You attempted to hack their webserver. Anyone who attempts to hack them gets their connection cut off. Seems a relatively sensible policy in the terms and conditions to me.
"
1. Recompiling the kernel to get a sound card or network card working that didn't come w/the distro.
2. Getting 3D-accell video working so you can play quake 3.
3. Setting up internet sharing on anything but Linux Mandrake.
"
However, these moderately difficult tasks don't get easier on Windows either.
I spent 2 weeks tracking down instructions for installing my scanner under Windows 2000. The driver disk supplied with the scanner a: didn't work and b: fucked the registry so that the real drivers wouldn't install. Registry hacking to make it go. I still haven't managed to make the modem go from Win2k, admittedly I can't make my linux box auto failover from DSL to modem either but both platforms have a whole range of difficult tasks.
I can't get my linux laptop to print to a HP network connected printer easily like I can under Windows, I can't have my windows partition automatically reconfigure it's network from work / home / friends automatically like it does under linux. I don't have enough memory / disk space to install IIS / SQL-Server on my laptop but apache / mysql / postgresql are fine. I can't run applications on my home windows machine from work but I can use linux apps on the linux machine from everywhere. That said, sometimes it's a real bitch to get the CD out of my Linux machine.
As far as I can see. The easy tasks are just as simple on both, the middle tasks are easier on Windows, the hard tasks easier on Linux.
"
What's so different between R&D'ing software, and then patenting it to protect it, to be able to sell it, and R&D'ing a drug, so you can patent it, and sell it?
"
Chemical patents generally read something along the lines of
$company has discovered $big-chemical-structure which is known to inhibit $disease.
Software patents read something along the lines of
$company has discovered the idea of a cure for $disease
A chemical patent covers the only method & implementation. A software patent covers the idea behind. The method is already protected via copyright.
The other reason is medical reserach doesn't have a monopolistic tendancy in the same way that software does.
"
As long as there is competition, developing a cure is a likely.
"
But releasing it isn't.
If you are a pharmaceutical company in possession of a treatment for $disease and you discover a cure for $disease it's in your interests not to release the cure until your patent on the treatment expires or another company discovers a cure.
Cures are not profitable compared to treatments, cures can only be sold once, treatments many times.
Of course I've ordered more RAM, $120 for 64MB extra - I'll have to throw away 16MB to get a free slot of course so I'll only get up to 80MB.
I've also got to wait 3 weeks for delivery.
Some people use laptops where RAM isn't as cheap or as easy to obtain as you think.
Am I the only person who finds it daft that my machine runs a web and database server with ease but has trouble running the browser. Isn't this the wrong way round?
You should have an automated test suite with examples that check to see if they have been correctly calculated. Every time a bug is found you should add a check to your test suite for it.
[assuming you are concerned about changes to Python]
You state with your program that it has been verified to run with Python version foo.
You should warn that versions of Python other than foo may break your program and it should be fully tested before deployement.
You personally check against your test suite.
[assuming you are concerned about updates to your code breaking it]
1: don't incorporate patches unless you know they are safe for use.
2: verify patches against the test suite you built earlier before accepting.
You have no protection against someone forking your code and making a competing product with it, however, you also aren't liable if the competing product screws up since you don't sell / support / acknowledge it.
As a UKian with ADSL [whoohoo!] because I work for a small business ISP I'm well aware of the problems.
We can't match BT's Openworld service on price for home connections because only we'd break even before we've actually included any of our costs. It is cheaper for us to send customers who we want to have ADSL to Openworld - BT's reseller than it is to sell them the service ourselves.
The business connections make a profit [512k - 2Mbit with ethernet] but the home connection is pure loss. That's why we don't sell it, we only buy those connections for staff members.
Oh, we also get the same allocation of DSL lines as Freeserve. That's comedy since we only have 40 customers.
"
Indeed he did! Every time he made a purchase he signed a contract, parties to which include the merchant, the bank, and the purchaser. You agree to pay when you make the purchase. If the merchant doesn't get this agreement, it's his fault and he should take the loss.
"
When you sign the piece of paper to buy something you say
"
I $name authorize $bank to transfer $funds out of $account to pay for these goods.
"
"
The other option, of course, is all-pay channels, or pay-per-view on all shows. That's what you want, right?
"
That's exactly what I want.
When I buy a chocolate bar, I am paying money to their marketing departement to pay a TV company to produce programs. I'd rather have a cheaper chocolate bar and have to pay for the TV thanks.
"
Should a theatre that bought the rights to show "Planet of the Apes" be allowed to 'do anything they want' with it? Like re-edit it? Put ads for the local hardware store in it??
"
However, here the film company are specifying the make of cola that can be bought in the foyer.
"
First part agreed. Second part I would disagree with. I was just poiting out that IF you are in a crash on a mass transit vehicle, expect to die."
I don't understand how this follows, in the UK we've had a number of fatal nasty rail accidents recently. One near Paddington Station - 30 people killed and one near Hatfield - 4 people killed.
These were both high speed crashes (>100mph), the first caused by driving through a red light - the second by a broken rail.
In both cases there were in excess of 200 people on each train.
I don't understand how 30/200 and 4/200 translate to near certainty of death.
"
Apart from that, cars keep the driver safe from his own mistakes (that guy came out with a cut to his forehead, nothing more -- he didn't even have an airbag).
"
However, public transport does not have the same forces involved in crashes. When your car crashes at 70mph into a stationary object it stops in a distance of around 2 feet. Trains crumple the engine carriage first, the people at the front of the train stop over a distance of 10-20 feet and at the back may 50 feet as the carriages infront gradually deform.
"
Driving 200 km/h on the freeway and your car flips a couple of times? I've seen people walk out of cars after that. I'd like to say that about buses, but I can't.
"
How many buses have flipped on the freeway?
In a bus, your biggest risk is the vehicle will catch fire after the inital crash buring everyone inside.
Incidently in the Hatfield train crash I mentioned earlier, the front carriage caught fire buring the people to death. Several people managed to sramble out through the doors before it caught fire. It is very unlikely that anyone was killed by the impact as is usual with cars.
Anyway, I commute to work 30 miles across English countryside by train, I do so because it's 30 mins faster and £5/day cheaper than buying a car to drive me. Plus, I can read a book / program my laptop instead of conventrating on driving.
Driving is only cheap if you don't value your time.
"
Spoken like someone who has never had broadband access. If someone has never had a microwave oven, it's a hard sell. But once you have had one, the usage patterns become established, and you'll find it indispensible. Same thing with broadband access.
"
I've recently given my brother back his microwave and haven't replaced it. Still haven't starved in the past two months either.
Speaking to a policeman in the UK, his experience was that Jack Straw wants to build the infrastructure for a police state without any police officers in it.
[The UK has one of the lowest number of officers per head of population for the whole of europe.]
Slashdot Mirror
You attempted to hack their webserver. Anyone who attempts to hack them gets their connection cut off. Seems a relatively sensible policy in the terms and conditions to me.
The radio station is censoring it's DJ's.
It's DJ's have been told what they are and aren't allowed to play.
It has not censored the general public. Members of the public are still free to play and purchase those songs.
This is exactly the attitude that fosters hatred of the USA.
Running around telling the rest of the world what to do because you are so big and invulnerable doesn't work.
I was hoping the US might figure this out sometime soon but given Bush's recent pissed off bully style behaviour it appears not.
"
3) One company per country. The software will ask which country you are in, and register the key with the registrar for that country.
"
So the terrorists merely have to register their software to Iraq / Afghanistan then....
My order prefence went,
light, cheap, battery life, screen, speed
So I have a $300 second hand HP-Omnibook. Very light [3lbs], 2 hour battery, 800x600 screen and a P166 - fast enough for C & Web Development.
I'd buy one if I could afford it.
"
1. Recompiling the kernel to get a sound card or network card working that didn't come w/the distro.
2. Getting 3D-accell video working so you can play quake 3.
3. Setting up internet sharing on anything but Linux Mandrake.
"
However, these moderately difficult tasks don't get easier on Windows either.
I spent 2 weeks tracking down instructions for installing my scanner under Windows 2000. The driver disk supplied with the scanner a: didn't work and b: fucked the registry so that the real drivers wouldn't install. Registry hacking to make it go. I still haven't managed to make the modem go from Win2k, admittedly I can't make my linux box auto failover from DSL to modem either but both platforms have a whole range of difficult tasks.
I can't get my linux laptop to print to a HP network connected printer easily like I can under Windows, I can't have my windows partition automatically reconfigure it's network from work / home / friends automatically like it does under linux. I don't have enough memory / disk space to install IIS / SQL-Server on my laptop but apache / mysql / postgresql are fine. I can't run applications on my home windows machine from work but I can use linux apps on the linux machine from everywhere. That said, sometimes it's a real bitch to get the CD out of my Linux machine.
As far as I can see. The easy tasks are just as simple on both, the middle tasks are easier on Windows, the hard tasks easier on Linux.
"
What's so different between R&D'ing software, and then patenting it to protect it, to be able to sell it, and R&D'ing a drug, so you can patent it, and sell it?
"
Chemical patents generally read something along the lines of
$company has discovered $big-chemical-structure which is known to inhibit $disease.
Software patents read something along the lines of
$company has discovered the idea of a cure for $disease
A chemical patent covers the only method & implementation. A software patent covers the idea behind. The method is already protected via copyright.
The other reason is medical reserach doesn't have a monopolistic tendancy in the same way that software does.
"
As long as there is competition, developing a cure is a likely.
"
But releasing it isn't.
If you are a pharmaceutical company in possession of a treatment for $disease and you discover a cure for $disease it's in your interests not to release the cure until your patent on the treatment expires or another company discovers a cure.
Cures are not profitable compared to treatments, cures can only be sold once, treatments many times.
I am told by a friend of mine who works for selling drugs to doctors that appoximately 70% of the cost of the drug is marketing expenses.
Their marketing and legal team is substantially larger than R&D + production.
Providing you don't have site wide redirects on NT4.
And if you do, your webserver crashes every time a Code Red talks to it.
Not exactly a well tested patch was it?
Feel sorry for the modem user - put more images on your page.
I get the feeling that the targetted point has been missed by a wide margin.
That's what I'm running on at the moment.
Of course I've ordered more RAM, $120 for 64MB extra - I'll have to throw away 16MB to get a free slot of course so I'll only get up to 80MB.
I've also got to wait 3 weeks for delivery.
Some people use laptops where RAM isn't as cheap or as easy to obtain as you think.
Am I the only person who finds it daft that my machine runs a web and database server with ease but has trouble running the browser. Isn't this the wrong way round?
You should have an automated test suite with examples that check to see if they have been correctly calculated. Every time a bug is found you should add a check to your test suite for it.
[assuming you are concerned about changes to Python]
You state with your program that it has been verified to run with Python version foo.
You should warn that versions of Python other than foo may break your program and it should be fully tested before deployement.
You personally check against your test suite.
[assuming you are concerned about updates to your code breaking it]
1: don't incorporate patches unless you know they are safe for use.
2: verify patches against the test suite you built earlier before accepting.
You have no protection against someone forking your code and making a competing product with it, however, you also aren't liable if the competing product screws up since you don't sell / support / acknowledge it.
Lots of home users are running Win2K Advanced Server though.
Many of them have borrowed it from the office, thinking it must be a better version of Win2K.
That accounted for all of the hacks on our DSL service [a small service admittedly]. Maybe Code Red was merely a pirate Win2K detector?
As a UKian with ADSL [whoohoo!] because I work for a small business ISP I'm well aware of the problems.
We can't match BT's Openworld service on price for home connections because only we'd break even before we've actually included any of our costs. It is cheaper for us to send customers who we want to have ADSL to Openworld - BT's reseller than it is to sell them the service ourselves.
The business connections make a profit [512k - 2Mbit with ethernet] but the home connection is pure loss. That's why we don't sell it, we only buy those connections for staff members.
Oh, we also get the same allocation of DSL lines as Freeserve. That's comedy since we only have 40 customers.
How about we build a P2P protocol that disguises all the data as spam.
Either we can use P2P or SPAM becomes a contol control mechanism and sending it becomes illegal.
Win win surely?
"
Any good admin would have important data backed up prior to installing.
"
How do you back up the IIS settings on NT 4?
Answer - you can't.
"
Not a circumvention device, the primary purpose of WEP is not copy protection.
"
It's not to stop people outside your network copying data from inside your network then?
What is it used for then?
"
Indeed he did! Every time he made a purchase he signed a contract, parties to which include the merchant, the bank, and the purchaser. You agree to pay when you make the purchase. If the merchant doesn't get this agreement, it's his fault and he should take the loss.
"
When you sign the piece of paper to buy something you say
"
I $name authorize $bank to transfer $funds out of $account to pay for these goods.
"
what you haven't agreed is to pay the bank.
"
The other option, of course, is all-pay channels, or pay-per-view on all shows. That's what you want, right?
"
That's exactly what I want.
When I buy a chocolate bar, I am paying money to their marketing departement to pay a TV company to produce programs. I'd rather have a cheaper chocolate bar and have to pay for the TV thanks.
"
Should a theatre that bought the rights to show "Planet of the Apes" be allowed to 'do anything they want' with it? Like re-edit it? Put ads for the local hardware store in it??
"
However, here the film company are specifying the make of cola that can be bought in the foyer.
"
First part agreed. Second part I would disagree with. I was just poiting out that IF you are in a crash on a mass transit vehicle, expect to die."
I don't understand how this follows, in the UK we've had a number of fatal nasty rail accidents recently. One near Paddington Station - 30 people killed and one near Hatfield - 4 people killed.
These were both high speed crashes (>100mph), the first caused by driving through a red light - the second by a broken rail.
In both cases there were in excess of 200 people on each train.
I don't understand how 30/200 and 4/200 translate to near certainty of death.
"
Apart from that, cars keep the driver safe from his own mistakes (that guy came out with a cut to his forehead, nothing more -- he didn't even have an airbag).
"
However, public transport does not have the same forces involved in crashes. When your car crashes at 70mph into a stationary object it stops in a distance of around 2 feet. Trains crumple the engine carriage first, the people at the front of the train stop over a distance of 10-20 feet and at the back may 50 feet as the carriages infront gradually deform.
"
Driving 200 km/h on the freeway and your car flips a couple of times? I've seen people walk out of cars after that. I'd like to say that about buses, but I can't.
"
How many buses have flipped on the freeway?
In a bus, your biggest risk is the vehicle will catch fire after the inital crash buring everyone inside.
Incidently in the Hatfield train crash I mentioned earlier, the front carriage caught fire buring the people to death. Several people managed to sramble out through the doors before it caught fire. It is very unlikely that anyone was killed by the impact as is usual with cars.
Anyway, I commute to work 30 miles across English countryside by train, I do so because it's 30 mins faster and £5/day cheaper than buying a car to drive me. Plus, I can read a book / program my laptop instead of conventrating on driving.
Driving is only cheap if you don't value your time.
On a similar note, I made microsoft $99 profit by deleting a pirated copy of Windows 98 this morning....
"
Spoken like someone who has never had broadband access. If someone has never had a microwave oven, it's a hard sell. But once you have had one, the usage patterns become established, and you'll find it indispensible. Same thing with broadband access.
"
I've recently given my brother back his microwave and haven't replaced it. Still haven't starved in the past two months either.
Speaking to a policeman in the UK, his experience was that Jack Straw wants to build the infrastructure for a police state without any police officers in it.
[The UK has one of the lowest number of officers per head of population for the whole of europe.]