I seem to remember that there was a product out long ago that allowed one to use a VCR to save data to a standard VHS tape. And then there was my old Timex Sinclair and it's audio tape data storage system.
My concern with this method of storage is that of the reliability of the media. Since the tape is wrapped around itself on the spool, it tends to interfere with itself over time. I've seen this happen with regular recorded television programs on tapes losing clarity over time.
It just seems to convoluted of a plan to store data. It'd be to unreliable for a corporate environment, which would prefer better systems, and slightly too expensive (if you don't have a camera and firewire connection) and complicated for home use.
"Thats because no one really sees the effects of cloneing. If you think about it how would you react if some one that looked and talked like you came into your home and slept with your wife/girl friend"
For some reason, your comments made me think of a nearly unrelated form of cloning that people are starting to notice is that of identity theft.
While it may not involve invading your home or taking your significant other, it's no less violating to have someone do a little social manipulation and get complete access to every aspect of your public and private information, and therefore, your life.
The increase in stories about people finding credit fraud due to someone "becoming" them is closer and more frightening to me.
I'd say the biggest effect that the outcome of this election with have on the Net, will be the mass downloads of everything (mp3's, pr0n, websites with damaging evidence on campaign contributors) that the newly elected canidate will likely "protect" us from in the coming years.
I'd say it has as much to do with using a public machine in the campus lab, as it does to the decline in quality of the disks themselves.
I'm not sure about your college's lab machines, but at both my previous university, as well as the one I attend now, the public lab machines tend to be very "unclean". Heavy use, high traffic, accessable to everyone and then some, drives tend to accumulate dust, dirt and gunk at a high rate. Add on to that the stuff scrapped onto the heads by unclean, old disks used by the person before you and you get an environment ripe for disk corruption.
That said, I believe that disk quality has gone done, if only due to the economics. With bulk disk prices being so incredibly low, quality control is probably just another drain on the slim profit margin.
What we need is more advertising of alternate operating system choices to the masses, or at least the masses that have control over company purchasing (ie PHB's).
I'm not calling for ads that say Linux/*BSD necessarily better than Windows2000, but that IT departments should use the best tool for the job. The alternate OS's happen to be that best tool in a majority of these cases, yet aren't always even looked at.
Advertising Linux so far has pretty much consisted of preaching to the choir. We need to get our message across to the eyes of those people, many of whom aren't in our camp, who make the decisions to buy all the Microsoft products at our companies, schools and other organizitions, not because it's the best tool for the job, but because they don't really understand that there's a choice in the matter.
I've got a Win2000 box, as well as a Linux one and OpenBSD one. Now, the Linux and OpenBSD boxes can access each other fine with Samba. When the Win2000 box used to run Win98, it too talked niced with the others.
Now, however, the Win2000 box can see the others through Network Neigborhood. It just times out everytime it tries to access them.
I would love anything that could help me with this problem!
Isn't that one of the business models that's proposed under most open source software theories?
Make the software free... Make money through service and support of that software.
In RedHat's case, you can easily provide yourself with the same service and software manually. The fees, as I read it, are for updates and whatnot delivered to you in a convenient and timely manner.
There would be the easy implementation of effective joint entities, such as a house bound older person, and a mobile younger person, together are able to make a lot more of a career than either could separately.
In other words the basic dynamic of Batman Beyond with it's house bound Bruce Wayne and younger, though inexperienced Terry in the futuristic Batsuit...
"Their use of Unix internally (and we all know it's true, with or without disgruntled ex-employee corroboration) simply shows their software is *not* ready for the billion dollar enterprise." (Emphasis mine)
Umm, isn't the original poster saying he does know that Microsoft uses Unix within the company?
And isn't the point of the original post that Microsoft products are good for small to mid-size companies, but not enterprise level, and therefore Microsoft needs to use non-Microsoft products just to work?
You're right about the installs, they all can either be easy or hard depending on the setup.
However, the real problem is maintaining the setup. Installing new software. Adding new features. Changing new settings.
It isn't that any of these are always harder under Unix than Windows (though it's mostly true), it's a matter of people knowing the Windows paradigm slightly better, and the ease of finding cheap (not necessarily good) support people for the Windows platform.
Windows' strength isn't in technical superiority, it's simply in numbers.
As a company, you're going to want individuals to get exposure to your product so that they'll request it from the present or future companies that they work for.
Now, as that company, which exposure would you rather an individual have? A nicely packaged download version with a certain amount of limited support and documentation, or a warez version which is often missing files to conserve download time, lacking in documentation or other support, and with the possibility of virus and trojan "extras".
The corporate pressure to get this off the market is going to be a sight:
Not only does the Infinity have the ability to bypass several DVD "protections" including region coding and Macrovision, but this little unit also has the ability to play MP3s of of CD-R/RWs as well, adding the record industry, as well as the DVD media giants to it's enemy list.
All this thing needs now is a photocopier attached in order to copy printed materials, and all bases should be covered!
There's a story over at ZDNet about McDonald's trying out an automated teller like device for drive-thru ordering.
I also remember hearing that McDonald's was looking into a fully automated store. At The Great Lakes Science Museum in Cleveland, Ohio there is a McDonald's which has a robotic french frier.
Personally, I feel that the best way these smaller companies could contribute the most to the Linux community is to do their job well and at a reasonable price. As an end user, being able to find resources that are easily available and affordable are extremely helpful.
That being said, I do commend companies such as Red Hat which are smart enough to know that while funding such projects may seem like good PR in the short run, they will also benefit from the efforts of these individuals as well in the long run.
There are many here who are pointing out the possible futility of attempts to effect major change in the current state of affairs.
Part of the problem is that the "internet" consists of something akin to "anarchy that works", and really has little in the way of central authority figures to patrol the thing.
This, however, can remedied if we recall the old saying of "with freedom comes responsibility". A fair amount of us know someone who is involved in activities such as this. Talk to them. Work with them. Hell, smack 'em up the head if need be. As "net citizens" it's only we that can effect real change in the culture of the net. If everyone here could work on just one or two potential script kiddies and turn them into "free, yet responsible" users, online life would be *so* much nicer.
And yet we cry out every time we find yet another program that "frees" personal information from our personal computers back to the companies that created the realplayers and webbrowsers and office suites, etc, etc...
Out with the New, In with the Old
on
Middle Media
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· Score: 2
The "new" media will find itself in a position similiar to every other field in which the "next best thing" has been introduced.
First, people will praise all the brand new features, how it will change the entire world, and how the "old best thing" in that field will become very much obsolete.
However, when you check back in a few months, you'll find that the product, service or company that survived wasn't the "next best thing" or the "old best thing", but the "combination of what made the old best thing the best, along with the features of the new best thing".
This is true of media, operating systems, cars, toothbrushes, food and damn near everything else out there...
Another aspect of this problem regarding bandwidth is that quite often it's not the students of the university that are reaping the benefits of having Napster running on a school's high speed connections. Here at Ohio State University, we found a 100 to 1 ratio of outgoing to incoming traffic in regards to Napster. Quite often, students would start the program to look for a particular piece of music, then "close" the program, not noticing that Napster does not stop it's server when the window is closed.
This server, open to all the world on a high speed connection is a prime canidate for non-university people to choose for quicker downloads. The main reason most universities are choosing to block Napster is not because of traffic generated by students (who would have gotten nearly as many mp3 before and after through other means) but because of the high amount of outgoing traffic which benefits no one at the school.
I agree that there has been too much repetition within the previous generation of first person shooters, however I believe this has as much to do with the players as the developers. A prime example is Tribes, a wonderful team based multiplayer game. What annoys me however, is the amount of servers playing the same original maps over and over. Yes, there have been almost as many new and creative maps created for Tribes as other FPS out there, but in general there are two many players who only want the maps they know only too well, and balk at trying new areas. For myself, playing on new maps is a wonderful experience. The exploration of a strange area, combined with the fact that others won't have as great an advantage in knowing the map completely, makes for some intense online experiences. I personally go through the list of Unreal servers looking for maps I've never played before. Finally, as for the gameplay itself, take a look at the new game types for Unreal Tournament. Whether you like the engine or not, games like Assault add new spice to the online mix.
To be honest, I'm kind of confused as to how a proprietary piece of software will damage Linux.
You might argue that the danger is that product 'XYZ' will start to be used by a large percentage of the Linux population, and become something of a standard in itself. However, even then, there's nothing that's really forcing you to use product 'XYZ', except when trading information, data or files with an 'XYZ' user. And even then, the very nature of the Linux community and code is such that open-source software will be able to compete and perhaps outdo that product.
A good example would be Photoshop -vs- The Gimp. Imagine if today, Adobe shocked us all and announced that they had a Linux port for a mere $100. Would you see all development on the Gimp cease? Hell no, if anything the competition and chance to show up the big boys on the same platform would drive our Gimp developers to even better heights.
Finally, as to software piracy, I'd say that Linux isn't about trying to "teach people that sharing software with your friends is the right thing to do" but more towards providing a damn fine, customizable platform in which free GPL software and non-free proprietory software can both exist, allowing the users to decide which to use...
Slashdot Mirror
My concern with this method of storage is that of the reliability of the media. Since the tape is wrapped around itself on the spool, it tends to interfere with itself over time. I've seen this happen with regular recorded television programs on tapes losing clarity over time. It just seems to convoluted of a plan to store data. It'd be to unreliable for a corporate environment, which would prefer better systems, and slightly too expensive (if you don't have a camera and firewire connection) and complicated for home use.
"I don't want to go to Dune, I was going to go down to Tasha Station and pick up some power converters"
"You can waste time with your friends later, Paul"
I'd say the biggest effect that the outcome of this election with have on the Net, will be the mass downloads of everything (mp3's, pr0n, websites with damaging evidence on campaign contributors) that the newly elected canidate will likely " protect " us from in the coming years.
I'm not sure about your college's lab machines, but at both my previous university, as well as the one I attend now, the public lab machines tend to be very "unclean". Heavy use, high traffic, accessable to everyone and then some, drives tend to accumulate dust, dirt and gunk at a high rate. Add on to that the stuff scrapped onto the heads by unclean, old disks used by the person before you and you get an environment ripe for disk corruption.
That said, I believe that disk quality has gone done, if only due to the economics. With bulk disk prices being so incredibly low, quality control is probably just another drain on the slim profit margin.
I'm not calling for ads that say Linux/*BSD necessarily better than Windows2000, but that IT departments should use the best tool for the job. The alternate OS's happen to be that best tool in a majority of these cases, yet aren't always even looked at.
Advertising Linux so far has pretty much consisted of preaching to the choir. We need to get our message across to the eyes of those people, many of whom aren't in our camp, who make the decisions to buy all the Microsoft products at our companies, schools and other organizitions, not because it's the best tool for the job, but because they don't really understand that there's a choice in the matter.
Ah well ... back in the THIS reality ...
Here at Miami University, there's not an actual "admissions requirement" of a desktop/laptop, let alone a particular OS.
However, I've found that I can't really get rid of my MS Windows partition simply because the classes use so much Microsoft centric software.
My programming classes require Visual Studio, my communications class needs Power Point, etc, etc.
While there is no "required" OS, I find that I still have to use the products the school chooses, or face inconveniences and incompatibilites. Ack.
Now, however, the Win2000 box can see the others through Network Neigborhood. It just times out everytime it tries to access them.
I would love anything that could help me with this problem!
Make the software free ... Make money through service and support of that software.
In RedHat's case, you can easily provide yourself with the same service and software manually. The fees, as I read it, are for updates and whatnot delivered to you in a convenient and timely manner.
Damnit, man, that's the only way to handle those space rocks ... didn't you ever play Asteroids as a kid?
Now, taking out those flying saucers that appear out of nowhere, well, that's another matter entirely!
No?
Ah well, it was worth a shot...
Umm, isn't the original poster saying he does know that Microsoft uses Unix within the company?
And isn't the point of the original post that Microsoft products are good for small to mid-size companies, but not enterprise level, and therefore Microsoft needs to use non-Microsoft products just to work?
Just asking.
However, the real problem is maintaining the setup. Installing new software. Adding new features. Changing new settings.
It isn't that any of these are always harder under Unix than Windows (though it's mostly true), it's a matter of people knowing the Windows paradigm slightly better, and the ease of finding cheap (not necessarily good) support people for the Windows platform.
Windows' strength isn't in technical superiority, it's simply in numbers.
Now, as that company, which exposure would you rather an individual have? A nicely packaged download version with a certain amount of limited support and documentation, or a warez version which is often missing files to conserve download time, lacking in documentation or other support, and with the possibility of virus and trojan "extras".
Much better PR, this.
I wonder how much time they're going to put into making is 100% compatible with all the virus code out there...
Not only does the Infinity have the ability to bypass several DVD "protections" including region coding and Macrovision, but this little unit also has the ability to play MP3s of of CD-R/RWs as well, adding the record industry, as well as the DVD media giants to it's enemy list.
All this thing needs now is a photocopier attached in order to copy printed materials, and all bases should be covered!
I also remember hearing that McDonald's was looking into a fully automated store. At The Great Lakes Science Museum in Cleveland, Ohio there is a McDonald's which has a robotic french frier.
That being said, I do commend companies such as Red Hat which are smart enough to know that while funding such projects may seem like good PR in the short run, they will also benefit from the efforts of these individuals as well in the long run.
Part of the problem is that the "internet" consists of something akin to "anarchy that works", and really has little in the way of central authority figures to patrol the thing.
This, however, can remedied if we recall the old saying of "with freedom comes responsibility". A fair amount of us know someone who is involved in activities such as this. Talk to them. Work with them. Hell, smack 'em up the head if need be. As "net citizens" it's only we that can effect real change in the culture of the net. If everyone here could work on just one or two potential script kiddies and turn them into "free, yet responsible" users, online life would be *so* much nicer.
Hey, I can dream, can't I?
And yet we cry out every time we find yet another program that "frees" personal information from our personal computers back to the companies that created the realplayers and webbrowsers and office suites, etc, etc...
First, people will praise all the brand new features, how it will change the entire world, and how the "old best thing" in that field will become very much obsolete.
However, when you check back in a few months, you'll find that the product, service or company that survived wasn't the "next best thing" or the "old best thing", but the "combination of what made the old best thing the best, along with the features of the new best thing".
This is true of media, operating systems, cars, toothbrushes, food and damn near everything else out there...
This server, open to all the world on a high speed connection is a prime canidate for non-university people to choose for quicker downloads. The main reason most universities are choosing to block Napster is not because of traffic generated by students (who would have gotten nearly as many mp3 before and after through other means) but because of the high amount of outgoing traffic which benefits no one at the school.
I agree that there has been too much repetition within the previous generation of first person shooters, however I believe this has as much to do with the players as the developers. A prime example is Tribes, a wonderful team based multiplayer game. What annoys me however, is the amount of servers playing the same original maps over and over. Yes, there have been almost as many new and creative maps created for Tribes as other FPS out there, but in general there are two many players who only want the maps they know only too well, and balk at trying new areas. For myself, playing on new maps is a wonderful experience. The exploration of a strange area, combined with the fact that others won't have as great an advantage in knowing the map completely, makes for some intense online experiences. I personally go through the list of Unreal servers looking for maps I've never played before. Finally, as for the gameplay itself, take a look at the new game types for Unreal Tournament. Whether you like the engine or not, games like Assault add new spice to the online mix.
You might argue that the danger is that product 'XYZ' will start to be used by a large percentage of the Linux population, and become something of a standard in itself. However, even then, there's nothing that's really forcing you to use product 'XYZ', except when trading information, data or files with an 'XYZ' user. And even then, the very nature of the Linux community and code is such that open-source software will be able to compete and perhaps outdo that product.
A good example would be Photoshop -vs- The Gimp. Imagine if today, Adobe shocked us all and announced that they had a Linux port for a mere $100. Would you see all development on the Gimp cease? Hell no, if anything the competition and chance to show up the big boys on the same platform would drive our Gimp developers to even better heights.
Finally, as to software piracy, I'd say that Linux isn't about trying to "teach people that sharing software with your friends is the right thing to do" but more towards providing a damn fine, customizable platform in which free GPL software and non-free proprietory software can both exist, allowing the users to decide which to use...