I see, very informative. I, of course, know diddly squat about Ham. Always sounded interesting. I remember hearing about spies using Ham/shortwave/morse code/long strings of spoken numbers, and it facinated me that nobody could ever know who was listening, good for spies, tough for cryptographers.
Yes, I was thinking more in terms of Radio versus Internet as a broadcast medium and tech (not in terms of rules/regulations).
One thing I am familiar with is Citizen Band. I know that at one time there were CB licenses, and rules of conduct there as well. Of course, the number of crews out able to track CB usage is infinitely small compared to the number of users, and even simple rules of obscene language are frequently ignored (though some try to keep others in line if they know kids are listening).
But, I've always been facinated by the CB's my father had (and a few I still have, but rarely use, though I enjoy listening to scanners sometimes too). You can go about anywhere away from buildings, and broadcast semi-anonymously (though you could be triangulated), but that all listeners are completely anonymous recievers.
This real world model is something I've never seen translated to the Internet. I keep that in mind whenever I consider how anonymous I am online, and how truly anonymous other household technologies are without even really trying hard.
Besides special deals with schools, does anyone out there buy Windows in the cardboard box in the Software Isle? No?
Then I think it's a reasonably good chance that this is one of those "special" moments. Let's all share it! Everyone gather 'round! Ready?!? Ok, let's say it all at once... 1... 2... 3...
Here's a question. If what the modder did broke a code (violating DMCA) to access content that caused financial damage (recalling all products)...
Connect the dots, and this could become a very big civil/criminal suit against that individual. Luckily for all involved, though, this won't happen, even if it were an open and shut case. R* doesn't want any more negative press (a little negative is good for sales, a lot negative is bad for shareholders), the modding community would be handed a new legal precedent if their mods cause adverse financial problems, and the/. community would all get carpal tunnel debating it.
But, the question remains. If R* went through with this, would it be an open/shut case? What are the views from each side, and how could each side prove their case?
My view is a very close open/shut case, with the case forming similar to that against a virus writer (from prosecution standpoint). The modder could try free speech, but the EULA would most likely be the biggest determining factor. But, I'd like to hear more opinions. This, or something like it, will happen again... sometime, someday. Can that person expect to see the inside of a cell, or be protected by Whistle Blower laws (which I think would be nice in this case)?
How about a broadcaster broadcasting to completely anonymous listeners? That's a trick the Internet has yet to pull off as flawlessly. In this age where the Patriot Act looks to get re-affirmed, and your movie rentals, Tivo watching habits, books you buy or check out of the library, etc. etc. are all being scrutinized... it's nice to know that a long established technology (radio communications) still defies being able to track listeners.
If I'm wrong, I'd love a link to related information on tracking radio listeners, Ham or otherwise.
Well, imho, the phone companies are a joke, which is why I don't want/need a phone. I've had a few people give me strange looks when I tell them I don't have a phone. It's about as unimaginable as someone without a TV. (I have a TV, rarely watch it, and when I do, it's CNN, History, TLC, Discovery, or SciFi.)
Someone said I could reach 911 on a disconnected line. Yeah, maybe, if I had a phone plugged in. But, unlike a phone subscriber, I don't pay that emergency "tax" subscribers get on their monthly bills (along with all the other ridiculous taxes). If it's a public service, why isn't there a flat tax for it regardless of subscribership?
As for how I would explain to an Arson investigator if my house burnt down because of no phone... In the future, could not having a phone could be a crime? I don't think the poster intended it that way, but think about it. That's a scary idea.
But, to answer the question, AFAIK, the advice is not to call 911 from your own house if it is on fire. Priority #1 is to get everyone in the building and yourself out. Thus, it doesn't matter if your home has 911, but if your neighbor does. Does that make me a bad neighbor? I suppose in a way. Then again, if it's that vital, why aren't 911 enabled phones readily available on every other street corner?
Ah, they used to be (payphones). Then came the cellphone, and everyone not able to pay the high cellphone charges watched as payphones became rarer. If 911 was so vital of a service, why did its public/free availability shrink merely due to increasing shareholder value. It's a scam, that's why. It was always about shareholder profits. This idea that 911 is a must have, but is only obtainable by subscribing to overpriced services. What's next, to get medical care at a hospital, I have to subscribe to the local newspaper? Fire trucks only for those who have memberships to the local golf club? Police only take stolen vehicle reports if you are an AAA member?
And, yet, somehow, I'm the bad guy for not buying into the idea by purchasing a service I don't need or want.
It already is up to me as a customer. I don't have a landline or VOIP, thus no 911. What would the goverment do, break down my door, and hold me at bay by gun point while they install a giant red telephone for direct 911 access?
Regardless of all the avenues government is trying to act without regard to consumer choices, via the "municipal" services route... the consumer still has a choice in telephony.
Yes, I can refuse 911 service. I do refuse 911 service. Not that I "care" if I had it or not, but I see no reason to pay $20 a month for a phone I would rarely if ever use, just for 911 service. The FCC can force 911 service all they want, but until they can forcibly enter my house (I'd like to see them try!), I won't have 911 service, because I don't have a phone and don't plan on getting one.
If my friend sees me impaled on a knife, he can drive me to the hospital himself. I live closer to my local hospital than the ambulance dispatch center.
By downloading a third party patch called BitTorrent, you can use Windows to watch all the porn you want!
Label it 18+ or exchange it for Dos 6.2!
If it sounds stupid, looks stupid, then don't be suprised to learn.. it's stupid. If you can download HotCoffee, then, suprise suprise, you can probably find all the porn you want, without Rockstar's badly animated help.
I say game modders go after ESRB. Start modding E rated games to contain the hardest core porn known to exist (with midgets, goats, and santorum flying)!
They are anti-phishing, but... pro junk mail? I get at least 3 credit card offers from them EVERY week.
But, I'm not complaining. Don't get me wrong. I find their junk mail extremely useful. Those fake credit cards have so many uses: coasters, ceiling light string "grips", scrappers for dirty pots and pans, and who doesn't step in dog poo and need something handy to pick it out with? I think that's what they mean when they say, "Higher Standards". I mean, it's second best to wiping your butt with $20 bills.
The letters/envelopes themselves make great campfire starting fuel.
I've read the article, and all I can say about it is... This is one of the dumbest articles ever put forth by the tech community. I mean seriously dumb. Eye-rolling dumb on the same scale as believing the Emperor is wearing fabulous new clothes.
I have three good reasons why I got out of CS degree path.
#1 - Entry level jobs dried up in my area. You can't go to work without experience. I called around for internships in all the major cities. 2 Years minimum experience with BA/BS. This goes along the lines of "Hey, genius, if everyone required 2 years minimum experience, nobody would HAVE 2 years minimum experience."
#2 - Job Market Shift. I held a job with a large computer company. I won't name who, but let's just say they're firing about, oh, 14,500 of them. I worked along side guys with 5 years C++ experience, MSCE's, Cisco certifications, etc. What work did we do? We stood in a long line assembling computers... plugging in IDE cables into harddrives, popping in video cards, etc. for 12 hours a day standing in one spot. A monkey with a blindfold could have done it.
#3 - Outsourcing is intimidating. Some can argue the reality, but the perception is, to me at least, that outsourcing tech jobs to those willing to work at under $X an hour (X being a wage we'd normally expect) just kills it completely for me. Gates is Satan, don't doubt it. Of course he wants more foreign workers, because they'll work for less. They come from places where $5 an hour is like a pot of gold. Meanwhile, they're families are living like kings back home, because this guy will work for $9.50. That displaces American workers who fight for jobs where they don't run their own offshore cruise ship sweatshop... and eventually, it comes down the food chain to me, where I'm fighting with guys who have 10 years experience over me for little 4-6 month temp jobs coding Visual Basic apps for Joe's Hardware Imporium to track 5/8" bolts through the warehouse.
I got into CS to do innovative things, work with intelligent people, earn a respectable living, and be able to look back at meaningful accomplishments. Instead, it looks like a nightmare career field.
I'm currently out of school working in a job completely unrelated to computers. I have no plans to go back (only need 1 more year) for my BS in CS (cause it's seems litterally BS). The career I'd been planning for 20 years (long before all the dot-com BS) is no closer now than it was then for me.
Had I the chance to do it all over again, I might have gotten into specializing in game development. I hear they work like slaves too, but... they work.
Currently, I'm wondering how much they pay Semi Drivers.
Mario's head is too big for his body. He can also change directions in mid-air, fly if he gets some "tail" or a pimp cape. And, he's also been known to vomit fireballs.
So, a man can have bigger features, but not a woman. Sexism! The Princess is going on strike!
Ah, multi-target urls? I picture this as clicking 1 link, opening 2 different links; though, drop down menus all over a page could be just as annoying.
I'm picturing yet another feature that will only useful to spam companies. I'd like to throw this idea in the trash next to pop-up(under) windows, blinking text, flash pseudo pop-ups, and the marquee tag.
None of which are bad in and of themselves, just how they are used. All we need now is for wikipedia to turn into an annoying version del.icio.us, with every word linked to searchresultsofthatword. (BTW, the link for "that" I believe is the definition of irony.)
Now, imagine this used on a whole page, with each one popping up a list of 20 links. This isn't a new idea, but just the idea of everyone using it just turns my stomach.
Well, considering the story is actually a repost of a repost of a repost of a repost...
First post: 1971 Repost: 1979 Second Repost: Copied to web. Third Repost: November 04 on/. Fourth Repost: Here.
All a repost of How It Works: The Computer. And, hopefully now, everyone knows... how it works!/me now goes off to watch his DVD collection of Mr. Wizard. Season one rocks!
Learn to love such people. They'll readily buy 486's with linux and comment to you later, "Wow, this thing is blazing fast! Thanks man! It's so much faster than my 2 year old rust bucket Dell. 486? Is that some geek company? Do they sell mp3 players?"
I have some 486's around, and the first thing that fails on me is the Hard Drive. But, I have tons of CD drives. By using knoppix CD's and a home network, these machines sit and run. They're fun to play with. My favorite was setting up a live TV stream to the network. Unfortunately, a 486 and streaming video isn't wonderful, and I had to walk to my basement to change the channel.
Still, what's scary is that there are so many uses for REALLY old computers, and people often throw out computers only 2 years old! I'm suprised all geeks don't have 6 head computers with 8 drives by just grabbing spare parts from their friends/co-workers throw aways. Not a week goes by that I don't hear someone talking about trashing their old computer for a new one.
No, I haven't missed the point at all. My point is that Dibert devil word... Synergy. It is the synergy of hardware + content that drives Apple profit. That same drives XBox. And, on point of the story, that same will drive Windows Media Connect or whatever set top boxes MS plans on licensing to content video companies. MS will do the opposite of Apple, most likely. Lose money on the hardware to make it on a small cut per content (via licensing its DRM).
My point is not that content alone is profitable. My point is that if you want profit, you must have content, whether you derive that profit from the content sales itself, and lose money on hardware (XBox) or vice versa (iPod). But, either way, you must have both, as one alone (at least up to this point) is not a dominant business model.
I personally wouldn't buy from iTunes either. But then again, I don't see spending any more than $150 for a player, considering that FM radio/CD-RW (drive to/from work) is usually sufficent for my listening habits.
You can say it's an iPod vs iTunes on money. But one is worthless without the other really. The same is true of the new competing DVD formats, either of which would be useless without the content.
Seems to me that MS is pushing the desktop OS into the TV os market with Windows Media Connect and XBox. Oh yeah, video is well within their sphere of domination dreams, even if it's licensing a dominant platform technology to a content provider... and really, that's what Gates is saying here. As for Apple, if you look at total profits at Apple, music just may be more profitable for them than computers in the future.
I would think the most obvious idea is to use it as highly configurable wallpaper. Instead of hanging up photos, people could position them as easily as positioning photos on their desktop.
1. Bendable Paper 2. ????... wait... Bulk Sales to "Large Surface Area" markets 3. Profit!
I think science does demand healthy sckepticism, however, you are making some comparisons that don't quite match up.
For instance, detecting planets within our own solar system is far different than detecting one many lightyears away. In our solar system, all you really need is a good earth based telescope and a little luck. To detect extrasolar planets, one must observe things like star wobble. IANAA, but considering that we've not even photographed the entire sky using orbit based long range cameras (so I've heard), the chances of an actual photo of a planet is extremely remote, even knowing where one is, because of brightness issues.
I've often thought that it is equivilant to trying to see a moth flying around a lone streetlight 2 miles away with the naked eye. Unless the moth is extremely large, and far enough away from the light itself, you'll never see it. Though, you may see the light wavering as the moth flies around the light. Thus, you can know that something is flying around it, but not actually make out what it is.
On one hand, you state that we're in for disappointment and that the likelihood of a real direct observation is small. I agree 100%. But, that the evidence is thin, I would disagree. Gravitational pull (and wavelength shifts) on a star, while certainly not concrete evidence, has been used long before other planets were reported discovered. The foundations of the theories are solid, in as far as using credible contemporary science.
Now, if they found these planets using Seti, claiming to have uncovered a prime number sequence transmittion encoded with a 3d schematic of a machine who's purpose is unknown, but looks like possibly a gyroscope... I'd say they've been watching too many Jodie Foster movies.
A lot of people are putting good thought into the case, into who is really suing who, and legal ramifications of Copyright. But, I prefer a K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) strategy here.
Internet Archive, archiving even copyrighted material, is a good endevour for historical purposes that transends even current law. Without this history, it will be forever lost, and even the mundane websites contribute to the "whole view".
I honestly don't care if IA/Wayback is legal or not. 200 years from now when all these lawyers are dust, there may still be the IA in place, and what the web was today may facinate future generations browsing through it much like archeologists walking through the Great Pyramids. In such context, I could give a damn if it is legal or not.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like something similar to TEMPEST?
I see, very informative. I, of course, know diddly squat about Ham. Always sounded interesting. I remember hearing about spies using Ham/shortwave/morse code/long strings of spoken numbers, and it facinated me that nobody could ever know who was listening, good for spies, tough for cryptographers.
Yes, I was thinking more in terms of Radio versus Internet as a broadcast medium and tech (not in terms of rules/regulations).
One thing I am familiar with is Citizen Band. I know that at one time there were CB licenses, and rules of conduct there as well. Of course, the number of crews out able to track CB usage is infinitely small compared to the number of users, and even simple rules of obscene language are frequently ignored (though some try to keep others in line if they know kids are listening).
But, I've always been facinated by the CB's my father had (and a few I still have, but rarely use, though I enjoy listening to scanners sometimes too). You can go about anywhere away from buildings, and broadcast semi-anonymously (though you could be triangulated), but that all listeners are completely anonymous recievers.
This real world model is something I've never seen translated to the Internet. I keep that in mind whenever I consider how anonymous I am online, and how truly anonymous other household technologies are without even really trying hard.
Besides special deals with schools, does anyone out there buy Windows in the cardboard box in the Software Isle? No?
Then I think it's a reasonably good chance that this is one of those "special" moments. Let's all share it! Everyone gather 'round! Ready?!? Ok, let's say it all at once... 1... 2... 3...
No shit!
Quick, someone from KDE or Gnome hire this guy, he seems to know something about GUI!
Here's a question. If what the modder did broke a code (violating DMCA) to access content that caused financial damage (recalling all products)...
/. community would all get carpal tunnel debating it.
Connect the dots, and this could become a very big civil/criminal suit against that individual. Luckily for all involved, though, this won't happen, even if it were an open and shut case. R* doesn't want any more negative press (a little negative is good for sales, a lot negative is bad for shareholders), the modding community would be handed a new legal precedent if their mods cause adverse financial problems, and the
But, the question remains. If R* went through with this, would it be an open/shut case? What are the views from each side, and how could each side prove their case?
My view is a very close open/shut case, with the case forming similar to that against a virus writer (from prosecution standpoint). The modder could try free speech, but the EULA would most likely be the biggest determining factor. But, I'd like to hear more opinions. This, or something like it, will happen again... sometime, someday. Can that person expect to see the inside of a cell, or be protected by Whistle Blower laws (which I think would be nice in this case)?
How about a broadcaster broadcasting to completely anonymous listeners? That's a trick the Internet has yet to pull off as flawlessly. In this age where the Patriot Act looks to get re-affirmed, and your movie rentals, Tivo watching habits, books you buy or check out of the library, etc. etc. are all being scrutinized... it's nice to know that a long established technology (radio communications) still defies being able to track listeners.
If I'm wrong, I'd love a link to related information on tracking radio listeners, Ham or otherwise.
Well, imho, the phone companies are a joke, which is why I don't want/need a phone. I've had a few people give me strange looks when I tell them I don't have a phone. It's about as unimaginable as someone without a TV. (I have a TV, rarely watch it, and when I do, it's CNN, History, TLC, Discovery, or SciFi.)
Someone said I could reach 911 on a disconnected line. Yeah, maybe, if I had a phone plugged in. But, unlike a phone subscriber, I don't pay that emergency "tax" subscribers get on their monthly bills (along with all the other ridiculous taxes). If it's a public service, why isn't there a flat tax for it regardless of subscribership?
As for how I would explain to an Arson investigator if my house burnt down because of no phone... In the future, could not having a phone could be a crime? I don't think the poster intended it that way, but think about it. That's a scary idea.
But, to answer the question, AFAIK, the advice is not to call 911 from your own house if it is on fire. Priority #1 is to get everyone in the building and yourself out. Thus, it doesn't matter if your home has 911, but if your neighbor does. Does that make me a bad neighbor? I suppose in a way. Then again, if it's that vital, why aren't 911 enabled phones readily available on every other street corner?
Ah, they used to be (payphones). Then came the cellphone, and everyone not able to pay the high cellphone charges watched as payphones became rarer. If 911 was so vital of a service, why did its public/free availability shrink merely due to increasing shareholder value. It's a scam, that's why. It was always about shareholder profits. This idea that 911 is a must have, but is only obtainable by subscribing to overpriced services. What's next, to get medical care at a hospital, I have to subscribe to the local newspaper? Fire trucks only for those who have memberships to the local golf club? Police only take stolen vehicle reports if you are an AAA member?
And, yet, somehow, I'm the bad guy for not buying into the idea by purchasing a service I don't need or want.
It already is up to me as a customer. I don't have a landline or VOIP, thus no 911. What would the goverment do, break down my door, and hold me at bay by gun point while they install a giant red telephone for direct 911 access?
Regardless of all the avenues government is trying to act without regard to consumer choices, via the "municipal" services route... the consumer still has a choice in telephony.
Yes, I can refuse 911 service. I do refuse 911 service. Not that I "care" if I had it or not, but I see no reason to pay $20 a month for a phone I would rarely if ever use, just for 911 service. The FCC can force 911 service all they want, but until they can forcibly enter my house (I'd like to see them try!), I won't have 911 service, because I don't have a phone and don't plan on getting one.
If my friend sees me impaled on a knife, he can drive me to the hospital himself. I live closer to my local hospital than the ambulance dispatch center.
By downloading a third party patch called BitTorrent, you can use Windows to watch all the porn you want!
Label it 18+ or exchange it for Dos 6.2!
If it sounds stupid, looks stupid, then don't be suprised to learn.. it's stupid. If you can download HotCoffee, then, suprise suprise, you can probably find all the porn you want, without Rockstar's badly animated help.
I say game modders go after ESRB. Start modding E rated games to contain the hardest core porn known to exist (with midgets, goats, and santorum flying)!
They are anti-phishing, but... pro junk mail? I get at least 3 credit card offers from them EVERY week.
But, I'm not complaining. Don't get me wrong. I find their junk mail extremely useful. Those fake credit cards have so many uses: coasters, ceiling light string "grips", scrappers for dirty pots and pans, and who doesn't step in dog poo and need something handy to pick it out with? I think that's what they mean when they say, "Higher Standards". I mean, it's second best to wiping your butt with $20 bills.
The letters/envelopes themselves make great campfire starting fuel.
I'm just waiting for that Wired chic to write up how this will be incorporated into the next article about Teledildonics.
I've read the article, and all I can say about it is... This is one of the dumbest articles ever put forth by the tech community. I mean seriously dumb. Eye-rolling dumb on the same scale as believing the Emperor is wearing fabulous new clothes.
I am dummer (sic) for having read it.
I have three good reasons why I got out of CS degree path.
#1 - Entry level jobs dried up in my area. You can't go to work without experience. I called around for internships in all the major cities. 2 Years minimum experience with BA/BS. This goes along the lines of "Hey, genius, if everyone required 2 years minimum experience, nobody would HAVE 2 years minimum experience."
#2 - Job Market Shift. I held a job with a large computer company. I won't name who, but let's just say they're firing about, oh, 14,500 of them. I worked along side guys with 5 years C++ experience, MSCE's, Cisco certifications, etc. What work did we do? We stood in a long line assembling computers... plugging in IDE cables into harddrives, popping in video cards, etc. for 12 hours a day standing in one spot. A monkey with a blindfold could have done it.
#3 - Outsourcing is intimidating. Some can argue the reality, but the perception is, to me at least, that outsourcing tech jobs to those willing to work at under $X an hour (X being a wage we'd normally expect) just kills it completely for me. Gates is Satan, don't doubt it. Of course he wants more foreign workers, because they'll work for less. They come from places where $5 an hour is like a pot of gold. Meanwhile, they're families are living like kings back home, because this guy will work for $9.50. That displaces American workers who fight for jobs where they don't run their own offshore cruise ship sweatshop... and eventually, it comes down the food chain to me, where I'm fighting with guys who have 10 years experience over me for little 4-6 month temp jobs coding Visual Basic apps for Joe's Hardware Imporium to track 5/8" bolts through the warehouse.
I got into CS to do innovative things, work with intelligent people, earn a respectable living, and be able to look back at meaningful accomplishments. Instead, it looks like a nightmare career field.
I'm currently out of school working in a job completely unrelated to computers. I have no plans to go back (only need 1 more year) for my BS in CS (cause it's seems litterally BS). The career I'd been planning for 20 years (long before all the dot-com BS) is no closer now than it was then for me.
Had I the chance to do it all over again, I might have gotten into specializing in game development. I hear they work like slaves too, but... they work.
Currently, I'm wondering how much they pay Semi Drivers.
Mario's head is too big for his body. He can also change directions in mid-air, fly if he gets some "tail" or a pimp cape. And, he's also been known to vomit fireballs.
So, a man can have bigger features, but not a woman. Sexism! The Princess is going on strike!
Ah, multi-target urls? I picture this as clicking 1 link, opening 2 different links; though, drop down menus all over a page could be just as annoying.
I'm picturing yet another feature that will only useful to spam companies. I'd like to throw this idea in the trash next to pop-up(under) windows, blinking text, flash pseudo pop-ups, and the marquee tag.
None of which are bad in and of themselves, just how they are used. All we need now is for wikipedia to turn into an annoying version del.icio.us, with every word linked to search results of that word. (BTW, the link for "that" I believe is the definition of irony.)
Now, imagine this used on a whole page, with each one popping up a list of 20 links. This isn't a new idea, but just the idea of everyone using it just turns my stomach.
Well, considering the story is actually a repost of a repost of a repost of a repost...
/.
/me now goes off to watch his DVD collection of Mr. Wizard. Season one rocks!
First post: 1971
Repost: 1979
Second Repost: Copied to web.
Third Repost: November 04 on
Fourth Repost: Here.
All a repost of How It Works: The Computer. And, hopefully now, everyone knows... how it works!
Learn to love such people. They'll readily buy 486's with linux and comment to you later, "Wow, this thing is blazing fast! Thanks man! It's so much faster than my 2 year old rust bucket Dell. 486? Is that some geek company? Do they sell mp3 players?"
And mainframe guys were copying 40MB files around long before you were born ;)
;)
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.
I have some 486's around, and the first thing that fails on me is the Hard Drive. But, I have tons of CD drives. By using knoppix CD's and a home network, these machines sit and run. They're fun to play with. My favorite was setting up a live TV stream to the network. Unfortunately, a 486 and streaming video isn't wonderful, and I had to walk to my basement to change the channel.
Still, what's scary is that there are so many uses for REALLY old computers, and people often throw out computers only 2 years old! I'm suprised all geeks don't have 6 head computers with 8 drives by just grabbing spare parts from their friends/co-workers throw aways. Not a week goes by that I don't hear someone talking about trashing their old computer for a new one.
No, I haven't missed the point at all. My point is that Dibert devil word... Synergy. It is the synergy of hardware + content that drives Apple profit. That same drives XBox. And, on point of the story, that same will drive Windows Media Connect or whatever set top boxes MS plans on licensing to content video companies. MS will do the opposite of Apple, most likely. Lose money on the hardware to make it on a small cut per content (via licensing its DRM).
My point is not that content alone is profitable. My point is that if you want profit, you must have content, whether you derive that profit from the content sales itself, and lose money on hardware (XBox) or vice versa (iPod). But, either way, you must have both, as one alone (at least up to this point) is not a dominant business model.
I personally wouldn't buy from iTunes either. But then again, I don't see spending any more than $150 for a player, considering that FM radio/CD-RW (drive to/from work) is usually sufficent for my listening habits.
Apple has proven that (for music at least) large profit isn't to be had.
It hasn't?
Apple quarterly profit surges on iPod
iPod pumps Apple profit
Apple profits, revenue up again
Apple sings on iPod sales
You can say it's an iPod vs iTunes on money. But one is worthless without the other really. The same is true of the new competing DVD formats, either of which would be useless without the content.
Seems to me that MS is pushing the desktop OS into the TV os market with Windows Media Connect and XBox. Oh yeah, video is well within their sphere of domination dreams, even if it's licensing a dominant platform technology to a content provider... and really, that's what Gates is saying here. As for Apple, if you look at total profits at Apple, music just may be more profitable for them than computers in the future.
IE6:
Mozilla_4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0)
IE7:
Firefox_1.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0)
I would think the most obvious idea is to use it as highly configurable wallpaper. Instead of hanging up photos, people could position them as easily as positioning photos on their desktop.
1. Bendable Paper
2. ????... wait... Bulk Sales to "Large Surface Area" markets
3. Profit!
I think science does demand healthy sckepticism, however, you are making some comparisons that don't quite match up.
For instance, detecting planets within our own solar system is far different than detecting one many lightyears away. In our solar system, all you really need is a good earth based telescope and a little luck. To detect extrasolar planets, one must observe things like star wobble. IANAA, but considering that we've not even photographed the entire sky using orbit based long range cameras (so I've heard), the chances of an actual photo of a planet is extremely remote, even knowing where one is, because of brightness issues.
I've often thought that it is equivilant to trying to see a moth flying around a lone streetlight 2 miles away with the naked eye. Unless the moth is extremely large, and far enough away from the light itself, you'll never see it. Though, you may see the light wavering as the moth flies around the light. Thus, you can know that something is flying around it, but not actually make out what it is.
On one hand, you state that we're in for disappointment and that the likelihood of a real direct observation is small. I agree 100%. But, that the evidence is thin, I would disagree. Gravitational pull (and wavelength shifts) on a star, while certainly not concrete evidence, has been used long before other planets were reported discovered. The foundations of the theories are solid, in as far as using credible contemporary science.
Now, if they found these planets using Seti, claiming to have uncovered a prime number sequence transmittion encoded with a 3d schematic of a machine who's purpose is unknown, but looks like possibly a gyroscope... I'd say they've been watching too many Jodie Foster movies.
A lot of people are putting good thought into the case, into who is really suing who, and legal ramifications of Copyright. But, I prefer a K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) strategy here.
Internet Archive, archiving even copyrighted material, is a good endevour for historical purposes that transends even current law. Without this history, it will be forever lost, and even the mundane websites contribute to the "whole view".
I honestly don't care if IA/Wayback is legal or not. 200 years from now when all these lawyers are dust, there may still be the IA in place, and what the web was today may facinate future generations browsing through it much like archeologists walking through the Great Pyramids. In such context, I could give a damn if it is legal or not.
Truth > *