Once the old-guard of the movie industry give up on maintaining their monopoly profits that are based upon a tightly controlled distribution network, that complex and unwieldy distribution network becomes a hindrance.
It comes as no surprise that they'd look to cut the cost of distributing content by removing the slowest most expensive part of the system and replacing it with a free and open alternative.
Cringely has some excellent insight to offer on this topic, specifically in his recent column on podcasting and in relation to the long tail school of thought as applied to PBS shows. If shows can be distributed at radically lower costs due to p2p networks, and content owners don't act like dicks by demanding monopolistic profit levels, television and movies will move to a p2p medium because it make the most economic sense.
Don't forget the additional advertising opportunities that a custom p2p app provides, in the app itself, in the movies and shows downloaded, etc. I hate ads myself but marketers will line up for this once producers figure it out.
The neglect of gifted children is one of the worst things that occurs in the public education system. For those children who are gifted and could succeed, there is no reason to strive. They would be belittled by their peers and given no additional resources. For those children who are gifted and have concomittant special needs (i.e. can finish assigned reading in 1/2 the allotted time and then disrupt the class because they're bored, does the teacher have anything for them to do afterwards?)
You know the saying about the first 80% of an objective being easy to achieve? The next 10% is challenging, the 5% after that very difficult and the final 5% almost impossible. For some reason our schools are attempting to get the final 5% onto par with the first 80% through mainstreaming of students who may never produce average results; simultaneously they are ignoring the 10% of potential high achievers who may require more stimulation to really bloom.
It sounds like Microsoft has learned about ontologies, you know those things that we're going to use to build the semantic web.
Now they're trying to build an identity ontology to allow software agents to act on your behalf. I'd prefer to see something based on authorization rather than identification but MS doesn't work along those lines.
I looked at the 'Laws of Identity' page and the blog it's sourced from, but didn't watch the vid... so consume this comment with some skepticism.
There's a poll in the original story, a simple yes no maybe box with a submit button. If every/.'er responded it would be easy to push the poll in the direction of individual liberties and defense of privacy.
Yes, I am aware it's not an official Disney poll but there's still a chance they'd pay attention to the results if they were overwhelmingly negative because the tv channel hosting the poll is neutral.
I wouldn't describe my university job as a salt mine type operation. Heck, I'm on the 3rd floor only the Ops guys are in the basement.
The thing is, I agree that Stevens' book is a classic. It laid out POSIX compliant systems for me in a coherent way that no man pages ever could. But your point is lost in demagoguery about Microsoft's evil.
But I see you've been modded down to 0 as a troll.
This was resolved through an arbitration rather than a court process. That means the two aggrieved parties met with a neutral third party and agreed to let the third party decide the outcome of disagreement.
Why are there more free applications for Windows than OS X?
Why are there more servers that run god awful IIS than OS X?
Developers create the killer apps that drive OS sales. It's great to see that Apple is working to actively court developers as this investment (which costs them little) may yield an increase in demand for both their hardware and software as more and more applications become available.
The parent post's mention of Dell's switch to.NET highlights my point. They needed more developers, were even paying them pretty well I bet, but couldn't get the volume up without moving to an MS product.
This is an intelligent move by Apple and I wish them success with it.
so your mailinator link was super useful.
Thanks!
What's the point of DRM'ing stuff if the additional load it creates on your server means that no one can get a copy at all?
You say you've got a 6 outlet power strip, eh? I've got a 10 outlet stip with an extra 4 outlet plugged into it below my desk. Most of the time, only 3-5 outlets are being used, but it's nice not to have to climb down there and unplug stuff. Anyway, my real point is that common networking protocols could provide intelligent power supply to devices. If you're dealing with severely limited voltages, it's close to having limited bandwidth. When one device wants to charge it could request access to the charging channel, all other devices hear the request come through and throttle back their usage allowing the requesting device to charge.
Channel conflict resolution might be tricky due to hidden stations when there's a hub in play... but I think it a workable solution could probably be built inside of 6 months using a derivative of the MAC protocol that every computer already uses. Will it ever happen? I don't know, what do you think?
Yes, if you showed me that after 6+ billion years of evolution you were capable of jumping 3 feet, and comprehending that you needed to jump more to reach the moon, then I would say you were making progress.
If that same robot could climb the full distance to a Lagrange point, and all we were now waiting for was the carbon fibre nano-tubes, would you say we'd made progress?
The Carnegie Mellon site with Pictures
on
Robot Walks on Water
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The water strider project's home page can be found here. The CM NanoRobotics home page is here.
I believe it was created by the guys at.theprodukkt. Heck, the front page link even goes to www.theprodukkt.com. How can the mods not notice this stuff?
Yeah, theprodukkt have released things with the "fr" imprint, but notice that they only mention Farb-Rausch in the past tense on the current page, and that the linked Farb-Rausch page is just a collection of links, not really a page at all.
Using subtle clues and hints in his first-person narrative to imply emotion and intention, Jem Matzan's critically acclaimed writing style is truly unique among fiction authors. Jem's extraordinary characters and distinct dialogue decorate his fantasy universe while coaxing readers' imaginations into providing the specifics.
Also a professional actor and model, Jem spends much of his time performing in such productions as television commercials, stage plays, and interactive variety shows.
Biography provided by the author, October 2002 from here : http://www.scifan.com/writers/mm/MatzanJem.asp
Maybe you're right about the deadline, I hope so anyway. But you can download the freakin' media. The reviewer doesn't say how he got his copy (download and burn or order), or mention grabbing new media, or even askin Sun for new media.
Really, that was a poor "review" more like a rant...
I would expect the opposite. As computing power disperses, being able to authenticate users becomes more important because un-authorized users are able to cause more damage. Also, as the power of small devices continues to increase, the cost of including TC on them will drop. Eventually everything will incorporate TC and then: 1 Nothing will fundamentally change or 2 Big Brother will come and lobotomize us all.
It appears that this bill would take away a content producers ability to share a file for which they hold the copyright.
Example:
I write a short story, and upload it to the WASTE network P2P app. so I can download it from a remote location. FBI finds out, I'm charged with a felony and up to 5 years in prison!
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but, come on that's just stupid.
What do you guys think? This looks like the first killer app for bluetooth to me.
Imagine being able to print hardcopy contracts or directions on demand... though, the flexibility of the device to deal with different paper surfaces will be crucial to its widespread adoption.
~Tetravus
Research says otherwise...
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
QUOTE: "Because of so much work and overtime, American workers are the most productive in the world. Cut this productivity by 20%, and you automatically increase the variable cost for a product by 20%. Legislate vacation time, and everything will become more expensive, the foreign trade deficit worsens, the dollar devaluates and everything will become even more expensive. True, we work hard, but our hard work reflects in the low product prices and high standard of living." END QUOTE
Hmmm, I found this which states that "overtime leads to an average drop in worker productivity of about 15 percent for work weeks exceeding 40 hours." from the Penn State College of Engineering.
Increased time at work != increased output.
-> Increased time at work != cheaper output.
-> Decreased time at work != more expensive output.
used to protect the people who provided the network from this type of BS. See below for an explanation.
from Washington University's Online Daily... ""Common carrier" is a legal distinction applied to ubiquitous communications technologies like the telephone. "Common carrier" status offers legal protections to the providers of communication services. U S West cannot be sued if you use their phone lines and their pay phones to call in a bomb threat. Whatever nastiness goes across telephone lines is legally the responsibility of the people that originated the call, not the phone company that transmitted it. Since there is no issue of liability, the phone company is not put in the position of monitoring or regulating how their phones are used. "
Looks like this is pretty old news.
http://ne.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/2002/02/0130toshi ba_device.html
"Toshiba prototypes fuel cell-powered PDA
Feb 1, 2002
On January 2002, Toshiba held a technical exhibition at its Ome operations complex in Tokyo, where the company unveiled fuel cells currently under development for powering mobile devices. Toshiba made a demonstration by actually operating the company's PDA called "GENIO e." Although being under a stage of pilot testing, the fuel cell is capable of powering PDAs for two to three consecutive hours."
RMS is now actively trying to kill a derivative work that is being distributed under the GPL? The hubris is almost unbelievable. When you release your code under such an open license, you must assume that it will be used for some things that you don't approve of, and hopefully some things that you do approve of. That's just the way it goes...
Slashdot Mirror
Once the old-guard of the movie industry give up on maintaining their monopoly profits that are based upon a tightly controlled distribution network, that complex and unwieldy distribution network becomes a hindrance.
It comes as no surprise that they'd look to cut the cost of distributing content by removing the slowest most expensive part of the system and replacing it with a free and open alternative.
Cringely has some excellent insight to offer on this topic, specifically in his recent column on podcasting and in relation to the long tail school of thought as applied to PBS shows. If shows can be distributed at radically lower costs due to p2p networks, and content owners don't act like dicks by demanding monopolistic profit levels, television and movies will move to a p2p medium because it make the most economic sense.
Don't forget the additional advertising opportunities that a custom p2p app provides, in the app itself, in the movies and shows downloaded, etc. I hate ads myself but marketers will line up for this once producers figure it out.
The neglect of gifted children is one of the worst things that occurs in the public education system. For those children who are gifted and could succeed, there is no reason to strive. They would be belittled by their peers and given no additional resources. For those children who are gifted and have concomittant special needs (i.e. can finish assigned reading in 1/2 the allotted time and then disrupt the class because they're bored, does the teacher have anything for them to do afterwards?)
You know the saying about the first 80% of an objective being easy to achieve? The next 10% is challenging, the 5% after that very difficult and the final 5% almost impossible. For some reason our schools are attempting to get the final 5% onto par with the first 80% through mainstreaming of students who may never produce average results; simultaneously they are ignoring the 10% of potential high achievers who may require more stimulation to really bloom.
It sounds like Microsoft has learned about ontologies, you know those things that we're going to use to build the semantic web. Now they're trying to build an identity ontology to allow software agents to act on your behalf. I'd prefer to see something based on authorization rather than identification but MS doesn't work along those lines. I looked at the 'Laws of Identity' page and the blog it's sourced from, but didn't watch the vid... so consume this comment with some skepticism.
There's a poll in the original story, a simple yes no maybe box with a submit button. /.'er responded it would be easy to push the poll in the direction of individual liberties and defense of privacy.
If every
Yes, I am aware it's not an official Disney poll but there's still a chance they'd pay attention to the results if they were overwhelmingly negative because the tv channel hosting the poll is neutral.
I wouldn't describe my university job as a salt mine type operation. Heck, I'm on the 3rd floor only the Ops guys are in the basement.
The thing is, I agree that Stevens' book is a classic. It laid out POSIX compliant systems for me in a coherent way that no man pages ever could. But your point is lost in demagoguery about Microsoft's evil.
But I see you've been modded down to 0 as a troll.
This was resolved through an arbitration rather than a court process.
That means the two aggrieved parties met with a neutral third party and agreed to let the third party decide the outcome of disagreement.
Why are there more free applications for Windows than OS X? Why are there more servers that run god awful IIS than OS X? .NET highlights my point. They needed more developers, were even paying them pretty well I bet, but couldn't get the volume up without moving to an MS product.
Developers create the killer apps that drive OS sales. It's great to see that Apple is working to actively court developers as this investment (which costs them little) may yield an increase in demand for both their hardware and software as more and more applications become available.
The parent post's mention of Dell's switch to
This is an intelligent move by Apple and I wish them success with it.
so your mailinator link was super useful. Thanks! What's the point of DRM'ing stuff if the additional load it creates on your server means that no one can get a copy at all?
You say you've got a 6 outlet power strip, eh? I've got a 10 outlet stip with an extra 4 outlet plugged into it below my desk.
Most of the time, only 3-5 outlets are being used, but it's nice not to have to climb down there and unplug stuff.
Anyway, my real point is that common networking protocols could provide intelligent power supply to devices. If you're dealing with severely limited voltages, it's close to having limited bandwidth. When one device wants to charge it could request access to the charging channel, all other devices hear the request come through and throttle back their usage allowing the requesting device to charge.
Channel conflict resolution might be tricky due to hidden stations when there's a hub in play... but I think it a workable solution could probably be built inside of 6 months using a derivative of the MAC protocol that every computer already uses. Will it ever happen? I don't know, what do you think?
or PDF if you're into that stuff.
Yes, if you showed me that after 6+ billion years of evolution you were capable of jumping 3 feet, and comprehending that you needed to jump more to reach the moon, then I would say you were making progress.
If that same robot could climb the full distance to a Lagrange point, and all we were now waiting for was the carbon fibre nano-tubes, would you say we'd made progress?
The water strider project's home page can be found here.
The CM NanoRobotics home page is here.
Both have pictures of the bot and many others.
I believe it was created by the guys at .theprodukkt. Heck, the front page link even goes to www.theprodukkt.com. How can the mods not notice this stuff?
Yeah, theprodukkt have released things with the "fr" imprint, but notice that they only mention Farb-Rausch in the past tense on the current page, and that the linked Farb-Rausch page is just a collection of links, not really a page at all.
that I still have IE installed. You can't patch the stupid vulnerabilities in the OS if you aren't visiting on IE....
Of course, this isn't a problem on my SuSe box...
Using subtle clues and hints in his first-person narrative to imply emotion and intention, Jem Matzan's critically acclaimed writing style is truly unique among fiction authors. Jem's extraordinary characters and distinct dialogue decorate his fantasy universe while coaxing readers' imaginations into providing the specifics.
Also a professional actor and model, Jem spends much of his time performing in such productions as television commercials, stage plays, and interactive variety shows.
Biography provided by the author, October 2002
from here : http://www.scifan.com/writers/mm/MatzanJem.asp
Maybe you're right about the deadline, I hope so anyway.
But you can download the freakin' media. The reviewer doesn't say how he got his copy (download and burn or order), or mention grabbing new media, or even askin Sun for new media.
Really, that was a poor "review" more like a rant...
I would expect the opposite. As computing power disperses, being able to authenticate users becomes more important because un-authorized users are able to cause more damage.
Also, as the power of small devices continues to increase, the cost of including TC on them will drop.
Eventually everything will incorporate TC and then:
1 Nothing will fundamentally change or
2 Big Brother will come and lobotomize us all.
Strange, I'd say that's an example of poor reasoning on the part of the lawyers.
Just because someone is willing to sell a domain now, doesn't mean that they weren't legitimately planning on using it when they registered.
Oh wait, that's not strange at all. It's just what we expect from lawyers. bleh
Post Hoc
It appears that this bill would take away a content producers ability to share a file for which they hold the copyright. Example: I write a short story, and upload it to the WASTE network P2P app. so I can download it from a remote location. FBI finds out, I'm charged with a felony and up to 5 years in prison!
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but, come on that's just stupid.
What do you guys think? This looks like the first killer app for bluetooth to me.
Imagine being able to print hardcopy contracts or directions on demand... though, the flexibility of the device to deal with different paper surfaces will be crucial to its widespread adoption.
~Tetravus
QUOTE: "Because of so much work and overtime, American workers are the most productive in the world. Cut this productivity by 20%, and you automatically increase the variable cost for a product by 20%. Legislate vacation time, and everything will become more expensive, the foreign trade deficit worsens, the dollar devaluates and everything will become even more expensive. True, we work hard, but our hard work reflects in the low product prices and high standard of living." END QUOTE
Hmmm, I found this which states that "overtime leads to an average drop in worker productivity of about 15 percent for work weeks exceeding 40 hours." from the Penn State College of Engineering.
Increased time at work != increased output.
-> Increased time at work != cheaper output.
-> Decreased time at work != more expensive output.
~Tetravus
used to protect the people who provided the network from this type of BS. See below for an explanation.
from Washington University's Online Daily...
""Common carrier" is a legal distinction applied to ubiquitous communications technologies like the telephone. "Common carrier" status offers legal protections to the providers of communication services. U S West cannot be sued if you use their phone lines and their pay phones to call in a bomb threat. Whatever nastiness goes across telephone lines is legally the responsibility of the people that originated the call, not the phone company that transmitted it. Since there is no issue of liability, the phone company is not put in the position of monitoring or regulating how their phones are used. "
LINK to Source
~Tetravus
They have indeed decided to forfeit width of coverage for distance, by using a self adjusting array of antennas.
, 00 .html
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,56166
Looks like this is pretty old news. http://ne.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/2002/02/0130toshi ba_device.html
"Toshiba prototypes fuel cell-powered PDA
Feb 1, 2002
On January 2002, Toshiba held a technical exhibition at its Ome operations complex in Tokyo, where the company unveiled fuel cells currently under development for powering mobile devices. Toshiba made a demonstration by actually operating the company's PDA called "GENIO e." Although being under a stage of pilot testing, the fuel cell is capable of powering PDAs for two to three consecutive hours."
RMS is now actively trying to kill a derivative work that is being distributed under the GPL? The hubris is almost unbelievable. When you release your code under such an open license, you must assume that it will be used for some things that you don't approve of, and hopefully some things that you do approve of. That's just the way it goes...