Yep, Mexico wanted a buffer to the north, because the Comanches and Lipan Apaches would raid deep into Mexico and steal horses and such. The thought was that if they could get enough American settlers to settle in Texas, the Comanches would raid the settlers, and not bother going all the way down into Mexico.
In general, the settlers in Texas were happy to be "Texicans". It wasn't until Santa Ana took power and revoked the Mexican constitution of 1824, and then started trampling the settlers' rights, that the people began to become upset. The Texas Revolution of 1836 was fought for the same reasons as the American Revolution of 1776...taxation without representation, etc.
You could always switch to a no-contract unlimited provider such as MetroPCS or Cricket, if you're in the US and live in one of their service areas. MetroPCS has rolled out a couple of smart phones such as the Blackberry Curve and the Samsung Finesse, and there's no credit check involved.
I say this is a GOOD thing. In my opinion we should've started doing this from the very beginning. I'd much rather talk to a TSA agent trained in recognizing microfacial expressions, than go through the useless and annoying process of removing my shoes and throwing away my bottle of water. Unfortunately they're not likely to do away with the silly stuff, at least just yet. I still think this is progress towards effective security. The issue with TSA oversight is an entirely different matter.
First of all I will say that I have worked mostly in software development in my career, although I also have some UNIX system administration experience in my background. Because of that, this is focused mostly towards software development although some of it applies to other IT functions as well.
Next I want to clarify my own personal definitions. I define Information Technology (IT) as the group that provides technical expertise to a company in order to support their business needs. For example, if you work for a bank, you maintain the computer hardware software that allows the bank to make a profit by providing financial services. You aren't really directly contributing to the bottom line, since you aren't creating a product or service that the bank sells, but you are critical to their success.
The flip side of that would be Software Engineering or Technical Consulting, where you work for companies like Oracle or Microsoft or IBM. Although those companies have IT departments, the positions I'm referring to are the ones where you produce a product or service that is sold to customers to generate revenue. In this case you ARE directly contributing to the bottom line.
What I see in the industry is less of a demand for actual software development in the corporate IT world. In the past, companies needed a software development group, because they developed all their software in-house. If you worked for a tire manufacturer, and your company needed an accounts payable system, you would often develop and support it yourself. Now, that same company would be much more likely to purchase an ERP suite like SAP. If you needed needed technical customization, you hire consultants and/or contractors to come in and do the work on a project basis.
This is also true of help-desk and even networking/system admin functions. We're seeing more and more of those commodity-type positions being outsourced to third-party providers, especially in larger corporations.
So... my advice to someone just starting out in IT would be similar to what has already been said. If you really want to stay technical and go into hardcore software development or system administration or something, try to get jobs with companies who make that their focus, or else be prepared to work as a contractor or consultant, traveling frequently from project to project.
However, if you want to truly be successful in corporate IT, try to get as broad of an experience base as possible. Ideal IT candidates in the future will have broad experience in both hardware and software, and also the communication and people skills to help leverage technology to solve strategic problems. Working in the IT department of a big corporation will mean that instead of writing that accounts payable software package yourself, you will be identifying the requirements and coordinating with the different vendors to get the job done. You will still need technical knowledge, because you will have to be able to communicate with the consultants/contractors/vendors, and you will performing the integrations between the systems. However, you might not be slinging code all day.
Just as a disclaimer, I will repeat that this isn't a 100% rule. There will always be a need withing corporate IT departments for software development, because companies will always develop creative solutions to give them a competitive advantage over their competitors.
If you're just starting out, my recommendation is try several areas of the technology field and figure out what makes you happy. Being happy in your job is much more inportant than just money, in my opinion. If you don't like what you're doing, try something else. Having a broad experience base can only help you in the job market of the future.
Your extensions will be disabled unless they are configured as compatible with 1.0. Unfortunately right now trying to use the built in "search for updates" feature is very slow, from server load I presume. I found updates for several of my favorites by searching http://www.mozdev.org/.
Yeah, that peaceful resistance worked great for the Jews in Nazi Germany. Ask the Ugandan people who lived under Idi Amin if unarmed resistance and gun control helped them.
If a government is determined to oppress their people, then it's not going to matter if you have weapons or not.
For every example you give like Georgia, there are many other examples where gun control was used to keep the people meek and easier to control through fear.
They haven't always made the best marketing moves (e.g. OS/2), but I'm pleased to see them actively supporting Linux on other platforms besides Intel.
I can't wait to see more support for their iSeries and pSeries servers. IBM has always made pretty good hardware, so this should give another option to companies wanting to migrate away from OS/400 and AIX yet keep the rock-solid enterprise-class hardware.
In my opinion, the more vendors that support Linux, the better.
I didn't say it wouldn't be impossible. An iterative approach would definitely be the best way to accomplish the task. I was just pointing out it would definitely be a BIG task.
I'm as much of a Linux advocate as the next guy, but it would be a HUGE task to migrate all of the United States Federal government Microsoft-based systems to Linux, especially if there was some sort of mandated short timeline.
The relatively easy part would be replacing simple desktop functionality. The not-so-easy part would be identifying and analyzing all of the custom software used by the US Federal governement that is deployed using Microsoft-specific technology (e.g. Visual Basic).
Even if there IS a shift from Microsoft to Linux (or any other platform), out of necessity it will need to be a slow and careful process.
I would venture to say that being "systems-savvy" isn't enough. You also have to be motivated. I've known plenty of so-called "systems-savvy" Linux users who were just lazy about keeping up with bug fixes and patches. The kind of people who, even today, are running RedHat 5.1 in a "production" environment.
I have 3 Linux boxes at home, but I also have to use Win2K at work. Since I understand the implications of security flaws, I regularly update my Win2K box at work by visiting Windows Update and downloading critical fixes, just as I keep my Linux boxes at home up-to-date with RedHat Network and Mandrake Update.
When the recent round of Windows worms started, I was fine because I was completely up-to-date on critical fixes. However, I was sadly in the minority, and so the folks in the IT Desktop Support group spent some long hours trying to track down and repair all the infected machines.
My point? A lot of so-called savvy users don't seem to see the value in keeping on top of updates, regardless of what operating systems they are running. They may have the technical knowledge, but are either lazy or think it "won't happen to them."
I think it would be a great feature if you could optionally configure ANY operating system (whether Linux, Windows, etc.) to automatically update itself.
What do you mean? There is a string class in the STL. It's often implemented differently "behind the scenes", but there is definitely a string class in the standard.
I'm not sure about the original CPiA project, but with the CPiA2 chipset Linux driver ST Micro provided the intial driver source (ported from their Windows driver), and they have a staff developer on the open-source team. Of course the CPiA2 code is still a work in progress.
So the solution would be that negative feedback resets the person to 0 instantly.
Unfortunately that doesn't solve the problem.
I've heard horror stories about people leaving negative feedback out of sheer malice. Let's say you're selling some item, and someone bids on it and wins the bid, and then they refuse to pay for shipping or back out of the bid, so you leave negative feedback for nonpayment. So...using another account they bid on ANOTHER of your auctions and after winning it immediately leave negative feedback claiming all sorts of things. Is it true? Who knows! It's your word against theirs...but I believe that It's not always the seller's fault.
Personally, I don't buy/sell things on eBay for more than $200 or so. I also try to be careful and do business with people who appear to have good ratings, and I will often send the seller a question via email to gauge how responsive and friendly they are. If they respond to my email promptly and positively, then I will feel more comfortable about bidding. If I receive no response, or a rude or terse answer, then I will not bid on the auction. I also find myself doing repeat business with several eBay vendors, especially for used books.
To me eBay is a bit like an electronic pawn shop. You can find some great deals if you know what you're buying and what it's worth. You can also be ripped off fairly easily, such as paying MORE than the cover price for a used book.
In other words, just trust the big companies and none of this would ever happen???
I don't think that was either the Schneier's point. I think Schneier was just pointing out the obvious.
If I am not mistaken, AOL has always monitored and censored their chatroom conversations. As a corporation, AOL has the ways and means to control the whole process. With IRC there is not any centralized control--someone can be running an IRC server in their dorm room, specifically FOR illegal activity, and there's nobody for the Fed's to subpoena, since they probably won't even know about it.
All Schneier was saying is that it's a no-brainer for the criminal types to use IRC instead of some sort of proprietary corporate communication method.
In my opinion this CNN article is merely FUD material--Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. It's just gloom and doom about those "wild hackers" on that "crazy unregulated Internet".
Even if IRC went away, the net-criminals would find some other way to trade information. Just because some people are trading unlicensed software and credit card information on IRC doesn't mean that EVERYONE on IRC is doing that.
Regardless, I wouldn't be surprised if the Feds were working on a bot that would look for suspicious activity in a particular channel. If I were given their task, that's what I would do.
TUXIA's already dead:-( - see dotcomtod.de (sorry, it's in German).
They filed for bankruptcy at the end of February.
That's unfortunate--some of my former Merinta co-workers were picked up by TUXIA after Merinta folded. *SIGH*
when will they ever learn?
on
Lineo near Death
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
As a former employee of Merinta (an embedded Linux company that went under in May 2001), I am very sympathetic to the Lineo employees. I guess I was fortunate--at least Merinta never bounced a paycheck, and our CEO (Camillo Martino) gave us a heads-up before we actually ran out of money.
Linux shows so much promise in the embedded market, but it will never get there until companies wise up and start using sound business practices. I am so sick and tired of seeing companies with great ideas and talented people fail because they have incompetent management with poor spending practices.
Having millions of dollars in venture capital funding does not mean your company is "successful" or "wealthy". It means you have been trusted with money to make your idea work. Don't go out and blow the money on Aeron chairs, fancy offices and glitzy parties. Spend it wisely, and use it to get your product out the door. When your company is generating REAL revenue and profit, THEN you can consider celebrating.
Blowing venture capital on stupid things is about the same as maxing out a personal credit card on luxury items in my book. It's just plain stupid.
I feel so passionately about this issue because I've seen so many companies go under, where the workers suffer because of poor management. Enron is a really big example, but there are hundreds if not thousands of "dot-coms" that did the same thing to their workers.
I hope TUXIA is still doing well, and I hope they learn from the mistakes of others in the marketplace.
Slashdot Mirror
Yep, Mexico wanted a buffer to the north, because the Comanches and Lipan Apaches would raid deep into Mexico and steal horses and such. The thought was that if they could get enough American settlers to settle in Texas, the Comanches would raid the settlers, and not bother going all the way down into Mexico.
In general, the settlers in Texas were happy to be "Texicans". It wasn't until Santa Ana took power and revoked the Mexican constitution of 1824, and then started trampling the settlers' rights, that the people began to become upset. The Texas Revolution of 1836 was fought for the same reasons as the American Revolution of 1776...taxation without representation, etc.
You could always switch to a no-contract unlimited provider such as MetroPCS or Cricket, if you're in the US and live in one of their service areas. MetroPCS has rolled out a couple of smart phones such as the Blackberry Curve and the Samsung Finesse, and there's no credit check involved.
This is a great idea, but if we moved towards burning ALL of our trash, then archaeologists won't have anything to dig up in 10,000 years. :-)
If you google for 3D solar arrays, you find that this isn't really something new.
I say this is a GOOD thing. In my opinion we should've started doing this from the very beginning. I'd much rather talk to a TSA agent trained in recognizing microfacial expressions, than go through the useless and annoying process of removing my shoes and throwing away my bottle of water. Unfortunately they're not likely to do away with the silly stuff, at least just yet. I still think this is progress towards effective security. The issue with TSA oversight is an entirely different matter.
Bruce Schneier has written about this before:
http://www.schneier.com/essay-076.html
First of all I will say that I have worked mostly in software development in my career, although I also have some UNIX system administration experience in my background. Because of that, this is focused mostly towards software development although some of it applies to other IT functions as well.
Next I want to clarify my own personal definitions. I define Information Technology (IT) as the group that provides technical expertise to a company in order to support their business needs. For example, if you work for a bank, you maintain the computer hardware software that allows the bank to make a profit by providing financial services. You aren't really directly contributing to the bottom line, since you aren't creating a product or service that the bank sells, but you are critical to their success.
The flip side of that would be Software Engineering or Technical Consulting, where you work for companies like Oracle or Microsoft or IBM. Although those companies have IT departments, the positions I'm referring to are the ones where you produce a product or service that is sold to customers to generate revenue. In this case you ARE directly contributing to the bottom line.
What I see in the industry is less of a demand for actual software development in the corporate IT world. In the past, companies needed a software development group, because they developed all their software in-house. If you worked for a tire manufacturer, and your company needed an accounts payable system, you would often develop and support it yourself. Now, that same company would be much more likely to purchase an ERP suite like SAP. If you needed needed technical customization, you hire consultants and/or contractors to come in and do the work on a project basis.
This is also true of help-desk and even networking/system admin functions. We're seeing more and more of those commodity-type positions being outsourced to third-party providers, especially in larger corporations.
So... my advice to someone just starting out in IT would be similar to what has already been said. If you really want to stay technical and go into hardcore software development or system administration or something, try to get jobs with companies who make that their focus, or else be prepared to work as a contractor or consultant, traveling frequently from project to project.
However, if you want to truly be successful in corporate IT, try to get as broad of an experience base as possible. Ideal IT candidates in the future will have broad experience in both hardware and software, and also the communication and people skills to help leverage technology to solve strategic problems. Working in the IT department of a big corporation will mean that instead of writing that accounts payable software package yourself, you will be identifying the requirements and coordinating with the different vendors to get the job done. You will still need technical knowledge, because you will have to be able to communicate with the consultants/contractors/vendors, and you will performing the integrations between the systems. However, you might not be slinging code all day.
Just as a disclaimer, I will repeat that this isn't a 100% rule. There will always be a need withing corporate IT departments for software development, because companies will always develop creative solutions to give them a competitive advantage over their competitors.
If you're just starting out, my recommendation is try several areas of the technology field and figure out what makes you happy. Being happy in your job is much more inportant than just money, in my opinion. If you don't like what you're doing, try something else. Having a broad experience base can only help you in the job market of the future.
Your extensions will be disabled unless they are configured as compatible with 1.0. Unfortunately right now trying to use the built in "search for updates" feature is very slow, from server load I presume. I found updates for several of my favorites by searching http://www.mozdev.org/.
This is already covered on his website.
http://www.badnarik.org/Issues/GayIssues.php
Another good quote is from Juvenal's Satires:
"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Latin for "Who watches the watchers?"
I agree that catching terrorists and such is great, but the potential for abuse is definitely there.
Yeah, that peaceful resistance worked great for the Jews in Nazi Germany. Ask the Ugandan people who lived under Idi Amin if unarmed resistance and gun control helped them.
If a government is determined to oppress their people, then it's not going to matter if you have weapons or not.
For every example you give like Georgia, there are many other examples where gun control was used to keep the people meek and easier to control through fear.
They haven't always made the best marketing moves (e.g. OS/2), but I'm pleased to see them actively supporting Linux on other platforms besides Intel.
I can't wait to see more support for their iSeries and pSeries servers. IBM has always made pretty good hardware, so this should give another option to companies wanting to migrate away from OS/400 and AIX yet keep the rock-solid enterprise-class hardware.
In my opinion, the more vendors that support Linux, the better.
I didn't say it wouldn't be impossible. An iterative approach would definitely be the best way to accomplish the task. I was just pointing out it would definitely be a BIG task.
I'm as much of a Linux advocate as the next guy, but it would be a HUGE task to migrate all of the United States Federal government Microsoft-based systems to Linux, especially if there was some sort of mandated short timeline.
The relatively easy part would be replacing simple desktop functionality. The not-so-easy part would be identifying and analyzing all of the custom software used by the US Federal governement that is deployed using Microsoft-specific technology (e.g. Visual Basic).
Even if there IS a shift from Microsoft to Linux (or any other platform), out of necessity it will need to be a slow and careful process.
I would venture to say that being "systems-savvy" isn't enough. You also have to be motivated. I've known plenty of so-called "systems-savvy" Linux users who were just lazy about keeping up with bug fixes and patches. The kind of people who, even today, are running RedHat 5.1 in a "production" environment.
:)
I have 3 Linux boxes at home, but I also have to use Win2K at work. Since I understand the implications of security flaws, I regularly update my Win2K box at work by visiting Windows Update and downloading critical fixes, just as I keep my Linux boxes at home up-to-date with RedHat Network and Mandrake Update.
When the recent round of Windows worms started, I was fine because I was completely up-to-date on critical fixes. However, I was sadly in the minority, and so the folks in the IT Desktop Support group spent some long hours trying to track down and repair all the infected machines.
My point? A lot of so-called savvy users don't seem to see the value in keeping on top of updates, regardless of what operating systems they are running. They may have the technical knowledge, but are either lazy or think it "won't happen to them."
I think it would be a great feature if you could optionally configure ANY operating system (whether Linux, Windows, etc.) to automatically update itself.
Just my $2e-02.
> 8) Lack of a standard String class
What do you mean? There is a string class in the STL. It's often implemented differently "behind the scenes", but there is definitely a string class in the standard.
Those particular packages from the Sun Freeware site require you to download gtk.
No need to be stuck with standard vi on Solaris.
:-)
Go to http://www.sunfreeware.com/ and grab the Solaris packages for Vim.
You'll also need the packages for gtk+, glib, and ncurses.
That's assuming you cannot or do not want to just download and compile the source yourself.
The Imaging and Display Division of ST Microelectronics (formerly VLSI Vision Ltd) makes the chipset for the CPiA-based webcam as well as the upcoming CPiA2 chipset.
I'm not sure about the original CPiA project, but with the CPiA2 chipset Linux driver ST Micro provided the intial driver source (ported from their Windows driver), and they have a staff developer on the open-source team. Of course the CPiA2 code is still a work in progress.
Mozilla will be a great product eventually, but unfortunately I agree with Joel Spolsky that good software takes ten years to write, and you should NEVER rewrite code from scratch.
I know that as a software developer, I've certainly learned from Netscape's mistake.
So the solution would be that negative feedback resets the person to 0 instantly.
Unfortunately that doesn't solve the problem.
I've heard horror stories about people leaving negative feedback out of sheer malice. Let's say you're selling some item, and someone bids on it and wins the bid, and then they refuse to pay for shipping or back out of the bid, so you leave negative feedback for nonpayment. So...using another account they bid on ANOTHER of your auctions and after winning it immediately leave negative feedback claiming all sorts of things. Is it true? Who knows! It's your word against theirs...but I believe that It's not always the seller's fault.
Personally, I don't buy/sell things on eBay for more than $200 or so. I also try to be careful and do business with people who appear to have good ratings, and I will often send the seller a question via email to gauge how responsive and friendly they are. If they respond to my email promptly and positively, then I will feel more comfortable about bidding. If I receive no response, or a rude or terse answer, then I will not bid on the auction. I also find myself doing repeat business with several eBay vendors, especially for used books.
To me eBay is a bit like an electronic pawn shop. You can find some great deals if you know what you're buying and what it's worth. You can also be ripped off fairly easily, such as paying MORE than the cover price for a used book.
Caveat emptor, indeed.
In other words, just trust the big companies and none of this would ever happen???
I don't think that was either the Schneier's point. I think Schneier was just pointing out the obvious.
If I am not mistaken, AOL has always monitored and censored their chatroom conversations. As a corporation, AOL has the ways and means to control the whole process. With IRC there is not any centralized control--someone can be running an IRC server in their dorm room, specifically FOR illegal activity, and there's nobody for the Fed's to subpoena, since they probably won't even know about it.
All Schneier was saying is that it's a no-brainer for the criminal types to use IRC instead of some sort of proprietary corporate communication method.
In my opinion this CNN article is merely FUD material--Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. It's just gloom and doom about those "wild hackers" on that "crazy unregulated Internet".
Even if IRC went away, the net-criminals would find some other way to trade information. Just because some people are trading unlicensed software and credit card information on IRC doesn't mean that EVERYONE on IRC is doing that.
Regardless, I wouldn't be surprised if the Feds were working on a bot that would look for suspicious activity in a particular channel. If I were given their task, that's what I would do.
TUXIA's already dead :-( - see dotcomtod.de (sorry, it's in German).
They filed for bankruptcy at the end of February.
That's unfortunate--some of my former Merinta co-workers were picked up by TUXIA after Merinta folded. *SIGH*As a former employee of Merinta (an embedded Linux company that went under in May 2001), I am very sympathetic to the Lineo employees. I guess I was fortunate--at least Merinta never bounced a paycheck, and our CEO (Camillo Martino) gave us a heads-up before we actually ran out of money.
Linux shows so much promise in the embedded market, but it will never get there until companies wise up and start using sound business practices. I am so sick and tired of seeing companies with great ideas and talented people fail because they have incompetent management with poor spending practices.
Having millions of dollars in venture capital funding does not mean your company is "successful" or "wealthy". It means you have been trusted with money to make your idea work. Don't go out and blow the money on Aeron chairs, fancy offices and glitzy parties. Spend it wisely, and use it to get your product out the door. When your company is generating REAL revenue and profit, THEN you can consider celebrating.
Blowing venture capital on stupid things is about the same as maxing out a personal credit card on luxury items in my book. It's just plain stupid.
I feel so passionately about this issue because I've seen so many companies go under, where the workers suffer because of poor management. Enron is a really big example, but there are hundreds if not thousands of "dot-coms" that did the same thing to their workers.
I hope TUXIA is still doing well, and I hope they learn from the mistakes of others in the marketplace.
Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel! ;-)