most celebrated examples of "voter fraud" are really election fraud, such as Chicago Mayor Daley allegedly engineered dead people voting for JFK.
What I don't understand about the global warming skeptics is this unwillingness to say hey, we can generate energy in a better way. It's weird, really. There are huge financial opportunities to coming up with viable changes in the energy industries. We've seen changes throughout the decades in farming techniques (some good, some bad). Our desktop technology evolves. Does anyone still believe the GUI is a bad thing for computing like the skeptics decried in the mid-1980s? I still chuckle at people like Stan Kelly-Bootle writing endlessly in his Devil's Advocate column about how real men didn't use icons and the computer mouse would be the death of us all. But when it comes to burning coal and depending on petroleum it seems pursuing change is off-limits.
Whether or not one accepts global warming as a man-made phenomenon or just part of a natural cycle of the Earth, why wouldn't we still want to avoid contributing to making the situation worse? The drowning polar bears tell us there's definitely something happening. When your car is careening down a steep hill do you think it's smarter to use the brakes or the accelerator? We have achieved a technological level where we no longer need to generate energy the way we've done so since the 1800s. Time for a refresh.
I'm no statistician, but if the problems with electronic voting machines were simply crap software, and not intentional election rigging, wouldn't there be more evidence of errors in favor of Democratic candidates? Seeing everything always thrown to the GOP seems to be good signs of a conspiracy, factored with the CEOs of the voting machine companies promising to deliver votes to the GOP or getting elected by their machines.
Microsoft is just one of the highest-profile examples of a company viewing their customers as criminals (Sony Music also comes to mind). Most of the piracy comes from people who would never buy the products in the first place. Punishing legitimate users won't end piracy and it won't boost sales. What is wrong with these companies? The more Microsoft blocks the use of Office the more likely alternatives will gain stronger position in the market. Which is fine by me, I'm tired of getting simple text documents in doc format.
Aperture is a good reason for lots of RAM. Photographers like as responsive an editing experience as possible. Aperture enables handling large numbers of camera raw photos, creating a very easy workflow. So while Aperture will run okay on a machine with 1GB of RAM, when you're working on a lot of photos and maybe also using Photoshop for editing you use up that RAM in a hurry.
Lots of photographers take laptops with them to their shoots. I suspect video editing is the same. Apple's laptops are geared in part to meet the needs of this market. I am kind of surprised by the slower drive speeds in these new machines.
I'm enticed by the new iMacs -- particularly that juicy looking 24" -- but it would appear that it's impossible to add hardware to those machines. Over the years, I've gotten used to extending the life of a PC by upgrading components like memory, vidcard, etc.
The Mac world mindset is different, for one very basic reason. An out-of-the-box Macintosh has all the hardware (most) people need: built-in Bluetooth, wifi, USB, FireWire, DVD burning, etc. There's little need to have an upgradable machine because each Mac has just about everything already.
RAM and hard drive are the only components people really upgrade. RAM is pretty easy in all Macs. Hard drives (and optical drives) can be done, sometimes easily and sometimes not so much. I've personally replaced hard drives in "non-upgradable" iBooks and PowerBooks with little effort.
Video cards are really the main stumbling point of the closed Mac models. But the 24" iMac has an upgradable video card, so expect to see some third-party offerings eventually. Or go with the Mac Pro, which is the upgradable tower Mac. The reality is, though, that 3D gaming lags on the Mac platform and you probably don't need the hottest video cards for the available games. If you're into professional video or something you'd be wanting a Mac Pro anyway, where you can swap out the video card.
Celsius (warning, PR link) is the same idea, is already on the market and has a cola flavor. I've yet to locate some, but I do get tired of berry-flavored drinks. No idea how good Celsius is or Enviga will be, but that's what taste tests are for.
Since Diebold has a crappy track record with electronic voting, why should we as consumers have any confidence in their ATMs? Even if you don't buy that elections have been stolen, there's enough evidence that Diebold is at best sloppy with their design, implementation and support of their voting machines. With a corporate attitude this lax, how can any banking customer feel good about how Diebold treats money transactions? I've noticed Diebold rolling out more complex ATMs with a lot of useless features. It's not a positive trend.
When the company I used to work for moved into large office space with cubicles, we chose to create 4-6 person development pits instead of individual cubes. This worked rather well. Each pit basically had a separate team so team members could interact easily and naturally with each other, while providing enough space to avoid feeling crowded.
The openness allowed the developers to bounce ideas off each other and help each other out. Ad-hoc meetings for each team were a snap, everyone could just swivel their chairs to face the center. Meeting times were cut down to about one quarter what gathering everyone into a meeting room spends.
Depending on the personalities, you could try various sizes of pits and maybe have a few individual cubicles for those who really can't work well in open environments. But I think per-person cubicles create a lot of petty territorial issues, which was another thing avoided by the pits.
A friend was marveling over the weekend about how unbelievably fast the downloads from the iTunes Store were. He said he was getting TV shows at a much higher rate than data (not just video) from most other servers. And you can start watching while the download is taking place (streaming). So Apple's already got a lot of the pieces in place, at both the server and the client. I wonder if they're using the Google shipping containers Cringely talked about...
With this mad push to electronic voting the part of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon keeps coming to mind, where some "gnomes" trigger an electromagnetic pulse from the street and fry everything in a building. How hard would it be to disable huge geographic areas with something like that, if and when such a thing is put into practice? It's a high-tech spanner in the works.
At least when I voted yesterday I marked a paper ballot which was then read by an optical reader. Even if you fried the reader I could still mark my ballot and it could be hand-counted.
Gee, content freely accessible via URLs on the WWW? What a novel concept.
This is simply a matter of deep linking. Just because there's no page with a link to a URL doesn't magically make the accessible URL off-limits. Security through obscurity isn't. If the governator didn't want people to get it they shouldn't have posted it on their web site. Or at least put some form of authentication on it.