I actually meant like Debian, where backported security fixes usually do not change te kernel's ABI. If changing the ABI is unavoidable, then the package containing the kernel is renamed (e.g., linux-image-2.6.18-4-k7 -> linux-image-2.6.18-5-k7).
Um, no. That's not how it works. Debian revs the package version number (the "4" to "5" in your example) for ALL changes, not just ABI changes. This is how the packing system knows that there is an update.
This sounds like an excellent reason to avoid shitty vendors that release shitty products that rely on proprietary, GPL-violating kernel modules.
And therefore, avoiding pretty much all enterprise software. Sorry, not an option in many cases. Oh, I agree the situation sucks, which is why I would like to see ALL binary modules to go away.
Seriously, the problem isn't analog so much as the NTSC OTA broadcast analog system. There is a serious lack of bandwidth that results in horrible picture even on a 27" set. Analog Broadcast results in about 330 lines of resolution, where the origin signal is 525. Use your set top box to convert digital OTA into svideo or component and it looks as good as a DVD on that analog set.
Now if you only have composite or worse, RF input on your TV, then you are right.
It's criminal for the FCC to still allow the importation and sale of any set not capable of receiving digital OTA broadcasts. Digital reception should have been mandated for all sets sold since 2002. The difference in manufacturing cost is on the order of $5 / set max.
Fuck the FCC, the electronics industry, and retailers for selling this obsolete highly toxic shit that will now all end up in the landfills over the next 5 years.
I don't know what the hell is going on with TV in Belgium, but that's not what is happening in the US.
* There is no paying to receive OTA (over the air) broadcast on a set by set basis. You can have as many digital receivers as you desire. * You can record the digital broadcasts just fine, and there is no charge to watch it later. There are no generational losses of quality either. * You can use the s-video or component output of the converter to your analog TV and get better quality than the analog OTA signal will give you.
With analog OTA, you have (or at least I do) ghosting / fading / snow / lines / etc. problems all the time. With digital, you either have it or you don't. When you have it, the picture is perfect. I'll take some minor MPEG artifacts over the blurry / crappy analog signal any day.
With digital, several of my local stations also broadcast a continual news / weather feed on a sub-channel all the time which is not available via analog.
I can't wait until all hotels convert to digital sets. I frequently pay $200 - $400 / night and get a crappy set where not even the pay channels come in clean. Some of the new hotels however have nice big HDTV LCD sets where some of the channels are HD / digital, but the analog stations still look like crap.
Analog TV needs to just die. The sooner the better. One of my local stations is holding out until Feb 2009 to convert. Bastards.
Except that TV stations CAN'T auction off the bandwidth. Only the FCC can do that. TV stations are being given new bandwidth in a different frequency range for digital usage only, but no longer have the rights to their old frequencies after March 2009.
Oh, you mean like RedHat Enterprise? So yeah, you go down that road, and happily install your binary kernel modules for EMC PowerPath (multi-pathing on a SAN.) Redhat comes out with a new kernel with the same version but with the backported fixes. Oh damn, that binary module no longer works, so I have to revert to the insecure version of the kernel if I want EMC branded and "psedo-supported" multi-pathing. EMC? What do you mean that you have no ETA for a new rev of powerpath that supports the new kernel rev? Note that this is a recurring problem. EMC NEVER supports a current point release of the OS, although sometimes you get lucky and the old module works with the new rev, although that seems to be rare.
Binary modules are a real problem - even when you backport security fixes.
Forgot to mention that open source drivers are almost always easier to install due to the fact that they are normally included / maintained by the distro.
Considering the issues I've had with closed source drivers over the years, I just can't EVER agree with them being OK. Closed source drivers have had all sorts of issues with not only kernel changes, but distro versions, architecture (64bit), xfree86 vs x.org, have issues with redistribution rights, etc.
Furthermore, BSD / vs linux vs Solaris. No, IMHO closed source drivers just suck in all cases. We need the specs. Specs for all hardware would allow us to have working scanners, webcams, wifi adapters, etc. on Linux / BSD no matter which brand you buy, or which architecture you use.
Let's let Nvidia know that we will all be moving to AMD/ATI for all future purchases over this issue, unless they too release specs.
That would be a good thing, and is not in contrast to my comment / point in any way. Unfortunately, that is the exception rather than the norm for a lot of software.
The SAGE Code of Ethics touches on this a little. IMHO, Employees should be able to have a reasonable expectation that IT won't be spying on everything they do for no valid technical reason. Yes I know it's the companies computer by law, but that doesn't mean that you have an automatic (moral) right to go rifling through it, much like the custodian doesn't have a right to go rifling through your desk.
That said, if you are going about your normal duties and find such crap, feel free to turn them in.
Maybe if all we are comparing is 100MB it could be comparable.
Except for the shared bandwidth issue, and the fact that wireless theoretical speeds are never achieved in the real world. You could compare it to people on a 100M hub-based network - the kind we used 10+ years ago.
Working in a larger environment, the ONLY software we allow ANY kind of phone-home / activation shenanigans is from large vendors that have a proven business record - you know they will be around tomorrow / 3 years from now. Not thrilled about it in any case, but we will deal.
Any smaller vendor is required to put source code in escrow for any such eventuality, and none of that activation crap. We need to be able to move software from one machine to another without someone's blessing in order to handle EOL replacement, swapping out failing hardware, etc.
Don't forget the misbehaving Windows, that just decides it's not going to sleep for some random reason, and you stick it in a laptop bag where it quickly heats up to the point where it's uncomfortable to touch. This seems to happen frequently.
That said, "Fuck Islam" is obscene speech, but maybe the site in question has a policy of tolerating obscene speech. It is their choice after all.
In YOUR moral view and the moral view of many lawmakers, "Fuck Islam" is obscene speech probably due to the use of the word "Fuck". It's not obscene to everyone however. Some of non-stereotypical/.'ers associate the word "Fuck" with a very pleasurable act, and use it as freely as the word "Sandwich." Of course, the stereotypical/.'er doesn't know anything about sex beyond his dates with Rosey Palmer.:-)
A number of years ago, I worked for a.com that used a service that rhymes with "bubbledick" Same kind of thing. Our policy was no java, no animated gifs, and no adult content. They routinely violated our rules. I would never use an outside service again.
If I were to put all my files in my briefcase, my briefcase would have to be about 5 feet tall, 2 feet deep, and about 6 feet wide. Not practical. They all fit in my laptop fine however.
A calculator doesn't have an OS. It is a dedicated application on dedicated hardware, generally burned into and executed directly from ROM. It does have an startup sequence, where the processor starts executing from a certain point in ROM which may initialize a few things, but that's it. The application may include a library that allows it to communicate with external memory, etc., but it doesn't have an OS.
Now most modern smart phones DO have an operating system, and are capable of multi-tasking, networking, etc., but older phones were dedicated single application devices with no OS at all.
However MS's FUD campaign continues day after day unabated, still sloshing around concerns about patents and other IP. Don't know about you, but if an unstable individual who you know always carries around a loaded shotgun and has used it in the past on others, I think it's reasonable to be concerned when he is constantly pointing it at you and making threats. And we all know how unstable Balmer is... Especially when there are chairs in the room.
Not to start quibling or anything, but doesn't one simply link to a YouTube video? You don't have to stream it yourself.
Exactly who do you think is paying for youtube bandwidth? I'll give you a hint. Starts with the letter G. Now G makes most (nearly all) it's money off ad sales. If that revenue stream is gone, youtube is gone. Search is gone. Maps is gone. etc., etc. Same thing happens with facebook, myspace, torrent trackers, yahoo, and damn near all other consumer content sites. Having been involved at a high level at several.coms, I can tell you that ad revenue is Very Very important to that type of site because the other funding models just don't work in real life. The loss of ad revenue is what killed a lot of the.coms in 2000/2001 (such as advertisers not paying their bills, a drop in ad rates, and number of placements. The thing that keeps them alive NOW is the fact that less than 1% of users block ads. You can bet that if FF came with adblock installed and enabled by default, sites would do everything in their power to block firefox.
RE javascript and cookies, I also have concerns about privacy and security that you obviously don't (given your statements.) Noscript and the firefox cookie tools are quite unobtrusive actually, since you are NOT constantly dealing with them, only the first time you visit a site. After a day or two, you hardly mess with them at all.
False dichotomy. Maybe you're too young to remember, but there was a time when most sites didn't have ads.
And there was a time before web sites existed at all too, but someone is paying for a site in ALL cases.
Heck, there are still many sites that don't rely on ad revenue.
Sure, but SOMEONE is paying for it. The question is WHO is paying for it? There are sites paid for by "good will", such as a company hosting an open source project, and marketing sites, which is just an advertising expense (the entire site is a giant ad,) but every site costs something, and someone is paying.
The reality is that the content consumers really want isn't free to deliver. Because so many people want it, the site needs some sort of revenue stream to pay for itself due to the hosting costs.
Also, web hosting is getting cheaper and cheaper every day.
Yes, but the number of users is increasing faster than hosting is getting cheaper. It's still fairly expensive to host anything that gets any significant traffic at all. Yes, you can get $5 / month hosting, and no, you can't run YouTube off $5/month hosting.
If a site is really that valuable to me, I'll pay (micropayments?) for the content.
There we go. That IS the ultimate solution - however, we don't have a viable micropayment system right now. Instead, all we have are sites want some sort of monthly / yearly subscription. The situation sucks. Like you however, I found some of the ads out there so intrusive that I now block all ads, and all javascript / cookies by default.
Hmm. So the fact that everything is exactly the same in how you do things and what services are available has no cost benefit at all? Things like Zones and DTrace and command-line consistency (options, paths, etc.)
It's not a knowledge thing. It's a consistency thing.
Solaris is the bit that operates the hardware. It provides file system, network, etc. layer abstractions for Java to run atop. Java is the VM portability layer. It not only runs on Solaris, but Windows, phones, etc.
More like LL Bean is to camping. They have everything from camp food, clothing, equipment, supplies, etc.
Now if Sun started making boots, THEN your analogy starts to work.
Sun is a full-service enterprise computing company. Hardware, operating systems, Operating environments / languages, applications, services, support, etc. - the LL Bean of computing.
Another word of advise. Stop buying consumer models of computers. Buy business models. More consistency and better quality. Bonus is that many business models come with 3 years service (I always get the MANUFACTURERS extra warranty and upgrade to onsite.) Avoid store warranties like the plague.
Slashdot Mirror
I know the one you are talking about. Has this thing about "chairs".
I actually meant like Debian, where backported security fixes usually do not change te kernel's ABI. If changing the ABI is unavoidable, then the package containing the kernel is renamed (e.g., linux-image-2.6.18-4-k7 -> linux-image-2.6.18-5-k7).
Um, no. That's not how it works. Debian revs the package version number (the "4" to "5" in your example) for ALL changes, not just ABI changes. This is how the packing system knows that there is an update.
This sounds like an excellent reason to avoid shitty vendors that release shitty products that rely on proprietary, GPL-violating kernel modules.
And therefore, avoiding pretty much all enterprise software. Sorry, not an option in many cases. Oh, I agree the situation sucks, which is why I would like to see ALL binary modules to go away.
Decent analog picture.. Hehe. You made a funny...
Seriously, the problem isn't analog so much as the NTSC OTA broadcast analog system. There is a serious lack of bandwidth that results in horrible picture even on a 27" set. Analog Broadcast results in about 330 lines of resolution, where the origin signal is 525. Use your set top box to convert digital OTA into svideo or component and it looks as good as a DVD on that analog set.
Now if you only have composite or worse, RF input on your TV, then you are right.
Digital TV != Digital Cable.
Digital TV is just fine.
Digital cable is a fucked up bastardization of the technology that the FCC has allowed to fester.
It's criminal for the FCC to still allow the importation and sale of any set not capable of receiving digital OTA broadcasts. Digital reception should have been mandated for all sets sold since 2002. The difference in manufacturing cost is on the order of $5 / set max.
Fuck the FCC, the electronics industry, and retailers for selling this obsolete highly toxic shit that will now all end up in the landfills over the next 5 years.
I don't know what the hell is going on with TV in Belgium, but that's not what is happening in the US.
* There is no paying to receive OTA (over the air) broadcast on a set by set basis. You can have as many digital receivers as you desire.
* You can record the digital broadcasts just fine, and there is no charge to watch it later. There are no generational losses of quality either.
* You can use the s-video or component output of the converter to your analog TV and get better quality than the analog OTA signal will give you.
With analog OTA, you have (or at least I do) ghosting / fading / snow / lines / etc. problems all the time. With digital, you either have it or you don't. When you have it, the picture is perfect. I'll take some minor MPEG artifacts over the blurry / crappy analog signal any day.
With digital, several of my local stations also broadcast a continual news / weather feed on a sub-channel all the time which is not available via analog.
I can't wait until all hotels convert to digital sets. I frequently pay $200 - $400 / night and get a crappy set where not even the pay channels come in clean. Some of the new hotels however have nice big HDTV LCD sets where some of the channels are HD / digital, but the analog stations still look like crap.
Analog TV needs to just die. The sooner the better. One of my local stations is holding out until Feb 2009 to convert. Bastards.
Except that TV stations CAN'T auction off the bandwidth. Only the FCC can do that. TV stations are being given new bandwidth in a different frequency range for digital usage only, but no longer have the rights to their old frequencies after March 2009.
Oh, you mean like RedHat Enterprise? So yeah, you go down that road, and happily install your binary kernel modules for EMC PowerPath (multi-pathing on a SAN.) Redhat comes out with a new kernel with the same version but with the backported fixes. Oh damn, that binary module no longer works, so I have to revert to the insecure version of the kernel if I want EMC branded and "psedo-supported" multi-pathing. EMC? What do you mean that you have no ETA for a new rev of powerpath that supports the new kernel rev? Note that this is a recurring problem. EMC NEVER supports a current point release of the OS, although sometimes you get lucky and the old module works with the new rev, although that seems to be rare.
Binary modules are a real problem - even when you backport security fixes.
Forgot to mention that open source drivers are almost always easier to install due to the fact that they are normally included / maintained by the distro.
Considering the issues I've had with closed source drivers over the years, I just can't EVER agree with them being OK. Closed source drivers have had all sorts of issues with not only kernel changes, but distro versions, architecture (64bit), xfree86 vs x.org, have issues with redistribution rights, etc.
Furthermore, BSD / vs linux vs Solaris. No, IMHO closed source drivers just suck in all cases. We need the specs. Specs for all hardware would allow us to have working scanners, webcams, wifi adapters, etc. on Linux / BSD no matter which brand you buy, or which architecture you use.
Let's let Nvidia know that we will all be moving to AMD/ATI for all future purchases over this issue, unless they too release specs.
That would be a good thing, and is not in contrast to my comment / point in any way. Unfortunately, that is the exception rather than the norm for a lot of software.
The SAGE Code of Ethics touches on this a little. IMHO, Employees should be able to have a reasonable expectation that IT won't be spying on everything they do for no valid technical reason. Yes I know it's the companies computer by law, but that doesn't mean that you have an automatic (moral) right to go rifling through it, much like the custodian doesn't have a right to go rifling through your desk.
That said, if you are going about your normal duties and find such crap, feel free to turn them in.
Maybe if all we are comparing is 100MB it could be comparable.
Except for the shared bandwidth issue, and the fact that wireless theoretical speeds are never achieved in the real world. You could compare it to people on a 100M hub-based network - the kind we used 10+ years ago.
Bing bing. Give that man a dollar.
Working in a larger environment, the ONLY software we allow ANY kind of phone-home / activation shenanigans is from large vendors that have a proven business record - you know they will be around tomorrow / 3 years from now. Not thrilled about it in any case, but we will deal.
Any smaller vendor is required to put source code in escrow for any such eventuality, and none of that activation crap. We need to be able to move software from one machine to another without someone's blessing in order to handle EOL replacement, swapping out failing hardware, etc.
Don't forget the misbehaving Windows, that just decides it's not going to sleep for some random reason, and you stick it in a laptop bag where it quickly heats up to the point where it's uncomfortable to touch. This seems to happen frequently.
That said, "Fuck Islam" is obscene speech, but maybe the site in question has a policy of tolerating obscene speech. It is their choice after all.
/.'ers associate the word "Fuck" with a very pleasurable act, and use it as freely as the word "Sandwich." Of course, the stereotypical /.'er doesn't know anything about sex beyond his dates with Rosey Palmer. :-)
In YOUR moral view and the moral view of many lawmakers, "Fuck Islam" is obscene speech probably due to the use of the word "Fuck". It's not obscene to everyone however. Some of non-stereotypical
A number of years ago, I worked for a .com that used a service that rhymes with "bubbledick" Same kind of thing. Our policy was no java, no animated gifs, and no adult content. They routinely violated our rules. I would never use an outside service again.
If I were to put all my files in my briefcase, my briefcase would have to be about 5 feet tall, 2 feet deep, and about 6 feet wide. Not practical. They all fit in my laptop fine however.
A calculator doesn't have an OS. It is a dedicated application on dedicated hardware, generally burned into and executed directly from ROM. It does have an startup sequence, where the processor starts executing from a certain point in ROM which may initialize a few things, but that's it. The application may include a library that allows it to communicate with external memory, etc., but it doesn't have an OS.
Now most modern smart phones DO have an operating system, and are capable of multi-tasking, networking, etc., but older phones were dedicated single application devices with no OS at all.
However MS's FUD campaign continues day after day unabated, still sloshing around concerns about patents and other IP. Don't know about you, but if an unstable individual who you know always carries around a loaded shotgun and has used it in the past on others, I think it's reasonable to be concerned when he is constantly pointing it at you and making threats. And we all know how unstable Balmer is... Especially when there are chairs in the room.
Not to start quibling or anything, but doesn't one simply link to a YouTube video? You don't have to stream it yourself.
.coms, I can tell you that ad revenue is Very Very important to that type of site because the other funding models just don't work in real life. The loss of ad revenue is what killed a lot of the .coms in 2000/2001 (such as advertisers not paying their bills, a drop in ad rates, and number of placements. The thing that keeps them alive NOW is the fact that less than 1% of users block ads. You can bet that if FF came with adblock installed and enabled by default, sites would do everything in their power to block firefox.
Exactly who do you think is paying for youtube bandwidth? I'll give you a hint. Starts with the letter G. Now G makes most (nearly all) it's money off ad sales. If that revenue stream is gone, youtube is gone. Search is gone. Maps is gone. etc., etc. Same thing happens with facebook, myspace, torrent trackers, yahoo, and damn near all other consumer content sites. Having been involved at a high level at several
RE javascript and cookies, I also have concerns about privacy and security that you obviously don't (given your statements.) Noscript and the firefox cookie tools are quite unobtrusive actually, since you are NOT constantly dealing with them, only the first time you visit a site. After a day or two, you hardly mess with them at all.
First off, I agree to a large extent...
False dichotomy. Maybe you're too young to remember, but there was a time when most sites didn't have ads.
And there was a time before web sites existed at all too, but someone is paying for a site in ALL cases.
Heck, there are still many sites that don't rely on ad revenue.
Sure, but SOMEONE is paying for it. The question is WHO is paying for it? There are sites paid for by "good will", such as a company hosting an open source project, and marketing sites, which is just an advertising expense (the entire site is a giant ad,) but every site costs something, and someone is paying.
The reality is that the content consumers really want isn't free to deliver. Because so many people want it, the site needs some sort of revenue stream to pay for itself due to the hosting costs.
Also, web hosting is getting cheaper and cheaper every day.
Yes, but the number of users is increasing faster than hosting is getting cheaper. It's still fairly expensive to host anything that gets any significant traffic at all. Yes, you can get $5 / month hosting, and no, you can't run YouTube off $5/month hosting.
If a site is really that valuable to me, I'll pay (micropayments?) for the content.
There we go. That IS the ultimate solution - however, we don't have a viable micropayment system right now. Instead, all we have are sites want some sort of monthly / yearly subscription. The situation sucks. Like you however, I found some of the ads out there so intrusive that I now block all ads, and all javascript / cookies by default.
Really?
Hmm. So the fact that everything is exactly the same in how you do things and what services are available has no cost benefit at all? Things like Zones and DTrace and command-line consistency (options, paths, etc.)
It's not a knowledge thing. It's a consistency thing.
I don't see it that way AT ALL.
Solaris is the bit that operates the hardware. It provides file system, network, etc. layer abstractions for Java to run atop. Java is the VM portability layer. It not only runs on Solaris, but Windows, phones, etc.
More like LL Bean is to camping. They have everything from camp food, clothing, equipment, supplies, etc.
Now if Sun started making boots, THEN your analogy starts to work.
Sun is a full-service enterprise computing company. Hardware, operating systems, Operating environments / languages, applications, services, support, etc. - the LL Bean of computing.
Another word of advise. Stop buying consumer models of computers. Buy business models. More consistency and better quality. Bonus is that many business models come with 3 years service (I always get the MANUFACTURERS extra warranty and upgrade to onsite.) Avoid store warranties like the plague.