We're still stuck with this shithole as long as Android continues to dominate mobile and they continue to focus almost exclusively on Java
At this point, the smartest and bestest move Google could do for Android and its Developers would be to ditch Java/Dalvik, take a one time backwards-compatibility hit, and change over to Swift.
I think it's something like:
A kitten sits on the fence and it blinks.
It’s a very pretty song, and it’s not a long one.
Not a long one, not a short one, but just right.
Come on, little kitten, sing again.
That makes a lot more sense, thanks!
But I feel that all those lyrics were not contained in those 2 lines of Polish, right?
In other words, this is a (probably rare) legitimate application of copyright law, that hinges on whether the music company had the right to offer the song to CBS. Seems fairly straightforward.
So, my question is this: What compromises a "Song"? The lyrics, the melody, or the combination of both?
The reason I ask is that according to this website, the genesis of the melody for what we know as "Warm Kitty" (a/k/a "Soft Kitty") SUPPOSEDLY is this relatively ancient (19th Century) Polish children's song. Personally, I don't get it, because, even with my limited ability to read musical notation, it sure doesn't look like the same melody-line, nor is it in the same time-signature.
Of course, the Google translation of the Lyrics is utterly hysterical:
"Hatch cat n gossip and flashes// . Ladna is not a long song"
I suppose that's something to look into and might turn out to not just be viable but might turn into a business idea for him.
I also forgot that one of the things that took the wind out of my sails for that idea was that I found a Patent that would DEFINITELY be conflicting. I can't find it right now at work; but I'm sure I have it archived at home.
Thanks again - I've actually got an acquaintance that makes custom plastic bags, now that you mention it. I'm reasonably certain that he has the capacity to make me something by the box. I suppose that's something to look into and might turn out to not just be viable but might turn into a business idea for him. I believe he has a special molder for making the zipper closure things. As he knows my daughter, I should have her contact him. She can con him out of a few dollars too.
Even further off-topic, I've been to his factory. It's actually not a big thing and is kind of neat to see how they're made. They use either heat or ultrasound to seal them and the machines are really versatile. You basically just program them, it's a bit like CAM. I seem to recall that they're smart enough that you can basically feed it a design and it can figure out how to actually make the pieces on its own. 'Tis kind of neat and I'd not thought of that - I'll certainly look into it.
Do me a favor and DON'T tell me. I am sick-to-death of seeing one-after-another of my ideas on store shelves!!! (That is, unless you want to factor me in for some shares of the resulting business...)
Yeah, I actually went pretty far with the idea, actually, researching the best material, contacting several plastic-bag manufacturers, registering a Domain-name, etc.; but I was really broke at the time (got laid-off from my embedded Design job during the 2009 recession), and couldn't even afford a minimum run for a custom-sized bag. Note that the Orange Chef ones are NOT made from PE (Polyethelene); but rather some sort of Polycarbonate (Mylar) film. That is because it is glass-clear.
Yeah, I'm going to be looking into cases for them - preferably ones that can be replaced between patients at minimal expense but the resealable bag is a good idea. I'll have to mention that to her. At this point, I probably should own stock in the damned company. Technically, I once did. I probably should have held onto those shares but I didn't. Ah well... I did not have a lot.
I would suggest that you ask her to ask her Doctor-collegues what they do for iPad-cases. There is also a guy that sells iPad-sized bags for use in the Kitchen. I think this may be his stuff. I seem to remember that he hinted on his website that he was also investigating branching into medical applications for his iPad-sized bag.
Gallon Ziplocs work; but they are really too big, so you end up doing an annoying "gift-wrap" thing with adhesive tape to keep them from sliding around with your finger. Plus, polyethelene really isn't that clear, and it is kind of static-y. But it works, and Ziplocs are cheap!
She should have been a con artist. I figured you'd be interested and would like to know that, in her professional opinion, they're suitable for use in such environments assuming they're not being kept in complete, sterile, isolation. I expect to know if they can be brought in and put on the network by the end of next week.
Ya know, for someone who isn't an Apple fan, you have probably purchased more Apple gear than the next TEN fanbois, LOL!!!
Your daughter may very well have a promising second-career as a con-artist; but in this particular case, she is right-on.
When the iPad first came out, I was looking into developing a disposable "bag" for just this sort of application. That idea went the way of all my good ideas, and was eventually replaced with another idea of mine for an iPad/tablet "sterilizer" chamber, that would use UV to disinfect one or more iPads/tablets. And of course, charging facilities would be provided, too for charging-while-disinfecting.
iPadsareusedinthousandsofhospitalseveryday. Even without the disinfection. In sterile environments, like an Operating Room, they tend to put them in plastic bags (a gallon-ziploc works fine), and yes, the touchscreen does work through the plastic bag. But on the regular "floors", they just treat iPads like a clipboard. No sterilization, no protective sheath/pouch, nothing.
I would say that iPads are probably fairly easy to keep relatively clean (cleaner than a computer keyboard and mouse!!!), simply because there really aren't many cracks and crevices for caked blood, etc, to congregate. The main issue is the Home button, because it gets pressed a zillion times a day, followed by the Sleep/Wake button. But a simple silicone-rubber "boot"-type case would probably work...
Ture, but the Zigbee protocol is pretty ugly in a lot of places (SEP 2.0 that is). Low speed link yet binary data is transmitted using XML? Ludicrous.
I agree. I think that a fair amount of things about ZigBee are somewhat under-planned; but this stuff still isn't ZigBee's fault. Other than the fact that they picked a VERY crowded RF band upon which to hitch their entire concept.
From my experience the 5.25" floppy disks in general were slightly more reliable, but the drives went out of style early enough that it didn't matter. You couldn't really convince people - mac users especially but plenty of other PC users as well - to retrofit 5.25" floppy drives into their computers. Even worse, to the best of my knowledge nobody ever made a USB 5.25 floppy drive which was arguably the final nail in the coffin for that format.
On the other hand, the issue here is an interesting one. ZigBee's actually a pretty secure protocol for communications, with regard to integrity and confidentiality. But for applications that depend upon availability, it's something that you could jam with a baby monitor, a wifi AP or a cordless phone. I wouldn't expect Comcast to come up with a home-grown solution that was nearly half as secure as ZigBee, and I also can't imagine that it could be worth it to license a piece of spectrum just for their solution; it would cost too damn much. So where does that leave all of us when it comes to this kind of use case?
I dunno; especially considering the limited frequency-bands available with no licensing requirement. It sounds a bit ignorant, but considering we're talking about an indoor application, it almost seems like a "ZigBee-esque" mesh-network of infrared transceivers would be better for this, and no steenking FCC to worry about.
Then, the only thing you have to worry about is sunlight bringing down your network...
This is one of the reasons why it is a shame that the Echelon LONTalk protocol didn't really catch on in the home automation space (and because the development tools were RIDICULOUSLY expensive); because it is media-agnostic. It simply doesn't care if you use microwaves or smoke-signals to transfer packets; so long as the information is decode-able.
You need to look at the rate of false positives vs. false negatives. If they took the fail-alert approach, for every true security breach, Comcast would be responding to thousands of "my microwave interrupts my WiFi when it runs" etc. This would further impact response times to true security breaches due to cry wolf issues. So is it secure? Yeah not really. Is this the correct business choice for Comcast? Probably.
If they would just develop an equivalent system that used the 5.4 GHz band, they could get away from the insane 2.4 GHz pollution issues, and thus increase the reliability (and thus trustworthiness) of their RF-link several-fold. THEN they could develop their "intrusion rules" around something that was nearly as foolproof as a hard-wired connection. Note that I said "nearly"...
It depends on how long of a loss of signal, a few ms sure a few seconds sure, get to 30 seconds and well you have a problem. And thats assuming that it's a missed poll. Polling a battery powered devices is a battery trade off. Mind you the zigbee wireless is a hell of a lot more secure than what ADT is putting in for wireless. Think remotes that can disarm the system without even rolling key aka 1980's garage door opener.
So, how long do YOU want to wait before deciding that someone has indeed broken-in?
And oh yes, don't get me started on the whole insecurity of PIC Keeloq-based security. I developed a keyless-entry system for use with Delivery trucks (think UPS), and I originally started with Keeloq; but quickly changed to using AES-128, once I started reading about the weakness of Keeloq.
Which means you don't actually work with tape very much if you actually believe that. Duct tape and WD-40 are probably the most overused and routinely misapplied products ever made. They're fine for some applications but people use them all the time for tasks they aren't designed for and their performance in these tasks is predictably shitty.
But at least in the case of WD-40, misapplication can be excused; because hardly anyone has a Minuteman Missile around to waterproof...
I would imagine that since it operates in the 2.4 spectrum that there are many situations where radio communication is interrupted and would thus trigger an alarm. More then likely this would happen several times a day, making the alarm useless as people would then not actually think there was an issue but just the system acting up again. So Comcast in their infinite wisdom probably "fixed" the issue by not having it set off the alarm.
Good point about the 2.4 GHz "pollution" problem, and the fact that the system could NOT be designed to interpret simple loss-of-signal as an intrusion. In fact, the whole idea of wireless sensors in this particular application (at 2.4 GHz, at least) is a mighty dubious one, for this VERY reason.
I have done some development (albeit limited) using a Zigbee stack, and this failure has nothing to do with the Zigbee protocol, per se. That "explanation" sounds like some of the project-engineers trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Comcast's management (and Customers).
It appears they updated the EULA afterwards. Before that, it expressly did not permit selling outside Apple platforms.
http://venomousporridge.com/po...
Which would have made some sense when it was iBooks-format only. But now that you can Publish in ePub, it makes just as much sense that they changed that part of the EULA, too, right?
Although I pine for the days of HyperCard myself, Apple's own iBooks Author pretty much gets you there at this point. It's Free (as in beer) and can be used to create ePub3 books, as well as Apple's (more robust) iBooks format.
Well guess what? There is no e-book format that allows that. That isn't what e-books were designed for. There are non e-book formats designed to do that (HTML, etc). Use those, THAT is what progress is.
Oh, and WAIT! The newer versions of iBooks Author will create ePub3-format books; so I guess they maybe COULD be used with that lame-ass Kindle...:-) The only catch is you have to Author with a Mac...
What is an "Anti-Apple Troll"? Like someone who says that Apple couldn't innovate themselves out of a brown paper bag without Steve Jobs & that they are now essentially the technology-company version of the headless chicken death dance?
the password is needed to install free stuff / maybe (some are forced) app updates as well.
Updates are NEVER "Forced" on iOS.
Passwords are ALWAYS required on iOS for interactions with the App Store. The only exception is if you have already entered your Password within the past 15 minutes, AND you have changed the Default setting in iOS (the Default is to Require a Password EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.).
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We're still stuck with this shithole as long as Android continues to dominate mobile and they continue to focus almost exclusively on Java
At this point, the smartest and bestest move Google could do for Android and its Developers would be to ditch Java/Dalvik, take a one time backwards-compatibility hit, and change over to Swift.
I think it's something like: A kitten sits on the fence and it blinks. It’s a very pretty song, and it’s not a long one. Not a long one, not a short one, but just right. Come on, little kitten, sing again.
That makes a lot more sense, thanks!
But I feel that all those lyrics were not contained in those 2 lines of Polish, right?
In other words, this is a (probably rare) legitimate application of copyright law, that hinges on whether the music company had the right to offer the song to CBS. Seems fairly straightforward.
So, my question is this: What compromises a "Song"? The lyrics, the melody, or the combination of both?
// . Ladna is not a long song"
The reason I ask is that according to this website, the genesis of the melody for what we know as "Warm Kitty" (a/k/a "Soft Kitty") SUPPOSEDLY is this relatively ancient (19th Century) Polish children's song. Personally, I don't get it, because, even with my limited ability to read musical notation, it sure doesn't look like the same melody-line, nor is it in the same time-signature.
Of course, the Google translation of the Lyrics is utterly hysterical:
"Hatch cat n gossip and flashes
Someone who speaks Polish like to help?
I suppose that's something to look into and might turn out to not just be viable but might turn into a business idea for him.
I also forgot that one of the things that took the wind out of my sails for that idea was that I found a Patent that would DEFINITELY be conflicting. I can't find it right now at work; but I'm sure I have it archived at home.
Thanks again - I've actually got an acquaintance that makes custom plastic bags, now that you mention it. I'm reasonably certain that he has the capacity to make me something by the box. I suppose that's something to look into and might turn out to not just be viable but might turn into a business idea for him. I believe he has a special molder for making the zipper closure things. As he knows my daughter, I should have her contact him. She can con him out of a few dollars too.
Even further off-topic, I've been to his factory. It's actually not a big thing and is kind of neat to see how they're made. They use either heat or ultrasound to seal them and the machines are really versatile. You basically just program them, it's a bit like CAM. I seem to recall that they're smart enough that you can basically feed it a design and it can figure out how to actually make the pieces on its own. 'Tis kind of neat and I'd not thought of that - I'll certainly look into it.
Do me a favor and DON'T tell me. I am sick-to-death of seeing one-after-another of my ideas on store shelves!!! (That is, unless you want to factor me in for some shares of the resulting business...)
Yeah, I actually went pretty far with the idea, actually, researching the best material, contacting several plastic-bag manufacturers, registering a Domain-name, etc.; but I was really broke at the time (got laid-off from my embedded Design job during the 2009 recession), and couldn't even afford a minimum run for a custom-sized bag. Note that the Orange Chef ones are NOT made from PE (Polyethelene); but rather some sort of Polycarbonate (Mylar) film. That is because it is glass-clear.
Yeah, I'm going to be looking into cases for them - preferably ones that can be replaced between patients at minimal expense but the resealable bag is a good idea. I'll have to mention that to her. At this point, I probably should own stock in the damned company. Technically, I once did. I probably should have held onto those shares but I didn't. Ah well... I did not have a lot.
I would suggest that you ask her to ask her Doctor-collegues what they do for iPad-cases. There is also a guy that sells iPad-sized bags for use in the Kitchen. I think this may be his stuff. I seem to remember that he hinted on his website that he was also investigating branching into medical applications for his iPad-sized bag.
Gallon Ziplocs work; but they are really too big, so you end up doing an annoying "gift-wrap" thing with adhesive tape to keep them from sliding around with your finger. Plus, polyethelene really isn't that clear, and it is kind of static-y. But it works, and Ziplocs are cheap!
She should have been a con artist. I figured you'd be interested and would like to know that, in her professional opinion, they're suitable for use in such environments assuming they're not being kept in complete, sterile, isolation. I expect to know if they can be brought in and put on the network by the end of next week.
Ya know, for someone who isn't an Apple fan, you have probably purchased more Apple gear than the next TEN fanbois, LOL!!!
Your daughter may very well have a promising second-career as a con-artist; but in this particular case, she is right-on.
When the iPad first came out, I was looking into developing a disposable "bag" for just this sort of application. That idea went the way of all my good ideas, and was eventually replaced with another idea of mine for an iPad/tablet "sterilizer" chamber, that would use UV to disinfect one or more iPads/tablets. And of course, charging facilities would be provided, too for charging-while-disinfecting.
iPads are used in thousands of hospitals everyday. Even without the disinfection. In sterile environments, like an Operating Room, they tend to put them in plastic bags (a gallon-ziploc works fine), and yes, the touchscreen does work through the plastic bag. But on the regular "floors", they just treat iPads like a clipboard. No sterilization, no protective sheath/pouch, nothing.
I would say that iPads are probably fairly easy to keep relatively clean (cleaner than a computer keyboard and mouse!!!), simply because there really aren't many cracks and crevices for caked blood, etc, to congregate. The main issue is the Home button, because it gets pressed a zillion times a day, followed by the Sleep/Wake button. But a simple silicone-rubber "boot"-type case would probably work...
Ture, but the Zigbee protocol is pretty ugly in a lot of places (SEP 2.0 that is). Low speed link yet binary data is transmitted using XML? Ludicrous.
I agree. I think that a fair amount of things about ZigBee are somewhat under-planned; but this stuff still isn't ZigBee's fault. Other than the fact that they picked a VERY crowded RF band upon which to hitch their entire concept.
From my experience the 5.25" floppy disks in general were slightly more reliable, but the drives went out of style early enough that it didn't matter. You couldn't really convince people - mac users especially but plenty of other PC users as well - to retrofit 5.25" floppy drives into their computers. Even worse, to the best of my knowledge nobody ever made a USB 5.25 floppy drive which was arguably the final nail in the coffin for that format.
Well, I couldn't find a pre-built drive, per se; but here is a 5.25 USB floppy controller/adapter that should work with most floppy mechanisms.
On the other hand, the issue here is an interesting one. ZigBee's actually a pretty secure protocol for communications, with regard to integrity and confidentiality. But for applications that depend upon availability, it's something that you could jam with a baby monitor, a wifi AP or a cordless phone. I wouldn't expect Comcast to come up with a home-grown solution that was nearly half as secure as ZigBee, and I also can't imagine that it could be worth it to license a piece of spectrum just for their solution; it would cost too damn much. So where does that leave all of us when it comes to this kind of use case?
I dunno; especially considering the limited frequency-bands available with no licensing requirement. It sounds a bit ignorant, but considering we're talking about an indoor application, it almost seems like a "ZigBee-esque" mesh-network of infrared transceivers would be better for this, and no steenking FCC to worry about.
Then, the only thing you have to worry about is sunlight bringing down your network...
This is one of the reasons why it is a shame that the Echelon LONTalk protocol didn't really catch on in the home automation space (and because the development tools were RIDICULOUSLY expensive); because it is media-agnostic. It simply doesn't care if you use microwaves or smoke-signals to transfer packets; so long as the information is decode-able.
You need to look at the rate of false positives vs. false negatives. If they took the fail-alert approach, for every true security breach, Comcast would be responding to thousands of "my microwave interrupts my WiFi when it runs" etc. This would further impact response times to true security breaches due to cry wolf issues. So is it secure? Yeah not really. Is this the correct business choice for Comcast? Probably.
If they would just develop an equivalent system that used the 5.4 GHz band, they could get away from the insane 2.4 GHz pollution issues, and thus increase the reliability (and thus trustworthiness) of their RF-link several-fold. THEN they could develop their "intrusion rules" around something that was nearly as foolproof as a hard-wired connection. Note that I said "nearly"...
It depends on how long of a loss of signal, a few ms sure a few seconds sure, get to 30 seconds and well you have a problem. And thats assuming that it's a missed poll. Polling a battery powered devices is a battery trade off. Mind you the zigbee wireless is a hell of a lot more secure than what ADT is putting in for wireless. Think remotes that can disarm the system without even rolling key aka 1980's garage door opener.
So, how long do YOU want to wait before deciding that someone has indeed broken-in?
And oh yes, don't get me started on the whole insecurity of PIC Keeloq-based security. I developed a keyless-entry system for use with Delivery trucks (think UPS), and I originally started with Keeloq; but quickly changed to using AES-128, once I started reading about the weakness of Keeloq.
Don't need me no specialty tapes.
Which means you don't actually work with tape very much if you actually believe that. Duct tape and WD-40 are probably the most overused and routinely misapplied products ever made. They're fine for some applications but people use them all the time for tasks they aren't designed for and their performance in these tasks is predictably shitty.
But at least in the case of WD-40, misapplication can be excused; because hardly anyone has a Minuteman Missile around to waterproof...
I would imagine that since it operates in the 2.4 spectrum that there are many situations where radio communication is interrupted and would thus trigger an alarm. More then likely this would happen several times a day, making the alarm useless as people would then not actually think there was an issue but just the system acting up again. So Comcast in their infinite wisdom probably "fixed" the issue by not having it set off the alarm.
Good point about the 2.4 GHz "pollution" problem, and the fact that the system could NOT be designed to interpret simple loss-of-signal as an intrusion. In fact, the whole idea of wireless sensors in this particular application (at 2.4 GHz, at least) is a mighty dubious one, for this VERY reason.
I have done some development (albeit limited) using a Zigbee stack, and this failure has nothing to do with the Zigbee protocol, per se. That "explanation" sounds like some of the project-engineers trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Comcast's management (and Customers).
This is what happens when a company strays too far out of its core (in)competency.
It appears they updated the EULA afterwards. Before that, it expressly did not permit selling outside Apple platforms. http://venomousporridge.com/po...
Which would have made some sense when it was iBooks-format only. But now that you can Publish in ePub, it makes just as much sense that they changed that part of the EULA, too, right?
iBooks only work on iOS devices. The iBooks application states specifically that you are only to use it to develop books for the iOS platform as well.
But iBooks Author can publish in ePub3 format, and PDF, too, as well as the (much more robust) iBooks format.
Could have had it all back in the day with HyperCard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Although I pine for the days of HyperCard myself, Apple's own iBooks Author pretty much gets you there at this point. It's Free (as in beer) and can be used to create ePub3 books, as well as Apple's (more robust) iBooks format.
There are audio CDs that have image data, but they're not Redbook. Redbook audio is just that: audio.
I guess you've never heard of Sub-Code Graphics.
It's in the format; but no one uses it (anymore).
Of course, these guys did, but then they're always ahead of their time...
Well guess what? There is no e-book format that allows that. That isn't what e-books were designed for. There are non e-book formats designed to do that (HTML, etc). Use those, THAT is what progress is.
Maybe not for the lame-ass Kindle; but if you want to publish your e-Book for the iPad instead (or also), Apple makes a truly wonderful (and free!) Textbook-Authoring Tool that will allow you to do all that you have asked for, and much more.
:-) The only catch is you have to Author with a Mac...
Jus' sayin'...
Oh, and WAIT! The newer versions of iBooks Author will create ePub3-format books; so I guess they maybe COULD be used with that lame-ass Kindle...
Does iPad let you have two separate user accounts, like Android and Windows? As in a separate account for adult and child?
iOS doesn't have separate user accounts; but the App Store DOES.
The problem here was that the Parent gave up HIS Password to his kid.
Parent was entirely to blame, period. Apple was just nice enough to give him his money back.
What is an "Anti-Apple Troll"? Like someone who says that Apple couldn't innovate themselves out of a brown paper bag without Steve Jobs & that they are now essentially the technology-company version of the headless chicken death dance?
Yep. EXACTLY like that.
the password is needed to install free stuff / maybe (some are forced) app updates as well.
Updates are NEVER "Forced" on iOS.
Passwords are ALWAYS required on iOS for interactions with the App Store. The only exception is if you have already entered your Password within the past 15 minutes, AND you have changed the Default setting in iOS (the Default is to Require a Password EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.).
Knowing Apple, why not require that in app purchases have to actually provide you something of value beyond arbitrarily increasing counters in games?
In-App Purchases require you to enter your Apple ID password. A better question is why has this father provided his password to his son?
Because he is too stupid to set up his iPad (obviously!), and gave his Password to his kid at some point so that he could "set something up for him".
Kid 1, Parent ZERO.