No license needed as long as you transmit as less than 250microvolts/m^3 at a distance of three meters. This implies that the transmitter range will be limited to about 200 feet. This would conform to unlicensed very low power transmitters at cited in Part 15 of title 47. These devices are commonly referred to as Part 15 devices.
Are blogs to become the infomericals of the internet?
Remember when infomercials were new and people trusted them and mistook them for real shows? The new format was "trustworthy" because people felt like they were watching some sort of impartial investigative reporting show . . . a legal but obviously deceitful sham that we all learned to identify over time.
Perhaps the trusty blog is soon to be spoiled with "infomercial" blogs that resemble real blogs but are written up specifically to create a sense of trust while pushing a specific product. For example, a trusty blog about FPS games is written for a few months as an inpartial and insightful site. Then suddenly it starts endorsing a newly released game as the best of the best . . .
Unscrupulous advertisers could undermine the blog by turning it into a vehicle for infomercials.
It amazes me that many here think that the formula is merely a joke . . . perhaps this is a humorous formula, but similar formulas are used in the manufacturing industry to prioritize problems and issues in manufacturing. Problems are related to one another by ranking their relative severity, detectability and frequency . . . sometime also cost factors or normal maintenance factors are included.
These factors are often multiplied together to result in a number that is used to prioritize the limited funds available to process improvement or maintenance.
These ideas are not new . . . they were developed by Japanese manufacturers and the US auto industry decades ago . . They are called Failure Modes and Effects Analyses. They are often used in conjunction with statisical process control efforts to reduce variability and downtime.
Actually it doesn't look at all like a joke to me . . . It's similar to a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) used in manufacturing.
An FMEA is a system in which one identifies problems and then ranks the severity, detectibility, and frequency of the problem on a scale of 1 to 10 then multiplies these values together. The issues with the highest result should be prioritized as the issues that should be worked on first. This way we don't waste much time and effort working on non-severe problems or problems may be infrequent or undetectable unless the balance of all three of these components dictates that the problem is significant.
FMEA's and similar analyses have been used by engineers to improve manufacturing processes for years . . .
Almost perhaps, but not necessarily . . . a human rights issue.
The court is probably the same one that issued the seizure order. I saw no indication in the article on the Indymedia site that they or Rackspace were not able to discuss the issue with anyone (e.g. I assume that they can speak with appropriate legal counsel).
I would think that this device would hold up in court for the same reason that the VCR did when it was challenged in the supreme court. deivices that record broadcasts for reasons of time shifting were upheld as legal.
However that doesn't mean that the recording industry won't try to ban this product . . .
"Additionally, on May 14, 2004, a 3Dsolar prototype was presented to the French Minister of Research, Mr. Francois d'Aubert and former Minister of Finance, Mr. Arthuis, both of whom were very impressed with the product."
Just the kind of endorsement that makes me want to rush out and buy one of these . . . if the two French politicians like it, then it must be a great product!
These guys really should hire a marketing firm to clean up publicity program . . . I don't see how a minister of finance's compliments are going to help commericialize the product.
That's it! I remember seeing it in the Student Union back in the 90's but I was way too poor to put my precious quarters into the machine.
I always wondered how it thing worked . . .
Won't This Need Tactile feedback?
on
360-Degree 3D Imaging
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
"Imagine a 3Dsolar screen displaying selected store products 8 inches away from the actual retail store window and offering the passerby the possibility to interact with the virtual objects."
Without tactile feedback when interacting with virtual objects, is this really a practical thing that users would embrace? Or is "interact with virtual objects" just a euphemism for using the mouse and keyboard?
"3Dsolar is light years beyond holography and autostereoscopy in that designers can create images that are highly detailed in color, design and animation," said Patrick Levy Rosenthal, inventor of 3Dsolar.
Light Years Beyond . . . You would think that someone in the optics insdutry would not use the term "Light years" figuratively in a major press release . . .
Wasn't there an arcade game in the early to mid 90's that had a 3D projected image above a glass tabletop? It was some sort of fantasy game with B-rate live actors that swallowed quarters by the bucketful . . . I think it stored the images on laserdisk (like the old 80's laserdisk games), but then projected the images over some sort of tabletop like thing. As I recall, the images flickered and were hard to see . . . I don't know what kind of technology it used but it sounds similar to what's being dicussed here . . .
but weren't Newton's ideas debunked by Einstein's theory of relativity? Shouldn't we be focusing on the physicists who got it right, not the ones who were wrong.
Actually, Newton did get it "right" based on measurement technology and information at the time. His laws of motion described things "perfectly" based on his data. It was this simplicity and accuracy that makes his discovery famous.
Though it is true that his discoveries do not hold true at extreme (relativistic) speeds, Newton could not know anything about this.
For that matter it is conceivable that Einstein may not have gotten it "right" either. Perhaps in the future new information and new technology will provide us with more information about the universe that will prove Einstein wrong too . . . if that happens should we belittle Einstein and say that his discoveries would then be "less" important?
Fundamentaly, police in the field need the ability to arrest, tackle, and subdue violent offenders. The fact is, they need special...uh...abilities, to do this. Not the ability to "think outside the square".
Huh, most cops make quick assessments of situations and make life and death decisions based on limited information in a very short time frame. To say that they don't "think outside the square" is either ignorant, insulting or both.
I would recommend asking if your local police department permits "ride alongs." This is when you ride with a cop through his/her entire shift and see what they have to deal with on a regular day. Lots of police depts. in the USA permit this after a suitable background check.
The post makes me think that most of your knowledge of cops comes from the Fox show "Cops." Chasing bad guys and tackling them to the ground is exciting TV, but it's only a part of the everyday job that cops normally do. A lot of the time is spent assessing situations, talking down potentially violent, disturbance situations, analyzing situations, and weighing the available evidence in he said/she said situations.
If Microsoft were to release the project under a OSS license and then nail a competitor that uses it for patent infringement, couldn't the competitor nail them for antitrust violations?
I don't think so . . . assuming MS's open source license is truly open source by the definition that I think most people at/. beleive in, there would be no antitrust issue. Just a patent and license issue.
Antitrust issues are typically abuses of monopolistic or nearly monopolistic market power. Opensourcing a patented technology and suing for infringement is something that is not necessarily predicated on a monopolistic market . . . little guys can do this to (assuming they can afford to pay the lawyers).
I didn't know that MS was doing anything open source, but now that I know, I can't help but worry:
Is this the first step of MS trying to get into open source and become a major player? Microsoft has never been an innovator, but they are really good at stealing someone else's idea and business model (e.g. netscape, realplayer, etc., etc.) . ..perhaps they will foray into the "give the open source software away for free and sell the services and maintenance" business model. I'm sure that they won't do this for their core products . . . but for other things . . . like development tools or less popular products . . . maybe?
Bad example, and most copiers are self service because libraries can't afford to hire staff to do a job most people are capable of doing themselves. . . . . Incidentally the library would be liable for the copyright violations if the failed to even investigate a reported abuse, just making the copiers self-service doesn't exempt them from that responsibility.
Actually I think its a good example, libraries and Kinkos went to self service photocopiers because it does afford them significant protection under the US copyright law. Check this university library site for more details. Quoted from that site:
Section 108(f)(2) gives protection to libraries, archives, and their employees from liability that may arise from the "unsupervised use" of photocopy machines and other equipment at the library, provided that the "equipment displays a notice that the making of a copy may be subject to the copyright law. . .."
The function of the law is actually remarkably simple. If the library places the notice on the machine, the library avoids potential legal liability for infringements that a user may commit by the use of that equipment.
They wait for a complaint and then yank whatever was complained about off the server.
This is the cheapest way to handle alledged copyright violations. The people paying to have their material hosted are not going to pay extra to have a group of lawyers check their own material for copyright violations. If the ISP can't get the customer to pay for a team of lawyers to handle complaints of copyright violations then what is an ISP to do?
The problem isn't that the ISP knee-jerk responds to alledged copyright violations; the problem is that the legal system holds ISP's responsible for violations. the party held responsible should be the individual that placed copyrighted material on the internet.
Speaking of spain, in Barcelona smart cars were quite popular until the city painted individual parking spaces on the roads and started metering parking. Now the small size of the smart car has little parking advantage (It still has to take an entire metered parking space) in Barcelona and the popularity seems to have faded . ..
I'm not surprised . ..ISP's have to protect themselves because they are being subject to subpoenas, injunctions, lawsuits for what they host . . . I think this is the root cause of the problem.
For example, if the public library was responsible and liable for all material that was copied on it's self service photocopy machine, then most libraries would probably ban use of the copier or manage and log its use very closely and be willing to share this information with anyone that threatens to sue the library. This would be done to protect the legally liable library. The library would be attempting to shield itself from liability by cooperating with those that were alledgedly infringed and by pointing the finger at the person that actually made the copies. Of course libraries are not liable, the person that uses the copier is liable. This is why photocopy machines are normally self service. This prevents the library from being legally liable.
Unfortunately the same doesn't seem to be true for ISP's. ISP's can be legally liable if they don't provide information about an alleged copyright violator or if they don't remove the allegedly copyrighted material from their servers in a timely fashion. It is unfortunate that even though the ISP may not knowingly endorse infringement or actively participate in the infringement, they could still be held liable (or at least named as an infringing party in an expensive lawsuit).
Unfortunately ISP's have not been afforded legal protection similar to that granted to libraries with respect to photocopiers. It is the system that attempts to hold ISP's liable that is the problem. ISP's are merely reacting to this and trying to protect themselves.
They do . . . at many police stations these higher tier individuals are called detectives. Uniformed officers typically pass cases off to detectives when the case involves significant research.
Unfortunately, detectives are often given a certain number of hours to work a case. If they can't get a significant lead or significant potential progress on the case within that time, the case gets shelved and the detective is handed another case. Though I don't disagree that a better priorization system may result in more effective use of detective's time, I think that the root cause of the problem is that most police departments don't have enough people to get the job done.
I think you hit the nail on the head . . . A lot of cases don't get solved not because the police don't have tools but because they don't have the manpower.
Many cases get shelved not because they are unsolvable but because there is too much other low hanging fruit that can more easily be addressed first. To get the most bang for the taxpayer dollar, easy cases get solved first and if there is time, the tough ones that take more time are addressed. Too often because of resource limitations, the more difficult cases are never addressed.
In my ignorance I may be opening a can of worms here but . . .
What about facial recognition software used for this purpose? If drivers license pictures were standardized and pictures taken at the morgue were made to the same standard (assuming the face of the disceased in not injured/damaged) is facial recognition software good enough to be used to try to identify John Does?
Many of the style issues that I'm reading on/. are the same ones I heard from European comsumers when the SMART car was first released. Too small, too silly, girly looking bright colors. Just not a macho car.
A few years later I heard things like great mileage, funky distinct design, low price, reliable, and most importantly able to park it in the tiniest of spaces.
I don't think that the SMART will ever be the cross country driving car of choice, but as a second car in the city for the 2 parent working family I think its a brilliant idea . . . Why drive a 4000 pound SUV to pick up a gallon of milk at the supermarket if you don't have to?
It's about time a very small 4 wheeled city vehicle for short distance commuting was released into the mainstream in the US . ..
When I first saw these released in Europe many people said that such tiny vehicles would never be released in the US because the small size made it impossible to meet US safety standards (similar reasons for the Ford Ka (no real bumpers), and Mazda 121). I'm glad to see that perhaps with some engineering creativity, we now know that is not the case . . .
"As Henry David Thoreau observed 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.' That being the case, novels are written, to briefly take such men, out of that quiet desperation, even for a short while. Novels therefore require a certain melodrama and fantasy element. For if the novels lacked such exaggerated drama, it would suffice to read the New York Times, and not Tom Clancy.
Without doubt Thoreau's comment deserves serious consideration; it has been argued that people watch soap operas and follow favorite sports teams because everyday life lacks a certain sense of narrative; however, to imply that the news is not (significantly) dramatic is quite a commentary on life in general . . .
Regardless of your political leanings, if WMD suspicions, presentations at the UN, North Korean nuclear brinksmanship, war in Iraq, Manipulations of the truth arguably by those for and against war, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, forged documents of a president's military record, and terrorist events in Paris, Madrid, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and NY City are not dramatic enough for the reviewer, then perhaps the reviewer should be checked to see if he still has a pulse. If there was a choice between a "Choose you own Adventure" book and the real world, I would choose the real world.
I can only guess that the reviewer is either looking to sensationalize his piece with a quote and a small piece of flamebait or perhaps he is one of those that cannot appreciate or perhaps understand the complicated drama that unfolds in the news that affects our daily lives.
Slashdot Mirror
The relevant documentation can be found here
Remember when infomercials were new and people trusted them and mistook them for real shows? The new format was "trustworthy" because people felt like they were watching some sort of impartial investigative reporting show . . . a legal but obviously deceitful sham that we all learned to identify over time.
Perhaps the trusty blog is soon to be spoiled with "infomercial" blogs that resemble real blogs but are written up specifically to create a sense of trust while pushing a specific product. For example, a trusty blog about FPS games is written for a few months as an inpartial and insightful site. Then suddenly it starts endorsing a newly released game as the best of the best . . .
Unscrupulous advertisers could undermine the blog by turning it into a vehicle for infomercials.
These factors are often multiplied together to result in a number that is used to prioritize the limited funds available to process improvement or maintenance.
These ideas are not new . . . they were developed by Japanese manufacturers and the US auto industry decades ago . . They are called Failure Modes and Effects Analyses. They are often used in conjunction with statisical process control efforts to reduce variability and downtime.
An FMEA is a system in which one identifies problems and then ranks the severity, detectibility, and frequency of the problem on a scale of 1 to 10 then multiplies these values together. The issues with the highest result should be prioritized as the issues that should be worked on first. This way we don't waste much time and effort working on non-severe problems or problems may be infrequent or undetectable unless the balance of all three of these components dictates that the problem is significant.
FMEA's and similar analyses have been used by engineers to improve manufacturing processes for years . . .
The court is probably the same one that issued the seizure order. I saw no indication in the article on the Indymedia site that they or Rackspace were not able to discuss the issue with anyone (e.g. I assume that they can speak with appropriate legal counsel).
However that doesn't mean that the recording industry won't try to ban this product . . .
Just the kind of endorsement that makes me want to rush out and buy one of these . . . if the two French politicians like it, then it must be a great product!
These guys really should hire a marketing firm to clean up publicity program . . . I don't see how a minister of finance's compliments are going to help commericialize the product.
I always wondered how it thing worked . . .
Without tactile feedback when interacting with virtual objects, is this really a practical thing that users would embrace? Or is "interact with virtual objects" just a euphemism for using the mouse and keyboard?
Light Years Beyond . . . You would think that someone in the optics insdutry would not use the term "Light years" figuratively in a major press release . . .
Wasn't there an arcade game in the early to mid 90's that had a 3D projected image above a glass tabletop? It was some sort of fantasy game with B-rate live actors that swallowed quarters by the bucketful . . . I think it stored the images on laserdisk (like the old 80's laserdisk games), but then projected the images over some sort of tabletop like thing. As I recall, the images flickered and were hard to see . . . I don't know what kind of technology it used but it sounds similar to what's being dicussed here . . .
Actually, Newton did get it "right" based on measurement technology and information at the time. His laws of motion described things "perfectly" based on his data. It was this simplicity and accuracy that makes his discovery famous.
Though it is true that his discoveries do not hold true at extreme (relativistic) speeds, Newton could not know anything about this.
For that matter it is conceivable that Einstein may not have gotten it "right" either. Perhaps in the future new information and new technology will provide us with more information about the universe that will prove Einstein wrong too . . . if that happens should we belittle Einstein and say that his discoveries would then be "less" important?
Huh, most cops make quick assessments of situations and make life and death decisions based on limited information in a very short time frame. To say that they don't "think outside the square" is either ignorant, insulting or both.
I would recommend asking if your local police department permits "ride alongs." This is when you ride with a cop through his/her entire shift and see what they have to deal with on a regular day. Lots of police depts. in the USA permit this after a suitable background check.
The post makes me think that most of your knowledge of cops comes from the Fox show "Cops." Chasing bad guys and tackling them to the ground is exciting TV, but it's only a part of the everyday job that cops normally do. A lot of the time is spent assessing situations, talking down potentially violent, disturbance situations, analyzing situations, and weighing the available evidence in he said/she said situations.
I don't think so . . . assuming MS's open source license is truly open source by the definition that I think most people at /. beleive in, there would be no antitrust issue. Just a patent and license issue.
Antitrust issues are typically abuses of monopolistic or nearly monopolistic market power. Opensourcing a patented technology and suing for infringement is something that is not necessarily predicated on a monopolistic market . . . little guys can do this to (assuming they can afford to pay the lawyers).
Is this the first step of MS trying to get into open source and become a major player? Microsoft has never been an innovator, but they are really good at stealing someone else's idea and business model (e.g. netscape, realplayer, etc., etc.) . . .perhaps they will foray into the "give the open source software away for free and sell the services and maintenance" business model. I'm sure that they won't do this for their core products . . . but for other things . . . like development tools or less popular products . . . maybe?
Actually I think its a good example, libraries and Kinkos went to self service photocopiers because it does afford them significant protection under the US copyright law. Check this university library site for more details. Quoted from that site:
Section 108(f)(2) gives protection to libraries, archives, and their employees from liability that may arise from the "unsupervised use" of photocopy machines and other equipment at the library, provided that the "equipment displays a notice that the making of a copy may be subject to the copyright law. . . ."
The function of the law is actually remarkably simple. If the library places the notice on the machine, the library avoids potential legal liability for infringements that a user may commit by the use of that equipment.
They wait for a complaint and then yank whatever was complained about off the server.
This is the cheapest way to handle alledged copyright violations. The people paying to have their material hosted are not going to pay extra to have a group of lawyers check their own material for copyright violations. If the ISP can't get the customer to pay for a team of lawyers to handle complaints of copyright violations then what is an ISP to do?
The problem isn't that the ISP knee-jerk responds to alledged copyright violations; the problem is that the legal system holds ISP's responsible for violations. the party held responsible should be the individual that placed copyrighted material on the internet.
For example, if the public library was responsible and liable for all material that was copied on it's self service photocopy machine, then most libraries would probably ban use of the copier or manage and log its use very closely and be willing to share this information with anyone that threatens to sue the library. This would be done to protect the legally liable library. The library would be attempting to shield itself from liability by cooperating with those that were alledgedly infringed and by pointing the finger at the person that actually made the copies. Of course libraries are not liable, the person that uses the copier is liable. This is why photocopy machines are normally self service. This prevents the library from being legally liable.
Unfortunately the same doesn't seem to be true for ISP's. ISP's can be legally liable if they don't provide information about an alleged copyright violator or if they don't remove the allegedly copyrighted material from their servers in a timely fashion. It is unfortunate that even though the ISP may not knowingly endorse infringement or actively participate in the infringement, they could still be held liable (or at least named as an infringing party in an expensive lawsuit).
Unfortunately ISP's have not been afforded legal protection similar to that granted to libraries with respect to photocopiers. It is the system that attempts to hold ISP's liable that is the problem. ISP's are merely reacting to this and trying to protect themselves.
Unfortunately, detectives are often given a certain number of hours to work a case. If they can't get a significant lead or significant potential progress on the case within that time, the case gets shelved and the detective is handed another case. Though I don't disagree that a better priorization system may result in more effective use of detective's time, I think that the root cause of the problem is that most police departments don't have enough people to get the job done.
Many cases get shelved not because they are unsolvable but because there is too much other low hanging fruit that can more easily be addressed first. To get the most bang for the taxpayer dollar, easy cases get solved first and if there is time, the tough ones that take more time are addressed. Too often because of resource limitations, the more difficult cases are never addressed.
What about facial recognition software used for this purpose? If drivers license pictures were standardized and pictures taken at the morgue were made to the same standard (assuming the face of the disceased in not injured/damaged) is facial recognition software good enough to be used to try to identify John Does?
A few years later I heard things like great mileage, funky distinct design, low price, reliable, and most importantly able to park it in the tiniest of spaces.
I don't think that the SMART will ever be the cross country driving car of choice, but as a second car in the city for the 2 parent working family I think its a brilliant idea . . . Why drive a 4000 pound SUV to pick up a gallon of milk at the supermarket if you don't have to?
When I first saw these released in Europe many people said that such tiny vehicles would never be released in the US because the small size made it impossible to meet US safety standards (similar reasons for the Ford Ka (no real bumpers), and Mazda 121). I'm glad to see that perhaps with some engineering creativity, we now know that is not the case . . .
Without doubt Thoreau's comment deserves serious consideration; it has been argued that people watch soap operas and follow favorite sports teams because everyday life lacks a certain sense of narrative; however, to imply that the news is not (significantly) dramatic is quite a commentary on life in general . . .
Regardless of your political leanings, if WMD suspicions, presentations at the UN, North Korean nuclear brinksmanship, war in Iraq, Manipulations of the truth arguably by those for and against war, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, forged documents of a president's military record, and terrorist events in Paris, Madrid, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and NY City are not dramatic enough for the reviewer, then perhaps the reviewer should be checked to see if he still has a pulse. If there was a choice between a "Choose you own Adventure" book and the real world, I would choose the real world.
I can only guess that the reviewer is either looking to sensationalize his piece with a quote and a small piece of flamebait or perhaps he is one of those that cannot appreciate or perhaps understand the complicated drama that unfolds in the news that affects our daily lives.