Consider Panasonic. They have a worderful family of digital cameras -- the FZ series -- featuring a Leica lens with 12X optically stabilized zoom and other nifty features.
The first camera in the series, the Lumix DMC-FZ1, was quickly followed by another model that added several important features (like Aperture and Shutter priority modes and white balance adjustment).
When people on online forums speculated that the difference between the cameras were only in the firmware, a Panasonic USA representative insisted that there were "significant" hardware differences between them.
But then, lo and behold, Panasonic Japan released a firmware upgrade that, for the equivalent of US$50 in Yen, converted the FZ1 into a full-featured FZ2. Only problem, it was not released outside of Japan (probably because other regional divisions of Panasonic preferred to milk the customer for eight times the amount).
Well, you can guess how it ended. Most people got tired of Panasonic's lack of responsiveness, told them to get stuffed and downloaded a copy of the firmware from the internet, warranty be damned.
(If you are interested to learn more about the FZ1 and the FZ2, I maintain a FAQ on these cameras).
Consider these points:
* Some camera manufacturers do not release firmware patches (to the point of calling obvious bugs "features").
* The camera often has hidden features (like a cell-phone's service menus).
* The camera's hardware often has more capabilities than the firmware exposes. Often this is done by purpose (price differentiation) but other times the company just does not think that a feature is useful.
Would I "mod" my camera if I could? You bet! (helloooooooo manual focus...) Unfortunately, everything about it is proprietary and, contrary to the Canon 300D, there are no hacks for it.
> Whereabouts of vehicles, wherein the vehicles are registered to the government, the privilege of driving said vehicles is granted by government, and in a country in which the vehicles are driven on roads built by the government and maintained by the government.
You are talking about "the govenment" as if it is some exalted, all-powerful entity which dispenses rights on a whim.
Your government is nothing more than a bunch of people elected by the general populace (or appointed by the elected ones) to effectively manage the common interests of the populace using powers granted by and funds provided by said populace.
It is about time you reminded your government that fact.
This reminds me of a saying: Politicians(*) are like diapers. Both should be changed regularly and often, and for the same reason.
(*) Applies equally well to public officials or, for that matter, governments.
> Not saying I like it, but he is right - our constitution says nothing about a right to privacy, the only privacy is that which is granted by individual laws.
Your constitution also does not say anything about your right to, say, cut your hair, plant potatoes in your back yard or read 18th century literature.
IIRC, it in not intended to enumerate your rights, to the exclusion of all othres, but to limit the power of government to restrict your rights.
A couple of hours a day of doing what she likes (well, probably a bit more now as she's painting two pictures a day) leaves her enough time for her family and brings enough money for their needs.
It is actually quite simple. All you need is talent, energy, determination and an acute business sense.
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power the government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced not objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers and then you cash in on the guilt. Now, that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
> I can assure you that the United States Navy will operate in any body of water outside 12 nautical miles from land and possibly inside 12 nm for transit passage in a strait.
> There is no dispute over the fact that it was an ordinary laser pointer > involved. I'm not sure what sort of "powerful" laser pointer you have in > mind. Go down to Best Buy and try to buy one of these "powerful" pointers. > > Let us presume, however, that you have somehow managed to get a "powerful" > pointer and a monocular. You will still be unable to do anything more that > pass the beam over the retina of a motionless man 20 feet away by "blind" > luck, and only for a fraction of a second at a time. The feat has nothing to > do with the power of the laser or any possible optical magnification.
I can buy a 47mW green laser pointer on ebay. I can find a 50mW one or even a 190mW one.
Note that these class IIIb lasers that *will* damage the eye faster than the blink reflex kicks in (read: fraction of a second) on a "sweep" -- no monocular required; and can even cause damage if viewed indirectly (reflected).
> It's like somebody created an OS, but it's full of security holes, fear not, we can always create software like firewall and anti-virus to solve those problems.
No, it's like somebody created a horseless carriage but it was slow and heavy and noisy and had barely enough power to haul its fuel and tended to malfunction almost constantly.
Would you rather use a horse today?
Or maybe it's like somebody created an electric lamp but its life was less than 50 hours and supplying it with DC current was a real PITA.
Would you rather use gas lamps today?
Or maybe it's like somebody invented a digital computer but it consisted of 30 units, weighed over 30 tons, consumed 200KW and had a memory capacity of 20 10-digit numbers.
> RTF does contain, in theory, sufficient control words to describe > everything that Word 2000 can do, but it's hardly a direct translation and > things get lost a lot.
when will we see viable (read: fully functional) emulators for more modern systems like the Sega DreamCast? (I am not even talking about the current crop of consoles: XBox, PlayStation-2 and GameCube).
Microsoft's Visual C++ creates a "code database" containing information about functions and classes.
Version 6 had operations like "call graph" and "caller graph" that graphically showed the function calling sequence from or to a given function.
Unfortunately, Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, decided to scrap this functionality in version 7 (a.k.a.NET).
Theoretically, since the code DB still contains the full info, an add-on could be written to support this functionality but,as far as I know, there is none that supports version 7.1 (Visual studio.NET 2003)
> the problem with hitting an large object hurtling towards something with > a nuke is that afterwards you have a lot of much smaller hurtling bodies [...]
Anonymous Coward> A hash does not incorporate any amount of the preexisting work. Kaseijin> It's a mathematical transformation of the initial work. Kaseijin> What distinguishes it from a sample processed beyond recognition?
Indeed.
I hereby direct your attention at the following mathematical transformations:
F1(x) = x / x F2(x) = x - x
Now, I admit that these hash functions are not the best ones to choose from, due to a higher than average percentage of collisions, but that is beside the point -- a crappy hash function is still a hash function.
That said, I submit that every instance of the numbers "1" and "0" and any combination thereof (in particular, binary code) is an application of the hash functions above to copyrighted material, child pornography, terrorist activity or any other type of illegal content.
Possession and distribution of such data is therefore criminal.
>> Except that in Canada it is legal to copy music for personal use. > > If it's legal then you shouldn't have to pay any money to the recording > industry for BLANK CDS and DEVICES. That's absurd.
Presumably, that sort of compromise is what made private copying legal in Canada.
> So many things are becoming an addition to the mobile phone, and different > groups teaming up to cover their core areas. Obviously Sony are placed fairly > well at the moment with their audio, imaging, comms and gaming devices.
Personally, I think that most additions that are bolted on a cell phone result in a substandard product.
Consider a phone + camera combo.
On one hand, I want my phone to be small and light. On the other hand, I want my digicam to take quality pictures, which requires a decently sized photosites and good optics (with lots of lens elements).
These requirements are at odds with each other.
On the other hand, adding audio functions to a cell phone should be doable without exessively compromising quality.
Is there a reasonably priced cell phone + AM/FM radio + MP3 player combo in existance?
Slashdot Mirror
> Should we now be made criminals for learning knowledge or thinking up ideas?
Yes! For it is not the role of a consumer to learn or think.
> Last time I checked, the US is supposed to stand for liberalized trade,
> free enterprise, fairness, etc.
Mod parent "funny"
Actually, the submitter has a point.
Let me tell you a story.
Consider Panasonic. They have a worderful family of digital cameras -- the FZ series -- featuring a Leica lens with 12X optically stabilized zoom and other nifty features.
The first camera in the series, the Lumix DMC-FZ1, was quickly followed by another model that added several important features (like Aperture and Shutter priority modes and white balance adjustment).
When people on online forums speculated that the difference between the cameras were only in the firmware, a Panasonic USA representative insisted that there were "significant" hardware differences between them.
But then, lo and behold, Panasonic Japan released a firmware upgrade that, for the equivalent of US$50 in Yen, converted the FZ1 into a full-featured FZ2. Only problem, it was not released outside of Japan (probably because other regional divisions of Panasonic preferred to milk the customer for eight times the amount).
Well, you can guess how it ended. Most people got tired of Panasonic's lack of responsiveness, told them to get stuffed and downloaded a copy of the firmware from the internet, warranty be damned.
(If you are interested to learn more about the FZ1 and the FZ2, I maintain a FAQ on these cameras).
Consider these points:
* Some camera manufacturers do not release firmware patches (to the point of calling obvious bugs "features").
* The camera often has hidden features (like a cell-phone's service menus).
* The camera's hardware often has more capabilities than the firmware exposes. Often this is done by purpose (price differentiation) but other times the company just does not think that a feature is useful.
Would I "mod" my camera if I could? You bet! (helloooooooo manual focus...)
Unfortunately, everything about it is proprietary and, contrary to the Canon 300D, there are no hacks for it.
>> public nuisance
> My butt.
If your butt is a public nuisance, may I suggest considering a diet change?
Now tell me again that patents are in place to protect the "little guy" from the big corporations.
> Whereabouts of vehicles, wherein the vehicles are registered to the government, the privilege of driving said vehicles is granted by government, and in a country in which the vehicles are driven on roads built by the government and maintained by the government.
You are talking about "the govenment" as if it is some exalted, all-powerful entity which dispenses rights on a whim.
Your government is nothing more than a bunch of people elected by the general populace (or appointed by the elected ones) to effectively manage the common interests of the populace using powers granted by and funds provided by said populace.
It is about time you reminded your government that fact.
This reminds me of a saying:
Politicians(*) are like diapers. Both should be changed regularly and often, and for the same reason.
(*) Applies equally well to public officials or, for that matter, governments.
> Not saying I like it, but he is right - our constitution says nothing about a right to privacy, the only privacy is that which is granted by individual laws.
Your constitution also does not say anything about your right to, say, cut your hair, plant potatoes in your back yard or read 18th century literature.
IIRC, it in not intended to enumerate your rights, to the exclusion of all othres, but to limit the power of government to restrict your rights.
In fact, a friend of mine does make a living off ebay.
A couple of hours a day of doing what she likes (well, probably a bit more now as she's painting two pictures a day) leaves her enough time for her family and brings enough money for their needs.
It is actually quite simple.
All you need is talent, energy, determination and an acute business sense.
Way to go, Osnat!
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power the government has is to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced not objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers and then you cash in on the guilt. Now, that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
-- Atlas Shrugged
> I can assure you that the United States Navy will operate in any body of water outside 12 nautical miles from land and possibly inside 12 nm for transit passage in a strait.
I don't know... 12nm is an awfully cramped space.
> (you know, like my rubber duckie in the tub)
You know, Moofie, thaere are some things that you just don't admit to on SlashDot.
> What happens if the government decided to ban oral sex?
Funny you should mention it because until recently your government was doing just that.
> There is no dispute over the fact that it was an ordinary laser pointer
> involved. I'm not sure what sort of "powerful" laser pointer you have in
> mind. Go down to Best Buy and try to buy one of these "powerful" pointers.
>
> Let us presume, however, that you have somehow managed to get a "powerful"
> pointer and a monocular. You will still be unable to do anything more that
> pass the beam over the retina of a motionless man 20 feet away by "blind"
> luck, and only for a fraction of a second at a time. The feat has nothing to
> do with the power of the laser or any possible optical magnification.
I can buy a 47mW green laser pointer on ebay.
I can find a 50mW one or even a 190mW one.
Note that these class IIIb lasers that *will* damage the eye faster than the blink reflex kicks in (read: fraction of a second) on a "sweep" -- no monocular required; and can even cause damage if viewed indirectly (reflected).
> It's like somebody created an OS, but it's full of security holes, fear not, we can always create software like firewall and anti-virus to solve those problems.
No, it's like somebody created a horseless carriage but it was slow and heavy and noisy and had barely enough power to haul its fuel and tended to malfunction almost constantly.
Would you rather use a horse today?
Or maybe it's like somebody created an electric lamp but its life was less than 50 hours and supplying it with DC current was a real PITA.
Would you rather use gas lamps today?
Or maybe it's like somebody invented a digital computer but it consisted of 30 units, weighed over 30 tons, consumed 200KW and had a memory capacity of 20 10-digit numbers.
Would you rather play HL2 on a slide rule?
The problem with most DivX capable DVD players (especially the "hackable" ones) is that their low quality of regular (MPEG-2) DVD playback.
A $60 player is nice but I would pay 3 times as much for a unit that not only plays "everything" but actually plays it well.
> RTF does contain, in theory, sufficient control words to describe
> everything that Word 2000 can do, but it's hardly a direct translation and
> things get lost a lot.
What gets lost?
Examples please.
when will we see viable (read: fully functional) emulators for more modern systems like the Sega DreamCast? (I am not even talking about the current crop of consoles: XBox, PlayStation-2 and GameCube).
Microsoft's Visual C++ creates a "code database" containing information about functions and classes.
Version 6 had operations like "call graph" and "caller graph" that graphically showed the function calling sequence from or to a given function.
Unfortunately, Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, decided to scrap this functionality in version 7 (a.k.a
Theoretically, since the code DB still contains the full info, an add-on could be written to support this functionality but
> the problem with hitting an large object hurtling towards something with
> a nuke is that afterwards you have a lot of much smaller hurtling bodies [...]
which tend to burn on entry into the atmosphere.
Kaseijin> It's a mathematical transformation of the initial work.
Kaseijin> What distinguishes it from a sample processed beyond recognition?
Indeed.
I hereby direct your attention at the following mathematical transformations:Now, I admit that these hash functions are not the best ones to choose from, due to a higher than average percentage of collisions, but that is beside the point -- a crappy hash function is still a hash function.
That said, I submit that every instance of the numbers "1" and "0" and any combination thereof (in particular, binary code) is an application of the hash functions above to copyrighted material, child pornography, terrorist activity or any other type of illegal content.
Possession and distribution of such data is therefore criminal.
God bless America!
SG1 is not a bad series but compared to Farscape it looks simplistic, formulaic and moralistic.
If SG1 is going into its 10th season, how hard it would have been to do the 5th season of Farscape properly instead of the tacked-on miniseries?
> I am deeply saddened by this news.
Somebody needs to get out more.
Does FF/TB share dynamic ibraries or do they still load a separate copy?
>> Except that in Canada it is legal to copy music for personal use.
>
> If it's legal then you shouldn't have to pay any money to the recording
> industry for BLANK CDS and DEVICES. That's absurd.
Presumably, that sort of compromise is what made private copying legal in Canada.
> So many things are becoming an addition to the mobile phone, and different
> groups teaming up to cover their core areas. Obviously Sony are placed fairly
> well at the moment with their audio, imaging, comms and gaming devices.
Personally, I think that most additions that are bolted on a cell phone result in a substandard product.
Consider a phone + camera combo.
On one hand, I want my phone to be small and light.
On the other hand, I want my digicam to take quality pictures, which requires a decently sized photosites and good optics (with lots of lens elements).
These requirements are at odds with each other.
On the other hand, adding audio functions to a cell phone should be doable without exessively compromising quality.
Is there a reasonably priced cell phone + AM/FM radio + MP3 player combo in existance?