Wouldn't this whole problem be resolved with the introduction of IPv6 anycast? It puts location-based routing on the network level, so the same resolved address redirects to the closest server. Like multicast in reverse (shows that I just passed a networking exam, huh?)
I am starting work on something similar, I call it the Open Textbook Project. It is still in VERY early development, but I have just gotten access to some webspace for it and will make the basic site soon and start accepting contributions in material. Interested in joining?
Uhm...here in Finland a certain cell phone operator is providing a tracking service. They market it at groups of friends who want to know where the others are. The concept is that every time a trace request is sent (by SMS or a website) the person to be traced receives a message asking if they are willing to accept the trace. If so, the location of the cell in which the recipient is is transmitted to the sender. What does this teach us? Anyone who carries a cell phone can be traced quite trivially.
I am in the planning stage of a project called the Open Textbook Project to collect and distribute open-sourced (GPL, GFDL, CC) texts on various subjects. I would need help with the technical details, such as setting up a domain and a server and informing people about this. I have already started work on some mathematics text and I have been offered texts on chemistry by a high school chemistry teacher. Additionally, I would possibly have a team of up to 100 volunteers for editing and proofreading texts. Now, I seriously need help with this as I myself have very little time until the end of may. If anyone would be willing to help (and possibly donate server space etc) please contact me. You can see my current work on discrete math (only graph theory and some discrete algebra so far) at http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/yanev/discmath/ (this is meant for a small group of people that study disc. math with me at the moment, I am a student myself, but I think it is generally usable for anyone interested in the topic)
Reply to this if you think that you can help with this project, and I'll contact you (ah, contact info may be useful also). Basically anyone who is interested in contributing text or helping with technical is really needed.
Note: please don't slashdot above server too badly, uni admins might not like it.
Th POINT is for the thief to notice it and be discouraged from stealing the laptop... Now you have to make it nearly inseparable from the laptop and it might even work...
I do not know how many have access to resources like that, but at least where I study (University of Helsinki) there are several libraries that are part of the University and have every required book. They tend to have the newest editions, and many copies, including one that is not lent out, so people can read the text and see if it's worth it. Additionally, at least at the cs department, the lecture notes tell you exactly what you need to know, even if that has changed place in the book across editions, so using the older editions is easy. When you're done with the course you are already familiar with the book and know if it's worth buying.
It seems quite easy to get the very popular, very expensive books on p2p programs. It is nice that people bother to scan these in, as otherwise books tend to get lost in time(I found a 1967 calculus book better than any text I have seen published this decade, and I've looked through a lot of calculus books). This however is a suboptimal solution.
The perfect option seems to be to just write better books, and publish them openly, without restrictions. At the moment I am compiling some material on discrete math and not asking any money from my classmates, who use it. When it is complete I will probably publish it online, free. If others who are familiar with other fields would do the same, maybe we could establish a free courseware library, similar to wikipedia, but with much more extensive entries. Anyone with me?
To say this in high-school economics terms (something I have just gone through myself) the fixed cost of setting up a linux installation in a corporation is high, but the marginal cost approaches zero as the number of identical installs rises and people get used to it.
The marginal cost of using a network to transfer a unit of data is just the opportunity cost of its use (which for most internal networks is quite low) and the price of electricity (which can mostly be ignored).
The people who write code for the linux kernel and open source applications are not wasting their time, they sometimes get paid for it, and when they do not, they gain the utility of pleasure and experience, which is worth for them the opportunity cost of their time.
Compare the fixed and marginal cost of telling somebody the answer to a homework question to see that there is no such thing as a free beer but there can be such a thing as a free beer recipe which has nearly zero marginal cost.
apparently it wasn't clear from my response, but the comment was referring to the greedy software companies, which is a subset of all software companies. Sorry for the unclear response. And I have to agree about Wolfram. I admire them. I only wish I could afford to not have to go to school everytime I need to use their stuff (or ssh, but it gets slow at home)
Indeed, in fact what makes porn interesting to younger kids (pre-adolescents specifically) is that it is something kept secret and forbidden. This is often the effect that parents' own complexes and shameful experiences with their parents cause them to get mad at a child when they come across any form of porn. It should not be encouraged, but never should it be forbidden, and a curious child's questions should be answered truthfully and completely. Hiding anything from a child is just stupid.
Hmm, that seems strange, are you sure it's not separate disks or separate partitions. On the same partition only the reference to the file would have to be changed, no actual data moved. Or is the mac fs done somehow stupidly. About netscape not working, I observed the same on my dad's XP laptop last time I visited to copy a movie from him. Copying the 700 meg movie from a cd to the HD took about 17 minutes at 100% cpu use and all the other programs ground to a screeching halt for the duration of the copy. Burning the same file to a cd took 7 minutes. Repeating the process when I got home on my linux box took about 4 minutes and used almost no cpu... strange...
Worst thing is that you'll be having to live with that guy around you for a considerable while afterwards and hate him. I have a roommate who is female so I don't fear her fucking my girlfriend... It seems to be a working solution, some of our friends don't get how we can be roommates... weird people... I'd suggest bitch to her, bitch to him, and move into another place... They're not worth it.
So let us fight back! Let us create a network beyond the control of corporate interests (look up the word corpocracy in a better dictionary than you would find in most places) and have no troubles with filtering, restrictions, or threats. Let us create a wireless network and unite all the small networks around the world and not let our net be taken over by profit-seekers. Let us run a non-profit organization that we all join, that would employ people to create and run the network, collect membership fees and be the official owner of the network, and let us all join it. That way we would be helping the world's economy, creating jobs AND have a network that is safe from corporate evilness. In fact, this could be done in every industry that is threatened by monopolists. A non-profit organization would be the ultimate solution, as it can employ people, but seeks only to break even. Let us unite and create something that will serve us all. All an individual user would need is a wireless router with a specific routing algorithm. We can do this! Who's with me?
Several good books that we use at school (a high school following the IB syllabus) are:
Physics by Giancoli
Introducing Pure Mathematics by Robert Smedley and Garry Wiseman
Further Pure Mathematics by Brian Gaulter and Mark Gaulter
In addition, I would recommend several maths books:
Discrete Mathemathics for New Technology by R.Garnier and J. Taylor
A First Course in Abstract Algebra by John B. Fraleigh
Of course also the asimov books others have mentioned. The Introducing and Further books are very interesting since they start from zero and go to quite advanced calculus concepts, yet attemp to cover all important mathematical concepts in existence. They take a while to read, but it's worth it.
Unforunately, Li-ion cells have a higher voltage than a single AA cell. Therefore it is unlikely that they will make it into simple AA batteries (that would require a regulator, and those are big and generate heat) I am not quite sure what the voltage of the pair in a Li-ion battery is (chemistry book is on the shelf, but can't bother...) but it is certainly higher than 1.5 volts.
I want my free phone
Well, the marginal cost of an additional phone call is zero all the way untill the cell's or network's limit is reached. Phone calls could be free, if users owned and maintained the infrastructure
my free internet
Similarly, if users owned routers and interconnections, the marginal cost of network use would be zero. Only the fixed costs would have to be paid
my free electricity as well
Once there is a source of cheap, low-scale power production that is clean and efficient, everyone could produce their own electricity, again at a marginal cost of zero. See slashdot discussion of the topic from a few days ago
My point? As Tony Walter said in his 1989 book, what is physically possible could be economically possible. It is not impossible to have free infrastructure, but it cannot be implemented by profit-seeking commercial entities, or it will not be free. Similarly information could be free, since the marginal cost of reproducing information is zero. A society where information is free and use of infrastructure is free, innovation will increase rapidly. People will no longer be afraid to discuss their ideas because they cannot afford to communicate or because they are afraid that someone will steal their ideas. A good analogy would be a shop owned by its customers, where they could never be afraid of too-high prices, since where would the profits go? Back to the customers themselves.
I've said this before (check my earlier postings), but basic income would solve this problem and many others. It is based on the idea that everyone has the right to do unpaid work as well as paid work, and any combination of the two, and still have a reasonable income. Look it up on citizensincome.org or wikipedia.
yes, it is, and that is a good thing. I think that in a fair community unpaid work should be encouraged and (paradox) paid for. Schemes like citizen's income build upon the idea that one should be free to do paid or unpaid work, in any proportion, and still have a living. Look it up, or check my earlier post on the subject in another discussion.
I have been thinking about this issue somewhat, and personally I feel that open-source development is, from the point of view of the community, much more valuable than closed-source development, and should be rewarded accordingly. I am currently researching the cost of a model for basic income which would, in its final form, make it possible for people to do either paid or unpaid work and still make a living. Basically there would be little difference between being a low-paid programmer and being an independent open source developer. Some information on this is available at this site (btw, for some reason this site does not show right in mozilla, opera or konqueror. It works with links -g after hitting backslash. Any ideas?) I think citizen's income would increase the rate of open-source development significantly, and people working in low-paid, unpleasant jobs would get paid much, much more...
Slashdot Mirror
I always thought that was network interface controller... guess all my networking books are now outdated...ah well...
what's even cooler is knowing what your name mean... callipygian: having beautiful buttocks
Indeed, this time the Geeks will fight for their right to view
(long battle cry)
what are you waiting for...?
Wouldn't this whole problem be resolved with the introduction of IPv6 anycast? It puts location-based routing on the network level, so the same resolved address redirects to the closest server. Like multicast in reverse (shows that I just passed a networking exam, huh?)
I am starting work on something similar, I call it the Open Textbook Project. It is still in VERY early development, but I have just gotten access to some webspace for it and will make the basic site soon and start accepting contributions in material. Interested in joining?
Uhm...here in Finland a certain cell phone operator is providing a tracking service. They market it at groups of friends who want to know where the others are. The concept is that every time a trace request is sent (by SMS or a website) the person to be traced receives a message asking if they are willing to accept the trace. If so, the location of the cell in which the recipient is is transmitted to the sender. What does this teach us? Anyone who carries a cell phone can be traced quite trivially.
Reply to this if you think that you can help with this project, and I'll contact you (ah, contact info may be useful also). Basically anyone who is interested in contributing text or helping with technical is really needed.
Note: please don't slashdot above server too badly, uni admins might not like it.
Th POINT is for the thief to notice it and be discouraged from stealing the laptop... Now you have to make it nearly inseparable from the laptop and it might even work...
It seems quite easy to get the very popular, very expensive books on p2p programs. It is nice that people bother to scan these in, as otherwise books tend to get lost in time(I found a 1967 calculus book better than any text I have seen published this decade, and I've looked through a lot of calculus books). This however is a suboptimal solution.
The perfect option seems to be to just write better books, and publish them openly, without restrictions. At the moment I am compiling some material on discrete math and not asking any money from my classmates, who use it. When it is complete I will probably publish it online, free. If others who are familiar with other fields would do the same, maybe we could establish a free courseware library, similar to wikipedia, but with much more extensive entries. Anyone with me?
The marginal cost of using a network to transfer a unit of data is just the opportunity cost of its use (which for most internal networks is quite low) and the price of electricity (which can mostly be ignored).
The people who write code for the linux kernel and open source applications are not wasting their time, they sometimes get paid for it, and when they do not, they gain the utility of pleasure and experience, which is worth for them the opportunity cost of their time.
Compare the fixed and marginal cost of telling somebody the answer to a homework question to see that there is no such thing as a free beer but there can be such a thing as a free beer recipe which has nearly zero marginal cost.
apparently it wasn't clear from my response, but the comment was referring to the greedy software companies, which is a subset of all software companies. Sorry for the unclear response. And I have to agree about Wolfram. I admire them. I only wish I could afford to not have to go to school everytime I need to use their stuff (or ssh, but it gets slow at home)
no, but they tend to overprice, underperform, and oversue, therefore they are the ones who suffer most from software piracy.
Indeed, in fact what makes porn interesting to younger kids (pre-adolescents specifically) is that it is something kept secret and forbidden. This is often the effect that parents' own complexes and shameful experiences with their parents cause them to get mad at a child when they come across any form of porn. It should not be encouraged, but never should it be forbidden, and a curious child's questions should be answered truthfully and completely. Hiding anything from a child is just stupid.
The book is Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, among many others. I think this was one of the first mentions of drugs like that
Hmm, that seems strange, are you sure it's not separate disks or separate partitions. On the same partition only the reference to the file would have to be changed, no actual data moved. Or is the mac fs done somehow stupidly. About netscape not working, I observed the same on my dad's XP laptop last time I visited to copy a movie from him. Copying the 700 meg movie from a cd to the HD took about 17 minutes at 100% cpu use and all the other programs ground to a screeching halt for the duration of the copy. Burning the same file to a cd took 7 minutes. Repeating the process when I got home on my linux box took about 4 minutes and used almost no cpu... strange...
Worst thing is that you'll be having to live with that guy around you for a considerable while afterwards and hate him. I have a roommate who is female so I don't fear her fucking my girlfriend... It seems to be a working solution, some of our friends don't get how we can be roommates... weird people... I'd suggest bitch to her, bitch to him, and move into another place... They're not worth it.
So let us fight back! Let us create a network beyond the control of corporate interests (look up the word corpocracy in a better dictionary than you would find in most places) and have no troubles with filtering, restrictions, or threats. Let us create a wireless network and unite all the small networks around the world and not let our net be taken over by profit-seekers. Let us run a non-profit organization that we all join, that would employ people to create and run the network, collect membership fees and be the official owner of the network, and let us all join it. That way we would be helping the world's economy, creating jobs AND have a network that is safe from corporate evilness. In fact, this could be done in every industry that is threatened by monopolists. A non-profit organization would be the ultimate solution, as it can employ people, but seeks only to break even. Let us unite and create something that will serve us all. All an individual user would need is a wireless router with a specific routing algorithm. We can do this! Who's with me?
Physics by Giancoli
Introducing Pure Mathematics by Robert Smedley and Garry Wiseman
Further Pure Mathematics by Brian Gaulter and Mark Gaulter
In addition, I would recommend several maths books:
Discrete Mathemathics for New Technology by R.Garnier and J. Taylor
A First Course in Abstract Algebra by John B. Fraleigh
Of course also the asimov books others have mentioned. The Introducing and Further books are very interesting since they start from zero and go to quite advanced calculus concepts, yet attemp to cover all important mathematical concepts in existence. They take a while to read, but it's worth it.
Unforunately, Li-ion cells have a higher voltage than a single AA cell. Therefore it is unlikely that they will make it into simple AA batteries (that would require a regulator, and those are big and generate heat) I am not quite sure what the voltage of the pair in a Li-ion battery is (chemistry book is on the shelf, but can't bother...) but it is certainly higher than 1.5 volts.
I want my free phone
Well, the marginal cost of an additional phone call is zero all the way untill the cell's or network's limit is reached. Phone calls could be free, if users owned and maintained the infrastructure
my free internet
Similarly, if users owned routers and interconnections, the marginal cost of network use would be zero. Only the fixed costs would have to be paid
my free electricity as well
Once there is a source of cheap, low-scale power production that is clean and efficient, everyone could produce their own electricity, again at a marginal cost of zero. See slashdot discussion of the topic from a few days ago
My point? As Tony Walter said in his 1989 book, what is physically possible could be economically possible. It is not impossible to have free infrastructure, but it cannot be implemented by profit-seeking commercial entities, or it will not be free. Similarly information could be free, since the marginal cost of reproducing information is zero. A society where information is free and use of infrastructure is free, innovation will increase rapidly. People will no longer be afraid to discuss their ideas because they cannot afford to communicate or because they are afraid that someone will steal their ideas. A good analogy would be a shop owned by its customers, where they could never be afraid of too-high prices, since where would the profits go? Back to the customers themselves.
I've said this before (check my earlier postings), but basic income would solve this problem and many others. It is based on the idea that everyone has the right to do unpaid work as well as paid work, and any combination of the two, and still have a reasonable income. Look it up on citizensincome.org or wikipedia.
Well, then again, in Finland, Joni is a common boy's name. go figure...
uhm...ipmatrices?
or... iphypercubes?
that might actually work... (idea for 2.8)
yes, it is, and that is a good thing. I think that in a fair community unpaid work should be encouraged and (paradox) paid for. Schemes like citizen's income build upon the idea that one should be free to do paid or unpaid work, in any proportion, and still have a living. Look it up, or check my earlier post on the subject in another discussion.
I have been thinking about this issue somewhat, and personally I feel that open-source development is, from the point of view of the community, much more valuable than closed-source development, and should be rewarded accordingly.
I am currently researching the cost of a model for basic income which would, in its final form, make it possible for people to do either paid or unpaid work and still make a living.
Basically there would be little difference between being a low-paid programmer and being an independent open source developer.
Some information on this is available at this site (btw, for some reason this site does not show right in mozilla, opera or konqueror. It works with links -g after hitting backslash. Any ideas?)
I think citizen's income would increase the rate of open-source development significantly, and people working in low-paid, unpleasant jobs would get paid much, much more...