I had an idea as non-programmer and did know any programmers in the late 90's. My solution was to be become the programmer. I ended up scratching my own itch by tossing together a small music related app. It ended up paying my way through college a couple years later when I was laid off by the Fortune 500 company I was working for in '01. The software is still used though it is a nightmare for me to try to maintain.

I have lots more ideas that I know are capable of being written and there is even a market for them, but it is much harder for me to work on something one my own after spending all day working on company code.

I thought it was get rid of the "Chicken" stigma. Wasn't fair to call it chicken anymore using modern growth techniques.

Parent pretty much sums it up. As it stands now you have to buy a license to decrypt HDCP, and you get a key to do so. If you do not abide by the terms of the license, your key can get revoked and these revoked keys can be embedded in a content stream to block usage by the offending hardware. Though I am unaware of any that have been at this time.

I have in front of me a piece of hardware (that I have been developing on), that actually has a HDMI input and "may" be capable of decrypting that stream. I could then convert that stream into an IP stream, QAM, or even record to disk. However, the HDCP license forbids re-transmitting that stream over long distances in the clear or storing as such. So now this box is legally only capable of handling un-encrypted HDMI signals. I'm wondering if this information may allow devices to masquerade as a device from another manufacturer. Not that I would do that myself, but it seems that it could make "software" HDCP decryption systems more common. The software description is used loosely since much of this is currently handled in hardware or FPGA sub-systems.

"you don't have to know you're infringing to infringe."

Not necessarily. At least in the US, there is a concept of "good faith". The innocent purchaser doctrine, covered in Uniform Commercial Code, sections 1-201(9) and 2-403, allows for a good faith defense if the transaction took place in an ordinary course of business (e.g., non-suspicious) for a non-merchant buyer (consumer). Merchant rules slightly differ with reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing in the trade.

That seems to apply to just "single serving" portions, hardly applicable to the tub of crisco I just bought:
http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/FoodLabelingGuidanceRegulatoryInformation/InspectionCompliance/WarningOtherLetters/ucm110234.htm

There is even an article just last month admitting that they [FDA] are still evaluating the "serving size" issue:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/business/06portion.html

Yes, that is why the label says 0g and not transfat-free. FDA guidelines allow rounding down 0.49g to 0g for a single serving. So now it's just a matter of serving size manipulation to get it to 0.49g.

I've been trying to teach to family to correlate the food labels with the serving size and deduce what is consumed with a portion size (what you choose to eat). Who eats just one cookie?

My Scangauge http://www.scangauge.com/ will show something like 30-40 MPG while coasting in neutral, but shows 999 MPG when in gear, engine braking, since the fuel injectors have been shut off.

"what are these cars doing with such massive embedded systems in them?"

They must be running Microsoft software:
http://www.microsoft.com/auto/default.mspx

I am pretty sure millions of lines code also include navigation, radio and other non-critical systems.

From the WD website:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=763

Capacity 1 TB
User Sectors Per Drive 1,953,525,169

That would be 1 TB / 1,953,525,169 = 512. I tried to verify with the spec sheet but the model's pdf is password protected.

Our CEO refuses to have an IT department. While it can temporarily detract from normal job duties, it does force you to learn how to do IT work. Every employee learns how manage their Linux workstation with very little hand-holding. The primary benefit seems to be that if one finds a problem, there is no waiting for someone else to fix it, you roll up your sleeves and get it done yourself.

Having a "go-to" Linux guru that many cite at /. is an alien concept here.

Before the 2k's there was 90's dance music. PC's were barely capable of handling multiple audio streams and musicians had minimal computer skills. Dedicated hardware was quite common, samplers, effects, recorders. Even analog equipment was still around and highly sought after, such as the old Roland x0x series, TB-303, TR-909, TR-808. The late 90's generation of hardware was pretty much aimed at re-creating vintage analog sounds with companies such as Novation, Access, Waldorf, and Clavia. Vinyl was quite common in the 90's and we heard the same stories about the resurgence of vinyl. We even had three or four local stores that primarily sold newly pressed vinyl.

Something that has not changed for the past 30+ years is the design of the Technics SL-1200. Some would call this the best turntable ever.

Selling hardware at a loss but make the software profitable? Don't we curse other industries for this type of razor and blades business model? Wasn't there just a Printers and ink article?

Doesn't NBC partly own Hulu? Isn't Comcast's Cable system in competition with Hulu?

the weight of the porn it carries.

An industry that is known not to pay well will generally only attract people that love it and want to do it. Imagine an education system where the workers are there just for the money.