Time to market. Cost. Even other concerns. There are many different decision drivers.
In order to (1) catch up with a competitor or perhaps (2) get an "easier" development environment [easier being defined as one where the programmers are commodity and the system doesn't require buidling graphical components from scratch], 'easy' choices are made.
In the end, the bank isn't doing the development, but purchasing a final product... there are tons of variables to an ATM beyond the underlying OS; and honestly, not all that many large vendors to choose from (and a large bank will almost never choose a small vendor, over concerns for longevity and support). Microsoft has made a major push for Windows in many places and makes it as easy as possible for people in different markets to use their OS. It is really the responsibility of the purchasing organization (in the case of an ATM, the bank or credit union) to choose a good solution. But it's a painful balancing act.
By the way, if you really want to be disturbed by how liability for bad software isn't an issue, think about this: the US Federal Aviation Administration requires that every component put into an aircraft must not fail during the life of the aircraft. The next sentence then exempts software from this limitation.
Your pink slip: Because in a short-sighted rush to achieve "efficiency" you posted your company confidential information to a 3rd party site.
Solutions like Lotus Notes and similar applications exist - and will continue to live - for a reason. Wikis and blogs are just way too huge of a legal liability for large, conservative companies to implement any time soon. That's not to say those companies won't suffer for it, but they WILL be slow to implement.
When you do something to a database in Notes, the change can be digitally signed. There is value to that.
Let's face it: Notes has warts. What doesn't? However, I don't think the Wiki will kill Notes. A Wiki is a point solution to particular problems, and while it is probably the best adapted solution there, it can't kill off Notes. Will it take part of Notes business? sure! But there are reasons Notes will survive:
(1) The wiki does not provide business process automation. Notes can be used to automatically forward items on to the "next responsible party" - it's a controlled, push mechanism. Can't be matched by a wiki.
(2) The wiki does not provide e-mail or calendaring functions.
(3) The wiki does not provide off-line capability. Notes provides an off-line capability that allows you to replicate data back into the database once you connect
(4) Notes gives me the capability to set up my own private area (database) where I propose the security list, that resides on a server, without the intervention of an administrator or anyone technologically savvy. (Ours is called Database-oh-matic).
You're not purchasing the software (where the first sale doctrine is in force), you are licensing it (where first sale does not apply). There is (obviously) a huge legal difference.
EULAs and clickthroughs will not be invalidated in court as long as they are reasonable. The courts consider "reasonable" the ability for you not to use the software (or return it within a short period of time).
The case you are recalling (where the court explicitly defined what it thinks is reasonable) is probably Blizzard v. bnetd where the EULA preventing reverse engineering (among other things). The EULA was held up as a valid contract. There was no "first sale" involved at all per the above situation with software being licensed.
The purpose behind P3P is that it really distills the privacy down to a few multiple choice questions. Thus, there isn't a need for an army of readers - the robolawyer could automatically check the answers to the multiple choice questions... after all, those answers are machine readable.
Your use of a graph of upper-atmospheric temperature vs. CO2 levels is deceptive. Even the National Academy thinks so. In fact, a decrease in temperature in the upper atmosphere is exactly what the global warming models predict.
The Naval Research Laboratory (and American Geophysical Union) say:
"This decrease in density had been predicted by theoretical simulations of the upper atmosphere's response to increasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases." The decreased density leads to LOWER temperatures in the upper atmosphere. The full article is here
It states "Microsoft has software called.Net that's similar to Java. However, the software giant, like Hewlett-Packard and IBM, has licensed Kodak's patents, Lanzillo said".
I would actually bet (but don't know) that these licensing arrangements are NOT specifically from these patents. All three of those players (MS, HP, IBM) have very good reason to have cross-licensing agreements with Kodak - Sun just hasn't been in an overlapping market with Kodak to justify such a position. Most large companies in overlapping markets have such agreements and swap some cash every so often based on who is using what patent... simply to avoid spending much time in court.
So White Knight flies to 50K feet... then releases SSO.
Current SSO Boost is 85nm vertical; thus, fired at 45' you get about 60nm out; about 50nm out on the way back down to about 80K feet... then you start to glide (this assumes no friction to slow you so nothing to glide on above 80K). While SSO covered 35nm from launch from White Knight, you can probably get a lot more (call it 75 on this envelope), but you're WAY, WAY short of making it to Hawaii. Compared to a glider, SSO will drop like a rock.
I imagine the total coverage by SSO could be about 200nm + flight by White Knight, which is perhaps another 200nm. That's only about 2500 miles short if launched from Los Angeles.
The emergency brake may help to slow or stop a vehicle if the normal braking system goes out, but it can't fight the force of the engine.
Definitely true. After working to get a friend out of a deep rut in the snow, I put the parking brake on and got out of the car. She proceeded to get in and drive off with the parking brake STILL on. It was an absolute riot to the four of us watching as the back of the car (literally) bounced down the road. We couldn't catch her, as she was driving a good 20 to 30 miles an hour. Thankfully there was some snow to prevent too much skidding and damage to the tires. I still haven't had the courage to ask how long it took her to figure out what the problem was!
Perhaps, say the environment? Global warming, anyone?
The power saving strategies will get into Desktops
on
AMD 90nm Evaluated
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· Score: 2
They certainly can be; and they are. It's just that the markets have different focus. Thus, a few yares ago, the engineers spent a disporportionate part of their time on speed. Today, it's a bit more about power, but it will take a few years for that to pan out (reference Intel's dual core strategy for their plans)
The power saving methods are designed to cut the ACTIVE power use of the chip - the power that is dissipated by the transistors flipping from 0 to 1 (and 1 to 0). The challenge, as we shrink geometries (I work next to a semi fab) is that the LEAKAGE power (the power being dissipated to heat just from putting power on the chip) is growing relatively fast (in % of total power).
This is one reason why IBM and others have moved to a Silicon-on-Insulator process - it reduces the amount of leakage power. Other methods for doing this include actually powering down certain portions of the chip so that they aren't drawing power even if they aren't switching. IBM calls them voltage islands. The challenge is the tradeoff to time in powering those sections of the chip back up again.
These developments are part of a natural evolution in the semiconductor industry to deal with the heat creation of semiconductors. I'm not saying we're winning, but it's getting some focus and there are methods of keeping it from getting totally out of control (at least in the near future)
More than a third of the 493 PC users surveyed by the nonprofit National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) said they had a greater chance of winning the lottery or being struck by lightning than of being hit by malicious code
Given frequent updates, ZoneAlarm, a firewall/router, precautions about not opening things I don't know about, VPNs, and other things, I probably AM more likely to be struck by lighting than hit by malicious code. But I'm a/. reader...:)
until large percentages of people are sued (which probably will never happen), they will continue to break copyright law
Actually, it almost certainly will happen, since it will be on the taxpayer's dime rather than the RIAAs. There is no disincentive to the RIAA asking for and eating up millions in taxpayer funds chasing down those using p2p networks.
In my opinion, laws like this should be to defend those without the resources from those with the resources. This is the other way around (using rich government resources to support an already rich organization against common individuals). There is no reason for the government to pass new laws (since trading copyrighted files is already illegal) when the RIAA already has the ability to defend itself using existing law and resources.
So what happens when some of the 130000 processors fail?...
You deserve some credit for using "when", not "if" (IMHO)
The system is designed to work around failure. In the original protein folding simluation, the plan was (among other things) to checkpoint the system every hour in order to be able to restart if a failure occurred. In fact, the original expectation was that a processor would fail every few days (that presentation has since been taken down by IBM... was originally named "BlueGenePublic.pdf"... I can't find it anywhere on the 'net anymore:( ). Failure detection is through a series of ECC bits attached to most of the data transfers and calculations. The software is also specifically written to check any points where conservation is true (meaning there is redundancy in the application and calculations are checked to ensure no errors). The mesh network that others have referred to also allows nodes which are not functioning to be worked around before they are replaced.
The processors cannot be replaced individually, but the boards (with 2 chips and memory) could be. As far as burning, the processor will often fail in a detectable way (meaning produce incorrect results) long before the device goes (literally) up in smoke. So I would expect the system would be able to disable the failed device long before its a problem. This may be part of what the Linux OS (which oversees 64 of the small processors) is doing. On a wider scale, the designers are smart enough that there are likely temperature sensors in the system that will slow (or shut down) the system if a heat problem is encountered.
the only possible way is to build it DOWN. That is, down from geostationnary orbit (or at least, when it touches the ground).
In this, the magazine notes (not a direct quote): Once a strand is put up, you can have very light objects climb the strand... this is similar to the first strand placed to wire a suspension bridge. It's very cheap relative to trying to wire the entire weight of the cables. This makes it much more inexpensive than you think
Note also that the article mentions it might be as little as $6 Billion to build it. I think the venture capital industry would laugh at $6 Billion - that's the easy part... the tough part is the science to ensure it can work.
Might it be time for architects to design "component sandboxes", within which components such as image viewers would execute?
Why don't we revisit computer architecture and use a system that maintains a distinction between instructions and data... thus preventing this entire set of problems from happening? Just be aware that's not my idea.
The whole point of hydrogen is to facilitate the storage and transmission of energy
Hydrogen has significant pipeline problems... it tends to LEAK out of them because it is such a small molecule... seals just don't work.
A better solution is to steam reform carbon dioxide into methane and add that to our existing infrastructure, or play around with Sodium Borohydride and put that through an underground pipeline system parallel to our oil pipelines. But the capital expense there may make the steam reformation a better interim solution.
Also what would the monetary cost of doing this be?
Lots.
The Danish Wind Industry Association says infrastructure is just under $100K per 100Kw peak production... our total peak capacity is about 1 TW. At 100% efficiency, that's $1 trillion (assuming I'm not doing slashdot math). So expect the real cost to be at least 4X that (guessing?)
Slashdot Mirror
In order to (1) catch up with a competitor or perhaps (2) get an "easier" development environment [easier being defined as one where the programmers are commodity and the system doesn't require buidling graphical components from scratch], 'easy' choices are made.
In the end, the bank isn't doing the development, but purchasing a final product... there are tons of variables to an ATM beyond the underlying OS; and honestly, not all that many large vendors to choose from (and a large bank will almost never choose a small vendor, over concerns for longevity and support). Microsoft has made a major push for Windows in many places and makes it as easy as possible for people in different markets to use their OS. It is really the responsibility of the purchasing organization (in the case of an ATM, the bank or credit union) to choose a good solution. But it's a painful balancing act.
By the way, if you really want to be disturbed by how liability for bad software isn't an issue, think about this: the US Federal Aviation Administration requires that every component put into an aircraft must not fail during the life of the aircraft. The next sentence then exempts software from this limitation.
Your pink slip: Because in a short-sighted rush to achieve "efficiency" you posted your company confidential information to a 3rd party site.
Solutions like Lotus Notes and similar applications exist - and will continue to live - for a reason. Wikis and blogs are just way too huge of a legal liability for large, conservative companies to implement any time soon. That's not to say those companies won't suffer for it, but they WILL be slow to implement.
When you do something to a database in Notes, the change can be digitally signed. There is value to that.
(1) The wiki does not provide business process automation. Notes can be used to automatically forward items on to the "next responsible party" - it's a controlled, push mechanism. Can't be matched by a wiki.
(2) The wiki does not provide e-mail or calendaring functions.
(3) The wiki does not provide off-line capability. Notes provides an off-line capability that allows you to replicate data back into the database once you connect
(4) Notes gives me the capability to set up my own private area (database) where I propose the security list, that resides on a server, without the intervention of an administrator or anyone technologically savvy. (Ours is called Database-oh-matic).
Net: Notes lives!
EULAs and clickthroughs will not be invalidated in court as long as they are reasonable. The courts consider "reasonable" the ability for you not to use the software (or return it within a short period of time).
The case you are recalling (where the court explicitly defined what it thinks is reasonable) is probably Blizzard v. bnetd where the EULA preventing reverse engineering (among other things). The EULA was held up as a valid contract. There was no "first sale" involved at all per the above situation with software being licensed.
P3P does NOT require parsing of natural language. Go here to get more information
Don't Tell the W3C that P3P doesn't matter. Or the "30% of the top-100 sites and 20% of the top-500 sites" which are P3P enabled they talk about here.
The purpose behind P3P is that it really distills the privacy down to a few multiple choice questions. Thus, there isn't a need for an army of readers - the robolawyer could automatically check the answers to the multiple choice questions... after all, those answers are machine readable.
The Naval Research Laboratory (and American Geophysical Union) say: "This decrease in density had been predicted by theoretical simulations of the upper atmosphere's response to increasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases." The decreased density leads to LOWER temperatures in the upper atmosphere. The full article is here
I would actually bet (but don't know) that these licensing arrangements are NOT specifically from these patents. All three of those players (MS, HP, IBM) have very good reason to have cross-licensing agreements with Kodak - Sun just hasn't been in an overlapping market with Kodak to justify such a position. Most large companies in overlapping markets have such agreements and swap some cash every so often based on who is using what patent... simply to avoid spending much time in court.
The SCA is here.
Current SSO Boost is 85nm vertical; thus, fired at 45' you get about 60nm out; about 50nm out on the way back down to about 80K feet... then you start to glide (this assumes no friction to slow you so nothing to glide on above 80K). While SSO covered 35nm from launch from White Knight, you can probably get a lot more (call it 75 on this envelope), but you're WAY, WAY short of making it to Hawaii. Compared to a glider, SSO will drop like a rock.
I imagine the total coverage by SSO could be about 200nm + flight by White Knight, which is perhaps another 200nm. That's only about 2500 miles short if launched from Los Angeles.
Definitely true. After working to get a friend out of a deep rut in the snow, I put the parking brake on and got out of the car. She proceeded to get in and drive off with the parking brake STILL on. It was an absolute riot to the four of us watching as the back of the car (literally) bounced down the road. We couldn't catch her, as she was driving a good 20 to 30 miles an hour. Thankfully there was some snow to prevent too much skidding and damage to the tires. I still haven't had the courage to ask how long it took her to figure out what the problem was!
Perhaps, say the environment? Global warming, anyone?
The power saving methods are designed to cut the ACTIVE power use of the chip - the power that is dissipated by the transistors flipping from 0 to 1 (and 1 to 0). The challenge, as we shrink geometries (I work next to a semi fab) is that the LEAKAGE power (the power being dissipated to heat just from putting power on the chip) is growing relatively fast (in % of total power).
This is one reason why IBM and others have moved to a Silicon-on-Insulator process - it reduces the amount of leakage power. Other methods for doing this include actually powering down certain portions of the chip so that they aren't drawing power even if they aren't switching. IBM calls them voltage islands. The challenge is the tradeoff to time in powering those sections of the chip back up again.
These developments are part of a natural evolution in the semiconductor industry to deal with the heat creation of semiconductors. I'm not saying we're winning, but it's getting some focus and there are methods of keeping it from getting totally out of control (at least in the near future)
Given frequent updates, ZoneAlarm, a firewall/router, precautions about not opening things I don't know about, VPNs, and other things, I probably AM more likely to be struck by lighting than hit by malicious code. But I'm a /. reader... :)
Actually, it almost certainly will happen, since it will be on the taxpayer's dime rather than the RIAAs. There is no disincentive to the RIAA asking for and eating up millions in taxpayer funds chasing down those using p2p networks.
In my opinion, laws like this should be to defend those without the resources from those with the resources. This is the other way around (using rich government resources to support an already rich organization against common individuals). There is no reason for the government to pass new laws (since trading copyrighted files is already illegal) when the RIAA already has the ability to defend itself using existing law and resources.
You deserve some credit for using "when", not "if" (IMHO)
The system is designed to work around failure. In the original protein folding simluation, the plan was (among other things) to checkpoint the system every hour in order to be able to restart if a failure occurred. In fact, the original expectation was that a processor would fail every few days (that presentation has since been taken down by IBM... was originally named "BlueGenePublic.pdf" ... I can't find it anywhere on the 'net anymore :( ). Failure detection is through a series of ECC bits attached to most of the data transfers and calculations. The software is also specifically written to check any points where conservation is true (meaning there is redundancy in the application and calculations are checked to ensure no errors). The mesh network that others have referred to also allows nodes which are not functioning to be worked around before they are replaced.
The processors cannot be replaced individually, but the boards (with 2 chips and memory) could be. As far as burning, the processor will often fail in a detectable way (meaning produce incorrect results) long before the device goes (literally) up in smoke. So I would expect the system would be able to disable the failed device long before its a problem. This may be part of what the Linux OS (which oversees 64 of the small processors) is doing. On a wider scale, the designers are smart enough that there are likely temperature sensors in the system that will slow (or shut down) the system if a heat problem is encountered.
Your post is already outdated, because a court declared that unconstitutional this morning.
Sorry for crosslinks to my other post, but yours wasn't up yet when I started typing... see here
This is the correct bill...
In this, the magazine notes (not a direct quote): Once a strand is put up, you can have very light objects climb the strand... this is similar to the first strand placed to wire a suspension bridge. It's very cheap relative to trying to wire the entire weight of the cables. This makes it much more inexpensive than you think
Note also that the article mentions it might be as little as $6 Billion to build it. I think the venture capital industry would laugh at $6 Billion - that's the easy part... the tough part is the science to ensure it can work.
Why don't we revisit computer architecture and use a system that maintains a distinction between instructions and data... thus preventing this entire set of problems from happening? Just be aware that's not my idea.
Or, you call Changing World Technologies and they show you a way to make the oil.
Hydrogen has significant pipeline problems... it tends to LEAK out of them because it is such a small molecule... seals just don't work.
A better solution is to steam reform carbon dioxide into methane and add that to our existing infrastructure, or play around with Sodium Borohydride and put that through an underground pipeline system parallel to our oil pipelines. But the capital expense there may make the steam reformation a better interim solution.
Lots.
The Danish Wind Industry Association says infrastructure is just under $100K per 100Kw peak production... our total peak capacity is about 1 TW. At 100% efficiency, that's $1 trillion (assuming I'm not doing slashdot math). So expect the real cost to be at least 4X that (guessing?)