I live in the UK, in Bristol (a largish city south of London) - and we too have these street mounted wi-fi boxes. Judging from the picture, they look like they're the same model too.
However, there's one important difference - ours are for use solely by the council, primarily traffic wardens, and are completely closed. I have a sneaking feeling they're also something to do with the multitude of street CCTV cameras that went up at the same time, but maybe not. Don't know whether they'd ever consider opening them up, but it's by no means unique.
The original short article from which this was taken (well, the title is exactly the same) is online here, at gotfutrama.com - (shameless plug here) the best (and possibly only?) Futurama news site.
The site looked like it was about to die a slow and painful death, so here's the notice in full:
"The Google Maps team recently noticed your Google Maps tile "stitcher" to see developers interested in our products and we commend you on the service. That said, we would appreciate it if you voluntarily remove your service and stop using Google Maps on your web site. The service violates the Maps Terms of Service available at http://www.google.com/help/terms_local.html, and jeopardizes our ability to make Google Maps available to the public because it encourages non-personal use of Google Maps.
If you have any questions or concerns, or if we have contacted the wrong people, please feel free to contact me directly. Otherwise, amueltc please let us know as soon as possible when the service has been removed.
...if you actually read the RTFA, you'd notice that the 16% statistic comes from the Software Publishing Alliance, not the editorial itself.
In fact, the conclusion of the editorial is the following two points:
1)More people use Macs than most people realize.
2) People who use Macs don't get many viruses.
Shock! Horror! What next - "The Sky is Blue"? I'm a mac user, and am all for increading market share, but this editorial seems rather vapid...where's the news?
You point is completely true - but the money is not reobtained from consumers, but from savings made in the repair shop. Apple (like other electronics companies) state in their warrenties they can replace defective parts with refurbs, which are obviously cheaper than new items (example - my battery replacement they gave me for my iBook was a refurb).
Thus, the cost of repair is reduced, and that's where the money is recouped.
That said, it's a pretty good step by a company to reduce the problems with just dumping consumer electronics in tips. It would be nice to see this globally though, and also across all Apple products. But lets be honest - perhaps if the government actually got behind stopping pollution and industrial waste...over here in the UK, the government environmental agency announced yesterday it was asked employees to wear thermal underwear over winter, so they could turn the heating down a few degrees.
It doesn't appear to. That doesn't mean AMD won't introduce it in the future, but Intel are probably more willing to incorporate DRM since they are currently losing quite a bit of market share.
It's to Intel's advantage to court media providers and software producers with "our chips have built in DRM", because it means they're more likely to consider promoting Intel chips. AMD appear to have the current advantage in processor architecture, and so probably don't need to bring DRM in as a "hook" for their processors.
There's a bar/arthouse cinema complex near where I live (Watershed in Bristol, UK if anyone's interested), which a few years ago hacked apart a couple of iMacs and placed them effectively under a bar table, so that the screen was effectively mounted at a slight angle under the glass table top.
Last time I went (assuming they havn't fallen to bits by now) they were pretty popular, with people who don't have laptops and the like generally using them to check emails, etc. etc.
Of course, this is a totally different kind of environment to what is being proposed here, so I'm not sure how successful it might be...
...it's basically because the various Guilds and Unions, in particular the Writer's Guild of Great Britain, are extremely unhappy about the lack of repeat fees for such on demand streaming. I believe (although the last time I saw a BBC radio contract it was before streaming) that the writers on radio shows that feature on the "listen again" section of the BBC website get a "digital fee" included in their contract.
...I pay the rough equivalent of $40 a month for 2mbit cable, which also includes phone and a couple of premium cable TV channels...if you've got a cabl connection serviced by NTL or Telewest, it's not all that hard - or at least, it hasn't been for me (except for my email kind of not working, see previous/. story).
But trying to get BT to get broadband...well, a horror story if ever I heard one.
Back when I was at primary school in the UK - which would have first been about 1990 - we were using BBC Micros, with a few RM Nimbus's around the place. The BBC Micro at the time was still pretty well respected in the primary school, but by the time I left in 1998 we were still using BBC Micros, except we'd added a cluster of machines on Windows 3.0, which were decidely dodgy to say the least.
I revisited the school a few years ago, and although they've upgraded significantly to XP and new machines, they're still using them for the same things. They still use LOGO to teach kids basic computer programming, along with the LOGO robot, and although the dot matrix printer and the BBC Micro word processor have disappeared, they're still basically doing the same things.
There are, as far as I can see, no software packages that couldn't be found on Linux (NB: I'm talking about general primary education here, not subjects such as Design Tech where you do sometimes need platform specific software).
One might think the argument against going OSS would be that children wouldn't be prepared for the majority of computers that use Windows - however, I'm pretty sure (although living down in the South West I'm not certain) that all primary schools in Scotland use Macs anyway, and it doesn't appear to be a problem there.
Don't know about you, but where I live every single speed camera has been subject to repeat arson by people throwing burning tires over them. So, the speed camera authority responded by creating speed cameras which couldn't have said burning rubber thrown on to them.
However, they severly underestimated the talent and intelligence of drunken men - I swear one night I saw a group of people standing on their shoulders, rotating a speed camera around 90 degrees. Nobody in the police actually realised it had been rotated for a few months...
Sounds familiar to the concept in Deus Ex - the use of microphones by police forces to pick up (gun) noise...albeit for slightly different purposes (noise management).
I've actually been in a room during a cochlear implant switch-on...it's not as dramatic as you'd think. I'd imagine the same would be true for this type of experiment - it's not like they can instantly hear perfectly, since they don't know what "sound sounds like".
...actually, eyes don't grow at all. They might enlarge by at the most a few millimetres during very early life, and don't grow at all after about 5 years of age.
Having some experience with cochlear implants, I can tell you children who are born completely deaf - ie, have never heard sound in their life - often adapt (over time) to cochlear implants.
However, most adults cannot do this - the brain of an infant obviously is under constant development, and so can learn how to "hear" far more easily than a totally deaf adult.
It really is better than nothing - take cochlear implants. Nobody who recieves an implant (which works) complains about the quality of the sound produced...and it really is far removed from what we hear (imagine everything sounding like it was being spoken by Daleks, and you'll get the picture).
As with all technologies, you'd expect the resolution to improve over time - in the case of cochlear implants, sound quality has improved with increased numbers of electrodes being used in the cochlear, and the size of speech processors has been reduced to the point where they now look like typical hearing aids.
However, I'd imagine surgery wise, although it can be extremely complicated to insert a cochlear implant (especially if the cochlear itself is deformed), it's a hell of a lot easier to upgrade / repair a damaged implant than it would be to upgrade / repair a retinal implant.
...it's probably worth pointing out the research already done in various other areas - I believe a few months ago the Univeristy of Wisconsin completed a test whereby a grid of electrodes was placed on the tongue of a blind person, who wore a head mounted camera - light intensity would trigger impulses sent to the grid. Apparantly one of the subjsects even managed to navigate around a maze using it. I'm sure a/. story was posted about it...
But even this was based on previous research - I remember about similar experiments done in the late 1980s, albeit on a far lower resolution and using a extremely pad of electrodes mounted on the chest.
Slashdot Mirror
A case for outsourcing to India, perhaps?
I live in the UK, in Bristol (a largish city south of London) - and we too have these street mounted wi-fi boxes. Judging from the picture, they look like they're the same model too.
However, there's one important difference - ours are for use solely by the council, primarily traffic wardens, and are completely closed. I have a sneaking feeling they're also something to do with the multitude of street CCTV cameras that went up at the same time, but maybe not. Don't know whether they'd ever consider opening them up, but it's by no means unique.
The original short article from which this was taken (well, the title is exactly the same) is online here, at gotfutrama.com - (shameless plug here) the best (and possibly only?) Futurama news site.
I could easily see how a bog standard paper map could be used to plot attacks. Why don't we ban those?
The site looked like it was about to die a slow and painful death, so here's the notice in full:
"The Google Maps team recently noticed your Google Maps tile "stitcher" to see developers interested in our products and we commend you on the service. That said, we would appreciate it if you voluntarily remove your service and stop using Google Maps on your web site. The service violates the Maps Terms of Service available at http://www.google.com/help/terms_local.html, and jeopardizes our ability to make Google Maps available to the public because it encourages non-personal use of Google Maps.
If you have any questions or concerns, or if we have contacted the wrong people, please feel free to contact me directly. Otherwise, amueltc please let us know as soon as possible when the service has been
removed.
Thanks,
Bret Taylor
Product Manager, Google Maps
"
...if you actually read the RTFA, you'd notice that the 16% statistic comes from the Software Publishing Alliance, not the editorial itself.
In fact, the conclusion of the editorial is the following two points:
1)More people use Macs than most people realize.
2) People who use Macs don't get many viruses.
Shock! Horror! What next - "The Sky is Blue"? I'm a mac user, and am all for increading market share, but this editorial seems rather vapid...where's the news?
You point is completely true - but the money is not reobtained from consumers, but from savings made in the repair shop. Apple (like other electronics companies) state in their warrenties they can replace defective parts with refurbs, which are obviously cheaper than new items (example - my battery replacement they gave me for my iBook was a refurb). Thus, the cost of repair is reduced, and that's where the money is recouped.
Inspired by Apple, you can now return your Mars Rover to NASA for recycling, plus a 10% decrease in your budget for next year! Everybody wins!
...to getting the US to sign up to Kyoto.
That said, it's a pretty good step by a company to reduce the problems with just dumping consumer electronics in tips. It would be nice to see this globally though, and also across all Apple products. But lets be honest - perhaps if the government actually got behind stopping pollution and industrial waste...over here in the UK, the government environmental agency announced yesterday it was asked employees to wear thermal underwear over winter, so they could turn the heating down a few degrees.
...has Roddy McDowell started a P2P network?
It doesn't appear to. That doesn't mean AMD won't introduce it in the future, but Intel are probably more willing to incorporate DRM since they are currently losing quite a bit of market share.
It's to Intel's advantage to court media providers and software producers with "our chips have built in DRM", because it means they're more likely to consider promoting Intel chips. AMD appear to have the current advantage in processor architecture, and so probably don't need to bring DRM in as a "hook" for their processors.
There's a bar/arthouse cinema complex near where I live (Watershed in Bristol, UK if anyone's interested), which a few years ago hacked apart a couple of iMacs and placed them effectively under a bar table, so that the screen was effectively mounted at a slight angle under the glass table top.
Last time I went (assuming they havn't fallen to bits by now) they were pretty popular, with people who don't have laptops and the like generally using them to check emails, etc. etc.
Of course, this is a totally different kind of environment to what is being proposed here, so I'm not sure how successful it might be...
...that this comes after the spoof "GPS Tags in Clothes" story - I got slightly confused between which one was actually fake :)
...it's basically because the various Guilds and Unions, in particular the Writer's Guild of Great Britain, are extremely unhappy about the lack of repeat fees for such on demand streaming. I believe (although the last time I saw a BBC radio contract it was before streaming) that the writers on radio shows that feature on the "listen again" section of the BBC website get a "digital fee" included in their contract.
...I pay the rough equivalent of $40 a month for 2mbit cable, which also includes phone and a couple of premium cable TV channels...if you've got a cabl connection serviced by NTL or Telewest, it's not all that hard - or at least, it hasn't been for me (except for my email kind of not working, see previous /. story).
But trying to get BT to get broadband...well, a horror story if ever I heard one.
Back when I was at primary school in the UK - which would have first been about 1990 - we were using BBC Micros, with a few RM Nimbus's around the place. The BBC Micro at the time was still pretty well respected in the primary school, but by the time I left in 1998 we were still using BBC Micros, except we'd added a cluster of machines on Windows 3.0, which were decidely dodgy to say the least.
I revisited the school a few years ago, and although they've upgraded significantly to XP and new machines, they're still using them for the same things. They still use LOGO to teach kids basic computer programming, along with the LOGO robot, and although the dot matrix printer and the BBC Micro word processor have disappeared, they're still basically doing the same things.
There are, as far as I can see, no software packages that couldn't be found on Linux (NB: I'm talking about general primary education here, not subjects such as Design Tech where you do sometimes need platform specific software).
One might think the argument against going OSS would be that children wouldn't be prepared for the majority of computers that use Windows - however, I'm pretty sure (although living down in the South West I'm not certain) that all primary schools in Scotland use Macs anyway, and it doesn't appear to be a problem there.
...the submitter could come up with about this new version was that they changed the name of Pocket Office to Office Mobile?
:)
Well, at least it continues the travesty that is PocketPC in good fashion
Don't know about you, but where I live every single speed camera has been subject to repeat arson by people throwing burning tires over them. So, the speed camera authority responded by creating speed cameras which couldn't have said burning rubber thrown on to them.
However, they severly underestimated the talent and intelligence of drunken men - I swear one night I saw a group of people standing on their shoulders, rotating a speed camera around 90 degrees. Nobody in the police actually realised it had been rotated for a few months...
I don't think its coincidence that Hitler was German.
Now mod me up insightful damn it!
Sounds familiar to the concept in Deus Ex - the use of microphones by police forces to pick up (gun) noise...albeit for slightly different purposes (noise management).
I've actually been in a room during a cochlear implant switch-on...it's not as dramatic as you'd think. I'd imagine the same would be true for this type of experiment - it's not like they can instantly hear perfectly, since they don't know what "sound sounds like".
...actually, eyes don't grow at all. They might enlarge by at the most a few millimetres during very early life, and don't grow at all after about 5 years of age.
I don't think this is totally the case.
Having some experience with cochlear implants, I can tell you children who are born completely deaf - ie, have never heard sound in their life - often adapt (over time) to cochlear implants.
However, most adults cannot do this - the brain of an infant obviously is under constant development, and so can learn how to "hear" far more easily than a totally deaf adult.
It really is better than nothing - take cochlear implants. Nobody who recieves an implant (which works) complains about the quality of the sound produced...and it really is far removed from what we hear (imagine everything sounding like it was being spoken by Daleks, and you'll get the picture).
As with all technologies, you'd expect the resolution to improve over time - in the case of cochlear implants, sound quality has improved with increased numbers of electrodes being used in the cochlear, and the size of speech processors has been reduced to the point where they now look like typical hearing aids.
However, I'd imagine surgery wise, although it can be extremely complicated to insert a cochlear implant (especially if the cochlear itself is deformed), it's a hell of a lot easier to upgrade / repair a damaged implant than it would be to upgrade / repair a retinal implant.
...it's probably worth pointing out the research already done in various other areas - I believe a few months ago the Univeristy of Wisconsin completed a test whereby a grid of electrodes was placed on the tongue of a blind person, who wore a head mounted camera - light intensity would trigger impulses sent to the grid. Apparantly one of the subjsects even managed to navigate around a maze using it. I'm sure a /. story was posted about it...
But even this was based on previous research - I remember about similar experiments done in the late 1980s, albeit on a far lower resolution and using a extremely pad of electrodes mounted on the chest.