One of my sons has type 1 diabetes, heretofore an incurable disease. We have to test his blood at least 3-4 times per day, and continuously administer injections. It's a hassle, it's expensive, and despite our best efforts we know that the inevitable swings of blood sugar can shorten his life, and lead to severe health complications.
There IS a cure for type 1 diabetes - recently in Edmonton, CA they "cured" about a dozen people by injecting islet cells (those that produce insulin) into the liver, along with some mild anti-immune drugs.
The anti-immune drugs are needed because the islet cells implanted are foreign.
The problem is that there aren't enough extractable islet cells in all viable cadavers in this country to cure even 1% of the diabetic population.
Under our current conservative presidency, stem-cell research involving embryos is at a near stand-still. (Only existing lines can be used, new ones cannot be created)
But if these stem cells can be trained to behave as islet cells, then my 13 year old son may well be effectively cured before he turns 20.
I think because the digital hub is not yet fit to be the home stereo, and I don't think that it will be for awhile.
As I sit here, writing this note, my daughter is sitting next to me on a Linux workstation, playing mp3s with XMMS off the home network MP3 server, served via an opensource mp3 server called Edna. Human League - "Don't you want me"...
I grew up with my parents' record collection. My kids are growing up with my mp3 collection.
"Microsoft treats security problems as public relations problems," said Bruce Schneier of Counterpane Internet Security in Cupertino, Calif.
And then:
"We're going to make our systems more resistant and more resilient," said Microsoft's
director of security assurance, Steve Lipner. "We want to be unquestionably, unequivocally the best."
Director of Security Assurance??!?!
If you can imagine a more Dilbertified position within a company....
Freenet is the way to go! It's anonymous, so the legal precedence of plausible deniability behave in full force, and it (GASP!) caches content to keep bandwidth usage low!
So, it will anonymously work with the pron and mp3s, as well as any other type of P2P content, while keeping the hammering of the "big pipe" to a minimum!
I get 2 of 3 with Pacific Bell (SBC) DSL. Minimum up/down is 128/384, but capped at 384/1500. I see usually about 320/1500. (So it is not "unrestricted")
With 24x7 for 2+ years, and never a thought given to bandwidth usage, (sometimes I use ALOT) I have no time or download limits.
I have a fixed IP, and host my own web, email, DNS, NTP, etc. on Linux but they won't allow me to set up reverse DNS as anything but what they decide it is. (it's something hideous with ip address included)
I have no fee per MB downloaded. It's a good thing, too, since weekly usage probably peaks around 2-3 Gigabytes.
Pac Bell has weak customer service, and their servers tend to be unreliable, but their basic IP routing works wonderfully. So, provide your own services, (which is why I started in the first place) call only at 2:00 AM, and they leave me alone. I've never seen any indication of port-scanning or a/t like that - they honestly don't seem to care.
I'm unsure of the "troll factor" in this post, but I'm biting...
In past experience, I find it's typically best to consider stability issues to be the fault of the underlying hardware.
I've many times seen Linux perform flawlessly on motherboards that Windows was horribly unstable on. The reverse I've never seen (A Windows system stable on H/W that Linux was unstable on)
That's not to say that there's some misconfiguration or something in your setup, but I've just never seen it. And note that not all hardware works with Linux (duh!) but we're talking stability here, not compatability.
This is REDICULOUS! I know 3 people "using" Win 2K/XP... and it SUCKS!
Not one of them can get it to run right, or much at all! Win2k, when it copies files, generates all kinds of crc errors in one case. (Linux works w/o flaw on the same system) In another, installing the print driver for the printer that came with the system (even the "XP approved version) immediately causes the system to blow up in full, self-destruct mode. And the third just randomly emits a blue screen from time to time. (Got a hammer?)
Don't tell me that 2K/XP is super reliable. It isn't.
The main problem for me isn't what Windows can do, it's what it CAN'T. Try getting an error log (think/var/log/messages) that can frequently give you some idea what's going on...
I'm busy converting a co-worker to running Linux simply because I know it will WORK...
For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, read "The Road Ahead", produced in collusion with Bill Gates.
In there, he makes the point repeatedly about the importance of micropayments - and Passport is clearly the infrastructure for Microsoft's vision for micropayments.
Which would most *definitely* apply here, no?
I don't like the idea any more than you do, but what other micropayment options do you see on the horizon? (Read a page of/., pay $0.01)
When I had my DSL line put in 2+ years ago, they ran a "max cap" test - how much data could it shuffle? (Maximum Capacity?)
It hit just shy of 10 Mbps - Somewheres around 9, as I recall.
Of course, they made sure to cap it back down to 1.5 Mbps, since that's the plan that I bought, but it got me thinking...
In compressed format, you can easily get VHS quality video over that size pipe. Actually, you can get much BETTER than VHS quality over that size pipe, you can get VHS quality (no problem!) at 1.5 Mbit...
So, why doesn't the bandwidth provider remove that cap within their internal networks, and construct their own local streaming content cache? They'd have to strike a deal with RIAA, (and perhaps that is the problem?) but once done, they could store the movies and the like on their local network, mitigation almost all of the nasty bandwidth issues.
Since the DSL line isn't shared, you'd only have to worry about the really major bandwidth between the DSL server modems and the content server. Additionally, you can have smaller, local content caches that handle 90% of hits, and a single cluster of major content servers that provide all of the movies/shows available, all within the service provider's network. (which means less expense)
Charge a couple bucks per movie view or flat rate $30-$40/month and you see it quickly amounts to a major, PROFITABLE business model.
As posted elsewhere, re-writing is painful, and generally NOT A GOOD IDEA!
I currently maintain a code base of around 120,000 lines of php and html (written by myself in a long, hard year) and have had to "retrofit" it a few times.
I find that when it's time to do an "over-haul" it's generally best to:
1) Pretend I know nothing - redesign from scratch. Write out a spec with flow charts, DB table definitions, etc. - make it VERY DETAILED. Spend lots of time at it. More time spent here saves even more time later.
2) Ignore your spec. (See step three)
3) When a bug comes up, or new functionality needs to be added to the codebase, refer to the spec built in 1, and build to it, and then put in compatability wrappers to work with the existing codebase.
Make these compatability wrappers log their calling in some way, based on a global variable. This allows you to see when they're no longer needed simply by defining a variable in a config file and waiting a while.
4) You'll be slowly bringing the application up to the new spec - eventually you'll reach a point where it's easier just to bring the remaining pieces up to snuff than to build more abstraction wrappers. When you get to that point, you'll find most of the work is already done, just finish it to the spec and remove the compatability wrappers.
This can still be a painful process, but at least it isn't a "gun to your head"! This allows you to regression test your work as it's done, resulting in a more stable deliverable, and you can still meet clients' needs in the meantime without making them wait 6 months while you re-write all your stuff.
We need to begin considering a form of cryptography that's relatively immune to quantum computing technology!
I dearly love SSH, but if it's based on inherently transparent (to quantum computers) mathematics, it's worthless - perhaps worse, since I trust it.
We need to begin considering this problem NOW, before the privacy of just about everybody is opened up to the whim of somebody with enough money to buy a quantum computer!
There will definitely be, as Quantum computing hits mainstream in the next 5-15 years, a co-existence period - like twilight, the period of greatest danger, when the world of computing is based neither entirely on binary or quantum systems - and we're heading for that with momumental speed.
Here's a scenario: You are a system integrator. You sell support contracts and are responsible to make sure that your clients' networks are running reliably, day-in and day-out. If something goes seriously wrong, you are there, and much of your labor is delivered at 100% loss.
You want to set something up that just WORKS, day in and day out - 'cause then you get the support checks and no hassles, and pure profit.
You don't sell computers, you don't sell networking, you don't sell software. You sell the whole banana, essentially an out-sourced tech department.
In that environment, are you going to tell me that Windows is your best bet?
Every morning, I get up, and read a few emails that give me a summary of the health and status of my clients' (Linux based) networks.
They work for long periods of time with NO ATTENTION AT ALL from me other than reading these summary emails. Backups are done automatically, off-site. (thank scp!) Their web sites and applications work smoothly (thanks Apache!), they get their email (thanks sendmail!) and they can access their files and applications from any of their Windows-based clients, (thanks samba!) and have clean, secure, reliable access to the Internet. (thanks ipchains!)
By moving all the applications to the server, I don't care if the customer chooses Windows, Mac, Linux, BeOS, whatever clients, nor is it a big thing if it crashes. (Pull out the restore CD, put it in the drive, re-boot the computer..)
The important thing is: They all know that their business runs on Linux, depends on Linux, and they know that they are free to confidently run their business because of me and my good friend, Linux.
And they are happy to cut me that check every month because of it.
Just spent 10 minutes TRYING to find an "Acceptable Use Policy" or something similar.
It's just NOT THERE... Really, it seems, they don't *care* what you do with your Internet Service! Basic rate is $50/mo, Biz use starts at $65. (I subscribed to a plan they no longer offer, a single static IP for $50/mo)
I know, I'm in bed with that evil monopoly, Pac Bell, but Hey! This is COOL! I've run my own DNS/Web/Mail/Proxy/NTP/etc Linux server for 2 years without a hitch. No complaints, nothin' - and reliable bandwidth to boot.
I *LOVE* these guys! (Even if they ARE an evil monopoly)
I remember about a year and a half ago, being called in to do some networking work in a department of a nearby county's office.
I found that the system I was in front of was primarily used to process permits for construction and the like within that county. It was open to the Internet (I did a full, nasty, in-your-face port scan and nobody blinked) and the hard drive was shared - to the world!
I was able to connect to the HD via SAMBA, from my HOME WORKSTATION! I bitched, complained, sent letters. They paid a consultant company something in the 6 figure range to do a "security survey" - and they recommended replacing the POP3 servers with MS Exchange!
I gave up, having other profitable ventures to go for.
But, do you think this doesn't happen like ALL THE TIME?!?!?
Slashdot Mirror
There IS a cure for type 1 diabetes - recently in Edmonton, CA they "cured" about a dozen people by injecting islet cells (those that produce insulin) into the liver, along with some mild anti-immune drugs.
The anti-immune drugs are needed because the islet cells implanted are foreign.
The problem is that there aren't enough extractable islet cells in all viable cadavers in this country to cure even 1% of the diabetic population.
Under our current conservative presidency, stem-cell research involving embryos is at a near stand-still. (Only existing lines can be used, new ones cannot be created)
But if these stem cells can be trained to behave as islet cells, then my 13 year old son may well be effectively cured before he turns 20.
This is good news!
Take the phone company to small claims court!
You don't need a lawyer, they do. Small claims courts are simple and don't allow most of the legal mumbo-jumbo that applies in "big" courts.
It'll cost them at least half of that $800 just to ship a lawyer into town to defend the case - meaning they probably won't.
Don't ask for anything but the filing fees (typically around $50) and your $800.
You're almost guaranteed victory if you can reasonably substantiate your claims! Include paperwork, times, dates, who saids, etc.
-Ben
I think because the digital hub is not yet fit to be the home stereo, and I don't think that it will be for awhile.
As I sit here, writing this note, my daughter is sitting next to me on a Linux workstation, playing mp3s with XMMS off the home network MP3 server, served via an opensource mp3 server called Edna. Human League - "Don't you want me"...
I grew up with my parents' record collection. My kids are growing up with my mp3 collection.
Wow! A 6 million dollar iMac!?!?
First:
And then:Director of Security Assurance ??!?!
If you can imagine a more Dilbertified position within a company....
Come on, guys!
Freenet is the way to go! It's anonymous, so the legal precedence of plausible deniability behave in full force, and it (GASP!) caches content to keep bandwidth usage low!
So, it will anonymously work with the pron and mp3s, as well as any other type of P2P content, while keeping the hammering of the "big pipe" to a minimum!
Duh...
I get 2 of 3 with Pacific Bell (SBC) DSL. Minimum up/down is 128/384, but capped at 384/1500. I see usually about 320/1500. (So it is not "unrestricted")
With 24x7 for 2+ years, and never a thought given to bandwidth usage, (sometimes I use ALOT) I have no time or download limits.
I have a fixed IP, and host my own web, email, DNS, NTP, etc. on Linux but they won't allow me to set up reverse DNS as anything but what they decide it is. (it's something hideous with ip address included)
I have no fee per MB downloaded. It's a good thing, too, since weekly usage probably peaks around 2-3 Gigabytes.
Pac Bell has weak customer service, and their servers tend to be unreliable, but their basic IP routing works wonderfully. So, provide your own services, (which is why I started in the first place) call only at 2:00 AM, and they leave me alone. I've never seen any indication of port-scanning or a/t like that - they honestly don't seem to care.
I'm happy!
=)
-Ben
I'm unsure of the "troll factor" in this post, but I'm biting...
In past experience, I find it's typically best to consider stability issues to be the fault of the underlying hardware.
I've many times seen Linux perform flawlessly on motherboards that Windows was horribly unstable on. The reverse I've never seen (A Windows system stable on H/W that Linux was unstable on)
That's not to say that there's some misconfiguration or something in your setup, but I've just never seen it. And note that not all hardware works with Linux (duh!) but we're talking stability here, not compatability.
So, without any further ado:
YOU HAVE BAD HARDWARE, DUDE!
Right. Try "rm -rf /" as a user...
Anyway, there is the LIDS project that you might be interested in... that it it's primary goal!
-Ben
This is REDICULOUS! I know 3 people "using" Win 2K/XP... and it SUCKS!
Not one of them can get it to run right, or much at all! Win2k, when it copies files, generates all kinds of crc errors in one case. (Linux works w/o flaw on the same system) In another, installing the print driver for the printer that came with the system (even the "XP approved version) immediately causes the system to blow up in full, self-destruct mode. And the third just randomly emits a blue screen from time to time. (Got a hammer?)
Don't tell me that 2K/XP is super reliable. It isn't.
The main problem for me isn't what Windows can do, it's what it CAN'T. Try getting an error log (think
I'm busy converting a co-worker to running Linux simply because I know it will WORK...
=)
Interesting... in this argument, Windows is playing catch-up! Hasn't it always been the Penguin catching up?
Roll the clock forward 5 years, and you'll find that Microsoft is more like AOL/Time Warner than a software company.
"Use MSN! 40,000 Free Hours! *for 30 days"...
-Ben
Similar results, though...
-Ben
He then casually mentions [neat idea] to students... and they learn it, as they are PAYING to do!
Does that mean now that the University OWNS everything that the student can ever do with [neat idea]?
This violates the very founding principle of College education!
I just cannot see how this is right. University money should not be used for this kind of thing!
OK. So the school can take something developed there and sell it.
But is there any requirement that students turn over ownership to their code?
What if the product/project was released under the GPL BEFORE it is turned in as an assignment?
Create a project on SourceForge, or geocities or something, post the work, and *then* turn it in?
For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, read "The Road Ahead", produced in collusion with Bill Gates.
/., pay $0.01)
In there, he makes the point repeatedly about the importance of micropayments - and Passport is clearly the infrastructure for Microsoft's vision for micropayments.
Which would most *definitely* apply here, no?
I don't like the idea any more than you do, but what other micropayment options do you see on the horizon? (Read a page of
When I had my DSL line put in 2+ years ago, they ran a "max cap" test - how much data could it shuffle? (Maximum Capacity?)
It hit just shy of 10 Mbps - Somewheres around 9, as I recall.
Of course, they made sure to cap it back down to 1.5 Mbps, since that's the plan that I bought, but it got me thinking...
In compressed format, you can easily get VHS quality video over that size pipe. Actually, you can get much BETTER than VHS quality over that size pipe, you can get VHS quality (no problem!) at 1.5 Mbit...
So, why doesn't the bandwidth provider remove that cap within their internal networks, and construct their own local streaming content cache? They'd have to strike a deal with RIAA, (and perhaps that is the problem?) but once done, they could store the movies and the like on their local network, mitigation almost all of the nasty bandwidth issues.
Since the DSL line isn't shared, you'd only have to worry about the really major bandwidth between the DSL server modems and the content server. Additionally, you can have smaller, local content caches that handle 90% of hits, and a single cluster of major content servers that provide all of the movies/shows available, all within the service provider's network. (which means less expense)
Charge a couple bucks per movie view or flat rate $30-$40/month and you see it quickly amounts to a major, PROFITABLE business model.
Why hasn't this been done before?
-Ben
I currently maintain a code base of around 120,000 lines of php and html (written by myself in a long, hard year) and have had to "retrofit" it a few times.
I find that when it's time to do an "over-haul" it's generally best to:
1) Pretend I know nothing - redesign from scratch. Write out a spec with flow charts, DB table definitions, etc. - make it VERY DETAILED. Spend lots of time at it. More time spent here saves even more time later.
2) Ignore your spec. (See step three)
3) When a bug comes up, or new functionality needs to be added to the codebase, refer to the spec built in 1, and build to it, and then put in compatability wrappers to work with the existing codebase.
Make these compatability wrappers log their calling in some way, based on a global variable. This allows you to see when they're no longer needed simply by defining a variable in a config file and waiting a while.
4) You'll be slowly bringing the application up to the new spec - eventually you'll reach a point where it's easier just to bring the remaining pieces up to snuff than to build more abstraction wrappers. When you get to that point, you'll find most of the work is already done, just finish it to the spec and remove the compatability wrappers.
This can still be a painful process, but at least it isn't a "gun to your head"! This allows you to regression test your work as it's done, resulting in a more stable deliverable, and you can still meet clients' needs in the meantime without making them wait 6 months while you re-write all your stuff.
Hope this helps...
I dearly love SSH, but if it's based on inherently transparent (to quantum computers) mathematics, it's worthless - perhaps worse, since I trust it.
We need to begin considering this problem NOW, before the privacy of just about everybody is opened up to the whim of somebody with enough money to buy a quantum computer!
There will definitely be, as Quantum computing hits mainstream in the next 5-15 years, a co-existence period - like twilight, the period of greatest danger, when the world of computing is based neither entirely on binary or quantum systems - and we're heading for that with momumental speed.
'Nuff said...
Here's a scenario: You are a system integrator. You sell support contracts and are responsible to make sure that your clients' networks are running reliably, day-in and day-out. If something goes seriously wrong, you are there, and much of your labor is delivered at 100% loss.
You want to set something up that just WORKS, day in and day out - 'cause then you get the support checks and no hassles, and pure profit.
You don't sell computers, you don't sell networking, you don't sell software. You sell the whole banana, essentially an out-sourced tech department.
In that environment, are you going to tell me that Windows is your best bet?
Every morning, I get up, and read a few emails that give me a summary of the health and status of my clients' (Linux based) networks.
They work for long periods of time with NO ATTENTION AT ALL from me other than reading these summary emails. Backups are done automatically, off-site. (thank scp!) Their web sites and applications work smoothly (thanks Apache!), they get their email (thanks sendmail!) and they can access their files and applications from any of their Windows-based clients, (thanks samba!) and have clean, secure, reliable access to the Internet. (thanks ipchains!)
By moving all the applications to the server, I don't care if the customer chooses Windows, Mac, Linux, BeOS, whatever clients, nor is it a big thing if it crashes. (Pull out the restore CD, put it in the drive, re-boot the computer..)
The important thing is: They all know that their business runs on Linux, depends on Linux, and they know that they are free to confidently run their business because of me and my good friend, Linux.
And they are happy to cut me that check every month because of it.
Would I want it any other way?
NO WAY!
Anybody want to flame these people?
-Ben
I have Pacific Bell DSL AKA SBC Internet.
Just spent 10 minutes TRYING to find an "Acceptable Use Policy" or something similar.
It's just NOT THERE... Really, it seems, they don't *care* what you do with your Internet Service! Basic rate is $50/mo, Biz use starts at $65. (I subscribed to a plan they no longer offer, a single static IP for $50/mo)
I know, I'm in bed with that evil monopoly, Pac Bell, but Hey! This is COOL! I've run my own DNS/Web/Mail/Proxy/NTP/etc Linux server for 2 years without a hitch. No complaints, nothin' - and reliable bandwidth to boot.
I *LOVE* these guys! (Even if they ARE an evil monopoly)
-Ben
Morpheus allows for downloads from simultaneous sources.
In fact, I've seen my system upload files that I was still downloading!
"Do you guys read your own site?"
-no.
I remember about a year and a half ago, being called in to do some networking work in a department of a nearby county's office.
I found that the system I was in front of was primarily used to process permits for construction and the like within that county. It was open to the Internet (I did a full, nasty, in-your-face port scan and nobody blinked) and the hard drive was shared - to the world!
I was able to connect to the HD via SAMBA, from my HOME WORKSTATION! I bitched, complained, sent letters. They paid a consultant company something in the 6 figure range to do a "security survey" - and they recommended replacing the POP3 servers with MS Exchange!
I gave up, having other profitable ventures to go for.
But, do you think this doesn't happen like ALL THE TIME?!?!?
People, this is GOVORNMENT!