Have the event in a city that is easy to get to and/or has some draw.
Amen. Who the hell wants to go to Kansas? (Really. That's not a flame. It's just fact.) It's not convenient to anybody. I guess if it were on the west cost, easties would complain, and vice-versa. So some genius thought "hey, let's have it in the middle, so that everybody can come!"
I guess the name "Dot.Station" is said as "dot-dot-station." That's just as bizarre as the press (Wired does this -- it drives me nuts) writing "dot.com" all the time. "dot-dot-com"? I could see ".com" or "dot-com," but "dot.com" makes no more sense than "Dot.Station."
Yeah, but for $400, they're pretty much disposable. I use 'em for servers. No need for USB or a modem. As long as I back up regularly, I've got no problem with one dying.
But I've got to admit that I bought my main one 12 months ago and it's run continuously since then. No problems at all, not for a moment. Running Linux, of course.:)
Others that I've used tend to have hard drive problems, though nothing critical. Just the occasional error printed to the screen about having to reset. Like I said: $400, why not?
Yeah, but you know that Microsoft will just want to be part of the openCola movement. So they'll get the recipe, modify it *slightly* so that it uses some patented, closed-source ingredient, and then start competing.
I'm sure some enterprising young geek can get their hands on the recipe and post it on Slashdot. After all, what could they do to us?
I think they're taking advantage of the narrow viewing angle of the lcd, and tu(r)ning every other row of pixels to each eye. Does that make sense?
Yes, it does. Tell me if I've got this right. You know the little cards that come in Cracker Jacks or in cereal boxes that have moving images on them? You tilt them from side to side and the little Ken Griffey Jr. swings his baseball bat, or the woman lifts her skirt, or whatever? (Well, they don't *only* come in Cracker Jacks...:)
Do you suppose that it's like that? Each row of pixels is tilted to the right or to the left? So you have a screen that would make a little zippy noise if you ran your fingernail across it.
That's pretty cool. I hope it works like that -- I'll get one and make little zippy noises all day.:)
That's strange. The testers explicitely say that they tested the screen with non-3d-capable game (quake 3)... No wonder that absolutely no 3d effect is to be expected.
There's some conflict on this. The author says: Switching from 2D to 3D mode is a breeze--simply press the "3D" button on the front control panel on the monitor, and one has virtually automatically switched modes.
I simply don't believe that. There was never even a mention of installing drivers in the installation portion of the article. Can you imagine the processing power that would go into turning a 2D image into 3D? It must be quite remarkable. I'd think at least a software upgrade would be in order.
The author goes on: However, when comparing Doom, a game which has stereoscopy, with Quake 3, a game which doesn't, the differences were negligible. This could potentially be because of Quake 3's increased detail, but could also be because our eyes simply couldn't tell the minute difference. Quake 3 basically uses the exact same image being displayed twice, while Doom uses two images which slightly differ in viewing angle. Perhaps Doom produced a slightly more 3D "feel" to it, but Quake 3 also had a similar effect.
"A game which has stereoscopy"? I don't understand -- could somebody explain? Doom was made to be viewed in 3D monitors?
Then the author says: Though full stereoscopy is not widely supported by many recent games, DTI's 3D mode is still useable in games such as Quake 3, and produces results very similar to games that fully support stereoscopy.
So....it *is* 3D? I don't get it. I thought Quake 3 didn't look 3D?
In this method, two solid and unyielding images are produced for the user to view. These images are merged together, and if viewed by one eye, will appear to be two overlapping images, which don?t quite merge together correctly. However, when viewed with two eyes, autostereoscopy can produce vivid lifelike 3D images.
That's just not an explanation. But, I figure, it's just a review by some graphics fans. So I checked the company's website. (Which barely works. A peek at the image directory got me this. I guess we know they're hosting on a Mac, huh?) Their FAQ, in response to "Q: I am wondering how your display works?" links to http://www.dti3d.com/dev/, which is not especially useful. I downloaded the developer's package. The readme says:
dti_vw libray diretory has source files for our driver. dti_vw app directory has sample file for how to use our libray in a application program. Our library is so simple and easy to use. There for this sample is good enough to know how our library works. Our library make a application can communicate between a computer and our unit. If we change our the communication method and way, we will update immediately.
I gotta be honest: This all looks pretty sketchy. Has anybody seen/used one of these? I'm not convinced that this thing is legit. I don't have the skills to be able to read the code to figure out how all of this works. But "view with two eyes" just ain't gonna cut it for this crowd.
On most of my servers, I've disabled VRFY and EXPN with:
define(`confPRIVACY_FLAGS',`novrfy,noexpn')dnl
(Sendmail, of course.)
It's just weird to permit that. It seems like a potential source of spam -- you know, they could go through a VRFY a few hundred names and build a database.
On the flipside, I've used VRFY to confirm e-mail addresses in forms. If VRFY works, then I flag the address as definitely being legit. I really wish that we had the sort of Internet where we could go on permitting VRFY and EXPN. In fact, if it weren't for spammers, I guess we could.
I like the idea of hauling in Internet via train. I mean, everything's gonna be a few weeks old, but I love the image of piles of Internet being dumped at the feet of willing villagers, who sell it off by the pound.
Ah, the smell of Internet, fresh from the fields. It takes me back to my youth in India...
If your sole argument is "they should be giving something back" then we don't really need to hear any more from you. If you have something to say that would be justifiable to the shareholders, please share.
Sure, that's easy. It's only a matter of time 'til Microsoft comes up with a competing video format (or somebody else) that proves to be a threat to Apple. The stronger a hold that they have in the market, the better that they are. Permitting more platforms to both create and view their format will result in a better market hold, and therefore make them less vulnerable to such attacks.
Anybody read Japanese? It's clear that Allan Konrad, the owner of this patent, is suing GM in Texas (Why Texas? The guy lives in California.) for patent infringement on this and two other patents ("remote service access systems based on a client-server service mode").
In the case of Coke and Carpets there is an ample supply of both, so both are cheap regardless of demand. If demand goes up it's easy to increase production by hiring more workers and buying more raw materials.
With RAM chips the supply is (supposedly) not ample. Demand fluctuates. Increasing production to meet demand requires building or converting a fab. Ramping up production to meet demand takes a while, during which time prices are high.
You're absolutely right -- demand should increase the price if there's not enough supply. The question is this: Why isn't there enough supply? It's not exactly a dead-end industry. It's probably one of the more expansive industries out there with, as we've learned doing the math in this story, one hell of a markup.
But I do think that your last point is interesting: Ramping up production to meet demand takes a while, during which time prices are high. Logical, and something that I've heard quite a bit, but I wonder how much truth there is to it. Does anybody know (somebody -- unlike Admiral Burrito and I -- who *is* an economist) of other industries that has this 'ramping-up' problem so often?
Um, Apple's position on this is very clear and simple: "Where's the revenue model?"
Where was the revenue model when giving away BSD? Apple feels free to profit on open-source. They should be giving something back. Quicktime seems like a no-brainer.
Apple has shown that they're not so good at developing technolgies that have much market penetration. Quicktime is an exception, and they should have enough sense to take that for all it's worth. The revenue stream comes from Quicktime as a whole. If they were looking at straight revenue, they would have skipped making Quicktime for the Mac and just released it for Windows. When developing a standard, it's best for it to be just that: a standard.
BTW, my "sorry whining ass" works on plenty. I don't feel that it's inappropriate to point out work that should be done when I can't actually do it myself.
I'm not convinced that these RAM price fluctuations are for real. Remember when that plastic factory in Korea burned down a few years back? It was immediately reported that RAM prices would skyrocket, because this was just 1 of 2 factories in the world that made this particular type of plastic for RAM.
Then, about a month later, some interesting articles appeared. Just a few. (This was pre-web-journalism, for the most part, so I can't find anything to link to.) The reports were that the amount of plastic that was in warehouses was unbelievable. There was enough for years of RAM, more than enough time to rebuild the factory and replenish the stocks. Further, this other factory in the world was fully capable of producing enough plastic to satisfy the world's demand. (If anybody has a more accurate recollection of this than I, please correct my errors.)
Yet, still, the industry continued to insist that the price would go up, which it did. Smacked of price-fixing to me, like oil from the mid-east.
It's kinda sneaky everytime something like this happens. When Coca-Cola demand goes up, the price doesn't increase. When carpet demand goes up, the price doesn't increase. Yet somehow we're to believe that the RAM industry is so grossly incompetent as to be unable to adequate predict the demand for their sole product more than a month in advance?
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it seems weird to me.
I must admit that I haven't read much of the technical specs. But I don't think that I want to. After reading the EE Times article, this seems like a marketing-driven technology.
This article went on about how this fits in with XML and wireless, handheld Internet access.
Who gives a shit? The question remains: is it a *better* format? Any fool can stuff GIFs or BMPs into a tiny format that will display on crappy screens. Unless they're planning on inventing millions-of-colour Palm screens, that's not so useful. XML? C'mon, that's a tacked-on technology, and they know it.
Looks like the Joint Picture Experts Group consists of a lot of people that decided they wanted to hop on the year's bandwagon. If this was JPEG1997, they would have said that it's perfect for use in 'push.' If in were JPEG1999, we'd be told that it's fully compatible with voice technology to be able to audibly view images through a phone.
God knows what JPEG2001 one will involve. They'll probably tout it as being "fully Linux-integrated."
For a more broadly useful video format, Apple will have to port QuickTime to Linux. For a company that used to officially support MkLinux, you'd think they'd get off of their collective ass and at least release binaries. Hell, you can even stream Quicktime from Linux, but you can't watch it.
There used to be, as of a few months ago, a petition up at neutron.resnet.gatech.edu/qt-petit ion.html, but that appears to have gone away. (As has the server.) Maybe the guy graduated and took his server with him.
I'm told that xanim plays Quicktime, but I've never tried it. Still, I'd like to have a plug-in, and something that supports that full functionality of Quicktime. I wish Apple would do something about it.
FWIW, I wasn't being sarcastic. I really do think she's fastastic! Her new album, "From The Blue House," features John D'earth on his song "Whoever You Area," which is especially fantastic.
I've been thrilled by the mystery of numbers stations since I was a young'un. I think it's the simplicty that makes them so fascinating. So many conspiracy theories and supernatural phemonena (crop circles, alien abductions, JFK, etc.) are complex and full of half-truths and hoaxes.
Numbers stations are so simple, elegant, yet mysterious. (Therefore mysterious?) You can have any theory that you want (and they're all probably far more interesting than the truth), and there's little evidence on way or the other.
I only discovered The Conet Project through/. a few months ago, but I think they're great. It takes a lot of time to study this kind of stuff, with no likely returns from the work.
Like I said, useless post.:) But at least I'm posting at 1 instead of 2...
I alpha-tested Alice at UVa in...oh...'98, I guess. Maybe '97. Hell of a lot of fun, and a great media lab. I didn't get to program in it, but it was a fantastic user experience.
Slashdot Mirror
ADMROCKS? I didn't know we were hosting that domain name...
;)
-Waldo
Have the event in a city that is easy to get to and/or has some draw.
Amen. Who the hell wants to go to Kansas? (Really. That's not a flame. It's just fact.) It's not convenient to anybody. I guess if it were on the west cost, easties would complain, and vice-versa. So some genius thought "hey, let's have it in the middle, so that everybody can come!"
Instead, nobody came.
-Waldo
IIRC, the carrying capacity of our atmosphere is about 12.
I guess the name "Dot.Station" is said as "dot-dot-station." That's just as bizarre as the press (Wired does this -- it drives me nuts) writing "dot.com" all the time. "dot-dot-com"? I could see ".com" or "dot-com," but "dot.com" makes no more sense than "Dot.Station."
-Waldo
Yeah, but for $400, they're pretty much disposable. I use 'em for servers. No need for USB or a modem. As long as I back up regularly, I've got no problem with one dying.
:)
But I've got to admit that I bought my main one 12 months ago and it's run continuously since then. No problems at all, not for a moment. Running Linux, of course.
Others that I've used tend to have hard drive problems, though nothing critical. Just the occasional error printed to the screen about having to reset. Like I said: $400, why not?
-Waldo
Yeah, but you know that Microsoft will just want to be part of the openCola movement. So they'll get the recipe, modify it *slightly* so that it uses some patented, closed-source ingredient, and then start competing.
I'm sure some enterprising young geek can get their hands on the recipe and post it on Slashdot. After all, what could they do to us?
;)
-W
I think they're taking advantage of the narrow viewing angle of the lcd, and tu(r)ning every other row of pixels to each eye. Does that make sense?
:)
:)
Yes, it does. Tell me if I've got this right. You know the little cards that come in Cracker Jacks or in cereal boxes that have moving images on them? You tilt them from side to side and the little Ken Griffey Jr. swings his baseball bat, or the woman lifts her skirt, or whatever? (Well, they don't *only* come in Cracker Jacks...
Do you suppose that it's like that? Each row of pixels is tilted to the right or to the left? So you have a screen that would make a little zippy noise if you ran your fingernail across it.
That's pretty cool. I hope it works like that -- I'll get one and make little zippy noises all day.
-Waldo
waldoj I have looked through your previous posts and it is pretty clear to me that you are a sprightly and athletic young bonobo.
*blush* Gosh, that's sweet of you. And you, dear AC, are a delightful and rapartious rapscallion.
Feel the love!
That's strange. The testers explicitely say that they tested the screen with non-3d-capable game (quake 3)... No wonder that absolutely no 3d effect is to be expected.
There's some conflict on this. The author says:
Switching from 2D to 3D mode is a breeze--simply press the "3D" button on the front control panel on the monitor, and one has virtually automatically switched modes.
I simply don't believe that. There was never even a mention of installing drivers in the installation portion of the article. Can you imagine the processing power that would go into turning a 2D image into 3D? It must be quite remarkable. I'd think at least a software upgrade would be in order.
The author goes on:
However, when comparing Doom, a game which has stereoscopy, with Quake 3, a game which doesn't, the differences were negligible. This could potentially be because of Quake 3's increased detail, but could also be because our eyes simply couldn't tell the minute difference. Quake 3 basically uses the exact same image being displayed twice, while Doom uses two images which slightly differ in viewing angle. Perhaps Doom produced a slightly more 3D "feel" to it, but Quake 3 also had a similar effect.
"A game which has stereoscopy"? I don't understand -- could somebody explain? Doom was made to be viewed in 3D monitors?
Then the author says:
Though full stereoscopy is not widely supported by many recent games, DTI's 3D mode is still useable in games such as Quake 3, and produces results very similar to games that fully support stereoscopy.
So....it *is* 3D? I don't get it. I thought Quake 3 didn't look 3D?
This is all pretty sketchy.
-Waldo
In this method, two solid and unyielding images are produced for the user to view. These images are merged together, and if viewed by one eye, will appear to be two overlapping images, which don?t quite merge together correctly. However, when viewed with two eyes, autostereoscopy can produce vivid lifelike 3D images.
That's just not an explanation. But, I figure, it's just a review by some graphics fans. So I checked the company's website. (Which barely works. A peek at the image directory got me this. I guess we know they're hosting on a Mac, huh?) Their FAQ, in response to "Q: I am wondering how your display works?" links to http://www.dti3d.com/dev/, which is not especially useful. I downloaded the developer's package. The readme says:
dti_vw libray diretory has source files for our driver.
dti_vw app directory has sample file for how to use our libray in a application program.
Our library is so simple and easy to use.
There for this sample is good enough to know how our library works.
Our library make a application can communicate between a computer and our unit.
If we change our the communication method and way, we will update immediately.
I gotta be honest: This all looks pretty sketchy. Has anybody seen/used one of these? I'm not convinced that this thing is legit. I don't have the skills to be able to read the code to figure out how all of this works. But "view with two eyes" just ain't gonna cut it for this crowd.
-Waldo
You're right -- I abbreviated my actual privacy flags to make them germane to the discussion. I actually have this:
i lhelo,novrfy,noexpn')dnl
define(`confPRIVACY_FLAGS',`authwarnings,needma
-Waldo
On most of my servers, I've disabled VRFY and EXPN with:
define(`confPRIVACY_FLAGS',`novrfy,noexpn')dnl
(Sendmail, of course.)
It's just weird to permit that. It seems like a potential source of spam -- you know, they could go through a VRFY a few hundred names and build a database.
On the flipside, I've used VRFY to confirm e-mail addresses in forms. If VRFY works, then I flag the address as definitely being legit. I really wish that we had the sort of Internet where we could go on permitting VRFY and EXPN. In fact, if it weren't for spammers, I guess we could.
Oh, well.
-Waldo
I like the idea of hauling in Internet via train. I mean, everything's gonna be a few weeks old, but I love the image of piles of Internet being dumped at the feet of willing villagers, who sell it off by the pound.
Ah, the smell of Internet, fresh from the fields. It takes me back to my youth in India...
If your sole argument is "they should be giving something back" then we don't really need to hear any more from you. If you have something to say that would be justifiable to the shareholders, please share.
Sure, that's easy. It's only a matter of time 'til Microsoft comes up with a competing video format (or somebody else) that proves to be a threat to Apple. The stronger a hold that they have in the market, the better that they are. Permitting more platforms to both create and view their format will result in a better market hold, and therefore make them less vulnerable to such attacks.
Seems pretty straightforward to me.
-Waldo
Konrad v. General Motors Corp., et. al.
Anybody read Japanese? It's clear that Allan Konrad, the owner of this patent, is suing GM in Texas (Why Texas? The guy lives in California.) for patent infringement on this and two other patents ("remote service access systems based on a client-server service mode").
But that's all that I can tell.
-Waldo
In the case of Coke and Carpets there is an ample supply of both, so both are cheap regardless of demand. If demand goes up it's easy to increase production by hiring more workers and buying more raw materials.
With RAM chips the supply is (supposedly) not ample. Demand fluctuates. Increasing production to meet demand requires building or converting a fab. Ramping up production to meet demand takes a while, during which time prices are high.
You're absolutely right -- demand should increase the price if there's not enough supply. The question is this: Why isn't there enough supply? It's not exactly a dead-end industry. It's probably one of the more expansive industries out there with, as we've learned doing the math in this story, one hell of a markup.
But I do think that your last point is interesting: Ramping up production to meet demand takes a while, during which time prices are high. Logical, and something that I've heard quite a bit, but I wonder how much truth there is to it. Does anybody know (somebody -- unlike Admiral Burrito and I -- who *is* an economist) of other industries that has this 'ramping-up' problem so often?
-Waldo
Um, Apple's position on this is very clear and simple: "Where's the revenue model?"
Where was the revenue model when giving away BSD? Apple feels free to profit on open-source. They should be giving something back. Quicktime seems like a no-brainer.
Apple has shown that they're not so good at developing technolgies that have much market penetration. Quicktime is an exception, and they should have enough sense to take that for all it's worth. The revenue stream comes from Quicktime as a whole. If they were looking at straight revenue, they would have skipped making Quicktime for the Mac and just released it for Windows. When developing a standard, it's best for it to be just that: a standard.
BTW, my "sorry whining ass" works on plenty. I don't feel that it's inappropriate to point out work that should be done when I can't actually do it myself.
-Waldo
I'm not convinced that these RAM price fluctuations are for real. Remember when that plastic factory in Korea burned down a few years back? It was immediately reported that RAM prices would skyrocket, because this was just 1 of 2 factories in the world that made this particular type of plastic for RAM.
Then, about a month later, some interesting articles appeared. Just a few. (This was pre-web-journalism, for the most part, so I can't find anything to link to.) The reports were that the amount of plastic that was in warehouses was unbelievable. There was enough for years of RAM, more than enough time to rebuild the factory and replenish the stocks. Further, this other factory in the world was fully capable of producing enough plastic to satisfy the world's demand. (If anybody has a more accurate recollection of this than I, please correct my errors.)
Yet, still, the industry continued to insist that the price would go up, which it did. Smacked of price-fixing to me, like oil from the mid-east.
It's kinda sneaky everytime something like this happens. When Coca-Cola demand goes up, the price doesn't increase. When carpet demand goes up, the price doesn't increase. Yet somehow we're to believe that the RAM industry is so grossly incompetent as to be unable to adequate predict the demand for their sole product more than a month in advance?
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it seems weird to me.
-Waldo
I must admit that I haven't read much of the technical specs. But I don't think that I want to. After reading the EE Times article, this seems like a marketing-driven technology.
This article went on about how this fits in with XML and wireless, handheld Internet access.
Who gives a shit? The question remains: is it a *better* format? Any fool can stuff GIFs or BMPs into a tiny format that will display on crappy screens. Unless they're planning on inventing millions-of-colour Palm screens, that's not so useful. XML? C'mon, that's a tacked-on technology, and they know it.
Looks like the Joint Picture Experts Group consists of a lot of people that decided they wanted to hop on the year's bandwagon. If this was JPEG1997, they would have said that it's perfect for use in 'push.' If in were JPEG1999, we'd be told that it's fully compatible with voice technology to be able to audibly view images through a phone.
God knows what JPEG2001 one will involve. They'll probably tout it as being "fully Linux-integrated."
-Waldo
MPEGs...how 1995!
For a more broadly useful video format, Apple will have to port QuickTime to Linux. For a company that used to officially support MkLinux, you'd think they'd get off of their collective ass and at least release binaries. Hell, you can even stream Quicktime from Linux, but you can't watch it.
There used to be, as of a few months ago, a petition up at neutron.resnet.gatech.edu/qt-petit ion.html, but that appears to have gone away. (As has the server.) Maybe the guy graduated and took his server with him.
I'm told that xanim plays Quicktime, but I've never tried it. Still, I'd like to have a plug-in, and something that supports that full functionality of Quicktime. I wish Apple would do something about it.
-Waldo
FWIW, I wasn't being sarcastic. I really do think she's fastastic! Her new album, "From The Blue House," features John D'earth on his song "Whoever You Area," which is especially fantastic.
But, to each their own.
-Waldo
Edgar Bronfman Junior's neice is Lauren Hoffman, a fantastically talented Charlottesville musician.
I encourage all of you to download some MP3s of her music and relish the irony.
-Waldo
I've been thrilled by the mystery of numbers stations since I was a young'un. I think it's the simplicty that makes them so fascinating. So many conspiracy theories and supernatural phemonena (crop circles, alien abductions, JFK, etc.) are complex and full of half-truths and hoaxes.
/. a few months ago, but I think they're great. It takes a lot of time to study this kind of stuff, with no likely returns from the work.
:) But at least I'm posting at 1 instead of 2...
Numbers stations are so simple, elegant, yet mysterious. (Therefore mysterious?) You can have any theory that you want (and they're all probably far more interesting than the truth), and there's little evidence on way or the other.
I only discovered The Conet Project through
Like I said, useless post.
-Waldo
I alpha-tested Alice at UVa in...oh...'98, I guess. Maybe '97. Hell of a lot of fun, and a great media lab. I didn't get to program in it, but it was a fantastic user experience.
-Waldo
We've had this dicussion about Quantum's solid-state drives.
-Waldo