What difference would it make if AMD or Intel introduced a totally new processor (non-x86 compatable) or if you just had a look around at what other options are already available today?
The PowerPC is very nice processor. IIRC, IBM has released open "PC like" MB designs based on the PowerPC - with an invitation for anyone to manufacture them. Any takers so far?
Unfortunately, giving up on x86 binary compatability is still considered to big a risk for PC/MB producers. Even us open source OS users recognize that there will be that occasional binary driver or commercial software that we need to run and it's only available for x86.
Ever see NetBSD on a G4 cube? I did at Comdex/LBE and it's nice, reportedly much faster than equivalent Pentiums but expensive...
Better stuff is already out there, but it's the old cliche of BetaMax vs. VHS - the product with mass market appeal will continue to reign.
Last year the Linux Business Expo was not in the main hall as the author suggests (that would include both the north hall and south hall of the Las Vegas convention center) but in the Hilton Hotel next door. This year, we were in the more distant Sands hotel. This positioning sucked - at least from my standpoint in the LinuxFund.org booth in the ".org" area sponsored by LinuxMall - but I don't think it was meant to in anyway marginalize the Linux Co's.
I think Linux received far more floor space at the Sands than it did last year in the Hilton. Perhaps with more companies looking to be a part of LBE and more of them buying the large "pavillion" type floor space areas complete with seats for presentations and even a boxing ring, - the Hilton didn't have the floor space the LBE wanted so it was moved.
The end result, we got about half the traffic we did last year. Others I spoke to agreed. Last year many Comdex attendees did not realize that there was a deidcated Linux Expo just next door, and were excited to check it out when they learned that "Linux" (some new fangled thing the market was excited about)was there for their exploration. We were not able to draw that crowd in this year when we were a shuttle bus ride away.
Here's the upside for the LBE: - We grew while the rest of Comdex shrunk. Maybe this will allow us to command some floor space actually within the Las Vegas Convention center next year.
Yes... but this separation clearly isn't as cut-n-dry as you make it seem. Apple and MacOS share the same catagory/icon and that is the logical choice since they are very much tied to each other.
3. Software (X, Gnome, KDE, etc)
You are right within the context of "classic" linux/*BSD discussions. However, sometimes you have software that is so tightly linked to a platform that the "hardware" category/icon for that platform may be more appropriate.
Example:
Categorize as 'X' XYZ Systems announces new super fast X-server for MacOSX that plays Quake at 120fps!
Categorize as MacOSX (in this case) MacOSX users can finally run X apps in Aqua with a kludge a'la VNC...
The difference between the two is more subtle then you would allow for consideration in your categorization. One is of interest to anyone who relys heavily on X for day to day fun/work and the other is relatively specific to a narrower group of users.
Whichever... I guess we'll have to leave the decision to the great and wise CmdrTaco:)
should I post this as Apple, X, or BSD?
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I favor the Apple category for MacOSX related posts.
About a month ago there was a MacOSX article with the BSD demon - the discussion was so Mac centric that it didn't really seem to relate to the common underlying BSD base.
Here's the distinction I would make:
If it's about Darwin, Apple's CLI open source edition of the OS that compiles on various platforms it should be categorized as BSD.
If it is specifically about MacOSX which is tied to proprietary Apple hardware or an application running within that environment - then it is a Apple article.
As for the 'X' option, while I can see it as a contender for this article... I guess because this news is particular to one "minority" platform and less relevent to the larger X user community I would still go with Apple categorization.
You know how some people can where something really loud and it just seems right while on others - they look really stupid?
It's a personality thing. The gear has to fit the character and persona.
What Apple can pull off, not many others can do and come out looking "hip" instead of looking stupid. The Sony Vaio, with it's slim design and durable metal case is the quintasential corporate _and_ stylish notebook. Add rubber and a fold down handle with a loud "VAIO" across the back and you just killed yourself.
Regular CDs that play on today's players are going to be sold for at least another 5 years. The consumer market just won't accept their new 200 CD jukeboxes being obsolete overnight.
So... since they can't get rid of MP3 for another 5 years, why all the effort to come up with a perfect encryption and loose the opportunities here today?
I think all they need is a variation on current encryption schemes (different enough so they can seek protection from the DMCA for "circumvention") that locks your music files to a pass-pharse. That same pass-phrase will be linked to your credit card. Anyone you give your password too will be able to buy music on your account.
Grant it this does nothing to keep people from getting MP3s but it allows them to satisfy a market for online commercial quality music files in a way that doesn't put their product any more at risk for piracy then it already is.
Let's face it, most kids and bootleggers don't care enough about quality that good analog recording equipment won't satisfy them.
RANT ON
The amount of loss due to (quality) analog equipment pales in comparrison to what's lost in your typical 128 bit MP3. In the "old" days when cassettes were "Hi-Fi" - the main problem was tape transport noise of older/cheap units and hiss caused by poor quality tapes/heads. My $200 Kenwood Cassette player doesn't suffer from those problems today. My guess is that after MP3 encoding, 98% of the population couldn't tell the difference between an encoding whos ariginal source was a CD and one whos source was a cassette. (even a recoding I made from CD - I find that recordings I make are often better than those cassettes from the label)
/RANT
Sorry, I thknk this all turned into one long rant. I had a point but it got lost, I just find the lack of sense in the whole matter frustrating...
Assuming ATT is figuring they will know with some degree of certainty when a transaction takes place, as most websites only encrypt the actual ordering phase but not the browsing phase and plan on confronting the e-tailer about that apparent transaction:
- Would it likely be cheaper to incur the overhead of having all browsing at a particular site done via SSL so that ATT would have no clue whether that customer visit resulted in a sale or not?
I think discussion on how they will know about a transaction would be interesting. Also, if they are making their own web hosting customers sign contracts are they going to impose that further downstream with the CheesyHostingCo that signs up hosting customers for $19.95/month?
This is scary. I can only hope that there will be enough resistence from the larger e-tailers by taking actions such as - sending orders to another server on a different network. possibly overseas, to circumvent this absurd (planned) policy - and make it a dismal failure.
MS needs competition on the.NET platform too. Without some competition their DoJ situation as well as public acceptance of.NET is at increased risk. Corel simply makes the next most competitive Office suite on Windows and MS needs it to be on.NET too.
IMHO, it has _nothing_ to do with Linux. (doesn't everything posted on/. have to have something to do with Linux?:)
Okay, seriously, in order for MS to sell.NET as a serious alternative to locally installed apps they also need stuff like a half decent drawing and painting programs. MS's own attempts at such programs haven't exactly been well received (understatement) - so who do they turn to?
Adobe? not a chance, it'll be a lond time before their heavy duty apps are.NETed.
Corel's got the goods. Half decent programs marketed at consumers and seriously in need for some cash infusion and positive PR.
It was probably a no-brainer on both sides.
OFF TOPIC QUESTION:
Does anyone else think that Corel may be rethinking their Linux committment anyway? -- Their distro, rejected by core Linux users, and the OS on the whole still not ready for Mom & Pop systems - has left them with a costly investment that isn't showing any signs of making money in the near future.
Perhaps Eazl/Helix will have more success as the OS will have had more time to mature and begin to approach some semblence of (consumer-level)hardware compatability parity with Win9x by the time they debut their consumer oriented offerings. (usb, ieee1394, "soft" printers, DVD...)
I think the need for MM could be reduced if moderators were given real time feedback of the results of other moderators reading concurrently.
I don't know how many times I've seen a comment that I feel should be rated a 3, mark it up, and by the time I finish reading the other 100+ comments for an article and click the Moderate button, it's now a +5 comment.
Most likely it's not worthy of a +5 but other moderators working concurrently had also decided to +1 it. I know MM is there to take care of this but I think many of us agree that's not very efficient.
PROPOSED SOLUTION:
A Java "real time" moderation interface. It should allow moderators to see "instantly" the results of other moderators.
Configurable options could include:
1) The ability to send on your moderation as soon as you make a selection from the pop-up menu as opposed to waiting for a click on the "moderate" button (which would as now send all your mod at once).
2) If you prefer to wait to the end of your read through of the available comments before submiting your mods, there can be additional feedback in a status bar if a comment you have slated for a mod up (or down) has changed while you were reading other comments.
While I normally prefer that web sites avoid the use of "heavy" things like Java when ever possible, I think we have a worthwhile use for it here. Of course the conventional method could remain an option too.
For most Cell phones today, you have a choice between an ultra compact unit with a shorter battery life and a slightly larger less pocketable design with half its size/mass being the battery itself.
PDA's don't consume nearly as much power as a cell phone (in use). This has allowed Palm to keep their design very slim _and_ have a long battery life too.
What do you do with a hybrid device? Shouldn't is still fit in a suit's breast pocket?
If you give it too large a battery, you reduce it's desireability as a PDA. If you give it too small a battery you're out both your PDA and your phone after a couple extended phone calls...
If we can distribute software for the CueCat, in a way that suits our needs without going through DC - What's to stop Staples or OfficeMax from offering their own software that reads barcodes printed in their catalogs without going through DC?
They're seeing the big picture now... so I think. They screwed up and now they're going to have to fight for their life or go out of business having provided all of North America with free bar code readers.
Those who ask why they're bothering with a few geeks aren't seeing the bigger picture of them allowing "rogue" software to proliferate.
While I agree entirely that we have every right to use the device as we see fit, (I've downloaded various decoders alrready) they ain't going to just let this one go.
Perhaps their TV tech will be the real "killer" app of for them and ordinary bar code reading won't matter a great deal, but I figure them for toast.
QUESTION:
Anyone think of some sort of action to "teach" them a lesson?
-- While normally I would consider the following very unethical, given this companies willingness to use scare tactics against honest legal hackers, I suggest the following:
Every time you see a Radio Shack, stop in and pick up another CueCat. Collect them, discard them, whatever, every geek here that picks one up and doesn't use it (in their intended manner) makes a nick in their bottom line. If we all do it that becomes a major dent.
Hopefully they take note and apologize.
Clock speed is everything in the mass market
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It's easy to see why Intel is taking the road to higher clock speeds even at the risk of (initially) slower performance. It's all too readily evident that joe-sumer (average joe consumer) is hooked on having "more megahertz" in their box.
Intel still dominates the mass market, and I'm sure it's an important lead for them to maintain. Given the recent 1.1 GHz P3 debacle - it's reasonable to assume that their marketing people have told them that they must stay on top of the GHz war even if it's at the cost of better technology.
While it may take some time for the P4 to hit the mass market, that's where it's headed in the long term. (The P4 is not like the PPro that was only intended for use in high end workstations)
Apple tried to transistion the mass market in thier TV ads to thinking in Gigaflops, a better indicator than MHz. - See any store ads pitching Gigaflops recently? neither have I.
Then again, I don't really know much about OSX, so go ahead and correct me. One quick question - is the GUI integrated into the OS? If you're running X on it, will you need to load Apple's GUI (for lack of a better term), as well as X? Can you forego a GUI entirely?
Well, Yes, and No.
Darwin, Apple's open source edition of their new operating system is CLI only and is FreeBSD 4.0 "compatable". IIRC, Carmack has ported XFree86 to Darwin, providing your X interface. This is a totally open source option but I see no compelling reason to chose this path over x86 based BSD.
MacOSX is the union of the BSD/mach foundation, Apple's closed source Display PDF GUI, and their Carbon* and Cocoa (Nextstep) APIs. The OSX install CDs will probably not have a CLI only install option.
So... from a kernel/process standpoint the OSX GUI will be separate. From a delivery standpoint, you're probably going to get them both, like it or not, if you install from an OSX CD. Additionally, the option to open an interactive shell is rumored to be an "advanced" install option; the average Mac user never see the CLI.
As for X over Apple's GUI - AFAIK, only Tenon systems has annnounced a commercial X server that fully integrates with Quartz/Aqua (the Apple GUI). It's only a matter of time before someone builds off of Carmack's work and has an OSS X server that runs on top of Quartz/Aqua.
I think it will be a compelling hybrid of classic *nix and GUI. It's not perfect for everyone but for Apple's core markets, Graphical Design and Publishing, this is as good as it gets. Tight integration between display and print, along with Apple's advanced color managment software, makes for a system that fills their niches really, really well.
* Note for those not yet familiar with Apple's OSX: Carbon is the API set all current Mac apps are being written to, and is part of today's MacOS9 as well. Future apps will be written to the "more native" Cocoa. -- Carbon can be thought of doing for OSX what Winelib does for Linux. There will be a Classic Interface as well which will run apps that haven't been "Cabonized". This is basically a VM running OS9 and any apps that have not been updated over the new interface. The Apps and the old OS appear as single process to the underlying system.
The right of assembly like all other rights has its limits. If you are willing to go along with that then reasonable people can have a discussion.
So.. the right to assembly does not all apply to all venues at all times. In fact, the framers of the constitution probably invisioned indoor meetings when they wrote in the "right of the people peaceably to assemble" than massive outdoor gatherings.
Their intent aside, - if you are keeping me from leaving the city by sitting down in a public road then you are violating my rights. The people of Philadelphia (you know, the ones who pay taxes, not the hooligans from VA, CA etc) have decided nearly unanimously that roads are for cars. It is not a protestors right to change that fact by sitting down on the road.
Permits are needed to ensure your right to assemble while also ensuring that you don't lock down the city for eveyone else.
In response the second reply to my comment:
1) No, I did not personally witness arrests, I don't work in the downtown area.
2) Friends who personally witnessed several arrests had no problems with what they saw.
3) If the protestors had been allowed to do what they wanted, they could have caused an indefinite traffic block to motorists in center city. - i.e. no cars would be able to get to highway until they decided to get up.
4) The march that was allowed but not anticipated by motorists because they did not have a permit caused a 2 hour gridlock on some roads that normally take 10 minutes, in heavy traffic, to pass through.
5) Yes, being local does give me a little more info. The local affiliates preempted a lot of network programming to brings us relevent local news. (outside the philly area you would not have had this extended converage)
6) Yes, I do trust our mayor. FYI, I din't even vote for him, but I do beleive him to be sincerely concerned with human right violations. (I voted for his republican opponent:)
7) He wasn't arrested for talking on a cell phone. It just happened to identify him as the suspected planner of the violent unlawful "protests".
Who's paying for these people's transportation/food/accomadations etc when they come to Philadelpia? Seems to me like they're a bunch of kids who parents are well-to-do hippies who are funding their kids "civil diobedience". One guy complained he only had a 400 calorie meal when he was supposed to have 1800 calories during the 24 hours he was held (this is from an actual interview on local tv with an aresstee) - Poor baby, he's not getting my sypathy. he was probably arrested at about noon and released the next day at the same time with only having received dinner. Isn't that terrible.
I beleive the protestors less then the police. They have an adgenda too.
As a Philadelphian I was vrey pleased with the actions my city and its police dept took during the past week.
"Freedom of Speach" isn't an absolute right; you can be sued for libel, and of course you can't shout the proverbial "fire in the theatre". Similiarly, I think most Americans would argee that the right to assembly does not give you the right to hold hostage a million people by shutting down access routes out of downtown Philadelphia (center city as we call it here), as some protestors did attempt to.
I think the authorities were more than generous in allowing protestors who had intentionally not applied for a permit (to show their so called dissidence) but were willing reasonable enough and could be negotiated with, - to march down a 4 mile stretch of one of the busiest Philly streets, Broad st. They also received full Police protection from traffic that was not expecting to find the street closed.
Most of the protestors who were arrested were not part of an organization with a noble cause. As admitted by several in TV interviews they were there for the sole purpose of disrupting "the event". These scoundrels who would assert that they have a right to block major intersections by overturning dumpsters in the street deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and have clearly overstepped any constitutionally protected rights.
American kids today have a got a lot to learn about political dissidence. Some of the best examples can be seen abroad. Take Natal Sheransnky, a Russian Jew who during the 70s hijacked a plane to bring attention to the plight of Soviet Jewery. He rotted in Jail for about 10 years, but he became a martyr and it benefitted his cause. - and if you think US jails are bad...
My point being, that if you plan on breaking the law to bring attention to your cause (or lack of one) then you must be willing to pay the price - be a martyr. The kids in jail here are a bunch of whining babies. They think that they should be allowed to get away with vandalizing property, assaulting police, and other offenses because they were "protesting"? Boohoo, in Philly we actually enforce our laws.
While there may be stringent demands before the FBI can monitor your e-mail over your cable line, if the FBI gets what they want with Carnivore, the additional protections will be meaningless.
If they have the ability to monitor your cable company's backbone provider and skim through all e-mail to find yours in particular, - they've bypassed the cable companies infrastructure entirely and the requirements that go along with it.
"Looks like Microsoft may finally have some competition for the optical IntelliMouse."
As the Apple mouse has only one button is not suitable for a PC or Linux on PPC for that matter. However it is a very comfortable mouse, I played with it at MacWorld.
Contextual menus IIRC, the first use of extensive contextual menus in an application was Netscape 2 where it actually made sense. Their workaround for the mac was to make you hold down the signle button for a second, to reveal the "right click" menu. This is an inconvenient alternative. The Mac way of doing things at the time would have been to make all objects, every little graphic, selectable and you'ld choose an action from a menu in the main menubar. A Palette indexing every object on the page would have been another Mac-ish way of providing right menu functionality. (Think CAD apps)
To date, the browser is the only application that I wish I had two mouse buttons on my Mac and it is the only application I really appreciate having more than one button on my PC running Linux. (I like mac keyboard shortcuts for copy & paste) Windows feels like it forces it on you.
Scroll Wheels are great, but... I'ld like to see a keybord integerating a scroll wheel so I don't have to shift my hand to far to get to it. I could it see it replacing my PageUp, PageDown, Home and End keys.
...just my 2 cents, err I'm a Mac user, make that 1 cent:)
While feeling somewhat guilty that I'm putting ideas in kids heads that perhaps shouldn't be there; here's what seems to me is an obvious AND simple workaround:
Use a FREE ISP! Since this is about AOL, nearly all involved are running Windows and should have no problem installing one of the many free ISPs out there. - There are even a few that work with Linux.
Want your own private environment? If you have a shiney new PC with a > 15 Gig HD, who'll notice if you hack off a Gig? Install Linux, boot from a floppy (don't install LILO, silly) and you've got your haven...
Clever kid, demonstrates impressive hacking prowess for one so young but has yet to learn the guiding priniciple to everything truly brilliant - KISS.
I mentioned the idea of an official "Linux inside" logo as a mind-share building mecahnism for PDAs and other embeded Linux systems to Maddog at The Bazaar. He liked the idea, however he did raise a question that I have not seen answered: Didn't the guy who created the classic tux image we so love and admire, never release it to the public domain or any other institution. To the best of his knowledge, the artist wanted to be given credit in exchange for its use.
What's the status of the copyright on the classic tux logo? Are we all conveniently using it without proper ackowledgement?
This is a problem for any institute that would incorporate the classic tux image into a logo and try to make money off of dictating its use.
I still think LI has not realized it's full potential in being an apolitical authoritative body to promote Linux. Leading some sort of effort in linux branding can give them a revenue stream too.
Just my $0.02
GPL'd for Linux only - What are they thinking?
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"One thing that's odd - This only applies to Tripwire for Linux."
That's kinda pointless, once you release the source (w/ GPL) it will only be hours, maybe days until it's ported to all popular platforms.
A lot of bandwith efficiency increases will probably come from the use of better data compression before transmission. If you go from 2:1 compression to a 4:1 compression algorithm for a particular application - you then have twice the effective bandwidth.
With very powerful processors becoming cheaper and smaller (and low powered i.e. Crusoe) I can see a time where voice conversations are mp3-like encoded in real time before being transmitted from our phones.
Data packets will have their own lossless compression, etc. - Just as analog modems used integrated compression to speed up landline communication, similiar technologies will allow better use of the same bandwidth.
I've had this idea for a while, knew someone would eventually come along and do it. So here's my version of the dream component:
(1) A CD player and software to allow you to rip & encode all your CDs just by popping them in and pressing one button. (CD player of course can also be used to play Plain Old CDS and MP3CDs)
(2) Digital output for modern amps would provide noise free sound and 190 kb/s encoding gives you decent enough quality.
(3) Embedded Linux on a SansDisk and space for two 2.5" laptop drives would give you a nice quiet player. - and making it user upgradeable means you can double your players capacity every couple years. (A 10 GB drive for starters should allow for over 100 CDs)
(4) NTSC output for enhanced on screen menu based music selectoins and categorization. (No X server though as that would be overkill)
(5) Builtin streaming server for whole house music. (Assuming you have Cat 5 going to every room:) - Your kids will no longer each need their own copy of the same CD. This may require the server to restrict streaming the same song to two different clients simoultaneously to avoid any legal hassles.
(6) Enough RAM to cache the songs being played to HD access doesn't cause interrupts. (64 MB should be more than enough to allow local play + 5 streams at 190 kb/s)
(7) Front mounted USB port to allow download of MP3s to handheld devices.
(8) HTTP server for remote browsing of song selection with option to allow download/upload of files from remote source with module to sync file uploads to main CD database. (You may have to make this option a "hack" to allow yourself some protection from lawsuits that will probavly ensue anyway.)
(9) CDDB access as well as on screen/IR remote title entry for those not savvy enough to network the thing.
When someone builds one of these I'll be their first customer. - Anyone want to collaborate on making this the first open source and open design consumer product?
If I recall digital projection of movies has been discussed here before and those who've personally seen the digital StarWars have reported that the artifacts become glaringly obvious when projected across a 50 foot screen.
More than anything it's the studios wanting to (a) do anything for a little extra attention in differentiating their film (b) save lots of money on the very expensive celluloid film.
Wanna pay $20 for a movie ticket because the theatres have to upgrade thier equipment every couple years while the technology evolves? Anyone else in favor of a boycott of this ridiculous PR stunt? If they lose money on the stunt a few times maybe they'll wait until the technology is ready before shoving it into theatres and at our wallets...
Just my $0.02
P.S.> CmdrTaco: It's not a Terabyte, they say the movie is 50 GB. If the movie is 2 hours long then the playback rate is on the order of 7MB/s - that video hardware is more impressive than the download time.
I know this has been said here within the context of other posts but as it keeps coming up again and again it seems to warrant emphasis. People don't seem to understand the foundation of Antitrust law.
Typical Defense of MS:
But MS didn't do anything illegal, they didn't do anything anything that isn't common business stategies applied frequently by other companies"
The Bottom Line:
What they have done is NOT illegal for most companies, but IS illegal for a monopoly. When you are a monopoly you must play by a different set of rules than everyone else in the industry. The Double Standard (tm) is NOT some anti M$ crusade. It IS the LAW. - A law that's been around a lot longer than Monsieur Gates has walked this planet.
Please, if you want to defend M$, whether you genuinally beleive their innocent or just enjoy playing devil's advocate, please, please come up with something more creative than "they did nothing wrong".
Slashdot Mirror
What difference would it make if AMD or Intel introduced a totally new processor (non-x86 compatable) or if you just had a look around at what other options are already available today?
The PowerPC is very nice processor. IIRC, IBM has released open "PC like" MB designs based on the PowerPC - with an invitation for anyone to manufacture them. Any takers so far?
Unfortunately, giving up on x86 binary compatability is still considered to big a risk for PC/MB producers. Even us open source OS users recognize that there will be that occasional binary driver or commercial software that we need to run and it's only available for x86.
Ever see NetBSD on a G4 cube? I did at Comdex/LBE and it's nice, reportedly much faster than equivalent Pentiums but expensive...
Better stuff is already out there, but it's the old cliche of BetaMax vs. VHS - the product with mass market appeal will continue to reign.
A small correction but perhaps notable:
Last year the Linux Business Expo was not in the main hall as the author suggests (that would include both the north hall and south hall of the Las Vegas convention center) but in the Hilton Hotel next door. This year, we were in the more distant Sands hotel. This positioning sucked - at least from my standpoint in the LinuxFund.org booth in the ".org" area sponsored by LinuxMall - but I don't think it was meant to in anyway marginalize the Linux Co's.
I think Linux received far more floor space at the Sands than it did last year in the Hilton. Perhaps with more companies looking to be a part of LBE and more of them buying the large "pavillion" type floor space areas complete with seats for presentations and even a boxing ring, - the Hilton didn't have the floor space the LBE wanted so it was moved.
The end result, we got about half the traffic we did last year. Others I spoke to agreed. Last year many Comdex attendees did not realize that there was a deidcated Linux Expo just next door, and were excited to check it out when they learned that "Linux" (some new fangled thing the market was excited about)was there for their exploration. We were not able to draw that crowd in this year when we were a shuttle bus ride away.
Here's the upside for the LBE: - We grew while the rest of Comdex shrunk. Maybe this will allow us to command some floor space actually within the Las Vegas Convention center next year.
1. Hardware (Apple, Intel, etc) 2. OS (MacOS, Linux, Amiga, etc)
Yes... but this separation clearly isn't as cut-n-dry as you make it seem. Apple and MacOS share the same catagory/icon and that is the logical choice since they are very much tied to each other.
3. Software (X, Gnome, KDE, etc)
You are right within the context of "classic" linux/*BSD discussions. However, sometimes you have software that is so tightly linked to a platform that the "hardware" category/icon for that platform may be more appropriate.
Example:
The difference between the two is more subtle then you would allow for consideration in your categorization. One is of interest to anyone who relys heavily on X for day to day fun/work and the other is relatively specific to a narrower group of users.
Whichever... I guess we'll have to leave the decision to the great and wise CmdrTaco
I favor the Apple category for MacOSX related posts.
About a month ago there was a MacOSX article with the BSD demon - the discussion was so Mac centric that it didn't really seem to relate to the common underlying BSD base.
Here's the distinction I would make:
If it's about Darwin, Apple's CLI open source edition of the OS that compiles on various platforms it should be categorized as BSD.
If it is specifically about MacOSX which is tied to proprietary Apple hardware or an application running within that environment - then it is a Apple article.
As for the 'X' option, while I can see it as a contender for this article... I guess because this news is particular to one "minority" platform and less relevent to the larger X user community I would still go with Apple categorization.
You know how some people can where something really loud and it just seems right while on others - they look really stupid?
It's a personality thing. The gear has to fit the character and persona.
What Apple can pull off, not many others can do and come out looking "hip" instead of looking stupid. The Sony Vaio, with it's slim design and durable metal case is the quintasential corporate _and_ stylish notebook. Add rubber and a fold down handle with a loud "VAIO" across the back and you just killed yourself.
Just my take,
Regular CDs that play on today's players are going to be sold for at least another 5 years. The consumer market just won't accept their new 200 CD jukeboxes being obsolete overnight.
So... since they can't get rid of MP3 for another 5 years, why all the effort to come up with a perfect encryption and loose the opportunities here today?
I think all they need is a variation on current encryption schemes (different enough so they can seek protection from the DMCA for "circumvention") that locks your music files to a pass-pharse. That same pass-phrase will be linked to your credit card. Anyone you give your password too will be able to buy music on your account.
Grant it this does nothing to keep people from getting MP3s but it allows them to satisfy a market for online commercial quality music files in a way that doesn't put their product any more at risk for piracy then it already is.
Let's face it, most kids and bootleggers don't care enough about quality that good analog recording equipment won't satisfy them.
RANT ON
The amount of loss due to (quality) analog equipment pales in comparrison to what's lost in your typical 128 bit MP3. In the "old" days when cassettes were "Hi-Fi" - the main problem was tape transport noise of older/cheap units and hiss caused by poor quality tapes/heads. My $200 Kenwood Cassette player doesn't suffer from those problems today. My guess is that after MP3 encoding, 98% of the population couldn't tell the difference between an encoding whos ariginal source was a CD and one whos source was a cassette. (even a recoding I made from CD - I find that recordings I make are often better than those cassettes from the label)
/RANT
Sorry, I thknk this all turned into one long rant. I had a point but it got lost, I just find the lack of sense in the whole matter frustrating...
Assuming ATT is figuring they will know with some degree of certainty when a transaction takes place, as most websites only encrypt the actual ordering phase but not the browsing phase and plan on confronting the e-tailer about that apparent transaction:
- Would it likely be cheaper to incur the overhead of having all browsing at a particular site done via SSL so that ATT would have no clue whether that customer visit resulted in a sale or not?
I think discussion on how they will know about a transaction would be interesting. Also, if they are making their own web hosting customers sign contracts are they going to impose that further downstream with the CheesyHostingCo that signs up hosting customers for $19.95/month?
This is scary. I can only hope that there will be enough resistence from the larger e-tailers by taking actions such as - sending orders to another server on a different network. possibly overseas, to circumvent this absurd (planned) policy - and make it a dismal failure.
MS needs competition on the .NET platform too. Without some competition their DoJ situation as well as public acceptance of .NET is at increased risk. Corel simply makes the next most competitive Office suite on Windows and MS needs it to be on .NET too.
/. have to have something to do with Linux? :)
.NET as a serious alternative to locally installed apps they also need stuff like a half decent drawing and painting programs. MS's own attempts at such programs haven't exactly been well received (understatement) - so who do they turn to?
.NETed.
IMHO, it has _nothing_ to do with Linux. (doesn't everything posted on
Okay, seriously, in order for MS to sell
Adobe? not a chance, it'll be a lond time before their heavy duty apps are
Corel's got the goods. Half decent programs marketed at consumers and seriously in need for some cash infusion and positive PR.
It was probably a no-brainer on both sides.
OFF TOPIC QUESTION:
Does anyone else think that Corel may be rethinking their Linux committment anyway? -- Their distro, rejected by core Linux users, and the OS on the whole still not ready for Mom & Pop systems - has left them with a costly investment that isn't showing any signs of making money in the near future.
Perhaps Eazl/Helix will have more success as the OS will have had more time to mature and begin to approach some semblence of (consumer-level)hardware compatability parity with Win9x by the time they debut their consumer oriented offerings. (usb, ieee1394, "soft" printers, DVD...)
I think the need for MM could be reduced if moderators were given real time feedback of the results of other moderators reading concurrently.
I don't know how many times I've seen a comment that I feel should be rated a 3, mark it up, and by the time I finish reading the other 100+ comments for an article and click the Moderate button, it's now a +5 comment.
Most likely it's not worthy of a +5 but other moderators working concurrently had also decided to +1 it. I know MM is there to take care of this but I think many of us agree that's not very efficient.
PROPOSED SOLUTION:
A Java "real time" moderation interface. It should allow moderators to see "instantly" the results of other moderators.
Configurable options could include:
1) The ability to send on your moderation as soon as you make a selection from the pop-up menu as opposed to waiting for a click on the "moderate" button (which would as now send all your mod at once).
2) If you prefer to wait to the end of your read through of the available comments before submiting your mods, there can be additional feedback in a status bar if a comment you have slated for a mod up (or down) has changed while you were reading other comments.
While I normally prefer that web sites avoid the use of "heavy" things like Java when ever possible, I think we have a worthwhile use for it here. Of course the conventional method could remain an option too.
What do others think?
For most Cell phones today, you have a choice between an ultra compact unit with a shorter battery life and a slightly larger less pocketable design with half its size/mass being the battery itself.
PDA's don't consume nearly as much power as a cell phone (in use). This has allowed Palm to keep their design very slim _and_ have a long battery life too.
What do you do with a hybrid device? Shouldn't is still fit in a suit's breast pocket?
If you give it too large a battery, you reduce it's desireability as a PDA. If you give it too small a battery you're out both your PDA and your phone after a couple extended phone calls...
If we can distribute software for the CueCat, in a way that suits our needs without going through DC - What's to stop Staples or OfficeMax from offering their own software that reads barcodes printed in their catalogs without going through DC?
They're seeing the big picture now... so I think. They screwed up and now they're going to have to fight for their life or go out of business having provided all of North America with free bar code readers.
Those who ask why they're bothering with a few geeks aren't seeing the bigger picture of them allowing "rogue" software to proliferate.
While I agree entirely that we have every right to use the device as we see fit, (I've downloaded various decoders alrready) they ain't going to just let this one go.
Perhaps their TV tech will be the real "killer" app of for them and ordinary bar code reading won't matter a great deal, but I figure them for toast.
QUESTION:
Anyone think of some sort of action to "teach" them a lesson?
-- While normally I would consider the following very unethical, given this companies willingness to use scare tactics against honest legal hackers, I suggest the following:
Every time you see a Radio Shack, stop in and pick up another CueCat. Collect them, discard them, whatever, every geek here that picks one up and doesn't use it (in their intended manner) makes a nick in their bottom line. If we all do it that becomes a major dent.
Hopefully they take note and apologize.
It's easy to see why Intel is taking the road to higher clock speeds even at the risk of (initially) slower performance. It's all too readily evident that joe-sumer (average joe consumer) is hooked on having "more megahertz" in their box.
Intel still dominates the mass market, and I'm sure it's an important lead for them to maintain. Given the recent 1.1 GHz P3 debacle - it's reasonable to assume that their marketing people have told them that they must stay on top of the GHz war even if it's at the cost of better technology.
While it may take some time for the P4 to hit the mass market, that's where it's headed in the long term. (The P4 is not like the PPro that was only intended for use in high end workstations)
Apple tried to transistion the mass market in thier TV ads to thinking in Gigaflops, a better indicator than MHz. - See any store ads pitching Gigaflops recently? neither have I.
Well, Yes, and No.
Darwin, Apple's open source edition of their new operating system is CLI only and is FreeBSD 4.0 "compatable". IIRC, Carmack has ported XFree86 to Darwin, providing your X interface. This is a totally open source option but I see no compelling reason to chose this path over x86 based BSD.
MacOSX is the union of the BSD/mach foundation, Apple's closed source Display PDF GUI, and their Carbon* and Cocoa (Nextstep) APIs. The OSX install CDs will probably not have a CLI only install option.
So... from a kernel/process standpoint the OSX GUI will be separate. From a delivery standpoint, you're probably going to get them both, like it or not, if you install from an OSX CD. Additionally, the option to open an interactive shell is rumored to be an "advanced" install option; the average Mac user never see the CLI.
As for X over Apple's GUI - AFAIK, only Tenon systems has annnounced a commercial X server that fully integrates with Quartz/Aqua (the Apple GUI). It's only a matter of time before someone builds off of Carmack's work and has an OSS X server that runs on top of Quartz/Aqua.
I think it will be a compelling hybrid of classic *nix and GUI. It's not perfect for everyone but for Apple's core markets, Graphical Design and Publishing, this is as good as it gets. Tight integration between display and print, along with Apple's advanced color managment software, makes for a system that fills their niches really, really well.
* Note for those not yet familiar with Apple's OSX: Carbon is the API set all current Mac apps are being written to, and is part of today's MacOS9 as well. Future apps will be written to the "more native" Cocoa. -- Carbon can be thought of doing for OSX what Winelib does for Linux. There will be a Classic Interface as well which will run apps that haven't been "Cabonized". This is basically a VM running OS9 and any apps that have not been updated over the new interface. The Apps and the old OS appear as single process to the underlying system.
The right of assembly like all other rights has its limits. If you are willing to go along with that then reasonable people can have a discussion.
:)
So.. the right to assembly does not all apply to all venues at all times. In fact, the framers of the constitution probably invisioned indoor meetings when they wrote in the "right of the people peaceably to assemble" than massive outdoor gatherings.
Their intent aside, - if you are keeping me from leaving the city by sitting down in a public road then you are violating my rights. The people of Philadelphia (you know, the ones who pay taxes, not the hooligans from VA, CA etc) have decided nearly unanimously that roads are for cars. It is not a protestors right to change that fact by sitting down on the road.
Permits are needed to ensure your right to assemble while also ensuring that you don't lock down the city for eveyone else.
In response the second reply to my comment:
1) No, I did not personally witness arrests, I don't work in the downtown area.
2) Friends who personally witnessed several arrests had no problems with what they saw.
3) If the protestors had been allowed to do what they wanted, they could have caused an indefinite traffic block to motorists in center city. - i.e. no cars would be able to get to highway until they decided to get up.
4) The march that was allowed but not anticipated by motorists because they did not have a permit caused a 2 hour gridlock on some roads that normally take 10 minutes, in heavy traffic, to pass through.
5) Yes, being local does give me a little more info. The local affiliates preempted a lot of network programming to brings us relevent local news. (outside the philly area you would not have had this extended converage)
6) Yes, I do trust our mayor. FYI, I din't even vote for him, but I do beleive him to be sincerely concerned with human right violations. (I voted for his republican opponent
7) He wasn't arrested for talking on a cell phone. It just happened to identify him as the suspected planner of the violent unlawful "protests".
Who's paying for these people's transportation/food/accomadations etc when they come to Philadelpia? Seems to me like they're a bunch of kids who parents are well-to-do hippies who are funding their kids "civil diobedience". One guy complained he only had a 400 calorie meal when he was supposed to have 1800 calories during the 24 hours he was held (this is from an actual interview on local tv with an aresstee) - Poor baby, he's not getting my sypathy. he was probably arrested at about noon and released the next day at the same time with only having received dinner. Isn't that terrible.
I beleive the protestors less then the police. They have an adgenda too.
As a Philadelphian I was vrey pleased with the actions my city and its police dept took during the past week.
"Freedom of Speach" isn't an absolute right; you can be sued for libel, and of course you can't shout the proverbial "fire in the theatre". Similiarly, I think most Americans would argee that the right to assembly does not give you the right to hold hostage a million people by shutting down access routes out of downtown Philadelphia (center city as we call it here), as some protestors did attempt to.
I think the authorities were more than generous in allowing protestors who had intentionally not applied for a permit (to show their so called dissidence) but were willing reasonable enough and could be negotiated with, - to march down a 4 mile stretch of one of the busiest Philly streets, Broad st. They also received full Police protection from traffic that was not expecting to find the street closed.
Most of the protestors who were arrested were not part of an organization with a noble cause. As admitted by several in TV interviews they were there for the sole purpose of disrupting "the event". These scoundrels who would assert that they have a right to block major intersections by overturning dumpsters in the street deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and have clearly overstepped any constitutionally protected rights.
American kids today have a got a lot to learn about political dissidence. Some of the best examples can be seen abroad. Take Natal Sheransnky, a Russian Jew who during the 70s hijacked a plane to bring attention to the plight of Soviet Jewery. He rotted in Jail for about 10 years, but he became a martyr and it benefitted his cause. - and if you think US jails are bad...
My point being, that if you plan on breaking the law to bring attention to your cause (or lack of one) then you must be willing to pay the price - be a martyr. The kids in jail here are a bunch of whining babies. They think that they should be allowed to get away with vandalizing property, assaulting police, and other offenses because they were "protesting"? Boohoo, in Philly we actually enforce our laws.
While there may be stringent demands before the FBI can monitor your e-mail over your cable line, if the FBI gets what they want with Carnivore, the additional protections will be meaningless.
If they have the ability to monitor your cable company's backbone provider and skim through all e-mail to find yours in particular, - they've bypassed the cable companies infrastructure entirely and the requirements that go along with it.
"Looks like Microsoft may finally have some competition for the optical IntelliMouse."
...just my 2 cents, err I'm a Mac user, make that 1 cent :)
As the Apple mouse has only one button is not suitable for a PC or Linux on PPC for that matter. However it is a very comfortable mouse, I played with it at MacWorld.
Contextual menus
IIRC, the first use of extensive contextual menus in an application was Netscape 2 where it actually made sense. Their workaround for the mac was to make you hold down the signle button for a second, to reveal the "right click" menu. This is an inconvenient alternative. The Mac way of doing things at the time would have been to make all objects, every little graphic, selectable and you'ld choose an action from a menu in the main menubar. A Palette indexing every object on the page would have been another Mac-ish way of providing right menu functionality. (Think CAD apps)
To date, the browser is the only application that I wish I had two mouse buttons on my Mac and it is the only application I really appreciate having more than one button on my PC running Linux. (I like mac keyboard shortcuts for copy & paste) Windows feels like it forces it on you.
Scroll Wheels are great, but...
I'ld like to see a keybord integerating a scroll wheel so I don't have to shift my hand to far to get to it. I could it see it replacing my PageUp, PageDown, Home and End keys.
While feeling somewhat guilty that I'm putting ideas in kids heads that perhaps shouldn't be there; here's what seems to me is an obvious AND simple workaround:
Use a FREE ISP! Since this is about AOL, nearly all involved are running Windows and should have no problem installing one of the many free ISPs out there. - There are even a few that work with Linux.
Want your own private environment? If you have a shiney new PC with a > 15 Gig HD, who'll notice if you hack off a Gig? Install Linux, boot from a floppy (don't install LILO, silly) and you've got your haven...
Clever kid, demonstrates impressive hacking prowess for one so young but has yet to learn the guiding priniciple to everything truly brilliant - KISS.
I mentioned the idea of an official "Linux inside" logo as a mind-share building mecahnism for PDAs and other embeded Linux systems to Maddog at The Bazaar. He liked the idea, however he did raise a question that I have not seen answered: Didn't the guy who created the classic tux image we so love and admire, never release it to the public domain or any other institution. To the best of his knowledge, the artist wanted to be given credit in exchange for its use.
What's the status of the copyright on the classic tux logo? Are we all conveniently using it without proper ackowledgement?
This is a problem for any institute that would incorporate the classic tux image into a logo and try to make money off of dictating its use.
I still think LI has not realized it's full potential in being an apolitical authoritative body to promote Linux. Leading some sort of effort in linux branding can give them a revenue stream too.
Just my $0.02
"One thing that's odd - This only applies to Tripwire for Linux."
That's kinda pointless, once you release the source (w/ GPL) it will only be hours, maybe days until it's ported to all popular platforms.
A lot of bandwith efficiency increases will probably come from the use of better data compression before transmission. If you go from 2:1 compression to a 4:1 compression algorithm for a particular application - you then have twice the effective bandwidth.
With very powerful processors becoming cheaper and smaller (and low powered i.e. Crusoe) I can see a time where voice conversations are mp3-like encoded in real time before being transmitted from our phones.
Data packets will have their own lossless compression, etc. - Just as analog modems used integrated compression to speed up landline communication, similiar technologies will allow better use of the same bandwidth.
Either they'll skip about 60 numbers and name IA-64 (whenever it debuts) the "Pentium 64" or they'll go with something new and creative like "Tianium"
I've had this idea for a while, knew someone would eventually come along and do it. So here's my version of the dream component:
:) - Your kids will no longer each need their own copy of the same CD. This may require the server to restrict streaming the same song to two different clients simoultaneously to avoid any legal hassles.
(1) A CD player and software to allow you to rip & encode all your CDs just by popping them in and pressing one button. (CD player of course can also be used to play Plain Old CDS and MP3CDs)
(2) Digital output for modern amps would provide noise free sound and 190 kb/s encoding gives you decent enough quality.
(3) Embedded Linux on a SansDisk and space for two 2.5" laptop drives would give you a nice quiet player. - and making it user upgradeable means you can double your players capacity every couple years. (A 10 GB drive for starters should allow for over 100 CDs)
(4) NTSC output for enhanced on screen menu based music selectoins and categorization. (No X server though as that would be overkill)
(5) Builtin streaming server for whole house music. (Assuming you have Cat 5 going to every room
(6) Enough RAM to cache the songs being played to HD access doesn't cause interrupts. (64 MB should be more than enough to allow local play + 5 streams at 190 kb/s)
(7) Front mounted USB port to allow download of MP3s to handheld devices.
(8) HTTP server for remote browsing of song selection with option to allow download/upload of files from remote source with module to sync file uploads to main CD database. (You may have to make this option a "hack" to allow yourself some protection from lawsuits that will probavly ensue anyway.)
(9) CDDB access as well as on screen/IR remote title entry for those not savvy enough to network the thing.
When someone builds one of these I'll be their first customer. - Anyone want to collaborate on making this the first open source and open design consumer product?
If I recall digital projection of movies has been discussed here before and those who've personally seen the digital StarWars have reported that the artifacts become glaringly obvious when projected across a 50 foot screen.
More than anything it's the studios wanting to (a) do anything for a little extra attention in differentiating their film (b) save lots of money on the very expensive celluloid film.
Wanna pay $20 for a movie ticket because the theatres have to upgrade thier equipment every couple years while the technology evolves?
Anyone else in favor of a boycott of this ridiculous PR stunt? If they lose money on the stunt a few times maybe they'll wait until the technology is ready before shoving it into theatres and at our wallets...
Just my $0.02
P.S.> CmdrTaco: It's not a Terabyte, they say the movie is 50 GB. If the movie is 2 hours long then the playback rate is on the order of 7MB/s - that video hardware is more impressive than the download time.
Typical Defense of MS:
The Bottom Line:
What they have done is NOT illegal for most companies, but IS illegal for a monopoly. When you are a monopoly you must play by a different set of rules than everyone else in the industry. The Double Standard (tm) is NOT some anti M$ crusade. It IS the LAW. - A law that's been around a lot longer than Monsieur Gates has walked this planet.
Please, if you want to defend M$, whether you genuinally beleive their innocent or just enjoy playing devil's advocate, please, please come up with something more creative than "they did nothing wrong".