Wave power generators may not dump hot water, but they wind up making the water cooler, since they are extracting energy from the water. That energy will wind up somewhere else as heat.
This leads to an interesting problem with the microwave issue: it changes the thermal balance. We'd be intercepting sunlight that would have otherwise missed the earth and sending it down to the earth where it will, ultimately, be turned into heat to be reradiated back into space. The result is to increase global warming.
Uh huh. Sure. What filter would catch www.fuuuuuccccck.com and not catch www.firetruck.com? Whatever filter you dream up, we can create a domain name with one of the seven forbidden words that will get past it.
Yes. Free speech means free speech, even speech you are offended by. Everybody has the right to express their opinion. (Note: applies to the US, or should anyway. Other country's mileage may vary.)
Fourth Ammendment:Ahh, but eschleon covered international communications!
Apparently, the U.S. would let it slip to one of the international partners (UK, Australia) that they wanted info on certain U.S. citizens, the foreign folks would do the actual snooping, and then let the info trickle back into US hands. Certainly against the spirit of the law, if not the actual words. (Ref: Australian sites on Echelon).
Advertising has become so conspicuous and advertisers so desperate to pack one additional message into our brains...
Amen to that. There's one radio station in Cincinnati that has actually started overlapping ads - the last two or three seconds of one overlap onto the beginning of the next. They do that enough and they can free up another 15 second slot. bleah.
Don't you mean, "When I can sit down at a computer and do word processing and spreadsheets"?? Why does Office 2000 define the limits of what you can do with a computer?
This has been a problem with the MacOS and speech software. Companies are afraid to develop speech software for the Mac, because they are afraid Apple will make Speech software part of the Mac OS for free.
Gee, we can't think of ANY examples of this behaviour in the Microsoft world, can we?
Yes. Check Brin's web site. Somebody has bought an option on the Uplift series, to try and create a new SF mega-family of related films. Brin also has some amusing comments about "The Postman".
Then you can send me a flaming response too, since I believe that Lucas is a much better moviemaker than he is a science fiction writer. On the other hand, David Brin is a WAY better SF writer than Lucas. Try reading some of his stuff first.
Give it some thought - what does the TV industry produce? Not programs. No, the fundamental product of Television is eyeballs, to be exposed to advertisers. Anything that upsets that balance will be visciously attacked as a disruption of the money flow. In order to get out of it, the TV industry will have to come up with a new paragidm.
AFAIK my cable company has to pay for the people to count my money and an occasional downed line.
Don't underestimate the cost of installing and maintaining that cable. It costs a lot of money to do the cable. Plus all the head-end electronics (satellite dishes and decoders, head-end amps, distribution hardware...)
Plus, the cable company pays the cable channels some amount per viewer per month. In the case of the Weather Channel it's something like 25 cents per month - and for ESPN I think it's over a buck per month per viewer - that's money from your bill going to the cable channel. And you get the ads anyway. (I don't know who pays who on the shopping channels.)
Another thing the cable company pays for is (from your pocket) money to your local government for the right to run the cable. Check the bill for something called a 'franchise fee'. Strictly speaking, that's a tax you're paying. But on the other hand, the cable provider typically has to support one or more public access channels.
The end result is that the economics of cable TV is a lot more complex than you realize.
As much as I support SETI@Home, I have to say that their web site has not been the most forthcoming or interactive. Things like distributed.net go all out to keep everyone informed of what's going on, whereas the folks at SETI@Home would go weeks or months with no status updates or anything.
Old news. The Seti at Home people have gotten much better about posting updates - sometimes multiples per day. Take a look at their Technical News link off the main page.
That is because all GPS systems (even those not American) uses a spheroid called WGS-1984, which is an *American* DoD spheroid...
Uh, I have two different Garmin GPS units. The old one has 23 different "spheroids" (called 'datums'), and the new one (12xl) has close to 100, including one for Britain (Ord. Survey) and two for Europe.
Why dosen't someone just make an encoder from the ground up under the GPL, w/ out the ISO code?
That code contains an algorithm that is the end result of a great deal of psycho-acoustical research, most of it unpublished. Further, the patent is on the algorithm. You'd have to redo the research, and then come up with a different algorithm. Possible, but not likely following the open-source model.
When you work at a large company and you invent something the company has first grabs at your intellectual property.
To a certain extent, this depends on the contract between you and your company, but...
This only applies if you use the company's resources in the development of your invention. If you work at a computer firm, and your invention is a new method of brewing beer at home, it's unlikely the company has any claim, unless you used the company's CAD system or something.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought Las Vegas was like that already.
...phil
Wave power generators may not dump hot water, but they wind up making the water cooler, since they are extracting energy from the water. That energy will wind up somewhere else as heat.
This leads to an interesting problem with the microwave issue: it changes the thermal balance. We'd be intercepting sunlight that would have otherwise missed the earth and sending it down to the earth where it will, ultimately, be turned into heat to be reradiated back into space. The result is to increase global warming.
...phil
Never try to use a streaming viewer on a slashdotted site. :-(
...phil
Why does a successful e-commerce site have to be anything other than targeted? Why must they become all-things-to-all-people?
...phil
It's 'shiitaki'.
...phil
Uh huh. Sure. What filter would catch www.fuuuuuccccck.com and not catch www.firetruck.com? Whatever filter you dream up, we can create a domain name with one of the seven forbidden words that will get past it.
...phil
Those people who want to rant and rave when anybody says anything slightly bad about Linux should read this article.
...phil
The right to shoot people?
No.
The right to preach racial bigotry?
Yes. Free speech means free speech, even speech you are offended by. Everybody has the right to express their opinion. (Note: applies to the US, or should anyway. Other country's mileage may vary.)
...phil
I submitted this to the slashdot new story page last week, and it never appeared. Oh well.
...phil
Fourth Ammendment:Ahh, but eschleon covered international communications!
Apparently, the U.S. would let it slip to one of the international partners (UK, Australia) that they wanted info on certain U.S. citizens, the foreign folks would do the actual snooping, and then let the info trickle back into US hands. Certainly against the spirit of the law, if not the actual words. (Ref: Australian sites on Echelon).
...phil
Isn't this a little like asking if you can use a GPLed compiler to create a non-GPLed program?
...phil
Advertising has become so conspicuous and advertisers so desperate to pack one additional message into our brains...
Amen to that. There's one radio station in Cincinnati that has actually started overlapping ads - the last two or three seconds of one overlap onto the beginning of the next. They do that enough and they can free up another 15 second slot. bleah.
...phil
Don't you mean, "When I can sit down at a computer and do word processing and spreadsheets"?? Why does Office 2000 define the limits of what you can do with a computer?
...phil
This has been a problem with the MacOS and speech software. Companies are afraid to develop speech software for the Mac, because they are afraid Apple will make Speech software part of the Mac OS for free.
Gee, we can't think of ANY examples of this behaviour in the Microsoft world, can we?
...phil
Yes. Check Brin's web site. Somebody has bought an option on the Uplift series, to try and create a new SF mega-family of related films. Brin also has some amusing comments about "The Postman".
...phil
Then you can send me a flaming response too, since I believe that Lucas is a much better moviemaker than he is a science fiction writer. On the other hand, David Brin is a WAY better SF writer than Lucas. Try reading some of his stuff first.
Flame away.
...phil
Imagine the ramifications!
...phil
Give it some thought - what does the TV industry produce? Not programs. No, the fundamental product of Television is eyeballs, to be exposed to advertisers. Anything that upsets that balance will be visciously attacked as a disruption of the money flow. In order to get out of it, the TV industry will have to come up with a new paragidm.
...phil
AFAIK my cable company has to pay for the people to count my money and an occasional downed line.
Don't underestimate the cost of installing and maintaining that cable. It costs a lot of money to do the cable. Plus all the head-end electronics (satellite dishes and decoders, head-end amps, distribution hardware...)
Plus, the cable company pays the cable channels some amount per viewer per month. In the case of the Weather Channel it's something like 25 cents per month - and for ESPN I think it's over a buck per month per viewer - that's money from your bill going to the cable channel. And you get the ads anyway. (I don't know who pays who on the shopping channels.)
Another thing the cable company pays for is (from your pocket) money to your local government for the right to run the cable. Check the bill for something called a 'franchise fee'. Strictly speaking, that's a tax you're paying. But on the other hand, the cable provider typically has to support one or more public access channels.
The end result is that the economics of cable TV is a lot more complex than you realize.
...phil
As much as I support SETI@Home, I have to say that their web site has not been the most forthcoming or interactive. Things like distributed.net go all out to keep everyone informed of what's going on, whereas the folks at SETI@Home would go weeks or months with no status updates or anything.
Old news. The Seti at Home people have gotten much better about posting updates - sometimes multiples per day. Take a look at their Technical News link off the main page.
That still isn't justification.
...phil
AFAIK, that program also uses 'lost' cycles,
;-)
True.
and they've already got some results.
Also true, however they've been running for something like two years.
(As opposed to SETI
Everybody grants that the SETI test is an extreme long shot. However, if they are successful, the payback will be much higher.
...phil
That is because all GPS systems (even those not American) uses a spheroid called WGS-1984, which is an *American* DoD spheroid...
Uh, I have two different Garmin GPS units. The old one has 23 different "spheroids" (called 'datums'), and the new one (12xl) has close to 100, including one for Britain (Ord. Survey) and two for Europe.
...phil
It crashed because of something you did.
That's what he said. He right-clicked on "My Computer" and it crashed. Ergo, it crashed because of something he did.
Talk about obvious...
...phil
Why dosen't someone just make an encoder from the ground up under the GPL, w/ out the ISO code?
That code contains an algorithm that is the end result of a great deal of psycho-acoustical research, most of it unpublished. Further, the patent is on the algorithm. You'd have to redo the research, and then come up with a different algorithm. Possible, but not likely following the open-source model.
...phil
When you work at a large company and you invent something the company has first grabs at your intellectual property.
To a certain extent, this depends on the contract between you and your company, but...
This only applies if you use the company's resources in the development of your invention. If you work at a computer firm, and your invention is a new method of brewing beer at home, it's unlikely the company has any claim, unless you used the company's CAD system or something.
...phil