Over 90% of the world still uses MS Office/Windows for their wordprocessing and operating system needs and is willing to pay for it.
But, most people don't pay for windows and office, at least not directly. It's bundled with their computer. If you want to buy a computer, you get Windows and Office whether you want it or not.
Go ahead. Name one country in the world that is being run by free markets. I dare you.
Does any economic system exist anywhere in a pure form?
It's been a dismal failure. In history whenever free markets have existed all the wealth ended up concentrating in the hands of a few families.
We live in a messed up world, all societies have in some way been dismal failures, and no economic system is likely to ever fix it. Some combination of democracy, capitalism, and socialism may work reasonably well for awhile. If you can think of something better, I'm all ears.
There is most definitely scarcity in the world of intellectual property...it's called: The Labor Market.
True, if a thing doesn't exist, it's scarce. But once intelectual property is created, it is no longer scarce (except through artificial control of the supply). This is totally unlike tangible goods. Normally, a loaf of bread can't feed an infinite number of people, but what if it could? Should we pretend all our old rules still apply?
But you [can't] run an economy soley based on commodities!
Maybe not, but the things that are commoditized are no longer scarce. Operating system kernels, C compilers, web browsers, and word processors are no longer scarce because we have linux, gcc, mozilla, and open office.
Not everything will be commoditized, and not everything should be free. Some special purpose software will still require money to get someone to write it, just like dealerships aren't about to start handing out free cars. There's no reason why free markets can't coexist with free software.
Stopping file sharing will make the US fall behind? By definition file sharing would be pointless if the US wasn't so anal about copyrights and IP.
The Internet (note my use of the big I) is a communications medium that allows anyone to speak to the masses, at least in theory. In reality, sharing popular content requires big pipes, which not everyone has. Peer-to-peer file sharing allows anyone to distribute large files (video, audio) to anyone else. Usually, this technology is used to violate copyright, but sometimes it's used to share original content. Suddenly, anyone can be their own TV or radio station. Sure, a lot of this original content will be junk, but some of it will be good, too.
but like a lot of lefties he keeps hoping that there is some workable, "non-oppressive" alternative to the free market
The free market is well entrenched because it is, as far as I can tell, the most effective economic system for dealing with scarcity. It has its problems under some conditions (such as lack of competition or information asymmetry), but it generally works.
However, in the world of intelectual property, there is no such thing as scarcity, so it makes perfect sense to consider new forms of distribution. The hard part is to provide an incentive to create without limiting distribution.
I fail to see how this is any different (from a linux geek's point of view) from using any prism2-based WLAN card with the Host AP drivers.
Well, you can use 802.11g instead of just b, you don't have to tie up a computer as a dedicated access point, you don't have to have kernel source lying around to install it, and it probably uses less power and generates less noise than a computer.
I like hostAP, but its not the easiest or best solution in all circumstsances.
DWDM systems can use up to about 160 channels. The channels are separated by a prism, so they don't even have to be running the same link layer protocol. (A single channel can run an OC-192, which is about 10 gbps.)
Bloom filters have been around since 1970 (link to acm digital library - you probably need a subscription to get in), and can be based on any crytographic hash function, such as sha-1.
Bloom filters tell you if something is (probably) a member of a set. If you know an email address, you can ask "is this email address in this address book?", but you can't ask "what are all the email addresses in this address book?" without guessing every address. Essentially, if a spammer already has you email addrees, he can verify that it's actually in use, but if he doesn't already have it, guessing it is likely to be fairly hard (unless it's something like bob@hotmail.com, or if loaf uses a weak cryptographic hash function).
In other words, loaf is as difficult to break as reversing a hash of your email address. The longer your email address is, the safer you are.
The proper solution to phishing scams is
1) Educate everyone not to give out confidential information to anyone.
2) Track the phishing sites and publically hang the owner. These things are not difficult to track by the very nature of the scam.
Don't forget
3) Use public key cryptography to verify the authenticity of sites you do business with.
I thought the point was that my 192.168.1.0/24 behind my linksys access point is "an internet". The 66.35.250.0/24 slashdot is on is "an internet" (unlike mine, a publicly routeable one). An internet is any network that uses, surprise surprise, the "internet protocol".
What you are talking about is an intranet, not an internet. The Internet is the connection of multiple networks to each other. It is a network of networks, thus it sits between other networks and earns the inter- prefix. Intra- means within one's own logical grouping. A corporate network, Slashdot's server farms, and your person home network are intranets because they are a network of machines within one logical organization.
A collection of machines that can talk directly to each other over a common link layer (like ethernet) is a network. A network may use IP for convenience, but if everyone's using the same subnet, its just a simple network. (Calling it an intranet may be correct, but it's not very informative (unless you're talking about administrative domains), since an intranet could be a network or an internetwork.)
A collection of interconnected networks that communicate using a common link-layer independant internetworking protocol (like IP) is an internet (regardless of whether it is connected to the Internet).
The Internet is the largest connected internet.
-jim
Re:RGBCMY is more marketing factoid than it isreal
on
RGB to become RGBCMY
·
· Score: 4, Informative
RGB is a set of orthogonal colors, and a linear combination of RGB can express any color in the universe.
Not true, there are a few colors that are out of gamut on an RGB display.
Does the above article have an original source? I'm guessing it didn't just spontaneously appear on half a dozen weblogs, it was probably written by someone who would like credit for his/her work? Perhaps this is why the story was rejected?
Movielens is also a good site, usually for finding good movies, but it can find bad movies too.
It's a recommender system, so you rate a bunch of movies, and it starts predicting ratings for movies based on your own ratings and the ratings of others.
For me, it predicted Pokémon Heroes as the worst, with Ernest in the Army, Ernest Goes to Africa, Barney's Great Adventure, and Faces of Death 5 as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th worst movies.
I just remembered The sum of all Fears. (My biggest gripe is its lack of continuity with other Tom Clancey movies or novels and bad acting). Actually, just about any movie I can think of with Ben Affleck was a flop.
The big thing i want to know is, does this fix those problems with dual-boot that became apparent with fedora 2?
Here's more information on the issue (which is caused by the bootloader modifying the disk geometry reported in the partition table), including how to fix it.
There are plenty of applications in which mechanical energy is not needed, and the loss of energy in converting mechanical to electrical is undesirable.
Actually, it's the conversion from chemical energy to mechanical energy that's inefficient - engines waste most of their energy producing heat. Generators, I believe, are pretty efficient. If you can convert straight from chemical energy to electrical energy with a fuel cell, you can bypass the inefficient engine, and if necessary, produce mechanical energy with a >90% efficient motor.
Iirc, PEM fuel cells are about 80-90% efficient, but reformers that convert misclaneous hydrocarbons (such as gasoline) to hydrogen are about 20-30% efficient (similar to the losses from using a regular engine). Maybe newer reformers are better, I don't follow fuel cell research all that closely.
I'm sorry, have you not all been reading the on-line mags and such? Your local newspaper? There is no way to make money on the internet giving away things for free
That's funny, just a few days ago, our local newspaper (the Oregonian) called up and offered a free two week trial, and it was easier to say "uh, sure, why not" than politely end the conversation. And no, I don't intend to read it, except for the fry's ad and the funnies. I guess they believe information wants to be free, too.
PS I'm proud to be regarded as a fool by Rob Enderle.
I think it's all well and good that people are looking at these problems, but shouldn't there be more attention directed to more pressing problems. Those problems include 1) food and clean water, 2) accessible housing, 3) medical care and prevention of illness, and 4) dealing with oppressive governments which exist at the expense of their citizens, and not for their benefit.
These problems won't be solved without good communication, which (in places where communication is lacking, such as parts of the third world) can be provided by ubiquitous networking.
Slashdot Mirror
oops, that was supposed to be posted as reply to sibling post
But, most people don't pay for windows and office, at least not directly. It's bundled with their computer. If you want to buy a computer, you get Windows and Office whether you want it or not.
-jim
Does any economic system exist anywhere in a pure form?
We live in a messed up world, all societies have in some way been dismal failures, and no economic system is likely to ever fix it. Some combination of democracy, capitalism, and socialism may work reasonably well for awhile. If you can think of something better, I'm all ears.
-jim
True, if a thing doesn't exist, it's scarce. But once intelectual property is created, it is no longer scarce (except through artificial control of the supply). This is totally unlike tangible goods. Normally, a loaf of bread can't feed an infinite number of people, but what if it could? Should we pretend all our old rules still apply?
Maybe not, but the things that are commoditized are no longer scarce. Operating system kernels, C compilers, web browsers, and word processors are no longer scarce because we have linux, gcc, mozilla, and open office.
Not everything will be commoditized, and not everything should be free. Some special purpose software will still require money to get someone to write it, just like dealerships aren't about to start handing out free cars. There's no reason why free markets can't coexist with free software.
-jim
The Internet (note my use of the big I) is a communications medium that allows anyone to speak to the masses, at least in theory. In reality, sharing popular content requires big pipes, which not everyone has. Peer-to-peer file sharing allows anyone to distribute large files (video, audio) to anyone else. Usually, this technology is used to violate copyright, but sometimes it's used to share original content. Suddenly, anyone can be their own TV or radio station. Sure, a lot of this original content will be junk, but some of it will be good, too.
-jim
The free market is well entrenched because it is, as far as I can tell, the most effective economic system for dealing with scarcity. It has its problems under some conditions (such as lack of competition or information asymmetry), but it generally works.
However, in the world of intelectual property, there is no such thing as scarcity, so it makes perfect sense to consider new forms of distribution. The hard part is to provide an incentive to create without limiting distribution.
-jim
Well, you can use 802.11g instead of just b, you don't have to tie up a computer as a dedicated access point, you don't have to have kernel source lying around to install it, and it probably uses less power and generates less noise than a computer.
I like hostAP, but its not the easiest or best solution in all circumstsances.
-jim
DWDM systems can use up to about 160 channels. The channels are separated by a prism, so they don't even have to be running the same link layer protocol. (A single channel can run an OC-192, which is about 10 gbps.)
-jim
Bloom filters have been around since 1970 (link to acm digital library - you probably need a subscription to get in), and can be based on any crytographic hash function, such as sha-1.
Bloom filters tell you if something is (probably) a member of a set. If you know an email address, you can ask "is this email address in this address book?", but you can't ask "what are all the email addresses in this address book?" without guessing every address. Essentially, if a spammer already has you email addrees, he can verify that it's actually in use, but if he doesn't already have it, guessing it is likely to be fairly hard (unless it's something like bob@hotmail.com, or if loaf uses a weak cryptographic hash function).
In other words, loaf is as difficult to break as reversing a hash of your email address. The longer your email address is, the safer you are.
-jim
Don't forget
3) Use public key cryptography to verify the authenticity of sites you do business with.
-jim
md5
ripemd
digital signature
cryptograph
crypto conference
Ed Felten
-jim
A collection of machines that can talk directly to each other over a common link layer (like ethernet) is a network. A network may use IP for convenience, but if everyone's using the same subnet, its just a simple network. (Calling it an intranet may be correct, but it's not very informative (unless you're talking about administrative domains), since an intranet could be a network or an internetwork.)
A collection of interconnected networks that communicate using a common link-layer independant internetworking protocol (like IP) is an internet (regardless of whether it is connected to the Internet).
The Internet is the largest connected internet.
-jim
Not true, there are a few colors that are out of gamut on an RGB display.
-jim
Does the above article have an original source? I'm guessing it didn't just spontaneously appear on half a dozen weblogs, it was probably written by someone who would like credit for his/her work? Perhaps this is why the story was rejected?
-jim
It's a recommender system, so you rate a bunch of movies, and it starts predicting ratings for movies based on your own ratings and the ratings of others.
For me, it predicted Pokémon Heroes as the worst, with Ernest in the Army, Ernest Goes to Africa, Barney's Great Adventure, and Faces of Death 5 as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th worst movies.
-jim
I just remembered The sum of all Fears. (My biggest gripe is its lack of continuity with other Tom Clancey movies or novels and bad acting). Actually, just about any movie I can think of with Ben Affleck was a flop.
You're right. That was really bad.
blacula
Here's more information on the issue (which is caused by the bootloader modifying the disk geometry reported in the partition table), including how to fix it.
-jim
Hey, I remember those. I don't think I've seen one since I was about 5 years old. I don't know what they're called either.
-jim
Actually, it's the conversion from chemical energy to mechanical energy that's inefficient - engines waste most of their energy producing heat. Generators, I believe, are pretty efficient. If you can convert straight from chemical energy to electrical energy with a fuel cell, you can bypass the inefficient engine, and if necessary, produce mechanical energy with a >90% efficient motor.
Iirc, PEM fuel cells are about 80-90% efficient, but reformers that convert misclaneous hydrocarbons (such as gasoline) to hydrogen are about 20-30% efficient (similar to the losses from using a regular engine). Maybe newer reformers are better, I don't follow fuel cell research all that closely.
-jim
Do you mean carbon dioxide?
-jim
That's funny, just a few days ago, our local newspaper (the Oregonian) called up and offered a free two week trial, and it was easier to say "uh, sure, why not" than politely end the conversation. And no, I don't intend to read it, except for the fry's ad and the funnies. I guess they believe information wants to be free, too.
PS I'm proud to be regarded as a fool by Rob Enderle.
-jim
10. A tin-foil hat?
-jim
These problems won't be solved without good communication, which (in places where communication is lacking, such as parts of the third world) can be provided by ubiquitous networking.
-jim