ryan is the supernicety wrote:
] ] The LaCie Bigger Disk, with the largest hard drive
] ] capacity available, is a unique innovation that packs an
] ] amazing 1 terabyte of storage space in a manageable 5.25"
] ] form factor.
]
] !!! Firewire 400/800, USB 1.1/2

I'm pretty sure that this is something like 4 250 gig disks internally. I think the biggest you can buy right now is 300.

RE: LaCie - Bigger Disk - largest hard drive capacity available

Went up last night. Now we'll see if it takes as many minor revs as 2.4 did to become stable...

] After five years, a project to replace the Internal
] Revenue Service's aging file-keeping computer system with
] modern technology is so far behind schedule that the
] I.R.S. has told the prime contractor that unless it
] improves its performance by the end of the month, the
] government may have no choice but to fire it.

This is going to become one of those "anti-patterns" case studies. Apparently, the FBI is having the same trouble. Computer Sciences Corp is the contractor in both cases. How is CSC more qualified to do this stuff than IBM or Oracle? Aren't they just another (incompetant,corrupt,ineffecient) government contractor?

At I.R.S., a Systems Update Gone Awry

ryan is the supernicety wrote:
] ] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said
] ] Tuesday that it had hired the director of the federal
] ] Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
] ] to head its antipiracy operations.
]

Is he going to burn my house down if I steal MP3s?

RE: Briefly: Record label group signs ATF chief | CNET News.com

] SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 7 - Fighter pilots have long been able
] to view flight data projected onto jet windshields within
] their line of sight. Soon recreational motorcyclists and
] bicyclists will be able to take advantage of that
] technology.

Neat.

Heads-Up Displays Move From Cockpits to Cyclists

] But the key move in the McBride-FUD is his claim that
] proponents of free software and open source software are
] somehow against copyright.
]
] He claims that "GPL is exactly opposite in its effect
] from the 'copyright' laws adopted by the US Congress and
] the European Union"; that "Red Hat has aggressively
] lobbied Congress to eliminate software patents and
] copyrights"; that "the issue is clear: do you support
] copyrights and ownership of intellectual property as
] envisioned by our elected officials in Congress and the
] European Union, or do you support "free" - as in free
] from ownership - intellectual property envisioned by the
] Free Software Foundation, Red Hat and others?"; that "SCO
] argues that the authority of Congress under the U.S.
] Constitution to "promote the Progress of Science and the
] useful arts" inherently includes a profit motive, and
] that protection for this profit motive includes a
] Constitutional dimension"; and that "We believe that the
] "progress of science" is best advanced by vigorously
] protecting the right of authors and inventors to earn a
] profit from their work."
]
] Let's take each of these claims in turn:

Lawrence Lessig -- attacking darl's 12/4 open letter

] If you really want the solution, it's that the US government
] should mandate that all PLANT be owned by the people. The
] services which run above layer 1 can be anybody. This is no
] different than how we manage other key infrastructure (roads,
] pipelines, spacecraft, etc). It would totally eliminate the
] grid lock we face with the RBOCs, re-energize competition and
] consumer choice, and you could have a FTTH network cross
] country in a few short years rather than waiting decades in
] playing cat and mouse. Alas, this will never happen.

I've said this before. Have a big colo facility that the fiber comes back to that anyone can lease access to.

RE: Fiber to the People

] Starting Nov. 24, consumers will be able to switch their
] home telephone numbers to their mobile phones, the
] Federal Communications Commission ruled yesterday. The
] order sets the stage for a scramble by traditional phone
] companies seeking to keep their customers as they face
] fierce competition from cellular providers and a growing
] threat from Internet-based phone services.

While this is pro-consumer, I think its the wrong answer from a technical standpoint. Once again, if we had a directory service above the phone network that every telephone terminal could access, we wouldn't need to remember numeric addresses -- and furthermore, the physical network targets of the logical addresses could be very dynamic.

There was a system -- I want to say at Lucent in Cambridge -- where the users had RFID tags and the network followed them; your calls are routed to whatever terminal you happen to be sitting next to, currently.

F.C.C. Backs Phone Number Portability

] A new type of CD released by Sony Music tries to lure
] listeners into buying copy-controlled music discs by
] offering bonus features and in-built compatibility with
] portable music players.

When will they ever learn...

New Sony Copy-Protected CDs

] WASHINGTON -- To the dismay of consumer advocates, the
] Federal Communications Commission has voted to mandate
] technology that prevents users from sharing
] copy-protected digital broadcasts.

PCWorld.com - FCC Endorses Built-In Copy Controls