"What, any files at all? How would you sell hard drives that are that crippled?"
If the ATA standard has CPRM built in and the content providers put enough pressure on hardware manufacturers to limit the market it doesn't really matter. Which is the crux of my argument.
"Or you mean files stored in a particular format? In that case you'd just use a different format. Once encrypted the hard drive can't possibly know what's in the file."
If the content producer/distributor only sells content in one format (say Windows Media Player) and it is illegal to break the encryption to put the content in another format then what?
I agree that most napster users will move to other apps to get their free music fix. But what if the hard drives and other storage mediums don't allow files to be stored that aren't signed with some sort of industry certificate?
I'm talking about things John Gilmore's article:http://www.toad.com/gnu/whatswrong.html or Microsoft's DRM built into XP/Whistler.
Doesn't matter if I have the right to do such things if the hardware industry doesn't allow the market to have such things. I'd hate to have to go the China to get such things (and unlikely in the near future given their pending WTO membership status).
"Here's a novel idea -- how about we drop the slogans and the desperate scramble to make sure the 'people' understand. They will never understand. There will always be some people who just follow along with what's going on.
Issues like this should be dealt with by people that *understand* them."
That's the attitude the politicos and law enforcement agencies have! "Leave everything to us. We know what is best for you." They firmly believe they know what they are doing (and probably do 90% of the time).
Why not simply require bright yellow lights on the roof of cars? Then have the computer trigger these when the cars exceed the limit? Then everybody can see how much people speed!
Content distributors have too many laws tha favor them at the moment. Fair use is needed. Here's my middle ground of what I think Fair Use should include:
1. the user can reformat the purchased material for personal use provided other rights are not broken. For example, I should be able to rip out the audio track of a DVD to CD. I think copies should be allowed, but the copies should be sterile (no copies of a copy). However, I couldn't reformat material in order to make a profit from it.
2. the user should be able to extract portions of purchased material for what has been traditional examples of "Fair Use".
To supplement this reexamine the length of copyright. No copyrights should extend after the death of the author. Also limit the length of time patents are exclusive monopolies. Patents are used to restrict access.
Also note that th ebiggest issue will become access, not rights. If you have the right to record a timeshifted "Friends" HDTV episode, but cannot buy a set top box that allows that, the end result is the same - no recording.
While FASA did stand for Freedonian Air and Space Association, that name first appeared on a Traveller supplement (SONTAG?), which IIRC, was their first product. But I don' tthink they were a full company then.
"Hail, hail Fredonia, land of the free and brave!" - Duck Soup
Being in Australia I had a unique (for me) viewpoint on the commercials. Thank God I didn't see them! Sure I saw the computer projected Kodak ads on the field and that horrible spinning sign in one of the endzones. And I did see FedEx also projected onto the grass on the field, but that's it.
Fox Sports carried the game here and there were no US commercials on it. Even the voiceovers for CBS shows (and the sideline commentary) were removed. Instead I saw a lot of shots of the Superbowl audience and players with no sound. I also saw a few ads for Aussie sports on Fox Sports, but that was maybe every 3-4 US breaks and lasted a fraction of the time the US spots run.
I telll ya nothing like seeing the world's biggest commercial showcase absent the commercials!
I have confidence that nobody will see this as informative.
All the DVDs I have bought from Hong Kong are region free. They may not always have the highest quality added features, but at least the market is smart enough there to realize they can make more money by selling to the world rather than a variety of regions.
In that regard, not having major international distribution capability is an *advantage* in the market. Maybe if the Australian film and distribution industry went region free, then we'd have a story.
Since themes.org aparently had these on there for more than a few hours my guess is Apple is cracking down in anticipation of MacWorld in early January. Probably don't want anything resembling Aqua to be seen or cause confusion to the general public or press.
And Apple doesn't care about their rep in the Open Source sphere. They crap on their loyalest buyers all the time.
"Many of the CSS changes I would make showed up fine in netscape 4.7x but were broken badly in all versions of ie. To those of you who think IE 5 on the mac is 100% CSS1 compliant you are full of shit. My stylesheet and code have both qualified as 100% compliant and it had a very wrong rendering of it."
I am VERY sceptical of this. Are you coding CSS-2 features and having problems? Can you give me some examples of where IE5 Mac doesn't work but Netscape 4 does? Are you sure what the correct rendering even is?
I've been using CSS since IE3 and I can tell you as a FACT that Netscape 4.x's CSS is the worst (since IE3 has disappeared). It not only doesn't support a large percentage of CSS-1 (no CSS-2 support at all), but a lot of what it does support simply doesn't work or work correctly.
Go take a look at the master grid over at style.webreview.com or the issues lists over at css.nu and tell me again that Netscape 4.x has better CSS support than IE5.
I'm not saying IE5 Mac is 100% CSS-1 compliant (I suspect it is in the high 90% range though) but I know it is a hell of a lot better and more consistent than Netscape 4.x
Also make sure you are using the right DOC TYPE when making your page cuz IE5 Mac will use that to determine how it handles CSS issues. But then you know that don't you?
Last I knew the popular vote didn't determine the presidential outcome, the electoral college did. And Votescam is an intriguing book with examples of voting fraud.
Far be it for me to determine what is the public good, but here are some things I would find against the public good:
unjustified excessively high prices to consumers
barriers to entry from individual companies or cartels (similar to the baby Bells now)
failure to adhere to industry standards while operating at the 3G spectrum
It's not content that is for or against the public good, but rather behaviors that violate the licences to use the spectrum. For example, using a device that interferes with competing technology.
Anyway, it does make to much sense for the gov't to lease. I know its money that calls the shots, but if the idea is floated, maybe the mainstream will get a clue.
With all the government largesse when it comes to selling off the public airwaves, why not lease the frequencies to those businesses that want to use them? Then hold the companies accountable for ensuring the public good is served. Sort of like the theory that TV and radio stations can have their licences revoked for not serving the public good.
Wouldn't the government then have a consistent source of income rather than a once off payment?
Because nobody is innocent. If somebody wanted all your habits they just watch your behavior. While this can be done via credit and financial records, the trash or even old fashioned spying, it was often resource intensive and provided an incomplete record. Some of the means of gathering that data may fall into legal gray zones.
The difference with this is it can just fill up a database, recording everything you do. While advertising is certainly the most likely commercial application, such tactics could be used in other ways such as legal action. Its also a good way of enforcing censorship in controlled environments for the majority of target audiences. Whether this information may be of value may be debateable, but I wouldn't want anybody (especially a marketer) to know what social vice website I view nor political or religious sites, site sin other countries etc etc. Just because the chances of it being used are small doesn't mean it won't be used. Imagine being busted for speeding and having the cops know you visit illicit drug sites. Do they now have probable cause for search? What if I was in Iran and viewed porn? Would I likely be arrested? No. But if I got arrested for being at some political rally would a record of viewing prohibited material be used as leverage?
But you're right. Most people couldn't care less. They'll give up their rights for conveinence. But that doesn't mean I should have to.
Mozilla (and IIRC Opera) support the W3 DOM specs. Dreamweaver does not support that version of the DOM in there products.
You can get a hide/show layer extension at projectseven.com that allegedly works with Mozilla.
I suspect the next version of Dreamweaver will more fully support the W3 standards in a way similar to the behaviors for different browsers in the behavior inspector. But because of Dreamweaver's setup third party developers should be able to pick up the slack before then.
In any event it is going to be a difficult transition to W3 standards compliant browsers.
Gee, what timing. The non-proft I volunteer for is running a tech for non-profits seminar next month. Here's what non-profits need. Whether an ASP can provide them or not is another question.
The list:
Simple means of accessing and changing content
Client machines capable of actually running modern applications
Cheap applications
A standards manual and policy for creating content and other material
knowledgable volunteers and other resources that can help as needed
Why open source software is not the best answer:
inconsistent interface and behavior of most software
inability to get immediate help in the office barring an open source expert on staff - likely to be more common when using OSS rather than other software
steep learning curve of most OSS apps (tied to inconsistent software behavior)
business support and contacts do not generally use OSS software
The nature of non-profits force them to use whatever means at their disposal for doing work. However, the lack of resources (mainly time) necessitate that whatever is used must be able to be picked up by several different people because many people may be sharing the same job responsibilities. It may also be common that outside resources are used. This means the simple solution that requires the minimum amount of resources and training is likely to be the most successful.
Some volunteers will have previous training in Windows or Macintosh systems. Do you throw out that expertise in order to use OSS? Are you going to train staff to use the apps you need? Do you run a mixed environment?
Non profits usually have a great deal of turnover. What kind of system is in place to train new people? You need a simple system to minimize training costs and be able to increase personnel flexibility.
Not all non-profits are for middle-class white people. The one I volunteer for (Asian Media Access) serves the Asian Pacific American community. What kind of resources exist in the IT world for software that is used by ESL speakers? How much software supports Asian languages like Thai, Hmong, Vietnamese etc? Unicode looks nice here, but how many applications use it? What software packages are available for groups that need to publish newsletters in double-byte languages?
And what about non-profits that deal with government or business agencies that require particular formats for their documents?
I'm sure the creative community here can answer many of these questions, but I am far from sold on using OSS at non-profits, at least until OSS makes an appreciable dent in the desktop market. As for ASPs, I am worried about the viability of the business model, data integrity, and privacy issues.
Maybe it is a good model for keeping things simple, but I believe that dedicated volunteers are the best resource for non-profits when it comes to IT related areas. Yeah, it'd be great to have an IT staff (even if it is only one person) but it is unrealistic to expect such a person to work fulltime in a non profit environment given the current job market.
Non-profits need simple systems with unique characteristics more than cheap or free ones. maybe an ASP can provide that. Maybe not.
This sucks. It looks much better than 5-10 years ago, but it still sucks. And when combined with traditional 2D animation it really sticks out.
I prefer hand drawn 2D but there are other ways to use 3D stuff much more seamlessly. A few years ago some 3D app (Lightwave?) made a plugin to simulate hand drawn looks. Much better than the usual Rotoscope.
It also wouldn't hurt if we could get rid of all the music in these movies that are usually targeted for kids and more merchandising (especially Disney stuff). And dont forget some story with conflict!
This debate between a limited powers goveernment vs a federalist one went on during Washington's time as well. IIRC, Washington rode the middle of the line with some federalist leanings.
Now if you said Jefferson, you'd be all set. Unfortunately for us, there are no Jeffersons, no Washingtons, to lead us out of the grip of the current system. Who do you vote for, a man who claimed to invent the Internet or one who wants to end anti-trust enforcement?
So if all these wonderful services are brought to me by corporate providers and all my data is stored on corporate servers, what exactly do I own? And if I own nothing what kind of legal rights do I have should something happen to me or my data?
Let's pretend that all my personal data is magically protected from 'hackers'. What's to stop the providers from using my information any way they want? This could be like many contests where the sponsor gets ownership of your creations as a condition of entry. Remember the flap when Geocities claimed to own or be able to use anything created on their site because you were using their services and resources? Will this be SOP in the ASP/.NET world?
What's to stop them from putting continual commercials in my applications that I use online? Like the recent Eudora release, applications could flash commercials or even track my movements as a condition to using the service. And if the service reaches critical mass where the penalities for non use are greater than acceptance (similar to using a word processor that cannot read/write the most recent Word format) what real alternatives do I have?
If the providers lose my information what legal recourse do I have? At least now I can back things up locally. If files are stored arbitraily on different servers can I still make my own back ups? I know I don't have much recourse in states that have passed UCITA, but who can I trust or blame should something go wrong?
And what benefit do I as a consumer actually get? Nothing really changes from my perspective. Am I forced to upgrade at the whim of my provider? Can I easily switch providers? Let's say I prefer an old copy of Freehand and don't want to upgrade to the latest version. Will I have a choice or will the upgrade be forced? Can I easily switch to Illustrator or am I stuck in a contractual obligation?
Let's not forget this won't happen for the next few years. I remember when push and interactive TV were going to be big. Unless consumers see some material benefit this thing will have a lot of hurdles to overcome. If the MS spinmeisters couldn't explain.NET to a room full of 'technology journalists' after several hours what hope do they have of convincing the general public?
Slashdot Mirror
Just look at Network Solutions
"What, any files at all? How would you sell hard drives that are that crippled?"
If the ATA standard has CPRM built in and the content providers put enough pressure on hardware manufacturers to limit the market it doesn't really matter. Which is the crux of my argument.
"Or you mean files stored in a particular format? In that case you'd just use a different format. Once encrypted the hard drive can't possibly know what's in the file."
If the content producer/distributor only sells content in one format (say Windows Media Player) and it is illegal to break the encryption to put the content in another format then what?
I agree that most napster users will move to other apps to get their free music fix. But what if the hard drives and other storage mediums don't allow files to be stored that aren't signed with some sort of industry certificate?
:http://www.toad.com/gnu/whatswrong.html or Microsoft's DRM built into XP/Whistler.
I'm talking about things John Gilmore's article
Doesn't matter if I have the right to do such things if the hardware industry doesn't allow the market to have such things. I'd hate to have to go the China to get such things (and unlikely in the near future given their pending WTO membership status).
yeah that's great as long as you have free access to the info and don't have to pay for it everytime you use it.
"Here's a novel idea -- how about we drop the slogans and the desperate scramble to make sure the 'people' understand. They will never understand. There will always be some people who just follow along with what's going on.
Issues like this should be dealt with by people that *understand* them."
That's the attitude the politicos and law enforcement agencies have! "Leave everything to us. We know what is best for you." They firmly believe they know what they are doing (and probably do 90% of the time).
*sheesh*
Why not simply require bright yellow lights on the roof of cars? Then have the computer trigger these when the cars exceed the limit? Then everybody can see how much people speed!
Content distributors have too many laws tha favor them at the moment. Fair use is needed. Here's my middle ground of what I think Fair Use should include:
1. the user can reformat the purchased material for personal use provided other rights are not broken. For example, I should be able to rip out the audio track of a DVD to CD. I think copies should be allowed, but the copies should be sterile (no copies of a copy). However, I couldn't reformat material in order to make a profit from it.
2. the user should be able to extract portions of purchased material for what has been traditional examples of "Fair Use".
To supplement this reexamine the length of copyright. No copyrights should extend after the death of the author. Also limit the length of time patents are exclusive monopolies. Patents are used to restrict access.
Also note that th ebiggest issue will become access, not rights. If you have the right to record a timeshifted "Friends" HDTV episode, but cannot buy a set top box that allows that, the end result is the same - no recording.
While FASA did stand for Freedonian Air and Space Association, that name first appeared on a Traveller supplement (SONTAG?), which IIRC, was their first product. But I don' tthink they were a full company then.
"Hail, hail Fredonia, land of the free and brave!" - Duck Soup
Being in Australia I had a unique (for me) viewpoint on the commercials. Thank God I didn't see them! Sure I saw the computer projected Kodak ads on the field and that horrible spinning sign in one of the endzones. And I did see FedEx also projected onto the grass on the field, but that's it.
Fox Sports carried the game here and there were no US commercials on it. Even the voiceovers for CBS shows (and the sideline commentary) were removed. Instead I saw a lot of shots of the Superbowl audience and players with no sound. I also saw a few ads for Aussie sports on Fox Sports, but that was maybe every 3-4 US breaks and lasted a fraction of the time the US spots run.
I telll ya nothing like seeing the world's biggest commercial showcase absent the commercials!
I have confidence that nobody will see this as informative.
All the DVDs I have bought from Hong Kong are region free. They may not always have the highest quality added features, but at least the market is smart enough there to realize they can make more money by selling to the world rather than a variety of regions. In that regard, not having major international distribution capability is an *advantage* in the market. Maybe if the Australian film and distribution industry went region free, then we'd have a story.
Since themes.org aparently had these on there for more than a few hours my guess is Apple is cracking down in anticipation of MacWorld in early January. Probably don't want anything resembling Aqua to be seen or cause confusion to the general public or press.
And Apple doesn't care about their rep in the Open Source sphere. They crap on their loyalest buyers all the time.
"Many of the CSS changes I would make showed up fine in netscape 4.7x but were broken badly in all versions of ie. To those of you who think IE 5 on the mac is 100% CSS1 compliant you are full of shit. My stylesheet and code have both qualified as 100% compliant and it had a very wrong rendering of it."
I am VERY sceptical of this. Are you coding CSS-2 features and having problems? Can you give me some examples of where IE5 Mac doesn't work but Netscape 4 does? Are you sure what the correct rendering even is?
I've been using CSS since IE3 and I can tell you as a FACT that Netscape 4.x's CSS is the worst (since IE3 has disappeared). It not only doesn't support a large percentage of CSS-1 (no CSS-2 support at all), but a lot of what it does support simply doesn't work or work correctly.
Go take a look at the master grid over at style.webreview.com or the issues lists over at css.nu and tell me again that Netscape 4.x has better CSS support than IE5.
I'm not saying IE5 Mac is 100% CSS-1 compliant (I suspect it is in the high 90% range though) but I know it is a hell of a lot better and more consistent than Netscape 4.x
Also make sure you are using the right DOC TYPE when making your page cuz IE5 Mac will use that to determine how it handles CSS issues. But then you know that don't you?
via XSLT.
Last I knew the popular vote didn't determine the presidential outcome, the electoral college did. And Votescam is an intriguing book with examples of voting fraud.
How does one stop site jacking like Adobe recently suffered if there is no lawsuits possible?
Not trying to be flamebait, just wondering how you'd handle somebody that jacks other's domains.
www.harrybrowne.org. Be sure to check out the gun video.
It's not content that is for or against the public good, but rather behaviors that violate the licences to use the spectrum. For example, using a device that interferes with competing technology.
Anyway, it does make to much sense for the gov't to lease. I know its money that calls the shots, but if the idea is floated, maybe the mainstream will get a clue.
With all the government largesse when it comes to selling off the public airwaves, why not lease the frequencies to those businesses that want to use them? Then hold the companies accountable for ensuring the public good is served. Sort of like the theory that TV and radio stations can have their licences revoked for not serving the public good.
Wouldn't the government then have a consistent source of income rather than a once off payment?
Because nobody is innocent. If somebody wanted all your habits they just watch your behavior. While this can be done via credit and financial records, the trash or even old fashioned spying, it was often resource intensive and provided an incomplete record. Some of the means of gathering that data may fall into legal gray zones.
The difference with this is it can just fill up a database, recording everything you do. While advertising is certainly the most likely commercial application, such tactics could be used in other ways such as legal action. Its also a good way of enforcing censorship in controlled environments for the majority of target audiences. Whether this information may be of value may be debateable, but I wouldn't want anybody (especially a marketer) to know what social vice website I view nor political or religious sites, site sin other countries etc etc. Just because the chances of it being used are small doesn't mean it won't be used. Imagine being busted for speeding and having the cops know you visit illicit drug sites. Do they now have probable cause for search? What if I was in Iran and viewed porn? Would I likely be arrested? No. But if I got arrested for being at some political rally would a record of viewing prohibited material be used as leverage?
But you're right. Most people couldn't care less. They'll give up their rights for conveinence. But that doesn't mean I should have to.
Mozilla (and IIRC Opera) support the W3 DOM specs. Dreamweaver does not support that version of the DOM in there products.
You can get a hide/show layer extension at projectseven.com that allegedly works with Mozilla.
I suspect the next version of Dreamweaver will more fully support the W3 standards in a way similar to the behaviors for different browsers in the behavior inspector. But because of Dreamweaver's setup third party developers should be able to pick up the slack before then.
In any event it is going to be a difficult transition to W3 standards compliant browsers.
The list:
Why open source software is not the best answer:
The nature of non-profits force them to use whatever means at their disposal for doing work. However, the lack of resources (mainly time) necessitate that whatever is used must be able to be picked up by several different people because many people may be sharing the same job responsibilities. It may also be common that outside resources are used. This means the simple solution that requires the minimum amount of resources and training is likely to be the most successful.
Some volunteers will have previous training in Windows or Macintosh systems. Do you throw out that expertise in order to use OSS? Are you going to train staff to use the apps you need? Do you run a mixed environment?
Non profits usually have a great deal of turnover. What kind of system is in place to train new people? You need a simple system to minimize training costs and be able to increase personnel flexibility.
Not all non-profits are for middle-class white people. The one I volunteer for (Asian Media Access) serves the Asian Pacific American community. What kind of resources exist in the IT world for software that is used by ESL speakers? How much software supports Asian languages like Thai, Hmong, Vietnamese etc? Unicode looks nice here, but how many applications use it? What software packages are available for groups that need to publish newsletters in double-byte languages?
And what about non-profits that deal with government or business agencies that require particular formats for their documents?
I'm sure the creative community here can answer many of these questions, but I am far from sold on using OSS at non-profits, at least until OSS makes an appreciable dent in the desktop market. As for ASPs, I am worried about the viability of the business model, data integrity, and privacy issues.
Maybe it is a good model for keeping things simple, but I believe that dedicated volunteers are the best resource for non-profits when it comes to IT related areas. Yeah, it'd be great to have an IT staff (even if it is only one person) but it is unrealistic to expect such a person to work fulltime in a non profit environment given the current job market.
Non-profits need simple systems with unique characteristics more than cheap or free ones. maybe an ASP can provide that. Maybe not.
This sucks. It looks much better than 5-10 years ago, but it still sucks. And when combined with traditional 2D animation it really sticks out.
I prefer hand drawn 2D but there are other ways to use 3D stuff much more seamlessly. A few years ago some 3D app (Lightwave?) made a plugin to simulate hand drawn looks. Much better than the usual Rotoscope.
It also wouldn't hurt if we could get rid of all the music in these movies that are usually targeted for kids and more merchandising (especially Disney stuff). And dont forget some story with conflict!
Unless you're not paying for those MP3s you have, you will spend money on buying the CDs, then ripping them. Is it $10/month?
This proposed system is little more than Cable DMX, which is not as bad as people make out. Why not have several options?
This debate between a limited powers goveernment vs a federalist one went on during Washington's time as well. IIRC, Washington rode the middle of the line with some federalist leanings.
Now if you said Jefferson, you'd be all set. Unfortunately for us, there are no Jeffersons, no Washingtons, to lead us out of the grip of the current system. Who do you vote for, a man who claimed to invent the Internet or one who wants to end anti-trust enforcement?
So if all these wonderful services are brought to me by corporate providers and all my data is stored on corporate servers, what exactly do I own? And if I own nothing what kind of legal rights do I have should something happen to me or my data?
.NET to a room full of 'technology journalists' after several hours what hope do they have of convincing the general public?
Let's pretend that all my personal data is magically protected from 'hackers'. What's to stop the providers from using my information any way they want? This could be like many contests where the sponsor gets ownership of your creations as a condition of entry. Remember the flap when Geocities claimed to own or be able to use anything created on their site because you were using their services and resources? Will this be SOP in the ASP/.NET world?
What's to stop them from putting continual commercials in my applications that I use online? Like the recent Eudora release, applications could flash commercials or even track my movements as a condition to using the service. And if the service reaches critical mass where the penalities for non use are greater than acceptance (similar to using a word processor that cannot read/write the most recent Word format) what real alternatives do I have?
If the providers lose my information what legal recourse do I have? At least now I can back things up locally. If files are stored arbitraily on different servers can I still make my own back ups? I know I don't have much recourse in states that have passed UCITA, but who can I trust or blame should something go wrong?
And what benefit do I as a consumer actually get? Nothing really changes from my perspective. Am I forced to upgrade at the whim of my provider? Can I easily switch providers? Let's say I prefer an old copy of Freehand and don't want to upgrade to the latest version. Will I have a choice or will the upgrade be forced? Can I easily switch to Illustrator or am I stuck in a contractual obligation?
Let's not forget this won't happen for the next few years. I remember when push and interactive TV were going to be big. Unless consumers see some material benefit this thing will have a lot of hurdles to overcome. If the MS spinmeisters couldn't explain