My very first computer was a TRS-80 Model II. It weighed in at a whopping 70 pounds with those huge diskettes. I even had the early SCSI HD which required you to load drivers via the TRS-DOS before you could access it. I also had the floppy disk expander - that huge unit with four or five floppy disk drives in it. Ah the memories.... I learned to write really simple programs in BASIC on it. My dad gave away the Model II, HD, and Floppy expansion units to the Smithsonian after being in storage for many years. The amazing thing is that after 24 years in storage, it booted into TRS-DOS and the hard drive was accessible. They don't make technology like they used to.
This is the problem with freely offered services. You can be subject to an incredibly arbitrary policy. It might make sense to pay a small monthly fee, therefore you have some true legal recourse.
No, there is no legitimate need to wire tap without any kind of warrant. India calls itself the largest democracy and it behaves in an authoritarian manner.
I am so against this robotic, automated, whatever-you-want-to-call-it trading that it serves Knight Capital Group right. I'm dancing a jig in the streets.
If in an interview I am ever asked to friend a potential employer or give out my login credentials, I will politely say, "Thank you very much for your time and consideration but I am no longer interested in employment with your company." On one hand, I like the idea of making this illegal. On the other, I think it would be stronger to let market forces end this practice. If enough people simply stand up and walk out when asked to cough up their facebook information, the practice would stop immediately because the company would be unable to hire anyone. If the work force were more united and less divided, market forces could dictate more workplace friendly policies. However, because Americans live in such abject fear, most are likely to just aquiesce so we need a law to provide a security blanket for the fearful.
whats to stop manufacturers from not including secure boot in their hardware. No way there isn't a big market for some Chinese manufacturer to jump onto this and have the Linux world use their hardware.
What's to stop manufacturers from not including secure boot in their hardware? Threats of litigation by Microsoft.
In addition to a lot of the arguments being made here against Mr. Gemmell's rationale, he's not even thinking creatively about the alternative ways a revenue stream could be generated. Case in point: I just played a Flash game yesterday that shows a video ad while loading. The ad unlocked additional features of the game for that playthrough.
But Mr. Gemmell doesn't consider developing new, innovative possibilities like this. He just wants the cash, and will happily use the "locking down" of other peoples' machines on a widespread basis to achieve this. Where's the "locking down" of the property rights that are supposed to come with buying something, like an Android? If it's my device, why wouldn't I have root? It would be apropos if Mr. Gemmell made enough money to buy a car, only to have it stolen within the first couple of weeks.
Mr. Gemmell makes it sound only right for companies and developers to "protect" their [currently-only-imagined] profits, but it comes at the expense of the property rights of the users. So he argues for further inroads on users' access to their own machines, while attempting to make it seem natural, fair and just.
You know something, if too many people want to wine about piracy and then close up Android, hey, I could always go back to using a feature phone. I don't need to have one in order to survive. I could just as easily get on without an iPhone or Android. All I really need is the basic ability to make phone calls and send text messages. I have a computer for games.
My guess is that the article that was written in the Wall Street Journal might have had an ulterior motive but I cannot fathom why the author would want to plug for Xerox - could Xerox have offered some money to the author for such statements? Does Rupert have a vested interest in Xerox somehow?. I've noticed a disturbing trend over the last decade towards revisionist history. Some of this behavior is engaged in by politicians as well as leaders of racist and paramilitary cults. As an example, Iranian President Ahmadinejinad denies the Holocaust ever happened. Hitler used to have a saying that a lie repeated often enough becomes a truth and this is quite an accurate observation. This is particularly scary. I used to think that much of this was just poor journalism but now I'm not so sure. It is fairly widely known that the TCP/IP protocol was developed by DARPA.
Respectfully, I don't know how much of that I am willing to buy. I recall a news story on the excess dark fiber laid in anticipation of continued meteoric growth during the dot com era. Why not light up this dark fiber and use it to make money instead of lay dormant?
I'm glad to see a company stepping up to begin breaking the telecom oligarchy. If this is a success and Google doesn't add any kind of bandwidth caps, this could force Big Telecom to go back to the unlimited, all you can eat bandwidth for wireline communication. My only concern is that how much is this service going to cost, not only in terms of actual dollars and cents but in terms of privacy. Google has been known for playing a little fast and loose with privacy.
Big Telecom has found a big, legal way to bilk people out of their money. These shared data plans are a scam! I can't believe they so brazenly do this when there are clear, viable alternatives. I've been with a prepaid carrier since 2009 and contract free and I'm not "credit challenged." It makes sense for everyone to investigate prepaid. Buy your phones refurbished or gently used at significant discounts and then activate them on prepaid carriers. I got my brother, mom, and dad on Page Plus Cellular. My mom and dad use about 1200 minutes per month so they are on 29.95 per month plans and 100mb of data. My brother and I use more so we go with a 55.00 per month talk, text, and 2GB of data. So, between all four of us we spend 170.00 per month. This is a great deal. We gave my dad a blackberry since he only cares about data as far as stock reports and emails. My mom just has a basic feature phone. My bro and I have smart phones.
This might be off-topic but I would love to see as part of an open compute platform an open source video camera that does its recording in VP8. This would encourage more independent artists because there are no royalties and unlimited use is granted. While VP8 is still patented by Google, it's license is totally royalty free and non-restrictive.
I'm somewhat dubious about this. Given the propensity of people to mistreat stuff they don't own, I don't know that I would be willing to rent my car out. I depend upon the reliability of my car. I've heard tell of people beating up rentals. Plus, imagine the insurance you would have to carry and I'm sure it would not be inexpensive. In fact, you would have to incorporate yourself just to shield anything personally-owned from potential loss due to a lawsuit. If your customer got injured because the brakes fail (it can happen even in a car properly maintained) and a child got injured as well as a third party, you could be positively cleaned out and living on the streets.
As soon as Indie stuff becomes a serious competitor (i.e. starts eating in the big media revenue) they'll find a way to stop it. Does this story not have some similarity to that other story produced by big media? Isn't the rhythm of this song vaguely similar to that big media song? They'll find something, for sure.
Or maybe they'll exploit the distribution format: Make sure that the common distribution format is patented, and make the pricing so that independent distribution of content just isn't profitable due to licensing fees. Of course big media doesn't need to pay those high fees, either because they are patent holders (and thus are on the collecting side) or because they get "mass discounts".
I respectfully disagree. There is a strong history and precedent for Independent authors and artists. This would trample on the constitution and I think even the most ardent conservative Justices of the Supreme Court will concede this point. Indie movie and television show creators can turn to VP8 and WebM video to bypass the patent encumbered MPEG and there is Ogg Vorbis for audio. There is enough backing behind HTML5 to virtually ensure that it will remain open. Believe you me, corporate arrogance causes people to be creative and find a legal way around an obstacle. Microsoft's arrogance gave rise to Linux which everyone scoffed at initially and now it is a serious competitor in the server market. Apple's arrogance over the iPhone and iOS has cost them dearly in terms of market share. Enough people didn't like its walled garden and arrogant rejection of apps thus spawning Android. Android is now the dominant market player.
i can't follow most people in these threads.... what is wrong with policing a warehouse of stolen goods?
you guys think you're robin hood, but you're just stealing other people's work. yay?
There is nothing wrong with enforcing copyright in a fair and just manner. However, much of the legal framework today gives powers that are way too broad and have the potential for innocent people to get caught up in the fracas. I cannot condone a NAZI style of enforcement for anything. I do not pirate software or published media of any sort.
I will say that the US media industry and content providers have gotten way too powerful. What's worse is that there is little to no checks or balances against this power. But, in their greed, the industry has created an opportunity for a bourgeoning Indie media growth spree. The Internet makes an awesome distribution platform, so there can be Indie television shows and movies without the big studios greedy, restrictive hands in the pot. This is why I check out platforms like Vimeo for the Indie stuff. Much of it is surprisingly good. I would love for Indie to move beyond podcasting.
My guess is that in this case it might truly be a technical limitation. It might be a limitation of the battery. Think about it: iPads and tablets have WiFi, a cellular modem, and a screen to power. Add to it a device to convert OTA TV signals and you've got a battery hog.
True, Aereo isn't paying the networks for the re-broadcast rights but they are shouldering the cost burden of the equipment, bandwidth, and software development involved which isn't inconsiderable. As long as Aereo isn't blanking out the advertisements, the networks get a much larger audience reach. It should be a win-win, symbiotic relationship. But, as noted, broadcast TV is dead and its executives are concerned about becoming redundant. Lately, I've been more interested in the Indie TV shows and podcasts available over the internet. The quality is almost better and I'm sick of supporting the major media conglomerates,
How incredibly shortsighted of the broadcast networks! If Aereo wants to re-broadcast these stations over the internet, there is a strong potential advertising reach and it costs the networks absolutely nothing. NBC, CBS, FOX, et al could actually charge more money for advertising. The cost burden for doing this is solely on Aereo. I guess the human race is steadily becoming more and more stupid.
Some of the parent's advice might be good. Particularly the part about specializing. While it can be reasonably concluded that being a jack of all trades when it comes to IT might actually be advantageous, actually the opposite is true. Being a jack of all trades means you can be utterly abused for 30% less money per year. Specialize! A quick glimpse at the IT jobs on craigslist want SAN, NAS, DBA, and Windows Server Administration and Engineering and then the salary they are willing to pay is 45 - 50K. To keep all this running, you would be driven mad but then you are a dime a dozen. If you are truly specialized in one or two aspects of IT you are better off.
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I thought it was ZTE that really scared the world. I'm pretty sure ZTE's management was tied to the People's Liberation Army.
My very first computer was a TRS-80 Model II. It weighed in at a whopping 70 pounds with those huge diskettes. I even had the early SCSI HD which required you to load drivers via the TRS-DOS before you could access it. I also had the floppy disk expander - that huge unit with four or five floppy disk drives in it. Ah the memories .... I learned to write really simple programs in BASIC on it. My dad gave away the Model II, HD, and Floppy expansion units to the Smithsonian after being in storage for many years. The amazing thing is that after 24 years in storage, it booted into TRS-DOS and the hard drive was accessible. They don't make technology like they used to.
This is the problem with freely offered services. You can be subject to an incredibly arbitrary policy. It might make sense to pay a small monthly fee, therefore you have some true legal recourse.
No, there is no legitimate need to wire tap without any kind of warrant. India calls itself the largest democracy and it behaves in an authoritarian manner.
I am so against this robotic, automated, whatever-you-want-to-call-it trading that it serves Knight Capital Group right. I'm dancing a jig in the streets.
If in an interview I am ever asked to friend a potential employer or give out my login credentials, I will politely say, "Thank you very much for your time and consideration but I am no longer interested in employment with your company." On one hand, I like the idea of making this illegal. On the other, I think it would be stronger to let market forces end this practice. If enough people simply stand up and walk out when asked to cough up their facebook information, the practice would stop immediately because the company would be unable to hire anyone. If the work force were more united and less divided, market forces could dictate more workplace friendly policies. However, because Americans live in such abject fear, most are likely to just aquiesce so we need a law to provide a security blanket for the fearful.
In Soviet Russia, the phone tethers you.
whats to stop manufacturers from not including secure boot in their hardware. No way there isn't a big market for some Chinese manufacturer to jump onto this and have the Linux world use their hardware.
What's to stop manufacturers from not including secure boot in their hardware? Threats of litigation by Microsoft.
Why not tax incentives for people to come in and attempt to break up the telecom oligarchy?
[SARCASM]Where can I sign up[/SARCASM]
In addition to a lot of the arguments being made here against Mr. Gemmell's rationale, he's not even thinking creatively about the alternative ways a revenue stream could be generated. Case in point: I just played a Flash game yesterday that shows a video ad while loading. The ad unlocked additional features of the game for that playthrough.
But Mr. Gemmell doesn't consider developing new, innovative possibilities like this. He just wants the cash, and will happily use the "locking down" of other peoples' machines on a widespread basis to achieve this. Where's the "locking down" of the property rights that are supposed to come with buying something, like an Android? If it's my device, why wouldn't I have root? It would be apropos if Mr. Gemmell made enough money to buy a car, only to have it stolen within the first couple of weeks.
Mr. Gemmell makes it sound only right for companies and developers to "protect" their [currently-only-imagined] profits, but it comes at the expense of the property rights of the users. So he argues for further inroads on users' access to their own machines, while attempting to make it seem natural, fair and just.
You know something, if too many people want to wine about piracy and then close up Android, hey, I could always go back to using a feature phone. I don't need to have one in order to survive. I could just as easily get on without an iPhone or Android. All I really need is the basic ability to make phone calls and send text messages. I have a computer for games.
My guess is that the article that was written in the Wall Street Journal might have had an ulterior motive but I cannot fathom why the author would want to plug for Xerox - could Xerox have offered some money to the author for such statements? Does Rupert have a vested interest in Xerox somehow?. I've noticed a disturbing trend over the last decade towards revisionist history. Some of this behavior is engaged in by politicians as well as leaders of racist and paramilitary cults. As an example, Iranian President Ahmadinejinad denies the Holocaust ever happened. Hitler used to have a saying that a lie repeated often enough becomes a truth and this is quite an accurate observation. This is particularly scary. I used to think that much of this was just poor journalism but now I'm not so sure. It is fairly widely known that the TCP/IP protocol was developed by DARPA.
Respectfully, I don't know how much of that I am willing to buy. I recall a news story on the excess dark fiber laid in anticipation of continued meteoric growth during the dot com era. Why not light up this dark fiber and use it to make money instead of lay dormant?
I'm glad to see a company stepping up to begin breaking the telecom oligarchy. If this is a success and Google doesn't add any kind of bandwidth caps, this could force Big Telecom to go back to the unlimited, all you can eat bandwidth for wireline communication. My only concern is that how much is this service going to cost, not only in terms of actual dollars and cents but in terms of privacy. Google has been known for playing a little fast and loose with privacy.
Big Telecom has found a big, legal way to bilk people out of their money. These shared data plans are a scam! I can't believe they so brazenly do this when there are clear, viable alternatives. I've been with a prepaid carrier since 2009 and contract free and I'm not "credit challenged." It makes sense for everyone to investigate prepaid. Buy your phones refurbished or gently used at significant discounts and then activate them on prepaid carriers. I got my brother, mom, and dad on Page Plus Cellular. My mom and dad use about 1200 minutes per month so they are on 29.95 per month plans and 100mb of data. My brother and I use more so we go with a 55.00 per month talk, text, and 2GB of data. So, between all four of us we spend 170.00 per month. This is a great deal. We gave my dad a blackberry since he only cares about data as far as stock reports and emails. My mom just has a basic feature phone. My bro and I have smart phones.
This might be off-topic but I would love to see as part of an open compute platform an open source video camera that does its recording in VP8. This would encourage more independent artists because there are no royalties and unlimited use is granted. While VP8 is still patented by Google, it's license is totally royalty free and non-restrictive.
I'm somewhat dubious about this. Given the propensity of people to mistreat stuff they don't own, I don't know that I would be willing to rent my car out. I depend upon the reliability of my car. I've heard tell of people beating up rentals. Plus, imagine the insurance you would have to carry and I'm sure it would not be inexpensive. In fact, you would have to incorporate yourself just to shield anything personally-owned from potential loss due to a lawsuit. If your customer got injured because the brakes fail (it can happen even in a car properly maintained) and a child got injured as well as a third party, you could be positively cleaned out and living on the streets.
Jeez, everyone just land on these guys already. I'm sure you'all are perfect.
As soon as Indie stuff becomes a serious competitor (i.e. starts eating in the big media revenue) they'll find a way to stop it. Does this story not have some similarity to that other story produced by big media? Isn't the rhythm of this song vaguely similar to that big media song? They'll find something, for sure.
Or maybe they'll exploit the distribution format: Make sure that the common distribution format is patented, and make the pricing so that independent distribution of content just isn't profitable due to licensing fees. Of course big media doesn't need to pay those high fees, either because they are patent holders (and thus are on the collecting side) or because they get "mass discounts".
I respectfully disagree. There is a strong history and precedent for Independent authors and artists. This would trample on the constitution and I think even the most ardent conservative Justices of the Supreme Court will concede this point. Indie movie and television show creators can turn to VP8 and WebM video to bypass the patent encumbered MPEG and there is Ogg Vorbis for audio. There is enough backing behind HTML5 to virtually ensure that it will remain open. Believe you me, corporate arrogance causes people to be creative and find a legal way around an obstacle. Microsoft's arrogance gave rise to Linux which everyone scoffed at initially and now it is a serious competitor in the server market. Apple's arrogance over the iPhone and iOS has cost them dearly in terms of market share. Enough people didn't like its walled garden and arrogant rejection of apps thus spawning Android. Android is now the dominant market player.
i can't follow most people in these threads.... what is wrong with policing a warehouse of stolen goods? you guys think you're robin hood, but you're just stealing other people's work. yay?
There is nothing wrong with enforcing copyright in a fair and just manner. However, much of the legal framework today gives powers that are way too broad and have the potential for innocent people to get caught up in the fracas. I cannot condone a NAZI style of enforcement for anything. I do not pirate software or published media of any sort.
I will say that the US media industry and content providers have gotten way too powerful. What's worse is that there is little to no checks or balances against this power. But, in their greed, the industry has created an opportunity for a bourgeoning Indie media growth spree. The Internet makes an awesome distribution platform, so there can be Indie television shows and movies without the big studios greedy, restrictive hands in the pot. This is why I check out platforms like Vimeo for the Indie stuff. Much of it is surprisingly good. I would love for Indie to move beyond podcasting.
My guess is that in this case it might truly be a technical limitation. It might be a limitation of the battery. Think about it: iPads and tablets have WiFi, a cellular modem, and a screen to power. Add to it a device to convert OTA TV signals and you've got a battery hog.
True, Aereo isn't paying the networks for the re-broadcast rights but they are shouldering the cost burden of the equipment, bandwidth, and software development involved which isn't inconsiderable. As long as Aereo isn't blanking out the advertisements, the networks get a much larger audience reach. It should be a win-win, symbiotic relationship. But, as noted, broadcast TV is dead and its executives are concerned about becoming redundant. Lately, I've been more interested in the Indie TV shows and podcasts available over the internet. The quality is almost better and I'm sick of supporting the major media conglomerates,
How incredibly shortsighted of the broadcast networks! If Aereo wants to re-broadcast these stations over the internet, there is a strong potential advertising reach and it costs the networks absolutely nothing. NBC, CBS, FOX, et al could actually charge more money for advertising. The cost burden for doing this is solely on Aereo. I guess the human race is steadily becoming more and more stupid.
Some of the parent's advice might be good. Particularly the part about specializing. While it can be reasonably concluded that being a jack of all trades when it comes to IT might actually be advantageous, actually the opposite is true. Being a jack of all trades means you can be utterly abused for 30% less money per year. Specialize! A quick glimpse at the IT jobs on craigslist want SAN, NAS, DBA, and Windows Server Administration and Engineering and then the salary they are willing to pay is 45 - 50K. To keep all this running, you would be driven mad but then you are a dime a dozen. If you are truly specialized in one or two aspects of IT you are better off.