Politicians do not like web sites exposing their activities, they've been wanting to shut this down for years. By using "the four horsemen of the Internet" they've managed to convince people that making sites disappear is to "protect the children".
The big clue: the secrecy surrounding the list of blocked sites. If they know which sites source child porn then they would be using existing criminal law to deal with them. No, it's other kinds of information they want to censor.
The recent media hyperventilation over "indestructible" malware that hides in the master boot record and requires a wipe and reload of the OS to fix - who writes this stuff, and did they ask anyone who knows anything about it? Apparently not.
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Oh noes; I've got a bad thing in my MBR; what shall I do? Tip: boot to command line (F8 at boot time) and a quick FDISK/MBR will take care of it. So much for that indestructible bullshit...
The typical adult has many things to do each day; work, home, take care of the wife and kids, enjoy a hobby, maybe more.
They can't take the time to customize each and every piece of hardware that crosses their path. Sometimes, the thing that just works is the right answer; by using that, more time is available for other activities.
If you've got nothing better to do than recomplile your kernel, then you're welcome to your avocation and something like the iPad isn't what you want. For the vast majority of consumers, though - Apple nailed it. They satisfy the consumer market and that's why they sell so many units.
HP is late to the game, and this lame offering (we know it kinda sucks, but buy it anyway and we'll fix it later; really, we promise we will) is a fail. Mr. Common Man will continue to purchase the item which "just works" and the final result is the same as if HP had just stayed home.
The market is still there, and if you (or someone else) can put a tablet out there that is demonstrably better than the iPad for the general consumer - then you've got a winner. Until then, give it a rest. It's a big world, and most of the people in it don't want to hack their tablet. Get used to it.
It's not what the people of America will do - it's what the government and corporate leaders of America *think* they will do. If you were living high on the hog on money you pretty much stole - you might be a little paranoid, too.
You're overlooking the inconvenient fact that batteries degrade over time and need to be replaced. An automobile sized battery pack made of lead-acid batteries is expensive - the higher energy density batteries like NiMH or Lithium are substantially more expensive and also have a limited life span.
Sure, using electricity instead of gasoline is cheaper - especially if you can get it from parking lot outlets for free. But in two or three years you're going to need a new set of batteries - did you save enough on driving to cover the $7000 (and up) price for a new battery pack? I don't think so.
This is the same crowd that was howling about how Ipod batteries were failing early and cost too much to replace. Do you really believe that electric car batteries will last forever - or be inexpensive to replace?
This is what electric car manufacturers never talk about - early adopters will find out why they keep it undercover. You've got to consider not just the price per mile for energy, you've also got to consider the cost per mile for maintenance. Electric cars only need maintenance every few years but it's way expensive.
The greatest fear of the current US administration isn't terrorists, it's their own citizens. Terrorists aren't going to rise up and throw them out of office or worse, American citizens are.
So while they're not saying anything about who they're tapping (other than the usual bogeymen) it's YOU they're worried about. They're looking for revolutionary groups forming so they can wipe them out while they're still small. They've got a good thing going for themselves and their select group of cronies and they're not about to let you interfere with it.
You won't hear about it much; national security, you know. As long as they can keep most of it secret and keep you thinking that everything is OK, they'll continue to live a luxurious life and get away with whatever they want to do.
Getting out and talking to informants, questioning suspects, developing leads, etc - it's a lot of hard work and leads to tons of paperwork. Technology allows our finest to do their jobs quickly and easily (if somewhat sloppily).
Here's how it works: stumble upon a criminal; a drug user for example. Stumbling upon them is how most of them get caught; usually in a motor vehicle stop. Now, get their cell phone records; cell phones are great because the cell carriers will hand it over without a quibble or warrant. Now you've got a list of that criminal's associates; get their cell phone records too and you can probably figure out who some of the other users are and who their dealer might be.
It's all educated guesses and even though they sometimes kick down the wrong door or arrest the wrong person, it leads to more good arrests with a lot less work. Law enforcement LOVES these wiretaps and they'll keep asking for more, more, more.
Of course, that "computers are always right" thing crops up. And you know that phone numbers are recycled; imagine that drug user that got popped a while back had a cell phone and since the bill didn't get paid they shut it off and now that phone number is recycled and it's your new phone number. Happy dreams; "checks and balances" got thrown overboard a while back.
You might be surprised to find that judges are people just like us. Law is their day job and they don't like it any more than most folks like their jobs.
They ease the struggle a little by associating with those who carry the same burden; check the cafes near to courthouses at lunchtime and you'll find the prosecuting attorney, the defense attorney, and the judge enjoying lunch together. You can speculate about what they talk about; you'd probably be correct.
One thing that is always true: Judges are almost always appointed by politicians, and they handle themselves accordingly. No surprise verdicts, nothing to embarrass their masters. No Perry Mason moments, either. Just a slow, bureaucratic application of the law to those who will cause the least political fallout.
Most Americans believe in a fantasy where judges find the truth and the guilty are punished while the innocent go free. That may never have been true, but it certainly isn't true now. The courtrooms are public places; go and watch and learn. You can't fix the problem until you know it exists...
Checking out the facts is always a good way to find the truth. But those darned facts can be slippery things, and sometimes they're not facts at all,
Comparing the sales of Apple devices against Android devices is a prime example. Apple is a manufacturer, Android is a mobile operating system. The names describe two different things; you can't find truth this way. It's like comparing the sales of Exxon and Honda and trying to prove some special value from those numbers.
Saying that intelligence is acquired is just plain wrong. Each of us is born with an innate level of intelligence, some more richly rewarded than others but what you get is what you have to work with. Learning "smart" tricks may make you look more intelligent - but that's not what intelligence is all about.
Humans, being what they are, have been excluding those with less than normal - and greater than normal intelligence from society for years. Regardless of what you think about Microsoft, can you imagine kicking back with Bill Gates - have a few drinks, maybe smoke a doobie or two and talk about - well, you get the point. You may admire or hate him, but you wouldn't be comfortable hanging around with him.
It's not hard to imagine excluding morons and idiots from your social circle; you do it every day. Do you exclude the geniuses too? I'd bet that you do.
Here's a thought for you to chew on: there's a standard measurement of IQ (for what it's worth) and morons / idiots (the real thing, not name calling) rate 50 to 70 on the IQ scale. The average person rates 100 - and the geniuses rate 130 and up. This presents an difficult problem for those who are well-endowed with intelligence. You, as an average person with a 100 IQ find those morons with 70 IQ to be tedious and difficult - you avoid them and make jokes about them. That's the view from 100 down to 70; 30 points of IQ difference.
So how do you think those with an IQ of 130 or more see the average person? It's the same 30 point difference, you know. You find them to be different, but you can't imagine the world they live in. And to add insult to injury, people call these folks "weird" and exclude / abuse them. That's a hell of a way to treat those who are best able to solve the problems that face us. Shame on you!
But you won't change and things will continue as they have for eons. And as you exclude the highly intelligent from the breeding pool - you're guaranteeing that your future will be just as you've chosen it to be. I hope you enjoy it.
GE and Intel are lining up for a big suck on the elder care teat. It's nice that some monitor in some remote location will beep when they have a problem - but by the time they get the message, and get a medical team on site (from Wyoming?) it's going to be a bit on the "too late" side.
Letting the old folks live out their lives and die at home is a good thing; they'll enjoy a better quality of life and they won't be stuck with crippling medical bills. But I'm having a little trouble figuring out how a few dozen kilobucks worth of GE and Intel stuff is going to do anything to improve their lives.
The only winners here are the corporations - with luck, they can get federal healthcare funds to pay for all of it (at properly inflated prices).
This is the way Microsoft has always worked. Roll out something nifty, get developers (developers, developers!) to invest time and effort into it, then upgrade it into something completely different or kill it. On the rare occasions when they get something right, they quickly morph it into something ugly. The thing to remember is that what's good for the developers or good for the general public doesn't matter - what matters is what puts more money in Microsoft's account.
If the people that write these stories would familiarize themselves with Information Theory (Claude Shannon, in the 1940's) then they'd understand that you still can't make silk purses from sow's ears.
Yes, it's a lot of records. Yes, the data entry people made mistakes. All this really means is that there's more noise in the data. As the signal to noise ratio declines, the value of the results also declines. Making decisions based on noisy data isn't science, it's only guesswork. That's fine for weather forecasting (a similar problem) but expecting the results from the described data to be more accurate than weather forecasts is foolish. Remember: garbage in, garbage out.
Using impure data to make real world decisions is just plain wrong. This is how 5 year olds end up on the "do not fly" list, how credit scores get incorrectly reported - add your own examples of how idiots read more from data than it contains.
So-called scientists saying it's OK to just take a guess only shows what scientists have become in this modern world. Once you get to that point, you may as well throw out the data and base your guess on whatever floats your boat. It wouldn't be any less valid - and no less "scientific" according to this bozo.
Boolean logic doesn't adequately describe our perception of reality, and trying to force reality into a true-false description is simplistic and doomed to fail. There's another valid state - "I don't know". And if the dataset is impure or inconsistent, then that's the only valid conclusion.
A certificate or a dozen will get you in the door. You'll need more than that to land the job - but you'll never get to the interview if you don't have the certification that's on their checkoff list. A+ is good, as are the various Microsoft certifications. But don't go spending money on these certifications unless they're ones your target employers are looking for.
Once you get past these hurdles, you're going to have to impress the HR people and the manager you'd be working for with your positive attitude, your work ethic, and your willingness to kiss the boss's ass.
Here's what else is important: age, your skin color, and your social network. Yes, there are anti-discrimination laws, but in the real world it makes a huge difference. If you're over 50 and non-white, give up now; you'll never find a job. Enen if you're white it's unlikely that any corporation will hire you. And if you can't make contact with the hiring manager, nothing else will matter. Make contacts in the industry you're interested in and use them to find employers that might be interested in you.
Microsoft has had years of "experience" with tablet computers based on their "Windows - Tablet Edition" - and they've failed, time and time again. They've made two major mistakes: one is that a touch-operated OS must be completely operable by touch - not the "almost" touch operation that they've provided. And the other big problem is battery life. If your idea of a tablet is a notebook sans keyboard with the same performance / battery life characteristics then your product will fail. The real commercial and industrial applications need a machine that will run all day - not 2 or 3 hours.
Many offer their opinions about the iPad as fact - but what they don't seem to see is that the functions it provides are all easily operated by touch - and the battery lasts a whole work day and then some. These are basic things - and until Microsoft and its hardware "partners" can meet these goals they'll still be in a race for second place.
That's an apologist argument. It assumes that none of the development of computers would have happened without Windows and that's an invalid conclusion.
Saying that Linux distributions are too hard to use overlooks the significant changes in the user interface that MS makes at each of their nearly-forced upgrades. It's just as big a change from XP to Ubuntu as it is from XP to Vista and requires just as much training or attitude adjustment.
I'm not using Linux right now; I'm using Vista (yuck) because this Sony laptop came with it and Linux drivers for this hardware are elusive. Would I upgrade to Windows 7? Maybe for free - the same price that I'd pay for a Linux distribution.
Well - no. They didn't do as much as a notebook; in fact, they didn't really do much of anything at all. If you'd ever tried to actually use a Windows based tablet for anything you'd understand that you couldn't even operate the OS without a keyboard attached - much less any applications. Those previous "tablet" computers were essentially notebooks without keyboards - and just as useful as a notebook without a keyboard.
I love the way the anti-Apple trolls pile on in these discussions. FWIW, I don't own an Iphone and don't plan to get one.
That said, I used to be an AT&T customer - with a Motorola cell phone. In Silicon Valley I couldn't get a signal at work or at home and it was hit or miss in other places. The mall kiosk selling AT&T phones couldn't demonstrate them because there was no signal there. I left them and moved to another carrier for just that reason - lousy signal, lousy coverage.
Are they better now? I don't know and I'm not going to give them another chance.
Unlike most of the people posting here, I've been tasked with obtaining an inventory of installed machines at a major transportation company. Here's the real truth: you can never locate / inventory all of the installed machines. The more time and effort you spend the closer you can come to an accurate audit - but you'll never get closer than 90% or so no matter how hard you try.
What never gets considered in these schemes is how often someone moves "their" computer or server to their new location. Joe Blow changes office locations from Peoria to Podunk and he takes his PC, printer, and a few other devices along with him. Maybe his departmental server too - it's so hard to get approval from IT, so just move the stuff and don't say anything. Those RFID tags are short range and won't find anything that's more than 10 feet away.
The joker in the deck is that these unscheduled and unknown moves are taking place all the time - while you're busily auditing, the items you're auditing are getting up and moving around. Each time we audited we'd discover ancient machines in unlikely places that should have been replaced / scrapped years ago. This is just the way things are - auditing IT resources is like nailing jelly to a wall (or herding cats).
When you finally understand this simple truth then you'll realize that there's also no way you can audit or manage software licenses. Not just because of those phantom machines that show up from time to time, but also because of all the employees who bring in a useful program CD from home or download something handy from the internet. You can tell them this isn't permitted - we actually put big red labels on the front of every machine that reminded them that this was prohibited. That didn't slow them down a bit. Keep this in mind next time BSA wants to come audit you...
I've been getting lots of replies already from people who are apparently totally unfamiliar with Claude Shannon's work or Information Theory as a whole. Here's a tip that might clue you in a little: data redundancy occurs on a lower level than a disk sector or block. Files are stored in bytes and redundancy can be found in almost any string of bytes - 20 bytes or 20 terabytes. There's only 256 possible symbols in a byte and even a "small" 32K buffer will catch the majority of data "duplication" - believe it or not. So make the world a better place; stop trolling and research the subject that you're making authoritative statements about.
Well, if that 100GB disk is full of the usual mix of programs and data it'll deflate to about 50% of its size. Maybe even better; whole hard drives are a special case with lots of "slack" and unallocated space.
Software implementations of compression have some issues - because of the way the compressed data is stored it's not tolerant of errors and a problem in the driver that implements the compression can render the entire disk unreadable. Doing it in hardware can improve the reliability, but it's not an invention. I suppose that next we'll hear about how a patent has been issued and when that gets discussed the trolls will come out for another party.
Product announcements like this one wouldn't happen and discussions like this would be much shorter if the people involved knew what they were talking about. But I suppose that's too much to expect these days...
The concept of "deduplicating" is nothing new - it's one of the base concepts that data compression is built upon. But not only do we have people touting this "new development" but there's even questions as to its compatibility with compression. Sheesh!
One of the primary compression methods in Zip compression (deflate) uses a 32K buffer and replaces any duplicated data with pointer / length pointing to the first example of the data. This operation is computationally lightweight and can be done on the fly by any modern computer. There's open source Zip libraries / code available on the net. Building a cheap Linux box running deflate from Zip in realtime isn't an invention, it's a cheap trick that's being touted as the solution to storage problems.
You need physical protection. It doesn't have to be Fort Knox, just visibly more secure than your neighbors. Thieves want quick and easy with a fast getaway. Physical protection includes a big dog, bars on the windows and doors, barrier fences, etc. Note well that your Zoneminder won't stop a thief, it will only serve as one more pawnable item to steal. Become aware of how laughably easy it is to break into your house and do something about it!
Paul Vixie already has quite the reputation for high-handed wholesale blocking of sites deemed to be improper. MAPS RBL was his baby and while the political fallout from that misadventure cost him much of his reputation - it looks like he's trying to keep at it but put the blame on someone else this time.
Regardless of that, this scheme will be afflicted with the same problems that MAPS had. When what the people can see or read depends upon the ratings applied by some special (and probably secret) group then they'll twist this power to serve themselves. Malware or spam? Blocked. Porn? Blocked. Negative opinions about the blocking? Blocked. Wrong political position? Blocked. Didn't pay protection or get approval from the government? Blocked.
Paul Vixie is undeniably talented and knows a lot about networking. But his knowledge of human nature and how society works is woefully inadequate. Something that is always true: when you attempt to apply technological solutions to societal problems, it doesn't solve the problems and introduces new and usually worse problems. See RIAA / MPAA VS. Everyone for insight as to how blocking creates more problems than it solves.
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Politicians do not like web sites exposing their activities, they've been wanting to shut this down for years. By using "the four horsemen of the Internet" they've managed to convince people that making sites disappear is to "protect the children".
The big clue: the secrecy surrounding the list of blocked sites. If they know which sites source child porn then they would be using existing criminal law to deal with them. No, it's other kinds of information they want to censor.
The recent media hyperventilation over "indestructible" malware that hides in the master boot record and requires a wipe and reload of the OS to fix - who writes this stuff, and did they ask anyone who knows anything about it? Apparently not.
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Oh noes; I've got a bad thing in my MBR; what shall I do? Tip: boot to command line (F8 at boot time) and a quick FDISK /MBR will take care of it. So much for that indestructible bullshit...
The typical adult has many things to do each day; work, home, take care of the wife and kids, enjoy a hobby, maybe more.
They can't take the time to customize each and every piece of hardware that crosses their path. Sometimes, the thing that just works is the right answer; by using that, more time is available for other activities.
If you've got nothing better to do than recomplile your kernel, then you're welcome to your avocation and something like the iPad isn't what you want. For the vast majority of consumers, though - Apple nailed it. They satisfy the consumer market and that's why they sell so many units.
HP is late to the game, and this lame offering (we know it kinda sucks, but buy it anyway and we'll fix it later; really, we promise we will) is a fail. Mr. Common Man will continue to purchase the item which "just works" and the final result is the same as if HP had just stayed home.
The market is still there, and if you (or someone else) can put a tablet out there that is demonstrably better than the iPad for the general consumer - then you've got a winner. Until then, give it a rest. It's a big world, and most of the people in it don't want to hack their tablet. Get used to it.
It's not what the people of America will do - it's what the government and corporate leaders of America *think* they will do. If you were living high on the hog on money you pretty much stole - you might be a little paranoid, too.
You're overlooking the inconvenient fact that batteries degrade over time and need to be replaced. An automobile sized battery pack made of lead-acid batteries is expensive - the higher energy density batteries like NiMH or Lithium are substantially more expensive and also have a limited life span.
Sure, using electricity instead of gasoline is cheaper - especially if you can get it from parking lot outlets for free. But in two or three years you're going to need a new set of batteries - did you save enough on driving to cover the $7000 (and up) price for a new battery pack? I don't think so.
This is the same crowd that was howling about how Ipod batteries were failing early and cost too much to replace. Do you really believe that electric car batteries will last forever - or be inexpensive to replace?
This is what electric car manufacturers never talk about - early adopters will find out why they keep it undercover. You've got to consider not just the price per mile for energy, you've also got to consider the cost per mile for maintenance. Electric cars only need maintenance every few years but it's way expensive.
The greatest fear of the current US administration isn't terrorists, it's their own citizens. Terrorists aren't going to rise up and throw them out of office or worse, American citizens are.
So while they're not saying anything about who they're tapping (other than the usual bogeymen) it's YOU they're worried about. They're looking for revolutionary groups forming so they can wipe them out while they're still small. They've got a good thing going for themselves and their select group of cronies and they're not about to let you interfere with it.
You won't hear about it much; national security, you know. As long as they can keep most of it secret and keep you thinking that everything is OK, they'll continue to live a luxurious life and get away with whatever they want to do.
Getting out and talking to informants, questioning suspects, developing leads, etc - it's a lot of hard work and leads to tons of paperwork. Technology allows our finest to do their jobs quickly and easily (if somewhat sloppily).
Here's how it works: stumble upon a criminal; a drug user for example. Stumbling upon them is how most of them get caught; usually in a motor vehicle stop. Now, get their cell phone records; cell phones are great because the cell carriers will hand it over without a quibble or warrant. Now you've got a list of that criminal's associates; get their cell phone records too and you can probably figure out who some of the other users are and who their dealer might be.
It's all educated guesses and even though they sometimes kick down the wrong door or arrest the wrong person, it leads to more good arrests with a lot less work. Law enforcement LOVES these wiretaps and they'll keep asking for more, more, more.
Of course, that "computers are always right" thing crops up. And you know that phone numbers are recycled; imagine that drug user that got popped a while back had a cell phone and since the bill didn't get paid they shut it off and now that phone number is recycled and it's your new phone number. Happy dreams; "checks and balances" got thrown overboard a while back.
You might be surprised to find that judges are people just like us. Law is their day job and they don't like it any more than most folks like their jobs.
They ease the struggle a little by associating with those who carry the same burden; check the cafes near to courthouses at lunchtime and you'll find the prosecuting attorney, the defense attorney, and the judge enjoying lunch together. You can speculate about what they talk about; you'd probably be correct.
One thing that is always true: Judges are almost always appointed by politicians, and they handle themselves accordingly. No surprise verdicts, nothing to embarrass their masters. No Perry Mason moments, either. Just a slow, bureaucratic application of the law to those who will cause the least political fallout.
Most Americans believe in a fantasy where judges find the truth and the guilty are punished while the innocent go free. That may never have been true, but it certainly isn't true now. The courtrooms are public places; go and watch and learn. You can't fix the problem until you know it exists...
Checking out the facts is always a good way to find the truth. But those darned facts can be slippery things, and sometimes they're not facts at all,
Comparing the sales of Apple devices against Android devices is a prime example. Apple is a manufacturer, Android is a mobile operating system. The names describe two different things; you can't find truth this way. It's like comparing the sales of Exxon and Honda and trying to prove some special value from those numbers.
Saying that intelligence is acquired is just plain wrong. Each of us is born with an innate level of intelligence, some more richly rewarded than others but what you get is what you have to work with. Learning "smart" tricks may make you look more intelligent - but that's not what intelligence is all about.
Humans, being what they are, have been excluding those with less than normal - and greater than normal intelligence from society for years. Regardless of what you think about Microsoft, can you imagine kicking back with Bill Gates - have a few drinks, maybe smoke a doobie or two and talk about - well, you get the point. You may admire or hate him, but you wouldn't be comfortable hanging around with him.
It's not hard to imagine excluding morons and idiots from your social circle; you do it every day. Do you exclude the geniuses too? I'd bet that you do.
Here's a thought for you to chew on: there's a standard measurement of IQ (for what it's worth) and morons / idiots (the real thing, not name calling) rate 50 to 70 on the IQ scale. The average person rates 100 - and the geniuses rate 130 and up. This presents an difficult problem for those who are well-endowed with intelligence. You, as an average person with a 100 IQ find those morons with 70 IQ to be tedious and difficult - you avoid them and make jokes about them. That's the view from 100 down to 70; 30 points of IQ difference.
So how do you think those with an IQ of 130 or more see the average person? It's the same 30 point difference, you know. You find them to be different, but you can't imagine the world they live in. And to add insult to injury, people call these folks "weird" and exclude / abuse them. That's a hell of a way to treat those who are best able to solve the problems that face us. Shame on you!
But you won't change and things will continue as they have for eons. And as you exclude the highly intelligent from the breeding pool - you're guaranteeing that your future will be just as you've chosen it to be. I hope you enjoy it.
GE and Intel are lining up for a big suck on the elder care teat. It's nice that some monitor in some remote location will beep when they have a problem - but by the time they get the message, and get a medical team on site (from Wyoming?) it's going to be a bit on the "too late" side. Letting the old folks live out their lives and die at home is a good thing; they'll enjoy a better quality of life and they won't be stuck with crippling medical bills. But I'm having a little trouble figuring out how a few dozen kilobucks worth of GE and Intel stuff is going to do anything to improve their lives. The only winners here are the corporations - with luck, they can get federal healthcare funds to pay for all of it (at properly inflated prices).
This is the way Microsoft has always worked. Roll out something nifty, get developers (developers, developers!) to invest time and effort into it, then upgrade it into something completely different or kill it. On the rare occasions when they get something right, they quickly morph it into something ugly. The thing to remember is that what's good for the developers or good for the general public doesn't matter - what matters is what puts more money in Microsoft's account.
If the people that write these stories would familiarize themselves with Information Theory (Claude Shannon, in the 1940's) then they'd understand that you still can't make silk purses from sow's ears.
Yes, it's a lot of records. Yes, the data entry people made mistakes. All this really means is that there's more noise in the data. As the signal to noise ratio declines, the value of the results also declines. Making decisions based on noisy data isn't science, it's only guesswork. That's fine for weather forecasting (a similar problem) but expecting the results from the described data to be more accurate than weather forecasts is foolish. Remember: garbage in, garbage out.
So-called scientists saying it's OK to just take a guess only shows what scientists have become in this modern world. Once you get to that point, you may as well throw out the data and base your guess on whatever floats your boat. It wouldn't be any less valid - and no less "scientific" according to this bozo.
Boolean logic doesn't adequately describe our perception of reality, and trying to force reality into a true-false description is simplistic and doomed to fail. There's another valid state - "I don't know". And if the dataset is impure or inconsistent, then that's the only valid conclusion.
A certificate or a dozen will get you in the door. You'll need more than that to land the job - but you'll never get to the interview if you don't have the certification that's on their checkoff list. A+ is good, as are the various Microsoft certifications. But don't go spending money on these certifications unless they're ones your target employers are looking for. Once you get past these hurdles, you're going to have to impress the HR people and the manager you'd be working for with your positive attitude, your work ethic, and your willingness to kiss the boss's ass. Here's what else is important: age, your skin color, and your social network. Yes, there are anti-discrimination laws, but in the real world it makes a huge difference. If you're over 50 and non-white, give up now; you'll never find a job. Enen if you're white it's unlikely that any corporation will hire you. And if you can't make contact with the hiring manager, nothing else will matter. Make contacts in the industry you're interested in and use them to find employers that might be interested in you.
Microsoft has had years of "experience" with tablet computers based on their "Windows - Tablet Edition" - and they've failed, time and time again. They've made two major mistakes: one is that a touch-operated OS must be completely operable by touch - not the "almost" touch operation that they've provided. And the other big problem is battery life. If your idea of a tablet is a notebook sans keyboard with the same performance / battery life characteristics then your product will fail. The real commercial and industrial applications need a machine that will run all day - not 2 or 3 hours.
Many offer their opinions about the iPad as fact - but what they don't seem to see is that the functions it provides are all easily operated by touch - and the battery lasts a whole work day and then some. These are basic things - and until Microsoft and its hardware "partners" can meet these goals they'll still be in a race for second place.
That's an apologist argument. It assumes that none of the development of computers would have happened without Windows and that's an invalid conclusion. Saying that Linux distributions are too hard to use overlooks the significant changes in the user interface that MS makes at each of their nearly-forced upgrades. It's just as big a change from XP to Ubuntu as it is from XP to Vista and requires just as much training or attitude adjustment. I'm not using Linux right now; I'm using Vista (yuck) because this Sony laptop came with it and Linux drivers for this hardware are elusive. Would I upgrade to Windows 7? Maybe for free - the same price that I'd pay for a Linux distribution.
Well - no. They didn't do as much as a notebook; in fact, they didn't really do much of anything at all. If you'd ever tried to actually use a Windows based tablet for anything you'd understand that you couldn't even operate the OS without a keyboard attached - much less any applications. Those previous "tablet" computers were essentially notebooks without keyboards - and just as useful as a notebook without a keyboard.
I love the way the anti-Apple trolls pile on in these discussions. FWIW, I don't own an Iphone and don't plan to get one. That said, I used to be an AT&T customer - with a Motorola cell phone. In Silicon Valley I couldn't get a signal at work or at home and it was hit or miss in other places. The mall kiosk selling AT&T phones couldn't demonstrate them because there was no signal there. I left them and moved to another carrier for just that reason - lousy signal, lousy coverage. Are they better now? I don't know and I'm not going to give them another chance.
Unlike most of the people posting here, I've been tasked with obtaining an inventory of installed machines at a major transportation company. Here's the real truth: you can never locate / inventory all of the installed machines. The more time and effort you spend the closer you can come to an accurate audit - but you'll never get closer than 90% or so no matter how hard you try.
What never gets considered in these schemes is how often someone moves "their" computer or server to their new location. Joe Blow changes office locations from Peoria to Podunk and he takes his PC, printer, and a few other devices along with him. Maybe his departmental server too - it's so hard to get approval from IT, so just move the stuff and don't say anything. Those RFID tags are short range and won't find anything that's more than 10 feet away.
The joker in the deck is that these unscheduled and unknown moves are taking place all the time - while you're busily auditing, the items you're auditing are getting up and moving around. Each time we audited we'd discover ancient machines in unlikely places that should have been replaced / scrapped years ago. This is just the way things are - auditing IT resources is like nailing jelly to a wall (or herding cats).
When you finally understand this simple truth then you'll realize that there's also no way you can audit or manage software licenses. Not just because of those phantom machines that show up from time to time, but also because of all the employees who bring in a useful program CD from home or download something handy from the internet. You can tell them this isn't permitted - we actually put big red labels on the front of every machine that reminded them that this was prohibited. That didn't slow them down a bit. Keep this in mind next time BSA wants to come audit you...
I've been getting lots of replies already from people who are apparently totally unfamiliar with Claude Shannon's work or Information Theory as a whole. Here's a tip that might clue you in a little: data redundancy occurs on a lower level than a disk sector or block. Files are stored in bytes and redundancy can be found in almost any string of bytes - 20 bytes or 20 terabytes. There's only 256 possible symbols in a byte and even a "small" 32K buffer will catch the majority of data "duplication" - believe it or not. So make the world a better place; stop trolling and research the subject that you're making authoritative statements about.
Well, if that 100GB disk is full of the usual mix of programs and data it'll deflate to about 50% of its size. Maybe even better; whole hard drives are a special case with lots of "slack" and unallocated space.
Software implementations of compression have some issues - because of the way the compressed data is stored it's not tolerant of errors and a problem in the driver that implements the compression can render the entire disk unreadable. Doing it in hardware can improve the reliability, but it's not an invention. I suppose that next we'll hear about how a patent has been issued and when that gets discussed the trolls will come out for another party.
Product announcements like this one wouldn't happen and discussions like this would be much shorter if the people involved knew what they were talking about. But I suppose that's too much to expect these days...
The concept of "deduplicating" is nothing new - it's one of the base concepts that data compression is built upon. But not only do we have people touting this "new development" but there's even questions as to its compatibility with compression. Sheesh!
One of the primary compression methods in Zip compression (deflate) uses a 32K buffer and replaces any duplicated data with pointer / length pointing to the first example of the data. This operation is computationally lightweight and can be done on the fly by any modern computer. There's open source Zip libraries / code available on the net. Building a cheap Linux box running deflate from Zip in realtime isn't an invention, it's a cheap trick that's being touted as the solution to storage problems.
You need physical protection. It doesn't have to be Fort Knox, just visibly more secure than your neighbors. Thieves want quick and easy with a fast getaway. Physical protection includes a big dog, bars on the windows and doors, barrier fences, etc. Note well that your Zoneminder won't stop a thief, it will only serve as one more pawnable item to steal. Become aware of how laughably easy it is to break into your house and do something about it!
Paul Vixie already has quite the reputation for high-handed wholesale blocking of sites deemed to be improper. MAPS RBL was his baby and while the political fallout from that misadventure cost him much of his reputation - it looks like he's trying to keep at it but put the blame on someone else this time.
Regardless of that, this scheme will be afflicted with the same problems that MAPS had. When what the people can see or read depends upon the ratings applied by some special (and probably secret) group then they'll twist this power to serve themselves. Malware or spam? Blocked. Porn? Blocked. Negative opinions about the blocking? Blocked. Wrong political position? Blocked. Didn't pay protection or get approval from the government? Blocked.
Paul Vixie is undeniably talented and knows a lot about networking. But his knowledge of human nature and how society works is woefully inadequate. Something that is always true: when you attempt to apply technological solutions to societal problems, it doesn't solve the problems and introduces new and usually worse problems. See RIAA / MPAA VS. Everyone for insight as to how blocking creates more problems than it solves.