Seriously; all this talk about nanotechnology, is mostly bunk; we ALLREADY have nanotechnology, most of you are using it RIGHT NOW!
The modern computer processor has bridges that are etched in silicone, a mere 70nm across; that's right 70 nanometers. So instead of saying nanotechnology like it something strange that has never been done before the article should say 'new chips to use nanotubes and spintronix(sp?)'
he installed unauthoized, unsecured, software, on a variety of systems in a building, without permission.
He should be fired; no matter what! Seriously, if he thought it was an interesting idea, he should have brought it to his superiors- they would most likely have cited security reasons not to run it, which is probabally why he diden't ask. He tried to get around the rules, they found out, and they fired him.
*Screeches like a littel girl, and then giggels incesantly*
Seriously system shock 2 was an awsome game, a sequel, or a connector, or something, would be awsome.
Enable web encryption, problem solved.
Move along.
Seriously; this is a huge upscale neighborhood that's bloody enclosed!, they can affoard to not let anyone run a public network, and force them to hire admins to set up WEP (if there too inept/busy to do it themselves)
People will use IPv6 when they need it; when every device you have needs it's own internet connection, and routing/NAT will no longer do- providers will switch to IPv6, it'll happen basically overnight, though the use of a consortium.
And even then most people will just take there shiny IPv6 address, NAT it and use IPv4 internally.
were you unable to able to read my document or understand it's message?
am I going to be graded/paid based on the number of errors I make?
will a perspective employer or client see this and make a determination of my abilities based on it?
Will it effect my status among my peers?
If the answer to all of these question is 'no' then there is no problem with my spelling/grammar- and that's exactly my point; due to the context of this document (something that has no bearing on my life, except to express my opinion semi-annonomusly), I don't have to worry about spelling and grammar, and instead have to worry about the ammount of my time it consumes and weither or not it expresses my thoughts correctly.
Much like how, in a buisness meeting, or when delivering a proposal, one has to watch every word one says, but in casual conversation you can use the wrong word, take back a sentence with an apology, or change your stance on a position when confronted with evidence you haden't prepared for without loosing face, money, or a job; so to dose 'casual written comunication' not need the checks and balances you'd apply to a professional essay.
I think your wrong there- spelling grammar and writing are not getting worse; it's just that the spelling writing and grammar of the masses is now more public- when things were hand written, or machine typed; there was only one copy, and the professor had it.
Now that everything exists on the computer, whole essasy are uploaded- usually poor ones, for making fun of, or as bad examples. There are still gem essays out there that get 95% with no spelling mistakes, and perfect grammar, but someone who invests 200 hours into every essay they write, most likely, dose not upload it onto the internet for the world to see- What you see is the lowest common denominator made public by the mirical of comunication.
No offence to you Dasmegabyte, but I think you've lost this bit of mac fandom vs. PC fandom...
You asserted that the single mouse click causes programs to be easier to use on the mac, because programs written for the mac must keep only one click in mind; this is a sensible argument, to be sure.
Trepidity however pointed out that the single mouse button takes away functionalty by forcing a person to either use two hands, or make odd stretches across the keyboard; with the most prevalant example being a scrollweel and middle click allowing for one handed web browsing (While sipping coffee or whatever), and that the functionalty of the right click, middel click and scrollweel do not make the mouse an overly complicated device
Your responce was essentially (and feel free to correct me if I am paraphrasing wrong) 'since people can and do program it different it's a guessing game as to what those buttons will do', however that's bad programming, and someone could program something equally awful on a mac, as I have seen (*cough* HP drivers/software *cough cough*); so the statement still stands that- multiple mouse buttons makes things easier: Bad programmers are bad programmers, and nothing can fix that; and it stands to reason you'll see more bad programmers in the windows/linux world then in the mac world- because there are more programmers in those worlds (and many many more amature programmers)
Furthermore making fun of the size of Trepidity's hands is hardly a way to win an argument, just because you have no problems doing something, dose not mean that others will not encounter problems. Also- are you going to say that reaching your pinky finger to a function key, then clicking is easier then simply pressing the middel mouse button (or right mouse button) on a three button mouse? I find that hard to believe, for me I know it is not the case.
Just remove the head gene from the clone and keep it on life support; with no head, mouth, brain, or ability to exist off life support it's not like the clone can really be considered to be 'living' and definatly not sentient, so much as 'there'
Unfortunately I'm too lazy to find the link, but I know scientific america had an article a while ago about some scientists who had isolated and removed a gene for cranium growth in chickens (so that clones made from that template had no head)
You right it would stop the torch-and-pitchfork mob, I mean, at 9 feet tall, using a heart that's only meant for a 8 foot (max) human you could just watch the furry keel over and die from trying to look foroceous as the mob approached.
That would actaully be a very ironic death- got self modded to be more scary, mods killed when attempting to look scary.
If the person just sends a single message to the kid saying 'your fat'; then I'd chalk it up to 'that sad, but my kid needs to tough it out'- however, hundreds of such messages, or an extended campaign of verbal assault are not something you want to take in a laughing manner.
While I may be wrong, I don't see there being a middel ground; either someone is going to casually make fun of the kid, and be done with it; or there going to be willfully malicious with an extended assault- I can't see the scenario happening where there kinda malicious, but not enough that you want to go to the cops, but more then enough to give you concern. However, if that scenario existed, and was the standard- I agree with you 100%
but even if you don't see blu-ray adopted for the HDTV standard, you'll see it adopted for other reasons- as movies, special editions and other exteras in DVD's become selling points they often span into multiple disks- Blu-ray means it will all fit on one disk, possibly with multiply redundant data to assure that it is more durable then a regular DVD; as well blu-ray need only be marginally more expensive then regular DVD (to my knoledge a blu-ray dvd works the same as a regular DVD, but uses a narrower wavelength laser to pack more information on the same disk space)
Is it possible for the media companies to screw the format and therefore stagnate it's adoption; very much so- But the transition from casset to CD, and from VHS to DVD was rather smooth- the media companies know what there doing and know how to do it right (I'm refering to Phillips, Sony, and the like, not the MPAA/RIAA who would no dbought stagnate it- and some legal manuvering from them could probabally do just that)
This is unfortunately not allwase the case (I'd actually say more often then not; but the studies I have read do not list hard numbers). Some bullies are bullies, not because they are cowards, but because they are mindlessly brave, arrogant, and perhaps even as far as megalomaniacs. They think it is there right to pick on others, and any form of retribution will be met with even more furious assult (how dare you strike back at me; I am superior to you in every way; now you are really going to get it)
Seriously, why go to the parants of the child; that means the parants will have a private conversation with the kid, it stays within the family walls; a lesson may be learned, or the kid may come down twice as hard on your kid cause there a 'tattle-tale'
Go to the police, you have harrassing documents, the police will entertain it- the police will have a private discussion with the kid (due to young offender laws), and a public (as in matter of record) conversation with the parants about facilitation (they provide the computer allowing the harrasement to take place); I think that might wake the parants up more then a few printed pages on paper; and getting talked to by a cop more effective then your 'attempting to be understanding' parants.
Then go to the ISP; they frown on harrassment, and will likely issue a warning or disconnect the parants account- which means that the kid won't then be able to tell all of there friends what a (insert colourful phrase here) your kid is; and it will seem, to the online word at least, that your kid won.
No need for lawyers, no need for a whole mess of effort on your part; and you show your kid how you did all of those things so that if it happens again, they don't even need to bother you to get the same result; but you check in a few times anyway- just to make sure there not botteling things.
Side note though: If your kid is putting videos of themselves on the net; you need to take them to a psycologist- fast, or some internet predator is going to eat them.
you seem to have been moderated funny; I'm not sure why- your sentiment is rather serious, however...
Why dose the fact that you have a cellphone mean that you have to allwase be avalible? If your landline cannot disturb you while you are sleeping then you either put in earplugs, keep it in another room, are a very deep sleeper, or turn the volume off on it when you go to bed: You can do every one of those things with a cellphone too.
And who says that because you are lost and have a cellphone you HAVE to use your cellphone instead of stopping and asking for directions? You can do both- so it's not a matter of the cellphone chaining you down, but the cellphone adding more abilities to your phoneing abilities.
The cellphone radition might be a valid concern; however, ten years of testing now and still no conclusive results, and even the gravest of reports simply sugests you use a headset or try not to talk on the cellphone too long in a single sitting.
It means that as people phase out there old players, they will be updating (mostly seamlessly) to blu-ray, there old disks will still play in the new blu-ray player, and now they'll be able to play these newfangeled 'high definition' DVDs: Couse that won't mean jack to them, except that blockbuster will have a small shelf of them, that will get progressivly bigger as the years go on until it completely replaces DVD (it's rather difficult to find a VHS in a blockbuster for basically that reason, except that a blu-ray has the ADDED advantage of being backwards compatible)
Why buy a PS3 when you can buy sony's new laptop, put a PS3/PS2/PS1 game in there, plug in the PS3 USB controller and have it play EXACTLY like the PS3; or keep the game out and use it as a normal sony laptop; for less then the combined price of a PS3 and a laptop (That will be an important factor; if it's cheaper for me to buy both; the frugal will buy both)
Even better would be if SEVERAL laptop manufactuerers decided on some standards (read drivers in the integrated OS) for direct boot games/applications (like video viewing). You could have any model laptop (I choose laptop because then the manufacterer will know what's in there to build the standardising drivers required for this sort of application) and the drivers built into the integrated OS will translate from the standard 'direct run game' to the laptops specs, allowing you to use the hard disk for saved games, the TV-out to turn it into a TV-based consol, and the USB to plug in controllers.
The only problem I'd see with this sort of setup is the rapid version changes: If the designers of 'direct run' games follow consol standards (or even better; transcribe consol standards- IE; sony laptop = PS3) it will be fine, but if they keep programming like it's a PC you'll see 'computer direct boot hardware specs V1-v50' in a matter of monthes with each sucesssiv version being incompatible with the one before it, that would be bad; but if we only saw a version increase every 3-5 years, it would be acceptable.
yes, it would be less limiting, give you more freedom of movment, and be more comfortable; however, it would also be a great deal more expensive, more prone to breakdown, and require that there be power in the gloves themselves (batteries).
Also, this is meant to be played in front of a TV- why do you need the full 6 degrees of freedom, will it so radically alter your gaming experiance to be able to spin around in circles with your arms out? Or will you be served just fine by looking at the TV and being tethered to the consol?
Somtimes technology like this is best served by the simple, easily mannaged, solution- I'm sure there were dozens of options for the orriginal DDR pads (including things that would look like the 'oh so cool' virtual police setup), but simple buttons on the pad worked best, because this way the pad was affoardable!
This type of setup should allow me to play virtual police (or simmilar game)at home, on my PS2, including all the ducking and weaving (though I could 'fake out' the controller by lowering my arms and moving them to the side without my body), while this is dissapointing, I'd rather that then having to pay ten times the ammount for a much more prone to breakage setup!
While Sveasoft may be violating the 'spirit' of the GPL, they are not violating the wording- even Mr Stallman himself said that there method is perfectly acceptable, see here for some source information http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/SveaSoft
Now, as I said- they may be violating the 'spirit' of the GPL with there littel double entamble there- Pay $50, get the source and the binary, share either (legally), loose the license to continue to get the source and the binary updates.
But, there are plenty of people who have allready found a way around this, and if you want you can get your source and binary for free from places like overnet, and other sharing networks
This type of setup is nothing new, McDonnalds, for instance, has ronnald mcdonnald house, for helping families; you think there doing that because it was a contractual obligation, no. There doing it because it, indirectly, makes them money- the goodwill it generates twoards the company helps cause potential customers to get them instead of others when they want fast food. Open source is not a fast food joint, but simmilar rules apply, if a company wants to earn the goodwill that will cause it to be chosen over another company, it needs to establish that goodwill; with contributions to the community
Part of those contributions, as well as establishing some 'good will' to allow you to be chosen above others, also establishes your level of credibility; like it or not being an open source company is still 'wild west'- lots of fly by night opperations come in and say ther open source, install things, and disapear overnight, sometimes with horribly mismannaged instalations; if your contributing code/bug reports, or setup documents, then you establish a reputation for your coders abilities with that code; a reputation that will show up in google when potential employers are looking you up.
This is not in any way different from the traditional buisness world; if I am simply a company that sets up microsoft systems and administers them, or makes modules for microsoft products, I had best have something that makes me stand out from the crowd as an expert, this can take the form of making free microsoft utilities avalible to all for download, waiting for the few that will be interested in your other services (winzip), creating in depth manuals for use by those who want to do something interesting with there systems (again to attract them to your website to buy your real products), etc.
You don't HAVE to do this, and you can still suceed, if only temporarily; espically if no one else dose what you do, if your a company that deals with open source GIS systems and complete integration with electrical grids and existing setups (or something else very much needed and rather rare) and your very good at what you do, you can give nothing back to the comunity- the lack of 'goodwill' that would cause people to turn to you is irrelivant, your the only one offering that service, however, eventually someone else will come along, and give more back, generating that goodwill, and getting the free development/upgrads/purchases from users/potential customers that that goodwill generates; and they will eclipse you- And guess what- this is almost exactly what is happeneing to windows; they give very littel back to the 'comunity', and therefore do not have the goodwill to attract the type of people who will simply donate there work: Linux may still be rather immature, but often people WANT to use it, because it's 'feel good software', the linux comunity; though the GPL, free distrobution of code, etc. has generated a great deal of goodwill that makes many people want to use it- even if it's not the best product for the job; and then they help it grow, so that it will be the best prodcut for the job- once again for that goodwill.
Side note:
It is of no co-incidence that many closed source companies are 'open-sourcing' a lot of there stuff now; it's for this goodwill effect: The EXACT same way that companies like Mc-Donnalds fund charities, but in computer and software terms.
First- The license is not forcing you to 'pay' in the form of development effort, your customers/ 'unpaid programmers' (unpaid programmers refering to the code writers who were kind enough to license there code under the GPL) are.
Second- This is nothing new, McDonnalds, for instance, has ronnald mcdonnald house, for helping families; you think there doing that because it was a contractual obligation, no. There doing it because it, indirectly, makes them money- the goodwill it generates twoards the company helps cause potential customers to get them instead of others when they want fast food. Open source is not a fast food joint, but simmilar rules apply, if a company wants to earn the goodwill that will cause it to be chosen over another company, it needs to establish that goodwill; with contributions to the community
Third- part of those contributions, as well as establishing some 'good will' to allow you to be chosen above others, also establishes your level of credibility; like it or not being an open source company is still 'wild west'- lots of fly by night opperations come in and say ther open source, install things, and disapear overnight, sometimes with horribly mismannaged instalations; if your contributing code/bug reports, or setup documents, then you establish a reputation for your coders abilities with that code; a reputation that will show up in google when potential employers are looking you up.
Fourth- This is not in any way different from the traditional buisness world; if I am simply a company that sets up microsoft systems and administers them, or makes modules for microsoft products, I had best have something that makes me stand out from the crowd as an expert, this can take the form of making free microsoft utilities avalible to all for download, waiting for the few that will be interested in your other services (winzip), creating in depth manuals for use by those who want to do something interesting with there systems (again to attract them to your website to buy your real products), etc.
Finally- You don't HAVE to do this, and you can still suceed; espically if no one else dose what you do, if your a company that deals with open source GIS systems and complete integration with electrical grids and existing setups (or something else very much needed and rather rare) and your very good at what you do, you can give nothing back to the comunity- the lack of 'goodwill' that would cause people to turn to you is irrelivant, your the only one offering that service, however, eventually someone else will come along, and give more back, generating that goodwill, and getting the free development/upgrads/purchases from users/potential customers that that goodwill generates; and they will eclipse you- And guess what- this is almost exactly what is happeneing to windows; they give very littel back to the 'comunity', and therefore do not have the goodwill to attract the type of people who will simply donate there work: Linux may still be rather immature, but often people WANT to use it, because it's 'feel good software', the linux comunity; though the GPL, free distrobution of code, etc. has generated a great deal of goodwill that makes many people want to use it- even if it's not the best product for the job; and then they help it grow, so that it will be the best prodcut for the job- once again for that goodwill.
It is of no co-incidence that many closed source companies are 'open-sourcing' a lot of there stuff now; it's for this goodwill effect: The EXACT same way that companies like Mc-Donnalds fund charities, but in computer and software terms.
Lets be perfectly fair here; you would recomend linux to the regular laptop buying world? If you would/do, I hope no one is buying computers from you
Much as you may dislike windows on principle; it's easy to work with, easy to configure (surface) things, and works right out of the box install, there are no configuration issues (unless you want your computer to you know; not get a virus if it's not behind a firewall), and it handels all the powersave options and other laptop funness. It plays all the software that you can pick up off of shelves (mac excluded), and it can play games (notable exceptions for NWN, Quake 3, and Doom 3 which have linux versions)
Now don't get me wrong, I would want linux on my laptop (unless the laptop was for playing games), you evidently would want linux on your laptop; but as a consultant I would almost never recomend that someone GET a laptop with linux, unless I was installing and supporting it, and even then it would strictly be for virus related reasons.
You'll have a 128(256, 512, whatever big number you want) meg password program key that checks factors such as date and time to generate a working password to pass on to the computer in order to get in to your account, then you'll just be responsible to carry your password dongel around with your ID card that gets you through the doors.
This also has the advantage of stopping prople from using others dongels, since the dongel will HAVE to be in place to log in, and it will only get them into their account, rather then just an account.
With a 128 meg password being generated from arbitrary data, it would take anything short of a quantum computer too long to crack the pattern, and you can change the pattern every month or so- and you don't have to remember a thing; your littel USB dongel handels it.
Another option is to have the usb dongel carry the data nessassary to get a window open (like if the server uses linux, the server checks for ALL of the bash/ssh/X files in the USB dongel directory, so that anyone attempting to access it remotely without the 'key' being in place meets with nothing but fustration, however services that started on bootup (when the dongel was in place) continue runing)
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously; all this talk about nanotechnology, is mostly bunk; we ALLREADY have nanotechnology, most of you are using it RIGHT NOW!
The modern computer processor has bridges that are etched in silicone, a mere 70nm across; that's right 70 nanometers. So instead of saying nanotechnology like it something strange that has never been done before the article should say 'new chips to use nanotubes and spintronix(sp?)'
How much would you pay for a housecat that looked exactly like a bengal tiger?
t m
I got mine as a christmas pressent 8 years ago, they generally sell for $600
http://www.bengal-cats.org/bengal-cats-site-map.h
he installed unauthoized, unsecured, software, on a variety of systems in a building, without permission.
He should be fired; no matter what! Seriously, if he thought it was an interesting idea, he should have brought it to his superiors- they would most likely have cited security reasons not to run it, which is probabally why he diden't ask. He tried to get around the rules, they found out, and they fired him.
someone got schooled; and it sure as well wasen't Dyolf_knip!
*Screeches like a littel girl, and then giggels incesantly* Seriously system shock 2 was an awsome game, a sequel, or a connector, or something, would be awsome.
Enable web encryption, problem solved. Move along. Seriously; this is a huge upscale neighborhood that's bloody enclosed!, they can affoard to not let anyone run a public network, and force them to hire admins to set up WEP (if there too inept/busy to do it themselves)
People will use IPv6 when they need it; when every device you have needs it's own internet connection, and routing/NAT will no longer do- providers will switch to IPv6, it'll happen basically overnight, though the use of a consortium.
And even then most people will just take there shiny IPv6 address, NAT it and use IPv4 internally.
were you unable to able to read my document or understand it's message?
am I going to be graded/paid based on the number of errors I make?
will a perspective employer or client see this and make a determination of my abilities based on it?
Will it effect my status among my peers?
If the answer to all of these question is 'no' then there is no problem with my spelling/grammar- and that's exactly my point; due to the context of this document (something that has no bearing on my life, except to express my opinion semi-annonomusly), I don't have to worry about spelling and grammar, and instead have to worry about the ammount of my time it consumes and weither or not it expresses my thoughts correctly.
Much like how, in a buisness meeting, or when delivering a proposal, one has to watch every word one says, but in casual conversation you can use the wrong word, take back a sentence with an apology, or change your stance on a position when confronted with evidence you haden't prepared for without loosing face, money, or a job; so to dose 'casual written comunication' not need the checks and balances you'd apply to a professional essay.
I think your wrong there- spelling grammar and writing are not getting worse; it's just that the spelling writing and grammar of the masses is now more public- when things were hand written, or machine typed; there was only one copy, and the professor had it.
Now that everything exists on the computer, whole essasy are uploaded- usually poor ones, for making fun of, or as bad examples. There are still gem essays out there that get 95% with no spelling mistakes, and perfect grammar, but someone who invests 200 hours into every essay they write, most likely, dose not upload it onto the internet for the world to see- What you see is the lowest common denominator made public by the mirical of comunication.
No offence to you Dasmegabyte, but I think you've lost this bit of mac fandom vs. PC fandom...
You asserted that the single mouse click causes programs to be easier to use on the mac, because programs written for the mac must keep only one click in mind; this is a sensible argument, to be sure.
Trepidity however pointed out that the single mouse button takes away functionalty by forcing a person to either use two hands, or make odd stretches across the keyboard; with the most prevalant example being a scrollweel and middle click allowing for one handed web browsing (While sipping coffee or whatever), and that the functionalty of the right click, middel click and scrollweel do not make the mouse an overly complicated device
Your responce was essentially (and feel free to correct me if I am paraphrasing wrong) 'since people can and do program it different it's a guessing game as to what those buttons will do', however that's bad programming, and someone could program something equally awful on a mac, as I have seen (*cough* HP drivers/software *cough cough*); so the statement still stands that- multiple mouse buttons makes things easier: Bad programmers are bad programmers, and nothing can fix that; and it stands to reason you'll see more bad programmers in the windows/linux world then in the mac world- because there are more programmers in those worlds (and many many more amature programmers)
Furthermore making fun of the size of Trepidity's hands is hardly a way to win an argument, just because you have no problems doing something, dose not mean that others will not encounter problems. Also- are you going to say that reaching your pinky finger to a function key, then clicking is easier then simply pressing the middel mouse button (or right mouse button) on a three button mouse? I find that hard to believe, for me I know it is not the case.
Just remove the head gene from the clone and keep it on life support; with no head, mouth, brain, or ability to exist off life support it's not like the clone can really be considered to be 'living' and definatly not sentient, so much as 'there'
Unfortunately I'm too lazy to find the link, but I know scientific america had an article a while ago about some scientists who had isolated and removed a gene for cranium growth in chickens (so that clones made from that template had no head)
You right it would stop the torch-and-pitchfork mob, I mean, at 9 feet tall, using a heart that's only meant for a 8 foot (max) human you could just watch the furry keel over and die from trying to look foroceous as the mob approached.
That would actaully be a very ironic death- got self modded to be more scary, mods killed when attempting to look scary.
I agree with you; but I don't.
If the person just sends a single message to the kid saying 'your fat'; then I'd chalk it up to 'that sad, but my kid needs to tough it out'- however, hundreds of such messages, or an extended campaign of verbal assault are not something you want to take in a laughing manner.
While I may be wrong, I don't see there being a middel ground; either someone is going to casually make fun of the kid, and be done with it; or there going to be willfully malicious with an extended assault- I can't see the scenario happening where there kinda malicious, but not enough that you want to go to the cops, but more then enough to give you concern. However, if that scenario existed, and was the standard- I agree with you 100%
but even if you don't see blu-ray adopted for the HDTV standard, you'll see it adopted for other reasons- as movies, special editions and other exteras in DVD's become selling points they often span into multiple disks- Blu-ray means it will all fit on one disk, possibly with multiply redundant data to assure that it is more durable then a regular DVD; as well blu-ray need only be marginally more expensive then regular DVD (to my knoledge a blu-ray dvd works the same as a regular DVD, but uses a narrower wavelength laser to pack more information on the same disk space)
Is it possible for the media companies to screw the format and therefore stagnate it's adoption; very much so- But the transition from casset to CD, and from VHS to DVD was rather smooth- the media companies know what there doing and know how to do it right (I'm refering to Phillips, Sony, and the like, not the MPAA/RIAA who would no dbought stagnate it- and some legal manuvering from them could probabally do just that)
This is unfortunately not allwase the case (I'd actually say more often then not; but the studies I have read do not list hard numbers). Some bullies are bullies, not because they are cowards, but because they are mindlessly brave, arrogant, and perhaps even as far as megalomaniacs. They think it is there right to pick on others, and any form of retribution will be met with even more furious assult (how dare you strike back at me; I am superior to you in every way; now you are really going to get it)
Seriously, why go to the parants of the child; that means the parants will have a private conversation with the kid, it stays within the family walls; a lesson may be learned, or the kid may come down twice as hard on your kid cause there a 'tattle-tale'
Go to the police, you have harrassing documents, the police will entertain it- the police will have a private discussion with the kid (due to young offender laws), and a public (as in matter of record) conversation with the parants about facilitation (they provide the computer allowing the harrasement to take place); I think that might wake the parants up more then a few printed pages on paper; and getting talked to by a cop more effective then your 'attempting to be understanding' parants.
Then go to the ISP; they frown on harrassment, and will likely issue a warning or disconnect the parants account- which means that the kid won't then be able to tell all of there friends what a (insert colourful phrase here) your kid is; and it will seem, to the online word at least, that your kid won.
No need for lawyers, no need for a whole mess of effort on your part; and you show your kid how you did all of those things so that if it happens again, they don't even need to bother you to get the same result; but you check in a few times anyway- just to make sure there not botteling things.
Side note though: If your kid is putting videos of themselves on the net; you need to take them to a psycologist- fast, or some internet predator is going to eat them.
you seem to have been moderated funny; I'm not sure why- your sentiment is rather serious, however...
Why dose the fact that you have a cellphone mean that you have to allwase be avalible? If your landline cannot disturb you while you are sleeping then you either put in earplugs, keep it in another room, are a very deep sleeper, or turn the volume off on it when you go to bed: You can do every one of those things with a cellphone too.
And who says that because you are lost and have a cellphone you HAVE to use your cellphone instead of stopping and asking for directions? You can do both- so it's not a matter of the cellphone chaining you down, but the cellphone adding more abilities to your phoneing abilities.
The cellphone radition might be a valid concern; however, ten years of testing now and still no conclusive results, and even the gravest of reports simply sugests you use a headset or try not to talk on the cellphone too long in a single sitting.
no it dosen't.
It means that as people phase out there old players, they will be updating (mostly seamlessly) to blu-ray, there old disks will still play in the new blu-ray player, and now they'll be able to play these newfangeled 'high definition' DVDs: Couse that won't mean jack to them, except that blockbuster will have a small shelf of them, that will get progressivly bigger as the years go on until it completely replaces DVD (it's rather difficult to find a VHS in a blockbuster for basically that reason, except that a blu-ray has the ADDED advantage of being backwards compatible)
Interesting; I think I see where your going:
Why buy a PS3 when you can buy sony's new laptop, put a PS3/PS2/PS1 game in there, plug in the PS3 USB controller and have it play EXACTLY like the PS3; or keep the game out and use it as a normal sony laptop; for less then the combined price of a PS3 and a laptop (That will be an important factor; if it's cheaper for me to buy both; the frugal will buy both)
Even better would be if SEVERAL laptop manufactuerers decided on some standards (read drivers in the integrated OS) for direct boot games/applications (like video viewing). You could have any model laptop (I choose laptop because then the manufacterer will know what's in there to build the standardising drivers required for this sort of application) and the drivers built into the integrated OS will translate from the standard 'direct run game' to the laptops specs, allowing you to use the hard disk for saved games, the TV-out to turn it into a TV-based consol, and the USB to plug in controllers.
The only problem I'd see with this sort of setup is the rapid version changes: If the designers of 'direct run' games follow consol standards (or even better; transcribe consol standards- IE; sony laptop = PS3) it will be fine, but if they keep programming like it's a PC you'll see 'computer direct boot hardware specs V1-v50' in a matter of monthes with each sucesssiv version being incompatible with the one before it, that would be bad; but if we only saw a version increase every 3-5 years, it would be acceptable.
yes, it would be less limiting, give you more freedom of movment, and be more comfortable; however, it would also be a great deal more expensive, more prone to breakdown, and require that there be power in the gloves themselves (batteries).
Also, this is meant to be played in front of a TV- why do you need the full 6 degrees of freedom, will it so radically alter your gaming experiance to be able to spin around in circles with your arms out? Or will you be served just fine by looking at the TV and being tethered to the consol?
Somtimes technology like this is best served by the simple, easily mannaged, solution- I'm sure there were dozens of options for the orriginal DDR pads (including things that would look like the 'oh so cool' virtual police setup), but simple buttons on the pad worked best, because this way the pad was affoardable!
This type of setup should allow me to play virtual police (or simmilar game)at home, on my PS2, including all the ducking and weaving (though I could 'fake out' the controller by lowering my arms and moving them to the side without my body), while this is dissapointing, I'd rather that then having to pay ten times the ammount for a much more prone to breakage setup!
While Sveasoft may be violating the 'spirit' of the GPL, they are not violating the wording- even Mr Stallman himself said that there method is perfectly acceptable, see here for some source information
http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/SveaSoft
Now, as I said- they may be violating the 'spirit' of the GPL with there littel double entamble there- Pay $50, get the source and the binary, share either (legally), loose the license to continue to get the source and the binary updates.
But, there are plenty of people who have allready found a way around this, and if you want you can get your source and binary for free from places like overnet, and other sharing networks
This type of setup is nothing new, McDonnalds, for instance, has ronnald mcdonnald house, for helping families; you think there doing that because it was a contractual obligation, no. There doing it because it, indirectly, makes them money- the goodwill it generates twoards the company helps cause potential customers to get them instead of others when they want fast food. Open source is not a fast food joint, but simmilar rules apply, if a company wants to earn the goodwill that will cause it to be chosen over another company, it needs to establish that goodwill; with contributions to the community
Part of those contributions, as well as establishing some 'good will' to allow you to be chosen above others, also establishes your level of credibility; like it or not being an open source company is still 'wild west'- lots of fly by night opperations come in and say ther open source, install things, and disapear overnight, sometimes with horribly mismannaged instalations; if your contributing code/bug reports, or setup documents, then you establish a reputation for your coders abilities with that code; a reputation that will show up in google when potential employers are looking you up.
This is not in any way different from the traditional buisness world; if I am simply a company that sets up microsoft systems and administers them, or makes modules for microsoft products, I had best have something that makes me stand out from the crowd as an expert, this can take the form of making free microsoft utilities avalible to all for download, waiting for the few that will be interested in your other services (winzip), creating in depth manuals for use by those who want to do something interesting with there systems (again to attract them to your website to buy your real products), etc.
You don't HAVE to do this, and you can still suceed, if only temporarily; espically if no one else dose what you do, if your a company that deals with open source GIS systems and complete integration with electrical grids and existing setups (or something else very much needed and rather rare) and your very good at what you do, you can give nothing back to the comunity- the lack of 'goodwill' that would cause people to turn to you is irrelivant, your the only one offering that service, however, eventually someone else will come along, and give more back, generating that goodwill, and getting the free development/upgrads/purchases from users/potential customers that that goodwill generates; and they will eclipse you-
And guess what- this is almost exactly what is happeneing to windows; they give very littel back to the 'comunity', and therefore do not have the goodwill to attract the type of people who will simply donate there work: Linux may still be rather immature, but often people WANT to use it, because it's 'feel good software', the linux comunity; though the GPL, free distrobution of code, etc. has generated a great deal of goodwill that makes many people want to use it- even if it's not the best product for the job; and then they help it grow, so that it will be the best prodcut for the job- once again for that goodwill.
Side note:
It is of no co-incidence that many closed source companies are 'open-sourcing' a lot of there stuff now; it's for this goodwill effect: The EXACT same way that companies like Mc-Donnalds fund charities, but in computer and software terms.
First- The license is not forcing you to 'pay' in the form of development effort, your customers/ 'unpaid programmers' (unpaid programmers refering to the code writers who were kind enough to license there code under the GPL) are.
Second- This is nothing new, McDonnalds, for instance, has ronnald mcdonnald house, for helping families; you think there doing that because it was a contractual obligation, no. There doing it because it, indirectly, makes them money- the goodwill it generates twoards the company helps cause potential customers to get them instead of others when they want fast food. Open source is not a fast food joint, but simmilar rules apply, if a company wants to earn the goodwill that will cause it to be chosen over another company, it needs to establish that goodwill; with contributions to the community
Third- part of those contributions, as well as establishing some 'good will' to allow you to be chosen above others, also establishes your level of credibility; like it or not being an open source company is still 'wild west'- lots of fly by night opperations come in and say ther open source, install things, and disapear overnight, sometimes with horribly mismannaged instalations; if your contributing code/bug reports, or setup documents, then you establish a reputation for your coders abilities with that code; a reputation that will show up in google when potential employers are looking you up.
Fourth- This is not in any way different from the traditional buisness world; if I am simply a company that sets up microsoft systems and administers them, or makes modules for microsoft products, I had best have something that makes me stand out from the crowd as an expert, this can take the form of making free microsoft utilities avalible to all for download, waiting for the few that will be interested in your other services (winzip), creating in depth manuals for use by those who want to do something interesting with there systems (again to attract them to your website to buy your real products), etc.
Finally- You don't HAVE to do this, and you can still suceed; espically if no one else dose what you do, if your a company that deals with open source GIS systems and complete integration with electrical grids and existing setups (or something else very much needed and rather rare) and your very good at what you do, you can give nothing back to the comunity- the lack of 'goodwill' that would cause people to turn to you is irrelivant, your the only one offering that service, however, eventually someone else will come along, and give more back, generating that goodwill, and getting the free development/upgrads/purchases from users/potential customers that that goodwill generates; and they will eclipse you-
And guess what- this is almost exactly what is happeneing to windows; they give very littel back to the 'comunity', and therefore do not have the goodwill to attract the type of people who will simply donate there work: Linux may still be rather immature, but often people WANT to use it, because it's 'feel good software', the linux comunity; though the GPL, free distrobution of code, etc. has generated a great deal of goodwill that makes many people want to use it- even if it's not the best product for the job; and then they help it grow, so that it will be the best prodcut for the job- once again for that goodwill.
It is of no co-incidence that many closed source companies are 'open-sourcing' a lot of there stuff now; it's for this goodwill effect: The EXACT same way that companies like Mc-Donnalds fund charities, but in computer and software terms.
Lets be perfectly fair here; you would recomend linux to the regular laptop buying world? If you would/do, I hope no one is buying computers from you
Much as you may dislike windows on principle; it's easy to work with, easy to configure (surface) things, and works right out of the box install, there are no configuration issues (unless you want your computer to you know; not get a virus if it's not behind a firewall), and it handels all the powersave options and other laptop funness. It plays all the software that you can pick up off of shelves (mac excluded), and it can play games (notable exceptions for NWN, Quake 3, and Doom 3 which have linux versions)
Now don't get me wrong, I would want linux on my laptop (unless the laptop was for playing games), you evidently would want linux on your laptop; but as a consultant I would almost never recomend that someone GET a laptop with linux, unless I was installing and supporting it, and even then it would strictly be for virus related reasons.
You'll have a 128(256, 512, whatever big number you want) meg password program key that checks factors such as date and time to generate a working password to pass on to the computer in order to get in to your account, then you'll just be responsible to carry your password dongel around with your ID card that gets you through the doors.
This also has the advantage of stopping prople from using others dongels, since the dongel will HAVE to be in place to log in, and it will only get them into their account, rather then just an account. With a 128 meg password being generated from arbitrary data, it would take anything short of a quantum computer too long to crack the pattern, and you can change the pattern every month or so- and you don't have to remember a thing; your littel USB dongel handels it.
Another option is to have the usb dongel carry the data nessassary to get a window open (like if the server uses linux, the server checks for ALL of the bash/ssh/X files in the USB dongel directory, so that anyone attempting to access it remotely without the 'key' being in place meets with nothing but fustration, however services that started on bootup (when the dongel was in place) continue runing)