Re:RTFM = Best Evar.. BASIC, etc, etc
on
The Apple II At 30
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· Score: 1
Not only was the references supplied by Apple good, I think it was also the beginning of the advanced "hacker's" manuals available from 3rd parties. I remember a book titled "Inside the Apple][." It documented every memory call in the ROM and the basic interperator. (Remember PEEKing and POKEing?)
Beagle Bros. software also had a collection of Hack tools and subroutines that could be freely (If I remember correctly) incorperated into user programs. All fully documented. I remember trapping Ctrl-C inputs with ONERR and redirecting CTRL-OPENAPPLE-RESET back to the beginning of program execution. FUN STUFF!
I know one thing that has changed. Tight, efficient code was a must on that machine, unlike the bloatware we see today 30 years later.
Everybody knows that all the latest Hollywood releases are first released in Canadian Theaters, where they are cammed and put on torrent sites. I think this will help piracy greatly.
Re:Er, doesn't this claim require external evidenc
on
Atlantis Found. Again.
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· Score: 1
but i thought the bible was infallible, because god is infallible, therefore if the bible is fallible wouldn't that make god fallible. so therefore couldn't it be stated that moses never existed, along with the rest of the cast of the most widly distributed story in the history of the world (i may be wrong).
Intersting theory, perhaps you should make a movie based on this premis.
also, can you name another country that is as multi-lingual as the USA, in regard to the number of non-"national language" speakers, and support given to those non-national language speakers?
Almost every western european country that I have traveled to supports multiple languages better then the US. I live in Germany so I can speak with some authority on it. All government and almost all private buisnesses support the most widely spoken languages in Europe, whether this support consists of translated forms, menus etc.. or if this support comes from dual language staff varies.
But it is my experience that most of the Europeans I've met speak fluently more then one language, with many able to speak more then two. This isn't as common in the US with the exception of immigrant families
By the way, I myself seem to have a two language limit. I speak fluent English (native) and passable German and passable Spanish. My problem is when I am speaking German, I forget all my Spanish and vice versa. It seems as if I have a switch in my brian and thet they both can't be active at once. Anybody else have a similiar problem? I learned both Spanish and German as an adult.
Get a Dog. Preferably a big scary looking one. Is it High Tech? Sure, Think of it as bio-tech / Genetic engineering. After all, the domesticated dog is largly a creation of man. (ie.. cultivating certain breeds.) It certaintly isn't new tech though.
It's been awhile (left the Air Force in 1989), but as I recall, the Air Force back then used degrees and minutes (which allowed accuracy to the nearest nautical mile) pulled off the lat-longs from our navigational charts, while the Army used a decimal system that allowed them to specify locations down to the meter if needed.
Absolutly true. The Air Force deals with Lat/Long because the earth is curved and the area they cover is large enough that computing distances and heading over a curved surface is computationally easier using degrees and minutes.
The Army, on the other hand, deals in distances much smaller, where the curvature of the earth is not a factor. The Army uses a system called the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS
).
This system suits the Army well because it is simple, accurate, and works in meters instead of nautical miles.
Army pilots, like myself, have to use both systems constantly. And we always have to convert between the two. Although when errors are made, it often deals with using different datums rather than computational error. The DOD is in the process of fixing this though by using a single datum for all maps. (WGS84)
It doesn't even say why Microsoft is doing it: concerns about piracy? relative crappiness of Thai computers? price concerns?
My guess is that they are releasing a product with a price point that the market can bear. It kinda makes since economically. The alternative would be to release WinXP Home at the same relative prices that they are selling it for in the rest of the world. And have it not sell because it is too expensive based on the average earnings.
They could just sell XP Home at a reduced price but that would admit both the monopolistic practice of "same product - different price," depending on where you live, that movie studios and others have been accused of doing. Also, people would realize that the marginal cost of each addition copy sold of any software product is so low that the rest of the world will not stand for the prices that they are currently paying. After all, why would you want to pay $100 for a licensed copy of Win XP Home when you know that it is sold elsewhere for $10 and you are essentially paying for digital bits on a plastic disc that cost practically nothing to manufacture. Sure, the programmers have to get paid but doesn't $100 for your copy seem excessive? Therefore, avoid this scenerio and sell a crippled version. [My vote would be to "cripple" it by not including IE ]
I have not verified this, but I would imagine that computer hardware is generally cheaper in that part of the world and legal software makes up a higher percentage of TCO. This is probably just another factor.
The great thing about Seven Kingdoms II was the espionage aspect of the game. Truely unique and made for interesting diplomocy. (Which was always broken in AOE and others).
Also, the concept of character leadership and changing hitpoints was a great feature. If your General had high leadership points, his troops would get extra damage bonus.
It's only failing was lack of single player replayability, IMHO
This will certainly move a lot a hardware for linksys. Look at the Rockbox mods for Archos for another example. Those who think that you can't make money off the GPL are wrong, at least in the case of hardware makers GPL'ing their firmware. (Although they didn't have a choice since they used linux as the firmware.)
Their was a story awhile back here on slashdot that discussed that Intel didn't want to release open source drivers for Centrino. They should. Open source drivers and firmware can be a boon to hardware makers.
I wonder what's worse, The internet traffic that the virus or worm generates or the email advisories.
I still get emails saying that if I get a message with such-and-such in the subject to delete the email immeadiatly. And I get these from well meaning friends and family. Imagine how many of these alerts will be forwarded on because they have the authority of the Homeland Security Department behind it.
Using modified drivers, it would be possible to make the card emit different frequencies or more power, thereby violating the usage licence.
Absolutely true. Linksys's wireless router (WRT54G) is essentially a software controlled radio. Using the ping interface it is possible to enter commands and the router will execute them. One of these is increasing transmit power. I believe most of these hacks and features were discovered because the firmware runs embedded linux and the source code to the router is GPL'ed.
I think Intel is wrong here. Big companies are going to reverse engineer it anyway. The source code isn't needed by them. The small companies that could benefit from the source code wouldn't have economies of scale to compete anyway.
This is great for Linux people who are stuck at companies where everybody is required to run Windows on their PC... they can just boot Windows, double click the "Cooperative Linux" icon, maximize the Linux window, and forget about Microsoft for the rest of the day:^)
I work at one of these companies; however, I am not trusted with administrative access. Therefore I can't even install a printer, much less software." (WIN2K w/ AD) No thanks, I'll just stick with CYGWin. No admin access is required to install or run it.
That's the great thing about WIN2K (in)security, as long as I don't need to write to the registry or write to the WINDOWS or Programs Files directories, I can run any old code and open up any network port for connections. Cygwin works great in these situations. It even works on a USB Memory stick. Since Cooperative Linux works at the device driver level as opposed to the userland dll level, I don't think it will work for me.
Cooperative Linux sounds like a great idea though. Although, I would prefer more stable and free ways for windows apps to run under linux.
Why can television/advertising companies prevent PVRs like TiVo from having features to skip advertising in their products when it is perfectly legal to store the data and fast forward or rewind?
The answer is that they can't. At least not in the analog signal that is broadcast over the air or cable that is your TV signal. However, they may make deals with digital providers not to provide a pure digital signal unless there is a way to block the skipping of commercials. Much like officially licensed DVD players won't skip the commercials and the FBI warnings if the disc creator instructs the player not too.
I've heard talk of restricting HDTV signals, because some consider it stealing.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if commercials change their format on TV. Can you imagine pop-ups like on VH1's Pop-up-videos or banner ads like the current stock tickers?
I still remember the day as well. I was driving home for lunch and listening to NPR's Morning Edition. (I live in Germany.) They had a feature about mp3's and how it would change the world. I think that this was winter of 1998.
I downloaded Garbage - Stupid Girl. I remember not having anything to play it so then I had to download a player. Might have been winamp, I don't remember exactly. Anyway, once I played it, I remeber thinking that it sounded like crap. (I didn't realize it then, but it was recorded at 56kbps.)
Later in the week I downloaded Jewel - Foolish games. It was recorded at 128kbps. I knew then that it really was the future.
Your post is right on the money. Additionally, I would add that not supporting WMA will actually benefit non-iPod owners as well.
How many iPod owners will say, "Well since my iPod doesn't support WMA I will rip all my CDs to AAC." I bet the number will be very low. (Although I don't own an iPod and I don't know what the bundled software will rip CDs to.) These users will default to MP3. Which is supported by every portable player, including CD and DVD players.
Since the online music stores won't be releasing the goods in good ol' fashion unDRMencumbered mp3 anytime soon, the various formats out there (AAC, WMA, RealMedia) will compete for market share and, thus, ensure the mp3 remains the common format that is supported by everyone.
The danger for consumers is that one format could become really popular and edge out mp3 in popularity. Imagine a flood of cheap portable devices that then doesn't support mp3 because a company wants to leverage a monopoly position, and ensure that mp3 is squashed.
I see WMA as being the format that threatens mp3. This is because windows boxes are everywhere and they include a wma encoder but not a mp3 encoder. I've seen novice computer users many times rip their CD collection to wma only to find out that they will only play on the computer that ripped them.
Before you say that this is FUD or that I am trolling, look at the track record with Java or Netscape.
I remember the game ran really fast on a 486DX100. It had the end of stage game save like console games -- unique for the time. Anyone know if it runs under DOSEMU?
This is certaintly not news. But the article does remind us that the BBS scene is still alive and well. The file sizes have gotten bigger (vs. 340K Apple//e floppies.) But the transmission speeds have also increased. The only difference I see know is that, thanks to P2P, the end-user/downloader gets the goods directly. In the old days, the final user was never granted access to the releaser's or the courier's site. It arrived via the "sneaker net" from a friend of a friend.
It is true that the U.S. Military is using some civilian grade units. They are purchasing standard off-the-shelf handheld gps units for soldiers in Iraq and other places.
The primary reason is cost. Off the shelf is cheaper because they don't have the extra circuitry that decodes Selective Availability or Message to the Field. Also, OTS units use standard AA batteries instead of hard to get and expensive Lithium batteries ( that only fit that particular model and are not interchangeable with anything else.)
However, it is not exactly true that you can turn off the Plain text GPS signal. Selective Availability works like this. The time signals that are uploaded have an error introduced. This error is then encrypted and sent along as the P code. The two signals are combined and the error rate subtracted to compute the true position by the GPS unit.
So you can't turn off the plain text, but I guess it is possible to introduce an error of such a great magnitude as to make GPS unusable to non-encrypted users. Note that this would happen worldwide.
BTW, do any eTrex owners know if the mag compass funciton does automatic drift correction (or whatever it's called -- the magnetic bearing offset that's provided on topo maps)?
You are talking about magnetic variation. In Garmin units you can set the display to read True Heading or Magnetic Heading. The variation is computed by the unit based on your lat/long and its magnetic model. I think you can override its computed setting and set your own however.
Your topo maps have another north line on them. That is sometimes refered to grid north. This is the north you use to calculate bearings on the map and convert it to true or mag north. This can not be calculated by the gps because it depends on the map you are using. If you don't see a grid north, then chances are it will be the same as true, because magnetic variation changes every year.
BTW, I have an Etrex Legend and I love its design, capabilities and layout. However, I have had problems with the display. A couple of months after I bought it the display stopped working. I had it replaced under warrenty and now the second display is intermittent. Your results may vary.
Region-Free DVD players are not illegal. They do violate license agreements that the hardware manufacturers sign. That is why DVD players sold in the US, as they are shipped from the factory, honor region coding and won't skip the FBI warnings.
However, consumers and retailers sign no such licensing agreements.
There is a bigger demand in Europe for region free DVD players than in the US. Many DVD players sold here can be easily defeated by a simple remote hack.
I have not seen Region 1 DVD's sold in the chain stores like Media Markt but I have seen them in the smaller specialty shops.
I think Blockbuster doesn't want to flaunt the movie industry ( which it is part of ) by importing Region 1 disks to Europe, yet also doesn't want to compete with the Mom and Pop stores.
Slashdot Mirror
Not only was the references supplied by Apple good, I think it was also the beginning of the advanced "hacker's" manuals available from 3rd parties. I remember a book titled "Inside the Apple][." It documented every memory call in the ROM and the basic interperator. (Remember PEEKing and POKEing?)
Beagle Bros. software also had a collection of Hack tools and subroutines that could be freely (If I remember correctly) incorperated into user programs. All fully documented. I remember trapping Ctrl-C inputs with ONERR and redirecting CTRL-OPENAPPLE-RESET back to the beginning of program execution. FUN STUFF!
I know one thing that has changed. Tight, efficient code was a must on that machine, unlike the bloatware we see today 30 years later.
Everybody knows that all the latest Hollywood releases are first released in Canadian Theaters, where they are cammed and put on torrent sites. I think this will help piracy greatly.
Intersting theory, perhaps you should make a movie based on this premis.
Unfortunatly, most of us don't plant tall trees, we plant seeds or saplings.
Almost every western european country that I have traveled to supports multiple languages better then the US. I live in Germany so I can speak with some authority on it. All government and almost all private buisnesses support the most widely spoken languages in Europe, whether this support consists of translated forms, menus etc.. or if this support comes from dual language staff varies.
But it is my experience that most of the Europeans I've met speak fluently more then one language, with many able to speak more then two. This isn't as common in the US with the exception of immigrant families
By the way, I myself seem to have a two language limit. I speak fluent English (native) and passable German and passable Spanish. My problem is when I am speaking German, I forget all my Spanish and vice versa. It seems as if I have a switch in my brian and thet they both can't be active at once. Anybody else have a similiar problem? I learned both Spanish and German as an adult.
Get a Dog. Preferably a big scary looking one. Is it High Tech? Sure, Think of it as bio-tech / Genetic engineering. After all, the domesticated dog is largly a creation of man. (ie.. cultivating certain breeds.) It certaintly isn't new tech though.
Oh Yeah, I forgot to mention, The new computer systems the Army is installing on its helicopters and tanks, runs Solaris, Not Windows!
Absolutly true. The Air Force deals with Lat/Long because the earth is curved and the area they cover is large enough that computing distances and heading over a curved surface is computationally easier using degrees and minutes.
The Army, on the other hand, deals in distances much smaller, where the curvature of the earth is not a factor. The Army uses a system called the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS ).
This system suits the Army well because it is simple, accurate, and works in meters instead of nautical miles.
Army pilots, like myself, have to use both systems constantly. And we always have to convert between the two. Although when errors are made, it often deals with using different datums rather than computational error. The DOD is in the process of fixing this though by using a single datum for all maps. (WGS84)
My guess is that they are releasing a product with a price point that the market can bear. It kinda makes since economically. The alternative would be to release WinXP Home at the same relative prices that they are selling it for in the rest of the world. And have it not sell because it is too expensive based on the average earnings.
They could just sell XP Home at a reduced price but that would admit both the monopolistic practice of "same product - different price," depending on where you live, that movie studios and others have been accused of doing. Also, people would realize that the marginal cost of each addition copy sold of any software product is so low that the rest of the world will not stand for the prices that they are currently paying. After all, why would you want to pay $100 for a licensed copy of Win XP Home when you know that it is sold elsewhere for $10 and you are essentially paying for digital bits on a plastic disc that cost practically nothing to manufacture. Sure, the programmers have to get paid but doesn't $100 for your copy seem excessive? Therefore, avoid this scenerio and sell a crippled version. [My vote would be to "cripple" it by not including IE ]
I have not verified this, but I would imagine that computer hardware is generally cheaper in that part of the world and legal software makes up a higher percentage of TCO. This is probably just another factor.
The great thing about Seven Kingdoms II was the espionage aspect of the game. Truely unique and made for interesting diplomocy. (Which was always broken in AOE and others).
Also, the concept of character leadership and changing hitpoints was a great feature. If your General had high leadership points, his troops would get extra damage bonus.
It's only failing was lack of single player replayability, IMHO
This will certainly move a lot a hardware for linksys. Look at the Rockbox mods for Archos for another example. Those who think that you can't make money off the GPL are wrong, at least in the case of hardware makers GPL'ing their firmware. (Although they didn't have a choice since they used linux as the firmware.)
Their was a story awhile back here on slashdot that discussed that Intel didn't want to release open source drivers for Centrino. They should. Open source drivers and firmware can be a boon to hardware makers.I wonder what's worse, The internet traffic that the virus or worm generates or the email advisories.
I still get emails saying that if I get a message with such-and-such in the subject to delete the email immeadiatly. And I get these from well meaning friends and family. Imagine how many of these alerts will be forwarded on because they have the authority of the Homeland Security Department behind it.
Absolutely true. Linksys's wireless router (WRT54G) is essentially a software controlled radio. Using the ping interface it is possible to enter commands and the router will execute them. One of these is increasing transmit power. I believe most of these hacks and features were discovered because the firmware runs embedded linux and the source code to the router is GPL'ed.
I think Intel is wrong here. Big companies are going to reverse engineer it anyway. The source code isn't needed by them. The small companies that could benefit from the source code wouldn't have economies of scale to compete anyway.
I work at one of these companies; however, I am not trusted with administrative access. Therefore I can't even install a printer, much less software." (WIN2K w/ AD) No thanks, I'll just stick with CYGWin. No admin access is required to install or run it.
That's the great thing about WIN2K (in)security, as long as I don't need to write to the registry or write to the WINDOWS or Programs Files directories, I can run any old code and open up any network port for connections. Cygwin works great in these situations. It even works on a USB Memory stick. Since Cooperative Linux works at the device driver level as opposed to the userland dll level, I don't think it will work for me.
Cooperative Linux sounds like a great idea though. Although, I would prefer more stable and free ways for windows apps to run under linux.
You forgot to add: You Insensitive Clod!
The answer is that they can't. At least not in the analog signal that is broadcast over the air or cable that is your TV signal. However, they may make deals with digital providers not to provide a pure digital signal unless there is a way to block the skipping of commercials. Much like officially licensed DVD players won't skip the commercials and the FBI warnings if the disc creator instructs the player not too.
I've heard talk of restricting HDTV signals, because some consider it stealing.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if commercials change their format on TV. Can you imagine pop-ups like on VH1's Pop-up-videos or banner ads like the current stock tickers?
I still remember the day as well. I was driving home for lunch and listening to NPR's Morning Edition. (I live in Germany.) They had a feature about mp3's and how it would change the world. I think that this was winter of 1998.
I downloaded Garbage - Stupid Girl. I remember not having anything to play it so then I had to download a player. Might have been winamp, I don't remember exactly. Anyway, once I played it, I remeber thinking that it sounded like crap. (I didn't realize it then, but it was recorded at 56kbps.)
Later in the week I downloaded Jewel - Foolish games. It was recorded at 128kbps. I knew then that it really was the future.
Your post is right on the money. Additionally, I would add that not supporting WMA will actually benefit non-iPod owners as well.
How many iPod owners will say, "Well since my iPod doesn't support WMA I will rip all my CDs to AAC." I bet the number will be very low. (Although I don't own an iPod and I don't know what the bundled software will rip CDs to.) These users will default to MP3. Which is supported by every portable player, including CD and DVD players.
Since the online music stores won't be releasing the goods in good ol' fashion unDRMencumbered mp3 anytime soon, the various formats out there (AAC, WMA, RealMedia) will compete for market share and, thus, ensure the mp3 remains the common format that is supported by everyone.
The danger for consumers is that one format could become really popular and edge out mp3 in popularity. Imagine a flood of cheap portable devices that then doesn't support mp3 because a company wants to leverage a monopoly position, and ensure that mp3 is squashed.
I see WMA as being the format that threatens mp3. This is because windows boxes are everywhere and they include a wma encoder but not a mp3 encoder. I've seen novice computer users many times rip their CD collection to wma only to find out that they will only play on the computer that ripped them.
Before you say that this is FUD or that I am trolling, look at the track record with Java or Netscape.
Anybody remember Abuse?
I remember the game ran really fast on a 486DX100. It had the end of stage game save like console games -- unique for the time. Anyone know if it runs under DOSEMU?
... the BBS scene.
This is certaintly not news. But the article does remind us that the BBS scene is still alive and well. The file sizes have gotten bigger (vs. 340K Apple //e floppies.) But the transmission speeds have also increased. The only difference I see know is that, thanks to P2P, the end-user/downloader gets the goods directly. In the old days, the final user was never granted access to the releaser's or the courier's site. It arrived via the "sneaker net" from a friend of a friend.
You must be new here.
It is true that the U.S. Military is using some civilian grade units. They are purchasing standard off-the-shelf handheld gps units for soldiers in Iraq and other places.
The primary reason is cost. Off the shelf is cheaper because they don't have the extra circuitry that decodes Selective Availability or Message to the Field. Also, OTS units use standard AA batteries instead of hard to get and expensive Lithium batteries ( that only fit that particular model and are not interchangeable with anything else.)
However, it is not exactly true that you can turn off the Plain text GPS signal. Selective Availability works like this. The time signals that are uploaded have an error introduced. This error is then encrypted and sent along as the P code. The two signals are combined and the error rate subtracted to compute the true position by the GPS unit.
So you can't turn off the plain text, but I guess it is possible to introduce an error of such a great magnitude as to make GPS unusable to non-encrypted users. Note that this would happen worldwide.
More info on SA can be found here.BTW, do any eTrex owners know if the mag compass funciton does automatic drift correction (or whatever it's called -- the magnetic bearing offset that's provided on topo maps)?
You are talking about magnetic variation. In Garmin units you can set the display to read True Heading or Magnetic Heading. The variation is computed by the unit based on your lat/long and its magnetic model. I think you can override its computed setting and set your own however.
Your topo maps have another north line on them. That is sometimes refered to grid north. This is the north you use to calculate bearings on the map and convert it to true or mag north. This can not be calculated by the gps because it depends on the map you are using. If you don't see a grid north, then chances are it will be the same as true, because magnetic variation changes every year.
BTW, I have an Etrex Legend and I love its design, capabilities and layout. However, I have had problems with the display. A couple of months after I bought it the display stopped working. I had it replaced under warrenty and now the second display is intermittent. Your results may vary.
Why must 'having fun' and 'using a computer' be mutually exclusive?
Clearly you've never heard of pr0n.
Region-Free DVD players are not illegal. They do violate license agreements that the hardware manufacturers sign. That is why DVD players sold in the US, as they are shipped from the factory, honor region coding and won't skip the FBI warnings.
However, consumers and retailers sign no such licensing agreements.
There is a bigger demand in Europe for region free DVD players than in the US. Many DVD players sold here can be easily defeated by a simple remote hack.I have not seen Region 1 DVD's sold in the chain stores like Media Markt but I have seen them in the smaller specialty shops.
I think Blockbuster doesn't want to flaunt the movie industry ( which it is part of ) by importing Region 1 disks to Europe, yet also doesn't want to compete with the Mom and Pop stores.Larry.