At one time people took responsibility for their own actions and products were MUCH more dangerous. The lawyers will argue that by bringing up all the product lawsuits we now have safer cars, and other products. But lawsuits are still brought against companies whose products are missused by stupid people. There has to be a limit some where.
ALL headphones, ear buds or over the ear types, can cause hearing damage by delivering a sound level that's too high. Listening with speakers can cause the same damage too (while peeling the paint off the walls and cracking the windows). I suppose a form of active feedback could be added to headphones with a transducer to measure the sound level being delivered to the ear and back off the volume before it reaches the danger point. Would consumers buy such a product? (that would be like having a car that wouldn't go above 55mph by having a speed regulator. Some trucking companies actually put such a gizmo in their trucks to keep their drivers honest). Would you like the government to demand that makers of portable audio players put such a circuit into such players?
At some point our tort system exists only to make a profit for the lawyers and for "whiplash Willies" to abuse the system for a quick buck. The small aircraft business was almost destroyed by product liability lawsuits. Those cases involved 20-50 year old planes that were built before todays standards were developed. How can you justify calling such a product "defective"? Should you be allowed to sue Ford if you were hurt when your 80 year old model "T"'s gas tank exploded today?
It might work on older motherboards. Modern motherboards have the bios chips soldered to the board, and sometimes the function of the flash memory chips is contained inside of the larger "chip set" parts. To make matters worse these are ball grid array parts so you can't unsolder one pin.
I was working in Sunrise, FL. at the time. My office was on the second story and we had a window facing north. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know something bad had happened. And network tv was live covering it. We had a portable tv in the office area providing the sound to our live view out the window. I remember coming into work the day of the launch mad at myself for forgetting to bring my binoculars from home.
Oh yes, and the moon will be our landfill, as well as our global graveyard. Until the accumulation of toxic atomic waste builds up to the critical point and the resulting magnetic radiation causes a titanic explosion blasting the moon out of earth orbit.
Is Google actually operating IN China, or is their internet presence in China "beamed in" from the US. If the former, yes they have to obey China's laws. If the later, then they can do what they want (and MUST do what US laws demand).
Actually as long as the DOD, FBI, etc only wanted or expected to get information on internet trends in searches and NOT specific info on what specific users were searching for and what the results were, (IE: what information pops up for specific searches and how many requests are made for such info (BUT NOT BY WHO)), I don't have a problem with GOOGLE helping out law inforcement. You've got some real scumbags out there kidnapping kids for sex, these guys need some serious jail time (or worse).
If they must censor information, they should pop up a statement to the effect that "The requested information is not available at the request of your government".
And maybe congress should pass a regulation REQUIRING them to do this!
If a movie studio uses open source software in the production of a movie then it should be illegal for them to distribute that movie in digial format with a DRM wrapper. IE: if you use GPL software to make YOUR software, you CANNOT DRM your software without being in violation of the GPL. Now how would that play out in court?
A co-worker and I did the same thing a few years earlier. I took a 22pin 4k dynamic ram and peeled the lid off the top of it (it was a ceramic package with a soldered on lid). I then glued a microscope slide cover on top of the chip. I interfaced the chip to my friend's apple-2 computer and he wrote software to read the dram multiple times and convert the bits to a bit mapped picture on the apple. We could get a few levels of gray scale by the multiple read and timeing technique. The first image was that of a 60w bulb focused on the chip. The "60 WATT" label was the first thing we saw on the apple screen. It really freaked us out when it worked the very first time! I used a small lens out of an POS junk camera view finder. Setting the focus was a bitch!
The guy in the earlier link gutted the scanner and put the guts in a box with a lens. In the newer article, the scanner was used as is, but with the lamp removed. I like the latter approach better. So this isn't a dupe, but a new improved method.
The original fat file system was based on the cp/m filesystem. Remember that the original MS-DOS was based on an 8086 operating system that was in turn based on cp/m. So the non-long file name file system is covered (or should be) by prior art. However MS DID invent the extensions for long file names.
I don't think digital cameras actually use the long file names so I guess we can continue to support them on Linux.
Well IANAL but it seems M$ wants to tax the makers of devices that use the fat filesystem. If linux supports reading and writing to such devices but NOT formating them (IE: interoperates with such devices but NOT creating such filesystems) them maybe we are ok. We should be able to read the fat filesystem on a digital camera (the maker of the camera must pay the tax since it formats the memory sticks/cards). I think you CAN create an ext2 filesystem on a USB drive if you want to, but most come FAT preformated. If windows can format a USB drive, then makers of such devices will ship them unformated and owe M$ nothing. Pass the buck to windows to format the device, maybe even with NTFS (which would render interoperation of a usb stick with Linux and windows impossible.) I hope nobody decides to remove the fatfs driver from the kernel just yet (though we might have to remove the ability to format the fs). Still if M$ gets payment from the makers of such devices it might be content not to try to milk BOTH ends of the cash cow. After all if such devices won't work on Linux maybe that would cut somewhat into sales. (maybe new digicams will internally RUN Linux and use Linux FS to screw Bill??)
How much family history have people lost already due to dead hard disks, and not realising the need to continuously back up and format shift?
Perhaps its not as black as you think... Photo printers are cheap and easy to use and people are beginning to realize that the photos are no use sitting on the HDD.
Hate to tell you but most photos printed on an ink jet printer won't last either. There are archival quality inks and papers available, but your bargin basement inkjet printer isn't using them. Shoot anything you REALLY want to save on Kodachrome 25!
In Ham radio terms that is a full gallon power supply.
I suspect in most computers the top drive bay will have to be left empty due to the depth of the supply.
Come on most computers will NEVER need this much power. However imagine a machine with 8 operion (series 800) dual core cpu's and 4gb of ram PER CPU. (does anybody yet make such a motherboard?). Mix in 8 400gb super scsi disk's and see what you get! (one of google's servers?)
The same arguments come up with tube (valve) amplifier equipment vs solid state. The idea that tubes sound 'warm' (what does that mean anyway? How does the sonic spectrum get modified to sound warm?) and transistors cold is strange to me. I DO understand the idea behind even and odd harmonic distortion and why one is less destructive to the music. (Tubes and FET's, both VOLTAGE amplifiers, have a more pleasing effect than bipolar transistors when they are driven into overload).
Digital recording makes a PERFECT copy of the analog original. Even though it seems that only bit samples are made while analog is "continuous" the math involved proves that nothing is lost. (NOT talking about MP3 here!!!!). However CD's use a sampling rate that is TOO close to the nyquist limit. Practical low pass filters need at least an octave of room to work without distortion. CDs sample at 44khz with a cutoff of 20khz requires brick wall filter design that would need at least 8 poles to have the required shape. A filter this sharp will ring like crazy unless built with extreme precision. (We are talking.1% parts here). If CD's were sampled closer to 250khz, the filter design would be a lot easier and the sound would be a lot better. Only now can we put enough data on a opto disk (DVD's) to make this possible. Too bad DVD audio never got off the ground. CD's sound as good as they do thank's to clever digital filter tricks, but such tricks probably leave some 'water marks' in the sound.
Finally, few people have ears that CAN hear the difference. If you are over 35, your hearings upper range is probably no higher than 15khz if you are lucky. If you lived all your life away from loud noises (never been in the subways, never attented a 'stones concert, never been near loud machinery, etc) maybe your ears can still tell an MP3 from the original. At age 53,mine no longer can. (Quick test. Listen to the back of a tube type TV set and see if your can hear the Horizontal deflection coils 'singing' I used to be able to do this...That's 15khz. I used to be able to hear the burgler alarm in the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of gems. That's 20khz. No longer)
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At one time people took responsibility for their own actions and products were MUCH more dangerous.
The lawyers will argue that by bringing up all the product lawsuits we now have safer cars, and
other products. But lawsuits are still brought against companies whose products are missused by
stupid people. There has to be a limit some where.
ALL headphones, ear buds or over the ear types, can cause hearing damage by delivering a sound level
that's too high. Listening with speakers can cause the same damage too (while peeling the paint
off the walls and cracking the windows). I suppose a form of active feedback could be added to
headphones with a transducer to measure the sound level being delivered to the ear and back off the
volume before it reaches the danger point. Would consumers buy such a product? (that would be like
having a car that wouldn't go above 55mph by having a speed regulator. Some trucking companies actually
put such a gizmo in their trucks to keep their drivers honest). Would you like the government to demand
that makers of portable audio players put such a circuit into such players?
At some point our tort system exists only to make a profit for the lawyers and for "whiplash Willies" to
abuse the system for a quick buck. The small aircraft business was almost destroyed by product liability
lawsuits. Those cases involved 20-50 year old planes that were built before todays standards were
developed. How can you justify calling such a product "defective"? Should you be allowed to sue Ford if you were hurt when your 80 year old model "T"'s gas tank exploded today?
It might work on older motherboards. Modern motherboards have the bios chips soldered to the board,
and sometimes the function of the flash memory chips is contained inside of the larger "chip set"
parts. To make matters worse these are ball grid array parts so you can't unsolder one pin.
I was working in Sunrise, FL. at the time. My office was on the second story and we had
a window facing north. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know something bad had
happened. And network tv was live covering it. We had a portable tv in the office area
providing the sound to our live view out the window.
I remember coming into work the day of the launch mad at myself for forgetting to bring
my binoculars from home.
Most browers have a built in cache. They don't violate copyright law
do they?
Would that be a babel fish?
Oh yes, and the moon will be our landfill, as well as our global graveyard.
Until the accumulation of toxic atomic waste builds up to the critical point and the
resulting magnetic radiation causes a titanic explosion blasting the moon out
of earth orbit.
If the graviton exists we can make a new weapon, the Graviton bomb. That
would be a nuclear IMPLOSIVE. (think about that).
Is Google actually operating IN China, or is their internet presence in China "beamed in"
from the US. If the former, yes they have to obey China's laws. If the later, then
they can do what they want (and MUST do what US laws demand).
Actually as long as the DOD, FBI, etc only wanted or expected to get information on
internet trends in searches and NOT specific info on what specific users were searching
for and what the results were, (IE: what information pops up for specific searches and
how many requests are made for such info (BUT NOT BY WHO)), I don't have a problem
with GOOGLE helping out law inforcement. You've got some real scumbags out there
kidnapping kids for sex, these guys need some serious jail time (or worse).
If they must censor information, they should pop up a statement to the effect that
"The requested information is not available at the request of your government".
And maybe congress should pass a regulation REQUIRING them to do this!
If it's ok to make a copy when it's not for monetary gain, then it's legal for
me to make back up copies of my DVD's. QED.
If a movie studio uses open source software in the production of a
movie then it should be illegal for them to distribute that movie
in digial format with a DRM wrapper. IE: if you use GPL software
to make YOUR software, you CANNOT DRM your software without being
in violation of the GPL. Now how would that play out in court?
A co-worker and I did the same thing a few years earlier. I took a 22pin 4k dynamic ram and peeled
the lid off the top of it (it was a ceramic package with a soldered on lid). I then glued a microscope
slide cover on top of the chip. I interfaced the chip to my friend's apple-2 computer and he wrote
software to read the dram multiple times and convert the bits to a bit mapped picture on the apple.
We could get a few levels of gray scale by the multiple read and timeing technique. The first image
was that of a 60w bulb focused on the chip. The "60 WATT" label was the first thing we saw
on the apple screen. It really freaked us out when it worked the very first time! I used a small
lens out of an POS junk camera view finder. Setting the focus was a bitch!
The guy in the earlier link gutted the scanner and put the guts in a box with
a lens. In the newer article, the scanner was used as is, but with the lamp
removed. I like the latter approach better. So this isn't a dupe,
but a new improved method.
A co-worker gave me a dvd full of avi files (divx) with the season the scifi channel will get.
But I'm looking forward for the next year's shows!
I bet people were saying similar things when the first automatic transmissions
came out.
The original fat file system was based on the cp/m filesystem. Remember that
the original MS-DOS was based on an 8086 operating system that was in turn based on cp/m. So the non-long file name file system is covered (or should be) by prior art. However MS DID invent the extensions for long file names.
I don't think digital cameras actually use the long file names so I guess we can
continue to support them on Linux.
Those old geiger counters are demanding big bucks on ebay these days.
(Nostaliga buffs?). What a waste, that is an EXPENSIVE ipod case!
Well IANAL but it seems M$ wants to tax the makers of devices that use the fat filesystem.
If linux supports reading and writing to such devices but NOT formating them (IE:
interoperates with such devices but NOT creating such filesystems) them maybe we are ok.
We should be able to read the fat filesystem on a digital camera (the maker of the camera
must pay the tax since it formats the memory sticks/cards). I think you CAN create an ext2
filesystem on a USB drive if you want to, but most come FAT preformated. If windows can
format a USB drive, then makers of such devices will ship them unformated and owe M$ nothing.
Pass the buck to windows to format the device, maybe even with NTFS (which would render
interoperation of a usb stick with Linux and windows impossible.) I hope nobody decides
to remove the fatfs driver from the kernel just yet (though we might have to remove the
ability to format the fs). Still if M$ gets payment from the makers of such devices it might
be content not to try to milk BOTH ends of the cash cow. After all if such devices won't work
on Linux maybe that would cut somewhat into sales. (maybe new digicams will internally
RUN Linux and use Linux FS to screw Bill??)
Er, most of those usb drives DO come preformated, because they come with the DRIVER clearly as the first
file in the device!
How much family history have people lost already due to dead hard disks, and not realising the need to continuously back up and format shift?
Perhaps its not as black as you think... Photo printers are cheap and easy to use and people are beginning to realize that the photos are no use sitting on the HDD.
Hate to tell you but most photos printed on an ink jet printer won't last either.
There are archival quality inks and papers available, but your bargin basement inkjet printer isn't using them. Shoot anything you REALLY want to save on
Kodachrome 25!
In Ham radio terms that is a full gallon power supply.
I suspect in most computers the top drive bay will have to be
left empty due to the depth of the supply.
Come on most computers will NEVER need this much power.
However imagine a machine with 8 operion (series 800)
dual core cpu's and 4gb of ram PER CPU. (does anybody
yet make such a motherboard?). Mix in 8 400gb super scsi
disk's and see what you get! (one of google's servers?)
That if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it
it makes no sound?
The same arguments come up with tube (valve) amplifier equipment vs solid state. The idea that tubes sound 'warm' (what does that mean anyway? How does the sonic spectrum get modified to sound warm?) and transistors cold is strange to me. I DO understand the idea behind even and odd harmonic distortion and why one is less destructive to the music. (Tubes and FET's, both VOLTAGE amplifiers, have a more pleasing effect than bipolar transistors when they are driven into overload).
.1% parts here). If CD's were sampled
Digital recording makes a PERFECT copy of the analog original. Even though it seems that only bit samples are made while analog is "continuous" the math involved proves that nothing is lost. (NOT talking about MP3 here!!!!). However CD's use a sampling rate that is TOO close to the nyquist limit. Practical low pass filters need at least an octave of room to work without distortion. CDs sample at 44khz with a cutoff of 20khz requires brick wall filter design that would need at least 8 poles to have the required shape. A filter this sharp will ring like crazy unless built with extreme precision. (We are talking
closer to 250khz, the filter design would be a lot easier and the sound would be a lot better. Only now can we put enough data on a opto disk (DVD's) to make this possible. Too bad DVD audio never got off the ground. CD's sound as good as they do thank's to clever digital filter tricks, but such tricks probably leave some 'water marks' in the sound.
Finally, few people have ears that CAN hear the difference. If you are over 35, your hearings upper range is probably no higher than
15khz if you are lucky. If you lived all your life away from loud noises (never been in the subways, never attented a 'stones concert, never been near loud machinery, etc) maybe your ears can still tell an MP3 from the original. At age 53,mine no longer can.
(Quick test. Listen to the back of a tube type TV set and see if your can hear the Horizontal deflection coils 'singing' I used to be able to do this...That's 15khz. I used to be able to hear the burgler alarm in the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of gems. That's 20khz. No longer)
--
Actually this applies especially to attorneys!