From what I've heard from IBM's Linux people, they are predicting that as soon as 2003-2004, Linux will become the most common OS in both desktop and server markets.. Now how's THAT for optimism/a bright outlook?
What the HELL is this article doing on Slashdot? Serriously.. Has this become some forum like IRC where worthless conversations drown out the one or two good threads a day? Can I please here about something REMOTELY related to "news for nerds"?
How about Mandarin? Last I heard it was the most spoken language in the world. From what (little, I might add) I understand, it is a Chinese dialect especially used in southern China? Regardless of the current standing in the real world, the article may be correct about the online world being almost all English. But the more important factor than current statisics is growth.. Are there any stats for the relative growth of languages on the internet?
I commented in an earlier article that I have talked with some of IBM's Linux people at job fairs this fall. They've told me that they see most of the Linux kernel developers as "baby's crawling in the sand." They see them struggling with highly complex kernel mechanisms for the first time, while IBM has developers that have been doing that sort of stuff for years and years in AIX (this is all paraphrasing what they told me). But they said that, while they could just whop down a big set of kernel patches to make the kernel more efficient and whatnot, they're trying not to alienate the community. The guy I spoke with cautioned though, that they aren't trying to say Linux is a bad OS or anything, but rather that it has a lot of potential to be even better than it is. The IBM dude said they see Linux becoming the dominant overall OS in as few as 4 or 5 years.
What are the possible mishaps that could result from this type of mission? I'm not an expert on anything relating to this type of thing, but it's something that makes me nervous. Also, if the atmosphere wouldn't become oxygenated enough for 1e5 years, is it really that big of a deal? What we need is definately something more short-term than that.
How about computers able to survive an atom bomb, so that they could make and record precise measurements.. I've got a feeling that a nuke blast could mess a few things up in your average PC =)
While we're at it, let's pay the Xerox R&D folks a royaltee for every window we open in our GUI.. Or how about a nickel to the transistor guy for every cycle our CPU operates. Hey, Maybe Al Gore should get paid for everytime we jack into his internet.
This reminds me of Fedland in Stephenson's "Snow Crash." And it adds a scary plausability to parts of the plot. While, as I posted in a previous article, I'm comfortable with encryption and feel fairly safe using PGP for things and running an encrypted volume for a lot of my hard drive, it is still a little frightening, a little foreshadowing of a time in which the USA becomes a police state. Imagine a time when kids bring guns to school, so schools install cameras to monitor every square inch of the school; where cop's can catch all the speeders, so cameras on stop lights automate the speeding ticket process; a time when Britain's government basically has the right to anything encrypted on the user's computer (don't believe me? look into RIP). Oh wait, that time is now, and it's only getting scarier. What organizations exist to protect our privacy? Do you really thing the existing organizations are working? When was the last time they helped you out? I think as the techno-literate of the world, have an obligation to stand up for human rights in the electronic realm, and to try to hold on to any privacy we have left
I'll probably get Troll -1, or flamed for saying this, but does anyone really care about the "oh, and it runs on Linux!" tagline lately? It's getting to the point where if Joe Q. Schmuck's shoelace has Linux running on a 2" chip that suddenly this is a Slashdot-worthy article.. This is not news for nerd.. It's news for lamers. Now if you're going to put up a tutorial on writing a driver for this dinky little device, or one of the "making-of" type pages (as with the mega-cooled systems, the atari-handheld thing, etc), then I don't mind. But can we stop with the, "OOOOH! The article mentions the letters l-i-n-u-x in succession, let's post the sucker!!" stories? Just my thoughts
I really feel that this whole Carnivore thing shouldn't worry anyone who knows what encryption and or packet sniffing are. And if you're innocent to begin with, then you should have very little problem at all. Sure, you can argue that it is an invasion of your privacy, but do you really care if some program systematically checks through your emails to see what time the game is, or check in with mom/girlfriend? If you are sending sensitive emails, such as business secrets or criminal activities, you have to realize that you don't control of all machines between you and your recipient, therefore you ought to be using encryption anyway, ASSUMING that there are packet sniffers or "carnivore"'s between you and the message recipient. So why not stop bitching that the government is too invasive, quit the liberal-paranoid crap, and just install pgp.
Poor astronauts.. Now they have to wear sandals in the shower, just like the rest of us. As a university student who wakes up to a bathroom floor covered with piss and puke from the frat-boys, I would take a little space-fungus anyday!
I'm glad my U.S. Supreme Court has better things to do than decide the fate of a multi-billion dollar software monopoly which has actively reduced it's competition in the past and today seems to be taking on Corel (Hey SEC: What gives?). Boy they must be working on a WHOPPER of a case load if that ones is too unimportant.. (Sarcasm intended). Serriously, why isn't this getting any attention?
Not to start a holy war.. But I really admire Debian for holding out and wanting everything perfect in a release, and I admire Redhat's approach of rapid frequency releasing.. But can't we get a middle ground? Either way, it's still fewer bugs that Microsoft Windows!
Do these really make sense? Couldn't any fool I write a check out to photocopy/scan/physicially-cut-and-paste my signature at the bottom of any document he wished and fax it to the appropriate place?
I think this is just one more akward step toward creating an economy with absolute dependence on electronics. It's just one more thing that makes me a little sqeamish and leaves me trying to hold on to any privacy/anonynimity I have left.
I miss the good old days of BBS'ing with great text-based games like Trade Wars and Usurper. I really think the quality of gaming has gone way down hill since computer/console-based graphics capabilities have risen. Sure Quake 52 (or whatever they're up to) has incredible graphics, but will it ever match the addictiveness of games-of-old? I for one, vote no. I'd have to say the last game I REALLY enjoyed was the original Sid Meier's Civilization. I remember the summer night I bought that game in high school, and I played it non-stop for about 2 days...
This user should be kicked off, whipped, beaten, dragged behind a horse, then whipped some more.. If you're going to post something, have some content. Or just be hypocritical like this comment.
You and I both know this isn't how Microsoft plays the game. Their strategy has always been to make their product incompatible and then to try to make customers use their product over the competition. If you've their OEM clout and their marketing dollars, it's not a half bad strategy.
While at an engineering expo at my university, I spoke with a guy who works with Linux at IBM. He said that IBM has been doing lots of testing and r-and-d with Linux. He said that their experts are predicting that Linux will be the dominant OS in 4 to 5 years. He also said that IBM doesn't believe a lot of the current benchmarks with Linux, especialy those with high performance disk access and with SMP, and that IBM is in a position to help Linux immediately, but doesn't want do alienate the community by making it look bad. The guy sounded sincere and seemed to know what he was talking about. I'm looking forward to see what IBM has to offer Linux in the coming years
Slashdot Mirror
Now we know who was online, and from where, during all of last year.. Oops! now it's out of date
From what I've heard from IBM's Linux people, they are predicting that as soon as 2003-2004, Linux will become the most common OS in both desktop and server markets.. Now how's THAT for optimism/a bright outlook?
What the HELL is this article doing on Slashdot? Serriously.. Has this become some forum like IRC where worthless conversations drown out the one or two good threads a day? Can I please here about something REMOTELY related to "news for nerds"?
How about Mandarin? Last I heard it was the most spoken language in the world. From what (little, I might add) I understand, it is a Chinese dialect especially used in southern China? Regardless of the current standing in the real world, the article may be correct about the online world being almost all English. But the more important factor than current statisics is growth.. Are there any stats for the relative growth of languages on the internet?
I commented in an earlier article that I have talked with some of IBM's Linux people at job fairs this fall. They've told me that they see most of the Linux kernel developers as "baby's crawling in the sand." They see them struggling with highly complex kernel mechanisms for the first time, while IBM has developers that have been doing that sort of stuff for years and years in AIX (this is all paraphrasing what they told me). But they said that, while they could just whop down a big set of kernel patches to make the kernel more efficient and whatnot, they're trying not to alienate the community. The guy I spoke with cautioned though, that they aren't trying to say Linux is a bad OS or anything, but rather that it has a lot of potential to be even better than it is. The IBM dude said they see Linux becoming the dominant overall OS in as few as 4 or 5 years.
What are the possible mishaps that could result from this type of mission? I'm not an expert on anything relating to this type of thing, but it's something that makes me nervous. Also, if the atmosphere wouldn't become oxygenated enough for 1e5 years, is it really that big of a deal? What we need is definately something more short-term than that.
How about computers able to survive an atom bomb, so that they could make and record precise measurements.. I've got a feeling that a nuke blast could mess a few things up in your average PC =)
While we're at it, let's pay the Xerox R&D folks a royaltee for every window we open in our GUI.. Or how about a nickel to the transistor guy for every cycle our CPU operates. Hey, Maybe Al Gore should get paid for everytime we jack into his internet.
This reminds me of Fedland in Stephenson's "Snow Crash." And it adds a scary plausability to parts of the plot. While, as I posted in a previous article, I'm comfortable with encryption and feel fairly safe using PGP for things and running an encrypted volume for a lot of my hard drive, it is still a little frightening, a little foreshadowing of a time in which the USA becomes a police state. Imagine a time when kids bring guns to school, so schools install cameras to monitor every square inch of the school; where cop's can catch all the speeders, so cameras on stop lights automate the speeding ticket process; a time when Britain's government basically has the right to anything encrypted on the user's computer (don't believe me? look into RIP). Oh wait, that time is now, and it's only getting scarier. What organizations exist to protect our privacy? Do you really thing the existing organizations are working? When was the last time they helped you out? I think as the techno-literate of the world, have an obligation to stand up for human rights in the electronic realm, and to try to hold on to any privacy we have left
It may be powerful, but I bet we could still give it a taste of the ol' Slashdot effect
I'll probably get Troll -1, or flamed for saying this, but does anyone really care about the "oh, and it runs on Linux!" tagline lately? It's getting to the point where if Joe Q. Schmuck's shoelace has Linux running on a 2" chip that suddenly this is a Slashdot-worthy article.. This is not news for nerd.. It's news for lamers. Now if you're going to put up a tutorial on writing a driver for this dinky little device, or one of the "making-of" type pages (as with the mega-cooled systems, the atari-handheld thing, etc), then I don't mind. But can we stop with the, "OOOOH! The article mentions the letters l-i-n-u-x in succession, let's post the sucker!!" stories? Just my thoughts
Slashdot should patent the slashdot effect. Anyone who becomes slashdotted owes massive royalties.
I really feel that this whole Carnivore thing shouldn't worry anyone who knows what encryption and or packet sniffing are. And if you're innocent to begin with, then you should have very little problem at all. Sure, you can argue that it is an invasion of your privacy, but do you really care if some program systematically checks through your emails to see what time the game is, or check in with mom/girlfriend? If you are sending sensitive emails, such as business secrets or criminal activities, you have to realize that you don't control of all machines between you and your recipient, therefore you ought to be using encryption anyway, ASSUMING that there are packet sniffers or "carnivore"'s between you and the message recipient. So why not stop bitching that the government is too invasive, quit the liberal-paranoid crap, and just install pgp.
Poor astronauts.. Now they have to wear sandals in the shower, just like the rest of us. As a university student who wakes up to a bathroom floor covered with piss and puke from the frat-boys, I would take a little space-fungus anyday!
I'm glad my U.S. Supreme Court has better things to do than decide the fate of a multi-billion dollar software monopoly which has actively reduced it's competition in the past and today seems to be taking on Corel (Hey SEC: What gives?). Boy they must be working on a WHOPPER of a case load if that ones is too unimportant.. (Sarcasm intended). Serriously, why isn't this getting any attention?
Not to start a holy war.. But I really admire Debian for holding out and wanting everything perfect in a release, and I admire Redhat's approach of rapid frequency releasing.. But can't we get a middle ground? Either way, it's still fewer bugs that Microsoft Windows!
Check out this link. Cryptanalysis has already begun to reduce the complexity considerably.
Got petabytes of potentially secure data? No problem.. Get microsoft.net!
Do these really make sense? Couldn't any fool I write a check out to photocopy/scan/physicially-cut-and-paste my signature at the bottom of any document he wished and fax it to the appropriate place? I think this is just one more akward step toward creating an economy with absolute dependence on electronics. It's just one more thing that makes me a little sqeamish and leaves me trying to hold on to any privacy/anonynimity I have left.
I miss the good old days of BBS'ing with great text-based games like Trade Wars and Usurper. I really think the quality of gaming has gone way down hill since computer/console-based graphics capabilities have risen. Sure Quake 52 (or whatever they're up to) has incredible graphics, but will it ever match the addictiveness of games-of-old? I for one, vote no. I'd have to say the last game I REALLY enjoyed was the original Sid Meier's Civilization. I remember the summer night I bought that game in high school, and I played it non-stop for about 2 days...
This user should be kicked off, whipped, beaten, dragged behind a horse, then whipped some more.. If you're going to post something, have some content. Or just be hypocritical like this comment.
You and I both know this isn't how Microsoft plays the game. Their strategy has always been to make their product incompatible and then to try to make customers use their product over the competition. If you've their OEM clout and their marketing dollars, it's not a half bad strategy.
While at an engineering expo at my university, I spoke with a guy who works with Linux at IBM. He said that IBM has been doing lots of testing and r-and-d with Linux. He said that their experts are predicting that Linux will be the dominant OS in 4 to 5 years. He also said that IBM doesn't believe a lot of the current benchmarks with Linux, especialy those with high performance disk access and with SMP, and that IBM is in a position to help Linux immediately, but doesn't want do alienate the community by making it look bad. The guy sounded sincere and seemed to know what he was talking about. I'm looking forward to see what IBM has to offer Linux in the coming years
Should have known something was up when the top of the page mentioned someone hacked ID's "mainframe", hehe.. Nice joke, guys.
Don't get me wrong, I'm using Mozilla now, and love it.. But why does it use 140mb on my machine's ram?