You think that's bad... why 10 years ago, the company I worked for (a networking solutions provider) only had a 64 Kbps IDSN connection to the Internet, with a USENET feed from the local university. There was such a backlog of traffic that any messages announcing a presentation or talk one week in advance, would arrive three days after the event had occurred.
An ISDN line would cost 1000 pounds/year, and a state of the art modem could only run at 14.4K
Even now, my cable model service consistently does downloads at 64Kbytes/second, compared to the university network which slows down to 4K/second from the same server.
And if you think broadband is expensive, the local call rates for student residences are 10 pence (15 cents)/minute!
Reminds me of the time I completed Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time. The hardest part for me was the idea of giving up time travel and going back to playing in forest. That's my reward for saving the universe from the dark forces??? I've a better plan: How about I go back to the forest and keep the ocarina as a memento? That seems a better deal:)
Don't forget to wipe your fingerprints off the pages and the covers.
There was a story some time back about how an attempted murder was proved by checking out the book records of a suspect, and then searching for fingerprints on the relevant pages (The suspect had read up on some rare untraceable chemical), but hadn't figured that if it were an rare untraceable chemical, very few people would be clued up on its existance.
Suppose you choose to buy a designer label, or
you get it as a present. Now, some streetwise muggers hang around with a RFID detector, looking for "valuable items". Even if you're wearing a cheap jacket, you instantly become a target. If extended to clothing, there will be bound to be some correlation with particular brands of clothing and particular neighbourhoods. If RFID tags were embedded in Rolex watches, there would be an instant correlation between ID tags and wealth.
There used to be stories about kids who were being mugged for having designer sneakers.
Other minor invasions of privacy: If RFID tags were attached to underwear, you could find out someone's dimensions without having to measure them, and even know their favourite pattern/color.
I remember the controversy that Realplayer introduced after it was reported that the player sent back the file paths/links to Real Networks. Is there the danger that Microsoft might try and do this with the components of the media player?
I guess they want to make sure that their DRM technology is universal.
Performing a hex dump of your multimedia files may become a violation of the RIAA:)
Yes, it's just amazing how much fibre there is around the UK, yet so difficult to access.
Ten years ago, the pavement outside my flat was dug up to install a 2 Gigabyte fibre path for the local university. At the same time, PC's were stuck with 14K modems or ISDN.
Last year, I moved to a newly built complex. Even though there were underground conduits in the street for the national telecom providers and the local cable TV company, no ducting existed that would allow connection to the flats. And the satellite TV didn't work, since the
dish was pointed to an analogue service.
Finally, I'm in a Telewest area and have broadband service. Excellent even with the fiasco of the 2-Mbit trial service.
Give up on trying to push BT to provide broadband service for rural communities. They will only move when there is competition from the cable companies. The pressure should be on getting cable TV service to rural villages.
(How much would it cost to install a couple of satellite dishes, head-end and have the village streets cabled with fibre?)
1. Graphics accelerators are primarily designed for Direct3D command interface first. Some OpenGL drivers might simply convert OpenGL commands into Direct3D commands.
2. Vendors may use proprietary optimisations in the device driver. This might include triangle stripification, deferred rendering or caching.
3. Vendors may also use cross-licensed technology from other sources. Any NDA would prevent the disclosure of this information.
The only way to have true free device drivers would be to have an open standard for hardware control. That is extremely unlikely to happen.
Because they haven't had the time to do any real empirical research in the area they are working in.
With so many small companies, they are in a rush to find a solution to a problem. They will use the first solution that is practical. Since it may be new and original, management assume that it is worth patenting. If for no other reason, than to make the company appear as if it has some "valuable IP", keep the share price up and the shareholders happy. Given the chance to sit back and see the bigger picture, the designers would more than likely see more efficient solutions.
I would expect that the research in a patent should be of a greater standard than that of a Master's thesis project or maybe even that of a Ph.D. At least the author' should be required to prove they have done some research. The patent office always assumes that this has taken place.
However, anything that raised the cost of filing patents of the reach of small companies would be considered to be "stifling innovation". Not because it actually did so, but because it kept the stock prices down.
Strangely enough, over here in the UK it is possible to download adverts from various websites:
http://www.visit4info.com
http://www.absoluteandy.com
After 20 to 30 years, adverts achieve cult status
and live on happily in our memories:
http://www.tv-ark.co.uk
Or maybe, it's because the adverts are more entertaining that the schedules.
I would be a bit concerned about the storage of personal details on an RF-emitting device as well.
Our local bus company has a smartcard system which stores the expiry date, name, address, and credit details of the user on each card.
I really wouldn't like the idea of having this information being held on a RF-emitting device.
That would seem only likely to increase the
chances of identity theft.
Criminals have already set up fake ATM machines.
Setting up a fake smart-card transceiver would seem even easier.
If you wait long enough, then some day a cosmic ray will strike a computer system at exactly the same time as your are entering the root password.
The result ionization will cause the compare
function to return a match, and you will gain
access!
The television fee or television license is also charged on anything that can decode video signals, including USB TV receivers, PVR cards and handheld receivers. The cost of the license is around £120/year for a colour TV (black/white TV's used to be cheaper - around 90 pounds).
Whenever you buy anything that receives broadcast signals using a credit card, your personal details (name/address) are sent to the TVLA (TV licensing authority).
It's a theoretical argument, but if the BBC were to make all channels available via streamed media then every computer would likely have to
be licensed.
Fortunately, the UK is looking for alternative ways to fund the BBC (not through advertising, though as that would upset ITV).
There are even detector vans that are supposed to be able to locate TV sets. I've seen one in
England. A normal white van with white on blue text stating the authority. The most noticable feature was four X antennae on each upper corner of the van. Each antennae was about 60cm long from tip to tip.
The register had a good article on this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/14104.html
You could always put the item in a microwave for a short period of time - say 5-10 seconds.
That should fry any electronics.
Be careful of those zips and bolts. They might get a tadge hot.
>Aside from the different default color and button theme, nobody really noticed a difference
The upgrade went smoothly.
If you allow all the small changes to accumulate then on the day you do upgrade, it will be like hitting a brick wall.
If your users were upgrading from Windows 3.1 to Windows XP, they would probably have experienced far more difficulty in adjusting.
--
After20 years of evolution, the PC has gained a Windows logo button, but [F1] is the closest there is to a help button.
AOL is one. I once went on holiday in France
(from the UK) and decided to upgrade to a
French version of AOL while over there.
It didn't take long to find out that AOL (and many other applications) just install the latest version of any DLL that they use.
I found this out, because the directory folders
and many of the Message Boxes were now in French.
There are still some Peruvian fichiers lurking in my download directory.
No, you install a gate, with a large padlock.
One time we lived in a house with an outdoor tap (faucet?) for the garden.
One quarter we received a water bill for around 6000 gallons of water. It didn't add up - there weren't any leaks. And the other residents didn't come home until late, with the exception for a construction site that was busy 24 hours/day.
Early one morning we noticed that there was a large pipe crossing the road from a construction site to our front driveway. So we stayed stayed up late that night. To our surprise one of the workers came across and attached the hose pipe to
our tap. They were skimming off the contract money for the water used to mix concrete, while getting us to pay for the water!
So we put a padlock on the gate - problem solved!
We managed to explain the situation to the water board. They sent an inspector out to monitor the water usage of the construction site. The
builders had to explain the sudden increase in their budget spending.
And no more free beer parties!
Perhaps this will force the use of more advanced web cache's.
Or maybe they will develop better ways of indexing download information. Since using broadband to work at home, it's much easier to open up a web browser window and go for the online manual pages of many applications rather than rooting around my disk space for the downloaded zips and installing the many different
versions.
>In phase one, the only details that will be entered are name, address and Meter Point Asset >Number - the number in the corner of every household electricity bill which is unique to that property.
This is excellent idea except for a few minor details. It is possible for tenants in a property to share the same the same meter. A couple of cases come to mind: students sharing flats, or a summer student renting a room in a family home. Do you really want someone with a short tenancy agreement to have access to a security code.
If one of these numbers is used in fraud, it would be impossible to have the number changed. What happens if the meter has to be replaced. Do you have to inform BT of this change?
Why on earth do they need to use meter numbers for. Using hashed National Survey map coordinates would seem to be far more practical.
This idea only seems to increase the chances of increasing the chance of mail theft.
Slashdot Mirror
You think that's bad... why 10 years ago, the company I worked for (a networking solutions provider) only had a 64 Kbps IDSN connection to the Internet, with a USENET feed from the local university. There was such a backlog of traffic that any messages announcing a presentation or talk one week in advance, would arrive three days after the event had occurred. An ISDN line would cost 1000 pounds/year, and a state of the art modem could only run at 14.4K Even now, my cable model service consistently does downloads at 64Kbytes/second, compared to the university network which slows down to 4K/second from the same server. And if you think broadband is expensive, the local call rates for student residences are 10 pence (15 cents)/minute!
And sues the zoo for not placing a warning sign where it could be seen...
Reminds me of the time I completed Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time. The hardest part for me was the idea of giving up time travel and going back to playing in forest. That's my reward for saving the universe from the dark forces??? I've a better plan: How about I go back to the forest and keep the ocarina as a memento? That seems a better deal :)
Don't forget to wipe your fingerprints off the pages and the covers.
There was a story some time back about how an attempted murder was proved by checking out the book records of a suspect, and then searching for fingerprints on the relevant pages (The suspect had read up on some rare untraceable chemical), but hadn't figured that if it were an rare untraceable chemical, very few people would be clued up on its existance.
Suppose you choose to buy a designer label, or you get it as a present. Now, some streetwise muggers hang around with a RFID detector, looking for "valuable items". Even if you're wearing a cheap jacket, you instantly become a target. If extended to clothing, there will be bound to be some correlation with particular brands of clothing and particular neighbourhoods. If RFID tags were embedded in Rolex watches, there would be an instant correlation between ID tags and wealth. There used to be stories about kids who were being mugged for having designer sneakers. Other minor invasions of privacy: If RFID tags were attached to underwear, you could find out someone's dimensions without having to measure them, and even know their favourite pattern/color.
I remember the controversy that Realplayer introduced after it was reported that the player sent back the file paths/links to Real Networks.
:)
Is there the danger that Microsoft might try and do this with the components of the media player?
I guess they want to make sure that their DRM technology is universal.
Performing a hex dump of your multimedia files may become a violation of the RIAA
Yes, it's just amazing how much fibre there is around the UK, yet so difficult to access. Ten years ago, the pavement outside my flat was dug up to install a 2 Gigabyte fibre path for the local university. At the same time, PC's were stuck with 14K modems or ISDN. Last year, I moved to a newly built complex. Even though there were underground conduits in the street for the national telecom providers and the local cable TV company, no ducting existed that would allow connection to the flats. And the satellite TV didn't work, since the dish was pointed to an analogue service. Finally, I'm in a Telewest area and have broadband service. Excellent even with the fiasco of the 2-Mbit trial service. Give up on trying to push BT to provide broadband service for rural communities. They will only move when there is competition from the cable companies. The pressure should be on getting cable TV service to rural villages. (How much would it cost to install a couple of satellite dishes, head-end and have the village streets cabled with fibre?)
>Geologists have confirmed that LA was built right over a faultline,
Looking on the bright side, that's better than having LA built wrongly over a faultline,
It won't happen, for at least three reasons:
1. Graphics accelerators are primarily designed for Direct3D command interface first. Some OpenGL drivers might simply convert OpenGL commands into Direct3D commands.
2. Vendors may use proprietary optimisations in the device driver. This might include triangle stripification, deferred rendering or caching.
3. Vendors may also use cross-licensed technology from other sources. Any NDA would prevent the disclosure of this information.
The only way to have true free device drivers would be to have an open standard for hardware control. That is extremely unlikely to happen.
Because they haven't had the time to do any real empirical research in the area they are working in.
With so many small companies, they are in a rush to find a solution to a problem. They will use the first solution that is practical. Since it may be new and original, management assume that it is worth patenting. If for no other reason, than to make the company appear as if it has some "valuable IP", keep the share price up and the shareholders happy. Given the chance to sit back and see the bigger picture, the designers would more than likely see more efficient solutions.
I would expect that the research in a patent should be of a greater standard than that of a Master's thesis project or maybe even that of a Ph.D. At least the author' should be required to prove they have done some research. The patent office always assumes that this has taken place.
However, anything that raised the cost of filing patents of the reach of small companies would be considered to be "stifling innovation". Not because it actually did so, but because it kept the stock prices down.
Strangely enough, over here in the UK it is possible to download adverts from various websites: http://www.visit4info.com http://www.absoluteandy.com After 20 to 30 years, adverts achieve cult status and live on happily in our memories: http://www.tv-ark.co.uk Or maybe, it's because the adverts are more entertaining that the schedules.
A few 'thumpers' hidden in the woods would be hard to detect. (From a Sci-Fi story I read several times, but forgot the title).
I would be a bit concerned about the storage of personal details on an RF-emitting device as well. Our local bus company has a smartcard system which stores the expiry date, name, address, and credit details of the user on each card. I really wouldn't like the idea of having this information being held on a RF-emitting device. That would seem only likely to increase the chances of identity theft. Criminals have already set up fake ATM machines. Setting up a fake smart-card transceiver would seem even easier.
If you wait long enough, then some day a cosmic ray will strike a computer system at exactly the same time as your are entering the root password. The result ionization will cause the compare function to return a match, and you will gain access!
Not unless you use a wireless keyboard with encrypted infra-red/RF communication.
Before we start terraforming other planets, I'd like to see if it were possible to terraform the large deserts (Sahara) into something useful.
The television fee or television license is also charged on anything that can decode video signals, including USB TV receivers, PVR cards and handheld receivers. The cost of the license is around £120/year for a colour TV (black/white TV's used to be cheaper - around 90 pounds). Whenever you buy anything that receives broadcast signals using a credit card, your personal details (name/address) are sent to the TVLA (TV licensing authority). It's a theoretical argument, but if the BBC were to make all channels available via streamed media then every computer would likely have to be licensed. Fortunately, the UK is looking for alternative ways to fund the BBC (not through advertising, though as that would upset ITV). There are even detector vans that are supposed to be able to locate TV sets. I've seen one in England. A normal white van with white on blue text stating the authority. The most noticable feature was four X antennae on each upper corner of the van. Each antennae was about 60cm long from tip to tip. The register had a good article on this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/14104.html
You could always put the item in a microwave for a short period of time - say 5-10 seconds. That should fry any electronics. Be careful of those zips and bolts. They might get a tadge hot.
>Aside from the different default color and button theme, nobody really noticed a difference The upgrade went smoothly. If you allow all the small changes to accumulate then on the day you do upgrade, it will be like hitting a brick wall. If your users were upgrading from Windows 3.1 to Windows XP, they would probably have experienced far more difficulty in adjusting. -- After20 years of evolution, the PC has gained a Windows logo button, but [F1] is the closest there is to a help button.
You could always put a bit of masking tape over the camera lens.
AOL is one. I once went on holiday in France (from the UK) and decided to upgrade to a French version of AOL while over there. It didn't take long to find out that AOL (and many other applications) just install the latest version of any DLL that they use. I found this out, because the directory folders and many of the Message Boxes were now in French. There are still some Peruvian fichiers lurking in my download directory.
No, you install a gate, with a large padlock. One time we lived in a house with an outdoor tap (faucet?) for the garden. One quarter we received a water bill for around 6000 gallons of water. It didn't add up - there weren't any leaks. And the other residents didn't come home until late, with the exception for a construction site that was busy 24 hours/day. Early one morning we noticed that there was a large pipe crossing the road from a construction site to our front driveway. So we stayed stayed up late that night. To our surprise one of the workers came across and attached the hose pipe to our tap. They were skimming off the contract money for the water used to mix concrete, while getting us to pay for the water! So we put a padlock on the gate - problem solved! We managed to explain the situation to the water board. They sent an inspector out to monitor the water usage of the construction site. The builders had to explain the sudden increase in their budget spending. And no more free beer parties!
Perhaps this will force the use of more advanced web cache's. Or maybe they will develop better ways of indexing download information. Since using broadband to work at home, it's much easier to open up a web browser window and go for the online manual pages of many applications rather than rooting around my disk space for the downloaded zips and installing the many different versions.
>In phase one, the only details that will be entered are name, address and Meter Point Asset >Number - the number in the corner of every household electricity bill which is unique to that property.
This is excellent idea except for a few minor details. It is possible for tenants in a property to share the same the same meter. A couple of cases come to mind: students sharing flats, or a summer student renting a room in a family home.
Do you really want someone with a short tenancy
agreement to have access to a security code.
If one of these numbers is used in fraud, it would be impossible to have the number changed.
What happens if the meter has to be replaced. Do you have to inform BT of this change?
Why on earth do they need to use meter numbers for. Using hashed National Survey map coordinates would seem to be far more practical.
This idea only seems to increase the chances of increasing the chance of mail theft.
Just think .. if one of these puppies gets stolen, you'll get a mugshot of the perpetrator.