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Slashback: Documentary, Directory, FUD
I goof, therefore I am sorry. Many readers submitted rebuttals to the claim I repeated that an Israeli web portal was the first to give users 1GB email accounts; Protein Shake, for one, writes that Spymac has them beat. "Forget Google, forget Israel's web portal... 1 GB e-mail is already out there. At least a few weeks ago. From their site '1 GB e-mail account, 350 MB combined storage, personal blog, forum, gallery, auctions and more...'"
"And this was back when phone lines were just strings painted to resemble copper ..." Jason Scott writes "The BBS Documentary, announced on Slashdot nearly three years ago, has wrapped up filming. With over TWO HUNDRED interviews in the can, I've been spending a lot of my spare time (and not-so-spare time) editing, but I decided to put out the first of what will likely be a few trailers for it. Stop by and check out how I've spent the last few years. The Documentary will be released as a 3-DVD set later this year."
It's like Who's Who, only different. Another gargantuan effort completed on a different front: Tony Stanco writes with word that "The 910-page Open Source Reference Book is available for download."
The project was announced just over a year ago; considering the contents that's not a bad turnaround.
It's nearly enough to make one cynical. Alex Wolfe writes "In a move worthy of the Luddites, the New York City Council is quietly trying to ban the Segway . The Council has proposed a law that's technically a ban on motorized scooters, but Harris Siliver, founder of Citystreets, an urban improvement organization, says the NYC Department of Transportation is specifically targeting the electric, non-polluting Segway. Silver is joined in his opposition to the bill by Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak."
Get out much? If you just can't get enough random flamebait, here's a small fix to follow the anti-Linux FUD spread earlier this month by Green Hills CEO Dan O'Dowd. InfoSec writes "This morning's Security Focus page had an article about Consumer Grade *nix. The writer of the article slams Linux for not having free automated updates, enabling services in default installations, and not warning users when they are using 'root'. Uhmm, I could be wrong, but hasn't Mandrake been doing that for quite some time?"
apt-get update seems to count as free updates to me (though those folks do take donations), and root-use warnings may not be perfectly applied, but they are found in various forms (depending on distro) at OS, WM, and application levels, including notices that certain tasks can only be run as root or other superuser. (I think it's Xchat that calls me "an idiot" when I've tried to run it as root.)
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
I think Spymac's 1GB email came right after Google's announcement. The thing is, I honestly don't want to tell people, "email me at blah blah @ spymac.com." It seems I might be misconstrued as an Apple zealot (well technically I am a zealot, but I try not to project it onto people in a way that pisses them off). I have a mac.com address, but spymac.com just doesn't sound business-like.
reeddavid.com
Is there any GNU/Linux distribution worth it's salt that doesn't provide some automated upgrade system, other than those that target the kind of geek who would be doing it themselves anyway?
And given that, on my parents' machine for example, they don't even have root in the list of users when they login, I'm not sure how they'd ever be running anything as root anyway.
There has to be a fairly small set of people manually doing security updates, and who are ever running things as root without realising it.
Telex4 goes back to feeding the ducks... less demanding than Windows trolls
Depends on how you generate it - you've merely passed the buck.
I doubt the ban on Segways has anything to do with being Luddites. Those things take up at least 2-3x as much ground space as a person. The sidewalks can often be packed in NYC, and the street is full of cars. There's nowhere for Segways to go when it's busy, other than "on everybody else's feet."
I think when Steve Jobs said that it would change the way we build cities, he was right. We HAVE to change the way we buld cities because it won't fit in any current cities. We'd need extra lanes to handle the traffic.
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
I would rather get an e-mail address that I can be sure I'll still have in five years time. When I first migrated from web-based mail to a POP3 service, I went through about three providers until I hit on one (GMX) that was stable, but then they stopped translating the pages into English, and after a year of guessing how to use the spam tools in German, I got fed up.
Now I just have my own egomaniacal domain name, and no matter what happens, short of a change in the domain name system, I'm guaranteed I can keep my e-mail and web addresses.
I could trust Yahoo! or Google, but it's an unfortunate fact of the lovely web that, when it comes to something like e-mail, with someone like Spymac I'd always be waiting for them to close shop, or charge some silly fee, or relocate to Uganda and only run their web site in a few obscure tribal dialects.
Maybe that could have read "...but Harris Siliver, founder of Citystreets, an urban improvement organization, says the NYC Department of Transportation is specifically targeting the electric scooter that uses an unconventional method of control and is much faster than pedestrians and frequently piloted by speed demons. Silver is joined in his opposition to the bill by Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak."
I'm all for ways to get rid of cars and pollution. But these scooters travel at a good speed, much faster than pedestrians. They have separate lanes for bikes, or they make bikes ride in the street. They do this because biking amongst pedestrians is often dangerous at high speeds. Doesn't it make sense that segwaying at high speeds among pedestrians is dangerous too? I'm not saying ban the segway. But getting it off the sidewalk is probably not a bad thing. Sidewalks are for people. Bike lanes are for bikes. Where does the segway go? The bike lanes? The street? I don't know, but I would be scared every time a scooter bore down on me with a person on it at 12MPH. As Marty McFly Jr. said, "Hey, I'm walking here!"
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
[...] apt-get update seems to count as free updates to me [...]
Sure, they're free, but they're not automatic. This may be spurious, hairsplitting FUD, but what the hell... let's get rid of it:
In the default installation, have the installer create a tool to run the update from a random server chosen from a list of approved servers for the distro. Assign it to run at a random time, then repeat it weekly as a cron job called something obvious like weeklyupdate.
Do this for all free *nix distros. Move on.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
It just depends on how you generate your electricity really. Not that there is any all to good non polluting competitor out there right now. But that's hardly the point, merely that it is possible to generate electricity without polution.
Quickshot
Is it a good business model? No, but Linux has no monopoly on it.
That credo was invented by greedy, proprietary corporations.
I used to post a sign over my desk which said "If you haven't the time to do it right the first time, how will you ever find the time to do it over?"
It always pissed off the powers when they stopped by.
Mod this guy - er bottle brush up.
- I think the Segway has an important place - or rather I think that low-impact electric vehicles have an important place.
Its hard to imagine mass transit solving the last mile effectively, and the segway (small electric etc . . . ) Is most certainly a better solution that hydrocarbon convertors.
I salute Dean Kamens creative idea - and let's not forget or pretend that the segway is anything other than the logical extension of the electric wheelchair - perfect for restoring balance and erection (v jokes go here) to the handicapped - which you realize is Dean K stock in trade.
Whether or not a medical device has broader application is a question of secondary importance. Some cities may find that they enhance the transportation mix, while others - already established as pedestrain friendly may feel the segway is a step backwards. I think the name suggest that it can be a means of broadening the availability of mass transit during the period of development.
AIK
The whole point of free software is user control. Free software is big enough for you and I to agree to dissagree about it, you do things your way and I'll do them mine.
Here are some situations where you don't want auto updates:
The above constitutes a majority of installations. Most people still have dial up. Most people prefer the hottest software around. It is difficult to get upgrades over a modem unless you scale back to stable and only take what security.debian.org offers.
How does Microsoft do the same thing, you might ask. Obviously, they don't.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
That's true, but there are some very encouraging signs too.
The problem is that some people are producing magazines that pretend to be news, but are really advertisements. These magazines will continue to ignore everything but their patron's wares and will always be clueless. They also continue to offer FUD to reassure clueless administrators their money was well spent. Microsoft planned to spend more than a billion dollars promoting XP and that kind of money feeds an entire ecosystem of shills and quacks. "Computer" magazines that don't cover free software but instead encourage you to purchase eXPensive junk are not worth reading.
The good news is that reputable news outlets are catching on. They are specifying what OS and software are effected by what they used to call "computer viruses". Most have penetrated the SCO FUD machine and reported it for what it is. Microsoft can shake their advertising budget at them still, but reputable news sources are going to pick credibility over the wishes of an advertiser.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
What, so you would rather use a 32-bit extension for a 16-bit patch to an 8-bit operating system coded for a 4-bit microprocessor written by a 2-bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition?
#include "sig.h"
The issue is not being opposed to technology; that's a nice red herring used to label anyone who cares about pedestrian safety as a lunatic and ignore their argument. Stop labeling people and consider what they are saying, if only for the novelty of it.
The Segway is, at its core, too dangerous to use in a crowded urban setting, like New York City. Collisions between pedestrians are limited to small amounts of energy, yet people are still knocked down if one party is moving quickly. Now, let's consider a Segway moving at 20mph.
We remember from high-school physics that the amount of kinetic energy is given as f=(mv^2)/2. So the amount of fource is proportional to the square of the velocity. For something like the Segway, the amount of energy is staggering, particularly when someone large is using it at 20 mph.
New York City is just not set up for people riding motorized devices on the sidewalks. The motorized scooters are *already* a huge problem, since they are small and hard to spot, and weave through traffic -- pedestrian and motorized -- with abandon.
There are many accidents where bicycle or scooter riders on sidewalks hit pedestrians, and the pedestrian is frequently severely injured. (I personally know of two people involved in accidents where a bicycle was illegally riding on the sidewalk.) A bicycle-pedestrian collision packs about the same energy as a Segway at comparable speed -- technically the bicycle may weigh a little less -- but the Segway travels much faster on a sidewalk.
The issue is not being a "Luddite" -- wrong word, anyway, since Ned Ludd was protesting machines that were taking away the jobs of skilled weavers and reducing them to poverty -- but one of public safety.
When you think about scooters zipping through huge crowds -- this *is* New York! -- at 20mph you'll begin to realize how dangerous the Segway really is.
Riding a Segway in New York City isn't like riding a Segway in the middle of suburbia. This is a densely populated city with huge crowds moving on sidewalks.
So stop labeling people to shut down discourse and deal with the facts, instead of attempting to shout down anyone who stands in the way of "progress".
I agree. What is the connection between being a "geek" and rooting for the Segway? There are things about geekhood I don't understand. Why assume that New York is "luddite" for wanting to ban this nuisance? Of course they should ban it. It's a motor vehicle that wants to run on the crowded sidewalks. The last thing Americans need is a way to avoid walking.
However in more suburban areas it could fill a legitimate niche.
Except it doesn't. Not a standard system, and none of the distro's i've ever used ever had it. And if they did, it wouldn't properly update the stuff i'd compiled myself - so realistically, Linux can't have auto-updates unless they were entirely binary-only patches.
It's actual motorized scooters with small, 2-stroke engines. On my walk from the train stration to the building, I pass three storefronts selling these things for around $100-300. If you look around you'll see
The Segway is just getting caught in the crossfire and there probably some people who want to ban them as well, but the real problem is these scooters.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i