I do not fully agree with your arguments. While you are right that the US is set to a higher standard, it is not only because of the sentiment of being a "better" country. It is also because of their superior military resources. As a immensely stronger force, they are expected to win wars, while showing restraint and a higher regard for innocent lives. Therefore Russia and China would face the same kind of criticism for unnecessary violance in wars. The most recent example of this is the opposition against the methods Russia used in the Checnian war. Unlike business, people actually expect more from a stronger entity in world politics.
If being without linux drivers means less installed Linux around the world, it also means that when time comes to buy hardware, the hardware manufacturer loses a sale. I'm fairly certain that a sale is more important for the manufacturer than an install for the Linux community. This has been the case for my latest purchases and I think for most other Linux users. I've decided upon a printer/graphics card/mp3-player only to discover that they do not support Linux, in which case I throw out that option and go with another brand.
The problem is that the company owning the patent isn't always the one doing the work. The classic example is the gene predicting breast cancer. The region that the gene existed in was discovered by one group. As it was an important gene, a large number of other groups started to search for and isolate the specific gene. Another group found the gene and patented it. While they did some work, it wasn't in anyway original since the first group identified the function and a lot of other groups participated in the search. Anyway, the group that did the last part are now charging exhorbarant fees to diagnose breast cancer, and in many cases doctors don't even diagnose it because of the cost. And that is in rich countries, not some backwater region.
Actually, the personalizable google start page has drag'n'drop support, and it works with Firefox. So I think it is possible to make it work across platforms. It's still a bit of a hazzle to do it since standardization isn't exactly perfect in the web.
I agree with your opinion that people will pick whatever they like. The informed people at least. So any competition is good, as long as it is fair. "Manditory" MSN messenger fall to mind as an example of unfair competition.
For DVDs, hacking is actually more widespread and accepted than in most other areas. Even in your average electronics supermarket, you could find offers of making DVDs region free, just as getting a stand to your tv or cables to the dvd. At least that has been the case the last few years here in Sweden.
I think the companies have recognized that, the people willing to go through the trouble importing discs, wouldn't mind the minor hassle of breaking the region coding.
What they have proposed though, could be used to implement a much stronger protection for them. By requiring an online validation system they actually can stop a disc bought in one country to be used in another country. So they do not have region codes as we know them now, but in effect keep the market segmentation in place, with a much stronger system.
You are right that an increase in video messages would increase the space requirements drastically. But, I don't think we need to worry. Google has shown that they will respond to increasing space needs fairly fast. I have no doubt that we will get larger storage spaces to accommodate any video messages sent, perhaps through google talk?
Actually Opera has BT integrated into their latest version, but it is not integrated into a mail client. I think it would an interesting idea for people that send out large mail to many people. If you just send to one or a few people, it is not worth using a P2P since it would be easier just to send it to the right people to begin with. If you meet the first criteria, you still have problems. First people expect a fairly fast response to opening a mail and while P2P is good at many things, completing a download on order (quality of service) is not one of those. The second problem is why users would want to help out. Most of the senders that meet the criteria are corporations that send "deal of the weeks" or newsletters and people do not tend to go out of their way to help those. That leaves small interest groups and communities, such as your favorite H4XX0R site and/.. And for those groups to join together to decide on a cohesive standard is a bit of a stretch.
I understand that some people need to transfer a lot of data between people and groups, but SMTP is not a file transfer protocol. That should be handled by another protocol, such as File Transfer Protocol or a P2P of your choice or perhaps a repository.
If you transfer that much data you should think about designing a small interface to handle it, to include shortcuts for the functions you use. After all, it has to be a bit cumbersome to work with that much data through a mail client.
True. Though, I'm not sure about how good protection skeletal matter is against radio waves as it is a porous non-conductive material. I still think that the difference in distance outweighs the protection given by the skull.
One thing to remember is that radio through muscle tissue has much lower risk level than through the brain. There are at least some indications that the later have risks. So I'm ignoring transmission through the jaw etc.
This and many other fanless/semifanless psu:s produce 20-30% less heat, which should compensate for the lower air flow from a 80mm fan. And a less air flow means less turbulance noise. That is assuming that the barring noise is similar for the psu:s, which isn't obvious, or even true. But you can always upgrade the fan to a better one, but you can't upgrade the effciency as easily.
That said, the Seasonic is a great psu, probably the best out of the box on the market.
There should not be any different from having a bluetooth headset on your ear. Actually, it should be less risky, since it will be further from your brain. And the risk from a head set is minimal at worst, since bt is a short range technology, and therefor use a very limited effect.
That's what you get for being loyal to a second rate manufacturer like Motorola or Samsung. If you'd stick to the companies that are on the frontline of technology, like SonyEricsson, you wouldn't have those problems. The reason being that their developers and core users are much more closer to open source and open systems. I find it very strange that there isn't a stronger support an open mobile company in the states. With that population you should be able to keep at least one company alive that doesn't lock the users into these greedy ringtone/wallpaper companies. Otherwise support SE, for keeping the option of uploading my own things to the phone. I can even use any picture I find on the web as a wallpaper, which should be natural, but strangely isn't for many phones.
Slashdot Mirror
I do not fully agree with your arguments. While you are right that the US is set to a higher standard, it is not only because of the sentiment of being a "better" country. It is also because of their superior military resources. As a immensely stronger force, they are expected to win wars, while showing restraint and a higher regard for innocent lives. Therefore Russia and China would face the same kind of criticism for unnecessary violance in wars. The most recent example of this is the opposition against the methods Russia used in the Checnian war. Unlike business, people actually expect more from a stronger entity in world politics.
If being without linux drivers means less installed Linux around the world, it also means that when time comes to buy hardware, the hardware manufacturer loses a sale. I'm fairly certain that a sale is more important for the manufacturer than an install for the Linux community. This has been the case for my latest purchases and I think for most other Linux users. I've decided upon a printer/graphics card/mp3-player only to discover that they do not support Linux, in which case I throw out that option and go with another brand.
The problem is that the company owning the patent isn't always the one doing the work. The classic example is the gene predicting breast cancer. The region that the gene existed in was discovered by one group. As it was an important gene, a large number of other groups started to search for and isolate the specific gene. Another group found the gene and patented it. While they did some work, it wasn't in anyway original since the first group identified the function and a lot of other groups participated in the search. Anyway, the group that did the last part are now charging exhorbarant fees to diagnose breast cancer, and in many cases doctors don't even diagnose it because of the cost. And that is in rich countries, not some backwater region.
Actually, the personalizable google start page has drag'n'drop support, and it works with Firefox. So I think it is possible to make it work across platforms. It's still a bit of a hazzle to do it since standardization isn't exactly perfect in the web. I agree with your opinion that people will pick whatever they like. The informed people at least. So any competition is good, as long as it is fair. "Manditory" MSN messenger fall to mind as an example of unfair competition.
For DVDs, hacking is actually more widespread and accepted than in most other areas. Even in your average electronics supermarket, you could find offers of making DVDs region free, just as getting a stand to your tv or cables to the dvd. At least that has been the case the last few years here in Sweden. I think the companies have recognized that, the people willing to go through the trouble importing discs, wouldn't mind the minor hassle of breaking the region coding. What they have proposed though, could be used to implement a much stronger protection for them. By requiring an online validation system they actually can stop a disc bought in one country to be used in another country. So they do not have region codes as we know them now, but in effect keep the market segmentation in place, with a much stronger system.
You are right that an increase in video messages would increase the space requirements drastically. But, I don't think we need to worry. Google has shown that they will respond to increasing space needs fairly fast. I have no doubt that we will get larger storage spaces to accommodate any video messages sent, perhaps through google talk?
Actually Opera has BT integrated into their latest version, but it is not integrated into a mail client. I think it would an interesting idea for people that send out large mail to many people. If you just send to one or a few people, it is not worth using a P2P since it would be easier just to send it to the right people to begin with. If you meet the first criteria, you still have problems. First people expect a fairly fast response to opening a mail and while P2P is good at many things, completing a download on order (quality of service) is not one of those. The second problem is why users would want to help out. Most of the senders that meet the criteria are corporations that send "deal of the weeks" or newsletters and people do not tend to go out of their way to help those. That leaves small interest groups and communities, such as your favorite H4XX0R site and /.. And for those groups to join together to decide on a cohesive standard is a bit of a stretch.
If you transfer that much data you should think about designing a small interface to handle it, to include shortcuts for the functions you use. After all, it has to be a bit cumbersome to work with that much data through a mail client.
True. Though, I'm not sure about how good protection skeletal matter is against radio waves as it is a porous non-conductive material. I still think that the difference in distance outweighs the protection given by the skull. One thing to remember is that radio through muscle tissue has much lower risk level than through the brain. There are at least some indications that the later have risks. So I'm ignoring transmission through the jaw etc.
This and many other fanless/semifanless psu:s produce 20-30% less heat, which should compensate for the lower air flow from a 80mm fan. And a less air flow means less turbulance noise. That is assuming that the barring noise is similar for the psu:s, which isn't obvious, or even true. But you can always upgrade the fan to a better one, but you can't upgrade the effciency as easily. That said, the Seasonic is a great psu, probably the best out of the box on the market.
There should not be any different from having a bluetooth headset on your ear. Actually, it should be less risky, since it will be further from your brain. And the risk from a head set is minimal at worst, since bt is a short range technology, and therefor use a very limited effect.
That's what you get for being loyal to a second rate manufacturer like Motorola or Samsung. If you'd stick to the companies that are on the frontline of technology, like SonyEricsson, you wouldn't have those problems. The reason being that their developers and core users are much more closer to open source and open systems. I find it very strange that there isn't a stronger support an open mobile company in the states. With that population you should be able to keep at least one company alive that doesn't lock the users into these greedy ringtone/wallpaper companies. Otherwise support SE, for keeping the option of uploading my own things to the phone. I can even use any picture I find on the web as a wallpaper, which should be natural, but strangely isn't for many phones.