I think this 100% privacy protection movement is wasting their time by opposing such systems and on the contrary causing more harm than good. In the end the information on our lives resides already somewhere, be it more distributed.
Instead of shouting constantly "No!" to every system which in principle is meant to defend our lives, freedom, hence our very privacy as well,
we should instead demand thorough legislation so these databases would not be abused.
I think this protection of our privacy in anti-terrorism databases is worth an addition to our respective constitutions (indeed, it is not only the USA which is facing privacy dilemma - it is the entire free world!) of the caliber of an Amendement at least.
Do not forget, democracy is the best of all available political systems but it is also the most cowardous system when it comes to threats which would cost a lot of sacrifice to solve physically, as terrorism is.
Why don't the credit card companies introduce the possibility for the card holders to opt out of certain categories of goods so that the credit card cannot be used to buy these kind of goods?
I am thinking in the first place about firearms. These are usually sold in specialised stores which can be easily identified in the credit card transaction databases. Most people do not buy firearms very often and certainly not with a credit card.
What is the advantage (if any) of this ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 128 MB over a combination in the style Riva GeForce4 64 MB + Hauppage WinTV Theater???
Anybody experience with the Hauppage TV/Radio cards (under Linux)?
I have been involved in development in and around the Documentum 4i document management system.
I would like to state that I do not have any relation with Documentum.
According to an entire army of market researchers, among which Gartner, Seybold, etc, Documentum is the most important document management system on the market (Gartner: max. vision + max. ability to execute).
In my opinion the product is architecturally flawed and has serious shortcomings in terms of documentation (to say the least).
Architecturally flawed: the product still bears a legacy of client server, or better, outdated client application (i.e. Desktop client) and so-and-so server. The so-called e-Content Server is in fact a topping of any major RDBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2) which turns that RDBMS into an object-oriented DB and inserts and manages the usual document mgmt stuff into the DB: versioning, document life cycles, workflows, etc. Nothing extraordinary and one might ask why in heaven do they need to turn around the nicely structured relational database into a very intransparent OO DB.
The webifying of the entire thing, because that is what Documentum is after right now, is strategically an absolute mess. I very often had the impression that Documentum itself does not know which direction to choose: J2EE?.NET? This is especially visible when integrating external databases into a website of which the content is managed through Documentum. Whether you choose Java (JavaBeans + JSP) or ASP to integrate the external databases does not really matter: pieces of code will be spreadled around in your DocBase (repository of documents, workflows, etc in Documentum slang) but also on your server (no, no, no, NOT controlled by your document management system). Documentum just does not provide a solution for integrating external databases (which need to be queried on your website) into your webcontent. You need to build up the framework yourself.
Stability: the product is very unstable, server-wise as well as web-client wise. The client-server Desktop client is better but outdated.
One could actually ask whether it is a product or a service you get in exchange of your million dollars or so. Sure you get some software but it requires a tremendous amount of "customisation". And, o yes, forget about getting a set of proven procedures etc. Documentum just shines in terms of absolute lack of documentation on best practice, methodology etc.
An open look under the hood: Documentum is to a large extent a puzzle of software from other vendors. As said: 3rd party RDBMS (ok, we can live with that, SAP also uses mostly 3rd party DBs), 3rd party search engine for the repository (!!!), 3rd party PDF rendition software (!!!), 3rd party (OPEN SOURCE!!!) XML engine (Xalan or Xerces, I do not remember)...
Can a company go for an open source content management system?
Sure it can, especially since large chunks of a commercial document management system are based on open source. But that is the wrong question.
Can the management of a company go for open source software?
Usually not. Because open source poses a risk. Not so many have done it before, there are less highly paid consultants around which you can blame the failure on and besides Gartner says...
Linux Router Project is a Linux mini-distro which works with or without hard disk (if you want to share a xDSL or cable modem you probably will need a small hard drive).
The project is excellently documented, support is widely available on websites and newsgroups and setup and security is not much more difficult than in an average Linux distro (command prompt though).
The only problem I encountered was the recognition (and subsequently configuration) of network interface cards on my old 486 box. But with plug 'n pray capable Pentium systems that should not be an issue anymore since you can have the NICs recognised in 'normal' circumstances first, copy the settings and use them in your router setup.
For most of the applications the rotation speed is more important than the ATA standard. This determines the access time. I prefer an ATA-66 @ 7200 rpm above an ATA-100 @ 5400
Don't you think that in the long run Linux and FreeBSD will serve as the *free* base to which all other *nixes will attach themselves to provide specialised, sophisticated, higher-quality (?) services like clustering, multi-processing, fault-tolerance, etc?
Solaris, HP-UX, True64 et altera would just vanquish as stand-alone systems. Instead they would offer system modules which will add value on top of the 'basic' system processes.
Mr. Clark is clearly pinched for money because of the Dotcom downturn. If he had at least a little bit of genuine "morale d'engagement" he would spend the money on fighting the regulation in civil society (Congress, Senate, whatever).
Not to say that supporting scientists who persue research within the limits set by Mr. Bush is already a considerable step.
To those hinting at the high costs of pharma research: recently an article in The Economist or was it in the Financial Times, none of which are particularly anti-corporate, stated that a substantial slice of pharma research, especially the most risky research in terms of return on investment (like the research into anti-AIDS medicine), is government funded.
To those thinking free/cheap provision of AIDS drugs is effective:
1. there is still no cure for AIDS. The drugs discussed just postpone for the sero-positive the outbreak of AIDS. But it disease and subsequent death remains unavoidable.
2. subsequently, and especially if you consider the bad financial situation of many a developing country in which AIDS is sweeping entire generations (Brazil is still well of in this aspect; take a look at [South-]Africa!), SPENDING MONEY ON TEACHING SEXUALLY SAFE BEHAVIOUS AS WELL AS PROGRAMS OF FREE NEEDLE EXCHANGE FOR DRUG ADDICTS ARE THE ONLY FINANCIALLY AS WELL AS PRACTICALLY EFFECTIVE CURES!
Since registration determines to some extent the accessibility of websites (think about blocking software which among others looks at the domain name of the site) it would be better if a Taiwanese company would be in charge of Chinese domain name distribution.
The best of course would be if domain names would be restricted to the strict English character set. Although I am not from an Anglo Saxon country I am convinced English should be the Lingua Franca for Internet domains. (I usually use Latin for all the rest e.g. naming variables, computers in network).
If you are full-time employed by your college or university the code written during working hours is intellectual property of your employer.
Everything written after hours or during breaks belongs to you and you can GPL it if you want to.
Some people are employed on project basis without fixed working hours. In that case everything what does not fit within your task description is yours to GPL or whatever.
Bear in mind, however, that there are exclusivity clauses which prohibit you working on "similar" projects like the one you are employed for, on task or full-time, basis by your institution.
Watch out with this "similarity" stuff: it cannot be that you can't publish an spreadsheet because you signed a clause which forbids you to work on computer-related stuff other than your main job.
Today I downloaded the latest version of Mandrake (should be one of the easiest Linux distros to start with if not the easiest).
I just can tell you one thing: the moment I shall be able to get all functionality out of Linux which I normally get from Windows you will have one customer less. For the information of your financial dep.: I used to buy every 2 years at least 3 versions of Windows + Works, Word, Excel and many others.
Although I am not from Spain I think the best "solution" to the hard drugs problem until today are the Spanish Narcosalas.
As far as I have understood from a BBC interview, the filosophy behind this unique experiment in Madrid is simple: in a democratic, tolerant society you cannot force a hard drug addict to kick off just like you cannot force someone to think.
And hard drug addicts are beside inflicting harm on themselves mainly a problem because they steal or commit other criminal activities to finance their addiction. Besides this hard junkies sometimes also become violent as a reaction on their shot (think about Jimmy Hendrickx who is said to have been a very friendly and sympathetic man but was famous for his violent outbursts after taking a portion of hard stuff). Thirdly specifically for intravenous narcotics: the problem of the needle sharing by which deceases spread.
Narcosalas are places comparable to hospitals or hostels which offer the hard drugs free to the addicted on condition that they consume them inside the narcosalas. There is a small medical and psychiatric team which takes care of the hygiene (no shared needles e.g.) and of safety (like violent reaction afterwards et altera). Of course if one of their patients wants to kick the habit he gets their full support.
Result: hard drug addicts are not anymore stealing to pay their drugs, are better controlled because they are in a central place and most importantly THERE IS NO ILLEGAL MARKET ANYMORE FOR NARCOTICS.
I do not know whether all I said is correct. I would really appreciate if some real Madrileno would correct me. Anyway, being against hard drugs myself, I am very much in favour of this solution.
Why isn't it applied on a larger scale? I see two reasons why it might (potentialis):
The "war against drugs" has become a gigantic industry on which carreers of a lot of people depend etc. (in sociology the "iron law Michels": every originally well meant institution becomes in the end a force in itself, starts to live its own live and tries to legitimise itself, remain necessary even if it is not needed anymore or inefficient)
Close to the one above but rather political: finishing the "war against drugs" would mean a complete turn-around in policy and moral. Many would not be able to reconcile this "revolution" with their deepest opinions about the world (primary or secondary level of Rokeach for the connaisseurs) It would also mean a turn-around in ideology which brings us to the next point:
In Catholicism and maybe in other religions as well, but Catholicism is the only one I know a bit, one never gives up someone else. Subsequently, providing someone the tools to destroy himself ie hard drugs is out of the question according to mainstream Catholic theology. I do not know how other Christians think about this, Orthodox Christians probably the same, Calvinist protestants too although they probably more easily will allow someone to take decisions about himself because in the end everyone is "predestined". But I am not an expert so you are welcome to correct me.
Face it guys: the concept is great of this code morphing, reminds me of the Common Hardware Reference Platform which also promissed to run multiple systems (besides MacOS, also NT).
However, this world is still run by Microsoft and ceteris paribus Crusoe will never be able to break the unofficial Intel-MS marriage. Transmeta should gamble 100% on Linux notebooks and perhaps on embedded systems too. Linux doesn't need to devore every few months an increase in processor power and can also focus on stability and technical neatness besides blunt power. Windoze may have a shorter time to market although one can discuss that, but it is also made fast-fast with major bugs waiting to burst (or to patch, depending which one happens first - usually the bug which forces to patch)
I think there is a market for a notebook which as primary system runs Linux and just in the second place Windoze 9x/NT/2000. That would be a lean mean portable Geek Machine!!! After all most of us work for the corps and must be able to run from time to time an Wintel app.
Transmeta, do you hear me?!?!? I am waiting for your open notebook platform, open both in hardware as well as in software of course!
I am always a little bit impressed, the least to say, when I hear or listen Americans destroying what they call socialist economics.
First of all: The economic ideas of your Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency are NOT socialist. Those ones who do not agree should read Marx: socialism is about the "dictature of the proletariat". Your so-called Socialist Party is still democratic and its candidate still sees a role for the private sector. This Socialist Party should rather be called Center-Left Party, Social Democrats or something similar.
Next, the most important point: introduce progressive -in the financial sense- taxes on the rich and "negative taxes" on the poor. "Negative taxes", a better word for that is subsidies but anyway.
This idea is not that bad, considering it works more or less in Europe, since 100 years, of course in a constantly evolving form. For those among you who think progressive taxation and subsidising poor does not help them because you would take away (through indirect taxes like sales tax or VAT) from the poor what you give them (through these subsidies): may I be so frank to point out that one can establish different taxation tarifs depending on the necessity-for-life of the goods considered. e.g. Luxury products could get a high tarif whereas basic nutrition just a few percents. That is what we (try) to do in Europe. You can judge it yourself of course. However it would be interesting for the US and its citizen if they would broaden their political horizon and ideological tollerance not only in their own country but also elsewhere in the world where they have an enormous influence. After all, competition between ideologies, the left and the right, made us, the lucky ones in this world, to what we are, sitting comfortably behind our computer screens, healthy, educated and free to say what we think.
first make up a plan of topics you wish to cover and name all possible candidates (in this stage Bill Gates is still on board)
next: after a cup of tea return to your plan and potential speaker list and scrap the unrealistic speakers (there you go, Bill) and topics (mmm, too bad, "How to build your own artificial life for stock exchange prediction" is a bit too difficult for the uninitiated mortals)
try to rearrange the list strategically: there's a higher probability I can catch this speaker if this theme will be on the menu or if his buddy (from another corp or university) shall be there etc.
of course, sponsoring and the promiss that lots of talented just graduated job-seeking geeks will form the public works to force big CxO (x can be E, T, F etc.) on board which on its turn sometimes helps to catch some high class venture capital seeking IT gurus
the most difficult part in my opinion: persuading the first big fishes to come. Usually you do not have yet a full program to show off nor other big bobos. But as I said just above: the attendance of job-seeking geeks makes miracles happen nowadays (as long as the IT-specialist shortage continues).
Although the technology is intriguing Crusoe-based notebooks will not breaktrough because most people are satisfied with their notebook and its battery charge life span.
Just the ones who barely are in the need to keep their notebooks constantly on for more than 3 hours will jump on Crusoe Inside [TM];-).
Maybe it is just my personal feeling but I always had (and still have) the impression that Linux is a free system which allows you to do things which are normally done on a Sun under Solaris or on other enterprise platforms (i.e. according to my feeling expensive hardware and software). If someone can afford Sun hardware he probably will not make a problem of buying a licence for Sun software and expensive apps. (With the exception of Apache which is more popular and has a better enterprise-like image than Sun's own [former Netscape] webserver soft).
Linux to me is almost synonymous to a free (almost) industrial strength system on an as cheap as possible, no-nonsense x86 box, preferably assembled on demand (à la carte).
I am not saying this is the right way to go but maybe Red Hat thinks the same?
Slashdot Mirror
Instead of shouting constantly "No!" to every system which in principle is meant to defend our lives, freedom, hence our very privacy as well,
we should instead demand thorough legislation so these databases would not be abused.
I think this protection of our privacy in anti-terrorism databases is worth an addition to our respective constitutions (indeed, it is not only the USA which is facing privacy dilemma - it is the entire free world!) of the caliber of an Amendement at least.
Do not forget, democracy is the best of all available political systems but it is also the most cowardous system when it comes to threats which would cost a lot of sacrifice to solve physically, as terrorism is.
I am thinking in the first place about firearms. These are usually sold in specialised stores which can be easily identified in the credit card transaction databases. Most people do not buy firearms very often and certainly not with a credit card.
This could also apply to other goods.
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?
Anybody experience with the Hauppage TV/Radio cards (under Linux)?
THX
I would like to state that I do not have any relation with Documentum.
According to an entire army of market researchers, among which Gartner, Seybold, etc, Documentum is the most important document management system on the market (Gartner: max. vision + max. ability to execute).
In my opinion the product is architecturally flawed and has serious shortcomings in terms of documentation (to say the least).
Architecturally flawed: the product still bears a legacy of client server, or better, outdated client application (i.e. Desktop client) and so-and-so server.
The so-called e-Content Server is in fact a topping of any major RDBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2) which turns that RDBMS into an object-oriented DB and inserts and manages the usual document mgmt stuff into the DB: versioning, document life cycles, workflows, etc. Nothing extraordinary and one might ask why in heaven do they need to turn around the nicely structured relational database into a very intransparent OO DB.
The webifying of the entire thing, because that is what Documentum is after right now, is strategically an absolute mess. I very often had the impression that Documentum itself does not know which direction to choose: J2EE?
Stability: the product is very unstable, server-wise as well as web-client wise. The client-server Desktop client is better but outdated.
One could actually ask whether it is a product or a service you get in exchange of your million dollars or so. Sure you get some software but it requires a tremendous amount of "customisation". And, o yes, forget about getting a set of proven procedures etc. Documentum just shines in terms of absolute lack of documentation on best practice, methodology etc.
An open look under the hood: Documentum is to a large extent a puzzle of software from other vendors. As said: 3rd party RDBMS (ok, we can live with that, SAP also uses mostly 3rd party DBs), 3rd party search engine for the repository (!!!), 3rd party PDF rendition software (!!!), 3rd party (OPEN SOURCE!!!) XML engine (Xalan or Xerces, I do not remember)...
Can a company go for an open source content management system?
Sure it can, especially since large chunks of a commercial document management system are based on open source. But that is the wrong question.
Can the management of a company go for open source software?
Usually not. Because open source poses a risk. Not so many have done it before, there are less highly paid consultants around which you can blame the failure on and besides Gartner says
Just my few cents.
Long way to go, eunuchs!
The project is excellently documented, support is widely available on websites and newsgroups and setup and security is not much more difficult than in an average Linux distro (command prompt though).
The only problem I encountered was the recognition (and subsequently configuration) of network interface cards on my old 486 box. But with plug 'n pray capable Pentium systems that should not be an issue anymore since you can have the NICs recognised in 'normal' circumstances first, copy the settings and use them in your router setup.
Succes!!!
For most of the applications the rotation speed is more important than the ATA standard. This determines the access time.
I prefer an ATA-66 @ 7200 rpm above an ATA-100 @ 5400
Solaris, HP-UX, True64 et altera would just vanquish as stand-alone systems. Instead they would offer system modules which will add value on top of the 'basic' system processes.
Just an idea...
Sorry for being a carma whore:
s tory_id=773106
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?
Not to say that supporting scientists who persue research within the limits set by Mr. Bush is already a considerable step.
Could someone enlighten me about when Mandrake 8.1 is to be released?
Tia
Hey, ho,
Isn't there a Linux project which does just that: recording scheduled TV and radio progs, maybe even remotely scheduled over the Net?
What about recognition of a starting signal of a given TV program?
Anyway, a Linux proj which would also offer writing TV hard disk recordings to CDR (e.g. in DiVX) sounds very sexy!
1. there is still no cure for AIDS. The drugs discussed just postpone for the sero-positive the outbreak of AIDS. But it disease and subsequent death remains unavoidable.
2. subsequently, and especially if you consider the bad financial situation of many a developing country in which AIDS is sweeping entire generations (Brazil is still well of in this aspect; take a look at [South-]Africa!), SPENDING MONEY ON TEACHING SEXUALLY SAFE BEHAVIOUS AS WELL AS PROGRAMS OF FREE NEEDLE EXCHANGE FOR DRUG ADDICTS ARE THE ONLY FINANCIALLY AS WELL AS PRACTICALLY EFFECTIVE CURES!
Drashcan
The best of course would be if domain names would be restricted to the strict English character set. Although I am not from an Anglo Saxon country I am convinced English should be the Lingua Franca for Internet domains. (I usually use Latin for all the rest e.g. naming variables, computers in network).
Everything written after hours or during breaks belongs to you and you can GPL it if you want to.
Some people are employed on project basis without fixed working hours. In that case everything what does not fit within your task description is yours to GPL or whatever.
Bear in mind, however, that there are exclusivity clauses which prohibit you working on "similar" projects like the one you are employed for, on task or full-time, basis by your institution.
Watch out with this "similarity" stuff: it cannot be that you can't publish an spreadsheet because you signed a clause which forbids you to work on computer-related stuff other than your main job.
Success,
The Skunk
Should be from the who-needs-this-? department (rethorical question).
I just can tell you one thing: the moment I shall be able to get all functionality out of Linux which I normally get from Windows you will have one customer less. For the information of your financial dep.: I used to buy every 2 years at least 3 versions of Windows + Works, Word, Excel and many others.
Have a nice Halloween,
the skunk, lonely and emotional
Why just Red Hat 6.2?
What about Red Hat 7, SuSe, Mandrake and, elementary, DEBIAN???
As far as I have understood from a BBC interview, the filosophy behind this unique experiment in Madrid is simple: in a democratic, tolerant society you cannot force a hard drug addict to kick off just like you cannot force someone to think.
And hard drug addicts are beside inflicting harm on themselves mainly a problem because they steal or commit other criminal activities to finance their addiction.
Besides this hard junkies sometimes also become violent as a reaction on their shot (think about Jimmy Hendrickx who is said to have been a very friendly and sympathetic man but was famous for his violent outbursts after taking a portion of hard stuff).
Thirdly specifically for intravenous narcotics: the problem of the needle sharing by which deceases spread.
Narcosalas are places comparable to hospitals or hostels which offer the hard drugs free to the addicted on condition that they consume them inside the narcosalas. There is a small medical and psychiatric team which takes care of the hygiene (no shared needles e.g.) and of safety (like violent reaction afterwards et altera). Of course if one of their patients wants to kick the habit he gets their full support. Result: hard drug addicts are not anymore stealing to pay their drugs, are better controlled because they are in a central place and most importantly THERE IS NO ILLEGAL MARKET ANYMORE FOR NARCOTICS. I do not know whether all I said is correct. I would really appreciate if some real Madrileno would correct me. Anyway, being against hard drugs myself, I am very much in favour of this solution. Why isn't it applied on a larger scale? I see two reasons why it might (potentialis):
However, this world is still run by Microsoft and ceteris paribus Crusoe will never be able to break the unofficial Intel-MS marriage. Transmeta should gamble 100% on Linux notebooks and perhaps on embedded systems too.
Linux doesn't need to devore every few months an increase in processor power and can also focus on stability and technical neatness besides blunt power. Windoze may have a shorter time to market although one can discuss that, but it is also made fast-fast with major bugs waiting to burst (or to patch, depending which one happens first - usually the bug which forces to patch)
I think there is a market for a notebook which as primary system runs Linux and just in the second place Windoze 9x/NT/2000. That would be a lean mean portable Geek Machine!!! After all most of us work for the corps and must be able to run from time to time an Wintel app.
Transmeta, do you hear me?!?!? I am waiting for your open notebook platform, open both in hardware as well as in software of course!
First of all: The economic ideas of your Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency are NOT socialist. Those ones who do not agree should read Marx: socialism is about the "dictature of the proletariat". Your so-called Socialist Party is still democratic and its candidate still sees a role for the private sector. This Socialist Party should rather be called Center-Left Party, Social Democrats or something similar.
Next, the most important point: introduce progressive -in the financial sense- taxes on the rich and "negative taxes" on the poor. "Negative taxes", a better word for that is subsidies but anyway.
This idea is not that bad, considering it works more or less in Europe, since 100 years, of course in a constantly evolving form. For those among you who think progressive taxation and subsidising poor does not help them because you would take away (through indirect taxes like sales tax or VAT) from the poor what you give them (through these subsidies): may I be so frank to point out that one can establish different taxation tarifs depending on the necessity-for-life of the goods considered. e.g. Luxury products could get a high tarif whereas basic nutrition just a few percents.
That is what we (try) to do in Europe. You can judge it yourself of course. However it would be interesting for the US and its citizen if they would broaden their political horizon and ideological tollerance not only in their own country but also elsewhere in the world where they have an enormous influence.
After all, competition between ideologies, the left and the right, made us, the lucky ones in this world, to what we are, sitting comfortably behind our computer screens, healthy, educated and free to say what we think.
Just the ones who barely are in the need to keep their notebooks constantly on for more than 3 hours will jump on Crusoe Inside [TM] ;-).
Code morphing is however definitely the future.
Just my opinion.
Linux to me is almost synonymous to a free (almost) industrial strength system on an as cheap as possible, no-nonsense x86 box, preferably assembled on demand (à la carte).
I am not saying this is the right way to go but maybe Red Hat thinks the same?