As many of you will know, QWERTY was actually made to slow typists down (to most Slashdot readers however, it seems to have been ineffective) so an alphabetic arrangement, which was the original arrangement of letters on a typewriter AFAIK, would probably speed typing were anyone to learn it. However, some of you will have heard of the Dvorak keyboard layoyut, this was designed with speed in mind locating the most-used keys in the easiest to reach positions. (More about Dvorak: http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/).
This seems to be almost stuck in the middle of two ideas: QWERTY being well-known; DVORAK being supposedly the best for speed and ergonomic typing. I'm not sure why anyone would buy this keyboard (or use this layout with another keyboard) although it could come in handy for teaching children to use computers - I know when I was first introduced to a computer I couldn't understand why the keys were where they were.
In case this gets slashdotted, here are the main features (from the website):
Uses (what's left of;) ) an Atari XE GS (Game System) the last model Atari 800 type computer from 1987.
8" TFT active matrix display
Compact Flash "hard disk drive" utilizing MyDOS 4.53 for maximum drive size of 16 megabytes. Card is removable for swapping.
Built-in NiMH battery pack and charger (uses external plug like a normal laptop) Also battery is removable from base as with most laptops.
Full (Atari 800) sized keyboard
Built-in Player 1 & 2 controls, plus joystick ports. Built-in joypads great for playing Robotron 2084! bullet
Brushed aluminum and wood grain everywhere! A weird combo style, sure, but I like it! bullet
Cursor control knob - Allows you to move the cursor around the screen without pressing control+arrow keys. That's awesome if you're an old-school Atari programmer "from the day" bullet
Slim (compared to an original SIO port) DB25 printer-style port for connecting to disk drives, printers or PC's using an SIO2PC cable.
The Sony Record label and Recording Studios have been slowly laying off staff for around 2 years now, recently their main UK recording studio closed down completely. This seems to be a continuation of this, slowly laying off staff to try and increase dwindling sales. The fact is, they now have major competition in every major market they are in. In the music buisness they have p2p, Apple and rival music labels to worry about. In the Console market they are involved in one of the biggest marketing wars ever with the monolith of Microsoft and in the hand-held console market they are fighting Nintendo. Sony's competition in every market is a who's who of electronics and software corporations.
After laying off this staff, they should have enough money to keep the marketing campaign going until the PS3 comes out, which is bound to make them a large amount of revenue.
This could be one of the more intersting corporate stories next year.
"The trial court's instructions initially defined "legitimate reverse engineering" to allow copying and analyzing only "non-protectible concepts or techniques" embodied in a mask work."
It would seem that nothing these days is "non-protectible" if RIAA, MPPA or SCO have anything to say about it.
What are "standalone cellphone chargers"? Surely it would be just as good to have a spare, fully charged battery rather than something running from batteries charging the cell phone battery.
Unless, of course, the charger ran solar power. Maybe they should just make a solar cell cellular phone for just this situation.
"..and other information critical to deciding how to allocate marketing dollars"
i.e. information critical to prosecuting as many people as possible. Who here really believes that they will stop at monitering the tracks downloaded?
"Prize: Since we're in Binghamton, NY, the prize will be a gift box from the nearby brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY."
Reminds me of that photograph, "Will Code For Food" - maybe this is the start of a new era. A combination of "free as in beer" and "will code for food".
I wish that more companies would follow the recent examples of Lego and the BBC; instead of just sending out legal threats and public announcements as a reaction to something they should consider why people are doing it. The BBC realised that people were recording and distributing Dr.Who and while they took a hardline on this (as it is, after all, piracy) they also decided that they should make their shows available on the internet as people are obviously looking for other ways to view their favourite shows. Here, Lego have taken the rational direction and thought "how does it harm us?" and have realised it doesn't, it just opens more creative dimensions. Companies rarely have anything to gain by sending constant legal threats (recent examples include RIAA and the MPAA) and may do well to think of why people are doing it in the first place, and how they can change their stance for mutual benefit.
It will be interesting to see, with the current amount of media emphasis (especially in the BBC) on camera and video phones being used in reporting stories and being "first on the scene", whether the podcast will rival the mobile phone with regards to use in media. Although the mobile phone is now ubiquitous, the ipod may be capable of recording better quality video and broadcasting it for everyone without the use of a new corporation.
"In a sense we are fortunate that most attackers want to control and use systems they attack rather than destroy them." - however in a sense we are unfortunate that they generally take control of them to destroy someone elses computer, it just depends on how selfish you are.
"A market that serves creative vision instead of suppressing it."
A market that serves creative vision will always be bought-out by someone in a market without it. What we really need is a combination of the two, working together.
If the Chinese Government wanted to break into the websites of foreign powers, they probably would have broken into them all by now. Think about it, China has a population of roughly 1,306,313,812 (July 2005) and a purchasing power of $7.262 trillion. Chances are that someone in China will be able to break into a Government website, and with that kind of purchasing power they could probably get a PC or 2.
However, if China really wanted to do some damage they could always get everyone in the population to refresh a page a few. Although this may be slightly unpractical, it would certainly be noticed.
Slashdot Mirror
As many of you will know, QWERTY was actually made to slow typists down (to most Slashdot readers however, it seems to have been ineffective) so an alphabetic arrangement, which was the original arrangement of letters on a typewriter AFAIK, would probably speed typing were anyone to learn it. However, some of you will have heard of the Dvorak keyboard layoyut, this was designed with speed in mind locating the most-used keys in the easiest to reach positions. (More about Dvorak: http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/). This seems to be almost stuck in the middle of two ideas: QWERTY being well-known; DVORAK being supposedly the best for speed and ergonomic typing. I'm not sure why anyone would buy this keyboard (or use this layout with another keyboard) although it could come in handy for teaching children to use computers - I know when I was first introduced to a computer I couldn't understand why the keys were where they were.
Site seems to be down - or at least running slow. Here is the Coral Cache link:
http://www.aselabs.com.nyud.net:8090/
So the Sony rootkit is BAD?! This needs more coverage.
"Simply put: We made a mistake..." - not something we are hearing often enough from some companies recently, not naming any names.
In case this gets slashdotted, here are the main features (from the website):
;) ) an Atari XE GS (Game System) the last model Atari 800 type computer from 1987.
Uses (what's left of
8" TFT active matrix display
Compact Flash "hard disk drive" utilizing MyDOS 4.53 for maximum drive size of 16 megabytes. Card is removable for swapping.
Built-in NiMH battery pack and charger (uses external plug like a normal laptop) Also battery is removable from base as with most laptops.
Full (Atari 800) sized keyboard
Built-in Player 1 & 2 controls, plus joystick ports. Built-in joypads great for playing Robotron 2084!
bullet
Brushed aluminum and wood grain everywhere! A weird combo style, sure, but I like it!
bullet
Cursor control knob - Allows you to move the cursor around the screen without pressing control+arrow keys. That's awesome if you're an old-school Atari programmer "from the day"
bullet
Slim (compared to an original SIO port) DB25 printer-style port for connecting to disk drives, printers or PC's using an SIO2PC cable.
I have to see, it's looking pretty sweet.
The Sony Record label and Recording Studios have been slowly laying off staff for around 2 years now, recently their main UK recording studio closed down completely. This seems to be a continuation of this, slowly laying off staff to try and increase dwindling sales. The fact is, they now have major competition in every major market they are in. In the music buisness they have p2p, Apple and rival music labels to worry about. In the Console market they are involved in one of the biggest marketing wars ever with the monolith of Microsoft and in the hand-held console market they are fighting Nintendo. Sony's competition in every market is a who's who of electronics and software corporations. After laying off this staff, they should have enough money to keep the marketing campaign going until the PS3 comes out, which is bound to make them a large amount of revenue. This could be one of the more intersting corporate stories next year.
"The trial court's instructions initially defined "legitimate reverse engineering" to allow copying and analyzing only "non-protectible concepts or techniques" embodied in a mask work." It would seem that nothing these days is "non-protectible" if RIAA, MPPA or SCO have anything to say about it.
What are "standalone cellphone chargers"? Surely it would be just as good to have a spare, fully charged battery rather than something running from batteries charging the cell phone battery.
Unless, of course, the charger ran solar power. Maybe they should just make a solar cell cellular phone for just this situation.
"..and other information critical to deciding how to allocate marketing dollars" i.e. information critical to prosecuting as many people as possible. Who here really believes that they will stop at monitering the tracks downloaded?
"Prize: Since we're in Binghamton, NY, the prize will be a gift box from the nearby brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY." Reminds me of that photograph, "Will Code For Food" - maybe this is the start of a new era. A combination of "free as in beer" and "will code for food".
Lucky it was the linux kernel, had it been Windows the fate of the plane may well have been sealed.
I wish that more companies would follow the recent examples of Lego and the BBC; instead of just sending out legal threats and public announcements as a reaction to something they should consider why people are doing it. The BBC realised that people were recording and distributing Dr.Who and while they took a hardline on this (as it is, after all, piracy) they also decided that they should make their shows available on the internet as people are obviously looking for other ways to view their favourite shows. Here, Lego have taken the rational direction and thought "how does it harm us?" and have realised it doesn't, it just opens more creative dimensions. Companies rarely have anything to gain by sending constant legal threats (recent examples include RIAA and the MPAA) and may do well to think of why people are doing it in the first place, and how they can change their stance for mutual benefit.
It will be interesting to see, with the current amount of media emphasis (especially in the BBC) on camera and video phones being used in reporting stories and being "first on the scene", whether the podcast will rival the mobile phone with regards to use in media. Although the mobile phone is now ubiquitous, the ipod may be capable of recording better quality video and broadcasting it for everyone without the use of a new corporation.
"In a sense we are fortunate that most attackers want to control and use systems they attack rather than destroy them." - however in a sense we are unfortunate that they generally take control of them to destroy someone elses computer, it just depends on how selfish you are.
"A market that serves creative vision instead of suppressing it."
A market that serves creative vision will always be bought-out by someone in a market without it. What we really need is a combination of the two, working together.
Now all that's left to do is for SCO to bide their time and when everyone else has given up their rights to the name then BAM, they strike.
If the Chinese Government wanted to break into the websites of foreign powers, they probably would have broken into them all by now. Think about it, China has a population of roughly 1,306,313,812 (July 2005) and a purchasing power of $7.262 trillion. Chances are that someone in China will be able to break into a Government website, and with that kind of purchasing power they could probably get a PC or 2. However, if China really wanted to do some damage they could always get everyone in the population to refresh a page a few. Although this may be slightly unpractical, it would certainly be noticed.