When the Quake source code was leaked, it was distributed far and wide and John Carmack received a patch for a Linux port within 48 hours. No one went to jail, and the patches became a foundation for a serious Linux port (squake).
When the Half Life 2 source code was leaked, all that Valve could say is "FBI FBI FBI jail jail jail you will all pay for this embarassment". And that's all this is about, saving face. There's absolutely nothing that can be done with the source code being out there that couldn't be done if they kept it secret. In fact, if there was no fear of arrest Valve could've turned this into a positive event, inviting contribution, public review, and ports (as happened with Quake).
What this tells us about id Software is that they're a technology oriented forward thinking company that "gets it".
What this tells us about Valve is that they can't turn this into something positive and instead can only think of revenge.
I have faith that the market will punish them in the end.
SCO just threatened to damage Google's IPO. They're essentially going to try blackmailing Google into making their case credible. Google will pay, admit wrongdoing, or both. If SCO sues Google's IPO is entirely threatened. What sick bastards.
I really doubt it. To fully automate system operations you need considerable freedom to customize it, otherwise you waste all of your time on repetitive tasks. By definition Linux systems are more customizable than Windows and therefore better automated. Linux wants to be understood and modified, Windows doesn't, except within well defined boundaries.
Also, Microsoft has many non-technical interests in their products, which often results in technical tradeoffs being made which all increase maintenance hassles. They're no different from other proprietary software companies in this respect.
Cheaper than a mainframe running Linux instances?
No doubt it is. The question is, who the hell does this? Very few people, this is a comparisen to an IBM offering, not Linux on x86 servers.
25% faster development time?
It always bothers me when people try to deterministically measure software development.
I'd completely disregard this point as irrelevant.
Always, always, always run some kind of burn-in suite on new hardware before putting it into production. Even if your manufacturer does stress testing, your server was likely handed over to a shipping company that mistreated it (guaranteed). (VA-)CTCS is a good burn-in suite. If a machine survives one week of CTCS, in our environment it means that it will be worry free for at least 18 months (so far)--not counting inevitabilities like a hard disk mechanical failures (sigh).
We installed seven new servers at a colo in order to migrate a growing web site off of a shared server. CTCS discovered bad RAM in what was to be our database server, a faulty storage controller(!) in our file server, and a bad disk in one of the web servers.
None of these issues were apparant from the get-go. Most of the servers revealed problems within the first 36 hours of CTCS burn-in, with one holding out for 47 hours. If we hadn't run CTCS these issues would no doubt be hounding us for months.
So, two rules of thumb:
If possible, have your server built by a local vendor. The ability to walk into an office and scream at someone is a powerful resource, and you can completely bypass abrasive shipping companies by delivering the server to a colo yourself.
In any event, get your vendor to run CTCS before shipping and run CTCS again once it's on the rack. 72 hours minimum on both ends.
Don't learn these lessons the hard way. The extra time you spend up front can literally save you months of headaches in late night colo phone calls and other consequences of unplanned downtime.
Well, considering that our system generates on average one outbound email per second, and our customers call to bitch if their messages aren't delivered instantly, even if it's their provider's fault--a 10 second cost to deliver each message would sink our system into a hole from which we'd never return.
How about redirecting money into the hiring of Hit Men to get at the root of the problem? After two or three spam queens get knocked off, I think it may dawn upon the rest that spamming isn't such a good idea anymore...
This is probably what it's going to come down to. But think ahead. Once spamming becomes this dirty a business, the only people fit to do it will be the mob. And no one wants to mess with the mob.:(
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't even try to counter the theory.
However you seem to have missed the score of interviews where Steve Ballmer can't say enough to counter this theory.
SO WHAT? They treat security problems as PR problems. They say there is no problem. They blame the "terrorists" for the problem. They say they're fixing the problem and that it's their new religion to take these things seriously.
All of this is irrelevant when the end result is still hopelessly flawed, and with no patches in sight.
This is a new way of saying BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION. "It used to take 5 days to report a credit card stolen! Now it only takes 1 minute!".
Obviously before that Target was mailing (or maybe faxing--ooh cutting edge) stolen card reports to all relevant departments so that they can update their databases. Now the person taking the report pushes a button and all of the databases are automagically updated.
Big freaking deal. An MCSE fresh out of college could solve that problem.
HP just came up with a purposefully vague, impressive sounding INNOVATIVE BUSINESS STRATEGY that they could apply to any business problem: Step 1: tell us about the problem, Step 2: give us the money, Step 3: maybe we solve the problem!!!!!
Dropping in a Windows 2003 server or even a Windows 2000 server, applying the initial SP and patches available (which are downloaded during the setup even), set it for auto update, turn on the Firewall, turn off NetBIOS over TCP/IP for the Internet connection and leave it alone. (This also applies for Desktops with Windows2k and WindowsXP)
Proprietary software is theoretically inferior to open source software with regards to technical correctness, which includes security.
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't even try to counter the theory.
Microsoft has a proven track record of compromising technical correctness to satisfy other business imperatives. They are extremely untrustworthy, and despite their new PR bltiz on how they claim to care about security, they haven't changed in any positive way. Microsoft is a PR/law firm that happens to sell software.
Do you have confidence that your children are sensible, intelligent children, or should I say, confidence in your ability to raise them as such?
If yes, you don't need to worry about anything. They will read about drugs. They will encounter religious fanatics. They will watch porn. Warez software. Download music. They will potentially come across psychopaths who want to harm them.
They'll also meet friends. Learn many things. Experience new ideas and alternative points of view.
All of these are things in the normal world. If you do your job right your children will be pretty comfortable coming to you for anything they don't understand or, in their judgement, needs adult guidance.
Of course they'll do things that piss you off. They'll scan their genetilia and send it to friends. Maybe they'll even post mom and dad's sex tapes to usenet. Everyone makes mistakes. Make sure you're there to tell them, that when they make these mistakes, that it's not cool to post mommy's sex tapes without permission.
They will survive and develop into normal functional people without your constant intervention. Don't you have better things to do anyway?
Voicepulse doesn't have live customer service people? THAT is the recipe for disaster. And you can't make consecutive calls without a delay? Why are you so patient...if it was Verizon wouldn't you be screaming at the customer service voice mail?
It's $15/month and it's a working "landline". And if it doesn't work, I can pick up my cell phone (or have calls directed to my cell phone). Since everyone in a household nowadays has a cell phone, the landline phone is becoming a $60/month pain in the ass.
That's why I'm willing to accept less for paying less.
I opted for VoicePulse because they have a really extensive web interface that lets you do all kinds of neato stuff, like call filtering and emailed voicemail notifications.
The plan I'm on now is approx $15/mo, which is unlimited local with 200 minutes long distance. They offer a $45/mo plan with unlimited national long distance.
The call quality is *very* good, and there's no latency at all. Mind you I've had it for less than 24 hours at this point. I even started a huge full throttle file download and there was no perceivable degradation.
I guess the downside of this is that voicepulse only provides support via email. And I don't know if this is just a fluke or if this is going to be common, but I can't seem to make calls for up to 2 minutes after having just come off of a call (incoming calls get busy signal?).
The ballot generating machines would be there strictly to generate a "valid" ballot. Valid in this sense meaning checking that someone isn't exceeding the number of votes per race allowed (e.g. not voting for more than 1 person for the presidential election). The machine would also generate a "review" screen before the ballot is actually printed to allow the voter to make sure that all their votes were properly tabulated.
The whole point of this mindless exercise is to produce consistent, unmistakable results, right? No more "hanging chads" or partial punch-thru's, right? No more presidential election decisions by the Supreme Court, right?
The voting machines in my district do these, but mechanically. The difference is that I don't get to see the ballot that's ultimately generated.
Your idea is probably the best implementation. A system which is also "voter verifiable", it produces a 100% valid ballot with the machine on one side, the human part on the other, the voter once overs it and drops it into a secure box. The voting machines at the end of the day produce totals, they verify these totals by scanning the ballots. Also they'll be instructed to draw ballots at random and verify that the machine scannable side says the same thing as the human scannable side.
Fabulous.
Then each precinct will phone their stats in to the state wide reporting center which puts it down on an excel spreadsheet and someone accidentily puts a negative next to a cell entry and the vote is destroyed.;)
Saddam later invaded Kuwait (after getting an OK from the US)
It wasn't an OK, it was a "we take no position" after Iraq protested Kuwait's slant drilling operation.
It seemed like we weren't that interested in stopping Iraq from invading Kuwait, but very interested in going to war to expel Iraq from Kuwait afterwards.
So how do you propose putting firmware updates into CD-ROM drives, DVD drives, modems, etc.? Just about any peripheral which has flashable firmware can be rendered unusable by software.
If you consider scrambling firmware to be physical damage (I don't), a "RESTORE FACTORY DEFAULTS" switch solves that problem.
Obviously LG was cutting corners. Consider how cheap CD-ROM drives are nowadays.
Software should never be able to destroy hardware. Whether you're using Windows, Mac, Linux, or IraqOS.
LG was obviously trying to get costs down (think about how cheap CD-ROM drives are nowadays) and "sanify control commands" was one of the line items that was cut.
No Total Government Awareness program would be complete without chronicling information on every single police officer, district attorney, etc.
Imagine how hard it would be for police to get anything done when it's public knowledge that they beat their wives, run every single red light they've ever come across (see video), and go to "massage parlors" for hours at a time (maybe to meet up with their congressmen).
I could go on, but what's the point? The Linux Zelaots are mad that Apple came along and created a user friendly Unix with support by commerical software vendors coupled with excellent hardware. I know because I am one of many that switched from Linux to Macintosh and never looked back.
It sounds like you were angry the entire time you used Linux, like you punished yourself just so you wouldn't have to use Windows. Finally, Apple came along and gave you what you were actually looking for.
There's nothing wrong with that, I guess. But what you are doing wrong is assuming that every Linux user's experience is exactly like yours. It's not.
I have no interest in MacOS X. It just doesn't meet my needs. But that's OK, I didn't expect it to.
The day any company provides an Operating System that meets all of my needs is the day they go out of business, because I'm a market of one (to paraphrase Neal Stephenson).
I don't mean because I'm a truly unique, different thinking individual, just that I have very high demands in a system that are completely uninteresting from a mass market perspective.
Your needs however are not. There are a lot of people like you who want those applications, and who want a works pretty well in the default case system and never requires getting your hands dirty.
Most Linux distributions still don't do what I want, but they're leagues better than whatever Microsoft, Apple, or Sun are offering me.
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When the Quake source code was leaked, it was distributed far and wide and John Carmack received a patch for a Linux port within 48 hours. No one went to jail, and the patches became a foundation for a serious Linux port (squake).
When the Half Life 2 source code was leaked, all that Valve could say is "FBI FBI FBI jail jail jail you will all pay for this embarassment". And that's all this is about, saving face. There's absolutely nothing that can be done with the source code being out there that couldn't be done if they kept it secret. In fact, if there was no fear of arrest Valve could've turned this into a positive event, inviting contribution, public review, and ports (as happened with Quake).
What this tells us about id Software is that they're a technology oriented forward thinking company that "gets it".
What this tells us about Valve is that they can't turn this into something positive and instead can only think of revenge.
I have faith that the market will punish them in the end.
Of course he's in Boston during his broadcasts. I saw it on TV.
SCO just threatened to damage Google's IPO. They're essentially going to try blackmailing Google into making their case credible.
Google will pay, admit wrongdoing, or both. If SCO sues Google's IPO is entirely threatened.
What sick bastards.
Lower maintenance costs?
I really doubt it. To fully automate system operations you need considerable freedom to customize it, otherwise you waste all of your time on repetitive tasks. By definition Linux systems are more customizable than Windows and therefore better automated. Linux wants to be understood and modified, Windows doesn't, except within well defined boundaries.
Also, Microsoft has many non-technical interests in their products, which often results in technical tradeoffs being made which all increase maintenance hassles. They're no different from other proprietary software companies in this respect.
Cheaper than a mainframe running Linux instances?
No doubt it is. The question is, who the hell does this? Very few people, this is a comparisen to an IBM offering, not Linux on x86 servers.
25% faster development time?
It always bothers me when people try to deterministically measure software development. I'd completely disregard this point as irrelevant.
Always, always, always run some kind of burn-in suite on new hardware before putting it into production. Even if your manufacturer does stress testing, your server was likely handed over to a shipping company that mistreated it (guaranteed). (VA-)CTCS is a good burn-in suite. If a machine survives one week of CTCS, in our environment it means that it will be worry free for at least 18 months (so far)--not counting inevitabilities like a hard disk mechanical failures (sigh).
We installed seven new servers at a colo in order to migrate a growing web site off of a shared server. CTCS discovered bad RAM in what was to be our database server, a faulty storage controller(!) in our file server, and a bad disk in one of the web servers.
None of these issues were apparant from the get-go. Most of the servers revealed problems within the first 36 hours of CTCS burn-in, with one holding out for 47 hours. If we hadn't run CTCS these issues would no doubt be hounding us for months.
So, two rules of thumb:
If possible, have your server built by a local vendor. The ability to walk into an office and scream at someone is a powerful resource, and you can completely bypass abrasive shipping companies by delivering the server to a colo yourself.
In any event, get your vendor to run CTCS before shipping and run CTCS again once it's on the rack. 72 hours minimum on both ends.
Don't learn these lessons the hard way. The extra time you spend up front can literally save you months of headaches in late night colo phone calls and other consequences of unplanned downtime.
Well, considering that our system generates on average one outbound email per second, and our customers call to bitch if their messages aren't delivered instantly, even if it's their provider's fault--a 10 second cost to deliver each message would sink our system into a hole from which we'd never return.
idea.
I've noticed the open/close door sound from Doom a lot more than the end spawn cube sound.
This sound effect's most popular first use comes from the movie Aliens.
How about redirecting money into the hiring of Hit Men to get at the root of the problem? After two or three spam queens get knocked off, I think it may dawn upon the rest that spamming isn't such a good idea anymore...
This is probably what it's going to come down to. But think ahead. Once spamming becomes this dirty a business, the only people fit to do it will be the mob. And no one wants to mess with the mob. :(
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't even try to counter the theory.
However you seem to have missed the score of interviews where Steve Ballmer can't say enough to counter this theory.
SO WHAT? They treat security problems as PR problems. They say there is no problem. They blame the "terrorists" for the problem. They say they're fixing the problem and that it's their new religion to take these things seriously.
All of this is irrelevant when the end result is still hopelessly flawed, and with no patches in sight.
This is a new way of saying BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION. "It used to take 5 days to report a credit card stolen! Now it only takes 1 minute!".
Obviously before that Target was mailing (or maybe faxing--ooh cutting edge) stolen card reports to all relevant departments so that they can update their databases. Now the person taking the report pushes a button and all of the databases are automagically updated.
Big freaking deal. An MCSE fresh out of college could solve that problem.
HP just came up with a purposefully vague, impressive sounding INNOVATIVE BUSINESS STRATEGY that they could apply to any business problem: Step 1: tell us about the problem, Step 2: give us the money, Step 3: maybe we solve the problem!!!!!
REVOLUTIONARY!
Dropping in a Windows 2003 server or even a Windows 2000 server, applying the initial SP and patches available (which are downloaded during the setup even), set it for auto update, turn on the Firewall, turn off NetBIOS over TCP/IP for the Internet connection and leave it alone. (This also applies for Desktops with Windows2k and WindowsXP)
Proprietary software is theoretically inferior to open source software with regards to technical correctness, which includes security.
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't even try to counter the theory.
Microsoft has a proven track record of compromising technical correctness to satisfy other business imperatives. They are extremely untrustworthy, and despite their new PR bltiz on how they claim to care about security, they haven't changed in any positive way. Microsoft is a PR/law firm that happens to sell software.
As a christian it goes against everything I believe in.
Ugh. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.
Do you have confidence that your children are sensible, intelligent children, or should I say, confidence in your ability to raise them as such?
If yes, you don't need to worry about anything. They will read about drugs. They will encounter religious fanatics. They will watch porn. Warez software. Download music. They will potentially come across psychopaths who want to harm them.
They'll also meet friends. Learn many things. Experience new ideas and alternative points of view.
All of these are things in the normal world. If you do your job right your children will be pretty comfortable coming to you for anything they don't understand or, in their judgement, needs adult guidance.
Of course they'll do things that piss you off. They'll scan their genetilia and send it to friends. Maybe they'll even post mom and dad's sex tapes to usenet. Everyone makes mistakes. Make sure you're there to tell them, that when they make these mistakes, that it's not cool to post mommy's sex tapes without permission.
They will survive and develop into normal functional people without your constant intervention. Don't you have better things to do anyway?
Voicepulse doesn't have live customer service people? THAT is the recipe for disaster. And you can't make consecutive calls without a delay? Why are you so patient...if it was Verizon wouldn't you be screaming at the customer service voice mail?
It's $15/month and it's a working "landline". And if it doesn't work, I can pick up my cell phone (or have calls directed to my cell phone). Since everyone in a household nowadays has a cell phone, the landline phone is becoming a $60/month pain in the ass.
That's why I'm willing to accept less for paying less.
I opted for VoicePulse because they have a really extensive web interface that lets you do all kinds of neato stuff, like call filtering and emailed voicemail notifications.
The plan I'm on now is approx $15/mo, which is unlimited local with 200 minutes long distance. They offer a $45/mo plan with unlimited national long distance.
The call quality is *very* good, and there's no latency at all. Mind you I've had it for less than 24 hours at this point. I even started a huge full throttle file download and there was no perceivable degradation.
I guess the downside of this is that voicepulse only provides support via email. And I don't know if this is just a fluke or if this is going to be common, but I can't seem to make calls for up to 2 minutes after having just come off of a call (incoming calls get busy signal?).
I'm seriously considering dropping my landline.
The ballot generating machines would be there strictly to generate a "valid" ballot. Valid in this sense meaning checking that someone isn't exceeding the number of votes per race allowed (e.g. not voting for more than 1 person for the presidential election). The machine would also generate a "review" screen before the ballot is actually printed to allow the voter to make sure that all their votes were properly tabulated.
The whole point of this mindless exercise is to produce consistent, unmistakable results, right? No more "hanging chads" or partial punch-thru's, right? No more presidential election decisions by the Supreme Court, right?
The voting machines in my district do these, but mechanically. The difference is that I don't get to see the ballot that's ultimately generated.
Your idea is probably the best implementation. A system which is also "voter verifiable", it produces a 100% valid ballot with the machine on one side, the human part on the other, the voter once overs it and drops it into a secure box. The voting machines at the end of the day produce totals, they verify these totals by scanning the ballots. Also they'll be instructed to draw ballots at random and verify that the machine scannable side says the same thing as the human scannable side.
Fabulous.
Then each precinct will phone their stats in to the state wide reporting center which puts it down on an excel spreadsheet and someone accidentily puts a negative next to a cell entry and the vote is destroyed. ;)
Saddam later invaded Kuwait (after getting an OK from the US)
It wasn't an OK, it was a "we take no position" after Iraq protested Kuwait's slant drilling operation.
It seemed like we weren't that interested in stopping Iraq from invading Kuwait, but very interested in going to war to expel Iraq from Kuwait afterwards.
So how do you propose putting firmware updates into CD-ROM drives, DVD drives, modems, etc.? Just about any peripheral which has flashable firmware can be rendered unusable by software.
If you consider scrambling firmware to be physical damage (I don't), a "RESTORE FACTORY DEFAULTS" switch solves that problem.
Obviously LG was cutting corners. Consider how cheap CD-ROM drives are nowadays.
"Not Linux! It must be the drive!"
Software should never be able to destroy hardware. Whether you're using Windows, Mac, Linux, or IraqOS.
LG was obviously trying to get costs down (think about how cheap CD-ROM drives are nowadays) and "sanify control commands" was one of the line items that was cut.
...and software is capable of destroying your products, you're fucking fired.
I thought the shocking revelation would have been "Java scales as well as PHP" under pathologically slanted circumstances.
No Total Government Awareness program would be complete without chronicling information on every single police officer, district attorney, etc.
Imagine how hard it would be for police to get anything done when it's public knowledge that they beat their wives, run every single red light they've ever come across (see video), and go to "massage parlors" for hours at a time (maybe to meet up with their congressmen).
Uh, so why are you talking to me again? Use OS X and be merry.
I could go on, but what's the point? The Linux Zelaots are mad that Apple came along and created a user friendly Unix with support by commerical software vendors coupled with excellent hardware. I know because I am one of many that switched from Linux to Macintosh and never looked back.
It sounds like you were angry the entire time you used Linux, like you punished yourself just so you wouldn't have to use Windows. Finally, Apple came along and gave you what you were actually looking for.
There's nothing wrong with that, I guess. But what you are doing wrong is assuming that every Linux user's experience is exactly like yours. It's not.
I have no interest in MacOS X. It just doesn't meet my needs. But that's OK, I didn't expect it to.
The day any company provides an Operating System that meets all of my needs is the day they go out of business, because I'm a market of one (to paraphrase Neal Stephenson).
I don't mean because I'm a truly unique, different thinking individual, just that I have very high demands in a system that are completely uninteresting from a mass market perspective.
Your needs however are not. There are a lot of people like you who want those applications, and who want a works pretty well in the default case system and never requires getting your hands dirty.
Most Linux distributions still don't do what I want, but they're leagues better than whatever Microsoft, Apple, or Sun are offering me.
Why hasn't the KKK been targetted in the war on terror? They've been terrorizing our nation for more than 100 years, and they're very public.