This bill basically gives federal prosecutors the right to bring a civil suit against infringers on behalf of the copyright owner (with proceeds going to the copyright owner), AND leaves the option open for the copyright holder to file his own suit on top of it. Now you can get sued twice for the same thing, with damages doubled up to $2 million per infringement. And best of all, the taxpayers will foot the bill for civil suits by the government.
One of the things that always annoyed me about NASA is that so little media gets released. You read news articles boasting how one of their probes has taken thousands of pictures, and maybe 10 of those ever get released to the general public. The public funds NASA, and I think a site like this can go a long way to convincing people that this funding is worth it.
Getting busted for drinking and driving is different than just drinking. Even if it were alcohol he was drinking I don't think it should have had any bearing on the case, as long as it wasn't a picture of him behind the wheel of a car while drinking.
What should (and did) have a bearing on the case is him wearing his arrest like some sort of merit badge instead of treating it as an emberassing fuckup that he isn't proud of. That and his seemingly blatant disregard for the people he injured in the process.
ATI's release drivers this time around were actually really good, minus one small problem. Default fan speed on all the 4800's was set way too low (20% I think) and the automatic fan speed control isn't working. As a result all the 4800's show some really high temperatures (75C+ idle). There's a work around for this until ATI releases a driver update to fix it (or at least let you set fan speed algorithms in the control center):
Make a profile in the Catalyst Control Center, make sure ATI OverDrive is enabled and check marked. Now find the profile files in:
C:/Documents and Settings/{user name}/Local Settings/Application Data/ATI/ACE
Open the profile you just created in notepad and change these lines:
<Feature name="FanSpeedAlgorithm_0"> <Property name="FanSpeedAlgorithm" value="Automatic"/> <--- Change to "Manual" </Feature> <Feature name="FanSpeedRPMTarget_0"> <Property name="Want" value="0"/> </Feature> <Feature name="FanSpeedPercentTarget_0"> <Property name="Want" value="30"/> <--- 30 is quiet, 45+ for gaming </Feature>
My 4870 still idles at 58C or so, but anything over 30% is just too loud for me to have running all the time. Swapping the thermal paste on the GPU has also produced some good results for people.
The 40 EUR I spent on ESET's Smart Security package is probably the best money I've spent on software in the last 5 years. First time I started up Mass Effect I was greeted with a warning from the ESET firewall about the game trying to access my internet connection. Check "Make a rule", click "Deny". Problem solved.
As for how companies should approach information gathering, I'm with most everyone else here. Simply explain to the users exactly what information is being collected and give them the option to opt out. I say exactly because a lot of it depends on how you ask. If I'm greeted with a simple question like "Allow Mass Effect to send anonymous usage statistics to Bioware?" I'll probably click no, because I have no idea what "anonymous usage statistics" entails. Ask the same question and give me a list of exactly what information will be sent out, how often and to where, then I'll be more inclined to agree to it. Best case scenario, actually show me the information being sent and let me click the send button. Just don't do it so often.
Companies think they have to sneak this phone home stuff in because people don't like it, they don't realise that most people don't like it precisely because they try to sneak it in. The rest just don't like it at all, so let them opt out. Everyone's happy.
Decryption won't hide the fact that you're using a Bittorrent service, for example. The traffic usage pattern alone will give it away.
Though P2P services will continue to evolve. If they close one door, another is opened. It's been that way since long before Napster, when people used IRC's DCC and newsgroups to share files. Filesharing can't be stopped without destroying the internet, because the internet was created to share files.
Unfortunately, because they control the network destroying the internet is within the telco's ability. I'd imagine they're heading toward an internet where only approved packets are sent on to their destination. They'll create a list of approved hosting services and approved applications then throw out everything else. Since everything has to run over their backbones they could control it.
Encrypted packets are a problem for them, but they'll figure that one out eventually. Even if they have to replace today's encryption with a whole new public key encryption scheme, and ignore everything else. Certificates would be given from central servers controlled by the Telcos only to approved services (like online banking for example), whom they'll charge a pretty penny for a 'subscription' to this service. Any encrypted connection that doesn't possess this certificate is thrown out.
I don't really believe any of this will stop filesharing, because they're fighting against millions of geeks around the world who will always find a hole to exploit. But the telcos could do a lot of collateral damage in process of trying.
Sounds like it's about time to invest more money into molecular nanotechnology. It's still decades off, but most resources on this planet won't last forever. It's never too early to start planning for the future.
One has to wonder how many of the world's problems could be solved if we'd just invest the money for the Iraq war into R&D instead. The research will still take time, but at least it'll get done.
WASHINGTON -- NASA has submitted funding proposals for a new Mars mission, scheduled to launch in 2012. The mission will entail a new Mars lander called the Advanced Series Polymorphic Asparagus Research Automated Growing Unit Seedfarm, or ASPARAGUS, and is expected to grow several varieties of asparagus in martian soil.
"[We] might be able to grow asparagus in it really well... It is very exciting for us" says Sam Kounaves, mission planner for the new endevour.
The lander will be expected to gather soil and deposit it into a 'grow-op' like container, where asparagus seeds will be added to the mix. "We just don't know what will happen after that, it will be very exciting to watch the developments unfold over subsequent weeks." he adds.
Included in the lander will be a CD filled with asparagus recipies for future astronauts of the first manned Mars mission, planned for 2050. "The CD will contain dozens of recipies all featuring asparagus as the main ingredient. Things like boiled asparagus, steamed asparagus, steam boiled asparagus, fried asparagus, and even just plain asparagus!" says Angela Schmidt, the mission's asparagus habilitation expert.
The $480 million project is expected to be greenlit later this year.
Most graphics card reviews these days test total system power consumption during idle and load. A sign of changing times I guess. Here's an example from Anandtech's review of the Radeon 4870. Pages 2-10 also have some very technical information about the architecture on ATI's new line of cards, for anyone who's interested.
Construct some scenarios to test emergence. Like the game of Life, with the potential to form much more complex outcomes. There'd be some software writing involved to get the project off the ground, after that it's a matter of coming up with different rules for interactions, or different properties for the 'organisms'.
I think it'd be really interesting to see what complex structures evolve out of different sets of simple rules and interactions. Who knows, you may even discover something incredible in the process.
Growing up in a public health care system (Canada) this question came up time and time again. Especially with regard to smoking. It's a common arguement that smokers should pay more, either in tobacco taxes or higher health care premiums, to offset the cost of their more dangerous lifestyle. But where do we draw the line?
Should athletes playing physical sports pay more too? I've never broken a bone, but a friend of mine who used to mountainbike (in actual mountains) has broken more than I can count. Should overweight people pay more? Alcoholics? People with fast cars? Skateboarders? People who sleep around more than your average fella?
It's the classic problem you run into when you classify one set of behaviours as normal, and another as abnormal. There's no such thing as normal, people are just different. Some people smoke and may get cancer, other people are so nutty about avoiding germs that their weak immune systems ensure they get sick more often. The whole idea behind "health care for all" is that everyone is treated equally.
Doesn't apply to America, for the lack of a public health care system, but it's something that gets on my nerves just the same.
That's what they call it now, with the web address mail.google.com. I think it's a better fit for Germany anyway, Gmail as pronounced in german would be "gay-mail".
The Bush Administration are the real criminals in this case, why aren't they being held accountable? Everyone is gung ho about crucifying the Telco's, what about the people who ordered them to do the spying?
While I don't agree with what they did, I can understand why the Teclo's agreed to the situation. The Bush Administration probably assured them that were the program ever exposed, they would be granted immunity, and in the mean time they made a fair bit of money off the illegal activities of the government. Both groups should be tried for their actions, but people should be much more upset with the government over this.
Sure, but the question is can he help it? If he can't, then it's over. He should have voted the whole bill down, if only to try and stop this practice of tacking controversial issues on otherwise positive bills. And he should have made sure everyone knows why he did it.
"Probably we can't take that out of the bill, but I'm going to try," Reid told "Political Capital with Al Hunt." That makes me real optimistic...
The company may go bankrupt because of this, but the game will probably become an internet legend. Surely this'll be a collectors item, get your copy from bittorrent today!
as business use of video conferencing will grow at 35 per cent CAGR over the same period.
I take it this'll account for a major percentage of bandwidth being used up, I don't think that's fair to us little guys who only use our internet for VOIP, not fancy video conferencing. There are far more residential customers than there are businesses. Why should my internet by affected by these guys wanting video communication? Especially when the poor ISP's networks aren't built to handle it. It's not fair. They should be throttled.
... by calling EA's technical support line. Of course, if you actually get through to someone compatent enough to help you you deserve a medal. And a refund for the phone call (no, it's not free...)
It says "Fuck your flag and fuck you". The various people angrily giving him the finger as they drive by don't exactly make me feel safe in his car... he just thinks its funny.
The 4870 will be $350, not $450. And at that price Nvidia is going to have a hard time convincing me to buy a GTX 280, even if it does turn out to be marginally faster.
Lets see how the reviews of the 4800 series pan out.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah really. This is like the War on Drugs all over again, and we all know how well that turned out...
This bill basically gives federal prosecutors the right to bring a civil suit against infringers on behalf of the copyright owner (with proceeds going to the copyright owner), AND leaves the option open for the copyright holder to file his own suit on top of it. Now you can get sued twice for the same thing, with damages doubled up to $2 million per infringement. And best of all, the taxpayers will foot the bill for civil suits by the government.
Unbelievable. Really.
One of the things that always annoyed me about NASA is that so little media gets released. You read news articles boasting how one of their probes has taken thousands of pictures, and maybe 10 of those ever get released to the general public. The public funds NASA, and I think a site like this can go a long way to convincing people that this funding is worth it.
HiRise is pretty cool too.
Getting busted for drinking and driving is different than just drinking. Even if it were alcohol he was drinking I don't think it should have had any bearing on the case, as long as it wasn't a picture of him behind the wheel of a car while drinking.
What should (and did) have a bearing on the case is him wearing his arrest like some sort of merit badge instead of treating it as an emberassing fuckup that he isn't proud of. That and his seemingly blatant disregard for the people he injured in the process.
So many interesting things
Make a profile in the Catalyst Control Center, make sure ATI OverDrive is enabled and check marked. Now find the profile files in:
C:/Documents and Settings/{user name}/Local Settings/Application Data/ATI/ACE
Open the profile you just created in notepad and change these lines:
My 4870 still idles at 58C or so, but anything over 30% is just too loud for me to have running all the time. Swapping the thermal paste on the GPU has also produced some good results for people.
The 40 EUR I spent on ESET's Smart Security package is probably the best money I've spent on software in the last 5 years. First time I started up Mass Effect I was greeted with a warning from the ESET firewall about the game trying to access my internet connection. Check "Make a rule", click "Deny". Problem solved.
As for how companies should approach information gathering, I'm with most everyone else here. Simply explain to the users exactly what information is being collected and give them the option to opt out. I say exactly because a lot of it depends on how you ask. If I'm greeted with a simple question like "Allow Mass Effect to send anonymous usage statistics to Bioware?" I'll probably click no, because I have no idea what "anonymous usage statistics" entails. Ask the same question and give me a list of exactly what information will be sent out, how often and to where, then I'll be more inclined to agree to it. Best case scenario, actually show me the information being sent and let me click the send button. Just don't do it so often.
Companies think they have to sneak this phone home stuff in because people don't like it, they don't realise that most people don't like it precisely because they try to sneak it in. The rest just don't like it at all, so let them opt out. Everyone's happy.
Adopt Canada's method in South Park, stick them on a floating chunk of arctic ice and:
Prime Minister Abootman: "Eh! What do you think you're doing?!"
Terrence: "We're setting you adrift, idiot."
Decryption won't hide the fact that you're using a Bittorrent service, for example. The traffic usage pattern alone will give it away.
Though P2P services will continue to evolve. If they close one door, another is opened. It's been that way since long before Napster, when people used IRC's DCC and newsgroups to share files. Filesharing can't be stopped without destroying the internet, because the internet was created to share files.
Unfortunately, because they control the network destroying the internet is within the telco's ability. I'd imagine they're heading toward an internet where only approved packets are sent on to their destination. They'll create a list of approved hosting services and approved applications then throw out everything else. Since everything has to run over their backbones they could control it.
Encrypted packets are a problem for them, but they'll figure that one out eventually. Even if they have to replace today's encryption with a whole new public key encryption scheme, and ignore everything else. Certificates would be given from central servers controlled by the Telcos only to approved services (like online banking for example), whom they'll charge a pretty penny for a 'subscription' to this service. Any encrypted connection that doesn't possess this certificate is thrown out.
I don't really believe any of this will stop filesharing, because they're fighting against millions of geeks around the world who will always find a hole to exploit. But the telcos could do a lot of collateral damage in process of trying.
Sounds like it's about time to invest more money into molecular nanotechnology. It's still decades off, but most resources on this planet won't last forever. It's never too early to start planning for the future.
One has to wonder how many of the world's problems could be solved if we'd just invest the money for the Iraq war into R&D instead. The research will still take time, but at least it'll get done.
To Mars, Again!
WASHINGTON -- NASA has submitted funding proposals for a new Mars mission, scheduled to launch in 2012. The mission will entail a new Mars lander called the Advanced Series Polymorphic Asparagus Research Automated Growing Unit Seedfarm, or ASPARAGUS, and is expected to grow several varieties of asparagus in martian soil.
"[We] might be able to grow asparagus in it really well... It is very exciting for us" says Sam Kounaves, mission planner for the new endevour.
The lander will be expected to gather soil and deposit it into a 'grow-op' like container, where asparagus seeds will be added to the mix. "We just don't know what will happen after that, it will be very exciting to watch the developments unfold over subsequent weeks." he adds.
Included in the lander will be a CD filled with asparagus recipies for future astronauts of the first manned Mars mission, planned for 2050. "The CD will contain dozens of recipies all featuring asparagus as the main ingredient. Things like boiled asparagus, steamed asparagus, steam boiled asparagus, fried asparagus, and even just plain asparagus!" says Angela Schmidt, the mission's asparagus habilitation expert.
The $480 million project is expected to be greenlit later this year.
Most graphics card reviews these days test total system power consumption during idle and load. A sign of changing times I guess. Here's an example from Anandtech's review of the Radeon 4870. Pages 2-10 also have some very technical information about the architecture on ATI's new line of cards, for anyone who's interested.
Construct some scenarios to test emergence. Like the game of Life, with the potential to form much more complex outcomes. There'd be some software writing involved to get the project off the ground, after that it's a matter of coming up with different rules for interactions, or different properties for the 'organisms'.
I think it'd be really interesting to see what complex structures evolve out of different sets of simple rules and interactions. Who knows, you may even discover something incredible in the process.
Growing up in a public health care system (Canada) this question came up time and time again. Especially with regard to smoking. It's a common arguement that smokers should pay more, either in tobacco taxes or higher health care premiums, to offset the cost of their more dangerous lifestyle. But where do we draw the line?
Should athletes playing physical sports pay more too? I've never broken a bone, but a friend of mine who used to mountainbike (in actual mountains) has broken more than I can count. Should overweight people pay more? Alcoholics? People with fast cars? Skateboarders? People who sleep around more than your average fella?
It's the classic problem you run into when you classify one set of behaviours as normal, and another as abnormal. There's no such thing as normal, people are just different. Some people smoke and may get cancer, other people are so nutty about avoiding germs that their weak immune systems ensure they get sick more often. The whole idea behind "health care for all" is that everyone is treated equally.
Doesn't apply to America, for the lack of a public health care system, but it's something that gets on my nerves just the same.
That's what they call it now, with the web address mail.google.com. I think it's a better fit for Germany anyway, Gmail as pronounced in german would be "gay-mail".
The Bush Administration are the real criminals in this case, why aren't they being held accountable? Everyone is gung ho about crucifying the Telco's, what about the people who ordered them to do the spying?
While I don't agree with what they did, I can understand why the Teclo's agreed to the situation. The Bush Administration probably assured them that were the program ever exposed, they would be granted immunity, and in the mean time they made a fair bit of money off the illegal activities of the government. Both groups should be tried for their actions, but people should be much more upset with the government over this.
Sure, but the question is can he help it? If he can't, then it's over. He should have voted the whole bill down, if only to try and stop this practice of tacking controversial issues on otherwise positive bills. And he should have made sure everyone knows why he did it.
"Probably we can't take that out of the bill, but I'm going to try," Reid told "Political Capital with Al Hunt." That makes me real optimistic...
Just buy it, the developers will be sued into bankruptcy anyway. The publisher has already pulled the plug though, it'll disappear fast.
"Our hope, if everything goes well with the sales, is that within a year we will all be stopping the day jobs and doing this full time."
Epic
The company may go bankrupt because of this, but the game will probably become an internet legend. Surely this'll be a collectors item, get your copy from bittorrent today!
"set unreasonably high prices for genuine software while on the other hand, they criticise Chinese for poor copyright awareness. This is abnormal"
Actually, that sounds pretty normal to me.
What? That only applies to P2P?
... by calling EA's technical support line. Of course, if you actually get through to someone compatent enough to help you you deserve a medal. And a refund for the phone call (no, it's not free...)
It says "Fuck your flag and fuck you". The various people angrily giving him the finger as they drive by don't exactly make me feel safe in his car... he just thinks its funny.
The 4870 will be $350, not $450. And at that price Nvidia is going to have a hard time convincing me to buy a GTX 280, even if it does turn out to be marginally faster.
Lets see how the reviews of the 4800 series pan out.