I disagree that common law can effectively or practically manage frequency ownership and use. A central entity is really the only recourse, even if they delegate sections down to the local level. Somewhere, someone has to set some standards. I prefer the government over someone like Verisign... sitefinder ring a bell? At least the government doesn't have commercial aspirations, or shouldn't under the restrictive charter I mentioned as being given this "new" agency. (And yes, charters can be increased over time, and our current bureaucracy loves to engage in that creep. I don't posit a solution for that problem here)
I agree that EM emissions can be measured/certified by UL. However, some gov entity somewhere needs to set regulations for what's allowed.
Heck - Karma be damned. Karma goes up, it goes down, what does it mean in the world at large?
As for locking up, yes, of course Linux can lock up. Any system can. Some just do it more often than others. Some do it daily (BSOD comes to mind;). Others can get systems to run for long periods of time. I still recall that Gates came out and said NT 4 boxes should be rebooted weekly. We ran ours a minimum of a months between reboots, and had a record of 3 months before we had to reboot for some reason during testing. The monthly reboot was acceptable for our SLA at that time. Weekly was not.
The MS Fanboy reference was for whomever mod'd my original comment "flamebait". It was not in reference to you in any way, form, or fashion. Perhaps I could have been clearer?
Next topic: bad hardware - while I hate Compaq with a passion for various reasons, their hardware is not "bad" as in generally unreliable hardware. (Although once something does go bad...) I've had numerous failures of OSes with no new installations of anything on those boxes. Matter of fact, Win2K server with IIS, just keep adding websites.... somewhere between 6-13, the entire system will self-corrupt. Try it sometime, last time I checked, SP4 didn't fix this issue. Is it a small wonder IIS 6 now allows for a separate process per website? (Hint, it wasn't only performance driving this, IIS pre-IIS6 was not scalable)
My experience is that Windows does not gracefully do anything. Matter of fact, Windows is the reason that the software/user abuse exists to begin with. (Windows is almost synonymous with MS in this scenario) I do not blame Windows if my cheap ATA RAID controller (
I agree the Netgear Router backdoor is ridiculous. As for Linux or BSD, if you're crashing it, you're definitely having issues. I've run Slackware, RH, and Debian, and I too have bad CDRs. The Debian install disks actually, after the initial boot disk, the installation files were partially on bad sectors, but there was no lockup. Then again, I've not run Mandrake, nor do a do much with CDRs once a system is installed in Linux. Those boxes are generally server type boxes or test sandboxes, and thus rarely is the core changed.
Flamebait? Give me a break. Obviously a MS Fanboy.
Don't assume incompetence. Sometimes, portions of the registry just become unrecoverable and unrepairable, through no fault of anyone other than MS. Yes, I'm aware that there's a way to completely back them up and replace them, but sometimes, that's moot when the initial backup is already corrupted. With a good initial hardware/software setup and proper precautions, I too can run a system for years and years, and never have it degrade. (Ran a datacenter for about 4 years) Still, this doesn't address the fragility of MS OSes. Oh, and I have a 95 system that's been up since 96. Big deal.
There are several things about this story that bother me. I do believe the FCC provides useful and very important services. I also agree with this story that the FCC has become something it should never have been, the censor of "all that's right"[tm] and a tyrant dictator of the airwaves.
What's good:
Regulates frequencies to be used by various entities.
Sets standards on EM radiation
What's currently bad:
Regulates corporations on what they can broadcast
Requires corporations to seek FCC approval before mergers/acquisitions can occur (since when are they the FTC?)
Gives effective monopolies to corporations
Creates unfair taxes without representation (violation of some minor detail in the Constitution, if I recall correctly)
etc
Personally, I think the broadcast spectrum should be leased, with companies that have leased having the right to release a frequency band at a maximum increase per year, 5 years, whatever (something for Congress to decide). This leasing should occur through the FCC (one of its only functions, or even sole function, in the "new order")
The FTC should be the watchdog for monopolistic practices on the airwaves. They should already be all over ClearChannel, as they own far too much in certain market areas. Of course, the FCC "monopoly" definition is reaching more than 80% (it's some x%) of the nation's population, not holding all the stations in a single locale. Which is more monopolistic, and more readily accomplished? Monopolies are not necessarily nationwide, if I own all the gas stations in Chicago, I am a monopoly, regardless of whether you can drive 50+ miles to get gas elsewhere.
Regarding NT5 code: I'd hope they'd throw out big gobs of it.:)
Regarding Longhorn's "refactoring": Perhaps they should just have concentrated on refactoring XP and getting a possibly more stable streamlined product out the door (interim release, anyone?) instead of adding gobs more crap to it at the same time. Then, once they had a sound (or more sound) codebase, they could start adding those features they so desperately want.
Last time I checked, all these thingamajiggys actually increased our lifespan by more than 10-15 years. However, I do believe getting rid of some of these chemicals might not be a bad thing.
I'm aware of raw material costs. I was making the statement that giving me the option to buy the equivalent of 8-9 CDs of material on one DVD for an increased base price of $6 would be worth it to me. They make more profit, and I'm a happier consumer.
Yep, would have to be an air-conditioned closet (luckily, I have one on the other side of the wall, so a small cutout, and I'd have the necessary access.
it's in the office, a separate room far enough away from the living room to not be heard.
at least one of my dogs loves the "whiiirrrrr" sound, and likes to sleep next to the boxes.
I've been thinking of putting the drive tower in a closet, another room, something, because the heat of the tower along with the other boxes is a bit too much.
That's definitely a good way to set it up. I have mind setup similarly, except with RAID5 across 8 and 5 drives. (Talk about fly, although they do produce some heat). I too utilize a honkin IDE drive as a mass storage device, it's about all they're really good for, although they excel for that purpose.
Heh, my drives cost $10 each. 18GB a piece, 14 of them. RAID5 setup. Mylex ExtremeRaid 3 channel controller with 64MB cache for another $60. Works great as a main system, does wonders for DB functions.
To comprehensively address security issues, Microsoft has said it is building Longhorn from the ground up. Any time you start building an operating system from scratch, you create all sorts of unanticipated problems. If you are waiting for Microsoft to improve the consumer experience, you'll have to be patient.
Sounds like MS is making the Netscape "mistake". However, their code is so bad that by this point, it may be the only option. However, I cannot help but think that refactoring the core might not be a better option. (If they're going to follow netscape, I suppose we'll see an open source Windows in about 5 years, but no one will care by then.)
I believe it is illegal for anyone to open mail not addressed to them. There are power of attorney type exceptions, in cases of invalids or those that are dead. Technically, I believe even your spouse cannot open mail addressed to you and vice-versa, if for some reason that is not desired. Note that conditions apply, such as for the purpose of interfering in delivery or prying into the affiars of another. No exclusions are made.
Custom burned should actually be less for the CD itself, provided you have the proper software/hardware combo. The CD alone is <$0.10. Printing the artwork onto a CD, yeah, I'm guessing that's in the $1 range a piece, but that's based on printing costs from about 4 years ago, and I cannot imagine that hasn't gone down some. Then you've got the labor involved.
I don't necessarily agree a custom album should be $3.99. Perhaps $3 + $0.25 per song? (yes, 20 * $0.25 = $5, for a grand total of $8 to your door). $8 for a custom selected/printed CD with 100% legal quality songs? I'd pay that. I think many others would too. No hassling with details, just pick and choose and there it is, a day later.
Now think of the possibilities with DVDs! Heck, charge a base price of $6 even, load it up with goodies, and there you have a nice 8-9 selection of music (or the accompanying videos, or some other mix - a whole new venue for selling music and related items. You saw it here first, I've already filed the patent....;)
They are spending billions on developing artists, unfortunately, when they develop artists, they're developing another iteration of the tripe that didn't sell last year.
Email is basically a post card. If you get a post card in the mail, you can legally read it, if it's even legible, as you're not tampering with it.
If, however, you receive something incorrectly addressed in an envelope, you may not legally open it (in the US anyways). This would be akin to an encrypted (the envelope) email. The mis-addressed recipient would not be able to read it easily, or even practically. The envelope (encryption) is a much stronger enforcement of the "authorized person only may open this mail".
Lots of other uses for modchips. Pirating games is merely the "illegal" use of them used to try to ban them. That's a different issue entirely anyways.
The DMCA could be used against "pirating" the "private code messages". Unlike the RIAA, car makers aren't stupid enough to blanket sue their own customers, as the first car maker to do so would probably be the first one to go out of business the next day. That said however, having Congress impose some standard interface might not be so bad, as after all this could just be merely be a quick check for Joe user that all is right with his car.
For the silly anecdote: Take tire pressures for example, add a digital bit and make it a crime under the DMCA to check it without an article only available to dealers or for $500, you sort of get this ludicrous point I hope. If you believe this differs from any other DMCA issue, you are removing a revenue source from the automaker by allowing people to circumvent the digital protection (however weak) installed on the tire pressure system to utilize other tools to read tire pressure. This removes the automakers ability to generate revenue from their "copyrighted" work.
In reality, this shows how utterly stupid DMCA is. IMNSHO, copyright was protected already by existing laws, and all that was necessary was for those laws to be enforced. (actually, I believe copyright laws have been twisted into something that has the founding fathers rolling in their graves, but that's another story.)
That would be the Return of Netscape 6, which, if we truly looked at real major releases, might be Mozilla 2.0 (due to very screwy numbering systems....)
I thought that with WEP and MAC address filtering, you could lock it down pretty tight? Not having sniffed wireless traffic yet, I don't know if it's 100% encrypted, so that even MAC addresses would be encrypted. Otherwise, if MACs are still publicly available for sniffing, then you're right, there's 0 security.
It's a little late, but here's the point, back when Tiffany et al were played, there were a large number of independent music stations around that played a large variety of music. That is not true today anymore, and ALL we're getting is Tiffany-esque crap. If you notice, I state that Paid subscriptions lack RIAA sponsored crap (i.e., Tiffany-esque crap). It's not the people that are driving popular music these days, it's the RIAA that's attempting to shovel piles of crap down our throats under the guise of popular music.
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I disagree that common law can effectively or practically manage frequency ownership and use. A central entity is really the only recourse, even if they delegate sections down to the local level. Somewhere, someone has to set some standards. I prefer the government over someone like Verisign... sitefinder ring a bell? At least the government doesn't have commercial aspirations, or shouldn't under the restrictive charter I mentioned as being given this "new" agency. (And yes, charters can be increased over time, and our current bureaucracy loves to engage in that creep. I don't posit a solution for that problem here)
I agree that EM emissions can be measured/certified by UL. However, some gov entity somewhere needs to set regulations for what's allowed.
Heck - Karma be damned. Karma goes up, it goes down, what does it mean in the world at large?
As for locking up, yes, of course Linux can lock up. Any system can. Some just do it more often than others. Some do it daily (BSOD comes to mind;). Others can get systems to run for long periods of time. I still recall that Gates came out and said NT 4 boxes should be rebooted weekly. We ran ours a minimum of a months between reboots, and had a record of 3 months before we had to reboot for some reason during testing. The monthly reboot was acceptable for our SLA at that time. Weekly was not.
The MS Fanboy reference was for whomever mod'd my original comment "flamebait". It was not in reference to you in any way, form, or fashion. Perhaps I could have been clearer?
Next topic: bad hardware - while I hate Compaq with a passion for various reasons, their hardware is not "bad" as in generally unreliable hardware. (Although once something does go bad...) I've had numerous failures of OSes with no new installations of anything on those boxes. Matter of fact, Win2K server with IIS, just keep adding websites.... somewhere between 6-13, the entire system will self-corrupt. Try it sometime, last time I checked, SP4 didn't fix this issue. Is it a small wonder IIS 6 now allows for a separate process per website? (Hint, it wasn't only performance driving this, IIS pre-IIS6 was not scalable)
My experience is that Windows does not gracefully do anything. Matter of fact, Windows is the reason that the software/user abuse exists to begin with. (Windows is almost synonymous with MS in this scenario) I do not blame Windows if my cheap ATA RAID controller (
I agree the Netgear Router backdoor is ridiculous. As for Linux or BSD, if you're crashing it, you're definitely having issues. I've run Slackware, RH, and Debian, and I too have bad CDRs. The Debian install disks actually, after the initial boot disk, the installation files were partially on bad sectors, but there was no lockup. Then again, I've not run Mandrake, nor do a do much with CDRs once a system is installed in Linux. Those boxes are generally server type boxes or test sandboxes, and thus rarely is the core changed.
Flamebait? Give me a break. Obviously a MS Fanboy.
Don't assume incompetence. Sometimes, portions of the registry just become unrecoverable and unrepairable, through no fault of anyone other than MS. Yes, I'm aware that there's a way to completely back them up and replace them, but sometimes, that's moot when the initial backup is already corrupted. With a good initial hardware/software setup and proper precautions, I too can run a system for years and years, and never have it degrade. (Ran a datacenter for about 4 years) Still, this doesn't address the fragility of MS OSes. Oh, and I have a 95 system that's been up since 96. Big deal.
This shouldn't be a problem with MS oses, as you have to totally reinstall your OS every 6 months, max, thus generally wiping out your pagefile.
There are several things about this story that bother me. I do believe the FCC provides useful and very important services. I also agree with this story that the FCC has become something it should never have been, the censor of "all that's right"[tm] and a tyrant dictator of the airwaves.
What's good:- Regulates frequencies to be used by various entities.
- Sets standards on EM radiation
What's currently bad:Personally, I think the broadcast spectrum should be leased, with companies that have leased having the right to release a frequency band at a maximum increase per year, 5 years, whatever (something for Congress to decide). This leasing should occur through the FCC (one of its only functions, or even sole function, in the "new order")
The FTC should be the watchdog for monopolistic practices on the airwaves. They should already be all over ClearChannel, as they own far too much in certain market areas. Of course, the FCC "monopoly" definition is reaching more than 80% (it's some x%) of the nation's population, not holding all the stations in a single locale. Which is more monopolistic, and more readily accomplished? Monopolies are not necessarily nationwide, if I own all the gas stations in Chicago, I am a monopoly, regardless of whether you can drive 50+ miles to get gas elsewhere.
Regarding NT5 code: I'd hope they'd throw out big gobs of it. :)
Regarding Longhorn's "refactoring": Perhaps they should just have concentrated on refactoring XP and getting a possibly more stable streamlined product out the door (interim release, anyone?) instead of adding gobs more crap to it at the same time. Then, once they had a sound (or more sound) codebase, they could start adding those features they so desperately want.
Last time I checked, all these thingamajiggys actually increased our lifespan by more than 10-15 years. However, I do believe getting rid of some of these chemicals might not be a bad thing.
You may be drinking pool water, that certainly would explain your post.
I'm aware of raw material costs. I was making the statement that giving me the option to buy the equivalent of 8-9 CDs of material on one DVD for an increased base price of $6 would be worth it to me. They make more profit, and I'm a happier consumer.
Yep, would have to be an air-conditioned closet (luckily, I have one on the other side of the wall, so a small cutout, and I'd have the necessary access.
- yes, it's a bit loud....
- it's in the office, a separate room far enough away from the living room to not be heard.
- at least one of my dogs loves the "whiiirrrrr" sound, and likes to sleep next to the boxes.
I've been thinking of putting the drive tower in a closet, another room, something, because the heat of the tower along with the other boxes is a bit too much.That's definitely a good way to set it up. I have mind setup similarly, except with RAID5 across 8 and 5 drives. (Talk about fly, although they do produce some heat). I too utilize a honkin IDE drive as a mass storage device, it's about all they're really good for, although they excel for that purpose.
Heh, my drives cost $10 each. 18GB a piece, 14 of them. RAID5 setup. Mylex ExtremeRaid 3 channel controller with 64MB cache for another $60. Works great as a main system, does wonders for DB functions.
I believe it is illegal for anyone to open mail not addressed to them. There are power of attorney type exceptions, in cases of invalids or those that are dead. Technically, I believe even your spouse cannot open mail addressed to you and vice-versa, if for some reason that is not desired. Note that conditions apply, such as for the purpose of interfering in delivery or prying into the affiars of another. No exclusions are made.
Custom burned should actually be less for the CD itself, provided you have the proper software/hardware combo. The CD alone is <$0.10. Printing the artwork onto a CD, yeah, I'm guessing that's in the $1 range a piece, but that's based on printing costs from about 4 years ago, and I cannot imagine that hasn't gone down some. Then you've got the labor involved.
I don't necessarily agree a custom album should be $3.99. Perhaps $3 + $0.25 per song? (yes, 20 * $0.25 = $5, for a grand total of $8 to your door). $8 for a custom selected/printed CD with 100% legal quality songs? I'd pay that. I think many others would too. No hassling with details, just pick and choose and there it is, a day later.
Now think of the possibilities with DVDs! Heck, charge a base price of $6 even, load it up with goodies, and there you have a nice 8-9 selection of music (or the accompanying videos, or some other mix - a whole new venue for selling music and related items. You saw it here first, I've already filed the patent.... ;)
Cost of manufacturing? Not anywhere near your prices. The average manufacturing cost of 1000 CDs is about $1300 or $1.30 per CD. Note that this includes art work printed on the CD.
Now, getting an LP made, that costs roughly $2.20 a piece, yet they sell for much less on average. Wonder why?
They are spending billions on developing artists, unfortunately, when they develop artists, they're developing another iteration of the tripe that didn't sell last year.
Email is basically a post card. If you get a post card in the mail, you can legally read it, if it's even legible, as you're not tampering with it.
If, however, you receive something incorrectly addressed in an envelope, you may not legally open it (in the US anyways). This would be akin to an encrypted (the envelope) email. The mis-addressed recipient would not be able to read it easily, or even practically. The envelope (encryption) is a much stronger enforcement of the "authorized person only may open this mail".
Ah, the lemming arguement. Gotta love that one.
Lots of other uses for modchips. Pirating games is merely the "illegal" use of them used to try to ban them. That's a different issue entirely anyways.
The DMCA could be used against "pirating" the "private code messages". Unlike the RIAA, car makers aren't stupid enough to blanket sue their own customers, as the first car maker to do so would probably be the first one to go out of business the next day. That said however, having Congress impose some standard interface might not be so bad, as after all this could just be merely be a quick check for Joe user that all is right with his car.
For the silly anecdote: Take tire pressures for example, add a digital bit and make it a crime under the DMCA to check it without an article only available to dealers or for $500, you sort of get this ludicrous point I hope. If you believe this differs from any other DMCA issue, you are removing a revenue source from the automaker by allowing people to circumvent the digital protection (however weak) installed on the tire pressure system to utilize other tools to read tire pressure. This removes the automakers ability to generate revenue from their "copyrighted" work.
In reality, this shows how utterly stupid DMCA is. IMNSHO, copyright was protected already by existing laws, and all that was necessary was for those laws to be enforced. (actually, I believe copyright laws have been twisted into something that has the founding fathers rolling in their graves, but that's another story.)
That would be the Return of Netscape 6, which, if we truly looked at real major releases, might be Mozilla 2.0 (due to very screwy numbering systems....)
I thought that with WEP and MAC address filtering, you could lock it down pretty tight? Not having sniffed wireless traffic yet, I don't know if it's 100% encrypted, so that even MAC addresses would be encrypted. Otherwise, if MACs are still publicly available for sniffing, then you're right, there's 0 security.
It's a little late, but here's the point, back when Tiffany et al were played, there were a large number of independent music stations around that played a large variety of music. That is not true today anymore, and ALL we're getting is Tiffany-esque crap. If you notice, I state that Paid subscriptions lack RIAA sponsored crap (i.e., Tiffany-esque crap). It's not the people that are driving popular music these days, it's the RIAA that's attempting to shovel piles of crap down our throats under the guise of popular music.