I'm sorry if it sounds harsh, but no one told you in the first place that all of the open source hard work would be used in the "right" way. If you help me build my house, I thank you for the help, but that does not mean you get to live in it. The same thing goes for Mozilla. Netscape/AOL thanks you for your help but that does not mean you get to decide how the end product is used. The only benefit you get is in knowing how the guts work and the right to say you helped to build it.
What did you think was going to happen?
BTW: On a side note, the rating of this post will say a lot about the maturity of the moderators.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
This is endemic to Microsoft. Take this quote for example:
"Thursday, people familiar with the case said the company was meticulously examining every computer file on the compromised network that was modified for any reason during the preceding three months."
And exactly how would one know which files had been changed within the last three months? If a system is compromised, one must assume that ALL files have been maliciously modified unless they have some sort of secure checksum app like Tripwire. Backup tapes should not be trusted either. Who knows if you were backing up altered data... --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Interesting that they are referring to a four rotor machine in the story but the picture at the top of the article is of a three rotor machine... --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
I find it amazing that Microsoft purports to care about code unity when they currently have no less than five OS's to port to. Why would a company like this pander to such a thing when they can just port to Mac and Linux? --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Ahhh, I see we have our first dumbass:-) It's called an analogy. The whole thing is a game ya moron. I was extending the metaphor. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Your problem is that you have a load coil on your line. Qwest will remove it for you, but you have to pay for them to do it. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Yes, old phone lines are better because they tend to be a bit thicker and more reliable. New lines are much thinner so they can pack more into a bundle. Thinner lines mean less chance of getting DSL.
Electrical current rides on the outside surface of an electrical wire. If the wire has small diameter, there is little room for it to move around on so there is a lot of resistance. Resistance creates heat, which degrades the wire and reduces bandwidth. There is a lot more to it, but that is the basic explanation. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Never had a problem with them. They've been nothing but helpful on the phone and they even got me hooked up when they told me they were out of capacity. I've only seen two outages and that was over a year ago when they were first rolling it out. Of course, you gotta move out West to get it tho':-) --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
It's hard to hear that people are shunning college because it was a great time in my life. I got laid a lot, made a lot of uberhacker-friends, and slept with a 10Mb data connection just above my head. My only real responsibilities were to learn and have fun. I even had a decent part time job at the help desk that kept enough money in my pocket to have a good time (ok, I did start to hate talking to idiots who didn't know their ass from a hard drive. I did get the occasional Linux question though).
Three years later I am making 6 figures, I get to wear what I want and my job is pretty cool. If I had the chance I'd go back to college in a heartbeat. The reason, as I have just recently realized, is that life doesn't have to be a work 'til you die kind of thing, and *gasp* money isn't everything. In fact, truth be told, I hate worrying about it. No matter how much you make, there's never enough. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Plain and simple, people from other countries are more than happy to work for about a third we do and IMHO they tend to work harder and more effectively as well. The line big business is sending Congress is obviously false. But on the other hand it is simple economics and I can't blame them. They want to be competitive so they have to run as lean as possible. Do I like it? That's a completely different story.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
The whole reason why a lot of the dot coms are failing is because they tried to be an extension of the existing system. It doesn't work that way. Would you use a car to drive up an escalator? No, that would be absurd. It's the same idea as trying to set up a department store strictly on the web. It just won't work. Companies who have adapted to the web and used it's strengths will survive. Take REI for example. They didn't move all their operations over to the web, that would be stupid. They leveraged the web to access a larger audience. ALA Click-And-Mortar.
Though all of human history, there have been three basic stages of economic life: hunting-and-gathering societies; agricultural societies; and industrial societies. Now, sparked by the rise of computing and the growth of the Net and the Web, something entirely new and different may be just over the horizon, something all of us are already a primitive part of, a fourth stage of social organization: information societies.
I take some issue with that because the first three phases of society were all about aquiring resources to live. Information in itself does not put food in the mouth. It can help pay for it, but it does not actually get it to your mouth. Factories still have to churn it out. Now if we start evoloving towards automating anything and everything, then I would agree that we are on the way to the "information age". Until then, I would say that we are still in the industrial age. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
I've set up a mailing list. Pierre and some of the other developers of the kernel/userspace apps for the CueCat are already on it. If you're interested:
mailto: majordomo@quantumlinux.com
body: subscribe barcode
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
I see a few other problems with this. What if you want to read your textbook in a place that is inhospitable to a computer IE a place with no power? Yes, the laptop has batteries, but does that mean I can only study for 2-3 hours until the batteries run out? Or worse, power receptacles will be at a premium now. Instead of sitting in a quiet cafe to study, you'll be fighting over the only two power receptacles.
What if your computer dies (I own an iMac, I can tell you from experience that Apple tech support is VERY expensive and isn't that good at all). You cannot tell me that a stressed out student isn't going to drop their powerbook at some point. Do they have to wait a week to get it repaired? Hopefully NYU and other colleges that participate in this will have emergency loaner machines.
What about if the disk is lost or stolen? I would assume that it would become more valuable to thieves once someone figures out how to decrypt them (and they will figure it out). Will replacement disks be offered?
I read a lot of my father's college textbooks. I learned a lot by doing that. I still refer to mine a great deal. Will someone's bright little kid be barred from looking at daddy's (or mommy's) textbooks because they didn't pay for a password? Ok so these are dental texts. I assume this will eventually leak over to things like digital design and programming books. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
After looking at all of those pictures, I've come to the conclusion that there's no way this guy could have any kids. I couldn't even get close to a tub of legos with my 2 year old running around. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Ahhhh, a clueful response to this. Seems that it isn't cut and dried at all. I had a argument about this at work with a guy who couldn't get the betamax standard through his head. His position was that if it is mostly used for bad, then it should be outlawed. I tried in vain to convince him that that wasn't how this country works. There's even an ammendment to that affect, "If it isn't specifically outlawed, then it is legal by default". Don't kill the medium, prosecute the perpetrators.
Unfortunately, for us, it's easier to kill the medium than it is to go after the law breakers. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
They're missing something here. I have ADD too and it has actually been a benefit to my life. The brain has a way of compensating for its limitations. In the ADD brain, the compensation is to be hyperactive. A byproduct of this is hypercreativity. I would much rather be hypercreative with a hyper-amount of energy than someone who plods along day after day doing the same thing. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it simply does not appeal to me. --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
We'll firewall it at your house
We'll firewall it at your mouse
We'll convince the phone execs to interject!
We'll convince the cable execs to interject!
We'll get you at your mouse
We'll get you at your house
We'll get you, you evil hax0rs! --
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
I think this is what they mean when they say that leaders begin to get out of touch after being in power too long. This guy is implying that his revenue stream is more important than my civil rights.
Message to Heckel: Dude, chill out! Hitler thought he could dick with civil rights for the better good too! Fight it in the courts where this belongs. You've got plenty of money, go after each and every Napster user if it suits you. After the first million or so I'm sure you'll get the attention of the rest of the community. To be quite honest, I'm with you on this one. I believe people should pay for songs that you sell. I have a lot of philosophical issues with how you get that content, but, as you should, I will be taking my case to the courts and in public forums rather than send in jackbooted soliders to restrict any movement on your part that I don't agree with.
In short: Stop being such a dick!
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
In the Seattle area there's a company called RE-PC. It's a fascinating warehouse like place that has bins and bins of old computer parts for sale that would give any hardcore geek's historical recall a run for his money. The place is run by a bunch of irritable and cranky guys who are tired of answering stupid questions. I go in there periodically and spend hours pouring over the bins trying to identify parts and picking up a few necessities for the reasonably up to date systems I have at home. In the back of this place is an amazing little computer museum. Stuff like an original field testing kit for the *OLD* IBM hard drives and vintage system parts from computers that existed before I was born. All of the old systems that we used to love as kids are there as well. You really have to go there and see it for yourself.
I always though that if they marketed it better (and housed it in a nicer looking building) it could be a draw unto itself. What it needs is an energetic person who can build it up and market it the way it should be done. Of course you would have to sell the owners on it, but if you have a good vision it wouldn't be that hard. I don't think it would be a HUGE draw right away, but it would break new ground. Perhaps it could even be the home of the AFIK first computing hall of fame. The possibilities are only limited by your energy and vision... --
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support
It sucks, but I can see where this could happen. Same thing happened with the space shuttle launches. In the beginning they were a big deal. Now, they are anecdotes on the 11pm news. I think the same thing is happening with security. We're seeing the YAMV (Yet Another Microsoft Vulnerability). It happens so often that it just isn't interesting anymore. Unfortunately, this is the type of story that really demands attention and it simply isn't getting it.
--
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support
I was wondering when this would happen. We're just seeing the beginning of Linux displacing proprietary OS's. As a consultant friend of mine predicted 5 years ago, the commercial Unicies simply won't be able to keep up with the innovation and "heart and mind" support of a world wide effort.
Note to Microsoft: We're stealing a page out of your playbook. The software doesn't have to be good to be successful, it just has to be popular. We're doing one better though, we're also making good software in a good way and we've got the support of the people you tried to ignore. The CIO's are the wrong people to be pandering to!
Monterey was a good idea and it'll be even better when folded into Linux. Soon I predict that all of the best parts of all the commercial Unicies will be folded into Linux... --
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support
Interesting that you make that comment about having kids being a de-motivator for a good hacker. I realize you were only speaking in general. Given that, I found that when I had a kid, it actually motivated me more than I could have previously imagined. It wasn't out of some altrustic loyalty to my kid. Rather it was, IMHO, the self-imposed discipline of having a kid that did it for me. Once I got into a consistent daily schedule I found myself accomplishing more and more in the OSS realm. Before that I would bounce from one project to another never really accomplishing much... --
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sorry if it sounds harsh, but no one told you in the first place that all of the open source hard work would be used in the "right" way. If you help me build my house, I thank you for the help, but that does not mean you get to live in it. The same thing goes for Mozilla. Netscape/AOL thanks you for your help but that does not mean you get to decide how the end product is used. The only benefit you get is in knowing how the guts work and the right to say you helped to build it.
What did you think was going to happen?
BTW: On a side note, the rating of this post will say a lot about the maturity of the moderators.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
More information on this can be found here.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
This is endemic to Microsoft. Take this quote for example:
"Thursday, people familiar with the case said the company was meticulously examining every computer file on the compromised network that was modified for any reason during the preceding three months."
And exactly how would one know which files had been changed within the last three months? If a system is compromised, one must assume that ALL files have been maliciously modified unless they have some sort of secure checksum app like Tripwire. Backup tapes should not be trusted either. Who knows if you were backing up altered data...
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
"Destroy their servers and fire them"
- Jeff Shapiro in response to being asked about what to do to employees who sneak Linux on to the network.
If you'd like to inform Jeff how enlightened he is, you can find him at:
Kingsport City Schools
Jeff Shapiro
Technology Director
1701 East Centre Street
Kingsport, TN 37664
(423) 378-2145
And his e-mail is:
jshapiro@kpt.k12.tn.us
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Interesting that they are referring to a four rotor machine in the story but the picture at the top of the article is of a three rotor machine...
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
I find it amazing that Microsoft purports to care about code unity when they currently have no less than five OS's to port to. Why would a company like this pander to such a thing when they can just port to Mac and Linux?
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Ahhh, I see we have our first dumbass :-) It's called an analogy. The whole thing is a game ya moron. I was extending the metaphor.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Your problem is that you have a load coil on your line. Qwest will remove it for you, but you have to pay for them to do it.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Yes, old phone lines are better because they tend to be a bit thicker and more reliable. New lines are much thinner so they can pack more into a bundle. Thinner lines mean less chance of getting DSL.
Electrical current rides on the outside surface of an electrical wire. If the wire has small diameter, there is little room for it to move around on so there is a lot of resistance. Resistance creates heat, which degrades the wire and reduces bandwidth. There is a lot more to it, but that is the basic explanation.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Never had a problem with them. They've been nothing but helpful on the phone and they even got me hooked up when they told me they were out of capacity. I've only seen two outages and that was over a year ago when they were first rolling it out. Of course, you gotta move out West to get it tho' :-)
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
It's hard to hear that people are shunning college because it was a great time in my life. I got laid a lot, made a lot of uberhacker-friends, and slept with a 10Mb data connection just above my head. My only real responsibilities were to learn and have fun. I even had a decent part time job at the help desk that kept enough money in my pocket to have a good time (ok, I did start to hate talking to idiots who didn't know their ass from a hard drive. I did get the occasional Linux question though).
Three years later I am making 6 figures, I get to wear what I want and my job is pretty cool. If I had the chance I'd go back to college in a heartbeat. The reason, as I have just recently realized, is that life doesn't have to be a work 'til you die kind of thing, and *gasp* money isn't everything. In fact, truth be told, I hate worrying about it. No matter how much you make, there's never enough.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Plain and simple, people from other countries are more than happy to work for about a third we do and IMHO they tend to work harder and more effectively as well. The line big business is sending Congress is obviously false. But on the other hand it is simple economics and I can't blame them. They want to be competitive so they have to run as lean as possible. Do I like it? That's a completely different story.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
The whole reason why a lot of the dot coms are failing is because they tried to be an extension of the existing system. It doesn't work that way. Would you use a car to drive up an escalator? No, that would be absurd. It's the same idea as trying to set up a department store strictly on the web. It just won't work. Companies who have adapted to the web and used it's strengths will survive. Take REI for example. They didn't move all their operations over to the web, that would be stupid. They leveraged the web to access a larger audience. ALA Click-And-Mortar.
Though all of human history, there have been three basic stages of economic life: hunting-and-gathering societies; agricultural societies; and industrial societies. Now, sparked by the rise of computing and the growth of the Net and the Web, something entirely new and different may be just over the horizon, something all of us are already a primitive part of, a fourth stage of social organization: information societies.
I take some issue with that because the first three phases of society were all about aquiring resources to live. Information in itself does not put food in the mouth. It can help pay for it, but it does not actually get it to your mouth. Factories still have to churn it out. Now if we start evoloving towards automating anything and everything, then I would agree that we are on the way to the "information age". Until then, I would say that we are still in the industrial age.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
I've set up a mailing list. Pierre and some of the other developers of the kernel/userspace apps for the CueCat are already on it. If you're interested:
mailto: majordomo@quantumlinux.com
body: subscribe barcode
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
I see a few other problems with this. What if you want to read your textbook in a place that is inhospitable to a computer IE a place with no power? Yes, the laptop has batteries, but does that mean I can only study for 2-3 hours until the batteries run out? Or worse, power receptacles will be at a premium now. Instead of sitting in a quiet cafe to study, you'll be fighting over the only two power receptacles.
What if your computer dies (I own an iMac, I can tell you from experience that Apple tech support is VERY expensive and isn't that good at all). You cannot tell me that a stressed out student isn't going to drop their powerbook at some point. Do they have to wait a week to get it repaired? Hopefully NYU and other colleges that participate in this will have emergency loaner machines.
What about if the disk is lost or stolen? I would assume that it would become more valuable to thieves once someone figures out how to decrypt them (and they will figure it out). Will replacement disks be offered?
I read a lot of my father's college textbooks. I learned a lot by doing that. I still refer to mine a great deal. Will someone's bright little kid be barred from looking at daddy's (or mommy's) textbooks because they didn't pay for a password? Ok so these are dental texts. I assume this will eventually leak over to things like digital design and programming books.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
After looking at all of those pictures, I've come to the conclusion that there's no way this guy could have any kids. I couldn't even get close to a tub of legos with my 2 year old running around.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
Ahhhh, a clueful response to this. Seems that it isn't cut and dried at all. I had a argument about this at work with a guy who couldn't get the betamax standard through his head. His position was that if it is mostly used for bad, then it should be outlawed. I tried in vain to convince him that that wasn't how this country works. There's even an ammendment to that affect, "If it isn't specifically outlawed, then it is legal by default". Don't kill the medium, prosecute the perpetrators.
Unfortunately, for us, it's easier to kill the medium than it is to go after the law breakers.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
They're missing something here. I have ADD too and it has actually been a benefit to my life. The brain has a way of compensating for its limitations. In the ADD brain, the compensation is to be hyperactive. A byproduct of this is hypercreativity. I would much rather be hypercreative with a hyper-amount of energy than someone who plods along day after day doing the same thing. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it simply does not appeal to me.
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
And here is the correct link to the article...
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
We'll firewall it at your house
We'll firewall it at your mouse
We'll convince the phone execs to interject!
We'll convince the cable execs to interject!
We'll get you at your mouse
We'll get you at your house
We'll get you, you evil hax0rs!
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
I think this is what they mean when they say that leaders begin to get out of touch after being in power too long. This guy is implying that his revenue stream is more important than my civil rights.
Message to Heckel: Dude, chill out! Hitler thought he could dick with civil rights for the better good too! Fight it in the courts where this belongs. You've got plenty of money, go after each and every Napster user if it suits you. After the first million or so I'm sure you'll get the attention of the rest of the community. To be quite honest, I'm with you on this one. I believe people should pay for songs that you sell. I have a lot of philosophical issues with how you get that content, but, as you should, I will be taking my case to the courts and in public forums rather than send in jackbooted soliders to restrict any movement on your part that I don't agree with.
In short: Stop being such a dick!
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
25: ten.knilrevlis@wkcuhc
In the Seattle area there's a company called RE-PC. It's a fascinating warehouse like place that has bins and bins of old computer parts for sale that would give any hardcore geek's historical recall a run for his money. The place is run by a bunch of irritable and cranky guys who are tired of answering stupid questions. I go in there periodically and spend hours pouring over the bins trying to identify parts and picking up a few necessities for the reasonably up to date systems I have at home. In the back of this place is an amazing little computer museum. Stuff like an original field testing kit for the *OLD* IBM hard drives and vintage system parts from computers that existed before I was born. All of the old systems that we used to love as kids are there as well. You really have to go there and see it for yourself.
I always though that if they marketed it better (and housed it in a nicer looking building) it could be a draw unto itself. What it needs is an energetic person who can build it up and market it the way it should be done. Of course you would have to sell the owners on it, but if you have a good vision it wouldn't be that hard. I don't think it would be a HUGE draw right away, but it would break new ground. Perhaps it could even be the home of the AFIK first computing hall of fame. The possibilities are only limited by your energy and vision...
--
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support
It sucks, but I can see where this could happen. Same thing happened with the space shuttle launches. In the beginning they were a big deal. Now, they are anecdotes on the 11pm news. I think the same thing is happening with security. We're seeing the YAMV (Yet Another Microsoft Vulnerability). It happens so often that it just isn't interesting anymore. Unfortunately, this is the type of story that really demands attention and it simply isn't getting it.
--
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support
I was wondering when this would happen. We're just seeing the beginning of Linux displacing proprietary OS's. As a consultant friend of mine predicted 5 years ago, the commercial Unicies simply won't be able to keep up with the innovation and "heart and mind" support of a world wide effort.
Note to Microsoft: We're stealing a page out of your playbook. The software doesn't have to be good to be successful, it just has to be popular. We're doing one better though, we're also making good software in a good way and we've got the support of the people you tried to ignore. The CIO's are the wrong people to be pandering to!
Monterey was a good idea and it'll be even better when folded into Linux. Soon I predict that all of the best parts of all the commercial Unicies will be folded into Linux...
--
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support
Interesting that you make that comment about having kids being a de-motivator for a good hacker. I realize you were only speaking in general. Given that, I found that when I had a kid, it actually motivated me more than I could have previously imagined. It wasn't out of some altrustic loyalty to my kid. Rather it was, IMHO, the self-imposed discipline of having a kid that did it for me. Once I got into a consistent daily schedule I found myself accomplishing more and more in the OSS realm. Before that I would bounce from one project to another never really accomplishing much...
--
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support