A more interesting factor is that since this is a new technology - what are the security problems? Can be really funny for a while for everyone using Silverlight (SL).
For the moment the Flash and PDF plugins are reasonably well seasoned and has not too many security problems (of course there are holes - but they aren't known yet.) A new product like SL is statistically more prone to interesting bugs and holes so I wouldn't be surprised if we are going to see a new virus or worm wiggling it's way through the net on computers with the SL plugin.
As I see it - it's just a waste of money and energy to set up web sites based on that technology, but I understand that M$ does it - it's their baby. Just wait until users starts to complain that they can't access Microsoft.com anymore...
There is no reason to have the iPhone at all considering all the hassle that has been popping up all the time with broken apps and being locked to a single operator. It is only good for the designfreaks.
Personally I stick with unbranded unlocked phones.
Conveniently killed by Microsoft and reborn into Mozilla/Firefox.
Today the alternatives to IE; Firefox, Opera and Safari are the most well-known and supported by web developers. Yet another alternative is the Lynx browser for those with pure text terminals. (you may think it's masochistic trying to use a text-only browser in today's web but sometimes it's helpful or the only resort left.)
Safari for Windows is still beta (and has had some bugs, I haven't checked the latest yet but 3.0.3 did crash on me). However it is still useful to verify your web page with and compared to the crashes we had with older browsers it's actually OK.
And still - there have been an era where Mosaic was a revolutionary new interface, but even that wasn't the first as you can see at Web Browser History.
A relatively up to date graph can be seen at Wikipedia, but your browser should support SVG to make the most of the graph. Unfortunately it only shows the most common browsers and oddballs like tkWWW are left out.
And the interesting thing is that it seems to be limited to Lithium batteries - not any other type. So it's still possible to check in 20 kilograms of leak-proof batteries of any other type?;-)
The probability of a battery going wild is relatively low.
It seems to me that flying is more and more like cattle transports for every year. It's also about as comfortable as sitting on a collective toilet for several hours...
There are great businessmen - and the work by them are often shaded by dirt in some parts. Of course - it's a little late for the Bell/Gray patent to be resolved, but it also brings forward that the patent purpose of "first come - first served" may be flawed.
In science where patents aren't part of the problem there is still the "first come - first served" problem, but in that case the secondary contributions doesn't have to be dismissed - they can actually improve parts of the first contribution with only a small risk of the risk of costly lawsuits. It's more the cost of pride that can cause problems in the science world. (OK, you may miss the Nobel prize - but it's just a frosting on the cake if you take a wider view)
Even if patents weren't we would still have had progress. There are always people that tends to keep secrets (look at the military) and some inventions are never documented (some persons are bright but can never stop and put down their ideas on paper). Leonardo daVinci was quite the opposite - he actually left a lot behind for others to take up. Not everything may be useful - like the helicopter.
And as conceived before - the persons that benefits most from patents are the lawyers. Safe money regardless of the outcome of a case!
Is it possible that the complete control of SCO(X) can be transferred to Novell through a court decision?
(OK, Novell may not want it, but anyway)
And in that case - can the board of SCO(X) be held liable for anything? It seems to me that if anything - the board of SCO(X) has at least deceived the share holders.
The only good thing that may come out of this is that it serves as a wakeup-call for investors since they will be a bit more aware that the course taken was bad for business. If I was an investor I would be a bit more careful with businesses that triggers legal actions - especially if the case looks weak.
It's actually about time for an internationally recognized ID standard, national ID:s are sooooo last century...
The reason behind this? - Yes, if you are trying to do something on an international basis some kind of nationally recognized ID is required for some transactions - and if you have an ID card for one country it won't work in another. It's a business issue more than a privacy issue.
The ID is also to prove that you actually are the person you claim that you are. If you want real privacy you can always hire someone else to do the job of registration or perform transactions in cash.
Some may say that passports are internationally recognized as ID:s but that's not really good for two reasons: 1. They are in a very inconvenient physical format. 2. They are easily forged.
As for identity theft - it's already a fact and no matter on which scale you do the identity data it is always a risk. It is even worse if it is on a state level than on a national or international level since the variations in the ID papers and registration data makes it harder to validate.
The problem is that it's contagious. The problem will stick to the ISO organization as a whole - regardless.
The value of ISO has been decreased - because the respect of the organization caused by this has a much larger effect than just a file format. It also means that if one company like Microsoft can buy a standard - so will other companies. I wouldn't be surprised if it already has happened and what we see here is the tip of an iceberg.
So my tip of the day - go out and dig into other areas of ISO and see what comes up! We already know that Microsoft are big enough to buy their way out of anything by now. Maybe we'll see Ballmer for president of the US?
There are several alternatives available to this (not all legal), but you have to identify the squatter first.
The IRS may always be looking for persons with an untaxed side-income. Inform them about the person and that you suspect he is making a considerable amount of money. - Downside is that it may take a while.
Copyright infringement seems to be popular these days.
Tell the ISP and/or domain hosting company that this person is suspected of online fraud...
Tell the local police for the squatters area that you have a suspect in some computer-related crimes. Even better if you manage to drop a few items like a CD or a hard disk with incriminating information at his site.
Collect a set of mean-looking friends and pay a visit.
Tell a lot of religious sects to pay him a visit - and that he is in dire need of them. Refer to some useful commandment in the bible or so.
Figure out the home phone number of the person and his friends/family and call them at irregular intervals and just tell them that he has something that belongs to you.
Gas leaks are always useful...
Diesel fuel smells bad a loong time.
Toner powder from a copier is really sticky and makes good stains.
Mail order items from a discrete address - if paid at delivery.
Misplaced deliveries of large items are even more funny - Sometimes it's enough to just plant stickers on things that are going to be discarded saying "send to..." and they may be sent by some unknowing person. (a friend of mine "suffered" this when he as a prank put a sticker on a desk in storage with his name and address as a joke. Wonder who got the last laugh! He still has the desk...) Go figure when a delivery truck shows up with a pile of used office chairs...
Entering the address and name on several online forms for home remodeling quotes etc.
Small packages with white powder found in places controlled by this individual is always an option. The stranger the content the better... Can be either biohazard or drugs when you see a small package of white powder, but it can range from baking soda to ground limestone.
The classic dual-end plugged pipe is also fun to use. Just filled with something - what doesn't matter...
The basic design of an US car hasn't changed much since the 60's. Some minor changes, and design changes, but not much in the question of being efficient and even less when it comes to getting rid of unnecessary weight.
The asian manufacturers have been working from a different approach and instead have gone from a minimalistic setup and added structures where time has proven that they were insufficient. This means that the cars have over the years went from a joke to be so reliable that some resellers need a secondary brand to keep their employees up to date on repair knowledge.
Essentially it's right - what's needed is actually a higher level specification of service availability instead.
Even if OGG and Theora are fine formats by themselves and are easy to support the listing of services in a browser should be specified elsewhere in a different recommendation. HTML is a format for document layout, even if it embeds content.
What I really would like to see is instead support in HTML5 for better input element alternatives, the current alternatives has evolved with new features the last years, and also a few new input alternatives would provide some evolution of the web instead of the need for applets or activeX (shudder) to construct a suitable input.
In the US, any reactor that loses power to the control rods will also cut power to the fuel rods, resulting in the control rods falling into the core, and the fuel rods falling out of the core into a huge slab
Interesting - the fuel rods falling out? That will essentially mean that the control rods gets into a core without fuel and the fuel is accumulated in a pile below the core essentially creating a new core. It doesn't make sense... What makes sense is the control rods falling into the core stopping the reaction.
And disasters will happen - but the risk is rather low.
On the other hand what is more of a problem is the waste - and not the post-production waste which has a relatively low volume - the pre-production waste caused by mining and enrichment of the fuel is a problem that is hidden from the debate.
Another issue is also that mining and enrichment of the nuclear fuel actually requires a large amount of oil and coal. This to the level that if the ore is below a certain limit it's no longer useful to mine since the amount of carbon dioxide released will exceed the gain from use of nuclear fuel. So essentially it will be as good/bad as burning the oil and coal directly.
There are alternatives - but they aren't as comfortable and easy to use. Windmills are good to a certain level - but they aren't running all the time. However one must not forget that every watt produced by a windmill is a watt not produced by something else. Solar power has the same problem and the same goes for a large amount of the alternative energy sources. Even hydroelectric power stations suffers from seasonal variations.
Fusion power is still in too early stages, but one problem is that the efforts are relatively weak there. It may not be the perfect solution either, but there is a lot more fuel available.
But one must not forget that the best way is actually to decrease the need for power by going more power-efficient. Better insulation in houses - not only in northern countries but also in southern. Air/Air airconditioners aren't the most effective solution either since they are cooling themselves using relatively warm air. Cooling the AC with water may be a better solution - and that means that you can actually heat your swimmingpool with the AC. The water is normally cooler than the air - especially when the cooling is most needed. Even better would be if the house could be designed to not need any AC at all and need a very limited heating.
In the end - we are using more energy than we can renew so it doesn't matter how we turn around, we have a problem with an energy crisis coming up.
Next step is to booby-trap your computer so it gets ugly for anybody trying to remove it from you. It doesn't have to be lethal - just sticky or smelly or both...
And anyway - will this actually increase the respect for the law?
Reminds me of a dog my friend had once - she was growing up with a cat as a companion and that resulted in a dog that sometimes behaved as a cat - sitting in the window still, sleeping at the top of the backrest of the sofa, even found in the bookcase.
Mind that this was a Border Collie. Even if she was small for her kind it caused some consternation among his friends seeing the dog in unfamiliar dog locations.
Most spam messages does contain advertisement for something and there is usually a site involved in the end. By tracking down the purchase channel where the money flows it's possible to do a further analysis and possibly prosecute for tax evasion, unlicensed selling of prescribed pharmacy or something else. There is always something that can be prosecuted or at least investigated in a way that requires a temporary close of business.
There are of course some spam messages that aren't directly traceable like the stock spams, but there are possible measures for those too, even if it's more complicated. But if the spammers lose enough of their channels it becomes unprofitable. If it also starts to get dangerous to be a spammer - like a few years imprisonment - it can also help. Since businesses utilizing spammers can be tracked the spammers can be tracked in turn from the investigation of these businesses.
This is a problem today since the patent procedures are created a long time ago and the last years the rise of the internet has created a new dimension of patent scrutiny possibility by the public. If there was an easy procedure for a filed patent to be opposed or scrutinized by the public online fewer non-original patents would be filed.
Maybe the patent offices all over the world should take notice and improve their procedures? Some patents are actually not that bad, but some are too broad or for things already invented. Since the patent office workers not always have the knowledge necessary to figure out what a patent really is about they often grant patents instead of doing a more thorough analysis by using experts. And then there are patents written in a language that can't be penetrated by anyone else than advanced lawyers.
Compared to alternatives Circuit City or Best Buy they were acceptable... Compared to online stores - not that good... It all comes down to what you compare with.
The real problem you run into is that computers are going so mainstream and with so low marginals it's impossible to make profit from them. You have a higher profit margin on vacuum cleaners... The only way to gain a profit on computers is to sell additional insurances and accessories.
Maybe Media Markt will move in instead?:-|, but it seems to be more likely that the place will be taken by a shop selling some cheap chinese-made clothes.
My personal favourite would be Clas Ohlson (founded 1918), not so much about computers, even if they have some parts but because of the range of products for the DIY-person.
There may be reasons about being secret, but for a web browser? Not exactly rocket science today... (Except that the statement Rocket Science is actually really off the target since that is simplicity in itself required...)
One reason may be that "We are trying to design a web browser that takes the lead (and breaks every other browser).". Another is just "Don't spend time on telling anybody - just do the work". Yet another is "We have no progress - so there is nothing to tell". Just take your guess.
There is a risk that the people involved are a different set of persons from the earlier releases and that means that not everyone understands what has been done earlier and they are afraid of modifications since it may break something else. Maybe it's outsourced to India? (Nothing bad about India itself, but I have experienced that when working with people from India you can't always just hint to them and tell them to do A or B since it's equal you have to decide A or B and tell them to do it. It's a hierarchical problem where it's necessary to bounce the blame somewhere else if something goes wrong. Of course - this doesn't apply to everyone in India, some persons are actually very proactive.)
It's possible to cite Wikipedia, but one thing as a student is that you must learn how to be critical of your sources. If Wikipedia is one source among others it's one thing but as any sole source of information it may be utterly wrong. No dictionary is free of errors.
It also depends on your point of view if you think that some information is correct or not.
And don't forget - Wikipedia may actually contain original information from time to time and that's worth to consider. Just because some abuses the tool doesn't mean that the tool is useless. On the contrary - it means that the tool is actually useful enough to draw the interest of abusers. The only catch is to identify the abusers.
is still too low when it comes to roaming services and customer care. If they actually were a little more friendly when a customer comes in and wants a certain service (like buying a prepaid WITHOUT a phone) they would get a lot more credit on friendliness.
Slashdot Mirror
This can have really bad effects when trying to follow up on computer crime and essentially make it hopeless to take cases to prosecution.
I can on one hand understand that there is some need for procedures and chain of evidence, but there can be really tough side-effects.
For the moment the Flash and PDF plugins are reasonably well seasoned and has not too many security problems (of course there are holes - but they aren't known yet.) A new product like SL is statistically more prone to interesting bugs and holes so I wouldn't be surprised if we are going to see a new virus or worm wiggling it's way through the net on computers with the SL plugin.
As I see it - it's just a waste of money and energy to set up web sites based on that technology, but I understand that M$ does it - it's their baby. Just wait until users starts to complain that they can't access Microsoft.com anymore...
Personally I stick with unbranded unlocked phones.
Anyway - the era of Netscape is over.
Conveniently killed by Microsoft and reborn into Mozilla/Firefox.
Today the alternatives to IE; Firefox, Opera and Safari are the most well-known and supported by web developers. Yet another alternative is the Lynx browser for those with pure text terminals. (you may think it's masochistic trying to use a text-only browser in today's web but sometimes it's helpful or the only resort left.)
Safari for Windows is still beta (and has had some bugs, I haven't checked the latest yet but 3.0.3 did crash on me). However it is still useful to verify your web page with and compared to the crashes we had with older browsers it's actually OK.
And still - there have been an era where Mosaic was a revolutionary new interface, but even that wasn't the first as you can see at Web Browser History.
A relatively up to date graph can be seen at Wikipedia, but your browser should support SVG to make the most of the graph. Unfortunately it only shows the most common browsers and oddballs like tkWWW are left out.
The probability of a battery going wild is relatively low.
It seems to me that flying is more and more like cattle transports for every year. It's also about as comfortable as sitting on a collective toilet for several hours...
And how long until someone hacks the billboards and posts a picture of someone and a text "Wanted child molester".
In science where patents aren't part of the problem there is still the "first come - first served" problem, but in that case the secondary contributions doesn't have to be dismissed - they can actually improve parts of the first contribution with only a small risk of the risk of costly lawsuits. It's more the cost of pride that can cause problems in the science world. (OK, you may miss the Nobel prize - but it's just a frosting on the cake if you take a wider view)
Even if patents weren't we would still have had progress. There are always people that tends to keep secrets (look at the military) and some inventions are never documented (some persons are bright but can never stop and put down their ideas on paper). Leonardo daVinci was quite the opposite - he actually left a lot behind for others to take up. Not everything may be useful - like the helicopter.
And as conceived before - the persons that benefits most from patents are the lawyers. Safe money regardless of the outcome of a case!
(OK, Novell may not want it, but anyway)
And in that case - can the board of SCO(X) be held liable for anything? It seems to me that if anything - the board of SCO(X) has at least deceived the share holders.
The only good thing that may come out of this is that it serves as a wakeup-call for investors since they will be a bit more aware that the course taken was bad for business. If I was an investor I would be a bit more careful with businesses that triggers legal actions - especially if the case looks weak.
As I noted - passports aren't good or convenient. Awkward size, sensitive and too easy to forge.
The reason behind this? - Yes, if you are trying to do something on an international basis some kind of nationally recognized ID is required for some transactions - and if you have an ID card for one country it won't work in another. It's a business issue more than a privacy issue.
The ID is also to prove that you actually are the person you claim that you are. If you want real privacy you can always hire someone else to do the job of registration or perform transactions in cash.
Some may say that passports are internationally recognized as ID:s but that's not really good for two reasons: 1. They are in a very inconvenient physical format. 2. They are easily forged.
As for identity theft - it's already a fact and no matter on which scale you do the identity data it is always a risk. It is even worse if it is on a state level than on a national or international level since the variations in the ID papers and registration data makes it harder to validate.
The value of ISO has been decreased - because the respect of the organization caused by this has a much larger effect than just a file format. It also means that if one company like Microsoft can buy a standard - so will other companies. I wouldn't be surprised if it already has happened and what we see here is the tip of an iceberg.
So my tip of the day - go out and dig into other areas of ISO and see what comes up! We already know that Microsoft are big enough to buy their way out of anything by now. Maybe we'll see Ballmer for president of the US?
The asian manufacturers have been working from a different approach and instead have gone from a minimalistic setup and added structures where time has proven that they were insufficient. This means that the cars have over the years went from a joke to be so reliable that some resellers need a secondary brand to keep their employees up to date on repair knowledge.
Roger Wilco to that!
Even if OGG and Theora are fine formats by themselves and are easy to support the listing of services in a browser should be specified elsewhere in a different recommendation. HTML is a format for document layout, even if it embeds content.
What I really would like to see is instead support in HTML5 for better input element alternatives, the current alternatives has evolved with new features the last years, and also a few new input alternatives would provide some evolution of the web instead of the need for applets or activeX (shudder) to construct a suitable input.
And disasters will happen - but the risk is rather low.
On the other hand what is more of a problem is the waste - and not the post-production waste which has a relatively low volume - the pre-production waste caused by mining and enrichment of the fuel is a problem that is hidden from the debate.
Another issue is also that mining and enrichment of the nuclear fuel actually requires a large amount of oil and coal. This to the level that if the ore is below a certain limit it's no longer useful to mine since the amount of carbon dioxide released will exceed the gain from use of nuclear fuel. So essentially it will be as good/bad as burning the oil and coal directly.
There are alternatives - but they aren't as comfortable and easy to use. Windmills are good to a certain level - but they aren't running all the time. However one must not forget that every watt produced by a windmill is a watt not produced by something else. Solar power has the same problem and the same goes for a large amount of the alternative energy sources. Even hydroelectric power stations suffers from seasonal variations.
Fusion power is still in too early stages, but one problem is that the efforts are relatively weak there. It may not be the perfect solution either, but there is a lot more fuel available.
But one must not forget that the best way is actually to decrease the need for power by going more power-efficient. Better insulation in houses - not only in northern countries but also in southern. Air/Air airconditioners aren't the most effective solution either since they are cooling themselves using relatively warm air. Cooling the AC with water may be a better solution - and that means that you can actually heat your swimmingpool with the AC. The water is normally cooler than the air - especially when the cooling is most needed. Even better would be if the house could be designed to not need any AC at all and need a very limited heating.
In the end - we are using more energy than we can renew so it doesn't matter how we turn around, we have a problem with an energy crisis coming up.
And anyway - will this actually increase the respect for the law?
Mind that this was a Border Collie. Even if she was small for her kind it caused some consternation among his friends seeing the dog in unfamiliar dog locations.
Most spam messages does contain advertisement for something and there is usually a site involved in the end. By tracking down the purchase channel where the money flows it's possible to do a further analysis and possibly prosecute for tax evasion, unlicensed selling of prescribed pharmacy or something else. There is always something that can be prosecuted or at least investigated in a way that requires a temporary close of business.
There are of course some spam messages that aren't directly traceable like the stock spams, but there are possible measures for those too, even if it's more complicated. But if the spammers lose enough of their channels it becomes unprofitable. If it also starts to get dangerous to be a spammer - like a few years imprisonment - it can also help. Since businesses utilizing spammers can be tracked the spammers can be tracked in turn from the investigation of these businesses.
Maybe the patent offices all over the world should take notice and improve their procedures? Some patents are actually not that bad, but some are too broad or for things already invented. Since the patent office workers not always have the knowledge necessary to figure out what a patent really is about they often grant patents instead of doing a more thorough analysis by using experts. And then there are patents written in a language that can't be penetrated by anyone else than advanced lawyers.
The real problem you run into is that computers are going so mainstream and with so low marginals it's impossible to make profit from them. You have a higher profit margin on vacuum cleaners... The only way to gain a profit on computers is to sell additional insurances and accessories.
Maybe Media Markt will move in instead? :-|, but it seems to be more likely that the place will be taken by a shop selling some cheap chinese-made clothes.
My personal favourite would be Clas Ohlson (founded 1918), not so much about computers, even if they have some parts but because of the range of products for the DIY-person.
One reason may be that "We are trying to design a web browser that takes the lead (and breaks every other browser).". Another is just "Don't spend time on telling anybody - just do the work". Yet another is "We have no progress - so there is nothing to tell". Just take your guess.
There is a risk that the people involved are a different set of persons from the earlier releases and that means that not everyone understands what has been done earlier and they are afraid of modifications since it may break something else. Maybe it's outsourced to India? (Nothing bad about India itself, but I have experienced that when working with people from India you can't always just hint to them and tell them to do A or B since it's equal you have to decide A or B and tell them to do it. It's a hierarchical problem where it's necessary to bounce the blame somewhere else if something goes wrong. Of course - this doesn't apply to everyone in India, some persons are actually very proactive.)
It also depends on your point of view if you think that some information is correct or not.
And don't forget - Wikipedia may actually contain original information from time to time and that's worth to consider. Just because some abuses the tool doesn't mean that the tool is useless. On the contrary - it means that the tool is actually useful enough to draw the interest of abusers. The only catch is to identify the abusers.
is still too low when it comes to roaming services and customer care. If they actually were a little more friendly when a customer comes in and wants a certain service (like buying a prepaid WITHOUT a phone) they would get a lot more credit on friendliness.