There is, I think, still room in the genre for companies that push the creative envelope. I forget the name of the one in which you design things on your own "real estate" and can charge people game money to use your creations -- that seemed innovative, and a nice change of pace for someone who isn't interested in the fiftieth dungeon crawl. Then there's A Tale In The Desert, which is similarly focused on community rather than having it be coincidental to the online adventure. Or Planetside which isn't even a RPG but a more-or-less persistent multiplayer Doom-type game.
The problem is the companies that want to just churn out yet another superficial multiplayer first-person Diablo clone. It's like the Reality-TV situation -- you get a hit then you get a bunch of clones.
It's a real waste of resources when everybody plays follow-the-leader, but they do it because they think it's smarter to get burned on something that was once a good idea than on something that hasn't been market tested, and this is only going to get worse with the consolidation in the game industry.
With every release Microsoft's Windows Media Player has delivered an entirely new level of performance and quality. And from what I see, the trend continues.
For one thing, I don't understand why the cries about DRM go up with Microsoft yet are strangely muted with Apple. From what I can tell this player will have the same degree of restriction, yet will allow a much wider range of use (video as well as audio.) Couple that with the online music store planned by Microsoft and you have a winner... assuming you've already made the smart choice to purchase a PC.
On top of that, it remains quite easy to drop in new codecs for exotic video or audio formats. And the themes keep getting better -- Winamp, take notice. All while remaining the fastest performer on the desktop.
So do yourself a favor and pick it up already.:)
One of the unfortunate things about Apache...
on
Hardening Apache
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Its configuration is unusually complex for a webserver. I wouldn't be surprised if many of its so-called "security holes" actually came about because of misconfiguration by an administrator who was confused by the layout of the documentation or config files.
In a way, Internet Information Services provides a more secure environment because an administrator gets a wealth of help and a decent initial configuration. In the end it's all about knowing your product, but it helps if the product helps you.
Given the cothermic limitation on implementing 'cores' (or independent dies) on one surface, it seems a clever but limited hack to increase the performance by effectively implementing multiple CPUs on the same chip.
Clearly there is a performance benefit in both bandwidth and latency respects in multithreading/multioperating in this manner, but it's not difficult to see that the footprint limits the factor to which this technique can be exploited. Indeed even if they were able to fit three cores in the same chip the thermal energy would most likely outstrip the dissipation potential of conventional heatsinks -- unless of course the user is willing to invest in air conditioning or other mainframe-style cooling technologies (which may make sense for servers.)
No doubt this goes on already, although probably moreso by employees in outsourced positions (who tend to be less scrupulous) than by companies officially or unofficially sanctioning such theft.
There would simply be too much risk for a software company to allow it.
Friends at one well-known software developer have told me that everybody gets a lecture on keeping a firewall between free software and their work, even to the point of being discouraged from peeking at GPLed code. It's not worth losing a job over especially since they're paid by the hour to come up with code of their own.
Before, HP didn't have anything like the iPos. Now it can flesh out its home electronics lineup a little bit. You know, sell it in a package with its own computers and tailor the advertising so people don't get too confused about mixing Apple hardware with PC hardware.
They did the same sort of rebranding with CD burners, if I recall correctly.
I imagine this could work like the anonymous writeable/incoming ftp directories used to for pirates -- get an account, load it up, and distribute the login name and password.
Not a usage that Google or the GmailFS designer had in mind for the service, I'll bet, but it wouldn't surprise me if somebody started doing this if the technique for using Google as free network storage became popular.
It's quite unlikely Google will embrace GmailFS because they're probably not counting on having a significant chunk of their users maxing out their 1GB storage. It's a neat hack, though.
The best DVD recording solution I have found was to take virtualization software such as QEMU and hack in direct ATAPI calls for the DVD device. There is some work involved in figuring out which device on the spoke is the DVD, and I don't recommend allowing direct ATAPI calls to everything (might collide with Linux's use of hda, etc.) but you should be able to determine this from the '-scanbus' call to cdrecord/dvdrecord.
The other thing to do is to dump some form of Windows (from 95 up to XP) to the virtualization program and install one of the more contemporary DVD recorders on it (Nero works well, but shop around.) QEMU works fast enough that DVD burning can be a reality under this setup, but you'll need to set up something like Samba on the Linux side or NFS under Windows in order to bridge the systems for DVD authoring using your Linux material.
Hope this helps -- if at all curious, please drop by #linux on EFnet and ask for more information.
What kind of lifespan can one expect from these type of devices?
Given the failure rate of IDE in PC computers, where one imagines they've got more than enough space and manufacturing experience going for them, I wonder how long these mini-HDDs will last even without being subjected to drops.
Especially at $400, which seems almost a bargain for this technology.
While I'd been looking forward to Half-Life 2 for quite some time now, am I the only one that thinks Steam represents an unprecedented level of intrusion in my computer activity?
I may be a bit sensitive to this because one of the other games I looked forward to (Battlefield Vietnam) had a set of conditions to use the online anticheat system (to my knowledge mandatory for Internet gaming) that were intrusive enough that I just shelved it. I just want to buy it and play it, not open my use of the software up to unwarranted scrutiny.
is less an example of a failed process than it is a testament to the difficulties of debugging feature-rich software on a timetable that meets marketing demands and indeed provides some insight into the mind of the average consumer.
Do you want it buggy today or robust tomorrow? One need only look at the overclocking community and throngs of beta-testers to work out the answer. History is littered with technically superior failures in the marketplace (Betamax, Divx, BeOS) and the reason is that the consumer is more fickle about price and features than about technical superiority or stability.
Read any book put out by Microsoft Press and it's plain there are a number of people there that are as or more capable than most open source programmers. But the open source programmer doesn't have to appease any person or schedule other than those he sets himself -- and can therefore program under much better circumstances.
It's a bit buggy, but it's 'native' (through cygwin.dll) and gives you X windows that render in the local Windows environment. Better to find native Windows applications, but it'll work in a pinch.
I was somewhat hopeful that the impending death of X-Windows would lead to the development of a windowing system designed specifically to take advantage of the more advanced features of NetBSD.
Indeed, most of the X-Windows targets would benefit from a native implementation of a windowing system -- native implementations could run something like 23-27% more efficiently because of the layers of abstraction that are currently necessary. Most people don't need internationalization and most could use a simpler interface to get the printer working.
I think there's an underlying fear to reimplement that comes from (and I hate to say it) a certain sense of elitism in juggling three or four fontservers or digging through a million XFConfig-4 lines to get TV-Out working. But perhaps the focus needs to be put back on the basics?
The whole reason we're able to record and watch/listen to something later doesn't imply a right to be able to watch/listen more than once.
This is only a side effect of the fact that to date there hasn't been an effective means of enforcing the right of the content distributor to broadcast something for one consumption only -- technology has only recently gotten to the point of allowing distributors to exercise some measure of control over their level of distribution.
When DRM becomes a reality, it'd be up to Congress to determine whether or not we have a right to multiple uses of recorded content, in my opinion. And this Act seems to be a pretty clear sign of where things are going.
No, but I'd bet you'd get to Gosling's destination faster by designing from the ground up a client/server with the speed/flexibility of Windows XP than you would by stripping out a thing at a time from X-Windows.
The argument is more over method than situation. We all agree X is too bulky for the average user.
Before getting all excited about this, it is worth noting the following:
Photons have mass.
An eclipse means less photons are emitted and reach the measurer.
Ergo, gravitational effect.
Although it is well known that if your effect has a name it instantly has more credibility, I'm a bit skeptical that this is the one that'll turn relativity on its ear (dark matter is another story...)
It's space, so it'll never lose velocity as a result of drag. There's lots of other suns out there too, so it can pick up more speed if it passes through other solar systems.
Besides, it should see lots of stuff on its way out.
If you can't catch the original, punish the hell out of the one you can catch.
A smarter system would have this kid be a digital janitor for a year or so. Disinfect this computer, now disinfect that one. You know, like an intern, and maybe he could get a job out of it when he's done.
More productive than license plates, and more likely to pay society back.
Our right to make a recording of broadcast content is defined as 'timeshifting' -- the concept that we should be able to record for later consumption a program that we would otherwise miss.
I believe the fact that we are able to rewatch recorded programs is a happy coincidence of the fact that DRM or self-destructing media have not been practical schemes to date. I suspect our legislators and courts would at least entertain the concept that if it's broadcast once you can timeshift it and consume it only once, as you're effectively getting the same service as you'd get by viewing it during broadcast (with the added feature of skipping commercials).
Disney's trying to get a bigger slice of the pie, of course, but there's nothing inherently wrong with what they're trying to do. If you have a problem I suggest contacting your representatives and electronics/software manufacturers.
Think of it as part of a security solution rather than the whole solution.
I use a firewall, but I also patch my machines. Some people skip the second step until the first or second time someone brings in a laptop from home and connects it to the internal network, which brings me to the point about running software firewalls on individual machines in addition to the one at the router.
I agree that this wallpaper is better as a backup defense rather than a primary one, but plays an important part nonetheless. Home laptops are being pushed with WiFi now.
But here it won't make sense, because not only are they making the system more secure but they're working to ensure the security doesn't break compatibility.
If a bunch of machines won't boot -- even if it's the fault of the developers of third-party software as we've seen with faulty drivers impacting Windows 98 -- people will be slow to adopt what is perhaps the most critical software patch the Internet has seen.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is the companies that want to just churn out yet another superficial multiplayer first-person Diablo clone. It's like the Reality-TV situation -- you get a hit then you get a bunch of clones.
It's a real waste of resources when everybody plays follow-the-leader, but they do it because they think it's smarter to get burned on something that was once a good idea than on something that hasn't been market tested, and this is only going to get worse with the consolidation in the game industry.
For one thing, I don't understand why the cries about DRM go up with Microsoft yet are strangely muted with Apple. From what I can tell this player will have the same degree of restriction, yet will allow a much wider range of use (video as well as audio.) Couple that with the online music store planned by Microsoft and you have a winner... assuming you've already made the smart choice to purchase a PC.
On top of that, it remains quite easy to drop in new codecs for exotic video or audio formats. And the themes keep getting better -- Winamp, take notice. All while remaining the fastest performer on the desktop.
So do yourself a favor and pick it up already. :)
In a way, Internet Information Services provides a more secure environment because an administrator gets a wealth of help and a decent initial configuration. In the end it's all about knowing your product, but it helps if the product helps you.
Clearly there is a performance benefit in both bandwidth and latency respects in multithreading/multioperating in this manner, but it's not difficult to see that the footprint limits the factor to which this technique can be exploited. Indeed even if they were able to fit three cores in the same chip the thermal energy would most likely outstrip the dissipation potential of conventional heatsinks -- unless of course the user is willing to invest in air conditioning or other mainframe-style cooling technologies (which may make sense for servers.)
Friends at one well-known software developer have told me that everybody gets a lecture on keeping a firewall between free software and their work, even to the point of being discouraged from peeking at GPLed code. It's not worth losing a job over especially since they're paid by the hour to come up with code of their own.
Before, HP didn't have anything like the iPos. Now it can flesh out its home electronics lineup a little bit. You know, sell it in a package with its own computers and tailor the advertising so people don't get too confused about mixing Apple hardware with PC hardware.
They did the same sort of rebranding with CD burners, if I recall correctly.
Not a usage that Google or the GmailFS designer had in mind for the service, I'll bet, but it wouldn't surprise me if somebody started doing this if the technique for using Google as free network storage became popular.
It's quite unlikely Google will embrace GmailFS because they're probably not counting on having a significant chunk of their users maxing out their 1GB storage. It's a neat hack, though.
They're supporters of Linux. Somehow, it doesn't seem like a very "on the spoke" maneuver to aggravate them.
The other thing to do is to dump some form of Windows (from 95 up to XP) to the virtualization program and install one of the more contemporary DVD recorders on it (Nero works well, but shop around.) QEMU works fast enough that DVD burning can be a reality under this setup, but you'll need to set up something like Samba on the Linux side or NFS under Windows in order to bridge the systems for DVD authoring using your Linux material.
Hope this helps -- if at all curious, please drop by #linux on EFnet and ask for more information.
Given the failure rate of IDE in PC computers, where one imagines they've got more than enough space and manufacturing experience going for them, I wonder how long these mini-HDDs will last even without being subjected to drops.
Especially at $400, which seems almost a bargain for this technology.
I may be a bit sensitive to this because one of the other games I looked forward to (Battlefield Vietnam) had a set of conditions to use the online anticheat system (to my knowledge mandatory for Internet gaming) that were intrusive enough that I just shelved it. I just want to buy it and play it, not open my use of the software up to unwarranted scrutiny.
Do you want it buggy today or robust tomorrow? One need only look at the overclocking community and throngs of beta-testers to work out the answer. History is littered with technically superior failures in the marketplace (Betamax, Divx, BeOS) and the reason is that the consumer is more fickle about price and features than about technical superiority or stability.
Read any book put out by Microsoft Press and it's plain there are a number of people there that are as or more capable than most open source programmers. But the open source programmer doesn't have to appease any person or schedule other than those he sets himself -- and can therefore program under much better circumstances.
It's a bit buggy, but it's 'native' (through cygwin.dll) and gives you X windows that render in the local Windows environment. Better to find native Windows applications, but it'll work in a pinch.
Indeed, most of the X-Windows targets would benefit from a native implementation of a windowing system -- native implementations could run something like 23-27% more efficiently because of the layers of abstraction that are currently necessary. Most people don't need internationalization and most could use a simpler interface to get the printer working.
I think there's an underlying fear to reimplement that comes from (and I hate to say it) a certain sense of elitism in juggling three or four fontservers or digging through a million XFConfig-4 lines to get TV-Out working. But perhaps the focus needs to be put back on the basics?
This is only a side effect of the fact that to date there hasn't been an effective means of enforcing the right of the content distributor to broadcast something for one consumption only -- technology has only recently gotten to the point of allowing distributors to exercise some measure of control over their level of distribution.
When DRM becomes a reality, it'd be up to Congress to determine whether or not we have a right to multiple uses of recorded content, in my opinion. And this Act seems to be a pretty clear sign of where things are going.
The argument is more over method than situation. We all agree X is too bulky for the average user.
- Photons have mass.
- An eclipse means less photons are emitted and reach the measurer.
- Ergo, gravitational effect.
Although it is well known that if your effect has a name it instantly has more credibility, I'm a bit skeptical that this is the one that'll turn relativity on its ear (dark matter is another story...)You don't need to reverse it if you can brute force it.
Besides, it should see lots of stuff on its way out.
A smarter system would have this kid be a digital janitor for a year or so. Disinfect this computer, now disinfect that one. You know, like an intern, and maybe he could get a job out of it when he's done.
More productive than license plates, and more likely to pay society back.
He said you can do all sorts of stuff with it, and I'd sure hope so for that price. :P You can buy a PC with WinXP Home from Dell for that.
I believe the fact that we are able to rewatch recorded programs is a happy coincidence of the fact that DRM or self-destructing media have not been practical schemes to date. I suspect our legislators and courts would at least entertain the concept that if it's broadcast once you can timeshift it and consume it only once, as you're effectively getting the same service as you'd get by viewing it during broadcast (with the added feature of skipping commercials).
Disney's trying to get a bigger slice of the pie, of course, but there's nothing inherently wrong with what they're trying to do. If you have a problem I suggest contacting your representatives and electronics/software manufacturers.
I use a firewall, but I also patch my machines. Some people skip the second step until the first or second time someone brings in a laptop from home and connects it to the internal network, which brings me to the point about running software firewalls on individual machines in addition to the one at the router.
I agree that this wallpaper is better as a backup defense rather than a primary one, but plays an important part nonetheless. Home laptops are being pushed with WiFi now.
For the most part cellphones are a nuisance, but sometimes they're a lifesaver.
If a bunch of machines won't boot -- even if it's the fault of the developers of third-party software as we've seen with faulty drivers impacting Windows 98 -- people will be slow to adopt what is perhaps the most critical software patch the Internet has seen.