Re:Stumping doctors too
on
Cyberchondria
·
· Score: 1
That's the problem with Medical school students as well; people will immediately think of the rarest diseases. It's probably just a cold or a early flu, but people suspect that they have a case of Tularemia. It's the equivalent of hearing hoofbeats and thinking that its Zebras.
Zebras? AHAHAHAHAHA!
Re:No action taken
on
Cell-Phone Wars
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
How could they take action? The people with the jammers keep them in their pockets. And the only reason they're doing it is for the entertainment/proving a point aspect.
Because it violates FCC requirements for licencing. A device must take all EM from other devices and not emit EM that causes harm to other devices.
It's not as if Wal*Mart is mass-installing jammers to stop shoppers talking while shopping, so how would the FCC catch anyone?
Like anyone else; get a directional scanner.
Besides, with the way people move around, service would only appear to be patchy, dropping out as you walk past someone with a jammer, then coming back again. Cellphones do this anyway , so how you would you know what to complain about?
Good point. If the jammer users don't brag about them, and there are few of them, the FCC or local authorities would probably not notice.
It also depends on where the jammers are used. If someone used a jammer on a regular basis or for a couple hours near hospitals, police stations, or airports, they would likely raise the concerned interest of technicians responsible for communications or managers who 'run a tight ship'.
Ain't karma grand? (Not the/. karma, the regular kind.)
Implied for contractors...
on
Beyond Pay?
·
· Score: 1
If you do contract work these days, you know that there is pressure to 'give a little extra' and not bill for it. Some cave in, some don't and don't suffer, and some don't and get replaced. Either way, I've seen it and experienced it.
Currently, I'm in the 'won't cave in and haven't suffered' group.
If you had NO IDEA what was in it and downed a few of those in a few hours, you'd be ontop of the world.
The list on the side of the can says what's in it; meaning no cocaine, no alcohol. How much, exactly, and how it's whipped together is the only thing approaching a secret.
To be somewhat on topic, the OpenCola idea is great and I'd like to buy a case and pass it around to give a little shove to folks who don't get what open source is and what it isn't.
[RANT]
My sig (if you have sigs off);
"Programs and software are not the same; one is a plan of action, the other a good for sale."
Specifically: Open source is mainly a plan not a good. Closed source is mainly a good not a plan. That said, give me a good plan -- or a well planned good (closed or open) -- and I'll take it.
From that: Linux does not matter, GCC does not matter, Windows does not matter, Office -- Open or MS -- do not matter. Who is interested -- who is motivated -- is the only thing that matters.
People are motivated when they are interested. Motivated interest that comes from personal interest -- not externally imposed by mild or excessive force -- tends to be most effective over time since the person is not running away from the motivator but is cheerfully compelled to act.
In general, open source and closed source -- commercially driven or not -- have different built-in motivators. None of these are absolutes, though they do pull people in different directions;
Open source motivators;
Transparency (corillary: Look if you want)
Nothing to hide
Process over products (corillary: harder to 'buy')
'Natural' growth;
Projects become stronger from interest and personal actions
Projects are abandoned from apathy but the code can be reused (if helpful)
Forced actions lead to dammage and dammage is routed around or forked
Forks are more frequent, though there is a limit to the number of practical forks per project type
Cruft and imposed features die or are sidelined
Pushes practical improvements since nobody wants to "eat their own dogfood"
Closed source motivators;
Secret formula (corillary: Joe Isuzu "Trust me!")
"Hear no evil, see no evil, know no evil"
Products not projects (soft goods)
Action imposed by past or likely sales;
Products become stronger from sales and personal interest and actions are often blocked
Products die when sales do not support products
Actions are always forced by actual or implied customer demands (not needs);
Features that sell more goods or cut the cost of production are added
Products do not change otherwise
If "eat your own dogfood" is pushed, tends to lead to pessimisim and sarcasm
I don't care if you use open souce, though the built-in motivators alone are what make it strong. The goods -- the soft-wares -- are entirely secondary.
Both gDesklets and SuperKaramba both have oodles of existing desktop plugins written in Python -- so you could whip up or modify what's out there to look and work as she would like.
Of the two, SuperKaramba has more plugins that will appear to the novice or non-geek. To see SuperKaramba applets, go here (though the KDE-Look.org site is currently having fits, so you might have to check back later).
These bits of mostly eyecandy might help make a Linux desktop more interesting to the uninitated.
Right now Windows can be secure, and Linux can be insecure. If you expect any product to make it secure for you you've already lost.
(That said, I agree with the other replies; Unix has 30 years of constantly improving security, MS has a continually poor track record, runtime environments are not automatically secure,....)
I'm struggling with Windows problems, mainly due to the fact that Windows installation programs do not track dependencies. They use an incrementing counter and self-registration to track what files are in use. Because of that, tools like Dependency Walker -- very handy BTW -- have to be used and the process is manually intensive if you want to be sure everything is actually there that should be. Even Dependency Walker can't be used to examine files that aren't executibles or libs.
Too much trust is placed in the installation program getting it right, and no built-in way is available to check if dependencies are broken.
You can ding the different distributions -- and quite rightly -- for package problems though in comparison most of them are dreams when stacked up against Redmond's latest offering.
Ironically, we are now in the position that windows and mac are more powerful than gnome and kde. Gnome and kde, on the other hand, are locked down by the developers to behave in certain specific ways that are considered "intuitive".
*BLINK* What are you talking about? Windows and Mac UIs are polished (mostly), but not nearly as powerful KDE or Gnome (though Gnome has gone the "small is good" route). Neither KDE or Gnome are locked down, and if any thing they have too much...though give me more!
Okay. This raises the question of why, if the primary task of a manger is to simply take in input and regurgitate an obvious yes or no based on some simply risk and profit analysis that *anyone* could do, we need more than one manager per twenty engineers.
A good manager with reasonable work loads can handle 20+ people. A good one with a hellish work load and/or pushy upper manager will handle vastly fewer people effectively.
Tip for managers: Don't ask the same damn question of 20 people constantly...sure, check the validity of your info once in a while, but not on every friggen question! Trust people, take a deep breath, and when that trust is broken then work around the 'dammage'.
Second tip: Listen to your techs, and don't impose a 'solution'. This does not mean take everything they say as gold, it does mean don't find someone to validate a decision you've already made, LISTEN FIRST!
Why not? It's not as if they like MS in particular... because of MS, they have to charge their customers money for Windows, Office, Encarta, etc., when selling with a free system like GNU/Linux+GNOME||KDE would lower the price point and attact more sales.
...or, keep the price the same (or increase it) and add other services or software. If there is any difference on the cost to Dell, they keep it.
If I'm the only user, and my system files are all backed up on the nice, shiny install media, what is the difference, apart from perhaps having to reinstall?
If your email program runs in isolation from your other files, and it spawns files as a seperate process, a rogue virus -- even if you run it -- won't do any dammage. It will be effectively 'jailed'; locked away from other resources including the network and other files that the single-user does have access to.
While this jail does not protect you entirely, it does nearly all exploits -- or programming misakes -- much less likely to have any impact.
That said, this is Linux! Use the email example as only that -- an example. Extrapolate more meaningful ones.
So how does SE Linux protect systems against trojans?
SE Linux removes what you might consider to be the "superuser" account (aka 'root' under *nix or 'administrator' under Windows).
You can configure the system to act just as it is now -- having an account that is all-powerful (root or another one), or you can have very limited focus accounts that can not 'see' or use the resources of the others.
The core OS still has the ability to do root-like things and dole out those permissions, though the scope of what needs to be watched is greatly reduced.
By itself, this is not interesting. As a base for a security policy, the increased ability to log who-did-what, and the ability to stop per-process resouce use (not just per 'user'), it becomes very very interesting.
Except, of course, for the new generation of ground-based telescopes with better resolving power than the hubble. It's silly to spend more money on inferior technology just because it's space-based and therefor "must be cooler".
Curious: Which planned or existing ground based telescopes match/exceed Hubble?
If they aren't available now, when will they be working at Hubble-or-better levels (quality and time available for scientists)?
Saying "nothing special" isn't entirely accurate. Older systems that aren't "2.6 compatible" NEED the new module utilities to handle the updated kernel modules. One would presmue that Gentoo has that figured as a dependency.
Erm...didn't I go over that? Son-of-a-gun! I DID, in my SECOND SENTENCE EVEN!
"As with any major kernel update you have to have the matching user space parts or many devices will not work."
When kernels change, it's not too unusual to have these user space tools require an update too. The Changes text file I even commented on lists the tools needed!
If you want to nit-pick and say "well, without the tools updated the kernel won't even boot"...that's not true. The kernel will load if configured properly and compiled sucessfully...though it's kind of useless most of the time without something that understands what to do with it.
In sum, yes. As with any major kernel update you have to have the matching user space parts or many devices will not work. Required documentation is included with the kernel;
README (case sensitive) and
./Documentation/Changes (as noted in README)
Keep in mind that if you don't need support for specific hardware -- say, ISDN or PC-Card/PCMCIA -- you can skip updating those packages.
Specific comment: Alsa is now the default sound system, and it needs updated supporting tools if you want to get a peep out of your audio. Point for point comments;
By this I mean getting obscure hardware to work such as my USB Midi Interface, -- USB MIDI support is included, though I haven't tried it.
and what about proprietary drivers such as Nvidia's, will existing code compiled for 2.4 kernel work? There are updates, and they work fine; install the same way as with 2.4. Check the normal places on Nvidia's site.
or will you have to recompile stuff (IPTables for example). Im running a gentoo box. I haven't, though I don't have Gentoo (Fedora Core 1).
I've been toying with updating the kernel to 2.6 and I've been hearing that there are a lot of radical changes to the kernel, the performance enhancements are very exciting to say the least. It's better for average use, and low latency apps should work much better (ex: sound processing), though I haven't noticed much of a speed boost. 2.4 was snappy already.
But what kinds of headaches am I going to have with a real world (used as a desktop as well as a server) system? Rebooting. Checking the software versions. Looking at all the possible options in the 2.6.x kernel -- though this is much easier with the updated menus in the confiuration screens ('make xconfig' (QT)/'make gconfig' (GTK)).
Why the hell does everyone focus on SUVs as the only vehicles that pollute a lot? How about mini-vans, full size vans, pickup trucks, RVs, semi trucks, delivery trucks, and people who just drive a lot? Don't they pollute as well?
Someone might say that those other vehicles serve a reasonable function most of the time so possibly the polution they cause is somewhat justified while with the SUVs it is not.
That someone might see these facts and use them to justify bashing SUVs, though that someone... would not be me.
Slashdot Mirror
Zebras? AHAHAHAHAHA!
Because it violates FCC requirements for licencing. A device must take all EM from other devices and not emit EM that causes harm to other devices.
Like anyone else; get a directional scanner.
Good point. If the jammer users don't brag about them, and there are few of them, the FCC or local authorities would probably not notice.
It also depends on where the jammers are used. If someone used a jammer on a regular basis or for a couple hours near hospitals, police stations, or airports, they would likely raise the concerned interest of technicians responsible for communications or managers who 'run a tight ship'.
Ain't karma grand? (Not the /. karma, the regular kind.)
Currently, I'm in the 'won't cave in and haven't suffered' group.
The list on the side of the can says what's in it; meaning no cocaine, no alcohol. How much, exactly, and how it's whipped together is the only thing approaching a secret.
To be somewhat on topic, the OpenCola idea is great and I'd like to buy a case and pass it around to give a little shove to folks who don't get what open source is and what it isn't.
My sig (if you have sigs off);
Specifically: Open source is mainly a plan not a good. Closed source is mainly a good not a plan. That said, give me a good plan -- or a well planned good (closed or open) -- and I'll take it.
From that: Linux does not matter, GCC does not matter, Windows does not matter, Office -- Open or MS -- do not matter. Who is interested -- who is motivated -- is the only thing that matters.
People are motivated when they are interested. Motivated interest that comes from personal interest -- not externally imposed by mild or excessive force -- tends to be most effective over time since the person is not running away from the motivator but is cheerfully compelled to act.
In general, open source and closed source -- commercially driven or not -- have different built-in motivators. None of these are absolutes, though they do pull people in different directions;
Open source motivators;
Transparency (corillary: Look if you want)
Process over products (corillary: harder to 'buy')
'Natural' growth;
Closed source motivators;
Secret formula (corillary: Joe Isuzu "Trust me!")
Products not projects (soft goods)
Action imposed by past or likely sales;
I don't care if you use open souce, though the built-in motivators alone are what make it strong. The goods -- the soft-wares -- are entirely secondary.
Well, I'm laughing. I hope both of the comments above get modded up. (Just used my last 3 points a few minutes ago!)
Of the two, SuperKaramba has more plugins that will appear to the novice or non-geek. To see SuperKaramba applets, go here (though the KDE-Look.org site is currently having fits, so you might have to check back later).
These bits of mostly eyecandy might help make a Linux desktop more interesting to the uninitated.
(That said, I agree with the other replies; Unix has 30 years of constantly improving security, MS has a continually poor track record, runtime environments are not automatically secure, ....)
He has the credibility of Mozillaquest and the keen insight of er...Mozillaquest.
Too much trust is placed in the installation program getting it right, and no built-in way is available to check if dependencies are broken.
You can ding the different distributions -- and quite rightly -- for package problems though in comparison most of them are dreams when stacked up against Redmond's latest offering.
*SNIFF* A man can dream, can't he?
I don't think it would reach.
Well, maybe for YOU, but for ME that soon won't be a problem. Ya see, last week, I got this really special offer...
In my mind, this makes windows more powerful than nautilus.
...
But the point is that by default, windows is more powerful, and nautilus is simpler.
Erm, that's much more powerful! Thanks for sharing! [[ backs away slowly ]]
*BLINK* What are you talking about? Windows and Mac UIs are polished (mostly), but not nearly as powerful KDE or Gnome (though Gnome has gone the "small is good" route). Neither KDE or Gnome are locked down, and if any thing they have too much...though give me more!
Same as under Windows. I regularly have people who accidentially rename something, and then get frustrated that 'the name changed'.
The click on name to rename is only handy for Mac users because 1 button is available on all systems, but 2 or more is not gauranteed.
A good manager with reasonable work loads can handle 20+ people. A good one with a hellish work load and/or pushy upper manager will handle vastly fewer people effectively.
Tip for managers: Don't ask the same damn question of 20 people constantly...sure, check the validity of your info once in a while, but not on every friggen question! Trust people, take a deep breath, and when that trust is broken then work around the 'dammage'.
Second tip: Listen to your techs, and don't impose a 'solution'. This does not mean take everything they say as gold, it does mean don't find someone to validate a decision you've already made, LISTEN FIRST!
...or, keep the price the same (or increase it) and add other services or software. If there is any difference on the cost to Dell, they keep it.
That you don't do stupid things is the most important step, though running as administrator is not not clever either!
Don't think per-user, think per-process (and per-whatever).
If your email program runs in isolation from your other files, and it spawns files as a seperate process, a rogue virus -- even if you run it -- won't do any dammage. It will be effectively 'jailed'; locked away from other resources including the network and other files that the single-user does have access to.
While this jail does not protect you entirely, it does nearly all exploits -- or programming misakes -- much less likely to have any impact.
That said, this is Linux! Use the email example as only that -- an example. Extrapolate more meaningful ones.
SE Linux removes what you might consider to be the "superuser" account (aka 'root' under *nix or 'administrator' under Windows).
You can configure the system to act just as it is now -- having an account that is all-powerful (root or another one), or you can have very limited focus accounts that can not 'see' or use the resources of the others.
The core OS still has the ability to do root-like things and dole out those permissions, though the scope of what needs to be watched is greatly reduced.
By itself, this is not interesting. As a base for a security policy, the increased ability to log who-did-what, and the ability to stop per-process resouce use (not just per 'user'), it becomes very very interesting.
Here are some links on it;
Security-Enhanced Fedora Core 2
Looking forward to Fedora Core 2
(follow this thread) Re: Proposal: Discourage rpmbuild --sign
The main SE Linux site
Curious: Which planned or existing ground based telescopes match/exceed Hubble?
If they aren't available now, when will they be working at Hubble-or-better levels (quality and time available for scientists)?
Erm...didn't I go over that? Son-of-a-gun! I DID, in my SECOND SENTENCE EVEN!
When kernels change, it's not too unusual to have these user space tools require an update too. The Changes text file I even commented on lists the tools needed!
If you want to nit-pick and say "well, without the tools updated the kernel won't even boot"...that's not true. The kernel will load if configured properly and compiled sucessfully...though it's kind of useless most of the time without something that understands what to do with it.
In sum, yes. As with any major kernel update you have to have the matching user space parts or many devices will not work. Required documentation is included with the kernel;
README (case sensitive) and
./Documentation/Changes (as noted in README)
Keep in mind that if you don't need support for specific hardware -- say, ISDN or PC-Card/PCMCIA -- you can skip updating those packages.
Specific comment: Alsa is now the default sound system, and it needs updated supporting tools if you want to get a peep out of your audio. Point for point comments;
Normal precautions, nothing special.
Someone might say that those other vehicles serve a reasonable function most of the time so possibly the polution they cause is somewhat justified while with the SUVs it is not.
That someone might see these facts and use them to justify bashing SUVs, though that someone ... would not be me.