I don't see how this can apply to anyone doing non forensic computer repair. However, looking at section 1702.104 and the exemptions in section 1702.324 I can see a couple of interesting places this law could apply.
The obvious one, which is not a new idea, relates to companies like MediaDefender performing investigations on behalf of the RIAA and MPAA. They act like a private investigator but do not have a licence to do so (obtaining or furnishing information related to identity, habits, location, transactions, etc of a person with computer-based data not available to the public (subsections (a)(1)(B) and (b) )); MediaSentry role in RIAA lawsuit comes under scrutiny.
The non obvious one deals with anyone who works with clickstream data, e.g. NebuAd,Doubleclick, Google, etc. They all obtain information to do with a person and subsection (a)(1)(B) is a huge or statement. Since identity is one of these ors you could define a person using a unique identifier, only track habits, location, affiliations, or transactions, and still possibly be subject to this.
"
AOL has released very private data about its users without their permission. While the AOL username has been changed to a random ID number, the abilitiy to analyze all searches by a single user will often lead people to easily determine who the user is, and what they are up to. The data includes personal names, addresses, social security numbers and everything else someone might type into a search box.
The most serious problem is the fact that many people often search on their own name, or those of their friends and family, to see what information is available about them on the net. Combine these ego searches with porn queries and you have a serious embarrassment. Combine them with "buy ecstasy" and you have evidence of a crime. Combine it with an address, social security number, etc., and you have an identity theft waiting to happen. The possibilities are endless.
"
Something to think about... But then again, IANAL and not even an American so what would I know.
Sec. 1702.104. INVESTIGATIONS COMPANY. (a) A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person:
(1) engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing, or accepts employment to obtain or furnish, information related to:
(A) crime or wrongs done or threatened against a state or the United States;
(B) the identity, habits, business, occupation,knowledge, efficiency, loyalty, movement, location, affiliations, associations, transactions, acts, reputation, or character of a person;
(C) the location, disposition, or recovery of lost or stolen property; or
(D) the cause or responsibility for a fire, libel, loss, accident, damage, or injury to a person or to property; (2) engages in the business of securing, or accepts employment to secure, evidence for use before a court, board, officer, or investigating committee;
(3) engages in the business of securing, or accepts employment to secure, the electronic tracking of the location of an individual or motor vehicle other than for criminal justice purposes by or on behalf of a governmental entity; or
(4) engages in the business of protecting, or accepts employment to protect, an individual from bodily harm through the use of a personal protection officer.
(b) For purposes of Subsection (a)(1), obtaining or furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public.
Triple J is the government funded national youth broadcaster, Unearthed has been running since 1995 and has discovered bands and artists such as Missy Higgins, Unpaid Debt, The Bumblebeez, Sick Puppies, Endorphin, Killing Heidi, and Grinspoon. And if you haven't heard of any of these, you might have heard of Silverchair.
For electronic music I find netlabels are a good source and most of the music is released under a Creative Commons license. I guess one way to describe a netlabel is as a curated collection of music, there is the concept of quality control and reputation is important for the better known labels. They aren't just a huge collection of dubious quality music like mp3.com used to be.
There are lots of good videos linked from the BoingBoing article including one of Robert Moog interacting with a ReactTable.
The software is available so if you want one have a crack at building your own.
As best as I can tell the only innovation that Microsoft has added to their interactive table is the wireless interface support (Bluetooth etc). All the shape and "domino" tags recognition have been done before. It would be interesting to see how many of the developers of other interactive tables have been involved with this project.
The Jigsaw Downloader (jigdo) can be used for this, it was developed to help with distribution of Debian ISO images. It is being used to build Debian ISO images from the packages located on the Debian mirrors. You don't have to worry about distributing the ISO images to the mirror sites or need additional disk space to store them either. The best thing is that you can update your local ISO to include new packages, etc, as things change.
Have a look at http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/ and http://atterer.net/jigdo/
Note the FPP designation, the EULA states (for once I actually decided to read it) "If your designation is FPP, then the Retail License Terms below apply". This is not an academic licence and you are able to sell it. The relevant section of the licence is this bit "16. TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY. The first user of the software may make a one-time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party."
The other positive thing is that installation on a portable device is back, "1b. Portable Device. You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device.".
If you look at what is covered by Microsoft's Published Protocols made available by entering into Royalty Free licensing agreement, you will find yourself able to "to implement the Protocol(s) for which the applicable box(es) are checked on Exhibit A, and to use the corresponding Technical Documentation (as defined below) for that purpose." What are some of these Royalty Free protocols?
Daytime (RFC 867)
Chargen (RFC 864)
AppleTalk
DIFFSERV (RFC 2474)
Discard (RFC 863>
DNS (All appropriate RFCs)
DHCP
FTP
TCP/IP
...
The list just keeps going on. I know this is royalty free but for the life of me I cannot figure out why I would need to sign a licensing agreement with Microsoft to implement any of these. A patent agreement maybe with Apple for AppleTalk or relevant parties to implement Bluetooth for example (not saying that I agree with software or protocol patents but this is the IP environment that we currently work in). Signing an agreement with Microsoft to be allowed to read documentation and implement someone elses protocol, WTF? No significant innovation. I would be interested to know if anyone has entered into this Royalty Free agreement.
Protocols not included in this list are subject to other licensing and royalty agreements. An implementation of a General Server without restricted protocols has a royalty rate of 5% for a software product and 2.5% for an embedded product with a minimum royalty of $40 per server or $0.40 per user. Per server licensing would put the minimum product price at $800.
Included in this is permission to implement propriety Microsoft protocols (.NET Remoting TcpChannel Protocol, FrontPage Server Extensions Remote Protocol, Microsoft Media Server Protocols, Windows Group Policy Protocols, etc) which may include significant innovation as well as others that are existing protocols that have been extended. These include:
H.323 Protocol Extensions (Additional codec)
Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol with IPsec Extensions
Windows Media Services HTTP 1.0 Streaming Protocol
Windows Media Services HTTP 1.1 Streaming Protocol
World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) Protocol Extensions
Internet Protocol Security Protocols Extensions
NT LAN Manager Authentication Protocol (Kerberos extension)
Network Time Protocol Extensions
None of these appear to be licensed separately, they are only available as part of task based licensing bundle. The protocols in the list above also don't have any significant innovation, they are just minor extensions or combinations of, existing protocols. I agree with the EU, these should not be patentable (nor should any protocol) and that the royalty is excessive.
Warner is just jumping on a trend (although small so far) started by mainly electronic musicians on independant labels. I own 3 DVD audio albums that are definately worth it.
The only reason that they are worth it is the fact that the artists are pushing the current boundaries of where recorded music is currently at. All these works were conceptualised and developed as 5.1 surround projects. I hope that this is just the beginning of a wider movement. That said, I don't neccessarily see the value of this kind of thing for Top 40 artists unless there projects are undertaken with this vision - a 5.1 surround mix of most of that stuff will not make any difference.
The WSJ article talks about value adding using ringtones, pictures, remixes, and other features. I think that this is a good idea but if this is seen as a way of resuscitating falling CD sales it is going to be the price that matters. If they can sell this at the same price point as a regular CD then it would probably work but only if the additional content is seen as 'worth it'.
Case in point, the Richie Hawtin DE9: Transitions release was packaged as a DVD and a bonus CD which contained an edited stereo mix of the DVD audio content (which was 97 minutes long). On the DVD was the 5.1 audio mix, interviews, video clips, and best of all, an already encoded mp3 of the audio content. All this content in a package at the price point of a new release CD, worth it? Hell yeah!
If Warner thinks they can charge a premium price for what they are planning then this initiative is doomed to failure. And instead of the low bitrate 'pre-ripped' audio for burning to a CD, how about including an audio CD in the package. CD duplication costs are cheap, just look at the number of AOL CDs, magazine cover discs, and other free CDs given away with nearly everything.
There are two Vista concepts at play here, SuperFetch and External Memory Devices (EMDs).
"Windows Vista introduces a new concept in adding memory to a system. USB flash drives can be used as External Memory Devices (EMDs) to extend system memory and improve performance without opening the box. Your computer is able to access memory from an EMD device much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive, boosting system performance. When combined with SuperFetch technology, this can help drive impressive improvement in system responsiveness."
SuperFetch can apparently use an EMD as additional ram and "A unique algorithm optimizes wear patterns, so that a USB device can run as an EMD for many years, even when heavily used.". I think that I'd take it with a grain of salt until I saw it working, this is still marketing fluff as the USB support won't be available until a later preview version of Vista (http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=20 100).
I am curious about the Hybrid Hard Drives mentioned in the article on the Microsoft site. Anyone know which manufacturers are developing hard drives with a large flash cache?
The idea of tethered high altitude wind power generation has been around for a long time. The people behind Sky Wind Power Corporation (http://skywindpower.com) have been developing their technology since 1979.
They do not use kites but a tethered electrical generator, like a helicopter with 2 fifteen foot rotors and no cabin. The documentation on their site seems to cover a lot of questions that would come up here, especially about the tether etc.
It is just sad to see another australian inventor having to go overseas to try and get their idea noticed.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't see how this can apply to anyone doing non forensic computer repair. However, looking at section 1702.104 and the exemptions in section 1702.324 I can see a couple of interesting places this law could apply.
The obvious one, which is not a new idea, relates to companies like MediaDefender performing investigations on behalf of the RIAA and MPAA. They act like a private investigator but do not have a licence to do so (obtaining or furnishing information related to identity, habits, location, transactions, etc of a person with computer-based data not available to the public (subsections (a)(1)(B) and (b) )); MediaSentry role in RIAA lawsuit comes under scrutiny.
The non obvious one deals with anyone who works with clickstream data, e.g. NebuAd,Doubleclick, Google, etc. They all obtain information to do with a person and subsection (a)(1)(B) is a huge or statement. Since identity is one of these ors you could define a person using a unique identifier, only track habits, location, affiliations, or transactions, and still possibly be subject to this.
Is a unique identifier a person? It could be, AOL Proudly Releases Massive Amounts of Private Data
" AOL has released very private data about its users without their permission. While the AOL username has been changed to a random ID number, the abilitiy to analyze all searches by a single user will often lead people to easily determine who the user is, and what they are up to. The data includes personal names, addresses, social security numbers and everything else someone might type into a search box.
The most serious problem is the fact that many people often search on their own name, or those of their friends and family, to see what information is available about them on the net. Combine these ego searches with porn queries and you have a serious embarrassment. Combine them with "buy ecstasy" and you have evidence of a crime. Combine it with an address, social security number, etc., and you have an identity theft waiting to happen. The possibilities are endless. "
Something to think about... But then again, IANAL and not even an American so what would I know.
Sec. 1702.104. INVESTIGATIONS COMPANY.
(a) A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person:
(1) engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing, or accepts employment to obtain or furnish, information related to:
(A) crime or wrongs done or threatened against a state or the United States;
(B) the identity, habits, business, occupation,knowledge, efficiency, loyalty, movement, location, affiliations, associations, transactions, acts, reputation, or character of a person;
(C) the location, disposition, or recovery of lost or stolen property; or
(D) the cause or responsibility for a fire, libel, loss, accident, damage, or injury to a person or to property;
(2) engages in the business of securing, or accepts employment to secure, evidence for use before a court, board, officer, or investigating committee;
(3) engages in the business of securing, or accepts employment to secure, the electronic tracking of the location of an individual or motor vehicle other than for criminal justice purposes by or on behalf of a governmental entity; or
(4) engages in the business of protecting, or accepts employment to protect, an individual from bodily harm through the use of a personal protection officer.
(b) For purposes of Subsection (a)(1), obtaining or furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public.
In Australia we have projects like Triple J Unearthed which are funded by the government through the Australia Council for the Arts.
Triple J is the government funded national youth broadcaster, Unearthed has been running since 1995 and has discovered bands and artists such as Missy Higgins, Unpaid Debt, The Bumblebeez, Sick Puppies, Endorphin, Killing Heidi, and Grinspoon. And if you haven't heard of any of these, you might have heard of Silverchair.
Give some Aussie music a go and stream or download it.
For electronic music I find netlabels are a good source and most of the music is released under a Creative Commons license. I guess one way to describe a netlabel is as a curated collection of music, there is the concept of quality control and reputation is important for the better known labels. They aren't just a huge collection of dubious quality music like mp3.com used to be.
A good label is Thinner, and for more have a look at the netlabel catalogue, my collection, or just use Google.
The ReacTable has been used recently by Bjork at the Coachella festival.
o jekte/projekte/ineractable.html1 /10/space-and-place-a-list-fo-interactive-tables/
There are lots of good videos linked from the BoingBoing article including one of Robert Moog interacting with a ReactTable.
The software is available so if you want one have a crack at building your own.
As best as I can tell the only innovation that Microsoft has added to their interactive table is the wireless interface support (Bluetooth etc). All the shape and "domino" tags recognition have been done before. It would be interesting to see how many of the developers of other interactive tables have been involved with this project.
Other interactive tables can be found here.
http://mtg.upf.es/reactable/?related
http://www.tangibletable.de/
http://www.ipsi.fraunhofer.de/ambiente/english/pr
http://www.jamespatten.com/audiopad/
http://tecfa.unige.ch/perso/staf/nova/blog/2005/0
The Jigsaw Downloader (jigdo) can be used for this, it was developed to help with distribution of Debian ISO images. It is being used to build Debian ISO images from the packages located on the Debian mirrors. You don't have to worry about distributing the ISO images to the mirror sites or need additional disk space to store them either. The best thing is that you can update your local ISO to include new packages, etc, as things change. Have a look at http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/ and http://atterer.net/jigdo/
I know because I bought a copy (.NET development pays the bills) and the relevant part of my invoice is:
Product SKU: 76H-00423
Product Name: Microsoft® Office Ultimate 2007 (Unlimited Licence)
Qty Ordered: 1
Amount: 75.00AUD
Product Key (FPP):
Note the FPP designation, the EULA states (for once I actually decided to read it) "If your designation is FPP, then the Retail License Terms below apply". This is not an academic licence and you are able to sell it. The relevant section of the licence is this bit "16. TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY. The first user of the software may make a one-time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party."
The other positive thing is that installation on a portable device is back, "1b. Portable Device. You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device.".
The only thing that I can't find online is an official version of the EULA itself, there is a copy at http://www.chat11.com/Microsoft_Office_2007_Ultima te_License_Agreement
So if any aussie students want to sell their copy and make a quick buck, I say go for it. Think of the beer.
If you look at what is covered by Microsoft's Published Protocols made available by entering into Royalty Free licensing agreement, you will find yourself able to "to implement the Protocol(s) for which the applicable box(es) are checked on Exhibit A, and to use the corresponding Technical Documentation (as defined below) for that purpose." What are some of these Royalty Free protocols?
The list just keeps going on. I know this is royalty free but for the life of me I cannot figure out why I would need to sign a licensing agreement with Microsoft to implement any of these. A patent agreement maybe with Apple for AppleTalk or relevant parties to implement Bluetooth for example (not saying that I agree with software or protocol patents but this is the IP environment that we currently work in). Signing an agreement with Microsoft to be allowed to read documentation and implement someone elses protocol, WTF? No significant innovation. I would be interested to know if anyone has entered into this Royalty Free agreement.
Protocols not included in this list are subject to other licensing and royalty agreements. An implementation of a General Server without restricted protocols has a royalty rate of 5% for a software product and 2.5% for an embedded product with a minimum royalty of $40 per server or $0.40 per user. Per server licensing would put the minimum product price at $800.
Included in this is permission to implement propriety Microsoft protocols (.NET Remoting TcpChannel Protocol, FrontPage Server Extensions Remote Protocol, Microsoft Media Server Protocols, Windows Group Policy Protocols, etc) which may include significant innovation as well as others that are existing protocols that have been extended. These include:
None of these appear to be licensed separately, they are only available as part of task based licensing bundle. The protocols in the list above also don't have any significant innovation, they are just minor extensions or combinations of, existing protocols. I agree with the EU, these should not be patentable (nor should any protocol) and that the royalty is excessive.
Warner is just jumping on a trend (although small so far) started by mainly electronic musicians on independant labels. I own 3 DVD audio albums that are definately worth it.
- richie-060210.shtml
Tipper: Surrounded - http://www.gridface.com/reviews/surrounded.html
Amon Tobin: Chaos Theory - http://www.ninjatune.net/ninja/artist.php?id=1
Richie Hawtin: DE9: Transitions - http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/hawtin
The only reason that they are worth it is the fact that the artists are pushing the current boundaries of where recorded music is currently at. All these works were conceptualised and developed as 5.1 surround projects. I hope that this is just the beginning of a wider movement. That said, I don't neccessarily see the value of this kind of thing for Top 40 artists unless there projects are undertaken with this vision - a 5.1 surround mix of most of that stuff will not make any difference.
The WSJ article talks about value adding using ringtones, pictures, remixes, and other features. I think that this is a good idea but if this is seen as a way of resuscitating falling CD sales it is going to be the price that matters. If they can sell this at the same price point as a regular CD then it would probably work but only if the additional content is seen as 'worth it'.
Case in point, the Richie Hawtin DE9: Transitions release was packaged as a DVD and a bonus CD which contained an edited stereo mix of the DVD audio content (which was 97 minutes long). On the DVD was the 5.1 audio mix, interviews, video clips, and best of all, an already encoded mp3 of the audio content. All this content in a package at the price point of a new release CD, worth it? Hell yeah!
If Warner thinks they can charge a premium price for what they are planning then this initiative is doomed to failure. And instead of the low bitrate 'pre-ripped' audio for burning to a CD, how about including an audio CD in the package. CD duplication costs are cheap, just look at the number of AOL CDs, magazine cover discs, and other free CDs given away with nearly everything.
There are two Vista concepts at play here, SuperFetch and External Memory Devices (EMDs).
r everyone/performance.mspx
0 100).
"Windows Vista introduces a new concept in adding memory to a system. USB flash drives can be used as External Memory Devices (EMDs) to extend system memory and improve performance without opening the box. Your computer is able to access memory from an EMD device much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive, boosting system performance. When combined with SuperFetch technology, this can help drive impressive improvement in system responsiveness."
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/fo
SuperFetch can apparently use an EMD as additional ram and "A unique algorithm optimizes wear patterns, so that a USB device can run as an EMD for many years, even when heavily used.". I think that I'd take it with a grain of salt until I saw it working, this is still marketing fluff as the USB support won't be available until a later preview version of Vista (http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=2
I am curious about the Hybrid Hard Drives mentioned in the article on the Microsoft site. Anyone know which manufacturers are developing hard drives with a large flash cache?
The idea of tethered high altitude wind power generation has been around for a long time. The people behind Sky Wind Power Corporation (http://skywindpower.com) have been developing their technology since 1979.
They do not use kites but a tethered electrical generator, like a helicopter with 2 fifteen foot rotors and no cabin. The documentation on their site seems to cover a lot of questions that would come up here, especially about the tether etc.
It is just sad to see another australian inventor having to go overseas to try and get their idea noticed.