While I don't think the idea makes a lot of sense (Pinkdot anyone?), it is pretty cool.
Serious question: why send these from a warehouse? Why not load a flat bed truck up with 50 or so, and drive it to the closest point that all 50 deliveries share and then release them from the back of the flat bed all at the same time. The video linked in the post shows a drone being launched from a warehouse; not too many people live near amazon warehouses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Tunnel
Great 60's show. Not exactly what you wrote about, and yes, yours does sound like an interesting story, but it brought back this show to my mind.
They could implement tracking on each piece, and find out where these are getting stolen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneCode
is the newest version of the barcode to be used on all mail starting next year. It will allow for optional individual piece tracking.
Currently they can also do this with a second barcode called a PLANET code.
These extra barcodes add about 1 cent per piece. The scary part is they probably have figured it out to be cheaper to eat the loss, or let their insurance company eat the loss, than to pay an extra 1 cent per piece.
Their postage costs are actually quite high. There was also talk during the recent (may 07) rate/size changes the Post office implemented of a 17 cent surcharge:
The funny part is that anyone doing the volume netflix is can get direct discussion with the post office. Apparently they pick up at the post office. I believe blockbuster talked about having postmen scan dvd's upon pickup to save time, but I don't know if that happened.
Marketing always lands on its feet. You'll just see lamp designers build lighting without removable bulbs. Then you'll replace the whole lamp instead of just a bulb. When you're tired of the lamp or you want to redesign you buy a new lamp and bulb.
I believe I should clarify. It is not that money itself is protected under the first amendment. We have campaign finance laws which prohibit giving more than a certain amount, etc. Rather your personal money is not considered touchable. Let's say you stop all outside money in an election. Put together a 2 hour block where candidates get free speaking and exposure. How do you stop the Romneys, the Perots, the Gates of the world from spending their own money on commercials.
You can say OK no outside money in politics. That is a legal issue. But to say you are not allowed to spend your own money on a commercial, or you are allowed to spend your money on a commercial but you cannot discuss XYZ, I think you see where this strikes at freedom of speech.
Well at least for those of us who've been around long enough to remember how badly AOL fought against opening up their services. The cat and mouse games of the early 2000s with a workaround being discovered and AOL closing it are long gone at this point.
It is also interesting because the internet is now starting to move into an open direction. I can remember when AOL users and AIM users could not see each other. This was done to entice people to pay for AOL service. Slowly this eroded, and AIM was able to access AOL screennames.
AOL always saw its chat base as it's main way to rake people into its service. With the actual AOL business model of old all but effectively dead (I say that, but I know there are millions who still cough up for a service that is free) they had no incentive to keep things closed.
I have to agree with OP on this. You'll be the one with the egg on your face. I've had the pleasure of meeting with high level executives. It's a strange feeling, when you converse you'll get to see that they are no different than you. Just as strongly as you believe they are wrong, they believe they are right. A discussion, even in private, is not going to bring to light the fact that you are indeed correct. Someone that high up has a strict script they must stick to in answering questions. Their personal feelings and the company's might be very different, but a great VP will never let you know this.
While the blanket statement that "someone more powerful than you..." might stir within you a basic need to push back against authority... this is your job we're talking about here. The last thing you'll want to do is throw him/MPAA right under the bus. A better idea might be to ask your students to debate, one side backing up the VP's claims, the other arguing the opposite. This can be done after the VP has left, and can have a lasting impression on your students, much more so than some stuffy suit's speech will.
I'm going to assume you're trolling, but I can't help it on this one:
A five second google search found the following:
There were 16,885 alcohol-related fatalities in 2005 - 39 percent of the total traffic fatalities for the year.
I'm going to argue the other extreme (since you're only talking absolute change) So I'll borrow your pulled from thin air "$20 and 1 hour" per drinker statistic. I'll even borrow your "$40 billion dollars"[sic] figure as well.
That means each life is worth.... wait for it:
$2,368,966.54 Or.... 4,935.35 days
in your world of Drunk driving.
That doesn't seem like all that much money, given the fact that a person who doesn't get killed in a drunk driving accident will likely live more than 13 years taken to save their life. Hell they'd probably make more than the $2.36Mil over the course of their life...
Is it just me, or wouldn't you expect the percentage of powerPC based Mac computers to fall? I mean they don't sell anything with the chip in it anymore, so the number couldn't possibly go up.
Of course, it could be an oversight on the part of the writer/editor of the article, and he might have just used the wording to describe *all* macs, but either way, he's incorrect.
The benefit to the method described in the article (which is probably just modifying the yellow dot's angle and slightly shifting the image) is that it can be done on any 4 color press. You could modify the image accordingly, and when the printer prints it your done. Anyone printing the file would probably not need to even know there is a hidden pattern. This opens you up to using and 4 color (CMYK) printer in the world.
Your idea however requires special ink, as well as extra heads on the press. For a magazine run this is totally impractical. That's why most specialty printing is done seperate and then glued to a tab inside the magazine.
Then again, in re-reading your post, I'm not exactly sure what you're suggesting. RGB are not colors used in printing (they are display colors), and your discussion of bits sounds like you're talking about a direct digital reading of the data. The article discusses taking a *very* lossy cameraphone photo of something in a magazine, and allowing this pattern (probably a purposely made moiré pattern) to be run through software and decoded. The reason it works is because yellow ink is transparent to us, and the dots cannot be seen by the human eye.
Someone plans to kill their spouse, and waits until the ex-loved one is sleeping before shooting. However while asleep, the loved dies due to natural causes hours earlier, meaning that the criminal has shot a dead person. They can't be charged for murder, because they didn't technically kill someone, but they could be charged with Attempted murder.
Same thing with arson, robbery, etc. Just because you don't get what you want out of the crime doesn't mean you're innocent of everything...
Whatever test you decide upon, make the test happen with JUST a keyboard. No Mouse. The sign of a well versed tech is that he rarely needs a mouse to do anything... That doesn't make him good, just well practiced. Your actual test should include settings to test his ability, but without a mouse you'll weed out the booksmart only types.
Boo Hoo, I bought a game and am getting TOO MUCH time from it. I'm unable to finish it in the exact timeframe it should take... WAAAAAAHHHHH
God, cry me a river please. In the current world of shrinking boxes, nonexistant manuals, and savepoints whenever you feel like saving, if anything games are getting too EASY. Now you want them to get even shorter... Wow...
I'll bite. This isn't all that new, as the box has been on the scene for a while, but to answer your question, this isn't a wifi network that someone in a physical office or house has running unsecured. This is a box that connects to a cellular network and then rebroadcasts the signal via wifi. So wherever you and the box are you have a wireless access point as well. This would even work underground on the DC metro (with verizon). One of these boxes + a cellular data card would allow the whole car to use the internet.
Blockbuster's 2 free rentals a month are sweet; I used to use them for video game rentals (which are now $7 each at my local store).
That said, with all of the comments on which service is better I'd like to weigh in on a few specific points:
First, each service does a good job of what you want it to. Keep a large quantity of movies queued up and they show up in the order you want and you've always got something to watch. Look into who has a better catalog of what you like to watch and stick with them.
Second, each service FAILS when you use it to the limits. I've heard people saying they average 18-23 movies a month with netflix/blockbuster. 18-23 movies!!@?? That's WAY below a dollar a movie, and don't forget shipping back and forth (at least $.60). The idea here isn't to scam the company into a loss on you, the idea is to use a service and have a reasonable good time using it.
Now, I'm all for fairness in advertising (i.e.: unlimited should mean unlimited) but don't complain when you only get 15 movies in one month, for $17. And ESPICIALLY don't complain to me when I know that the majority of the people who are doing this crazy 8 movies a week thing are simply burning every movie right when it comes and then shipping it back the next morning. It is all but impossible to watch three movies a night three nights a week. That is SURELY not what these services were meant to be. You're raising my rates, and it's totally illegal as well.
TV shows exist for one reason, to make money for networks. They do this through ad revenue, which is tied to ratings. Higher ratings mean higher costs for a 30 second spot. However, fragment your viewing audience, say by spinning off part of them (who would likely be demographically different than those who don't download) and you've got a problem with your revenue stream.
Similarly, local networks get a specified amount of revenue from showing these shows. Take the distribution method out of the loop by allowing the end user to directly access the media content and you'd have some pissed off affiliates.
Furthermore, allowing off network viewing of a show would not only hurt a network's bottom line, but also its brand image. People know FOX is channel 7, or 11, but what channel is it when you're downloading from a website? Even if it is fox's website.
Even more tragic are events such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, or what is currently going on in Sudan. Each of these outnumbers the tsunami death toll on its own. Nature will always take its course, but people have an inherent ability to kill like no other force on earth.
Slashdot Mirror
While I don't think the idea makes a lot of sense (Pinkdot anyone?), it is pretty cool. Serious question: why send these from a warehouse? Why not load a flat bed truck up with 50 or so, and drive it to the closest point that all 50 deliveries share and then release them from the back of the flat bed all at the same time. The video linked in the post shows a drone being launched from a warehouse; not too many people live near amazon warehouses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Tunnel Great 60's show. Not exactly what you wrote about, and yes, yours does sound like an interesting story, but it brought back this show to my mind.
Daniel Stern found it a long time ago: http://hotice.ytmnd.com/
The government sold off the old channelspace and made billions. I believe the auction netted $19B and the coupon program is budgeted around $1.3B.
1151176-926312-60035-1113-11101170-53170-540127-1773552635-7415-11124 74353-16105-111174-743112-6377-9401735....50-5901730
I think this is the website in question.
Don't know if I crossed a line, but it took all of 1 second on the google.
Natsuko, you go sit over here.
... Natsuko, you say:
Right on the bed. Very good.
And Haruko, you sit right here, darling.
Now, when we roll cameras,...
"There is no escaping us, Orgazmo."
There iz no escaping us, Orugazmo?
Good. And Haruko, you say:
"Prepare to meet your doom!"
Prepare da meet zou doom!
Good. Close enough.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124819/
They could implement tracking on each piece, and find out where these are getting stolen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneCode
is the newest version of the barcode to be used on all mail starting next year. It will allow for optional individual piece tracking.
Currently they can also do this with a second barcode called a PLANET code.
These extra barcodes add about 1 cent per piece. The scary part is they probably have figured it out to be cheaper to eat the loss, or let their insurance company eat the loss, than to pay an extra 1 cent per piece.
Their postage costs are actually quite high. There was also talk during the recent (may 07) rate/size changes the Post office implemented of a 17 cent surcharge:
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2007/12/usps-considerin.html
The funny part is that anyone doing the volume netflix is can get direct discussion with the post office. Apparently they pick up at the post office. I believe blockbuster talked about having postmen scan dvd's upon pickup to save time, but I don't know if that happened.
Marketing always lands on its feet. You'll just see lamp designers build lighting without removable bulbs. Then you'll replace the whole lamp instead of just a bulb. When you're tired of the lamp or you want to redesign you buy a new lamp and bulb.
I believe I should clarify. It is not that money itself is protected under the first amendment. We have campaign finance laws which prohibit giving more than a certain amount, etc. Rather your personal money is not considered touchable. Let's say you stop all outside money in an election. Put together a 2 hour block where candidates get free speaking and exposure. How do you stop the Romneys, the Perots, the Gates of the world from spending their own money on commercials. You can say OK no outside money in politics. That is a legal issue. But to say you are not allowed to spend your own money on a commercial, or you are allowed to spend your money on a commercial but you cannot discuss XYZ, I think you see where this strikes at freedom of speech.
Well at least for those of us who've been around long enough to remember how badly AOL fought against opening up their services. The cat and mouse games of the early 2000s with a workaround being discovered and AOL closing it are long gone at this point. It is also interesting because the internet is now starting to move into an open direction. I can remember when AOL users and AIM users could not see each other. This was done to entice people to pay for AOL service. Slowly this eroded, and AIM was able to access AOL screennames. AOL always saw its chat base as it's main way to rake people into its service. With the actual AOL business model of old all but effectively dead (I say that, but I know there are millions who still cough up for a service that is free) they had no incentive to keep things closed.
While the blanket statement that "someone more powerful than you..." might stir within you a basic need to push back against authority... this is your job we're talking about here. The last thing you'll want to do is throw him/MPAA right under the bus. A better idea might be to ask your students to debate, one side backing up the VP's claims, the other arguing the opposite. This can be done after the VP has left, and can have a lasting impression on your students, much more so than some stuffy suit's speech will.
I'm going to assume you're trolling, but I can't help it on this one:
A five second google search found the following:
There were 16,885 alcohol-related fatalities in 2005 - 39 percent of the total traffic fatalities for the year.
I'm going to argue the other extreme (since you're only talking absolute change) So I'll borrow your pulled from thin air "$20 and 1 hour" per drinker statistic. I'll even borrow your "$40 billion dollars"[sic] figure as well.
That means each life is worth.... wait for it:
$2,368,966.54 Or.... 4,935.35 days
in your world of Drunk driving.
That doesn't seem like all that much money, given the fact that a person who doesn't get killed in a drunk driving accident will likely live more than 13 years taken to save their life. Hell they'd probably make more than the $2.36Mil over the course of their life...
Is it just me, or wouldn't you expect the percentage of powerPC based Mac computers to fall? I mean they don't sell anything with the chip in it anymore, so the number couldn't possibly go up.
Of course, it could be an oversight on the part of the writer/editor of the article, and he might have just used the wording to describe *all* macs, but either way, he's incorrect.
Its just a straw poll. How many of the 20,000+ people are actually dell customers?
The benefit to the method described in the article (which is probably just modifying the yellow dot's angle and slightly shifting the image) is that it can be done on any 4 color press. You could modify the image accordingly, and when the printer prints it your done. Anyone printing the file would probably not need to even know there is a hidden pattern. This opens you up to using and 4 color (CMYK) printer in the world.
Your idea however requires special ink, as well as extra heads on the press. For a magazine run this is totally impractical. That's why most specialty printing is done seperate and then glued to a tab inside the magazine.
Then again, in re-reading your post, I'm not exactly sure what you're suggesting. RGB are not colors used in printing (they are display colors), and your discussion of bits sounds like you're talking about a direct digital reading of the data. The article discusses taking a *very* lossy cameraphone photo of something in a magazine, and allowing this pattern (probably a purposely made moiré pattern) to be run through software and decoded. The reason it works is because yellow ink is transparent to us, and the dots cannot be seen by the human eye.
I have to agree...
A good test:
Someone plans to kill their spouse, and waits until the ex-loved one is sleeping before shooting. However while asleep, the loved dies due to natural causes hours earlier, meaning that the criminal has shot a dead person. They can't be charged for murder, because they didn't technically kill someone, but they could be charged with Attempted murder.
Same thing with arson, robbery, etc. Just because you don't get what you want out of the crime doesn't mean you're innocent of everything...
Whatever test you decide upon, make the test happen with JUST a keyboard. No Mouse. The sign of a well versed tech is that he rarely needs a mouse to do anything... That doesn't make him good, just well practiced. Your actual test should include settings to test his ability, but without a mouse you'll weed out the booksmart only types.
M
Boo Hoo, I bought a game and am getting TOO MUCH time from it. I'm unable to finish it in the exact timeframe it should take... WAAAAAAHHHHH
God, cry me a river please. In the current world of shrinking boxes, nonexistant manuals, and savepoints whenever you feel like saving, if anything games are getting too EASY. Now you want them to get even shorter... Wow...
I'll bite. This isn't all that new, as the box has been on the scene for a while, but to answer your question, this isn't a wifi network that someone in a physical office or house has running unsecured. This is a box that connects to a cellular network and then rebroadcasts the signal via wifi. So wherever you and the box are you have a wireless access point as well. This would even work underground on the DC metro (with verizon). One of these boxes + a cellular data card would allow the whole car to use the internet.
http://news.com.com/TiVo,+Comcast+reach+DVR+deal/2 100-1041_3-5616961.html
Blockbuster's 2 free rentals a month are sweet; I used to use them for video game rentals (which are now $7 each at my local store).
That said, with all of the comments on which service is better I'd like to weigh in on a few specific points:
First, each service does a good job of what you want it to. Keep a large quantity of movies queued up and they show up in the order you want and you've always got something to watch. Look into who has a better catalog of what you like to watch and stick with them.
Second, each service FAILS when you use it to the limits. I've heard people saying they average 18-23 movies a month with netflix/blockbuster. 18-23 movies!!@?? That's WAY below a dollar a movie, and don't forget shipping back and forth (at least $.60). The idea here isn't to scam the company into a loss on you, the idea is to use a service and have a reasonable good time using it.
Now, I'm all for fairness in advertising (i.e.: unlimited should mean unlimited) but don't complain when you only get 15 movies in one month, for $17. And ESPICIALLY don't complain to me when I know that the majority of the people who are doing this crazy 8 movies a week thing are simply burning every movie right when it comes and then shipping it back the next morning. It is all but impossible to watch three movies a night three nights a week. That is SURELY not what these services were meant to be. You're raising my rates, and it's totally illegal as well.
Or he could have dreams of this guy. I love the shirt... its almost too funny to be true.
Similarly, local networks get a specified amount of revenue from showing these shows. Take the distribution method out of the loop by allowing the end user to directly access the media content and you'd have some pissed off affiliates.
Furthermore, allowing off network viewing of a show would not only hurt a network's bottom line, but also its brand image. People know FOX is channel 7, or 11, but what channel is it when you're downloading from a website? Even if it is fox's website.
Even more tragic are events such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, or what is currently going on in Sudan. Each of these outnumbers the tsunami death toll on its own. Nature will always take its course, but people have an inherent ability to kill like no other force on earth.