Why is it specifically in favour of 'Big' media companies? Because, currently (in the US), an individuals copyright is good for life plus 70 years! (Sounds more like a prison sentence than something good;-) For a corporation the copyright is for either 120 or 95 years. How does having a work protected by the government for years after the creator has passed on benefit anyone other than a corporation that is feeding off the works of others?
if you are an average-wage magazine column writer, copyright law helps protect you from being ripped off. If you are an author, musician or other content creator, the copyright law also helps protect you. the fact that the law also protects some big clueless, evil bastards that none of us like does not mean we should throw out the law. Only a few nuts are suggesting we should totally repeal or ignore the copyright laws.
Writing to your elected representative is the correct way to achieve sensible laws. Yes, and we need a lot of letters to counteract the bags of $$ that 'Big' media companies are providing to said elected representatives. Copyright laws may protect the little guy but the little guy is not the one that is demanding that the government get involved in stepped up enforcement.
Now, that begs the question, Are the ATM's good enough for your money? They are after all made by the same companies that can't make voting machines. I have never lost any money due to an ATM. Although banks have.
The problem is that the ATM/Voting Machine manufacturers look at their equipment as only needing protection from the outside. The unwashed masses that use the equipment to get cash or cast a vote can't be trusted at all. The insiders at the bank can be trusted, after all bankers wouldn't steal their own money (in most cases). That trusting of the insider mind set is being transfered to voting machines where the same thing can't be said about election officials.
The manufactures need to make their hardware and software tamper proof from both the inside and outside. Not sure about the hardware maybe make it a safe/vault with a two key system where one key is held by a local official and the other by a regional official? Software is much more complex than a vault or safe mechanism so probably an open approach where many eyes can find the faults is the best method.
No system will ever be 100% protected but there is a lot more that can be done.
My source for 1,000,000 writes before failure was Wikipedia, contemporaneous with the posting. That was your first mistake;-) Not sure where the Wiki is getting its numbers from maybe reference [5]? an old (2003) Toshiba marketing pamphlet (for some reason hosted by a chip programmer company [Data-io]). I would like to see a real datasheet claiming 1,000,000 writes. Even Mtron is only claiming 140 years for their SSD with its "advanced wear-leveling technology" (they reiterate 100,000 cycles for an individual chip).
If I've made a mistake in those calculations, I'd appreciate a correction before I feel compelled to cite them again.
Assuming NAND figures of 1,000,000 rewrites before a failure:
I haven't confirmed the rest of your math but you appear to be off by an order of magnitude for the number of erase/write cycles without an error.
This quote is from a recent Intel 2Gb NAND chip;
First block (block address 00h):
-- Guaranteed to be valid up to 1,000
PROGRAM/ERASE cycles (you can view the first block as the boot block, that is - very important) And;
On-chip control logic
automates PROGRAM and ERASE operations to maximize cycle endurance. ERASE/
PROGRAM endurance is specified at 100,000 cycles when using appropriate error
correcting code (ECC) and error management. I interpret this to mean 100,000 cycles without an uncorrectable error but you can expect to see random bit errors after only 1,000 cycles. You will need the overhead of error detection and correction as well as mapping the bad section of memory to another area (your read times will be slower than the theoretical max). You will find the 1,000/100,000 numbers pretty much standard among NAND manufactures.
That said, I agree that NAND is reliable and is most certainly _the_ replacement for mechanical hard drives.
Do you think that anyone else would be such a freak over it, even if it was their job? If they get a bonus for each "infringement" then, yeah, they might even start reporting 29 second clips recorded with a hand held video camera.
How am I supposed to download it, if Comcast thinks I'm stealing (and who the heck do they think they are, judge dredd?) pirated music? As stated in TFA Comcast is not blocking BT downloads (that would piss people off). What they are doing is preventing seeding once the DL is complete. I have been seeing this for the past few months at my end. This, no doubt, makes the download a little slower (fewer near by peers) but I have had no problem using BT to DL anything.
Also Comcast probably doesn't care if you are stealing "pirated music" what they are more concerned about is the bandwidth used for seeding (uploading).
All in all I'm getting tired of Comcast (for this and other reasons) and may give Fios a try.
No choice is available. Federal law requires that all telecom operators make their facilities available to law enforcement for the purpose of wiretapping. Option #1 should read "You will give us access..." In theory the Feds can only temporarily snoop on a case by case basis, with a court order (again in theory). In this case the Telcos control the data flow not the Feds.
What is being speculated is that the NSA would want constant (and covert) access to all communications on the cable much the way they are rumored to do with other forms of communication.
Again, this is mostly tin foil hat stuff but you never know.
The perceived difficulty with tapping fibre seems to be from the assumption that any interruption in data transmission will be noticed and instantly treated as suspicious. I think it's possible that a quick fibre cut and splice on an underwater cable could be perceived as nothing but a temporary and unimportant glitch by Telco's. It may have been done before. And what are they going to do if a tap is detected? Rip up the whole thing and start over or just ignore it?
As the AC points out a repeater is probably a good point to tap. But then what do you do with the connection? You will need to run another cable the same size from the tap to a shore based facility to monitor the traffic. Now that would be noticeable!
Maybe the NSA tells the operators that they have a choice; 1) You can give us access at the end point (like AT&T). 2) If not we will likely attempt a tap that may go wrong disrupting your service.
The counselor is one of the parties seeking damages actually, so the current depth of his or her pockets is not in question. At the moment you have been rated funny for some reason. But this is a very good point.
Just how does that work? The photographer takes a picture, posts it on Flickr with a license that allows for commercial use. Once someone uses it commercially he/she sues the commercial user and the author of the license?
Maybe there should be a "3) Profit" in there as well?
IANALT but If I were I would try to get the Laptop away from me and turned into Cash as fast as possible. Not wast time Installing an OS, or trying to get pass the password. Also most people who rob others at gunpoint are usually so desperate that they wouldn't think about doing such.... Being that you could do such activities you could at least get a job at CompUSA fixing these things. The thief may not have time to do this but the fence probably does. After all most car thieves don't strip the car they steal - they take it to a chop shop (is there an equivalent for PC/laptops?).
Your $1k laptop may only get the thief $50 (more than enough for an addict to risk pointing a gun at someone), but the next guy in the chain maybe gets $200-$300 after he reformats the drive and alters the serial numbers, MAC address, etc.
It displays a picture of the owner, his or her name, and a phone number to contact if the laptop is found. It'll be the first thing the pawn-shop clerk sees when they turn it on to test it out. I like it!
But that probably means that the crook just tosses the laptop off a bridge into the river so he won't be caught with it. He gains nothing but you don't get it back either.
I always thought customizing the outside with block letters "PROPERTY OF JOHN SMITH" or "STOLEN GOODS - CALL 555-555-5555" would make the laptop immediately appear less desirable (without booting it) - of course I've never done this, looks too strange;-)
why anyone talking on a cellular phone across the public airwaves or on a wired phone using the
public switched telephone network would have any expectation of privacy? Because, in the US, it's the law.
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 119 >
2511. Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited
I can only assume that what happen is that the slot tech screwed something up and they didn't test it before they let people play on the machine again.
I'm sure the authorities will be investigating the relationship between the last (every?) tech who did maintenance on this machine and all the people who made money from it. If the Tech's 'Cousin Ernie' walked away with a pile of money then there may be a case for criminal charges.
"I dont think so especially with the poor design they show on their mockup. Personnally I find this ad totally non-informative. More, maybe it's because I'm canadian but I think the "They'd download it" is totally inapropriate. Hell, they'd not download it, they don't know what's a computer."
From the fine web page;
"Your comments and feedback are requested and encouraged. Please submit them to the Google Group mentioned above so that all interested volunteers can participate in the discussion."
I don't know, it kind of looks like something you would see in a newspaper but if you can do better - let them know about it!
That is a better system than what I first imagined. Still the encoding is being done in software so it would not be difficult to switch from encoded to raw without anyone knowing (Only with the request^W court order from an official agency of course).
From The Fine Paper; ...the system can easily be designed to use an explicit 'mute/un-mute' button, to give the viewer full control of when acoustic statistics are collected for transmission.
Again what incentive do I have to ever un-mute?
I see where the advertisers and broadcasters would love to have this kind of real-time feedback; cancel a show after one episode when most viewers switched channels after watching only five minutes. Or charge for commercials based on how many households actually watched it.
On the other hand I don't want to be inundated with adverts for WWII memorabilia just because I happened to be watching the History Channel.
I'm going to go buy some tinfoil to put in my hat just to be on the safe side;-)
Well, it's not Big Brother but Big Brother could get a court order to hear what was going on in your house at anytime since the microphone was turned on.
There is no way I'm letting Google or anyone else have an open mic. in my home.
Even if it were just turned on for brief periods at random intervals.
Why would anyone allow this in their livingroom? No, I didn't RTFM.
If Eagle does what the submitter needs then $400 is not that bad.
Professional packages can run in the $10s of thousands per seat.
IMHO you need programmers that are also board designers to be able to support an OSS project that can come close to the level of functionality of a commercial package.
This is a specialized product after all and I don't think much can be borrowed from elsewhere. Are there any fields that overlap with auto-router theory?
No, you wouldn't have to junk the radio, you just can't sell it, unless you could make it meet the standards they put forth five years ago and prove it.
True, but do you know what is involved in getting UL certification?
It's mostly about $$. Here is UL's price list for standards (don't remember the relevant standard numbers for consumer electronics). That's just what you pay for the documentation the testing is extra.
Slashdot Mirror
How does having a work protected by the government for years after the creator has passed on benefit anyone other than a corporation that is feeding off the works of others? if you are an average-wage magazine column writer, copyright law helps protect you from being ripped off. If you are an author, musician or other content creator, the copyright law also helps protect you. the fact that the law also protects some big clueless, evil bastards that none of us like does not mean we should throw out the law. Only a few nuts are suggesting we should totally repeal or ignore the copyright laws. Writing to your elected representative is the correct way to achieve sensible laws. Yes, and we need a lot of letters to counteract the bags of $$ that 'Big' media companies are providing to said elected representatives. Copyright laws may protect the little guy but the little guy is not the one that is demanding that the government get involved in stepped up enforcement.
The problem is that the ATM/Voting Machine manufacturers look at their equipment as only needing protection from the outside. The unwashed masses that use the equipment to get cash or cast a vote can't be trusted at all. The insiders at the bank can be trusted, after all bankers wouldn't steal their own money (in most cases). That trusting of the insider mind set is being transfered to voting machines where the same thing can't be said about election officials.
The manufactures need to make their hardware and software tamper proof from both the inside and outside. Not sure about the hardware maybe make it a safe/vault with a two key system where one key is held by a local official and the other by a regional official? Software is much more complex than a vault or safe mechanism so probably an open approach where many eyes can find the faults is the best method.
No system will ever be 100% protected but there is a lot more that can be done.
Not sure where the Wiki is getting its numbers from maybe reference [5]? an old (2003) Toshiba marketing pamphlet (for some reason hosted by a chip programmer company [Data-io]).
I would like to see a real datasheet claiming 1,000,000 writes.
Even Mtron is only claiming 140 years for their SSD with its "advanced wear-leveling technology" (they reiterate 100,000 cycles for an individual chip).
1,000,000 writes/bitfailure / 139.8 writes/year = 7153 years/bitfailure
I haven't confirmed the rest of your math but you appear to be off by an order of magnitude for the number of erase/write cycles without an error.This quote is from a recent Intel 2Gb NAND chip; First block (block address 00h): -- Guaranteed to be valid up to 1,000 PROGRAM/ERASE cycles (you can view the first block as the boot block, that is - very important) And; On-chip control logic automates PROGRAM and ERASE operations to maximize cycle endurance. ERASE/ PROGRAM endurance is specified at 100,000 cycles when using appropriate error correcting code (ECC) and error management. I interpret this to mean 100,000 cycles without an uncorrectable error but you can expect to see random bit errors after only 1,000 cycles. You will need the overhead of error detection and correction as well as mapping the bad section of memory to another area (your read times will be slower than the theoretical max). You will find the 1,000/100,000 numbers pretty much standard among NAND manufactures.
That said, I agree that NAND is reliable and is most certainly _the_ replacement for mechanical hard drives.
AFAIK I don't use any macrovision disks.
There is also a balloon for pressure/leak sensing so looks like the intent is for the unit to be sealed.
I would just use a hacked cell phone (cost much less than $100USD) that calls me once an hour or so to give me the temperature etc.
Also Comcast probably doesn't care if you are stealing "pirated music" what they are more concerned about is the bandwidth used for seeding (uploading).
All in all I'm getting tired of Comcast (for this and other reasons) and may give Fios a try.
What is being speculated is that the NSA would want constant (and covert) access to all communications on the cable much the way they are rumored to do with other forms of communication.
Again, this is mostly tin foil hat stuff but you never know.
As the AC points out a repeater is probably a good point to tap. But then what do you do with the connection? You will need to run another cable the same size from the tap to a shore based facility to monitor the traffic. Now that would be noticeable!
Maybe the NSA tells the operators that they have a choice;
1) You can give us access at the end point (like AT&T).
2) If not we will likely attempt a tap that may go wrong disrupting your service.
Is there a tin foil hat equivalent for fiber?-)
I didn't know this. You appear to be correct, here are a couple references.
Just how does that work? The photographer takes a picture, posts it on Flickr with a license that allows for commercial use. Once someone uses it commercially he/she sues the commercial user and the author of the license?
Maybe there should be a "3) Profit" in there as well?
Your $1k laptop may only get the thief $50 (more than enough for an addict to risk pointing a gun at someone), but the next guy in the chain maybe gets $200-$300 after he reformats the drive and alters the serial numbers, MAC address, etc.
But that probably means that the crook just tosses the laptop off a bridge into the river so he won't be caught with it. He gains nothing but you don't get it back either.
I always thought customizing the outside with block letters "PROPERTY OF JOHN SMITH" or "STOLEN GOODS - CALL 555-555-5555" would make the laptop immediately appear less desirable (without booting it) - of course I've never done this, looks too strange;-)
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 119 >
2511. Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited
I'm sure the authorities will be investigating the relationship between the last (every?) tech who did maintenance on this machine and all the people who made money from it. If the Tech's 'Cousin Ernie' walked away with a pile of money then there may be a case for criminal charges.
Does it include audio of rustling paper for every turn of the page?-) *shudder*
From the fine web page;
I don't know, it kind of looks like something you would see in a newspaper but if you can do better - let them know about it!
From The Fine Paper;
...the system can easily be designed to use an explicit 'mute/un-mute' button, to give the viewer full control of when acoustic statistics are collected for transmission.
Again what incentive do I have to ever un-mute?
I see where the advertisers and broadcasters would love to have this kind of real-time feedback; cancel a show after one episode when most viewers switched channels after watching only five minutes. Or charge for commercials based on how many households actually watched it.
On the other hand I don't want to be inundated with adverts for WWII memorabilia just because I happened to be watching the History Channel.
I'm going to go buy some tinfoil to put in my hat just to be on the safe side;-)
There is no way I'm letting Google or anyone else have an open mic. in my home.
Even if it were just turned on for brief periods at random intervals.
Why would anyone allow this in their livingroom? No, I didn't RTFM.
That could work but I don't think anyone would trust OCR to create a legal document.
I second that.
If Eagle does what the submitter needs then $400 is not that bad.
Professional packages can run in the $10s of thousands per seat.
IMHO you need programmers that are also board designers to be able to support an OSS project that can come close to the level of functionality of a commercial package.
This is a specialized product after all and I don't think much can be borrowed from elsewhere. Are there any fields that overlap with auto-router theory?
True, but do you know what is involved in getting UL certification?
It's mostly about $$. Here is UL's price list for standards (don't remember the relevant standard numbers for consumer electronics).
That's just what you pay for the documentation the testing is extra.