As it is slashdot, you probably think of Open Source as of software development model. But have you heard about OSINT?
OSINT (Open Source INTelligence). 35% to 95% of information gathered by US intelligence agencies are gathered from open sources depending on the region, language etc. Yes OSINT gets only about 1% of total intelligence fundings. (loose quotation from CIA's "Studies in Intelligence" i used to read years ago). OSINT has a very long story too -- there was a journalist who has made an article that Hitler has broken post-WWI treaties and is building an army. The data his provided was taken from German press yet it was so accurate that German intelligence has kidnapped him from Austria to find out what his sources were.
As for costs and budgets: do you truly believe government to be efficient on intelligence if they are inefficient in other areas? Besides, there is much more open information available now than it was decades ago.
You've been watching too many Hollywood movies. Intelligence officers don't carry silenced guns with them, they are collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data â" a very boring job actually. Remember that about 80% of top secret information is in some way or another published in mass media. The remaining 20% are known by locals. And I'm speaking about military secrets here. True story â" a military engineer was sent to an apparently top secret facility located in a small town. He was instructed to tell nobody about his goal and his work, but when he has arrived there the first thing he saw was that there was a bus station near this facility called "rocket plant".
Now if you take (rather) amateurish terrorist groups, you'll most likely need people who can listen and then you know all their plans. Not so long time ago, a soviet military advisory was living with his wife in Afghanistan. Each time some afghan woman came by, his wife was giving her some sweeties for the children claiming that this is a Russian tradition. So this advisory knew about any planned attack which was to happen nearby. Of course, it wasn't only because of sweeties, both he and his wife were actually Muslims from Middle Asia, but I think you get the point.
If you look in history books, you will see that the Bolshevik party was generously funded by German Kaiser who was hoping for a peace treaty on the eastern front (which he has actually got after the revolution, but it was too late for Germany anyway). So it is not entirely correct that it was the royal family that "drove the Russians nuts". Foreign-funded political party (and terrorist group) plus war make a coup which is now called October Revolution. IMO the monarchy was too soft on Bolsheviks.
As for Cold War -- it has started with "Operation Dropshot" plan to attack USSR with nuclear weapons on 1. of January 1950 (the plan was turned down after USSR's own successful nuclear test in August 1949).
Czar isn't a family, it is a monarch title like King. The word "Czar" has its origin in "Caesar" which was part of the title of roman emperors after Gayus Julius Caesar (100 BC--44 BC). German emperor had a "Kaiser" title which is basically the same as "Czar". So it is not correct to claim that Czar is a Russian royal family - several east European countries did have their own Czars too.
If you want, say, to do something on the Internet that no one should know or be able to prove that you did it, you'll need following items:
- An open Wifi access point (Starbucks, some tech illiterate neighbor etc.) - A customized LiveCD which has startup scripts to random-generate your hostname and MAC-Address of your wireless network adapter on each boot. (There must be a way to change other hardware data that might help to identify you) - Some way to quickly cut the power to your PC in case some institution will attempt to get your PC while it's on. -Enough RAM.
As no information stays on your hard disks no one will be able to prove anything. Tracking you will also be close to impossible.
Except you don't buy it at all. You obtain a licence, they allow you the usage of their software which still is their property. Read the EULA, they have no obligations to fix bugs.
Do you know of any Screenlets/Superkaramba applets for this? I could code it myself, of course, but I would like to have an "official" one on my desktop:)
Some folks I know had made a bet once after an argument whose car is faster. They have agreed to meet in a week. The one who has got the highest recorded speed on his GPS wins.
The bet was won (and won by a margin) by a guy who got his driver's licence just recently and whose car was a crappy one. He has simply turned on his GPS in a plane.
They were trying to download and launch some analog of setup.exe for linux? I hardly see how this is an OS problem. In fact, packet management is far more superior and easier to use in linux. For those who prefer to stick to their windows habits - they shouldn't switch in the first place. Of switch to e.g. Ubuntu where you have most common user software preinstalled (including firefox).
It won't be a year of linux on desktop, but we have a decade of linux on desktop. I prefer it slow but inevitable.
The bottom line is, I'm not asking salesman at electronics shop whether some piece of hardware has linux support, i just ask "Will it work on that eee you sell there?".
What we have today is that older hardware doesn't support Vista and newer doesn't support XP. The only way I can run my old USB Bluetooth, scanner and tv-tuner on my shiny new notebook is linux (there is no official linux support for any of abovementioned hardware, but it works anyway).
Hardware manufacturers want me to buy all the new hardware, and there are no open drivers and no community to protect me in Windows world.
The difference between "non-technical people" and those who are bashing windows is - usually - that the latter now the alternative and are able to compare different OS's where the unwashed crowd has seen only one mayor OS and managed to adapt to its quirks and errors.
I mean, would your non-techie complain about lacking package manager in windows? Hell, he doesn't even know what that is! But if you show him two approaches - opening browser, going to url, downloading.exe, running, Next-Next-Next of opening package manager, selecting programs you want to install, pressing OK (once) - he'll most likely to choose the second approach.
Of course, the power of habit is very strong, but on a fair comparison windows systems utterly fail. Alternative systems just don't get a fair trial.
What has the kernel to do with printer drivers? It has always been CUPS domain.
Besides, it's not like they don't want to support all the hardware available, it's win-only hardware manufacturers that are the main obstacle towards better hardware support in linux.
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As it is slashdot, you probably think of Open Source as of software development model. But have you heard about OSINT?
OSINT (Open Source INTelligence). 35% to 95% of information gathered by US intelligence agencies are gathered from open sources depending on the region, language etc. Yes OSINT gets only about 1% of total intelligence fundings. (loose quotation from CIA's "Studies in Intelligence" i used to read years ago). OSINT has a very long story too -- there was a journalist who has made an article that Hitler has broken post-WWI treaties and is building an army. The data his provided was taken from German press yet it was so accurate that German intelligence has kidnapped him from Austria to find out what his sources were.
As for costs and budgets: do you truly believe government to be efficient on intelligence if they are inefficient in other areas? Besides, there is much more open information available now than it was decades ago.
You've been watching too many Hollywood movies. Intelligence officers don't carry silenced guns with them, they are collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data â" a very boring job actually.
Remember that about 80% of top secret information is in some way or another published in mass media. The remaining 20% are known by locals. And I'm speaking about military secrets here. True story â" a military engineer was sent to an apparently top secret facility located in a small town. He was instructed to tell nobody about his goal and his work, but when he has arrived there the first thing he saw was that there was a bus station near this facility called "rocket plant".
Now if you take (rather) amateurish terrorist groups, you'll most likely need people who can listen and then you know all their plans.
Not so long time ago, a soviet military advisory was living with his wife in Afghanistan. Each time some afghan woman came by, his wife was giving her some sweeties for the children claiming that this is a Russian tradition. So this advisory knew about any planned attack which was to happen nearby. Of course, it wasn't only because of sweeties, both he and his wife were actually Muslims from Middle Asia, but I think you get the point.
If you look in history books, you will see that the Bolshevik party was generously funded by German Kaiser who was hoping for a peace treaty on the eastern front (which he has actually got after the revolution, but it was too late for Germany anyway).
So it is not entirely correct that it was the royal family that "drove the Russians nuts".
Foreign-funded political party (and terrorist group) plus war make a coup which is now called October Revolution. IMO the monarchy was too soft on Bolsheviks.
As for Cold War -- it has started with "Operation Dropshot" plan to attack USSR with nuclear weapons on 1. of January 1950 (the plan was turned down after USSR's own successful nuclear test in August 1949).
Just my 0.02$
Czar isn't a family, it is a monarch title like King. The word "Czar" has its origin in "Caesar" which was part of the title of roman emperors after Gayus Julius Caesar (100 BC--44 BC). German emperor had a "Kaiser" title which is basically the same as "Czar".
So it is not correct to claim that Czar is a Russian royal family - several east European countries did have their own Czars too.
If you want, say, to do something on the Internet that no one should know or be able to prove that you did it, you'll need following items:
- An open Wifi access point (Starbucks, some tech illiterate neighbor etc.)
- A customized LiveCD which has startup scripts to random-generate your hostname and MAC-Address of your wireless network adapter on each boot. (There must be a way to change other hardware data that might help to identify you)
- Some way to quickly cut the power to your PC in case some institution will attempt to get your PC while it's on.
-Enough RAM.
As no information stays on your hard disks no one will be able to prove anything. Tracking you will also be close to impossible.
What about ENIGMA? It was rather compct --- could fit on every submarine...
Translate this into Italian and you get "cosa nostra".
Because they are a monopoly? As long as GPL software doesn't dominate desktop market you cannot fight Microsoft with their own EEE tactics.
And where was that registry setting to enable mouse buffer again?
And the option to enable Alt-dragging and resizing windows?..
Well, as most linux users are tech-savy, they are often being asked advice by less tech-savy people e.g.
-- What do you think about this PC? Shall I buy it?
*looks through the specs*
Foxconn Mobo? Utter trash! Don't buy it!
I do think that linux users are not many, but we are influential for sure.
Except you don't buy it at all. You obtain a licence, they allow you the usage of their software which still is their property. Read the EULA, they have no obligations to fix bugs.
What about "you don't have proper years of Linux on desktop these days"?
USA actually tried to make Cuba join NATO in 1961 at Bay of Pigs :)
That would be the best he could do - for the mankind it is. He won't be the first spammer to pass away violently in Russia.
Do you know of any Screenlets/Superkaramba applets for this? I could code it myself, of course, but I would like to have an "official" one on my desktop :)
Personally I would like a Republican to explain why the USA now has a King instead of it being a Republic.
If a monarchy isn't conservative enough for you, I don't know what is.
Oh, yes, GPS-based seed measurement...
Some folks I know had made a bet once after an argument whose car is faster. They have agreed to meet in a week. The one who has got the highest recorded speed on his GPS wins.
The bet was won (and won by a margin) by a guy who got his driver's licence just recently and whose car was a crappy one. He has simply turned on his GPS in a plane.
They were trying to download and launch some analog of setup.exe for linux? I hardly see how this is an OS problem. In fact, packet management is far more superior and easier to use in linux. For those who prefer to stick to their windows habits - they shouldn't switch in the first place. Of switch to e.g. Ubuntu where you have most common user software preinstalled (including firefox).
It won't be a year of linux on desktop, but we have a decade of linux on desktop. I prefer it slow but inevitable.
The bottom line is, I'm not asking salesman at electronics shop whether some piece of hardware has linux support, i just ask "Will it work on that eee you sell there?".
As opposed to "do it your own way or build your own highway" approach of GNU/Linux.
Yeah, right...
What we have today is that older hardware doesn't support Vista and newer doesn't support XP. The only way I can run my old USB Bluetooth, scanner and tv-tuner on my shiny new notebook is linux (there is no official linux support for any of abovementioned hardware, but it works anyway).
Hardware manufacturers want me to buy all the new hardware, and there are no open drivers and no community to protect me in Windows world.
The difference between "non-technical people" and those who are bashing windows is - usually - that the latter now the alternative and are able to compare different OS's where the unwashed crowd has seen only one mayor OS and managed to adapt to its quirks and errors.
.exe, running, Next-Next-Next of opening package manager, selecting programs you want to install, pressing OK (once) - he'll most likely to choose the second approach.
I mean, would your non-techie complain about lacking package manager in windows? Hell, he doesn't even know what that is! But if you show him two approaches - opening browser, going to url, downloading
Of course, the power of habit is very strong, but on a fair comparison windows systems utterly fail. Alternative systems just don't get a fair trial.
Man, you sure remember the day when Kennedy was killed :)
What has the kernel to do with printer drivers? It has always been CUPS domain.
Besides, it's not like they don't want to support all the hardware available, it's win-only hardware manufacturers that are the main obstacle towards better hardware support in linux.
The iPhone is geared toward those who buy things already working and the FreeRunner is aimed at those who want to make it better.
Well said. The very reason I want a Freerunner.