What's really cool is that opera and X fit into under 64 Megs of ram very nicely. Mozilla doesn't, Firefox may. Opera also gives better web browsing experience than links -g, as opera can support plugins and has better javascript support. So it actually gives a decent web browsing experience. Also when you go into full screen mode, if you have the 'free downloadable version of oprera' there are no adds because there is no place for them;-).
Now if I can only get my wireless card working under Linux, it will be a really nice mobile web surfing pad.
Mine is opera. That is it. I have configured the framebuffer device and start it with X & export DISPLAY=:0 ; opera.
That's the desktop. Nothing else but a web surfing station. Kinda like a browser terminal. This allows me to have a device with only 64 Megs of RAM and run a web browser that I can check email and my favorit sites. It allows for useing plugins and viewing video in the browser window. Oh when opera starts hit F11 key and it will go to full screen mode. I see this as the future of desktops. Simple to use.
I configured ipsec using spdadd and scripts... Mac uses racoon, and there is a pretty simple configuration file. I'd think that they would tell you what the config file needed to be and say use this config file and change IP addresses.
It's really not that hard once you understand what ipsec is doing. Go to kame.org
FreeBSD is my server and I am well aware of its package system. NetBSD also has a package system similar, only they prvide in some instances source and binary packages. It works the same only on NetBSD ( my system ) its/usr/pkg/foo/bar not ports.
Problem is that if the package DOES NOT EXIST in/usr/ports or/usr/pkg then you have to use tar -zxvf &&./configure ( if it has a configure script) then run make && make install OR you create a FreeBSD / NetBSD package yourself. If you want to uninstall the package after a make install and it is NOT a ports / pkg then you have to know what was installed where.
Typically what I do is./configure --prefix=/public/newpackage . Then when I install I DON'T run it as root and it installs EVERYTHING in/public/newpackage. Then I set LD_LIBRARY_PATH / PATH and any other necessary variables and test the package. From this I can also do a find and get a file list. Then I can use that to build an rpm package and if I like the package install it for real. Other times I just install it in/opt like I did with netbeans and eclipse.
"In theory autoconf does all the dependency checking for required libraries and headers anyway"
Only if it is programmed to make those checks. Also autoconf and automake and getting those configure scripts is not that easy IMHO. There is a bit of work to be done to get autoconf to work right and check for everything. Then it also has to be tested on the various platforms.
For source distros, I'd suggest using something like gentoo's pkg management which is based on the bsd style of source package management. Problem is that the distro has to support the source package or you have to know what you are doing.
I've yet to find a good package management system that handle both source and binary. The BSD's are probably the closest, but the problem with then is that the package must be made in both forms and that is not always the case.
So far the best I have found is apt-get and rpm. dselect is to confusing IMHO. Problem here is getting to the source rpm if one is not provided.
Having written my own init scripts and played with BSD, the one thing I miss in BSD is he ability to switch run levels. SysV is a bit much with run levels from 0 to 6. I'd like 3 run levels. single user, multi user, multi with X. I don't really think that the need for 0 and 6 is really there. Instead of saying init 0 or init 6 why not just say reboot or shutdown and skip the init sequence. That is about all I ever use. BSD has boot -s and multi, so if they were to adopt one more I'd be happy with them.
Truth is most people only use 2.. either runlevel 3 or 5 and single user mode....
.. what do you think cell phones are today? analog? No digital.. the next thing that will start to gain popularity is the ability to do picture phone.. look at the little beamer device.. soon the beamer device will become better as more people have dsl / satellite / or cable.... give it 5 years and we'll all be able to use our picture phones.. quesiton is will we...
.. we'll your mother was a rat... and your father was a gerbil.. I guess that explains the IQ...
WTF are these people doing this for? Do they intend on bring back the wolly mamouth using a mouse...? first glow in the dark fish that are possibly going to be banned in californina, now this...
.. I lived there for a while and there taxes are pretty high, and they tax about everything and the high paying jobs are goverment jobs which pay a whopping 17 to 20k per year. Housing is cheap there though, but this is another reason NOT to live in kansas
comcast, or as I like to call them now, comcrap, keeps raising our rates, every month. They do this so that they can charge less for their cable high speed internet users and for other services they offer. Services like sports, which I don't get or want. My bill now is 97.00 a month. Yes I get just about every channel (HBO, Showtime, Cinimax, TMC, Stars, etc) but I don't have the international stuff or the sports package. When I got service 4 years ago it was $50.00 a month.
EVERYONE I have heard has said that they moved to satellite and have had none of the problems they mention on TV. The fact of the matter is that satellite is the future and newer technology. Cable is expensive as they have to lay all the cable. In a few more years the satellite dishes should get smaller as tech progresses. Just look at satellite radio (XM). The antenna for that is about 3 inches square. In 5 years or 10 years satellite tv will probably be able to do something a little larger or even that size that you don't have to mount or point in any direction.
I have seen satellite antennas get smaller. They used to be 10 feet across and now they are 18 inches and shrinking. My cable box has not changed in 4 years.
When Unix was young it was use and share. That's essentially what BSD was. UNIX utilities that got shared. Sharing software that gets modified and reused is a good thing as it allows improvement. I've occasionally looked at software and fixed it or collaborated with the developer about it and made it better. It works. I'm actually going to be ending some of my projects to start work on other peoples projects.
They don't bother me. I am using the Logitech Quickcam 4000 with a binary only driver. Apparantly the developersigned an agreement with Logitech to provide binary only drivers if he was given the information to make the driver. I have it, but it 'taints your kernel' haviung a binary only driver. The only thing this means is that the lkml wont be there to help debug this if you have problems with it. I have not had problems with it so I don't have problems running a tainted kernel.
Personally if I bought one of these centrino things and wanted to run linux and they offered binary only drivers, I'd be okay with it as long as intel would support it. I'm not a zealot like most linux users. I see the advantage to open source, but I don't see it as a requirement all the time. Hey, if you run oracle or sybase do you have the source on that linux box? NOPE, but you run it anyway.
I think that user space drivers should become a standard for binary only drivers, though rather tahn tainting a kernel. Yes they may be a little slower, but I think with todays speed of systems that would be a negligible impact.
Yes I have heard that. problem is that not all ISP's support this or implement this and there are relays ( I think that is what they are called ) that don't use this. So until everyone does and all email clients use this, we are stuck with email hijacking.
I have read the RFC for what is called SMTP AUTH and it would only be a start.
Who pays if someone starts sending email using my email address? I have already had this happen and as such I have had to change my email address. But what if you work for a company and the company uses bobm@floobla.com? Then someone starts sending email as bobm@floobla.com. Who pays for phoney reply-to addresses?
The real and only solution is email sending authorization. If you are going to get your pop mail you must send USER and PASS commands. These need to be part of the SMTP somehow. Then they need to be adopted by ISP's across the GLOBE. Then they need to be required and any email that does not meet this does not get sent. Yes people will have to upgrade email programs, but it is a small price to pay!
Abiword use xml as its native file format already.
It would be obvious to one skilled in the art to use xml as a document processors file format given that abiword already does this.
I believe that abiword could be used as a flat out 102 rejection saying that any xml file format would be obvious. Also given that fact that XHTML is the current HTML standing and waiting spec.
Does anyone know how to contact the patent examiner on this? I'm looking at uspto.gov, but not sure how to tell them how obvious this is.
When I was there I rejected a patent filed by Microsoft for their font data structure as I believe that it is just a data structure and there was nothing unobvious about how you lay out the font data. Especially given the fact that they gave me their old font data structure. In my opinion this is no different. Its just XML!
is this anything like..
on
Mice In Space
·
· Score: 1
.. pigs in space (ROTFLOL).. I must be old cause I remember that from the Jim H. muppets show..:-)
In the linux world two people disagree, they benchmark and test. If one is clearly superior it gets into the kernel. If they both have strngths and weaknesses then they both get into the kernel and the user is left with a choice ( like xfs, jfs, ext3, etc and then the scheduler thing). In BSD if their is a disagreement they fork -> NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD. Yes Redhat and SuSE and Mandrake all package differently, but you can use a stock kernel with any of them. The BSD's don't ahve stock kernels, the have different kernels.
Now having use NetBSD, FreeBSD and Linux, in some ways I like Linux, but in some ways I like the BSD's. Figuring out why a service is started under BSD seems easier to me as they are all listed in rc.conf, but in RH Linux they have a whole directory of stuff. eep!
I use both. Linux cause its easier to install most programs (synaptic && atp-get rpm).
.. mozilla.. I am no different. then after you have developed and got it working in mozilla, start praying that it will work in IE.
Here is what I have had problems with.
DIV -> they lay them out close but when you get into needing pixel precision, I have had problems. Try laying out 2 div's next to each other and adding borders 1px wide and use absolute layout. Set widths and heights and then view in both. arg!
IE has a bug when opening new windows. Session is gone, and so are your cookies. You have to basically do a get for IE passing the session and any cookies or info you need. Arg IE sucks if you use new windows.
Mozilla does not deal with the object tag the same as IE especially if you are dealing with word documents. Mozilla needs a plugin IE embeds the control for you without the plugin.
Crossbrowser DHTML can be a real chore, but it depends on what you need to do.
Mozilla and Firebird come with the JavaScript Console, which shows you ALL the errors when the page loads or the script gets executed, I have not seen this in IE, not to this extent. This is basically ALL I use for my DHTML.
For more info on what is going on I use the http headers plugin for Mozilla / firebird to see what cookies are being sent and what is going on. Then I have to go and debug it to get it working in IE. Once you have it working in both IE and mozilla it usually works in Opera and Safari and Konqueror.
In open source, its mostly because you can. There are usually NO deadlines, so the rewrite can occur on the author(s) timeline. In a corporation this is less likely and more difficult.
In the case of mozilla / netscape, the thought was that netscape was 4 years old or more ( I can't remember ). The UNIX codebase was based on motif, and not sure what the windows codebase was, probably VC++. The problem here was that the goals were to large. The new developers did not want to use much of the old code base as I imagine it was ugly, so they rewrote from scratch. The problem they ran into is that this took them about 3 years to get a product to market that is now (4 years or more later) a great browser, but maybe a little to late to market.
IMHO they should have picked subsystems to rewite and worked on that instead. Not sure if they could have, but maybe they could have just changed the parse or the UI first and then worked on the rest later. Maybe a port to QT or something else would have been better and then to have released that as 5.0 and worked on bugs and new elements. Then the 6.0 could have been fixing the parser. That's my opinion, but not sure they could have.
Gtk+ had similar problems and they rewrote much between 1x and 2.x.
Most of the time the rewrite occurs, because times change. Needs change and things change. A codebase becomes outdated and no longer functions well. This is likely what happened with netscape. It was no longer useful to keep the codebase.
Also you have developers that disagree on the best way to do things and it is difficult to get motivated to update and maintain someone elses code if it is crap code. So they rewrite.
I wish I had that luxury here where I work, as I would love to rewrite. Problem is that we have deadlines and clients that we cannot just rewrite stuff anytime we want.
I think the rewrite occur mostly because they can, and because noone wants to maintain someone elses code. They want to leave their mark on society so to speak and it becomes their code.
.. go to this web site http://www.sco.com/ibmlawsuit/
Is is their lawsuit page (SCO's)
Click on the link that says "August 6, 2003
Defendant IBM's Answer to the Amended Complaint and Counterclaim-Plaintiff IBM's Counterclaims Against SCO"
Then read the small print in the PDF. Page 1 at the bottom where it says that this document is for the intended reciepiant and that distributing this document is a violation of attorney... blah blah blah..
Your honor, if they can't keep their own attorney documents privelidged, then how can you expect them to keep their source code under control. I submit that SCO is responsible for letting loose the code in question and that their company should be divided up and diseminated, and that the owners of the company be all put in jail for being a bunch of dodo's!
I'd agree, but also realize that I can get an under $500 PC with XP Home, 256DDR RAM, 40Gig drive, 52xCD-RW/audio/LAN/modem, and Athlon XP 2200 for $479. For about $850 that becomes 512DDR RAM, Athlon XP 3000, 80gig drive, and a 64Meg w/TV out video card. I can add a firewire to any PC for about $50 and get 3-4 firewire ports.
I can also trash XP from the machine and install Linux or opt to buy the PC with NO os and save about 100-200 off the price. Check out www.tigerdirect.com or idot.com and you can get a really inexpensive PC. Cheaper than any modern mac.
I'm middle class, but at this point in time I cannot justify paying for the mac that I want.
I guess I'm suprised that UNIX just accepted the CDE and never really extended it to be something really cool. At its base OS X is BSD, and Panther actually comes with a version of X one could install. Personally I like OS X, but macs hardware is just to expensive for a poor man like me. IMHO Mac OS X is the uppermiddle class mans extra friendly UNIX. I'll take Linux cause I'm poor;-)
First of all I have been using FreeBSD as my router. I upgrade it probably once a month or when I see there are security problems that affect me. Alternately using a linksys, dlink, netgear router would save time as well or Linux or antoher BSD may work as well. I have had no problems with my hubs either. I don't buy cheap hardware so I don't hae hardware problems. I haven't had to mess with the network a whole lot. Linux up2date is pretty easy to run and takes not time at all. So what is this guy spending all his time on?
Printer driver -> use a mac and a compatible printer, and you will probably have less problems.
Windows media player -> you are asking for trouble there, use xine instead.
Windows XP && security? What? Windows and security is like army intelligence IMHO, I guess XP is better.
Outlook -> unless you NEED the calendar, use antoher program for your email.
Hmm all these problems seem to be that he is running windows programs. I'm sorry, but since I got my roommate to get a mac, I have had less problems. His biggest problem is that yahoo messenger broke last time HE upgraded it. Since I got him to get a mac, I don't have to deal with problems from his mac on my network. I use Linux and up2date, so it all happens in the background sortof.
I know that this is going to piss off windows fans, but I have to say that I personally have had more problems with windows and windows software then I have had with Linux. Yeah I loose some functionality with Linux, but much of Linux is gaining on Windows in that space and the loss is negligable IMHO.
#7 rules out wsdl / SOAP, but using this kind of concept, it may be a role your own. Use binary or text transfer. HMMM DNS query rings a bell? SMTP / POP3 protocols are cross platform, and all text, and all can be secured using ssl. Yes they work over tcp, but I'm sure one could code the connections over udp instead.
Something like:
COMMAND: getStockQuote
PARAM COUNT: 1
PARAM 1: MSFT
END COMMAND
This is the basic principal of POP3 / SMTP and could be extended to allow for RPC. Each side would have to know how to execute the 'command' and extract parameters and then you'd have to deal with return types. Not difficult to come up with the idea, but more difficult to implement. Could be a fun project,....
Slashdot Mirror
Now if I can only get my wireless card working under Linux, it will be a really nice mobile web surfing pad.
That's the desktop. Nothing else but a web surfing station. Kinda like a browser terminal. This allows me to have a device with only 64 Megs of RAM and run a web browser that I can check email and my favorit sites. It allows for useing plugins and viewing video in the browser window. Oh when opera starts hit F11 key and it will go to full screen mode. I see this as the future of desktops. Simple to use.
It's really not that hard once you understand what ipsec is doing. Go to kame.org
Problem is that if the package DOES NOT EXIST in /usr/ports or /usr/pkg then you have to use tar -zxvf && ./configure ( if it has a configure script) then run make && make install OR you create a FreeBSD / NetBSD package yourself. If you want to uninstall the package after a make install and it is NOT a ports / pkg then you have to know what was installed where.
Typically what I do is ./configure --prefix=/public/newpackage . Then when I install I DON'T run it as root and it installs EVERYTHING in /public/newpackage. Then I set LD_LIBRARY_PATH / PATH and any other necessary variables and test the package. From this I can also do a find and get a file list. Then I can use that to build an rpm package and if I like the package install it for real. Other times I just install it in /opt like I did with netbeans and eclipse.
Only if it is programmed to make those checks. Also autoconf and automake and getting those configure scripts is not that easy IMHO. There is a bit of work to be done to get autoconf to work right and check for everything. Then it also has to be tested on the various platforms.
For source distros, I'd suggest using something like gentoo's pkg management which is based on the bsd style of source package management. Problem is that the distro has to support the source package or you have to know what you are doing.
I've yet to find a good package management system that handle both source and binary. The BSD's are probably the closest, but the problem with then is that the package must be made in both forms and that is not always the case.
So far the best I have found is apt-get and rpm. dselect is to confusing IMHO. Problem here is getting to the source rpm if one is not provided.
Having written my own init scripts and played with BSD, the one thing I miss in BSD is he ability to switch run levels. SysV is a bit much with run levels from 0 to 6. I'd like 3 run levels. single user, multi user, multi with X. I don't really think that the need for 0 and 6 is really there. Instead of saying init 0 or init 6 why not just say reboot or shutdown and skip the init sequence. That is about all I ever use. BSD has boot -s and multi, so if they were to adopt one more I'd be happy with them.
Truth is most people only use 2 .. either runlevel 3 or 5 and single user mode....
.. what do you think cell phones are today? analog? No digital.. the next thing that will start to gain popularity is the ability to do picture phone.. look at the little beamer device.. soon the beamer device will become better as more people have dsl / satellite / or cable.... give it 5 years and we'll all be able to use our picture phones.. quesiton is will we...
WTF are these people doing this for? Do they intend on bring back the wolly mamouth using a mouse...? first glow in the dark fish that are possibly going to be banned in californina, now this...
.. I lived there for a while and there taxes are pretty high, and they tax about everything and the high paying jobs are goverment jobs which pay a whopping 17 to 20k per year. Housing is cheap there though, but this is another reason NOT to live in kansas
EVERYONE I have heard has said that they moved to satellite and have had none of the problems they mention on TV. The fact of the matter is that satellite is the future and newer technology. Cable is expensive as they have to lay all the cable. In a few more years the satellite dishes should get smaller as tech progresses. Just look at satellite radio (XM). The antenna for that is about 3 inches square. In 5 years or 10 years satellite tv will probably be able to do something a little larger or even that size that you don't have to mount or point in any direction.
I have seen satellite antennas get smaller. They used to be 10 feet across and now they are 18 inches and shrinking. My cable box has not changed in 4 years.
GO FOR SATELLITE, cable blinks out and on too.
When Unix was young it was use and share. That's essentially what BSD was. UNIX utilities that got shared. Sharing software that gets modified and reused is a good thing as it allows improvement. I've occasionally looked at software and fixed it or collaborated with the developer about it and made it better. It works. I'm actually going to be ending some of my projects to start work on other peoples projects.
it was darl@sco.com or was it bill.gates@msn.com
They don't bother me. I am using the Logitech Quickcam 4000 with a binary only driver. Apparantly the developersigned an agreement with Logitech to provide binary only drivers if he was given the information to make the driver. I have it, but it 'taints your kernel' haviung a binary only driver. The only thing this means is that the lkml wont be there to help debug this if you have problems with it. I have not had problems with it so I don't have problems running a tainted kernel.
Personally if I bought one of these centrino things and wanted to run linux and they offered binary only drivers, I'd be okay with it as long as intel would support it. I'm not a zealot like most linux users. I see the advantage to open source, but I don't see it as a requirement all the time. Hey, if you run oracle or sybase do you have the source on that linux box? NOPE, but you run it anyway.
I think that user space drivers should become a standard for binary only drivers, though rather tahn tainting a kernel. Yes they may be a little slower, but I think with todays speed of systems that would be a negligible impact.
I have read the RFC for what is called SMTP AUTH and it would only be a start.
The real and only solution is email sending authorization. If you are going to get your pop mail you must send USER and PASS commands. These need to be part of the SMTP somehow. Then they need to be adopted by ISP's across the GLOBE. Then they need to be required and any email that does not meet this does not get sent. Yes people will have to upgrade email programs, but it is a small price to pay!
It would be obvious to one skilled in the art to use xml as a document processors file format given that abiword already does this.
I believe that abiword could be used as a flat out 102 rejection saying that any xml file format would be obvious. Also given that fact that XHTML is the current HTML standing and waiting spec.
Does anyone know how to contact the patent examiner on this? I'm looking at uspto.gov, but not sure how to tell them how obvious this is.
When I was there I rejected a patent filed by Microsoft for their font data structure as I believe that it is just a data structure and there was nothing unobvious about how you lay out the font data. Especially given the fact that they gave me their old font data structure. In my opinion this is no different. Its just XML!
.. pigs in space (ROTFLOL) .. I must be old cause I remember that from the Jim H. muppets show.. :-)
Now having use NetBSD, FreeBSD and Linux, in some ways I like Linux, but in some ways I like the BSD's. Figuring out why a service is started under BSD seems easier to me as they are all listed in rc.conf, but in RH Linux they have a whole directory of stuff. eep!
I use both. Linux cause its easier to install most programs (synaptic && atp-get rpm).
Here is what I have had problems with.
DIV -> they lay them out close but when you get into needing pixel precision, I have had problems. Try laying out 2 div's next to each other and adding borders 1px wide and use absolute layout. Set widths and heights and then view in both. arg!
IE has a bug when opening new windows. Session is gone, and so are your cookies. You have to basically do a get for IE passing the session and any cookies or info you need. Arg IE sucks if you use new windows.
Mozilla does not deal with the object tag the same as IE especially if you are dealing with word documents. Mozilla needs a plugin IE embeds the control for you without the plugin.
Crossbrowser DHTML can be a real chore, but it depends on what you need to do.
Mozilla and Firebird come with the JavaScript Console, which shows you ALL the errors when the page loads or the script gets executed, I have not seen this in IE, not to this extent. This is basically ALL I use for my DHTML.
For more info on what is going on I use the http headers plugin for Mozilla / firebird to see what cookies are being sent and what is going on. Then I have to go and debug it to get it working in IE. Once you have it working in both IE and mozilla it usually works in Opera and Safari and Konqueror.
Why rewrite?
In open source, its mostly because you can. There are usually NO deadlines, so the rewrite can occur on the author(s) timeline. In a corporation this is less likely and more difficult.
In the case of mozilla / netscape, the thought was that netscape was 4 years old or more ( I can't remember ). The UNIX codebase was based on motif, and not sure what the windows codebase was, probably VC++. The problem here was that the goals were to large. The new developers did not want to use much of the old code base as I imagine it was ugly, so they rewrote from scratch. The problem they ran into is that this took them about 3 years to get a product to market that is now (4 years or more later) a great browser, but maybe a little to late to market.
IMHO they should have picked subsystems to rewite and worked on that instead. Not sure if they could have, but maybe they could have just changed the parse or the UI first and then worked on the rest later. Maybe a port to QT or something else would have been better and then to have released that as 5.0 and worked on bugs and new elements. Then the 6.0 could have been fixing the parser. That's my opinion, but not sure they could have.
Gtk+ had similar problems and they rewrote much between 1x and 2.x.
Most of the time the rewrite occurs, because times change. Needs change and things change. A codebase becomes outdated and no longer functions well. This is likely what happened with netscape. It was no longer useful to keep the codebase.
Also you have developers that disagree on the best way to do things and it is difficult to get motivated to update and maintain someone elses code if it is crap code. So they rewrite.
I wish I had that luxury here where I work, as I would love to rewrite. Problem is that we have deadlines and clients that we cannot just rewrite stuff anytime we want.
I think the rewrite occur mostly because they can, and because noone wants to maintain someone elses code. They want to leave their mark on society so to speak and it becomes their code.
Is is their lawsuit page (SCO's)
Click on the link that says "August 6, 2003 Defendant IBM's Answer to the Amended Complaint and Counterclaim-Plaintiff IBM's Counterclaims Against SCO"
Then read the small print in the PDF. Page 1 at the bottom where it says that this document is for the intended reciepiant and that distributing this document is a violation of attorney ... blah blah blah..
Your honor, if they can't keep their own attorney documents privelidged, then how can you expect them to keep their source code under control. I submit that SCO is responsible for letting loose the code in question and that their company should be divided up and diseminated, and that the owners of the company be all put in jail for being a bunch of dodo's!
I can also trash XP from the machine and install Linux or opt to buy the PC with NO os and save about 100-200 off the price. Check out www.tigerdirect.com or idot.com and you can get a really inexpensive PC. Cheaper than any modern mac.
I'm middle class, but at this point in time I cannot justify paying for the mac that I want.
I guess I'm suprised that UNIX just accepted the CDE and never really extended it to be something really cool. At its base OS X is BSD, and Panther actually comes with a version of X one could install. Personally I like OS X, but macs hardware is just to expensive for a poor man like me. IMHO Mac OS X is the uppermiddle class mans extra friendly UNIX. I'll take Linux cause I'm poor ;-)
Printer driver -> use a mac and a compatible printer, and you will probably have less problems.
Windows media player -> you are asking for trouble there, use xine instead.
Windows XP && security? What? Windows and security is like army intelligence IMHO, I guess XP is better.
Outlook -> unless you NEED the calendar, use antoher program for your email.
Hmm all these problems seem to be that he is running windows programs. I'm sorry, but since I got my roommate to get a mac, I have had less problems. His biggest problem is that yahoo messenger broke last time HE upgraded it. Since I got him to get a mac, I don't have to deal with problems from his mac on my network. I use Linux and up2date, so it all happens in the background sortof.
I know that this is going to piss off windows fans, but I have to say that I personally have had more problems with windows and windows software then I have had with Linux. Yeah I loose some functionality with Linux, but much of Linux is gaining on Windows in that space and the loss is negligable IMHO.
Something like:
COMMAND: getStockQuote
PARAM COUNT: 1 PARAM 1: MSFT END COMMAND
This is the basic principal of POP3 / SMTP and could be extended to allow for RPC. Each side would have to know how to execute the 'command' and extract parameters and then you'd have to deal with return types. Not difficult to come up with the idea, but more difficult to implement. Could be a fun project,....