They have every right to if they provide the computers and they are located at their office building. I don't know what you all are arguing about, its cut and dried...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
Domains are and should always be a first come first serve entity. I mean if you have the brains to come up with a register a good domain name all the more power to you. Some of our clients legitametly register over 100 domain names at a time. I see nothing wrong with this. A domain broker is as legal as profession or job description as any other broker. Probably the best way to sell a domain name is to ask a price and see if anyone will offer higher, then take it. Auctions work to. Lots of people get irked with these people that grab up their "trademarked" name. I'm sorry but the internet is a whole new ballgame and just because your name is copyrighted doesn't mean your domain name is. If you didn't have the foresight and vision to register your name then its your own darn fault it was grabbed up by someone else. I think a free market model is the best for this. The government and lawyers already control enough of America without destroying the internet as well.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
I have never been to impressed with the way network solutions does there business, its sloppy and "expensive". Currently, we buy our domain names wholesale through Tucows/OpenSRS and then retail them to customers for $45 for two years. The nice thing is that all modifications and renewals are handled via a web interface instead of email templates and Mail-From authentication. Of course if someone found out your password and username I guess they could wreak havoc with your domain name, but even then, we control our clients access so we could easily delete their ability to access and then create a new access account with a new username and password. It all very nice, and trouble free. I'm very impressed so far with Tucows/OpenSRS's service and their setup. I simply say, why pay Network Solutions for your domain registrations when they can be bought much less expensively somewhere else and the security is better.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
This may sound stupid but I'm actually interested in how you create these images using only text as your photo-mosaic element. It is quite impressive really. Is there some sort of program which I can download that will do this?
Please provide some info on this, it is really quite amazing.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
The attack is primarily one that exhausts your bandwith, not your OS's ability to respond. Here's the scenario: You're sitting a T3 with 64 dual PIII-450's in a cluster. The attacker remote controls hundreds of compromised hosts on the internet, and floods your network with ~45Mbits data from those hosts. What could you possibly do to your cluster to fend off this attack?? even if you configure your systems to ignore this traffic, it still saturates your internet connection. The answer is: nothing. This type of problem would have to be addressed at your ISP, or your border router. Other options are doing things like distributing your servers among the big (tier 1) ISP's to make sure the bandwidth bottleneck is at the client end, and not at your end. But with enough clients, the attacker may be able to effect you even with that much bandwidth. I imagine it took a buttload of clients to saturate yahoo's pipe. Unfortunately dealing with these type of problems is a part of being on this global network. Several weeks ago, a big discussion of this phenomenon raged on bugtraq. Unfortunately, I never read through the whole thing, and I couldn't comment on possible solutions discussed there. This might possibly have to be addressed with unfriendly solutions like ISPs refusing to route traffic from "hostile" networks where this traffic is known to originate from. I can't think of too many other ways an ISP could protect a big customer (like yahoo) from these potentially devestating attacks.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
Why do you need there service you can go to the terraserver project and pratically get the same quality of satellite imagery for free. Check 'em out at Terraserver.com. Its really quite impressive to zoom in and look at your "house" from space.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
My new hero posted this to the Darwin Development mailing list:) Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2000 17:09:58 -0600 From: John Carmack To: darwin-development@public.lists.apple.com Subject: X windows update I have a good, functional X windows port running under OS/X right now. I just need to get the keymappings fixed up and test some more, then I will release a patch for public consumption. It only works in 15/24 bit true color modes. I am morally opposed to color lookup tables for desktop environments. It uses the resolution and color depth you already are running in OS/X (8 bit will be reset to 16 bit color). It only works on a single screen, but you can tell it to start on any screen number. The multi-screen support is pretty nice -- when you move your cursor onto the X screen it just picks up as an X cursor, and when you move it back to a mac screen, it turns back into a mac cursor. It probably isn't a real good single screen app for OS/X, because there isn't any way to flip back and forth between X and the mac desktop, but being a mac app was never really the goal. It will probably take me another weekend to get everything all cleaned up and ready for more general use. I will try and fix problems with it, but I am learning as I go with X windows right now, so I can't guarantee really great response times. After that, I will be on to bare darwin development work. The last time I played with bare darwin, I saw the video driver and mouse driver code, but I never tried to actually hook anything up to it. Has anyone read mouse events or reset a video mode from a user space app with darwin? The default video mode is 640x480x8 bit color, which I will be wanting to get out of ASAP. If necessary, I can write my own kernel drivers, but that would probably be a waste of time. John Carmack
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
I would consider them a startup considering they have yet to actually ship a product... and make a real PROFIT. They don't have the money base or stockpile that Intel has to dig into in case the situation arises.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
What's the real purpose of the overly broad access circumvention language in the DMCA? It's simply this: The MPAA wants to control those who have lawfully paid for and obtained the material. The MPAA wants to track your every move, control where and when you can view materials, and prevent you from sharing your knowledge with others. They want to control their markets and gouge you for the maximum possible amount of money they can extract from your pocket, and they don't give a rat's posterior if the laws they've pushed make a mockery of free speech rights and set off thousands of strike suits, in which unscrupulous copyright holders take advantage of the DMCA's unconstitutional provisions to attack their competitors.
In short this is another conspiracy, if you want to call it that, in which big corporations want to play the role of "big brother". Is it about power? Maybe. But I'm more of the opinion its about money. Take a look at the recent statements by Doubleclick and their scheme to track the web habits of everyone in America. This information is highly valuable to large businesses and advertisers and some will stop at nothing to obtain it, whether it violates the fundamental rights of the constitution or not.
I think it is time for the government to step in and actually protect the population like they are supposed to. They need to crack down on these "big brother" tactics and thereby preserve our venerable constitution.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you post as AC will not be held against you in the case of your karma. (However, if we do determine your identity, that may all change). You have every right to seek the technical (or any other advice from someone who has used and continues to use Linux as their operating system) advice from/.ers whose technical expertience and knowledge of the subjects which you have shown plain ignorance of, obviously outweighs your own. And in special circumstance their karma is high enough to demonstrate that they are reasonably sound and stable individuals whose advice may impart some practical knowledge to yourself. You have every right to post and whatever hour you may wish, but your actions may be deliberately monitored and moderated by those who view your comments as disruptive to the general population and inhabitants of the Slashdot community. If your remarks are deemed such, you may incur certain punitive liabilities and punishment as a result.
In other words, get a clue.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
I'll admit Transmeta is on to something, but seriously, Intel is huuuuge! I mean they have the money and the resources to trampel all over Transmeta and their Crusoe processor. They have some of the best minds and of course plenty of money and time to throw at a processor like Crusoe. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they come out soon with a processor that competes directly with Crusoe or even surpasses it.
Intel is no "startup". I mean they've been around the block for awhile. What can slow them down of course is the large bureaucracy that is in place in a large company like this, but at the same time they can use their large marketshare and name to essentially buy their customers. Even though the Crusoe processor might be better and faster it doesn't mean it will sell. Advertising is the key in today's world. Take a look at the large advertising campaign that went into the Pentium processors.
Your average consumer has never even heard of Transmeta, Crusoe or Linus Torvalds for that matter. And to make matters worse, they don't care. Let's face it, the people here at Slashdot and the other's in the know are an educated minority. But it will take more than this select few to make Crusoe a success. That is where Intel has the advantage.
If you need a real world example, take my own dad for instance. All he knows and hears is "Pentium" so when he goes to buy a new computer, thats all he asks... "Is it a Pentium?" or "Does it have the Pentium?". I mean he doesn't even realize all the differences between the Pentium one, two and three but at least he knows its a Pentium and therefore it must be good.
Sadly, a vast majority of consumers have similar outlooks and knowledge, and therefore in the long and short run I predict that Intel will win... but of course only time will tell.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
Thats all fine and dandy but what would really steal the show is if Ford gave away a new PC with every car or truck they sold.
I mean think about it, the profit margin is so high on new vehicles anyway they sure wouldn't lose anything. And it would do a lot for customer satisfaction. I mean why spend the millions of dollars in advertising when something like this would probably work better and the dollars that would be spent on advertising go to the customer, where they belong anyhow.
Imagine the tech support headache though...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
I love to read about this stuff and all but seriously how would such a device really work. I mean so what you can manipulate a molecule so that it has a perceived on and off state but how exactly would you then extract that data so that you can do something with it. This little (large) technical issue really makes me wonder when it comes to these sorts of devices working at the atomic level. Also as someone has already pointed out, what about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I would suppose that such a device would be very unstable and highly sensitive to fluctuations in heat (Brownian Motion).
Eventually all of these technical challenges may be resolved and an actual working prototype developed, but I am pretty much convinced that it is still a long way off yet.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
I didn't say true "AI", actually I believe AI like that supposed by science fiction is truly impossible to achieve. Probably the reason being is that their is more to our intelligence and existence than a mere physical body and brain full of millions of firing neurons. In other words, true intelligence is a state of existence not a physical animate object that "thinks". Our existence or are self awareness is even deeper than what some would regard as our soul. I agree that this all sounds very meta-physical but what I am trying to explain is that our existence as a being who is self aware of "self" has always been. You cannot "create" a self aware entity, they are already there. You can however, empower one, and that is what we are. We are beings who have in our possesion and control a "soul" (spirit) and a physical body.
On a different topic, what I meant is that we will be able to build machines that can think much more quickly and efficiently. Something along the lines of "DEEP BLUE". Technically they are no more intelligient or smarter just simply faster so they give the appearance that they are smarter. Just some food for thought.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
Ok, granted compatibility and continuity are important but with the current x86 archictecture your on a dead end.
The new games that will become available with the new 64 bit processors will completey blow away anything you have now in speed and realism. Trust me you will eat those words. Its like complaining that you won't upgrade because you still want to play pong on your atari but then you realize that if you do a whole new world of games come to life such as Pacman, etc...
The computing capabilities of a 64 bit and 128 bit processor are such a vast improvement over the current processors, that we will see a major change in software produced for these machines. Bells and whistles like speech recognition will become commonplace and software approaching true "AI" will begin to show up on shelves as well.
You can keep you Pentium if you wish, but mine is going to be sitting up on my mantle piece as a sort of souvenir of how far we have come...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
Some fear the Linux will continue to grow in marketshare and proprietarism, but that is the future of all successful products. Eventually Linux will be just another "windows", but probably slightly more solid and speedier. I don't think that this is something to be feared at all just something to deal with.
Once a product shows potential, enterprising companies latch on to it and try to develop their own little "baby" as I call it. Of course this is what most/.ers are opposed to, the taking of an open source project and making it a closed source monopoly. Redhat is an excellent example of this business model in action, and they are very successful. If there is money to be made, then businesses will get involved whether the product or service is someones "sacred cow" or not.
I say let the companies duke it out and then let a true winner appear. The added competition only makes the product better.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
Two things strike me as odd with this. First the ball lightning is supposed to come from silicon in the soil that is somehow ignited by the excessive heat of the original lightning strike. Second, the ball's of lightning are supposed to have passed through completely impermeable objects such as airplane fuselages and glass. These two facts point to a major contradition here. If the ball originally started out ground level it takes a wild imagination to figure out how it remained burning until it reached an elevation of approx. 10,000 feet, where it happened to collide with a moving airplane.
Furthermore, if it is burning soil (silicon) how in the earth does it pass through solid glass without melting the glass or walls. Somehow I don't think Heisenberg's uncertainty principle applies in this case.
My suggestion or better yet theory is that this is just another form of static electricity manifesting itself in an interesting form. Much like the St. Elmo's fire often seen on ships in strong electrical storms. The forming of a ball of ionizing atoms makes me think that somehow this may be related to some sort of surface tension phenomena, much like a soap bubble naturally forms into a perfect sphere. Also this would explain the ability of the ball to pass through solid structures since it is merely a concentrated build up of static electricity and not actual "burning particles". You may refute this theory if I'm wrong or if you can bore enough holes into it. But definetly some food for thought.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
From the posts, a lot of people seems to think that this is another case of the MSX syndrome, and that the PC will destroy PSX2 as it destroyed other contenders But if you look at PSX2 specs, you'll see it has USB ports (Keyboard, mouse, scanners, printers, Modem/ADSL, even *GASP!* floppies), a FireWire port (Video, but even big and fast HDs), and a Type III PCCard/PCMCIA Slot where you can plug lots of things, from HDs to Video Cards. And all these devices are/should be STANDARD PC PERIPHERALS, not Sony proprietary dongles. And all this without knowing for sure what PSX2 can do by itself. Is it limited to TV video freqs, or can it do better? Will it have some expansion capabilities (RAM, internal devices) or not? Maybe after all PSX2 will be able to replace some (lots of?) PCs, since it's not very different from what PCs are becoming these days (think of the new all-usb machines...), and as someone stated in the article, it won't fsck itself up every two games you play "since it doesn't have an HD" (since it doesn't have an idiotic OS on it, i'd say;). Even Linux-wise the thing is really cool, because its processor is MIPS4000 compatible and its developement system is Linux-based, so it should be easy to port Linux to it, if Sony itself doesn't do it. If Sony doesn't do something VERY wrong and stupid with this thing (think Commodore...;), PC resellers will see some though competition: not from a 'console', but from a Sony-branded, home-targeted PC that just happens to be called like a console.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
AOL can't expect to get away with this just by saying they gave users the option to click "no" when the installer asks whether AOL should be the default browser. The fact is, AOL is aimed at clueless newbies. Clueless newbies, almost without exception, just click away at the default choice without understanding what they're doing. Besides, there's no reason why AOL has to break other ISP setups. This is as bad as MS releasing versions of Windows that break competitors' products. AOL deserves whatever they get.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
I hate to burst anyones bubble but if you really examine the issue of space travel or more problemmatic, the escaping from the gravitational pull of the earth, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that space travel at least from planet earth is a very expensive proposition.
It is interesting to note that we basically take for granted the fact that we can hop on a jetliner and be almost anywhere in a matter of a few hours. Of course in this case we are not trying to completely break the bonds that gravity has on us, we are just merely changing the elevation temporarily.
The immense amount of energy it takes for a spacecraft to blast off from earth and enter interplanetary space is overwhelming. With current technology it is almost unthinkable of sending up a spacecraft every 15 minutes. You probably think I'm nuts by now but hear me out...
For space to be a truly viable enterprise for the world and for mankind as a whole it must become accessible to the masses, much like mass transit via powered aircraft has become in the 20th century. What I am trying to say is that without the technology to send mankind into orbit cheaply and reliably we are merely just playing with a scientific curiousity.
I am hopeful that one day someone will discover this technology and make space travel truly viable but until that time I will that we are wasting a large amount of are precious resources and money on projects that really have no bearing on our existence here on earth.
I mean what good does it do us to send a explorer to Mars, unless one day we have the means and the intentions to terra-form the Red Planet. Trust me I am interested in space travel as much as the next techie, but sometimes I have a hard time justifying the money that our government spends on such projects, especially when they seem to do it half heartedly. I mean if we're going to explore Mars lets hunker down and do it right... Send a couple of Astronauts to the Red Planet and really explore it for all its worth
Sometimes this is what frustrates me with NASA the most... the lack of any real ambitious goals or intents. Its like they like to toy with a few ideas but never really put their back behind it. If we had continued on with the momentum we had back in the 60's we would be visiting Jupiter's moons by now. Think about it.
Just some food for thought.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
We started our business this last August. I figured it would take us about 10,000 to get started, of course I was wrong. My word of advice is make sure you have a lot of capital up front, because you always overestimate how much you think you are going to be turning over in the first little bit. Also make sure your partners are motivated and ambitious as you are. It takes a team, not just a leader, even though the Pres. or CEO has to have some vision and should be willing to move the company in the right directions when need be.
We're still here after 7 months so I guess that is proof enough in itself that I probably know what I'm talking about. Check us out on the web, we run probably the most friendly and service oriented web hosting company out there. Not to advertise or anything, but in today's world a little bit of service goes a long way...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson NPS Internet Solutions, LLC www.npsis.com
Slashdot Mirror
A book contains someone ideas, thoughts and even opinions, there is content to it. I'm not sure how this parallels with a domain name...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
They have every right to if they provide the computers and they are located at their office building.
I don't know what you all are arguing about, its cut and dried...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
...............................................
.........................//((((/^..............
....................(6#@@@@@@@@@BQ3/...........
...............(Q@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@O/......
............%@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@R(...
...........O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@BBB@@@@@@@@@@%..
.........#@@@@@@@@@GGGGGGGGGGGSKB@@KS@@@@@@@@@O
.......O@@@@@@@@@@SGGGGGGGGGGGGGSRQGGGB@@@@@@@@
......(@@@@@@@@@@BGSBSGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGK@@@@@@@@
.....G@@@@@@@@@@@KGGR@@BB#SGGGGGGGGGGGG#@@@@@@@
....G@@@@@@@@@@@@KGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGB@@@@@@
...^@@@@@@B#KKK#@RGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG#@@@@@@
...R@@@@SGGGGGGQ@@@@KGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG@@@@@@
..%@@@@BGGGGGGGGGR@@@@@@@B#KGGGGGGGGGGGGG@##@@@
..O@@@@@SGGGGGGGGGSB@@@@@@@@SGGGGGGGGGGGS@SGGK@
..@@@@@@@BGGGGGGGGGGGGQR@@@@@SGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
..@@@@@@@@BSGGGGGGGGGGGGGKRB@BGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
..@@@@@@@@@@@RSGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
..@@@@@@@@@@@@QG#QGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
..R@@@@@@@@@@6%%%BBQGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
..6@@@@@@@@@@3((//%OO@BKGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGK@@
...@Q66666O#@@O/^..^//Q@@@@@BRKKQQQQKK#B@@@@@@@
...G(/((((((6B@6^....^/6#B@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
....^^^^^^^^^^///^......^///(((((((((((R@@@@@@@
.............................3^^//^^^^/@@@@@@@@
.............................RRQB/....(@@@@@@@@
................................^^...%@@@6((((%
....................................#@R(/((////
...................................G@#//////^..
..................................%(.^///^.....
...............................................
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Domains are and should always be a first come first serve entity. I mean if you have the brains to come up with a register a good domain name all the more power to you.
Some of our clients legitametly register over 100 domain names at a time. I see nothing wrong with this. A domain broker is as legal as profession or job description as any other broker.
Probably the best way to sell a domain name is to ask a price and see if anyone will offer higher, then take it. Auctions work to.
Lots of people get irked with these people that grab up their "trademarked" name. I'm sorry but the internet is a whole new ballgame and just because your name is copyrighted doesn't mean your domain name is. If you didn't have the foresight and vision to register your name then its your own darn fault it was grabbed up by someone else.
I think a free market model is the best for this. The government and lawyers already control enough of America without destroying the internet as well.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
I have never been to impressed with the way network solutions does there business, its sloppy and "expensive".
Currently, we buy our domain names wholesale through Tucows/OpenSRS and then retail them to customers for $45 for two years. The nice thing is that all modifications and renewals are handled via a web interface instead of email templates and Mail-From authentication. Of course if someone found out your password and username I guess they could wreak havoc with your domain name, but even then, we control our clients access so we could easily delete their ability to access and then create a new access account with a new username and password. It all very nice, and trouble free. I'm very impressed so far with Tucows/OpenSRS's service and their setup.
I simply say, why pay Network Solutions for your domain registrations when they can be bought much less expensively somewhere else and the security is better.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
This may sound stupid but I'm actually interested in how you create these images using only text as your photo-mosaic element. It is quite impressive really. Is there some sort of program which I can download that will do this?
Please provide some info on this, it is really quite amazing.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
The attack is primarily one that exhausts your bandwith, not your OS's ability to respond. Here's the scenario: You're sitting a T3 with 64 dual PIII-450's in a cluster. The attacker remote controls hundreds of compromised hosts on the internet, and floods your network with ~45Mbits data from those hosts. What could you possibly do to your cluster to fend off this attack?? even if you configure your systems to ignore this traffic, it still saturates your internet connection. The answer is: nothing. This type of problem would have to be addressed at your ISP, or your border router. Other options are doing things like distributing your servers among the big (tier 1) ISP's to make sure the bandwidth bottleneck is at the client end, and not at your end. But with enough clients, the attacker may be able to effect you even with that much bandwidth. I imagine it took a buttload of clients to saturate yahoo's pipe. Unfortunately dealing with these type of problems is a part of being on this global network. Several weeks ago, a big discussion of this phenomenon raged on bugtraq. Unfortunately, I never read through the whole thing, and I couldn't comment on possible solutions discussed there. This might possibly have to be addressed with unfriendly solutions like ISPs refusing to route traffic from "hostile" networks where this traffic is known to originate from. I can't think of too many other ways an ISP could protect a big customer (like yahoo) from these potentially devestating attacks.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Why do you need there service you can go to the terraserver project and pratically get the same quality of satellite imagery for free. Check 'em out at Terraserver.com. Its really quite impressive to zoom in and look at your "house" from space.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
My new hero posted this to the Darwin Development mailing list :) Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2000 17:09:58 -0600 From: John Carmack To: darwin-development@public.lists.apple.com Subject: X windows update I have a good, functional X windows port running under OS/X right now. I just need to get the keymappings fixed up and test some more, then I will release a patch for public consumption. It only works in 15/24 bit true color modes. I am morally opposed to color lookup tables for desktop environments. It uses the resolution and color depth you already are running in OS/X (8 bit will be reset to 16 bit color). It only works on a single screen, but you can tell it to start on any screen number. The multi-screen support is pretty nice -- when you move your cursor onto the X screen it just picks up as an X cursor, and when you move it back to a mac screen, it turns back into a mac cursor. It probably isn't a real good single screen app for OS/X, because there isn't any way to flip back and forth between X and the mac desktop, but being a mac app was never really the goal. It will probably take me another weekend to get everything all cleaned up and ready for more general use. I will try and fix problems with it, but I am learning as I go with X windows right now, so I can't guarantee really great response times. After that, I will be on to bare darwin development work. The last time I played with bare darwin, I saw the video driver and mouse driver code, but I never tried to actually hook anything up to it. Has anyone read mouse events or reset a video mode from a user space app with darwin? The default video mode is 640x480x8 bit color, which I will be wanting to get out of ASAP. If necessary, I can write my own kernel drivers, but that would probably be a waste of time. John Carmack
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
This has only been up a couple of minutes and now the whole site is down. Did we crash it?
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
I would consider them a startup considering they have yet to actually ship a product... and make a real PROFIT. They don't have the money base or stockpile that Intel has to dig into in case the situation arises.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
What's the real purpose of the overly broad access circumvention language in the DMCA? It's simply this: The MPAA wants to control those who have lawfully paid for and obtained the material. The MPAA wants to track your every move, control where and when you can view materials, and prevent you from sharing your knowledge with others. They want to control their markets and gouge you for the maximum possible amount of money they can extract from your pocket, and they don't give a rat's posterior if the laws they've pushed make a mockery of free speech rights and set off thousands of strike suits, in which unscrupulous copyright holders take advantage of the DMCA's unconstitutional provisions to attack their competitors.
In short this is another conspiracy, if you want to call it that, in which big corporations want to play the role of "big brother". Is it about power? Maybe. But I'm more of the opinion its about money. Take a look at the recent statements by Doubleclick and their scheme to track the web habits of everyone in America. This information is highly valuable to large businesses and advertisers and some will stop at nothing to obtain it, whether it violates the fundamental rights of the constitution or not.
I think it is time for the government to step in and actually protect the population like they are supposed to. They need to crack down on these "big brother" tactics and thereby preserve our venerable constitution.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you post as AC will not be held against you in the case of your karma. (However, if we do determine your identity, that may all change). You have every right to seek the technical (or any other advice from someone who has used and continues to use Linux as their operating system) advice from /.ers whose technical expertience and knowledge of the subjects which you have shown plain ignorance of, obviously outweighs your own. And in special circumstance their karma is high enough to demonstrate that they are reasonably sound and stable individuals whose advice may impart some practical knowledge to yourself. You have every right to post and whatever hour you may wish, but your actions may be deliberately monitored and moderated by those who view your comments as disruptive to the general population and inhabitants of the Slashdot community. If your remarks are deemed such, you may incur certain punitive liabilities and punishment as a result.
In other words, get a clue.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
I'll admit Transmeta is on to something, but seriously, Intel is huuuuge! I mean they have the money and the resources to trampel all over Transmeta and their Crusoe processor. They have some of the best minds and of course plenty of money and time to throw at a processor like Crusoe. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they come out soon with a processor that competes directly with Crusoe or even surpasses it.
Intel is no "startup". I mean they've been around the block for awhile. What can slow them down of course is the large bureaucracy that is in place in a large company like this, but at the same time they can use their large marketshare and name to essentially buy their customers. Even though the Crusoe processor might be better and faster it doesn't mean it will sell. Advertising is the key in today's world. Take a look at the large advertising campaign that went into the Pentium processors.
Your average consumer has never even heard of Transmeta, Crusoe or Linus Torvalds for that matter. And to make matters worse, they don't care. Let's face it, the people here at Slashdot and the other's in the know are an educated minority. But it will take more than this select few to make Crusoe a success. That is where Intel has the advantage.
If you need a real world example, take my own dad for instance. All he knows and hears is "Pentium" so when he goes to buy a new computer, thats all he asks... "Is it a Pentium?" or "Does it have the Pentium?". I mean he doesn't even realize all the differences between the Pentium one, two and three but at least he knows its a Pentium and therefore it must be good.
Sadly, a vast majority of consumers have similar outlooks and knowledge, and therefore in the long and short run I predict that Intel will win... but of course only time will tell.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Thats all fine and dandy but what would really steal the show is if Ford gave away a new PC with every car or truck they sold.
I mean think about it, the profit margin is so high on new vehicles anyway they sure wouldn't lose anything. And it would do a lot for customer satisfaction. I mean why spend the millions of dollars in advertising when something like this would probably work better and the dollars that would be spent on advertising go to the customer, where they belong anyhow.
Imagine the tech support headache though...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
I love to read about this stuff and all but seriously how would such a device really work. I mean so what you can manipulate a molecule so that it has a perceived on and off state but how exactly would you then extract that data so that you can do something with it. This little (large) technical issue really makes me wonder when it comes to these sorts of devices working at the atomic level. Also as someone has already pointed out, what about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I would suppose that such a device would be very unstable and highly sensitive to fluctuations in heat (Brownian Motion).
Eventually all of these technical challenges may be resolved and an actual working prototype developed, but I am pretty much convinced that it is still a long way off yet.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
I didn't say true "AI", actually I believe AI like that supposed by science fiction is truly impossible to achieve. Probably the reason being is that their is more to our intelligence and existence than a mere physical body and brain full of millions of firing neurons. In other words, true intelligence is a state of existence not a physical animate object that "thinks". Our existence or are self awareness is even deeper than what some would regard as our soul. I agree that this all sounds very meta-physical but what I am trying to explain is that our existence as a being who is self aware of "self" has always been. You cannot "create" a self aware entity, they are already there. You can however, empower one, and that is what we are. We are beings who have in our possesion and control a "soul" (spirit) and a physical body.
On a different topic, what I meant is that we will be able to build machines that can think much more quickly and efficiently. Something along the lines of "DEEP BLUE". Technically they are no more intelligient or smarter just simply faster so they give the appearance that they are smarter. Just some food for thought.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Ok, granted compatibility and continuity are important but with the current x86 archictecture your on a dead end.
The new games that will become available with the new 64 bit processors will completey blow away anything you have now in speed and realism. Trust me you will eat those words. Its like complaining that you won't upgrade because you still want to play pong on your atari but then you realize that if you do a whole new world of games come to life such as Pacman, etc...
The computing capabilities of a 64 bit and 128 bit processor are such a vast improvement over the current processors, that we will see a major change in software produced for these machines. Bells and whistles like speech recognition will become commonplace and software approaching true "AI" will begin to show up on shelves as well.
You can keep you Pentium if you wish, but mine is going to be sitting up on my mantle piece as a sort of souvenir of how far we have come...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Some fear the Linux will continue to grow in marketshare and proprietarism, but that is the future of all successful products. Eventually Linux will be just another "windows", but probably slightly more solid and speedier. I don't think that this is something to be feared at all just something to deal with.
/.ers are opposed to, the taking of an open source project and making it a closed source monopoly. Redhat is an excellent example of this business model in action, and they are very successful. If there is money to be made, then businesses will get involved whether the product or service is someones "sacred cow" or not.
Once a product shows potential, enterprising companies latch on to it and try to develop their own little "baby" as I call it. Of course this is what most
I say let the companies duke it out and then let a true winner appear. The added competition only makes the product better.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Two things strike me as odd with this. First the ball lightning is supposed to come from silicon in the soil that is somehow ignited by the excessive heat of the original lightning strike. Second, the ball's of lightning are supposed to have passed through completely impermeable objects such as airplane fuselages and glass. These two facts point to a major contradition here. If the ball originally started out ground level it takes a wild imagination to figure out how it remained burning until it reached an elevation of approx. 10,000 feet, where it happened to collide with a moving airplane.
Furthermore, if it is burning soil (silicon) how in the earth does it pass through solid glass without melting the glass or walls. Somehow I don't think Heisenberg's uncertainty principle applies in this case.
My suggestion or better yet theory is that this is just another form of static electricity manifesting itself in an interesting form. Much like the St. Elmo's fire often seen on ships in strong electrical storms. The forming of a ball of ionizing atoms makes me think that somehow this may be related to some sort of surface tension phenomena, much like a soap bubble naturally forms into a perfect sphere. Also this would explain the ability of the ball to pass through solid structures since it is merely a concentrated build up of static electricity and not actual "burning particles". You may refute this theory if I'm wrong or if you can bore enough holes into it. But definetly some food for thought.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
Its all about money anymore. That's what makes the world go 'round, remember.
Forget about your karma... who cares, if your a millionaire.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
From the posts, a lot of people seems to think that this is another case of the MSX syndrome, and that the PC will destroy PSX2 as it destroyed other contenders ;). ;), PC resellers will see some though competition: not from a 'console', but from a Sony-branded, home-targeted PC that just happens to be called like a console.
But if you look at PSX2 specs, you'll see it has USB ports (Keyboard, mouse, scanners, printers, Modem/ADSL, even *GASP!* floppies), a FireWire port (Video, but even big and fast HDs), and a Type III PCCard/PCMCIA Slot where you can plug lots of things, from HDs to Video Cards. And all these devices are/should be STANDARD PC PERIPHERALS, not Sony proprietary dongles.
And all this without knowing for sure what PSX2 can do by itself. Is it limited to TV video freqs, or can it do better? Will it have some expansion capabilities (RAM, internal devices) or not?
Maybe after all PSX2 will be able to replace some (lots of?) PCs, since it's not very different from what PCs are becoming these days (think of the new all-usb machines...), and as someone stated in the article, it won't fsck itself up every two games you play "since it doesn't have an HD" (since it doesn't have an idiotic OS on it, i'd say
Even Linux-wise the thing is really cool, because its processor is MIPS4000 compatible and its developement system is Linux-based, so it should be easy to port Linux to it, if Sony itself doesn't do it.
If Sony doesn't do something VERY wrong and stupid with this thing (think Commodore...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
AOL can't expect to get away with this just by saying they gave users the option to click "no" when the installer asks whether AOL should be the default browser. The fact is, AOL is aimed at clueless newbies. Clueless newbies, almost without exception, just click away at the default choice without understanding what they're doing. Besides, there's no reason why AOL has to break other ISP setups. This is as bad as MS releasing versions of Windows that break competitors' products. AOL deserves whatever they get.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
I hate to burst anyones bubble but if you really examine the issue of space travel or more problemmatic, the escaping from the gravitational pull of the earth, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that space travel at least from planet earth is a very expensive proposition.
It is interesting to note that we basically take for granted the fact that we can hop on a jetliner and be almost anywhere in a matter of a few hours. Of course in this case we are not trying to completely break the bonds that gravity has on us, we are just merely changing the elevation temporarily.
The immense amount of energy it takes for a spacecraft to blast off from earth and enter interplanetary space is overwhelming. With current technology it is almost unthinkable of sending up a spacecraft every 15 minutes. You probably think I'm nuts by now but hear me out...
For space to be a truly viable enterprise for the world and for mankind as a whole it must become accessible to the masses, much like mass transit via powered aircraft has become in the 20th century. What I am trying to say is that without the technology to send mankind into orbit cheaply and reliably we are merely just playing with a scientific curiousity.
I am hopeful that one day someone will discover this technology and make space travel truly viable but until that time I will that we are wasting a large amount of are precious resources and money on projects that really have no bearing on our existence here on earth.
I mean what good does it do us to send a explorer to Mars, unless one day we have the means and the intentions to terra-form the Red Planet. Trust me I am interested in space travel as much as the next techie, but sometimes I have a hard time justifying the money that our government spends on such projects, especially when they seem to do it half heartedly. I mean if we're going to explore Mars lets hunker down and do it right... Send a couple of Astronauts to the Red Planet and really explore it for all its worth
Sometimes this is what frustrates me with NASA the most... the lack of any real ambitious goals or intents. Its like they like to toy with a few ideas but never really put their back behind it. If we had continued on with the momentum we had back in the 60's we would be visiting Jupiter's moons by now. Think about it.
Just some food for thought.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com
We started our business this last August. I figured it would take us about 10,000 to get started, of course I was wrong. My word of advice is make sure you have a lot of capital up front, because you always overestimate how much you think you are going to be turning over in the first little bit. Also make sure your partners are motivated and ambitious as you are. It takes a team, not just a leader, even though the Pres. or CEO has to have some vision and should be willing to move the company in the right directions when need be.
We're still here after 7 months so I guess that is proof enough in itself that I probably know what I'm talking about. Check us out on the web, we run probably the most friendly and service oriented web hosting company out there. Not to advertise or anything, but in today's world a little bit of service goes a long way...
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
NPS Internet Solutions, LLC
www.npsis.com