I often wonder how I can get a 2 disc DVD of a movie that cost several hundred million to make(which includes over 2 hours of soundtrack) for less than I can buy a current Top 20 artist.
To put a finer point on it, compare the price of the 2 disc DVD to the audio CD soundtrack of the same movie. They are usually about the same price. Which would you rather buy?
Hypothetical question: It is legal for me to copy an audio CD to a tape, in order to play in my car. Can I legally copy the soundtrack off a DVD to play (audio only) in my car also?
I work in a company that is currently shipping _3_ VoIP products that run embedded Linux, and it's been working pretty well for us.
The question is, though, did you pay some embedded Linux company boatloads of money, or did you just port/package it yourselves? Most companies do the latter, which is why embedded Linux is a success, but embedded Linux companies are failing. It is also why UnitedLinux's "telecom push" looks good to suits, but will also fail to make money.
Um. Don't you mean it enforces memory separation between processes?
Good point -- this is such a given on Unix systems that I didn't word it very well. What I should have said is that it enforces memory separation and protection between most memory segments and most processes, and allows for sharing of segments when explicitly setup. This is perhaps the most important thing the VM system does.
I've always wondered why, in today's world of gigabytes of memory in personal computers, why such a big deal is made about virtual memory..
This is a good question -- there are several features the VM system allows for in addition to overcommitting physical memory. If your system has enough memory to run with no swap/paging space set up, the VM system still provides these features without ever paging or swapping out memory.
The first is demand paging. That is, only those pages of an executable that are needed are brought into memory, and on-demand. Yes, this saves memory, but more importantly, it makes program startup much faster. Without demand paging, the whole program would need to be brought into memory at startup. Nowadays, when disks are much slower relative to CPUs, than they used to be, this makes a big difference, especially in the Unix shell-pipeline style of programming, where you run many different short-lived programs.
Secondly, the VM system allows for shared memory segments between processes. This allows for shared memory, threads and shared libraries.
Finally, the VM system implements caching of the file system, which we all know and love as a good use for all the memory we stuff into our machines now.
The Berkeley system distribution (BSD) evolved out of AT&T UNIX. When push came to shove, the courts ruled against AT&T - the IP rights for BSD rest with the University of California.
The issue of patents was never raised in that case. At the time, there was only one patent related to Unix, the setuid patent, which is mentioned elsewhere on this page. This patent, written by Dennis Ritchie, was assigned to the public domain a long time ago.
The BSD case involved copyright and ownership of source code -- the BSD crew started with a copyright source code base (Unix v7), and slow migrated, replacing parts until there was little left of the original. Then they wanted to give away their work, so the case involved the question of how much do you have to modify an original work to have nothing copyright left?
My bullshit meter is blowing chunks.
Well, yeah -- I would take this story much more seriously if there was an actual patent referenced.
the Internet was originally designed decenteralized to avoid any one node being knocked out (by nuke) and cutting off those not vaporized
I would like to propose a corollary to Godwin's law: In any online thread, any mention about how the Internet was designed to survive nuclear attack immediately terminates that thread.
BTW, I was told by an ex-Boeing employee that anytime she had to take a business flight somewhere for the company that Boeing would pay to upgrade flights of over 4 hours to first class
Does this policy have anything to do with why she is an ex-employee?:-)
The Sonic Cruiser, while cool-looking, is not that much faster than today's aircraft -- it would only cut one hour off the flight time from LA - NYC. It is still sub-sonic. More efficient airport procedures on the group, on both sides could probably cut at least an hour off the total travel time just as well.
I'd like to see the cost of electricity to power all those cycles, and compare it to the $10,000 prize.
Re:$5 to anyone who proves this statement wrong-
on
The Economics of Spam
·
· Score: 5, Funny
And in the "breaking a law you didn't expect her to be breaking" category, I'll bet that the 6 bedroom house she operates her business from is not zoned for this kind of commercial activity.
We all knew that spammers weren't the brightest bulbs on the planet, but giving an interview with your real name and location to a national newspaper does seem a bit foolish, doesn't it?
If we hope to ever estabilish a permanent moon base or go to Mars (or beyond) we will certainly be building upon the lessons learned in constructing the ISS (pun inteneded).
The above is a common misconception. Richard Zubrin's Mars Direct proposal shows how to send humans to mars without the ISS. Of course, ISS keeps earthbound contractors fat, and happy.
If you want to control a robot by putting a bunch of cheap 8-bit PICs on board, you are going to be hard pressed to find any nice device drivers, API, objects and other goodies.
E.g., get insurance from us... we guarantee we can beat any other offer because we'll sell you a policy but be long gone when you make a claim
Exactly! Insurance fraud, unlike spam, is clearly illegal, and there is already legal infrastructure to deal with it. We should just apply existing law and go after these people now, without waiting for new laws, or getting tied up in court trying to deal with new laws.
My suspicion is that most of the worst spammers are slimy con-artists types, who run MLM scams, "make-money-fast" deals, and probably run their "business" on a cash-only basis. This old article, assuming it is true, shows the archetype: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/06/07/131825 2&mode=nested&tid=111
I bet that few of them report their ill-gotten gains to the IRS properly. Seems like one quick IRS operation could put a lot of them out of business in short order, without the need for any new laws to be carefully crafted or executed.
The Nasdaq has been running on-line "auctions" for quite some time now. The patent claims the autions are for "used goods and collectibles", and stocks probably don't count as "used goods or collectibles" (except for my portfolio...) but come on, that's a pretty small difference...
They don't scam "us", they only scam really really stupid people.
That's a bit unfair -- we all know people who use Verisign. Or were you talking about different scammers?
Some Java books are even worse
on
Shrinkwrapped Books
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Some Sun Java books, notably, the Java Language Specification, are even worse -- the license isn't in the shrinkwrap, it's printed in small print on an early page. I bet most people haven't even noticed it -- at least you notice a shrinkwrap license for a microsecond before it gets tossed.
By this logic, people won't buy DVD players if there are no DVDs. So, government should require all new VCRs to also be DVD players. Also, all new cars should be required to have satellite radio installed.
Why does the FCC need to mandate this? The FCC didn't mandate that all new televisions be color when color tv started. They didn't mandate that all radios must receive FM when that was started. They didn't mandate that all radios receive and decode stereo signals when that started. They did mandate certain types of compatibility with television and radio standards, which seems reasonable. If the market isn't willing to pay for digital television, is there really a compelling national reason to mandate it?
You're going to sell electricity back to the grid at the same price at which you buy it.
This isn't always the case. Some areas have time-sensitive pricing schemes where electricity is more expensive in the middle of the day (when air conditioners run) than at night. If you are gone at work during the day, you can generate power and sell most of it at the higher-priced rate. When you are at home at night, using more power and generating none, you buy it back at the lower rate -- such a deal!
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To put a finer point on it, compare the price of the 2 disc DVD to the audio CD soundtrack of the same movie. They are usually about the same price. Which would you rather buy?
Hypothetical question: It is legal for me to copy an audio CD to a tape, in order to play in my car. Can I legally copy the soundtrack off a DVD to play (audio only) in my car also?
The question is, though, did you pay some embedded Linux company boatloads of money, or did you just port/package it yourselves? Most companies do the latter, which is why embedded Linux is a success, but embedded Linux companies are failing. It is also why UnitedLinux's "telecom push" looks good to suits, but will also fail to make money.
Good point -- this is such a given on Unix systems that I didn't word it very well. What I should have said is that it enforces memory separation and protection between most memory segments and most processes, and allows for sharing of segments when explicitly setup. This is perhaps the most important thing the VM system does.
This is a good question -- there are several features the VM system allows for in addition to overcommitting physical memory. If your system has enough memory to run with no swap/paging space set up, the VM system still provides these features without ever paging or swapping out memory.
The first is demand paging. That is, only those pages of an executable that are needed are brought into memory, and on-demand. Yes, this saves memory, but more importantly, it makes program startup much faster. Without demand paging, the whole program would need to be brought into memory at startup. Nowadays, when disks are much slower relative to CPUs, than they used to be, this makes a big difference, especially in the Unix shell-pipeline style of programming, where you run many different short-lived programs.
Secondly, the VM system allows for shared memory segments between processes. This allows for shared memory, threads and shared libraries.
Finally, the VM system implements caching of the file system, which we all know and love as a good use for all the memory we stuff into our machines now.
The issue of patents was never raised in that case. At the time, there was only one patent related to Unix, the setuid patent, which is mentioned elsewhere on this page. This patent, written by Dennis Ritchie, was assigned to the public domain a long time ago.
The BSD case involved copyright and ownership of source code -- the BSD crew started with a copyright source code base (Unix v7), and slow migrated, replacing parts until there was little left of the original. Then they wanted to give away their work, so the case involved the question of how much do you have to modify an original work to have nothing copyright left?
My bullshit meter is blowing chunks.
Well, yeah -- I would take this story much more seriously if there was an actual patent referenced.
I would like to propose a corollary to Godwin's law: In any online thread, any mention about how the Internet was designed to survive nuclear attack immediately terminates that thread.
Does this policy have anything to do with why she is an ex-employee?
Stop being so US centric please.
Very well. It cuts less than 2 hours off a 14 hour flight from LA to Sydney. I don't see this as a huge win for the flying public.
The Sonic Cruiser, while cool-looking, is not that much faster than today's aircraft -- it would only cut one hour off the flight time from LA - NYC. It is still sub-sonic. More efficient airport procedures on the group, on both sides could probably cut at least an hour off the total travel time just as well.
The Cluetrain is leaving the station!
I'd like to see the cost of electricity to power all those cycles, and compare it to the $10,000 prize.
We all knew that spammers weren't the brightest bulbs on the planet, but giving an interview with your real name and location to a national newspaper does seem a bit foolish, doesn't it?
The above is a common misconception. Richard Zubrin's Mars Direct proposal shows how to send humans to mars without the ISS. Of course, ISS keeps earthbound contractors fat, and happy.
FWIW, There's a lot of people out there who don't think too much of numerical recipes: http://math.jpl.nasa.gov/nr/
If you want to control a robot by putting a bunch of cheap 8-bit PICs on board, you are going to be hard pressed to find any nice device drivers, API, objects and other goodies.
Exactly! Insurance fraud, unlike spam, is clearly illegal, and there is already legal infrastructure to deal with it. We should just apply existing law and go after these people now, without waiting for new laws, or getting tied up in court trying to deal with new laws.
My suspicion is that most of the worst spammers are slimy con-artists types, who run MLM scams, "make-money-fast" deals, and probably run their "business" on a cash-only basis. This old article, assuming it is true, shows the archetype: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/06/07/131825 2&mode=nested&tid=111
I bet that few of them report their ill-gotten gains to the IRS properly. Seems like one quick IRS operation could put a lot of them out of business in short order, without the need for any new laws to be carefully crafted or executed.
The Nasdaq has been running on-line "auctions" for quite some time now. The patent claims the autions are for "used goods and collectibles", and stocks probably don't count as "used goods or collectibles" (except for my portfolio...) but come on, that's a pretty small difference...
fax machine (unlike an email box) can only handle one file/fax at a time.
Interesting theory. On my system, the mail spool uses a locking protocol, so only one e-mail can be received at any one time.
They don't scam "us", they only scam really really stupid people.
That's a bit unfair -- we all know people who use Verisign. Or were you talking about different scammers?
Some Sun Java books, notably, the Java Language Specification, are even worse -- the license isn't in the shrinkwrap, it's printed in small print on an early page. I bet most people haven't even noticed it -- at least you notice a shrinkwrap license for a microsecond before it gets tossed.
3d technology is bound to revolutionize the web the same way it revolutionized the movies...
Huh?
By this logic, people won't buy DVD players if there are no DVDs. So, government should require all new VCRs to also be DVD players. Also, all new cars should be required to have satellite radio installed.
Why does the FCC need to mandate this? The FCC didn't mandate that all new televisions be color when color tv started. They didn't mandate that all radios must receive FM when that was started. They didn't mandate that all radios receive and decode stereo signals when that started. They did mandate certain types of compatibility with television and radio standards, which seems reasonable. If the market isn't willing to pay for digital television, is there really a compelling national reason to mandate it?
You're going to sell electricity back to the grid at the same price at which you buy it.
This isn't always the case. Some areas have time-sensitive pricing schemes where electricity is more expensive in the middle of the day (when air conditioners run) than at night. If you are gone at work during the day, you can generate power and sell most of it at the higher-priced rate. When you are at home at night, using more power and generating none, you buy it back at the lower rate -- such a deal!