does the slashdot crowd think copying 30-40 games and "saving £600" is good?
And, how many of those games does the modder actually play on a regular basis? With the mod, he can get access to 30-40 games. But does he really play 30-40 games?
I'll bet money he plays just a few games. Now do your math. It's close to a wash at 75 pounds.
Microsoft was attempting to create a closed market for games when it developed the Xbox system. The free-market system found a way to defeat that closed system. Or, don't you believe in free markets?
Did Microsoft really think this through? The people who mod Xboxes are their best customers. They are the enthusiasts who care enough to learn more about the console.
I doubt that this effort will even result in an increase in revenues that will be enough to pay for the enforcement. There must be better ways to improve profitability.
The article says that a port of Windows could be important to the future of ARM, and that Microsoft has no plans to do such a port. (Does anybody remember when Windows NT was supposed to be ported to DEC alpha, HP PA-RISC, and IBM PowerPC?). But why, exactly, does a consumer want Windows? For Excel? Word?
Seems like Linux will fill the bill with a browser, maybe a PostScript app and a media player. Text editing isn't such an elaborate thing these days. And only a few people even know what to do with Excel.
Sounds like ARM is to Intel the way that Linux is to Microsoft; a threat coming from the low-end.
Speaking of apps, seems like iPhone and the like are coming up with apps that don't run on Windows. Do we really need, or even want, Windows any more?
So, what we need is a netbook with ARM, running Linux, to serve as a model for future application development.
I disagree that power consumption cannot be controlled. Our local power company has a program where they can control your air conditioner. Since I live in Boise, Idaho, a very hot place in the summertime, this is a big deal.
Further, I have an electric water heater. I should really put that on a timer, but this is the sort of thing that a home automation system could control.
Also, a house could have configurable zone heating.
And that's just the HVAC/utilities possibilities in a house. There's lighting, laundry and dishes, televisions and cable devices, and, eventually, solar cells and electric vehicles.
Yes, I know that organizations are 'astroturfing'. That is why I used the term 'turf'. That's been going on for quite some time.
What's new and different is governmental use of automated tools. Would it not be fair to assume that secret government agencies, already enjoying unconstitutional immunity, would use these tools to effectively destroy groups who, for example, seek to put limits on the powers of secret government agencies?
And would it not be smart to assume that these tools will be used by politically motivated groups to shout down those brave souls who attempt to stand up for rights of individuals?
We already have media networks (Fox) pushing political agendas. Tools like this will surely be used to push those narrow agendas at the expense of free speech.
What troubles me about this is not the security applications, although there is risk there, too, but the political, persuasive abuse. Innocent sites like Slashdot will be 'turfed' to move public opinion and public perception.
At this point, the name Microsoft is pretty much a synonym for danger.
But the damage is not limited to Microsoft's reputation, the damage extends to the concept behind 'cloud computing', whatever that is. I think it is safe to say that Microsoft will recover from this incident, after all, it's record is already pretty suspect, but cloud computing will have this example hanging over it from now on.
I doubt that people will take this as a lesson that Microsoft is not to be trusted or believed since they are the public face of computing, but that computing generally, and 'cloud computing' is what's untrustworthy. Microsoft can abandon this particular project, coin a new term to replace 'cloud computing', and move on.
This is an opening for Google or other competitors. Will they step up and displace Microsoft as the public face of computing? We can be rid of monolithic operating systems if someone can make a system that boots a minimal browser/front-end that connects to the internet. A combination of BIOS and replaceable flash drive. Sell flash drives with the kernel and the drivers for the display/keyboard and network interface.
I bought a Mac for my wife three years ago. She complained that it was not a Microsoft and that she had difficulty using Open Office and its Mac equivalent. Since I bought her MS Office for the Mac she has quit complaining.
For me, I'm happy because I haven't touched the OS since I bought it. In that time my XP system has gotten slower and slower and on occasion has crashed. Compared to other versions of Microsoft OS's, XP is fantastic. But it is still grinding itself down with security updates, viruses and the like. Eventually it will be nearly unusable and I'll have to do a reinstall.
The Mac doesn't seem to be grinding itself down like XP is.
Windows 7 is great because it's a fresh install. In three years Windows 7 will grind itself down and we'll be looking to pay for the next refresh of Windows. So what if Michael Dell says Windows 7 will make you love your PC? It's a fresh install. If I could get someone to reinstall my OS and all its applications, I'd love my PC, too. But I don't want to do all that work and I don't want to pay someone else to do that work.
I have mitigated the problem of the OS grinding down by replacing the Athlon Thunderbird 1.4GHz with a Athlon II x4 2.3 GHz and a new motherboard. So far, so good. I love my PC again. Sort of.
I love that idea that the future requires a particular past. Helps explain why we feel nostalgic; we needed a particular past, so we treasure it.
So, in a way, the accident at the LHC is confirmation of a physic. Now we just need to understand what it was that we saw. I suppose they'll repeat the experiment and cause another accident. Then they'll have to design another experiment to probe another physic. We're feeling our way into a fifth dimension.
Seems like this is the dawn of a new age in power transmission. The implications are many and they are huge. A lot of energy is lost in transmission, and a lot of energy was not exploited because distance prohibited cost-effective transmission.
It will take time and experience to work out the details of this technology, but its arrival is pretty important. The impact will feel evolutionary because it will necessarily be implemented in a gradual manner as the technology matures, but the consequences will be revolutionary.
And this is one of the things that the United States can only do locally. Not much of this will be imported. And new sources of energy will be developed to meet the potential markets opened up by superconductor transmission. Mexico, for example, can develop solar generation all along the border to meet American market needs.
I hope the meteorologists are still following their comments. I have a question.
When landing in O'Hare, I looked out to see clouds formed in an obvious wave pattern. I'd guess the distance between the waves of clouds was in the order of kilometers or miles. The waves stretched to the horizon and wer aligned in a NNW to SSE axis.
What would cause the clouds to form such an obvious harmonic pattern? What has a harmonic with a waveform measured in miles? The Earth? Is the Earth vibrating at some hugely low rate?
noundi, all of us would appreciate it if you would format your comments with paragraphs. Use
<p>
at the end of a paragraph to format it.
See? Pretty cool, huh?
If I had a neighbor who I figured was running a crack house or a meth lab, I'd love the chance to narc them out. Or, if I was concerned about vandalism of my house or car, it would be nice to have this sort of ability.
The down-side is being harassed about my small dog pooping at some random place. I'll usually kick the poop into the street, but this might not pass muster with the 'authorities'.
But just to make sure everyone understands it will be politicized the last sentence of the/. summary is the tell:
You and I may have strong feelings about politics, but high school students will be indifferent and oblivious. How much danger does one high school class represent? Exposing students to readings will be a very ineffective way of 'political indoctrination'. Get a grip. Effective 'indoctrination' requires a real life figure, such as Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck.
If I were selecting a syllabus for the class, I'd go for variety and then compare and contrast the works. Understanding certain works of science fiction requires some understanding of the mood of the times.
I am personally fascinated with the post-WWII era and the existentialism that the GI's were bringing home from the war. Authoritarianism was a prevailing cultural theme from the war right on through to the 60's, contrasted by the counter-cultural existentialism and the 'beats'.
L. Ron Hubbard would be an example of the Authoritarian type, with his tendency to reinvent words to form a group-speak, bending meaning. Very 1984. 'Typewriter in the Sky' is typical of Hubbard's pseudo-psychological style.
Aldous Huxley's 1945 The Perennial Philosophy would be a good counterpoint.
That particular study about verteboplasty was related to relief of pain; a very tricky subject area.
Verteboplasty might also be indicated in compromised lung function due to kyphosis. I've seen old ladies with osteoporosis/kyphosis wither and die and I have to wonder if verteboplasty wouldn't have helped them live longer lives, yet the treatment is withheld because of questions about efficacy that are related to pain, not lung function.
I lose faith with these 'studies' when I see such conflicting information about what ought to be straightforward science. Vaccines have eliminated many dangerous diseases that were once commonplace; polio, small pox, rubella, tetanus, yet we get bombarded with reports that vaccines don't work or are dangerous.
I'll take my chances with verteboplasty if I get kyphosis.
I've see more people almost die due to allergic reactions to shots than i have due to a bad case of the flu.
Do you have any data or links to support this idea?
I just got the seasonal flu shot because last year I got a flu that hit my bowels pretty hard. My gut won't even hold in water. After two days of the runs, I had to 'hold it in' just to get my gut to absorb water. My kidneys were hurting and I knew I was heading to the hospital if I didn't get my kidneys to produce.
'Holding it in' worked, BTW. It wasn't fun, but it worked.
But this concept that the seasonal flu shot increases risk of H1N1 is alarming. My brother, who is a lion, was down for three days with the swine flu.
I don't understand what Ballmer means. What did they screw up?
Sure they're running late (and I see he blamed the coders), but Microsoft's model - you make the hardware, we'll make the O/S - is a tough one to implement. Apple's product is in their control from soup to nuts; they have complete control of the hardware, the O/S, the applications, where the applications get sold. It's easier to get it right when you have that much control.
I think Microsoft is overreaching. They're trying to make a one-size-fits-all O/S. I think they need to partner with a platform maker, or buy a platform maker, and apply their talent to making that work. Of course, they'll be starting from behind.
I have learned to write code in an open, easy to understand style so that future support persons will be able to hack it without too much trouble. That usually means avoiding some of the more subtle and elegant techniques that a particular language uses.
Code can be hacked without destroying its future usability, and that is my pet peeve; it's ok to hack, it's not ok to turn code that was maintainable into a bloody unusable mess. I hate compiler directives. Are you too stupid to put platform dependent code in a separate file?
Regardless, I do understand that shipping code is crucial. I don't hate hackers, but they get the job done. I just hate cleaning up after them.
So, instead of having one giant conflict that lasts for a few years, we have a never-ending series of small but locally devastating conflicts that go on forever.
But we weren't having just *one* giant conflict that lasts a few years. We were having a *series* of them. So we replaced a never-ending series of giant conflicts with a never-ending series of small but locally devastating conflicts. It's not perfect, but it's progress.
When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers.
The grass in; Afganistan, Viet Nam, Korea, Iraq, the Balkans. We, here in America, don't really feel the effects of our proxy wars. I'm not sure what's happening is progress.
Actually, I think the radioactivity will create viable mutations. But then those mutants need a niche that is exploitable by their particular mutation.
But all this mutation talk seems like it's off-topic. I'm more interested to hear more about this technique of precipitating metals using phytic acid.
We have large uranium mine tailings that need to be cleaned up. We also have other radioactive materials that need to be neutralized.
Also, I wonder if this technique can be used to extract materials such as Hafnium, now widely sought out for its use in processors.
Nope, not buying it. Especially if it pertains to public policy. Any legal description, guide, index, or other derivative document of law should, by its implied use, be public domain.
First of all, I have an issue with the government copyrighting anything. If the government created it, it is public domain, right?
If there is some issue of value of a property, then the government needs to sell the property to a private party. But the concept of the government blocking access to legal documents such as text of laws, records and minutes of meetings, etc., blows my mind. That AG needs to be sued.
symbolset makes a good point; hardware makers (Sun, HP, IBM) were platforms that ran Oracle systems. Now that Oracle has its own hardware, that market has been lost.
Of course, IBM and HP have been increasingly getting into the software/services business, in competition with Oracle, so Oracle's purchase of Sun might be the flip-side of this trend. Of course, this means that HP and IBM will have to rely on other vendors such as SAP to provide missing parts of the software/services business.
Slashdot Mirror
does the slashdot crowd think copying 30-40 games and "saving £600" is good?
And, how many of those games does the modder actually play on a regular basis? With the mod, he can get access to 30-40 games. But does he really play 30-40 games?
I'll bet money he plays just a few games. Now do your math. It's close to a wash at 75 pounds.
Microsoft was attempting to create a closed market for games when it developed the Xbox system. The free-market system found a way to defeat that closed system. Or, don't you believe in free markets?
Did Microsoft really think this through? The people who mod Xboxes are their best customers. They are the enthusiasts who care enough to learn more about the console.
I doubt that this effort will even result in an increase in revenues that will be enough to pay for the enforcement. There must be better ways to improve profitability.
The article says that a port of Windows could be important to the future of ARM, and that Microsoft has no plans to do such a port. (Does anybody remember when Windows NT was supposed to be ported to DEC alpha, HP PA-RISC, and IBM PowerPC?). But why, exactly, does a consumer want Windows? For Excel? Word?
Seems like Linux will fill the bill with a browser, maybe a PostScript app and a media player. Text editing isn't such an elaborate thing these days. And only a few people even know what to do with Excel.
Sounds like ARM is to Intel the way that Linux is to Microsoft; a threat coming from the low-end.
Speaking of apps, seems like iPhone and the like are coming up with apps that don't run on Windows. Do we really need, or even want, Windows any more?
So, what we need is a netbook with ARM, running Linux, to serve as a model for future application development.
I disagree that power consumption cannot be controlled. Our local power company has a program where they can control your air conditioner. Since I live in Boise, Idaho, a very hot place in the summertime, this is a big deal.
Further, I have an electric water heater. I should really put that on a timer, but this is the sort of thing that a home automation system could control.
Also, a house could have configurable zone heating.
And that's just the HVAC/utilities possibilities in a house. There's lighting, laundry and dishes, televisions and cable devices, and, eventually, solar cells and electric vehicles.
Yes, I know that organizations are 'astroturfing'. That is why I used the term 'turf'. That's been going on for quite some time.
What's new and different is governmental use of automated tools. Would it not be fair to assume that secret government agencies, already enjoying unconstitutional immunity, would use these tools to effectively destroy groups who, for example, seek to put limits on the powers of secret government agencies?
And would it not be smart to assume that these tools will be used by politically motivated groups to shout down those brave souls who attempt to stand up for rights of individuals?
We already have media networks (Fox) pushing political agendas. Tools like this will surely be used to push those narrow agendas at the expense of free speech.
What troubles me about this is not the security applications, although there is risk there, too, but the political, persuasive abuse. Innocent sites like Slashdot will be 'turfed' to move public opinion and public perception.
I'll guess that this is already going on.
At this point, the name Microsoft is pretty much a synonym for danger.
But the damage is not limited to Microsoft's reputation, the damage extends to the concept behind 'cloud computing', whatever that is. I think it is safe to say that Microsoft will recover from this incident, after all, it's record is already pretty suspect, but cloud computing will have this example hanging over it from now on.
I doubt that people will take this as a lesson that Microsoft is not to be trusted or believed since they are the public face of computing, but that computing generally, and 'cloud computing' is what's untrustworthy. Microsoft can abandon this particular project, coin a new term to replace 'cloud computing', and move on.
This is an opening for Google or other competitors. Will they step up and displace Microsoft as the public face of computing? We can be rid of monolithic operating systems if someone can make a system that boots a minimal browser/front-end that connects to the internet. A combination of BIOS and replaceable flash drive. Sell flash drives with the kernel and the drivers for the display/keyboard and network interface.
You are obviously a MS fanboi bigot.
In three years of 'Service Pack' updates, your MS PC will be unreliable go-seh. In three years your Mac PC will still be working fine.
Different shit.
I bought a Mac for my wife three years ago. She complained that it was not a Microsoft and that she had difficulty using Open Office and its Mac equivalent. Since I bought her MS Office for the Mac she has quit complaining.
For me, I'm happy because I haven't touched the OS since I bought it. In that time my XP system has gotten slower and slower and on occasion has crashed. Compared to other versions of Microsoft OS's, XP is fantastic. But it is still grinding itself down with security updates, viruses and the like. Eventually it will be nearly unusable and I'll have to do a reinstall.
The Mac doesn't seem to be grinding itself down like XP is.
Windows 7 is great because it's a fresh install. In three years Windows 7 will grind itself down and we'll be looking to pay for the next refresh of Windows. So what if Michael Dell says Windows 7 will make you love your PC? It's a fresh install. If I could get someone to reinstall my OS and all its applications, I'd love my PC, too. But I don't want to do all that work and I don't want to pay someone else to do that work.
I have mitigated the problem of the OS grinding down by replacing the Athlon Thunderbird 1.4GHz with a Athlon II x4 2.3 GHz and a new motherboard. So far, so good. I love my PC again. Sort of.
I love that idea that the future requires a particular past. Helps explain why we feel nostalgic; we needed a particular past, so we treasure it.
So, in a way, the accident at the LHC is confirmation of a physic. Now we just need to understand what it was that we saw. I suppose they'll repeat the experiment and cause another accident. Then they'll have to design another experiment to probe another physic. We're feeling our way into a fifth dimension.
Seems like this is the dawn of a new age in power transmission. The implications are many and they are huge. A lot of energy is lost in transmission, and a lot of energy was not exploited because distance prohibited cost-effective transmission.
It will take time and experience to work out the details of this technology, but its arrival is pretty important. The impact will feel evolutionary because it will necessarily be implemented in a gradual manner as the technology matures, but the consequences will be revolutionary.
And this is one of the things that the United States can only do locally. Not much of this will be imported. And new sources of energy will be developed to meet the potential markets opened up by superconductor transmission. Mexico, for example, can develop solar generation all along the border to meet American market needs.
I hope the meteorologists are still following their comments. I have a question. When landing in O'Hare, I looked out to see clouds formed in an obvious wave pattern. I'd guess the distance between the waves of clouds was in the order of kilometers or miles. The waves stretched to the horizon and wer aligned in a NNW to SSE axis. What would cause the clouds to form such an obvious harmonic pattern? What has a harmonic with a waveform measured in miles? The Earth? Is the Earth vibrating at some hugely low rate?
at the end of a paragraph to format it.
See? Pretty cool, huh?
If I had a neighbor who I figured was running a crack house or a meth lab, I'd love the chance to narc them out. Or, if I was concerned about vandalism of my house or car, it would be nice to have this sort of ability.
The down-side is being harassed about my small dog pooping at some random place. I'll usually kick the poop into the street, but this might not pass muster with the 'authorities'.
at the end of a paragraph. It's a pain, but it's what you have to do to format your text in a way that's readable.
But just to make sure everyone understands it will be politicized the last sentence of the /. summary is the tell:
You and I may have strong feelings about politics, but high school students will be indifferent and oblivious. How much danger does one high school class represent? Exposing students to readings will be a very ineffective way of 'political indoctrination'. Get a grip. Effective 'indoctrination' requires a real life figure, such as Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck.
If I were selecting a syllabus for the class, I'd go for variety and then compare and contrast the works. Understanding certain works of science fiction requires some understanding of the mood of the times.
I am personally fascinated with the post-WWII era and the existentialism that the GI's were bringing home from the war. Authoritarianism was a prevailing cultural theme from the war right on through to the 60's, contrasted by the counter-cultural existentialism and the 'beats'.
L. Ron Hubbard would be an example of the Authoritarian type, with his tendency to reinvent words to form a group-speak, bending meaning. Very 1984. 'Typewriter in the Sky' is typical of Hubbard's pseudo-psychological style.
Aldous Huxley's 1945 The Perennial Philosophy would be a good counterpoint.
That particular study about verteboplasty was related to relief of pain; a very tricky subject area.
Verteboplasty might also be indicated in compromised lung function due to kyphosis. I've seen old ladies with osteoporosis/kyphosis wither and die and I have to wonder if verteboplasty wouldn't have helped them live longer lives, yet the treatment is withheld because of questions about efficacy that are related to pain, not lung function.
I lose faith with these 'studies' when I see such conflicting information about what ought to be straightforward science. Vaccines have eliminated many dangerous diseases that were once commonplace; polio, small pox, rubella, tetanus, yet we get bombarded with reports that vaccines don't work or are dangerous.
I'll take my chances with verteboplasty if I get kyphosis.
I've see more people almost die due to allergic reactions to shots than i have due to a bad case of the flu.
Do you have any data or links to support this idea?
I just got the seasonal flu shot because last year I got a flu that hit my bowels pretty hard. My gut won't even hold in water. After two days of the runs, I had to 'hold it in' just to get my gut to absorb water. My kidneys were hurting and I knew I was heading to the hospital if I didn't get my kidneys to produce.
'Holding it in' worked, BTW. It wasn't fun, but it worked.
But this concept that the seasonal flu shot increases risk of H1N1 is alarming. My brother, who is a lion, was down for three days with the swine flu.
I don't understand what Ballmer means. What did they screw up?
Sure they're running late (and I see he blamed the coders), but Microsoft's model - you make the hardware, we'll make the O/S - is a tough one to implement. Apple's product is in their control from soup to nuts; they have complete control of the hardware, the O/S, the applications, where the applications get sold. It's easier to get it right when you have that much control.
I think Microsoft is overreaching. They're trying to make a one-size-fits-all O/S. I think they need to partner with a platform maker, or buy a platform maker, and apply their talent to making that work. Of course, they'll be starting from behind.
I have learned to write code in an open, easy to understand style so that future support persons will be able to hack it without too much trouble. That usually means avoiding some of the more subtle and elegant techniques that a particular language uses.
Code can be hacked without destroying its future usability, and that is my pet peeve; it's ok to hack, it's not ok to turn code that was maintainable into a bloody unusable mess. I hate compiler directives. Are you too stupid to put platform dependent code in a separate file?
Regardless, I do understand that shipping code is crucial. I don't hate hackers, but they get the job done. I just hate cleaning up after them.
But we weren't having just *one* giant conflict that lasts a few years. We were having a *series* of them. So we replaced a never-ending series of giant conflicts with a never-ending series of small but locally devastating conflicts. It's not perfect, but it's progress.
When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers. The grass in; Afganistan, Viet Nam, Korea, Iraq, the Balkans. We, here in America, don't really feel the effects of our proxy wars. I'm not sure what's happening is progress.
Actually, I think the radioactivity will create viable mutations. But then those mutants need a niche that is exploitable by their particular mutation.
But all this mutation talk seems like it's off-topic. I'm more interested to hear more about this technique of precipitating metals using phytic acid.
We have large uranium mine tailings that need to be cleaned up. We also have other radioactive materials that need to be neutralized.
Also, I wonder if this technique can be used to extract materials such as Hafnium, now widely sought out for its use in processors.
Nope, not buying it. Especially if it pertains to public policy. Any legal description, guide, index, or other derivative document of law should, by its implied use, be public domain.
First of all, I have an issue with the government copyrighting anything. If the government created it, it is public domain, right?
If there is some issue of value of a property, then the government needs to sell the property to a private party. But the concept of the government blocking access to legal documents such as text of laws, records and minutes of meetings, etc., blows my mind. That AG needs to be sued.
symbolset makes a good point; hardware makers (Sun, HP, IBM) were platforms that ran Oracle systems. Now that Oracle has its own hardware, that market has been lost.
Of course, IBM and HP have been increasingly getting into the software/services business, in competition with Oracle, so Oracle's purchase of Sun might be the flip-side of this trend. Of course, this means that HP and IBM will have to rely on other vendors such as SAP to provide missing parts of the software/services business.
Then put the tax on tires. You can't roll back the odometer on a tire.