I was thinking the same thing about the less than bit, but other numbers that appear without such qualifiers in the article are 94%, 89%, and 61%. So, the '25 viruses' is the part that is inaccurate(per other posts).
I'd suspect that's partly because Blu-Ray isn't that important yet (as a disruptive techonology). It's not the same thing as when the PS2 had a DVD player when many folks had no other DVD player (but wanted to get in on this digital disc thing). Blu-Ray doesn't appeal to the masses in the same way that DVD did, at least while the price remains high. Sorry Sony, there's only one DVD (r)evolution.
and those trademark rights don't take away anyone else's rights to use the symbol
That's rather the point of a trademark. J&J is asserting that the Red Cross is in violation of US trademark law by licensing J&J's trademark to competitors - for the type of medical products for which J&J holds the trademark.
If the original trademark is invalid, that issue must be resolved separately from the one at hand - as long as J&Js trademark is held as valid, the American Red Cross is quite likely in the legal wrong.
Yesterday I saw that Penny Arcade has changed one of their designs from white on red to white on green because the Red Cross threatened to sue (because there was a + in the middle of a game controller graphic). Seems Red Cross has gone on a rampage. This overstepping of bounds (and the interesting things I'm reading here on/.) make me rethink my Red Cross donations. Well, if I stop donating to them I'll be sure to send a message stating why.
Given the recent announcement of the google ad-based cell phone, I think I know where this could get a foothold. So, for now it will be opt-in (for those who didn't want to pay for cell service), until it catches on and spy-free phones are the minority.
I have disabled java from the early days when it was used to popup ads (why would I wait 5-10 seconds of my computer practically hanging just to see an ad? Loading the JVM just to perform a task - popups - doesn't add to my online experince). So, using FF, NS, and java disabled I would hope I'm a little safer. Unfortunatley, if we're talking spyware/bot installation then the real problem is the masses of people who get hijacked, not the integrity of my own computer.
Maybe certain poor health indicators related to high stress should be charged to the boss, not the employee. Otherwise, you're double penalizing them for working for a poor boss.
I'm under the impression that much of cash-only society is not interested in high-profile activities such as university enrollment. By attending a university, one has the opportunity to learn and experience things one might not otherwise have to opportunity to learn. Participating in modern banking also opens many doors that are closed to the cash-only community.
It seems that refusal to use banks in any way indicates that the OP is resistant to expanding his/her horizon.
The article make great points as for how colonization cannot happen, but that doesn't mean there aren't other ways yet to be discovered.
One area he didn't discuss: move a mini-planet through space ala 'Dark City'. Or for a more obscure reference, read 'Wolfbane' where the entire planet is moved across the galaxy and sustained by an artificial sun orbiting Earth (ok, so there were complications with the alien race who kidnapped Earth...). However, these are all scifi ideas in and of themselves, not a setup for a future colonization setting.
He is right about colonizing the rest of Earth though. Or maybe even finishing exploring it.
I'd suggest that commenting the function calls may also be needed at times, such as when calling a legacy function that has tricky (or just plain inappropriate) calling conventions or side effects. I see plenty of places where a comment is useful for 2-3 lines of code, and it would not be appropriate to make a function out of all of those instances.
It seems to me that the problem is expectations. If we set the bar lower, say providing 2001's level of capability, the costs for care would go down. Standard behavior with any product - cost of production for the original item goes down as time goes on (and patents expire, etc).
However, whenever new technology in healthcare is unveiled, everyone expects that it should be available (new treatments, drugs, etc). Healthcare costs more now because more of it is available. There has to be a balance, and right now it is tilting towards more care for more cost.
I've seen some pretty boneheaded database uses... it's one thing if the in-house tool is in Access (with weekly instances of "everybody out so we can rebuild the corrupt database"), but there is no excuse for some commercial tools I've seen using an improper database platform.
Proper use of database technology can be difficult, but if a company is unable or unwilling to do it properly, they shouldn't be selling the product. Governments have a responsibility to the perople to slap down companies trying to sell products that demonstrate such incompetence, particularly with something as important as voting.
A compact flash card is much smaller than a hard drive
Actually, what the article is talking about is a 1.8 inch drive - the smaller form factor for laptop hard drives, just with no moving parts. The news here is that the flash-based device has the same bus as a hard drive and has enough capacity to replace, rather than complement, the hard drive.
While 1.8 inch drives are already in laptops, this may further push towards smaller drives as flash technology shrinks.
The term AI is hijacked quite often. The field of AI involves much more than just autonomous computer actions. The failure of AI in video games is not a matter of it being not useful here, it's a matter of not being used properly - or at all.
can simply react to any move you might do
An appropriately designed AI character would react to what the caracter would see (and how that character would respond to the input) rather than just reacting directly to the keyboard. Some games over the years have exibited good AI by, for example, having the NPCs learn from player actions (so you can't pull the same trick repeatedly - they learn and react). I suggest that good AI in games is not about beating you more soundly, it is about enhancing the experience of interacting with non-human entities in the game.
Well, one site I use quite often has a popup saying that you must use IE. Since I have popups disabled, I don't see the message. Problem solved!
Actually, the only site that I haven't figured out how to access in some way with FF is the windows update site. Other than that, most of the pages FF can't load are mentally marked as 'crap' and I move on.
Sleazy as some companies may be, the real danger would be stupidity and lack of foresight. An attempt to take away the extra monitor would show poor math skills -- no matter how poorly you pay professional programmers, even at minimum wage the cost/benefit lines would cross pretty soon for a brand new monitor, let alone a discarded monitor (essentially free).
Paying workers poorly and disrespecting them isn't really cheap for the company - it's just a result of short-term thinking. Oftentimes decesion makers either don't know relevant details, or what motivates them is entirely not in the company's best long-term interest.
I haven't investigated the pc de-crapifier enough yet, but I like the idea of an automatic removal of junk software and setting options the way a reasonable (and reasonably educated) computer user would want it. There really isn't much excuse for computers to ship the way they do, but there is enough common agreement on the basic settings (i.e. security settings) that any educated computer user should have. Let's make it automatic for all windows boxes, even if it takes a 3rd-party app to do it.
I had good results in past years using Virtualdub to capture video from a capture card/video card combo in windows. I used the huffyuv codec to losslessly compress down to about 30GB/hour for DVD resolution capture. There are a lot of free video processing plugins that can really clean up the video and make the encoded video much better (noisy video gets noisier when you encode to mpeg for DVD, particularly at lower bitrates). You can serve the filtered stream directly to your encoder (I used the non-free but very high quality TMPGenc, similarly priced consumer-grade CCE is also excellent). You can also use avisynth to serve and filter on the fly.
I agree with a previous poster about using a high-quality VCR, as they can clean up a noisy tape before it even gets to your computer. I do NOT agree, however on using dedicated A/D conversion hardware. Most consuemr grade products of that type are of poor quality. They're not as bad as in the usb 1.1 days, but in general the high quality converters are expensive. The consumer-level ones are a minefield of poor-quality gimmicks.
Honestly, most people have a pretty high tolerance for noise and video degredation, so you may be well served by a mid-level A/D converter or a DVD recorder. Particularly when you see the learning curve of doing everything with the 'best possibly quality' methods. I did it for fun, but I don't have the time to do it anymore.
If you're looking to learn a lot, check out Videohelp and ignore all the goofballs trying to rip their DVDs.
You make a good point, but one counterpoint - if the research is free for any non-commercial use, but charges fees for commercial entities, the fees can go to support research that government dollars no longer have to pay for (as long as the money go to items similar to the original research...).
Not to start a GPL vs BSD license argument, but I do think there are multiple ways to ensure that the people get value for tax dollars (as opposed to corporations getting value for tax dollars that may not be paid).
So the consequences of undisclosed prior art need to be much more severe.
I'd suggest penalties such as a fine at least as large as any profits made on this invalid patent, plus punitive damages if the courts find that the prior art was willfully withheld. I'd like to see that kind of balancing penalty on any 'white collar crime' that currently has penalties smaller than the profit made through misdeeds.
The problem was that 'Reggie' had a party every week. Spacing it out more keeps people from getting tired of it and allows time for new games to come out. Of course, my friends who didn't already have a Wii didn't buy one, so there's more incentive to play at my house.
Back on topic, I exchanged a few friend codes but haven't used them after the first week. They're not the console's strongest point.
She should be granted a patent...This kid is getting ripped off big time
I'm almost certain that Intel does not get any rights to these projects (many are academic rather than commercial in nature - it's the science fair). So, the winners can still apply for patents if applicable. Patents still aren't handed out, by the way, one must apply for them.
So, you think she's being ripped off because she's given prize money, scholarships, and national recognition for the work she's done so far in her life? This isn't the lifetime achievement award, it's a stepping stone to reward and encourage bright youth. When's the last time you did something to encourage or support a bright youth?
customers will repeatedly drop their cash on unfinished products
Hence my mantra, "The customer is always wrong". The problem I often lament is that customers drive poor quality products by voting with their wallets. Just as a sufficient number of people vote for continued Nigerian email scams, customers vote for continued poor quality products by supporting inept and cut-rate companies rather than running them out of business. Being an informed customer/consumer is too much work for many folks though, so I don't know how this could change.
Will toys ever be able to compete with videogames again?
Last I heared, the soccer ball, frisbee, and such are still in production. While the need for certain toys have been replaced with digital games for those that can afford them, others are inherently different from video-based entertainment and will not go away.
However, it all depends on what you mean by "compete". Just talking about profit? Or maybe as a measure of what the next generation spends their time on. Then consider that competing for the attention of mediocre minds may be different than for the bright children.
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking the same thing about the less than bit, but other numbers that appear without such qualifiers in the article are 94%, 89%, and 61%. So, the '25 viruses' is the part that is inaccurate(per other posts).
I'd suspect that's partly because Blu-Ray isn't that important yet (as a disruptive techonology). It's not the same thing as when the PS2 had a DVD player when many folks had no other DVD player (but wanted to get in on this digital disc thing). Blu-Ray doesn't appeal to the masses in the same way that DVD did, at least while the price remains high. Sorry Sony, there's only one DVD (r)evolution.
and those trademark rights don't take away anyone else's rights to use the symbol
That's rather the point of a trademark. J&J is asserting that the Red Cross is in violation of US trademark law by licensing J&J's trademark to competitors - for the type of medical products for which J&J holds the trademark.
If the original trademark is invalid, that issue must be resolved separately from the one at hand - as long as J&Js trademark is held as valid, the American Red Cross is quite likely in the legal wrong.
Yesterday I saw that Penny Arcade has changed one of their designs from white on red to white on green because the Red Cross threatened to sue (because there was a + in the middle of a game controller graphic). Seems Red Cross has gone on a rampage. This overstepping of bounds (and the interesting things I'm reading here on /.) make me rethink my Red Cross donations. Well, if I stop donating to them I'll be sure to send a message stating why.
Given the recent announcement of the google ad-based cell phone, I think I know where this could get a foothold. So, for now it will be opt-in (for those who didn't want to pay for cell service), until it catches on and spy-free phones are the minority.
I have disabled java from the early days when it was used to popup ads (why would I wait 5-10 seconds of my computer practically hanging just to see an ad? Loading the JVM just to perform a task - popups - doesn't add to my online experince). So, using FF, NS, and java disabled I would hope I'm a little safer. Unfortunatley, if we're talking spyware/bot installation then the real problem is the masses of people who get hijacked, not the integrity of my own computer.
Maybe certain poor health indicators related to high stress should be charged to the boss, not the employee. Otherwise, you're double penalizing them for working for a poor boss.
I'm under the impression that much of cash-only society is not interested in high-profile activities such as university enrollment. By attending a university, one has the opportunity to learn and experience things one might not otherwise have to opportunity to learn. Participating in modern banking also opens many doors that are closed to the cash-only community.
It seems that refusal to use banks in any way indicates that the OP is resistant to expanding his/her horizon.
The article make great points as for how colonization cannot happen, but that doesn't mean there aren't other ways yet to be discovered.
One area he didn't discuss: move a mini-planet through space ala 'Dark City'. Or for a more obscure reference, read 'Wolfbane' where the entire planet is moved across the galaxy and sustained by an artificial sun orbiting Earth (ok, so there were complications with the alien race who kidnapped Earth...). However, these are all scifi ideas in and of themselves, not a setup for a future colonization setting.
He is right about colonizing the rest of Earth though. Or maybe even finishing exploring it.
I'd suggest that commenting the function calls may also be needed at times, such as when calling a legacy function that has tricky (or just plain inappropriate) calling conventions or side effects. I see plenty of places where a comment is useful for 2-3 lines of code, and it would not be appropriate to make a function out of all of those instances.
You can't be a professional and knowingly support illegal activity.
Unless you're a professional hitman.
It seems to me that the problem is expectations. If we set the bar lower, say providing 2001's level of capability, the costs for care would go down. Standard behavior with any product - cost of production for the original item goes down as time goes on (and patents expire, etc).
However, whenever new technology in healthcare is unveiled, everyone expects that it should be available (new treatments, drugs, etc). Healthcare costs more now because more of it is available. There has to be a balance, and right now it is tilting towards more care for more cost.
I've seen some pretty boneheaded database uses... it's one thing if the in-house tool is in Access (with weekly instances of "everybody out so we can rebuild the corrupt database"), but there is no excuse for some commercial tools I've seen using an improper database platform.
Proper use of database technology can be difficult, but if a company is unable or unwilling to do it properly, they shouldn't be selling the product. Governments have a responsibility to the perople to slap down companies trying to sell products that demonstrate such incompetence, particularly with something as important as voting.
A compact flash card is much smaller than a hard drive
Actually, what the article is talking about is a 1.8 inch drive - the smaller form factor for laptop hard drives, just with no moving parts. The news here is that the flash-based device has the same bus as a hard drive and has enough capacity to replace, rather than complement, the hard drive.
While 1.8 inch drives are already in laptops, this may further push towards smaller drives as flash technology shrinks.
The term AI is hijacked quite often. The field of AI involves much more than just autonomous computer actions. The failure of AI in video games is not a matter of it being not useful here, it's a matter of not being used properly - or at all.
can simply react to any move you might do
An appropriately designed AI character would react to what the caracter would see (and how that character would respond to the input) rather than just reacting directly to the keyboard. Some games over the years have exibited good AI by, for example, having the NPCs learn from player actions (so you can't pull the same trick repeatedly - they learn and react). I suggest that good AI in games is not about beating you more soundly, it is about enhancing the experience of interacting with non-human entities in the game.
Well, one site I use quite often has a popup saying that you must use IE. Since I have popups disabled, I don't see the message. Problem solved! Actually, the only site that I haven't figured out how to access in some way with FF is the windows update site. Other than that, most of the pages FF can't load are mentally marked as 'crap' and I move on.
Sleazy as some companies may be, the real danger would be stupidity and lack of foresight. An attempt to take away the extra monitor would show poor math skills -- no matter how poorly you pay professional programmers, even at minimum wage the cost/benefit lines would cross pretty soon for a brand new monitor, let alone a discarded monitor (essentially free).
Paying workers poorly and disrespecting them isn't really cheap for the company - it's just a result of short-term thinking. Oftentimes decesion makers either don't know relevant details, or what motivates them is entirely not in the company's best long-term interest.
I haven't investigated the pc de-crapifier enough yet, but I like the idea of an automatic removal of junk software and setting options the way a reasonable (and reasonably educated) computer user would want it. There really isn't much excuse for computers to ship the way they do, but there is enough common agreement on the basic settings (i.e. security settings) that any educated computer user should have. Let's make it automatic for all windows boxes, even if it takes a 3rd-party app to do it.
I had good results in past years using Virtualdub to capture video from a capture card/video card combo in windows. I used the huffyuv codec to losslessly compress down to about 30GB/hour for DVD resolution capture. There are a lot of free video processing plugins that can really clean up the video and make the encoded video much better (noisy video gets noisier when you encode to mpeg for DVD, particularly at lower bitrates). You can serve the filtered stream directly to your encoder (I used the non-free but very high quality TMPGenc, similarly priced consumer-grade CCE is also excellent). You can also use avisynth to serve and filter on the fly.
I agree with a previous poster about using a high-quality VCR, as they can clean up a noisy tape before it even gets to your computer. I do NOT agree, however on using dedicated A/D conversion hardware. Most consuemr grade products of that type are of poor quality. They're not as bad as in the usb 1.1 days, but in general the high quality converters are expensive. The consumer-level ones are a minefield of poor-quality gimmicks.
Honestly, most people have a pretty high tolerance for noise and video degredation, so you may be well served by a mid-level A/D converter or a DVD recorder. Particularly when you see the learning curve of doing everything with the 'best possibly quality' methods. I did it for fun, but I don't have the time to do it anymore.
If you're looking to learn a lot, check out Videohelp and ignore all the goofballs trying to rip their DVDs.
You make a good point, but one counterpoint - if the research is free for any non-commercial use, but charges fees for commercial entities, the fees can go to support research that government dollars no longer have to pay for (as long as the money go to items similar to the original research...).
Not to start a GPL vs BSD license argument, but I do think there are multiple ways to ensure that the people get value for tax dollars (as opposed to corporations getting value for tax dollars that may not be paid).
So the consequences of undisclosed prior art need to be much more severe.
I'd suggest penalties such as a fine at least as large as any profits made on this invalid patent, plus punitive damages if the courts find that the prior art was willfully withheld. I'd like to see that kind of balancing penalty on any 'white collar crime' that currently has penalties smaller than the profit made through misdeeds.
The problem was that 'Reggie' had a party every week. Spacing it out more keeps people from getting tired of it and allows time for new games to come out. Of course, my friends who didn't already have a Wii didn't buy one, so there's more incentive to play at my house.
Back on topic, I exchanged a few friend codes but haven't used them after the first week. They're not the console's strongest point.
She should be granted a patent ...This kid is getting ripped off big time
I'm almost certain that Intel does not get any rights to these projects (many are academic rather than commercial in nature - it's the science fair). So, the winners can still apply for patents if applicable. Patents still aren't handed out, by the way, one must apply for them.
So, you think she's being ripped off because she's given prize money, scholarships, and national recognition for the work she's done so far in her life? This isn't the lifetime achievement award, it's a stepping stone to reward and encourage bright youth. When's the last time you did something to encourage or support a bright youth?
customers will repeatedly drop their cash on unfinished products
Hence my mantra, "The customer is always wrong". The problem I often lament is that customers drive poor quality products by voting with their wallets. Just as a sufficient number of people vote for continued Nigerian email scams, customers vote for continued poor quality products by supporting inept and cut-rate companies rather than running them out of business. Being an informed customer/consumer is too much work for many folks though, so I don't know how this could change.
Will toys ever be able to compete with videogames again? Last I heared, the soccer ball, frisbee, and such are still in production. While the need for certain toys have been replaced with digital games for those that can afford them, others are inherently different from video-based entertainment and will not go away. However, it all depends on what you mean by "compete". Just talking about profit? Or maybe as a measure of what the next generation spends their time on. Then consider that competing for the attention of mediocre minds may be different than for the bright children.