Yeah, because, let's face it, when I'm shopping for a $10 camera, image quality is way up there on my list. Heck, quality is why I have my prints done by Walgreens in the first place!
Sure, that's funny, but why wouldn't you care about quality differences between disposables? Some disposables, like Kodak Max HQ, give very good photos. With this digital "disposable" you get a lower resolution than film, moire, a major JPEG mess on photos of water, sometimes horizontal banding for some reason, and you might get a camera where the edges of the photo aren't in focus. Most disposables are better than this.
I wouldn't say "Screw the camera", I like mine and I've been using it a lot. However, your idea is really good. I bet this is the cheapest way to get a USB interface for a project.
The hardware isn't really meant to do that. The a SPCA504B chip is meant for use in a camera. However, it has an 8051 core with some extensions, it has I/O ports, there is external flash memory for code and the current firmware probably even supports a USB command for uploading new firmware.
That image is weird. I wonder if it's photoshopped or if the Smartmedia socket is just placed on top of the camera PCB (ie. not connected and not functional) I wouldn't expect them to just put pads there for soldering in one of those sockets and so I'd expect wires and perhaps some glue logic.
If you don't hack it and just use it as a disposable, I agree, there isn't much of a benefit from it being digital. Sure, you can delete the last photo but that's not that big of a deal. I'd be more concerned about the image quality disadvantages.
However, once you have a hacked camera it's a different story. Because it's digital you can take virtually free photos. The batteries in the Ritz version lasted me for about 300 photos and they're just standard AA, easy to change. Sure, it would be better if it had a picture display LCD but it's not like the lack of it makes the camera useless.
BTW I've read that a slightly more expensive version with an LCD is coming out in 2004.
When I was in university I went to the monthly surplus sales racks were available pretty often and for low prices. I could have gotten racks for as low as $10 canadian. The old DEC ones looked pretty good too. I don't see why you should have to make racks.
Is it hackable? I bet the firmware can be flashed and you can install Linux. Then you could also use it as an X terminal or do all sorts of other neat stuff with it.
BTW Did you notice "Weight ~6 lbs"? That's pretty bad.
This problem was found
in September by Andrew Morton, but unfortunately that was too late for
the 2.4.22 kernel release.
This bug has been fixed in kernel version 2.4.23 for the 2.4 tree and
2.6.0-test6 kernel tree.
So the exploit was known for a long time, and the next kernel version, 2.4.23, came out on 2003-11-28! This is dangerous. They shouldn't wait for the next kernel version to release a security-related patch.
Apparently the password was sniffed. This generally implies that it was obtained through monitoring network traffic and seeing it trasmitted in cleartext. A strong password wouldn't help here; only a good protocol would.
This was both user and admin stupidity I guess. Admins who care about security shouldn't permit access through cleartext passwords and users shouldn't send their password in cleartext if they care about their account. Unfortunately many users don't know about this risk.
That's silly. The chances of being able to buy a trip to the moon in 10 years are practically zero. The chances of anybody visiting the moon within the next 10 years are slim too.
People have been talking about space tourism for a very long time but look at what's happened so far. Manned space travel is more or less at a standstill. Certainly there's technological potential for a lot more but it's just not happening.
The camera uses two AA batteries. It comes with industrial alkalines. They're very easy to replace. Based on the parts used I suspect the batteries will last for a long time.
Overall the camera seems built to last too. The case isn't flimsy and the internal construction is secure. Mine got dropped onto a hardwood floor from waist height twice and no damage.
This worked with tobacco because the nicotine is created in the roots and then transported to the rest of the plant. It wouldn't work with marijuana because the THC is produced in resin glands right where it's found (rather than transported there). The roots have no resin glands and practically no THC. (Read this)
In order to do something like this with marijuana you'd have to resort to genetic engineering.
They have to plan for the future. When CDs came out could people rip them, encode to MP3 and share on P2P networks?
Nowdays you can find lossless rips (typically Monkey's Audio) on the edonkey2000 network. Entire (non-transcoded) DVDs are also being shared somewhere. I haven't seen this firsthand but I've seen people talking about it. It's only a matter of time before those DTV shows become easy to share. In fact smaller DTV (though not high-definition) rips are already being shared (mostly music videos).
I'm not defending the broadcast flag, and I'm sure it'll get hacked and the stuff will get shared anyways, but I can see why they're at least trying to do it.
Open source music would be really neat but it's not always possible and LOCA definitely aren't distributing open source music.
With electronic music that's put togeather in some program and not performed live you could distribute the original file from that program along with any associated samples, or even source files used to generate the samples. You might also distribute MODs but they're relatively restrictive. Even mixes could be distributed open-source by logging various parameters during the performance. All this would be really neat, enabling derived works, helping people learn to make music and enabling amazing synchronized effects at parties.
With music that's actually performed you can't really distribute it like open source software. Sure you can distribute sheet music or some electronic format of it, but it's not like anyone can compile that into music... you need skilled performers and even they may need to practice. How about the vocals? Still distributing some sort of source info would be useful and really neat.
Now what's LOCA doing? Just distributing MP3s? That's worse than just distributing binaries because it's not original quality... it's almost like distributing uncrackable trial versions of software.
I thought a car cigarette lighter would draw too much power to run it off a computer's 12V power supply. Also, would rapid switching of such a huge load cause glitches in the +12V line and crashes?
Why would anyone want to put up with P2P if they're paying for the downloads? P2P involves searching, waiting, occasionally finding that what you got is corrupt, etc.
If someone wants to sell music they should simply distribute it from some fast servers. Even people who don't give a damn about copyrights might buy then because it'd be easier and faster.
How the heck do you delete all your personal info from Windows? Everything is probably riddled with it. I suppose a search and replace for your name in ASCII and unicode through the entire image would be a good start but it probably wouldn't be enough.
I don't think VGA has to be a problem. Sure, if you chain a bunch of cheap VGA extension cables your picture will probably suck and have lots of ghosting. However, if you used good quality 75 ohm coax you should be able to get great quality and long range.
Someone just has to look at the protocol used by the official client using some TCP monitor and fix things so the non-official clients work the same way. No need to find back doors and this isn't that hard.
(They could make it hard by protecting the protocol using encryption and protecting the relevant code and encryption key(s) using anti-debugging techniques. Now that would be pure evil IMO.)
With an ordinary computer you can get software to play any format and you almost certainly don't have to worry if your CPU is fast enough either.
On a portable device it's an entirely different story. Maybe it uses hardware for MP3 playback and you can't play other formats. Maybe the company developing its closed source firmware doesn't care about other formats. Maybe the CPU is too slow and even if it isn't a more CPU intensive format can seriously shorten battery life.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, that's funny, but why wouldn't you care about quality differences between disposables? Some disposables, like Kodak Max HQ, give very good photos. With this digital "disposable" you get a lower resolution than film, moire, a major JPEG mess on photos of water, sometimes horizontal banding for some reason, and you might get a camera where the edges of the photo aren't in focus. Most disposables are better than this.
The hardware isn't really meant to do that. The a SPCA504B chip is meant for use in a camera. However, it has an 8051 core with some extensions, it has I/O ports, there is external flash memory for code and the current firmware probably even supports a USB command for uploading new firmware.
That image is weird. I wonder if it's photoshopped or if the Smartmedia socket is just placed on top of the camera PCB (ie. not connected and not functional) I wouldn't expect them to just put pads there for soldering in one of those sockets and so I'd expect wires and perhaps some glue logic.
However, once you have a hacked camera it's a different story. Because it's digital you can take virtually free photos. The batteries in the Ritz version lasted me for about 300 photos and they're just standard AA, easy to change. Sure, it would be better if it had a picture display LCD but it's not like the lack of it makes the camera useless.
BTW I've read that a slightly more expensive version with an LCD is coming out in 2004.
When I was in university I went to the monthly surplus sales racks were available pretty often and for low prices. I could have gotten racks for as low as $10 canadian. The old DEC ones looked pretty good too. I don't see why you should have to make racks.
BTW Did you notice "Weight ~6 lbs"? That's pretty bad.
How about bribes? That certainly involves the greed factor!
This problem was found in September by Andrew Morton, but unfortunately that was too late for the 2.4.22 kernel release. This bug has been fixed in kernel version 2.4.23 for the 2.4 tree and 2.6.0-test6 kernel tree.
So the exploit was known for a long time, and the next kernel version, 2.4.23, came out on 2003-11-28! This is dangerous. They shouldn't wait for the next kernel version to release a security-related patch.
This was both user and admin stupidity I guess. Admins who care about security shouldn't permit access through cleartext passwords and users shouldn't send their password in cleartext if they care about their account. Unfortunately many users don't know about this risk.
People have been talking about space tourism for a very long time but look at what's happened so far. Manned space travel is more or less at a standstill. Certainly there's technological potential for a lot more but it's just not happening.
Overall the camera seems built to last too. The case isn't flimsy and the internal construction is secure. Mine got dropped onto a hardwood floor from waist height twice and no damage.
In order to do something like this with marijuana you'd have to resort to genetic engineering.
It's time to invade the US, depose the GWB regime and find and destroy their weapons of mass destruction!
They have to plan for the future. When CDs came out could people rip them, encode to MP3 and share on P2P networks?
Nowdays you can find lossless rips (typically Monkey's Audio) on the edonkey2000 network. Entire (non-transcoded) DVDs are also being shared somewhere. I haven't seen this firsthand but I've seen people talking about it. It's only a matter of time before those DTV shows become easy to share. In fact smaller DTV (though not high-definition) rips are already being shared (mostly music videos).
I'm not defending the broadcast flag, and I'm sure it'll get hacked and the stuff will get shared anyways, but I can see why they're at least trying to do it.
With electronic music that's put togeather in some program and not performed live you could distribute the original file from that program along with any associated samples, or even source files used to generate the samples. You might also distribute MODs but they're relatively restrictive. Even mixes could be distributed open-source by logging various parameters during the performance. All this would be really neat, enabling derived works, helping people learn to make music and enabling amazing synchronized effects at parties.
With music that's actually performed you can't really distribute it like open source software. Sure you can distribute sheet music or some electronic format of it, but it's not like anyone can compile that into music... you need skilled performers and even they may need to practice. How about the vocals? Still distributing some sort of source info would be useful and really neat.
Now what's LOCA doing? Just distributing MP3s? That's worse than just distributing binaries because it's not original quality... it's almost like distributing uncrackable trial versions of software.
I thought a car cigarette lighter would draw too much power to run it off a computer's 12V power supply. Also, would rapid switching of such a huge load cause glitches in the +12V line and crashes?
If someone wants to sell music they should simply distribute it from some fast servers. Even people who don't give a damn about copyrights might buy then because it'd be easier and faster.
How the heck do you delete all your personal info from Windows? Everything is probably riddled with it. I suppose a search and replace for your name in ASCII and unicode through the entire image would be a good start but it probably wouldn't be enough.
I don't think VGA has to be a problem. Sure, if you chain a bunch of cheap VGA extension cables your picture will probably suck and have lots of ghosting. However, if you used good quality 75 ohm coax you should be able to get great quality and long range.
Did he get no replies or are they not archived? I can't find any replies on Google. I'm very interested in seeing replies to the original post.
Someone just has to look at the protocol used by the official client using some TCP monitor and fix things so the non-official clients work the same way. No need to find back doors and this isn't that hard.
(They could make it hard by protecting the protocol using encryption and protecting the relevant code and encryption key(s) using anti-debugging techniques. Now that would be pure evil IMO.)
On a portable device it's an entirely different story. Maybe it uses hardware for MP3 playback and you can't play other formats. Maybe the company developing its closed source firmware doesn't care about other formats. Maybe the CPU is too slow and even if it isn't a more CPU intensive format can seriously shorten battery life.
Isn't getting more storage often the best choice?
I think that's a bad analogy. It's more like fining people for not wearing seat belts. I still don't think the fines would be a good idea.
If you have the time call them to complain:
Domain Names & Related Services
U.S. & Canada: 888-642-9675
Also check their contact info
I'm not sure if they care about complaints about this but they might care about the other effects of the quantity of complaints.