I'm sorry but it is exactly the same as the Skype deal in the sense that Company A (FF & Skype) is taking money to Work with Company B's product (Google, Intel) just a little bit better than Company C's products (MSN/Yahoo, AMD). Forget about limiting factors, it's irrelevant.
Google is the default search tool used for FireFox, thus it favours one search engine over another (and rightly so from the companies point of view!). While it doesn't create artificial limitations per se, it does in a sense place a favourable position for one company over another, this is the same technique except slightly less backhanded.
Please don't call me a troll or ignorant for just expressing my opinion.
However, I do agree with benefiting the users in a sense that the software is made available based on the simple fact that they are able to fund development, but this is the same with any piece of software/product/service. Why just because it's open source does it mean its business practices are treated any differently to that of any other organisation.
How do the users benefit? Choice is always best. This is exactly the same as Skype inking a deal with Intel to 'prioritise' their software for their chip.
I think it would be quite nice if they could at least co-operate to some degree with these UWB WiFi technologies. It's easy for the/. crowd to understand these compatibility issues but it can only be hassle for the general consumer who barely understand the current wireless standards/speeds.
They do a similar thing here in the UK with Buy one Get one Free tickets (Orange Wednesdays!) at the cinema. Every person gets a unique code (when requested) which is typed in the by the operator and obviously checked at a server somewhere.
I think it would be relatively hard to crack, for a start each bar-code is likely to be unique, and you will only get one chance (maybe two or three) at inputting it before anyone gets suspicious. It's quick and convenient for quite a lot of people and reduces touting (only slightly) and fake tickets.
The only draw back I can see is that there are many phones of all shapes and sizes/resolutions which will mean the bar-code is going to be a bit different each time. Perhaps its only marginal, but I can see the readers making mistakes with some phones. Personally I would suggest using unique numbers instead of bar-codes - I guess it's not as quick.
One more thing, I don't understand why there is such a big fuss about privacy/tracking issues. Ticketing agencies are separate from mobile companies, just like ticketing agencies are separate from local postal services. So there shouldn't be any massive difference in the collection of data over the current systems. Postal services probably have worse mailing success rates also.
Don't you guys think it's funny that all seven of the 'latest news' section from http://riaa.com/ relates to Lawsuits and Music Piracy. Funny, but not surprising.
...we just thought that it was best to have our own in case we're not always friends.
Except, it's a civilian project not military. Perhaps a better ending would be "...we just thought that it was best to have our own in case there was an emergency and planes started dropping into our swimming pool!"
Slashdot Mirror
Different flavoured bread?
You know us British are European right?
Seriously though, it's kind of wrong to assign broad sweeping judgements on a massively diverse group of people.
Surely it's just an effective unique ID which everyone has? Whats with the paranoia these days? :p
I'm sorry but it is exactly the same as the Skype deal in the sense that Company A (FF & Skype) is taking money to Work with Company B's product (Google, Intel) just a little bit better than Company C's products (MSN/Yahoo, AMD). Forget about limiting factors, it's irrelevant.
Google is the default search tool used for FireFox, thus it favours one search engine over another (and rightly so from the companies point of view!). While it doesn't create artificial limitations per se, it does in a sense place a favourable position for one company over another, this is the same technique except slightly less backhanded. Please don't call me a troll or ignorant for just expressing my opinion. However, I do agree with benefiting the users in a sense that the software is made available based on the simple fact that they are able to fund development, but this is the same with any piece of software/product/service. Why just because it's open source does it mean its business practices are treated any differently to that of any other organisation.
How do the users benefit? Choice is always best. This is exactly the same as Skype inking a deal with Intel to 'prioritise' their software for their chip.
I think it would be quite nice if they could at least co-operate to some degree with these UWB WiFi technologies. It's easy for the /. crowd to understand these compatibility issues but it can only be hassle for the general consumer who barely understand the current wireless standards/speeds.
They do a similar thing here in the UK with Buy one Get one Free tickets (Orange Wednesdays!) at the cinema. Every person gets a unique code (when requested) which is typed in the by the operator and obviously checked at a server somewhere.
I think it would be relatively hard to crack, for a start each bar-code is likely to be unique, and you will only get one chance (maybe two or three) at inputting it before anyone gets suspicious. It's quick and convenient for quite a lot of people and reduces touting (only slightly) and fake tickets.
The only draw back I can see is that there are many phones of all shapes and sizes/resolutions which will mean the bar-code is going to be a bit different each time. Perhaps its only marginal, but I can see the readers making mistakes with some phones. Personally I would suggest using unique numbers instead of bar-codes - I guess it's not as quick.
One more thing, I don't understand why there is such a big fuss about privacy/tracking issues. Ticketing agencies are separate from mobile companies, just like ticketing agencies are separate from local postal services. So there shouldn't be any massive difference in the collection of data over the current systems. Postal services probably have worse mailing success rates also.
Don't you guys think it's funny that all seven of the 'latest news' section from http://riaa.com/ relates to Lawsuits and Music Piracy. Funny, but not surprising.
Except, it's a civilian project not military. Perhaps a better ending would be "...we just thought that it was best to have our own in case there was an emergency and planes started dropping into our swimming pool!"