Is it your place in the world to say what is RIM's place in the world? Or are you a qualified and legal opinion-giver? Or are you acting under a warrant?
It is the responsibility of every individual AND ORGANISATION to act upon their principles and beliefs. You get the society that you help build.
I agree that RIM should not normally break customer privacy without a warrant. But for every rule there is an exception. Blindly following rules is worse than having no rules.
I am watching my city burn and listening to many terrified people, and I thank RIM with all my heart for having the courage to do what is right, legal and just: to help stop or catch the small number of criminal perpetrators of this violence.
I am a BB user and a privacy-rights freak, but if RIM have broken my privacy in attempting to help, then so what? I wont mind **in this instance**, nor will the majority of London BB users.
Let's respect their legal rights, but fuck the privacy of the scum who are responsible for the violence.
---
Peace, and thoughts for all affected by the violence.
Not sure how this toolkit will help you with that. But if you want to get your Garmin tracks to/from Microsoft Streets&Trips or Autoroute, that is something st2gpx does well.
New machines are purchased with around 512MB of memory. That is enough to run more than 10 copies of this app
Ouch! That's a developers' cardinal sin: to assume everyone has a machine with the same specs as theirs.
When deploying an app for 'ubiquitous usage' you have to consider the older machines too, and that can mean less than 64MB.
Good free streetlevel data not likely anytime soon
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
You might be able to find free GIS data for your location and put together a map to suit your needs, but if you are looking for good quality detailed maps, then your project will be limited by your ability to assemble and verify the GIS data for each region.
The lack of free, accurate, detailed and comprehensive GIS data is *the* canonical problem obstructing development of free GIS software. We are talking about current street-level data, points of interest, geographic features, topographic data etc., preferably on a global scale.
There is certainly free data for various regions (esp. US, various sources already mentioned) and some of it is detailed and accurate, but it is generally not even close to the quality that users expect in comparison to commercial mapping products.
To give you an idea of the effort involved in assembling maps from available GIS sources, I have heard that Microsoft's mapping team has over a hundred GIS developers constructing the maps for their MapPoint/Streets&Trips/AutoRoute products. And MS mostly just assemble data they license from various commercial sources (which has already been cleaned and standardised before it reaches MS). These maps are actually very good for the price (I use them for driving around US and Europe). MS maps don't yet cover regions outside US and Europe because of lack of available mapping data in a usable format.
No flames please about US free data being sufficient - I am talking about the general problem, and although US free data is much much better than most places, it is still not up to the quality of commercial data.
Having said all that, there are some interesting projects using free data - e.g. Wissenbach Map uses free topographic and aerial maps and exchanges data with GPS receivers. There are also a large number of free programs (e.g. GPSBabel) for exchanging data with GPS receivers and the map file formats used by various GPS software vendors, and mapping programs which require the user to supply maps. Search for GPS or GIS on SourceForge for more projects. I also recall a project in Thailand where a couple of guys created their own maps by riding all over the country with GPS receivers and painstakingly adding information like road and location names.
Various people have suggested projects to develop an open source database of GIS to rival the commercial sources. That would enable a large number of cool apps that are not feasible otherwise. But this would be an enormous project - both the data collection and assembling it into maps. E.g. certain GIS data vendors have a number of vans out permanently driving US streets with GPS receivers - trying to cover all streets and keep them updated. They do this because the free data is too inaccurate and outdated.
What Lies Beneath: Why Cringley Should Write His Next Article on Toilet Paper
I was discussing this article with a friend, and he suggested that Cringley should write his next article on toilet paper. And you know, it actually makes some sense!
I once had a client who was a successful rapidly growing distributor having increasing trouble managing their files. Imagine my horror when I discovered that all the company's official correspondence was named "My Documents/letter1.doc" to "My Documents/letter8002.doc" etc. When I asked how they found the letters for a specific customer or supplier, I was shown a neatly ordered table on several dozen sheets of paper which listed all of all the electronic documents' file names along with the corresponding client name, date etc. After I then created the hierarchies for them (e.g./suppliers/ <region name>/<supplier name>/<document purpose>.doc) it still took several training sessions for them to get used to the concepts.
Ok, that worked for that companies files, but how do I manage the 100,000+ files just on my laptop (and no, it's not porn. Some of us have real lives and real data!)? Moore's law also applies to the amount of files collected by users on their hard drives, but we are rapidly reaching the limit of files we can manage (i.e. navigate, not store) with the traditional file systems.
This is a problem of sufficient complexity that it is probably beyond any single individual to solve. The existing hierarchal system is flexible and simple to use. It aint broke, but it is limited in its ability to support the management of a large amount of disparate but loosely linked information. However, getting a taxonomical attribute classification file system into the mainstream will require a quantum leap, as there are many problems to be solved to achieve the same simplicity as our existing solution.
A good attribute based file system is real hard:
They can be used for different purposes and users
Attributes should be hierarchal (classifying): E.g.: Operating System::\bin\bash, or Operating System::\system32\drivers\bin
Note that while it is possible to have strong taxonomies that are non hierarchal through use of multiple attributes, the hierarchical structure gives a richer and more precise language for the taxonomy. Also, simple attributes like "blue" are fairly meaningless - are we talking about "emotion\blue" or "color\blue"?
Need to have multiple attributes to achieve a full classification. E.g. Operating System::~\My Documents\, Applications::\Word\, User Classifications::~\work\\projects\
Classification data required should be minimal in the beginning
Need to classify files enough to maintain "sensible" uniqueness. Timestamps can differentiate between two files for uniqueness (e.g. financial reports#1999 Vs financial reports#2000), but more meaningful classifications can be found (e.g. financial reports#My tax Vs financial reports#Enron Corp). (Especially as file system timestamps often don't match the original time relevant to the content).
Classifications for existing content should evolve over time, i.e. more precise classification data should be added to old content as new content is added.
We need multiple layers to support such a file system:
Underlying file system, APIs etc
Applications that are taxonomically aware
GUI and command line based tools of equal capabilities
Tools for manually classifying content
Navigation tools that provide rapid, intuitive navigation of multiple dimensions
Users trained to understand the file system metaphors & mechanics
And then we need:
Intelligence tools to automatically suggest classification attributes based on the content and the systems learnt understanding of the user.
We need to know when to stop! Hey, we could build a full AI system to manage contextual relationships and understand content, but let's get the minimal set of features required to make the use of the system compelling.
SQL is not the answer here...
The metadata management risks and issues are similar to other file systems. Remember DOS compressed drives? Eventually MS achieved reliable file system compression in NTFS. Yes, this is complex and risky until the bugs are sorted out. No, I don't want to run a production system on an unstable filesystem.
So good luck to Manuel. This will be an area of much activity.
Slashdot Mirror
> BUT THAT ISN'T THEIR FUCKING PLACE IN THE WORLD
Is it your place in the world to say what is RIM's place in the world? Or are you a qualified and legal opinion-giver? Or are you acting under a warrant?
It is the responsibility of every individual AND ORGANISATION to act upon their principles and beliefs. You get the society that you help build.
I agree that RIM should not normally break customer privacy without a warrant. But for every rule there is an exception. Blindly following rules is worse than having no rules.
I am watching my city burn and listening to many terrified people, and I thank RIM with all my heart for having the courage to do what is right, legal and just: to help stop or catch the small number of criminal perpetrators of this violence.
I am a BB user and a privacy-rights freak, but if RIM have broken my privacy in attempting to help, then so what? I wont mind **in this instance**, nor will the majority of London BB users.
Let's respect their legal rights, but fuck the privacy of the scum who are responsible for the violence.
---
Peace, and thoughts for all affected by the violence.
Not sure how this toolkit will help you with that. But if you want to get your Garmin tracks to/from Microsoft Streets&Trips or Autoroute, that is something st2gpx does well.
Ouch! That's a developers' cardinal sin: to assume everyone has a machine with the same specs as theirs. When deploying an app for 'ubiquitous usage' you have to consider the older machines too, and that can mean less than 64MB.
The lack of free, accurate, detailed and comprehensive GIS data is *the* canonical problem obstructing development of free GIS software. We are talking about current street-level data, points of interest, geographic features, topographic data etc., preferably on a global scale.
There is certainly free data for various regions (esp. US, various sources already mentioned) and some of it is detailed and accurate, but it is generally not even close to the quality that users expect in comparison to commercial mapping products.
To give you an idea of the effort involved in assembling maps from available GIS sources, I have heard that Microsoft's mapping team has over a hundred GIS developers constructing the maps for their MapPoint/Streets&Trips/AutoRoute products. And MS mostly just assemble data they license from various commercial sources (which has already been cleaned and standardised before it reaches MS). These maps are actually very good for the price (I use them for driving around US and Europe). MS maps don't yet cover regions outside US and Europe because of lack of available mapping data in a usable format.
No flames please about US free data being sufficient - I am talking about the general problem, and although US free data is much much better than most places, it is still not up to the quality of commercial data.
Having said all that, there are some interesting projects using free data - e.g. Wissenbach Map uses free topographic and aerial maps and exchanges data with GPS receivers. There are also a large number of free programs (e.g. GPSBabel) for exchanging data with GPS receivers and the map file formats used by various GPS software vendors, and mapping programs which require the user to supply maps. Search for GPS or GIS on SourceForge for more projects. I also recall a project in Thailand where a couple of guys created their own maps by riding all over the country with GPS receivers and painstakingly adding information like road and location names.
Various people have suggested projects to develop an open source database of GIS to rival the commercial sources. That would enable a large number of cool apps that are not feasible otherwise. But this would be an enormous project - both the data collection and assembling it into maps. E.g. certain GIS data vendors have a number of vans out permanently driving US streets with GPS receivers - trying to cover all streets and keep them updated. They do this because the free data is too inaccurate and outdated.
What Lies Beneath: Why Cringley Should Write His Next Article on Toilet Paper
I was discussing this article with a friend, and he suggested that Cringley should write his next article on toilet paper. And you know, it actually makes some sense!
Ok, that worked for that companies files, but how do I manage the 100,000+ files just on my laptop (and no, it's not porn. Some of us have real lives and real data!)? Moore's law also applies to the amount of files collected by users on their hard drives, but we are rapidly reaching the limit of files we can manage (i.e. navigate, not store) with the traditional file systems.
This is a problem of sufficient complexity that it is probably beyond any single individual to solve. The existing hierarchal system is flexible and simple to use. It aint broke, but it is limited in its ability to support the management of a large amount of disparate but loosely linked information. However, getting a taxonomical attribute classification file system into the mainstream will require a quantum leap, as there are many problems to be solved to achieve the same simplicity as our existing solution.
A good attribute based file system is real hard:
They can be used for different purposes and users
Attributes should be hierarchal (classifying): E.g.: Operating System::\bin\bash, or Operating System::\system32\drivers\bin
Note that while it is possible to have strong taxonomies that are non hierarchal through use of multiple attributes, the hierarchical structure gives a richer and more precise language for the taxonomy. Also, simple attributes like "blue" are fairly meaningless - are we talking about "emotion\blue" or "color\blue"?
Need to have multiple attributes to achieve a full classification. E.g. Operating System::~\My Documents\, Applications::\Word\, User Classifications::~\work\\projects\
Classification data required should be minimal in the beginning
Need to classify files enough to maintain "sensible" uniqueness. Timestamps can differentiate between two files for uniqueness (e.g. financial reports#1999 Vs financial reports#2000), but more meaningful classifications can be found (e.g. financial reports#My tax Vs financial reports#Enron Corp). (Especially as file system timestamps often don't match the original time relevant to the content).
Classifications for existing content should evolve over time, i.e. more precise classification data should be added to old content as new content is added.
We need multiple layers to support such a file system:
Underlying file system, APIs etc
Applications that are taxonomically aware
GUI and command line based tools of equal capabilities
Tools for manually classifying content
Navigation tools that provide rapid, intuitive navigation of multiple dimensions
Users trained to understand the file system metaphors & mechanics
And then we need:
Intelligence tools to automatically suggest classification attributes based on the content and the systems learnt understanding of the user.
We need to know when to stop! Hey, we could build a full AI system to manage contextual relationships and understand content, but let's get the minimal set of features required to make the use of the system compelling.
SQL is not the answer here...
The metadata management risks and issues are similar to other file systems. Remember DOS compressed drives? Eventually MS achieved reliable file system compression in NTFS. Yes, this is complex and risky until the bugs are sorted out. No, I don't want to run a production system on an unstable filesystem.
So good luck to Manuel. This will be an area of much activity.