"Is it just me or has companies like Apple managed to sneak DRM in under our noses while at the same time tricking us into thinking they're cool?"
I don't think the DRM is the real issue but the licensing of the songs with the music industry. Apple has a license that no other company has gotten. The other DRMs could do the same thing the Apple one does but they don't have the same license agreement. Even if Apple gives the DRM out the compeditors would still have to get a license agreement like apples to do what they do.
"can the police access the data without a search warrant?"
I wouldn't be to worried about the police and RFID. I can't see there being to many illegal products with RFID tags. For some reason I can't see drugs, illegal guns, or anything else like that using RFID tags.
I doubt congress themselves would want to be watched and tracked all the time. Think of all the shady deals they have going on... now if they were tracked all the congressmen would be potentially screwed. They might be more concerned with big brother than/. users are.
I have some lineup show ideas....
1) On Macs
2) Chicks of teck world
3) On open source
4) Hot chicks of the tech world in bathing suits
5) Cool new toys
6) Hot chicks of the tech world in bathing suits showing off cool new tech toys
7) A show of extreme dating meets tech folks (with hot chicks only).....
"Our tax dollars were spent mandating its deployment, our money will be wasted purchasing the receivers (which are going to have to be in all TVs), and what does it do for us? Nothing."
The TV industry had to do some new product so increase thier pocket books. Why not use lobbiests to get a law for a change and force people to change. THe average person wouldn't change if they weren't forced. It's just a way to have a garuntee see for a product.
Well, since wal-mart usually provides stuff at a bargin but many things are not high quality...will that transfer to their music??? Such at just a bit rate of 96khz.
RFID will let them do inventories of products in shipping so much easier. Once they are out of the stores what do they care. It's about tracking their inventory on route and in the store. So they can take a device in a stock room and know how much of what they have in there. allows for easy tracking and inventory. sounds like a time and money saver to me. A stock boy could sit in front of a computer all day and know whats there.
How will this development tool work for games that are designed to be cross system. Can they also use the data for say Playstation 2 or have to start over for that? Is this a way to lock a game into M$ systems???? If they make it very propritary it could be.
The real fine isn't the money for microsoft but the unbundling that was imposed. It is not only an inconvienance but it won't make it as easy to push their format of files. This is becoming more difficult for them in other ways too.
I hope that the EU actually sticks by its guns. That is one thing the US has not done. I hope the EU sticks to a punishment because M$ gets away with it they will only cross that line a little further if they end up getting off.
"I think it's also about decentralising the networks. Sure my electricity can be rerouted, but not by me."
It's not really about decentralizing the networks from where they are now but about new technology. I don't ever forsee any single person rerouting the power flow. No one person especially someone who doesn't work on the power grid has a clue how/where it needs to be routed. It about the adaptation and smarts of the system.
The technology they are reffering to in reality is PHM (Prognostics Health Management) or sometimes called Prognostics and Diagnostics.
This is a form of fault detection that detects something much earlier where you can either go perform maintenance on the problem before it breaks or reroute power from the problem area and go fix it. Either way it keeps the power up and is transparent to the user
Fault detection has come a lot way since the days of the 1950s. Hell it has come a log way from 10 years ago
Say you can detect a problem in the power grid hours or even days before it causes something to break in the grid. You can have a repair guy go out and fix it or if you can't get someone to fix it in time you can reroute power around the problem until you can get it fixed.
From a technical side it can be done and it is a networked approach but nothing says they will use the internet or it will have the same kind of problems from users accessing it.
There is actually a powere grid out there that already does this. i wish I could find the article on it. It was setup in the 90s. It can sense changes in the grid and if it can be fixed before there is a problem than it is and if not then they can reroute power.
It doesn't work quite like the internet but that's the concept power folks work with. The idea of bringing it up to tech isn't quite like the internet as we picture it but it has a lot of the same networked concepts.
To implement a system that would do this wouldn't require any new technology. The ability to sense grid changes before problems occur has been happening in some places for years. The ability to reroute power is already there. It's just a matter of integrating the technology together and installing it all over. That is where the problem would fall as it would cost a lot of $$$$$.
I have seen demonstrations of this technology on a smaller scale already.
Your talking about something on a different level. If i want to code a controller for a robotic arm vs something transmitting and recieving netowrk traffic. 2 different types of application. There is still a very good time to use assembly but not with networked machines and the such. they are for different applications and uses. Think wider range then the net and you desktop and server computer.
"I know NASA is conservative with technology, but using assembly in this day and age is way backwards!"
Bad Joke
Actually Assembly is a great language if your worried about efficiency and/or space. A lot of controllers in aerospace are coded that way and there is good reason for that. You can never get away from machine language for everything. Many times it is the best route to code in.
With all the advances in vehicle health monitoring, diagnostics, prognostics and the like it might be better for them to either build a new vehicle with this technology or retrofit the shuttles with it. Then they could see when the gears are cracked or acting up.
I don't believe the word diffucult describes it best but complicated. Linux should try to make it as uncomplicated to use as a mac. Put my little old mom on a 3D desktop and she would be lost.
"whether these new technologies could change the way a modern computer works."
Nanotech sure will change the way a computer works. If you can have atoms doing the work you have gates doing now you can fit a lot more on a chip. They can manipulate gates at the molecular level now, the problem to be solved is between that tiny world and our big interfaces.
Slashdot Mirror
"Is it just me or has companies like Apple managed to sneak DRM in under our noses while at the same time tricking us into thinking they're cool?"
I don't think the DRM is the real issue but the licensing of the songs with the music industry. Apple has a license that no other company has gotten. The other DRMs could do the same thing the Apple one does but they don't have the same license agreement. Even if Apple gives the DRM out the compeditors would still have to get a license agreement like apples to do what they do.
"can the police access the data without a search warrant?"
I wouldn't be to worried about the police and RFID. I can't see there being to many illegal products with RFID tags. For some reason I can't see drugs, illegal guns, or anything else like that using RFID tags.
I doubt congress themselves would want to be watched and tracked all the time. Think of all the shady deals they have going on... now if they were tracked all the congressmen would be potentially screwed. They might be more concerned with big brother than /. users are.
"since Microsoft owns quite a chunk of Comcast,"
M$ is sneaky. They are trying to take over another industry right under our noses. Those sneaky bastards.
I have some lineup show ideas.... 1) On Macs 2) Chicks of teck world 3) On open source 4) Hot chicks of the tech world in bathing suits 5) Cool new toys 6) Hot chicks of the tech world in bathing suits showing off cool new tech toys 7) A show of extreme dating meets tech folks (with hot chicks only) .....
"Was HDTV really even necessary?"
It probubally wasn't necessary.
"Our tax dollars were spent mandating its deployment, our money will be wasted purchasing the receivers (which are going to have to be in all TVs), and what does it do for us? Nothing."
The TV industry had to do some new product so increase thier pocket books. Why not use lobbiests to get a law for a change and force people to change. THe average person wouldn't change if they weren't forced. It's just a way to have a garuntee see for a product.
Sure there has been an improvement..... I no longer have to watch scrambled p0rn. That is a hell of an improvement
Well, since wal-mart usually provides stuff at a bargin but many things are not high quality...will that transfer to their music??? Such at just a bit rate of 96khz.
RFID will let them do inventories of products in shipping so much easier. Once they are out of the stores what do they care. It's about tracking their inventory on route and in the store. So they can take a device in a stock room and know how much of what they have in there. allows for easy tracking and inventory. sounds like a time and money saver to me. A stock boy could sit in front of a computer all day and know whats there.
How will this development tool work for games that are designed to be cross system. Can they also use the data for say Playstation 2 or have to start over for that? Is this a way to lock a game into M$ systems???? If they make it very propritary it could be.
The real fine isn't the money for microsoft but the unbundling that was imposed. It is not only an inconvienance but it won't make it as easy to push their format of files. This is becoming more difficult for them in other ways too.
I hope that the EU actually sticks by its guns. That is one thing the US has not done. I hope the EU sticks to a punishment because M$ gets away with it they will only cross that line a little further if they end up getting off.
"I think it's also about decentralising the networks. Sure my electricity can be rerouted, but not by me."
It's not really about decentralizing the networks from where they are now but about new technology. I don't ever forsee any single person rerouting the power flow. No one person especially someone who doesn't work on the power grid has a clue how/where it needs to be routed. It about the adaptation and smarts of the system.
The technology they are reffering to in reality is PHM (Prognostics Health Management) or sometimes called Prognostics and Diagnostics.
This is a form of fault detection that detects something much earlier where you can either go perform maintenance on the problem before it breaks or reroute power from the problem area and go fix it. Either way it keeps the power up and is transparent to the user
Fault detection has come a lot way since the days of the 1950s. Hell it has come a log way from 10 years ago
Say you can detect a problem in the power grid hours or even days before it causes something to break in the grid. You can have a repair guy go out and fix it or if you can't get someone to fix it in time you can reroute power around the problem until you can get it fixed.
From a technical side it can be done and it is a networked approach but nothing says they will use the internet or it will have the same kind of problems from users accessing it.
There is actually a powere grid out there that already does this. i wish I could find the article on it. It was setup in the 90s. It can sense changes in the grid and if it can be fixed before there is a problem than it is and if not then they can reroute power.
It doesn't work quite like the internet but that's the concept power folks work with. The idea of bringing it up to tech isn't quite like the internet as we picture it but it has a lot of the same networked concepts.
To implement a system that would do this wouldn't require any new technology. The ability to sense grid changes before problems occur has been happening in some places for years. The ability to reroute power is already there. It's just a matter of integrating the technology together and installing it all over. That is where the problem would fall as it would cost a lot of $$$$$.
I have seen demonstrations of this technology on a smaller scale already.
I have also found that I dont' get the prerelease 3 gimp.app running under OSX 10.3. Looks like they need to post an upsate.
the mac binary gimp.app is still prerelease 3. it isn't updated yet.
Your talking about something on a different level. If i want to code a controller for a robotic arm vs something transmitting and recieving netowrk traffic. 2 different types of application. There is still a very good time to use assembly but not with networked machines and the such. they are for different applications and uses. Think wider range then the net and you desktop and server computer.
"I know NASA is conservative with technology, but using assembly in this day and age is way backwards!"
Bad Joke
Actually Assembly is a great language if your worried about efficiency and/or space. A lot of controllers in aerospace are coded that way and there is good reason for that. You can never get away from machine language for everything. Many times it is the best route to code in.
I wouldn't blame NASA for this but the subcontractor that made the part. They sould know to have a process in place to negate that.
The sub should be punished for their lack of effort and watched closer in ongoing efforts.
With all the advances in vehicle health monitoring, diagnostics, prognostics and the like it might be better for them to either build a new vehicle with this technology or retrofit the shuttles with it. Then they could see when the gears are cracked or acting up.
Just Imagine the beowolf cluster jokes now.
"Would a 3D desktop be more difficult to use ?"
I don't believe the word diffucult describes it best but complicated. Linux should try to make it as uncomplicated to use as a mac. Put my little old mom on a 3D desktop and she would be lost.
"whether these new technologies could change the way a modern computer works."
Nanotech sure will change the way a computer works. If you can have atoms doing the work you have gates doing now you can fit a lot more on a chip. They can manipulate gates at the molecular level now, the problem to be solved is between that tiny world and our big interfaces.