So, you want a (semi) secure version of Windows before 2007 do you?
Ahh, well you'll be wanting Windows Vista then.
Smells like just another crappy marketing exercise to me.... good thing my next computer is going to run Mac OS / Linux (currently dual-boot Windows 2000 / Linux on my current one for games, and yes I am a transgaming subscriber;)).
If they use linux as a desktop OS, then no i don't see any requirement for disclosure of this, as it's not "their IP" as such, it's a commodity OS.
However, if they use Linux in an embedded device, etc then the IP owners are disclosed anyway, because their names will be listed in the credits/comments of the source, which being GPL has of course been released to the public for anyone to see.
If Bell South are going broke with their current fee structure (which really I doubt - and if they are their *company* structure is broken and they need to lose some chiefs), then alter their rates - that's the problem, not the fact that we suddenly need some "content provider tax".
Game or not, this sort of practice is damaging to Blizzard's virtual world, and therefore (being mainly an on-line game) to their game sales. It's big business, not just a game we're dealing with here.
I mean, really... who wants to play in a game world full of cheats?
I've been here since *nearly* the beginning (about 3-6 months before userIDs at least - only reason i've got a *4* digit userid is because i couldn't be bothered signing up for an account for about a week:D) and I agree with pretty much most of the stuff Taco is trying to say here.
This place is very much a non-formal virtual meeting place for people to just shoot the shit and unwind. If they make mistakes, so be it - as stated, content is more important than presentation, and really there's more important things to be doing than correcting non-critical spelling and grammar mistakes.
Slashdot has always *been* this way, and (I am guessing) pretty much always will be. If it's too much for you to bear, perhaps you're not part of the target audience (polite way of saying "piss off":D).
The site never was intended to be "professional" so to speak, and the spelling errors, dupes, etc are all just part of the character for me.
It's like visiting that old pub with plenty of quirks - it's not perfect but it's got plenty of character and interesting conversation...
Going after spelling/grammar errors and holding them up as a "symbol of how unprofessional this place is" or such is just entirely missing the point.
Now, maybe a little extreme, but imho, anything produced by the game engine, is owned by Blizzard, and leased by subscribers.
People "selling" gold for real money are effectively taking a product of Blizzard's game engine out of circulation (theft) by charging real money for it. They're selling something they have no right of ownership to.
A bit of a grey area in the law, but that's the best analogy I can come up with. I'm sure Blizzard have something about this in their terms of service? And if not, perhaps they should...
Along the lines of "All virtual content in the WOW world is owned by Blizzard and may not be sold outside of the WOW game world". (IANAL, i'm sure a lawyer could come up with something legit).
Seriously, the most annoying thing I find with "users" is that as soon as something out of the ordinary happens and a message box pops up, they forget how to read (at least until I make them read the screen before I'll help:)).
Eg, "Are you sure you want to overwrite this file", and I get queries about it (unfortunately work in close proximity with users). How the fuck should I know, are you saving over something you don't want anymore??:D
Or the typical messages about LAN cables not being plugged in. It's like "is your blue cable plugged in" and 9 times out of 10... "oh, it's not plugged in - would that help?"..
Once they get over the whole "reading" thing, then it's a matter of copying messages you don't know into google, and voila... you're about as skilled as your typical level *2* outsourced support desk idiot:D
Simple really - RAID5 is "Fast enough" for home use, gives you redundancy with the minimal number of drives - and the LTO3 drive should be big enought to back it up (and if it's not, it's certainly feasible to get the lot backed up in 2 nights or so).
Now, I don't know about you, but I could certainly live with even a month or so of lost info on my *home* network... 1-2 nights certainly isn't going to kill me.
If RAID 5 isn't quick enough for you, go for RAID50 or whatever.
Unfortunately, people fall for this stuff all the time. How often should you change the oil in your car? Every 3,000 miles or three months. Who says so? Why, the guys who sell oil changes, of course. You see it again and again. MS is just playing the game. Open source is a different game. The question is, can is stay on the court with the big boys playing the usual game. Looks promising now, but (as we used to say in the Army) every day's an adventure.
Bad example.
I'm a car guy, and really, it is better if you change your oil about that often (5,000km) particularly if it's turbocharged, or you drive it hard.
Compare the oil that comes out of a car after 5000km/3000miles on a car that has been treated that way all it's life, to one that gets serviced twice as often, and you'll be amazed.
You'll also notice improvements in fuel economy and power when changing oil more often, as the engine is spending less energy trying to force claggy oil around itself.
Also, foreign objects in your oil are what cause the majority of engine wear. The more often you change your oil, the less foreign objects are in it -> the longer your engine will last.
If the piston rings are less worn, you'll get less blowby and hence, less emissions and better fuel economy as well, due to more efficient combustion.
I actually change my oil every 3000-4000km (turbocharged motor) and I can definately tell the difference - turbo spools earlier, comes on boost harder, etc...
(no, not going to bother wasting my time on the article that directly contradicts my own experiences over the past 10 years, often *running daily on shitty hardware*)
They picked a distribution for older PCs right?
Running kernel 2.0, and a fairly minimal X11, instead of KDE/Gnome? Right?
Or perhaps they even picked a recent distribution and pared it down to get it to run well?
Didn't think so.
Out of box Windows vs out of box Linux both chew a fair bit of RAM these days. Difference is, with Linux you have options.
I think you'll find that by the time you can't run 32 bit (like... when is linux going to not support 32bit??), your current generation 64 bit cpu will be far too slow to be useful anyway.
Alphas were 64 bit as well - look how far that got them.
I mean, I can kinda see what point you're trying to make - I just don't think it's relevant to real world use yet.
So they're going to give away something that costs them virtually nothing to appease people who's machines they invaded? Plus, the people invovled clearly don't want downloaded music, or they wouldn't have bought the spyware infested CD in the first place.
I'd be telling them to get fucked.
This "offer" entirely misses the point - I'd press for criminal charges laid against whoever authorised the use of this invasive software - plus compensation in terms of MONEY (lost time due to machine downtime, plus cost of repairs, plus compensation for the inconvenience) paid to those who had to have their machines rebuilt due to this trash - plus fines to the company to prevent this happening again.
Your typical linux distribution includes more applications than microsoft even produce
choosing not to install, or uninstall specific components of a linux distribution is trivial. Try removing IE from Windows XP, without having to put your faith in a third party to help you hack the OS to do it. Then call microsoft for support:D
"linux" encompasses more than 1 distribution
Anyone with half a clue and experience with both OSes in a production environment already knows the truth, but there's some points for those who actually believe some of the shit that seems to be deemed newsworthy...
It reminds me of the days when side scrolling games were still available and how badly the PC would always struggle with them even when it was clear that in pure crunching power the PC beat the pants of the consoles. Wich was very clear when consoles tried to do 3D (ala doom1) wich was the strong horse of the PC.
Neither of these points you raise are anything to do with the o/s involved.
Or for that matter, the hardware.
It's possible to do silky smooth scrolling on a 286/12 with a VGA card, just hardly anyone used to do it because they were either programming to be compatible with EGA/CGA as well, or just sucked.
VGA hardware has built in support for hardware scrolling, it just wasn't used too often because mode-X vga was a bit trickier to code in than plain chained mode.
Yes, high def video uses a lot of processing power. Yes, USB sucks. No, neither of these points is Linux or Windows' fault. If you want cpu efficient peripherals, use firewire.
If you want quicker HD video use hardware that accelerates it (if it isn't out, you can bet it will be in the next 12 months). I think you'll find that throwing another OS at it will still = P4/AMD sucking at HD video:D
PC hardware sucking at HD video does not = end of line for Linux/Windows.
... to those who are crapping on about needing new ways of interacting with computers, etc - fine.
That's still not going to make current operating systems obsolete. You're in the Microsoft way of thinking that a new shell and a few drivers is a new O/S (eg, windows 2000 vs XP). At the end of the day, it's still basic I/O once you write a driver for it.
I'd even wager that it's quite probable that any new input method you care to name (or invent) could simply be added as a kernel module to kernel 2.6 (or 2.4, 2.0, etc) - and that's only if it couldn't be done in user-space:)
So what's broken with Windows/Linux that will prevent them from being useful in the future?
Sure, Win32 sucks, but that's just a layer on top of the Windows NT kernel. And besides, it sucks mainly because it's buggy, not because it's non-functional.
Fact is, the core operating system requirements (memory management, process scheduling, i/o) never change. Everything else is cruft that can be added/removed/replaced as required.
What groundbreaking technology is coming along that is going to require such a core re-write of the entire o/s model that it will render Linux/Windows unusable as a base to build on?
Slashdot Mirror
Make an educated decision on whether supporting that 1% (or whatever) of IE3.0 users is financially viable.
Ditto for the other minority browsers.
The decision is one only management can really make - give them the options (cost/design compromise vs % of visitors) and let them make the call.
Easy.
smash.
Ahh, well you'll be wanting Windows Vista then.
Smells like just another crappy marketing exercise to me.... good thing my next computer is going to run Mac OS / Linux (currently dual-boot Windows 2000 / Linux on my current one for games, and yes I am a transgaming subscriber ;)).
smash.
However, if they use Linux in an embedded device, etc then the IP owners are disclosed anyway, because their names will be listed in the credits/comments of the source, which being GPL has of course been released to the public for anyone to see.
No issue.
smash.
If Bell South are going broke with their current fee structure (which really I doubt - and if they are their *company* structure is broken and they need to lose some chiefs), then alter their rates - that's the problem, not the fact that we suddenly need some "content provider tax".
smash.
I mean, really... who wants to play in a game world full of cheats?
smash.
This place is very much a non-formal virtual meeting place for people to just shoot the shit and unwind. If they make mistakes, so be it - as stated, content is more important than presentation, and really there's more important things to be doing than correcting non-critical spelling and grammar mistakes.
Slashdot has always *been* this way, and (I am guessing) pretty much always will be. If it's too much for you to bear, perhaps you're not part of the target audience (polite way of saying "piss off" :D).
The site never was intended to be "professional" so to speak, and the spelling errors, dupes, etc are all just part of the character for me.
It's like visiting that old pub with plenty of quirks - it's not perfect but it's got plenty of character and interesting conversation...
Going after spelling/grammar errors and holding them up as a "symbol of how unprofessional this place is" or such is just entirely missing the point.
smash.
People "selling" gold for real money are effectively taking a product of Blizzard's game engine out of circulation (theft) by charging real money for it. They're selling something they have no right of ownership to.
A bit of a grey area in the law, but that's the best analogy I can come up with. I'm sure Blizzard have something about this in their terms of service? And if not, perhaps they should...
Along the lines of "All virtual content in the WOW world is owned by Blizzard and may not be sold outside of the WOW game world". (IANAL, i'm sure a lawyer could come up with something legit).
smash.
Eg, "Are you sure you want to overwrite this file", and I get queries about it (unfortunately work in close proximity with users). How the fuck should I know, are you saving over something you don't want anymore?? :D
Or the typical messages about LAN cables not being plugged in. It's like "is your blue cable plugged in" and 9 times out of 10... "oh, it's not plugged in - would that help?"..
Once they get over the whole "reading" thing, then it's a matter of copying messages you don't know into google, and voila... you're about as skilled as your typical level *2* outsourced support desk idiot :D
smash.
For those who are actually looking for *content* as opposed to shiny things, well... thats different.
smash.
Now, I don't know about you, but I could certainly live with even a month or so of lost info on my *home* network... 1-2 nights certainly isn't going to kill me.
If RAID 5 isn't quick enough for you, go for RAID50 or whatever.
Just don't expect that to be cheap...
smash.
smash.
Bad example.
I'm a car guy, and really, it is better if you change your oil about that often (5,000km) particularly if it's turbocharged, or you drive it hard.
Compare the oil that comes out of a car after 5000km/3000miles on a car that has been treated that way all it's life, to one that gets serviced twice as often, and you'll be amazed.
You'll also notice improvements in fuel economy and power when changing oil more often, as the engine is spending less energy trying to force claggy oil around itself.
Also, foreign objects in your oil are what cause the majority of engine wear. The more often you change your oil, the less foreign objects are in it -> the longer your engine will last.
If the piston rings are less worn, you'll get less blowby and hence, less emissions and better fuel economy as well, due to more efficient combustion.
I actually change my oil every 3000-4000km (turbocharged motor) and I can definately tell the difference - turbo spools earlier, comes on boost harder, etc...
smash
They picked a distribution for older PCs right?
Running kernel 2.0, and a fairly minimal X11, instead of KDE/Gnome? Right?
Or perhaps they even picked a recent distribution and pared it down to get it to run well?
Didn't think so.
Out of box Windows vs out of box Linux both chew a fair bit of RAM these days. Difference is, with Linux you have options.
smash.
Alphas were 64 bit as well - look how far that got them.
I mean, I can kinda see what point you're trying to make - I just don't think it's relevant to real world use yet.
smash.
I'd be telling them to get fucked.
This "offer" entirely misses the point - I'd press for criminal charges laid against whoever authorised the use of this invasive software - plus compensation in terms of MONEY (lost time due to machine downtime, plus cost of repairs, plus compensation for the inconvenience) paid to those who had to have their machines rebuilt due to this trash - plus fines to the company to prevent this happening again.
smash.
You're going to have more than 64gb of memory in your notebook (Pentium series can address that much with paging)?
Fair enough 64 bit will be required eventually, but really, 32bit is good enough for a while yet.
smash.
DVD is more than acceptable quality for 99.9999% of the population, and as a PC storage medium, it's fine.
For audio, it's fine.
The only problem I can see is that the built in copyprotection was cracked, and certain people aren't happy about that :)
Perhaps they mean that the dvd-player market is saturated, and they need something else to sell?
smash.
Anyone with half a clue and experience with both OSes in a production environment already knows the truth, but there's some points for those who actually believe some of the shit that seems to be deemed newsworthy...
smash.
Or for that matter, the hardware.
It's possible to do silky smooth scrolling on a 286/12 with a VGA card, just hardly anyone used to do it because they were either programming to be compatible with EGA/CGA as well, or just sucked.
VGA hardware has built in support for hardware scrolling, it just wasn't used too often because mode-X vga was a bit trickier to code in than plain chained mode.
Yes, high def video uses a lot of processing power. Yes, USB sucks. No, neither of these points is Linux or Windows' fault. If you want cpu efficient peripherals, use firewire.
If you want quicker HD video use hardware that accelerates it (if it isn't out, you can bet it will be in the next 12 months). I think you'll find that throwing another OS at it will still = P4/AMD sucking at HD video :D
PC hardware sucking at HD video does not = end of line for Linux/Windows.
smash.
That's still not going to make current operating systems obsolete. You're in the Microsoft way of thinking that a new shell and a few drivers is a new O/S (eg, windows 2000 vs XP). At the end of the day, it's still basic I/O once you write a driver for it.
I'd even wager that it's quite probable that any new input method you care to name (or invent) could simply be added as a kernel module to kernel 2.6 (or 2.4, 2.0, etc) - and that's only if it couldn't be done in user-space :)
smash.
Sure, Win32 sucks, but that's just a layer on top of the Windows NT kernel. And besides, it sucks mainly because it's buggy, not because it's non-functional.
Fact is, the core operating system requirements (memory management, process scheduling, i/o) never change. Everything else is cruft that can be added/removed/replaced as required.
What groundbreaking technology is coming along that is going to require such a core re-write of the entire o/s model that it will render Linux/Windows unusable as a base to build on?
smash.
smash.
smash.
Security through obscurity is not security at all.
Anyone here should know that...
smash.