Time was when encyclopedias were serious business

Hello:

Things are discovered, lost and then rediscovered all the time. It's timely publication and thorough propagation that make the most difference, really.

Anyway, here's an example of something fairly major discovered in antiquity and then lost, or at least not widely publicized, for a while:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_Earth

I know you lot hate Wikipedia, so feel free to check up on the dates they quote, if it really makes a difference to you. But it should be obvious enough, I think, that the ancient Greeks knew the Earth was spherical.

You'll have to ask the Pope as to why the author(s) of the Bible, among other similar publications, didn't seem to know that.

RasEm Brsiq

Subject: email storage wars MS vs Google

Why leave out Yahoo who has obviously won with unlimited storage?

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html

Unlimited Storage!

How does unlimited storage work?

It's pretty straightforward-users that follow normal email practices and comply with our anti-abuse limits can consume an unlimited amount of free email storage. This will apply to both new and existing users.

Wait - what? Wow!

Brian

Subject: Bully

Hi Adamson, (qv) Re the above, if you go to the intelbully site and click on the response to the threat (second link down) and look at the source, you will find the name of the correspondent which has been black boxed out in the rendered page. A people search on the howrey site would seem to confirm this identity.

I think someone should be told.

Regards,

Thec

Subject: Micrososft shifts Xbox to TSMC 90nm eDRAM

"And, since thousands of Xboxes don't work properly, the Vole needs to save all the cash it can."

I think you mean MILLIONS, not thousands, that's the daily failure rate.

Mark

Subject: dark matter detector

Is a flux capacitor included? How many gigawatts does it need for a power source?

Also is this device rated for home use? IS it UL approved? How does Consumer Reports rate these devices?

Do I need Department of Homeland Security Clearance? I don't fancy causing a major security scare and ending up in one of the CIA's non-existent prisons.

With hi-tech equipment such as this, you really should provide more information to your loyal readership.

I await your reply.

Tim

Subject: antivirus insanity

I must grudgingly admit you have finally written a good article. I'll refrain from any allusions to monkeys and Shakespeare.

But you are perfectly correct not just on the antivirus but also the derivative works. Clearly their list is mislabeled as 'influential' as much as it should be 'most-talked-about-today.' Truly more a comment on the zeitgeist than actually anything meaningful and worthwhile. But then again CompTIA is about as cutting edge as, well, anti-virus software.

Jeremy

Subject: vole loves the ferret?

maybe it's another round of sneaky vole marketing. Hold on, I'm having firefox issues, let me switch to our superior browser, internet exploder 7 with service pack 2.

try www.firefoxmyths.com as well

Eatkimchi

Subject: The ION Boffins are slow

Nick,

I just wanted to point out that ion cooling has already been done by home hobbyists. See www.inventgeek.com for a home brew ion cooler case design.

John Waddle

Subject: Wikipedia froth (this one's a serious comment!)

Time was when encyclopedias were serious business. I still have a complete 1974 Britannica, in about 52 volumes. In those days it took several years to prepare a new edition, and the emphasis was overwhelmingly on matters of undisputed fact - largely in the past. Roman Empire? Check. Aztec architecture? Fine. Dinosaurs? Certainly. Present-day "celebrities"? Not a hope.

Now Wikipedia operates in realtime, and has hundreds (or thousands) times more contributors. So there is leisure to write entries on unimportant, frothy topics like Madonna, the RIAA, living politicians (I don't think there are any living statesmen), rock stars, football, etc. ad nauseam.

My take is that, as long as Wikipedia is rock-solid on math, science, computing, the complete details of every single Olympic Games since 1896, plus history, geography, and so on, it will be my first port of call every time. As for those sad enough to look up (or, worst still, write) their own entries - well, let's just call that side of it Frothopedia, shall we?

WelshT

Subject: Ipod and MP3s are killing music

Until I see music being distributed in a different way, I don't see how this is going to change. The real tragedy is that the technology already exists to make high-definition music available to all: Even using a simple single-layer DVD for storage, you could hold 2 hours and 16 minutes of uncompressed, 24-bit 96KHz stereo (or about 54 minutes of 24-bit, 5.1 surround at 96KHz, using 4Khz for the subwoofer channel).

I'm a big fan of uncompressed music. Not only does it make the playback device simpler, but it also makes error correction on the disc far more robust. Furthermore, seeking to a random position on the disc - quickly - is trivial. A new disc format could be done in UDF format, and could contain things that CDs do not - for example:

a) Cover art for front, back and inside pages (using compressed PNG format, 960x720 for albums or 1280x720 for singles - suitable for showing on most HDTV sets, or viewing on a PC.)

b) Full track listings - in upper and lower case letters, easily available as a text file on the disc.

c) Track index that is cached when the disc is first inserted, so skipping to say, track 26 is near-instantaneous.

d) Unencrypted, uncompressed audio in 24-bit, 96KHz format. Why protect it, when CDs are already available? If anyone wants to compress the audio and put it online, they may as well rip an MP3, because compression will reduce the sound quality in the same fashion...

e) Everything in a UDF file system - no messing around with CD offsets to find the correct starting point of a track, no physical tracks other than the one, main data track. One disc should play exactly the same in different players - with CDs, this is not the case.

Points d and e are important because of tools like FLAC. Nobody in their right mind would consider uploading/downloading any significant quantity of FLAC material. But with hard disc sizes now approaching the terabyte mark, it's undoubtably more convenient to have a home media centre with all your music on it. Swapping CDs is so passé.

Maybe someone in the music industry will wake up. Until then, we're stuck with CD as being the highest-fidelity audio available (with the half-hearted exception of SACD). DVD Audio was to be a good standard, but it was compressed - with all the problems that entails. Multi-channel discs would be good for entertainment, and artists could use the extra channels with good effect. Good old stereo would also be useful for things like language discs, audio books, etc.

It's a shame, really - the music industry could stand to make billions with everyone upgrading to 24-bit 96KHz discs (in much the same way as when people went from vinyl to CD), but they haven't really thought about anything except laying lawsuits down on consumers since Napster came along...

Oliver

Subject: bid

My bid is 2 cents,thats in American. I would bid more but you didn't say if it had batteries or even if it works.

If it does you could shine in president bushes ear, thats where all the dark matter is hiding.

Scott

Subject: Well, Firefox is better...

Nice sweeping statement you have there. I'm not really surprised if they actually all use Firefox there since working at Microsoft doesn't mean that you'd actually had to use their crap software (right?). In the end, though, I think you only got one PR guy fired...

Azshadow

Subject: Ipod and MP3 are killing music bull!

Its bull, blind listening test confirm again and again even audiophiles cannot hear the difference between mp3s and a CD... same goes for £10000 speaker cables and £20 speak cables.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=56797&hl=

Julian Wiegmann

Subject: Spam filters?!?!

Far as I know Vole doesn't have spam filters, neither it block the mails I have marked as a trash mail. Spam just gets on flowing steady from same addresses, witch I have marked as a trash mail several times a day and there is nothing I can do about it.

But on the bright side I feel like a winner every single time I open up my hotmail, since there is several prices to grab from cars, plane tickets, viagra and good old cash.

/wrist

Manu

Subject: Justice is served

There remains one final thing to do : put Darl McBride and his lawyers up to their necks in an Arizona mud hole and leave them there.

Sorry, I am exaggerating you say ? Don't think so. McBride has personally started a campaign of lies against Linux and OSS knowing that he didn't have a leg to stand on. He went to court knowing that it was pure gamble, hoping to obfuscate the judges to the point where they didn't recognize the fact that he had nothing to back up his claims. He accused thousands of hard-working contributors of infringement when the only shred of proof he had was a font-coded comment string.

He swindled several companies out of tens of thousands of dollars without any justification - just scare tactics.

He did make one mistake, though : going after IBM with his untrained lawyers. IBM has a set of well-trained, professional lawyers that have had to respond to threats that were incomparably more important, and with success a fair share of the time. But the best of lawyers cannot create innocence when a clear case exists.

Unfortunately for Darl, the clear thing in the case was that SCO was dragging its feet across the entire length of the process it had itself started, not delivering any proof of its claims, and going to the ludicrous point of actually demanding that IBM incriminate itself.

Such underhanded tactics have been met with the proper verdict : the claim is now officially worthless. Cue the crashing sound of the stock price falling heavily in the garage.

Cue the Feds hopefully launching an investigation for stock market manipulation and illegal enrichment.

Cue the shareholders (what's left of them anyway) throttling McBride at the next Assembly meeting, or at least firing him on the spot without any golden parachute.

But still, I prefer the mudhole. It's where the pigs belong.

Pascal

Subject: dark matter detector

I'll give you five leprechauns and an elf for that.

b