Anonymous proxies can get around any regional/ip-specific service barriers.
One big problem: using anon proxies for browsing the web or sending email is one thing but streaming video? How much bandwidth do you think the proxy can handle anyways and which proxy admin is going to subsidize something like this by purchasing more bandwidth?
I have a feeling people will try to use anon proxies anyways and we are going to see bandwidth caps on proxies fairly quickly all over the place.
Looking at MS's Office suite of apps what is the one of the few areas that they don't really cover well.. graphics. I think Microsoft is planning on somehow integrating Corel Graphics into the Office suite to fight off the Photoshop's and Gimp's of the world. I think that Corel Graphics is much more important to Microsoft than any of the other incidental things they pickup.. wordperfect, Linux, WINE, etc.
My proposal is to make a total of 3 Baby Bills - 1 for the OS which will keep it from splintering, but 2 equal companies which get all the same source code for Office,Apps,VStudio,etc. (i.e. the rest).
Immediately, Office and VStudio's market share will be cut in half. Each company will have to compete with the other on price and features. Since this will inevitably lead to fragmentation of the Office market (each will end up developing towards different focuses), a requirement on breakup should also be the publication of all file formats utilized by either side to allow the other company (as well as any other) to import/export cleanly.
Even better would be to give the assets related to WinCE to one side and the Internet to the other -- this will lead to an automatic focus of one towards the embedded market and the other towards the Internet market.
Anyways, these are just some thoughts bouncing around in my head. Anyone else want to comment?
I went looking around the net for cheap lcd's and came across this. They sell surplus laptop parts including 10.4" LCD screens for as low as $90/each.
From their site: HITACHI 10.4" LCD SCREENS 300 pcs Hitachi 10.4" Dual Scan LCD screen model LMG9300XUCC, new pulls. As low as $90.00each for the lot! DA408
So the screens by themselves are available for fairly cheap prices if someone is willing to just go out and hack together a system. Mainly you would need to find an embedded PC system which has an onboard LCD driver (available quite commonly in industry), wire together, add a hard drive, enet if necessary, and that would be all.
Several embedded versions of Linux floating around (look at http://www.linuxdevices.com) that would work great.
I wonder if the Navy is still smarting over the ship on which they installed WinNT to run majority of control / steering functions. The server crashed due to some div-zero bug and the whole ship shut down -- had to be towed back to base.
A followup on the earlier posting.. finally got into Ebay and saw the following in Announcements:
*** SYSTEM STATUS ***
We are experiencing an external "denial of service" attack. Please note that this does not compromise any data, but it does impact accessibility to the site.
We are taking multiple measures to fight this, including working with local and federal authorities, ISPs including Sprint, UUNet and AboveNet, our vendors including Cisco, our partners, and other Internet sites that have recently been attacked in the same way.
While a large number of users are affected by this attack, the large majority of our users can still access the site for for bidding and listing. We are working hard to restore access to all of our users at this time.
We will continue to keep you updated as more information becomes available.
I have been trying to log into Ebay for several hours today from 3 or 4 different domains on the Internet and Ebay is inaccessible from all of them. Did the hackers who took down Yahoo yesterday move on to Ebay today?
The last item talks about Parabolic Mirror Projections. It uses lasers and mirrors to actually suspend a hologram in front of their device. I've seen this connected with a Power Glove so that you can actually "manipulate" the image and have it react to you. The example I saw was used to display medical images like a 3D beating heart which you could then turn, flip, zoom, etc. With the connected sound system, it felt like there was a "real" heart right in front of you until you pass your hand through and just feel empty space.
Parabolic Mirror Projections
Laser Magic offers a unique line of Parabolic Mirror Projection devices capable of projecting small objects from one the size of a small green olive up to one the size of a basketball. By using specially designed parabolic mirrors with small objects, the object can be see floating in space above or in front of the display housing. The image is so real you don't believe its not there, yet you can put your hand through it as it floats in space.
The image is formed by two concave mirrors facing one another. When the object is placed at the center of the bottom or back mirror, the mirror's curvature puts the object at the focal point of the top or front mirror but can be seen floating above or in front of the display device.
Slashdot Mirror
Anonymous proxies can get around any regional/ip-specific service barriers. One big problem: using anon proxies for browsing the web or sending email is one thing but streaming video? How much bandwidth do you think the proxy can handle anyways and which proxy admin is going to subsidize something like this by purchasing more bandwidth? I have a feeling people will try to use anon proxies anyways and we are going to see bandwidth caps on proxies fairly quickly all over the place.
Of course .. I meant Corel Draw not Corel Graphics ... (its been a long day)
Looking at MS's Office suite of apps what is the one of the few areas that they don't really cover well .. graphics. I think Microsoft is planning on somehow integrating Corel Graphics into the Office suite to fight off the Photoshop's and Gimp's of the world. I think that Corel Graphics is much more important to Microsoft than any of the other incidental things they pickup .. wordperfect, Linux, WINE, etc.
The link to the computer page directly: http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk /cosmos/Public/tour_index.html
Immediately, Office and VStudio's market share will be cut in half. Each company will have to compete with the other on price and features. Since this will inevitably lead to fragmentation of the Office market (each will end up developing towards different focuses), a requirement on breakup should also be the publication of all file formats utilized by either side to allow the other company (as well as any other) to import/export cleanly.
Even better would be to give the assets related to WinCE to one side and the Internet to the other -- this will lead to an automatic focus of one towards the embedded market and the other towards the Internet market.
Anyways, these are just some thoughts bouncing around in my head. Anyone else want to comment?
From their site:
HITACHI 10.4" LCD SCREENS
300 pcs Hitachi 10.4" Dual Scan LCD screen model LMG9300XUCC, new pulls. As low as $90.00each for the lot! DA408
So the screens by themselves are available for fairly cheap prices if someone is willing to just go out and hack together a system. Mainly you would need to find an embedded PC system which has an onboard LCD driver (available quite commonly in industry), wire together, add a hard drive, enet if necessary, and that would be all.
Several embedded versions of Linux floating around (look at http://www.linuxdevices.com) that would work great.
See http://slashdot.org/articles/9807 21/1049204.shtml
for more memories.
A followup on the earlier posting .. finally got into Ebay and saw the following in Announcements:
*** SYSTEM STATUS ***
We are experiencing an external "denial of service" attack. Please note that this does not compromise any data, but it does impact accessibility to the site.
We are taking multiple measures to fight this, including working with local and federal authorities, ISPs including Sprint, UUNet and AboveNet, our vendors including Cisco, our partners, and other Internet sites that have recently been attacked in the same way.
While a large number of users are affected by this attack, the large majority of our users can still access the site for for bidding and listing. We are working hard to restore access to all of our users at this time.
We will continue to keep you updated as more information becomes available.
Regards,
eBay
I have been trying to log into Ebay for several hours today from 3 or 4 different domains on the Internet and Ebay is inaccessible from all of them. Did the hackers who took down Yahoo yesterday move on to Ebay today?
The last item talks about Parabolic Mirror Projections. It uses lasers and mirrors to actually suspend a hologram in front of their device. I've seen this connected with a Power Glove so that you can actually "manipulate" the image and have it react to you. The example I saw was used to display medical images like a 3D beating heart which you could then turn, flip, zoom, etc. With the connected sound system, it felt like there was a "real" heart right in front of you until you pass your hand through and just feel empty space.
Parabolic Mirror Projections
Laser Magic offers a unique line of Parabolic Mirror Projection devices capable of projecting small objects from one the size of a small green olive up to one the size of a basketball. By using specially designed parabolic mirrors with small objects, the object can be see floating in space above or in front of the display housing. The image is so real you don't believe its not there, yet you can put your hand through it as it floats in space.
The image is formed by two concave mirrors facing one another. When the object is placed at the center of the bottom or back mirror, the mirror's curvature puts the object at the focal point of the top or front mirror but can be seen floating above or in front of the display device.