Officials in Florida's Broward County were scrambling Aug. 17 to put to rest a rumor that the county would allow high school students to try to breach the security of election computers in a mock election.
The idea surfaced at a meeting of the Broward County Commission Aug. 16, in which County Commission Chairman John Rodstrom suggested that computer savvy kids might get to hack their way into the election system, reported the Associated Press.
"That is not going to happen," Bob Cantrell, director of intergovernmental affairs for the Broward Supervisor of Elections, told Washington Technology.
Actually print ads don't really work either, but there's no micro-tracking mechanism (i.e. real life counterpart of "clickthru's") to prove this. What happens is only a very small number of people will act on a magazine's ad, but usually this is, more or less, enough to pay for the ad in the first place. Plus ads help with name recognition, so no action is even required. Evidently banner ads aren't held to the same standard.And 1% click-thru is considred a "failure." Uh-huh. How many ads have you seen in magazines that you actually acted upon (visited the car dealer, whatever)???
I suspect the real dirty secret is that its not that banner ads don't work, its just they show how badly ALL advertising works in general, at least in any sort of specific "see donut ad-->buy donut" way. But no ad agency will admit this, and very few companies w/ ad dollars want to admit this either, so there is this big consipiracy to keep shush about this so evryone who works in marketing and ad sales can keep their jobs. It's working, for now.
The second problem is that Suck, Feed, Slate, and Salon are all essay-centered reflective publications. Sorry, there's *never* been a big market for those. The real-life counterpart to to them (Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The New Yorker) have *always* sold poorly too(around 200,000 each, actually). I don't see MSNBC or CNN.com going anywhere...
A few years back I wrote a column on the Gutenberg Bible and the parallels it had with the birth of the Internet. Poor Gutenberg was plagued by back-stabbling VCs, and short-sided employees. Story is
here
There are a lot of all-optical switches out there that are being worked on. In addition to Agilent, I can think of recent announcements by Chorum, SpectraSwitch, CoreTek, Nortel, and Tellium's optoelectronic hybrid model. . . .
Personally, I take announcements of prototypes such as those above with a grain of salt. A prototype is still further away from production than most people realize. You can pretty much do anything you want within the limits of physics, given a big enough R&D budget (and snazzy enough PR department to tout your work). But for your prototype to A: work *all* the time in the field, B: and for a competitive price, and C: to be compatable with existing standards, are the hurdles that kills 99.5% of all new technologies. . .
joab
Hmmm, D:C certainly doesn't seem to mind if their product affects the IP of any *other* company. From their legal page:
Digital:convergence and its suppliers shall not be liable for any indirect, special, punitive, consequential, or incidental damages including, without limitation, lost profits or revenues . ..arising out of the use or inability to use this Website or any DigitalConvergence product or service.
Yeah, MRAM is still R&D. IBM's MRAM uses the giant magnetoresistance effect (GMR) to produce memory that doesn't disappear when the power is shut off (hence the term "nonvolatile"). If my own (quite volatile) memory serves, MRAM still has moving parts--read/write heads, etc., that can slow things down and make them less suitable for rugged mobile use. It's still slower than good old fashioned RAM.
I did some work with Integrated Magnetoelectronics (IME), a small company that's developing a nonvolatile *solid-state* memory--solid state meaning it has no moving parts that would slow retrieval times *AND* is random access, unlike flash, which is also solid-state. Also based on GMR, it's called PRAMM (permanent random access memory). It basically works exactly the same as the old addressable nonvolatile core memories from the 60s and 70s, but only much smaller--the GMR effect allows the size of the charges to be reduced so that a few hundred megabytes don't take up an entire basement;-).
I cowrote an article about it: Magnetic Field of Dreams--if I could plug my own stuff so crassly.
Like every other nonvolatile RAM maker, IME are still in the kilobyte-stage of prototyping and who knows if it'll scale. It would be great if it would though--if so, imagine accessing your entire hard drive as quickly as you would RAM and having your screen return to where it was when the cat tripped over and pulled out the plug . . .
. ..This will buy processor manufacturers a few more years to develop solutions for smaller processes. . .
Can Slashdot pul-eeze not use the marketing buzzphrase "solution" ??? I'm sorry I hate this meaningless management word and loathe to see it in my favorite tech spot. The wise Hemos could have just written "develop smaller processors" and meant the same thing.
Sorry, I started thinking "solution" was overused when Rite Aid started printing it on its receipts. "Your total store solution" or somesuch rot. . .
My big concern about any of these MP3 players is skipping. Even with hefty buffering, I can't imagine skipping won't be a major problem with MP3 files. Portable CD players have problems enough tracking 50 megabyte files, what will happen whenthe file takes up only 5 megabytes? You'll hit a bump and skip to the next song. . .
. "if there's no money in music, there's not going to be much music left," says Copeland.
See, thats what *really* worries the music industry, methinks: The fact that masses will start seeing music as something you *make* rather than something you *buy*. They'll all be out of their cushy jobs.
It's not like flying planes as Copeland suggests. Its not just a job. Music is in everybody, its only in the last 60 years or so that there has been this subtle shift to the idea that music must be made, at great expense and only by extremely talented people. Thats a myth. Long before the recording industry came along, people sat around the piano or guitar around the fire or just sang sea chanties or whatever. If anything the music industry has *deprived* us of music.
Okay, I'll admit the music may be better if we pay the best people to keep producing it (though even then I wonder: Is a Fleetwood Mac album that cost $ 1mil to make *really* 1000 times better than a Ramones one that cost $1000??? But I digreess), but if the ecomonics dictate that no one is going top make phat money out of it, then its going to go back to the people who 'll make music *only* for the sheer joy of making it. They may make it after their day jobs, but they'd still make it. Not to say that would be better music, but it sure would wash out all the people who are making it only for the money.
I'm sorry, but no one is stopping Kirtsen Hersh from making music. If she wants to stay home and make music, fine. But I'm not supporting her and I don't appreciate people tellling me what software I can or *can't* use on my computer based on their *percieved* losses.
I looked into this issue a little bit a few months back when I wrote an article for Texas Technology on burning CDs at home. Here was the reaction I found to the RIAA claims:
"There is no basis in any law, statute, regulation, or court decision that says you cannot copy your own music discs on a computer recorder," maintained CD-Page (www.cdpage.com), a Web site devoted to CD news. I queried a number of lawyers specializing in copyright law, and they backed CD-Page's position.
AHRA regulates the makers of electronic equipment but contains no provisions for prosecuting individual consumers, according to Denise Mroz, an associate attorney for Woodcock, Washburn, Kurtz, Mackiewicz & Norris, a Philadelphia law firm. What this means is that the law itself doesn't prohibit home recording. Copyright issues may come into play, but Mroz said re-recording albums or making compilations for personal use may fall under the "fair use" exemption to copyright law.
However, Mroz said, recording CDs for commercial gain is undoubtedly illegal. This is the real problem for the recording industry.
My wild guess at what Transmeta is up to some form of asynchronous logic design. A lot of the fabless chip companies have been making similar promises with that area of research. Theseus Logic and Cogency are two that come to mind. Clocked logic has its limits and the Intels and Motorolas of the world are going to hit those limits sooner or later. And barring any sudden developments in, say, quantum comptuing, asynchronous logic is the next, ahem, logical step. It's much quicker, much more flexible (didn't surprise me about the emulation speeds transmeta boasted of)and should consume less power, if done right. Transmeta, or their followers, is touting all three benefits. Asynchronous logic design actually has been around for awhile, though its always required a complexity of design that makes it more expensive to pull off. But as clocked logic is getting so complex, it might soon be the time where they'll be equivalent, cost-wise. Then again, Transmeta could be up to something *completely* different. joab
What? You're kidding right? How many Mom & Pop computer shops do you know that are still around? Maybe a handful if you live in a big city. Most of the sales *are* from COMPUSA and Circuit City, hardly neighborhood organizations. From the sound of those Web companies, the mom-and-pop contigent has moved online.
Slashdot Mirror
Hack the Vote? Not in Broward
By William Welsh,
Staff Writer
Officials in Florida's Broward County were scrambling Aug. 17 to put to rest a rumor that the county would allow high school students to try to breach the security of election computers in a mock election.
The idea surfaced at a meeting of the Broward County Commission Aug. 16, in which County Commission Chairman John Rodstrom suggested that computer savvy kids might get to hack their way into the election system, reported the Associated Press.
"That is not going to happen," Bob Cantrell, director of intergovernmental affairs for the Broward Supervisor of Elections, told Washington Technology.
Actually print ads don't really work either, but there's no micro-tracking mechanism (i.e. real life counterpart of "clickthru's") to prove this. What happens is only a very small number of people will act on a magazine's ad, but usually this is, more or less, enough to pay for the ad in the first place. Plus ads help with name recognition, so no action is even required. Evidently banner ads aren't held to the same standard.And 1% click-thru is considred a "failure." Uh-huh. How many ads have you seen in magazines that you actually acted upon (visited the car dealer, whatever)???
I suspect the real dirty secret is that its not that banner ads don't work, its just they show how badly ALL advertising works in general, at least in any sort of specific "see donut ad-->buy donut" way. But no ad agency will admit this, and very few companies w/ ad dollars want to admit this either, so there is this big consipiracy to keep shush about this so evryone who works in marketing and ad sales can keep their jobs. It's working, for now.
The second problem is that Suck, Feed, Slate, and Salon are all essay-centered reflective publications. Sorry, there's *never* been a big market for those. The real-life counterpart to to them (Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The New Yorker) have *always* sold poorly too(around 200,000 each, actually). I don't see MSNBC or CNN.com going anywhere. ..
It'd be a convoy! Sure they wouldn't crash, but would you have to recompile the kernel to change into 4WD??? joab "take my wife please"
A few years back I wrote a column on the Gutenberg Bible and the parallels it had with the birth of the Internet. Poor Gutenberg was plagued by back-stabbling VCs, and short-sided employees. Story is here
Personally, I take announcements of prototypes such as those above with a grain of salt. A prototype is still further away from production than most people realize. You can pretty much do anything you want within the limits of physics, given a big enough R&D budget (and snazzy enough PR department to tout your work). But for your prototype to A: work *all* the time in the field, B: and for a competitive price, and C: to be compatable with existing standards, are the hurdles that kills 99.5% of all new technologies. . . joab
Digital:convergence and its suppliers shall not be liable for any indirect, special, punitive, consequential, or incidental damages including, without limitation, lost profits or revenues . . .arising out of the use or inability to use this Website or any DigitalConvergence product or service.
I did some work with Integrated Magnetoelectronics (IME), a small company that's developing a nonvolatile *solid-state* memory--solid state meaning it has no moving parts that would slow retrieval times *AND* is random access, unlike flash, which is also solid-state. Also based on GMR, it's called PRAMM (permanent random access memory). It basically works exactly the same as the old addressable nonvolatile core memories from the 60s and 70s, but only much smaller--the GMR effect allows the size of the charges to be reduced so that a few hundred megabytes don't take up an entire basement ;-).
I cowrote an article about it: Magnetic Field of Dreams--if I could plug my own stuff so crassly.
Like every other nonvolatile RAM maker, IME are still in the kilobyte-stage of prototyping and who knows if it'll scale. It would be great if it would though--if so, imagine accessing your entire hard drive as quickly as you would RAM and having your screen return to where it was when the cat tripped over and pulled out the plug . . .
Joab
Can Slashdot pul-eeze not use the marketing buzzphrase "solution" ??? I'm sorry I hate this meaningless management word and loathe to see it in my favorite tech spot. The wise Hemos could have just written "develop smaller processors" and meant the same thing.
Sorry, I started thinking "solution" was overused when Rite Aid started printing it on its receipts. "Your total store solution" or somesuch rot. . .
My big concern about any of these MP3 players is skipping. Even with hefty buffering, I can't imagine skipping won't be a major problem with MP3 files. Portable CD players have problems enough tracking 50 megabyte files, what will happen whenthe file takes up only 5 megabytes? You'll hit a bump and skip to the next song. . .
See, thats what *really* worries the music industry, methinks: The fact that masses will start seeing music as something you *make* rather than something you *buy*. They'll all be out of their cushy jobs.
It's not like flying planes as Copeland suggests. Its not just a job. Music is in everybody, its only in the last 60 years or so that there has been this subtle shift to the idea that music must be made, at great expense and only by extremely talented people. Thats a myth. Long before the recording industry came along, people sat around the piano or guitar around the fire or just sang sea chanties or whatever. If anything the music industry has *deprived* us of music.
Okay, I'll admit the music may be better if we pay the best people to keep producing it (though even then I wonder: Is a Fleetwood Mac album that cost $ 1mil to make *really* 1000 times better than a Ramones one that cost $1000??? But I digreess), but if the ecomonics dictate that no one is going top make phat money out of it, then its going to go back to the people who 'll make music *only* for the sheer joy of making it. They may make it after their day jobs, but they'd still make it. Not to say that would be better music, but it sure would wash out all the people who are making it only for the money.
I'm sorry, but no one is stopping Kirtsen Hersh from making music. If she wants to stay home and make music, fine. But I'm not supporting her and I don't appreciate people tellling me what software I can or *can't* use on my computer based on their *percieved* losses.
"There is no basis in any law, statute, regulation, or court decision that says you cannot copy your own music discs on a computer recorder," maintained CD-Page (www.cdpage.com), a Web site devoted to CD news. I queried a number of lawyers specializing in copyright law, and they backed CD-Page's position.
AHRA regulates the makers of electronic equipment but contains no provisions for prosecuting individual consumers, according to Denise Mroz, an associate attorney for Woodcock, Washburn, Kurtz, Mackiewicz & Norris, a Philadelphia law firm. What this means is that the law itself doesn't prohibit home recording. Copyright issues may come into play, but Mroz said re-recording albums or making compilations for personal use may fall under the "fair use" exemption to copyright law.
However, Mroz said, recording CDs for commercial gain is undoubtedly illegal. This is the real problem for the recording industry.
My wild guess at what Transmeta is up to some form of asynchronous logic design. A lot of the fabless chip companies have been making similar promises with that area of research. Theseus Logic and Cogency are two that come to mind. Clocked logic has its limits and the Intels and Motorolas of the world are going to hit those limits sooner or later. And barring any sudden developments in, say, quantum comptuing, asynchronous logic is the next, ahem, logical step. It's much quicker, much more flexible (didn't surprise me about the emulation speeds transmeta boasted of)and should consume less power, if done right. Transmeta, or their followers, is touting all three benefits. Asynchronous logic design actually has been around for awhile, though its always required a complexity of design that makes it more expensive to pull off. But as clocked logic is getting so complex, it might soon be the time where they'll be equivalent, cost-wise. Then again, Transmeta could be up to something *completely* different. joab
What? You're kidding right? How many Mom & Pop computer shops do you know that are still around? Maybe a handful if you live in a big city. Most of the sales *are* from COMPUSA and Circuit City, hardly neighborhood organizations. From the sound of those Web companies, the mom-and-pop contigent has moved online.