But what gives the government the right to squash any private business just because they believe they can do the job better?
Uh, because they can do it better?
Consider, if the town doesn't provide competative service then no one will use it. Just because the Telco's exercise monopoly or near monopoly control over local telephone service does not entitle them to a monopoly over broadband as well.
In fact, the Telcos aren't providing adequate broadband service now, because if the were the municiple option wouldn't even be under consideration. That should be self-evident to everyone.
Plus, this is an issue of local control. Citizens have the greatest amount of control over their smallest, most local, entities -- in this case towns. I would expect that only towns that want their local government to provide broadband will actually go ahead and do so.
What the world needs here is a JS plug-in that works with all major browsers (or a version for each) so that there really is a compatible language across them.
I'd give this article an Obvious -1 simply because it is axiomatic, and everybody should have realized by now that There is no 'safe' web browser. Especially how after it was demonstrated that a Firefox exploit allowed infection of IE when IE itself would have blocked the malware site. Cute!
Actually, the cutting edge of CGI is to put dirt into the image. Compare Toy Story 2 to Toy Story to see the evolution. There's an art to it, and the intent to make a less than perfect world.
So when will Microsoft have to comply with these requirements? I heard they've been reportedly flouting the e-mail retention rules for by designating some completely unrelated person(s) as the project leads so that if they ever get called to turn over "relevant e-mails on specified projects", they turn over ones for people who where truly not involved while destroying the incriminating ones.
This came out during a trial where MS appeared to partner with a software company on smartphones, and then terminated the agreement after seeing the technology. Shortly afterwards they announced their own product that had suspiciously similar features to the technology of the cut-out company.
Library officials say the added security is necessary to ensure people who are using the computers are who they say they are.
And this is important to know because...
Okay, they make the case that it identified the perp of a criminal act that included using the computer. A weak point, but I'll have to give them that one.
The stored numeric data cannot be used to reconstruct a fingerprint, West said, nor can it be cross-referenced with other fingerprint databases such as those kept by the FBI or the Illinois State Police.
Not unless the other police agencies start using the same system, in which case each should come up with the same unique identifying number, wouldn't you bet?
Officials promise to protect the confidentiality of the fingerprint records.
Don't know about you, but I'd feel a lot better if they stated just how long they planed to maintain these records, and how they would be destroyed afterwards. That is truly a missing piece of information in the original article.
Do you remember DIVX? DVDs that automatically degrade after 48 hours?
DIVX DVDs didn't degrade. That was a different marketing attempt.
The DIVX player allowed playing of a DIVX DVD a given number of times, and then would play it any more unless the consumer purchased unlimited play rights. It had a telephone connection and an internal memory of which discs were authorized for unlimited play. Aside from the many problems associated with the format (can't sell or loan a disc you've purchased, what happens when your player breaks or is stolen, more expensive), even the carrot of cheaper discs for limited play and the stick (threatened, but never happened) of DIVX-only releases couldn't convince the average consumer to support the format. It's gone, dead, and not missed.
There are so many things wrong here it's just a question of where to start:
It will be an interesting demonstration of technical abilities, but who is going to pay more for player that's harder to use?
Until the players are widely adopted, what movie company is going to release their product exclusively in such a limited format? So we have a chicken and egg problem.
Requiring the buyer to be present kills off all mail order and gift sales. Bye bye Amazon.
This encoding equipment would need to be at all retail locations. Hello higher prices! And don't forget lost sales when the equipment fails.
No more rental market. Bye bye Netflix and Blockbuster.
And the real secret agenda here: No more used DVD sales! Every viewer has to buy a new DVD!!
While the last part is an MPAA wet dream come true, they'd have to virtually end their highly profitable DVD sales until they could force consumers to buy the new players. Then it becomes a tug-o-war over will the consumers buy new, much more restrictive, players just to keep watching movies, or will the movie studios lose their immensely profitable home market DVD sales.
My guess, this is another DIVX fiasco in the making. A system that works, does what it is intended to do, and will never sell. There really is a limit to the stupidity of the consumers, and I think this exceeds it.
Even if the government mandates all new player have this feature (and survives the next election after doing so), they can't force you to buy them.
highest piracy rates were Vietnam, Ukraine, China, Zimbabwe and Indonesia
United States, New Zealand, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom had the lowest.
I could list those same countries as most friendly to the USA and least friendly, and be equally accurate.
And while you can say that the AoE (Axis of Evil) countries are even less friendly to the USA, piracy rates are probably down there because AoE countries prevent many citizens from having computers as well -- not to mention that the BSA isn't particularly welcome there either.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't wait to see how this copy plays in my car player.
For that matter, aren't WMA files just files? Can't the be copied like any other files?
Of course it does. Right next to "filibuster". Everyone knows that word is in the Constitution. Find one and you'll find them both.
Uh, because they can do it better?
Consider, if the town doesn't provide competative service then no one will use it. Just because the Telco's exercise monopoly or near monopoly control over local telephone service does not entitle them to a monopoly over broadband as well.
In fact, the Telcos aren't providing adequate broadband service now, because if the were the municiple option wouldn't even be under consideration. That should be self-evident to everyone.
Plus, this is an issue of local control. Citizens have the greatest amount of control over their smallest, most local, entities -- in this case towns. I would expect that only towns that want their local government to provide broadband will actually go ahead and do so.
And this is the way it should be.
We do the first thing we always do: Figure out how to kill it, if necessary.
Then we sign it to a 3-picture deal in Hollywood.
World Peace would be nice too.
I'd give this article an Obvious -1 simply because it is axiomatic, and everybody should have realized by now that There is no 'safe' web browser. Especially how after it was demonstrated that a Firefox exploit allowed infection of IE when IE itself would have blocked the malware site. Cute!
Apple is going to use Itantium processors, which will keep them immune from current viruses.
Or Ghost the drive once and every time she complains it isn't running well, restore the Ghost image. She is responsible for protecting any other data.
She sounds like one very spoiled child to me - which is completely the fault of her parents!
Now maybe finally can we move Slashdot to BT and harness the power of distributed computing to satisfy our insanely increasing needs to geek trivia?
Sounds like the Amiga approach to me.
Buy a PS3?
This has the sound of the next Slashdot Fortune Cookie in the making -- or should I say in the baking?
Everyone involved in this should be in jail Now! Ten years apiece is a good start.
And I don't mean Club Fed either.
Fortunately, I have the Miracle of Compound Interest working in my favor.
Actually, the cutting edge of CGI is to put dirt into the image. Compare Toy Story 2 to Toy Story to see the evolution. There's an art to it, and the intent to make a less than perfect world.
Don't forget C3P0, who can talk his way through systems in 6 million dialects -- including the binary langauge of Load Lifters!
This came out during a trial where MS appeared to partner with a software company on smartphones, and then terminated the agreement after seeing the technology. Shortly afterwards they announced their own product that had suspiciously similar features to the technology of the cut-out company.
And this is important to know because...
Okay, they make the case that it identified the perp of a criminal act that included using the computer. A weak point, but I'll have to give them that one.
The stored numeric data cannot be used to reconstruct a fingerprint, West said, nor can it be cross-referenced with other fingerprint databases such as those kept by the FBI or the Illinois State Police.
Not unless the other police agencies start using the same system, in which case each should come up with the same unique identifying number, wouldn't you bet?
Officials promise to protect the confidentiality of the fingerprint records.
Don't know about you, but I'd feel a lot better if they stated just how long they planed to maintain these records, and how they would be destroyed afterwards. That is truly a missing piece of information in the original article.
Obviously no Free Speech rights in Spain -- even in the university system.
DIVX DVDs didn't degrade. That was a different marketing attempt.
The DIVX player allowed playing of a DIVX DVD a given number of times, and then would play it any more unless the consumer purchased unlimited play rights. It had a telephone connection and an internal memory of which discs were authorized for unlimited play. Aside from the many problems associated with the format (can't sell or loan a disc you've purchased, what happens when your player breaks or is stolen, more expensive), even the carrot of cheaper discs for limited play and the stick (threatened, but never happened) of DIVX-only releases couldn't convince the average consumer to support the format. It's gone, dead, and not missed.
What is missed here is this lesson from history.
It will be an interesting demonstration of technical abilities, but who is going to pay more for player that's harder to use?
Until the players are widely adopted, what movie company is going to release their product exclusively in such a limited format? So we have a chicken and egg problem.
Requiring the buyer to be present kills off all mail order and gift sales. Bye bye Amazon.
This encoding equipment would need to be at all retail locations. Hello higher prices! And don't forget lost sales when the equipment fails.
No more rental market. Bye bye Netflix and Blockbuster.
And the real secret agenda here: No more used DVD sales! Every viewer has to buy a new DVD!!
While the last part is an MPAA wet dream come true, they'd have to virtually end their highly profitable DVD sales until they could force consumers to buy the new players. Then it becomes a tug-o-war over will the consumers buy new, much more restrictive, players just to keep watching movies, or will the movie studios lose their immensely profitable home market DVD sales.
My guess, this is another DIVX fiasco in the making. A system that works, does what it is intended to do, and will never sell. There really is a limit to the stupidity of the consumers, and I think this exceeds it.
Even if the government mandates all new player have this feature (and survives the next election after doing so), they can't force you to buy them.
United States, New Zealand, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom had the lowest.
I could list those same countries as most friendly to the USA and least friendly, and be equally accurate.
And while you can say that the AoE (Axis of Evil) countries are even less friendly to the USA, piracy rates are probably down there because AoE countries prevent many citizens from having computers as well -- not to mention that the BSA isn't particularly welcome there either.
But how many of them are still posting to Slashdot?
Until then it's all threats and scares.