I don't think you understand how credit card processing works. Honestly, this system is just as open to man-in-the-middle and info hijacking as your credit cards are.
Banks don't have a secret vault full of "secure" credit processing systems to give to their customers. Hell, most banks don't want anything to do with it, which is why there are scads of credit card processing companies around.
People with HP laptops incorporating the QuickPlay feature already have something similar, and have since at least 2006. A small partition on the HD holds a linux kernel and various drivers, as well as HP's QuickPlay software. Pop in a DVD, hit the QuickPlay button, and you're watching your media within 20 seconds or so. I fail to see what's new or revolutionary about TFA's product.
for a few years now. Thermo Scientific http://www.niton.com/ has a line of handheld, portable X-Ray Fluorescence analyzers for a few years now. XRF performs elemental analysis, so it's not much good on pharmaceuticals or organics, but works great for metals, alloys, and trace element detection. They're widely used to find lead-based paint in homes, for example.
Plus, they kind-of look like a Phaser.
Interestingly, software giant Microsoft seems to be keeping the flame alight for the floppy.
Its newly-released operating system Vista still pays homage to it by continuing to use a floppy disk as the icon for saving a document in Microsoft Word 2007.
Too bad that a simple recipe in Word 2007 will require more than 1.44 Mb of storage, once all the Wordcruft gets added in...
Maybe it's an attempt to engage in a little viral marketing.
Marketing Guy: "Hey, how do we get the TV show posted up on high volume sites?" IT Guy: "Just put a linux desktop on it somewhere. We'll get Slashdot and Digg, and maybe somebody will rip the scene and post it on YouTube" Marketing Guy: "Geek stuff _and_ a naked chick? We'll be on the internet for sure!"
One advantage that a dead-tree book has over an e-book is that you can read it on the airplane during those times when the attendants hassle you for turning on electronics. Air travel is when I get some of my best reading time.
TFA does a big disservice to reality here, in neglecting to mention that the National Cancer Institute studies on overall cancer rates in the US population from 1975-2002 predict that the probability of dying of cancer in US males is around 23-1/2 percent, and around 20 percent for women.
http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2002/results_singl e/sect_01_table.15.pdf
So, how big a deal is that increased cancer risk from cosmic rays, really?
Here's the fallacy of your views on TV. You (and I) are NOT the customer. We are the product. The television networks (from the "big 3" networks on down) produce a show. That show entices you and I to view TV, for which the networks are compensated by the advertisers . In essence, the networks deliver our viewing to the REAL customers, who are the companies advertising products on TV.
OK, this won't get read much, since the thread is stale but here goes...
I work with "Black Box" data on a fairly regular basis. The tinfoil hat crowd here on/. is missing a few important points:
1) The current EDR's (Event Data Recorders) that are installed on GM and Ford cars DO NOT store data about your driving history and habits. The store data in only two circumstances. One, if the car is hit hard enough to deploy the airbags, and two, if the car is hit har enough to "wake up" the crash detection algorithm, but not hard enough to deploy airbags.
2) The data recorded by EDR's can generally be recovered in other was that are NOT sbuject to privacy concerns. e.g. vehicle speeds and directions can be estimated from momentum analysis of the rest positions of the cars and the position of the point of impact (POI). Skid marks on roadbeds, stretch ans slide marks on seatbelts, crush depth analysis and observations by first responders can all be used to estimate vehicle speeds and pre-crash maneuvering by the drivers.
3) What the EDR can do is corroborate other evidence to ensure that accident reconstructionists, attorneys, and insurance companies are doing their jobs properly. Also, the black box data is used by the automakers to fine-tune airbag system performance.
4) The current thinking is that EDR data can be recovered at the scene of a wreck by the police. If the car is moved away from the scene, then a search warrant is necesary to get the EDR data. As private investigators, we have to get the vehicle owners' permission before downloading the data.
5) One side effect of EDR use is that it helps to cut down the incidence of claims fraud.
It seems to me that any console lives and dies by the quality of its titles, much more so than the hardware, or the compatibility issues. Yes, I have a PS2, and a PSone. Once I bought the PS2, the PSone got shelved. However, I still have my N64 and GCN as well, since I still like some of the N64 games that weren't compatible.
Gaming history is chock-full of technically superior products that died because of lack of game development. Remember the Jaguar? Sega Saturn? Dreamcast? All of these consoles failed in the marketplace, not because of their backward compatibility (or lack of it), but because they didn't have the wide range of available titles that their competitors had.
If the Xbox2 (or whatever it will be called) lacks backward compatibility, initial sales may be slow due to lack of titles, but as soon as Halo 697 or KOTR 2 or whatever "killer game" gets released, than sales will pick up.
As a long-time user of WP, this news thrills me. My company has been standardized on WP for several years (on Windows) because we exchange a lot of files with the legal community. I've been running WP8 on my Linux laptop for a while now (Incidentally, I didn't have any libc compatibility issues on Fedora Core 1). The biggest problem for me has been font compatibility.
A new version of WP (Hopefully with improved font management) would be a great productivity-improver, and potentially allow us as a company more freedom to choose OS'es.
Now if I can just convince the upper management that we need to get our key databases away from Access, I'll be in great shape.
Two physicists and an engineer were debating the height of a particular flagpole. The first physicist said "Let's measure the height of the shadow and compare to my shadow to determine the height." The second physicist said "Why don't we use a protractor and tape to measure the angle to the top of the pole from a known distance, then use simple trigonometry to determine the height?"
During the debate, the engineer called in a crew, dug up the flagpole, laid it down on the ground, measured it, put it back in the ground and filled the hole. He returned to the physicists and stated "It's thirty-six feet tall".
The first physicist looked at the second and said "Isn't that just like an engineer. You want to know how tall something is, and he gives you the length."
Here's a thought. Suppose that the/. community tabulates a list of states and counties that use touchscreen voting well in advance of the 2004 elections. Further suppose that/.'ers living in those couties volunteer to work the polling places on election day. I'd venture that most/. regulars are jut a wee bit more tech-savvy than the typical people who monitor the polling places.
Helping staff the polls would at least allow us to prevent the worst abuses of the system (eg removing machines for repair and returning them), and also give a lot of tech people a first-hand look at how well/poorly e-voting systems are working. If the election is "stolen", there will be a whole lot of PO'd/.'ers ready to make noise about it.
In other industry news, today Santa Cruz Operations (SCO) filed suit against Netflix in Federal Court, claiming NetFlix used SCO's patented business methods. According to one SCO insider, "Those NetFlix bastards think they can just patent any old thing, but we are prepared to demonstrate that we have a patent on patenting stuff, provided that the court, judge, and God himself sign this NDA before reviewing our 'Patent Patent'. We've had NetFlix on double-secret probation for a while now, and we're ready for them."
Here's why I think Apple's model works where other services fail:
First, it's more convienent than going to a brick-and-mortar music store. I don't have to get in the car and go anywhere, I don't have to dig through the racks to maybe find what I'm looking for, and I don't have to stand in line to hand one of the pierced nation my money.
Second, Apple's pricing scheme is right on the money. Been looking for a couple of tracks? Buy just the ones you want. Want the whole album? OK then.
Third, the tie-in to the iPod is great. While I don't have an iPod yet, I can imagine how much simpler it will be to download songs from the store directly to the iPod without having to rip the CD.
I think the reason so many people steal music (and if you don't pay for it, it's stealing) is that convienence factor. I've used Kazaa on my wintel laptop and iSwipe on my iBook to grab tracks from things I used to own on tape (yes, I was probably stealing. I feel bad about it, really). It's always been a big hassle to find exactly the track I want, correctly ripped, on a site with enough bandwidth to support the download etc etc etc.
Apple has made it easy and cheap to find what I want. DRM? I don't care, because I'm not going to be reposting my songs to a P2P network. I'll be burning CD's for use in the car, and I can take a CD anywhere.
I don't forsee Apple being the big dog in the online music business forever, but, as usual, they've shown the rest of the computing world that it can be done, and the method works.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think you understand how credit card processing works. Honestly, this system is just as open to man-in-the-middle and info hijacking as your credit cards are. Banks don't have a secret vault full of "secure" credit processing systems to give to their customers. Hell, most banks don't want anything to do with it, which is why there are scads of credit card processing companies around.
People with HP laptops incorporating the QuickPlay feature already have something similar, and have since at least 2006. A small partition on the HD holds a linux kernel and various drivers, as well as HP's QuickPlay software. Pop in a DVD, hit the QuickPlay button, and you're watching your media within 20 seconds or so. I fail to see what's new or revolutionary about TFA's product.
for a few years now. Thermo Scientific http://www.niton.com/ has a line of handheld, portable X-Ray Fluorescence analyzers for a few years now. XRF performs elemental analysis, so it's not much good on pharmaceuticals or organics, but works great for metals, alloys, and trace element detection. They're widely used to find lead-based paint in homes, for example. Plus, they kind-of look like a Phaser.
Maybe it's an attempt to engage in a little viral marketing.
Marketing Guy: "Hey, how do we get the TV show posted up on high volume sites?"
IT Guy: "Just put a linux desktop on it somewhere. We'll get Slashdot and Digg, and maybe somebody will rip the scene and post it on YouTube"
Marketing Guy: "Geek stuff _and_ a naked chick? We'll be on the internet for sure!"
One advantage that a dead-tree book has over an e-book is that you can read it on the airplane during those times when the attendants hassle you for turning on electronics. Air travel is when I get some of my best reading time.
So, how big a deal is that increased cancer risk from cosmic rays, really?
Here's the fallacy of your views on TV. You (and I) are NOT the customer. We are the product. The television networks (from the "big 3" networks on down) produce a show. That show entices you and I to view TV, for which the networks are compensated by the advertisers . In essence, the networks deliver our viewing to the REAL customers, who are the companies advertising products on TV.
1) The current EDR's (Event Data Recorders) that are installed on GM and Ford cars DO NOT store data about your driving history and habits. The store data in only two circumstances. One, if the car is hit hard enough to deploy the airbags, and two, if the car is hit har enough to "wake up" the crash detection algorithm, but not hard enough to deploy airbags.
2) The data recorded by EDR's can generally be recovered in other was that are NOT sbuject to privacy concerns. e.g. vehicle speeds and directions can be estimated from momentum analysis of the rest positions of the cars and the position of the point of impact (POI). Skid marks on roadbeds, stretch ans slide marks on seatbelts, crush depth analysis and observations by first responders can all be used to estimate vehicle speeds and pre-crash maneuvering by the drivers.
3) What the EDR can do is corroborate other evidence to ensure that accident reconstructionists, attorneys, and insurance companies are doing their jobs properly. Also, the black box data is used by the automakers to fine-tune airbag system performance.
4) The current thinking is that EDR data can be recovered at the scene of a wreck by the police. If the car is moved away from the scene, then a search warrant is necesary to get the EDR data. As private investigators, we have to get the vehicle owners' permission before downloading the data.
5) One side effect of EDR use is that it helps to cut down the incidence of claims fraud.
Gaming history is chock-full of technically superior products that died because of lack of game development. Remember the Jaguar? Sega Saturn? Dreamcast? All of these consoles failed in the marketplace, not because of their backward compatibility (or lack of it), but because they didn't have the wide range of available titles that their competitors had.
If the Xbox2 (or whatever it will be called) lacks backward compatibility, initial sales may be slow due to lack of titles, but as soon as Halo 697 or KOTR 2 or whatever "killer game" gets released, than sales will pick up.
A new version of WP (Hopefully with improved font management) would be a great productivity-improver, and potentially allow us as a company more freedom to choose OS'es. Now if I can just convince the upper management that we need to get our key databases away from Access, I'll be in great shape.
Two physicists and an engineer were debating the height of a particular flagpole. The first physicist said "Let's measure the height of the shadow and compare to my shadow to determine the height." The second physicist said "Why don't we use a protractor and tape to measure the angle to the top of the pole from a known distance, then use simple trigonometry to determine the height?" During the debate, the engineer called in a crew, dug up the flagpole, laid it down on the ground, measured it, put it back in the ground and filled the hole. He returned to the physicists and stated "It's thirty-six feet tall". The first physicist looked at the second and said "Isn't that just like an engineer. You want to know how tall something is, and he gives you the length."
Here's a thought. Suppose that the /. community tabulates a list of states and counties that use touchscreen voting well in advance of the 2004 elections. Further suppose that /.'ers living in those couties volunteer to work the polling places on election day. I'd venture that most /. regulars are jut a wee bit more tech-savvy than the typical people who monitor the polling places.
Helping staff the polls would at least allow us to prevent the worst abuses of the system (eg removing machines for repair and returning them), and also give a lot of tech people a first-hand look at how well/poorly e-voting systems are working. If the election is "stolen", there will be a whole lot of PO'd /.'ers ready to make noise about it.
In other industry news, today Santa Cruz Operations (SCO) filed suit against Netflix in Federal Court, claiming NetFlix used SCO's patented business methods. According to one SCO insider, "Those NetFlix bastards think they can just patent any old thing, but we are prepared to demonstrate that we have a patent on patenting stuff, provided that the court, judge, and God himself sign this NDA before reviewing our 'Patent Patent'. We've had NetFlix on double-secret probation for a while now, and we're ready for them."
First, it's more convienent than going to a brick-and-mortar music store. I don't have to get in the car and go anywhere, I don't have to dig through the racks to maybe find what I'm looking for, and I don't have to stand in line to hand one of the pierced nation my money.
Second, Apple's pricing scheme is right on the money. Been looking for a couple of tracks? Buy just the ones you want. Want the whole album? OK then.
Third, the tie-in to the iPod is great. While I don't have an iPod yet, I can imagine how much simpler it will be to download songs from the store directly to the iPod without having to rip the CD.
I think the reason so many people steal music (and if you don't pay for it, it's stealing) is that convienence factor. I've used Kazaa on my wintel laptop and iSwipe on my iBook to grab tracks from things I used to own on tape (yes, I was probably stealing. I feel bad about it, really). It's always been a big hassle to find exactly the track I want, correctly ripped, on a site with enough bandwidth to support the download etc etc etc.
Apple has made it easy and cheap to find what I want. DRM? I don't care, because I'm not going to be reposting my songs to a P2P network. I'll be burning CD's for use in the car, and I can take a CD anywhere.
I don't forsee Apple being the big dog in the online music business forever, but, as usual, they've shown the rest of the computing world that it can be done, and the method works.