It's because Slashdot's moderation system gives equal weight to all subscribers. So, if Stephen Hawking were a Slashdot reader, he might mod a comment about string theory as insightful. Bozo the Clown, also a Slashdot reader, could come behind him and mod the same comment as Overrated. Each mod is given equal weight. Therefore Bozo the Clown has equal input to any comment about string theory as Stephen Hawking. It's the way the system works.
Note: The names used herein are fictitious and any resemblance to real Slashdot readers, either living or dead, is purely coincidental.
First, remember you can give away your rights in a contract. Except where a contract provision is unconstitutional or detrimental to the public good, specific contract clauses can override any rules layed out by federal law. So if the BITS provider (BITSP) says terms of service means you can't run a server then you can't legally.
But it would mean for example that the BITSP couldn't block you from using a protocol that wasn't declared out and out illegal, for example Bittorrent. It would also mean they could not arbitrarily censor web sites based on the BITSP interpretation (however, they would still be expected to follow censorship required by the government).
There's a rather large gray area in the language, specifically "...to provide subscribers with access to lawful content, applications, and services...". Since we have such draconian laws on the books already (such as the DMCA) which basically allow any big company to declare anything unlawful without proof, don't expect this bill to affect the current state of things. I would bet that this bill would actually increase abuses such as what we see with the DMCA. I guess that isn't unexpected at this point.
I would also say that the bill goes into specifics when defining information that can personally identify someone but they leave out a significant area -- namely electronic ID's of hardware and software. For example, it would be simple to identify a specific person if one company provided a cable modem to a single subscriber with a unique ID (for example the MAC number) or software that supplied a unique ID (such as WMP) and then tracked web site visits based on that unique identifier. I think that the list of personally identifiable information should have the phrase added "and any combination of unique identifiers that could reasonably be associated with one individual or household". Just a thought.
There's no issue created if a spammer sends unanswered spam to Mailinator. Same amout of work, same net results. That's why spam is a problem. Same price to the spammer (essentially) for 1 email or 10,000,000 emails. Now if it cost some small amount (say, a penny) for every email sent, most spam would disappear in a day...
Server 2003 has very few issued critical udpates compared to past MS products
Kudos for the improved work processes but if you are defining critical issues by Microsoft's definition then I'd have to disagree with this statement. At best, Server 2003 has fewer exposed security issues when it is shipped because Microsoft has finally started turning off features. The problem is some of the features turned off by default are immediately turned on again by admins because they are needed to make the system usable (case in point any service needed to run Internet Explorer on the server since most admins will need IE to accomplish browser-based administrative tasks and downloads locally). Turning off code at the factory and then declaring issues less severe because the code was shipped out disabled is unrealistic in the real world.
Bottom line is that solar is possible today if we can ever wean ourselves off of oil (and keep the oildependentbusinesses from buying off congress). (a lot of tree hugging rhetoric here but they have a point none-the-less...search for "oil lobby" to find relevant comments)
[...] dictates that it will always take more energy to get the free hydrogen that you can ever get back in a fuel cell
You are correct. The reason it is economically viable is that the human race has at least two virtually unlimited supplies of the very energy we need to break the hydrogen loose and today they go unused in any real capacity. That energy source is either solar or nuclear. Other sources could be viable as well eventually, such as geothermal.
The issue is that we need an energy storage and transportation method that works within our current tech development. Using hydrogen for portable power and electricity for stationary power is feasible as long as we can use an energy source that is plentiful and currently underutilized. Hence, solar or nuclear are the only real possible solutions right now. Solar would be best, considering the Earth receives 5000 times as much solar energy as we currently use in oil equivalents. Nuclear fusion might be a good alternative but I withhold making any concrete statements until we manage to get our first commercial reactor going. Modern nuclear fission reactors are perfectly feasible and safe as long as we manage to keep them out of the hands of terrorists (Note: The US has ZERO modern designs in operation -- we still use highly dangerous designs from the 50's and 60's).
So, in the sense that it takes more energy to break apart hydrogen than you get back from recombining the hydrogen, you are right. But it is practical to use hydrogen as an energy carrier because there is so much under utilized energy sources at our disposal, sources that do not make very good portable energy supplies by themselves.
Menus that change. Whoever thought up the idea of menus that hide unused items or change the displayed order based on frequency of use should be one of the first
ones up against the wall when the revolution comes. Changing menus are one of the worst productivity enhancements of the last millennium. Forget that you can turn it off. It should never have been invented in the first place (no doubt it's patented, too).
Unsolicited offers from the system to remove unused shortcuts on my desktop. I don't need help removing my unused shortcuts. They are there for a reason and just because I haven't clicked on them in a month doesn't mean they're not useful.
Special buttons to page forward/page back in the web browser. I don't know how many times I've accidentally erased my latest diatribe by inadvertently paging backward on Slashdot. Good grief, at least put the function behind a modifier key.
Caps Lock. Who named this key anyway? In Windows, it's not a caps lock key, it's a caps reverse key. And who the hell needs a caps reverse key? hAS aNYONE eVER rEALLY nEEDED tHIS fUNCTIONALITY bEFORE? I wonder where some people's brains are sometimes.
No no no...not interact...Microsoft plans to integrate UNIX into Window's code base. In the next five years, they will swap more and more Windows code for UNIX code. Eventually, there will be more UNIX code than legacy Windows code. At which point Microsoft will 1) claim ownership of UNIX, 2) begin to release Windows only UNIX code so you have to run Windows to get the "full experience of UNIX", and 3) hire analysts to compare the TCO of Windows vs. other UNIX systems.
It's about time UNIX benefitted from Microsoft's years of marketing experience...
Another link with video and more details. As the father of a two-year-old daughter, watching the girl sink to the bottom of the pool, completely motionless for a minute or so, and then be rescued invoked more emotion in me than I would have believed possible. I would say this one incident more than justified the $118,000 price tag.
Just a comment...when you hear someone talk about the US expanding broadband access consider that it is up to the individual country to define what constitutes broadband. For the US (as defined by the FCC), it's a connection that provides at least 200 kbps one way. The other direction can be much slower. For comparison, Canada defines broadband as at least 1.5 mbps both ways. I believe the UK defines it as at least 256 kbps one way.
In any case, almost all DSL connections in the US would be classified broadband by the FCC. This of course is not to say they should be. Almost everyone would agree that 200 kbps is not sufficent for any interactive digital technology other than web browsing. At the current trend the FCC will fail to meet the requirements for US broadband penetration by the year 2007 as it is defined by the 1996 Telecommunications Act (which defines broadband as a connection capable of originating and receiving high-quality voice, data , graphics, and video communications using any technology). Of course, it will be highly unlikely that there will be any negative consequences because of the failure either.
Prediction: Microsoft will embrace and extend like they have always done in the past. They will have a SIP compliant client, they will add extra (and compelling they hope) features that will only work between their client, the client will be free with Windows. Behind the scenes Microsoft will sell some built in functionality aimed at business. It may be in the form of solicitation (i.e. the EULA says you must agree to some form of marketing) or ads or whatever. In other words, Microsof provides features that only work between Microsoft clients while charging a fee to third party companies for access to you.
True. Microsoft has the brand advantage and the built-in market reach via Windows. However, this is not to say that Skype is out of the picture without recourse, which is my point. While Microsoft is not very innovative (in the sense of coming up with brand new ideas), they are very good at copying and improving. Skype has to compete or they will disappear. In the old days, however, they would not have stood a chance. Today, they can remain a competitor if they earn that right. And clueless consumers (e.g. you and me) may end up with better technology because of real competition instead of being forced to take whatever Microsoft chose to market.
In the old days, an announcement like this would have been an instant death blow to the competing company. I am happy to note these days it is a relative non-event. This is not to say Microsoft's entry into a market cannot have a significant impact. But gone are the good old days where Microsoft simply had to announce some vaporware to stop a competitor in their tracks. From that perspective, things are better today than they used to be.
Cool idea, except that you don't really save time while bicycling to work unless bicycling takes less than an hour or so (assuming you would work out for about an hour a day). For me, it would take 4 to 5 hours one way because unfortunately it is a full hour with no traffic jams by car to work (and on very busy highways to boot). Of course, I'd love to find work closer to home but at the moment it's not possible.
However, for those in the right place, bicycling to a gym near your place of work to freshen up and change clothes is a very good idea.
Slashdot Mirror
Can't. No paper trail.
Hey, this is Slashdot...dups are allowed...
It's because Slashdot's moderation system gives equal weight to all subscribers. So, if Stephen Hawking were a Slashdot reader, he might mod a comment about string theory as insightful. Bozo the Clown, also a Slashdot reader, could come behind him and mod the same comment as Overrated. Each mod is given equal weight. Therefore Bozo the Clown has equal input to any comment about string theory as Stephen Hawking. It's the way the system works.
Note: The names used herein are fictitious and any resemblance to real Slashdot readers, either living or dead, is purely coincidental.
First, remember you can give away your rights in a contract. Except where a contract provision is unconstitutional or detrimental to the public good, specific contract clauses can override any rules layed out by federal law. So if the BITS provider (BITSP) says terms of service means you can't run a server then you can't legally.
But it would mean for example that the BITSP couldn't block you from using a protocol that wasn't declared out and out illegal, for example Bittorrent. It would also mean they could not arbitrarily censor web sites based on the BITSP interpretation (however, they would still be expected to follow censorship required by the government).
There's a rather large gray area in the language, specifically "...to provide subscribers with access to lawful content, applications, and services...". Since we have such draconian laws on the books already (such as the DMCA) which basically allow any big company to declare anything unlawful without proof, don't expect this bill to affect the current state of things. I would bet that this bill would actually increase abuses such as what we see with the DMCA. I guess that isn't unexpected at this point.
I would also say that the bill goes into specifics when defining information that can personally identify someone but they leave out a significant area -- namely electronic ID's of hardware and software. For example, it would be simple to identify a specific person if one company provided a cable modem to a single subscriber with a unique ID (for example the MAC number) or software that supplied a unique ID (such as WMP) and then tracked web site visits based on that unique identifier. I think that the list of personally identifiable information should have the phrase added "and any combination of unique identifiers that could reasonably be associated with one individual or household". Just a thought.
There's no issue created if a spammer sends unanswered spam to Mailinator. Same amout of work, same net results. That's why spam is a problem. Same price to the spammer (essentially) for 1 email or 10,000,000 emails. Now if it cost some small amount (say, a penny) for every email sent, most spam would disappear in a day...
Server 2003 has very few issued critical udpates compared to past MS products
Kudos for the improved work processes but if you are defining critical issues by Microsoft's definition then I'd have to disagree with this statement. At best, Server 2003 has fewer exposed security issues when it is shipped because Microsoft has finally started turning off features. The problem is some of the features turned off by default are immediately turned on again by admins because they are needed to make the system usable (case in point any service needed to run Internet Explorer on the server since most admins will need IE to accomplish browser-based administrative tasks and downloads locally). Turning off code at the factory and then declaring issues less severe because the code was shipped out disabled is unrealistic in the real world.
[and it can] notify them when they receive an email or instant message.
A classic example of just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
How long before a Hot Coffee replacement mod is produced?
I believe it's scheduled for the Tuesday following the re-release...
The picture of the fan sink was the best part.
Responsible disclosure from Microsoft's perspective: You tell us and only us. We'll tell the rest of the world when we think it's necessary (if ever).
Close to the bottom of the page, a conservative figure...
Also here in the first paragraph...from this estimate, 27 years x 365 days = 9,855 times as much energy as we currently use.
Also here, here, and here.
Bottom line is that solar is possible today if we can ever wean ourselves off of oil (and keep the oil dependent businesses from buying off congress). (a lot of tree hugging rhetoric here but they have a point none-the-less...search for "oil lobby" to find relevant comments)
You're right, of course. What we need now is a program to mine the Sun for hydrogen...
[...] dictates that it will always take more energy to get the free hydrogen that you can ever get back in a fuel cell
You are correct. The reason it is economically viable is that the human race has at least two virtually unlimited supplies of the very energy we need to break the hydrogen loose and today they go unused in any real capacity. That energy source is either solar or nuclear. Other sources could be viable as well eventually, such as geothermal.
The issue is that we need an energy storage and transportation method that works within our current tech development. Using hydrogen for portable power and electricity for stationary power is feasible as long as we can use an energy source that is plentiful and currently underutilized. Hence, solar or nuclear are the only real possible solutions right now. Solar would be best, considering the Earth receives 5000 times as much solar energy as we currently use in oil equivalents. Nuclear fusion might be a good alternative but I withhold making any concrete statements until we manage to get our first commercial reactor going. Modern nuclear fission reactors are perfectly feasible and safe as long as we manage to keep them out of the hands of terrorists (Note: The US has ZERO modern designs in operation -- we still use highly dangerous designs from the 50's and 60's).
So, in the sense that it takes more energy to break apart hydrogen than you get back from recombining the hydrogen, you are right. But it is practical to use hydrogen as an energy carrier because there is so much under utilized energy sources at our disposal, sources that do not make very good portable energy supplies by themselves.
Menus that change. Whoever thought up the idea of menus that hide unused items or change the displayed order based on frequency of use should be one of the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes. Changing menus are one of the worst productivity enhancements of the last millennium. Forget that you can turn it off. It should never have been invented in the first place (no doubt it's patented, too).
Unsolicited offers from the system to remove unused shortcuts on my desktop. I don't need help removing my unused shortcuts. They are there for a reason and just because I haven't clicked on them in a month doesn't mean they're not useful.
Special buttons to page forward/page back in the web browser. I don't know how many times I've accidentally erased my latest diatribe by inadvertently paging backward on Slashdot. Good grief, at least put the function behind a modifier key.
Caps Lock. Who named this key anyway? In Windows, it's not a caps lock key, it's a caps reverse key. And who the hell needs a caps reverse key? hAS aNYONE eVER rEALLY nEEDED tHIS fUNCTIONALITY bEFORE? I wonder where some people's brains are sometimes.
I could go on...and on, and on, and on...
[...]that could be a very good thing for those of us who are currently paying anywhere from $3 on up for a gallon of regular unleaded.
Anything that extends our dependency on oil is by definition not a good thing.
It's that the dialog of a typical IM user can't be distinguished from a brain-dead conversation bot...
No no no...not interact...Microsoft plans to integrate UNIX into Window's code base. In the next five years, they will swap more and more Windows code for UNIX code. Eventually, there will be more UNIX code than legacy Windows code. At which point Microsoft will 1) claim ownership of UNIX, 2) begin to release Windows only UNIX code so you have to run Windows to get the "full experience of UNIX", and 3) hire analysts to compare the TCO of Windows vs. other UNIX systems.
It's about time UNIX benefitted from Microsoft's years of marketing experience...
Embrace and extend! UNIX is doomed! Mwahahahahaha!
But Linux's licensing-cost edge is likely to wane as Microsoft and some Unix vendors, notably Sun Microsystems, lower their prices.
Competition drives prices down...who'd of thought...
Another link with video and more details. As the father of a two-year-old daughter, watching the girl sink to the bottom of the pool, completely motionless for a minute or so, and then be rescued invoked more emotion in me than I would have believed possible. I would say this one incident more than justified the $118,000 price tag.
Just a comment...when you hear someone talk about the US expanding broadband access consider that it is up to the individual country to define what constitutes broadband. For the US (as defined by the FCC), it's a connection that provides at least 200 kbps one way. The other direction can be much slower. For comparison, Canada defines broadband as at least 1.5 mbps both ways. I believe the UK defines it as at least 256 kbps one way.
In any case, almost all DSL connections in the US would be classified broadband by the FCC. This of course is not to say they should be. Almost everyone would agree that 200 kbps is not sufficent for any interactive digital technology other than web browsing. At the current trend the FCC will fail to meet the requirements for US broadband penetration by the year 2007 as it is defined by the 1996 Telecommunications Act (which defines broadband as a connection capable of originating and receiving high-quality voice, data , graphics, and video communications using any technology). Of course, it will be highly unlikely that there will be any negative consequences because of the failure either.
These figures are from the Free Press 2005 broadband report (warning, PDF link).
Prediction: Microsoft will embrace and extend like they have always done in the past. They will have a SIP compliant client, they will add extra (and compelling they hope) features that will only work between their client, the client will be free with Windows. Behind the scenes Microsoft will sell some built in functionality aimed at business. It may be in the form of solicitation (i.e. the EULA says you must agree to some form of marketing) or ads or whatever. In other words, Microsof provides features that only work between Microsoft clients while charging a fee to third party companies for access to you.
True. Microsoft has the brand advantage and the built-in market reach via Windows. However, this is not to say that Skype is out of the picture without recourse, which is my point. While Microsoft is not very innovative (in the sense of coming up with brand new ideas), they are very good at copying and improving. Skype has to compete or they will disappear. In the old days, however, they would not have stood a chance. Today, they can remain a competitor if they earn that right. And clueless consumers (e.g. you and me) may end up with better technology because of real competition instead of being forced to take whatever Microsoft chose to market.
In the old days, an announcement like this would have been an instant death blow to the competing company. I am happy to note these days it is a relative non-event. This is not to say Microsoft's entry into a market cannot have a significant impact. But gone are the good old days where Microsoft simply had to announce some vaporware to stop a competitor in their tracks. From that perspective, things are better today than they used to be.
Cool idea, except that you don't really save time while bicycling to work unless bicycling takes less than an hour or so (assuming you would work out for about an hour a day). For me, it would take 4 to 5 hours one way because unfortunately it is a full hour with no traffic jams by car to work (and on very busy highways to boot). Of course, I'd love to find work closer to home but at the moment it's not possible.
However, for those in the right place, bicycling to a gym near your place of work to freshen up and change clothes is a very good idea.