I don't understand why responses are so cool, and why the article says it is hard to tell if the association is being bad or not.
It looks pretty clear to me. People wonder why U.S. science is beginning to suck, and obviously it has suffered from a long deevolution that has culminated with examples like big oil attempting to control formative environmental education and religion attempting to control formative biological education.
Clearly, even if the association had no clue of reality and decided to cave in to a editorial style where they show both sides of the story, they should show Gore's film.
It is not clear to me why public education requires corporate sponsorship and even allows corporations to inject any type of media into the education of young people.
There is a place for businesses in showing the practical side for example I still remember a trip to the Lamont-Dougherty oceanographic institute and that was maybe 30 years ago.. a high point of my public school education which sucked. Lucky for me I switched to a private high school and bloomed.
How come people aren't outraged? Or is it just a kind of quiet outrage? You know, Bush is still in power and that's his boys there or something? This is the kind of thing that makes the U.S. the utter laughing stock of the entire planet. I cannot imagine another first world country that would allow this, or has public education become even more dismal than I thought? Certainly it was sheer hell for a nerd, but it also sounds like an utter waste of cow-brain level stimulation. Why even bother?
I had been thinking the Wii sounded much better than the PS3 with its current level of games and now I really would like to get a Wii!
It would be *extremely* cool to have a number of wireless sensors you can strap arond parts of your body and with maybe soft bands you can close with velcro, and do a daily workout to the Wii. It could either be a game (like those embedded games for exercise bikes) or maybe a game-like monitor of how your progress goes. With sound and maybe images (though probably wouldn't be looking at the screen) it can see if you are slacking towards the end, or how high an angle you get on your leg lifts, etc.
This would be great for rehabilitation, and if it can store your progress you could even get a graph, and maybe a suggestion to add a few reps. If nothing else as a timer it would be useful, for example I do leg lifts to rehabilitate my knees from a skiing accident and though once in a while I get psyched up, it is boring, you have to look at a watch to time so many seconds of each part, and so on.
I would be willing to plunk some cash down if I could get some of these sensors and a monitoring app for the Wii that would accompany me with these leg lifts and why not pushups and situps too? With the Wii you could do pushups with a cartoon bear on your back telling you to suck it in!
Anyway I'd also like to say I would prefer trying a golf game than a shooting game after work too. And I have gone 6 months without watching my TV either and done just fine but I would hook it up again for this kind of a "game". If Nintendo knows what's good for them they'll start a new division for this stuff.
Sony of course will just never get it. I was hyped about their supercomputer stuff promised for the PS3 but so far it just looks like a bunch of overheated silicon that can only be put through its paces by large companies willing to brave the brink of bankruptcy for years on end. And I also was upset to play the PS2 with my very young nephews, all the titles they had were very violent, and made them uneasy, or were just too hard to play!
Just from what I've heard so far, Wii is undoubtedly the best game machine out there and undoubedly has the best games. I may not be representative but I am attracted to machines by one or two interesting looking games. For the Saturn I liked the Nights game (Japanese), and there are two music games that would make me buy a DS. Doing sports is fine but if you have little time, or just want some pure fun, or have a family, the Wii sounds right on target.
I was wondering if at nanoscale the surface looked for example like a jagged saw, or molten threads, or mirrored caves, or what. In cyberpunk stories there is a fictional weapon of a nanowire-like thread that can cut through anything, but truth could be stranger than fiction. For example I know titanium oxide surfaces cause reactions that break down pollution/bacteria (I think with ozone maybe), and I met some students studying diamond-based semiconductors which apparently allow all kinds of organic things to bond to them. They were spending all their time characterizing what they had invented, just like a bunch of nanotube startups I'd met. So it is not entirely inconceivable that say a metal wire processed with the femtosecond laser into a surface that either was physically like a saw or perhaps included emitters of plasma at the surface could in fact be something like that thread thought up by William Gibson. It's like why there are so many humanoid robots coming out of Japan... there are so many lovers of comics and animation who grow up to become engineers who secretly want to make those giant robots etc. real. So when technology reaches an enabling level you can be sure we'll have giant robots too.
Anyway this femto-laser thing could turn out to be an amazing thing or just a quick way to make a carcinogenic powder, but I wonder why people are so quick to imagine using it on jewels and cars. I also would like to know how a metal surface can capture a broad spectrum of light... (and I can't figure out why they didn't figure out more about it before announcing the research). Normally metals absorb a certain spectrum I thought, and they also are usually shiny.
A surface made of craters would still diffract or reflect the light in other directions. So either light is being drawn into maybe deep caves, or a sooty surface unlike raw metal is being formed, or something wierd is happening electronically, right? Yeah, I don't think you should go rubbing your fingers over a femto-polished surface, you might lose a few layers of skin, poison yourself or get chemically burned!
Some questions that spring to untutored mind.. Nanoscale forces: Would it become sticky due to Van der Waals forces like gecko feet? Magnetism: does the laser destroy magnetic properties? What if you laser processed while in a high magnetic field, could you control alignment of the nanoscale structures? Could you sculpt forms at nanoscale? Does laser melt the metal or what is actually going on? Interaction with nanoparticles: Would this make a good nano filter? Does surface show an affinity for certain substances? Metallurgy: Sounds like it makes an extremely sharp surface. Would this be the ultimate cutting surface? Can this be used to fuse different metals at the nanoscale? If short intense light beams do this, what about short intense electrical jolts of similar scale (or is it the same thing really)? Absorption: Could the nanostructure shapes be duplicated scaled up to absorb longer frequencies? Do different laser frequencies make structures that absorb different bands? How about for high contrast antiglare screens? Surface area: With such high surface area, might it possibly catalyze all kinds of reactions.. for example would any poisonous gases maybe arise at the surface when in a normal smoggy atmosphere? What about when it comes in contact with organic molecules? Electronic: If electrified would the surface act like little antennas and maybe sparks? The other article about nitric acid etching of phosphorous does do that.. a few more percent concentration and craters become stalagmites. Would conductive, high surface area particles like these be useful in batteries or selective membranes? What does the coating look like at a nanoscale anyway? Article's "a black picture won't tell you anything" is silly. Safety: If it scrapes off is it going to enter your blood and brain? If you rub it will you dye your fingers black? Optics: How could this improve even small telescopes or video cameras? How much would it affect ability to discover extrasolar planets with current tech?
Yes of course my post includes suppositions but I don't think it is entirely flying off the handle. Replies to your post:
1. Everyone wants to know why Novell got 400M. They could have figured the PR backlash. It seems either they have something on MS, or MS bought them off to do SCO-like stuff. There may be another reason but seeing how MS works I don't think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
2. It is the next move of MS with regard to linux. I think a lot of people can read between the lines enough to think it will turn out to be a move against linux, eventually. But yes, supposition.
3. You could be right. However I see a danger if you use Novell-liscensed code with MS patents in it, and Novell disappears. But yes, it is possible that MS just really loves Novell software and wants to build their own product based on it. But is that worh 400M? Usually you write some software and split the profits afterwards, and that could cover patents too. Someone needs to explain why all the cash, and why part of it was made to look like it was being paid back to MS to cover patents. Also I see the difference in timing of payments as actually a loan to Novell which Novell pays back over several years. Bottom line is it smells fishy. And I still want to know what MS is going to do now that it presumably has its hands on a major distro.
4. IBM and others do want lots of people to use their GPL distributed code, this is not strange. I am suggesting exactly what you say, that MS still does not want to open up their code, or to distribute GPL code entirely altruistically. That is okay. The point I wanted to make is that MS can use Novell as a buffer and later disavow in part anything that made it into the world. This would presumably open Novell up to lawsuits (if they are saying the code they distribute as GPL is not encumbered and it is) but if Novell tanked one day the buffer disappears. I see the agreement cynically as a spearhead for MS to get deeply into the linux world and (very cynically yes) will see everything that makes its way out as potentially tainted. For example I recently came head to head with a DRM issue in the upgrade to Media Player 10. I paid money to watch a program at an Internet cafe and wanted a copy of it, they sell disks for you to do so. If I had a VHS recorder I could do that. But after burning I discovered the programs were actually DRMd so I could only watch them again by going back and paying more money to watch them at that single location. Whether or not you think this is a fair thing or not, I expect this sort of thing to make its way into Linux through Novell, and so the announcement of such software by Novell would set off alarms. You just have to wait for the other shoe to drop and in the next version this software might suddenly lock you out of your media collection like Media Player 10 and to a larger extent Vista apparently does. The problem is not being paranoid, but with not being paranoid enough at the stage when MS is doing another sneaky submarine tactic.
5,6. Ballmer's announcement suggested they would start suing people like SCO did for similar reasons. They could not do so if they distributed an entire distro under GPL, but they could continue to do so if SuSE was used as-is and sold by Novell. An MS distro would (well IANAL, maybe it wouldn't) presumably be an announcement that all code in it is unencumbered. I don't see how they could distribute something and at the same time say they might sue you if you use it. GNU/Linux obviously can only be distributed under GPL. Therefore MS does not want to do so. Am I still on the "logic train"? I don't see how MS apologists ride the clue train themselves but appreciate your demand for perfect knowledge.
7. No. The CEO may be naive or lying due to being bound by the confidentiality agreement. We don't know why they got so much money. You could be right I will give you that. However there is a logical flow: 1) if Novell paid 40M not to get sued presumably they kn
Hi! Thanks for your reply. Funny I posted twice in the same thread, first got rated troll and second I got a 5. Wierd Slashdot.
First, I am not a lawyer and the answers to your questions depend on the agreement plus the GPL. I am suggesting two cases, one in which they contribute GPL code (GPL2 or GPL3), and one in which they provide binary code, as in a driver or other application. For example I'm in Japan and commercial linux distros come with proprietary fonts and apps sometimes, especially for the Japanese input environment.
Personally I don't think contribution of GPL would make users Novell customers. If they lied about patent nonencumbrance conceivably MS might even handle any lawsuits that came at them, who knows. Mainly I am concerned that Novell's mindset appears to be similar to SCO and Microsoft, which means that code they provide will always be first to gain some advantage over the user and not to do anything particularly well. Novell code will always need to be examined to see if it adds a taint of some DRM-like control mechanism or other specious function that users don't need. For example I would not be surprised for them to try and sell an egregious piece of software like MS' Media Player.
Well sorry I haven't answered your questions too well, but one thing I think true is that developers who use Novell code will be seriously put out later on if MS announces a patent problem, say at a time after Novell has broken off their agreement with Microsoft, and few developers can afford to walk into a courtroom with MS. I think MS wants to gradually integrate technology into linux that is like a submarine patent... to explode later. If they can get linux users to get used to and like to use/demand Microsoft "technologies" (I just think most of them are scams), they will have won a lot. It's up to you but I would be pretty worried about using something from Novell, whereas I wouldn't hesitate to use widgets from Yahoo, Google or IBM for instance. You have to wonder
Could have happened, but I think the evidence of nothing obvious on the Moon or long orbits probably means that previous generations did not advance as far as we have gotten this time around. Assuming the rise of artificial intelligence within 30-50 years and maybe self-sufficient robots easily within 100 years, I'd expect to see some radio signals from where trojan points or asteroids at least. Of course a physics experiment may go disastrously wrong before then, but I'm hoping we will get our knowledge and genes out of the gravity well before things get much more dangerous.
Would you trust an automatic binary update mechanism from Novell?
I always trusted Redhat's to keep me protected from vulnerabilities, and drooled over Red Carpet.
How would you feel though if Novell introduced a service like Windows Update?
How about if they ran it just like Microsoft does, rolling into critical security updates crap like Genuine Advantage to snoop how many seats you have? It seems likely that it would include DRM, which would maybe talk to secure hardware, let you play secure Microsoft video streams, secured DVDs, etc. Maybe you will not be allowed to play your legally ripped mp3s anymore. Wouldn't you look at your router from time to time to see if any packets are being sent when they shouldn't? All these things seem to be likely to come from this Novell-MS partnership. They may become the only linux distro compatible with MS DRM, but they also will be a wedge. You will see machines with this virus on it. Would you mind if your favorite distro included binary code that originated at Microsoft?
Personally the idea that Windows Update would come to linux, or that a tool meant to increase security against crackers could be turned against the people who own the hardware, is anathema and that whole mindset is a major reason I hate using windows. I forgo DRM'd stuff and boycott DRM vendors. I would like to see Novell's CEO stand up and promise (not that I trust him as far as he could throw a chair) that the above scenario will never happen with their products.
I gave the man the benefit of the doubt, even though I am extremely angry at Novell, and read his letter. It is very well written and makes the reader think, "Oh, that's all right then". But it isn't. He is not acting in a vaccuum and this is not a textbook case study (yet). Why? 1. Novell obviously needed cash quite badly, enough to risk a PR backlash. 2. Microsoft was a key driver behind SCO and this is their next highly visible move against Linux. 3. Microsoft has linux people in-house. If they wanted linux they could make their own distro for free, plus hiring a team to add interoperability which presumably should be easy since they would be the only team on the planet with the inside knowledge of how to do that. 4. Of course, this expert knowledge would be copied by other distros if it was GPL, so they wouldn't want to do that. 5. And, they wouldn't be able to easily infect other distros a la SCO, which is another reason. 6. Finally, if they distribute GNU/Linux under GPL then they are finally saying everything is already under the GPL. (possibly including nonencumbrance by patents but IANAL). 7. Novell cannot leash the dragon once it begins to rampage. In fact, this patent agreement clearly removes potential weapons of OSS-friendly vendors like IBM against possible future SCO-like lititgation from Microsoft. It means that Novell may likely enter the role of indeminifying vendors and users against Microsoft litigation (if the patent agreement allows that). 8. Novell's CEO claims their actions prove they are honorably. I am sure he would like to think so. However if actions are louder than words, then surely this deal with Microsoft proves Novell is only in business for Novell, especially if it means all other OSS vendors get poisoned by their actions. 9. It also proves that Novell's CEO is intellectually and/or ethically unfit for his position due to his blithe ignorance of SCO and Microsoft's role in SCO, smoking gun and all. 10. The only reason imaginable is that Novell is really on the brink of bankruptcy and some threat from Microsoft would push them over the edge. Possibly Novell has some proof of OSS in Windows but who will ever know? Novell's actions cast a pall of smoke and brimstone over all OSS-related activities, projects, and products they have. 11. Unfortunately this makes me and lots of other people very scared of what may end up in Suse and strongly suggests that Novell will be Microsoft's key tool for attempting again to destroy Linux and the OSS world, no matter what Novell ever says. 12. That is why Novell cannot be trusted, and anything they ever contribute to OSS projects must be painstakingly analyzed and thrown in the garbage at the least worry. Even so, there is no way to be sure anything they offer will not be either a fragment of patentable data, or a fragment of a potential vulnerability to either access from microsoft or attack by a windows virus. It would be a much different story if Microsoft was going to provide all necessary documentation and experienced OSS programmers could plan how to interface with those APIs for best performance and security. Of course the same goes for anybody who ever thought of buying Novell or maybe making a contract with Novell. I don't see how anybody can ever trust Novell again.
Thanks Mr. Ballmer you just helped me make up my mind. I will be buying Apple's newest unix based laptop to replace my current RedHat based laptop.
I started linux with slackware and later Suse but I stopped trusting Suse when Novell bought it and made it hard for me to download Evolution. I'll be using the newly GPL'd Eudora on my Mac, which always was my favorite mail software too. I had a moment's hesitation an hour ago.. should I get a PC instead... but luckily I had already realized Vista is utter crap and your loathesome announcements have finally pushed me over the edge.
I may use windows for clients who have it but I will vociferously promote linux and Mac OSX and tell all I can how they should reconsider Microsoft, as your company has taken on an undisclosed balance sheet risk, namely from all the lawsuits with which you will be clobbered as a followup to SCO's loss.
It also makes me wonder just how long you will keep your job. As the new Millenium advances, your older shareholders will die, and society's understanding will grow that it is better to create good works and share knowledge than to spend all your profits on evil lawsuits, lies, FUD and general vomit which is all anyone hears coming from your mouth.
Novell will not survive long as your bitch, and I do not think people are going to put up with your utterly cynical and destructive pronouncements for very much longer. Microsoft's shareholders will soon begin to understand that they will be best served by sweeping out the dead wood like you, which got Microsoft to domination through rapacious practices, and turn over a new leaf based on trust.
If Microsoft made good software I would buy it for use on whatever operating system I had, but there is just no reason to buy Microsoft if 1) I hate everything the company stands for and 2) its entire business model is based on either selling outdated bloatware or fooling people into buying upgrades that progressively limit what they are allowed to do with their own purchases.
Time is not on your side, which is why I presume you have undertaken such a desperate and risky course of action. Incidentally I will have to continue to use Windows in some cases when work requires it, however I will run it virtually on Parallels within Mac OSX with an old license (I will not buy Windows in the future either). I believe this is the best way to keep viruses (including your cynically named Windows Updates) at arms' length and use the most advanced technology, which is not of course produced by your company.
Honestly after the past head of Hewlett Packard I would say you are the biggest detriment to any Fortune 100 company in America. Sayonara, as soon as possible please.
Personally I have fought for linux vs. windows and won some battles and walked away from others. I think if everything doesn't go perfectly the suits will always find a good reason to walk away, even if as in my own experience they had a great solution working for 5 years that just needed to be moved to new hardware when a RAID died. It may be different in some quick to move companies, but I've found clients just eat what vendors give them and have little in-house skill, and little flexibility to solve problems (as open source software allows them to). This is just my own experience but it makes me think that the people who listen to FUD etc. are the denizens of inferior MIS setups, in other words companies that have lost their ability to compete. My 2 cents, don't mean this as a rant.
Is there any chance do you think that this could lead to Microsoft launching a series of micro-SCO type initiatives now that their investment in SCO didn't work out? What I mean is that I'm curious about just what that money is going toward. Did M$ threaten Novell with any specific patents or vice versa? Sure Microsoft has a few good engineers maybe, but as far as I can tell most of their efforts over the years have been exremely nasty. I find it hard to believe that anything good will come of this, rather I am waiting for the first embrace/extend shoe to drop as Novell starts spouting some ludicrous SCO-like FUD under the guise of supporting the community. Hasn't M$ just bought a bitch to whip who appears a little friendlier to users and developers than SCO did? Maybe Novell will end up writing some cool Vista software but I could care less, I'm staying away from that racket. Novell buying SUSE to sell out to Microsoft is an ultra-cynical move and they deserve to get thoroughly lambasted in every public venue. I'm looking toward hearing about employees jumping ship from Novell as soon as the shit begins to hit the fan. Of course this is a very effective way for Microsoft to get rid of a competitor; it is very good at pulling the rug out from under its friends. I am just wondering if Novell was that dumb or if M$ had some really good FUD to scare their investors with.
The/. editors must have been seriously constipated today. Slander Bezos for what is general practice, then turn around and blame Sony for selling the most advanced game machine in the world too cheaply. Honestly if those people really were homeless (and I can bet you they were not), that is probably the most lucrative and easiest job they could get!
Anyway if you want to know where all those consoles are going, they are on auction (Japanese page at Rakuten). I haven't used Rakuten myself but it seems they don't display the closing prices for closed auctions. But never worry, there are a lot of consoles on sale.. well I see about 500 bids for 15 auctions. One auction still open at time of posting includes a PS3 60GB unit with memory card adapter and 4 games.
The 18th bid has brought that up to 122,000 ($1037) it seems. Another auction has a 20GB machine and 2 software titles for 86,000 yen.. they have 8 units (or 8 homeless people according to Slashdot) and 116 bids.. the bidding started for this one at 10 yen and then Whoosh! Boy I wish I hadn't had my head in the sand! I thought (oh it will get cheaper quick) but I should have sold it on the web. Sheesh! Well this might not play U.S. titles, unless someone discovers a backdoor again.
Perhaps this points up a need for an OSS system that will constantly download media as it is posted by leading news media, and maintain it, checking for changes to it. the Internet Archive isn't enough. If OSS lots of people could run it so conspiracies would be out of the question, and rival papers could scan each other. Also would be proof against takedowns from DMCA or other things that have no force in your jurisdiction, etc. Anybody?
For Novell, that price is $300M. Well they really cried for more but even Microsoft must raised an eyebrow (or a chair..) Finally they agreed to another 40 or 50 million as a loan to be paid back over 5 years. But I doubt M$ will pay that much money and not get it back in spades, you can't just kiss those guys on the cheek and get away scot free you know. If they try to liscense gobs of linux the same way half of the Mac Toolbox was embedded in the $200M Quicktime for Windows (which I used as a porting layer on a package similar to Quark Xpress), expect copyright or patent problems to allow M$ to call the agreement a lie and demand their money back, or force Novell to run after coders to buy rights. I can't see anything good come from this. It's not a service agreement, it's a technology liscensing dance and a preliminary to some kind of lawsuit and/or M&A within the next 10 years. Someone tell me why anyone should respect or trust Novell for taking money from Microsoft. Knowing nothing about the deal at all I would still say it destabilizes them, since when you hug Microsoft they hug you right back.
I was just asking about this in a Tokyo shop last week. NTT DoCoMo now has a phone out (they made it look cyber-like but it is uglier than their other nice looking phones) as well as a pcmcia version for hsdpa (3.6 Mbps).
News about it (from May) here.
I was told that you need a separate provider (I have NiftyServe, which I use to get a login account on my home fiber connection from Tokyo Gas, which I can use apparently). There are 64K, 384K and 3.6M (2 models) but I am still trying to figure out just what it will cost and the flat rate for unlimited donwloading looks expensive.
$100 million to create a fund that generates a $10 million annual budget, with additional donors actively sought - either a blank check, or targeted at a certain subject or language. That kind of money sounds like alot but it isn't enough to buy a single Hollywood movie. It has to be used efficiently and leveraged.
So first, expand the budget. The French will pay for French, China can pay for Chinese. Translations can be made into African languages. Physics, biology, chemistry and computer science can have multiple corporate sponsors, too. So a department that does this full time for pay needs to exist.
Next, what to spend the money on, besides administration, research, and tool building. The answer is not something that can be solved instantaneously. Probably a mix of things would be a good idea to start with.
Perhaps a good thing would be to make a plan with goals to work towards. The original post talks about buying and freeing works, which caused a bunch of posts covering entertainment, primary school and college education, ancient and classical literature libraries, preservation of techniques, and recovery from a disaster. Since the project will likely gain more momentum (blogs, news articles, contributions, additional sponsors) the more people use it, one goal should be to assemble useful and interesting works, not only for the third world (which is a great goal in itself of course) but also things found interesting by educated first worlders who are active on the net. So I would add contemporary fiction too.
Education is something to which people donate a lot of money. In fact I have often heard Harvard has 100 times the endowment of Tokyo University and this makes a massive difference. Get some people who know what they are talking about and find out how to make it possible for people to donate to this thing instead of to a University, and get a tax break.
Next look at what other people have done and what works. Consider working with other projects for a synergy that makes the investments in both our project and theirs more valuable. So for education, take a look at something like MIT OpenCourseware. They have lecture notes and sometimes videos of lectures, assignments, exams, reading lists or tools. They don't grant credits, and I haven't seen any books - not for brain science, electronic circuits, linear algebra, or Intro to linguistics at least.
Also did you know the U.S. Military has a huge series of books for general education? I have seen a list for example of books covering a number of courses in electronics.
So here are some suggestions I have as far as content goes. I'll mention what I might like to see, which is better I think
Contemporary fiction, and science fiction. Out of copyright is okay, though I would like to see at least one book, Robert Heinlein's Friday. Because it talks about a terminal that has access to all the libraries of the world. I would also recommend buying some popular books as a way to get people to come to the site. Maybe a few books a month. Ebook readers will get more popular too. Talk to Tor Books about masters of golden era of science fiction.
Hire book writers. 100 people at $10,000 each is only 1/10 of the budget. Institute a quality control process that compares them to the top books used by universities and aim to beat them. And hire smart people (tm) to write on a certain subject. Not just a rehash.
Survey the books used by top schools and study them, contact authors, and discover what it takes to have a really good author write a really good book. Assign some budget and try to cover various fields, creating a chain from beginner to advanced material so people can actually learn something they don't know. This is important for all age groups and nationalities.
Start a project to try and standardize things so they don't have to be reinvented by each author, and so that materials for different fields, or at least within the chain of a single field, can be linked
Well I am a developer and in a mainly windows world. But I would use Windows on Parallels on the new Mac laptop I'm thinking of getting. (currently I use linux). This would let me stay away from viruses. My brother is an exec. of a pc manufacturer and he does the same and recommended it. I've met a lot of programmers who have mac laptops and like it, and most video creators and artists I know, the same. However you are right in that apparently Mac on parallels is not really a gaming alternative, it is a bit slow for that. I am not a big gamer but am in the market for a high end machine and the new macs are making me think twice and three times.
It's not just the iPod, viruses on shipped hardware seem to be getting more common. For example see below. Can't give other documented articles, but remember similar cases this past year. Anyone? The swipe at Microsoft sounds a lot like Jobs, looks like his personality has infected the company too. But Apple could win this by instating new controls over subcontractors and making a PR campaign in which they force them to use Macs or otherwise emphasize steps they've taken to minimize infection from Microsoft-based hardware.:)
Earlier, McDonald's and Coca-Cola faced a similar problem in Japan during an MP3 player giveaway, though the events are unconnected. The iPod virus only affects Windows machines, and does not alter the behavior of the portable device itself or Mac operating systems.
The article does not in fact give the answer! Presumably it will be unveiled in the sequel ("Coming up next...") advertised at the end of the page.
They mention the analysts were wrong that Apple needed more Apple market not more PC market, and that some execution (Performa) was done badly. That at least is true, and why Mom had to use a PC for a while until she got back to Macs.
Of course I was a Mac person in the 90s even though Apple had screwed me a number of times. Now Macs are better but PCs (with XP) are better too. If they can come out with Leopard this year instead of next year they will do much better at Christmastime I bet.
Softbank purchased Vodaphone's Japan operation and they have a hugely advertised campaign in which you get a free iPod Nano with their music capable phone. Their campaigns are all based on "+ othercompany = Softbank", i.e. tieups with other companies i.e. Sharp's AQUOS high quality flat panel television added to make a rotatable portrait display on a phone. Unknown if the price point will be enough for the U.S. but for elsewhere the answer would be not only yes but they probably already are ramping up distribution.
Hey, that's a great idea. Just need to cover terahertz to image tissues and catch trace odors, doppler microwave radar to catch blood flow, infrared for inflammation, and maybe a chemical detector nose and portable nmr unit, for a nice medical tricorder. Maybe add what's on the mars rovers for general purpose use. Just wave it all around a patient's body for 20 seconds and you can collect a homogenous 3D dataset, then just run a multitude of simulated agents with medical knowledge all over the tissue interfaces. Hmmm might be a new industry!
Practical uses. Why the stupid comments?
on
A Single Pixel Camera
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Pretty surprised at all the dumb comments on this story. The scientists involved are not demeaned by consumers being used to cheap megapixel cameras, nor by a secret lab having done something that sounds similar, nor by some patent existing. Slashdot really sucks!
If you are interested you can find out a lot about the really fascinating and cutting edge science of computationally assisted optics, or whatever is the correct term. It is the same field as the people who have been experimenting with giant arrays of cheap cameras, capturing entire light fields that can be sliced in time and space and reprojected later on, etc. It is computers plus physics and a big dose of creativity, which is why it is related to SIGGRAPH too.
Anyway this is interesting and is based on different principles from current megapixel cameras, which is why they think it might improve current cameras too. Just like the way the spaghetti physicists were laughed at by Harvard's igNobel, even though they finally solved something Feynman couldn't crack and have discovered a new method for focusing energy.
Just off-hand, the one pixel camera and compressive imaging theory they have looks very interesting:
A one-chip computer with transmitter, battery and 1 pixel camera could be worn on your cuffs or collar and capture/assemble from random angles through which it is jangled your entire surroundings.
Could be used if mounted on a wire tip and wire oscillated giving many views of an object for cheap 3d scanning
Camera could include one pixel per range of spectrum, recording a full electromangetic spectrum
They are doing only some simple compression right now. If your current camera could do wavelet compression within the ccd you could certainly get much better pictures and reduce the storage needed.
If current cameras can do all the work needed in 1/500 of a second that means they could be doing a lot more if only compression, transmission and storage are solved, that is what they are working on.
The one pixel camera uses random projections to achieve a certain density of information that seems to be constant throughout the light field they are capturing. This means if they store orientation and time accurately, their data can be sliced at constant quality in any direction, so it is homogenous data which is good. Imagine slicing diagonally through Kraft cheese block or through swiss cheese.
Compressive imaging might help video camera manufacturers wrap their heads around recording at far higher frame rates, including side radio bands for orientation, or combining multiple image sources. Compression in the imaging chip means less data to handle elsewhere.
If you read some of the bibliography (the Architecture one) you will see use of Haar wavelets to reconstruct an image from a 3-dimensional (200,000 voxel) data structure which performs much better than a 2-d one due to the sparseness of data. This paper also talks about the use of bands for which CCD use is impossible.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't understand why responses are so cool, and why the article says it is hard to tell if the association is being bad or not.
It looks pretty clear to me. People wonder why U.S. science is beginning to suck, and obviously it has suffered from a long deevolution that has culminated with examples like big oil attempting to control formative environmental education and religion attempting to control formative biological education.
Clearly, even if the association had no clue of reality and decided to cave in to a editorial style where they show both sides of the story, they should show Gore's film.
It is not clear to me why public education requires corporate sponsorship and even allows corporations to inject any type of media into the education of young people.
There is a place for businesses in showing the practical side for example I still remember a trip to the Lamont-Dougherty oceanographic institute and that was maybe 30 years ago.. a high point of my public school education which sucked. Lucky for me I switched to a private high school and bloomed.
How come people aren't outraged? Or is it just a kind of quiet outrage? You know, Bush is still in power and that's his boys there or something? This is the kind of thing that makes the U.S. the utter laughing stock of the entire planet. I cannot imagine another first world country that would allow this, or has public education become even more dismal than I thought? Certainly it was sheer hell for a nerd, but it also sounds like an utter waste of cow-brain level stimulation. Why even bother?
I had been thinking the Wii sounded much better than the PS3 with its current level of games and now I really would like to get a Wii!
It would be *extremely* cool to have a number of wireless sensors you can strap arond parts of your body and with maybe soft bands you can close with velcro, and do a daily workout to the Wii. It could either be a game (like those embedded games for exercise bikes) or maybe a game-like monitor of how your progress goes. With sound and maybe images (though probably wouldn't be looking at the screen) it can see if you are slacking towards the end, or how high an angle you get on your leg lifts, etc.
This would be great for rehabilitation, and if it can store your progress you could even get a graph, and maybe a suggestion to add a few reps. If nothing else as a timer it would be useful, for example I do leg lifts to rehabilitate my knees from a skiing accident and though once in a while I get psyched up, it is boring, you have to look at a watch to time so many seconds of each part, and so on.
I would be willing to plunk some cash down if I could get some of these sensors and a monitoring app for the Wii that would accompany me with these leg lifts and why not pushups and situps too? With the Wii you could do pushups with a cartoon bear on your back telling you to suck it in!
Anyway I'd also like to say I would prefer trying a golf game than a shooting game after work too. And I have gone 6 months without watching my TV either and done just fine but I would hook it up again for this kind of a "game". If Nintendo knows what's good for them they'll start a new division for this stuff.
Sony of course will just never get it. I was hyped about their supercomputer stuff promised for the PS3 but so far it just looks like a bunch of overheated silicon that can only be put through its paces by large companies willing to brave the brink of bankruptcy for years on end. And I also was upset to play the PS2 with my very young nephews, all the titles they had were very violent, and made them uneasy, or were just too hard to play!
Just from what I've heard so far, Wii is undoubtedly the best game machine out there and undoubedly has the best games. I may not be representative but I am attracted to machines by one or two interesting looking games. For the Saturn I liked the Nights game (Japanese), and there are two music games that would make me buy a DS. Doing sports is fine but if you have little time, or just want some pure fun, or have a family, the Wii sounds right on target.
Thanks!
I was wondering if at nanoscale the surface looked for example like a jagged saw, or molten threads, or mirrored caves, or what. In cyberpunk stories there is a fictional weapon of a nanowire-like thread that can cut through anything, but truth could be stranger than fiction. For example I know titanium oxide surfaces cause reactions that break down pollution/bacteria (I think with ozone maybe), and I met some students studying diamond-based semiconductors which apparently allow all kinds of organic things to bond to them. They were spending all their time characterizing what they had invented, just like a bunch of nanotube startups I'd met. So it is not entirely inconceivable that say a metal wire processed with the femtosecond laser into a surface that either was physically like a saw or perhaps included emitters of plasma at the surface could in fact be something like that thread thought up by William Gibson. It's like why there are so many humanoid robots coming out of Japan... there are so many lovers of comics and animation who grow up to become engineers who secretly want to make those giant robots etc. real. So when technology reaches an enabling level you can be sure we'll have giant robots too.
Anyway this femto-laser thing could turn out to be an amazing thing or just a quick way to make a carcinogenic powder, but I wonder why people are so quick to imagine using it on jewels and cars. I also would like to know how a metal surface can capture a broad spectrum of light... (and I can't figure out why they didn't figure out more about it before announcing the research). Normally metals absorb a certain spectrum I thought, and they also are usually shiny.
A surface made of craters would still diffract or reflect the light in other directions. So either light is being drawn into maybe deep caves, or a sooty surface unlike raw metal is being formed, or something wierd is happening electronically, right? Yeah, I don't think you should go rubbing your fingers over a femto-polished surface, you might lose a few layers of skin, poison yourself or get chemically burned!
Some questions that spring to untutored mind..
Nanoscale forces: Would it become sticky due to Van der Waals forces like gecko feet?
Magnetism: does the laser destroy magnetic properties? What if you laser processed while in a high magnetic field, could you control alignment of the nanoscale structures? Could you sculpt forms at nanoscale? Does laser melt the metal or what is actually going on?
Interaction with nanoparticles: Would this make a good nano filter? Does surface show an affinity for certain substances?
Metallurgy: Sounds like it makes an extremely sharp surface. Would this be the ultimate cutting surface? Can this be used to fuse different metals at the nanoscale?
If short intense light beams do this, what about short intense electrical jolts of similar scale (or is it the same thing really)?
Absorption: Could the nanostructure shapes be duplicated scaled up to absorb longer frequencies? Do different laser frequencies make structures that absorb different bands?
How about for high contrast antiglare screens?
Surface area: With such high surface area, might it possibly catalyze all kinds of reactions.. for example would any poisonous gases maybe arise at the surface when in a normal smoggy atmosphere? What about when it comes in contact with organic molecules?
Electronic: If electrified would the surface act like little antennas and maybe sparks? The other article about nitric acid etching of phosphorous does do that.. a few more percent concentration and craters become stalagmites.
Would conductive, high surface area particles like these be useful in batteries or selective membranes?
What does the coating look like at a nanoscale anyway? Article's "a black picture won't tell you anything" is silly.
Safety: If it scrapes off is it going to enter your blood and brain? If you rub it will you dye your fingers black?
Optics: How could this improve even small telescopes or video cameras? How much would it affect ability to discover extrasolar planets with current tech?
Clearly, Ballmer is the balance sheet liability (BSL).
Hi, thanks for your response!
Yes of course my post includes suppositions but I don't think it is entirely flying off the handle. Replies to your post:
1. Everyone wants to know why Novell got 400M. They could have figured the PR backlash. It seems either they have something on MS, or MS bought them off to do SCO-like stuff. There may be another reason but seeing how MS works I don't think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
2. It is the next move of MS with regard to linux. I think a lot of people can read between the lines enough to think it will turn out to be a move against linux, eventually. But yes, supposition.
3. You could be right. However I see a danger if you use Novell-liscensed code with MS patents in it, and Novell disappears. But yes, it is possible that MS just really loves Novell software and wants to build their own product based on it. But is that worh 400M? Usually you write some software and split the profits afterwards, and that could cover patents too. Someone needs to explain why all the cash, and why part of it was made to look like it was being paid back to MS to cover patents. Also I see the difference in timing of payments as actually a loan to Novell which Novell pays back over several years. Bottom line is it smells fishy. And I still want to know what MS is going to do now that it presumably has its hands on a major distro.
4. IBM and others do want lots of people to use their GPL distributed code, this is not strange. I am suggesting exactly what you say, that MS still does not want to open up their code, or to distribute GPL code entirely altruistically. That is okay. The point I wanted to make is that MS can use Novell as a buffer and later disavow in part anything that made it into the world. This would presumably open Novell up to lawsuits (if they are saying the code they distribute as GPL is not encumbered and it is) but if Novell tanked one day the buffer disappears. I see the agreement cynically as a spearhead for MS to get deeply into the linux world and (very cynically yes) will see everything that makes its way out as potentially tainted. For example I recently came head to head with a DRM issue in the upgrade to Media Player 10. I paid money to watch a program at an Internet cafe and wanted a copy of it, they sell disks for you to do so. If I had a VHS recorder I could do that. But after burning I discovered the programs were actually DRMd so I could only watch them again by going back and paying more money to watch them at that single location. Whether or not you think this is a fair thing or not, I expect this sort of thing to make its way into Linux through Novell, and so the announcement of such software by Novell would set off alarms. You just have to wait for the other shoe to drop and in the next version this software might suddenly lock you out of your media collection like Media Player 10 and to a larger extent Vista apparently does. The problem is not being paranoid, but with not being paranoid enough at the stage when MS is doing another sneaky submarine tactic.
5,6. Ballmer's announcement suggested they would start suing people like SCO did for similar reasons. They could not do so if they distributed an entire distro under GPL, but they could continue to do so if SuSE was used as-is and sold by Novell. An MS distro would (well IANAL, maybe it wouldn't) presumably be an announcement that all code in it is unencumbered. I don't see how they could distribute something and at the same time say they might sue you if you use it. GNU/Linux obviously can only be distributed under GPL. Therefore MS does not want to do so. Am I still on the "logic train"? I don't see how MS apologists ride the clue train themselves but appreciate your demand for perfect knowledge.
7. No. The CEO may be naive or lying due to being bound by the confidentiality agreement. We don't know why they got so much money. You could be right I will give you that. However there is a logical flow: 1) if Novell paid 40M not to get sued presumably they kn
Hi! Thanks for your reply. Funny I posted twice in the same thread, first got rated troll and second I got a 5. Wierd Slashdot.
First, I am not a lawyer and the answers to your questions depend on the agreement plus the GPL. I am suggesting two cases, one in which they contribute GPL code (GPL2 or GPL3), and one in which they provide binary code, as in a driver or other application. For example I'm in Japan and commercial linux distros come with proprietary fonts and apps sometimes, especially for the Japanese input environment.
Personally I don't think contribution of GPL would make users Novell customers. If they lied about patent nonencumbrance conceivably MS might even handle any lawsuits that came at them, who knows. Mainly I am concerned that Novell's mindset appears to be similar to SCO and Microsoft, which means that code they provide will always be first to gain some advantage over the user and not to do anything particularly well. Novell code will always need to be examined to see if it adds a taint of some DRM-like control mechanism or other specious function that users don't need. For example I would not be surprised for them to try and sell an egregious piece of software like MS' Media Player.
Well sorry I haven't answered your questions too well, but one thing I think true is that developers who use Novell code will be seriously put out later on if MS announces a patent problem, say at a time after Novell has broken off their agreement with Microsoft, and few developers can afford to walk into a courtroom with MS. I think MS wants to gradually integrate technology into linux that is like a submarine patent... to explode later. If they can get linux users to get used to and like to use/demand Microsoft "technologies" (I just think most of them are scams), they will have won a lot. It's up to you but I would be pretty worried about using something from Novell, whereas I wouldn't hesitate to use widgets from Yahoo, Google or IBM for instance. You have to wonder
Could have happened, but I think the evidence of nothing obvious on the Moon or long orbits probably means that previous generations did not advance as far as we have gotten this time around. Assuming the rise of artificial intelligence within 30-50 years and maybe self-sufficient robots easily within 100 years, I'd expect to see some radio signals from where trojan points or asteroids at least. Of course a physics experiment may go disastrously wrong before then, but I'm hoping we will get our knowledge and genes out of the gravity well before things get much more dangerous.
Would you trust an automatic binary update mechanism from Novell?
I always trusted Redhat's to keep me protected from vulnerabilities, and drooled over Red Carpet.
How would you feel though if Novell introduced a service like Windows Update?
How about if they ran it just like Microsoft does, rolling into critical security updates crap like Genuine Advantage to snoop how many seats you have? It seems likely that it would include DRM, which would maybe talk to secure hardware, let you play secure Microsoft video streams, secured DVDs, etc. Maybe you will not be allowed to play your legally ripped mp3s anymore. Wouldn't you look at your router from time to time to see if any packets are being sent when they shouldn't? All these things seem to be likely to come from this Novell-MS partnership. They may become the only linux distro compatible with MS DRM, but they also will be a wedge. You will see machines with this virus on it. Would you mind if your favorite distro included binary code that originated at Microsoft?
Personally the idea that Windows Update would come to linux, or that a tool meant to increase security against crackers could be turned against the people who own the hardware, is anathema and that whole mindset is a major reason I hate using windows. I forgo DRM'd stuff and boycott DRM vendors. I would like to see Novell's CEO stand up and promise (not that I trust him as far as he could throw a chair) that the above scenario will never happen with their products.
I gave the man the benefit of the doubt, even though I am extremely angry at Novell, and read his letter. It is very well written and makes the reader think, "Oh, that's all right then". But it isn't. He is not acting in a vaccuum and this is not a textbook case study (yet). Why?
1. Novell obviously needed cash quite badly, enough to risk a PR backlash.
2. Microsoft was a key driver behind SCO and this is their next highly visible move against Linux.
3. Microsoft has linux people in-house. If they wanted linux they could make their own distro for free, plus hiring a team to add interoperability which presumably should be easy since they would be the only team on the planet with the inside knowledge of how to do that.
4. Of course, this expert knowledge would be copied by other distros if it was GPL, so they wouldn't want to do that.
5. And, they wouldn't be able to easily infect other distros a la SCO, which is another reason.
6. Finally, if they distribute GNU/Linux under GPL then they are finally saying everything is already under the GPL. (possibly including nonencumbrance by patents but IANAL).
7. Novell cannot leash the dragon once it begins to rampage. In fact, this patent agreement clearly removes potential weapons of OSS-friendly vendors like IBM against possible future SCO-like lititgation from Microsoft. It means that Novell may likely enter the role of indeminifying vendors and users against Microsoft litigation (if the patent agreement allows that).
8. Novell's CEO claims their actions prove they are honorably. I am sure he would like to think so. However if actions are louder than words, then surely this deal with Microsoft proves Novell is only in business for Novell, especially if it means all other OSS vendors get poisoned by their actions.
9. It also proves that Novell's CEO is intellectually and/or ethically unfit for his position due to his blithe ignorance of SCO and Microsoft's role in SCO, smoking gun and all.
10. The only reason imaginable is that Novell is really on the brink of bankruptcy and some threat from Microsoft would push them over the edge. Possibly Novell has some proof of OSS in Windows but who will ever know? Novell's actions cast a pall of smoke and brimstone over all OSS-related activities, projects, and products they have.
11. Unfortunately this makes me and lots of other people very scared of what may end up in Suse and strongly suggests that Novell will be Microsoft's key tool for attempting again to destroy Linux and the OSS world, no matter what Novell ever says.
12. That is why Novell cannot be trusted, and anything they ever contribute to OSS projects must be painstakingly analyzed and thrown in the garbage at the least worry. Even so, there is no way to be sure anything they offer will not be either a fragment of patentable data, or a fragment of a potential vulnerability to either access from microsoft or attack by a windows virus. It would be a much different story if Microsoft was going to provide all necessary documentation and experienced OSS programmers could plan how to interface with those APIs for best performance and security. Of course the same goes for anybody who ever thought of buying Novell or maybe making a contract with Novell. I don't see how anybody can ever trust Novell again.
That is a very good idea. You do not sound drunk at all!
Thanks Mr. Ballmer you just helped me make up my mind. I will be buying Apple's newest unix based laptop to replace my current RedHat based laptop.
I started linux with slackware and later Suse but I stopped trusting Suse when Novell bought it and made it hard for me to download Evolution. I'll be using the newly GPL'd Eudora on my Mac, which always was my favorite mail software too. I had a moment's hesitation an hour ago.. should I get a PC instead... but luckily I had already realized Vista is utter crap and your loathesome announcements have finally pushed me over the edge.
I may use windows for clients who have it but I will vociferously promote linux and Mac OSX and tell all I can how they should reconsider Microsoft, as your company has taken on an undisclosed balance sheet risk, namely from all the lawsuits with which you will be clobbered as a followup to SCO's loss.
It also makes me wonder just how long you will keep your job. As the new Millenium advances, your older shareholders will die, and society's understanding will grow that it is better to create good works and share knowledge than to spend all your profits on evil lawsuits, lies, FUD and general vomit which is all anyone hears coming from your mouth.
Novell will not survive long as your bitch, and I do not think people are going to put up with your utterly cynical and destructive pronouncements for very much longer. Microsoft's shareholders will soon begin to understand that they will be best served by sweeping out the dead wood like you, which got Microsoft to domination through rapacious practices, and turn over a new leaf based on trust.
If Microsoft made good software I would buy it for use on whatever operating system I had, but there is just no reason to buy Microsoft if 1) I hate everything the company stands for and 2) its entire business model is based on either selling outdated bloatware or fooling people into buying upgrades that progressively limit what they are allowed to do with their own purchases.
Time is not on your side, which is why I presume you have undertaken such a desperate and risky course of action. Incidentally I will have to continue to use Windows in some cases when work requires it, however I will run it virtually on Parallels within Mac OSX with an old license (I will not buy Windows in the future either). I believe this is the best way to keep viruses (including your cynically named Windows Updates) at arms' length and use the most advanced technology, which is not of course produced by your company.
Honestly after the past head of Hewlett Packard I would say you are the biggest detriment to any Fortune 100 company in America. Sayonara, as soon as possible please.
Thank you very much for your insightful reply.
Personally I have fought for linux vs. windows and won some battles and walked away from others. I think if everything doesn't go perfectly the suits will always find a good reason to walk away, even if as in my own experience they had a great solution working for 5 years that just needed to be moved to new hardware when a RAID died. It may be different in some quick to move companies, but I've found clients just eat what vendors give them and have little in-house skill, and little flexibility to solve problems (as open source software allows them to). This is just my own experience but it makes me think that the people who listen to FUD etc. are the denizens of inferior MIS setups, in other words companies that have lost their ability to compete. My 2 cents, don't mean this as a rant.
Is there any chance do you think that this could lead to Microsoft launching a series of micro-SCO type initiatives now that their investment in SCO didn't work out? What I mean is that I'm curious about just what that money is going toward. Did M$ threaten Novell with any specific patents or vice versa? Sure Microsoft has a few good engineers maybe, but as far as I can tell most of their efforts over the years have been exremely nasty. I find it hard to believe that anything good will come of this, rather I am waiting for the first embrace/extend shoe to drop as Novell starts spouting some ludicrous SCO-like FUD under the guise of supporting the community. Hasn't M$ just bought a bitch to whip who appears a little friendlier to users and developers than SCO did? Maybe Novell will end up writing some cool Vista software but I could care less, I'm staying away from that racket. Novell buying SUSE to sell out to Microsoft is an ultra-cynical move and they deserve to get thoroughly lambasted in every public venue. I'm looking toward hearing about employees jumping ship from Novell as soon as the shit begins to hit the fan. Of course this is a very effective way for Microsoft to get rid of a competitor; it is very good at pulling the rug out from under its friends. I am just wondering if Novell was that dumb or if M$ had some really good FUD to scare their investors with.
The /. editors must have been seriously constipated today. Slander Bezos for what is general practice, then turn around and blame Sony for selling the most advanced game machine in the world too cheaply. Honestly if those people really were homeless (and I can bet you they were not), that is probably the most lucrative and easiest job they could get!
Anyway if you want to know where all those consoles are going, they are on auction (Japanese page at Rakuten). I haven't used Rakuten myself but it seems they don't display the closing prices for closed auctions. But never worry, there are a lot of consoles on sale.. well I see about 500 bids for 15 auctions. One auction still open at time of posting includes a PS3 60GB unit with memory card adapter and 4 games.
The 18th bid has brought that up to 122,000 ($1037) it seems. Another auction has a 20GB machine and 2 software titles for 86,000 yen.. they have 8 units (or 8 homeless people according to Slashdot) and 116 bids.. the bidding started for this one at 10 yen and then Whoosh! Boy I wish I hadn't had my head in the sand! I thought (oh it will get cheaper quick) but I should have sold it on the web. Sheesh! Well this might not play U.S. titles, unless someone discovers a backdoor again.
Perhaps this points up a need for an OSS system that will constantly download media as it is posted by leading news media, and maintain it, checking for changes to it. the Internet Archive isn't enough. If OSS lots of people could run it so conspiracies would be out of the question, and rival papers could scan each other. Also would be proof against takedowns from DMCA or other things that have no force in your jurisdiction, etc. Anybody?
For Novell, that price is $300M. Well they really cried for more but even Microsoft must raised an eyebrow (or a chair..) Finally they agreed to another 40 or 50 million as a loan to be paid back over 5 years. But I doubt M$ will pay that much money and not get it back in spades, you can't just kiss those guys on the cheek and get away scot free you know. If they try to liscense gobs of linux the same way half of the Mac Toolbox was embedded in the $200M Quicktime for Windows (which I used as a porting layer on a package similar to Quark Xpress), expect copyright or patent problems to allow M$ to call the agreement a lie and demand their money back, or force Novell to run after coders to buy rights. I can't see anything good come from this. It's not a service agreement, it's a technology liscensing dance and a preliminary to some kind of lawsuit and/or M&A within the next 10 years. Someone tell me why anyone should respect or trust Novell for taking money from Microsoft. Knowing nothing about the deal at all I would still say it destabilizes them, since when you hug Microsoft they hug you right back.
I was told that you need a separate provider (I have NiftyServe, which I use to get a login account on my home fiber connection from Tokyo Gas, which I can use apparently). There are 64K, 384K and 3.6M (2 models) but I am still trying to figure out just what it will cost and the flat rate for unlimited donwloading looks expensive.
$100 million to create a fund that generates a $10 million annual budget, with additional donors actively sought - either a blank check, or targeted at a certain subject or language. That kind of money sounds like alot but it isn't enough to buy a single Hollywood movie. It has to be used efficiently and leveraged.
So first, expand the budget. The French will pay for French, China can pay for Chinese. Translations can be made into African languages. Physics, biology, chemistry and computer science can have multiple corporate sponsors, too. So a department that does this full time for pay needs to exist.
Next, what to spend the money on, besides administration, research, and tool building. The answer is not something that can be solved instantaneously. Probably a mix of things would be a good idea to start with.
Perhaps a good thing would be to make a plan with goals to work towards. The original post talks about buying and freeing works, which caused a bunch of posts covering entertainment, primary school and college education, ancient and classical literature libraries, preservation of techniques, and recovery from a disaster. Since the project will likely gain more momentum (blogs, news articles, contributions, additional sponsors) the more people use it, one goal should be to assemble useful and interesting works, not only for the third world (which is a great goal in itself of course) but also things found interesting by educated first worlders who are active on the net. So I would add contemporary fiction too.
Education is something to which people donate a lot of money. In fact I have often heard Harvard has 100 times the endowment of Tokyo University and this makes a massive difference. Get some people who know what they are talking about and find out how to make it possible for people to donate to this thing instead of to a University, and get a tax break.
Next look at what other people have done and what works. Consider working with other projects for a synergy that makes the investments in both our project and theirs more valuable. So for education, take a look at something like MIT OpenCourseware. They have lecture notes and sometimes videos of lectures, assignments, exams, reading lists or tools. They don't grant credits, and I haven't seen any books - not for brain science, electronic circuits, linear algebra, or Intro to linguistics at least.
Also did you know the U.S. Military has a huge series of books for general education? I have seen a list for example of books covering a number of courses in electronics.
So here are some suggestions I have as far as content goes. I'll mention what I might like to see, which is better I think
Contemporary fiction, and science fiction. Out of copyright is okay, though I would like to see at least one book, Robert Heinlein's Friday. Because it talks about a terminal that has access to all the libraries of the world. I would also recommend buying some popular books as a way to get people to come to the site. Maybe a few books a month. Ebook readers will get more popular too. Talk to Tor Books about masters of golden era of science fiction.
Hire book writers. 100 people at $10,000 each is only 1/10 of the budget. Institute a quality control process that compares them to the top books used by universities and aim to beat them. And hire smart people (tm) to write on a certain subject. Not just a rehash.
Survey the books used by top schools and study them, contact authors, and discover what it takes to have a really good author write a really good book. Assign some budget and try to cover various fields, creating a chain from beginner to advanced material so people can actually learn something they don't know. This is important for all age groups and nationalities.
Start a project to try and standardize things so they don't have to be reinvented by each author, and so that materials for different fields, or at least within the chain of a single field, can be linked
Well I am a developer and in a mainly windows world. But I would use Windows on Parallels on the new Mac laptop I'm thinking of getting. (currently I use linux). This would let me stay away from viruses. My brother is an exec. of a pc manufacturer and he does the same and recommended it. I've met a lot of programmers who have mac laptops and like it, and most video creators and artists I know, the same. However you are right in that apparently Mac on parallels is not really a gaming alternative, it is a bit slow for that. I am not a big gamer but am in the market for a high end machine and the new macs are making me think twice and three times.
It's not just the iPod, viruses on shipped hardware seem to be getting more common. For example see below. Can't give other documented articles, but remember similar cases this past year. Anyone? The swipe at Microsoft sounds a lot like Jobs, looks like his personality has infected the company too. But Apple could win this by instating new controls over subcontractors and making a PR campaign in which they force them to use Macs or otherwise emphasize steps they've taken to minimize infection from Microsoft-based hardware. :)
Quote from article:
Earlier, McDonald's and Coca-Cola faced a similar problem in Japan during an MP3 player giveaway, though the events are unconnected. The iPod virus only affects Windows machines, and does not alter the behavior of the portable device itself or Mac operating systems.
The article does not in fact give the answer! Presumably it will be unveiled in the sequel ("Coming up next...") advertised at the end of the page.
They mention the analysts were wrong that Apple needed more Apple market not more PC market, and that some execution (Performa) was done badly. That at least is true, and why Mom had to use a PC for a while until she got back to Macs.
Of course I was a Mac person in the 90s even though Apple had screwed me a number of times. Now Macs are better but PCs (with XP) are better too. If they can come out with Leopard this year instead of next year they will do much better at Christmastime I bet.
Softbank purchased Vodaphone's Japan operation and they have a hugely advertised campaign in which you get a free iPod Nano with their music capable phone. Their campaigns are all based on "+ othercompany = Softbank", i.e. tieups with other companies i.e. Sharp's AQUOS high quality flat panel television added to make a rotatable portrait display on a phone. Unknown if the price point will be enough for the U.S. but for elsewhere the answer would be not only yes but they probably already are ramping up distribution.
Hey, that's a great idea. Just need to cover terahertz to image tissues and catch trace odors, doppler microwave radar to catch blood flow, infrared for inflammation, and maybe a chemical detector nose and portable nmr unit, for a nice medical tricorder. Maybe add what's on the mars rovers for general purpose use. Just wave it all around a patient's body for 20 seconds and you can collect a homogenous 3D dataset, then just run a multitude of simulated agents with medical knowledge all over the tissue interfaces. Hmmm might be a new industry!
If you are interested you can find out a lot about the really fascinating and cutting edge science of computationally assisted optics, or whatever is the correct term. It is the same field as the people who have been experimenting with giant arrays of cheap cameras, capturing entire light fields that can be sliced in time and space and reprojected later on, etc. It is computers plus physics and a big dose of creativity, which is why it is related to SIGGRAPH too.
Anyway this is interesting and is based on different principles from current megapixel cameras, which is why they think it might improve current cameras too. Just like the way the spaghetti physicists were laughed at by Harvard's igNobel, even though they finally solved something Feynman couldn't crack and have discovered a new method for focusing energy.
Just off-hand, the one pixel camera and compressive imaging theory they have looks very interesting: