Or some entity that is unfortunate enough to go through the same experience, forced on them by another entity's assertions. Definitely might help to hon your own rebuttal and/or arguments one day.
This is the best reason for everyone to cache a copy of anything important they reference, as one day, someone will remove it from the web for a variety of reasons. Don't let the revisionist be the only view of what actually happened!
Good post(s) and I agree with you, sorry if it came across oddly or as an attack, that was not my intent. You did indeed provide a solution given the previous post. And I have enjoyed both your posts! I also have recorded this information for future reference on potential off site / online backup companies should anyone I know ever need that service.
$100 1TB drives, and $50 500GB drives fail with amazing alacrity. These are a really bad backup solution. I have owned 4 such drives in the past year and a half or so. Only one still works.
That is NOT what I want to hear, sounds like I have been lucky with my Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB, bought it last year and it is still running strong. I use it every day and move it from machine to machine only occasionally as I can copy files via my home network from servers to desktops as most would expect. Granted I use the USB option, not the Firewire option (my FreeAgent has both bases, one USB and one Firewire), though that should not matter. I plan to start using Firewire when I start working with video more...I sure hope my
experience is better than yours has been.
Thank you for the heads up, guess I better get a SAN and make sure I have backups before I do that just to be on the safe side.
If you're looking for local storage, buy a network SAN; they have them as stand-alone devices with redundant hot-swappable disks now. This is my primary backup
Very nice, I looked at those this last Christmas and plan to get one in the future!
It's also automatically off-site every day. Not many home users will realistically do off-site backups even if they have the hardware to do so. Actually a lot of small and mid-sized businesses have "off-site" backup policies which they get lazy about after a few months too.
Early in my 25+ year career I was a Computer Operator and part of my responsibility included putting 9 Track tapes on a cart, taking them to a car and moving them to another building on a nightly basis. (Ran batch and nightly backups on 5 IBM Mainframes 43xx, 30xx on my own nightly, if others were there, I had called them in because their jobs failed.) Great job, 3 12 hour days on, got paid for 40 hours each week and 4 days off. It was like having a vacation every week. I actually lived on the beach for almost a year 4 days a week and in the city for my job for 3 days a week. Wish more companies would do this as it really gives the employee a GREAT quality of life for those days you are off. In the days of higher gas prices it helps to only have to commute to/from work three times a week. But that is another topic isn't it.
Your statement is right on the money, people do get lazy, I have had off site storage in the past for myself and something always comes up where I delay getting the data off site for days, weeks and months on occasion. Different when it is part of your job, so you do it, but when you are doing it for yourself, it is very easy to get lazy!
As we consume more IT resources the number of workers per resource unit has to fall - or we're going to wind up spending our entire budget on IT. The question for IT workers is whether the amount of IT workers has peaked or not. I don't think it has yet.
Do you include your software and hardware licensing costs in your IT budget. While I think everyone should, I worked for a telco that, when looking at budget for new projects, did not include the mainframe hardware, software and yearly maintenance costs, as "its already paid for..." their words, not mine.
I wonder how many companies are finally looking at their ever increasing server and software costs and switching to open source to reduce that portion of their IT budget?
If I was in charge, you can bet I would be looking there...
I think I would rather get 1TB for $100 or even 500 GB for around $50 per month and not have those $17 per month charges (based on your numbers)...with the 500 GB drive you would be ahead of the game in less than 5 months.
With the external USB hard disks you could buy two and rotate one of them off site periodically.
Plus with this solution, your data is as secure as the place you lock it up and store it. Definitely more secure than any online source.
An inability to run the latest PC game that has 'Direct-X 10' in it's requirements list.
I would suggest you look at it from a more secure perspective. Specifically, until I can run a Windows operating system in a SECURE SANDBOX of my making with either VIM or XEN, just do NOT run Windows, not even for games.
Fortunately the only games that seem to be the biggest issue are Microsoft developed games.
I do NOT want to run Active X, Java, JavaScript, WINE or NDISWrapper. I want to run everything in Linux with Linux specific drivers.
Now with that said, while I have no problems avoiding Active X, Java, WINE and NDISWrapper, I do run a minimum of JavaScript, but only when I have too.
I rarely if ever have problems with viruses, spammers and scammers because I do not use unsafe tools that allow others to control aspects of my session and/or system as those tools, and many Windows apps, do.
And in the few rare occurrence under Linux, the code is NOT proprietary, so I can delve in and figure out why and prevent the problem.
...Just use nautilus to mount it and every application can see it through gvfs and also through a fuse mount in $HOME/.gvfs.
Interesting...will need to play with that...
About Nautilus as much as I like it, I do NOT like that it sometimes will not show me subdirectories and/or files on a USB external hard disk. The same file and / or directory is viewable if I open OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 and than search for the file.
Also I have experienced issues with random empty files...probably a side effect of a large external USB disk drive and the way it is mounted, sleeps and has to spin up before you can save to it. Though this first happened when I had a two files, same filename but two different extensions (.doc and.odt). Just FYI, as the drive still works like a champ! I did not notice the same issues with the Dolphin File Manage which I found interesting. I still prefer Nautilus to Dolphin.
You tend to have more problems on computers with lower memory amounts and no swap space. With my 1 GB RAM 8.10 version of Ubuntu, I run all day without problems. I have also noticed that since I started running Intrepid 8.10 (w/ 1 GB of RAM) that I have not had any additional empty files, though sometimes a.odt file will not show in Nautilus if another file with the.doc extension exists. Same work around, using either OOo 3.0.0 or terminal window, I can see everything just fine.
So far anywhere where I have moved the.doc files to a separate subdirectory and renamed them as I needed them to.odt, but saved the.odt file to a different folder; that the problem does NOT occur. No wonder Linux users get rid of.doc formated files as soon as possible.
^Normally,root has no password so you can't login as root. All you did was give it a pw for the first time. I think it's the/etc/passwd file that just has a blank entry where the root pw would normally be.
remember to create a backup copy of both the/etc/passwd and/etc/shadow files before you make changes...in case you have a problem, you can boot as single user and restore those two files. However once you are sure it works, you should delete those two backups to prevent them from being viewed.
Is the bang in/etc/shadow or/etc/passwd? You can use the cat command to view them to be sure. You remove the bang ! in/etc/passwd and use newpass root to set the password. of course you should have already sudo -i or sudo su so you are root. Check the/etc/shadow file to see that root has a password.
Granted this is NOT the recommended method for Ubuntu as if you use a poor password, it will eventually be guessed if someone starts scanning ports and making BREAK IN attempts. Its scary how fast your password can be brute forced guessed, no matter how fancy you think it is.
Re:I also give the book a 9...I own it
on
Ubuntu Kung Fu
·
· Score: 1
Great post....see what I included below about the superior H.264 FREE CODEC, 1000 fps HD video camera and alternatives to both Microsoft's video player and Adobe's FLASH
I love ubuntu and use both RedHat and Fedora (helps to have learned Unix under Solaris) and planning to install CentOS to learn about it...no favorite distro yet. Give me another year.
I've never had a problem that ubuntuforums.org didn't have the answer to. You have to love it when something you use just has great resources.
Lets be honest the forums are great, but searching for specifics is hardly a slam dunk, wish the search feature would let you both include and exclude certain words as you search... like Dice.com does is a great example to narrow the search process. Yes the forums are great aren't they!
3)bloody wifi!...
WiFi if enabled on the laptop, netbook or PC will work out of the box. But yes adding WiFi to a Linux computer can be a pain. I still have not gotten a N style USB Adapter to work on a Linux PC that has a 10/100/1000 NIC, but no built in WiFi...granted I got sidetracked with 8.10, but that is another story.... Granted the weakness is 1) my lack of configuring WiFi knowledge and 2) my desire NOT to use Windows drivers...ie ndiswrapper.
I have a belkin rt73 usb which is good, use serialmonkey's drivers and its fine except when those drivers don't compile for the kernel...So I bought a linksys usb and it has the same bloody rt73 chipset!!!
Boy am I learning about this the hard way. I have some old IBM PCs at 667 mhz, they are almost 3 times faster than the Cable / Satellite DVD Recorder / Player set top boxes. And I will get one of them to be a custom Linux DVD Recorder / Player...lol, I even want to get fiber working as my LG HD TV has a fiber port in addition to an HDMI and RGB port on the back...interesting. However finding a BIOS that will allow me to install the $30 worth of 1 GB SIMMs on that PC has not been possible yet (I might have to help the open source BIOS project as I would like a BIOS that caters to Linux rather than a BIOS that caters to Microsoft anyway.) I am amazed at how many companies use the same mother boards and the same chip sets. So your post is right on the money....
I love ubuntu and I am glad that they ported Pulse Audio in 8.10, even though it does not work out of the box for everyone...at least there is hope of watching a video, playing the radio at the same time. And if you know one intsrument, you can create a symphony mimacing other instruments until you have a whole orchestra...would suck if you the multiple streams did not play correctly because either ALSA or OSS did not let you play more than one audio stream at a time. Heck, I hope to be able to answer my Skype VoIP phone at the same time as music is playing eventually...of course there the fault appears to lie in Skype directly coding to a lower level than it should...shame that ALSA, OSS and Pulse Audio developers have to put up with crap like that from hardware companies that are only focused on themselves or Microsoft. After spending a week going through the forums, every hack that works for others has not worked for me and many others...so Linux (all versions) needs some improvements with Plug and play with Sound cards, Graphic Adapters, etc... (And windows fans, don't get me started, as I had been a DOS user since 2.0 and a Windows user since the beginning, boy have I seen my share of problems with device drivers and windows over the years...)
So sound is another issue that works and than stops working from one release to the next and based on what I have read in the forums over the holidays, this has been a problem for the last 10 years...if sound works for you, you are golden, however if it does not you will have to learn and work with it. While I do not mind this, it makes it difficult for new novice users. Still worth the effort. Fort
And the real bitch of it all? FF has decided to update itself on older machines without ever asking me first. I was told by most OSS fanatics that only Microsoft does that. WTF?
I am using FF 3.0.5 and it DOES NOT auto update unless I want it too. You can still set FF to avoid this. The same can NOT be stated for most, if not all Microsoft products, including I.E.
This is the reason I stopped using Windows as an operating system also, mid way through Windows 2000, you could set it to NOT update without approval but it would update anyway.
Even if Microsoft changed this so that you could control it again, I would never go back to Microsoft as they have lost my trust.
Often I have to use Microsoft in my business setting, only because I am NOT given a choice. Which is the only reason I have experience with XP that has shown me that nothing changed...it auto updates as well.
I am constantly amazed at how many people do NOT monitor their network, and are unaware of their loss in control over their desktop until a problem occurs.
If you are not in control of your data and your IT infrastructure, you could be put out of business when an update fails or software fails the authorization process due to multiple hardware changes. This business RISK is too high IMO.
You can tell me it is unlikely, but you CAN NOT tell me it is impossible, as others have found out to their chagrin.
As an IT Manager I prefer to let my employees use the desktop environment that will make them the most productive for the company, even if it is Microsoft or MacIntosh. Whenever possible I allow Linux as an option as well, sadly I am not always given the same option.
Its just that I have seen too many people defending (making excuses 200Kbps is broadband, yea right, for) ISPs, telcos on issues such as bandwidth CAPs (Comcast, Frontier, 5 GB cap, Time Warner), Traffic shaping (Comcast, Time Warner), censoring TCP/IP traffic(Sprint did years ago); not increasing their bandwidth by building out their networks (every current US telco and ISP) as they have promised; charge per message, per anything rather than just providing us the bandwidth we are paying for.
While I agree they should NOT have offered unlimited bandwidth, they did (not anymore - so they can be taught) AND
If they say that I have access to 10MB down and 4 MB up, than why am I only getting 2 - 4MB down and 700Kpbs up...supposedly I am paying for more.
It's not the size of the cap, its the fact of a CAP!
Basically the telcos, ISPs, our politicians (both parties) have been playing us for fools for way too long AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT. (We need to hold them accountable with our money and our votes)
I just feel a need to educate enough people, hoping that they will get as fed up with the status quo and hopefully insist on what we all deserve...better service, more bandwidth and honest representation.
I hope that if enough us wake up to the truth of the situation (which requires cutting through the lies people use to defend these entities), one company will act. If one company acts (my hopes are that a new player will take advantage of Googles new trans ocean cables and offer here in the US what they have in Japan. (Japan-envy when it comes to Internet connectivity and respect of other people.)
The first company to offer 100 Mbps / 100 Mbps at what I am paying now for 4 Mpbs / 700Kbps will find me to be a loyal customer for life. And with less than 40% of the high speed interent marketplace, they would be able to generate multiple billions in profits.
That same company would be in a position to offer 1 Gbps / 1 Gbps as they are now in Japan also.
Eventually someone will; that company will put every existing telco and ISP to shame. (These customer no service entities should be ashamed.) My hope is at that time every other telco will be hurt so bad that either they finally invest in their infrastructures, or if they continue to refuse to do the right thing, that they be put out of business via normal market practices.
Though some companies are starting to wake up to the reality they have created (customer no service) and starting to do things...here is one attempt by Comcast, (7 employees in Philadelphia), its a start, but will they implement this company wide...that combined with whole hearted efforts to build out fiber and actually start providing TRUE customer service and they might stand a chance. Note: If a company is not seriously interested in changing their ways, they should NOT only TRY. This is NOT an area to try, this is an AREA THEY MUST DO! Anything less than 100% commitment will only hurt them!
Personally once I switch to a new provider with that amount of bandwidth, I will NEVER look back. If enough other people do likewise, the existing oligopolies will falter and suffer.
Might be worth putting into my will that any family member that uses any of the other ISPs or telcos will be dis-inherited just to drive the point home.
Man...I'm sure glad I grew up in a time when cops and people weren't so uptight about crap like this. Back then...the cop knocked on the window...and you had to scramble to get clothed...and leave. Sure, he got a good peek or two, but, no one got booked or went to jail.
I was with my catholic college aged girlfriend (we were both in college) visiting her family for Thanksgiving break...lots of brothers and sisters...they were great!
We slipped away to a park near her house, were partially undressed when the officer knocked his night-stick on the window. It took us a while to re-arrange our clothing before we got out of the car, he checked our IDs, knew her family and said what would the good sisters at (name-of-her-catholic school here) say if they could see you now. Needless to say the embarrassment was enough to cool our jets for the rest of the trip, at least until we got back to college, back to our dorm room / apartment. Scary to thing such an innocent scenario could get a young man or young woman labeled for life and ruin their lives.
Hell, even as a teen, I got pulled over and had had a bit to drink. The cop saw I was near home, and got my friend to drive us the next few blocks, and warned us not to be out again that night, or he'd bust us.
Think any common sense like that would fly today? Not a chance...
Have heard more than one story of childhood and high school friends getting pulled over and only lectured before the officer let someone sober or someone less intoxicated drive them home. None of them are alcholics, none of them have killed or raped anyone, more than one of them have told me that they were lucky. Helps to have the right officer, the right judge, the right attorney (either side) so that the punishment fits the crime.
Heck I was more scared that my family, my father would find out about something I did...I would have rather faced the judge. And not because he would have beat me to a pulp either (though if bad enough I might have felt his belt on my behind) but rather because I never wanted to see my father look upon me with disappointment in his eyes. (Probably because I was never beaten, a beating sounded better, I am sure the reality would have been quite different).
It means people who raped others, or abused others.
It means people who were accused of rape or abuse and couldn't defend themselves.
It means 23-year-olds who were caught sleeping with their 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend.
It means 18-year-olds who were caught sleeping with their 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend.
It means 17-year-olds who took photographs of themselves naked, to send to their 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend.
It means 17-year-olds whose 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend, unasked, took pictures of themselves naked and sent them.
It means people who were driving cross-country late at night, couldn't find a public bathroom, stopped off behind a bush at 3am in the morning, and were arrested for "public indecency".
Fall into any of the above categories? You're already shunned for life, and now, you'll have to turn over all the keys to your privacy to a bunch of government workers. But don't worry, I'm sure the well-paid honorable government employees wouldn't dream of breaching the privacy of a bunch of sex offenders.
That could never happen.
You hit the nail on the head here. Anyone who molests a baby and/or child, IMO, you can shoot them and society would be better off. The problem is the definition of child. At 15 with my 18 year old girl friend, leave me alone. And at 16 with her 19, again, leave me alone....etc, etc...
Many would have arrested my girlfriend, simply because she was 18, never mind that we started dating when I first turned 15 and she was already 17 and did not have sex until just shy of a year later. (For those of you who think she should have been arrested, this is why I never told anyone and I would certainly not have told you! If I were your child, you have obviously lost the war even if you win that battle as you have lost my trust and I would NEVER talk to you again about anything...as soon as I was 18 I would have left you cold and never looked back!)
These issues are hardly black and white, and too many conservatives have a problem with the gray areas. I do not and my preference for judges are those that use the brain they have and apply the law appropriately to the situation. Mandatory sentencing is simply wrong.
So for me, 15 is old enough if the person you are having sex with is in your peer group, however, 14 is not. That is my arbitrary cross to bear. And this runs against laws in at least two states where a person can be married younger than 15. That magic word "marriage" and morality is somehow placated...please.
As usual, the devil is in the details and one persons hell is another person's heaven.
Personally I think people need to stay out of other peoples business as long as another person is NOT being harmed.
Can we legislate morality, sure we can, the intelligent question is should we? I think not.
P.S. Do NOT get me started about the teenager who lied to me, told me she was 18, when I was 21, I believed her. We dated for over a month before something she said simply did not add up and I finally got her the truth out of her, that she was 15. I had no choice but to drop her like a hot potato due to her age alone, however I did NOT like the fact that it hurt her. Thank goodness I was not one to rush into sex at that stage of my life or I might have ended up in a compromising position. The whole month I was in her home, she was in my home, never saw her parents who traveled and obviously trusted her enough to leave her on her own. Another reason I assumed she was 18, her parents were in Europe and she was in the US on her own.
I feel very sorry for the people who get lied to as I did, have sex with someone that is under the age of consent for their state, say 15 or 16; the parents find out and press charges. As a 17 year old teenager to get saddled with the label sex offender and have it follow you forever is simply pathetic and should NEVE
Their is a school in Phoenix called UAT (University of Advancing Technology). Really cool place, also really expensive.
They have a similar policy. Students are allowed (encouraged) to crack into the machines. They are allowed to change the website (not de-deface it...think more like "blhack was here, happy tuesday!" hidden in the bottom or something) as long as they don't break anything and they show the admins how they did it.
High Schools really need to implement this. Intelligence needs to be encouraged, not punished.
Very smart on their part to allow the students to learn by doing.
Who would you rather hire to provide security to your company's network, someone who has studied it or someone who has actually made the attempts and tried to do it. More rhetorical than an actual question, thus no question mark.
Me I would want the one who learned by doing, another reason to avoid paper tigers (i.e. certifications) unless a company is paying for it that is.
I would have no hesitation hiring hackers...now crackers, we would have to sit down and have a conversation as loyalty is important if the life blood of your business is on the line.
Your post made me smile and laugh...mostly at myself...thanks!
About:
Add to the fact that soon Japan will have 1TB up and 1 TB down"
Sounds like you have japanenvy. 1TB? Do you mean per second? --
I guess they will have to finish installing their 1 Gbps / 1 Gbps (no wonder they can charge less than $55 per month for this level of bandwidth; industry expert... $1 per 2 GB, thus.50 cents per GB is too MUCH offering before they get up to 1 TB / 1 TB, considering the power of lasers to multiplex light and expand bandwidth on the same strand of fiber, instead of 1 TB, it would be X 1,024, so just a little bit higher than 1 TB, unless someone figures out a way to apply Moore's law to lasers, fiber and light, than perhaps more....
Great post! I too can read it faster than they can say it.
As for:
What harddrive's capable of delivering that much to one person, let alone um... more than one person? For backbone speed maybe, but into peoples homes, that's just silly. Who's saying they're going to offer 1TB lines? I'm quite interested in what they're saying they're offering it for.
None that I am aware of and as internet TV takes off and HD TV's increase their resolution as is already predicted. (Check out Vision Research's Phantom HD, 2048 x 1080 @ 1,000 frames-per second HD Camera; who wouldn't want to watch a film at 1000 frames per second if they were given the option, considering we are use to 24 fps today. While 1000 FPS might be further out there, rates higher than 30 fps are coming soon, even 60 fps would give a better resolution than 24 or 30...and if like me you have a HD 1020p TV you would see a better image the higher the resolution.
One research firm suggested that video consumption would expand by 650% by 2011 to 7800 terabytes/day. Video uploads will grow from 500K / day to 4,800K per day in 2011...a very significant and huge increase in bandwidth.
Will the random (how random was it...what do they know that they have not bothered to tell the consumer) 250 GB ISP bandwidth cap be limiting at that point? My guess is yes considering that our current internet offerings would have problems streaming two signals while recording a third today at only 24 fps or 30 fps....
It will be interesting to see how various hardware companies attempt to overcome the many constraints (bottlenecks) between our hi speed modems and our CRT screens.... A lot of nasty little bottlenecks in between those two points, including to/from the hard drives.
...nasty little bottlenecks, not all alike...
I plan to start experimenting with a fiber LAN in my home for one part, granted I have not priced out fiber cable and fiber NICs yet....so that might be yet another issue.
Whoa! Those are some steep caps dude! Maybe you skiped something, like per second?
[/UnitNazi]
Caps, NO CAPS! (... watched Independence Day again) No compromise is acceptable here!
If the companies in question had built out their infrastructures with the additional taxes and fees legislatures allotted them (Why have U.S. customers paid an estimated $200 billion in higher services rates and tax breaks for fiber-optic networks they never received?) for that specific purpose, we would not be having this exchange today, nor would there be a need for the farce that are bandwidth caps or per message charges on text messaging and the other BS we are told by companies in order to gouge us for more money. They do us no favors and provide even poorer service!
Now in Japan, since they wisely built out their fiber infrastructure years ago, are starting to offer 1GB / 1GB (for less than $55 per month) synchronous bandwidth to customers homes.
And what is wrong with Win2K? I have many SOHO and SMB customers that have stuck by Win2K Pro,because of one simple fact:it works. Win2K is IMHO the best business OS MSFT ever made. It is light on resources, fast and responsive on just about any hardware made in the last decade, and is rock solid stable.
Nothing is wrong with it, I loved Windows 2000, however when the third party application I loved, required me to update my operating system, before it would continue to install I saw the writing on the wall.
Fortunately, this time, I was able to use my laptop from work (OS was current, a version of XP) to install the 3rd party graphics application to a USB thumb drive. The install process attempted to make me believe I could not force that issue, so I installed it to a folder of my own making on the laptop's hard drive and copied the entire folder to the thumb drive. Ran just find either from the thumb drive or when I copied the folder to my Windows 2000 PC.
But that was a wake up call for me.
That was a very happy heads up for me...the quality of open source applications is phenomenal now compared to years ago. Any application you need for business is there and robust enough for any business no matter how intricate and how big. You do your business a disservice if you do not re-evaluate on a regular basis, these open source offerings. Heck there are over 500 CMS - Content Management Systems out there....
I replaced that third party application that I had been using for over a decade (and was very happy with) with a superior open source graphic product. Wow was I surprised it was that good.
I installed a Linux version on my desktop which had a newer version of Openoffice.org (OOo) Writer than my Asus Eee PC. Encountered problems with documents that already had working URLs and Graphics. Upgraded that computer to OOo v3.0 which not only took care of the problems but ran much smaller than the version 2.x versions of OOo that I had been working.
Linux is my share point. Being able to copy anything into and out of my Word Processor, spreadsheet, or Slide show software has been a huge plus also!
I personally think the era of the 3 year upgrade cycle is over. Folks will just buy a netbook or a cheap laptop for when they wish to be mobile and keep their "old reliable" desktop just where it is
As my example shows, your statement was NOT true for me. You are forced into failure due to agreements between Microsoft and Third parties (both hardware and software vendors are guilty of this) when you upgrade a needed software product or device driver.
Hint: Make sure your motherboard and BIOS (yes at the BIOS level) will work with your Operating system (Linux) to avoid problems. I was shocked to learn that the two main BIOS vendors were willing to modify their BIOS specifically for Microsoft. (Problems with the motherboard not sensing temperatures correctly therefore not running fans at appropriate times to cool off the computer was at the heart of the issue, when more knowledgeable people than I went in and looked at the code, there were sections for specific versions of Microsoft OS (Windows 2000, XP, ME, even Vista), but not for other operating systems (Mac OS and Linux). It is so bad that the open source group coding their own BIOS for public use finds it simpler for their BIOS to think Linux is a Microsoft OS rather than customizing it for Linux specifically. I personally found this telling. The only exception being for higher priced mother boards, evidently they do NOT want to piss off the hard core gurus that purchase more expensive mother boards and are willing to beef up their BIOS for the more expensive motherboards. (I have not tried to verify this statement.) There have recently been articles on slashdot about this.
Moral of the story: know your hardware, BIOS and adapters that are mission critical work with Linux BEFORE you buy any of it. And o
IMO trying to force people into subscriptions and/or pay by the hour is likely to cause many people to like you say screw it and either take the pain of moving to alternatives or stick with old versions (many are doing that anyway) and pirate extra copies if they can't get them legally.
I wish you were right, but history shows us that Microsoft will not stop until they get this pay as you go model. They tried it years ago with their MYM app, trying to get a fraction of a cents on every transaction. At least this is the first time I remember them going after that (transaction or monthly fees). Was that a decade a go now? (Funny aside: I remember thinking that Quicken would reign supreme; of course that was before Quicken forced an update that modified the data format...the update failed and when CPA's attempted to revert back to the old format, where prevented. If you did not have a back up of your data you were screwed...little did I know it would be a sign of future things to come.)
Microsoft sees the future, their strangle hold on the desktop slipping. I remember when the IT shop I was working in moved away from Novell, Warp and eventually Lotus Notes with the reason, we have Microsoft of the desktop, may as well have it on the servers also. As another poster mentioned, they are experts at marketing, extending and replacing competition. (A major difference in the past is this led to cost savings, but not anymore, now it costs a company more, more and more...)
Realizing that they cannot add enough new features to make an upgrade financially worthwhile to anyone (including businesses) forever, they have repeatedly attempted to force the market to move to a pay per month and/or pay for usage business model. They want it per desktop, per application, per operating system, if they could they would probably want to be able to charge for bandwidth the way telcos are charging for text messages. They do this through auto upgrades; through software compliance checks; they have even successfully gotten other software vendors and hardware vendors to REQUIRE you to update your operating system before you use their products. (The fact that they eventually extend and replace these vendors, like anti-virus software vendors today, is simply IRONIC.). (Note to other companies: this is the BEST reason for you to provide a superior software product that will work on other operating systems in order to diversify and survive...ignore this at your own peril as WordPerfect did and many, many, many other companies who came and went before you and are currently no longer operating. Even with open source you can provide applications and charge for support as many are doing today successfully...business love to pay monthly and annually for support, so go for it!)
In my opinion, this is the future for anyone insisting to use any proprietary operating system or application in the future. Pay monthly or we turn you off.
Smart businesses that want to insure that they have 100% control of their business infrastructures (desktops, servers and web servers) are migrating now thanks to the Vista boondoggle, it remains to be seen historically if extending XP and expediting Windows 7 will save them or if the move away from proprietary to open source will continue.
Regardless of the outcome, Microsoft will be around for decades to come as many IT environments will pony up the monthly and annual fees rather than switching....
Despite this patent I don't think MS is suicidal enough to make subscriptions/pay by the hour the only option.
Though IIRC MS is trying to use the carrot of lower prices and other side benefits to tempt corporations and academic institutions into subscriptions deals that they then become basically stuck with.
Not suicidal, but rather from Microsoft's perspective a matter of survival. Expect more attempts at a pay as you go system from them in the future.
Reminds me of a security company that issued a hacking / cracking challenge somewhere between 3 and 8 years back, no way could I find this article...perhaps one of your./ will provide a link...
The company offered over $10,000.00 for not only hacking and cracking their server, but showing the company how they did it.
If memory serves (and it sometimes does not) they paid out the first and second years of the challenge, but in year three no one successfully broke into their web server environment.
I believed they kept eliminating modules that had holes and were not needing and closing holes in modules that were needed.
Based on what I read, they were able to 100% successfully secure their web servers from attacks only because they were using Linux as the OS.
I remembered comparing their results with others attempts with other operating systems and really wanting to learn Linux.
Now that I am using Unix and Linux and have a better understanding of what they were doing I can see the simple genius in such challenges.
Whether just for security or for scouting talent, whatever their reasons, its money well spent when they offer cash prizes to the few that are successful!
On the contrary, it is the very essence of a commodity in the economic sense of the term: one ISPs bandwidth is as good as another (at least for now) but there is only so much available.
And this is my fault why?
They should have been building out their infrastructures since 1996, but they have not...and we have been paying additional fees and taxes here in the US for the build out that has NOT occurred.
Until the current ISPs and telcos provide fiber in the end mile as they have in Japan since 2000 and before (100 MB up and 100MB down stream) I really do NOT want to hear their excuses.
Oh yes, it costs less than $.50 per MB to provide those fiber connections up and down in Japan, so do NOT raise my bill with additional excuses of longer fiber runs.
Add to the fact that soon Japan will have 1TB up and 1 TB down...thanks to their foresight at building out their fiber offerings + government intervention and enough said.
You have had years to build out your networks. You have FAILED even when we paid additional money in fees and taxes for you to do just that. Enough is enough.
Stop ripping us off and give us what you owe us.
Give us what we have been paying for (most of us have been promised unlimited for years yet you throttle us down to less than 1 MB...please...
Any comments by any ISPs, telcos and/or their supporters should fall on DEAF ears by us (citizens), by our elected officials (or we vote them out) for the sake of of technological future.
Stop selling us down the river, step up, honor your promises and provide us the service you have promised but failed to deliver on!
I would pay a small amount of money per game, to be able to play some of the old arcade games (Missile Command; Joust; Robotron, Gauntlet II; Defender on my linux computer. I wish those companies would come out with Linux compatible versions...or perhaps they already exist...I admit that I have NOT looked.
Note: I do NOT want to load WINE or any other required-to-work with other operating system process or application on my Linux box. Either it runs in Linux or I simply do NOT want to play it. Why emulate another operating system and slow my system down...no thank you, I would rather not play that game.
I really loved the way Apache (and Apache II - Helicopter game on the MacIntosh II and MacIntosh IISE computers) and Battlezone (DOS) games made you feel like you were flying through the screen. Always wanted to be surrounded by monitors that would give me a 360 degree view as I flew around. One day....
War/Empire, the version I am thinking of is the really old original one from the IBM mainframe / TSO user days. It was far from fancy, just a pixel and a 50/50 shot at winning any battle. However apply that to multiple planets via the internet and a game server and wow...I played one where you had clans and cities that you built online in a world with my sons last Christmas, it was fun...and granted we used my Asus Eee PC to play it, so the operating system, graphics adapter, sound, etc... did not matter.
Anyone else know of some games for Linux where you fly a tank (i.e. like BattleZone), fly a plane or jet or helicopter (i.e. like Apache and Apache II) and it actually feels like you are flying visually...those are the ones I like!
The peer around a corner and shoot games bore me. But let me fly a vehicle and okay, lets go...lol. Any for Linux?
Good post and I hope that you are right as it looks like we are going this route with the new administration â" like it or not.
Two situations that come readily to mind that will cause nationalized health care to fail IMO: organ transplants and expensive surgeries...
any type of nationalized health care must depend on more than just our tax dollars...
Since the money we earn is ALREADY TAXED ONCE, I do not accept any system, like our current system, where we are taxed a second, third, fourth and fifth time...
Obvious problems would be corrupt politicians...
There should be NO SUCH thing as a PRE-EXISTING CONDITION.
This level of funding can never be reached by tax dollars alone! NEVER. Tax dollars + investment is the ONLY way!
Everyone learns at an early age that if you store up (save) when times are good for bad times (that eventually always come) that you have stability over the long term.
Our economy would already be pumping if they gave our tax dollars back to us instead of propping up failing businesses...
Another way to tell if your elected official is corrupt,...
Elected office was NEVER meant to be a full time job...
Please show me how or why "government health care is bound to fail", or, alternatively, have a look at actual data.
I cannot show you how it will fail and if we go down that road here in the US as it appears we are about to do, I sincerely hope it will not fail. Sadly our government is already failing as our founding fathers knew it might if people started voting themselves benefits. (Don't get me started on lobbyists.)
Two situations that come readily to mind that will cause nationalized health care to fail IMO are:
1) organ transplants, where people literally die waiting for an organ. In fact many individuals come from other countries to the US to secure an organ, because they are unable to live long enough in their home country until an organ is available. No need for me to cite, as I have read more than 4 articles of this type over the last year alone and it is not a new problem, you can search it. (Normally I would cite and include links, but I am in a hurry today, so sorry.)
2) very specialized and expensive surgeries (don't have a list of the types of surgeries, but have read articles of this type over the last year as well. Seems the best specialist in many areas can be found here in the US, where they have the opportunity to earn enough money to justify the significantly longer education (4+ to 8+ more years than a general physician â" already 6 years more than a Bachelors degree) and earn enough money to afford the more expensive mal-practice insurance. If a doctor goes to school for 10 years, that should be worth something more than me if I only go to school for four years. Also a surgeon, is it longer than 41 â" 18 years of school?, should be worth even more. If the reward is NOT there, than why would I want to do that work? Think self-actualization, this is NOT the Federation, wish it were! LOL, Money would have no value!
IMO opinion, to be successful any type of nationalized health care must depend on more than just our tax dollars (though I believe the FairTax would produce significantly more revenue while costing individual citizens less as it taxes currently untaxed but real underground economies in the US). Tax dollars alone as our current situation show will always fall short. If not by a down economy, than by an ever expanding appetite by our politicians (who are often driven by us, the citizens of the US).
I believe that a certain amount of our TAX money should be (heres the dirty word) "invested" for SOLELY that use. (It should be considered TREASON, punishable, fineable, jailable and possibly put in prison for life if violated...therefore no elected politician would DARE as they did with Social Security.) If the m
Slashdot Mirror
Or some entity that is unfortunate enough to go through the same experience, forced on them by another entity's assertions. Definitely might help to hon your own rebuttal and/or arguments one day.
This is the best reason for everyone to cache a copy of anything important they reference, as one day, someone will remove it from the web for a variety of reasons. Don't let the revisionist be the only view of what actually happened!
Good post(s) and I agree with you, sorry if it came across oddly or as an attack, that was not my intent. You did indeed provide a solution given the previous post. And I have enjoyed both your posts! I also have recorded this information for future reference on potential off site / online backup companies should anyone I know ever need that service.
$100 1TB drives, and $50 500GB drives fail with amazing alacrity. These are a really bad backup solution. I have owned 4 such drives in the past year and a half or so. Only one still works.
That is NOT what I want to hear, sounds like I have been lucky with my Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB, bought it last year and it is still running strong. I use it every day and move it from machine to machine only occasionally as I can copy files via my home network from servers to desktops as most would expect. Granted I use the USB option, not the Firewire option (my FreeAgent has both bases, one USB and one Firewire), though that should not matter. I plan to start using Firewire when I start working with video more...I sure hope my experience is better than yours has been.
Thank you for the heads up, guess I better get a SAN and make sure I have backups before I do that just to be on the safe side.
If you're looking for local storage, buy a network SAN; they have them as stand-alone devices with redundant hot-swappable disks now. This is my primary backup
Very nice, I looked at those this last Christmas and plan to get one in the future!
It's also automatically off-site every day. Not many home users will realistically do off-site backups even if they have the hardware to do so. Actually a lot of small and mid-sized businesses have "off-site" backup policies which they get lazy about after a few months too.
Early in my 25+ year career I was a Computer Operator and part of my responsibility included putting 9 Track tapes on a cart, taking them to a car and moving them to another building on a nightly basis. (Ran batch and nightly backups on 5 IBM Mainframes 43xx, 30xx on my own nightly, if others were there, I had called them in because their jobs failed.) Great job, 3 12 hour days on, got paid for 40 hours each week and 4 days off. It was like having a vacation every week. I actually lived on the beach for almost a year 4 days a week and in the city for my job for 3 days a week. Wish more companies would do this as it really gives the employee a GREAT quality of life for those days you are off. In the days of higher gas prices it helps to only have to commute to/from work three times a week. But that is another topic isn't it.
Your statement is right on the money, people do get lazy, I have had off site storage in the past for myself and something always comes up where I delay getting the data off site for days, weeks and months on occasion. Different when it is part of your job, so you do it, but when you are doing it for yourself, it is very easy to get lazy!
Keep up the great posting!
As we consume more IT resources the number of workers per resource unit has to fall - or we're going to wind up spending our entire budget on IT. The question for IT workers is whether the amount of IT workers has peaked or not. I don't think it has yet.
Do you include your software and hardware licensing costs in your IT budget. While I think everyone should, I worked for a telco that, when looking at budget for new projects, did not include the mainframe hardware, software and yearly maintenance costs, as "its already paid for..." their words, not mine.
I wonder how many companies are finally looking at their ever increasing server and software costs and switching to open source to reduce that portion of their IT budget?
If I was in charge, you can bet I would be looking there...
I think I would rather get 1TB for $100 or even 500 GB for around $50 per month and not have those $17 per month charges (based on your numbers)...with the 500 GB drive you would be ahead of the game in less than 5 months.
With the external USB hard disks you could buy two and rotate one of them off site periodically.
Plus with this solution, your data is as secure as the place you lock it up and store it. Definitely more secure than any online source.
I just hope they start offering internet access to the masses...fiber to my home, I want it!
An inability to run the latest PC game that has 'Direct-X 10' in it's requirements list.
I would suggest you look at it from a more secure perspective. Specifically, until I can run a Windows operating system in a SECURE SANDBOX of my making with either VIM or XEN, just do NOT run Windows, not even for games.
Fortunately the only games that seem to be the biggest issue are Microsoft developed games.
I do NOT want to run Active X, Java, JavaScript, WINE or NDISWrapper. I want to run everything in Linux with Linux specific drivers.
Now with that said, while I have no problems avoiding Active X, Java, WINE and NDISWrapper, I do run a minimum of JavaScript, but only when I have too.
I rarely if ever have problems with viruses, spammers and scammers because I do not use unsafe tools that allow others to control aspects of my session and/or system as those tools, and many Windows apps, do.
And in the few rare occurrence under Linux, the code is NOT proprietary, so I can delve in and figure out why and prevent the problem.
...Just use nautilus to mount it and every application can see it through gvfs and also through a fuse mount in $HOME/.gvfs.
Interesting...will need to play with that...
About Nautilus as much as I like it, I do NOT like that it sometimes will not show me subdirectories and/or files on a USB external hard disk. The same file and / or directory is viewable if I open OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 and than search for the file.
Also I have experienced issues with random empty files...probably a side effect of a large external USB disk drive and the way it is mounted, sleeps and has to spin up before you can save to it. Though this first happened when I had a two files, same filename but two different extensions (.doc and .odt). Just FYI, as the drive still works like a champ! I did not notice the same issues with the Dolphin File Manage which I found interesting. I still prefer Nautilus to Dolphin.
You tend to have more problems on computers with lower memory amounts and no swap space. With my 1 GB RAM 8.10 version of Ubuntu, I run all day without problems. I have also noticed that since I started running Intrepid 8.10 (w/ 1 GB of RAM) that I have not had any additional empty files, though sometimes a .odt file will not show in Nautilus if another file with the .doc extension exists. Same work around, using either OOo 3.0.0 or terminal window, I can see everything just fine.
So far anywhere where I have moved the .doc files to a separate subdirectory and renamed them as I needed them to .odt, but saved the .odt file to a different folder; that the problem does NOT occur. No wonder Linux users get rid of .doc formated files as soon as possible.
^Normally,root has no password so you can't login as root. All you did was give it a pw for the first time. I think it's the /etc/passwd file that just has a blank entry where the root pw would normally be.
remember to create a backup copy of both the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files before you make changes...in case you have a problem, you can boot as single user and restore those two files. However once you are sure it works, you should delete those two backups to prevent them from being viewed.
Is the bang in /etc/shadow or /etc/passwd? You can use the cat command to view them to be sure. You remove the bang ! in /etc/passwd and use newpass root to set the password. of course you should have already sudo -i or sudo su so you are root. Check the /etc/shadow file to see that root has a password.
Granted this is NOT the recommended method for Ubuntu as if you use a poor password, it will eventually be guessed if someone starts scanning ports and making BREAK IN attempts. Its scary how fast your password can be brute forced guessed, no matter how fancy you think it is.
Great post....see what I included below about the superior H.264 FREE CODEC, 1000 fps HD video camera and alternatives to both Microsoft's video player and Adobe's FLASH
I love ubuntu and use both RedHat and Fedora (helps to have learned Unix under Solaris) and planning to install CentOS to learn about it...no favorite distro yet. Give me another year.
I've never had a problem that ubuntuforums.org didn't have the answer to. You have to love it when something you use just has great resources.
Lets be honest the forums are great, but searching for specifics is hardly a slam dunk, wish the search feature would let you both include and exclude certain words as you search... like Dice.com does is a great example to narrow the search process. Yes the forums are great aren't they!
3)bloody wifi! ...
WiFi if enabled on the laptop, netbook or PC will work out of the box. But yes adding WiFi to a Linux computer can be a pain. I still have not gotten a N style USB Adapter to work on a Linux PC that has a 10/100/1000 NIC, but no built in WiFi...granted I got sidetracked with 8.10, but that is another story.... Granted the weakness is 1) my lack of configuring WiFi knowledge and 2) my desire NOT to use Windows drivers...ie ndiswrapper.
I have a belkin rt73 usb which is good, use serialmonkey's drivers and its fine except when those drivers don't compile for the kernel...So I bought a linksys usb and it has the same bloody rt73 chipset!!!
Boy am I learning about this the hard way. I have some old IBM PCs at 667 mhz, they are almost 3 times faster than the Cable / Satellite DVD Recorder / Player set top boxes. And I will get one of them to be a custom Linux DVD Recorder / Player...lol, I even want to get fiber working as my LG HD TV has a fiber port in addition to an HDMI and RGB port on the back...interesting. However finding a BIOS that will allow me to install the $30 worth of 1 GB SIMMs on that PC has not been possible yet (I might have to help the open source BIOS project as I would like a BIOS that caters to Linux rather than a BIOS that caters to Microsoft anyway.) I am amazed at how many companies use the same mother boards and the same chip sets. So your post is right on the money....
I love ubuntu and I am glad that they ported Pulse Audio in 8.10, even though it does not work out of the box for everyone...at least there is hope of watching a video, playing the radio at the same time. And if you know one intsrument, you can create a symphony mimacing other instruments until you have a whole orchestra...would suck if you the multiple streams did not play correctly because either ALSA or OSS did not let you play more than one audio stream at a time. Heck, I hope to be able to answer my Skype VoIP phone at the same time as music is playing eventually...of course there the fault appears to lie in Skype directly coding to a lower level than it should...shame that ALSA, OSS and Pulse Audio developers have to put up with crap like that from hardware companies that are only focused on themselves or Microsoft. After spending a week going through the forums, every hack that works for others has not worked for me and many others...so Linux (all versions) needs some improvements with Plug and play with Sound cards, Graphic Adapters, etc... (And windows fans, don't get me started, as I had been a DOS user since 2.0 and a Windows user since the beginning, boy have I seen my share of problems with device drivers and windows over the years...)
So sound is another issue that works and than stops working from one release to the next and based on what I have read in the forums over the holidays, this has been a problem for the last 10 years...if sound works for you, you are golden, however if it does not you will have to learn and work with it. While I do not mind this, it makes it difficult for new novice users. Still worth the effort. Fort
And the real bitch of it all? FF has decided to update itself on older machines without ever asking me first. I was told by most OSS fanatics that only Microsoft does that. WTF?
I am using FF 3.0.5 and it DOES NOT auto update unless I want it too. You can still set FF to avoid this. The same can NOT be stated for most, if not all Microsoft products, including I.E.
This is the reason I stopped using Windows as an operating system also, mid way through Windows 2000, you could set it to NOT update without approval but it would update anyway.
Even if Microsoft changed this so that you could control it again, I would never go back to Microsoft as they have lost my trust.
Often I have to use Microsoft in my business setting, only because I am NOT given a choice. Which is the only reason I have experience with XP that has shown me that nothing changed...it auto updates as well.
I am constantly amazed at how many people do NOT monitor their network, and are unaware of their loss in control over their desktop until a problem occurs.
If you are not in control of your data and your IT infrastructure, you could be put out of business when an update fails or software fails the authorization process due to multiple hardware changes. This business RISK is too high IMO.
You can tell me it is unlikely, but you CAN NOT tell me it is impossible, as others have found out to their chagrin.
As an IT Manager I prefer to let my employees use the desktop environment that will make them the most productive for the company, even if it is Microsoft or MacIntosh. Whenever possible I allow Linux as an option as well, sadly I am not always given the same option.
... Or you refuse to put your penis back into your pants ... So now your drunken mishap makes you a sex offender.
I mentioned this article, sex offender laws and people getting listed for peeing on bushes, etc... to a female friend of mine, well here is her quote:
If people look for the penis, they will find the pensi - female neighbor of lamapper
Well said, very well said!
Whoa! I was just kidding dude! Chill out!
LOL, I kind of figured that.
Its just that I have seen too many people defending (making excuses 200Kbps is broadband, yea right, for) ISPs, telcos on issues such as bandwidth CAPs (Comcast, Frontier, 5 GB cap, Time Warner), Traffic shaping (Comcast, Time Warner), censoring TCP/IP traffic(Sprint did years ago); not increasing their bandwidth by building out their networks (every current US telco and ISP) as they have promised; charge per message, per anything rather than just providing us the bandwidth we are paying for.
While I agree they should NOT have offered unlimited bandwidth, they did (not anymore - so they can be taught) AND
If they say that I have access to 10MB down and 4 MB up, than why am I only getting 2 - 4MB down and 700Kpbs up ...supposedly I am paying for more.
It's not the size of the cap, its the fact of a CAP!
Basically the telcos, ISPs, our politicians (both parties) have been playing us for fools for way too long AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT. (We need to hold them accountable with our money and our votes)
I just feel a need to educate enough people, hoping that they will get as fed up with the status quo and hopefully insist on what we all deserve...better service, more bandwidth and honest representation.
I hope that if enough us wake up to the truth of the situation (which requires cutting through the lies people use to defend these entities), one company will act. If one company acts (my hopes are that a new player will take advantage of Googles new trans ocean cables and offer here in the US what they have in Japan. (Japan-envy when it comes to Internet connectivity and respect of other people.)
The first company to offer 100 Mbps / 100 Mbps at what I am paying now for 4 Mpbs / 700Kbps will find me to be a loyal customer for life. And with less than 40% of the high speed interent marketplace, they would be able to generate multiple billions in profits.
That same company would be in a position to offer 1 Gbps / 1 Gbps as they are now in Japan also.
Eventually someone will; that company will put every existing telco and ISP to shame. (These customer no service entities should be ashamed.) My hope is at that time every other telco will be hurt so bad that either they finally invest in their infrastructures, or if they continue to refuse to do the right thing, that they be put out of business via normal market practices.
Though some companies are starting to wake up to the reality they have created (customer no service) and starting to do things...here is one attempt by Comcast, (7 employees in Philadelphia), its a start, but will they implement this company wide...that combined with whole hearted efforts to build out fiber and actually start providing TRUE customer service and they might stand a chance. Note: If a company is not seriously interested in changing their ways, they should NOT only TRY. This is NOT an area to try, this is an AREA THEY MUST DO! Anything less than 100% commitment will only hurt them!
Personally once I switch to a new provider with that amount of bandwidth, I will NEVER look back. If enough other people do likewise, the existing oligopolies will falter and suffer.
Might be worth putting into my will that any family member that uses any of the other ISPs or telcos will be dis-inherited just to drive the point home.
"like a teen parking.."
Man...I'm sure glad I grew up in a time when cops and people weren't so uptight about crap like this. Back then...the cop knocked on the window...and you had to scramble to get clothed...and leave. Sure, he got a good peek or two, but, no one got booked or went to jail.
I was with my catholic college aged girlfriend (we were both in college) visiting her family for Thanksgiving break...lots of brothers and sisters...they were great!
We slipped away to a park near her house, were partially undressed when the officer knocked his night-stick on the window. It took us a while to re-arrange our clothing before we got out of the car, he checked our IDs, knew her family and said what would the good sisters at (name-of-her-catholic school here) say if they could see you now. Needless to say the embarrassment was enough to cool our jets for the rest of the trip, at least until we got back to college, back to our dorm room / apartment. Scary to thing such an innocent scenario could get a young man or young woman labeled for life and ruin their lives.
Hell, even as a teen, I got pulled over and had had a bit to drink. The cop saw I was near home, and got my friend to drive us the next few blocks, and warned us not to be out again that night, or he'd bust us.
Think any common sense like that would fly today? Not a chance...
Have heard more than one story of childhood and high school friends getting pulled over and only lectured before the officer let someone sober or someone less intoxicated drive them home. None of them are alcholics, none of them have killed or raped anyone, more than one of them have told me that they were lucky. Helps to have the right officer, the right judge, the right attorney (either side) so that the punishment fits the crime.
Heck I was more scared that my family, my father would find out about something I did...I would have rather faced the judge. And not because he would have beat me to a pulp either (though if bad enough I might have felt his belt on my behind) but rather because I never wanted to see my father look upon me with disappointment in his eyes. (Probably because I was never beaten, a beating sounded better, I am sure the reality would have been quite different).
Remember what "Sex Offenders" means.
It means people who raped others, or abused others.
It means people who were accused of rape or abuse and couldn't defend themselves.
It means 23-year-olds who were caught sleeping with their 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend.
It means 18-year-olds who were caught sleeping with their 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend.
It means 17-year-olds who took photographs of themselves naked, to send to their 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend.
It means 17-year-olds whose 17-year-old boyfriend or girlfriend, unasked, took pictures of themselves naked and sent them.
It means people who were driving cross-country late at night, couldn't find a public bathroom, stopped off behind a bush at 3am in the morning, and were arrested for "public indecency".
Fall into any of the above categories? You're already shunned for life, and now, you'll have to turn over all the keys to your privacy to a bunch of government workers. But don't worry, I'm sure the well-paid honorable government employees wouldn't dream of breaching the privacy of a bunch of sex offenders.
That could never happen.
You hit the nail on the head here. Anyone who molests a baby and/or child, IMO, you can shoot them and society would be better off. The problem is the definition of child. At 15 with my 18 year old girl friend, leave me alone. And at 16 with her 19, again, leave me alone....etc, etc...
Many would have arrested my girlfriend, simply because she was 18, never mind that we started dating when I first turned 15 and she was already 17 and did not have sex until just shy of a year later. (For those of you who think she should have been arrested, this is why I never told anyone and I would certainly not have told you! If I were your child, you have obviously lost the war even if you win that battle as you have lost my trust and I would NEVER talk to you again about anything...as soon as I was 18 I would have left you cold and never looked back!)
These issues are hardly black and white, and too many conservatives have a problem with the gray areas. I do not and my preference for judges are those that use the brain they have and apply the law appropriately to the situation. Mandatory sentencing is simply wrong.
So for me, 15 is old enough if the person you are having sex with is in your peer group, however, 14 is not. That is my arbitrary cross to bear. And this runs against laws in at least two states where a person can be married younger than 15. That magic word "marriage" and morality is somehow placated...please.
As usual, the devil is in the details and one persons hell is another person's heaven.
Personally I think people need to stay out of other peoples business as long as another person is NOT being harmed.
Can we legislate morality, sure we can, the intelligent question is should we? I think not.
P.S. Do NOT get me started about the teenager who lied to me, told me she was 18, when I was 21, I believed her. We dated for over a month before something she said simply did not add up and I finally got her the truth out of her, that she was 15. I had no choice but to drop her like a hot potato due to her age alone, however I did NOT like the fact that it hurt her. Thank goodness I was not one to rush into sex at that stage of my life or I might have ended up in a compromising position. The whole month I was in her home, she was in my home, never saw her parents who traveled and obviously trusted her enough to leave her on her own. Another reason I assumed she was 18, her parents were in Europe and she was in the US on her own.
I feel very sorry for the people who get lied to as I did, have sex with someone that is under the age of consent for their state, say 15 or 16; the parents find out and press charges. As a 17 year old teenager to get saddled with the label sex offender and have it follow you forever is simply pathetic and should NEVE
Their is a school in Phoenix called UAT (University of Advancing Technology). Really cool place, also really expensive.
They have a similar policy. Students are allowed (encouraged) to crack into the machines. They are allowed to change the website (not de-deface it...think more like "blhack was here, happy tuesday!" hidden in the bottom or something) as long as they don't break anything and they show the admins how they did it.
High Schools really need to implement this. Intelligence needs to be encouraged, not punished.
Very smart on their part to allow the students to learn by doing.
Who would you rather hire to provide security to your company's network, someone who has studied it or someone who has actually made the attempts and tried to do it. More rhetorical than an actual question, thus no question mark.
Me I would want the one who learned by doing, another reason to avoid paper tigers (i.e. certifications) unless a company is paying for it that is.
I would have no hesitation hiring hackers...now crackers, we would have to sit down and have a conversation as loyalty is important if the life blood of your business is on the line.
Your post made me smile and laugh...mostly at myself...thanks!
About:
Add to the fact that soon Japan will have 1TB up and 1 TB down" Sounds like you have japanenvy. 1TB? Do you mean per second? --
I guess they will have to finish installing their 1 Gbps / 1 Gbps (no wonder they can charge less than $55 per month for this level of bandwidth; industry expert ... $1 per 2 GB, thus .50 cents per GB is too MUCH offering before they get up to 1 TB / 1 TB, considering the power of lasers to multiplex light and expand bandwidth on the same strand of fiber, instead of 1 TB, it would be X 1,024, so just a little bit higher than 1 TB, unless someone figures out a way to apply Moore's law to lasers, fiber and light, than perhaps more....
Great post! I too can read it faster than they can say it.
As for:
What harddrive's capable of delivering that much to one person, let alone um... more than one person? For backbone speed maybe, but into peoples homes, that's just silly. Who's saying they're going to offer 1TB lines? I'm quite interested in what they're saying they're offering it for.
None that I am aware of and as internet TV takes off and HD TV's increase their resolution as is already predicted. (Check out Vision Research's Phantom HD, 2048 x 1080 @ 1,000 frames-per second HD Camera; who wouldn't want to watch a film at 1000 frames per second if they were given the option, considering we are use to 24 fps today. While 1000 FPS might be further out there, rates higher than 30 fps are coming soon, even 60 fps would give a better resolution than 24 or 30...and if like me you have a HD 1020p TV you would see a better image the higher the resolution.
One research firm suggested that video consumption would expand by 650% by 2011 to 7800 terabytes/day. Video uploads will grow from 500K / day to 4,800K per day in 2011...a very significant and huge increase in bandwidth.
Will the random (how random was it...what do they know that they have not bothered to tell the consumer) 250 GB ISP bandwidth cap be limiting at that point? My guess is yes considering that our current internet offerings would have problems streaming two signals while recording a third today at only 24 fps or 30 fps....
It will be interesting to see how various hardware companies attempt to overcome the many constraints (bottlenecks) between our hi speed modems and our CRT screens.... A lot of nasty little bottlenecks in between those two points, including to/from the hard drives.
...nasty little bottlenecks, not all alike...
I plan to start experimenting with a fiber LAN in my home for one part, granted I have not priced out fiber cable and fiber NICs yet....so that might be yet another issue.
...100MB up and a 100 MB down...
Whoa! Those are some steep caps dude! Maybe you skiped something, like per second?
[/UnitNazi]
Caps, NO CAPS! (... watched Independence Day again) No compromise is acceptable here!
If the companies in question had built out their infrastructures with the additional taxes and fees legislatures allotted them (Why have U.S. customers paid an estimated $200 billion in higher services rates and tax breaks for fiber-optic networks they never received?) for that specific purpose, we would not be having this exchange today, nor would there be a need for the farce that are bandwidth caps or per message charges on text messaging and the other BS we are told by companies in order to gouge us for more money. They do us no favors and provide even poorer service!
If I had been referring to caps I would agree with you...rather I want the bandwidth I have paid for (ie. no throttling). My bandwidth should allow for 100 Mbps / 100 Mbps synchronous communications via fiber (doubt any other media will allow for it) as they have had in Japan since pre 2000 thanks to Japanese government intervention. We should have had this in 1996, however are (US) legislative leaders have let us down yet again. Both Republicans and Democrats are guilty (Even pre-Clinton, as far back as 1991, the Bell companies made very promising statements about their commitment to fiber-optic networks.) of sabatoging our children's futures.
Now in Japan, since they wisely built out their fiber infrastructure years ago, are starting to offer 1GB / 1GB (for less than $55 per month) synchronous bandwidth to customers homes.
Here in America, we have been sold (and continue to be sold) down the river by are leaders, politicians, our ISPs, the telcos and others. (United States could add $500 billion annually to its GDP)
And what is wrong with Win2K? I have many SOHO and SMB customers that have stuck by Win2K Pro,because of one simple fact:it works. Win2K is IMHO the best business OS MSFT ever made. It is light on resources, fast and responsive on just about any hardware made in the last decade, and is rock solid stable.
Nothing is wrong with it, I loved Windows 2000, however when the third party application I loved, required me to update my operating system, before it would continue to install I saw the writing on the wall.
Fortunately, this time, I was able to use my laptop from work (OS was current, a version of XP) to install the 3rd party graphics application to a USB thumb drive. The install process attempted to make me believe I could not force that issue, so I installed it to a folder of my own making on the laptop's hard drive and copied the entire folder to the thumb drive. Ran just find either from the thumb drive or when I copied the folder to my Windows 2000 PC.
But that was a wake up call for me.
That was a very happy heads up for me...the quality of open source applications is phenomenal now compared to years ago. Any application you need for business is there and robust enough for any business no matter how intricate and how big. You do your business a disservice if you do not re-evaluate on a regular basis, these open source offerings. Heck there are over 500 CMS - Content Management Systems out there....
I replaced that third party application that I had been using for over a decade (and was very happy with) with a superior open source graphic product. Wow was I surprised it was that good.
I installed a Linux version on my desktop which had a newer version of Openoffice.org (OOo) Writer than my Asus Eee PC. Encountered problems with documents that already had working URLs and Graphics. Upgraded that computer to OOo v3.0 which not only took care of the problems but ran much smaller than the version 2.x versions of OOo that I had been working.
Linux is my share point. Being able to copy anything into and out of my Word Processor, spreadsheet, or Slide show software has been a huge plus also!
I personally think the era of the 3 year upgrade cycle is over. Folks will just buy a netbook or a cheap laptop for when they wish to be mobile and keep their "old reliable" desktop just where it is
As my example shows, your statement was NOT true for me. You are forced into failure due to agreements between Microsoft and Third parties (both hardware and software vendors are guilty of this) when you upgrade a needed software product or device driver.
Hint: Make sure your motherboard and BIOS (yes at the BIOS level) will work with your Operating system (Linux) to avoid problems. I was shocked to learn that the two main BIOS vendors were willing to modify their BIOS specifically for Microsoft. (Problems with the motherboard not sensing temperatures correctly therefore not running fans at appropriate times to cool off the computer was at the heart of the issue, when more knowledgeable people than I went in and looked at the code, there were sections for specific versions of Microsoft OS (Windows 2000, XP, ME, even Vista), but not for other operating systems (Mac OS and Linux). It is so bad that the open source group coding their own BIOS for public use finds it simpler for their BIOS to think Linux is a Microsoft OS rather than customizing it for Linux specifically. I personally found this telling. The only exception being for higher priced mother boards, evidently they do NOT want to piss off the hard core gurus that purchase more expensive mother boards and are willing to beef up their BIOS for the more expensive motherboards. (I have not tried to verify this statement.) There have recently been articles on slashdot about this.
Moral of the story: know your hardware, BIOS and adapters that are mission critical work with Linux BEFORE you buy any of it. And o
IMO trying to force people into subscriptions and/or pay by the hour is likely to cause many people to like you say screw it and either take the pain of moving to alternatives or stick with old versions (many are doing that anyway) and pirate extra copies if they can't get them legally.
I wish you were right, but history shows us that Microsoft will not stop until they get this pay as you go model. They tried it years ago with their MYM app, trying to get a fraction of a cents on every transaction. At least this is the first time I remember them going after that (transaction or monthly fees). Was that a decade a go now? (Funny aside: I remember thinking that Quicken would reign supreme; of course that was before Quicken forced an update that modified the data format...the update failed and when CPA's attempted to revert back to the old format, where prevented. If you did not have a back up of your data you were screwed...little did I know it would be a sign of future things to come.)
Microsoft sees the future, their strangle hold on the desktop slipping. I remember when the IT shop I was working in moved away from Novell, Warp and eventually Lotus Notes with the reason, we have Microsoft of the desktop, may as well have it on the servers also. As another poster mentioned, they are experts at marketing, extending and replacing competition. (A major difference in the past is this led to cost savings, but not anymore, now it costs a company more, more and more...)
Realizing that they cannot add enough new features to make an upgrade financially worthwhile to anyone (including businesses) forever, they have repeatedly attempted to force the market to move to a pay per month and/or pay for usage business model. They want it per desktop, per application, per operating system, if they could they would probably want to be able to charge for bandwidth the way telcos are charging for text messages. They do this through auto upgrades; through software compliance checks; they have even successfully gotten other software vendors and hardware vendors to REQUIRE you to update your operating system before you use their products. (The fact that they eventually extend and replace these vendors, like anti-virus software vendors today, is simply IRONIC.). (Note to other companies: this is the BEST reason for you to provide a superior software product that will work on other operating systems in order to diversify and survive...ignore this at your own peril as WordPerfect did and many, many, many other companies who came and went before you and are currently no longer operating. Even with open source you can provide applications and charge for support as many are doing today successfully...business love to pay monthly and annually for support, so go for it!)
In my opinion, this is the future for anyone insisting to use any proprietary operating system or application in the future. Pay monthly or we turn you off.
Smart businesses that want to insure that they have 100% control of their business infrastructures (desktops, servers and web servers) are migrating now thanks to the Vista boondoggle, it remains to be seen historically if extending XP and expediting Windows 7 will save them or if the move away from proprietary to open source will continue.
Regardless of the outcome, Microsoft will be around for decades to come as many IT environments will pony up the monthly and annual fees rather than switching....
Despite this patent I don't think MS is suicidal enough to make subscriptions/pay by the hour the only option.
Though IIRC MS is trying to use the carrot of lower prices and other side benefits to tempt corporations and academic institutions into subscriptions deals that they then become basically stuck with.
Not suicidal, but rather from Microsoft's perspective a matter of survival. Expect more attempts at a pay as you go system from them in the future.
The company offered over $10,000.00 for not only hacking and cracking their server, but showing the company how they did it.
If memory serves (and it sometimes does not) they paid out the first and second years of the challenge, but in year three no one successfully broke into their web server environment.
I believed they kept eliminating modules that had holes and were not needing and closing holes in modules that were needed.
Based on what I read, they were able to 100% successfully secure their web servers from attacks only because they were using Linux as the OS.
I remembered comparing their results with others attempts with other operating systems and really wanting to learn Linux.
Now that I am using Unix and Linux and have a better understanding of what they were doing I can see the simple genius in such challenges.
Whether just for security or for scouting talent, whatever their reasons, its money well spent when they offer cash prizes to the few that are successful!
On the contrary, it is the very essence of a commodity in the economic sense of the term: one ISPs bandwidth is as good as another (at least for now) but there is only so much available.
And this is my fault why?
They should have been building out their infrastructures since 1996, but they have not...and we have been paying additional fees and taxes here in the US for the build out that has NOT occurred.
Until the current ISPs and telcos provide fiber in the end mile as they have in Japan since 2000 and before (100 MB up and 100MB down stream) I really do NOT want to hear their excuses.
Oh yes, it costs less than $.50 per MB to provide those fiber connections up and down in Japan, so do NOT raise my bill with additional excuses of longer fiber runs.
Add to the fact that soon Japan will have 1TB up and 1 TB down...thanks to their foresight at building out their fiber offerings + government intervention and enough said.
You have had years to build out your networks. You have FAILED even when we paid additional money in fees and taxes for you to do just that. Enough is enough.
Stop ripping us off and give us what you owe us.
Give us what we have been paying for (most of us have been promised unlimited for years yet you throttle us down to less than 1 MB...please...
Any comments by any ISPs, telcos and/or their supporters should fall on DEAF ears by us (citizens), by our elected officials (or we vote them out) for the sake of of technological future.
Stop selling us down the river, step up, honor your promises and provide us the service you have promised but failed to deliver on!
Note: I do NOT want to load WINE or any other required-to-work with other operating system process or application on my Linux box. Either it runs in Linux or I simply do NOT want to play it. Why emulate another operating system and slow my system down...no thank you, I would rather not play that game.
I really loved the way Apache (and Apache II - Helicopter game on the MacIntosh II and MacIntosh IISE computers) and Battlezone (DOS) games made you feel like you were flying through the screen. Always wanted to be surrounded by monitors that would give me a 360 degree view as I flew around. One day....
War/Empire, the version I am thinking of is the really old original one from the IBM mainframe / TSO user days. It was far from fancy, just a pixel and a 50/50 shot at winning any battle. However apply that to multiple planets via the internet and a game server and wow...I played one where you had clans and cities that you built online in a world with my sons last Christmas, it was fun...and granted we used my Asus Eee PC to play it, so the operating system, graphics adapter, sound, etc... did not matter.
Anyone else know of some games for Linux where you fly a tank (i.e. like BattleZone), fly a plane or jet or helicopter (i.e. like Apache and Apache II) and it actually feels like you are flying visually...those are the ones I like!
The peer around a corner and shoot games bore me. But let me fly a vehicle and okay, lets go...lol. Any for Linux?
Two situations that come readily to mind that will cause nationalized health care to fail IMO: organ transplants and expensive surgeries...
any type of nationalized health care must depend on more than just our tax dollars...
Since the money we earn is ALREADY TAXED ONCE, I do not accept any system, like our current system, where we are taxed a second, third, fourth and fifth time...
Obvious problems would be corrupt politicians...
There should be NO SUCH thing as a PRE-EXISTING CONDITION.
This level of funding can never be reached by tax dollars alone! NEVER. Tax dollars + investment is the ONLY way!
Everyone learns at an early age that if you store up (save) when times are good for bad times (that eventually always come) that you have stability over the long term.
Our economy would already be pumping if they gave our tax dollars back to us instead of propping up failing businesses...
Another way to tell if your elected official is corrupt,...
Elected office was NEVER meant to be a full time job...
Please show me how or why "government health care is bound to fail", or, alternatively, have a look at actual data.
I cannot show you how it will fail and if we go down that road here in the US as it appears we are about to do, I sincerely hope it will not fail. Sadly our government is already failing as our founding fathers knew it might if people started voting themselves benefits. (Don't get me started on lobbyists.)
Two situations that come readily to mind that will cause nationalized health care to fail IMO are:
1) organ transplants, where people literally die waiting for an organ. In fact many individuals come from other countries to the US to secure an organ, because they are unable to live long enough in their home country until an organ is available. No need for me to cite, as I have read more than 4 articles of this type over the last year alone and it is not a new problem, you can search it. (Normally I would cite and include links, but I am in a hurry today, so sorry.)
2) very specialized and expensive surgeries (don't have a list of the types of surgeries, but have read articles of this type over the last year as well. Seems the best specialist in many areas can be found here in the US, where they have the opportunity to earn enough money to justify the significantly longer education (4+ to 8+ more years than a general physician â" already 6 years more than a Bachelors degree) and earn enough money to afford the more expensive mal-practice insurance. If a doctor goes to school for 10 years, that should be worth something more than me if I only go to school for four years. Also a surgeon, is it longer than 41 â" 18 years of school?, should be worth even more. If the reward is NOT there, than why would I want to do that work? Think self-actualization, this is NOT the Federation, wish it were! LOL, Money would have no value!
IMO opinion, to be successful any type of nationalized health care must depend on more than just our tax dollars (though I believe the FairTax would produce significantly more revenue while costing individual citizens less as it taxes currently untaxed but real underground economies in the US). Tax dollars alone as our current situation show will always fall short. If not by a down economy, than by an ever expanding appetite by our politicians (who are often driven by us, the citizens of the US).
I believe that a certain amount of our TAX money should be (heres the dirty word) "invested" for SOLELY that use. (It should be considered TREASON, punishable, fineable, jailable and possibly put in prison for life if violated...therefore no elected politician would DARE as they did with Social Security.) If the m