I'm required, although it's not checked, to tweet and retweet stuff at least 10 minutes everyday related to the company while at work and I'm a logic designer. It's funny seeing the marketing speak come out.
Surprised that they think this type of twitter marketing actually works. Most people unfollow accounts that do this.
Right on the point of the matter. The FUD, backstabbing, lack of crdibility, etc... Yes you can save an S-load of money by switching from Windows to Linux.
When attending SCALE SCALE12x in Los Angeles iover the years, I have talked to multiple Systems Admins that have successfully scaled Linux well above 10,000 desktops with no problem that could not be worked around and overcome. I did not have to go to SCALE to learn that Linux would scale, but it was nice to hear all the same.
While larger companies (and government agencies) can save millions even small companies can save significant dollars. In one of the many positive posts about this that have been rated down to zero or negative 1, one poster stated their small company/site (56 employee office) will realize over $22,000 per year in savings. My guess is they would save even more if they looked at everything and not just licensing. So many other factors figure in to the total cost of ownership for the company.
I just finished a year long contract at a worldwide company where we were supporting multiple Java Apps + Linux in the Cloud. One of the individuals that was responsible for updating 2,000 ~ 4,000 of their windows PCs (that was at only one site in one city in one state, there were 14 sites in that state, no I will not tell you the company's name, so don't ask as I have no wish to embarrass them) lost his job as the company said it was no longer cost effective to update all the Windows PCs at the site. (I started in the DP / IT field in 1979 and when the auto update crap started, many of us said that this would eventually happen.) If this has happened at other companies, I would not be surprised.
And as other posters have pointed out, it is much easier to secure Linux than Windows. Those that do not believe it, have not done it.
My biggest pet peeve with Windows 8 is the proprietary chips provided by the manufacturers, on Microsoft's instructions, that force one to obtain a valid MS Windows License even to install Linux on that proprietary hardware. I like donating old hardware to the various school programs when I am through with them. They almost always need to install Linux and are not interested in extra expense of a Windows license just to install Linux. Of course we can avoid these proprietary chipsets by only buying hardware from Linux vendors like ZaReason, System76 or others. As a copy of Windows can be purchased for those wanting to run Windows and when that version of Windows is no longer supported, that hardware can be re-purposed utilizing one of the many distros of Linux, instead of being thrown in the city dump. Just seems smart to me.
I am sure there are multiple websites / blog posts documenting many positive results from switching from Microsoft Windows to Linux. Please share them if you read this as I am most certainly interested in seeing them. I am sure Munich is not the only proof out there!
Note / Full Disclosure: I have a Windows 7 box for testing purposes and used a MacBook Pro in my last position, its a great laptop, that I did not want to like, but did, however my preference will always be Linux. Since I do not utilize touch on my desktop, servers, laptops or netbooks, I have moved away from Ubuntu's unity toward other distros of Linux, primarily Debian or CentOS, however have an interest in Arch and a few other low memory footprint Linux distros. I understand how Nokia blew it by moving away from the N800 and N900 Linux handhelds. Nor am I frightened by Android.
I started with DOS 2.0 before Windows was an app and my bias against windows is well earned, based solely on first hand experience. With over 30 years of various problems caused by that operating system and that company. While I almost got fired because of the General
The war is winding down and Lockheed isn't getting as much of the defense pie as they were expecting. The whole drone thing isn't something they were ready to exploit.
Lots of defense contractors are laying people off. So many of them reported this to the government in fact, that hte government asked them to delay the firings because it would show up in the unemployment stats.
I can only cynically assume that the contractors assumed that now would be an okay time to terminate excess labor.
They've been talking about doing this for over a year.
Right on the money. With the public's interest in war after too many years, this should not be a surprise to anyone.
Why does a 'regular American' need a year to 'prepare for the change' of actually getting health insurance? How does it benefit a 'regular American' to go without health insurance for another year? If going without health insurance for a year is (somehow) a good thing, why is it a problem that so many 'regular Americans' can't afford health care because they can't afford health insurance?
No they don't need to wait another day and it only benefits those desiring depressed wages to wait a second longer.
Right on the money, not surprised you got rated a 0, such is the way of those that don't like hearing the truth.
If they were serious about giving American s health care, both parties, they would give Americans the same coverage as Congress, doubt that will ever happen.
Republicans got allot, just to sit down a the table that enacted the Sequester cuts, and now they they were too stupid to fund and pay the bills they have already spent (not future spending) money on, what cry babies. Many said President Obama was playing chess while the Republicans were playing checkers...and has turned out to be true. The law was enacted, now they want to delay it for yet another year, heck no, Americans need Insurance yesterday, not a year from now. ( 1 - You don't hear the Reps being willing to give back all that they gained in the past, so why should the President delay his legislation. 2 ~ They did not have a plan, remember the blank sheet of paper debacle, for many months and what they put together was BS. 3 ~ The plan they put together basically let the industry continue business as usual, death panels, deciding who gets what and how, denying coverage, etc... )
Can't trust Democrats either, stupid Harry Reid could have removed the BS 60% must approve in order to take a vote rule, returning it to a simple 51% majority as designed by the Constitution, but he did not, he got suckered and now the Tea Party and ultra conservatives can force all the Republican to toe the line else get primaryed (sic)
Lets look at costs, KISS, was looking at rolling over full time with a company for the benefits and now am not so sure. I need to see the health care costs. The last time I had insurance, the family only had to pay out $2,000 before it kicked in. Co pays were never more than $20, start out as $10 and went to $20 from there. This new company is huge and honestly a great American company, however their health care does not kick in until you are out of pocket 100% up to either $4,000 or $6,000, then kicks in at a graduated scale up to either $8,000 or $10,000 before it pays 100%. And that would be $8,000 or $10,000 every year before it pays out. So unless you have something catastrophic, its useless.
Having worked 3 minimum wage jobs while attempting to get a software company off the ground, and was unsuccessful, I understand how difficult it is for the average American to save $8,000 ~ $10,000 per year. I totally stoked that there is some form of single payer available that I can go for. I definitely plan to check it out and as long as its cheaper then $4,000 per year, its better than most company insurance policies, period.
And many Americans have already found out that its CHEAPER than anything in years. No surprise there either.
Had the Republicans prevented it, they can not now, rates would have continued to sky rocket.
Democrats wake up and change the house 60% to take a vote rule, back to the simple 51% majority as described in the Constitution. Get rid of Harry Reid, he is a traitor to have kept that rule in affect. Convinced that it would help them if they ever became the minority again, controlled via FEAR.
To everyone WAKE UP, earnings on stocks are taxed 10 - 15% google, find out about and learn from James L. Cramer and learn how to make more money from the Stock Market than you will ever make at a job.
Only Private companies like In n Out are smart, paying a High School 1rst time employee $1
...there's simply no way somebody could sneak-up and do surgery on those units without being observed by the staff..
On the news yesterday, they decided to spin it that someone nearby was intercepting signals through the air from the readers...total BS #2, first the pin pads were magically replaced in 60 different geographically distributed locations. Second, they want us to believe that there are crackers (people) intercepting signals through the air at each of those locations. What will they say next... Someone did not think their spin through, did they...
Not only outrageous to any thinking person, as you said, such activity would be observed by staff and or the many security cameras in these stores....guess they think we Americans are not very bright. Wrong again.
I can tell you with some amount of certainty that the PoS systems are running a version of Windows. I can also tell you after RTFA the PoS system was not the problem as the solution has been to swipe the cc directly on the PoS system, this tells me the problem was specific to the pinpad itself, which is probably running a proprietary or even linux/unix based micro-OS.. *ducks*
posted by an AC, what else is new...please stop spinning. It could NOT be just the Pin pads, especially in 60 geographically separate stores.
This comment from GrandWaz00 proves its not just that as well:
While this would be interesting to know, (per Snowman, VeriFone, Ingenico, Hypercomm are three possibilities) it sounds like most of the pin pad industry, if not all, does not bother hashing the pin number of a user's card at the PoS Pin Device. If the hash was secure enough and combined with a store ID + device ID + IP/network location, it would be much harder (if not impossible) for anyone else to spoof a transaction from some other geographical location, (ie. Brazil). Add to that, that the transaction should ONLY come from a secured (separate) backend financial or banking system (only authorized entities would have access to this network and any store not securing their end would risk losing access) that would also have a unique label/ID...not sure how some cracker could continue to do this without a rootkit or other exploit in that company's IT environment. (How could a transaction from Brazil happen, guess the stores unique network identifiers are not used and/or checked...that's a fail.)
In fact based on this comment from GrandWaz00, it appears the pin pad is NOT the problem and that the cracker has other exploits yet to be revealed or not found by the company's IT System Administrators.
I wonder if the Barnes & Nobles IT Managers allocated budget for the Systems Admins to baseline their systems, network, operating systems, transaction work flows and monitoring of said systems for events that appear strange (outside norms) when compared against those earlier baselines? In my over 33 years of IT experience they (Managers) rarely if ever allow for time spent making their systems safe, including ongoing monitoring in order to catch an exploit before it impacts anyone.
It can not be just the pin pads as the cracker/thieves compromised more than a few dozen pin pads, they could not have swapped out the pin pads as tlhingan suggested in his post in that many locations. That is unless they hooked up with one of the gangs that have a presence in many US cities...it simply would take too many individuals to pull this off in 60 or more stores in multiple geographic locations. In that last scenario too many people would know.
Meaning the real exploit (yet to be revealed / yet to be found) is further up the TCP/IP network + Operating Systems + Software Application food chain from the pin pad, not just that pin pad. Or the thieve is a frequent flier in order to reach 60 plus stores in cities around the USA. A few of the cities ("New York City, San Diego, Miami, and Chicago.") listed would be a long drive from each other.
Its common in our industry, in order to make a company's IT systems to see more secure than they really are, to blame something else, usually some innocent human (human error), at least they blamed a dumb device instead of a person.
Regardless stop calling these people hackers, they are crackers not hackers. Hackers do not do harm. Once someone crosses the line and steals information (or money) they are no longer a hacker, but a cracker. Hacking is an honorable way to learn about technology and with proprietary environments, often the only way for an honest Systems Administrator (White Hat) to discover exploits and plug them in order to protect whoever is paying their paycheck. Of course at most companies, this type of activity is rarely if ever allotted time to pursue...as already stated above.
You think companies would understand that its all about TRUST, once customers lose trust in the company, their systems, their people, their products, that company is close to going under and out of business. Of course talking the game and not walking the walk, is what gets companies into troubl
This said, the amount of memory on Pi cripples it, and it's good to see attempts to make devices without this flaw.
I was thinking that as well. I would like it expandable up to 16GB, thankfully running Linux means the memory in the device can be re-purposed for other things, in addition to everything running faster.
I would rather see the device focus toward debian instead of ubuntu. There are also a bunch of distros that run in tiny memory foot prints. My guess is all of them would work if Ubuntu will. Arch was a nice touch too.
I want to see at a minimum 512MB of RAM, even if the Linux distro will run in only 128Kb of RAM. Being able to put 1GB and up to 4GB of RAM would be nice as well. The more RAM the merrier...and faster the apps will run.
For the primary use cases of devices like these, gigabit Ethernet is simply a waste of money.
Could not disagree more. Based on the size, you could fit two of those in the size of an old Nokia N800, allowing for a decent size screen also. And if one of those two devices was simple an add on board with more memory, more ports, additional processors etc...so much the better.
When installing, I prefer Ethernet to Wifi.
Even if I do not use the Ethernet port all the time, I want to have it for the times I need it.
I would add no fewer than 3 USB ports to as many as 5. 2 USB ports are not enough when the USB hub will not connect for some weird reason.
I would also want 2 Micro SSD slots. One could be internal, say under the battery, harder to get to, but still exchangeable but one should be available without turning off the device or opening the case.
I too agree that Wifi is sadly considered to be fast and that is pathetic. I want to live in one of the less than 30 US communities that offer Fiber To The Home (FTTH)...when I move there, I would appreciate the device having a second ethernet port for out of band monitoring of that device. Basically a second network not connected to the same VLAN and/or firewall/router as the connection to the Internet. Overkill perhaps, but something I would like to have.
I want the device to be able to do more, than a just one use case or one task.
Screw HTML5. It's, what 12 years too late? Web enabled Applications are the future!
Yea everyone is saying that, love the Cloud monkier too. The future for me is never going to be an application and/or service that can ONLY be accessed via an active internet connection.
The future for many of us are applications, esp web applications, that work whether we are currently connected to the Internet or not. Let em sink up to add value when we are connected, but tying me to the net like a dog on a leash is just not going to work in my world, ever. That is DUMB.
The future means being smart. Smart means the device, whoever makes it, runs more applications on day one than the last release of that device. There are no acceptable exceptions to this rule. To do that it must be rootable.
To be smart, the device must be open, it must be rootable (allow admin access) so that the owner of the device can configure as they wish and install the software they wish on it.
I imagine purchasing only open rootable devices that will allow me to install and run, PHP, Python, Ruby, whatever I want and therefore have access to every application written in those environments the first day I purchase the device.
If a device will not allow me to install, configure, run and play the content I want/need, well it just is not smart and I will never purchase it.
If you change your answer to web enabled apps that will run standalone when not connected to the Internet/cloud, than we are in agreement...something tells me that is NOT what you were saying. Sigh.
That dog did not hunt when people started spinning it, many of us realized this from the beginning, we are just waiting for the rest of you to figure it out as well. Eventually you will be forced too, not a matter of if, only when.
> This sort of madness is driven by the same fools at places like Google and Mozilla who think pushing a new update every six weeks is a good idea.
Well at least one of the Mozilla developers is slowly coming to their senses and seeing how this 6-week inflated version number is more harmful then helpful.
I have yet to find another browser that takes a users Privacy and honestly treats them right as Firefox historically has. I am more concerned that the rapid release update/upgrade cycle will eventually result in some proprietary feature diminishing my ability to 100% control my privacy online.
This is my main concern with the divergent HTML 5 standards as well. When a new feature ONLY works with a minority of the available browsers, its a fail no matter the reason, even if because its a living standard. Sounds like a pathetic excuse NOT to be compatible...but its a living standard.
Chrome will never be an option as it only allows the user to control the main site cookie and does not allow individual control over each and every advertising, tracking and flash cookie. Firefox has always allowed this via the Exceptions-Cookies dialog. This does not exist in Chrome, most likely never will. Being faster is NOT enough.
IE/MS violated my trust years ago, more than once...they will never be a viable option either. Not going to put myself back there. Even when everyone was wasting time developing IE hacks, I learned a simple truth, if you develop your site with HTML that works in Netscape (back than) / Firefox (today) than other browsers will render it correctly, unless MS does not want them too. However the converse is rarely true. if you develop in IE first, you can guarantee that one or more HTML IE-ONLY statements will prevent proper rendering in other browsers. Thus wasting time on specific hacks is just that a time sink and best to be avoided.
I too am concerned when others are lied to (what the update/upgrade will do eventually) as many posters have commented about. Changing the UI in such away that the user can not preform their work flow (because options/buttons are missing after the update/upgrade) will always be wrong. It should never happen, but it does, doesn't it. Pathetic.
Great article, here and on that blog!
Ken;s comment in that article talked about spinning the reason for the update/upgrade to a positive. I don't want spin, I want honesty, I want reliability, I want to control 100% when my work flow is interrupted through an update/upgrade. No matter what that update/upgrade is intended to do. Anything less and my investment in hardware and software is negated and my machine becomes an expensive paper weight.
I see the same thing here...living standard...pathetic. Don't misinterpret, I want to see these new HTML 5 commands, especially the ones that will allow a smart Linux handheld to run a web app when NOT connected to the Internet (or the cloud). Those HTML 5 commands should work in all the major browsers without exception...Major browsers being FF, Opera, Chrome, Safari, IE at a minimum. There is one other, just does not come to mind at the moment.
I do read the security updates and 8 out of 10 times, the exploit being prevented requires 'local' access to my PC and I already know that is NOT going to happen, thus not worth interrupting my day to proceed. I will never give the keys to my home to another, thus no one will ever get 'local' access to my machine to attempt an exploit.
Eventually, via rapid release, the users wishes get ignored and an update/upgrade proceeds without the users permission. At that point the developers have irreversibly failed. At that point you taint the user's TRUST in your product. TRUST takes years to build, but
I am not surprised that activity is the same or has increased.
its absurd to assume / assert / suggest / claim that on every street of every block, of every neighborhood, of every community, of every city, of every county of every state, of every country there is even ONE much less more torrent users. That's crazy talk.
I doubt I have one neighbor who has used a torrent.
The idea of compressing data to save bandwidth seems like something providers would promote...unless they are trying to force you to use more bandwidth (by spreading FUD to deter torrent usage), exceed your caps and thus be able to charge you more money.
My bandwidth is throttled to less than BROADBAND speeds (768Kbps) both upstream and downstream, yet I do not use torrents...guess I will have to start using them. Why are Cable providers allowed to fraudulently say their service is broadband when they throttle bandwidth to less than 768Kbps, especially upstream, 24 X 7. The only time I see 768Kbps or greater upstream is during the Speed Test.
The DRM / DCMA pro industry wants us to believe that torrents are widely used. This is NOT true. They want us to believe that ONLY thieves use torrents, which based on comments (not that I need them) to this post we KNOW NOT TO BE TRUE.
Those of us in the real world will continue buying Apple products.
Which is the only reason companies, entities, people can pull this crap with anyone. The only rational solution is to choose not to play. Take your business elsewhere. If everyone did this, the BS would stop tomorrow.
I have suggested it before, will again, when any company does BS like this, start a 3 year "no purchase anything" from them clock. If they do any additional 'badness' (of which you are the sole determiner of what is bad for your) increase that clock to a 7 year clock, "no purchase anything".
For each additional incident that is anti-freedom, anti-society, anti-family, anti-capitalism, against your life code (what is important to you) restart your 7 year clock.
If a company knew a significant number of potential buyers would stop purchasing their products for seven years because of their bad behavior, their bad behavior would stop. They might actually consider the long term ramifications of their actions.
Best of all, you are no longer basing decisions on what anyone says, avoiding lies. You are basing your purchase decisions based on their actions, the only things that matter.
The same thing can be done with politicians, how did they vote on legislation that matters to you...forget what they say as we all know the majority of them lie...base your decision (in this case your vote) on their ACTIONS ONLY.
This is 100% capitalism as the bad players go out of business and go away, newer, smaller, more responsive (to you) businesses will emerge to fill the gap, thus economic activity is increased. All you have to do is care about yourself and others benefit indirectly
First, there was Google's decision to stop new uploads. Second, there was Google's decision to delete all videos in one fell swoop, which was reversed. Third, there is Google's decision to copy all videos to YouTube as private videos and then delete them. They will be private on YouTube even if they were public on Google Video. AT might take issue with the fact that they'll be taken private, and a lot of uploaders aren't going to be around to make them public again.
This sounds familiar with what they are doing to Youtubers. If you create content and point to a URL and they delete, move the content that URL points to, you are left with what?
Add to that the public / private issue and whats the point.
To add insult to injury, should someone wishing to censor information you have pointed to in links from your blog, content, website, etc... all they have to do is put in a DRM / DCMA take down request and those supporting links to your content are useless. Do you cache a copy? If not, what are you left with?
Feels wrong in many ways... another chip of TRUST gone.
Agreed; it seems odd to me that they'd kill something that (at least to my eyes) doesn't look like it requires any maintenanace, and is really quite a good tool. Maybe they have something up their sleeves, but I'd have appreciated if they did that they'd release it before killing something like this...
They DO have something up their sleeves, and it's called Chrome. They want everybody using Chrome, that's the point.
And exactly what does Chrome have to do with replacing iGoogle? Chrome is a browser. iGoogle is a customized homepage. I use Chrome [love it]....
I stay with Firefox simply because it allows me to control not just the website main cookie (all chrome allows) but every single one of the ad and tracking cookies. I can also control Flash cookies completely by using Linux and redirecting the crap to/tmp which is deleted between reboots.
Perhaps your inability to granularly control Chrome is the point. They can pretty much do what they want, track what they want, put stuff on your device without your being aware and without your consent.
I strongly believe Google is less evil than most other companies, but they are not perfect. And no telling what will happen should the owners sell the company one day.
If you do not control your device, you are one event away from an expensive paper weight. Of course your work flow will be interrupted at the worst possible time.
This is a really bad trend. Windows 8 wants you to use a Microsoft account to log into your local desktop. Cisco has pushed down updates that require Linksys router owners to use a Cisco cloud account....
I had not heard that about Windows 8, I hope you are mistaken as if that is true, I will NOT even own a copy for testing anymore.
Had not heard that about Cisco / Linksys either. Not good.
Can not understand what anyone would not use DD-WRT, OpenWRT or Tomato firmware on a supported device (firewall/router) for a variety of reasons, a 24 X 7 bandwidth monitor and 100% control over the most critical device required for surfing the Internet, my firewall/router. Nice those firmwares turn a hardware device costing from $15 = $200 into a professional device with features only found in devices costing closer to $3,000.00.
I no longer purchase hardware that I can not control locally 100%. Avoiding proprietary badness helps me stay sane.
i'm really scared that google will kill it too i sometime
They are doing a pretty good job of training millions of people not to get too attached to anything they make, because it will likely disappear someday with no justification (along with your data).
Actually there is something else starting to happen that is going to negatively impact google over the long haul. Every time they change a service removing features users feel are critical to their usage (Youtube is an excellent example also) they chip off a bit of Trust that user has in Google over all.
Because of Youtube decision with their new interface (and not listening to their users) I started setting up alternatives to anything in Google that I use, the first thing I did was set up an alternative email account. (I rarely use my Yahoo account any more being rather pissed off at them for wrongly limiting my ability to export my information...at least Google does not do this. MSN is not an option for this reason among many other proprietary reasons that result in unplanned outages at the most inconvenient times)
I did not adopt Google+ for this reason in addition to them preventing me from checking it out when it first came out...I had time to try it when it first came out but could not get an invite, by the time I got an invite, it was not convenient for me to spend time there and I have never felt a desire to try it since.
I do not depend on anything Google because I now expect them to take it away at a whim without enough advanced notice and without options, thus why get started with it in the first place.
I know I am not the only one. In almost all examples they could provide options, but choose not to.
After you have been hit a few times, it honestly no longer matters their (Google's) reason why they take it away and/or switch to something else...you start to think twice whether to adopt the new software in the first place...why spend allot of time configuring and working with it only to have it taken away without options, without recourse. Once TRUST is diminished, adoption of new technologies is less likely; once TRUST is lost, its pretty much game over as you will find alternatives for everything...and trust me, alternatives exist for pretty much everything.
With tools like HTML5, PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, scripting languages, Linux, you can create anything and it will run standalone (when not connected to the Internet) on your embedded device, netbook, laptop, desktop and home server. A web presence can be obtained for as little as $4 and as much as $10 per month that you also control 100%. Most people spend more than that for lunches in a week.
Why risk having it taken away from you to begin with.... considering time is money, it would be cheaper to roll your own and control your tool set completely.
current trend is to stand alone apps because there is no point in doing anything else on phones and tablets.
Interesting comment. Definitely not what you are hearing from those pushing cloud solutions for everything.
Since I never intended to move away from stand alone apps, only using online anything when it added something for me, your comment rings true with what I have expected and still expect regardless of the hype.
Makes me think of suits and ties...if a gentleman sticks with medium sized lapels and medium width ties, others (larger or smaller) will come in and out of style, however the medium level ones will never be OUT of style. Thus a more effective investment for anyone without an unlimited source of funds.
I envision purchasing a new Linux embedded device this year that will not be limited in any way for a device of its footprint. With the promise of HTML5 I should be able to find / develop apps that will run whether I am connected to the Internet or not. With WIFI I will have phone access in 80% or more of the places I am. The obvious exception being while traveling, but even in that example I can use the device stand alone and sync back up when the next connection opportunity presents itself.
All without an additional monthly fee beyond my Internet access!
I expect it will have as much power (all areas except perhaps hard disk drive) as my desktop eventually.
It will be fully open and rootable or I will not purchase. It will have as as much power as all past netbooks and most laptops.
The hardware, being open, will always be able to run multiple LInux distros, fully configurable and fully installable. Which means any new device that I switch to after it will run all the applications the last device ran.
Privacy has been and will continue to be the killer app online, cloud, fog or whatever. I too will control my data by keeping it local and being careful about what few services I will use that are NOT local.
I have a Windows 7 box for testing, but am NOT looking forward to upgrading to Windows 8. I probably will run a copy for testing, but I am very thankful my dev tools are Linux and under my control.
A service will come with privacy in mind, once it does...even if adoption is retarded by proprietary FUD and roadblocks, it will never have a problem staying in the black...staying profitable and for the reason you mention TRUST!
Allow any telecommunications company to put cables on the pole and we'll have a similar situation to what we have with cellphones. Cellphones are also very regulated but they're less regulated then cable and telephones.
They should be tarred and feathered if they do anything less than Fiber To The Home. Normally its the oligopoly paying millions to create legislation to prevent competition. I would rather see them spending $1.2 Million (and more) per week putting in Fiber than lobbying politicians to prevent competition.
Since they will not behave and provide decent bandwidth, the ONLY solution is government intervention as in Japan. Had this happened in America in 1996 rather than the telecommunication regulation the oligopoly got passed, there would be very few communities in America without Fiber To The Home today.
With the money they have wasted they could have laid Fiber To The Home, three, four or five times. What they have done, does not protect their shareholders, pierce their corporate veil and take away their monopolies....history shows us there is no other effective option.
What is their excuse for FRAUDULENTLY declaring their service to be BROADBAND when they restrict bandwidth both upstream / downstream to less than 768Kbps?
In EVERY case the less than 30 communities that have FTTH, the oligopoly has attempted (and failed) to use laws and the courts to prevent competition.
They get away with this because of REGULATION and legislation they helped create. Japan has shown that ONLY deregulation and forcing them to provide will work. It is ironic that after deregulation, these players will be in the dominant position simply because they have the license to control that fiber infrastruture.
Smart communities will control the infrastructure for their citizens and let the oligopoly offer services only from the community owned telco exchange out. This is what most of, if not all of the FTTH communities are doing and it is working very well for their citizens.
Of course not. If you don't like Verizon (or any other companies) Terms of Service, then find a new provider. It is as simple as that.
A straw man argument simply because with the exception of these less than 30 communities, there are not other providers to move to in most communities.
Comparing them to any other non FTTH competition is not meaningful. It was not meaningful as of the year 2000, even more condemning as of 2012. Without government intervention, we will have the same problems 20 years from now. Why stifle innovation, prevent job growth, decrease economic activity by denying bandwidth when it simply is NOT necessary with a true FTTH network.
They do not have to do this, but they do anyway.
They are easy to criticize as there is no excuse to limit the upstream bandwidth. Only 5Mb on a 50Mb/5Mb plan. Yes its better than Cable. However there is NO technical reason for it not being 50Mb/50Mb and offering lower priced (under $50 per month) plans of 5Mb/5Mb, 10Mb/10Mb, 15Mb/15Mb, 20Mb/20Mb....plans where the effective cap is the plan. No one is going to max out all their plans. In fact I seriously doubt if 1% of Americans could max out a 5Mb/5Mb plan, much less a 50Mb/50Mb plan.
If you use Verizon FIOS and either OpenWRT, DD-WRT or Tomato firmware on your firewall router, do they throttle/limit your service? My guess is they do....but I would like proof one way or the other. Just don't use the lying Speed Test to determine this, try downloading a couple of large files and do a quick screen capture of the bandwidth log and that will be telling. As well as make over 90% of Americans very jealous of your excellent service.
..Free "speech" is a term which includes the right to donate...
FREE Speech as defined and intended by our founding fathers and given to us by birth as Americans has absolutely nothing to do with MONEY! This argument is a legal contrivance to allow corporations to control politicians, courts, etc...
I sense that you too are against the SCOTUS decision that is the basis for Verizon's claims, I just do not agree with your arguments regardless of what the courts wrongly state. The first thing we must do is take back the vote locally, make it honest and accountable (not restrict voting through thinly disguised poll-tax like legislation). Make and keep it (vote) honest and prevent any entities ability to manipulate or change it. Next take back the House of Representatives, than the Senate and start passing legislation to overturn/remove these obviously unconstitutional decisions. It does not take a lawyer to realize that past unconstitutional decisions have allowed future unconstitutional decisions. All can and should be over turned. Last count I saw said there were over 58 such unconstitutional decisions by the courts alone.
Why should any law resulting from a violation of their oath of office be allowed to stand. These decisions are violations of the oath of offices of not only judges, but politicians as well and should be an effective means of removing them from office....even SCOTUS. Once removed and replaced with honest Americans, these unconstitutional laws can be overturned / removed.
We must remember that those that did this to the rest of us have maintained their focus for well over 100 years, passing their mindset from family member to family member over multiple generations. They are in it for the power and the control. The fact that they can get us to vote against our own best interest, redistribute a nations (our) wealth (the commons) and push a country into Austerity (which they already know based on history will NOT work) is telling. They are certifiably insane based on their actions. Actions that are only allowed because WE THE PEOPLE do not assert our birth-rights and stop them.
...who are legally obliged to work in the interests of their shareholders..
yet do not. Nor are they punished by law when they break their charter as corporations. Whatever was intended, for corporations has been ba$tardized beyond belief.
No one is ever effectively punished when their business pollutes and kills others. Fines and money do NOT CUT IT! Jail time, the corporate veil getting pierced and the company prevented from doing business in your county, state, nation is the ONLY solution to stop this crap.
In fact they (Exxon) use the courts to prevent paying out (judgements from the courts) and making restitution to the communities and families they have devastated, via their corporate actions. We don't have to wait to see what will happen because of BP/Gulf as the Exxon Valdez spill shows us. Exxon has still NOT PAID out to the all the victims. Why exactly has their corporate veil not been pierced and their ability to do business severly curtailed. Capitalism clearly states that this should be the result so that better, smaller businesses can fill the void.
They like to socialize the risk and privatize the profit don't they...not capitalist defined.
I do agree with you that they are a danger to themselves and all living entities around them. Fracking, Nuclear Power, Oil, Gas, Coal Mining, so many excellent examples so little time.
People who do not recognize their own EGO, are sociopathic thus any entity created by them should be assumed to be faulty by default. The power hungry are ruled by their EGOs.
It appears that we are interested in the same ends, however I do think that using arguments based on over-reach from the bench is the best method to do so. Feels like straw man arguments to me. Why attempt to figh
Slashdot Mirror
Wayland is Linux only, isn't it? What about all those other places that run X.org?
Only certain versions of Linux, Wayland breaks other distros (versions) of Linux unfortunately, thus its only a very limited solution at best.
I'm required, although it's not checked, to tweet and retweet stuff at least 10 minutes everyday related to the company while at work and I'm a logic designer. It's funny seeing the marketing speak come out.
Surprised that they think this type of twitter marketing actually works. Most people unfollow accounts that do this.
Right on the point of the matter. The FUD, backstabbing, lack of crdibility, etc... Yes you can save an S-load of money by switching from Windows to Linux.
When attending SCALE SCALE12x in Los Angeles iover the years, I have talked to multiple Systems Admins that have successfully scaled Linux well above 10,000 desktops with no problem that could not be worked around and overcome. I did not have to go to SCALE to learn that Linux would scale, but it was nice to hear all the same.
While larger companies (and government agencies) can save millions even small companies can save significant dollars. In one of the many positive posts about this that have been rated down to zero or negative 1, one poster stated their small company/site (56 employee office) will realize over $22,000 per year in savings. My guess is they would save even more if they looked at everything and not just licensing. So many other factors figure in to the total cost of ownership for the company.
I just finished a year long contract at a worldwide company where we were supporting multiple Java Apps + Linux in the Cloud. One of the individuals that was responsible for updating 2,000 ~ 4,000 of their windows PCs (that was at only one site in one city in one state, there were 14 sites in that state, no I will not tell you the company's name, so don't ask as I have no wish to embarrass them) lost his job as the company said it was no longer cost effective to update all the Windows PCs at the site. (I started in the DP / IT field in 1979 and when the auto update crap started, many of us said that this would eventually happen.) If this has happened at other companies, I would not be surprised.
And as other posters have pointed out, it is much easier to secure Linux than Windows. Those that do not believe it, have not done it.
My biggest pet peeve with Windows 8 is the proprietary chips provided by the manufacturers, on Microsoft's instructions, that force one to obtain a valid MS Windows License even to install Linux on that proprietary hardware. I like donating old hardware to the various school programs when I am through with them. They almost always need to install Linux and are not interested in extra expense of a Windows license just to install Linux. Of course we can avoid these proprietary chipsets by only buying hardware from Linux vendors like ZaReason, System76 or others. As a copy of Windows can be purchased for those wanting to run Windows and when that version of Windows is no longer supported, that hardware can be re-purposed utilizing one of the many distros of Linux, instead of being thrown in the city dump. Just seems smart to me.
I am sure there are multiple websites / blog posts documenting many positive results from switching from Microsoft Windows to Linux. Please share them if you read this as I am most certainly interested in seeing them. I am sure Munich is not the only proof out there!
Note / Full Disclosure: I have a Windows 7 box for testing purposes and used a MacBook Pro in my last position, its a great laptop, that I did not want to like, but did, however my preference will always be Linux. Since I do not utilize touch on my desktop, servers, laptops or netbooks, I have moved away from Ubuntu's unity toward other distros of Linux, primarily Debian or CentOS, however have an interest in Arch and a few other low memory footprint Linux distros. I understand how Nokia blew it by moving away from the N800 and N900 Linux handhelds. Nor am I frightened by Android.
I started with DOS 2.0 before Windows was an app and my bias against windows is well earned, based solely on first hand experience. With over 30 years of various problems caused by that operating system and that company. While I almost got fired because of the General
My thoughts exactly, DD-WRT, OpenWRT, or Tomato firmware running on a supported firewall/router and most issues are non-issues. Great post.
The war is winding down and Lockheed isn't getting as much of the defense pie as they were expecting. The whole drone thing isn't something they were ready to exploit.
Lots of defense contractors are laying people off. So many of them reported this to the government in fact, that hte government asked them to delay the firings because it would show up in the unemployment stats.
I can only cynically assume that the contractors assumed that now would be an okay time to terminate excess labor.
They've been talking about doing this for over a year.
Right on the money. With the public's interest in war after too many years, this should not be a surprise to anyone.
Why does a 'regular American' need a year to 'prepare for the change' of actually getting health insurance? How does it benefit a 'regular American' to go without health insurance for another year? If going without health insurance for a year is (somehow) a good thing, why is it a problem that so many 'regular Americans' can't afford health care because they can't afford health insurance?
No they don't need to wait another day and it only benefits those desiring depressed wages to wait a second longer.
Right on the money, not surprised you got rated a 0, such is the way of those that don't like hearing the truth.
If they were serious about giving American s health care, both parties, they would give Americans the same coverage as Congress, doubt that will ever happen.
Republicans got allot, just to sit down a the table that enacted the Sequester cuts, and now they they were too stupid to fund and pay the bills they have already spent (not future spending) money on, what cry babies. Many said President Obama was playing chess while the Republicans were playing checkers...and has turned out to be true. The law was enacted, now they want to delay it for yet another year, heck no, Americans need Insurance yesterday, not a year from now. ( 1 - You don't hear the Reps being willing to give back all that they gained in the past, so why should the President delay his legislation. 2 ~ They did not have a plan, remember the blank sheet of paper debacle, for many months and what they put together was BS. 3 ~ The plan they put together basically let the industry continue business as usual, death panels, deciding who gets what and how, denying coverage, etc... )
Can't trust Democrats either, stupid Harry Reid could have removed the BS 60% must approve in order to take a vote rule, returning it to a simple 51% majority as designed by the Constitution, but he did not, he got suckered and now the Tea Party and ultra conservatives can force all the Republican to toe the line else get primaryed (sic)
Lets look at costs, KISS, was looking at rolling over full time with a company for the benefits and now am not so sure. I need to see the health care costs. The last time I had insurance, the family only had to pay out $2,000 before it kicked in. Co pays were never more than $20, start out as $10 and went to $20 from there. This new company is huge and honestly a great American company, however their health care does not kick in until you are out of pocket 100% up to either $4,000 or $6,000, then kicks in at a graduated scale up to either $8,000 or $10,000 before it pays 100%. And that would be $8,000 or $10,000 every year before it pays out. So unless you have something catastrophic, its useless.
Having worked 3 minimum wage jobs while attempting to get a software company off the ground, and was unsuccessful, I understand how difficult it is for the average American to save $8,000 ~ $10,000 per year. I totally stoked that there is some form of single payer available that I can go for. I definitely plan to check it out and as long as its cheaper then $4,000 per year, its better than most company insurance policies, period.
And many Americans have already found out that its CHEAPER than anything in years. No surprise there either.
Had the Republicans prevented it, they can not now, rates would have continued to sky rocket.
Democrats wake up and change the house 60% to take a vote rule, back to the simple 51% majority as described in the Constitution. Get rid of Harry Reid, he is a traitor to have kept that rule in affect. Convinced that it would help them if they ever became the minority again, controlled via FEAR.
To everyone WAKE UP, earnings on stocks are taxed 10 - 15% google, find out about and learn from James L. Cramer and learn how to make more money from the Stock Market than you will ever make at a job.
Only Private companies like In n Out are smart, paying a High School 1rst time employee $1
...there's simply no way somebody could sneak-up and do surgery on those units without being observed by the staff..
On the news yesterday, they decided to spin it that someone nearby was intercepting signals through the air from the readers...total BS #2, first the pin pads were magically replaced in 60 different geographically distributed locations. Second, they want us to believe that there are crackers (people) intercepting signals through the air at each of those locations. What will they say next... Someone did not think their spin through, did they...
Not only outrageous to any thinking person, as you said, such activity would be observed by staff and or the many security cameras in these stores....guess they think we Americans are not very bright. Wrong again.
I can tell you with some amount of certainty that the PoS systems are running a version of Windows. I can also tell you after RTFA the PoS system was not the problem as the solution has been to swipe the cc directly on the PoS system, this tells me the problem was specific to the pinpad itself, which is probably running a proprietary or even linux/unix based micro-OS.. *ducks*
posted by an AC, what else is new...please stop spinning. It could NOT be just the Pin pads, especially in 60 geographically separate stores.
This comment from GrandWaz00 proves its not just that as well:
"I find it interesting to note that they (claim to) have removed hacked pin pads from stores by close of business on 9/14. However, I bought a book from my local store last Saturday, 10/20. I recall that no pinpad was available, and I had to hand my card to the cashier.
A few days later, I got a call from my credit card company saying that fraud using my credit card number had been attempted, intercepted, and denied, and that they were mailing me a new set of cards. The fraudulent transaction was apparently attempted in Brazil."
and idea who the vendor was of the PoS devices?
While this would be interesting to know, (per Snowman, VeriFone, Ingenico, Hypercomm are three possibilities) it sounds like most of the pin pad industry, if not all, does not bother hashing the pin number of a user's card at the PoS Pin Device. If the hash was secure enough and combined with a store ID + device ID + IP/network location, it would be much harder (if not impossible) for anyone else to spoof a transaction from some other geographical location, (ie. Brazil). Add to that, that the transaction should ONLY come from a secured (separate) backend financial or banking system (only authorized entities would have access to this network and any store not securing their end would risk losing access) that would also have a unique label/ID...not sure how some cracker could continue to do this without a rootkit or other exploit in that company's IT environment. (How could a transaction from Brazil happen, guess the stores unique network identifiers are not used and/or checked...that's a fail.)
In fact based on this comment from GrandWaz00, it appears the pin pad is NOT the problem and that the cracker has other exploits yet to be revealed or not found by the company's IT System Administrators.
It can not be just the pin pads as the cracker/thieves compromised more than a few dozen pin pads, they could not have swapped out the pin pads as tlhingan suggested in his post in that many locations. That is unless they hooked up with one of the gangs that have a presence in many US cities...it simply would take too many individuals to pull this off in 60 or more stores in multiple geographic locations. In that last scenario too many people would know.
Meaning the real exploit (yet to be revealed / yet to be found) is further up the TCP/IP network + Operating Systems + Software Application food chain from the pin pad, not just that pin pad. Or the thieve is a frequent flier in order to reach 60 plus stores in cities around the USA. A few of the cities ("New York City, San Diego, Miami, and Chicago.") listed would be a long drive from each other.
Its common in our industry, in order to make a company's IT systems to see more secure than they really are, to blame something else, usually some innocent human (human error), at least they blamed a dumb device instead of a person.
Regardless stop calling these people hackers, they are crackers not hackers. Hackers do not do harm. Once someone crosses the line and steals information (or money) they are no longer a hacker, but a cracker. Hacking is an honorable way to learn about technology and with proprietary environments, often the only way for an honest Systems Administrator (White Hat) to discover exploits and plug them in order to protect whoever is paying their paycheck. Of course at most companies, this type of activity is rarely if ever allotted time to pursue...as already stated above.
You think companies would understand that its all about TRUST, once customers lose trust in the company, their systems, their people, their products, that company is close to going under and out of business. Of course talking the game and not walking the walk, is what gets companies into troubl
This said, the amount of memory on Pi cripples it, and it's good to see attempts to make devices without this flaw.
I was thinking that as well. I would like it expandable up to 16GB, thankfully running Linux means the memory in the device can be re-purposed for other things, in addition to everything running faster.
I would rather see the device focus toward debian instead of ubuntu. There are also a bunch of distros that run in tiny memory foot prints. My guess is all of them would work if Ubuntu will. Arch was a nice touch too.
I want to see at a minimum 512MB of RAM, even if the Linux distro will run in only 128Kb of RAM. Being able to put 1GB and up to 4GB of RAM would be nice as well. The more RAM the merrier...and faster the apps will run.
For the primary use cases of devices like these, gigabit Ethernet is simply a waste of money.
Could not disagree more. Based on the size, you could fit two of those in the size of an old Nokia N800, allowing for a decent size screen also. And if one of those two devices was simple an add on board with more memory, more ports, additional processors etc...so much the better.
When installing, I prefer Ethernet to Wifi.
Even if I do not use the Ethernet port all the time, I want to have it for the times I need it.
I would add no fewer than 3 USB ports to as many as 5. 2 USB ports are not enough when the USB hub will not connect for some weird reason.
I would also want 2 Micro SSD slots. One could be internal, say under the battery, harder to get to, but still exchangeable but one should be available without turning off the device or opening the case.
I too agree that Wifi is sadly considered to be fast and that is pathetic. I want to live in one of the less than 30 US communities that offer Fiber To The Home (FTTH)...when I move there, I would appreciate the device having a second ethernet port for out of band monitoring of that device. Basically a second network not connected to the same VLAN and/or firewall/router as the connection to the Internet. Overkill perhaps, but something I would like to have.
I want the device to be able to do more, than a just one use case or one task.
Screw HTML5. It's, what 12 years too late? Web enabled Applications are the future!
Yea everyone is saying that, love the Cloud monkier too. The future for me is never going to be an application and/or service that can ONLY be accessed via an active internet connection.
The future for many of us are applications, esp web applications, that work whether we are currently connected to the Internet or not. Let em sink up to add value when we are connected, but tying me to the net like a dog on a leash is just not going to work in my world, ever. That is DUMB.
The future means being smart. Smart means the device, whoever makes it, runs more applications on day one than the last release of that device. There are no acceptable exceptions to this rule. To do that it must be rootable.
To be smart, the device must be open, it must be rootable (allow admin access) so that the owner of the device can configure as they wish and install the software they wish on it.
I imagine purchasing only open rootable devices that will allow me to install and run, PHP, Python, Ruby, whatever I want and therefore have access to every application written in those environments the first day I purchase the device.
If a device will not allow me to install, configure, run and play the content I want/need, well it just is not smart and I will never purchase it.
If you change your answer to web enabled apps that will run standalone when not connected to the Internet/cloud, than we are in agreement...something tells me that is NOT what you were saying. Sigh.
That dog did not hunt when people started spinning it, many of us realized this from the beginning, we are just waiting for the rest of you to figure it out as well. Eventually you will be forced too, not a matter of if, only when.
> This sort of madness is driven by the same fools at places like Google and Mozilla who think pushing a new update every six weeks is a good idea.
Well at least one of the Mozilla developers is slowly coming to their senses and seeing how this 6-week inflated version number is more harmful then helpful.
http://evilbrainjono.net/blog?showcomments=true&permalink=1094
Great article and thanks for sharing the link.
I have yet to find another browser that takes a users Privacy and honestly treats them right as Firefox historically has. I am more concerned that the rapid release update/upgrade cycle will eventually result in some proprietary feature diminishing my ability to 100% control my privacy online.
This is my main concern with the divergent HTML 5 standards as well. When a new feature ONLY works with a minority of the available browsers, its a fail no matter the reason, even if because its a living standard. Sounds like a pathetic excuse NOT to be compatible. ..but its a living standard.
Chrome will never be an option as it only allows the user to control the main site cookie and does not allow individual control over each and every advertising, tracking and flash cookie. Firefox has always allowed this via the Exceptions-Cookies dialog. This does not exist in Chrome, most likely never will. Being faster is NOT enough.
IE/MS violated my trust years ago, more than once...they will never be a viable option either. Not going to put myself back there. Even when everyone was wasting time developing IE hacks, I learned a simple truth, if you develop your site with HTML that works in Netscape (back than) / Firefox (today) than other browsers will render it correctly, unless MS does not want them too. However the converse is rarely true. if you develop in IE first, you can guarantee that one or more HTML IE-ONLY statements will prevent proper rendering in other browsers. Thus wasting time on specific hacks is just that a time sink and best to be avoided.
I too am concerned when others are lied to (what the update/upgrade will do eventually) as many posters have commented about. Changing the UI in such away that the user can not preform their work flow (because options/buttons are missing after the update/upgrade) will always be wrong. It should never happen, but it does, doesn't it. Pathetic.
Great article, here and on that blog!
Ken;s comment in that article talked about spinning the reason for the update/upgrade to a positive. I don't want spin, I want honesty, I want reliability, I want to control 100% when my work flow is interrupted through an update/upgrade. No matter what that update/upgrade is intended to do. Anything less and my investment in hardware and software is negated and my machine becomes an expensive paper weight.
I see the same thing here...living standard...pathetic. Don't misinterpret, I want to see these new HTML 5 commands, especially the ones that will allow a smart Linux handheld to run a web app when NOT connected to the Internet (or the cloud). Those HTML 5 commands should work in all the major browsers without exception...Major browsers being FF, Opera, Chrome, Safari, IE at a minimum. There is one other, just does not come to mind at the moment.
I do read the security updates and 8 out of 10 times, the exploit being prevented requires 'local' access to my PC and I already know that is NOT going to happen, thus not worth interrupting my day to proceed. I will never give the keys to my home to another, thus no one will ever get 'local' access to my machine to attempt an exploit.
Eventually, via rapid release, the users wishes get ignored and an update/upgrade proceeds without the users permission. At that point the developers have irreversibly failed. At that point you taint the user's TRUST in your product. TRUST takes years to build, but
I am not surprised that activity is the same or has increased.
its absurd to assume / assert / suggest / claim that on every street of every block, of every neighborhood, of every community, of every city, of every county of every state, of every country there is even ONE much less more torrent users. That's crazy talk.
I doubt I have one neighbor who has used a torrent.
The idea of compressing data to save bandwidth seems like something providers would promote...unless they are trying to force you to use more bandwidth (by spreading FUD to deter torrent usage), exceed your caps and thus be able to charge you more money.
My bandwidth is throttled to less than BROADBAND speeds (768Kbps) both upstream and downstream, yet I do not use torrents...guess I will have to start using them. Why are Cable providers allowed to fraudulently say their service is broadband when they throttle bandwidth to less than 768Kbps, especially upstream, 24 X 7. The only time I see 768Kbps or greater upstream is during the Speed Test.
The DRM / DCMA pro industry wants us to believe that torrents are widely used. This is NOT true. They want us to believe that ONLY thieves use torrents, which based on comments (not that I need them) to this post we KNOW NOT TO BE TRUE.
So what is their game? Pathetic.
Those of us in the real world will continue buying Apple products.
Which is the only reason companies, entities, people can pull this crap with anyone. The only rational solution is to choose not to play. Take your business elsewhere. If everyone did this, the BS would stop tomorrow.
I have suggested it before, will again, when any company does BS like this, start a 3 year "no purchase anything" from them clock. If they do any additional 'badness' (of which you are the sole determiner of what is bad for your) increase that clock to a 7 year clock, "no purchase anything".
For each additional incident that is anti-freedom, anti-society, anti-family, anti-capitalism, against your life code (what is important to you) restart your 7 year clock.
If a company knew a significant number of potential buyers would stop purchasing their products for seven years because of their bad behavior, their bad behavior would stop. They might actually consider the long term ramifications of their actions.
Best of all, you are no longer basing decisions on what anyone says, avoiding lies. You are basing your purchase decisions based on their actions, the only things that matter.
The same thing can be done with politicians, how did they vote on legislation that matters to you...forget what they say as we all know the majority of them lie...base your decision (in this case your vote) on their ACTIONS ONLY.
This is 100% capitalism as the bad players go out of business and go away, newer, smaller, more responsive (to you) businesses will emerge to fill the gap, thus economic activity is increased. All you have to do is care about yourself and others benefit indirectly
First, there was Google's decision to stop new uploads. Second, there was Google's decision to delete all videos in one fell swoop, which was reversed. Third, there is Google's decision to copy all videos to YouTube as private videos and then delete them. They will be private on YouTube even if they were public on Google Video. AT might take issue with the fact that they'll be taken private, and a lot of uploaders aren't going to be around to make them public again.
This sounds familiar with what they are doing to Youtubers. If you create content and point to a URL and they delete, move the content that URL points to, you are left with what?
Add to that the public / private issue and whats the point.
To add insult to injury, should someone wishing to censor information you have pointed to in links from your blog, content, website, etc... all they have to do is put in a DRM / DCMA take down request and those supporting links to your content are useless. Do you cache a copy? If not, what are you left with?
Feels wrong in many ways... another chip of TRUST gone.
Agreed; it seems odd to me that they'd kill something that (at least to my eyes) doesn't look like it requires any maintenanace, and is really quite a good tool. Maybe they have something up their sleeves, but I'd have appreciated if they did that they'd release it before killing something like this...
They DO have something up their sleeves, and it's called Chrome. They want everybody using Chrome, that's the point.
And exactly what does Chrome have to do with replacing iGoogle? Chrome is a browser. iGoogle is a customized homepage. I use Chrome [love it]. ...
I stay with Firefox simply because it allows me to control not just the website main cookie (all chrome allows) but every single one of the ad and tracking cookies. I can also control Flash cookies completely by using Linux and redirecting the crap to /tmp which is deleted between reboots.
Perhaps your inability to granularly control Chrome is the point. They can pretty much do what they want, track what they want, put stuff on your device without your being aware and without your consent.
I strongly believe Google is less evil than most other companies, but they are not perfect. And no telling what will happen should the owners sell the company one day.
If you do not control your device, you are one event away from an expensive paper weight. Of course your work flow will be interrupted at the worst possible time.
This is a really bad trend. Windows 8 wants you to use a Microsoft account to log into your local desktop. Cisco has pushed down updates that require Linksys router owners to use a Cisco cloud account. ...
I had not heard that about Windows 8, I hope you are mistaken as if that is true, I will NOT even own a copy for testing anymore.
Had not heard that about Cisco / Linksys either. Not good.
Can not understand what anyone would not use DD-WRT, OpenWRT or Tomato firmware on a supported device (firewall/router) for a variety of reasons, a 24 X 7 bandwidth monitor and 100% control over the most critical device required for surfing the Internet, my firewall/router. Nice those firmwares turn a hardware device costing from $15 = $200 into a professional device with features only found in devices costing closer to $3,000.00.
I no longer purchase hardware that I can not control locally 100%. Avoiding proprietary badness helps me stay sane.
i'm really scared that google will kill it too i sometime
They are doing a pretty good job of training millions of people not to get too attached to anything they make, because it will likely disappear someday with no justification (along with your data).
Actually there is something else starting to happen that is going to negatively impact google over the long haul. Every time they change a service removing features users feel are critical to their usage (Youtube is an excellent example also) they chip off a bit of Trust that user has in Google over all.
Because of Youtube decision with their new interface (and not listening to their users) I started setting up alternatives to anything in Google that I use, the first thing I did was set up an alternative email account. (I rarely use my Yahoo account any more being rather pissed off at them for wrongly limiting my ability to export my information...at least Google does not do this. MSN is not an option for this reason among many other proprietary reasons that result in unplanned outages at the most inconvenient times)
I did not adopt Google+ for this reason in addition to them preventing me from checking it out when it first came out...I had time to try it when it first came out but could not get an invite, by the time I got an invite, it was not convenient for me to spend time there and I have never felt a desire to try it since.
I do not depend on anything Google because I now expect them to take it away at a whim without enough advanced notice and without options, thus why get started with it in the first place.
I know I am not the only one. In almost all examples they could provide options, but choose not to.
After you have been hit a few times, it honestly no longer matters their (Google's) reason why they take it away and/or switch to something else...you start to think twice whether to adopt the new software in the first place...why spend allot of time configuring and working with it only to have it taken away without options, without recourse. Once TRUST is diminished, adoption of new technologies is less likely; once TRUST is lost, its pretty much game over as you will find alternatives for everything...and trust me, alternatives exist for pretty much everything.
With tools like HTML5, PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, scripting languages, Linux, you can create anything and it will run standalone (when not connected to the Internet) on your embedded device, netbook, laptop, desktop and home server. A web presence can be obtained for as little as $4 and as much as $10 per month that you also control 100%. Most people spend more than that for lunches in a week.
Why risk having it taken away from you to begin with.... considering time is money, it would be cheaper to roll your own and control your tool set completely.
current trend is to stand alone apps because there is no point in doing anything else on phones and tablets.
Interesting comment. Definitely not what you are hearing from those pushing cloud solutions for everything.
Since I never intended to move away from stand alone apps, only using online anything when it added something for me, your comment rings true with what I have expected and still expect regardless of the hype.
Makes me think of suits and ties...if a gentleman sticks with medium sized lapels and medium width ties, others (larger or smaller) will come in and out of style, however the medium level ones will never be OUT of style. Thus a more effective investment for anyone without an unlimited source of funds.
I envision purchasing a new Linux embedded device this year that will not be limited in any way for a device of its footprint. With the promise of HTML5 I should be able to find / develop apps that will run whether I am connected to the Internet or not. With WIFI I will have phone access in 80% or more of the places I am. The obvious exception being while traveling, but even in that example I can use the device stand alone and sync back up when the next connection opportunity presents itself.
All without an additional monthly fee beyond my Internet access!
I expect it will have as much power (all areas except perhaps hard disk drive) as my desktop eventually.
It will be fully open and rootable or I will not purchase. It will have as as much power as all past netbooks and most laptops.
The hardware, being open, will always be able to run multiple LInux distros, fully configurable and fully installable. Which means any new device that I switch to after it will run all the applications the last device ran.
Sounds smart to me.
Great post
Privacy has been and will continue to be the killer app online, cloud, fog or whatever. I too will control my data by keeping it local and being careful about what few services I will use that are NOT local.
I have a Windows 7 box for testing, but am NOT looking forward to upgrading to Windows 8. I probably will run a copy for testing, but I am very thankful my dev tools are Linux and under my control.
A service will come with privacy in mind, once it does...even if adoption is retarded by proprietary FUD and roadblocks, it will never have a problem staying in the black...staying profitable and for the reason you mention TRUST!
Allow any telecommunications company to put cables on the pole and we'll have a similar situation to what we have with cellphones. Cellphones are also very regulated but they're less regulated then cable and telephones.
They should be tarred and feathered if they do anything less than Fiber To The Home. Normally its the oligopoly paying millions to create legislation to prevent competition. I would rather see them spending $1.2 Million (and more) per week putting in Fiber than lobbying politicians to prevent competition.
Since they will not behave and provide decent bandwidth, the ONLY solution is government intervention as in Japan. Had this happened in America in 1996 rather than the telecommunication regulation the oligopoly got passed, there would be very few communities in America without Fiber To The Home today.
With the money they have wasted they could have laid Fiber To The Home, three, four or five times. What they have done, does not protect their shareholders, pierce their corporate veil and take away their monopolies....history shows us there is no other effective option.
What is their excuse for FRAUDULENTLY declaring their service to be BROADBAND when they restrict bandwidth both upstream / downstream to less than 768Kbps?
In EVERY case the less than 30 communities that have FTTH, the oligopoly has attempted (and failed) to use laws and the courts to prevent competition.
They get away with this because of REGULATION and legislation they helped create. Japan has shown that ONLY deregulation and forcing them to provide will work. It is ironic that after deregulation, these players will be in the dominant position simply because they have the license to control that fiber infrastruture.
Smart communities will control the infrastructure for their citizens and let the oligopoly offer services only from the community owned telco exchange out. This is what most of, if not all of the FTTH communities are doing and it is working very well for their citizens.
Of course not. If you don't like Verizon (or any other companies) Terms of Service, then find a new provider. It is as simple as that.
A straw man argument simply because with the exception of these less than 30 communities, there are not other providers to move to in most communities.
But the network isn't one, especially compared to their competitors.
Based on the networks in these 30 communities, I would disagree with you.
Not all of Verizon FIOS Internet plans offer the same bandwidth upstream as downstream. And such bandwidth ONLY exists in 30 communities in the USA as of July 2012. Pathetic.
And they have worked with others in their industry to pass laws in 18 states to prevent competition, how un American and anti-capitalistic of them.
Comparing them to any other non FTTH competition is not meaningful. It was not meaningful as of the year 2000, even more condemning as of 2012. Without government intervention, we will have the same problems 20 years from now. Why stifle innovation, prevent job growth, decrease economic activity by denying bandwidth when it simply is NOT necessary with a true FTTH network.
They do not have to do this, but they do anyway.
They are easy to criticize as there is no excuse to limit the upstream bandwidth. Only 5Mb on a 50Mb/5Mb plan. Yes its better than Cable. However there is NO technical reason for it not being 50Mb/50Mb and offering lower priced (under $50 per month) plans of 5Mb/5Mb, 10Mb/10Mb, 15Mb/15Mb, 20Mb/20Mb....plans where the effective cap is the plan. No one is going to max out all their plans. In fact I seriously doubt if 1% of Americans could max out a 5Mb/5Mb plan, much less a 50Mb/50Mb plan.
If you use Verizon FIOS and either OpenWRT, DD-WRT or Tomato firmware on your firewall router, do they throttle/limit your service? My guess is they do....but I would like proof one way or the other. Just don't use the lying Speed Test to determine this, try downloading a couple of large files and do a quick screen capture of the bandwidth log and that will be telling. As well as make over 90% of Americans very jealous of your excellent service.
..Free "speech" is a term which includes the right to donate...
FREE Speech as defined and intended by our founding fathers and given to us by birth as Americans has absolutely nothing to do with MONEY! This argument is a legal contrivance to allow corporations to control politicians, courts, etc...
I sense that you too are against the SCOTUS decision that is the basis for Verizon's claims, I just do not agree with your arguments regardless of what the courts wrongly state. The first thing we must do is take back the vote locally, make it honest and accountable (not restrict voting through thinly disguised poll-tax like legislation). Make and keep it (vote) honest and prevent any entities ability to manipulate or change it. Next take back the House of Representatives, than the Senate and start passing legislation to overturn/remove these obviously unconstitutional decisions. It does not take a lawyer to realize that past unconstitutional decisions have allowed future unconstitutional decisions. All can and should be over turned. Last count I saw said there were over 58 such unconstitutional decisions by the courts alone.
Why should any law resulting from a violation of their oath of office be allowed to stand. These decisions are violations of the oath of offices of not only judges, but politicians as well and should be an effective means of removing them from office....even SCOTUS. Once removed and replaced with honest Americans, these unconstitutional laws can be overturned / removed.
We must remember that those that did this to the rest of us have maintained their focus for well over 100 years, passing their mindset from family member to family member over multiple generations. They are in it for the power and the control. The fact that they can get us to vote against our own best interest, redistribute a nations (our) wealth (the commons) and push a country into Austerity (which they already know based on history will NOT work) is telling. They are certifiably insane based on their actions. Actions that are only allowed because WE THE PEOPLE do not assert our birth-rights and stop them.
...who are legally obliged to work in the interests of their shareholders..
yet do not. Nor are they punished by law when they break their charter as corporations. Whatever was intended, for corporations has been ba$tardized beyond belief.
No one is ever effectively punished when their business pollutes and kills others. Fines and money do NOT CUT IT! Jail time, the corporate veil getting pierced and the company prevented from doing business in your county, state, nation is the ONLY solution to stop this crap.
In fact they (Exxon) use the courts to prevent paying out (judgements from the courts) and making restitution to the communities and families they have devastated, via their corporate actions. We don't have to wait to see what will happen because of BP/Gulf as the Exxon Valdez spill shows us. Exxon has still NOT PAID out to the all the victims. Why exactly has their corporate veil not been pierced and their ability to do business severly curtailed. Capitalism clearly states that this should be the result so that better, smaller businesses can fill the void.
They like to socialize the risk and privatize the profit don't they...not capitalist defined.
I do agree with you that they are a danger to themselves and all living entities around them. Fracking, Nuclear Power, Oil, Gas, Coal Mining, so many excellent examples so little time.
People who do not recognize their own EGO, are sociopathic thus any entity created by them should be assumed to be faulty by default. The power hungry are ruled by their EGOs.
It appears that we are interested in the same ends, however I do think that using arguments based on over-reach from the bench is the best method to do so. Feels like straw man arguments to me. Why attempt to figh