So, that's kind of like how my highschool had password-protected computers in the library. The teachers username/password was teacher:teacher and the students was student:student (may not be exact, but you get the point). I asked the librarian why not give a more difficult password. She said that if [I/my friends/anyone else that wasn't a teacher] were to enter teacher:teacher, and do something bad (like deface a corporate webpage or access some federal stuff) the school would not be held responsible because they had password protection...even though it really sucked.
[going off on a tangent]
This kind of thing (teacher:teacher logins) really erks me. First of all, these are *teachers* can't they remember a freaking password!? We have to remember all that crap for our tests, no matter how abstract it is. And they can't even remember their passwords. At least if they had dictionary words, they could write them on a notepad and keep the pad away from students and then only if you're trying to do something reminiscent of Wargames would you be able to do any harm.
To those of you who have yet to borrow the Wargames video from the library:) the kid in that movie (Matthew Broderick played David Lightman) hacked the schools computer system because he got in trouble, went to the principal's office, and read the guy's password off a notepad. He could then change his/anyone's grades and this is how he got his chix0r(Ally Sheedy...I'm still confused...how did a geek/hacker get *her*??? She would have been like the Natalie Portman of the 80s:) ).
In ESR's thing about howto become a hacker, he says that one thing that you must do is learn your native language very well. Well, I think that RMS has done this. Maybe he doesn't code. But we do need SOMEONE (or someones) to speak for us. And he's been around for a long time. And he founded (or was at least a part of starting/growing) the FSF.
So, no, don't take him off that pedestal, we need someone to speak for us. We can tell him what to say and he can say it very well and make us look like we're all smart and not just evil, scummy, no-good rotten hackers.
I'm now nearly finished listening to this interview of Bill Gates. Certainly interesting to listen to though I don't have anything to say about what was said.
The question I do have is: Where did it come from? Some of the show sounds really funky like someone was recording it from the radio with a microphone. Or did someone find an old tape down in their basement? I dunno. But I'd be interested to know where it came from if anyone knows.
Other people have said the same thing that you said. And at first, I agree with them. But the fees that colleges have for bandwidth and tuition are put there under the same logic as insurance. If we all pay a little, we can each get a big piece when we need it, assuming that we won't all need it (money, bandwidth, whatever) all the time. And people get mad when someone makes a fake fall at the store to get the insurance money because it's their money. The scammers don't get mad. In the same way, those who need info for school get mad because it's slow or unable to connect and those who are sucking up the bandwidth don't get mad as they are the ones using the bandwidth.
I hope that was comprehendible. It's very cold here and I can hardly feel my fingers.
About your #5, with gambling, the one who wins in the end is almost ALWAYS the one who set it up. For example - slot machines - someone sets it up for others to come and gamble money on. Some gamblers win, some lose, but the owner of the machine usually comes out with more money than they had before. If you consider this move by Microsoft a gamble, then this is an example of the other side (not the gambler) winning. Although, I doubt they will feel this loss all that much.
On another rather unrelated note. What's kind of humorous about this is that the Gates character on The Simpsons said that he didn't become a rich man by writing people lots of big checks (wasn't that it?). And this is what was happening. Another thing that comes to mind is when one of the big oil/railroad tycoons (is that the right word? i dunno) received a letter from some guy saying that he should distribute his money to everyone in the world since he had too much. The guy received a check for a few cents later. The rich guy had calculated how much everyone would get and it came out to some ridiculously small amount.
Well, try textfiles.com. They've got lots of nifty stuff (not just ascii porn). And since this is a story about Playboy, maybe this would be appropriate? (Nifty subliminal message). And does anyone know if someone has tried ascii porn movies? Some friends and I were joking about it at one time...but I wonder if it's ever been attempted.
Yes, but then this would have to be moderated. There's probably lots of trollish stuff sent in every day. And not even everything that makes it to the front page is decent. I'd hate to see ALL the crap that's sent in as stories.
Also, how about a FYI section where people could just suggest ideas (i.e. "Here's an invention I've been thinking about...what do you all think?" or even this idea that I'm throwing out now.) and stuff and see what others think. There have been things that I've been wanting to ask about but there isn't a relevant story. And posting to an irrelevant story and getting moderated to 0 or -1 isn't helpful, either.
Couldn't the extra money be donated to those sites that have been overrun by the slashdot effect?
It should make for a better slashdot experience although it might take some money away from the owners/stockholders. It would also be a nice thing to do(gee, imagine that!).
You forgot about the Lovelace part. Always has seemed an odd name for a geeky chick to me. Almost sounds a ``working'' name for a modern-day underwear model:).
Well, I'm not really sure what the weather is like in Bethlehem. But, I'm willing to guess that they could have newborn lambs there in January for the same reason that Australians never have a white Christmas. Seasons aren't linked to the months. (e.g. June is a Winter month in Australia and other countries on the other side of the planet from you).
Who's Dmitri Medeleeff?:) From some searching I did, I believe the name is Mendeleeff and he published Periodic Law of the Elements. I found this link on yahoo and google. Pretty weak...but it mentions his name!:)
Well, even if he does get a U.S. patent, it only protects him in the US. You wonder why so many cheap look-alikes come from China, Japan, etc, etc? Because they can see a nifty idea that someone somewhere else had and go to some other country (Japan and China are not the only ones, just the first two that came to mind) and change it a little (look! thinner paper!) and resell it under a different patent. And they have violated no laws. Patents only work to a certain extent.
Uh. I've got Slack7 from WC(it was $15 at the local Microcenter...$40 from WC?! no way!). One of the CDs(#3? I think) is a bootable CD. It's got KDE working (type "startx" after logging in as root). I used it to test it out on my Gateway Solo2500 laptop. KDE worked nicely, although the windows were drawn rather slow...? Then I just booted back to Win98 and everything worked as before. I'm not sure what's wrong with SuSE. Slack works for me.
600,000? Is that really THAT much these days. Not to say that I think it's pocket change...if I had 600K all of a sudden, I'd need a new pair of pants(i.e. I would have pissed them). Anyway, it's a lot of money...but not THAT much.
And maybe that money would have been better spent informing users NOT TO RESPOND! This is similar to the people on the street with the cups of change (they never have empty cups, and yet they still beg...hmmm...note: this last comment was not meant to start a flame war, just an observation). If you respond to these people - give them change - they will continue to beg. If some people respond to spam, spam will continue to be sent. If people continue to buy lottery tickets hoping to win(and thereby bringing lots of money to the people running the lottery), lotteries will continue to be run.
So, the next time you get one of those spam emails giving you an address at which you can be removed, don't bother...it might just be their way of seeing if your address is real.
Well, now there will be an even bigger problem. Millions of Joe/Josefine Users will not be able to view the page. They'll be thinking "What? I could have sworn that I saw F-O-X-dot-C-O-M at the end of Ally McBeal. Hmm..maybe I'm wrong." and only *we* know what the problem is. Maybe they'll have to apologize next for their site being inavailable..."No, Fox.com was not down. There was an influx of people viewing our site due to it being viewed on Slashdot." Then all their users will follow the link and we'll be wondering "Hmm..is this the Twilight Zone or something? Slashdot NEVER gets slashdotted...strange...maybe they had to take down the site." And the process will have begun all over again.
I found a penny on the ground today. Therefore, this is my $0.03 worth. I didn't need it anyway.
Well, yes, all electric appliances create harmful emissions. No, not in your house, but at the power plant. Okay, maybe you're on hydropower or solar or windpower or maybe you run your house on fermenting slugs - either way, you're in the minority. And even if you ARE using one of those listed previously, they had to use large machines running on fossil fuels in order to build the dam or the propellers or the solar cells.
So, the lesson learned is - FERMENTING SLUG POWER! (I wonder if they could have a lawnmower that runs on fermenting grass(no, not that kind of grass)).
And how about some sort of a monitoring system so that it knows when it is not going to be in your way. Or a crontab-like thing.
And if you were going to have it vacuum when you were sleeping or doing other things like studying or talking on the phone, you'd want one of those silencer speakers on it that produces the opposite waveform in an attempt to negate the sound. That would be pretty nifty.
1. Internationalization. You could have an American track, Spanish, German, and whatever else. It would be lame(like watching old King Kong movies)but nifty:).
2. Data tracks. You could put this on the disc and make soemthing like the audio CDs that have data tracks as well. Bios(no, not Basic Input/Output System..geesh:)), music videos(encrypted and proprietary, of course), etc.
3. Words. Kind of like karaoke. You wouldn't need to whip out the liner notes.
4. Environmentally friendly. If they re-released some songs on new albums, those people who didn't have them could have them and not have to waste physical space with another disc (okay, this is a weak point). Although this would only work well and right if the discs were either the same price as those out now or not much more.
5. DJs. Same amount of music, easier to transport. Or "all-night-party-on-a-disc". Same for radio stations.
-------------------------
These are only some of the reasons I think this will be useful(if we still have SOME control over what's on the disc). And I admit that #4(Environmental) is weak. But this is also something I thought about with regards to Linux and *BSD. You buy a 4-CD jewel box or just download it and there's not as much packaging(unless you're buying Redhat or SuSE or another boxed release...even then, you only need one). Although in order to make the download constantly available, you've got to keep a few systems up 24/7 which uses electricity. And unless you've got 500 rats running in little wheels or a solar power source, it's going to create some pollution.
[sarcasm]Yeah. I heard that our Congress had to upgrade their webserver to handle the traffic. And a bunch of warez sites are worried about the loss of revenue due to people reading Walden rather than getting some free software.[/sarcasm]
Yes, I get your point...but those `good' things, like reading and doing homework are, well, boring - and most kids would gladly be playing games (which also stimulate their minds...just not in the same way) rather than doing anything like those things that you mentioned. Well, I know that's how *I* feel.
You took my words out of context. So of course it doesn't work out.
If failing companies come back as a result of better-working computers which are better because of Linux, that may be a message to the better companies that this `Linux' really is pretty good and consequently can make them better.
Well...consider this: If it's good for the losers, why shouldn't it be good for the winners? Maybe it's better to have failing companies switch over to Linux and then come out better because of it. Then there could be nifty commercials..."We switched to Red Hat Linux...shouldn't you?":) Or maybe it's best to just do our best(well...all most of us can do is sit around and use it and complain about bugs)and let things fall where they may. It's better to let people do what they want rather than force someone elses' intentions upon them.
Slashdot Mirror
So, that's kind of like how my highschool had password-protected computers in the library. The teachers username/password was teacher:teacher and the students was student:student (may not be exact, but you get the point). I asked the librarian why not give a more difficult password. She said that if [I/my friends/anyone else that wasn't a teacher] were to enter teacher:teacher, and do something bad (like deface a corporate webpage or access some federal stuff) the school would not be held responsible because they had password protection...even though it really sucked.
[going off on a tangent]
This kind of thing (teacher:teacher logins) really erks me. First of all, these are *teachers* can't they remember a freaking password!? We have to remember all that crap for our tests, no matter how abstract it is. And they can't even remember their passwords. At least if they had dictionary words, they could write them on a notepad and keep the pad away from students and then only if you're trying to do something reminiscent of Wargames would you be able to do any harm.
To those of you who have yet to borrow the Wargames video from the library:) the kid in that movie (Matthew Broderick played David Lightman) hacked the schools computer system because he got in trouble, went to the principal's office, and read the guy's password off a notepad. He could then change his/anyone's grades and this is how he got his chix0r(Ally Sheedy...I'm still confused...how did a geek/hacker get *her*??? She would have been like the Natalie Portman of the 80s:) ).
In ESR's thing about howto become a hacker, he says that one thing that you must do is learn your native language very well. Well, I think that RMS has done this. Maybe he doesn't code. But we do need SOMEONE (or someones) to speak for us. And he's been around for a long time. And he founded (or was at least a part of starting/growing) the FSF.
So, no, don't take him off that pedestal, we need someone to speak for us. We can tell him what to say and he can say it very well and make us look like we're all smart and not just evil, scummy, no-good rotten hackers.
I'm now nearly finished listening to this interview of Bill Gates. Certainly interesting to listen to though I don't have anything to say about what was said.
The question I do have is: Where did it come from? Some of the show sounds really funky like someone was recording it from the radio with a microphone. Or did someone find an old tape down in their basement? I dunno. But I'd be interested to know where it came from if anyone knows.
Other people have said the same thing that you said. And at first, I agree with them. But the fees that colleges have for bandwidth and tuition are put there under the same logic as insurance. If we all pay a little, we can each get a big piece when we need it, assuming that we won't all need it (money, bandwidth, whatever) all the time. And people get mad when someone makes a fake fall at the store to get the insurance money because it's their money. The scammers don't get mad. In the same way, those who need info for school get mad because it's slow or unable to connect and those who are sucking up the bandwidth don't get mad as they are the ones using the bandwidth.
I hope that was comprehendible. It's very cold here and I can hardly feel my fingers.
This is offtopic...i know.
About your #5, with gambling, the one who wins in the end is almost ALWAYS the one who set it up. For example - slot machines - someone sets it up for others to come and gamble money on. Some gamblers win, some lose, but the owner of the machine usually comes out with more money than they had before. If you consider this move by Microsoft a gamble, then this is an example of the other side (not the gambler) winning. Although, I doubt they will feel this loss all that much.
On another rather unrelated note. What's kind of humorous about this is that the Gates character on The Simpsons said that he didn't become a rich man by writing people lots of big checks (wasn't that it?). And this is what was happening. Another thing that comes to mind is when one of the big oil/railroad tycoons (is that the right word? i dunno) received a letter from some guy saying that he should distribute his money to everyone in the world since he had too much. The guy received a check for a few cents later. The rich guy had calculated how much everyone would get and it came out to some ridiculously small amount.
Well, try textfiles.com. They've got lots of nifty stuff (not just ascii porn). And since this is a story about Playboy, maybe this would be appropriate? (Nifty subliminal message). And does anyone know if someone has tried ascii porn movies? Some friends and I were joking about it at one time...but I wonder if it's ever been attempted.
Yes, but then this would have to be moderated. There's probably lots of trollish stuff sent in every day. And not even everything that makes it to the front page is decent. I'd hate to see ALL the crap that's sent in as stories.
Also, how about a FYI section where people could just suggest ideas (i.e. "Here's an invention I've been thinking about...what do you all think?" or even this idea that I'm throwing out now.) and stuff and see what others think. There have been things that I've been wanting to ask about but there isn't a relevant story. And posting to an irrelevant story and getting moderated to 0 or -1 isn't helpful, either.
Couldn't the extra money be donated to those sites that have been overrun by the slashdot effect?
It should make for a better slashdot experience although it might take some money away from the owners/stockholders. It would also be a nice thing to do(gee, imagine that!).
You forgot about the Lovelace part. Always has seemed an odd name for a geeky chick to me. Almost sounds a ``working'' name for a modern-day underwear model:).
Well, I'm not really sure what the weather is like in Bethlehem. But, I'm willing to guess that they could have newborn lambs there in January for the same reason that Australians never have a white Christmas. Seasons aren't linked to the months. (e.g. June is a Winter month in Australia and other countries on the other side of the planet from you).
Who's Dmitri Medeleeff? :) From some searching I did, I believe the name is Mendeleeff and he published Periodic Law of the Elements. I found this link on yahoo and google. Pretty weak...but it mentions his name!:)
----[OFFTOPIC}---
Well, even if he does get a U.S. patent, it only protects him in the US. You wonder why so many cheap look-alikes come from China, Japan, etc, etc? Because they can see a nifty idea that someone somewhere else had and go to some other country (Japan and China are not the only ones, just the first two that came to mind) and change it a little (look! thinner paper!) and resell it under a different patent. And they have violated no laws. Patents only work to a certain extent.
Uh. I've got Slack7 from WC(it was $15 at the local Microcenter...$40 from WC?! no way!). One of the CDs(#3? I think) is a bootable CD. It's got KDE working (type "startx" after logging in as root). I used it to test it out on my Gateway Solo2500 laptop. KDE worked nicely, although the windows were drawn rather slow...? Then I just booted back to Win98 and everything worked as before. I'm not sure what's wrong with SuSE. Slack works for me.
600,000? Is that really THAT much these days. Not to say that I think it's pocket change...if I had 600K all of a sudden, I'd need a new pair of pants(i.e. I would have pissed them). Anyway, it's a lot of money...but not THAT much.
- --
And maybe that money would have been better spent informing users NOT TO RESPOND! This is similar to the people on the street with the cups of change (they never have empty cups, and yet they still beg...hmmm...note: this last comment was not meant to start a flame war, just an observation). If you respond to these people - give them change - they will continue to beg. If some people respond to spam, spam will continue to be sent. If people continue to buy lottery tickets hoping to win(and thereby bringing lots of money to the people running the lottery), lotteries will continue to be run.
So, the next time you get one of those spam emails giving you an address at which you can be removed, don't bother...it might just be their way of seeing if your address is real.
-----------------------------------------------
"chmod a-rwx / -R" [ENTER] "hmm...access denied? but why...oh..oh...oh crap"
Well, now there will be an even bigger problem. Millions of Joe/Josefine Users will not be able to view the page. They'll be thinking "What? I could have sworn that I saw F-O-X-dot-C-O-M at the end of Ally McBeal. Hmm..maybe I'm wrong." and only *we* know what the problem is. Maybe they'll have to apologize next for their site being inavailable..."No, Fox.com was not down. There was an influx of people viewing our site due to it being viewed on Slashdot." Then all their users will follow the link and we'll be wondering "Hmm..is this the Twilight Zone or something? Slashdot NEVER gets slashdotted...strange...maybe they had to take down the site." And the process will have begun all over again.
I found a penny on the ground today. Therefore, this is my $0.03 worth. I didn't need it anyway.
Beware - slightly unrelated stuff awaits - Beware
Well, yes, all electric appliances create harmful emissions. No, not in your house, but at the power plant. Okay, maybe you're on hydropower or solar or windpower or maybe you run your house on fermenting slugs - either way, you're in the minority. And even if you ARE using one of those listed previously, they had to use large machines running on fossil fuels in order to build the dam or the propellers or the solar cells.
So, the lesson learned is - FERMENTING SLUG POWER!
(I wonder if they could have a lawnmower that runs on fermenting grass(no, not that kind of grass)).
And how about some sort of a monitoring system so that it knows when it is not going to be in your way. Or a crontab-like thing.
And if you were going to have it vacuum when you were sleeping or doing other things like studying or talking on the phone, you'd want one of those silencer speakers on it that produces the opposite waveform in an attempt to negate the sound. That would be pretty nifty.
1. Internationalization. You could have an American track, Spanish, German, and whatever else. It would be lame(like watching old King Kong movies)but nifty:).
2. Data tracks. You could put this on the disc and make soemthing like the audio CDs that have data tracks as well. Bios(no, not Basic Input/Output System..geesh:)), music videos(encrypted and proprietary, of course), etc.
3. Words. Kind of like karaoke. You wouldn't need to whip out the liner notes.
4. Environmentally friendly. If they re-released some songs on new albums, those people who didn't have them could have them and not have to waste physical space with another disc (okay, this is a weak point). Although this would only work well and right if the discs were either the same price as those out now or not much more.
5. DJs. Same amount of music, easier to transport. Or "all-night-party-on-a-disc". Same for radio stations.
-------------------------
These are only some of the reasons I think this will be useful(if we still have SOME control over what's on the disc). And I admit that #4(Environmental) is weak. But this is also something I thought about with regards to Linux and *BSD. You buy a 4-CD jewel box or just download it and there's not as much packaging(unless you're buying Redhat or SuSE or another boxed release...even then, you only need one). Although in order to make the download constantly available, you've got to keep a few systems up 24/7 which uses electricity. And unless you've got 500 rats running in little wheels or a solar power source, it's going to create some pollution.
Humm-dee-dumm. I'll enjoy the replies.
[sarcasm]Yeah. I heard that our Congress had to upgrade their webserver to handle the traffic. And a bunch of warez sites are worried about the loss of revenue due to people reading Walden rather than getting some free software.[/sarcasm]
Yes, I get your point...but those `good' things, like reading and doing homework are, well, boring - and most kids would gladly be playing games (which also stimulate their minds...just not in the same way) rather than doing anything like those things that you mentioned. Well, I know that's how *I* feel.
You took my words out of context. So of course it doesn't work out.
If failing companies come back as a result of better-working computers which are better because of Linux, that may be a message to the better companies that this `Linux' really is pretty good and consequently can make them better.
Well...consider this: If it's good for the losers, why shouldn't it be good for the winners? Maybe it's better to have failing companies switch over to Linux and then come out better because of it. Then there could be nifty commercials..."We switched to Red Hat Linux...shouldn't you?" :) Or maybe it's best to just do our best(well...all most of us can do is sit around and use it and complain about bugs)and let things fall where they may. It's better to let people do what they want rather than force someone elses' intentions upon them.