...more recent posts
The author of this LATimes story claims to have tested a sample of that paper phone. This thing still seems too crazy to be true, but evidently they have (at least) working prototypes. (via /.)
The author of this LATimes story claims to have tested a sample of that paper phone. This thing still seems too crazy to be true, but evidently they have (at least) working prototypes. (via /.)
And I thought yesterday went well. This morning I fought my way around what I thought was the biggest problem I was facing with the new site. Damn, the stars must be lined up for me or something. Anybody know about astrology? Is this a good time for a Taurus? Anyway, I've been searching the net for an answer to this one problem, and all I've found are other people with the same problem. But this morning I finally got it to work. At my level - beginner/advanced-beginner - you never really "solve" any major problems, you just find ways around them. I guess that's what they call "hacking". It's a "hack" (instead of a "fix" or a "solution") because it doesn't really solve the problem, it just routes around it, and often inelegantly. But if it works I guess it's O.K. I think a lot of craftsmen/engineers have this sort of attitude. It's an outlook I aspire to. People can theorize all they want, but who has the running code? Somebody else may have a more sophisticated approach, and they may be able to tell you why, but if their solution doesn't work yet, then what good is it? In this spirit I'll point to the Tanenbaum-Torvalds Debate. This is the mailing list debate between young Linus Torvalds (upstart linux creator) with the (then) most respected mind in the academic field of operating system research. A little technical, but skip those parts, and just read the juicy conflict parts. There is a real lesson in there. The "best" product is not necessarily the best product. The best product is the one that ends up working for the most people, not the one that is the most intellectually pure. Good good stuff. I love that linus signs his stuff 'Linus "Benedict" Torvalds'.
I can't believe how much work I'm getting done. There's something you won't here me say too often.
I can't believe how much work I'm getting done. There's something you won't here me say too often.
Oh my god this Napster stuff is finally getting good. Here's a quick synopsis of the problem: Napster is filtering out songs based on filename. So people figure they can just come up with a convention to change the filename spellings to defeat the system. Maybe 'Metallica' becomes 'Meta11ica'. Fine. That works. But for it to really work you need everybody to know the system (or else people won't know to search using 'Meta11ica'.) And if everybody knows the system, then Napster knows the system (or they will by the next day) and they just block that too. And here's the solution: the aimster pig(latin) encoder. This is the same pig latin system you learned as a kid. Download the program and it will convert all your mp3 filenames into pig latin. As they explain it: "For example, 'Music' becomes 'usicM', 'Hello' becomes
'elloH', and you can guess what becomes 'uckF ouY, ouY pyS astardsB'."
But how could this work? Wouldn't napster figure this out in like .02 seconds? Well yes, but it might well be illegal for them to do so. This is the great part. Under the DMCA, which by the way is one of the worst laws we have, it is illegal to circumvent any copy protection mechanism, and it doesn't appear to matter how trivial that mechanism is. This is the law used against the open source community (most famously in the DeCSS case, where the DVD region coding was cracked, giving linux users the chance to play DVDs they had purchased on their own systems.) IF napster reverse engineers the "pig latin encoding scheme" they will be in violation of the DMCA. LOL. That's the funniest thing I have ever heard. Bravo.
I know probably this won't work, even though it seems legally sound. I'm not stupid enough to think that the law is the law for people with hundreds of millions of dollars. But still, this is going to make it even more clear just how much money does talk. If you use Napster please think about using this device. Very very cool.
In other napster news, looks like a 21 year old Canadian is taking the obvious route, and is looking to set up a napster server (the open source openNap I'm guessing) somewhere in international waters. Probably Sealand is the only place for that. Good luck. The problem is mostly that even if they can't get your data, they can get you. So you have to stay out of the reach of international law too, and I don't think you can live on sealand.
Oh my god this Napster stuff is finally getting good. Here's a quick synopsis of the problem: Napster is filtering out songs based on filename. So people figure they can just come up with a convention to change the filename spellings to defeat the system. Maybe 'Metallica' becomes 'Meta11ica'. Fine. That works. But for it to really work you need everybody to know the system (or else people won't know to search using 'Meta11ica'.) And if everybody knows the system, then Napster knows the system (or they will by the next day) and they just block that too. And here's the solution: the aimster pig(latin) encoder. This is the same pig latin system you learned as a kid. Download the program and it will convert all your mp3 filenames into pig latin. As they explain it: "For example, 'Music' becomes 'usicM', 'Hello' becomes
'elloH', and you can guess what becomes 'uckF ouY, ouY pyS astardsB'."
But how could this work? Wouldn't napster figure this out in like .02 seconds? Well yes, but it might well be illegal for them to do so. This is the great part. Under the DMCA, which by the way is one of the worst laws we have, it is illegal to circumvent any copy protection mechanism, and it doesn't appear to matter how trivial that mechanism is. This is the law used against the open source community (most famously in the DeCSS case, where the DVD region coding was cracked, giving linux users the chance to play DVDs they had purchased on their own systems.) IF napster reverse engineers the "pig latin encoding scheme" they will be in violation of the DMCA. LOL. That's the funniest thing I have ever heard. Bravo.
I know probably this won't work, even though it seems legally sound. I'm not stupid enough to think that the law is the law for people with hundreds of millions of dollars. But still, this is going to make it even more clear just how much money does talk. If you use Napster please think about using this device. Very very cool.
In other napster news, looks like a 21 year old Canadian is taking the obvious route, and is looking to set up a napster server (the open source openNap I'm guessing) somewhere in international waters. Probably Sealand is the only place for that. Good luck. The problem is mostly that even if they can't get your data, they can get you. So you have to stay out of the reach of international law too, and I don't think you can live on sealand.
Use(net) this to search. Great.
Use(net) this to search. Great.
Broadband2wireless. Yes. I hereby swear to buy any product that will help me live a Verizon-free life. And something like this would be the biggie. Please, please, please, bring this to market quickly in NYC. I'll pay twice their price for what they offer (if it really is 700/kbs up and down.)