it's just a forum, you can probably get away with very low specs... say, a 300 mhz machine and 10 gig drive
That sounds awfully underpowered for a forum because of the database.
I want a multi processor unit. I know the database will need that extra CPU.
My problem is trying convince myself that I don't need a new Dell Xeon 2.2ghz machine, that I can get by with a dual Xeon 600 from ebay.
If the forum grows, what I will do is put the web host on one dual Xeon and the database on a second dual Xeon. I don't like the idea of having the database on the same system as the web server.
Its kind of hard to get rid of your data on a hard drive.
I found running a magnet over it is a good first step. Unscrewing it and opening it is a good second step. Taking a hammer to the internal parts is step 3. And putting the parts over a fire won't hurt. For a final step, I like to throw the hard drive in the lake of acid.
I also pee on the hard drive. Just incase someone is smart enough to fuck me and find out what was on the hard drive, I can have the last laugh knowing they touched my pee.
Oh, but you want to sell the hard drive, sans data? Now that gets tricky.
Here is what I have done in the past when I wanted to sell or give away a hard drive, but did not want anything to be retrievable off the hard drive.
I start with a format using a windows 98 floppy that will write a FAT table. I then load windows 98 on it and go to malware, spyware and those kinds of websites. When I get to 90% CPU in usage while doing nothing, I know I have enough spyware and viruses. I let them go to town on the hard drive. I delete files, and let the viruses rewrite them.
Step 2 is putting a Debian CD in the cd-rom and reformatting the hard drive and installing Debian. I then go to websites with huge mpegs and download them until the hard drive is full of data. I delete all this data and do it all over again.
Next is a Windows 2000 install, in NTFS. I go back to virus and malware websites, and let the hard drive get infected again.
My final step is a simple FAT format, and the sale. If someone tries to recreate what was one the drive, they might recreate a virus. I toss the debian and large file step in the middle to over write what was written the first time. It is another layer to the cake.
Oh, I am delusional and paranoid too. People tell me I get fanatical about shit like privacy. You might not need to go through all the steps. A simple format might be all you need, unless you suspect the person buying the hard drive has thousands of dollars in equipment and training to recreate your deleted data (like the National Security Agency in conjunction with the CIA and colonel sanders from KFC. Why would a military grade officer be selling chicken? To get closer to YOU!).
How is this not negligence? The only problem is how can a person know if their personal information was on one of those servers? I got a feeling everyone will deny, deny, deny everything.
Secondly, where the hell can anyone get a server for $14. Even if this is a dual p200 pro, that can still make a good home email server. At one point and time, that server was probably the best available. It is just a matter of finding old enough software to use.
And since we are talking servers, maybe someone can give me adivce. I want to start an on-line forum. I expect a maximum load of 100 people at the same time maximum, with an avarage load of 15-25 people. I was looking and Dell has some servers that are around $400 for a P4. But someone told me for a database you NEED a dual Xeon or the database will be super slow. So I looked on ebay, and found some dual Xeon 650's with 1 gig for $400-600 (most come with 3 scsi hard drives in raid). This beats the $1600+ that Dell wants for a dual Xeon 2.2ghz. On ebay, I even found a quad Xeon 550 with 1 gig memory and 5 9.1 scsi cheeta hard drives for less than half of the Dell Xeon. But I don't have any OS that will use 4 CPU's.
And I bet if you went to GOOGLE and searched for DVDDecrypter, it would be nowhere to be found.
You can find the program. What you can not find are the small files that allow newer DVD's to be copied.
For example, when 50 First Dates was released on DVD, it could not be copied, DVD Decryprer didn't work because the DVD had some bad sectors on purpose. The guy who maintained DVD Decrypter changed it so it would work.
Since the last edition, there will be no new ones. So if the movie industry changes the copy protection, like changing where they put a bad sector, DVD Decryptor won't be updated to work.
Think what you will about it, but recieving a free copy of something someone else has invested time and money to produce is not a "right."
The problem with the system is I can't own a damn thing anymore. There was a time if I wanted to tape something off TV, I would have used a VCR. Now people are paying a monthly fee for TiVo. 20 years ago, people could buy a satelite dish and get all the channels for free on C-band. And back then cable was fairly inexpensive. Today, a "basic" subscription to cable can cost over $60 a month. AND back then there were not as many commericals on television as today. What has changed? Did these companies hire specialists to determine just how much bullshit people can take before they break?
And it is not good enough to have a phone in the house, now everyone needs a cell phone. I had one employer ask me to update my file with my second phone number, a cell phone number. I did not have one. My boss gave me one hell of a look.
And take operating systems for example. There was a time that when I purchased a operating system, I could put it on any computer I owned. Now Microsoft wants me to call in and ask for permission to install Windows.
Every buisness is figuring ways to not sell a product, but to sell a reoccuring service. One day, people won't be able to buy underwear, they will have to buy a license from fruit of the loom. Perhaps washing machines will need to call fruit of the loom before you can wash underwear.
And the music industry and movie industry is doing the same thing. It is not bad enough that they want $10 to see a movie, after half an hour of commericals (what is the point of paying $10 if they will force people to watch commercials anyways, isn't that just like TV?). In addition to the $10 ticket and forced viewing of commercials, the theater has a monopoly on snacks, and they use that monopoly to charge $5 for a soda that probably costs them a thin dime. One year later, the movie gets released on DVD for $29.99. The movie quality is so-so. Three years later a nicer version comes out for $29.99.
And If I want to back up my copy, in case it gets scratched so I have a working copy, the movie industry won't let me. They shut down DVD Decryptor.
And about the music industry. Remember, they kept prices inflated to over $15 a CD. They were sued and they lost. They were ordered to give free CD's to libraries and what did they do? 100 different CD's that would be interesting? NO. They gave 100 identical copies of Christmas songs.
So, no, sharing is not theft. What is theft is what the corporations are doing to people.
If tomorrow there is a terrorist attack that the FBI failed to prevent because they were busy arresting some copyright violator, I'm going to be mighty pissed.
#1) Sometimes a highly visable arrest is enough to deter people from an activity, without allocating many law officers. All the FBI has to do is make an example of one person, charge him with everything, throw the kitchen sink at the guy and make sure he never gets outside of a jail, and that might stop other people from doing the same act.
#2) Follow the money. There would be no FBI without money, and they get their money from congress. Members of congress get elected, and that takes lots of money. I can't give/donate nearly as much money as organized groups like the RIAA, so members of congress won't listen to me. If the RIAA wants music file sharers chased, arrested and prosecuted, and members of congress want money for the next election, guess what the FBI will be doing?
#3) Perhaps terrorists are not a high priority because the politicians in power have been able to take advantage of the attacks. Whenever there is an attack, the people collectivly lose more rights. Police put up camera's in cities to videotape everyone (chicago and boston both have over 3,000 each). Libraries require fingerprints (Naperville). Gas prices soar. Companies like Halliburton get rich. I also noticed a direct relationship between acts of terror and rednecks getting very patriotic, which means they vote republican. For some reason, people in the south think democrats are pussies because we want to understand a problem before shooting at it.
I would also add the uber rich are not scared of terrorism because when was the last time a suicide bomber blew himself up in Beverly Hills? The terrorists target public trains and busses which the avarage joe takes to work. The rich live in gated communities, they have private security in addition to the police. And when the rich call the police, the police know to anwser quickly and with their best officers. The last thing the police departments want is a millionaire with lawyers pissed off at them.
Oh, that's right... the frozen embryos have souls or some such shit. Yes, this is a hateful post because I simply can't fathom why this scientific area can't be advanced without controversy in the US. I really, really don't get it. I'd love for somebody to explain it to me. Please!
Do you have a soul? Do you believe in God? To many people, their ethics are more important than science or cars or money. You might be able to tell me at what speed an object falls to the earth, but can you tell me why it falls? Something as simple as gravity? Science is observing events and trying to predict what will happen. Science does not purport to understand why something happens.
The fact that you refeer to soul and "some such shit" in the same sentance leads me to believe you believe you are right and everyone else is wrong, and that you should be the one who decides where my tax dollars are spent.
All that Bush did was listen to his constituents, who said they don't want their tax dollars being spent on embryos that came from abortions.
If there is a woman, who is pregnant and scared, and 50% of her wants an abortion but 50% of her wants the baby, what will happen if someone tells her- "Your abortion will be put to good use, we can find cures to diseases with your embryo". That might be the extra push that convinces her to get an abortion. Even though there are no gaurentees that there will be any breakthroughs.
Bush did not outlaw research with embryos. Bush just simply said that no government money will be spent on NEW embryos. There are still so many embryos frozen in university research centers that are grandfathered in, there will be no shortage of embryos for the foreseeable future. And if there are enough people who believe they can find curse using embryos, then there will be lots of money to be made, and perhaps these people can form a private research group.
Every other week or so there is some big success story regarding the regrowth of neural tissue using spinal stem cells, but hardly a word about embryonic stem cells. I understand that there is a ban on using government funds to pursue embryonic stem cell research, however I would like to know whether such research is taking place anywhere.
That is not 100% true. There is a ban on using government to fund research using new embryonic cells. When Bush signed the original law, he was trying to make a compromise between his constituents and scientific advisors. His constituents, mostly republican and religious people, are against abortions and using embryos which came from aboritions. They believe they have a right to express how their tax dollars are spent, and they don't want to support abortion. Scientists, of course, want to use these embryos. Bush came up with a pretty good compromise. Those embryos that were availabe before he signed the legislation would continue to recieve government funding for research. Bush was told there are enough embryos right now to continue research at almost all universities without loosing any governemnt funding. Perhaps in 5 years there will be a shortage, but by then there will be a new administration in the white house. I have not heard of one single instance of any professor at a major university who has said they don't have access to an embryo to do research.
About the first part of what you wrote, yes, it does seem like every other year there is a big story about an advance in growing of nueral tissue. I remember when Superman was alive (I think it was christophere reeves), he said he was close to finding a cure to his paralysis. But he eventually died. All the funding he provided and the spotlight he focused on spinal cord injures was not able to save his life. And he had a good 10 years or more of trying to find a cure.
The nervous system is too complex. I doubt we will ever have anything more than some motorized limbs. I doubt we will ever fully understand neurons. Not only is there the electrical component, but there is the chemical component at the synapse too. There is the question of thresholds and how a nueron remembers. Is it possible that even if we can replace a non-functioning neuron with a stem cell that will become a nueron, that this new neuron will not "fit in" with the surrounding neurons? Or are neurons like a heart cell, that you can have two cells that beat at different paces, but as soon as they touch, they beat at the same pace. Can a new neuron learn from an older one?
I think the REAL breakthroughs the next 20 years will be through genetic engineering. Instead of trying to replace a cell, I believe the true cure will be injecting healthy DNA in the correct cells nucleus and fixing the problem at the cause.
you can't get whistleblower protection under these circumstances.
you could get protection if you come out and reveal your employer is a racist who told you he refuses to comply with the law and hire blacks, or fired women who got pregnant rather than give them the benifits the law requires.
i think this guy might go to jail for what he did.
Lynn is in danger of being sued by Cisco for revealing the information, details of which were pulled at the last minute from the materials handed out to Black Hat attendees
of all the places to reveal the information, why give it to black hats? it is like going to a criminal convention and telling them how to turn off security cameras at one bank chain.
if someone used the information he handed out, this guy should be locked up because he will be directly responsible for the damage that is caused.
Can't judge hotness wearing a fugly salmon colored jacket. Where's the fake tits? Which begs a philosophical question.... if a robot were to have breast implants...
this might not be a good development.
what if strip club workers were replaced by these robots? you would be in a room filled with guys getting hard looking at a machine. it would not be all that different than if 10 guys all gathered around a computer screen with massive buldges. i for one, don't want to be in that room.
now if there is a real chick there, that makes it all okay. that is called a gangbang.
and while we are talking tits, there is a HUGE difference between real tits and fake tits. fake tits are shitty and worthless. i don't want to make love to a plastic bag filled with water, if i wanted that i could hump a waterbed. i want the soft gentile feel of fat in the bosom. but i guess just like my butcher, a 15% salt-water solution is being added to all things to raise the price. too bad doctors can't find a way to suck the fat out of a womans ass and shove that in the boobs.
maybe the real future of AI robots designed to please men will be made with the parts of deceased women. it would require having biologists find a way to preserve the three most important parts- ass, snatch, and tits. they could have strippers purfume inside the android, and it could fart out that smell. the eyes could be wide and open in anticipation. the ears could turn red with the flush of blood comming to the outer skin, the sensation is real.
i think i am going back to college to study biophysics. or maybe electronics. something that will alow me to help the USA compete against the japanese.
Four high-sensitivity tactile sensors were placed under the skin of its left arm that made the android react differently to differing pressures
he put the tactile sensors in the wrong place.;) nothing better than having the woman turn her head sideways and say "ohh shit".
To program her motion, a computer analysed the motions of a human and used them as a template for the way Repliee Q1 moves.
you mean they did not scan in the covers to playboy magazine and then lightning hit the house and...
"Repliee Q1 can interact with people. It can respond to people touching it. It's very satisfying, although we obviously have a long way to go yet."
are they really japanese scientists who made this? christ, just as they kicked our ass in automotive, and sold a playstation in every house, i see the japanese have found one more way to take our money.
"An android could get away with it for a short time, 5-10 seconds. However, if we carefully select the situation, we could extend that, to perhaps 10 minutes," he said.
that really was a quote from the article. i am not making it up.
More importantly, we have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with her.
i wonder if she will short circuit in the shower??
i wonder when the anime version comes out? alot of boys will be telling their mothers they want these robots to learn programming/electronics/ect, but in reality, there will be a whole lot of "can i stick my dick in here... or here... and what about here?"
and i am sure some hackers will have a mod chip for the robot that turns her into a complete slut.
...will just buy out MIPS Technology, just like they are with everything else.
china is a screwed country. they can not escape their own problems, to become a first world nation. at best, china will always be reliant on other nations.
what do you believe is the #1 bargining chip the USA has with china? the massive military power the usa possesses? no. the massive wealth the usa possesses? no. the anwser is food exports.
china can not feed their own people. they are in the same position north korea is in. if the usa cut off food exports to china tomorrow, in one year there would be an epidemic that would make china look like ethiopia.
china is trying to fix their malady with a government issued order- only one child per family. the problem then becomes that many families will kill their first child if it is a girl, because boys are more usefull to a family and greater income earners.
china also refused to invest in r&d like other first world nations. instead, china will use industrial espionage to steal plans/ideas, and reverse engineer products, then replicate those products using cheap parts.
now if i was emporor of china, there are a few things i would do to fix their country. #1) take back tiwan as an export epicenter for all of asia. force the usa to fight or go home. end the stand off for once and for all. it costs too much to bluff, year after year. china could learn something from the pissing contest the USSR had with the usa. money that could have been used elsewhere was spent on the military. the usa does not have the forces to deal with china right now, not with iraq and afghanastan, and all the other hell holes on the globe that bush wants to clean. hell, if china got into it with the usa, i am pretty damn sure north korea would see an oppertunity to take back south korea. #2) china must be able to feed their own people. that requires innovation. one way to make sure they are able to feed all their own people is to have a massive war that takes 25% of their population. see #1 for how to accomplish this. if they fight the usa, there will be massive casulties. if they don't fight the usa and take tiwan, they will have more land to grow food, and to shuffle people to and from. #3) create the asian equivelant of the european union. find other countries to form a trading block, where anyone from one country can work in another, they all trade as one voice, they all set policy together. perhaps if chinese factories open their door to vietnamese workers, then vietnam will open their rice fields to china.
the other problem china faces is japan. these two nations hate each other more than the french despise british food. japan has always attempted to invade china. china needs a policy with regard to japan. but japan is in the pocket of the usa.
there is an ancient chinese proverb- "may you live in interesting times". i had a thought, imagine if china and cuba became buddy buddies. cuba sure could use all the electronics that china produces. and china could park a couple nukes in cuba facing at the usa. now those would be interesting times.
so, what is the anwser for china? they will be one of two things. they will either break away from the sphere of usa influance in their region. or china will be relegated to a cheap sweatshop for knock-off goods. china can't be like india, and try and have more per capita engineers than anyone, and lure buisness to their nation. china can't be like japan and export, export, export. china is china. their problems are their own.
btw, does anyone know what kind of air force china has?
in some ways, the problems china faces are the same problems the usa will face in another generation or two. as the usa continues to grow, there is only so much food the land can produce, and as people are forced to live closer and closer together, crime will go up, companies will look at people like animals fit only for work or death.
The CPU is made by BLX IC Design Corp and the company plans on using these chips for China's booming domestic consumer electronics market. If and when they are used in exported goods, the company may face legal challenges from MIPS Technologies for infringing on its intellectual property.
we have a technology that a US company claims to own. china takes that technology to use for domestic goods. most would expect that if china attempted to sell these goods inside the usa, china would be sued.
but a far more interesting question is what can the usa do to stop china from selling goods based on stolen technology in their own country?
is that even a wise policy? perhaps. if china can make goods based on patents owned by usa companies, then the usa companies loose the trade they otherwise would have had. the usa workers get hurt in the long run. if a usa company will fight tooth and nail protecting their ideas and innovations inside the usa, why should they turn their heads when the theft is outside the usa?
i bet the usa companies will lobby congress to take away "most favored nation" trade designation, or to raise imports, or to impose some economic punishment on china.
and what does this say about the chinese people? they seem to invest great pains in stealing technology rather than creating new ideas. there have been newspaper reports of the chinese taking american cars, reverse engineering them, and then building a chinese version with cheap plastic and parts for nickels on the dollar. and i believe china and tiwan are the two biggest manufacturors of knock-off goods, like pirated gucci bags, or playstation mod chips, or fake rolex watches. too bad we can't kick the RIAA out of the USA and send them to china.
what will china be in the next 50 years? a nation that produces knock-off's of low quality?
the anwser for china is to invest in R&D. it is what all advanced nations do. when i buy stock, it is something i look at. i am willing to invest in companies with otherwise so-so stat's if i see the company investing. it tells me the company is building something, working toward a goal, and not just here for the moment.
LATENCY is what is causing the slow performance of hard drives, who cares what the MB/s is (its good enough) its the latency that kills you more than anything RAID will not increase LATENCY. RAID can only make things more complex and make it worse (no system can be 100% efficient). RAID can increase MB/s but as I've allready said that isn't a big deal. What we need is lower latency Hard drives. We have enough storage. I don't need 500GB I want good latency.
Okay, I'll bite, what do you mean by lower latency drives?
I looked it up on m-w, and this is what I got for Latency(noun):
a stage of personality development that extends from about the age of five to the beginning of puberty and during which sexual urges often appear to lie dormant
Are you telling us about some psychosexual development phase you are stuck in?
I think the original post is an idiot, trying to sneak a word in that has nothing to do with hard drives. If he means dormant by latency, then what is he saying, that what slows down a hard drive is when it is not being used?
If I was upgrading a system, and wanted speed, the two things I would do first (considering the computer has a modern CPU), the two things I would do first is max out the ram and add a second hard drive and mirror it with the first.
It is about bottlenecks. The 16meg cache is the only impressive thing about the featured hard drive. Personally, what I will wiat for is the same 16 meg cache on a 200 gig hard drive, it will probably cost 1/4th the price of this one.
The only reason I would want a 500 gig hard drive is for storage, and that would not be the hard drive I would mirror or keep the OS on. If I had a choice, I would rather get 2 SCSI 15,000RPM 15gig hard drives mirrored for the OS, and then a third storage drive. That is if speed is critical.
Wouldn't it be smarter to cover the buildings with solar panels, use that to power half the building and cut down of the amount of smog created by the power plants instead? Your car puts out NOTHING compared to a 250Mw coal plant.
why don't we have cars that run on some energy source other than gasoline?
how hard is it to put a solar panel on top of a car that charges a battery. how many miles could a car get on a typical day? 50? 100? or maybe have a secondary power source that helps charge the batteries when there is not enough sunlight.
i would not mind having an emergancy gas tank, so if there is no sunlight, or it is a long trip, we won't be limited to a short distance. but for daily driving to and from work, or for the run to the grocery store, we don't need that much power.
this might require smaller cars that use less power, no more SUV's. i remember about a decade ago geo made a car that got 50 mpg. if that car had solar power in addition to the gas, maybe the avarage mpg would be in the 70's or 80's or higher.
your idea about solar panels on buildings is good too. other ideas might include removing all conventional lighting and replacing it with lower wattage lights. i saw a house that replaced the light bulbs with fluorescent lights, and the bill shrunk by more than half.
this reminds me of another idea. a few years ago a friend was showing off his new watch. it did not have a battery, instead it had some kinetic power source. as he explained it, everytime he moved, that charged his watch. if people can make a watch without a battery, then i am sure there must be some way to make a car that requires little or no gas, and is very cheap to operate. what other kinds of motors are there?
this sounds like a right wing conservative BS smog & smoke screen. what is next, the republican plan to protect forrests- you can cut down 300 year old trees as long as you stick a seed back in the ground?
the way to fight polution is at the source. stop corporations from producing polution. if that is done, then the people won't have to spend tax dollars cleaning up the mess.
I was curious, what happened to the game programmers of yesterday, like Crawford who worked for Interplay before EA got to them. He wrote most of the Bard's Tale games.
As for how competitive the job of programming games are, I can say this much. I had a roomate a decade ago. He was addicted to games, did not go to sleep at night because he could not stop playing. I think one of his games was Warcraft, I don't remember, but I used to hear him at 2am on the phone, giggling as he called up other people playing the game over the network. But the guy also was barely making "C" grades in his classes. I dunno what happened to him, he eventually moved out because he could not tolerate my drinking, and the fact that I banged his sister when she came to visit for a weekend. I guess he should not have ditched her to go play more Warcraft. I was more than happy to show her the bars, among other things.
I kept telling him, it is different liking something as the consumer and liking it as the manufacturer. I love sports cars, but the one summer I spent working in an automotive factory was pure hell.
Anyways, the ones that I think would make cool games are the story tellers. Who knows, maybe an english lit major would make a better game designer than a programmer or math guy.
Actually, you didn't pay for IE. You payed for Windows, and IE came free with it. It was a cunning move Microsoft made back in the day.
In fact, It was a good move on Microsoft's part to make IE free. Since IE is based on NCSA Mosiac technology, MS agreed to pay a small quarterly license fee plus a share of the profits from IE to NCSA. Since IE has been free for the past decade, all NCSA has gotten has been the small quarterly license fees.
NCSA thought they had a good deal, but ended up getting the short end of the stick.
I thought Microsofts whole argument when sued for anti-trust and asked to seperate IE from the OS was that IE is so bound to the OS that it is impossible to remove IE from Windows.
If that is true, then IE is not free. It is part of the operating system.
If I was NCSA, I would find a good law firm and sue Microsoft. How many people would have purchased windows the past 10 years if it did not come with IE? It was part of the sale. It is not like Microsoft sold windows, and then had IE available for download, or on a second CD with 2 or 3 different browsers to chose from.
Here is the #1 obsitcale I think Mozilla has to overcome. If Mozilla fucks up something, what recourse does a user have? Since Mozilla is given for free, you can't sue.
Now if IE fuckes up a computer, and someone gets pissed off enough, they can sue Microsoft, saying the user PAID money for a product and trusted that product.
I know nobody that has sued Microsoft. But there is some security in knowing it came from a real company.
Or maybe I should write this another way. What if the development group of Mozilla gets together one night for beers. They decide they have had it with freeloaders, they are pissed off, so they will write in some small virus into their software. How many people would get infected before they would know? And if you did get infected, what could you do? You got Mozialla for free.
The prinicple of law I am thinking about is like the following. I have a shed in the backyard. I let you put your lawnmower back there for free. I do something stupid, the shed burns down. The guy who owns the lawnmower is screwed, nothing he can do. But if he pays me money, even only $5 or something small, and I destroy what is his, he can get the value of his property back. I now have a responsibility to care for his property, and that responsibility did not exist before.
This is the world we live in. People have been screwed before, and once it happens (no matter what, girlfriend fucks trusted friend, insurance company denies injury payment, company unjustly fires employee), once it happens nobody wants to be in a position of weakness with respect to the law. It is better to prepare like you will sue.
that is what will end this problem. international treaties. until then, we should not have any laws regulating marketing calls.
the marketing firms will find arguments to postpone laws that make it harder for them to harrass customers. when the do not call list went into law, all the dish and satellite calls stopped comming from new york, and started comming from Canada. who do i sue to stop those calls? do i sue AT&T?
i can appreciate the argument for a federal law regulating telemarketing. but maybe congress should pass a law saying they give states the right to make laws however they see fit.
what is eventually going to happen, is the telemarketing firms will get sophisticated and hire powerful lobby groups. they will donate money to politicians who don't want to regulate telemarketing. and the laws will be reversed. it will be hard to overturn the "do not call" list, but i bet lawmakers could sneak in an exception like "related buisnesses exception", so if you buy a DVD from bestbuy, bestbuy can sell your phone number to columbia house since they sell DVD's too. and i bet the lawmakers will give the law a name that is the exact opposite of what the law does, like "consumer telemarketing protection amendment".
These marketing companies are run by evil dirty bastards who will do anything to make a penny.
The law we need even more than "DO Not Call" is a law which says "You can not sell data about people unless that person gives you consent". There must be a way to opt out of having your information added to a sales list. For example, how can anyone opt out of the bank sales lists? Banks are well known for taking their clients data, and selling that information to credit card companies. Credit card companies use this information to mail solicitations for their services.
Likewise, when I go buy a DVD from a store, why do they need my phone number? They want to sell that information to someone, here is a good lead for a guy who buys DVD's?
The Do Not Call list is a great start, but consumers need more protection from harrasment. We need our information kept confidential. When we do buisness with a company, the company should not be allowed to sneak some fine print in the contract which allows data to be sold. God knows what rights I signed away when I applied for my grocery store shoppers card.
And did anyone here about the lawsuit against the company that made the small gadget you connect to your phone line. When you get a call, the device lets out some small noises. These are noises the phone companies use to signify a line is disconnected. Marketing companies that use computerized auto-dialers recognize these noises and immediatly hang up. The marketing associations sued the company of this product saying it violated the marketing companies first amendment rights.
And while we are making laws protecting consumers, lets do away with the mail in rebate.
Could we see pro-democracy people in China meeting in some strange dungeon or cave in the game to talk about things the Chinese gov does not want them to?
It depends. Since money is involved, it is easier to trace people. Maybe the government introduces some characters in the game with pro-democoracy sounding names. Something inconspicuous and subtle. Enough for other simularly minded people to notice, but not the masses. This guy then leads you into a cavern, to talk pro-democoracy. The whole time, the government agents are tracking that character to the account which owns it.
The other thing, there could be a word filter added into the chinese version of the game. If a word is used, it causes agents to listen in.
Remember, it is a program, not a world that you can hide in. Everything gets reduced to zeros and ones, and the government can look for patterns.
And I doubt that anyone but 16 year old teenagers going through rebelion would think that meeting in a cave in an on-line game is brilliant. Chances are that real people would meet at a cafe, or talk while walking through a public park. It would be more difficult to tape a conversation while people were walking through town. It would require someone following them with recording equipment. On-line, anyone can record you.
If I paid a monthly fee for a game, where there were other human players, and some were able to buy items off-line, by spending money to get better characters or weapons or hard to find items, I would be very pissed off.
I think there will be a lawsuit. Gamers demand that the people running the games keep play within the rules.
Personally, I never liked the on-line games. I preffer to play single player games. Back in the day, Bards Tale, Wizardry, Might and Magic were all awesome games that did not need 20,000 on-line players to make it fun. There were puzzles, you built your team, and if you could, you beat the game.
What happens with on-line games? Somebody with more money than brains goes to ebay and buys a FireSword +25 fire damage, and DiamondHelm -15AC, he also buys 5 bottles of healing potions. He then sets out, and defeats monsters that should be a challange, he does quickly. He advances a few levels. Then he meets some other character owned by a real person. They are the same level, so it should be an even fight, the one who plans better should win. But it is not a fair fight when the ebay buying guy whips out his Scrolls of Instant Death, and kills your character that you spent a month developing. Gee, I did not see a level 3 character unleashing a scroll that does 150 points of damage.
What can a player do to get even, go to ebay and cheat too. Let the black market take over.
And what is even worse than the ebay people who buy stuff for their characters they should not have, are the ones who find exploits in the game, ways to manipulate it. I've read reports of people running scripts to advance their characters. The human owner does not even have to be at the computer. They just run the script, go to bed, and wake up with a character that gained 10 levels.
Games are only fun if everyone plays by the rules. It is like baseball, it stops being fun when you catch the pitcher rubbing the ball against sandpaper in his glove. Or when the batter corks his bat. Then it becomes a cheater who makes the game frustrating for everyone else.
There should be some way of keeping track of human players honor. If someone is caught cheating at one game, they are not allowed in another.
NASA may be criticized for delays, but when seven lives and a multi-billion dollar spacecraft are on the line, not to mention all of their political capital, once can understand why they do what they do.
I would not send the shuttle up. There is risk in all things, but if there is a bad sensor, that is something that should not go wrong. The sensor is doing its job, it is letting the engineers know something is not working.
The shuttle and space program is one of the only cool things the government does. It gives people hope that we can learn beyond earths limits. There is a universe up there, waiting for us to explore.
If I ran NASA, I would start working on figuring out ways to have missions to far away planets. How many times is the shuttle going to go up, then come back down, then go up, and come back down. We have been doing this same thing for over 20 years. Isn't it time we take a step off our front lawn, and see what is down the street.
I think it might be time to rename this shuttle Longhorn
I think the space shuttle has a better chance of getting off the ground than longhorn.
What NASA should do is have the next mission be a tribute to Scotty. Have the launch happen with his spirit of "can do".
And I can just hear the conversation between the shuttle and ground control.
Ground Control: You seemed to leak fuel on the way up, we need you to increase speed as you come back in. Shuttle: I'm giving it all I can. You don't want me to fly her apart now, do you? Ground Control: Make more fuel.
Shuttle: I'm not a miracle worker, you know. But aye, lassie, I think I can mix some of the tang with the early earth atmosphere lab gases. I'll come up with something.
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That sounds awfully underpowered for a forum because of the database.
I want a multi processor unit. I know the database will need that extra CPU.
My problem is trying convince myself that I don't need a new Dell Xeon 2.2ghz machine, that I can get by with a dual Xeon 600 from ebay.
If the forum grows, what I will do is put the web host on one dual Xeon and the database on a second dual Xeon. I don't like the idea of having the database on the same system as the web server.
I found running a magnet over it is a good first step. Unscrewing it and opening it is a good second step. Taking a hammer to the internal parts is step 3. And putting the parts over a fire won't hurt. For a final step, I like to throw the hard drive in the lake of acid.
I also pee on the hard drive. Just incase someone is smart enough to fuck me and find out what was on the hard drive, I can have the last laugh knowing they touched my pee.
Oh, but you want to sell the hard drive, sans data? Now that gets tricky.
Here is what I have done in the past when I wanted to sell or give away a hard drive, but did not want anything to be retrievable off the hard drive.
I start with a format using a windows 98 floppy that will write a FAT table. I then load windows 98 on it and go to malware, spyware and those kinds of websites. When I get to 90% CPU in usage while doing nothing, I know I have enough spyware and viruses. I let them go to town on the hard drive. I delete files, and let the viruses rewrite them.
Step 2 is putting a Debian CD in the cd-rom and reformatting the hard drive and installing Debian. I then go to websites with huge mpegs and download them until the hard drive is full of data. I delete all this data and do it all over again.
Next is a Windows 2000 install, in NTFS. I go back to virus and malware websites, and let the hard drive get infected again.
My final step is a simple FAT format, and the sale. If someone tries to recreate what was one the drive, they might recreate a virus. I toss the debian and large file step in the middle to over write what was written the first time. It is another layer to the cake.
Oh, I am delusional and paranoid too. People tell me I get fanatical about shit like privacy. You might not need to go through all the steps. A simple format might be all you need, unless you suspect the person buying the hard drive has thousands of dollars in equipment and training to recreate your deleted data (like the National Security Agency in conjunction with the CIA and colonel sanders from KFC. Why would a military grade officer be selling chicken? To get closer to YOU!).
Secondly, where the hell can anyone get a server for $14. Even if this is a dual p200 pro, that can still make a good home email server. At one point and time, that server was probably the best available. It is just a matter of finding old enough software to use.
And since we are talking servers, maybe someone can give me adivce. I want to start an on-line forum. I expect a maximum load of 100 people at the same time maximum, with an avarage load of 15-25 people. I was looking and Dell has some servers that are around $400 for a P4. But someone told me for a database you NEED a dual Xeon or the database will be super slow. So I looked on ebay, and found some dual Xeon 650's with 1 gig for $400-600 (most come with 3 scsi hard drives in raid). This beats the $1600+ that Dell wants for a dual Xeon 2.2ghz. On ebay, I even found a quad Xeon 550 with 1 gig memory and 5 9.1 scsi cheeta hard drives for less than half of the Dell Xeon. But I don't have any OS that will use 4 CPU's.
What do I need?
You can find the program. What you can not find are the small files that allow newer DVD's to be copied.
For example, when 50 First Dates was released on DVD, it could not be copied, DVD Decryprer didn't work because the DVD had some bad sectors on purpose. The guy who maintained DVD Decrypter changed it so it would work.
Since the last edition, there will be no new ones. So if the movie industry changes the copy protection, like changing where they put a bad sector, DVD Decryptor won't be updated to work.
Think what you will about it, but recieving a free copy of something someone else has invested time and money to produce is not a "right."
The problem with the system is I can't own a damn thing anymore. There was a time if I wanted to tape something off TV, I would have used a VCR. Now people are paying a monthly fee for TiVo. 20 years ago, people could buy a satelite dish and get all the channels for free on C-band. And back then cable was fairly inexpensive. Today, a "basic" subscription to cable can cost over $60 a month. AND back then there were not as many commericals on television as today. What has changed? Did these companies hire specialists to determine just how much bullshit people can take before they break?
And it is not good enough to have a phone in the house, now everyone needs a cell phone. I had one employer ask me to update my file with my second phone number, a cell phone number. I did not have one. My boss gave me one hell of a look.
And take operating systems for example. There was a time that when I purchased a operating system, I could put it on any computer I owned. Now Microsoft wants me to call in and ask for permission to install Windows.
Every buisness is figuring ways to not sell a product, but to sell a reoccuring service. One day, people won't be able to buy underwear, they will have to buy a license from fruit of the loom. Perhaps washing machines will need to call fruit of the loom before you can wash underwear.
And the music industry and movie industry is doing the same thing. It is not bad enough that they want $10 to see a movie, after half an hour of commericals (what is the point of paying $10 if they will force people to watch commercials anyways, isn't that just like TV?). In addition to the $10 ticket and forced viewing of commercials, the theater has a monopoly on snacks, and they use that monopoly to charge $5 for a soda that probably costs them a thin dime. One year later, the movie gets released on DVD for $29.99. The movie quality is so-so. Three years later a nicer version comes out for $29.99.
And If I want to back up my copy, in case it gets scratched so I have a working copy, the movie industry won't let me. They shut down DVD Decryptor.
And about the music industry. Remember, they kept prices inflated to over $15 a CD. They were sued and they lost. They were ordered to give free CD's to libraries and what did they do? 100 different CD's that would be interesting? NO. They gave 100 identical copies of Christmas songs.
So, no, sharing is not theft. What is theft is what the corporations are doing to people.
#1) Sometimes a highly visable arrest is enough to deter people from an activity, without allocating many law officers. All the FBI has to do is make an example of one person, charge him with everything, throw the kitchen sink at the guy and make sure he never gets outside of a jail, and that might stop other people from doing the same act.
#2) Follow the money. There would be no FBI without money, and they get their money from congress. Members of congress get elected, and that takes lots of money. I can't give/donate nearly as much money as organized groups like the RIAA, so members of congress won't listen to me. If the RIAA wants music file sharers chased, arrested and prosecuted, and members of congress want money for the next election, guess what the FBI will be doing?
#3) Perhaps terrorists are not a high priority because the politicians in power have been able to take advantage of the attacks. Whenever there is an attack, the people collectivly lose more rights. Police put up camera's in cities to videotape everyone (chicago and boston both have over 3,000 each). Libraries require fingerprints (Naperville). Gas prices soar. Companies like Halliburton get rich. I also noticed a direct relationship between acts of terror and rednecks getting very patriotic, which means they vote republican. For some reason, people in the south think democrats are pussies because we want to understand a problem before shooting at it.
I would also add the uber rich are not scared of terrorism because when was the last time a suicide bomber blew himself up in Beverly Hills? The terrorists target public trains and busses which the avarage joe takes to work. The rich live in gated communities, they have private security in addition to the police. And when the rich call the police, the police know to anwser quickly and with their best officers. The last thing the police departments want is a millionaire with lawyers pissed off at them.
Do you have a soul? Do you believe in God? To many people, their ethics are more important than science or cars or money. You might be able to tell me at what speed an object falls to the earth, but can you tell me why it falls? Something as simple as gravity? Science is observing events and trying to predict what will happen. Science does not purport to understand why something happens.
The fact that you refeer to soul and "some such shit" in the same sentance leads me to believe you believe you are right and everyone else is wrong, and that you should be the one who decides where my tax dollars are spent.
All that Bush did was listen to his constituents, who said they don't want their tax dollars being spent on embryos that came from abortions.
If there is a woman, who is pregnant and scared, and 50% of her wants an abortion but 50% of her wants the baby, what will happen if someone tells her- "Your abortion will be put to good use, we can find cures to diseases with your embryo". That might be the extra push that convinces her to get an abortion. Even though there are no gaurentees that there will be any breakthroughs.
Bush did not outlaw research with embryos. Bush just simply said that no government money will be spent on NEW embryos. There are still so many embryos frozen in university research centers that are grandfathered in, there will be no shortage of embryos for the foreseeable future. And if there are enough people who believe they can find curse using embryos, then there will be lots of money to be made, and perhaps these people can form a private research group.
That is not 100% true. There is a ban on using government to fund research using new embryonic cells. When Bush signed the original law, he was trying to make a compromise between his constituents and scientific advisors. His constituents, mostly republican and religious people, are against abortions and using embryos which came from aboritions. They believe they have a right to express how their tax dollars are spent, and they don't want to support abortion. Scientists, of course, want to use these embryos. Bush came up with a pretty good compromise. Those embryos that were availabe before he signed the legislation would continue to recieve government funding for research. Bush was told there are enough embryos right now to continue research at almost all universities without loosing any governemnt funding. Perhaps in 5 years there will be a shortage, but by then there will be a new administration in the white house. I have not heard of one single instance of any professor at a major university who has said they don't have access to an embryo to do research.
About the first part of what you wrote, yes, it does seem like every other year there is a big story about an advance in growing of nueral tissue. I remember when Superman was alive (I think it was christophere reeves), he said he was close to finding a cure to his paralysis. But he eventually died. All the funding he provided and the spotlight he focused on spinal cord injures was not able to save his life. And he had a good 10 years or more of trying to find a cure.
The nervous system is too complex. I doubt we will ever have anything more than some motorized limbs. I doubt we will ever fully understand neurons. Not only is there the electrical component, but there is the chemical component at the synapse too. There is the question of thresholds and how a nueron remembers. Is it possible that even if we can replace a non-functioning neuron with a stem cell that will become a nueron, that this new neuron will not "fit in" with the surrounding neurons? Or are neurons like a heart cell, that you can have two cells that beat at different paces, but as soon as they touch, they beat at the same pace. Can a new neuron learn from an older one?
I think the REAL breakthroughs the next 20 years will be through genetic engineering. Instead of trying to replace a cell, I believe the true cure will be injecting healthy DNA in the correct cells nucleus and fixing the problem at the cause.
you could get protection if you come out and reveal your employer is a racist who told you he refuses to comply with the law and hire blacks, or fired women who got pregnant rather than give them the benifits the law requires.
i think this guy might go to jail for what he did.
Lynn is in danger of being sued by Cisco for revealing the information, details of which were pulled at the last minute from the materials handed out to Black Hat attendees
of all the places to reveal the information, why give it to black hats? it is like going to a criminal convention and telling them how to turn off security cameras at one bank chain.
if someone used the information he handed out, this guy should be locked up because he will be directly responsible for the damage that is caused.
this might not be a good development.
what if strip club workers were replaced by these robots? you would be in a room filled with guys getting hard looking at a machine. it would not be all that different than if 10 guys all gathered around a computer screen with massive buldges. i for one, don't want to be in that room.
now if there is a real chick there, that makes it all okay. that is called a gangbang.
and while we are talking tits, there is a HUGE difference between real tits and fake tits. fake tits are shitty and worthless. i don't want to make love to a plastic bag filled with water, if i wanted that i could hump a waterbed. i want the soft gentile feel of fat in the bosom. but i guess just like my butcher, a 15% salt-water solution is being added to all things to raise the price. too bad doctors can't find a way to suck the fat out of a womans ass and shove that in the boobs.
maybe the real future of AI robots designed to please men will be made with the parts of deceased women. it would require having biologists find a way to preserve the three most important parts- ass, snatch, and tits. they could have strippers purfume inside the android, and it could fart out that smell. the eyes could be wide and open in anticipation. the ears could turn red with the flush of blood comming to the outer skin, the sensation is real.
i think i am going back to college to study biophysics. or maybe electronics. something that will alow me to help the USA compete against the japanese.
he put the tactile sensors in the wrong place. ;) nothing better than having the woman turn her head sideways and say "ohh shit".
To program her motion, a computer analysed the motions of a human and used them as a template for the way Repliee Q1 moves.
you mean they did not scan in the covers to playboy magazine and then lightning hit the house and...
"Repliee Q1 can interact with people. It can respond to people touching it. It's very satisfying, although we obviously have a long way to go yet."
are they really japanese scientists who made this? christ, just as they kicked our ass in automotive, and sold a playstation in every house, i see the japanese have found one more way to take our money.
"An android could get away with it for a short time, 5-10 seconds. However, if we carefully select the situation, we could extend that, to perhaps 10 minutes," he said.
that really was a quote from the article. i am not making it up.
More importantly, we have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with her.
i wonder if she will short circuit in the shower??
i wonder when the anime version comes out? alot of boys will be telling their mothers they want these robots to learn programming/electronics/ect, but in reality, there will be a whole lot of "can i stick my dick in here... or here... and what about here?"
and i am sure some hackers will have a mod chip for the robot that turns her into a complete slut.
china is a screwed country. they can not escape their own problems, to become a first world nation. at best, china will always be reliant on other nations.
what do you believe is the #1 bargining chip the USA has with china? the massive military power the usa possesses? no. the massive wealth the usa possesses? no. the anwser is food exports.
china can not feed their own people. they are in the same position north korea is in. if the usa cut off food exports to china tomorrow, in one year there would be an epidemic that would make china look like ethiopia.
china is trying to fix their malady with a government issued order- only one child per family. the problem then becomes that many families will kill their first child if it is a girl, because boys are more usefull to a family and greater income earners.
china also refused to invest in r&d like other first world nations. instead, china will use industrial espionage to steal plans/ideas, and reverse engineer products, then replicate those products using cheap parts.
now if i was emporor of china, there are a few things i would do to fix their country. #1) take back tiwan as an export epicenter for all of asia. force the usa to fight or go home. end the stand off for once and for all. it costs too much to bluff, year after year. china could learn something from the pissing contest the USSR had with the usa. money that could have been used elsewhere was spent on the military. the usa does not have the forces to deal with china right now, not with iraq and afghanastan, and all the other hell holes on the globe that bush wants to clean. hell, if china got into it with the usa, i am pretty damn sure north korea would see an oppertunity to take back south korea. #2) china must be able to feed their own people. that requires innovation. one way to make sure they are able to feed all their own people is to have a massive war that takes 25% of their population. see #1 for how to accomplish this. if they fight the usa, there will be massive casulties. if they don't fight the usa and take tiwan, they will have more land to grow food, and to shuffle people to and from. #3) create the asian equivelant of the european union. find other countries to form a trading block, where anyone from one country can work in another, they all trade as one voice, they all set policy together. perhaps if chinese factories open their door to vietnamese workers, then vietnam will open their rice fields to china.
the other problem china faces is japan. these two nations hate each other more than the french despise british food. japan has always attempted to invade china. china needs a policy with regard to japan. but japan is in the pocket of the usa.
there is an ancient chinese proverb- "may you live in interesting times". i had a thought, imagine if china and cuba became buddy buddies. cuba sure could use all the electronics that china produces. and china could park a couple nukes in cuba facing at the usa. now those would be interesting times.
so, what is the anwser for china? they will be one of two things. they will either break away from the sphere of usa influance in their region. or china will be relegated to a cheap sweatshop for knock-off goods. china can't be like india, and try and have more per capita engineers than anyone, and lure buisness to their nation. china can't be like japan and export, export, export. china is china. their problems are their own.
btw, does anyone know what kind of air force china has?
in some ways, the problems china faces are the same problems the usa will face in another generation or two. as the usa continues to grow, there is only so much food the land can produce, and as people are forced to live closer and closer together, crime will go up, companies will look at people like animals fit only for work or death.
we have a technology that a US company claims to own. china takes that technology to use for domestic goods. most would expect that if china attempted to sell these goods inside the usa, china would be sued.
but a far more interesting question is what can the usa do to stop china from selling goods based on stolen technology in their own country?
is that even a wise policy? perhaps. if china can make goods based on patents owned by usa companies, then the usa companies loose the trade they otherwise would have had. the usa workers get hurt in the long run. if a usa company will fight tooth and nail protecting their ideas and innovations inside the usa, why should they turn their heads when the theft is outside the usa?
i bet the usa companies will lobby congress to take away "most favored nation" trade designation, or to raise imports, or to impose some economic punishment on china.
and what does this say about the chinese people? they seem to invest great pains in stealing technology rather than creating new ideas. there have been newspaper reports of the chinese taking american cars, reverse engineering them, and then building a chinese version with cheap plastic and parts for nickels on the dollar. and i believe china and tiwan are the two biggest manufacturors of knock-off goods, like pirated gucci bags, or playstation mod chips, or fake rolex watches. too bad we can't kick the RIAA out of the USA and send them to china.
what will china be in the next 50 years? a nation that produces knock-off's of low quality?
the anwser for china is to invest in R&D. it is what all advanced nations do. when i buy stock, it is something i look at. i am willing to invest in companies with otherwise so-so stat's if i see the company investing. it tells me the company is building something, working toward a goal, and not just here for the moment.
Okay, I'll bite, what do you mean by lower latency drives?
I looked it up on m-w, and this is what I got for Latency(noun):
Are you telling us about some psychosexual development phase you are stuck in?
I think the original post is an idiot, trying to sneak a word in that has nothing to do with hard drives. If he means dormant by latency, then what is he saying, that what slows down a hard drive is when it is not being used?
If I was upgrading a system, and wanted speed, the two things I would do first (considering the computer has a modern CPU), the two things I would do first is max out the ram and add a second hard drive and mirror it with the first.
It is about bottlenecks. The 16meg cache is the only impressive thing about the featured hard drive. Personally, what I will wiat for is the same 16 meg cache on a 200 gig hard drive, it will probably cost 1/4th the price of this one.
The only reason I would want a 500 gig hard drive is for storage, and that would not be the hard drive I would mirror or keep the OS on. If I had a choice, I would rather get 2 SCSI 15,000RPM 15gig hard drives mirrored for the OS, and then a third storage drive. That is if speed is critical.
why don't we have cars that run on some energy source other than gasoline?
how hard is it to put a solar panel on top of a car that charges a battery. how many miles could a car get on a typical day? 50? 100? or maybe have a secondary power source that helps charge the batteries when there is not enough sunlight.
i would not mind having an emergancy gas tank, so if there is no sunlight, or it is a long trip, we won't be limited to a short distance. but for daily driving to and from work, or for the run to the grocery store, we don't need that much power.
this might require smaller cars that use less power, no more SUV's. i remember about a decade ago geo made a car that got 50 mpg. if that car had solar power in addition to the gas, maybe the avarage mpg would be in the 70's or 80's or higher.
your idea about solar panels on buildings is good too. other ideas might include removing all conventional lighting and replacing it with lower wattage lights. i saw a house that replaced the light bulbs with fluorescent lights, and the bill shrunk by more than half.
this reminds me of another idea. a few years ago a friend was showing off his new watch. it did not have a battery, instead it had some kinetic power source. as he explained it, everytime he moved, that charged his watch. if people can make a watch without a battery, then i am sure there must be some way to make a car that requires little or no gas, and is very cheap to operate. what other kinds of motors are there?
the way to fight polution is at the source. stop corporations from producing polution. if that is done, then the people won't have to spend tax dollars cleaning up the mess.
As for how competitive the job of programming games are, I can say this much. I had a roomate a decade ago. He was addicted to games, did not go to sleep at night because he could not stop playing. I think one of his games was Warcraft, I don't remember, but I used to hear him at 2am on the phone, giggling as he called up other people playing the game over the network. But the guy also was barely making "C" grades in his classes. I dunno what happened to him, he eventually moved out because he could not tolerate my drinking, and the fact that I banged his sister when she came to visit for a weekend. I guess he should not have ditched her to go play more Warcraft. I was more than happy to show her the bars, among other things.
I kept telling him, it is different liking something as the consumer and liking it as the manufacturer. I love sports cars, but the one summer I spent working in an automotive factory was pure hell.
Anyways, the ones that I think would make cool games are the story tellers. Who knows, maybe an english lit major would make a better game designer than a programmer or math guy.
In fact, It was a good move on Microsoft's part to make IE free. Since IE is based on NCSA Mosiac technology, MS agreed to pay a small quarterly license fee plus a share of the profits from IE to NCSA. Since IE has been free for the past decade, all NCSA has gotten has been the small quarterly license fees.
NCSA thought they had a good deal, but ended up getting the short end of the stick.
I thought Microsofts whole argument when sued for anti-trust and asked to seperate IE from the OS was that IE is so bound to the OS that it is impossible to remove IE from Windows.
If that is true, then IE is not free. It is part of the operating system.
If I was NCSA, I would find a good law firm and sue Microsoft. How many people would have purchased windows the past 10 years if it did not come with IE? It was part of the sale. It is not like Microsoft sold windows, and then had IE available for download, or on a second CD with 2 or 3 different browsers to chose from.
Now if IE fuckes up a computer, and someone gets pissed off enough, they can sue Microsoft, saying the user PAID money for a product and trusted that product.
I know nobody that has sued Microsoft. But there is some security in knowing it came from a real company.
Or maybe I should write this another way. What if the development group of Mozilla gets together one night for beers. They decide they have had it with freeloaders, they are pissed off, so they will write in some small virus into their software. How many people would get infected before they would know? And if you did get infected, what could you do? You got Mozialla for free.
The prinicple of law I am thinking about is like the following. I have a shed in the backyard. I let you put your lawnmower back there for free. I do something stupid, the shed burns down. The guy who owns the lawnmower is screwed, nothing he can do. But if he pays me money, even only $5 or something small, and I destroy what is his, he can get the value of his property back. I now have a responsibility to care for his property, and that responsibility did not exist before.
This is the world we live in. People have been screwed before, and once it happens (no matter what, girlfriend fucks trusted friend, insurance company denies injury payment, company unjustly fires employee), once it happens nobody wants to be in a position of weakness with respect to the law. It is better to prepare like you will sue.
the marketing firms will find arguments to postpone laws that make it harder for them to harrass customers. when the do not call list went into law, all the dish and satellite calls stopped comming from new york, and started comming from Canada. who do i sue to stop those calls? do i sue AT&T?
i can appreciate the argument for a federal law regulating telemarketing. but maybe congress should pass a law saying they give states the right to make laws however they see fit.
what is eventually going to happen, is the telemarketing firms will get sophisticated and hire powerful lobby groups. they will donate money to politicians who don't want to regulate telemarketing. and the laws will be reversed. it will be hard to overturn the "do not call" list, but i bet lawmakers could sneak in an exception like "related buisnesses exception", so if you buy a DVD from bestbuy, bestbuy can sell your phone number to columbia house since they sell DVD's too. and i bet the lawmakers will give the law a name that is the exact opposite of what the law does, like "consumer telemarketing protection amendment".
The law we need even more than "DO Not Call" is a law which says "You can not sell data about people unless that person gives you consent". There must be a way to opt out of having your information added to a sales list. For example, how can anyone opt out of the bank sales lists? Banks are well known for taking their clients data, and selling that information to credit card companies. Credit card companies use this information to mail solicitations for their services.
Likewise, when I go buy a DVD from a store, why do they need my phone number? They want to sell that information to someone, here is a good lead for a guy who buys DVD's?
The Do Not Call list is a great start, but consumers need more protection from harrasment. We need our information kept confidential. When we do buisness with a company, the company should not be allowed to sneak some fine print in the contract which allows data to be sold. God knows what rights I signed away when I applied for my grocery store shoppers card.
And did anyone here about the lawsuit against the company that made the small gadget you connect to your phone line. When you get a call, the device lets out some small noises. These are noises the phone companies use to signify a line is disconnected. Marketing companies that use computerized auto-dialers recognize these noises and immediatly hang up. The marketing associations sued the company of this product saying it violated the marketing companies first amendment rights.
And while we are making laws protecting consumers, lets do away with the mail in rebate.
It depends. Since money is involved, it is easier to trace people. Maybe the government introduces some characters in the game with pro-democoracy sounding names. Something inconspicuous and subtle. Enough for other simularly minded people to notice, but not the masses. This guy then leads you into a cavern, to talk pro-democoracy. The whole time, the government agents are tracking that character to the account which owns it.
The other thing, there could be a word filter added into the chinese version of the game. If a word is used, it causes agents to listen in.
Remember, it is a program, not a world that you can hide in. Everything gets reduced to zeros and ones, and the government can look for patterns.
And I doubt that anyone but 16 year old teenagers going through rebelion would think that meeting in a cave in an on-line game is brilliant. Chances are that real people would meet at a cafe, or talk while walking through a public park. It would be more difficult to tape a conversation while people were walking through town. It would require someone following them with recording equipment. On-line, anyone can record you.
I think there will be a lawsuit. Gamers demand that the people running the games keep play within the rules.
Personally, I never liked the on-line games. I preffer to play single player games. Back in the day, Bards Tale, Wizardry, Might and Magic were all awesome games that did not need 20,000 on-line players to make it fun. There were puzzles, you built your team, and if you could, you beat the game.
What happens with on-line games? Somebody with more money than brains goes to ebay and buys a FireSword +25 fire damage, and DiamondHelm -15AC, he also buys 5 bottles of healing potions. He then sets out, and defeats monsters that should be a challange, he does quickly. He advances a few levels. Then he meets some other character owned by a real person. They are the same level, so it should be an even fight, the one who plans better should win. But it is not a fair fight when the ebay buying guy whips out his Scrolls of Instant Death, and kills your character that you spent a month developing. Gee, I did not see a level 3 character unleashing a scroll that does 150 points of damage.
What can a player do to get even, go to ebay and cheat too. Let the black market take over.
And what is even worse than the ebay people who buy stuff for their characters they should not have, are the ones who find exploits in the game, ways to manipulate it. I've read reports of people running scripts to advance their characters. The human owner does not even have to be at the computer. They just run the script, go to bed, and wake up with a character that gained 10 levels.
Games are only fun if everyone plays by the rules. It is like baseball, it stops being fun when you catch the pitcher rubbing the ball against sandpaper in his glove. Or when the batter corks his bat. Then it becomes a cheater who makes the game frustrating for everyone else.
There should be some way of keeping track of human players honor. If someone is caught cheating at one game, they are not allowed in another.
I would not send the shuttle up. There is risk in all things, but if there is a bad sensor, that is something that should not go wrong. The sensor is doing its job, it is letting the engineers know something is not working.
The shuttle and space program is one of the only cool things the government does. It gives people hope that we can learn beyond earths limits. There is a universe up there, waiting for us to explore.
If I ran NASA, I would start working on figuring out ways to have missions to far away planets. How many times is the shuttle going to go up, then come back down, then go up, and come back down. We have been doing this same thing for over 20 years. Isn't it time we take a step off our front lawn, and see what is down the street.
I think the space shuttle has a better chance of getting off the ground than longhorn.
What NASA should do is have the next mission be a tribute to Scotty. Have the launch happen with his spirit of "can do".
And I can just hear the conversation between the shuttle and ground control.
Ground Control: You seemed to leak fuel on the way up, we need you to increase speed as you come back in.
Shuttle: I'm giving it all I can. You don't want me to fly her apart now, do you?
Ground Control: Make more fuel.
Shuttle: I'm not a miracle worker, you know. But aye, lassie, I think I can mix some of the tang with the early earth atmosphere lab gases. I'll come up with something.