What are you guys talking about? This stuff is available for free both from NOAA FTP servers and via satellite. Where do you think Weather Underground gets their data? (I know, I've talked with them.)
"Gizmodo: What seems to me--what hurts my feelings--I feel like I, as a customer, want Microsoft to be totally on my side. In that, as far as the people that are producing things, that might want more DRM and might make it inconvenient, I don't understand what it necessarily benefits you to help them."
So your basic argument is that your feelings are hurt because Microsoft isn't helping you steal IP?
My rear projection CRT based HDTV is stunning. Because each of the CRTs has a continuous phosphor coating it can display at any resolution without having to resample to the native display resolution. Plus, the color gamut is continoues and wider than any of the other competing technologies.
It's been possible for years now to get all of these services directly from the NOAA ftp site. Everything, including real-time NEXRAD radar has been available.
Now if they make it available as XML web services, that would be fabulous.
-brian
There must be some nuance to this, because the prior art is really old, and very clearly applicable.
Does anyone but me remeber the UCSD P-System? It compiled Pascal to an intermediate language (P-Code) which was then run by a platform-specific runtime that interpreted the code. This all happened around 1980.
Another fine patent, and a bunch of rich lawyers.
The real problem here is with the DirecTV product model. This is one of the only consumer devices available where the manufacturer can give and take away features long after you've purchased the product.
I had a Mitsubishi DirecTV HDTV receiver box that one day lost the ability to set the sidebars on 4:3 content to black. I was livid! While I was well aware that updates would occur, I was horrified to find that they were perfectly willing to remove features not just add them. And worse, Mitsubishi blamed it on DirecTV and, you guessed it, DirecTV blamed it on Mitsubishi.
I'll never knowingly buy a device again that does not put me in control of the upgrade process.
-brian
Aren't these people paying attention? We're running out of this stuff.
-brian
Independant SW developers are nearing extinction
on
The Future of Symbian
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· Score: 1
Microsoft has been doing the same thing to their mobile platform developers for a while now. All without much success, I might add. Developers are loathe to pay to have their apps certified when most of them aren't making any money anyway.
Let's do the math. I don't know what the Symbian folks will charge, but in MS land it's $500 per certification. Each *complete* app needs to be certified, so if you support multiple languages, each is a separate certification.
So that's $500 x say, 5 languages x 3 releases a year, bringing our grand total to $7,500 per year in certification. Add $350 for a signing certificate and you've got nearly $8000/yr. in fees.
Now, let's say you use Handango as a channel. They take as much as 60% depending on sales volume (their cut goes up with volume, if you can believe that). So let's just pick 25%, since that's industry norm. That means you'll need gross revenues of over $10,000 per year, or approximately 1,000 unit sales (at $10 each) just to break even on certification and signing costs!
Now I don't know what Symbian will charge, or how their program will be configured, but I can tell you this: the small, independent SW developer is getting wiped out by big business at every turn. Bad patents, DRM, and gratuitous certification and signing requirements are going to make it impossible to distribute apps by anyone without deep pockets.
Back in the 80's there was this thing in a lot of bars called the "Excuse Booth". Basically, it was a phone booth with recorded background noises. So you could call from a bar and explain that you had to pickup a friend unexpectedly at the train station.
People with talent want to earn a living. So they're not writing free software. That's the basic problem with Linux and open source. There are a lot of bit-heads out there that'll hack together something functional to impress the other bit-heads and show they belong. But refined, world-class user interfaces will never come from these guys -- at least not as long as talented people can make a living doing what they love.
I keep thinking of developing some apps for Linux. But, but the tools and UI are so primitive that after about a day I find myself switching back to Windows.
The whole world vs. Windows divide reminds me of the cold war. Lots of ingnorance on both sides.
Slashdot Mirror
What are you guys talking about? This stuff is available for free both from NOAA FTP servers and via satellite. Where do you think Weather Underground gets their data? (I know, I've talked with them.)
"Gizmodo: What seems to me--what hurts my feelings--I feel like I, as a customer, want Microsoft to be totally on my side. In that, as far as the people that are producing things, that might want more DRM and might make it inconvenient, I don't understand what it necessarily benefits you to help them."
So your basic argument is that your feelings are hurt because Microsoft isn't helping you steal IP?
Geez. No wonder the RIAA has their claws out.
My rear projection CRT based HDTV is stunning. Because each of the CRTs has a continuous phosphor coating it can display at any resolution without having to resample to the native display resolution. Plus, the color gamut is continoues and wider than any of the other competing technologies.
It's been possible for years now to get all of these services directly from the NOAA ftp site. Everything, including real-time NEXRAD radar has been available.
Now if they make it available as XML web services, that would be fabulous.
-brian
There must be some nuance to this, because the prior art is really old, and very clearly applicable. Does anyone but me remeber the UCSD P-System? It compiled Pascal to an intermediate language (P-Code) which was then run by a platform-specific runtime that interpreted the code. This all happened around 1980. Another fine patent, and a bunch of rich lawyers.
The real problem here is with the DirecTV product model. This is one of the only consumer devices available where the manufacturer can give and take away features long after you've purchased the product. I had a Mitsubishi DirecTV HDTV receiver box that one day lost the ability to set the sidebars on 4:3 content to black. I was livid! While I was well aware that updates would occur, I was horrified to find that they were perfectly willing to remove features not just add them. And worse, Mitsubishi blamed it on DirecTV and, you guessed it, DirecTV blamed it on Mitsubishi. I'll never knowingly buy a device again that does not put me in control of the upgrade process. -brian
Yeah, it was a brain-fart. I was answering the door just as I clicked 'submit' and right before my brain kicked in.
Aren't these people paying attention? We're running out of this stuff. -brian
Let's do the math. I don't know what the Symbian folks will charge, but in MS land it's $500 per certification. Each *complete* app needs to be certified, so if you support multiple languages, each is a separate certification.
So that's $500 x say, 5 languages x 3 releases a year, bringing our grand total to $7,500 per year in certification. Add $350 for a signing certificate and you've got nearly $8000/yr. in fees.
Now, let's say you use Handango as a channel. They take as much as 60% depending on sales volume (their cut goes up with volume, if you can believe that). So let's just pick 25%, since that's industry norm. That means you'll need gross revenues of over $10,000 per year, or approximately 1,000 unit sales (at $10 each) just to break even on certification and signing costs!
Now I don't know what Symbian will charge, or how their program will be configured, but I can tell you this: the small, independent SW developer is getting wiped out by big business at every turn. Bad patents, DRM, and gratuitous certification and signing requirements are going to make it impossible to distribute apps by anyone without deep pockets.
-brian
Back in the 80's there was this thing in a lot of bars called the "Excuse Booth". Basically, it was a phone booth with recorded background noises. So you could call from a bar and explain that you had to pickup a friend unexpectedly at the train station.
People with talent want to earn a living. So they're not writing free software. That's the basic problem with Linux and open source. There are a lot of bit-heads out there that'll hack together something functional to impress the other bit-heads and show they belong. But refined, world-class user interfaces will never come from these guys -- at least not as long as talented people can make a living doing what they love.
The whole world vs. Windows divide reminds me of the cold war. Lots of ingnorance on both sides.