Wouldn't it be ironic if our attempts at space exploration actually prohibit us from exploring space (due to the littering of space), thus sealing us in to this planet?
Using a GPS tracker is nothing different than "putting a tail on somebody", which requires no warrant. The cops could also follow dude around in a helicopter, also without a warrant. A GPS bug is nothing more than an easier way for the cops to tail you. A sophisticated criminal would have a RF scanner that would alert him/her to the device, and then re-plant on grandma's old caprice in the parking lot of a food mart.
Sounds like there is a lot of "overhead", and by overhead I mean fairly useless crap to support eye candy. I am a software engineer. I need my PC to run applications, with the machines resources dedicated to my compiles, debug session, code searches, CASE tools, etc. I don't need a search agent running, a little animated doggie, crazy OS graphics, monitoring software for unauthorized content playing out of my audio port, or any of the other "features" of Vista.
In my opinion, M$ should dumb down Vista. It sounds like they spent a lot of time revamping their kernel and they should have released (or should release) a lean version with, as the Nissan Xterra commercial says, "everything you need, nothing you don't".
I just wish more of my development apps ran under Linux.
Here's where it gets interesting. Anticipating just such an offensive capability from china, many military satelites are hardened against laser and EMP damage.
But, what about sharks with frickn' laser beams?
Seriously, though. War time is hell, and if another all out world war (a real war where Congress actually declares war) breaks out our "regard for the environment" would be the last thing on our minds. We would blow the enemies satellites out of the sky just as our enemies would. It would be a race to see who could do it first, in fact I would guess this would be step 1 in any war plan against a technologically advanced country.
Several posts gasped at the 20GB file size... Come on, its HD. The discs themselves are 30-50GB, what the hell did you expect the ripped torrent file size to be? You want the file size to be small, relatively, then go pirate the non-HD version!
Probably! The radio station really biffed this one, they should have used cups of coffee. Caffeine blocks the hormone Anti Diuretic Hormone, which causes your Kidneys to go into overdrive. A lot less water would have been imbibed and after 3 or 4 cups of coffee someone would have to go bad. Speaking of... gotta go.
You always hear the group of gals claiming "size doesn't matter, its how the thing is used". I think the same holds true here. It is how the media is used. I.e. the video content, DRM (or lack of), the availability of content (ahem, pron, ahem), and the features of the player. Sure, sure, the computer geeks will always point out who's is bigger, but I don't think that will win the war in the end.
One thing Blu-Ray might not be counting on is name recognition.
Right now, if the average Joe walks into an electronics store looking for high definition movie players he/she will see a wall of "Blu-Ray" and "HD-DVD". Most people will see the "HD" and think "yeah, that is what I want, Blu-Ray, what is that? No.. No.. I want high-definition".
Based on name alone HD has an advantage. Blu-Ray needs some serious marketing because if they rely on the sales person in the electronic store for supplying information they will be hosed!
As another post pointed out, we all know the answer... Testing and writing code according the best practices documented by so many books. For commercially developed software "code security" is something that is usually addressed based on the perceived risk of a vulnerability. Risk can be quantified by the probability of an event multiplied by danger the event poses. In a commercially developed piece of software schedule and cost drive a program so the developers know the code is not secure and the managers use risk analysis to find the "biggest" holes. Usually too much time is spent in development before testing is considered so you end up with a "lets fix the major problems and ship it". No code is totally secure, but if you demand secure code, you better deploy lots of automated unit/white box or black box tests to mitigate the risk.
I hope OS and BIOS manufacturers are listening... I'd hate to drop 400+ on a hard drive to have it seen as 1/3 of the actual size by either BIOS or the OS.
is this the death of NetFlix as we know it?
Not necessarily... Whenever I burn a DVD, it takes forever, sometimes doesn't work quite right and just isn't quite the same as a nice and polished commercial DVD. Sure, if I really knew what I was doing and had awesome equipment maybe things would be different. For the average Joe downloading a movie and burning it to a DVD to watch, in most cases, once is too much of a pain in the ass. Most people would rather just pick the movies they want in a list and have the real deal sent to them.
Now video on demand however, is a spin of the downloadable content and could put NetFlix down. If these movie download websites integrate with other equipment (think TiVo or some type of set top box) that can be rented or purchased, then we might have a winner. Sitting in front of the TV and clicking "Play" with a remote and having the content stream in is pretty cool. I loved having this on my old cable network and if a third party offered something similar, it would be healthy competition, especially if the service offered popular TV show archives as well.
All the news about voting machines being buggy, insecure, etc. is just ridiculous! Am I missing something terribly complicated in the requirements for how these machines should function? For shits sake they are glorified vending machines! Push A1 and you get a Hershey chocolate bar and H5 gets you a bag of BBQ chips. Now just replace Hershey chocolate bar with candidate A and BBQ chips with candidate B. Seriously, WTF is going on with these things!
Re:UFO vs. alien spacecraft
on
UFOs In the News
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
You know, this is a very good point. I used to work at a place, long before mainstream UAVs, UCAVs and the like, and they had something that when people saw it flying around would call it a UFO. It would hover, move directly vertical, then fly horizontal and turned on a dime. Anyone not in the know seeing this crazy thing fly would call it a UFO and be right, and it certainly wasn't an alien space craft I assure you. I can just imagine all the crazy projects various government agencies and third party companies have going on that result in UFO sightings.
People just want to think these weird flying things are aliens visiting us. But honestly, if YOU were an alien, with this fantastic technology to fly hundreds of light years to visit another planet with life on it, would you just fly by some stuff then go home? Hell, I wouldn't drive 60 miles look at something and turn around and come home.
" Not a bad cheat sheet for those of us with a Blu-ray capable PS3 or an XBox 360 HD DVD"
Or those who might have burning hardware in their PCs... In my search of DVD burning/authoring software I found software by RocketDivision called Grab & Burn which claims it can, "Duplicate CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD media in 1:1 mode", and, "supports all types of optical storage media (including CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R/RE, HD-DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM) as well as a wide variety of burning hardware", and best of all, "Grab&Burn is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Longhorn and various Linux distributions."
Now, I have no idea how the DRM business would impact any plans of copying a LEGAL copy to my hard disc, but this software looks worth a look.
Or you could use the HyperOS HyperDrive, which is a DDR RAM based drive which claims "Seek time is 50-60 microseconds", that is right microseconds.
Granted, this is RAM based technology with the obvious pitfalls (this one has a external power source so as to not lose your data), but with upcoming flash based drives and other improvements, I wouldn't be surprised if these drives become more mainstream, especially with network transfer rates of 100Gb/s.
It is only a matter of time before someone brings a lawsuit against Nintendo. If the strap really does break that easily, take the original Wiimote and show a jury how easy it breaks and bam, lawsuit won. If it's true, Nintendo should pay up to replace things that get broken. I'd be pissed if I was swinging my Wiimote with "normal" force and the strap broke causing the wiimote to smash my nice new $2000 flat-screen TV.
The/. blurb mentions a 40K robot "for home use" but according to the links on the M$ website there are plenty of other compatible robots, like the LEGO Mindstorms which has a MSRP of a mere US$ 249.99. With these kind of prices, I think this might be a fun hobby to get the kids into...
Precisely! I still find it, well, unsettling. The government goes on a crusade, which backfires, and is like
"oh well, bill the taxpayers, it's only like 4 cents, no one will miss that". 500k is a lot of money, and it could have been spent on updating a library or something. I know, I know, "get real".
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't it be ironic if our attempts at space exploration actually prohibit us from exploring space (due to the littering of space), thus sealing us in to this planet?
FTA:"The police had not obtained a warrant authorizing them to place the GPS tracker on the defendant's car."
This has nothing to do with using OnStar, which is a completely different thing.
Using a GPS tracker is nothing different than "putting a tail on somebody", which requires no warrant. The cops could also follow dude around in a helicopter, also without a warrant. A GPS bug is nothing more than an easier way for the cops to tail you. A sophisticated criminal would have a RF scanner that would alert him/her to the device, and then re-plant on grandma's old caprice in the parking lot of a food mart.
Sounds like there is a lot of "overhead", and by overhead I mean fairly useless crap to support eye candy. I am a software engineer. I need my PC to run applications, with the machines resources dedicated to my compiles, debug session, code searches, CASE tools, etc. I don't need a search agent running, a little animated doggie, crazy OS graphics, monitoring software for unauthorized content playing out of my audio port, or any of the other "features" of Vista.
In my opinion, M$ should dumb down Vista. It sounds like they spent a lot of time revamping their kernel and they should have released (or should release) a lean version with, as the Nissan Xterra commercial says, "everything you need, nothing you don't".
I just wish more of my development apps ran under Linux.
... according to a telephone and online study of 2,600 Americans.You mean people really admitted to pirating movies on the phone from some "survey center"? Imagine...
**phone rings**
You: Hello?
Phone: Hi, yes, my name is, phile, err, phil mcracken, and I am doing a survey about online movie downloading, do you have a second?
You: Sure!
Phone: Ok, great, tell me, have you ever downloaded a copyrighted movie using, say BitTorrent?
You: Oh yeah, you kidding, I do that all the time, in fact I am burning several movies right now that I plan on selling to my friends...
Phone: Oh great, well thanks for the survey data! Have a good day!
**10 minutes later**
*BANG* (Front door kicked in) "FBI, freeze! You are under arrest!"
Seriously, who the f- would say they downloaded movies?
Here's where it gets interesting. Anticipating just such an offensive capability from china, many military satelites are hardened against laser and EMP damage.
But, what about sharks with frickn' laser beams?
Seriously, though. War time is hell, and if another all out world war (a real war where Congress actually declares war) breaks out our "regard for the environment" would be the last thing on our minds. We would blow the enemies satellites out of the sky just as our enemies would. It would be a race to see who could do it first, in fact I would guess this would be step 1 in any war plan against a technologically advanced country.
Several posts gasped at the 20GB file size... Come on, its HD. The discs themselves are 30-50GB, what the hell did you expect the ripped torrent file size to be? You want the file size to be small, relatively, then go pirate the non-HD version!
Probably! The radio station really biffed this one, they should have used cups of coffee. Caffeine blocks the hormone Anti Diuretic Hormone, which causes your Kidneys to go into overdrive. A lot less water would have been imbibed and after 3 or 4 cups of coffee someone would have to go bad. Speaking of... gotta go.
You always hear the group of gals claiming "size doesn't matter, its how the thing is used". I think the same holds true here. It is how the media is used. I.e. the video content, DRM (or lack of), the availability of content (ahem, pron, ahem), and the features of the player. Sure, sure, the computer geeks will always point out who's is bigger, but I don't think that will win the war in the end.
One thing Blu-Ray might not be counting on is name recognition.
Right now, if the average Joe walks into an electronics store looking for high definition movie players he/she will see a wall of "Blu-Ray" and "HD-DVD". Most people will see the "HD" and think "yeah, that is what I want, Blu-Ray, what is that? No.. No.. I want high-definition".
Based on name alone HD has an advantage. Blu-Ray needs some serious marketing because if they rely on the sales person in the electronic store for supplying information they will be hosed!
As another post pointed out, we all know the answer... Testing and writing code according the best practices documented by so many books. For commercially developed software "code security" is something that is usually addressed based on the perceived risk of a vulnerability. Risk can be quantified by the probability of an event multiplied by danger the event poses. In a commercially developed piece of software schedule and cost drive a program so the developers know the code is not secure and the managers use risk analysis to find the "biggest" holes. Usually too much time is spent in development before testing is considered so you end up with a "lets fix the major problems and ship it". No code is totally secure, but if you demand secure code, you better deploy lots of automated unit/white box or black box tests to mitigate the risk.
I hope OS and BIOS manufacturers are listening... I'd hate to drop 400+ on a hard drive to have it seen as 1/3 of the actual size by either BIOS or the OS.
is this the death of NetFlix as we know it?
Not necessarily... Whenever I burn a DVD, it takes forever, sometimes doesn't work quite right and just isn't quite the same as a nice and polished commercial DVD. Sure, if I really knew what I was doing and had awesome equipment maybe things would be different. For the average Joe downloading a movie and burning it to a DVD to watch, in most cases, once is too much of a pain in the ass. Most people would rather just pick the movies they want in a list and have the real deal sent to them.
Now video on demand however, is a spin of the downloadable content and could put NetFlix down. If these movie download websites integrate with other equipment (think TiVo or some type of set top box) that can be rented or purchased, then we might have a winner. Sitting in front of the TV and clicking "Play" with a remote and having the content stream in is pretty cool. I loved having this on my old cable network and if a third party offered something similar, it would be healthy competition, especially if the service offered popular TV show archives as well.
All the news about voting machines being buggy, insecure, etc. is just ridiculous! Am I missing something terribly complicated in the requirements for how these machines should function? For shits sake they are glorified vending machines! Push A1 and you get a Hershey chocolate bar and H5 gets you a bag of BBQ chips. Now just replace Hershey chocolate bar with candidate A and BBQ chips with candidate B. Seriously, WTF is going on with these things!
Isn't "decent drm" an oxymoron? ;)
You know, this is a very good point. I used to work at a place, long before mainstream UAVs, UCAVs and the like, and they had something that when people saw it flying around would call it a UFO. It would hover, move directly vertical, then fly horizontal and turned on a dime. Anyone not in the know seeing this crazy thing fly would call it a UFO and be right, and it certainly wasn't an alien space craft I assure you. I can just imagine all the crazy projects various government agencies and third party companies have going on that result in UFO sightings.
People just want to think these weird flying things are aliens visiting us. But honestly, if YOU were an alien, with this fantastic technology to fly hundreds of light years to visit another planet with life on it, would you just fly by some stuff then go home? Hell, I wouldn't drive 60 miles look at something and turn around and come home.
" Not a bad cheat sheet for those of us with a Blu-ray capable PS3 or an XBox 360 HD DVD"
."
Or those who might have burning hardware in their PCs... In my search of DVD burning/authoring software I found software by RocketDivision called Grab & Burn which claims it can, "Duplicate CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD media in 1:1 mode", and, "supports all types of optical storage media (including CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R/RE, HD-DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM) as well as a wide variety of burning hardware", and best of all, "Grab&Burn is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Longhorn and various Linux distributions
Now, I have no idea how the DRM business would impact any plans of copying a LEGAL copy to my hard disc, but this software looks worth a look.
Or you could use the HyperOS HyperDrive, which is a DDR RAM based drive which claims "Seek time is 50-60 microseconds", that is right microseconds.
Granted, this is RAM based technology with the obvious pitfalls (this one has a external power source so as to not lose your data), but with upcoming flash based drives and other improvements, I wouldn't be surprised if these drives become more mainstream, especially with network transfer rates of 100Gb/s.
The picture next to the article is quite fitting, because as the Borg put it:
"Resistance is futile. You WILL be assimilated."
It is only a matter of time before someone brings a lawsuit against Nintendo. If the strap really does break that easily, take the original Wiimote and show a jury how easy it breaks and bam, lawsuit won. If it's true, Nintendo should pay up to replace things that get broken. I'd be pissed if I was swinging my Wiimote with "normal" force and the strap broke causing the wiimote to smash my nice new $2000 flat-screen TV.
Oh, and here are all the links from the M$ website that claim "support Microsoft Robotics Studio".
The /. blurb mentions a 40K robot "for home use" but according to the links on the M$ website there are plenty of other compatible robots, like the LEGO Mindstorms which has a MSRP of a mere US$ 249.99. With these kind of prices, I think this might be a fun hobby to get the kids into...
People must have some serious problems if they are taking the time to generate this kind of stuff.
... so is masturbation. Seriously, though, come'on!
Precisely! I still find it, well, unsettling. The government goes on a crusade, which backfires, and is like "oh well, bill the taxpayers, it's only like 4 cents, no one will miss that". 500k is a lot of money, and it could have been spent on updating a library or something. I know, I know, "get real".