I don't see how the march of progress is going to undo these business models. The big boys have increasing resources too, and they remain beyond those of the home user. I mean, my age in years is steadily increasing, but I'm not about to overtake my older siblings any time soon.
I use servers heavily in my home... for dumb storage, ftp, serving webs, VNC access to apps I don't want to lug around, an Exchange server, a couple streaming media apps, and a smattering of other misc crap. I have over 3TB of storage scattered among them, some of it mirrored. Still, I use Google mail and apps more and more as time goes by. I'm sick of moving account settings and configuration files and extensions and mailboxes and preferences from machine to machine. I don't mind backing up the critical stuff in case of catastrophic failure, but keeping up with all the incidental crap through every normal upgrade cycle is getting way too tedious.
Until hardware, operating systems & software don't need maintenance & replacement, my habits will probably keep moving in the direction they are.
What a perfectly vivid illustration of where Microsoft's loyalties lie. Not only will they let content producers cripple their media products way beyond any of their competitors', but they'll also even close the registration process on a high-profile, branded service trying to sate that beast. One commitment is paramount, that being the one to thwart anyone trying to get a leg up on the content providers.
What remains to be seen is (a) what kind of anti-piracy heuristics they can actually put into production in two weeks (pity the project staff here), and (b) how many users bother with Soapbox anymore once the new chaperone-on-crack features go live.
Good point. Someone already mentioned a CVS style solution below, and I have to agree that this would be a poster-child use-case for version control. But couple that idea with Google's existing offerings, and there's a perfectly natural solution that's almost already built: Google local via Google Desktop.
GDS already has a rudimentary internal versioning system. It runs on 127.0.0.1, and (ignoring security issues here) it already integrates nicely with many of Google's online offerings. Little would need changing in terms of storage and UI. Given a few server side APIs, it should be a cinch for them to provide a GMail local, Google Docs local, Google Notebook local, etc., including user-defined cache sizes, history depths, and synchronization options for when a 'net connection is available.
I should have added that I don't really buy any preinstalled OEM jobbers anymore anyway. If I need new, I build it, and if I can get away with something that's a year or two old and a bunch cheaper, then I'll buy used & start with a new HDD. But in my earlier days when I was buying from Gateway, yeah, maybe I would have considered Linux to be a "real" option if it was offered as one by a big-brand computer maker (though I had a lot of other factors pulling me into MS lock-in even back then).
I think this is true for many would-be OEM Linux desktop consumers, but as you point out, laptops are a different arena, and there I would *definitely* consider a preinstalled Linux option given a solid offering when I'm in the market.
Coincidentally, Dell makes (made?) the only keyboard I've ever liked enthusiastically; model SK-8135. It's one of the first keyboards I've used that doesn't slide around when I type; the page up/page down/delete/end/home cluster is laid out the way I like it (3x2 horizontally, old skool), its footprint is cropped tight around the outer edges of the outermost keys, and the keystrokes just feel "solid" (I swear the thing must weigh over a pound). The keys are kinda quiet though, so if that's what you mean by "squishy," you might not like this one either. If the SK-8135 happens to be what you have & want to get rid of, well... I'd be happy to take it off your hands!
Good point. Also, forgive my cynicism, but how much of this was due to semi-organized request-bombing campaigns?
I actually run Linux on a Dell (albeit a used Dell), so obviously I'd be all for them offering preinstalled Linux, at least from a Rah-Rah for FOSS perspective. However, I doubt I'd actually *buy* a new Linux PC from them, and I'm sure that's more like what they mean when they speak of "consumer demand."
In true/. fashion I did not RTFA or the text of the proposed legislation, but it's probably moot on this point anyway: I cannot imagine a way to define "interactive sites" that would yield consistent rulings when these things inevitably end up in the courts.
Does emailing blog entries to WordPress count? Reading RSS feeds of interactive content? Google groups? Google answers (may it rest in peace)? Experts-Exchange? Fedora Forums?
This is infeasible to implement, really. They'd have to start by, uh, I dunno... blocking http POST verbs? Then start whitelisting "safe" sites (those that use POSTs only for innocuous activities, whatever those might be)? That'd keep the adults out of the bad neighborhoods (and out of the library, probably). Kids will catch on quickly and find workarounds like Psiphon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psiphon) so they can, you know, continue using the library to become pedophile victims. Kids are a crafty and determined bunch, don't you know...
Ditto what the parent said on Namecheap (my one customer service experience was anything but quick, but I need them so rarely that, really, I don't much care.)
(PS - I usually consider "Me too" posts unnecessary and redundant, but in this case, I think it'd be informative to see the number of readers voting for or against a particular host, seconding a particular opinion, etc.)
I've used 1&1 for the past couple of years, registering domains and hosting a few sites. I've not been pleased. Their administrative interfaces are clunky, convoluted and slow. Customer service was below par -- but not abysmal -- in my experience.
The worst part, though, is that transferring a domain away from them is about as easy as learning a new distro & installing it on unfamiliar hardware. It can be done once you climb the mountain and pass the great tests that await you there, though; just prepare yourself for some extra effort.
FWIW, I recommend Namecheap (http://www.namecheap.com). Good interface, reliability, and price. Haven't needed customer service much; the one time I did, the response time was *really* long (days). Overall though, I get everything I need from them to DIY at a bargain price. 'nuff fer me.
...does that in any way change the mechanics of what organizations like BayTSP and the MAFIAA can do to you?
Say you run servers from a home office, with IP addresses registered to a LLC or the like. If a customer has a remote console, remotes in, installs Gnutella, swaps a bunch of crap, then cleans up afterward (and assume you don't log the traffic), what gives if the goonies come knocking?
Given that there are common scenarios where multiple machines share an external IP address, it seems this situation would make it difficult to impossible to assign responsibility to an individual. Can the MAFIAA attach the assets of an LLC? Demand forensics on all the machines on the subnet in question?
I'm basically wondering how best to protect a SOHO operation from this kind of crap without having to cripple or spy on one's customers.
Yes, because we all know that using open source prior art to fight bad patents, and using proprietary prior art to fight bad patents, and using a simple network of interconnected obvious ideas to fight bad patents, are religions that are anathema to each other.
Look, I don't want to get bogged down in battles à-la Free vs Open Source philosophies, etc.; I want to do whatever I can to open up the field for more people to help fight bad patents, using any strategy that doesn't have overtly undesirable side effects. While hastily & poorly written, the text on the tooi.org homepage is meant to convey the fact that the system is not intended for people to "claim" the ideas they submit.
So given its mission, the language about "original ideas" on the homepage needs to change; the scope is counter-productively narrow as it stands. Insofar as the project does solicit and accept original ideas though, the point is that those ideas will somehow be put into either the public domain or Creative Commons (or BSDd or GPLd... implementation still to be debated).
<flattery>You're obviously adept at organizational tasks.</flattery> That sounds like a pretty good breakdown of the task. I'm open to Python. Is there a robust, serverless DB system (i.e., purely filesystem based) that's at all scalable? I have MSSQL & MySql installations, and I don't ses a problem with doing FireBird or Postgre either, but I just the portability of self-contained, dependency-free systems wherever possible. (Though FireBird may already meet that criteria...)
Since I'm leery of appearing autocratic & since I control the domain(s) [just scooped up patentlywrong.org and patentlyobvious.org too], I feel like I should not control the PayPal account. In fact, given previouscases of PayPal being, er, difficult to use for charity purposes, I'd suggest getting a whole bona-fide 501c-something-or-other to use for this purpose. Then we can experiment with the relative utility of PayPal, Google Checkout, and whatnot.
Again, in the spirit of what this whole endeavor is about, I grabbed this for community & not personal visibility.
I wonder if the patent objection filing process has provisions for objections on Obviousness grounds, or only on Prior Art grounds? If the Taxonomy ever gets off the ground, it would make a handy "incorporate-by-reference" resource if the former type of objection is permissible.
Anyway, hopefully there will be enough competent & motivated souls stepping up to help make this all happen.
Like so many of my personal / pet projects, my Taxonomy of Obvious Ideas site (http://tooi.org) is languishing undeveloped as I haven't had the time to follow through on the original inspiration. The parent's idea falls right in line with the sort of things I intended to do there though, so...
I will donate domain space and bandwidth -- and put some of my own cash in the pot -- if people are willing to help design, write and manage the app. I'm vacationing with sporadic access for the next week & a half, but after that I'll try to get all the responders in touch with each other & offer whatever I can to the endeavor. I'm a C# / Asp.NET developer myself, but I'm open to other architectures, e.g. PHP on a virtual LAMP server to start, perhaps? Some sort of mod system would be needed to pair filing suggestions with available funds; nobody would want a system with hundreds of filings just a little bit short of the needed fees, while cumulatively enough dollars were tied up in the pot to address at least some of them. But those are implementation details that could be discussed later...
Right now, the domain is basically "parked" on a host (mind you, with no ads or "Your One Stop Portal for All Your Obvious Ideas Searches" type crap), but yes, I do have my own physical servers & lines when it's time to start real work.
I'm not intent on ultimately controlling the domain & project, by the way. If there's a sensible way to put everything into motivated, collective hands, that'd probably be best.
I've thought about experimenting with Launchy, as it's right in line with my habits.
Launchy does some things that my approach doesn't, like searching available apps for you and providing statement completion without needing a Run history. What I question is its portability & how well it handles arguments & switches to the command line?
What's kept me in my old ways for so long is that I don't have to install anything, and I can put a batch file & a 7z archive on a thumb drive, and quickly have all my familiar shortcuts available to me from the Run prompt on most any Windows computer. If Launchy can be used in a similarly portable manner without costing me functionality, then I'm all for it.
I can't imagine that the episode which premiered on TV in primetime on January 14th was released on DVD the following Tuesday. This will probably be redundant by the time I can hit 'submit', but yes, they really did release the 1st two episodes on the Tuesday after the second one aired. Perhaps FOX has decided to "compete with free," as it were.
I can't understand why people pay for stuff like this. Okay, a system-wide spellchecker is cool, but a hotkey launcher? I'm a mouse hater myself (not in the Disney sense... er, ok, maybe that applies too).
Google desktop + web search == [Ctrl, Ctrl].
A great deal of what needs doing can be done with standard key combos plus a few links ("shortcut" files) in a folder that's in your %PATH% environment variable. Then it's [Windows key + R] to get a Run prompt, and e.g. "ff" for FireFox, "ie" for that other browser, "vlc," "mmjb," "notepad2," "pskill iexplore.exe," etc.
Most Windows keyboards have a context menu key on them now anyway -- usually to the left of the RH [Ctrl] key -- so context-specific commands don't require a mouse either. A registry entry can add a command to any file type, complete with a shortcut key.
Really, I rarely have to find my wireless mouse between the couch cushions, and I don't have any special software installed. Their app integration sounds cool and all, but just using a series of standard key combos [Ctrl + C], [Ctrl, Ctrl], [Ctrl + V], [Enter] is so simple that I haven't been motivated to find a better approach.
The mandatory player quality degradation occurs over non-HDCP compliant *digital* (DVI/HDMI) connections. They don't deem it necessary to lower the rez for analog (Component) connections. I don't think that's right (or if it is now, I don't think it will be for long). Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 already refuses to play regular DVDs above 480i resolution when a TV-capable graphics adapter card is installed. I connect my Media Center PC to my HDTV via analog VGA. Since the graphics adapter is capable of S-Video and Component output, MCE will not play DVDs, even over VGA. The "resolution" of this issue (no pun intended) is to set your display resolution to 480i or lower. (Or allegedly use AnyDVD, DVD43, or burn clear.isos with DvdDecrypter, but I wouldn't know anything about that...)
Media Center's PVR utility also encrypts & adds DRM to plain analog recordings made over S-Video -- on behalf of HBO, Showtime, and others. MS claims that this triggered by the Analog SGMS flag in the S-vid signal, but my own unscientific experiments suggest otherwise; if I set MCE to record a different, unprotected program, then change the channel to the "protected" program directly on the cable box (instead of through MCE's guide & tuner), I get an unprotected recording. That would suggest to me that the DRM flag is somewhere in the guide data rather than the S-vid signal.
At any rate, if MS is already superlatively brutal when it comes to adding unnecessary DRM to legacy technology, I can't imagine they will allow unprotected full-resolution component output through Vista's content imprisonment system. No other software DVD player I know restricts the playback resolution, and no other PVR suite I know of implements SGMS or wraps S-Video recordings in DRM of any kind. I *thought* that the HDCP spec required degradation of component analog outputs, but even if it doesn't, you can bet that MS will do it anyway, if past performance is at all indicative of future behavior.
Anyway, I hope I'm wrong & you're right, since HDTV recording from component inputs will probably be practical & affordable much sooner than many people think.
What you need first is a large batch of "in the wild" email addresses to harvest scam mail.
Then you need a program for preliminary research purposes, to establish patterns between the stock price graph and the timing of the emails. Further, are the emails all sent at once, or in several batches? If the latter, is there any means of telling from a single email what batch it belongs to?
Given the knowledge above paired with your own reaction time plus that of whatever trading mechanism you use, you *might* be able to take minimal advantage of these things. But at least you would *know* how feasible it was, rather than just speculating.
We really need a solid infrastructure for secure, historied, pseudonymous online personae *capable of currency exchange* of some sort.
I really think we're in the 11th hour on this; governments, regimes and treaty organizations around the world are salivating over all these opportunities to govern, shape and manage people's online activities, within their borders and without. This is what such organizations do... they seek out heretofore unregulated categories of behavior and set about regulating them.
This kind of thing isn't going to get better given time. People in the governing class tend not to wake up each day thinking, "gee, I think we've established a good balance here, let's not intervene any further into peoples' affairs." The sincere ones think more like "boy, if people only understood how much better the world would be if *my* will were imposed." These are anointed, enlightened people, after all. The knowingly deceptive ones are, of course, worse.
The apparatus to enforce laws against crimes of conscience is being constructed now. I hate to think how things will wind up if the apparatus to ensure freedom isn't constructed faster.
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I don't see how the march of progress is going to undo these business models. The big boys have increasing resources too, and they remain beyond those of the home user. I mean, my age in years is steadily increasing, but I'm not about to overtake my older siblings any time soon.
I use servers heavily in my home... for dumb storage, ftp, serving webs, VNC access to apps I don't want to lug around, an Exchange server, a couple streaming media apps, and a smattering of other misc crap. I have over 3TB of storage scattered among them, some of it mirrored. Still, I use Google mail and apps more and more as time goes by. I'm sick of moving account settings and configuration files and extensions and mailboxes and preferences from machine to machine. I don't mind backing up the critical stuff in case of catastrophic failure, but keeping up with all the incidental crap through every normal upgrade cycle is getting way too tedious.
Until hardware, operating systems & software don't need maintenance & replacement, my habits will probably keep moving in the direction they are.
What a perfectly vivid illustration of where Microsoft's loyalties lie. Not only will they let content producers cripple their media products way beyond any of their competitors', but they'll also even close the registration process on a high-profile, branded service trying to sate that beast. One commitment is paramount, that being the one to thwart anyone trying to get a leg up on the content providers.
What remains to be seen is (a) what kind of anti-piracy heuristics they can actually put into production in two weeks (pity the project staff here), and (b) how many users bother with Soapbox anymore once the new chaperone-on-crack features go live.
Good point. Someone already mentioned a CVS style solution below, and I have to agree that this would be a poster-child use-case for version control. But couple that idea with Google's existing offerings, and there's a perfectly natural solution that's almost already built: Google local via Google Desktop.
GDS already has a rudimentary internal versioning system. It runs on 127.0.0.1, and (ignoring security issues here) it already integrates nicely with many of Google's online offerings. Little would need changing in terms of storage and UI. Given a few server side APIs, it should be a cinch for them to provide a GMail local, Google Docs local, Google Notebook local, etc., including user-defined cache sizes, history depths, and synchronization options for when a 'net connection is available.
Am I missing something?
I should have added that I don't really buy any preinstalled OEM jobbers anymore anyway. If I need new, I build it, and if I can get away with something that's a year or two old and a bunch cheaper, then I'll buy used & start with a new HDD. But in my earlier days when I was buying from Gateway, yeah, maybe I would have considered Linux to be a "real" option if it was offered as one by a big-brand computer maker (though I had a lot of other factors pulling me into MS lock-in even back then).
I think this is true for many would-be OEM Linux desktop consumers, but as you point out, laptops are a different arena, and there I would *definitely* consider a preinstalled Linux option given a solid offering when I'm in the market.
Coincidentally, Dell makes (made?) the only keyboard I've ever liked enthusiastically; model SK-8135. It's one of the first keyboards I've used that doesn't slide around when I type; the page up/page down/delete/end/home cluster is laid out the way I like it (3x2 horizontally, old skool), its footprint is cropped tight around the outer edges of the outermost keys, and the keystrokes just feel "solid" (I swear the thing must weigh over a pound). The keys are kinda quiet though, so if that's what you mean by "squishy," you might not like this one either. If the SK-8135 happens to be what you have & want to get rid of, well... I'd be happy to take it off your hands!
Good point. Also, forgive my cynicism, but how much of this was due to semi-organized request-bombing campaigns?
I actually run Linux on a Dell (albeit a used Dell), so obviously I'd be all for them offering preinstalled Linux, at least from a Rah-Rah for FOSS perspective. However, I doubt I'd actually *buy* a new Linux PC from them, and I'm sure that's more like what they mean when they speak of "consumer demand."
In true /. fashion I did not RTFA or the text of the proposed legislation, but it's probably moot on this point anyway: I cannot imagine a way to define "interactive sites" that would yield consistent rulings when these things inevitably end up in the courts.
Does emailing blog entries to WordPress count? Reading RSS feeds of interactive content? Google groups? Google answers (may it rest in peace)? Experts-Exchange? Fedora Forums?
This is infeasible to implement, really. They'd have to start by, uh, I dunno... blocking http POST verbs? Then start whitelisting "safe" sites (those that use POSTs only for innocuous activities, whatever those might be)? That'd keep the adults out of the bad neighborhoods (and out of the library, probably). Kids will catch on quickly and find workarounds like Psiphon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psiphon) so they can, you know, continue using the library to become pedophile victims. Kids are a crafty and determined bunch, don't you know...
Ditto what the parent said on Namecheap (my one customer service experience was anything but quick, but I need them so rarely that, really, I don't much care.)
(PS - I usually consider "Me too" posts unnecessary and redundant, but in this case, I think it'd be informative to see the number of readers voting for or against a particular host, seconding a particular opinion, etc.)
I've used 1&1 for the past couple of years, registering domains and hosting a few sites. I've not been pleased. Their administrative interfaces are clunky, convoluted and slow. Customer service was below par -- but not abysmal -- in my experience.
The worst part, though, is that transferring a domain away from them is about as easy as learning a new distro & installing it on unfamiliar hardware. It can be done once you climb the mountain and pass the great tests that await you there, though; just prepare yourself for some extra effort.
FWIW, I recommend Namecheap (http://www.namecheap.com). Good interface, reliability, and price. Haven't needed customer service much; the one time I did, the response time was *really* long (days). Overall though, I get everything I need from them to DIY at a bargain price. 'nuff fer me.
Being an eNom reseller isn't necessarily a bad thing; I've had very good experiences using Namecheap.com, who resells for eNom at $8.88 for most TLDs.
Haven't experienced nor seen any reports of heavy-handed censoring by them, but I can't say it hasn't happened.
Cheers...
Imagine how much faster it would go with a Beowolf Cluster of universes.
When I first saw the headline among my RSS feeds, I thought Mark Russinovich went back out on his own. Somehow that idea made me feel warm & fuzzy.
...does that in any way change the mechanics of what organizations like BayTSP and the MAFIAA can do to you?
Say you run servers from a home office, with IP addresses registered to a LLC or the like. If a customer has a remote console, remotes in, installs Gnutella, swaps a bunch of crap, then cleans up afterward (and assume you don't log the traffic), what gives if the goonies come knocking?
Given that there are common scenarios where multiple machines share an external IP address, it seems this situation would make it difficult to impossible to assign responsibility to an individual. Can the MAFIAA attach the assets of an LLC? Demand forensics on all the machines on the subnet in question?
I'm basically wondering how best to protect a SOHO operation from this kind of crap without having to cripple or spy on one's customers.
Ahhh... a Markov Chain of obviousness. Genius! No wait... that obvious! No wait... shit...
Yes, because we all know that using open source prior art to fight bad patents, and using proprietary prior art to fight bad patents, and using a simple network of interconnected obvious ideas to fight bad patents, are religions that are anathema to each other.
Look, I don't want to get bogged down in battles à-la Free vs Open Source philosophies, etc.; I want to do whatever I can to open up the field for more people to help fight bad patents, using any strategy that doesn't have overtly undesirable side effects. While hastily & poorly written, the text on the tooi.org homepage is meant to convey the fact that the system is not intended for people to "claim" the ideas they submit.
So given its mission, the language about "original ideas" on the homepage needs to change; the scope is counter-productively narrow as it stands. Insofar as the project does solicit and accept original ideas though, the point is that those ideas will somehow be put into either the public domain or Creative Commons (or BSDd or GPLd... implementation still to be debated).
Hope that clears things up.
<flattery>You're obviously adept at organizational tasks.</flattery> That sounds like a pretty good breakdown of the task. I'm open to Python. Is there a robust, serverless DB system (i.e., purely filesystem based) that's at all scalable? I have MSSQL & MySql installations, and I don't ses a problem with doing FireBird or Postgre either, but I just the portability of self-contained, dependency-free systems wherever possible. (Though FireBird may already meet that criteria...)
Since I'm leery of appearing autocratic & since I control the domain(s) [just scooped up patentlywrong.org and patentlyobvious.org too], I feel like I should not control the PayPal account. In fact, given previous cases of PayPal being, er, difficult to use for charity purposes, I'd suggest getting a whole bona-fide 501c-something-or-other to use for this purpose. Then we can experiment with the relative utility of PayPal, Google Checkout, and whatnot.
Good idea, and... done.
Again, in the spirit of what this whole endeavor is about, I grabbed this for community & not personal visibility.
I wonder if the patent objection filing process has provisions for objections on Obviousness grounds, or only on Prior Art grounds? If the Taxonomy ever gets off the ground, it would make a handy "incorporate-by-reference" resource if the former type of objection is permissible.
Anyway, hopefully there will be enough competent & motivated souls stepping up to help make this all happen.
Like so many of my personal / pet projects, my Taxonomy of Obvious Ideas site (http://tooi.org) is languishing undeveloped as I haven't had the time to follow through on the original inspiration. The parent's idea falls right in line with the sort of things I intended to do there though, so...
I will donate domain space and bandwidth -- and put some of my own cash in the pot -- if people are willing to help design, write and manage the app. I'm vacationing with sporadic access for the next week & a half, but after that I'll try to get all the responders in touch with each other & offer whatever I can to the endeavor. I'm a C# / Asp.NET developer myself, but I'm open to other architectures, e.g. PHP on a virtual LAMP server to start, perhaps? Some sort of mod system would be needed to pair filing suggestions with available funds; nobody would want a system with hundreds of filings just a little bit short of the needed fees, while cumulatively enough dollars were tied up in the pot to address at least some of them. But those are implementation details that could be discussed later...
Right now, the domain is basically "parked" on a host (mind you, with no ads or "Your One Stop Portal for All Your Obvious Ideas Searches" type crap), but yes, I do have my own physical servers & lines when it's time to start real work.
I'm not intent on ultimately controlling the domain & project, by the way. If there's a sensible way to put everything into motivated, collective hands, that'd probably be best.
I've thought about experimenting with Launchy, as it's right in line with my habits.
Launchy does some things that my approach doesn't, like searching available apps for you and providing statement completion without needing a Run history. What I question is its portability & how well it handles arguments & switches to the command line?
What's kept me in my old ways for so long is that I don't have to install anything, and I can put a batch file & a 7z archive on a thumb drive, and quickly have all my familiar shortcuts available to me from the Run prompt on most any Windows computer. If Launchy can be used in a similarly portable manner without costing me functionality, then I'm all for it.
I can't understand why people pay for stuff like this. Okay, a system-wide spellchecker is cool, but a hotkey launcher? I'm a mouse hater myself (not in the Disney sense... er, ok, maybe that applies too).
Google desktop + web search == [Ctrl, Ctrl].
A great deal of what needs doing can be done with standard key combos plus a few links ("shortcut" files) in a folder that's in your %PATH% environment variable. Then it's [Windows key + R] to get a Run prompt, and e.g. "ff" for FireFox, "ie" for that other browser, "vlc," "mmjb," "notepad2," "pskill iexplore.exe," etc.
Most Windows keyboards have a context menu key on them now anyway -- usually to the left of the RH [Ctrl] key -- so context-specific commands don't require a mouse either. A registry entry can add a command to any file type, complete with a shortcut key.
Really, I rarely have to find my wireless mouse between the couch cushions, and I don't have any special software installed. Their app integration sounds cool and all, but just using a series of standard key combos [Ctrl + C], [Ctrl, Ctrl], [Ctrl + V], [Enter] is so simple that I haven't been motivated to find a better approach.
Media Center's PVR utility also encrypts & adds DRM to plain analog recordings made over S-Video -- on behalf of HBO, Showtime, and others. MS claims that this triggered by the Analog SGMS flag in the S-vid signal, but my own unscientific experiments suggest otherwise; if I set MCE to record a different, unprotected program, then change the channel to the "protected" program directly on the cable box (instead of through MCE's guide & tuner), I get an unprotected recording. That would suggest to me that the DRM flag is somewhere in the guide data rather than the S-vid signal.
At any rate, if MS is already superlatively brutal when it comes to adding unnecessary DRM to legacy technology, I can't imagine they will allow unprotected full-resolution component output through Vista's content imprisonment system. No other software DVD player I know restricts the playback resolution, and no other PVR suite I know of implements SGMS or wraps S-Video recordings in DRM of any kind. I *thought* that the HDCP spec required degradation of component analog outputs, but even if it doesn't, you can bet that MS will do it anyway, if past performance is at all indicative of future behavior.
Anyway, I hope I'm wrong & you're right, since HDTV recording from component inputs will probably be practical & affordable much sooner than many people think.
What you need first is a large batch of "in the wild" email addresses to harvest scam mail.
Then you need a program for preliminary research purposes, to establish patterns between the stock price graph and the timing of the emails. Further, are the emails all sent at once, or in several batches? If the latter, is there any means of telling from a single email what batch it belongs to?
Given the knowledge above paired with your own reaction time plus that of whatever trading mechanism you use, you *might* be able to take minimal advantage of these things. But at least you would *know* how feasible it was, rather than just speculating.
... to coin the term GEvil? For shame, Columcille. Someone's doing it: http://www.gevilthings.com/We really need a solid infrastructure for secure, historied, pseudonymous online personae *capable of currency exchange* of some sort.
I really think we're in the 11th hour on this; governments, regimes and treaty organizations around the world are salivating over all these opportunities to govern, shape and manage people's online activities, within their borders and without. This is what such organizations do... they seek out heretofore unregulated categories of behavior and set about regulating them.
This kind of thing isn't going to get better given time. People in the governing class tend not to wake up each day thinking, "gee, I think we've established a good balance here, let's not intervene any further into peoples' affairs." The sincere ones think more like "boy, if people only understood how much better the world would be if *my* will were imposed." These are anointed, enlightened people, after all. The knowingly deceptive ones are, of course, worse.
The apparatus to enforce laws against crimes of conscience is being constructed now. I hate to think how things will wind up if the apparatus to ensure freedom isn't constructed faster.