I lived the past two years in Ukraine, and it's the same thing there. I remember one of my Ukrainian school friends once complaining that her Photoshop CD got broken... darn, she was going to have to go spend another 5 dollars on a new one. She wasn't one of those $240/month people, either.
I don't think I ever saw legal foreign music being sold there, in fact. Often CD's from local groups were legal, but those are much cheaper than legal american or other foreign ones (about on par with what they were selling the copied foreign ones for... a dollar or two.)
I've noticed the form vulnerability many times before--many email sites seem to do this, so that if I go to, say, hotmail.com and then open a new tab to go to google for a search, I start typing into the hotmail user name box.
I never thought of it as anything more than an annoyance, though... I wonder how many other little annoyances there are hiding around that may actually have security implications?
Please allow me to register politely my disagreement with your inclusion of froogle on your list of useless google items.
Also, let it be known that I also regularly use google web search, google image search, google groups search, and gmail.
At this stage, essentially anybody who wants a gmail invite can find one. Many people have more than they know what to do with. I don't think that's a big problem.
Oh, and about that "it's not trouble" bit--when you start offering free 1GB email, allowing every user to invite at least 6 friends, please let me know.
This is very true... SMS is much more widely used, for many more different things, outside the US. For example, some airlines in SE Asia now let you check-in by sms.
It's not really as simple as all that--the difference between the X-prize and this prize is a whole lot bigger than 7 people vs. 3. As other posters have already pointed out, it's a heck of a lot harder to get into LEO than to get to the edge of space.
Oh, and scamming people to encourage commerical space flight? Now that is an interesting idea...
Not really. As someone who lives in Sweden and commutes on the train into Stockholm to school every day, I often see bikes left near the train station unlocked.
On a similar note, my sister taught at an inner-city school in CA, and once had to deal with the irate parents of a kid who she failed for not doing any work. They knew, and she knew that they knew, that this kid had never so much as touched a piece of work.
Their argument? "Well, he came to school, so you can't fail him."
Actually, there was an article I read a little while ago which quoted somebody high up in the SETI organization saying that they really have no idea what they are looking for.
In general, things like that make it hard for me to take SETI very seriously.
And, of course, the Voyager, the first plane to fly nonstop around the world.
If there is anybody I would put my money on to win the X-Prize, it is Burt Rutan.
Ah, see, but doubling or trebling the lifetime of a car is not in the interest of the automaker--the sooner you come out to buy another car, the better. As long as all the car makers do that, it becomes accepted that cars only survive for so long, and so everybody expects to go buy another car after a few years.
The other factor is buzzwords: people are going to be much more impressed by "built with the latest nanotechnology!" than by "galvanized body!"
As a student, I've noticed that the grades I receive on essays and such have been consistently better since I started using LaTeX to write them instead of Word. Whether that's because
1) My essay-writing skills suddenly improved,
2) I spend more time thinking about my essay and less time being distracted by Word, or
3) My teachers are subconsciously predisposed to grade my essays higher because they look nice,
I don't know, but I'm not about to start complaining...
2.5) Make AV software recognize competitor's software as virus:
"Warning: Microsoft AV 2004 has identified wordperfect.exe[1] as a possibly dangerous or subversive program. If you would like MSAV2004 to remove this program, please click [Remove]."
[1] Ok, so that isn't actually the name of the program. Sue me.
I grew up on Apples and Macintoshes (We got an Apple II soon after it first came out...), still love them, and even have one still sitting around the house, though it's no longer my primary computer. One of the annoying things was using the alt/option key to have it automatically close the open folder almost every time I opened a new one--it became eventually almost second nature to hold it down whenever I opened something, unless I was just browsing. If I was doing work, I knew what I needed, I knew where it was, and I'd rather all the extra windows not stay open, thanks. I suppose really I was just already used to Windows' bad interface design--never mind the fact that I'd never heard of the thing, let alone used it.
"Sometimes they even abuse the physical metaphor of tabbed browsing by opening multiple pages - not subpages of the same web site! - in multiple tabs of a browser window."
Oh dear! Here I am, with Slashdot and the OSNews article open in tabs in the same window! Awful!
"it is able to recreate the desktop metaphor that started the graphical desktop revolution"
This is my other favorite quote... I guess we'd better start printing our books on manually driven, manually typeset printing presses again, to recreate the printing press that started the mass media revolution. Why the assumption that the first idea is the best idea?
Ughh... as I was reading the article, I kept on hoping that it would suddenly become obvious that it was the authors's twisted idea of a joke or something, a parody of... something. No such luck.
Slashdot Mirror
I lived the past two years in Ukraine, and it's the same thing there. I remember one of my Ukrainian school friends once complaining that her Photoshop CD got broken... darn, she was going to have to go spend another 5 dollars on a new one. She wasn't one of those $240/month people, either.
I don't think I ever saw legal foreign music being sold there, in fact. Often CD's from local groups were legal, but those are much cheaper than legal american or other foreign ones (about on par with what they were selling the copied foreign ones for... a dollar or two.)
I've noticed the form vulnerability many times before--many email sites seem to do this, so that if I go to, say, hotmail.com and then open a new tab to go to google for a search, I start typing into the hotmail user name box.
I never thought of it as anything more than an annoyance, though... I wonder how many other little annoyances there are hiding around that may actually have security implications?
It's called Linux.
Please allow me to register politely my disagreement with your inclusion of froogle on your list of useless google items.
Also, let it be known that I also regularly use google web search, google image search, google groups search, and gmail.
At this stage, essentially anybody who wants a gmail invite can find one. Many people have more than they know what to do with. I don't think that's a big problem.
Oh, and about that "it's not trouble" bit--when you start offering free 1GB email, allowing every user to invite at least 6 friends, please let me know.
This is very true... SMS is much more widely used, for many more different things, outside the US. For example, some airlines in SE Asia now let you check-in by sms.
Ah, see, but here's the thing. The GA can "recommend collective action," but, unlike the SC, it can't tell anybody that they have to do anything.
I don't know what they're noisy compared to, I was just quoting the great-grandparent of this post.
And I'm way out of my depth once it comes to marine technology... so I'll stop now.
Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but the article I got when I followed the link said three noisy Australian deisel boats.
Still impressive, but not quite that impressive.
It's not really as simple as all that--the difference between the X-prize and this prize is a whole lot bigger than 7 people vs. 3. As other posters have already pointed out, it's a heck of a lot harder to get into LEO than to get to the edge of space.
Oh, and scamming people to encourage commerical space flight? Now that is an interesting idea...
I would suggest a section about Intellectual Property in general, or something of the kind, since we seem to get a lot of this kind of story in YRO...
Not really. As someone who lives in Sweden and commutes on the train into Stockholm to school every day, I often see bikes left near the train station unlocked.
Of course, that may just be my neighborhood...
On a similar note, my sister taught at an inner-city school in CA, and once had to deal with the irate parents of a kid who she failed for not doing any work. They knew, and she knew that they knew, that this kid had never so much as touched a piece of work.
Their argument? "Well, he came to school, so you can't fail him."
Actually, there was an article I read a little while ago which quoted somebody high up in the SETI organization saying that they really have no idea what they are looking for.
In general, things like that make it hard for me to take SETI very seriously.
Yes... for a moment there I through the artist guy in the lower left was a criminal of some sort. You know, striped jail suit, hiding his eyes...
Money to the Mafia!
I love apple products. They're beautiful. And I'm just hoping I won't get modded down for what I'm about to say, given that this is the apple section.
However, of all the things there, I really think this one is the coolest. I want one of those!
And there's a cameo appearance by apple as well.
"And when it is released it's going to be dubbed."
Hehe. I line in Ukraine, and it's showing in theaters here. I haven't been to see it, but apparently They've dubbed Ron's voice with a girl...
On the other hand, I bet the average time for a Japanese kid to calculate 42 (as in, 6 x 7) is much lower than an American kid...
And, of course, the Voyager, the first plane to fly nonstop around the world. If there is anybody I would put my money on to win the X-Prize, it is Burt Rutan.
Ah, see, but doubling or trebling the lifetime of a car is not in the interest of the automaker--the sooner you come out to buy another car, the better. As long as all the car makers do that, it becomes accepted that cars only survive for so long, and so everybody expects to go buy another car after a few years.
The other factor is buzzwords: people are going to be much more impressed by "built with the latest nanotechnology!" than by "galvanized body!"
The problem with your "the more the merrier" claim is that you have cooperation problems, turf wars, etc...
We already have turf wars between the FBI and the CIA. Do we really want to add in a third party? Is that also a case of "the more the merrier"?
Indeed, indeed.
As a student, I've noticed that the grades I receive on essays and such have been consistently better since I started using LaTeX to write them instead of Word. Whether that's because
1) My essay-writing skills suddenly improved,
2) I spend more time thinking about my essay and less time being distracted by Word, or
3) My teachers are subconsciously predisposed to grade my essays higher because they look nice,
I don't know, but I'm not about to start complaining...
2.5) Make AV software recognize competitor's software as virus:
"Warning: Microsoft AV 2004 has identified wordperfect.exe[1] as a possibly dangerous or subversive program. If you would like MSAV2004 to remove this program, please click [Remove]."
[1] Ok, so that isn't actually the name of the program. Sue me.
I grew up on Apples and Macintoshes (We got an Apple II soon after it first came out...), still love them, and even have one still sitting around the house, though it's no longer my primary computer. One of the annoying things was using the alt/option key to have it automatically close the open folder almost every time I opened a new one--it became eventually almost second nature to hold it down whenever I opened something, unless I was just browsing. If I was doing work, I knew what I needed, I knew where it was, and I'd rather all the extra windows not stay open, thanks. I suppose really I was just already used to Windows' bad interface design--never mind the fact that I'd never heard of the thing, let alone used it.
"Sometimes they even abuse the physical metaphor of tabbed browsing by opening multiple pages - not subpages of the same web site! - in multiple tabs of a browser window."
Oh dear! Here I am, with Slashdot and the OSNews article open in tabs in the same window! Awful!
"it is able to recreate the desktop metaphor that started the graphical desktop revolution"
This is my other favorite quote... I guess we'd better start printing our books on manually driven, manually typeset printing presses again, to recreate the printing press that started the mass media revolution. Why the assumption that the first idea is the best idea?
Ughh... as I was reading the article, I kept on hoping that it would suddenly become obvious that it was the authors's twisted idea of a joke or something, a parody of... something. No such luck.