Why do you think they are using UDP? Most of the bandwidth being used at this point, to my knowledge, is for streaming video (read: porn) and BitTorrent (read: porn). Both of them use TCP for the majority of their bandwidth usage (Some BitTorrent clients support UDP communication with the tracker, but the file is still transferred by TCP).
Most of the streaming protocols that I dealt with used UDP as their basis. The need to deliver the next frame or sound byte as soon as possible outweighs the need to guarantee that every single frame or byte arrives. We accept the occasional drop out in return for expedited delivery of data.
Unfortunately when trying to achieve the necessary data rate to satisfy the occasional drop outs, some protocols neglect being a good stewart of network bandwidth and have no throttle (ie congestion relief).
If he's an independent webmaster it will cost him a non-paying customer, the kind you really can do without.
Well...
Having played both sides of this issue, let me throw some thoughts out to the wolves (so to speak):
1. If he is asking slashdot on how to handle this, I doubt he is in a position to lose any customers.
2. If the website is so problematic that he needs to be on call, then maybe he should make an effort to improve the reliability.
3. I've had a few customers who used to call after hours for issues not related to the work I was doing. If the problem was small and can be done over the phone (or remotely) I usually helped them out for free. If the problem looked like it was going to take some time to fix or required me to drive to their location, I charged. If the problem could not wait until regular business hours, I charged accordingly. The trick was that I did enough gratis work for them, that they didn't flinch when I required payment for the particularly difficult problems...
4. As the economy worsens, the number of competitors for your clients will increase. It's easier to work a little harder to keep a client, then it is to replace one.
5. Keep in mind, that some advice given here on Slashdot are from those who wouldn't mind taking your client.
As someone who has a new android phone (regret not waiting two months), I haven't seen any apps in Google Market that looked worth spending any amount of money.
As a software engineer, things like the iPhone approval process make me very nervous about investing quite a bit of time and money into a project, especially if the process is overly opaque.
As a software engineer you should love the approval process. In fact you should love all development processes, you live and die by the process.
Now the code slingers may object to the process...;)
I was a little too harsh with KDE team, and I agree that the distros do deserve some of the blame. However, I do believe that the majority of the blame still belongs to the KDE developers for rushing to announce a KDE 4.0 release.
Nothing prevented the KDE team from adding another word to the title and called it a "KDE 4.0 release candidate" or even "KDE 4.0 beta"
If I publish a book in CD form, I don't create a new, copyrightable work.
Technically you did. You can copyright the composition of that work. Sheet music publishers have been doing this for years.
Law offices usually pay for electronic versions of the law too.
I think the facts from TFA has been presented in a way that makes the city look bad.
I read the following from the article:
1. Citizen was upset that his dog was found in violation of city ordinance, yet his rowdy neighbors are apparently not being cited.
2. Citizen decides he wants to see how he can get his rowdy neighbors in trouble with the law, and wants to be able to study the law at home rather wasting time at the library.
3. Citizen isn't willing to pay money for paper copies of the law books, and was hoping to get an electronic copy from the clerk.
4. Citizen is upset that the clerk wouldn't give him a copy of the CD because it was copyrighted by the CD's publisher and suggested that he try purchasing a copy.
5. Citizen is upset that he would have to either pay $200 for the CD, wait until the law is published on the web, or spend time at the library because he's too cheap to spend money to harass his neighbors.
This is on slashdot because someone misread the article and thought it was about the city charging for access to the law rather than telling a guy if he wants an electronic version he can purchase it from General Code or wait until the web site is made.
I use hidden fields on all public facing government websites to track a session, because federal law forbids the use of cookies.
It's a shame that cookies can't be used for legitimate reasons simply because it's open for abuse and FUD gives the public the impression that all cookies are bad. No need to futz around with having to print a hidden field initialized with the session UID (which really isn't that big a deal) when you can just make a session cookie instead.
Of course to allow the user to leave the website and return later without having to re-login, nothing beats a cookie. This behavior happens a lot now that people are in the habit of querying something on the website and use the Google field on the right of the URL field that most browsers have now a days. They like the convenience of typing the restful URL to return to the site, or not having to hit OK to resubmit a form when they use the back button.
You give one very power group of asshats a ridiculous amount of power over your stuff then it's only a matter of time before they use that power to squash any competition.
Bear with me on this logic. If the MPAA gets another inch of digital control over our stuff, it will be only a matter of time before they take mile (give a cm, take a km for my non-US friends).
The paranoid side of me sees a not too distant future where in order to play any media using a "new and improved" media player will require an encryption key that tells the player that it's safe to play. Afterwards, independent studios will need to license the right to distribute media to these players (ie. join the MPAA) in order to exist.
The MPAA already is gaining uncomfortable control in the player/recorder market. Case in point - MythTV can't record premium channels. It's already bad enough that I can not use a third-party DVR to record my premium channels from my cable box using the firewire connection. Ironically that firewire connection was mandated by the FCC to ensure that I wouldn't be forced to use the cable company's DVR. What is the point if the FCC doesn't force the connection to be usable?
In the end, the piracy complaints from the MPAA will turn out to be an elaborate ruse to protect their media cartel.
My point being that we are not fighting to make piracy easier, we are fighting for the right to lawfully use the equipment we now own. Piracy is a separate issue altogether.
The FCC should do its job and insure that all media broadcasts (open air and cable) can be viewed and recorded with the equipment that are currently available using the industry standard plugs (analog and digital). Leave the piracy fight to the FBI, FTC, and the civil courts where it belongs.
Well I intentionally gave both "conservative" and "liberal" unflattering definitions. I didn't want to be accused of favoring one extreme over the other.
I'm glad you noticed the "smarter than" and "as long as it is aligned with their beliefs". My point being that they will tolerate you as long as you perfectly align yourself with their beliefs.
I've been called a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, but I would like to think of myself (and others) as being too complex to label.
I don't think of myself as a Libertarian, nor would anybody else for that matter. I'm for individual rights, but I'm also for government regulation.
If I had mod points, I would have modded you as insightful.
You are absolutely correct that political polarization is what hurting this country (USA).
I'll tell you how bad it has gotten. I listen to "All Things Considered", "Morning Edition", and "Marketplace" on my local NPR station. I think overall these are well balanced news shows especially when compared to CNN, FOX, and MSNBC. My self-proclaimed conservative coworker harasses me about my habit of listening to state sponsored radio. WTF?
Now I consider myself a southern moderate conservative and yet have been accused of being a californian "bleeding heart" liberal because I don't agree with all the talking points that these "Conservative" shows spew out.
Here is my problem with their logic:
How can you be against a "totalitarian" government and support the suppression of the constitution in the name of national security?
How can you not trust the government, and yet insist it intrude into the private lives of it's citizens (eg. Abortion, Gay Marriage, Government Wire Taps)?
When it comes to health care, why is it that the majority of the people that I see who are against "socialized" medicine are of the age that receives Social Security and Medicare? I know this is a anecdotal observation on my part, but the GOP right-wing base is comprised of people who are old enough to qualify for both.
It makes no sense... Well... okay I can crudely describe the modern definition of "conservative" and "liberal" as the following:
Conservative - The portion that is wealthy likes to stay wealthy. The portion that is not wealthy, would like to be left alone and not pay any more taxes. They tend to drive up the deficit since they want the government to continue to spend money while not raising taxes. They believe they have more common sense than everybody else. They believe that if they imitate the wealthy that they may themselves become wealthy or at least their children will have a shot of being wealthy. They trust corporations, since corporations are a key component of the free market economy, and believe that any benefits that the corporations receive from the government may trickle down to their employees and whoever the employee does commerce. They pretend to be for individual rights as long as it is aligned with their beliefs. The powerful conservative trust the government to benefit corporations through the use of earmarks (pork spending) in the name of privatization (small government).
Liberal - The portion that is wealthy would like to pretend that they are like average folk and care about the little guy. The portion that are not wealthy consider themselves activists in social causes. As a group, they are for increase taxes in order to support more spending. The unwealthy portion believe the wealthy should pay more taxes, while the wealthy portion don't plan on paying them anyway. They believe that they are smarter than everybody else. They tend to be alarmist when it comes to the environment or social issues. They hate corporations despite any benefits that they may have received from them. They pretend to be for individual rights as long as it is aligned with their beliefs. They trust the government to be a benevolent entity that should take care of its citizens to a fault, while at the same time believe that the government is out to get them.
Thanks to polarization we can't compromise and have what I consider a more pragmatist government consisting of elements from both views which could be:
Moderate - Both wealthy and unwealthy members consider themselves pragmatists. They consider themselves wise and try to be open to new ideas and listen to both "conservative" and "liberal" ideas. They are for individual rights and realize that while these rights are open to abuse it is still worth protecting. They believe in a free market tempered with government regulation. They understand that free market capitalism is the engine for society to advance, yet the government
I use both. I like Netbeans since 6.x, and I still use eclipse on some legacy projects.
Eclipse is snappier at times, but it reeks of being created by a committee of competitors and a pain in the ass at times to setup for anything more substantial than editing (Subclipse or Subversive as a case in point). However, once you get it working, it works fairly well.
The latest incarnation of Netbeans has more features out of the box and a whole lot easier to install and get to work with your SCM and etc.
Incompetent local techs should not be mutilating someone else's broadcast. Period.
The idea that this nonsense lowers prices is simply bullsh*t. We would all be
better off with some sort of unencrypted satellite cable if the originating channels
were willing to buy into it.
But why should you care? You said you used the commercial skip function, so why the nerd rage?
The point he was making was that technologies the RIAA/MPAA are afraid of actually end up making them money, which does make sense in this context.
Really? Have data to back this up? I have yet to see any concrete data that file sharing actually increase DVD sales.
I don't want to waste too much effort into the piracy debate, I only want to say that:
Broadcast television make their money from advertising. Data that shows that DVR increase viewership translates into the broadcast network having justification for charging more for each commercial. Broadcast television further justify the cost of advertising by limiting the broadcast of their popular shows.
It's this artificial scarcity that allows the DVR to benefit the broadcaster.
The broadcast networks usually produce the shows and sell the previous season's episodes.
On the other hand, the music industry have a completely different economic model. They don't make much money on advertising. The popular songs are played repeatedly on the radio. The studios are banking on the idea that you would like to purchase an entire album based on the single you heard on the radio.
Sure they can stand to modernize their business model, but unless they start selling ad space in the middle of their songs or have product placements within the lyrics. I don't see how "time shifting" a television show equates to the record industry could make money doing the same thing.
All the questions posed were sarcastically rhetorical, not literal. Please read comment before posting reply. Thank you, come again.
I did read the comment including the following:
Question is, will the media giants really wake up and stop all this lawsuit nonsense. Will RIAA, MPAA and other copyright trolls really give up the ghost and embrace the digital age and realise the potential of the internet?
Which I pointed out that any arguments that he had about piracy (hence the lawsuits) didn't really apply in this context.
Try not to fall when you step down from that soapbox...
You bring up a very good point about not having to choose between two shows.
I was thinking about FireFly and other shows that died because the network kept moving them to different times or even days. DVR record series solves that problem.
1) It's 2009. You can make any intermission point you like.
This is true if you live alone or don't have to watch a show as a family.
Your television show usually finishes an act before a commercial, and ( I can't stress this enough ) commercials act as a timer that forces everyone to get their business done and back in time for the next act. We only use pause if an urgent phone call comes in or if we need to do something that prevents us from getting back before the commercial break.
I believe commercials add to the casual atmosphere of the family watching a favorite weekly show. I do know that we usually watch a DVD from start to finish with little interruption, but a TV show we take our cues from the commercial to do other things...
How does the year being 2009 factor into this?
2) Landline cable companies have a nasty habit of over-writing the commercials on
the incoming feed.
This is not "Clockwork Orange" you are free to walk away from the TV.
Local broadcast affiliates need to make money too. I also think your cable bill would be much higher if your local provider couldn't sell advertising.
Yes. Unlike music most broadcast televisions are played only once. So you either make time to be in front of the TV to watch it live, or you record it.
Time shifting makes up for some stupid scheduling decision a TV executive may make.
The point you were trying to make about piracy doesn't make sense in this context...
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the streaming protocols that I dealt with used UDP as their basis. The need to deliver the next frame or sound byte as soon as possible outweighs the need to guarantee that every single frame or byte arrives. We accept the occasional drop out in return for expedited delivery of data.
Unfortunately when trying to achieve the necessary data rate to satisfy the occasional drop outs, some protocols neglect being a good stewart of network bandwidth and have no throttle (ie congestion relief).
Hey that's my macro.
I misread the article summary. Disregard point #1. The rest still holds true.
Well...
Having played both sides of this issue, let me throw some thoughts out to the wolves (so to speak):
1. If he is asking slashdot on how to handle this, I doubt he is in a position to lose any customers.
2. If the website is so problematic that he needs to be on call, then maybe he should make an effort to improve the reliability.
3. I've had a few customers who used to call after hours for issues not related to the work I was doing. If the problem was small and can be done over the phone (or remotely) I usually helped them out for free. If the problem looked like it was going to take some time to fix or required me to drive to their location, I charged. If the problem could not wait until regular business hours, I charged accordingly. The trick was that I did enough gratis work for them, that they didn't flinch when I required payment for the particularly difficult problems...
4. As the economy worsens, the number of competitors for your clients will increase. It's easier to work a little harder to keep a client, then it is to replace one.
5. Keep in mind, that some advice given here on Slashdot are from those who wouldn't mind taking your client.
I was too busy being pedantic to say that your point is still very valid.
Actually you would be making a "intracontinental" jump since both the US and Mexico is within North America.
You would need to drive to Panama and jump over the international border with Columbia for it to really be "intercontinental".
As someone who has a new android phone (regret not waiting two months), I haven't seen any apps in Google Market that looked worth spending any amount of money.
As a software engineer you should love the approval process. In fact you should love all development processes, you live and die by the process.
Now the code slingers may object to the process... ;)
When it is released to early:
"Release early, release often is our mantra"
When it is not released yet:
"We have no artificial deadlines - it's released when it's ready"
More like blaming the butcher for selling the restaurant tainted chicken.
I was a little too harsh with KDE team, and I agree that the distros do deserve some of the blame. However, I do believe that the majority of the blame still belongs to the KDE developers for rushing to announce a KDE 4.0 release.
Nothing prevented the KDE team from adding another word to the title and called it a "KDE 4.0 release candidate" or even "KDE 4.0 beta"
Really?
IMO a think all of the blame lies with KDE. If it wasn't ready for prime time, then don't mark it as a release.
Technically you did. You can copyright the composition of that work. Sheet music publishers have been doing this for years.
Law offices usually pay for electronic versions of the law too.
I think the facts from TFA has been presented in a way that makes the city look bad.
I read the following from the article:
1. Citizen was upset that his dog was found in violation of city ordinance, yet his rowdy neighbors are apparently not being cited.
2. Citizen decides he wants to see how he can get his rowdy neighbors in trouble with the law, and wants to be able to study the law at home rather wasting time at the library.
3. Citizen isn't willing to pay money for paper copies of the law books, and was hoping to get an electronic copy from the clerk.
4. Citizen is upset that the clerk wouldn't give him a copy of the CD because it was copyrighted by the CD's publisher and suggested that he try purchasing a copy.
5. Citizen is upset that he would have to either pay $200 for the CD, wait until the law is published on the web, or spend time at the library because he's too cheap to spend money to harass his neighbors.
This is on slashdot because someone misread the article and thought it was about the city charging for access to the law rather than telling a guy if he wants an electronic version he can purchase it from General Code or wait until the web site is made.
You're correct.
I use hidden fields on all public facing government websites to track a session, because federal law forbids the use of cookies.
It's a shame that cookies can't be used for legitimate reasons simply because it's open for abuse and FUD gives the public the impression that all cookies are bad. No need to futz around with having to print a hidden field initialized with the session UID (which really isn't that big a deal) when you can just make a session cookie instead.
Of course to allow the user to leave the website and return later without having to re-login, nothing beats a cookie. This behavior happens a lot now that people are in the habit of querying something on the website and use the Google field on the right of the URL field that most browsers have now a days. They like the convenience of typing the restful URL to return to the site, or not having to hit OK to resubmit a form when they use the back button.
Just my two cents.
Normally I would agree with you but...
You give one very power group of asshats a ridiculous amount of power over your stuff then it's only a matter of time before they use that power to squash any competition.
Bear with me on this logic. If the MPAA gets another inch of digital control over our stuff, it will be only a matter of time before they take mile (give a cm, take a km for my non-US friends).
The paranoid side of me sees a not too distant future where in order to play any media using a "new and improved" media player will require an encryption key that tells the player that it's safe to play. Afterwards, independent studios will need to license the right to distribute media to these players (ie. join the MPAA) in order to exist.
The MPAA already is gaining uncomfortable control in the player/recorder market. Case in point - MythTV can't record premium channels. It's already bad enough that I can not use a third-party DVR to record my premium channels from my cable box using the firewire connection. Ironically that firewire connection was mandated by the FCC to ensure that I wouldn't be forced to use the cable company's DVR. What is the point if the FCC doesn't force the connection to be usable?
In the end, the piracy complaints from the MPAA will turn out to be an elaborate ruse to protect their media cartel.
My point being that we are not fighting to make piracy easier, we are fighting for the right to lawfully use the equipment we now own. Piracy is a separate issue altogether.
The FCC should do its job and insure that all media broadcasts (open air and cable) can be viewed and recorded with the equipment that are currently available using the industry standard plugs (analog and digital). Leave the piracy fight to the FBI, FTC, and the civil courts where it belongs.
Well I intentionally gave both "conservative" and "liberal" unflattering definitions. I didn't want to be accused of favoring one extreme over the other.
I'm glad you noticed the "smarter than" and "as long as it is aligned with their beliefs". My point being that they will tolerate you as long as you perfectly align yourself with their beliefs.
I've been called a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, but I would like to think of myself (and others) as being too complex to label.
I don't think of myself as a Libertarian, nor would anybody else for that matter. I'm for individual rights, but I'm also for government regulation.
However, you did give me food for thought.
If I had mod points, I would have modded you as insightful.
You are absolutely correct that political polarization is what hurting this country (USA).
I'll tell you how bad it has gotten. I listen to "All Things Considered", "Morning Edition", and "Marketplace" on my local NPR station. I think overall these are well balanced news shows especially when compared to CNN, FOX, and MSNBC. My self-proclaimed conservative coworker harasses me about my habit of listening to state sponsored radio. WTF?
Now I consider myself a southern moderate conservative and yet have been accused of being a californian "bleeding heart" liberal because I don't agree with all the talking points that these "Conservative" shows spew out.
Here is my problem with their logic:
How can you be against a "totalitarian" government and support the suppression of the constitution in the name of national security?
How can you not trust the government, and yet insist it intrude into the private lives of it's citizens (eg. Abortion, Gay Marriage, Government Wire Taps)?
When it comes to health care, why is it that the majority of the people that I see who are against "socialized" medicine are of the age that receives Social Security and Medicare? I know this is a anecdotal observation on my part, but the GOP right-wing base is comprised of people who are old enough to qualify for both.
It makes no sense... Well... okay I can crudely describe the modern definition of "conservative" and "liberal" as the following:
Conservative - The portion that is wealthy likes to stay wealthy. The portion that is not wealthy, would like to be left alone and not pay any more taxes. They tend to drive up the deficit since they want the government to continue to spend money while not raising taxes. They believe they have more common sense than everybody else. They believe that if they imitate the wealthy that they may themselves become wealthy or at least their children will have a shot of being wealthy. They trust corporations, since corporations are a key component of the free market economy, and believe that any benefits that the corporations receive from the government may trickle down to their employees and whoever the employee does commerce. They pretend to be for individual rights as long as it is aligned with their beliefs. The powerful conservative trust the government to benefit corporations through the use of earmarks (pork spending) in the name of privatization (small government).
Liberal - The portion that is wealthy would like to pretend that they are like average folk and care about the little guy. The portion that are not wealthy consider themselves activists in social causes. As a group, they are for increase taxes in order to support more spending. The unwealthy portion believe the wealthy should pay more taxes, while the wealthy portion don't plan on paying them anyway. They believe that they are smarter than everybody else. They tend to be alarmist when it comes to the environment or social issues. They hate corporations despite any benefits that they may have received from them. They pretend to be for individual rights as long as it is aligned with their beliefs. They trust the government to be a benevolent entity that should take care of its citizens to a fault, while at the same time believe that the government is out to get them.
Thanks to polarization we can't compromise and have what I consider a more pragmatist government consisting of elements from both views which could be:
Moderate - Both wealthy and unwealthy members consider themselves pragmatists. They consider themselves wise and try to be open to new ideas and listen to both "conservative" and "liberal" ideas. They are for individual rights and realize that while these rights are open to abuse it is still worth protecting. They believe in a free market tempered with government regulation. They understand that free market capitalism is the engine for society to advance, yet the government
I use both. I like Netbeans since 6.x, and I still use eclipse on some legacy projects.
Eclipse is snappier at times, but it reeks of being created by a committee of competitors and a pain in the ass at times to setup for anything more substantial than editing (Subclipse or Subversive as a case in point). However, once you get it working, it works fairly well.
The latest incarnation of Netbeans has more features out of the box and a whole lot easier to install and get to work with your SCM and etc.
Both work sufficiently well as an IDE.
Well, The TFA uses a hyphen "X-Windows[sic]" while you didn't "X Windows".
So which one of you deserves the snide little "[sic]"? ;)
But why should you care? You said you used the commercial skip function, so why the nerd rage?
Besides you'll miss commercials like this trailer salvage one.
You're just jealous. Don't worry I'm sure one day you'll leave your momma's basement and find love too.
Really? Have data to back this up? I have yet to see any concrete data that file sharing actually increase DVD sales.
I don't want to waste too much effort into the piracy debate, I only want to say that:
Broadcast television make their money from advertising. Data that shows that DVR increase viewership translates into the broadcast network having justification for charging more for each commercial. Broadcast television further justify the cost of advertising by limiting the broadcast of their popular shows.
It's this artificial scarcity that allows the DVR to benefit the broadcaster.
The broadcast networks usually produce the shows and sell the previous season's episodes.
On the other hand, the music industry have a completely different economic model. They don't make much money on advertising. The popular songs are played repeatedly on the radio. The studios are banking on the idea that you would like to purchase an entire album based on the single you heard on the radio.
Sure they can stand to modernize their business model, but unless they start selling ad space in the middle of their songs or have product placements within the lyrics. I don't see how "time shifting" a television show equates to the record industry could make money doing the same thing.
I did read the comment including the following:
Which I pointed out that any arguments that he had about piracy (hence the lawsuits) didn't really apply in this context.
Try not to fall when you step down from that soapbox...
You bring up a very good point about not having to choose between two shows.
I was thinking about FireFly and other shows that died because the network kept moving them to different times or even days. DVR record series solves that problem.
This is true if you live alone or don't have to watch a show as a family.
Your television show usually finishes an act before a commercial, and ( I can't stress this enough ) commercials act as a timer that forces everyone to get their business done and back in time for the next act. We only use pause if an urgent phone call comes in or if we need to do something that prevents us from getting back before the commercial break.
I believe commercials add to the casual atmosphere of the family watching a favorite weekly show. I do know that we usually watch a DVD from start to finish with little interruption, but a TV show we take our cues from the commercial to do other things...
How does the year being 2009 factor into this?
This is not "Clockwork Orange" you are free to walk away from the TV.
Local broadcast affiliates need to make money too. I also think your cable bill would be much higher if your local provider couldn't sell advertising.
Yes. Unlike music most broadcast televisions are played only once. So you either make time to be in front of the TV to watch it live, or you record it.
Time shifting makes up for some stupid scheduling decision a TV executive may make.
The point you were trying to make about piracy doesn't make sense in this context...