For my personal site, I couldn't care less if it follows any standard at all. I made it to facilitate certain things. If it follows any standard, it's entirely by fluke and not by any conscious effort on my part. But, hey, it does what I want it to, and that's good enough for me.
I have seen better how-to's. This one only tells a user how to install and configure a package in Debian Sarge and then enable basic password authentication for an application's web interface. Any person can go ahead and read the INSTALL and README files in a package and get just as much info out of it that they do out of this how-to.
In fact, that "how-to" should probably be called "How-To: Install and Configure Web-based Applications in Debian Sarge and Enabling Basic Password Authentication"
Alright, either everyone that is spouting out sales numbers provide sources for their information, or they shut the hell up about it and start contributing more than, "I'm right, you're wrong, so there!"
The only thing that I can see as believable here, is that crappy supply has damaged any sales figure that anyone can claim as being legit.
Anyway, about the actual FA...
The bottom line is, people won't buy the PS3 because "You'll be able to download packs for games, and all sorts of other distributable media.. it'll be awesome!" They'll buy it for the games.
At the risk of echoing some others here, it's still way too early to tell how well it will do, but I will tell you this right now... If the launch games for the PS3 suck, it will not matter how much downloadable "packs" they have available. A crappy game is a crappy game. You can't go and download some lipstick and a dress and put it on a pile of crap and call it pretty.
There was a time when we took a hard, serious look at OSS and Linux as an alternative to commercial software and operating systems. Although we did get a working model of a Linux-based server setup for internal demos, the idea was quickly snuffed out due to fear, not only from upper management, but from many of the customers as well, that the FDIC and state auditors would crap themselves if they ever came across a bank with a setup like that.
Re:Greenies have had this choice for a while.
on
Store Your Own Juice
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· Score: 1
A few co-workers and I were just discussing this a few days ago. Some systems can be setup to not only buy from the grid, but to sell back to it as well, provided (of course) your local power company will allow you to. (Some do not.)
These things aren't actually as crappy as most everyone here seems to believe they are.
I challenge anyone here to actually go out and purchase the equivalent, new (not refurbished/used,) components and put it together into such a small footprint as this thing, with the ability to power it by lithium-ion battery, for under $150 USD.
The most appealing spec to me is the size. This thing is t-i-n-y. With that in mind, here are a couple uses I have thought of for them:
1. Car PC (media player, engine performance monitor, GPS navigation.) You can roll your own Car PC's these days, but for $150?... good luck.
2. Home automation controller (have a touchscreen monitor mounted into a recessed area in a wall, with this thing inside a small space, which would also be recessed into the wall, under the monitor.)
Game movies stink, because the story/plot in the games stink.
You can't take a pile of crap and turn it into roses by moving it from the backyard onto your kitchen table. Sure, you could try to mold it into flowery-looking things and spray some Glade(tm) rose-scented air freshener on it, but in the end, it'll still look like crap, and it will stink like rose-scented crap, and then your hands will all be covered in crap. Then you go tell your friends about your roses, and they think they'd like to see those roses, because roses smell nice. So, they go see your crappy roses on your now crap-covered kitchen table, and they will either see it for what it is... a pile of crap, or will be fooled by Glade(tm) and get themselves all covered in crap in the process, just like you.
It's a viscious, neverending cycle, and the only ones who gain in the end, is Hollywood and the crappy game designers wth their crappy stories and plots.
The first group of people are transfers from tabletop RPGs. They don't see the point of pretending to be a paladin/ninja/timelord without having the occasional irreverent out-of-character fun or computer equivalent of drinking beer with buddies.
The second group of people are folks who want a story above all else, and usually want to be the focus of that story. They don't like OOC talk, and for them the ideal game isn't about being with other people---it's more like reading a good book.
If I were the dead king (voiced by Patrick Stewart) in Oblivion, I would have this (with much thee's and thou's inferred) to say about that post:
"Mod it up!"
But, getting back on topic... In regards to the actual article, I believe there are already enough MMOG's around to keep the masses satisfied for a while. The games industry has been lacking in the single-player area for a while, and if EA did not agree with that, and did not think they could make a profit from it, then they probably would not be announcing this game.
Since the Rag, of which this article is a part, supposedly targets government institutions, this could be important information for some.
Yes, it is true that physical access "trumps" any other security issues. However, if a person has physical access to a system, it could be quite possible that this system has several other safeguards enabled on it to prevent access to any files stored on it. So, somebody being able to pop in a bootable CD that can boot the system, run some CPU-intensive code on it (thereby overheating the CPU), and then inserting the code to circumvent those extra security measures, could (in theory) gain access to those secure government files*.
Be it for corporate/government espionage, I could see this being a valuable tool for data acquirement, for the purpose(s) of personal, monetary, technological, military, personal (etc.) gain.
*Files: Could include top secret data of a -> military/pornographic/intelligence/pornographic/et c. nature.
I would be willing to bet that smaller "family" type companies, on average, would have a much more relaxed procedure in place for IT workers who resign. Location of the office/company within the country would probably be a factor as well. (i.e.: Companies based in smaller towns, vs. ones based in LA, Las Vegas, Boston, etc.)
One example is the company where I work. Although it is part of a huge corporation, the local offices where I live (which is a smaller town, incidentally) have a smaller, family-type atmosphere. "Corporate" allows the local HR people and department managers to ultimately decide if they should stop someone from doing work immediately after handing in their resignation, or if they can stay on for the remainder.
To my knowledge, they have chosen not to kick anyone out the door on the day that their resignation is received. There's at least two people in the past year, of whom I know, that have handed in their resignations at least one month in advance, and were allowed to stay on for that entire time. It not only helped to facilitate the transition of their responsibilities to those that remained, it also did not contribute to the Rumor Mill like it would have if suddenly the entire office realizes that *poof*, you're gone, when they get an email that says "Joe Blo no longer works at The Company". (Those emails cause nothing but headaches for everyone. People start to spread rumors about what Joe could've possibly done... "I heard they found 20GB of porn on their PC!"...)
Maybe it has something to do with the how the letter is written too, or something else like "This is how XYZ Company does it, and they're HUGE! We should do it like that too!" Considering how many stupid resons I've seen that companies have for doing what they do internally, it could be anything I suppose.
I bet you probably should've bought the HR Manager a few drinks at that last office party, or stopped in and chatted with your Boss from time to time. Let them get to know you a little better as a person. It's harder for them to do "bad" things to you, if they think of you as a nice person, instead of just another carbon-copy employee.
This whole incident just sickens me. It makes me want to puke. To puke all over those pretty iMacs, and the Intel reps too. Hell, I'd puke on everyone, I'm THAT sickened by it. Besides, everyone knows that Pepsi is better than Coke.
It's just this "don't care" atitude that put all the victimized sites in the situation where they were attacked.
If they did care, they would've taken the necessary measures to protect themselves against such an attack, thereby saving themselves from public embarrasment and financial loss.
Your apathetic atitude to this situation does absolutely nothing to add to this discussion at all.
What about the possibility of such things happening on WinNT or 95/98?
What about it? Same thing I said above, lack of concern over DoS attacks, or system security in general, will also affect these operating systems. There are patches available for all these operating systems. Patches that will diminish the risk of being victimized by a DoS attack. However, lack of concern will do nothing to get these people to take the necessary steps to install these patches.
Think before you post next time, and try to grow up a little too... you really are a bit too naive to be posting here.
It's just this "don't care" atitude that put all the victimized sites in the situation where they were attacked.
If they did care, they would've taken the necessary measures to protect themselves against such an attack, thereby saving themselves from public embarrasment and financial loss.
Your apathetic atitude to this situation does absolutely nothing to add to this discussion at all.
What about the possibility of such things happening on WinNT or 95/98?
What about it? Same thing I said above, lack of concern over DoS attacks, or system security in general, will also affect these operating systems. There are patches available for all these operating systems. Patches that will diminish the risk of being victimized by a DoS attack. However, lack of concern will do nothing to get these people to take the necessary steps to install these patches.
Think before you post next time, and try to grow up a little too... you really are a bit too naive to be posting here.
If you actually believe that someone sits in front of their monitor, watching the port scanner do it's "thing", then you are really more naive than you sound.
This statement alone gives me the impression that you know a very limited amount about computers and software in general.
It would not be very hard to set up a port scanner to detect activity on a certain number of ports (user-defined, if needed,) and then make a utility (also not too hard to code) take appropriate action (action that may also be user-defined) automatically when any suspicious activity is detected.
Of course, the next "witty" comment you'll most likely make to this would probably be something like, "Ok, how do you know which activity is suspicious?". Simple, ever hear of pattern recognition? Write a simple algorithm that does rudimentary pattern recognition (of course, you could make it more robust and complicated, if you have the code skills to do so.)
I honestly don't know why I'm even gracing you with my responses, as you're posts have done nothing but prove to show how little you think before you post.
"The report also mentions that NEC, and possibly a dozen other companies are investigating similar possibilities."
From the actual article:
"About a dozen companies plan to use Transmeta chips, Ditzel said. NEC, a manufacturer of notebook computers, is evaluating the chip, said Leonard Tsai, chief technologist at NEC's PC Silicon Valley Center."
Nowhere does it say anything about a dozen companies "investigating." It does say that about a dozen companies are planning to use the chip. Investigating the chip, and actually planning to use the chip, are two entirely different things.
According to this article, NEC is the only company mentioned as currently evaluating/investigating the chip.
Yeah, this may seem like nitpicking, but I find it a bit frustrating. I sometimes do not have the time to read through the referred articles, and instead just quickly scan the Slashdot headlines (and no, I do not post a reply about stories if I have not read the referred article.) If I had done that with this story, I would have been misinformed.
It's actually secure enough for billions of dollars in transactions, huh? Gee, that's a news flash, if I ever did see one.
Sarcasm aside, it's easy to justify eCommerce over net voting. The potential for profits for eCom vastly outweigh any risks, in the minds of investors. They'll take the risk with eCom, and hope nothing happens. If something bad does happen, then they'll deal with it at that time.
This statement by CmdrTaco gives me the impression that he either has been living in seclusion for the past couple of weeks, or he just ignores the recent events with credit card number thefts.
I believe California is completely justified in taking this position, and would personally expect nothing less from any Gov't.
Voting is a much more serious issue. It's something where the risks definitely outweigh any benefits.
This is something about which I remember reading last year some time. Now, before anyone starts flaming that it's still news, yada-yada-yada, let me point something out. I am NOT saying that Slashdot should not have posted it... I'm simply pointing out that this has been planned for ages (In other words, it's an "FYI.").
One particular aspect of the story I read about this last year, was that they announced their plans during one of those wonderful storms in Florida. Of course, at the time, it didn't do Florida any good, did it? (rhetorical question, BTW.)
You won't be smiling for a long time then. NFS: High Stakes only supports Glide or Directx6.1+.
However, since Glide has been released for linux (along with the specs for the Voodoo cards,) half the battle has been won. Now, EA just has to be more receptive to porting their games to Linux. Until they are, don't hold your breath.
Of course, this doesn't help the people out there who do NOT own a Voodoo-based card (or do it yourself.) For you guys, you're going to have to get some generous programmer to write a Linux Glide wrapper for your video card. Good luck.
And... we all now that pursuing the possibility of DirectX on Linux is a futile effort at best... but then again, you never know... stranger things have happened.
Slashdot Mirror
In fact, looking back on it, there could be a direct correlation drawn between my purchases of MMO's, and my declining interest in electronic games.
If I were to ever gain another interest in games, I would probably get a Wii and forego the PC.
For my personal site, I couldn't care less if it follows any standard at all. I made it to facilitate certain things. If it follows any standard, it's entirely by fluke and not by any conscious effort on my part. But, hey, it does what I want it to, and that's good enough for me.
Yeah, call me a pessimist, but whenever I see the words "Coming Soon" and "Government" close together, something makes me want to laugh.
I tried to sign up for it, but it's available to only those within the US (for now, anyway.)
So, if you don't live in the US, you're S.O.L. with trying it out.
What does that have to do with the article?
Are you suggesting that they have the university students flown to an area to test something in a possibly life-threatening environment?
I have seen better how-to's. This one only tells a user how to install and configure a package in Debian Sarge and then enable basic password authentication for an application's web interface. Any person can go ahead and read the INSTALL and README files in a package and get just as much info out of it that they do out of this how-to.
In fact, that "how-to" should probably be called "How-To: Install and Configure Web-based Applications in Debian Sarge and Enabling Basic Password Authentication"
Alright, either everyone that is spouting out sales numbers provide sources for their information, or they shut the hell up about it and start contributing more than, "I'm right, you're wrong, so there!"
...
.. it'll be awesome!" They'll buy it for the games.
... If the launch games for the PS3 suck, it will not matter how much downloadable "packs" they have available. A crappy game is a crappy game. You can't go and download some lipstick and a dress and put it on a pile of crap and call it pretty.
The only thing that I can see as believable here, is that crappy supply has damaged any sales figure that anyone can claim as being legit.
Anyway, about the actual FA
The bottom line is, people won't buy the PS3 because "You'll be able to download packs for games, and all sorts of other distributable media
At the risk of echoing some others here, it's still way too early to tell how well it will do, but I will tell you this right now
There was a time when we took a hard, serious look at OSS and Linux as an alternative to commercial software and operating systems. Although we did get a working model of a Linux-based server setup for internal demos, the idea was quickly snuffed out due to fear, not only from upper management, but from many of the customers as well, that the FDIC and state auditors would crap themselves if they ever came across a bank with a setup like that.
A few co-workers and I were just discussing this a few days ago. Some systems can be setup to not only buy from the grid, but to sell back to it as well, provided (of course) your local power company will allow you to. (Some do not.)
These things aren't actually as crappy as most everyone here seems to believe they are.
... good luck.
I challenge anyone here to actually go out and purchase the equivalent, new (not refurbished/used,) components and put it together into such a small footprint as this thing, with the ability to power it by lithium-ion battery, for under $150 USD.
The most appealing spec to me is the size. This thing is t-i-n-y. With that in mind, here are a couple uses I have thought of for them:
1. Car PC (media player, engine performance monitor, GPS navigation.) You can roll your own Car PC's these days, but for $150?
2. Home automation controller (have a touchscreen monitor mounted into a recessed area in a wall, with this thing inside a small space, which would also be recessed into the wall, under the monitor.)
Game movies stink, because the story/plot in the games stink.
... a pile of crap, or will be fooled by Glade(tm) and get themselves all covered in crap in the process, just like you.
You can't take a pile of crap and turn it into roses by moving it from the backyard onto your kitchen table. Sure, you could try to mold it into flowery-looking things and spray some Glade(tm) rose-scented air freshener on it, but in the end, it'll still look like crap, and it will stink like rose-scented crap, and then your hands will all be covered in crap. Then you go tell your friends about your roses, and they think they'd like to see those roses, because roses smell nice. So, they go see your crappy roses on your now crap-covered kitchen table, and they will either see it for what it is
It's a viscious, neverending cycle, and the only ones who gain in the end, is Hollywood and the crappy game designers wth their crappy stories and plots.
If all of the manufacturers cheat, then none of them are cheating.
Since the Rag, of which this article is a part, supposedly targets government institutions, this could be important information for some.
t c. nature.
Yes, it is true that physical access "trumps" any other security issues. However, if a person has physical access to a system, it could be quite possible that this system has several other safeguards enabled on it to prevent access to any files stored on it. So, somebody being able to pop in a bootable CD that can boot the system, run some CPU-intensive code on it (thereby overheating the CPU), and then inserting the code to circumvent those extra security measures, could (in theory) gain access to those secure government files*.
Be it for corporate/government espionage, I could see this being a valuable tool for data acquirement, for the purpose(s) of personal, monetary, technological, military, personal (etc.) gain.
*Files: Could include top secret data of a -> military/pornographic/intelligence/pornographic/e
I would be willing to bet that smaller "family" type companies, on average, would have a much more relaxed procedure in place for IT workers who resign. Location of the office/company within the country would probably be a factor as well. (i.e.: Companies based in smaller towns, vs. ones based in LA, Las Vegas, Boston, etc.)
... "I heard they found 20GB of porn on their PC!" ...)
One example is the company where I work. Although it is part of a huge corporation, the local offices where I live (which is a smaller town, incidentally) have a smaller, family-type atmosphere. "Corporate" allows the local HR people and department managers to ultimately decide if they should stop someone from doing work immediately after handing in their resignation, or if they can stay on for the remainder.
To my knowledge, they have chosen not to kick anyone out the door on the day that their resignation is received. There's at least two people in the past year, of whom I know, that have handed in their resignations at least one month in advance, and were allowed to stay on for that entire time. It not only helped to facilitate the transition of their responsibilities to those that remained, it also did not contribute to the Rumor Mill like it would have if suddenly the entire office realizes that *poof*, you're gone, when they get an email that says "Joe Blo no longer works at The Company". (Those emails cause nothing but headaches for everyone. People start to spread rumors about what Joe could've possibly done
Maybe it has something to do with the how the letter is written too, or something else like "This is how XYZ Company does it, and they're HUGE! We should do it like that too!" Considering how many stupid resons I've seen that companies have for doing what they do internally, it could be anything I suppose.
I bet you probably should've bought the HR Manager a few drinks at that last office party, or stopped in and chatted with your Boss from time to time. Let them get to know you a little better as a person. It's harder for them to do "bad" things to you, if they think of you as a nice person, instead of just another carbon-copy employee.
This whole incident just sickens me. It makes me want to puke. To puke all over those pretty iMacs, and the Intel reps too. Hell, I'd puke on everyone, I'm THAT sickened by it. Besides, everyone knows that Pepsi is better than Coke.
If they did care, they would've taken the necessary measures to protect themselves against such an attack, thereby saving themselves from public embarrasment and financial loss.
Your apathetic atitude to this situation does absolutely nothing to add to this discussion at all.
What about it? Same thing I said above, lack of concern over DoS attacks, or system security in general, will also affect these operating systems. There are patches available for all these operating systems. Patches that will diminish the risk of being victimized by a DoS attack. However, lack of concern will do nothing to get these people to take the necessary steps to install these patches.
Think before you post next time, and try to grow up a little too
If they did care, they would've taken the necessary measures to protect themselves against such an attack, thereby saving themselves from public embarrasment and financial loss.
Your apathetic atitude to this situation does absolutely nothing to add to this discussion at all.
What about it? Same thing I said above, lack of concern over DoS attacks, or system security in general, will also affect these operating systems. There are patches available for all these operating systems. Patches that will diminish the risk of being victimized by a DoS attack. However, lack of concern will do nothing to get these people to take the necessary steps to install these patches.
Think before you post next time, and try to grow up a little too
If you actually believe that someone sits in front of their monitor, watching the port scanner do it's "thing", then you are really more naive than you sound.
This statement alone gives me the impression that you know a very limited amount about computers and software in general.
It would not be very hard to set up a port scanner to detect activity on a certain number of ports (user-defined, if needed,) and then make a utility (also not too hard to code) take appropriate action (action that may also be user-defined) automatically when any suspicious activity is detected.
Of course, the next "witty" comment you'll most likely make to this would probably be something like, "Ok, how do you know which activity is suspicious?". Simple, ever hear of pattern recognition? Write a simple algorithm that does rudimentary pattern recognition (of course, you could make it more robust and complicated, if you have the code skills to do so.)
I honestly don't know why I'm even gracing you with my responses, as you're posts have done nothing but prove to show how little you think before you post.
OK, you're getting just a little bit too carried away here.
Just take a nice, deep breath, step back, and re-evaluate the situation.
Just what we need ... conspiracy theories.
... a "theory".
Of course, that's all it is. I wouldn't go believing any of it if I were any of you.
Unless there's some physical evidence to support it, it still remains just that
According to this article, NEC is the only company mentioned as currently evaluating/investigating the chip.
Yeah, this may seem like nitpicking, but I find it a bit frustrating. I sometimes do not have the time to read through the referred articles, and instead just quickly scan the Slashdot headlines (and no, I do not post a reply about stories if I have not read the referred article.) If I had done that with this story, I would have been misinformed.
It's actually secure enough for billions of dollars in transactions, huh? Gee, that's a news flash, if I ever did see one.
Sarcasm aside, it's easy to justify eCommerce over net voting. The potential for profits for eCom vastly outweigh any risks, in the minds of investors. They'll take the risk with eCom, and hope nothing happens. If something bad does happen, then they'll deal with it at that time.
This statement by CmdrTaco gives me the impression that he either has been living in seclusion for the past couple of weeks, or he just ignores the recent events with credit card number thefts.
I believe California is completely justified in taking this position, and would personally expect nothing less from any Gov't.
Voting is a much more serious issue. It's something where the risks definitely outweigh any benefits.
This is something about which I remember reading last year some time. Now, before anyone starts flaming that it's still news, yada-yada-yada, let me point something out. I am NOT saying that Slashdot should not have posted it ... I'm simply pointing out that this has been planned for ages (In other words, it's an "FYI.").
One particular aspect of the story I read about this last year, was that they announced their plans during one of those wonderful storms in Florida. Of course, at the time, it didn't do Florida any good, did it? (rhetorical question, BTW.)
You won't be smiling for a long time then. NFS: High Stakes only supports Glide or Directx6.1+.
... we all now that pursuing the possibility of DirectX on Linux is a futile effort at best ... but then again, you never know ... stranger things have happened.
However, since Glide has been released for linux (along with the specs for the Voodoo cards,) half the battle has been won. Now, EA just has to be more receptive to porting their games to Linux. Until they are, don't hold your breath.
Of course, this doesn't help the people out there who do NOT own a Voodoo-based card (or do it yourself.) For you guys, you're going to have to get some generous programmer to write a Linux Glide wrapper for your video card. Good luck.
And