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Here is one of the reasons why we can’t get away from dead tree books and onto electronic media. A legitimately bought book was deleted by Amazon from the medium at the publishers request and a refund was given. We can imagine what Amazon would do if the UK Government told it to ban any Anti Global Warming books or books by the BNP or books on minimising their thefttax reduction. That is not on. I hope Amazons sales drop to zero. These big Politically Correct organisations don’t deserve to prosper.
The publishers etc. all insist on having absolute control and will insist that it is built into any platform their media is on. The Music and Film guys have exactly the same issue and it just goes on. You see I’m happy to buy a film, some music or a book but I get a bit miffed if it is cancelled or deleted even if I do get a refund from the publishers. Bearing in mind some people have bought DRM protected music and lost it all when the store closed down so getting a refund is a big step forward. They need to accept that the world has moved on and people are looking at different things. I don’t want to buy a CD and not be able to play it in my car or on my computer because some rich music executive thinks I’m going to copy and sell it. Hell, I can get a free copy myself that will play anywhere if I want to. Thank you Mr Hacker.
No, the way forward for these people is to make their wares affordable and unprotected. I’m happy buying things because I know if I don’t the only things on sale will be Barack Osamas biography and Al Gores latest Save the planet book. I buy lots of books. I’m actually waiting for someone to release a 22nd century book reader with the following specifications;
A4 size Bendable and foldable.
Programmable touch sensitive membrane.
Displays PDF/HTML/Text with no DRM.
Converts the text into audio.
Plays DVD type video full screen with no DRM.
Programmable in a similar way to HTML to allow browsing on the web and enable interactive books like web pages.
Basic OS with no executables downloaded from web.
Upgrade capabilities similar to Flash BIOS.
Capability of downloading newspapers/books/magazines.
Capability of paying for these items from the unit.
Then I think we will see that media taking off. Except for the foldable requirement I think we could do all that now. Sony or whoever are you listening. My crayon concept model is up for sale. Only condition is you tell the movie people no DRM will be added. They can make their own player if they want that added. We want the control over what we buy and the capability to keep things we have bought that have been banned by the government.
Thin about it. This would start a new platform for visual media. Save lots of trees from being pulped and kick start the book industry and bring it into the digital age.
It seems that some people are being optimistic about the growth of on line application servers. Apps to be as big as Internet is the claim. Read here. App servers are part of the cloud computing suite.
Well, I’m not a journalist so I don’t now where they get their figures from but I know that the Internet is pretty damn big. More data than you can imagine and then some more. It’s being added to every day. Most of it blog posts and comments no doubt about everything under the sun from useless politicians to what peoples cats had for lunch. All ready for our eager minds to find and digest.
The Apps are basically programs like Word, Excel etc. stored on sites accessible from the Internet itself and usable by anyone that has access. Access can be bought in a similar way to the way we buy Office nowadays except that instead of being installed and stored on your computer it is installed and stored on the Apps providers computers. It can be accessed as needed similar to our PC applications or they can be rented as required and you pay for the time you use only.
The old way, and still the most used by far, is access on your own computer. It has many advantages such as the application is available even if you are not online. Nobody gets to add things to it without your permission, hackers excluded. You can keep whatever version you want without being forced to upgrade, within reason anyway and after the initial purchase it doesn’t cost anything.
App servers also have their own advantages. The main one is that you don’t have to bother about keeping computers in sync. They all use the same programs and updates only have to be applied to the one area. This makes updates a snap and you can ensure that any security patches are applied regardless of what the individuals want. You could disable your CD, USB ports and stiffy if you want to and make it more difficult for data to be stolen. In addition you can control your licenses totally and only pay for what you want.
Two clear benefit of application servers is that you can rent out software you only use occasionally. You could purchase a days access to any agreed application and use it for less than you would pay for a full license. Also, you can replace your expensive PCs with thin clients. These are cut down PCs with hefty processors and lots of memory. The storage being out there, somewhere, in the cloud.
However, Apps servers are only a part of cloud computing. There are two other areas. Processing power and data storage. The main selling point seems to be that you have on tap all the processing power you need but without buying all the hardware for that power. So far the best example of cloud computing is the SETI like apps that pass data out on the Internet and collate the results. Many businesses can convert their processing requirements to utilise the computers out there and, for a small fee, they can utilise much more processing power than they could afford to purchase and run and it can dynamically be increased as required. Of course many applications just don’t lend themselves to the data splitting necessary but they function fine off App servers. So still classed as cloud computing. The latest buzzword.
Of course, like all things nowadays you can mix and match. You can have your business systems running of your own servers or outsourced via data centres or to a vendor of cloud computing. You then pay for what you use and that can change depending on what you are doing at the time. You can then outsource your research to cloud computers around the world and pay each hardware owner for what you use. There are applications available that have been doing this for years. It can be as simple or as complicated as you like and can afford and people like me get paid to set up the most cost effective solution for a business.
Although, IMO, I think it is massively over hyped. I just don’t see companies or individuals turning to cloud computing without some massive incentive. You see with cloud computing you are really letting others control the assets. That means they control the processing power and, more importantly, the data. If you have the systems on your site then you control so much. outside your control then you are open to many risks. An example is if your data is stored in the US, without your knowledge, then it becomes subject to US law and if what you do is goes against US law you are in trouble.
So, although I do see a niche market for cloud computing, including Apps servers, I don’t see it being anywhere near as big as this journalist is making out. Individuals may use it via Google’s new OS as that will be easy to set up and manage. A bit like using GMail but I just don’t see them going via a third party and paying for it. Many companies already outsource their Apps servers but still retain control via SLAs and Apps servers have been around for a while already. They just have not taken off. So that just leaves the SETI type Apps. I do see a niche there but it has a long way to go before it becomes viable for someone to set up the cloud to sell the processing power.
Something needs to change before we take the step backwards, Yes, backwards to a mainframe type scenario where users are charged for usage and storage. Don’t have full control over their data and lose the flexibility of running off line. I’m actually wondering if that change will be political and revolve around green issues? Although I would rather relocate all my servers to China or something to get around that issue rather than be forced into a business model that didn’t suit my business 100% and left my data vulnerable.
It seems that NASA have released images that show the hardware left on the moon by the Apollo landings. Read here. That should shut up all these conspiracy theorists once and for all.
Except, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t NASA the organisation being accused of faking the moon landings. If so, faking video and pictures in this day and age in real time is hardly even in the same league as faking an entire moon programme. So, close but no cigar. Who will believe them if they didn’t believe before?
Just to put a stake in the ground. I believe the moon landings took place.
One of the things I keep hearing about on a regular basis is Peak Oil. Where we start to have difficulty finding new oil fields and have difficulty extracting the oil.
Technology comes to the fore again where every now and again we improve the extraction processes and put it off for a bit longer and of course as the price goes up what was uneconomical to extract now becomes viable. So it’ll be a while before we are forced, via economic means, to reduce our reliance on oil.
On the other hand we find, yet again, a new field found in the US which there seems little or no interest in exploiting. From the sound of it the US is awash with the stuff yet most is kept untapped.
Personally I think it is one of the few areas that the US is thinking long term. They are using oil from the ME, South America etc. at cheap rates as these countries economies don’t actually run on oil. Buying it up while prices are cheap. Then when Peak Oil does hit and prices skyrocket the US economy can be kept going from oil within the US whilst the rest of the world is out of cheap oil and fighting over what is available. It will be very expensive then. Of course it’ll be over the dead bodies of all those whingy whiney environmentalists but I’m sure that will be quickly arranged as prices climb. 
Don’t forget even if we do move our transport reliance from oil to wind power or whatever before Peak Oil hits, which appears likely now that so much is being thrown at the problem, we still rely on Oil for the many other things we use in a modern economy such as plastics etc. It’s going to be a critical component in our economies for some time to come.
Seems to me that this is a sensible policy. Pity our government doesn’t look beyond it’s next expenses claim.
It seems a few high profile authors are objecting to having to get a CRB to visit children in schools. Read here.
All I can say is about time someone who has the choice to say ‘No’ says it to the government. Most people have no choice as the job demands it but the ones that have a choice usually just don’t do it or they do it so as not to be accused of not caring about the children.
So now we have an influential group who are in the unique position to write about this in their books. Tell the children what is going on so that their fertile little minds can start questioning what is going on. Most are oblivious to what is being done in their name and it is them that are missing out because of it.
As an example when my children were younger, before CRBs, I used to go into school and teach some of the older pupils about programming and systems deign. They loved it and it was something the schools just couldn’t do. I wouldn’t do it now and I know I don’t have an issue with passing the CRB. Or maybe I do now because of my anti comments. Oh well. I don’t need one so I’m OK.
Fingers crossed these authors do take this further. We need this as these guys have influenceon the young and recognition by the rest of us.
I was going to do a post on being a child in today’s socialist nightmare when I came across this post at Counting Cats in Zanzibar. It says a lot more, and a lot better, than I was going to about the way our children are being treated by society.
I would hate to be a kid growing up today. I would be in jail now for the things I did growing up. From fishing where I shouldn’t have been, scrumping where I definitely shouldn’t have been and shooting, an air rifle, where I shouldn’t have been just for starters. Even my late teens was full of things that would get you arrested now from going 5mph over the speed limit and doing stupid things on motorbikes, Book him Danno. It’s a wonder most of us lived to our current ages.
Only last week I was in the park when a gang of youths turned up, they must have been 15 to 17 years old, they took over the big swings and the large climbing frame and they were noisy and laughing, the bastards. You could see most of the parents were frightened of them. Only thing was the youngsters were not. They went up to the climbing frame when they were on it and started climbing. The youths moved to another part of the park and sat down while the kids were on the frame. No problem at all but the parents were clearly spooked. The media does that for you with all the horror stories. Just normal noisy teenagers out for a bit of fun away from home and computer games.
The plod here isn’t too bad and they just ignore them on their travels unless something is reported or they see or hear something they don’t like. I’ve seen plod talking to youths but there never seems to be any trouble where I am. I know that’s not always the case in other areas.
Too young to do what they want and too old to be entertained safely at home. Strangers think you are out to hurt them because you are noisy and there is nowhere really for you to be. Now that I think about it that was what it was like when I was that age. I turned out OK according to the prison psychiatrist, only joking, and went on to get a good job and contributing to society. So I have no doubt these will also.
Even so. It’s not a good time to be a teenager in the UK where an incident with an apple core being left on a bench can give you a record for life and the ability to fail your CRB which you need for almost everything now.
Nice article here on how technology can ease our traffic woes.
However, I don’t think this is new technology. In fact traffic management systems have been around for some time now. In fact I seem to remember that we had a confession that our traffic planning that they deliberately screwed up the traffic flow to make us use more fuel and maximise tax revenue. So the issue is actually our traffic planners not traffic control.
In fact those useless clowns spend all day looking at roads that have no problems and then change them by lowering the speed limits or building little islands, narrowing roads or installing lights just because they have nothing else to do and they get bored.
So, we can use existing technology to fix the traffic system in this country. Either hempen rope or via a firing squad. At the very minimum they should be sacked. Sadly, that would still leave everything that they have put in place over the last twenty odd years but even so it wouldn’t get any worse and we could work on fixing them now that green issues means we need to keep traffic flowing. Isn’t that hilarious.
It seems that businesses are looking at moving their data centres up North to gain the benefits of a cooler environment and easier access to green power. Read here.
Clearly being a lot colder is going to reduce the requirements of the air con for the computers but the key reason it says is the availability of renewable energy such as windmills and hydroelectric power. Strange that because I always thought we piped the electrickery to wherever we wanted it. Plus we could have lots of empty computer data centres all over the place just waiting to be filled with new offices full of people which will require heating. I suspect that they may get a few local firms using their data centres but it is likely to be new data centres rather than people migrating their old ones. A company I was working for has data centres all over the world and power availability was taken as a given no matter where they considered going. Comms and people were always the issue. If I was migrating I would be going all the way and migrating them to the frozen North, Greenland, Iceland, Alaska or other like climes.
Either way, its a good PR gimmick and that’s all it is. Nobody in their right mind is going to trust their datacentres power to windmills. Well, thinking about it that does actually leave a large group of people. The government. They are always looking for shiny new data centres to store the masses of data that they collect on us. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that they are the ones who end up relying on windpower. After all, when the company they outsource to feeds them back their own propaganda for having datacentres there and gives them the ticks in the box for windmills they can hardly respond with the statement ‘Its all lies’ can they? Hung by their own petard.
Can’t wait to see the SLAs that get signed up for on that. Emergency generators will be one of the criteria for meeting those SLAs as well. Dirty great big diesel generators. At least all the pollution from them won’t add to what we have here and make someone a nice picture for the next nature magazine. Diesel fumes in nice clean Scotland. Tut tut.
Although when you actually come down to the nitty gritty. Does it really matter where on the planet the extra BTUs are output. OK. It will use less electrickery to cool the hardware up North but it’s still the same BTUs pumped into the atmosphere and now it’s being applied to pristine wilderness. If the electrickity is generated by windmills or hydro either way means little carbon footprint wherever it is located. Something doesn’t quite add up here. Its almost as if its just a sales gimmick but with the added bonus of some boxes being ticked. Really important boxes though.
Bottomline though is if it was cost effective all the firms would have datacentres at these Northern locations where you have six months of night to keep things a tad cooler. They don’t.
I keep on hearing about the demise of the MSM. Sure they deserve to go. They no longer report the news but actually make it up and report it with a very biased slant. OK for the MSM and our government but not very good for us. Sadly though there is nothing to replace them on the horizon so I think their demise is not quite in sight yet.
The problem we have is that the only real replacement is something like the blogosphere but that doesn’t gather it’s own news just feeds of the news suppliers and then puts its own slant on things. Very much like the MSM but as there is so many more views you can get a wide variety of different views and see many different views on what is going on. In addition, some of those views are so biased and uninformed that it just supports the view that the blogosphere is full of nutters and useless information. Plus the number of people reading the blogs are insignificant compared to the number of people reading the papers with nice boobies in. Even in the US the sites with the highest number of hits do not even approach 1% of the population. The dead tree press is still No. 1.
What we really need is a sheet of plastic that can be bent and read like a news paper which uses articles downloaded from the web or TV and enough memory to contain an entire magazine at least. Get people used to dealing with this media and away from the dead tree press. And I don’t mean something cumbersome and locked like Kimble but simply a easy to use visual display that will display anything you want. Like the web but probably with it’s own HTTP type protocols. The MSM won’t want to do it. Perhaps we need some sort of scare to get people away from dead trees. Mmmm. Let me think.
Once people start using reusable media for books and newspapers links will be added to blogs and the like so that even the truck driver in his cab will be able to read more about what is going on in a much better meld of data and analysis than you can get from one biased newspaper. It will change the world.
But, and you knew there was one, we do have a bit of a data gathering problem. Currently the dead tree press and the TV channels pay people to go around the world gathering news and sending it back to be processed. If the dead tree press were to stop making money they would be forced to stop paying people to go around finding the news. We would be reliant on the TV people and they have wildly different criteria for their people. TV being visual and the dead tree press being verbal. So without these people gathering the news what would we have to talk about?
It seems to me that if we ever manage to push ourselves up to the same reader level as the MSM, partly helped by their declining standards, we can meet halfway, we may actually have to start paying for our news sources in some way. Not a problem for the dead tree media they charge for their complete paper, but as individual bloggers mostof us can’t charge, and unless we charge how would we pay for the news gathering army of reporters?
I’d hate to see a single organisation set up to gather the news yet would couldn’t have an army of self employed journalists chasing everything and only getting paid per hit. They would soon start to concentrate on the lucrative stuff and leave the hard stuff alone. Could you see another Watergate or the expenses scandal? So we need some sort of model where we can still tap into the news, the reporters get paid and the consumers gets to read lots of different views without an over bearing MSM. Not sure how that will work and it clearly needs some thought.
In the meantime the MSN might wake up to the fact we are effectively using their material for free and set up access control to make sure it’s paid for. The more people stop buying dead trees the quicker that will be. Bit of a catch 22 for us.
Well I hope someone gets around to inventing tools like the replicator from Star Trek soon. We are going to need it soon if the next bunch of anti human loonies get their way and animals end up with rights, rights that will exceed ours no doubt.
Sadly, I’m forced to admit that the way some of us treat animals is appalling. In some Asian countries dogs are hung up and beaten whilst alive because the adrenaline gives the meat better flavour. I think all animals raised for food should be humanely treated in life and dispatched humanely as well. They are after all giving us life.
So why are these animal activists not out in Asia pushing their legislation why do they always pick on us who, in general, already treat animals humanely. Is it because we just roll over and accept the kicking where some of these other countries wouldn’t be as accepting? Of course it is. They really are useless.
So when all the animals are protected by some sort of legislation and we can’t rear or slaughter them in the West we will be dependant on foreign imports from places that ignore the whingy whiney animal libers. Of course they won’t be treated humanely at all, unlike here, but that will be fine. Can’t do everything and anyway they are not real animals they are all in plastic bags not like cute little lambs.
So, we are aware that plants feel pain too? Maybe not in the same way that animals doing having nervous systems but they do react with, dare I say it, fear for their lives. So when the Plant Liberation Front get their campaign off the ground and politicians start showing around pictures of badly pruned hedges what will we eat? Our vegetarians, anti-humans and politicians will only feed us so much.
Better start planting more fruit in my garden. The only thing is, I’ve looked all through the catalogues and, I can’t see bacon anywhere. I have a bad feeling about that.
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We pay but have no control over media
Here is one of the reasons why we can’t get away from dead tree books and onto electronic media. A legitimately bought book was deleted by Amazon from the medium at the publishers request and a refund was given. We can imagine what Amazon would do if the UK Government told it to ban any Anti Global Warming books or books by the BNP or books on minimising their thefttax reduction. That is not on. I hope Amazons sales drop to zero. These big Politically Correct organisations don’t deserve to prosper.
The publishers etc. all insist on having absolute control and will insist that it is built into any platform their media is on. The Music and Film guys have exactly the same issue and it just goes on. You see I’m happy to buy a film, some music or a book but I get a bit miffed if it is cancelled or deleted even if I do get a refund from the publishers. Bearing in mind some people have bought DRM protected music and lost it all when the store closed down so getting a refund is a big step forward. They need to accept that the world has moved on and people are looking at different things. I don’t want to buy a CD and not be able to play it in my car or on my computer because some rich music executive thinks I’m going to copy and sell it. Hell, I can get a free copy myself that will play anywhere if I want to. Thank you Mr Hacker.
No, the way forward for these people is to make their wares affordable and unprotected. I’m happy buying things because I know if I don’t the only things on sale will be Barack Osamas biography and Al Gores latest Save the planet book. I buy lots of books. I’m actually waiting for someone to release a 22nd century book reader with the following specifications;
A4 size Bendable and foldable.
Programmable touch sensitive membrane.
Displays PDF/HTML/Text with no DRM.
Converts the text into audio.
Plays DVD type video full screen with no DRM.
Programmable in a similar way to HTML to allow browsing on the web and enable interactive books like web pages.
Basic OS with no executables downloaded from web.
Upgrade capabilities similar to Flash BIOS.
Capability of downloading newspapers/books/magazines.
Capability of paying for these items from the unit.
Then I think we will see that media taking off. Except for the foldable requirement I think we could do all that now. Sony or whoever are you listening. My crayon concept model is up for sale. Only condition is you tell the movie people no DRM will be added. They can make their own player if they want that added. We want the control over what we buy and the capability to keep things we have bought that have been banned by the government.
Thin about it. This would start a new platform for visual media. Save lots of trees from being pulped and kick start the book industry and bring it into the digital age.