The whole point to the uproar about the broadcast flag and other DRM is that it gives the content distributors and creators the final say in how much of a fair use right you have. Under the broadcast flag the following types of things are possible to prevent, despite being fair use: space shifting (playing content on a device other than the one that recorded it), multiple playbacks, and time-shifting. These three items are all part of the basic foundation of Fair Use. Don't think it would ever happen that a broadcaster would restrict these rights? Ask Fox how they feel about people making recordings of the SuperBowl.
The easy way around #1 would be to require "signed" drivers for hardware, to ensure that only hardware with drivers that have passed some sort of QA can be installed in a machine. As it is, ATi & nVidia write their own drivers for video cards that go into Mac's
As for #2, to each his own. While I can see the point of design for laptops and specialty machines (like a media center PC) and possibly Apple wins out (I admit to have never given a powerbook more than a perfunctory glance), I've always personally considered hoopla over Apple's cases to be rather, well, shallow. I use an Al case because it has better thermal conductivity. The only time I ever look at it is to put a CD in the drive. What to I care what the case looks like? But to each their own, as I said before.
But here's the real reason I've never bought a Mac, and will continue to not by Macs: I like building computers. I haven't bought a pre-built system since 1999. Since then I have built 8 desktops and 2 laptops for myself, my friends, and family. And I enjoyed each and every one, from researching to find the best configuration and best price on components, opening packages and taking stock, assembling the parts, to installing the operating system, drivers, and other software. To me that's fun. For me it's the "DIY experience" that's important
Being paid by check doesn't neccessitate a bank account. There is a check-cashing store not 600 yards from where I'm currently sitting. If it is possible to go to the bank on which your payroll check was drawn, it is usually possible to cash your check at that bank. And just about any grocery store I've been inside of in the last decade would cash a payroll check as long as you spend at least 10% in the store. When I had a part-time job on campus during college, I could take my paycheck to the Bursar's office and get it cashed.
Of course, every job I've worked at has required showing my social secuirty card and state-issued ID.
Personally, I rearely handle cash because I have more trouble controlling my impulse buying with cash. And besides, cash-back is free money for anyone who pays their balance.
US has made no claim as any or all of the moon being it's territory, other than the symbolic nature of placing a flag. I agree that the US tends to act like alread owns the entire universe, and the arrogance sickens me. As far as the lunar deeds, they're as fake as star registries. I bought one and have it hanging on my wall. It's a good conversation starter.
I'll give this a go. Other's have have mentioned way-stations and such. But here's the big reason. Mining. The moon doesn't have an environment to screw up by stip mining. The Moon is rich in Oxygen, Aluminum, Silicon, and Titanium. Granted it will probably always be more expensive to import these items to earth than mine the earth for them. But these items could be used for off-planet manufacturing of things used off-planet, like satellites, replacement parts, and new things we can't dream of today. But it doesn't stop there. Helium-3 is the path to the cleanest fusion (least radiation) that scientists know. However Helium 3 is extremly rare on Earth and literally just laying in the dirt on the Moon. Average yeild is 70kg/square km and is worth something like $5m per kg
Politically and treaty-wise (not that W has much use for treaties) the moon and other extra-terrestrial bodies exist in the same legal space as Antartica. In Antartica, on the Moon, on Mars, on Ceres, on Pluto, on the recently discovered rocky planet orbiting Gliese 876, etc. is international domain. Scientific missions can be hosted there, permanent bases for said scientific missions can be founded there, but military infrastructure is not allowed, no-one can annex it as a territory
Reading your original (I'm assuming your the same Anonymous Coward that posted what I replied to in the first place) again, I see that you did specify OSV. Okay, you got me there. To your underlying point of why isn't open source video being shown in major theaters, that's kind of asking why BestBuy doesn't have more linux software.
1) If you thought The Pacifier was good cinema, then yes, I'll call you a sheep all day long.
2)I have never had a latte in my life, or an esspresso, or a cappaccino. I did drink my first Dunkin Donuts Coolata yesterday.
3)There are only major chain cinemas within a 50 mile radius of where I live. And there are no cinemas at all within a 20 mile radius. I get to see very little independent film outside of what I watch on ifilm. I go to the theater very rarely at all, because I'm not that fond of paying $6 plus gas to watch crap. The last 10 movies I've seen in the theater are SW Ep. 3, Kill Bill Vol 2, Kill Bill Vol 1, Cabin Fever, 28 Days Later, L.I.E., Igby Goes Down, SW Ep 2, Double Jepordy, SW Ep. 1. That should give a good picture of my movie going habits. In that time, the only movies I've downloaded were MiB II and Punch-Drunk Love, both of whitch were downloaded after they left the theater and before they were available on video. I rarely pay to rent DVD's. My local library loans them out for free.
To have an elitist additude, I would have to think I'm better than other people. If I was truely better than other people, my office would have a window.:)
You mean like Napoleon Dynamite with a budget of $400,000 including post-production and grossed $44.5m? Or maybe Blair Witch Project whose production budget was $35,000 and had a worldwide gross of over $248m?
The reason most "major" cinema houses don't play more independent films is because more sheep^H^H^H people are interested in seeing the lastest Vin Deisel film or other movie that had such a large advertising budget that you can't escape. Movie theaters want to make money, so they play films that they think will make them the most money. Indies only get played when there's a lull (few major releases come out during the autumn) and they can be gotten for extremely cheap, otherwise, you've got the local multiplex still devoting half their screens to Star Wars a month after release.
I think this has incredible potential, if people get behind it. There is already a huge underground of short films. Unless you subscribe to the Sundance Channel or are a regular to websites like i-film you will very likely never see any of this. BMW films, Google video, ACTLab. The movement is fractured, but it is there. Think of it more like the state of OSS a decade ago
The following is adapted from the National Space Society (NSS) Chapters Network Hub Chapter Handbook, Chapter 8: Political Action. Copyright 1998 NSS.
You can visit your Congressman's office in Washington or in your home district when he visits. You can go alone or with a group. Call or write ahead for an appointment if you want to talk to him or her directly. Don't expect more than a few minutes. Dress conservatively, be polite and get right to the point.
Listen carefully to his replies and comments, so you can follow-up on any important points later.
It is usually better (and easier) to visit staffers in the home office first. If you can visit their Washington office, it can actually be of more value to talk to their staff member in charge of science and technology issues. You can talk to your Congressman during his visits to your district, the Washington staffers stay in Washington.
Staffers are responsible for gathering information and working it into policy for their Congressmen.
Educating them is therefore a very important accomplishment.
There are three kinds of people who go to college. Those who can count and those who can't...
Actually, I believe there ARE three kinds of *intelligent* people who go to college. Their diferences are determined by their high school performance.
The first group would be such as one of my good friends, in high school his class ranking was the top 10%+1. He had the highest GPA of the people who didn't get to wear a gold cord at graduation. The best of the worst and the worst of the best, we called him. He went to college and majored in mechanical engineering. Many people (including his asshat parents) underestimated his potential. He graduated college with a 3.8 GPA and is now a 23 year old assistant manager for a large engineering firm. Maybe he is a bit atypical, but the first group is largely unnoticed in high school but capable of great things. Slightly above average intelligence, but a lot of determination.
The second group is like my best friend. He's naturally smart, and he is driven. In school and in work he never slacks off; he is always applying himself. While he knows he is intelligent, he feels like his accomplishments are more the result of his hard work and less of his intelligence. He graduated high school ranked 5th with a (weighted) GPA of 4.2 He went to college and double-majored in philosophy and religion, and played football and basketball. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA and is going to one of the better law schools in this state on a full tuition scholarship. The second group has a lot of natural intelligence, and the determination to use it.
And finally, the third group, which I put myself in. A lot of raw intelligence. (I admit I'm on the lower end of the spectrum for this group). And we know it. We get a bit cocky about it. High school is soooooo easy for us. We get A's through out grade-school and high school without putting any real effort into the work. As a result, we tend not to learn how to work and apply ourselves very well. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA (damn gym class) and a ranking of 18. So we go to college and suddenly we're surrounded by Group I's and Group II's who DO know how to apply themselves, and we are out-classed. We struggle and have lack-luster performance. A lot of us (myself included) drop out (although I'm a bit more mature now and am planning on trying again next year). Now I work in a privatized state agency and am known around the office as the expert on fixing the "green thingy on the copy machine" Us Group III'ers are pretty much the bottom of the barrel for smart people.
My first job out of college wasn't in IT, it was in the mailroom of an insurance company. I shaved (I've spent less than a year total since I turned 18 clean shaven), cut my hair short (I previously had an 11" pony-tail), but left the earing in when I went to the interview. I appeared to my second interview the same way. I worked there for a month before someone noticed I was wearing an earing (just a small silver ball) and told me that it was against the dress code for men to wear earrings. Because I never got the hang of putting an earring in, when I took it out, it never went back in. But I had the last laugh on them, because I wore plain-black sneakers to work every day instead of dress shoes and nobody ever noticed.
Now I have a friend who has a state-job in Family Services. The rule in his office states that you may have no more than three pictures in your cubicle.
Along a similar vein, my brother-in-law recently asked me to join him in a business venture, with a view of me providing the networking skills. The problem with this is, while I can set up a home network, my knowledge of REAL networking is lacking. I don't have a solid foundation of the basics or using linux as a server. From what I can tell, I am probably going to have to custom-build a router for reverse LSNAT. Could anyone point me in the right direction for getting started?
And I should care about this because? I live in a town with three SuperFund sites. One of them is the residue of a nuclear missile fire from 1960 that the Air Force didn't get around to starting cleanup until 1999.
Let me know when there's something I should really worry about.
Too everyone who pointed out that I am a moron, I am afraid you are correct. 11 billion/130 million !=85 million It =85 After I posted last night and went home I started thinking about it and realized I must have made a mistake somewhere. I spent so much time determining the volume of the galaxy, I failed to check the math for the rest of it.
The revise number makes ET visiting in the realm of possibility, but still not likely.
On the topic of FTL travel, whether a ship leaving this morning gets here in time for dinner tonight or tea yesterday is dependent on whether the ship is actually traveling at a superluminal velocity or is "cheating" According to physics, particles that move faster than 3E8 m/s move backwards in time. Such particles theoritically exist and are called tachyons. However, most FTL space travel in science-fiction is based on the concept of taking a shortcut through warp space. Inside of warp space, it is assumed that you are traveling at a finite sub-luminal velocity and, as such, moving forward in time.
On the topic of whether stars in the galaxy move outward or inward, if anyone has some more information on this that they could link to, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm willing to admit to the possibility of being wrong.
Why would intellifenge life in the Mily Way have to be smarter than us. And if they are, what makes it neccessary that they would care about us and try to make contact, if they are able?
Sol (our sun) is a 3rd generation star, in what is considered one of the original galaxies in the 13.7 billion year old universe ( http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth_age_04 0817.html ) Sol about 5 billion years old and located 2/3 of the way out on the Orion arm which extends some 42,000 light years from the stellar nursury at the center. ( http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/MilkyWay_ SizeandShapeoftheMilkyWay.asp ) IIRC, centripital acceleration slowly pushes stars out from the center towards the edge. The Milky Way is approximately 10,000 lightyears thick at the edge and 30,000 light years think in the centre.
If we assume that intelligence and time since your sun was born have a positive correlation, this means the smarter aliens would be further from the galactic core, and this space covers approximately 11 billion cubic lightyears of a total 169 billion cubic lightyears, about 6.5% of the space. If we assume that the galaxy's 200 billion stars are evenly distributed over this volume (they aren't, the galaxy is denser towards the center), that gives us 13 billion stars with the possibility of intelligent life smarter than us. If we assume that 1% of them actually do harbor intelligent life (and that figure is probably way too high), that leaves us with 130 million stars, spread out over 11 billion cubic lightyears. Since we have an even distribution of stars, that means intelligent life will happen once every 85 million light years.
So the nearest intelligent life with an advanced society is 85 million light years away. Unless the alien race has discovered a means to FTL travel, if they left 85 million years ago, they would be arriving right now. Serious SETI research isn't aimed at meeting ET, or having a conversation, but confirming that extraterrestrial intelligence exists.
Another key difference is that most people don't "steal" mp3's. If you have mp3's in your shared folder of kazaa, you are in essence giving them away. The issue in that case isn't stealing music, it's of distributing it without paying royalties to the recording company. But hey, the recording companies never pay all the money actually owed to artists anyway, so if I give the RIAA a penny for every 100th download, I'm just playing by the same rules they are, right?
Both structures have their merits. I see the ideal system being a hybrid. I like folders because they let me store things in a heirarchial manner. If I have a client with 5 orders, I can create a folder for each order, and keep them together in a folder for that client. However, I like labelling because some information should be stored in different heirarchies. Like invoices from vendors for client orders. That information should be saved under the client's order folder, but also with the vendor information so I can track my purchases with different vendors.
For webmails, I consider GMail superior because it let's me do half of what I want (save information in "multiple places"). Other webmail clients let your save to folders, but they aren't heirarchial.
What I see as an ideal file system would be to have virtual folders. Store the data in a central location and then use a virtual directory system so the information could be "stored" in a heirarchial manner. So my invoices could be access through Client->Order->Invoice or Vendor->Invoice or Hardware Type->Invoice In each of these folders, the files would appear as if they were located there. It would appear as if the file actually existed in each folder, but would only be saved in one place. I could then move the file from one folder to another (Orders-New to Orders-Closed) or delete the file altogether. When deleting, I would have the option of deleting the file all together or just deleting it's relationship to a virtual folder. Say I save vendor invoices for 1 year, but client orders for 5. After one year, I can delete the invoice from the vendor folder, but keep it in the client folder. After 5 years, I could delete it from the client folder and choose "Delete All" and purge the invoice from my system all together.
Folder virtualization would also help with legacy applications. I have a few old games that I dual-boot to Windows 98 because they were hard-coded to look for certain system files in a particular place, but Windows XP saves them elsewhere. By having virtual folders, I could imitate the Windows 9x structure and the Windows XP structure.
We have virtual CPU's and virtual PC's, I don't see why we couldn't have virtual folders on top of all that.
They want to use someone with no sysadmin/network experience to design, implement, and maintain their network? Just give the person a book and let them loose? Are they hiring, I'm qualified for that job!
Too be fair, that 25 minutes should be split up over the course of the week. So 8:00:00 to 8:04:48 every morning should be dedicated to sysadmin work. Depending on the hardware, that's about how long it takes to boot up the computer and log in, so this sysadmin gig sounds really easy!
Although everyone is saying that OS X won't run on generic x86 hardware, everything I've been reading suggests that it should be possible. There will be limitations, but so long as Apple doesn't have a special mobo built with some sort of "Apple verifier" that OS X will check, it doesn't look like a problem.
The devkit runs a P4 660, a stock proccessor that you can buy on newegg, it has Intel GMA integrated graphics, but will support existing (and future) PC video cards so long as the vendors have supplied a OS X driver. 533MHz DDR2 memory, SATA-2 hard drive. Firewire 400, USB 2, Pheonix BIOS. There is already a list out of wireless adapters that do and don't work with x86 OS X. I haven't read anything about the ethernet controller, but it is most likely a Realtek or something similar.
1)So best case senario, the x86 version of OS X will run on any PC with commodity hardware so long OS X drivers are available.
2)Mid case senario 1: OS X will require a certain Intel chipset (such as the 945G) and any mobo with that chipset will run OS X.
3)Mid case senario 2: OS X will require the same model Intel motherboard that Apple will be shipping with.
4)Worst case senario, OS X will require an "available to Apple only" motherbard and won't run on any other board.
Cases 1 & 2 would require minimal to no investment to get me running OS X on my existing P4 box. Case #3 would be something I would do with my next PC, but still very easy to manage. Cases 2 & 3 aren't even likely, or even feasible, beacause of upgrading issues. Case #4 would be the existing Apple lock-in.
Apple has been moving towards commodity hardware for years. The existing G5's use IDE hard & optical drives, a PCI bus for expansion cards, and 8X AGP. Now that Apple will be moving to an x86 proccessor, the only thing Apple could do to prevent OS X on a "Dell" would be a "Apple-Inside" chip.
When my sister had Nextel, if she left her phone near her TV, the TV speakers would chirp about 5 seconds before the cell phone started ringing.
If there isn't a problem with interference, tell your neighbors to go jump in a lake if they complain, and then laugh when they marvel at their improved cell signals once it's up. Consider yourself lucky. There are no decent cell signals in my area because the local AFB owns the airspace over 200'
Slashdot Mirror
The whole point to the uproar about the broadcast flag and other DRM is that it gives the content distributors and creators the final say in how much of a fair use right you have. Under the broadcast flag the following types of things are possible to prevent, despite being fair use: space shifting (playing content on a device other than the one that recorded it), multiple playbacks, and time-shifting. These three items are all part of the basic foundation of Fair Use. Don't think it would ever happen that a broadcaster would restrict these rights? Ask Fox how they feel about people making recordings of the SuperBowl.
As for #2, to each his own. While I can see the point of design for laptops and specialty machines (like a media center PC) and possibly Apple wins out (I admit to have never given a powerbook more than a perfunctory glance), I've always personally considered hoopla over Apple's cases to be rather, well, shallow. I use an Al case because it has better thermal conductivity. The only time I ever look at it is to put a CD in the drive. What to I care what the case looks like? But to each their own, as I said before.
But here's the real reason I've never bought a Mac, and will continue to not by Macs: I like building computers. I haven't bought a pre-built system since 1999. Since then I have built 8 desktops and 2 laptops for myself, my friends, and family. And I enjoyed each and every one, from researching to find the best configuration and best price on components, opening packages and taking stock, assembling the parts, to installing the operating system, drivers, and other software. To me that's fun. For me it's the "DIY experience" that's important
Of course, every job I've worked at has required showing my social secuirty card and state-issued ID.
Personally, I rearely handle cash because I have more trouble controlling my impulse buying with cash. And besides, cash-back is free money for anyone who pays their balance.
US has made no claim as any or all of the moon being it's territory, other than the symbolic nature of placing a flag. I agree that the US tends to act like alread owns the entire universe, and the arrogance sickens me. As far as the lunar deeds, they're as fake as star registries. I bought one and have it hanging on my wall. It's a good conversation starter.
I'll give this a go. Other's have have mentioned way-stations and such. But here's the big reason. Mining. The moon doesn't have an environment to screw up by stip mining. The Moon is rich in Oxygen, Aluminum, Silicon, and Titanium. Granted it will probably always be more expensive to import these items to earth than mine the earth for them. But these items could be used for off-planet manufacturing of things used off-planet, like satellites, replacement parts, and new things we can't dream of today. But it doesn't stop there. Helium-3 is the path to the cleanest fusion (least radiation) that scientists know. However Helium 3 is extremly rare on Earth and literally just laying in the dirt on the Moon. Average yeild is 70kg/square km and is worth something like $5m per kg
Politically and treaty-wise (not that W has much use for treaties) the moon and other extra-terrestrial bodies exist in the same legal space as Antartica. In Antartica, on the Moon, on Mars, on Ceres, on Pluto, on the recently discovered rocky planet orbiting Gliese 876, etc. is international domain. Scientific missions can be hosted there, permanent bases for said scientific missions can be founded there, but military infrastructure is not allowed, no-one can annex it as a territory
1) If you thought The Pacifier was good cinema, then yes, I'll call you a sheep all day long.
2)I have never had a latte in my life, or an esspresso, or a cappaccino. I did drink my first Dunkin Donuts Coolata yesterday. 3)There are only major chain cinemas within a 50 mile radius of where I live. And there are no cinemas at all within a 20 mile radius. I get to see very little independent film outside of what I watch on ifilm. I go to the theater very rarely at all, because I'm not that fond of paying $6 plus gas to watch crap. The last 10 movies I've seen in the theater are SW Ep. 3, Kill Bill Vol 2, Kill Bill Vol 1, Cabin Fever, 28 Days Later, L.I.E., Igby Goes Down, SW Ep 2, Double Jepordy, SW Ep. 1. That should give a good picture of my movie going habits. In that time, the only movies I've downloaded were MiB II and Punch-Drunk Love, both of whitch were downloaded after they left the theater and before they were available on video. I rarely pay to rent DVD's. My local library loans them out for free.
To have an elitist additude, I would have to think I'm better than other people. If I was truely better than other people, my office would have a window. :)
The reason most "major" cinema houses don't play more independent films is because more sheep^H^H^H people are interested in seeing the lastest Vin Deisel film or other movie that had such a large advertising budget that you can't escape. Movie theaters want to make money, so they play films that they think will make them the most money. Indies only get played when there's a lull (few major releases come out during the autumn) and they can be gotten for extremely cheap, otherwise, you've got the local multiplex still devoting half their screens to Star Wars a month after release.
I think this has incredible potential, if people get behind it. There is already a huge underground of short films. Unless you subscribe to the Sundance Channel or are a regular to websites like i-film you will very likely never see any of this. BMW films, Google video, ACTLab. The movement is fractured, but it is there. Think of it more like the state of OSS a decade ago
You can visit your Congressman's office in Washington or in your home district when he visits. You can go alone or with a group. Call or write ahead for an appointment if you want to talk to him or her directly. Don't expect more than a few minutes. Dress conservatively, be polite and get right to the point. Listen carefully to his replies and comments, so you can follow-up on any important points later. It is usually better (and easier) to visit staffers in the home office first. If you can visit their Washington office, it can actually be of more value to talk to their staff member in charge of science and technology issues. You can talk to your Congressman during his visits to your district, the Washington staffers stay in Washington.
Staffers are responsible for gathering information and working it into policy for their Congressmen. Educating them is therefore a very important accomplishment.
Actually, I believe there ARE three kinds of *intelligent* people who go to college. Their diferences are determined by their high school performance.
The first group would be such as one of my good friends, in high school his class ranking was the top 10%+1. He had the highest GPA of the people who didn't get to wear a gold cord at graduation. The best of the worst and the worst of the best, we called him. He went to college and majored in mechanical engineering. Many people (including his asshat parents) underestimated his potential. He graduated college with a 3.8 GPA and is now a 23 year old assistant manager for a large engineering firm. Maybe he is a bit atypical, but the first group is largely unnoticed in high school but capable of great things. Slightly above average intelligence, but a lot of determination.
The second group is like my best friend. He's naturally smart, and he is driven. In school and in work he never slacks off; he is always applying himself. While he knows he is intelligent, he feels like his accomplishments are more the result of his hard work and less of his intelligence. He graduated high school ranked 5th with a (weighted) GPA of 4.2 He went to college and double-majored in philosophy and religion, and played football and basketball. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA and is going to one of the better law schools in this state on a full tuition scholarship. The second group has a lot of natural intelligence, and the determination to use it.
And finally, the third group, which I put myself in. A lot of raw intelligence. (I admit I'm on the lower end of the spectrum for this group). And we know it. We get a bit cocky about it. High school is soooooo easy for us. We get A's through out grade-school and high school without putting any real effort into the work. As a result, we tend not to learn how to work and apply ourselves very well. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA (damn gym class) and a ranking of 18. So we go to college and suddenly we're surrounded by Group I's and Group II's who DO know how to apply themselves, and we are out-classed. We struggle and have lack-luster performance. A lot of us (myself included) drop out (although I'm a bit more mature now and am planning on trying again next year). Now I work in a privatized state agency and am known around the office as the expert on fixing the "green thingy on the copy machine" Us Group III'ers are pretty much the bottom of the barrel for smart people.
Now I have a friend who has a state-job in Family Services. The rule in his office states that you may have no more than three pictures in your cubicle.
Along a similar vein, my brother-in-law recently asked me to join him in a business venture, with a view of me providing the networking skills. The problem with this is, while I can set up a home network, my knowledge of REAL networking is lacking. I don't have a solid foundation of the basics or using linux as a server. From what I can tell, I am probably going to have to custom-build a router for reverse LSNAT. Could anyone point me in the right direction for getting started?
Let me know when there's something I should really worry about.
You can actually make a Beowolf cluster out of PS3's then? Finally, the joke works!!!! Finally!!!!!!
The revise number makes ET visiting in the realm of possibility, but still not likely.
On the topic of FTL travel, whether a ship leaving this morning gets here in time for dinner tonight or tea yesterday is dependent on whether the ship is actually traveling at a superluminal velocity or is "cheating" According to physics, particles that move faster than 3E8 m/s move backwards in time. Such particles theoritically exist and are called tachyons. However, most FTL space travel in science-fiction is based on the concept of taking a shortcut through warp space. Inside of warp space, it is assumed that you are traveling at a finite sub-luminal velocity and, as such, moving forward in time.
On the topic of whether stars in the galaxy move outward or inward, if anyone has some more information on this that they could link to, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm willing to admit to the possibility of being wrong.
Sol (our sun) is a 3rd generation star, in what is considered one of the original galaxies in the 13.7 billion year old universe ( http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth_age_04 0817.html ) Sol about 5 billion years old and located 2/3 of the way out on the Orion arm which extends some 42,000 light years from the stellar nursury at the center. ( http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/MilkyWay_ SizeandShapeoftheMilkyWay.asp ) IIRC, centripital acceleration slowly pushes stars out from the center towards the edge. The Milky Way is approximately 10,000 lightyears thick at the edge and 30,000 light years think in the centre.
If we assume that intelligence and time since your sun was born have a positive correlation, this means the smarter aliens would be further from the galactic core, and this space covers approximately 11 billion cubic lightyears of a total 169 billion cubic lightyears, about 6.5% of the space. If we assume that the galaxy's 200 billion stars are evenly distributed over this volume (they aren't, the galaxy is denser towards the center), that gives us 13 billion stars with the possibility of intelligent life smarter than us. If we assume that 1% of them actually do harbor intelligent life (and that figure is probably way too high), that leaves us with 130 million stars, spread out over 11 billion cubic lightyears. Since we have an even distribution of stars, that means intelligent life will happen once every 85 million light years.
So the nearest intelligent life with an advanced society is 85 million light years away. Unless the alien race has discovered a means to FTL travel, if they left 85 million years ago, they would be arriving right now. Serious SETI research isn't aimed at meeting ET, or having a conversation, but confirming that extraterrestrial intelligence exists.
Another key difference is that most people don't "steal" mp3's. If you have mp3's in your shared folder of kazaa, you are in essence giving them away. The issue in that case isn't stealing music, it's of distributing it without paying royalties to the recording company. But hey, the recording companies never pay all the money actually owed to artists anyway, so if I give the RIAA a penny for every 100th download, I'm just playing by the same rules they are, right?
For webmails, I consider GMail superior because it let's me do half of what I want (save information in "multiple places"). Other webmail clients let your save to folders, but they aren't heirarchial.
What I see as an ideal file system would be to have virtual folders. Store the data in a central location and then use a virtual directory system so the information could be "stored" in a heirarchial manner. So my invoices could be access through Client->Order->Invoice or Vendor->Invoice or Hardware Type->Invoice In each of these folders, the files would appear as if they were located there. It would appear as if the file actually existed in each folder, but would only be saved in one place. I could then move the file from one folder to another (Orders-New to Orders-Closed) or delete the file altogether. When deleting, I would have the option of deleting the file all together or just deleting it's relationship to a virtual folder. Say I save vendor invoices for 1 year, but client orders for 5. After one year, I can delete the invoice from the vendor folder, but keep it in the client folder. After 5 years, I could delete it from the client folder and choose "Delete All" and purge the invoice from my system all together.
Folder virtualization would also help with legacy applications. I have a few old games that I dual-boot to Windows 98 because they were hard-coded to look for certain system files in a particular place, but Windows XP saves them elsewhere. By having virtual folders, I could imitate the Windows 9x structure and the Windows XP structure.
We have virtual CPU's and virtual PC's, I don't see why we couldn't have virtual folders on top of all that.
Maybe when they move out of beta?
They want to use someone with no sysadmin/network experience to design, implement, and maintain their network? Just give the person a book and let them loose? Are they hiring, I'm qualified for that job!
Too be fair, that 25 minutes should be split up over the course of the week. So 8:00:00 to 8:04:48 every morning should be dedicated to sysadmin work. Depending on the hardware, that's about how long it takes to boot up the computer and log in, so this sysadmin gig sounds really easy!
The devkit runs a P4 660, a stock proccessor that you can buy on newegg, it has Intel GMA integrated graphics, but will support existing (and future) PC video cards so long as the vendors have supplied a OS X driver. 533MHz DDR2 memory, SATA-2 hard drive. Firewire 400, USB 2, Pheonix BIOS. There is already a list out of wireless adapters that do and don't work with x86 OS X. I haven't read anything about the ethernet controller, but it is most likely a Realtek or something similar.
1)So best case senario, the x86 version of OS X will run on any PC with commodity hardware so long OS X drivers are available.
2)Mid case senario 1: OS X will require a certain Intel chipset (such as the 945G) and any mobo with that chipset will run OS X.
3)Mid case senario 2: OS X will require the same model Intel motherboard that Apple will be shipping with.
4)Worst case senario, OS X will require an "available to Apple only" motherbard and won't run on any other board.
Cases 1 & 2 would require minimal to no investment to get me running OS X on my existing P4 box. Case #3 would be something I would do with my next PC, but still very easy to manage. Cases 2 & 3 aren't even likely, or even feasible, beacause of upgrading issues. Case #4 would be the existing Apple lock-in.
Apple has been moving towards commodity hardware for years. The existing G5's use IDE hard & optical drives, a PCI bus for expansion cards, and 8X AGP. Now that Apple will be moving to an x86 proccessor, the only thing Apple could do to prevent OS X on a "Dell" would be a "Apple-Inside" chip.
A fitting carton considering the topic: http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/index.php?t=archi ves&date=2005-06-08
Small, isolated (due to culture or due to geology) groups tend to have similar DNA. This fact, I don't think I was taught until high school biology.
That one of these small, isolated groups would have higher than average intelligence is hardly surprising.
When my sister had Nextel, if she left her phone near her TV, the TV speakers would chirp about 5 seconds before the cell phone started ringing. If there isn't a problem with interference, tell your neighbors to go jump in a lake if they complain, and then laugh when they marvel at their improved cell signals once it's up. Consider yourself lucky. There are no decent cell signals in my area because the local AFB owns the airspace over 200'