It's not just p2p either. I run Ethereal every now and then on my DSL router to keep track of those intrepid hackers using my wireless connection (the girl two floors down apparently thinks her computer is actually "on" the internet) and to see if anyone has decided it is time to break in. Just watch a typical email session on hotmail. 80%+ of the traffic is solely advertising and hotmail related extra crap. There were 1000 plus packets before I even saw the first message header (I thought someone was doing something naughty). I couldn't believe it at first, but really, that's just amazing. Now the point.
Which is, we really don't notice all of the extra traffic generated every time we hit a website or fire up Morpheus. Generally, you expect the downloads, but you don't expect the protocol overhead, or the ads, or keepalives, or whatever else might be bundled in. This is where we could save bandwidth if we wanted to. But, we don't want to. I would freak if Ameritech imposed a bandwidth restriction.
I wonder if this could be a hoax. Given the dating, and at least the pics I could see, why couldn't it be? Some smart guy writes a book in some made up language (Ewokese?) to sell to overly gullible royalty or the super rich for tons of money and laughs all the way to the bank. Now Yale has it, scientists puzzle over it, and this guy is probably still laughing. Or perhaps it's from a race of aliens who couldn't draw all that well. The constellations could be from different points of view, and the language could be not human at all. Generally speaking, science and art mix poorly, so why not. They can travel great distances, but drawing the Sun and stars is an issue and they didn't have the gimp.
Re:Maybe some straw will help break the camel's ba
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Shrinkwrapped Books
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Remember basic physics. The pendulum will never swing back as far. It would work the same way with our rights. We will never get back to where we are now, much less 50 years ago.
Write your national reps and complain. Use intelligent arguments and allow for competing thought. This is the only way to avoid a society run by corporate interests with no basic human rights.
Is that number in there to allow us to/. a phone number as well? Seems like we as the slashdot community should be willing to branch out and try new things.
Sorry, but laptops are not big and clunky and easy to manage like a desktop. Getting manufacturers to build things to a standard is one thing, coming up with a standard look for a laptop is a whole different story. People buy laptops because they are thin, or light, or have a huge display, or are very small, not because they may be able to upgrade to a better video solution.
Desktops are just starting to get better looking, and there is still the lean towards ugly white boxen. I hope they never decide to shoehorn laptops the same way.
This isn't what the MPAA would ever do. They aren't dumb, just stodgy. There isn't a single chance in all the cosmos that the Movie industry would stop, or in any way slow the movement of TV and Movie to the public. But what do you say to congress? "We need protection from the public and if we don't get it, we're gonna go on about our business and just complain more." No, you say that if the law doesn't protect us, then we are gonna go out of business and then BILLIONS of dollars (millions of which go to Congress) would evaporate. Congress persons are not stupid either (contrary to popular opinion), but the world revolves on money, and the threat of losing money is greater than any other.
The other problem is that the MPAA has the money, the time, and the impetus to fight. We, as the general public do not. Like my friend said when I got my HDTV, "Why?" She is actually mad that the public might be forced to spend more money to upgrade in a few years. There is no tangible benefit to her, or quite a few people. This will be an issue where the public loses and doesn't even realize it until it's too late. They will be all happy that digital TV didn't force them to open their pocket books (losing money is scary), while not realizing they lost their fair use rights in the process. Then 40 years from now, when my grandkids ask me what it was like to have Color TV's (they will be back to 13" BW because Jack Valenti's head will still be running the MPAA, I saw it on Futurama), I can say, it was nice, and Tivo was pretty cool too. Let's go get some more exercise on this beautiful fall day.
My guess is that a lot of people here misunderstood what would be collected. It seems to me, that since all this goes through the Nielson box, that the Nielson box is only really interested in what shows are recorded when and then when they are watched. Not what you do while watching.
As a side note, I would be considerate (and probably use more often) of the use of the green and red Tivo buttons for rating a show. As long as they stay out of my personal info (like now), then take that info as well, I would be more likely to rate the stuff I like.
True, but everyone knows itanium here, but not so much IPF.
And anyone who claimed that Itanium is "pure" was not too terribly well informed. Actually, what defines pure for a processor anyhow? I agree with your second statement.
As for three, I think the jury is still out. Wait for open source competent compilers to be released (say 5 releases of EPIC GCC from now) before anyone really makes a claim as to good v. bad here.
And finally, remember, desktop CPU's make up a very small percentage of total CPU's shipped. Motorola's biggest CPU customer is not Apple, but rather Motorola's Cell infrastructure and networking businesses. Then, they have other companies (Force, et al) reselling their embedded PPC chips as well. Intel makes a ton of embedded CPU's. These are the high volume chips that make their way into your cars, dsl routers, phones, cell switches, telephone networking equipment, and handheld comps that most take for granted. A huge chunk of processors shipped aren't even 32 bit (don't need more than 8 for many embedded apps!) so you're argument that RISC is bad doesn't really hold water unless the only CPU's used are desktop/server (less than 10% by some accounts of the total CPU market).
That's true, but it's a concern with a ton of different things. I could buy the hundred disc changer and when it breaks a month later, be out of luck because the company that manufactured it went under. Granted, this is less likely, and these satellite services are burning cash, but I believe them when they say things like, "We need somewhere between 1 and 2 million subcribers to do well", and "There is room for more than one operater in this business". XM subcriber rates are climbing, their ads are not stupid, and they seem to have some celebrity backing (read money incoming, not pissing individuals off, leaning on everyone's heros in hollywood to add promotion value). I think that when all is said and done, both will still be alive doing something similar to what they are doing now. However, I leave predicting the future to those who honestly can, like Miss Cleo, and will use XM until they stop broadcasting, I die, or something even better comes along.
Besides, remember, we are the early adopters. The slashdot community represents those who can see the technical merits of getting a 96K stream from space of David Bowie or Handel. That, and to be honest, if this starts to take off, then crap radio (see all of Chicago radio) will have to pay attention. Maybe things get better because we all of a sudden have a choice that's not driven by a handful of individuals who can only see dollar signs every time one of the three songs on the radio is played. Granted, XM and Sirius are solely money driven, but the format here is not conducive to following ground radio into Indie programming hell. XM doesn't compete with itself, so if you switch channels, it's still all good (granted they win even if you just pay and never listen).
I've been using XM for about 4 months now and really enjoy it. The fact that there are few commercial free stations is not all that big a deal as they only play 1 or 2 commercials an hour anyway. That may change as popularity increases (it has a little already), but I still think you won't see the 20 minutes of talk, 20 minutes of commercials, and 20 minutes of the same music they played 40 minutes ago that you do say here in Chicago.
I chose XM because Sirius wasn't available yet, and I like Pioneer for equipment (different topic, don't flame me if you disagree). My antenna is a roof mount that gets signal all over (I was on the bottom floor of a 6 floor parking garage getting signal, but lost it this afternoon under a tree, go figure), and the added advantage of driving to Indy or Champaign/Urbana without having to tune is huge.Basically, I figure I get signal 99% of the time, which is actually better than any of the FM stations here in Chicago.
As for the satellites, Sirius is actually in worse shape if a satellite goes down as there may be a small percentage of time when there is no signal, whereas if XM loses one, at least there is still one up there. I don't know what plans either company has in that event, but I suspect they both have a replacment plan. I base this assumption on the "Can't charge me if I can't get the signal" sorta thinking.
And finally, the Clear Channel bits scares me, but it seems they are only a minority share holder and don't have any rights to decision making. If that were to change, I would be worried, but this seems like an investment rather than a M$ attempt at world domination. I'll wait and see on that bit. And if it becomes a classic Clear Channel POS, then I unsubscribe and listen to home burned CD's for a while.
I agree. This seems to be staged to keep him in some sort of spotlight for a little while. The only problem here is that he has two things going for him.
Money! Duh, with enough cash, the sky is the limit for stupid ventures. (see the tech industry circa 1999)
Clout with less technically minded people. He probably could convince other less intelligent or thoughtful individuals with money that he is on the right track.
Anyway, this will probably go away. There doesn't seem to be any sort of real science in any of this, but rather some grandiose parading around. However, I will have to admit that sometimes, good things come from very unlikely places. Maybe he actually starts the project and does something good? Maybe not. Really, until the journal Science publishes a paper or Woods Hole Oceanagraphic signs on to help, I'll just consider this so much news fluff from our new entertainment source, the news.
Exactly. There isn't anything in this article that one couldn't plausibly invent using the web and some thinking. Notice how carefully the wording is to make the article sound real.
But it doesn't mean they're a bunch of wild cowboys. There are rules, you know, that stipulate what they are allowed to monitor, and they definitely don't ignore the laws of any individual countries. Not American laws either. This poses somewhat of a challenge, of course, but after they get a court order, they can do just about anything they please," explains McIndoe, who emphasizes that he is no expert in these matters. This sentence is perfect at not being alarmist while being alarmist.
Also, the first version was done really before the public even knew about the internet. So the NSA considered public email a threat before the public could email? I wonder if they think the new Tom Cruise movie coming out is old tech? And, it reads like a novel "He stops to take a breath..." and "He laughs dryly and somewhat indulgently.... Seems fishy to me.
Not really, in my opinion. What Sun hopes to gain is two systems which are more or less completely compatible. So, if you want Sun's expertise and someone to stand behind your hardware and software (big IT houses), you call Sun and buy their big iron running Solaris. And then, with all the Solaris compat in the linux kernel, it is just as easy to add cheaper boxes doing all sorts of other work using Linux complementing the expesive big iron. Since they now (in the future, maybe...) both have transparent application compatibility, and both kernel's do things in a similar way, then the impetus to buy M$ is greatly reduced. Less IT training, more people who can administer both sytems. You haven't really boosted a competitor, but rather given yourself a new market.
What confuses me about this strategy is that Sun has never been known as a company that would do what's right for the consumer, as much as it would say what's right for the consumer. For a while they could get away with it with little problem. Maybe now, given M$'s predicament, and that Linux isn't going away, they have to rethink their own borg strategy, even if it wasn't as blatant or heavy handed as the devil...oops, Bills.
Anyway, as long as they don't have visions of forking or tuning the kernel in a very sun branded way, then this is probably a good thing. If they have visions of steering linux with Scott at the helm, then we may have problems. Hope for the best, so the disappointment can make you stronger.
Well, that is true, but the issue at hand isn't really the rule, but rather corporate america's willingness to use loopholes to do business. In effect, an unauthorized RF source is interefering with an unauthorized RF network (or whatever). Since both are unauthorized, they fall in between the cracks of the Section 15 rule, and therefore, could still be subject to legal action. This could also result in a rewrite of the rules by the FCC to account for such issues (which could be good, or very bad, depending).
But most importantly, the courts should (don't read will) be very reticent to kill one company's nifty product in production for anothers. And, I believe that satellite radio is an authorized radio service, so if RF lighting does in fact prove to be a source of interference, then RF lighting is going to have a very tough time. Two established providers v. a new an upcoming technology should be an easy one for any court. If satellite is interferred with, then it is almost a sure bet any WiFi equipment will suffer, and the judge, whose kids may surf the web using the WiFi tech, is most likely going to rule in favor of established products.
Note I'm using the courts in my argument. Due to the FCC's continuing inability to make a decision stand, it is almost inevitible that courts will be involved. Someone will sue someone else in an attempt to force the issue.
I bet Circuit City runs screaming when Samsung and whoever else ask them to sell these things. And I love all the wonderful marketing speak they use. I bet a search for DivX articles on Google would turn up old press releases that said many of the same things, and that was a better (quality, not useful) product. What 15 year old kid with Mom's credit card at Best Buy would say, gee, something with little use now, and questionable use later, or an MP3 player that I can use now and later, and probaby even after that. The cost is the same, the format is different, but teens (and other focus groups) are notoriously shortsighted (that's why marketing people love them). If the industry focuses on stupid people (note, teens are not stupid people by default but flash Brittany on screen and we all get a little weak) they will sell some of this.
I don't think it will ever get big. Why store video on a disk you can only use in an audio player? Really, just so you can move it around? There are a hundred already purchased ways to move files less than 500 MB around (how much is a CD-RW now) without having to cram it on something that your buddy at his/her house doesn't have? This is all just wishful thinking so thank god for capitalism.
Also, I can overpay for a CD, and still pay less than one of these things. And the CD, while not useful for recording things, is, for lack of a better way to put it, actually CD quality (not just stated to be and hoped no one will notice a diff). Not many are gonna be all that interested in replacing CD-R(W) or DVD-R(W/AM) with these. Really, easy to use, no restrictions, cheaper, faster vs. locked up proprietary expensive not mainstream. Seems like a moot point to me. In fact, if one doesn't read the press, but walks into Best Buy and reads the description, one might be tempted to laugh.
I agree. It would be wonderful to have legal backing for our hacking desires, but this isn't a reasonable expectation in a capitalist society. And if you think you own your Windows computer and are free to use it as you will, even before the SSSCA or DMCA, then you really haven't been reading those nifty license agreements. Some are pretty shocking. Read Network Associates "don't bad mouth us" clause. We have survived in a this licensed world for a while, and society is not going to evaporate tomorrow because life is so much worse today than it was in 1999.
I think a voluntary agreement, kind of like a working group is a really good idea. Come up with some basic issues, provide solutions, and get companies to say, "Hey, this isn't going to hurt us, and we can use it to sell our product." I know, this is mostly wishful thinking, but it's more realistic than trying get Senator Bob Paidforbycorporatemoney to back up individuals who like the idea of using their computer for what they want to.
Use OSS software. Don't agree to a license agreement that stifles. Read the license agreements prior to clicking OK. As long as technology outpaces the RIAA's (not just them, but they make good targets) abilities to absorb it, we are going to have issues like these. The fix for stupid software problems is found on freshmeat!
So I'm confused. There are more than 3 ISP's (AOL didn't evolve from a Cable company, they bought one). The Alpha is essentially dead, or not too far from it (This isn't a prediction, but personal feeling on the subject). We are approaching the end of Moore's law... is so broad that it is true by def. We were approaching it the day he laid it down. And what does a big shakeout mean? By big shakeout do you mean industry downturn, consolidation, what? The statement is so broad that you could apply it easily to any blip in the industry. I'll give you the NT and 95 prediction. Still fairly broad, but mostly true.
Anyway, are you stating that you made correct predictions and backing that argument up with those posted here? Or are you holding to my arguemnt that most (if not all) predictions 5-6 years ago couldn't hold water? If you are using these predictions as evidence, then you should be working for Miss Cleo.
It's different because they haven't signed exclusive deals and used marketing to force other competitors out of the fray. Essentially, they will have priced the competitors out of the building. I'm not saying they aren't a monopoly, but realistically, it's harder to argue they did it illegally or unjustly.
However, I still think that there will be room for others. AMD will probably succeed doing what they do best, outpace Intel in quality and lower the price by ~10%. This has been successfull (I hope it continues, I own stock) and will probably continue. And I doubt Sun is out. There maybe changes coming, but I figure McNealy would sell his baby prior to using Intel chips. As for the others, they fell and never recovered. You can't charge super high premiums when your competition is charging super low premiums. A lot of corps assumed you could and get away with it and look what happend.
The future is unwritten, so any sort of prediction is just fantasy for the most part. Step back to 95 and tell me who predicted 2000 or 2001? Reality is far more interesting than any professional opinion from the Gartner group et. al.
The end may not be near after all. I look at it this way. With BT jumping the Atlantic pond and asking American companies for money, legislator's may just take notice. If the cash is just moving from one American oligopoly to another, then fine, but when it flows out of this country, then those in power (might/will) take notice. There hasn't been a better time to write your congress person and vent.
Really though, there will come a point when the absolute frivoulus nature of these suits hits a nerve, where those with the power to do something are finally pushed to change the system. Perhaps this SightSound lawsuit, or maybe Microsoft suing the President for using their patented decison making process. It will happen sooner if we (/.'ers who want to make a diff) make some noise. I sent a mail to Senator Fitzgerald about the SSSCA and even though I just got a response a couple of weeks ago, it was in fact hand signed (the letter was laser printed, but you can tell the sig was done with one of those 10 cent bic pens).
My point is, there is a wall to which these lawsuits are running. How far we have to go depends on how greedy those on top are (go Enron), and how diligent those with some knowledge on the subject can be. Write your senator!Write your Representative!
I would think that anyone's prediction of the future should be required to carry a disclaimer. 13 years from now we could all live on the moon. Or we could all be dead by asteroid. Or go see dinosaurs at the zoo. Or be telecommuting for a firm in Hong Kong from our bomb shelter in Oklahoma (the new Silicon Valley?).
Point is that these forward looking statements are based on personal feeling. Who knew in 1988 that by the year 2000, we would have 3+ computers in every house and one of the biggest issues facing society would be digital rights? Really. Drop all notions? Many of the/.'ers are the next middle aged CxO's of 2015. Many of us/.'ers are a discovery away from changing history (think Linux, bioinformatics, etc...).
I would stay way clear of making outlandish predictions. Many of those laid off in the 80's are the office managers who are making the decisions about who got laid off in 2001. No one knows, and with the speed of change, no one will.
Predict positive things. At least then you can go into the future with a smile. And I'm not bashing those older, wiser/.'ers, but I suspect (maybe I'm wrong?) that the majority of/. readers are somewhere within 10 years of being a 20 something. Today's 20 something coders are tomorrow's 40 something bosses. We are a large part of determing the future.
Like most others, I would suggest waiting. Maybe not till 2006, but give it maybe one more year. Widescreen TV's can be had at 42+" for less than $2500, and if you're like me, then open box at Best Buy can be your friend. I got my receiver (which is also a DirecTV receiver) for $400 open box. With the stereo setup and all, I spent less than $3500 for one hell of a system.
The good stuff is that the over air broadcasts are not as intermittent as some would say. I live 25 miles from Chicago and never lose signal. There isn't much original programming, but I caught an HD Cubs game last summer and was blown away. Waiting for the superbowl now. I figure it's about a year away from being good, 2 from being available over cable, and 3 from being almost mainstream.
The bad parts are the lack of HD format programming, and the totally anti-HD stance from Hollywood and most of the TV and cable industry. When the copy protect issues are resolved, you can bet Hollywood will jump all over this.
I enjoy it. Even the regular letterbox shows that are upconverted are good for now. And it will get better. Be an early adopter and show support. Dollars speak louder than anything anyone can say.
Re:disks not suitable for heavy duty applications
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The main reasons for cheap drives are
Most blade applications don't require or even use harddrives. They are a point of failure and add cost ($100 for every hard drive + $100 for every SCSI addition to the board x 100's of boards in most installs) to any project. When you spend millions, dropping $100,000 is significant. If you want I/O, go with something else.
Most projects that use blades are also realtime applications in telco or internet. You can't really have a realtime OS that spends a lot of time reading/writing from a slow HD. Therefore, these are just there for startup and so forth when I/O isn't all the exciting.
That said, there are SCSI PMC modules that can be added, and there are some Force and Mot chassis that support SCSI natively, but not for each blade.
No kidding. I've been working with blade's for 3 years now here at Motorola. MonteVista has provided a PPC/x86 linux solution for almost 2 years. This post about HP's products missed the blade boat by years.
I have to agree with the main point. However, there are parts of this bill that will really be an issue. The big one would be if the bill is passed without sunset clauses. That could be a problem. Another is the unlimited access to personal stored information regardless whether it is relevant to the case/issue/investigation. And finally, to allow administrative personnel carte blanche over monitoring and action related to computer systems. And it isn't so much that the provisions exist, but they need a check. They are simply too broad and could be easily tightened without losing the intended effect.
We need all sorts of groups in a strong Republic to air out viewpoints on everything. Withtout radical, viewpoints, the moderate viewpoints would be considered radical and nothing good can come of a nation full of radical moderates...
I don't think we can get away with no corporate involvement or change. Sorry, but the world works based on corporate money. The upside is that they have the money to do things. The downside is that many daily decisions are made by a small cadre of white male republican technophobes. But I don't think that it is the death of the internet, or the impetus to turn away all corporate involvement.
Bascially, we are going to need the corporate investment to continue doing what we love. Many of the sites and the activities netizens do every day are only possible because a large check backs them up. Can I afford to run a large website with lots of content and bandwidth making less than $100G's and having to live as well? Think not. However, the collection of individuals who would be loathe to give up the freedom that the current system offers is hopefully large enough to avoid a total loss to blind corporate interest. Gotta find a balance here folks. Change is un-avoidable, but we need to remember that we have some ability to regulate that change. We need to exercise that ability when it is called for.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not just p2p either. I run Ethereal every now and then on my DSL router to keep track of those intrepid hackers using my wireless connection (the girl two floors down apparently thinks her computer is actually "on" the internet) and to see if anyone has decided it is time to break in. Just watch a typical email session on hotmail. 80%+ of the traffic is solely advertising and hotmail related extra crap. There were 1000 plus packets before I even saw the first message header (I thought someone was doing something naughty). I couldn't believe it at first, but really, that's just amazing. Now the point.
Which is, we really don't notice all of the extra traffic generated every time we hit a website or fire up Morpheus. Generally, you expect the downloads, but you don't expect the protocol overhead, or the ads, or keepalives, or whatever else might be bundled in. This is where we could save bandwidth if we wanted to. But, we don't want to. I would freak if Ameritech imposed a bandwidth restriction.
I wonder if this could be a hoax. Given the dating, and at least the pics I could see, why couldn't it be? Some smart guy writes a book in some made up language (Ewokese?) to sell to overly gullible royalty or the super rich for tons of money and laughs all the way to the bank. Now Yale has it, scientists puzzle over it, and this guy is probably still laughing. Or perhaps it's from a race of aliens who couldn't draw all that well. The constellations could be from different points of view, and the language could be not human at all. Generally speaking, science and art mix poorly, so why not. They can travel great distances, but drawing the Sun and stars is an issue and they didn't have the gimp.
Remember basic physics. The pendulum will never swing back as far. It would work the same way with our rights. We will never get back to where we are now, much less 50 years ago.
Write your national reps and complain. Use intelligent arguments and allow for competing thought. This is the only way to avoid a society run by corporate interests with no basic human rights.
Is that number in there to allow us to /. a phone number as well? Seems like we as the slashdot community should be willing to branch out and try new things.
Upgradeable laptops != good laptops
Sorry, but laptops are not big and clunky and easy to manage like a desktop. Getting manufacturers to build things to a standard is one thing, coming up with a standard look for a laptop is a whole different story. People buy laptops because they are thin, or light, or have a huge display, or are very small, not because they may be able to upgrade to a better video solution.
Desktops are just starting to get better looking, and there is still the lean towards ugly white boxen. I hope they never decide to shoehorn laptops the same way.
This isn't what the MPAA would ever do. They aren't dumb, just stodgy. There isn't a single chance in all the cosmos that the Movie industry would stop, or in any way slow the movement of TV and Movie to the public. But what do you say to congress? "We need protection from the public and if we don't get it, we're gonna go on about our business and just complain more." No, you say that if the law doesn't protect us, then we are gonna go out of business and then BILLIONS of dollars (millions of which go to Congress) would evaporate. Congress persons are not stupid either (contrary to popular opinion), but the world revolves on money, and the threat of losing money is greater than any other.
The other problem is that the MPAA has the money, the time, and the impetus to fight. We, as the general public do not. Like my friend said when I got my HDTV, "Why?" She is actually mad that the public might be forced to spend more money to upgrade in a few years. There is no tangible benefit to her, or quite a few people. This will be an issue where the public loses and doesn't even realize it until it's too late. They will be all happy that digital TV didn't force them to open their pocket books (losing money is scary), while not realizing they lost their fair use rights in the process. Then 40 years from now, when my grandkids ask me what it was like to have Color TV's (they will be back to 13" BW because Jack Valenti's head will still be running the MPAA, I saw it on Futurama), I can say, it was nice, and Tivo was pretty cool too. Let's go get some more exercise on this beautiful fall day.
Maybe it won't all be bad...
My guess is that a lot of people here misunderstood what would be collected. It seems to me, that since all this goes through the Nielson box, that the Nielson box is only really interested in what shows are recorded when and then when they are watched. Not what you do while watching.
As a side note, I would be considerate (and probably use more often) of the use of the green and red Tivo buttons for rating a show. As long as they stay out of my personal info (like now), then take that info as well, I would be more likely to rate the stuff I like.
True, but everyone knows itanium here, but not so much IPF.
And anyone who claimed that Itanium is "pure" was not too terribly well informed. Actually, what defines pure for a processor anyhow? I agree with your second statement.
As for three, I think the jury is still out. Wait for open source competent compilers to be released (say 5 releases of EPIC GCC from now) before anyone really makes a claim as to good v. bad here.
And finally, remember, desktop CPU's make up a very small percentage of total CPU's shipped. Motorola's biggest CPU customer is not Apple, but rather Motorola's Cell infrastructure and networking businesses. Then, they have other companies (Force, et al) reselling their embedded PPC chips as well. Intel makes a ton of embedded CPU's. These are the high volume chips that make their way into your cars, dsl routers, phones, cell switches, telephone networking equipment, and handheld comps that most take for granted. A huge chunk of processors shipped aren't even 32 bit (don't need more than 8 for many embedded apps!) so you're argument that RISC is bad doesn't really hold water unless the only CPU's used are desktop/server (less than 10% by some accounts of the total CPU market).
That's true, but it's a concern with a ton of different things. I could buy the hundred disc changer and when it breaks a month later, be out of luck because the company that manufactured it went under. Granted, this is less likely, and these satellite services are burning cash, but I believe them when they say things like, "We need somewhere between 1 and 2 million subcribers to do well", and "There is room for more than one operater in this business". XM subcriber rates are climbing, their ads are not stupid, and they seem to have some celebrity backing (read money incoming, not pissing individuals off, leaning on everyone's heros in hollywood to add promotion value). I think that when all is said and done, both will still be alive doing something similar to what they are doing now. However, I leave predicting the future to those who honestly can, like Miss Cleo, and will use XM until they stop broadcasting, I die, or something even better comes along.
Besides, remember, we are the early adopters. The slashdot community represents those who can see the technical merits of getting a 96K stream from space of David Bowie or Handel. That, and to be honest, if this starts to take off, then crap radio (see all of Chicago radio) will have to pay attention. Maybe things get better because we all of a sudden have a choice that's not driven by a handful of individuals who can only see dollar signs every time one of the three songs on the radio is played. Granted, XM and Sirius are solely money driven, but the format here is not conducive to following ground radio into Indie programming hell. XM doesn't compete with itself, so if you switch channels, it's still all good (granted they win even if you just pay and never listen).
I've been using XM for about 4 months now and really enjoy it. The fact that there are few commercial free stations is not all that big a deal as they only play 1 or 2 commercials an hour anyway. That may change as popularity increases (it has a little already), but I still think you won't see the 20 minutes of talk, 20 minutes of commercials, and 20 minutes of the same music they played 40 minutes ago that you do say here in Chicago.
I chose XM because Sirius wasn't available yet, and I like Pioneer for equipment (different topic, don't flame me if you disagree). My antenna is a roof mount that gets signal all over (I was on the bottom floor of a 6 floor parking garage getting signal, but lost it this afternoon under a tree, go figure), and the added advantage of driving to Indy or Champaign/Urbana without having to tune is huge.Basically, I figure I get signal 99% of the time, which is actually better than any of the FM stations here in Chicago.
As for the satellites, Sirius is actually in worse shape if a satellite goes down as there may be a small percentage of time when there is no signal, whereas if XM loses one, at least there is still one up there. I don't know what plans either company has in that event, but I suspect they both have a replacment plan. I base this assumption on the "Can't charge me if I can't get the signal" sorta thinking.
And finally, the Clear Channel bits scares me, but it seems they are only a minority share holder and don't have any rights to decision making. If that were to change, I would be worried, but this seems like an investment rather than a M$ attempt at world domination. I'll wait and see on that bit. And if it becomes a classic Clear Channel POS, then I unsubscribe and listen to home burned CD's for a while.
- Money! Duh, with enough cash, the sky is the limit for stupid ventures. (see the tech industry circa 1999)
- Clout with less technically minded people. He probably could convince other less intelligent or thoughtful individuals with money that he is on the right track.
Anyway, this will probably go away. There doesn't seem to be any sort of real science in any of this, but rather some grandiose parading around. However, I will have to admit that sometimes, good things come from very unlikely places. Maybe he actually starts the project and does something good? Maybe not. Really, until the journal Science publishes a paper or Woods Hole Oceanagraphic signs on to help, I'll just consider this so much news fluff from our new entertainment source, the news.Exactly. There isn't anything in this article that one couldn't plausibly invent using the web and some thinking. Notice how carefully the wording is to make the article sound real.
But it doesn't mean they're a bunch of wild cowboys. There are rules, you know, that stipulate what they are allowed to monitor, and they definitely don't ignore the laws of any individual countries. Not American laws either. This poses somewhat of a challenge, of course, but after they get a court order, they can do just about anything they please," explains McIndoe, who emphasizes that he is no expert in these matters. This sentence is perfect at not being alarmist while being alarmist.
Also, the first version was done really before the public even knew about the internet. So the NSA considered public email a threat before the public could email? I wonder if they think the new Tom Cruise movie coming out is old tech? And, it reads like a novel "He stops to take a breath..." and "He laughs dryly and somewhat indulgently.... Seems fishy to me.
Not really, in my opinion. What Sun hopes to gain is two systems which are more or less completely compatible. So, if you want Sun's expertise and someone to stand behind your hardware and software (big IT houses), you call Sun and buy their big iron running Solaris. And then, with all the Solaris compat in the linux kernel, it is just as easy to add cheaper boxes doing all sorts of other work using Linux complementing the expesive big iron. Since they now (in the future, maybe...) both have transparent application compatibility, and both kernel's do things in a similar way, then the impetus to buy M$ is greatly reduced. Less IT training, more people who can administer both sytems. You haven't really boosted a competitor, but rather given yourself a new market.
What confuses me about this strategy is that Sun has never been known as a company that would do what's right for the consumer, as much as it would say what's right for the consumer. For a while they could get away with it with little problem. Maybe now, given M$'s predicament, and that Linux isn't going away, they have to rethink their own borg strategy, even if it wasn't as blatant or heavy handed as the devil...oops, Bills.
Anyway, as long as they don't have visions of forking or tuning the kernel in a very sun branded way, then this is probably a good thing. If they have visions of steering linux with Scott at the helm, then we may have problems. Hope for the best, so the disappointment can make you stronger.
Well, that is true, but the issue at hand isn't really the rule, but rather corporate america's willingness to use loopholes to do business. In effect, an unauthorized RF source is interefering with an unauthorized RF network (or whatever). Since both are unauthorized, they fall in between the cracks of the Section 15 rule, and therefore, could still be subject to legal action. This could also result in a rewrite of the rules by the FCC to account for such issues (which could be good, or very bad, depending).
But most importantly, the courts should (don't read will) be very reticent to kill one company's nifty product in production for anothers. And, I believe that satellite radio is an authorized radio service, so if RF lighting does in fact prove to be a source of interference, then RF lighting is going to have a very tough time. Two established providers v. a new an upcoming technology should be an easy one for any court. If satellite is interferred with, then it is almost a sure bet any WiFi equipment will suffer, and the judge, whose kids may surf the web using the WiFi tech, is most likely going to rule in favor of established products.
Note I'm using the courts in my argument. Due to the FCC's continuing inability to make a decision stand, it is almost inevitible that courts will be involved. Someone will sue someone else in an attempt to force the issue.
I bet Circuit City runs screaming when Samsung and whoever else ask them to sell these things. And I love all the wonderful marketing speak they use. I bet a search for DivX articles on Google would turn up old press releases that said many of the same things, and that was a better (quality, not useful) product. What 15 year old kid with Mom's credit card at Best Buy would say, gee, something with little use now, and questionable use later, or an MP3 player that I can use now and later, and probaby even after that. The cost is the same, the format is different, but teens (and other focus groups) are notoriously shortsighted (that's why marketing people love them). If the industry focuses on stupid people (note, teens are not stupid people by default but flash Brittany on screen and we all get a little weak) they will sell some of this.
I don't think it will ever get big. Why store video on a disk you can only use in an audio player? Really, just so you can move it around? There are a hundred already purchased ways to move files less than 500 MB around (how much is a CD-RW now) without having to cram it on something that your buddy at his/her house doesn't have? This is all just wishful thinking so thank god for capitalism.
Also, I can overpay for a CD, and still pay less than one of these things. And the CD, while not useful for recording things, is, for lack of a better way to put it, actually CD quality (not just stated to be and hoped no one will notice a diff). Not many are gonna be all that interested in replacing CD-R(W) or DVD-R(W/AM) with these. Really, easy to use, no restrictions, cheaper, faster vs. locked up proprietary expensive not mainstream. Seems like a moot point to me. In fact, if one doesn't read the press, but walks into Best Buy and reads the description, one might be tempted to laugh.
I agree. It would be wonderful to have legal backing for our hacking desires, but this isn't a reasonable expectation in a capitalist society. And if you think you own your Windows computer and are free to use it as you will, even before the SSSCA or DMCA, then you really haven't been reading those nifty license agreements. Some are pretty shocking. Read Network Associates "don't bad mouth us" clause. We have survived in a this licensed world for a while, and society is not going to evaporate tomorrow because life is so much worse today than it was in 1999.
I think a voluntary agreement, kind of like a working group is a really good idea. Come up with some basic issues, provide solutions, and get companies to say, "Hey, this isn't going to hurt us, and we can use it to sell our product." I know, this is mostly wishful thinking, but it's more realistic than trying get Senator Bob Paidforbycorporatemoney to back up individuals who like the idea of using their computer for what they want to.
Use OSS software. Don't agree to a license agreement that stifles. Read the license agreements prior to clicking OK. As long as technology outpaces the RIAA's (not just them, but they make good targets) abilities to absorb it, we are going to have issues like these. The fix for stupid software problems is found on freshmeat!
So I'm confused. There are more than 3 ISP's (AOL didn't evolve from a Cable company, they bought one). The Alpha is essentially dead, or not too far from it (This isn't a prediction, but personal feeling on the subject). We are approaching the end of Moore's law... is so broad that it is true by def. We were approaching it the day he laid it down. And what does a big shakeout mean? By big shakeout do you mean industry downturn, consolidation, what? The statement is so broad that you could apply it easily to any blip in the industry. I'll give you the NT and 95 prediction. Still fairly broad, but mostly true.
Anyway, are you stating that you made correct predictions and backing that argument up with those posted here? Or are you holding to my arguemnt that most (if not all) predictions 5-6 years ago couldn't hold water? If you are using these predictions as evidence, then you should be working for Miss Cleo.
It's different because they haven't signed exclusive deals and used marketing to force other competitors out of the fray. Essentially, they will have priced the competitors out of the building. I'm not saying they aren't a monopoly, but realistically, it's harder to argue they did it illegally or unjustly.
However, I still think that there will be room for others. AMD will probably succeed doing what they do best, outpace Intel in quality and lower the price by ~10%. This has been successfull (I hope it continues, I own stock) and will probably continue. And I doubt Sun is out. There maybe changes coming, but I figure McNealy would sell his baby prior to using Intel chips. As for the others, they fell and never recovered. You can't charge super high premiums when your competition is charging super low premiums. A lot of corps assumed you could and get away with it and look what happend.
The future is unwritten, so any sort of prediction is just fantasy for the most part. Step back to 95 and tell me who predicted 2000 or 2001? Reality is far more interesting than any professional opinion from the Gartner group et. al.
The end may not be near after all. I look at it this way. With BT jumping the Atlantic pond and asking American companies for money, legislator's may just take notice. If the cash is just moving from one American oligopoly to another, then fine, but when it flows out of this country, then those in power (might/will) take notice. There hasn't been a better time to write your congress person and vent.
Really though, there will come a point when the absolute frivoulus nature of these suits hits a nerve, where those with the power to do something are finally pushed to change the system. Perhaps this SightSound lawsuit, or maybe Microsoft suing the President for using their patented decison making process. It will happen sooner if we (/.'ers who want to make a diff) make some noise. I sent a mail to Senator Fitzgerald about the SSSCA and even though I just got a response a couple of weeks ago, it was in fact hand signed (the letter was laser printed, but you can tell the sig was done with one of those 10 cent bic pens).
My point is, there is a wall to which these lawsuits are running. How far we have to go depends on how greedy those on top are (go Enron), and how diligent those with some knowledge on the subject can be. Write your senator! Write your Representative!
I would think that anyone's prediction of the future should be required to carry a disclaimer. 13 years from now we could all live on the moon. Or we could all be dead by asteroid. Or go see dinosaurs at the zoo. Or be telecommuting for a firm in Hong Kong from our bomb shelter in Oklahoma (the new Silicon Valley?).
Point is that these forward looking statements are based on personal feeling. Who knew in 1988 that by the year 2000, we would have 3+ computers in every house and one of the biggest issues facing society would be digital rights? Really. Drop all notions? Many of the /.'ers are the next middle aged CxO's of 2015. Many of us /.'ers are a discovery away from changing history (think Linux, bioinformatics, etc...).
I would stay way clear of making outlandish predictions. Many of those laid off in the 80's are the office managers who are making the decisions about who got laid off in 2001. No one knows, and with the speed of change, no one will.
Predict positive things. At least then you can go into the future with a smile. And I'm not bashing those older, wiser /.'ers, but I suspect (maybe I'm wrong?) that the majority of /. readers are somewhere within 10 years of being a 20 something. Today's 20 something coders are tomorrow's 40 something bosses. We are a large part of determing the future.
Like most others, I would suggest waiting. Maybe not till 2006, but give it maybe one more year. Widescreen TV's can be had at 42+" for less than $2500, and if you're like me, then open box at Best Buy can be your friend. I got my receiver (which is also a DirecTV receiver) for $400 open box. With the stereo setup and all, I spent less than $3500 for one hell of a system.
The good stuff is that the over air broadcasts are not as intermittent as some would say. I live 25 miles from Chicago and never lose signal. There isn't much original programming, but I caught an HD Cubs game last summer and was blown away. Waiting for the superbowl now. I figure it's about a year away from being good, 2 from being available over cable, and 3 from being almost mainstream.
The bad parts are the lack of HD format programming, and the totally anti-HD stance from Hollywood and most of the TV and cable industry. When the copy protect issues are resolved, you can bet Hollywood will jump all over this.
I enjoy it. Even the regular letterbox shows that are upconverted are good for now. And it will get better. Be an early adopter and show support. Dollars speak louder than anything anyone can say.
The main reasons for cheap drives are
That said, there are SCSI PMC modules that can be added, and there are some Force and Mot chassis that support SCSI natively, but not for each blade.
No kidding. I've been working with blade's for 3 years now here at Motorola. MonteVista has provided a PPC/x86 linux solution for almost 2 years. This post about HP's products missed the blade boat by years.
I have to agree with the main point. However, there are parts of this bill that will really be an issue. The big one would be if the bill is passed without sunset clauses. That could be a problem. Another is the unlimited access to personal stored information regardless whether it is relevant to the case/issue/investigation. And finally, to allow administrative personnel carte blanche over monitoring and action related to computer systems.
And it isn't so much that the provisions exist, but they need a check. They are simply too broad and could be easily tightened without losing the intended effect.
We need all sorts of groups in a strong Republic to air out viewpoints on everything. Withtout radical, viewpoints, the moderate viewpoints would be considered radical and nothing good can come of a nation full of radical moderates...
I don't think we can get away with no corporate involvement or change. Sorry, but the world works based on corporate money. The upside is that they have the money to do things. The downside is that many daily decisions are made by a small cadre of white male republican technophobes. But I don't think that it is the death of the internet, or the impetus to turn away all corporate involvement.
Bascially, we are going to need the corporate investment to continue doing what we love. Many of the sites and the activities netizens do every day are only possible because a large check backs them up. Can I afford to run a large website with lots of content and bandwidth making less than $100G's and having to live as well? Think not. However, the collection of individuals who would be loathe to give up the freedom that the current system offers is hopefully large enough to avoid a total loss to blind corporate interest. Gotta find a balance here folks. Change is un-avoidable, but we need to remember that we have some ability to regulate that change. We need to exercise that ability when it is called for.