Think about it, although you would hate to see your friends lose thier jobs, it may be the best thing for them, especially since the company's in trouble. It may force them to go out and find higher paying jobs elsewhere with more stability.
Don't deny yourself an opportunity to advance your career to stay with a dying company. Chances are, it won't work out in the long run.
There's a reason why NASA still uses computer equipment from 15 years ago - the new technology just doesn't handle the rigors of space.
Do you realize that the space program was using a three field color camera with a mechanicly rotating filter disk (a technology previously used on the Apollo and Skylab missions) well into the 1990's?
New technology does handle the rigors of space quite nicely. How many times have laptops been used for various experiments? The only reason the shuttle computers (which were built to specs written in the seventies) haven't been replaced is that they work well enough for the job they're given.
Well, that and the fact that NASA doesn't like to throw anything away. (Insert sidebar about an LSI-11 computer still in production use as of 1999 here.)
Except that you've now opened the "slippery slope" line of argument, in that if a little censorship is good, more is better. Sure, it would remove the flamebait, but at what point does it start removing worthwhile content? Some things are obviously flamebait, other things are a judgement call.
Also, by imposing any kind of censorship,/. would open itself up to more trouble than its worth. Once you begin censoring, you're stating that you're responsible for the posts that appear. That means all of them. Trust me, it's a liability that you wouldn't want.
Of course, you could always just disregard the flamebait as the mental equivalent to writing on the bathroom wall at the gas station. Unless you make it a practice to clean bathroom walls when you see something offensive on them.
Helicals are directional, maybe not as focused as a dish, but directional regardless.
Although I imagine with an antenna every 120 degrees or so you could fairly well emulate an omni antenna. Why you would want to is left to your imagination.
They've been following this all weekend at LinuxToday. Seems that someone was running a script or bot that was posting over 400 votes per minute for W2K.
I have and old (ca 1990) Focus 2001 keyboard. I thought I would have to dump it when the spacebar started sticking. Turns out a good cleaning was all that was needed and I was back in business.
It did, however, take many hours of scrubbing with a strong detergent to get all the crud out. But what do you expect after nine years of daily use?
There's always those that are curious enough to find out what's going on "under the hood". The great majority will be too busy surfing for pr0n, sure, but not all.
Also, I'm sure that there's been quite a few downloads of the "Gamera" package already, mainly by those curious to see if it actually works.
As for your cheap netappliance, want to bet it will only come with phone and cableTV jacks? (Break out those soldering irons!)
Surely the majority of people who are likely to take up Linux are the same ones that seem to abhore AOL (as suggested from the content of 90% of the posting here)
I would say more like 99% of the postings here. Remember, though, Slashdot is read primarily by those with a technical bent. This would most likely include a few AOL'ers who are even now dowloading Gamera. (So they can try it on thier newly installed Linux partition.) I realize for the vast majority of both current Linux and AOL users this will not make the slightest bit of difference.
I don't think Joe public really sees the need to switch to Linux because the relative merits would be lost on him. M$ (for all its many faults) runs his apps and he gets loads of support by way of the huge user base.
For the most part, Joe public probably wouldn't switch. That's fine, his choice. I'm not advocating that anyone change anything they don't want to.
So AOL is on Linux - its also on M$ so why change?
Curiosity, the challenge of doing something new and different, possibly the need to feel "cool" or "1337". Who cares, as long as someone finds the combination useful for thier purposes, they'll use it.
Flame in indignant fury if you want but it won't change the fact the most PC/net users are NOT techies.
I never claimed they were. Most PC/net users actively fight the idea that they should learn anything in order to operate thier computers. Obviously, an AOL on Linux client will have no appeal for them. For some though, this is just what they've been waiting for.
While I wouldn't use AOL, not without first having had a lobotomy anyways, this is actually good news.
A Linux AOL client gives those who've been holding off of trying Linux one less excuse. From those that like what they find once they convert, we'll get more people contributing to Linux. From those that don't, they'll go back to M$-Windows, and we'll just see a few more trolls.
The Village Voice has long been a bastion of extremist (American) liberalism at its worst. This latest editorial amounts to telling those who shared their stories here, "Shut up, you can't know what discrimination feels like, you're white."
Of course, being liberals, they know what's good for us better than we do ourselves. Patronizing bastards.
No doubt they knew that posting a story about the crowd on/. would get them/.'ed. I guess they need the ad revenue, no matter the cost. Small wonder their subscriber base keeps slowly shrinking.
Recent independent testing done by Mindcraft and everseen by PCWEEK has shown NT to be faster than Linux in file/print and http.
Are you talking about the same test that showed that Linux/SAMBA served up files to NT Workstation faster than NT Server could? (NT Server was faster to Win9X clients.) Looks like file serving performance depends on how you slice it.
BTW, there's been some rather interesting work done in the last few weeks by people who want to know why NT/IIS did outperform Linux/Apache in the Mindcraft tests, and they've succeded in producing patches for Apache and the Linux kernel that have improved Apache's numbers quite a bit. I think some of the relevant info is on kernelnotes.org.
For now, keep in mind that Apache is reference, not performance, implementation of a web server. If you really need the raw speed, take a look at Zeus.
The second Linux fallacy is that it is more stable than NT. Let us consider what the man who invented Unix had to say, "Microsoft is really unreliable but Linux is worse."
Let us consider the hundreds of testimonials that claim quite the opposite, more than a few of which have been seen here on/. Mr. Thompson is certainly entitled to his opinion. However, the evidence is rather stacked against him, and NT.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure there will be a few bucks in it for a year or two.
Think about it, although you would hate to see your friends lose thier jobs, it may be the best thing for them, especially since the company's in trouble. It may force them to go out and find higher paying jobs elsewhere with more stability.
Don't deny yourself an opportunity to advance your career to stay with a dying company. Chances are, it won't work out in the long run.
Do you realize that the space program was using a three field color camera with a mechanicly rotating filter disk (a technology previously used on the Apollo and Skylab missions) well into the 1990's?
New technology does handle the rigors of space quite nicely. How many times have laptops been used for various experiments? The only reason the shuttle computers (which were built to specs written in the seventies) haven't been replaced is that they work well enough for the job they're given.
Well, that and the fact that NASA doesn't like to throw anything away. (Insert sidebar about an LSI-11 computer still in production use as of 1999 here.)
Although I wonder what the odds are that I would ever write a script with a lottery ticket?
Now the Fairchild drag racing game, there was a real beast. Having to time the gas and shifting just right or blow the engine, all with one hand!
Loads of fun 'till someone got drunk and twisted the head off the joystick.
Actually, New Mexico has electronic voting booths. The dead trees were for absentee and early voting ballots.
Of course it can, and that's a good thing. Where else do you think we're going to get the next generation of System Administrators?
So Gorbechev wanted the Soviet Union to collapse?
When you hear a loud popping sound, your head is out of your ass.
Also, by imposing any kind of censorship, /. would open itself up to more trouble than its worth. Once you begin censoring, you're stating that you're responsible for the posts that appear. That means all of them. Trust me, it's a liability that you wouldn't want.
Of course, you could always just disregard the flamebait as the mental equivalent to writing on the bathroom wall at the gas station. Unless you make it a practice to clean bathroom walls when you see something offensive on them.
OK, we now have an explanation for the normal reaction to a Katz article.
I am, however, worried about Simon monitoring. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want that bastard noticing me.
Although I imagine with an antenna every 120 degrees or so you could fairly well emulate an omni antenna. Why you would want to is left to your imagination.
Zealots all around it seems.
A machine the whole family can enjoy, concurrently.
Brilliant strategy, simply brilliant.
If sun truly beleives that there's no problem here, why did they move the code to a password protected area?
It did, however, take many hours of scrubbing with a strong detergent to get all the crud out. But what do you expect after nine years of daily use?
Also, I'm sure that there's been quite a few downloads of the "Gamera" package already, mainly by those curious to see if it actually works.
As for your cheap netappliance, want to bet it will only come with phone and cableTV jacks? (Break out those soldering irons!)
I would say more like 99% of the postings here. Remember, though, Slashdot is read primarily by those with a technical bent. This would most likely include a few AOL'ers who are even now dowloading Gamera. (So they can try it on thier newly installed Linux partition.) I realize for the vast majority of both current Linux and AOL users this will not make the slightest bit of difference.
I don't think Joe public really sees the need to switch to Linux because the relative merits would be lost on him. M$ (for all its many faults) runs his apps and he gets loads of support by way of the huge user base.
For the most part, Joe public probably wouldn't switch. That's fine, his choice. I'm not advocating that anyone change anything they don't want to.
So AOL is on Linux - its also on M$ so why change?
Curiosity, the challenge of doing something new and different, possibly the need to feel "cool" or "1337". Who cares, as long as someone finds the combination useful for thier purposes, they'll use it.
Flame in indignant fury if you want but it won't change the fact the most PC/net users are NOT techies.
I never claimed they were. Most PC/net users actively fight the idea that they should learn anything in order to operate thier computers. Obviously, an AOL on Linux client will have no appeal for them. For some though, this is just what they've been waiting for.
A Linux AOL client gives those who've been holding off of trying Linux one less excuse. From those that like what they find once they convert, we'll get more people contributing to Linux. From those that don't, they'll go back to M$-Windows, and we'll just see a few more trolls.
After reading this story, the old Blue Oyster Cult song, "Career of Evil" keeps going through my head.
The Village Voice has long been a bastion of extremist (American) liberalism at its worst. This latest editorial amounts to telling those who shared their stories here, "Shut up, you can't know what discrimination feels like, you're white."
/. would get them /.'ed. I guess they need the ad revenue, no matter the cost. Small wonder their subscriber base keeps slowly shrinking.
Of course, being liberals, they know what's good for us better than we do ourselves. Patronizing bastards.
No doubt they knew that posting a story about the crowd on
On a related note, don't forget Deep Black: Space Espionage and National Security by William E Burroughs, ISBN: 0394541243.
It's apparently out of print, so you may have to search a library or an older (paranoid) friend's house for it.
I lent my copy out in 1992 and haven't seen it since.
Recent independent testing done by Mindcraft and everseen by PCWEEK has shown NT to be faster than Linux in file/print and http.
/. Mr. Thompson is certainly entitled to his opinion. However, the evidence is rather stacked against him, and NT.
Are you talking about the same test that showed that Linux/SAMBA served up files to NT Workstation faster than NT Server could? (NT Server was faster to Win9X clients.) Looks like file serving performance depends on how you slice it.
BTW, there's been some rather interesting work done in the last few weeks by people who want to know why NT/IIS did outperform Linux/Apache in the Mindcraft tests, and they've succeded in producing patches for Apache and the Linux kernel that have improved Apache's numbers quite a bit. I think some of the relevant info is on kernelnotes.org.
For now, keep in mind that Apache is reference, not performance, implementation of a web server. If you really need the raw speed, take a look at Zeus.
The second Linux fallacy is that it is more stable than NT. Let us consider what the man who invented Unix had to say, "Microsoft is really unreliable but Linux is worse."
Let us consider the hundreds of testimonials that claim quite the opposite, more than a few of which have been seen here on