1. Its the destruction of perfectly good equipment. This is incredibly wasteful. Even in a capitalistic society.
2. Shutting down a business hurts employees more than investors. The government needs to address this when dealing with their broken patent system.
3. A ruling can be faulty or turned over on appeal. Acting too soon by shutting down business (injuncture) is giving in to the corporate oligarchy way too much.
I can see monetary damages and ceasing production, but heavy handed actions like these show me that the patent system and its various checkes and balances of big payouts, stockipling, and submarine patents exist purely to exploit the system for unearned profit, not to protect novel inventors.
>People watch anime, and don't need it to be photorealistic;
But Anime is hand drawn lines by usually a very talented cartoonist/illustrator, which is then colored by someone just as talented. Videogames cannot compete on this level.
I'm not a big graphics guy, but when I played the new Harry Potter game for the Wii I was shocked at how incredibly crappy the graphics were. THey were so bad they caused distraction. I don't expect geforce 8800 level graphics here, but certainly more than the old geoforce 2 I used to have, way back when.
I'm afraid that a lot of the wii articles I'm seeing aer just like all these articles about another revolutionary new thing that will change all our lives: second life. There's way too much hype here. I know one Wii owner (and a lot of people who tried to get one but gave up after the hypse died down.) When I log on to SL there's no one around. Sorry, but its true.
There have been casual gamers for quite some time. Think breakout on a PDA or all the flash games office workers play. Why market some new device when everyone owns a PC that can play little flash games. There are a bazillion flash developers. Tons of flash games. If anything a handheld that did flash and could download from the net would give the DS a run for its money.
Naww, I dont find patents absurd. I think its a fixable system with the proper reforms.
My main problem is the immediate cease (and sometimes destroy) orders. These organizations can be punished via paying damages just as well. The immediate stop of business (Vonage) and the destruction of items that are safe should never, ever happen. The fact that we give the state these powers, let alone corporations, shows us that the patent system cannot justify itself as is.
Stuff has been destroyed in the past by court orded (usually unsafe items). They dont go after the end user, they just get warrants against warehouses and then the court makes them dispose of the remaining product. The manufacturer tries a recall/rebate too.
The fact that this is even possible is further proof that the patent system is really useless.
Wikia is the for-profit arm of Wikimedia. A large amount of Wikia profits help cover Wikimedia costs, and I'm pretty sure Wikia pays a Mediawiki developer.
Who then get paid in Wikidollars for every Wikihour worked. If they add the prefix Wiki to their variables they get double pay.
Yeah, and those 28 will never be removed,regardless of false positives. SORBS wants 50 dollars per delisting. How this is different from a criminal protection racket is beyond me.
How many are murdered each day in America? How many murdered killed, die of famine each day
This is a non-convincing argument. Pro-war people say the same thing "Oh how many people get murdered each year?" Rapists say "at least I didnt kill anyone." Murders say "at least I'm not a pedophile." This is moral relativism and a slippery slope. If you cant defend private enterprise launching millionares into space as something to die for then that should tell you about how weak your position is.
Well, first of all this rocket business is just that: a business. Its someones fucking job and they got killed at the workplace. You CAN prevent that. You CANT prevent sensless street murder. You CANT stop famine and overpopulation. People should expect a safe work environment. At the end of the day these people died so Burt can launch millionaires into near orbit for 250k a pop. Not exactly a noble calling.
Now, I fully expect the government to come in and regulate these guys. At least put in some real NASA-level safety precautions. NASA isnt perfect but their safety record and procedures are pretty good. I think this is the beginning of the end for the "wild west" approach to space exploration. Now the responsible adults need to step in and protect the worker and protect the customers. We've seen a milliom times in america. From little children working at the looms losing fingers to men losing their hands in meat packing. Some new industry comes up and safety is the last concern. No more, thanks.
Wow, you couldnt be more wrong. More tin? Its called economies of scale and mass production. Trying to buy that exact 486 system new nowadays would run millions as youd have to pay to run the factories and molds and such to get someone to produce it. All they are making are modern technology.
Not to mention the "things were better then" nonsense is idealization of the past. As someone with various machines in the 80s I can honestly tell you they built them like mass-produced crap then too.
No. They shouldnt be allowed to observe anything a person cant. I cant get up in the middle of a poker game and attempt to stick a thermometer into my opponent's rear to see if he's lying. Why not just put a camera behind him and read his cards? How do you propose we detect sweat? Measuring skin resistance? You cant do that in a real game either.
I think a plain-jane camera would be allowed, but even then its pretty unfair. The human player has no face to look at to potentially figure out the bluff (or the tell).
Ideally, the computer would be represented by an actor who would impersonate a poker player, like feeling anxious when he's losing, trying to pull off a bluff, etc.
If CPUs are so fast that pushing the data to be executed elsewhere over a LAN is a performance hit then parallel processing will go out of style.
If networks are so fast that pushing data to be executed elsewhere over a LAN is a net perofrmance gain then parallel processing is back in style.
Right now, we're seeing some pretty damn fast CPUs with multiple cores. Once these gains show down and network gains increase you'll see parallel stuff everywhere again.
Probably for quite a bit. The biggest hurdle with ethernet is dealing with half-duplex connections and all the collions/detections. These new standards dont even do half-duplex. Everything is full duplex, thus requiring a switch. You've tossed out your biggest setback right there.
Ethernet still is pretty lean. I can imagine an alternative to it, but it might not be worth the trouble, like the anyLAN stuff from a while back. We also still used TCP, but really dont need all the overhead it generates.
I think this depends very much on the person and the WiFi transmitter used.
It might. for instance a lot of these symptoms are generic "illness" symptoms. You may have:
1. A person who is just a garden-variety neurotic. Purely pyschosomatic. Or they suffer from a mild form of mental illness but do not know it (manageable bipolar 2, low grade depression, low grade GAD, etc)
2. A person with an undiagnosed thyroid or blood sugar problem. Unfortunately, they have been led to believe that their problems stem from technology, not biology.
3. A person who very sensitive skin. Some people may be able to feel *something* if they are near a transsmitter, but never enough to cause anything like the symptoms described. This something feeling may make them politically sympathetic to people in 1 and 2.
4. Nutters. The typical tin-foil brigade. They may have started as a 1 but have degenerated into this.
5. People who suffer from work or person life related stress. They have real symptoms but its not the cell tower, its their crappy marriage.
I can also imagine that people in groups 1 and 5 may also have their symptoms made worse by actually carrying a cellphone. They know that *anyone* can call them on it, including the people in their lives who stress them out or are at the source of the negative relationships. They also may feel resentment to the "24/7" society and just holding a phone or being near one causes anxiety and a little depression. Seeing the tower only reminds them of this tenfold.
So I think its fair to say its a mixed bag out there. A lot of these people certainly have my sympathy, but they should not be attacking the cell phone companies. They should be angry at themselves for not attending to their personal problems. They should be seeking recourse with a therapist or a doctor. Hopefully, these people will realize that aliens, liberals, taxes, jet contrails, vaccinations, err cell phone towers arent the problem.
I dont mind buttons at all. In fact I think the biggest mistake with the ipod is the lack of buttons. A quick and easy way to switch tracks AND volume should be required on all mp3 devices. Having to go through a menu system to change volume is silly. (not to mention the lack of FM)
Granted, i dislike the typical A-B button and other shortcuts electronics manufacturers go through, but buttons can be done right. Its a shame no one is really trying. Softkeys can be a lot worse than buttons. Buttons should be there for basic functionality and be spaced out enough so users can click on them without looking at them.
Aesthetics arent everything. For instance, i much prefer a thumb keyboard than a virtual one.
Right, we need to protect copyright at all costs! Maybe insert some DRM to protect us from evil capitalists!!
I wonder how many slashdotters would agree that the idea to limit copyright to 12 years or so means that linux will be put in the public domain for anyone to do whatever they want, and to hell with the gpl.
Not trying to troll, but its funny to see people quote copyright law line and verse when it serves them.
Rotting shells from the iraq-iran conflict is not at all why Bush claimed to go to war. playing them up to be "WMDs found in Iraq" is willful ignorance. Removing the context from the claim is as good as lying. Again.
This is like the local police saying 'We're going to raid every home in your town because of illegal arms.' They end up finding a broken revolver pistol from the 50s buried in a garbage pile. Claiming 'SEE THEY FOUND GUNS' is being a complete idiot.
>What they're trying to do is create an entertainment console that everyone, not just hardcore FPS gamers, can have a go at
People already have one of these. Theyre called PCs and cellphones. Its like gamers refuse to acknowledge the power of cheap/free downloadable flash-type games. Thats what "non-gamers" play.
You dont need a dedicated 500 dollar piece of hardware to play a game. Once "gamers" understand this they'll see that casual players are everywhere.
Exactly. What oversight is there in the peerguardian lists and why should anyone trust them? Seems like they can call any IP range whatever they like and paranoid people will start sending stories to slashdot about how the "gubmnt is in their 'puters."
Its nice that the methlabs people keep putting out this software, but its no a drop-in replacement for real security sluething. Hell, its not even a replacement for etherreal.
Err, the xbox division is very very profitable in the long run. Aside from Nintendo, all consoles are money losing ventures. They make up for it by taking a chunk out of the games sold. Microsoft was been surprisingly successful with the xbox/xbox360. I dont think of MS as an exceptional company, but I see them as a decent company. If they can waltz into the gaming market and take all this marketshare, its further proof at how incredibly inept sony, sega, and nintendo have been with their products. nintendo seems to be learning and SOny is delivering the humdum ovepriced crap its always been doing. Hopefully, this shake up will lead to better products through better competition.
Oh right this is slashdot. Replace the above with "fsck M$"
Right, and these things get ridiculously hot because of the notebook form factor. There's a heat/comfort equation that is not taken into account here. The nice thing about a desktop is you get a full keyboard, full screen, and a full mouse. If you actually do work with a computer you come to appreciate these things. On top of it you're not burning your lap or paying more for the docking station and another display (you already paid for a display with the laptop).
If you want a decent workstation (or a decent game station) you'll want these things. Suddenly there is price premium between the two as you now have to buy that display and docking station. Mobility is great, but it really depends on the application and the user.
This must be the 5th big public "desktops are dying" proclamation I've read. It just havent happened yet. It may never happen. There's just too much of an economic incentive and comfort incentive to stick with them. Granted, laptops are cheap now, but desktops are dirt cheap. I keep seeing these amazing 300 dollar desktops from Dell on sale now and again. 300 dollars for a dual core amd chip! People without 700+ dollars to spend on a laptop will keep buying these.
Although, I am very curious to know if that the current generation of kids who may have never had a home desktop might never buy one like their parents did. This might chill the desktop home market, but it will certainly not affect the business one.
No, he didnt read it. I'm willing to bet this is another cut and paste from some conservative think-tank or presidential candidate. Its called astroturfing.
It works becaue right now, being a conservative contrarian defending the status quo is pretty hip. See the millions who voted for Bush and now get their politics from South park and Ron Paul.
First off, regulations like these are seen all over Europe and they have better broadband choices.
Secondly, there's no shrotage of free market zealots who have no problem with companies selling broadband for full price and delivering 160-300kbps. Thats not broadband, thats crap. If anything this is consumer protection. A dsl line this slow should not be called broadband. They can name it "slowband."
The bullshit subsidiaries that Congress hands out is the core of this problem. Local bells and cable companies have no incentive to improve service when the government hands them territories, makes unbelievably cronyistic deals, FCC hands them frequencies, and hands them money. This bill is a small fix for the broken system you are defending.
If MS offers 10,000 dollars per exploit then thats going to be the minimum bid in the market. Someone will then offer 10,500 and the enterprising hacker will go for the extra cash. I dont see how MS's involvment can help this.
What might be more interesting is to dock 10,000k from the salaries of the security team everytime someone finds a serious exploit. Sometimes punishments are far more effective than rewards.
Slashdot Mirror
1. Its the destruction of perfectly good equipment. This is incredibly wasteful. Even in a capitalistic society.
2. Shutting down a business hurts employees more than investors. The government needs to address this when dealing with their broken patent system.
3. A ruling can be faulty or turned over on appeal. Acting too soon by shutting down business (injuncture) is giving in to the corporate oligarchy way too much.
I can see monetary damages and ceasing production, but heavy handed actions like these show me that the patent system and its various checkes and balances of big payouts, stockipling, and submarine patents exist purely to exploit the system for unearned profit, not to protect novel inventors.
In other words its broken AND dangerous.
>People watch anime, and don't need it to be photorealistic;
But Anime is hand drawn lines by usually a very talented cartoonist/illustrator, which is then colored by someone just as talented. Videogames cannot compete on this level.
I'm not a big graphics guy, but when I played the new Harry Potter game for the Wii I was shocked at how incredibly crappy the graphics were. THey were so bad they caused distraction. I don't expect geforce 8800 level graphics here, but certainly more than the old geoforce 2 I used to have, way back when.
I'm afraid that a lot of the wii articles I'm seeing aer just like all these articles about another revolutionary new thing that will change all our lives: second life. There's way too much hype here. I know one Wii owner (and a lot of people who tried to get one but gave up after the hypse died down.) When I log on to SL there's no one around. Sorry, but its true.
There have been casual gamers for quite some time. Think breakout on a PDA or all the flash games office workers play. Why market some new device when everyone owns a PC that can play little flash games. There are a bazillion flash developers. Tons of flash games. If anything a handheld that did flash and could download from the net would give the DS a run for its money.
Naww, I dont find patents absurd. I think its a fixable system with the proper reforms.
My main problem is the immediate cease (and sometimes destroy) orders. These organizations can be punished via paying damages just as well. The immediate stop of business (Vonage) and the destruction of items that are safe should never, ever happen. The fact that we give the state these powers, let alone corporations, shows us that the patent system cannot justify itself as is.
Stuff has been destroyed in the past by court orded (usually unsafe items). They dont go after the end user, they just get warrants against warehouses and then the court makes them dispose of the remaining product. The manufacturer tries a recall/rebate too.
The fact that this is even possible is further proof that the patent system is really useless.
Right, or one of these, into one of these.
Why yes, I'm drinking this extra large diet coke for the environment.
Wikia is the for-profit arm of Wikimedia. A large amount of Wikia profits help cover Wikimedia costs, and I'm pretty sure Wikia pays a Mediawiki developer.
Who then get paid in Wikidollars for every Wikihour worked. If they add the prefix Wiki to their variables they get double pay.
>dnsbl.sorbs.net: 28
,regardless of false positives. SORBS wants 50 dollars per delisting. How this is different from a criminal protection racket is beyond me.
Yeah, and those 28 will never be removed
People have no problem with this and blizzard. Expect the double standard to kick in in 3.. 2.. 1..
How many are murdered each day in America? How many murdered killed, die of famine each day
This is a non-convincing argument. Pro-war people say the same thing "Oh how many people get murdered each year?" Rapists say "at least I didnt kill anyone." Murders say "at least I'm not a pedophile." This is moral relativism and a slippery slope. If you cant defend private enterprise launching millionares into space as something to die for then that should tell you about how weak your position is.
Well, first of all this rocket business is just that: a business. Its someones fucking job and they got killed at the workplace. You CAN prevent that. You CANT prevent sensless street murder. You CANT stop famine and overpopulation. People should expect a safe work environment. At the end of the day these people died so Burt can launch millionaires into near orbit for 250k a pop. Not exactly a noble calling.
Now, I fully expect the government to come in and regulate these guys. At least put in some real NASA-level safety precautions. NASA isnt perfect but their safety record and procedures are pretty good. I think this is the beginning of the end for the "wild west" approach to space exploration. Now the responsible adults need to step in and protect the worker and protect the customers. We've seen a milliom times in america. From little children working at the looms losing fingers to men losing their hands in meat packing. Some new industry comes up and safety is the last concern. No more, thanks.
My condolences to the families.
Wow, you couldnt be more wrong. More tin? Its called economies of scale and mass production. Trying to buy that exact 486 system new nowadays would run millions as youd have to pay to run the factories and molds and such to get someone to produce it. All they are making are modern technology.
Not to mention the "things were better then" nonsense is idealization of the past. As someone with various machines in the 80s I can honestly tell you they built them like mass-produced crap then too.
excess heat coming off body
No. They shouldnt be allowed to observe anything a person cant. I cant get up in the middle of a poker game and attempt to stick a thermometer into my opponent's rear to see if he's lying. Why not just put a camera behind him and read his cards? How do you propose we detect sweat? Measuring skin resistance? You cant do that in a real game either.
I think a plain-jane camera would be allowed, but even then its pretty unfair. The human player has no face to look at to potentially figure out the bluff (or the tell).
Ideally, the computer would be represented by an actor who would impersonate a poker player, like feeling anxious when he's losing, trying to pull off a bluff, etc.
You can think of it this way:
If CPUs are so fast that pushing the data to be executed elsewhere over a LAN is a performance hit then parallel processing will go out of style.
If networks are so fast that pushing data to be executed elsewhere over a LAN is a net perofrmance gain then parallel processing is back in style.
Right now, we're seeing some pretty damn fast CPUs with multiple cores. Once these gains show down and network gains increase you'll see parallel stuff everywhere again.
Probably for quite a bit. The biggest hurdle with ethernet is dealing with half-duplex connections and all the collions/detections. These new standards dont even do half-duplex. Everything is full duplex, thus requiring a switch. You've tossed out your biggest setback right there.
Ethernet still is pretty lean. I can imagine an alternative to it, but it might not be worth the trouble, like the anyLAN stuff from a while back. We also still used TCP, but really dont need all the overhead it generates.
I think this depends very much on the person and the WiFi transmitter used.
It might. for instance a lot of these symptoms are generic "illness" symptoms. You may have:
1. A person who is just a garden-variety neurotic. Purely pyschosomatic. Or they suffer from a mild form of mental illness but do not know it (manageable bipolar 2, low grade depression, low grade GAD, etc)
2. A person with an undiagnosed thyroid or blood sugar problem. Unfortunately, they have been led to believe that their problems stem from technology, not biology.
3. A person who very sensitive skin. Some people may be able to feel *something* if they are near a transsmitter, but never enough to cause anything like the symptoms described. This something feeling may make them politically sympathetic to people in 1 and 2.
4. Nutters. The typical tin-foil brigade. They may have started as a 1 but have degenerated into this.
5. People who suffer from work or person life related stress. They have real symptoms but its not the cell tower, its their crappy marriage.
I can also imagine that people in groups 1 and 5 may also have their symptoms made worse by actually carrying a cellphone. They know that *anyone* can call them on it, including the people in their lives who stress them out or are at the source of the negative relationships. They also may feel resentment to the "24/7" society and just holding a phone or being near one causes anxiety and a little depression. Seeing the tower only reminds them of this tenfold.
So I think its fair to say its a mixed bag out there. A lot of these people certainly have my sympathy, but they should not be attacking the cell phone companies. They should be angry at themselves for not attending to their personal problems. They should be seeking recourse with a therapist or a doctor. Hopefully, these people will realize that aliens, liberals, taxes, jet contrails, vaccinations, err cell phone towers arent the problem.
I dont mind buttons at all. In fact I think the biggest mistake with the ipod is the lack of buttons. A quick and easy way to switch tracks AND volume should be required on all mp3 devices. Having to go through a menu system to change volume is silly. (not to mention the lack of FM)
Granted, i dislike the typical A-B button and other shortcuts electronics manufacturers go through, but buttons can be done right. Its a shame no one is really trying. Softkeys can be a lot worse than buttons. Buttons should be there for basic functionality and be spaced out enough so users can click on them without looking at them.
Aesthetics arent everything. For instance, i much prefer a thumb keyboard than a virtual one.
>which is a copyright violation
Right, we need to protect copyright at all costs! Maybe insert some DRM to protect us from evil capitalists!!
I wonder how many slashdotters would agree that the idea to limit copyright to 12 years or so means that linux will be put in the public domain for anyone to do whatever they want, and to hell with the gpl.
Not trying to troll, but its funny to see people quote copyright law line and verse when it serves them.
Rotting shells from the iraq-iran conflict is not at all why Bush claimed to go to war. playing them up to be "WMDs found in Iraq" is willful ignorance. Removing the context from the claim is as good as lying. Again.
This is like the local police saying 'We're going to raid every home in your town because of illegal arms.' They end up finding a broken revolver pistol from the 50s buried in a garbage pile. Claiming 'SEE THEY FOUND GUNS' is being a complete idiot.
>What they're trying to do is create an entertainment console that everyone, not just hardcore FPS gamers, can have a go at
People already have one of these. Theyre called PCs and cellphones. Its like gamers refuse to acknowledge the power of cheap/free downloadable flash-type games. Thats what "non-gamers" play.
You dont need a dedicated 500 dollar piece of hardware to play a game. Once "gamers" understand this they'll see that casual players are everywhere.
Exactly. What oversight is there in the peerguardian lists and why should anyone trust them? Seems like they can call any IP range whatever they like and paranoid people will start sending stories to slashdot about how the "gubmnt is in their 'puters."
Its nice that the methlabs people keep putting out this software, but its no a drop-in replacement for real security sluething. Hell, its not even a replacement for etherreal.
Err, the xbox division is very very profitable in the long run. Aside from Nintendo, all consoles are money losing ventures. They make up for it by taking a chunk out of the games sold. Microsoft was been surprisingly successful with the xbox/xbox360. I dont think of MS as an exceptional company, but I see them as a decent company. If they can waltz into the gaming market and take all this marketshare, its further proof at how incredibly inept sony, sega, and nintendo have been with their products. nintendo seems to be learning and SOny is delivering the humdum ovepriced crap its always been doing. Hopefully, this shake up will lead to better products through better competition.
Oh right this is slashdot. Replace the above with "fsck M$"
Right, and these things get ridiculously hot because of the notebook form factor. There's a heat/comfort equation that is not taken into account here. The nice thing about a desktop is you get a full keyboard, full screen, and a full mouse. If you actually do work with a computer you come to appreciate these things. On top of it you're not burning your lap or paying more for the docking station and another display (you already paid for a display with the laptop).
If you want a decent workstation (or a decent game station) you'll want these things. Suddenly there is price premium between the two as you now have to buy that display and docking station. Mobility is great, but it really depends on the application and the user.
This must be the 5th big public "desktops are dying" proclamation I've read. It just havent happened yet. It may never happen. There's just too much of an economic incentive and comfort incentive to stick with them. Granted, laptops are cheap now, but desktops are dirt cheap. I keep seeing these amazing 300 dollar desktops from Dell on sale now and again. 300 dollars for a dual core amd chip! People without 700+ dollars to spend on a laptop will keep buying these.
Although, I am very curious to know if that the current generation of kids who may have never had a home desktop might never buy one like their parents did. This might chill the desktop home market, but it will certainly not affect the business one.
No, he didnt read it. I'm willing to bet this is another cut and paste from some conservative think-tank or presidential candidate. Its called astroturfing.
It works becaue right now, being a conservative contrarian defending the status quo is pretty hip. See the millions who voted for Bush and now get their politics from South park and Ron Paul.
First off, regulations like these are seen all over Europe and they have better broadband choices.
Secondly, there's no shrotage of free market zealots who have no problem with companies selling broadband for full price and delivering 160-300kbps. Thats not broadband, thats crap. If anything this is consumer protection. A dsl line this slow should not be called broadband. They can name it "slowband."
The bullshit subsidiaries that Congress hands out is the core of this problem. Local bells and cable companies have no incentive to improve service when the government hands them territories, makes unbelievably cronyistic deals, FCC hands them frequencies, and hands them money. This bill is a small fix for the broken system you are defending.
Well, the idea is to land humans on mars, not pop the hatch open and let all the human based tomato sauce pour out on the surface.
What do you think will be in that capsule if it landed like a probe?
If MS offers 10,000 dollars per exploit then thats going to be the minimum bid in the market. Someone will then offer 10,500 and the enterprising hacker will go for the extra cash. I dont see how MS's involvment can help this.
What might be more interesting is to dock 10,000k from the salaries of the security team everytime someone finds a serious exploit. Sometimes punishments are far more effective than rewards.