I've already been using open source on my iRiver - and I can tell you, it completely wipes the floor with the ipod - the only problem? The player that I have looks like an ugly box.
http://www.rockbox.org
I was there this summer, and actually China's government has opened up a ton (I wasn't there as a tourist... and I spent quite a bit of time in Qinghai Province with their college students). While it doesn't have nearly any of the freedoms that we have to the extent we do, its not the closed country that it was 30 years ago... or even 10 years ago. The opening up of China in the 70's and the second opening up in '96 really has changed the political scape of the country - and with the Olympics comming to Beijing in '08 China's opening up even more.
It'd be great to see real freedom being given there, but the Communist party has come a long way.
So... we know that PJ and Weta will be doing Halo - but who's directing it (which I think would be far more important than who the producer and special effects team is...)
I wouldn't really compare X2 to Elite or Privateer... the combat in the game (though I'm sure they've patched it by now) resulted in a contest to see which ship would blow up when you rammed it (the AI would always try to ram you instead of actually fighting)... and the game itself was more of a management type (you can build factories, have extra ships that are remote controlled, etc)...
I remember my sister (an indie artist, http://www.dawnxianamoon.com telling me the problems that Windows Media Player was giving her with her CD one time... if I remember correctly she tried to burn it or something - in turn it yelled at her about not having a license for the CD.
Consider the impact this can have on the indie artists... and those artists who try to have their music publically available (quite a few do exist) - how are they supposed to get a license so that the music can be shared? What standard does LimeWire plan to use in order to implement the license use?
Robots won't be able to take any major role in ground combat - we're too far from getting an AI that is intelligent enough. Combat has too many variables and without some sort of intuitive AI we'll never get to the place where using just a drone is a viable option. The real next step as far as military technology will be when they manage to have some sort of viable battle armor/exoskeleton for soldiers. Heinlein hit the nail on the head in Starship Troopers (the book, not the horrible movie(s)) with his mobile infantry.
Sure, while this may actually be a valid use for patents - its gotten to the point where the entire system is beyond repair. Personally I'd love to see this case as being something that helps to revamp the entire patent law (which we all know is necessary). The whole idea of patent law (and copyright law) was to create a system that helped the 'little guy' - instead what we find now is that it only helps the huge corporations that are able to sue for millions in 'damages'.
Sad as it may be that someone actually has a valid patent... if this leads to someone (that can do something) to actually look at the law and reform it, I'm all for it.
Wouldn't it be best to launch from somewhere outside the United States - say from the equator? It just makes more sense to me if they used something like Sea Launch.
"If the contest proves popular and the government charges for the votes, it may even be able to cover the cost of its space programme."
How do you fund your space program? Create a competition... its actually a fairly ingenious idea, minus the fact that its laughable of course...
Wasn't parts of BeOS supposed to be incorporated into the Palm OS? (Although, with the sale of PalmSource along with its move towards a Linux based system where does that put the BeOS components?)
The problem with e-books is the same problem we've found for any online distribution system - those who own the rights to the content refuse to lower the price. When you buy a physical book, cd, movie, or anything else, what you're paying for (generally) is something which you can copy... and that has physical value. Most of the costs comes in the physical goods (packaging, etc) - when you buy something through an online distrubtion system, you're paying the same price but not getting any of the packaging, etc which is the bulk of the cost - thus vastly lowering the value of the product.
I've used e-books before, and if I ever go back to China to work then I'll probably have to convert to almost entirely e-books. It has a major advantage in the size - you can carry many books with you without having the size/weight being any sort of issue. While I prefer real, physical ones more, the system isn't bad... the only problem is that you don't have any price incentive for buying them - you're just giving the publishers a huge profit margin.
For all of you that believe that the Methlabs.org is actually telling the truth you have to realize that PeerGuardian has existed on SourceForge for a while now; leading the whole 'Only download from Methlabs.org' and all of that to be very suspicious...
If Google = Evil: This would actually be a great time for them to 'make their move' - they've got large quantities of unused cable, and if you follow all the rumors can create their 2nd internet while having an audience that is both captive and grateful. Imagine - Google begins with coming in as the savior for the hurricane and ends up ruling the world...
(And the next thing is that Zonk is going to post this to the front page.)
Actually I'm pretty excited about these new hard drives comming out. Double platter HDs won't fit in my mp3 player (ihp 120) and these new single platter ones are small enough that they can - which means I'll be able to upgrade the size of my player while retaining all the functionality of it (and being able to use rockbox).
Nevermind that... after sitting a bit I managed to grab the video.
By the look of it the thing cheats - instead of actually walking it has the legs move but they never lift up - leading me to think that its due to whells on the bottom (along with the turning radius, it really shows that it runs on wheels). On top of that, the actual speed of it in the video is much slower than that of a person walking.
Its still a cool toy - but its a far cry from having an actual working mecha (more like an odd care with a strage chasis).
Slashdot Mirror
I've already been using open source on my iRiver - and I can tell you, it completely wipes the floor with the ipod - the only problem? The player that I have looks like an ugly box. http://www.rockbox.org
It'd be great to see real freedom being given there, but the Communist party has come a long way.
The only reason to buy Dell is their service - heck, they ended up giving me a new laptop 1.5 years after my old one because of issues I was having...
So... we know that PJ and Weta will be doing Halo - but who's directing it (which I think would be far more important than who the producer and special effects team is...)
Recording a CD: $2000 Ripping your CD: $0 Saying 'Screw you' to the RIAA's business model and getting Slashdotted for publicity: Priceless
I wouldn't really compare X2 to Elite or Privateer... the combat in the game (though I'm sure they've patched it by now) resulted in a contest to see which ship would blow up when you rammed it (the AI would always try to ram you instead of actually fighting)... and the game itself was more of a management type (you can build factories, have extra ships that are remote controlled, etc)...
the RIAA would finally fess up to the fact that people aren't buying CDs because the music just plain sucks...
Doesn't the Navy have some sort of tracking system for their dolphins...? I'd assume so at least.
Consider the impact this can have on the indie artists... and those artists who try to have their music publically available (quite a few do exist) - how are they supposed to get a license so that the music can be shared? What standard does LimeWire plan to use in order to implement the license use?
Robots won't be able to take any major role in ground combat - we're too far from getting an AI that is intelligent enough. Combat has too many variables and without some sort of intuitive AI we'll never get to the place where using just a drone is a viable option. The real next step as far as military technology will be when they manage to have some sort of viable battle armor/exoskeleton for soldiers. Heinlein hit the nail on the head in Starship Troopers (the book, not the horrible movie(s)) with his mobile infantry.
Sure, while this may actually be a valid use for patents - its gotten to the point where the entire system is beyond repair. Personally I'd love to see this case as being something that helps to revamp the entire patent law (which we all know is necessary). The whole idea of patent law (and copyright law) was to create a system that helped the 'little guy' - instead what we find now is that it only helps the huge corporations that are able to sue for millions in 'damages'. Sad as it may be that someone actually has a valid patent... if this leads to someone (that can do something) to actually look at the law and reform it, I'm all for it.
Case VI: The government *pays* you for not growing the extra...
Wouldn't it be best to launch from somewhere outside the United States - say from the equator? It just makes more sense to me if they used something like Sea Launch.
Actually... when the Mir Space Station was scheduled to go down the Survivor people tried to buy it from the Russian government...
"If the contest proves popular and the government charges for the votes, it may even be able to cover the cost of its space programme." How do you fund your space program? Create a competition... its actually a fairly ingenious idea, minus the fact that its laughable of course...
Wasn't parts of BeOS supposed to be incorporated into the Palm OS? (Although, with the sale of PalmSource along with its move towards a Linux based system where does that put the BeOS components?)
I've used e-books before, and if I ever go back to China to work then I'll probably have to convert to almost entirely e-books. It has a major advantage in the size - you can carry many books with you without having the size/weight being any sort of issue. While I prefer real, physical ones more, the system isn't bad... the only problem is that you don't have any price incentive for buying them - you're just giving the publishers a huge profit margin.
For all of you that believe that the Methlabs.org is actually telling the truth you have to realize that PeerGuardian has existed on SourceForge for a while now; leading the whole 'Only download from Methlabs.org' and all of that to be very suspicious...
If Google = Evil: This would actually be a great time for them to 'make their move' - they've got large quantities of unused cable, and if you follow all the rumors can create their 2nd internet while having an audience that is both captive and grateful. Imagine - Google begins with coming in as the savior for the hurricane and ends up ruling the world... (And the next thing is that Zonk is going to post this to the front page.)
Bonk the Zonk...?
Actually I'm pretty excited about these new hard drives comming out. Double platter HDs won't fit in my mp3 player (ihp 120) and these new single platter ones are small enough that they can - which means I'll be able to upgrade the size of my player while retaining all the functionality of it (and being able to use rockbox).
Funny... considering that thats what the parent is talking about.
Well... considering that my computer just crashed trying to write this...
aka: the prequel Star Wars?
Nevermind that... after sitting a bit I managed to grab the video. By the look of it the thing cheats - instead of actually walking it has the legs move but they never lift up - leading me to think that its due to whells on the bottom (along with the turning radius, it really shows that it runs on wheels). On top of that, the actual speed of it in the video is much slower than that of a person walking. Its still a cool toy - but its a far cry from having an actual working mecha (more like an odd care with a strage chasis).