SJ Mercury News reported about this few months back. But you should have seen this paper. The business section had two major stories side by side. One was about new game development education program and corresponding degree at USC. And another story about increasing outourcing of game development jobs abroad.
You have to distinguish the intentions from reality. Yes intention was to protect the little guy and probably in case some dude sitting working in his garage on new and wonderful canopener that still might be the case.
Unfortunately more and more patents are just one of the means of corporate warfare. And overall small software companies would benefit more from having no software patents than what we have right now. Because let's be honest there are very few trully original ideas that actually worthy patents (the way they were intened) most of the time they are filed to cover ones ass against competitors. They are wraped in lawyerspeak drivel that allows you to patent almost everything
( rememember that nice patent about swinging sideways?) as long as you can afford yourself a guy who knows how to do it. Hell, you now can have programs that do this for you.
The way the patent system works right now it benefits society very little and on the contrary it spawned an "IP industry" that basically full of leeches.
For those who think HAM operators have no foundation behind their objections to BPL please visit this site and see results of actual studies on interference.
There is a lot of additional issues surrounding BPL. Such as the fact that power market is regulated and comunications market is not. Utility companies are going to finance their excursion into broadband internet access out of your pocket even if you are not going to use it.
Reminds me old science fiction story from one of the OMNI's paperbacks. About Olimpic games and all US and Russian teams having genetically modified memebers. Everything was there IIRC. Swimmers with fins, wrestlers with with TRex like bodies and well Russian boxer (who wins gold medal by several points) having his brain in his... well... ass.
your skepticism is admirable however substantially missinformed.
let's start from the bottom of your post. quick trip to a google site will tell you that DeBeers controlls currently roughly 60% of the diamond market (it's not 85% as it used to be, but still substantial chunk) with Russia slowly gaining on them with 23% current share (btw. it took decades to Soviet Union and then Russa that mines their diamonds in Yakutia to get that much share of the trade) but still majority of Russain (Yakutian) diamonds are cut and sold by DeBeers. You quote about "less then half" actually belongs to the share of diamond trade in DeBeers profits. It is true diamond trade is not a major source of profits for DeBeers. Well, any "natural" monopolist if he/she is not complete moron will eventually try to diversify his/her business. Isn't it what Microsoft is trying to do since beginning of 90's?
Comparison to emeralds and rubies is not exactly fare. Several things separates diamond market from other gemstones. The main reason for that is that people (who bought into this marketing campain back in 1930's) are idiots. When you buy little 1.5 karat diamond you also buy a "marketing bubble" the size of Alaska. Compared to other gemstones substantial amount of diamonds do not end up in jewelry. Everyboy is so convinced that diamonds are such a good investment (mostly due to their ignorance) that in essence almost all diamonds go one way and almost never leave the extended family of the original buyer of the diamond. Secondary market as really tiny dwarf compared to the original one. Well, untill it's time to go to a pawn shop.
The fact that you need to have a small spectroscopy laboratory to distinguish natural diamond from artificial can actually decrease the price. Diamond dealers (both cut and uncut) follow the rules that were established (i'm not kidding you) over the centuries. These people do not want to change. Here are the rules (at least the way my friend who tried to do this in 90's told me). Rough uncut diamond is pretty cheap. The dealer who buys it from you has only a microscope at most to look at it. If he/she sees just as little a scratch or attemt to polish the stone (to look what's inside) he or she will tell you "good buy" and then will call to every dealer he or she knows to tell them not to have any business with you. You will be literally finished in diamond business. The reason? Originally when you bought rough diamond you would not really know how much of cut diamond you would get due to the impurities inside. As soon as dealer will get just a feeling that you try to inflate the price of uncut diamond buy trying to find out what and where it has impurities he/she will stop any relations with you.
Diamond cutting industry however made significant progress over the years. It can be probably compared with electronic industry. AFIK this was pionered buy Japanese. Before cutting the diamond every stone goes through all kinds of tests X-ray, ultrasound spectrography etc. And then a computer program optimizes the cut to get the highest value possible. This is being done probably since 70's. 80's for sure. This all is actually great. The problem I have with all this is that price of a cut diamond has not significantly changed. It's like buing a CPU from Intel or AMD and they charge you for every fucking transistor (how many of them now tens of millions?) they have there the price they used to ask for transistor back in 50s.
If you can make artificial diamond that will not be distinguishable from natural one visually it is great. (Thinking soon you might have to have a certificate of authenticity or God forbid actual spectroscopic data makes me laugh). That is why those guys are probably scared now. That is why they are going to demand that every artificial diamond should be sold on separate market. They are clever salesmen but they are essencially leeches.
Oh well this post is too long for me to check spelling.
There is still no substitution for good (that is with the security in mind) programming practices. And of course readily available information about vulnerabilities.
I think it matters not that much if you have 90% boxes on the net running windows (God forbid, really!) and 10% of "others". Or it breaks down different way. Nmap does very good job identifying remote operating system nowdays. So for a persistent and dedicated cracker it should not matter that much if you have a "monoculture" or big veriety of OSes. The only difference, i think, would be that in "monoculture" environment scrip kiddies would be more successfull.
I don't think so. IMHO, in case BPL would get accepted they'd just step aside and watch this thing to die and then they would take over the BPL customers.
Iterference would be a huge problem fo HAM operators and everybody who use HF/VHF. But the thing is interference goes both ways. So I think if deployed in wide area BPL would just really really suck. You power line infrastructure was just not built to be protected from interference. Any kind of it. Even people with DSL have problem with intereference. And that's CAT3 UTP (in most places).
So for telco and cable providers BPL will just awake an apetite of more people for broadband. If you ever had broadband (however bad it was) going back to dial-up is just painfull. Most of my firends who installed and had problems with DSL just switched to cable. I don't even remember anyone of them fireing up their dial-up modem ever again.
As far as I remember for a long time ARRL was the only voice oposing to BPL.
Really. I think the main problem that these people (record labels and such) just don't care about music at all. A decade or so ago the recording industry transmformed itself into "industry of the cool" but because the music is what a lot of regular people still care about the record companies are having problems right now.
I think it all happened in the beginning of 90's with rap invading a mainstream and an unexpected breaktrhough from Seatle. It all was raw, real and it was for sure cool. However gangsta rap was really difficult to package in the beginning while Seatle bands just did not want to sell out on the industry terms. So the recording industry took a lesson and started to manufacture all that stuff. And we all eded up with a lot of overproduced shit performed by people we do not care about.
I think recording industry have been hearing for whom the bell tolls (for them that is) for quite some time. You could see that on those so called "music channels" all the way through the 90s. When they constantly were trying to get in bed with fashion industry, movie industry etc. They just forgot about the music in the process.
Instead they are trying to fuel the public's interest by all that other shit such as rivalaries between rap artists, who is screwing with whom, extreme sports, lame models that cannot put to words together without spraining their brain and so on.
Lately they started to produce really wierd shit. Such as punk band that never went on tour but got a major record label (Good Charlotte) or a "garage band" that went straight on MTV awards (White Stripes, I mean they are pretty good, but nothing special. Really).
Of course all that "manufacturing of cool" requires a huge overhead. So music becomes even more fogotten.
As for movie industry. They are the same greedy bastards as RIAA. The only thing that they do differently is... let me see... They still make and sell movies...
Dude!!! What planet are you from? Not really I want to know so I can move there! That wonderful place where suits listen to what geeks/techs are saying.
I know this one. I just bought it as a present for my girlfriend. It is pretty cool. And she likes it a lot.
I was considering getting an iPod for her. But every time when I decide to deal with Apple I always come to painful realisation that I just hate their attitude. They have this dumbass business strategy that only they know what you really need and they determined to shove it down your throat. I don't want to troll on them. Apple has really cool products, they have good engineers and designers. But at the same time they always try to sell you the most expensive one. Here in Bay Area it is impossible to find 10 GB version of iPod. All BestBuys and Fried electronics have only 30 GB versions (for extra $200) and I don't have 30 GB of mp3s even on my home computer (which is also a home entertainment center). Come to think of it I don't even have that many CDs yet to rip to fill this much space.
So I settled on Yepp. And I'm pretty happy. It is very sleek. Very good sound. You can actually change sound modes. Plus FM radio. Plus record your own stuff. 256 MB is almost enough for my gf. I guess when there will be version with more memory outhere. I'll get new one for her and take the old one.
And it seems that it is really not that difficult to increase traffic especially for cable companies. I know that asking for HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax would be too much right now. (And I don't watch them anyway)
But at least they could try to offer feed over internet for SciFi, TLC, Discover, IMC. They transmit them over regular cable anyway. I know for sure, that if this would happen I would turn my TV on only to watch DVDs.
You are 100% correct. What actually is needed is content for which broadband internet access would be required. There is hope that online gaming might generate some need for broadband. I hear quite different stories about gaming industry. Some say that it's really tough, some say that it is actually booming at the moment. Quite possibly both are true. But I don't assume that gamers represent a significant fraction of all people that are acutally connected to Internet right now.
It is impossible to overlook however that all those predictions about limitless growth opportunities that were made in those golden years (end of 1990's) about growth of broadband were based on quite simple thing that people will want online entertainment. And we should "thank" two giant money grabbing monsters RIAA and MPAA for the fact that actually did not happen.
We have to ask them for example what happened to live feeds from various radiostations. In 2000 I listened at least three stations every day. Two of them do not exist anymore and the third put a lid on internet broadcasting and just continues to deliver it's programs the oldfashion way (radio waves). The bummer is it is just too far away from me. And of course we have to ask them where are our movies over internet.
But seriously folks! We have to do something about those guys. They are greedy and they are actually extremely dumb (even though they have smart lawyers)
I think regarding OS X it is too soon to call. From what I see it is a very nice OS and those boxes are sweet to (albeit more expensive). In my opinion you should give at least 3 years for any changes to happen. And again like with Linux those changes will happen from ground up. Offer any CIO right now the option to switch to OS X and he will tell you that you are nutts. And he will tell you a lot of reasons. And I bet that half of those reasons will be bogus. But this is how things are in the real world. If on another hand you will tell you your sysadmin that you would like to have Mac in your office (and if he is reasonable guy, which is almost always true;) ) I don't think he will object as long as your boss is Ok with it.
In my opinion Apple still feels a backlash from the years of MacOS 7.x. Which was a dog. I know that for sure because at my graduate school for some reason a lot of people liked Macs and for some strange reason I became a "support guy". Those were the days when your Mac crashed several times a day. And that was also a time when major fallout happen on a sofware vendors side. A lot of companies droped their support for Macs.
Another "perception"/legacy problem that came from those days (and I think that might still affect IT guys) was that Mac OS for a guy with unix or Windows background looked like a debilitating mess. Those days Apple was clearly behind in design and features (just remember TCP/IP implementation) plus they always targeted "creative" people. So for those "creative" people to be able to manage thier computer Apple came up with set of "metahpors" that were, to say the least, very unnatural for IT guys. So you had system extentions, control panels, prefernces and God knows what else. Every other program you install always would add something in your system folder. Then you had to get a programm that would hunt down conflicts between those extentions. Then you had to install "crush" analyzer that would freez your box even more often. And so on ad nauseum. So if you follow the logic of the article Mac OS was suppposed to be IT's bread and butter. In reality IT guys were running away from it like from leper.
Personally I am not Mac fanatic. But I think Apple has a good chance with it's current line of software and hardware if they combine that with more aggressive pricing they'll do great.
I don't want to sound troll. But this thing (ethernet over power lines) has been freaking out ham radio operators all over the world for quite some time. Look for example here [eham.net]. And based on the law "if the shit can happen it certainly will" this will bring EMI problems to all equipment that is connected to or in the vicinty of the jack in the wall. Your TVs your stereos your computers etc.
Besides have anybody of had to deal with power companies? Do you really want THEM to provide your internet connection? Or even being involved in providing one.
Time and time again it returns (and will keep returning) to the simple truth. You need an adequate infrastructure to provide high speed Internet.
In the beginning of DSL I kept hearing a lot of strange things going against physics. Such as UTP (unshielded twisted pair) is better than coaxial cable etc. Well guess what, being entirely untrue this is not the end of the story. The pair that runs the phone line in your home/appartment is not even twisted, its flat (and it's CAT 3 most of the time to the central office).
It took huge amount of money to put power lines, phone lines and CATV into every home. And the companies that were doing that were cutting costs like crazy. Which means that nobody ever thought that someday it will be used for something else besides its initial purpose. And again based on the law I mentioned in the beginning it will be probably the worst case scenario for anytiing else. In case of DSLs that certainly is crosstalk and EMI and also distance. For example in my case no DSL provider does even want to install it for me citing that I am too far from central office.
Personally I think the interrim winners of all this will be the cable companies. Just because the people who decided to get broadband internet access usually go all the way once they've set to have it. Most people I know who started with DSL eventually just switch to cable modems. But eventually every body will lose because again CATV was not intended for anything else. (Just an example untill recently CATV equipment manufacturers were refusing to use multilayered PCBs because it was "too expensive"). So this is it. People just keep their heads in the body cavities of their choice and keep selling each other a snake oil.
On the other hand. It would be actually nice (especially with current situation in tech sector of economy) if we'd start laying fiber to the home and/or build sane infrastructure for wireless access.
I agree with you. But I have to remind you that years ago there was at that time not so big company that actually pulled stunt like that (crappy OS on not so hot hardware) and did pretty well. Unlike others .
First of all I was kind of surprised when I first heard about Sen. Hatch's initiative. I am not a big fan of his but very often he looked pretty reasonable to me. IIRC he suppports stem cell research. But going after "pirates" being pirate himself is bad.
That being said I am actually more concerned about independent software developers. And the ways how they can make money and enforce thier licenses. I am not independent developer myself. But I can imagine that doing all that above and actually writing a code could be quite a hassle. I started to think about after I read this this storry.
The thought that occurred to me is this. May be there is a niche for something that we would call (for the lack of a better term) a "software label". It is something like a SourceForge but with a bit muscule behind it. That is for independent software developer it would provide following functions:
1. Hosting a website for given software (that is in essence marketing and advetising).
2. Binaries (or even source code) repository.
3. Handling payments (especially electronic)
4. Legal representation.
Everything except item 4 can be set up on nickel and dime. And regarding lawyers. I hear that here (in the Sil. Valey) a lot of them lost jobs and gladly do lower pay or even pro bono work.
It can even act like an "agent" for a programmer. Just an example. My friend (well actually the guy I talk on IRC a lot) is a free-lancer. Year ago he got a contract to make them a site (linux+appache+php+mysql+lots of other shit). He made it (I was a beta-tester) company got it but now for some lame reason they refuse to pay. He might win but from what I see they are going to suck him dry first.
Point is you wrote a package. But for many reasons (especially now) starting your own company is not feasible yet. In this case it would be nice that there is someone who could handle the "overhead for you".
I don't want to sound troll. But this thing (ethernet over power lines) is freaking out ham radio operators all over the world. Look for example here. And based on the law "if the shit can happen it certainly will" this will bring EMI problems to all equipment that is connected to or in the vicinty of the jack in the wall. Your TVs your stereos your computers etc.
Besides have anybody of had to deal with power companies? Do you really want THEM to provide your internet connection? Or even being involved in providing one.
Time and time again it returns (and will keep returning) to the simple truth. You need an adequate infrastructure to provide high speed Internet.
In the beginning of DSL I kept hearing a lot of strange things going against physics. Such as UTP (unshielded twisted pair) is better than coaxial cable etc. Well guess what, being entirely untrue this is not the end of the story. The pair that runs the phone line in your home/appartment is not even twisted, its flat (and it's CAT 3 most of the time to the central office).
It took huge amount of money to put power lines, phone lines and CATV into every home. And the companies that were doing that were cutting costs like crazy. Which means that nobody ever thought that someday it will be used for something else besides its initial purpose. And again based on the law I mentioned in the beginning it will be probably the worst case scenario for anytiing else. In case of DSLs that certainly is crosstalk and EMI and also distance. For example in my case no DSL provider does even want to install it for me citing that I am too far from central office.
Personally I think the interrim winners of all this will be the cable companies. Just because the people who decided to get broadband internet access usually go all the way once they've set to have it. Most people I know who started with DSL eventually just switch to cable modems. But eventually every body will lose because again CATV was not intended for anything else. (Just an example untill recently CATV equipment manufacturers were refusing to use multilayered PCBs because it was "too expensive"). So this is it. People just keep their heads in the body cavities of their choice and keep selling each other a snake oil.
On the other hand. It would be actually nice (especially with current situation in tech sector of economy) if we'd start laying fiber to the home and/or build sane infrastructure for wireless access.
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Q: Is it true that capitalism is rotting away?
A: Yes. But what an aroma!!!
SJ Mercury News reported about this few months back. But you should have seen this paper. The business section had two major stories side by side. One was about new game development education program and corresponding degree at USC. And another story about increasing outourcing of game development jobs abroad.
Oh the irony.
You have to distinguish the intentions from reality. Yes intention was to protect the little guy and probably in case some dude sitting working in his garage on new and wonderful canopener that still might be the case.
Unfortunately more and more patents are just one of the means of corporate warfare. And overall small software companies would benefit more from having no software patents than what we have right now. Because let's be honest there are very few trully original ideas that actually worthy patents (the way they were intened) most of the time they are filed to cover ones ass against competitors. They are wraped in lawyerspeak drivel that allows you to patent almost everything ( rememember that nice patent about swinging sideways?) as long as you can afford yourself a guy who knows how to do it. Hell, you now can have programs that do this for you.
The way the patent system works right now it benefits society very little and on the contrary it spawned an "IP industry" that basically full of leeches.
as far as i remember the founders of Cisco are from Stanford not Berkeley.
May be... But still I'm afraid that the size of your STWM is not going to impress your girlfriend.
For those who think HAM operators have no foundation behind their objections to BPL please visit this site and see results of actual studies on interference.
There is a lot of additional issues surrounding BPL. Such as the fact that power market is regulated and comunications market is not. Utility companies are going to finance their excursion into broadband internet access out of your pocket even if you are not going to use it.
Reminds me old science fiction story from one of the OMNI's paperbacks. About Olimpic games and all US and Russian teams having genetically modified memebers. Everything was there IIRC. Swimmers with fins, wrestlers with with TRex like bodies and well Russian boxer (who wins gold medal by several points) having his brain in his... well... ass.
your skepticism is admirable however substantially missinformed.
let's start from the bottom of your post. quick trip to a google site will tell you that DeBeers controlls currently roughly 60% of the diamond market (it's not 85% as it used to be, but still substantial chunk) with Russia slowly gaining on them with 23% current share (btw. it took decades to Soviet Union and then Russa that mines their diamonds in Yakutia to get that much share of the trade) but still majority of Russain (Yakutian) diamonds are cut and sold by DeBeers. You quote about "less then half" actually belongs to the share of diamond trade in DeBeers profits. It is true diamond trade is not a major source of profits for DeBeers. Well, any "natural" monopolist if he/she is not complete moron will eventually try to diversify his/her business. Isn't it what Microsoft is trying to do since beginning of 90's?
Comparison to emeralds and rubies is not exactly fare. Several things separates diamond market from other gemstones. The main reason for that is that people (who bought into this marketing campain back in 1930's) are idiots. When you buy little 1.5 karat diamond you also buy a "marketing bubble" the size of Alaska. Compared to other gemstones substantial amount of diamonds do not end up in jewelry. Everyboy is so convinced that diamonds are such a good investment (mostly due to their ignorance) that in essence almost all diamonds go one way and almost never leave the extended family of the original buyer of the diamond. Secondary market as really tiny dwarf compared to the original one. Well, untill it's time to go to a pawn shop.
The fact that you need to have a small spectroscopy laboratory to distinguish natural diamond from artificial can actually decrease the price. Diamond dealers (both cut and uncut) follow the rules that were established (i'm not kidding you) over the centuries. These people do not want to change. Here are the rules (at least the way my friend who tried to do this in 90's told me). Rough uncut diamond is pretty cheap. The dealer who buys it from you has only a microscope at most to look at it. If he/she sees just as little a scratch or attemt to polish the stone (to look what's inside) he or she will tell you "good buy" and then will call to every dealer he or she knows to tell them not to have any business with you. You will be literally finished in diamond business. The reason? Originally when you bought rough diamond you would not really know how much of cut diamond you would get due to the impurities inside. As soon as dealer will get just a feeling that you try to inflate the price of uncut diamond buy trying to find out what and where it has impurities he/she will stop any relations with you.
Diamond cutting industry however made significant progress over the years. It can be probably compared with electronic industry. AFIK this was pionered buy Japanese. Before cutting the diamond every stone goes through all kinds of tests X-ray, ultrasound spectrography etc. And then a computer program optimizes the cut to get the highest value possible. This is being done probably since 70's. 80's for sure. This all is actually great. The problem I have with all this is that price of a cut diamond has not significantly changed. It's like buing a CPU from Intel or AMD and they charge you for every fucking transistor (how many of them now tens of millions?) they have there the price they used to ask for transistor back in 50s.
If you can make artificial diamond that will not be distinguishable from natural one visually it is great. (Thinking soon you might have to have a certificate of authenticity or God forbid actual spectroscopic data makes me laugh). That is why those guys are probably scared now. That is why they are going to demand that every artificial diamond should be sold on separate market. They are clever salesmen but they are essencially leeches.
Oh well this post is too long for me to check spelling.
There is still no substitution for good (that is with the security in mind) programming practices. And of course readily available information about vulnerabilities.
I think it matters not that much if you have 90% boxes on the net running windows (God forbid, really!) and 10% of "others". Or it breaks down different way. Nmap does very good job identifying remote operating system nowdays. So for a persistent and dedicated cracker it should not matter that much if you have a "monoculture" or big veriety of OSes. The only difference, i think, would be that in "monoculture" environment scrip kiddies would be more successfull.
I don't think so. IMHO, in case BPL would get accepted they'd just step aside and watch this thing to die and then they would take over the BPL customers.
Iterference would be a huge problem fo HAM operators and everybody who use HF/VHF. But the thing is interference goes both ways. So I think if deployed in wide area BPL would just really really suck. You power line infrastructure was just not built to be protected from interference. Any kind of it. Even people with DSL have problem with intereference. And that's CAT3 UTP (in most places).
So for telco and cable providers BPL will just awake an apetite of more people for broadband. If you ever had broadband (however bad it was) going back to dial-up is just painfull. Most of my firends who installed and had problems with DSL just switched to cable. I don't even remember anyone of them fireing up their dial-up modem ever again.
As far as I remember for a long time ARRL was the only voice oposing to BPL.
Really. I think the main problem that these people (record labels and such) just don't care about music at all. A decade or so ago the recording industry transmformed itself into "industry of the cool" but because the music is what a lot of regular people still care about the record companies are having problems right now.
I think it all happened in the beginning of 90's with rap invading a mainstream and an unexpected breaktrhough from Seatle. It all was raw, real and it was for sure cool. However gangsta rap was really difficult to package in the beginning while Seatle bands just did not want to sell out on the industry terms. So the recording industry took a lesson and started to manufacture all that stuff. And we all eded up with a lot of overproduced shit performed by people we do not care about.
I think recording industry have been hearing for whom the bell tolls (for them that is) for quite some time. You could see that on those so called "music channels" all the way through the 90s. When they constantly were trying to get in bed with fashion industry, movie industry etc. They just forgot about the music in the process.
Instead they are trying to fuel the public's interest by all that other shit such as rivalaries between rap artists, who is screwing with whom, extreme sports, lame models that cannot put to words together without spraining their brain and so on.
Lately they started to produce really wierd shit. Such as punk band that never went on tour but got a major record label (Good Charlotte) or a "garage band" that went straight on MTV awards (White Stripes, I mean they are pretty good, but nothing special. Really).
Of course all that "manufacturing of cool" requires a huge overhead. So music becomes even more fogotten.
As for movie industry. They are the same greedy bastards as RIAA. The only thing that they do differently is ... let me see... They still make and sell movies...
Actually no. I am wrong It was US.
Actually Soviets did develop and tested H-bomb first . That is after stealing A-bomb secrets.
Dude!!! What planet are you from? Not really I want to know so I can move there! That wonderful place where suits listen to what geeks/techs are saying.
I know this one. I just bought it as a present for my girlfriend. It is pretty cool. And she likes it a lot.
I was considering getting an iPod for her. But every time when I decide to deal with Apple I always come to painful realisation that I just hate their attitude. They have this dumbass business strategy that only they know what you really need and they determined to shove it down your throat. I don't want to troll on them. Apple has really cool products, they have good engineers and designers. But at the same time they always try to sell you the most expensive one. Here in Bay Area it is impossible to find 10 GB version of iPod. All BestBuys and Fried electronics have only 30 GB versions (for extra $200) and I don't have 30 GB of mp3s even on my home computer (which is also a home entertainment center). Come to think of it I don't even have that many CDs yet to rip to fill this much space.
So I settled on Yepp. And I'm pretty happy. It is very sleek. Very good sound. You can actually change sound modes. Plus FM radio. Plus record your own stuff. 256 MB is almost enough for my gf. I guess when there will be version with more memory outhere. I'll get new one for her and take the old one.
And it seems that it is really not that difficult to increase traffic especially for cable companies. I know that asking for HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax would be too much right now. (And I don't watch them anyway)
But at least they could try to offer feed over internet for SciFi, TLC, Discover, IMC. They transmit them over regular cable anyway. I know for sure, that if this would happen I would turn my TV on only to watch DVDs.
You are 100% correct. What actually is needed is content for which broadband internet access would be required. There is hope that online gaming might generate some need for broadband. I hear quite different stories about gaming industry. Some say that it's really tough, some say that it is actually booming at the moment. Quite possibly both are true. But I don't assume that gamers represent a significant fraction of all people that are acutally connected to Internet right now.
It is impossible to overlook however that all those predictions about limitless growth opportunities that were made in those golden years (end of 1990's) about growth of broadband were based on quite simple thing that people will want online entertainment. And we should "thank" two giant money grabbing monsters RIAA and MPAA for the fact that actually did not happen.
We have to ask them for example what happened to live feeds from various radiostations. In 2000 I listened at least three stations every day. Two of them do not exist anymore and the third put a lid on internet broadcasting and just continues to deliver it's programs the oldfashion way (radio waves). The bummer is it is just too far away from me. And of course we have to ask them where are our movies over internet.
But seriously folks! We have to do something about those guys. They are greedy and they are actually extremely dumb (even though they have smart lawyers)
I think regarding OS X it is too soon to call. From what I see it is a very nice OS and those boxes are sweet to (albeit more expensive). In my opinion you should give at least 3 years for any changes to happen. And again like with Linux those changes will happen from ground up. Offer any CIO right now the option to switch to OS X and he will tell you that you are nutts. And he will tell you a lot of reasons. And I bet that half of those reasons will be bogus. But this is how things are in the real world. If on another hand you will tell you your sysadmin that you would like to have Mac in your office (and if he is reasonable guy, which is almost always true ;) ) I don't think he will object as long as your boss is Ok with it.
In my opinion Apple still feels a backlash from the years of MacOS 7.x. Which was a dog. I know that for sure because at my graduate school for some reason a lot of people liked Macs and for some strange reason I became a "support guy". Those were the days when your Mac crashed several times a day. And that was also a time when major fallout happen on a sofware vendors side. A lot of companies droped their support for Macs.
Another "perception"/legacy problem that came from those days (and I think that might still affect IT guys) was that Mac OS for a guy with unix or Windows background looked like a debilitating mess. Those days Apple was clearly behind in design and features (just remember TCP/IP implementation) plus they always targeted "creative" people. So for those "creative" people to be able to manage thier computer Apple came up with set of "metahpors" that were, to say the least, very unnatural for IT guys. So you had system extentions, control panels, prefernces and God knows what else. Every other program you install always would add something in your system folder. Then you had to get a programm that would hunt down conflicts between those extentions. Then you had to install "crush" analyzer that would freez your box even more often. And so on ad nauseum. So if you follow the logic of the article Mac OS was suppposed to be IT's bread and butter. In reality IT guys were running away from it like from leper.
Personally I am not Mac fanatic. But I think Apple has a good chance with it's current line of software and hardware if they combine that with more aggressive pricing they'll do great.
I don't want to sound troll. But this thing (ethernet over power lines) has been freaking out ham radio operators all over the world for quite some time. Look for example here [eham.net]. And based on the law "if the shit can happen it certainly will" this will bring EMI problems to all equipment that is connected to or in the vicinty of the jack in the wall. Your TVs your stereos your computers etc.
Besides have anybody of had to deal with power companies? Do you really want THEM to provide your internet connection? Or even being involved in providing one.
Time and time again it returns (and will keep returning) to the simple truth. You need an adequate infrastructure to provide high speed Internet.
In the beginning of DSL I kept hearing a lot of strange things going against physics. Such as UTP (unshielded twisted pair) is better than coaxial cable etc. Well guess what, being entirely untrue this is not the end of the story. The pair that runs the phone line in your home/appartment is not even twisted, its flat (and it's CAT 3 most of the time to the central office).
It took huge amount of money to put power lines, phone lines and CATV into every home. And the companies that were doing that were cutting costs like crazy. Which means that nobody ever thought that someday it will be used for something else besides its initial purpose. And again based on the law I mentioned in the beginning it will be probably the worst case scenario for anytiing else. In case of DSLs that certainly is crosstalk and EMI and also distance. For example in my case no DSL provider does even want to install it for me citing that I am too far from central office.
Personally I think the interrim winners of all this will be the cable companies. Just because the people who decided to get broadband internet access usually go all the way once they've set to have it. Most people I know who started with DSL eventually just switch to cable modems. But eventually every body will lose because again CATV was not intended for anything else. (Just an example untill recently CATV equipment manufacturers were refusing to use multilayered PCBs because it was "too expensive"). So this is it. People just keep their heads in the body cavities of their choice and keep selling each other a snake oil.
On the other hand. It would be actually nice (especially with current situation in tech sector of economy) if we'd start laying fiber to the home and/or build sane infrastructure for wireless access.
Just my $0.02
I guess that means that nothing really changed. That is little guys at least stay in game. Which is probably good news at the moment.
I agree with you. But I have to remind you that years ago there was at that time not so big company that actually pulled stunt like that (crappy OS on not so hot hardware) and did pretty well. Unlike others .
First of all I was kind of surprised when I first heard about Sen. Hatch's initiative. I am not a big fan of his but very often he looked pretty reasonable to me. IIRC he suppports stem cell research. But going after "pirates" being pirate himself is bad.
That being said I am actually more concerned about independent software developers. And the ways how they can make money and enforce thier licenses. I am not independent developer myself. But I can imagine that doing all that above and actually writing a code could be quite a hassle. I started to think about after I read this this storry.
The thought that occurred to me is this. May be there is a niche for something that we would call (for the lack of a better term) a "software label". It is something like a SourceForge but with a bit muscule behind it. That is for independent software developer it would provide following functions:
1. Hosting a website for given software (that is in essence marketing and advetising).
2. Binaries (or even source code) repository.
3. Handling payments (especially electronic)
4. Legal representation.
Everything except item 4 can be set up on nickel and dime. And regarding lawyers. I hear that here (in the Sil. Valey) a lot of them lost jobs and gladly do lower pay or even pro bono work.
It can even act like an "agent" for a programmer. Just an example. My friend (well actually the guy I talk on IRC a lot) is a free-lancer. Year ago he got a contract to make them a site (linux+appache+php+mysql+lots of other shit). He made it (I was a beta-tester) company got it but now for some lame reason they refuse to pay. He might win but from what I see they are going to suck him dry first.
Point is you wrote a package. But for many reasons (especially now) starting your own company is not feasible yet. In this case it would be nice that there is someone who could handle the "overhead for you".
and SCO did copy Linux code and as a result will be held accountable for that we should all thank RMS for insisting on what he believes in.
:)
Well we should thank him anyway and often
I don't want to sound troll. But this thing (ethernet over power lines) is freaking out ham radio operators all over the world. Look for example here. And based on the law "if the shit can happen it certainly will" this will bring EMI problems to all equipment that is connected to or in the vicinty of the jack in the wall. Your TVs your stereos your computers etc.
Besides have anybody of had to deal with power companies? Do you really want THEM to provide your internet connection? Or even being involved in providing one.
Time and time again it returns (and will keep returning) to the simple truth. You need an adequate infrastructure to provide high speed Internet.
In the beginning of DSL I kept hearing a lot of strange things going against physics. Such as UTP (unshielded twisted pair) is better than coaxial cable etc. Well guess what, being entirely untrue this is not the end of the story. The pair that runs the phone line in your home/appartment is not even twisted, its flat (and it's CAT 3 most of the time to the central office).
It took huge amount of money to put power lines, phone lines and CATV into every home. And the companies that were doing that were cutting costs like crazy. Which means that nobody ever thought that someday it will be used for something else besides its initial purpose. And again based on the law I mentioned in the beginning it will be probably the worst case scenario for anytiing else. In case of DSLs that certainly is crosstalk and EMI and also distance. For example in my case no DSL provider does even want to install it for me citing that I am too far from central office.
Personally I think the interrim winners of all this will be the cable companies. Just because the people who decided to get broadband internet access usually go all the way once they've set to have it. Most people I know who started with DSL eventually just switch to cable modems. But eventually every body will lose because again CATV was not intended for anything else. (Just an example untill recently CATV equipment manufacturers were refusing to use multilayered PCBs because it was "too expensive"). So this is it. People just keep their heads in the body cavities of their choice and keep selling each other a snake oil.
On the other hand. It would be actually nice (especially with current situation in tech sector of economy) if we'd start laying fiber to the home and/or build sane infrastructure for wireless access.
Just my $0.02
There is no analysis/rebuttal from ESR yet!?
He must be busy or something