I worked with a computer firm here in Canada that was blindly obsessed with running WinFrame from Citrix. I was asked to create a front end for the RPL and their thin clients that would only allow them into a web browser, and charge them for anything that they tried to print... It was horrible! Here are a few of the things that I learned:
1) Thin clients are reliable and easy to replace, but are no where near as good as even a stripped down machine.
2) Unless the genie of the lamp has answered Citrix's dreams - thin client servers are still a very weak link. Expect less than 1 month of up-time per server in your farm.
3) It was very hard to reliably program under an os that had no idea who or how many were using it. Who sent that print job? Annonymous user (#18) or Annonymous user (#643)? Are you going to give each person a distinct login?
4) It took 10mins online to find a script that would give me adminstrator rights...
5) It was windows based, and thus anyone could infect it with a virus but intentionaly clicking on an attachment, or going to a website.
If you are thinking of going thin for a library; don't. Just buy the machines for $255.00 at wallymart. That's cheaper anyway and you'll get better performance.
Not to be overly critial of M$, but they have NOT fixed ie... They have fixed hotmail instead, and left ie unfixed so that other web sites and e-mail providers can still be at the mercy of this problem. M$ would/will never fix ie so long as leaving it unfixed will hurt someone else as much or more than them. When you deal with M$ you are not dealing with an intellegece, you are dealing with an instinct.
READ the link carefully! M$ has done nothing to stop either threat: Not the initial {html blah blah blah} threat, or the {?xml:namespace prefix="t" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:time"/} {?import namespace="t" implementation="#default#time2"} threat.
I agree that we need to support the artists, but the big record companies are destroying the arts for profit. Buying anything from Sony doesn't support art, it supports Sony. Copyright doesn't cost $50.00 Canadian a cd. It costs $0.05 per cd to produce and burn, $4.00 to the artist, and $1.00 to Sony. I'd buy that for $5.05 + tax and so would you.
Lets think battlefield conditions here, would you like a product that you can fix with a soldering iron because a simple component got fried, or would you like a product that you need to call someone in for "on-site service"??? In a battle field??? NOT!!! I'm sure that the US army of all of the armies in this world would train their people to be the best they could be. I know that here in Canada, the Canadian army repair personal are trained to do modular and component repairs on all Canadian equipment, are you saying that the US army is INFERIOR???
The end result is, if you demand that level of capability for the US army, you should demand it for the US security systems. Some times there just isn't time or parts for a modular repair, and in those times you need to be able to open the bonnet and fix.
The US needs to continue it's role as the leader of the free and just world, and that means being the most capable. I would hate to see you fall behind the more aggressive forces in the world, many of whom already use linux!!!
Open source means knowing what's running under the hood and how to fix it, not where the car is driving, where it's been, or what/who is in it. The US needs the NSA to continue working on selinux or they will fall behind... GOD HELP US ALL IF AMERICA CANNOT DEFEND FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
Linux, with it's Gnome/Enlightenment, and KDE desktops are fabulous! Besides, people will use what we as computing services people whimsicly give them. People adoringly look to us to know what sucks and what doesn't. If we say; "Linux is cool! You should get it!" then all our pointy haired bosses will want it. And what the hay, it's better than windows!
Still, I agree with the sphincter thing (no I have not tested theory!)...
If there is work to be done, people choose what tools are at hand. Even if they aren't the right tools. Example? How about 10 people tring to make a document look right on 3 different versions of windows (95/98/2k) without choosing a technology like postscript to standardize on. PageMaker or Quark would render the pages across all three without fail but Word relies on the os to create the document space and thus screws up durring the change from true type fonts to open type fonts.
People that are not in the know need to be. The convicted monopoly of Microsoft has to be stopped. There are other products for every application and all of them (from the standpoint of "the right tool") should be replacing MS tools (which has always been the wrong tool). This will not happen until people know the truth.
Until then people will try to print 100 page documents on three different os's and eight different printers without any kind of "safe" document space.
BTW: anyone know how to fix this problem (other than shelling out for Quark/PageMaker)?
Actually, this is a very simple question to answer: like html before it, M$ wanted to make sure that what was developed for these middlewares would not work the same on windows as for other os's. Doing this to html and java would mean that the "applications barrier to entry" would remain intact. You could not write html for explorer that would work with netscape and reverse and you can't write java that will work for windows that will work for unix, mac, or os/2. It's called monopolistic force and people are still blindly following them. Only a complete fool uses Front Page expecting to be editing html, and only a complete fool uses J++ expecting to be editing java. Microsoft saw their grip on inovationlessness slipping and had to FUD html and java up. They succedded.
In the course of writing the GUI you may be forced to add code to the OS, but that does not mean that the GUI or even the additional code is the OS. Here's an example (and not even a M$ one at that..): Apple wanted to design a crossplatform system of lybraries that would allow anyone to examine a file, and anyone with the editor to edit that file. It was to be built in such a way that it would have plugable extensions that would allow placing a table from a table extension into a jfif created by another extension, and that image into a letter created by a third. Anyone would them be able to view the result, but only people with the editors would be able to edit the peices. (This never did work compleatly however:P ) The software libraries to "Open Doc" could be added to the system at any time and thus were not really part of the operating system. You needed these libraries before any of the container documents could be opened so they extended the OS, but as any MacOSer knows; the system and the extensions are two very different things. In light of this example, I usually say that anything that must be built into the system to bootup and launch the user interface (including the appropriate AWT's), is the system. Anything that is optional, can be added later (including network access), or simply isn't needed except as an extension to the GUI is an application. Taken that way then; even the extensions to the OS become applications. Definable and removeable - discreate elements that are not inherently nessisary for the OS to run.
Here I was hoping that with the name "Demoroniser" that it would magically remove all Micro$oft products from the computer that created the document and replace them with.... Well anything would be better... I have an old copy of Apple Works from 1980...
BTW: Have I threatened Bill Gates' life yet today... I should get off my ass and help the world.
And that's the real reason for bringing it out! If everyone could afford to buy one for the car, and one for the office, and one to put in the kids back pack, and one in your good suit pocket, then it would catch on like a crazed brush fire in a stiff breeze! But then think of the possibilities; if it could run xserver, why not xclient to your home or office xserver! You could extend Linux anywhere! Why bring your desktop on a trip when you could xclient to it? Why risk even a laptop on a subway when a cheep NC has all the power of your office machine (because it is your office machine!)?
Hardware dependance is the problem. We as a community should be striving to support open source computing on all levels. Currently, Linux works on many different hardwares and it does an acceptable job (although I have had a hard time getting it to work on my 68030). This allows us, the users, to deturmine what we want from whom and how we wish to implement it. This gives us power. If we start to allow people to "fork" the kernel for certain things on certain boards with certain processors with certain hardware you can kiss this power good bye! Linus should make positive sure that these changes are open hardware before being admitted into the world of Linux. And what ever Linus desides (excepting something silly) is what everyone should support. I don't think Linus is in this just to make money...
BTW: Remember that what would really make Billy's day would be a "forked" Linux and a closed hardware model. All he would have to do is pretend to offer Alpha and IBM604 support again and Linux would suffer at the cost of NT.
A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless (but his handle is Master Predator) loves his IBM keyboard: With his favorite keyboard he can burn rubber at 160WPM! They may be old, they may be heavy, but they worked like a charm!
You mean; Microsoft corporatly takes over good hardware. That's where they got the intellimouse from! It was a small company that had a good idea, only their mice never seemed to work on 3.1 and they couldn't figure it out. When win95 came out, there was nothing they could do to get their mice to work. They went bankrupt and had to sell the whole works off... Who do you think bought the whole shooting match for 1 cent on the dollar? Don't kid yourself; people don't scream at them for stifling inovation for no reason, it was Microsoft! Intellimouse should have tried to go after the Mac market; Apple never compeates (intentionally) with it's developers and never blocks the inventions of others from working on their machines. The only problem with that idea, though, is that Mac users like myself tend to only buy one item at a time and we expect it to work for the life time of our machines (about 25 years...). Accessory developers dont make much money on a market like that.
Actually, your missing the point: Altivec helps with all types of math, starting with integer and moving right up to complex integrational math. On the surface you may not see how this could help you, but it does become apparent quite soon. How? Is 192.168.111.1 part of subnet 192.168.111? (integer math) What route should we use to reach 192.169.111.1? (integer math) Select * from sales where (((outstanding)>=100.00) and ((date_due)=date())); (floating point math) malloc(2064); (integer math - if you cant figure this out; think about what the computer has to map and how much free mem would be left after this) Would my missle moving at [4235.63245,234.634,246.234] at location [645.345,735.4365,735.21] intersept your cruser moving at [423.63245,23.634,24.234]at location [675.345,725.4365,79.21]? (vector math - the first processor capable of this level of math) I could go on...
Creativity can happen anywhere, but many R&D firms and the people working there start their thinking from what their employers want to see. People selling candles on the sidewalk do so because the often think TOO far outside the box.
Actually, the keyboard functions you talk about are more part of the system calls for text boxes and etc... Infact, Alt-F4 is actually a call to a windows subsystem not unlike Alt-Command-Esc on a Mac or "Kill" in X-Windows.
Actually people; William Gibson was infact connected to a single X-Files episode... One that I missed! (Shock! Horror!) He wrote the episode and had something to do with the producing too I thought.
Slashdot Mirror
Just a thought.... But could your tablet run ssh and xwindows? All you would need is a 1x card and you could just tunnel to home.
I worked with a computer firm here in Canada that was blindly obsessed with running WinFrame from Citrix. I was asked to create a front end for the RPL and their thin clients that would only allow them into a web browser, and charge them for anything that they tried to print... It was horrible! Here are a few of the things that I learned:
1) Thin clients are reliable and easy to replace, but are no where near as good as even a stripped down machine.
2) Unless the genie of the lamp has answered Citrix's dreams - thin client servers are still a very weak link. Expect less than 1 month of up-time per server in your farm.
3) It was very hard to reliably program under an os that had no idea who or how many were using it. Who sent that print job? Annonymous user (#18) or Annonymous user (#643)? Are you going to give each person a distinct login?
4) It took 10mins online to find a script that would give me adminstrator rights...
5) It was windows based, and thus anyone could infect it with a virus but intentionaly clicking on an attachment, or going to a website.
If you are thinking of going thin for a library; don't. Just buy the machines for $255.00 at wallymart. That's cheaper anyway and you'll get better performance.
Not to be overly critial of M$, but they have NOT fixed ie... They have fixed hotmail instead, and left ie unfixed so that other web sites and e-mail providers can still be at the mercy of this problem. M$ would/will never fix ie so long as leaving it unfixed will hurt someone else as much or more than them. When you deal with M$ you are not dealing with an intellegece, you are dealing with an instinct.
/}
READ the link carefully! M$ has done nothing to stop either threat: Not the initial {html blah blah blah} threat, or the {?xml:namespace prefix="t" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:time"
{?import namespace="t" implementation="#default#time2"} threat.
NOTHING HAS BEEN FIXED...
Note: { used instead of
I agree that we need to support the artists, but the big record companies are destroying the arts for profit. Buying anything from Sony doesn't support art, it supports Sony. Copyright doesn't cost $50.00 Canadian a cd. It costs $0.05 per cd to produce and burn, $4.00 to the artist, and $1.00 to Sony. I'd buy that for $5.05 + tax and so would you.
And no one has kudoed this yet?
i n source: http://www.geocities.com/qybix/HomePage.java)
Good going! Slashdot is here for discourse. Asking questions is exactly what this forum is all about.
In Fact! I'm going to ask a question: Why doesn't this work?
http://www.geocities.com/qybix/HomePage.html
(
Ummmm.... NOT!!!
Lets think battlefield conditions here, would you like a product that you can fix with a soldering iron because a simple component got fried, or would you like a product that you need to call someone in for "on-site service"??? In a battle field??? NOT!!! I'm sure that the US army of all of the armies in this world would train their people to be the best they could be. I know that here in Canada, the Canadian army repair personal are trained to do modular and component repairs on all Canadian equipment, are you saying that the US army is INFERIOR???
The end result is, if you demand that level of capability for the US army, you should demand it for the US security systems. Some times there just isn't time or parts for a modular repair, and in those times you need to be able to open the bonnet and fix.
The US needs to continue it's role as the leader of the free and just world, and that means being the most capable. I would hate to see you fall behind the more aggressive forces in the world, many of whom already use linux!!!
Open source means knowing what's running under the hood and how to fix it, not where the car is driving, where it's been, or what/who is in it. The US needs the NSA to continue working on selinux or they will fall behind... GOD HELP US ALL IF AMERICA CANNOT DEFEND FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
qybix@yahoo.com
Simpsons Alien A - Simpsons Alien B
US Democracy at work.... Sometimes there is a good reason to be in Canada!
... Though I hear there are better still...
Linux SUCKS as a desktop?
Where have you been?
Do you remember having to support Windows 3?
Do you remember having to support NT 3.51?
Do you remember having to support WinFrame?
THEY SUCKED!!!
Linux, with it's Gnome/Enlightenment, and KDE desktops are fabulous! Besides, people will use what we as computing services people whimsicly give them. People adoringly look to us to know what sucks and what doesn't. If we say; "Linux is cool! You should get it!" then all our pointy haired bosses will want it. And what the hay, it's better than windows!
Still, I agree with the sphincter thing (no I have not tested theory!)...
Wrong.
If there is work to be done, people choose what tools are at hand. Even if they aren't the right tools. Example? How about 10 people tring to make a document look right on 3 different versions of windows (95/98/2k) without choosing a technology like postscript to standardize on. PageMaker or Quark would render the pages across all three without fail but Word relies on the os to create the document space and thus screws up durring the change from true type fonts to open type fonts.
People that are not in the know need to be. The convicted monopoly of Microsoft has to be stopped. There are other products for every application and all of them (from the standpoint of "the right tool") should be replacing MS tools (which has always been the wrong tool). This will not happen until people know the truth.
Until then people will try to print 100 page documents on three different os's and eight different printers without any kind of "safe" document space.
BTW: anyone know how to fix this problem (other than shelling out for Quark/PageMaker)?
Actually, this is a very simple question to answer: like html before it, M$ wanted to make sure that what was developed for these middlewares would not work the same on windows as for other os's. Doing this to html and java would mean that the "applications barrier to entry" would remain intact. You could not write html for explorer that would work with netscape and reverse and you can't write java that will work for windows that will work for unix, mac, or os/2. It's called monopolistic force and people are still blindly following them. Only a complete fool uses Front Page expecting to be editing html, and only a complete fool uses J++ expecting to be editing java. Microsoft saw their grip on inovationlessness slipping and had to FUD html and java up. They succedded.
In the course of writing the GUI you may be forced to add code to the OS, but that does not mean that the GUI or even the additional code is the OS. Here's an example (and not even a M$ one at that..):
Apple wanted to design a crossplatform system of lybraries that would allow anyone to examine a file, and anyone with the editor to edit that file. It was to be built in such a way that it would have plugable extensions that would allow placing a table from a table extension into a jfif created by another extension, and that image into a letter created by a third. Anyone would them be able to view the result, but only people with the editors would be able to edit the peices. (This never did work compleatly however:P ) The software libraries to "Open Doc" could be added to the system at any time and thus were not really part of the operating system. You needed these libraries before any of the container documents could be opened so they extended the OS, but as any MacOSer knows; the system and the extensions are two very different things.
In light of this example, I usually say that anything that must be built into the system to bootup and launch the user interface (including the appropriate AWT's), is the system. Anything that is optional, can be added later (including network access), or simply isn't needed except as an extension to the GUI is an application.
Taken that way then; even the extensions to the OS become applications. Definable and removeable - discreate elements that are not inherently nessisary for the OS to run.
My own opinion...
Sorry; BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System
Here I was hoping that with the name "Demoroniser" that it would magically remove all Micro$oft products from the computer that created the document and replace them with.... Well anything would be better... I have an old copy of Apple Works from 1980...
BTW: Have I threatened Bill Gates' life yet today... I should get off my ass and help the world.
All this reminds me why I like Apple... Don't see anything like that in any of their programs... (and Quicktime is better anyways... :)
And that's the real reason for bringing it out! If everyone could afford to buy one for the car, and one for the office, and one to put in the kids back pack, and one in your good suit pocket, then it would catch on like a crazed brush fire in a stiff breeze! But then think of the possibilities; if it could run xserver, why not xclient to your home or office xserver! You could extend Linux anywhere! Why bring your desktop on a trip when you could xclient to it? Why risk even a laptop on a subway when a cheep NC has all the power of your office machine (because it is your office machine!)?
I will be buying a ton of them too!
Hardware dependance is the problem. We as a community should be striving to support open source computing on all levels. Currently, Linux works on many different hardwares and it does an acceptable job (although I have had a hard time getting it to work on my 68030). This allows us, the users, to deturmine what we want from whom and how we wish to implement it. This gives us power. If we start to allow people to "fork" the kernel for certain things on certain boards with certain processors with certain hardware you can kiss this power good bye! Linus should make positive sure that these changes are open hardware before being admitted into the world of Linux. And what ever Linus desides (excepting something silly) is what everyone should support. I don't think Linus is in this just to make money...
BTW: Remember that what would really make Billy's day would be a "forked" Linux and a closed hardware model. All he would have to do is pretend to offer Alpha and IBM604 support again and Linux would suffer at the cost of NT.
A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless (but his handle is Master Predator) loves his IBM keyboard: With his favorite keyboard he can burn rubber at 160WPM!
They may be old, they may be heavy, but they worked like a charm!
I have a Mac with the original keyboard from 1984... What a year it was...
You mean; Microsoft corporatly takes over good hardware. That's where they got the intellimouse from! It was a small company that had a good idea, only their mice never seemed to work on 3.1 and they couldn't figure it out. When win95 came out, there was nothing they could do to get their mice to work. They went bankrupt and had to sell the whole works off... Who do you think bought the whole shooting match for 1 cent on the dollar? Don't kid yourself; people don't scream at them for stifling inovation for no reason, it was Microsoft! Intellimouse should have tried to go after the Mac market; Apple never compeates (intentionally) with it's developers and never blocks the inventions of others from working on their machines. The only problem with that idea, though, is that Mac users like myself tend to only buy one item at a time and we expect it to work for the life time of our machines (about 25 years...). Accessory developers dont make much money on a market like that.
Actually, your missing the point: Altivec helps with all types of math, starting with integer and moving right up to complex integrational math. On the surface you may not see how this could help you, but it does become apparent quite soon. How? Is 192.168.111.1 part of subnet 192.168.111? (integer math) What route should we use to reach 192.169.111.1? (integer math) Select * from sales where (((outstanding)>=100.00) and ((date_due)=date())); (floating point math) malloc(2064); (integer math - if you cant figure this out; think about what the computer has to map and how much free mem would be left after this) Would my missle moving at [4235.63245,234.634,246.234] at location [645.345,735.4365,735.21] intersept your cruser moving at [423.63245,23.634,24.234]at location [675.345,725.4365,79.21]? (vector math - the first processor capable of this level of math) I could go on...
Creativity can happen anywhere, but many R&D firms and the people working there start their thinking from what their employers want to see. People selling candles on the sidewalk do so because the often think TOO far outside the box.
Actually, the keyboard functions you talk about are more part of the system calls for text boxes and etc... Infact, Alt-F4 is actually a call to a windows subsystem not unlike Alt-Command-Esc on a Mac or "Kill" in X-Windows.
Actually people; William Gibson was infact connected to a single X-Files episode... One that I missed! (Shock! Horror!) He wrote the episode and had something to do with the producing too I thought.