Mod parent up. I was unaware of this specialized printing.... However, there really isn't all that much of a difference between sending my 3D Unigraphics model to a 3D printer with their megadollar machine, or sending my UG model file to a machine shop who would machine the part out of metal stock - I have still spent a good chunk of money for someone else to construct a part to my design. No the difference is that the '3D printing' methods can make some complex forms possible to construct in a single operation, that would require joining multiple parts in a conventional machinine shop. However the article is talking about how people can do this at HOME, with a reasonably inexpensive box on their desk. I still don't see the price of the metal type print head machines reaching the upper middle class price point any time soon.
the printer will be able to reproduce the object with perfect quality.
...in plastic or resin, starch, what haveyou. Many of the things I would like replicated (e.g. the Ferarri mentioned elsewhere) require parts of specific material for strength, weight, or durability reasons (anybody have a print head for Inconel?). Replicating an object's form and fit is one thing, replicating function is a bit harder.
that said, it's great for making models for molds, wind tunnel testing, and such...
The price of hardware has dropped enough that you can have a laptop, while previously it was a desktop. With modern software, the functional ability of the machines are the same compared to the less demanding software of the time. I call that a wash.
Why does everyone assume that all Google's dark fiber is for us? Google has rather large bandwidth requirements, which only get larger, and they are focused on grid type distributed processing for their business. That dark fiber could be there as their insurance against being held up by the backbone providers they have/will piss off. The market for bargain basement systems is small (how many internet appliances did you buy when they came out?), why should they risk it? Besides, the cell phone industry is the *last* industry I would like to emulate - Verizon gives me a free/reduced phone and then chips away at what it's capabilities are after the fact with software updates so that BitPim can't run - Yeah - Google needs to link themselves with that type of behavior in people's minds.
Been tried before (PeoplePC and some others IIRC). Didn't work then. What do you think has changed in the last ten years to make it viable now? (Those previous PCs were as capable of email/Web then as what you are talking about now Oh, I forgot - Google makes everything better.
I don't know about the OLPC guys' deal with Quantas, but this raises some interesting questions. By making their stack open source, anyone can grab it - and now their hardware manufacturer is looking to sell a potentially functionally identical product. And there is no reason that the money from that product need go towards reducing OLPC costs rather than increasing Quantas' bankroll.
From this viewpoint it looks rather short sighted of them... but I hope that we just don't know all the facts.
Unless the tattoo is easily and cleanly removable, it would be a mistake to use on the general military population, since tattooed grunts couldn't aspire to covert ops (too easily identifiable).
TFA states that the tatto can be placed under the hair, without shaving first - it doesn't have to be visible.
...so we need to dump it outside the system - maybe another application for space elevator technology - put a big radiator on the orbiting end to rid heat from the ocean into space.
Gotta think big when you're talking about systems the size of a planet.
Yeah, I saw the movie - rather liked the kinematics on the robot dog, or whatever it was - science sucked somewhat less than usual (somewhat). Gamma will travel at c, but I thought that the point of this particular article was the resoloution of some particle calcs to predict aurorae and such. Probably need an auxilliary study to worry about the c-speed component stuff... baby steps.
Thanks - Shows to go ya what discipline snobbery gets you. You get all the fun of the N-S equations coupled with Maxwell's equations to give you non-gravitational body forces throughout your domain of interest. At the rather low densities of interplanetary space, however, what kind of Reynolds numbers are normal? Can you at least assume laminar flow? (although the wiki appears to say that solar flares occur when the simplifying assumptions used break down... always a bitch when the 'easy' way to solve problems doesn't work in the domain of interest)
I know that you were shooting for funny there, but actually it should be easier to predict this than your local weather. It is a much simpler system (two objects of interest) with reasonably well understood rules at the scale of interest. Local weather, OTOH, is influenced by a much more complex system (the global atmosphere) with myriad influences (many heat sources, water sources, pressure variations, friction), multi-phase flows, as well as poorly understood rules at influential scales (turbulence - see the Navier-Stokes millenium problem). I would think that this sytem would lend itself to accurate prediction far more easily (now getting enough accurate data to make that prediction may be where the difficulty lies, currently)
This was my thought. TFA says that most subjects left the beam area within 3 seconds, and nobody stayed more than 5 seconds. That's all great, but what happens at longer duration bursts? Like the aforementioned tightly packed crowd, or someone who falls in the attempt and can't get out of the beam (or the occasional operator that slews the beam to cause a particularly aggravating protester to remain in the beam as they run - no, that would *never* happen). Let's activate every pain nerve in the skin and burn them alive...possibly from a concealed location. I think I'd rather be shot.
Parent has a good point - the beam is invisible, so the operator presses a button and people magically writhe in pain, without knowing even the direction the pain is coming from (easier for the portable version mentioned)- reminds me of that psych experiment involving giving people shocks...
We had Citrix where I work, in order to provide access to MS Office and other PC-based programs from our UNIX boxen. Worked ok on the test rollout of 20-30 users. Put 500-1000 on it and it was an absolute nightmare. It. did. not. scale. We had managers springing for laptops out of their contingency budgets just so their people could get work done. 20 minute login times and 60 seconds between mouse click and app update were common. The company got rid of them all, bought everyone a shiny new PC and now we remote into the UNIX machines for anything that hasn't been ported.
I'm waiting for the inevitable "You shouldn't do any business with those careless assholes! Transfer immediately!" replies. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyplace that actually implements indentity security correctly (Thanks USGov/Financial System/Educational System for making the sole key to my identity something anyone can find out for $19.95 or less!).
If you're really concerned, pay for a credit monitoring service yourself. Chalk it up to yet another random fee that you have to pay to get an education.
If you have expectations on how that information is to be used, then yes you should donate it to an organization that states that they will abide by those expectations. Putting something 'into the wild' and expecting that everyone else with access to the net thinks/feels the same as you do about what to do with what you put out there is lunacy. I see lots of "I assumed..." and "we understood that...", and "they should have known that we...."
I'm sorry that everyone is so upset at the situation, and perhaps Gracenote acted with just as much malice aforethought as is attributed to them (in which case perhaps they will reap the whirlwind). If someone lies, the world knows them as such, and reacts accordingly - but should you not also be sure that whatever conditions are assured beforehand if they mean so much?
If you give $5 to a bum after he says "I'm hungry," then it's assumed he's going to buy food. If the bum uses the money to buy more wine, then I have a reason to be pissed
Why would you be pissed? If you want him to have food, then give him food. If you want to give him $5, why does this give you some power over his actions? It's not a gift then. Should people give charity because they wish to share their good fortune? or because they wish to purchase power over peoples lives?
I agree with all of that. And, Gracenote is still a bunch of jerks.
Perhaps I should have started my initial comment with that last sentence... on the assumption that the Gracenote execs acted as they did out of malice, greed, or any of the other generalized nastiness that they are being accused of. I do not know.
The world will always contain people who do not act in everyone's best interest. We should do what we can to discourage such behavior... but we should also be sure that we do not give them unecessary opportunities to cause despair.
It's his field, so I guess it's his call if he wants to roll that way, but how can you with a straight face act surprised that this pisses people the fuck off?
*sigh* I'm not surprised. I wish that they weren't pissed off, but I'm not surprised. People assumed a certain set of conditions when they contributed to the DB, different people assumed different things - Gracenote assumed something else. Nobody communicated their assumptions. People are now pissed off. Would the community be happier had Gracenote not done what they did? Most likely. Perhaps everyone would all be able to sit around the campfire singing kumbya along to a properly identified CD recording. But the road to that outcome goes through a full communication of expectaions. IF everyone had had that communication first, then there would not be people pissed off for this reason (probably for some other reason instead, people are evidently really good at getting pissed off). It's sad that Gracenote, CDDB, and the various contributors could not play nice, and I empathize with the pissed off multitudes... but I see no harm in attempting to point out how the situation could be avoided in the future. You are correct that this has nothing to do with giving or sharing except in passing - the true problem is lack of communication, which we all could do better to avoid.
If the school were a private company when the donation was made...of course they could sell it. You say that just because something is legal doesn't make it moral., and you are absolutely correct. And I'm sure that Gracenote will have some difficulty in the future, should they need help from some of the previous contributors - that is a consequence of their actions. But the contributors should also take away a consequence of their actions - do not be surprised if someone fails to abide by your uncommunicated assumptions on their behavior. Either be up front with your expectations...or better yet, do not have those expectations. You will always be eventually disappointed by people if you don't tell them what you expect. Which is true whether not we are talking about cookies, playgrounds, or personal relationships.
I'm absolutely apalled that you can turn this around on the people that were duped in this situation. I really don't know what to say...
I'm not really trying to 'turn this around', I don't think. When people do things 'in good faith', what does that mean? Is it "in good faith" that XYZ will or will not be done with the contribution? If XYZ really matters to you, it needs to be communicated, in the open. I'm not trying to say that Gracenote should or should not have done what it has done...if people don't like what they have done, they will not likely be getting any additional assistance, but that said, those that feel 'duped' should take something good out of the situation and either decide to set their gifts free...or make sure that everyone understands precisely what is expected when they accept their gift.
*I* am the one in the wrong because I am upset with your actions???
Absolutely not. You can be upset, or grateful, or apathetic as you wish... but you are reacting to an unspoken expectation of another's behavior being false. Down that path leads much miscommunication, disappointment and despair...which can be avoided.
I don't think things like this need to be spelled out in contract ahead of time.
...and that is why things like this happen. Because you don't think it does...but they do, and you can't know the difference until you tell them.
I'm not trying to place blame or spread invective - I just see that, at the root, unspoken assumptions have caused the pain here...perhaps it can be avoided in the future.
Contribution to CDDB not giving. It contributing to community. It sharing.
Interesting. We have had to go over this with our kids too. Sharing doesn't have limits anymore than giving. If I share my cookie with you...I don't expect it back (especially from you). If I share my truck with you, I probably do expect it back when you are finished with it, but if I don't ask for it back and you walk out of the house with it...then if I'm upset, I'll be sure to ask for anything back in the future. Perhaps I won't share anything else with you again, but the truck would be a lesson - be up front with your expectations and let people know. There are implications far beyond trucks and cookies and CD information, the world would be a less violent place if people communicated and took responsibility for what they have done. And moreso if they could learn to truly give without strings.
What would you say if Freedb suddenly locked down and started charging?
What would it matter? Either you are giving the information away, or you are attempting to exchange it for something else. In this case, it sounds like in exchange for a promise that they won't attempt to make money off of it. Unfortunately you aren't explicitly telling the other party what it is that you expect, so why are you surprised they don't hold up their end of the 'bargain'? You're trying to use your own version of a clickthrough EULA - 'if you accept my data then you are bound by my own ideas about how to use it'. That's not giving or donating data, that's unannounced barter - which rarely works, as it requires some form of telepathy to determine intent (anyone had a gf that worked like that? oh, sorry,/., nevermind).
If you are truly giving something, it matters not what is done with the gift. You are responsible for your own actions. Everyone else is responsible for theirs. The fact that some people act differently than you think they should has no bearing on your gift...unless that's not what it is (in which case you should have said so in the first place).
Why should someone be upset that Gracenote is using community donated data commercially? It's all still out there free (freedb? don't have linky). If you give something away (CD information, $5 to the bum on the street, winning lottery numbers), what the recipient does with it isn't your problem or responsibility. Either you are giving it away, or you are trying to elicit payment of some kind (without specifying what you want - should you be surprised that you don't get it?), in which case, you aren't giving it away. Anyone concerned that their data is being used has a problem with the entire concept of 'donate'
I find it pretty pathetic that a company has to say to its customers, "We got nothin'. If you help us we'll give you royalties."
Wait a minute. There are plenty of people who can and do design things that can be described as innovative, but don't sell - they are a beautiful, creative solution to a problem that their customer doesn't have. This 'contest' is just an attempt to find out what it is that their customers want. I'm sure that there will be quite a bit of fine tuning once the contest is over, but you're going to have a much harder time in the market if you have no idea what problems people want solved (and are willing to pay for!).
Now I can see which companies are so desperate to annoy me that I can specifically not buy their products. Otherwise they all disappear into the mish-mash at 15X
If I am looking for advice on stuff to buy, I'll ask you. Get out of my face.
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Mod parent up. I was unaware of this specialized printing.... However, there really isn't all that much of a difference between sending my 3D Unigraphics model to a 3D printer with their megadollar machine, or sending my UG model file to a machine shop who would machine the part out of metal stock - I have still spent a good chunk of money for someone else to construct a part to my design. No the difference is that the '3D printing' methods can make some complex forms possible to construct in a single operation, that would require joining multiple parts in a conventional machinine shop. However the article is talking about how people can do this at HOME, with a reasonably inexpensive box on their desk. I still don't see the price of the metal type print head machines reaching the upper middle class price point any time soon.
that said, it's great for making models for molds, wind tunnel testing, and such...
Why does everyone assume that all Google's dark fiber is for us? Google has rather large bandwidth requirements, which only get larger, and they are focused on grid type distributed processing for their business. That dark fiber could be there as their insurance against being held up by the backbone providers they have/will piss off. The market for bargain basement systems is small (how many internet appliances did you buy when they came out?), why should they risk it? Besides, the cell phone industry is the *last* industry I would like to emulate - Verizon gives me a free/reduced phone and then chips away at what it's capabilities are after the fact with software updates so that BitPim can't run - Yeah - Google needs to link themselves with that type of behavior in people's minds.
Been tried before (PeoplePC and some others IIRC). Didn't work then. What do you think has changed in the last ten years to make it viable now? (Those previous PCs were as capable of email/Web then as what you are talking about now Oh, I forgot - Google makes everything better.
From this viewpoint it looks rather short sighted of them... but I hope that we just don't know all the facts.
TFA states that the tatto can be placed under the hair, without shaving first - it doesn't have to be visible.
Gotta think big when you're talking about systems the size of a planet.
Yeah, I saw the movie - rather liked the kinematics on the robot dog, or whatever it was - science sucked somewhat less than usual (somewhat). Gamma will travel at c, but I thought that the point of this particular article was the resoloution of some particle calcs to predict aurorae and such. Probably need an auxilliary study to worry about the c-speed component stuff... baby steps.
Thanks - Shows to go ya what discipline snobbery gets you. You get all the fun of the N-S equations coupled with Maxwell's equations to give you non-gravitational body forces throughout your domain of interest. At the rather low densities of interplanetary space, however, what kind of Reynolds numbers are normal? Can you at least assume laminar flow? (although the wiki appears to say that solar flares occur when the simplifying assumptions used break down... always a bitch when the 'easy' way to solve problems doesn't work in the domain of interest)
Actually the particles are not travelling that fast, see http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarstorm_s peed_040614.html which states
So there should be time.I know that you were shooting for funny there, but actually it should be easier to predict this than your local weather. It is a much simpler system (two objects of interest) with reasonably well understood rules at the scale of interest. Local weather, OTOH, is influenced by a much more complex system (the global atmosphere) with myriad influences (many heat sources, water sources, pressure variations, friction), multi-phase flows, as well as poorly understood rules at influential scales (turbulence - see the Navier-Stokes millenium problem). I would think that this sytem would lend itself to accurate prediction far more easily (now getting enough accurate data to make that prediction may be where the difficulty lies, currently)
Parent has a good point - the beam is invisible, so the operator presses a button and people magically writhe in pain, without knowing even the direction the pain is coming from (easier for the portable version mentioned)- reminds me of that psych experiment involving giving people shocks...
I miss my OS.
I'm waiting for the inevitable "You shouldn't do any business with those careless assholes! Transfer immediately!" replies. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyplace that actually implements indentity security correctly (Thanks USGov/Financial System/Educational System for making the sole key to my identity something anyone can find out for $19.95 or less!). If you're really concerned, pay for a credit monitoring service yourself. Chalk it up to yet another random fee that you have to pay to get an education.
I'm sorry that everyone is so upset at the situation, and perhaps Gracenote acted with just as much malice aforethought as is attributed to them (in which case perhaps they will reap the whirlwind). If someone lies, the world knows them as such, and reacts accordingly - but should you not also be sure that whatever conditions are assured beforehand if they mean so much?
Why would you be pissed? If you want him to have food, then give him food. If you want to give him $5, why does this give you some power over his actions? It's not a gift then. Should people give charity because they wish to share their good fortune? or because they wish to purchase power over peoples lives?
Perhaps I should have started my initial comment with that last sentence... on the assumption that the Gracenote execs acted as they did out of malice, greed, or any of the other generalized nastiness that they are being accused of. I do not know.
The world will always contain people who do not act in everyone's best interest. We should do what we can to discourage such behavior... but we should also be sure that we do not give them unecessary opportunities to cause despair.
*sigh* I'm not surprised. I wish that they weren't pissed off, but I'm not surprised. People assumed a certain set of conditions when they contributed to the DB, different people assumed different things - Gracenote assumed something else. Nobody communicated their assumptions. People are now pissed off. Would the community be happier had Gracenote not done what they did? Most likely. Perhaps everyone would all be able to sit around the campfire singing kumbya along to a properly identified CD recording. But the road to that outcome goes through a full communication of expectaions. IF everyone had had that communication first, then there would not be people pissed off for this reason (probably for some other reason instead, people are evidently really good at getting pissed off). It's sad that Gracenote, CDDB, and the various contributors could not play nice, and I empathize with the pissed off multitudes... but I see no harm in attempting to point out how the situation could be avoided in the future. You are correct that this has nothing to do with giving or sharing except in passing - the true problem is lack of communication, which we all could do better to avoid.
If the school were a private company when the donation was made...of course they could sell it. You say that just because something is legal doesn't make it moral., and you are absolutely correct. And I'm sure that Gracenote will have some difficulty in the future, should they need help from some of the previous contributors - that is a consequence of their actions. But the contributors should also take away a consequence of their actions - do not be surprised if someone fails to abide by your uncommunicated assumptions on their behavior. Either be up front with your expectations...or better yet, do not have those expectations. You will always be eventually disappointed by people if you don't tell them what you expect. Which is true whether not we are talking about cookies, playgrounds, or personal relationships.
I'm not really trying to 'turn this around', I don't think. When people do things 'in good faith', what does that mean? Is it "in good faith" that XYZ will or will not be done with the contribution? If XYZ really matters to you, it needs to be communicated, in the open. I'm not trying to say that Gracenote should or should not have done what it has done...if people don't like what they have done, they will not likely be getting any additional assistance, but that said, those that feel 'duped' should take something good out of the situation and either decide to set their gifts free...or make sure that everyone understands precisely what is expected when they accept their gift.
*I* am the one in the wrong because I am upset with your actions???
Absolutely not. You can be upset, or grateful, or apathetic as you wish... but you are reacting to an unspoken expectation of another's behavior being false. Down that path leads much miscommunication, disappointment and despair...which can be avoided.
I don't think things like this need to be spelled out in contract ahead of time.
I'm not trying to place blame or spread invective - I just see that, at the root, unspoken assumptions have caused the pain here...perhaps it can be avoided in the future.
Interesting. We have had to go over this with our kids too. Sharing doesn't have limits anymore than giving. If I share my cookie with you...I don't expect it back (especially from you). If I share my truck with you, I probably do expect it back when you are finished with it, but if I don't ask for it back and you walk out of the house with it...then if I'm upset, I'll be sure to ask for anything back in the future. Perhaps I won't share anything else with you again, but the truck would be a lesson - be up front with your expectations and let people know. There are implications far beyond trucks and cookies and CD information, the world would be a less violent place if people communicated and took responsibility for what they have done. And moreso if they could learn to truly give without strings.
What would it matter? Either you are giving the information away, or you are attempting to exchange it for something else. In this case, it sounds like in exchange for a promise that they won't attempt to make money off of it. Unfortunately you aren't explicitly telling the other party what it is that you expect, so why are you surprised they don't hold up their end of the 'bargain'? You're trying to use your own version of a clickthrough EULA - 'if you accept my data then you are bound by my own ideas about how to use it'. That's not giving or donating data, that's unannounced barter - which rarely works, as it requires some form of telepathy to determine intent (anyone had a gf that worked like that? oh, sorry, /., nevermind).
If you are truly giving something, it matters not what is done with the gift. You are responsible for your own actions. Everyone else is responsible for theirs. The fact that some people act differently than you think they should has no bearing on your gift...unless that's not what it is (in which case you should have said so in the first place).
Why should someone be upset that Gracenote is using community donated data commercially? It's all still out there free (freedb? don't have linky). If you give something away (CD information, $5 to the bum on the street, winning lottery numbers), what the recipient does with it isn't your problem or responsibility. Either you are giving it away, or you are trying to elicit payment of some kind (without specifying what you want - should you be surprised that you don't get it?), in which case, you aren't giving it away. Anyone concerned that their data is being used has a problem with the entire concept of 'donate'
Wait a minute. There are plenty of people who can and do design things that can be described as innovative, but don't sell - they are a beautiful, creative solution to a problem that their customer doesn't have. This 'contest' is just an attempt to find out what it is that their customers want. I'm sure that there will be quite a bit of fine tuning once the contest is over, but you're going to have a much harder time in the market if you have no idea what problems people want solved (and are willing to pay for!).
If I am looking for advice on stuff to buy, I'll ask you. Get out of my face.