Well, not entirely "no point"... (and I didn't even have to bring up zones ;) )

more like an awesome way for Google to grab a profitable patent in exchange for the prize money.

Except they are not claiming any of the IP, just a 100 hr license to use it for the test. Also, why they claim they will not open the box up.

...more like an awesome way for Google to grab a profitable patent in exchange for the prize money.

Seriously - if you can pop those kind of specifications, you can make a hell of a lot more than a million bucks from the patent alone.

A cheapie SunFire v200/210 will run like a tank, but you'll be crippled by the server's top speed, and they do put out the heat if you push up the load average (and HVAC costs should always be factored in, yo.)

You'll also need to buy a lot of those pizza boxes to make up for the processing power that you can find in a box half its age, let alone the newer iron.

Sometimes you have to run the old stuff (I work in an environment where we have testbed boxes, and SunFires are a part of that, along with ancient RS/6000 gear, PA-RISC HPUX gear, etc. I can tell you right now that the old stuff cranks out a lot more heat (and in many cases eats a lot more rackspace) than the equivalent horsepower found in just a handful of new HP DL-360's.

We consolidated about 20ish old servers (and added new systems) in to two Dell R720xds that are VM hypervisors. Not only does this save on power n' cooling but it is way faster, more reliable, and flexible. It is much easier and faster to rebuild and stand up a VM, you can snapshot them before making changes, if we need to reboot the hypervisor or update firmware we can migrate VMs over to the other host so there's no downtime. Plus less time is wasted on admining them since there are less systems, and they are newer.

On top of that they have good support contracts, and some excellent reliability features that you didn't get on systems even 5ish years ago (like actively scanning HDDs to look for failures).

Big time win in my book. Now does that mean we rush out and replace them with new units every year? No, of course not, but when the time comes that they are going out of support, or more likely that usage is growing past what they can be upgraded to handle, we'll replace them with newer, more powerful, systems. It is just a much better use of resources.

So is HVAC - go figure.

But you never owned it in the first place... even when you had a hard copy. You only owned a license.

Google "First Sale Doctrine". You own a copy. Software is tricky because it comes bundled with a license to install it/run it. But the actual disks that contain the installer? Yours.

All these things go away if you buy a license directly from the stuido, and are guaranteed perpetual use

Yeah, but that won't happen. In fact, the studios are pushing for per-device fees, separating TV/Computer/Mobile rights, and going more towards a "per-view" model.

Even if they were willing to, even if that didn't cause all kinds of problems with residuals, even if it didn't impose a perpetual and unbounded cost on the studio... what happens when the studio goes out of business? How does fulfillment actually happen

My problem with physical media is that it's not possible to carry it all with you... so when you want to take a road trip you have to be selective and predict what your kids are going to want to watch.

You could ask them ahead of time and plan ahead. Or you could carry a hundred disks in a relatively small wallet. Or, depending on where you live, you may be able to copy the DVD to a hard drive for transportation.

When kids damage the media, you are stuck purchasing another license to something you already have a license to use.

Did you use your legal right to make a backup?

But personally, I find the times I am without access to stream, a la ton a plane, in a tunnel, or just with a lot of peopel using the Internet at my house, where ever, make me want a local copy. And that means a physical copy, in general, if I want it on a device I control that doesn't need to call home or self-destruct. It also means I can resell it, loan it to a friend, etc.

Well, you could use PS/2, or serial, or even say "fuck it, no mouse for you. Here's a command line and a tab key."

Huh? I'm all for shorter copyrights. But it's stupid to not anticipate the reaction of Disney, et al. And their solution will be to attempt to use technology, licenses as opposed to ownership, and every other non-legal monopoly method to keep their copyrights in practice once they are no longer supported bu the law.

Honestly, what a fantastic way of completely screwing your enemy. smallpox bombs are a fantastic weapon that will make the people turn on their local government and military as soon as their children start dying.

Biological and Chemical warfare is worse than nuclear warfare, and it's heinous to it's core.

What good is the copyright expiring if the day before it expires, the content-owner (for one more day) can destory/make unavailable all copies they don't own? And then maintain de facto control over the work, if not de jure.

How does it assure no deficiencies? And why don't other projects use that methodology?

you give my physical access to a box, it's my box.

Well, the BIOS could be password protected, the case alarmed if opened. In either case you could work around those, but if I put that box in a busy hallway, that's not going to happen. Combine that with no optical media or USB ports, and I think that's a pretty safe box.

Now, you could mess with the hardware, via a hardware key logger, but that could be mitigated by soldering the wires directly as opposed to allowing a PS/2 port. And the keyboard could probably be physically hardened to the point that you cannot easily open it.

Bottom line, physical access is one thing. But tamper-evident measures combined with regular but not continuous observations should enable me to trust that if you do gain access, I will know about it while you are present. Possibly even before you are able to finish gaining access.

How does that work? If there is an easy way to guarantee no deficiencies, why isn't it used always?

Michigan Amish also have TV sets and Dish TV. I see the dishes cleverly mounted to try and hide them.... The amish are not as pure as they want you to believe.