I've used Zoom, Zhone, and Actiontec DSL modem/routers. I always go into the configuration to set the default DNS server on the router, to avoid my ISP. For some reason, my backwoods ISP's server is always slower than ANYTHING else that I can find! I believe that I could use a server in Singapore, and get faster response than I do from my ISP.
Of course, using a DNS cache speeds things up tremendously, but I always need something that isn't cached!
It's a common occurance, really. Try namebench out, and see just what you can learn from it. http://code.google.com/p/namebench/
It's a simple script, namebench.py - it has an installer, but as I recall, you don't need to install at all. Just make sure it has execution permission, and fire up the main script. You may be surprised at what you learn. Or not - if you have a good ISP, they aren't stooping to such low levels!
To be honest - I can't say. I've looked at Gnunet's home page, but haven't installed it, or tested it in any way. I'll be even more honest - I'm still learning how to make all the others work properly. I mean - it's one thing to install it, and visit a couple of flog pages, it's another thing entirely to actually navigate the darkweb, find what you're interested in, all the while avoiding the CP freaks, and make something of your experience.
I WILL be downloading and installing Gnunet into a VM soon - but how soon, it's hard to say. Maybe a month, maybe 6 months, but I'll get around to it!
Google DNS is good - but subject to DNS hijacking. I used them for awhile, then realized that a mistype showed me some odd adverts. Running Namebench revealed that my DNS queries were being hijacked by my ISP, so I switched to another DNS server that wasn't being hijacked. Avoid the most popular servers, or you'll be hijacked too!
Someone mod AC up a bit - I2P is the most anonymous client around, that I'm aware of. Don't get carried away with the mods though - I2P is one of the SLOWEST ways to share files in existence. If you've ever used Freenet and/or Tor for file sharing, I2P is better, but not much. Of course, like any other client, more users could increase the speed.
"I see nothing inherently wrong with being able to offer a better price for something. "
Me neither. I have to agree with you. But, when that "better price" involves some kind of a kickback scheme, there really IS something wrong with it. Who, exactly, is subsidizing that lower price?
An easy analogy can be found in the dairy industry. Milk is pretty cheap, at the market. But, how many millions does each state give to the dairy industry every year, to keep those prices low? How many more millions does the federal government dole out to the dairy industry? The ACTUAL cost of milk is at least double what you see on the sticker - but it's a hidden cost, absorbed by taxpayers everywhere.
Better price? You better believe that when you're getting a super low price for something, SOMOENE, SOMEWHERE is paying for it.
Want another analogy?
Walk into any Walmart or phone store. You can find cellphones for free, you can find smart phones for as little as 50 bucks. What is the catch? That dirty little contract is the biggest part of the catch - you're OBLIGATED to pay about triple what the telephone service is worth, for two years. There are other subsidies involved as well, but that contract is the biggest problem.
If you're offered something at a great price, you better look at it real hard, and try to figure out what it REALLY costs. That sticker price is meaningless if you don't look at the bigger picture.
Great post. The only thing I found wrong, was you misspelled angels. Since I'm not a grammar nazi, I don't really give a flip if you misspell a few words. Really, a great post!
While I don't doubt that you understand the law better than I do - much of the regulation regarding Microsoft only kicked in AFTER it was established that Microsoft held a monopoly. It has repeatedly been argued, right here on slashdot, that if MS had NOT been found to be a monopoly, all sorts of court rulings and regulations would have been handled quite differently.
Back to Google. The fact is, they are NOT a monopoly. There has been no such ruling, either in the US or the EU, that I am aware of. In fact, looking at the global picture, Badu is probably the closest thing to a monopoly, and they only serve ~25% of the market. That's a long, long, LONG way from Microsoft, which serves ~80% of the worldwide market for desktop operating systems.
No, I don't understand a lot about antitrust laws - but it's pretty obvious that an established monopoly is trying to challenge a competitor using monopoly law that hardly applies.
Even more obvious is the fact that Google doesn't have a monopoly on search engines. Obviously, Microsoft has a search engine of their own, which they have invested a lot of money into.
Don't like Google, for any reason? Just use another engine: http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/ There is little reason for you to believe that list is truly "comprehensive", either. What does China have? Badu? It's not on that list. Seems ALL those search engines are English language, North American engines, so if you are fluent in some other language, you probably have even MORE choices.
The fact that Google is the best for MY needs shouldn't influence people who dislike or distrust Google. They are NOT the only game in town.
For Google to violate anti-trust and/or anti-monopoly laws, I believe that it must be established that they ARE a monopoly. I just can't see that.
Of course, we are all aware that trials and judges can be bought, I think. Witness all the patent trolls, as well as actions brought by RIAA, MPAA, and others.
DMCA has it all wrong to start with. A Super-DMCA will only be worse. And, even if I have to live with shitty, unethical laws, why should some kid in Rwanda, or New Zealand have to live with the same oppressive laws?
"Also, at least for the US, has the 'chance to defeat' passed?"
Not sure what you mean here - but I'm awfully damned sure that when all these criminals have "approved" of this treaty, then Congress will just rubber stamp the damned thing. They are actually doing an end run around the courts, embodying into a treaty things that the courts have already rejected as unconstitutional.
Your ass, dude. It's not like the United States is the Lone Ranger, riding at the cutting edge of technology, all alone. FFS, pimple faced kids around the world manage to hack into the Department of Defense computers. Our high tech people sweat at night, worrying about China hacking into their computers. Information your ass.
Our PRIMARY export right now is "entertainment". The word is placed in quotations, because it is hardly entertaining to anyone with a lick of sense. Only the brainwashed, ignorant masses can actually PAY for the drivel pumped out from Hollywood and the music industries. I might consider paying them to STOP PRODUCING!
Well - that's one more rather liberal viewpoint. How about you take a look at the deniers? What are their aims, their goals? For the most part, they want to tear down the civilization that our fathers and grandfathers built. They side with Hitler and the Aryans. Yes, I want to shoot them.
As for actually picking up a weapon and killing a denier - no, I won't. Not unless, and until, they actually organize and start working to overthrow our government in the name of some supposed racial superiority. Then, I'll shoot in self defense. Given the opportunity, they would kill off all my family for having polluted blood.
Sometimes, I hate your posts. Sometimes, I love 'em. This one is the latter category.
My stepdad lied about his age, so that he could join the Seabees at age 15. He saw a little bit of the Pacific, until he was hit by shrapnel, and spent the last year of the war recuperating in the states. The old man turned 18 just after the war ended, and walked out of the hospital shortly after that. During those years, reality sucked, man.
I also had an uncle who saw very little combat. He was a year older than my stepdad, but his Mama did everything she could to keep her son from joining the service. When he was old enough to LEGALLY enlist without Mama's approval, he signed up, went to Europe, saw a little bit of action, then participated in liberating one of the death camps.
Remembering his stories, every time I hear the holocaust deniers running at the mouth, I just want to shoot them in the face.
Yes, reality sucked in the 1930's and 1940's. Sometimes, I think we have things far to good these days. Few Americans have any concept just how ugly life can be.
You make a lot of inane and ignorant ASSumptions here. The US also had a lot of money invested in Germany - ask IBM, because they were at the head of that list. Don't "Oh please" us - the world in 1942 was NOT the world we live in today, and the United States in 1942 was most certainly NOT the world we live in today.
If you've read your history at all, you would know that the administration coordinated with the pentagon to MANEUVER us into that war. The losses at Pearl Harbor were preventable, but they were deemed "acceptable" because they would force the citizenry into accepting America's participation in the war.
Oh, please, right back at you. Had the US cooperated with Germany, we could have been the third point of a power triangle for decades, even if we may have been less powerful than we were. World history would have been VASTLY different - starting with Iran, Iraq, and Israel.
It's possible that you are unaware that the military/industrial machine that controls so much of American policy today ony came into existence during and after the world war - much of it in response to the communist threat. Had the Axis won, that communist threat would have been nonexistent!
Seventy years? You think you have to go that far back to find a dictatorship? Read current events, and you can find one totalitarian state in existence right now in Korea. At least 3 repressive theocracies, in existence, right now. We can list some de facto dictatorships in the last 40 years, no matter the names they used for their nations and/or governments. Pol Pot and Idi Amin come readily to mind, as does Saddam Hussein.
Maybe people like yourself don't recognize a dictatorship unless and until they kill off a million or more people. Even so - Pol Pot's government should have caught your notice!
"Auto-run might have stopped this worm, but turning that off did not become standard practice till the Vista roll out, and the military may have had reason to use auto-run."
Sorry - but auto-run is a known security risk, and it has been known for a lot longer than Vista has been in existence. This is the MILITARY we are talking about. The MILITARY is supposed to be more security conscious than Joe Blow who has nothing more important on his hard drives than some illegal porn.
It's legal EXTORTION. In the US, they terms are not mutually exclusive. I suspect the same to be true in most places. After all - the US didn't invent the professional lawyer, we just feed ours better than most places.
Top right, on my 10.4 desktop. Crap - you can edit any settings on a Linux desktop. Nothing is cast in stone - not even the kernel! (Of course, I think NTKRNL should have been cast into the sea, along with Bill Gates, but that is a bit irrelevant.)
"wean themselves from Microsoft and Intel co-op bribes/funds,"
That. I'm a Linux user - and Dell does have a handful of machines that are supposed to have excellent Linux support. But, Dell offers on again, off again support to Linux users. Dell also expects to get the Microsoft tax when they sell a Linux box. I want Dell to sell me a box that is a known good Linux box with NO OS, and I'll provide my own support. All I want is a two or three year guarantee on the hardware, nothing more. And, I want to see a price that is at least twenty bucks less than the price of the same machine running Windows. I REALLY want to see a price that is around 200 dollars less than Windows.
(Yes, I know Dell doesn't pay full price for Windows - but again, I don't want a support contract either. Just the hardware!)
It's tough to get what I want from Dell.
Strange, perhaps, but certainly not unique. There's nothing on television that I consider worth watching - so I simply don't pay for any of it. I DID buy that stupid digital antenna, put it on the roof, and I get the same free broadcast television that I got ten years ago. 90% drivel, and 10% advertising, so I don't watch. The wife watches her soaps, and she's happy. Win/win. Or, maybe win/win/lose. The idiots who market the trash isn't making any money off of us.
I looked into the mirror. "How are you today, Mirrorimage?" "Oh, fine, except I get tired of hearing the Microsoft shills calling me thief, and worse." "Oh, don't worry about the shills. Do you realize what crummy lives they lead? Think about it." "Oh, wow - sucks to be so pathetic that you have to praise the unpraiseworthy. Suck even more to praise those unpraiseworthies who will never even notice or appreciate your pathetic noises." "Yep, you got it. I would rather BE a thief, than to be a shill. Not that I'm considering a life of crime or anything, but if I had to choose, I'd rather be a thief!"
Slashdot Mirror
I've used Zoom, Zhone, and Actiontec DSL modem/routers. I always go into the configuration to set the default DNS server on the router, to avoid my ISP. For some reason, my backwoods ISP's server is always slower than ANYTHING else that I can find! I believe that I could use a server in Singapore, and get faster response than I do from my ISP. Of course, using a DNS cache speeds things up tremendously, but I always need something that isn't cached!
It's a common occurance, really. Try namebench out, and see just what you can learn from it. http://code.google.com/p/namebench/ It's a simple script, namebench.py - it has an installer, but as I recall, you don't need to install at all. Just make sure it has execution permission, and fire up the main script. You may be surprised at what you learn. Or not - if you have a good ISP, they aren't stooping to such low levels!
To be honest - I can't say. I've looked at Gnunet's home page, but haven't installed it, or tested it in any way. I'll be even more honest - I'm still learning how to make all the others work properly. I mean - it's one thing to install it, and visit a couple of flog pages, it's another thing entirely to actually navigate the darkweb, find what you're interested in, all the while avoiding the CP freaks, and make something of your experience. I WILL be downloading and installing Gnunet into a VM soon - but how soon, it's hard to say. Maybe a month, maybe 6 months, but I'll get around to it!
Google DNS is good - but subject to DNS hijacking. I used them for awhile, then realized that a mistype showed me some odd adverts. Running Namebench revealed that my DNS queries were being hijacked by my ISP, so I switched to another DNS server that wasn't being hijacked. Avoid the most popular servers, or you'll be hijacked too!
Someone mod AC up a bit - I2P is the most anonymous client around, that I'm aware of. Don't get carried away with the mods though - I2P is one of the SLOWEST ways to share files in existence. If you've ever used Freenet and/or Tor for file sharing, I2P is better, but not much. Of course, like any other client, more users could increase the speed.
"I see nothing inherently wrong with being able to offer a better price for something. " Me neither. I have to agree with you. But, when that "better price" involves some kind of a kickback scheme, there really IS something wrong with it. Who, exactly, is subsidizing that lower price? An easy analogy can be found in the dairy industry. Milk is pretty cheap, at the market. But, how many millions does each state give to the dairy industry every year, to keep those prices low? How many more millions does the federal government dole out to the dairy industry? The ACTUAL cost of milk is at least double what you see on the sticker - but it's a hidden cost, absorbed by taxpayers everywhere. Better price? You better believe that when you're getting a super low price for something, SOMOENE, SOMEWHERE is paying for it. Want another analogy? Walk into any Walmart or phone store. You can find cellphones for free, you can find smart phones for as little as 50 bucks. What is the catch? That dirty little contract is the biggest part of the catch - you're OBLIGATED to pay about triple what the telephone service is worth, for two years. There are other subsidies involved as well, but that contract is the biggest problem. If you're offered something at a great price, you better look at it real hard, and try to figure out what it REALLY costs. That sticker price is meaningless if you don't look at the bigger picture.
Great post. The only thing I found wrong, was you misspelled angels. Since I'm not a grammar nazi, I don't really give a flip if you misspell a few words. Really, a great post!
While I don't doubt that you understand the law better than I do - much of the regulation regarding Microsoft only kicked in AFTER it was established that Microsoft held a monopoly. It has repeatedly been argued, right here on slashdot, that if MS had NOT been found to be a monopoly, all sorts of court rulings and regulations would have been handled quite differently. Back to Google. The fact is, they are NOT a monopoly. There has been no such ruling, either in the US or the EU, that I am aware of. In fact, looking at the global picture, Badu is probably the closest thing to a monopoly, and they only serve ~25% of the market. That's a long, long, LONG way from Microsoft, which serves ~80% of the worldwide market for desktop operating systems. No, I don't understand a lot about antitrust laws - but it's pretty obvious that an established monopoly is trying to challenge a competitor using monopoly law that hardly applies.
Even more obvious is the fact that Google doesn't have a monopoly on search engines. Obviously, Microsoft has a search engine of their own, which they have invested a lot of money into. Don't like Google, for any reason? Just use another engine: http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/ There is little reason for you to believe that list is truly "comprehensive", either. What does China have? Badu? It's not on that list. Seems ALL those search engines are English language, North American engines, so if you are fluent in some other language, you probably have even MORE choices. The fact that Google is the best for MY needs shouldn't influence people who dislike or distrust Google. They are NOT the only game in town. For Google to violate anti-trust and/or anti-monopoly laws, I believe that it must be established that they ARE a monopoly. I just can't see that. Of course, we are all aware that trials and judges can be bought, I think. Witness all the patent trolls, as well as actions brought by RIAA, MPAA, and others.
DMCA has it all wrong to start with. A Super-DMCA will only be worse. And, even if I have to live with shitty, unethical laws, why should some kid in Rwanda, or New Zealand have to live with the same oppressive laws? "Also, at least for the US, has the 'chance to defeat' passed?" Not sure what you mean here - but I'm awfully damned sure that when all these criminals have "approved" of this treaty, then Congress will just rubber stamp the damned thing. They are actually doing an end run around the courts, embodying into a treaty things that the courts have already rejected as unconstitutional.
Your ass, dude. It's not like the United States is the Lone Ranger, riding at the cutting edge of technology, all alone. FFS, pimple faced kids around the world manage to hack into the Department of Defense computers. Our high tech people sweat at night, worrying about China hacking into their computers. Information your ass. Our PRIMARY export right now is "entertainment". The word is placed in quotations, because it is hardly entertaining to anyone with a lick of sense. Only the brainwashed, ignorant masses can actually PAY for the drivel pumped out from Hollywood and the music industries. I might consider paying them to STOP PRODUCING!
A lot more people need to leave comments. Mine: "Copyright troll is copyright troll, no matter his rationalizations"
Well - that's one more rather liberal viewpoint. How about you take a look at the deniers? What are their aims, their goals? For the most part, they want to tear down the civilization that our fathers and grandfathers built. They side with Hitler and the Aryans. Yes, I want to shoot them. As for actually picking up a weapon and killing a denier - no, I won't. Not unless, and until, they actually organize and start working to overthrow our government in the name of some supposed racial superiority. Then, I'll shoot in self defense. Given the opportunity, they would kill off all my family for having polluted blood.
There is nothing "random" about shooting holocaust deniers. Reading comprehension 101 - available at a community college near you!
Sharkey says, "In short," he said, "We want to be number one." Well, a single digit salute to you, Mr. Sharkey, you predatory bastard from the deep.
Sometimes, I hate your posts. Sometimes, I love 'em. This one is the latter category. My stepdad lied about his age, so that he could join the Seabees at age 15. He saw a little bit of the Pacific, until he was hit by shrapnel, and spent the last year of the war recuperating in the states. The old man turned 18 just after the war ended, and walked out of the hospital shortly after that. During those years, reality sucked, man. I also had an uncle who saw very little combat. He was a year older than my stepdad, but his Mama did everything she could to keep her son from joining the service. When he was old enough to LEGALLY enlist without Mama's approval, he signed up, went to Europe, saw a little bit of action, then participated in liberating one of the death camps. Remembering his stories, every time I hear the holocaust deniers running at the mouth, I just want to shoot them in the face. Yes, reality sucked in the 1930's and 1940's. Sometimes, I think we have things far to good these days. Few Americans have any concept just how ugly life can be.
You make a lot of inane and ignorant ASSumptions here. The US also had a lot of money invested in Germany - ask IBM, because they were at the head of that list. Don't "Oh please" us - the world in 1942 was NOT the world we live in today, and the United States in 1942 was most certainly NOT the world we live in today. If you've read your history at all, you would know that the administration coordinated with the pentagon to MANEUVER us into that war. The losses at Pearl Harbor were preventable, but they were deemed "acceptable" because they would force the citizenry into accepting America's participation in the war. Oh, please, right back at you. Had the US cooperated with Germany, we could have been the third point of a power triangle for decades, even if we may have been less powerful than we were. World history would have been VASTLY different - starting with Iran, Iraq, and Israel. It's possible that you are unaware that the military/industrial machine that controls so much of American policy today ony came into existence during and after the world war - much of it in response to the communist threat. Had the Axis won, that communist threat would have been nonexistent!
Seventy years? You think you have to go that far back to find a dictatorship? Read current events, and you can find one totalitarian state in existence right now in Korea. At least 3 repressive theocracies, in existence, right now. We can list some de facto dictatorships in the last 40 years, no matter the names they used for their nations and/or governments. Pol Pot and Idi Amin come readily to mind, as does Saddam Hussein. Maybe people like yourself don't recognize a dictatorship unless and until they kill off a million or more people. Even so - Pol Pot's government should have caught your notice!
"Auto-run might have stopped this worm, but turning that off did not become standard practice till the Vista roll out, and the military may have had reason to use auto-run." Sorry - but auto-run is a known security risk, and it has been known for a lot longer than Vista has been in existence. This is the MILITARY we are talking about. The MILITARY is supposed to be more security conscious than Joe Blow who has nothing more important on his hard drives than some illegal porn.
It's legal EXTORTION. In the US, they terms are not mutually exclusive. I suspect the same to be true in most places. After all - the US didn't invent the professional lawyer, we just feed ours better than most places.
Top right, on my 10.4 desktop. Crap - you can edit any settings on a Linux desktop. Nothing is cast in stone - not even the kernel! (Of course, I think NTKRNL should have been cast into the sea, along with Bill Gates, but that is a bit irrelevant.)
"wean themselves from Microsoft and Intel co-op bribes/funds," That. I'm a Linux user - and Dell does have a handful of machines that are supposed to have excellent Linux support. But, Dell offers on again, off again support to Linux users. Dell also expects to get the Microsoft tax when they sell a Linux box. I want Dell to sell me a box that is a known good Linux box with NO OS, and I'll provide my own support. All I want is a two or three year guarantee on the hardware, nothing more. And, I want to see a price that is at least twenty bucks less than the price of the same machine running Windows. I REALLY want to see a price that is around 200 dollars less than Windows. (Yes, I know Dell doesn't pay full price for Windows - but again, I don't want a support contract either. Just the hardware!) It's tough to get what I want from Dell.
Strange, perhaps, but certainly not unique. There's nothing on television that I consider worth watching - so I simply don't pay for any of it. I DID buy that stupid digital antenna, put it on the roof, and I get the same free broadcast television that I got ten years ago. 90% drivel, and 10% advertising, so I don't watch. The wife watches her soaps, and she's happy. Win/win. Or, maybe win/win/lose. The idiots who market the trash isn't making any money off of us.
;^( Not fair. I suffer from monolingualitis. I can't use another language. Think I can get disability from Social Security for that?
I looked into the mirror. "How are you today, Mirrorimage?" "Oh, fine, except I get tired of hearing the Microsoft shills calling me thief, and worse." "Oh, don't worry about the shills. Do you realize what crummy lives they lead? Think about it." "Oh, wow - sucks to be so pathetic that you have to praise the unpraiseworthy. Suck even more to praise those unpraiseworthies who will never even notice or appreciate your pathetic noises." "Yep, you got it. I would rather BE a thief, than to be a shill. Not that I'm considering a life of crime or anything, but if I had to choose, I'd rather be a thief!"