I just got a ReplayTV unit last week (and found out I was getting laid off for a month the day after - all the better to spend time watching TV with, I guess) and am quite happy with it. It may not be linux based like a TiVo, but they don't try and rope you in with the $99 "option" to make it integrate with the rest of the house. In the long run, I think the recent change in ReplayTV's pricing model will do some serious damage to TiVo simply due to the fact that I don't see any flaws in Replay's system other than not being #1 in the market.
There are even tools for the Replay like DVArchive (hosted on sourceforge) that let you stream shows from the ReplayTV onto your computer, and even download them. That, for me was the true selling point.
For months, my roommate and I had tried to put something together with MythTV but kept running into problem after problem after problem. We didn't get the right TV card the first time, and the one we got next didn't seem to perform all that smoothly. Finding an IR blaster someplace other than mail order was next to impossible, etc. We just kept having bad luck. Worst of all, when we did get MythTV working, the output quality on the TV screen after it was piped through the PC was just horrible and couldn't be decently boosted by us even on a P4 1.6.
However, I would still love for MythTV to be the centerpiece of our home system. In fact, I even have a rather interesting application in mind. If I can somehow manage to get back into any actual programming while I'm temporarily out of work, I'd like to see about integrating the ReplayTV to MythTV with something like a DVArchive plugin. (Though DVArchive source isn't available yet - the last version got badly b0rked in CVS apparently)
What makes my hopes and dreams for total integration truly intriguing is the fact I have a 14" touchscreen monitor for controlling the linux PC with. If we can only get a touchscreen interface that still displays all the actual media on the TV in a crisp, clear format, and integrates with the ReplayTV for scheduling, recording and playback... We'd have a work of art.
The thing with the XM PCR device is that there's never a digital stream of audio going through the USB port it uses for a connection to the computer. What the XM PCR does, is simply connect to the PC for control purposes then does output using a standard headphone jack. You wouldn't need to do anything special in the slightest to get the PCR to record songs on the PC, just copy the stream info tags (which are unfortunately limited to 16 characters, at least on my SkyFi unit) and start capturing a line-in.
However, the stream is a compressed one from orbit, so you might wind up with a not-so-pure recording when you encode it again for playback on a device.
I came into this thread expecting to see even more echoes of my own interaction with RM than I have, and was pleasantly surprised to see some positive developments as well. I wasn't exactly the most blameless person who ever had a fight with RM get to the seemingly common "Dick Morrell Barratry Special" stage, but I did wind up getting an apology from him.
I'm glad to see both IPCop and Smoothwall continuing to progress, and hope that some competition between the two projects can make the experience of a firewall system better for everyone who uses either package. I'd try and work on either now that I've graduated with a totally unused programming degree, but with a 10 hour work schedule I'm a bit out of the loop.
Glad to see things still moving along, and glad that Dick isn't dragging you all through any more mud. The notes from folks that I see RM still claiming copyright on Smoothwall are a little bit curious, but I'll take it on good faith that I'd never encounter him if I dealt with Smoothwall again. Maybe when it comes time to get my home LAN configured a little more flexibly, I'll give Smoothwall GPL a shot.
And a side note, one thing that would make any firewall project -highly- desirable for the more anal-retentive (and blinkenlighten fetishistic) users would be a status display screen. I've got a hacked iOpener box that would be incredibly well suited to firewall usage if the display were used to show network traffic details in realtime or semi-realtime.
The biggest problem this guy has with Open Source is that he seems to have been presented with a lot of pitch and little substance, in his job. When I worked at my college doing IT work, I attended the pitches by WebCT and Blackboard and saw some pretty solid seeming systems there. Open Source simply can't compete with those applications in a manner that school systems need. We may like to think of college as a place where faculty and staff are constantly innovating and striving to save a buck, but we also need to keep in mind that things often come down to one simple question: What is the easiest thing for us to maintain in the long term?
My college, for example, couldn't afford any option other than Microsoft based PC's. There was no budget for it, the faculty didn't have time to learn it, and even the computer course staff thought of Linux as a toy. (I went to a seriously shitty school) Open source advocates don't even need to target someone like the author of this article, because he isn't really the person or application open source is best suited to.
The strengths of open source are only there for those that have the power to enable themselves to take advantage of it. If he has a dedicated staff willing and able to take the next step and design what they need using open source tools, that's a wonderful thing and he should at least consider it. Being that he's at Princeton, he may indeed have that option. But most likely, that option isn't out there, and so open source solutions intended for that purpose need to be bulletproof, -simple- to use and complete. I don't see something like WebCT being implemented and supported under an open source license without a corporate entity set up to manage the project and provide documentation and support for a fee.
He spreads FUD, but only because he seems to have had people blowing smoke up his ass about how awesome open source is and how he absolutely has to use it to save money. Yes, there are costs to open source if you can't simply use the out-of-the-tarball product you download from Sourceforge. Yes, it is incorrectly targeted as "free" due to the unfortunate difference between beer and speech. But no, it is not inferior in any technical manner other than the fact that enterprise-adequate support for any given open source project only lasts as long as interest from the community that produces it. No more, no less.
With the release of iTunes and the iTMS on the PC, what is this all going to mean to Apple as a computer company? One of the side effects of releasing iTunes for Windows may very well be something Apple has been hoping to do for quite some time; demonstrate to PC owners just what the "Apple Experience" is actually all about these days.
Nobody bought an Apple machine because iTunes was the killer app, but most people that use it for managing archives of music are pretty steadfast about it being the best software for music management out there. Will people take this as a sign of Apple's quality of software development, and match that up with the quality of the iPod design for a pretty decent picture of Apple's design ethos? Could this be what Apple needs to jumpstart the market share?
Barratry, anyone? Extortion?
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Back To SCO
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Would the conduct SCO has been engaging in to this point be enough to qualify for a charge of barratry? They've moved to provide no legal basis, are refusing all good will efforts to negotiate, and have engaged in a form of corporate slander of the worst sort. I would think that with the intensely corporation-friendly legal system we have here in the US, that there must be some method by which IBM and other vendors such as SGI and Linux distributors could make some pretty substantial claims of interference or possibly even extortion. Hell, if I recieved a bill from SCO, I'd most likely contact the feds to look into charging SCO with extortion - they're sending a bill for something they can't prove they own, and threatening consequences if I don't pay.
That's one of the key features of iTunes music store, you don't necessarily have to buy -anything- that sucks. If you did, well... you had a chance to sample it.
When you've spent a few billion to put the two biggest commercial satellites ever built into orbit, you tend to get a bit protective of your profit stream. XM is a -great- thing to have, I've had a unit in my car for about the past year. They use something like a 192Kbps AAC stream from the satellite down, if I recall correctly. Very good quality, even on the Bose system in my car.
One way this could be really beneficial to people is to consider it an alternative and temporary source of income between job hunts. It doesn't take a -lot- of effort to put together a decent looking flyer, and a waiver form to limit or eliminate liability. A couple weeks ago I noticed such a flyer at a convenience store near where I work. Here are some things I noticed that were major signs to stay away.
1: 'Certified' was in italics on the lower left hand corner. All by itself. Alone. One word. Certified in WHAT? If you have applicable certifications, explain them genuinely. If you don't, describe your actual knowledge instead.
2: Let the prospective customer know you stand behind your work - but at the same time, don't put yourself in a bad position to be liable for anything. Say that your liabilty is limited to one free hour of additional service, should you determine that an oversight on the initial visit wasn't sufficient.
3: Offer what you know. This sign I saw in the store said they offered -computer detailing- service, anti-virus and OS installation... and that was about it. If this person knew more, they'd have said it.
4: If you have a logo... don't use stock clip-art. This sign used the lined-pyramid default image on every default MS Publisher template as his logo. Depressing.
My brother actually went into the high-activity, high-stress, high-speed job of water treatment sales. Our family, while "blessed" with ADHD also was fortunate to come with a generous helping of natural smarts. He's turned the ADHD habits toward rapidly focusing on customers and problem solving. He's gotten very good at it, but we still know when the other isn't dealing well at any given moment. What's really telling is that he and I pretty much grew up entirely seperately (and often hostile toward eachother) but still have a shocking amount of similarity in personality traits.
The best habits to get into are ones where you keep organized lists, get into a good steady routine and try and remain constantly aware that even though you can shift attention so quickly, you need to watch out that it doesn't switch so far away from the really important things to think about. I get the fun of learning those habits under the extreme pressure of a dispatcher's job. It's not easy, but I like the challenge.
I still dream of pure network management, though...
ADD/ADHD is definitely covered as a disability, but to get any help with it you'll need to have rock-solid evidence that you're not one of the Overly Diagnosed Throngs(tm).
I had a hard time with math in college, culminating in a professor with a grudge barring me from using my calculator in an exam. I wasn't taking advantage of ADA at the time, so the only reason I got lucky and made him relent to the calculator use was that he'd broken the rules of his syllabus. The following semester, I had to pull the ADA in to help. And it was worth it.
I was diagnosed with ADHD back when I was 13 years old, and I'm currently 29. Sixteen years ago, ADHD was even more hotly contested as to whether or not it was "real" than it is now. Yes, I do think it's been incredibly overdiagnosed by inexperienced doctors that didn't have a particularly good overview of kids in general, but I am certain that there is something quite substantial to ADHD diagnoses.
When I was diagnosed, it was by one of the leading child psychologists in the region, Dr. Dierdre Lovecki. I spent two days undergoing extensive analysis and testing at her office in Providence, before I recieved a report outlining in detail the various aspects of the situation. After this process, and after a 12 page report was handed to my father... nothing happened. The school system didn't implement any of the suggestions, my father didn't implement any of them, I wasn't put on any medications or habit modification plans... nothing.
It took me ten years to get my shit together. Anything I tried to do, I wasn't able to manage for long. Writing? Nope, distracted. Learning to code? Pft, not a chance. Too distracted. Getting a job? Nope, it was -much- more comfortable to collect disability due to the extreme nature of my ADHD and sit around the house becoming 'one' with the Internet. I wasted far too much of my life because I just never learned to get shit done.
I finally started getting help after the point where suicidal tendencies started to appear. I moved from my home state to another, and got on medication and weekly counseling to manage the bad habits I'd had for my entire life. I got better. Slowly, but surely, I got better. I don't think I'll ever manage to get a Bachelors, but I did nail honors for both years of a community school, and got a degree in programming there. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to use it efficiently. I spent far too long gaining the -wrong- habits, to be able to make up for the regimented diligence really needed for programming. Give me a network to administer, though, and I'm all ready to go.
My point with all this self-disclosing rambling is that if you really DO have ADHD, or even believe you -might- have it, that you can do a great deal simply by looking into behavior modifications. Get those habits down early, and well, so you don't have to think about them. If it really is a severe case, don't shy away from medication. Medication for something like ADHD is not something to be ashamed of or resistant to. It's there to correct an unfortunate flaw in the design of your brain. If you can't compensate for it by habit alteration, get that extra kick to help you work on habits to make your life better.
I've gotta go to work now - I've managed to get far enough out of the pit I got stuck in early in life enough so that I can work with my brother's company. He also has ADHD, as do all his children. He found the way to make ADHD work for him, I've found a way to get it far enough behind me so I can live with it. His kids are starting from age 4 by getting the habits that'll serve them well to defeat ADHD problems later in life. Don't get -too- frustrated with ADHD. Don't let it wreck your life.
Oh, and in closing, anyone that tells people not to use any ADHD medication and uses mind-altering drugs themselves for -fun- is a hypocritical asshole.
(blunt)The problem with a lot of the reasoning I see here with people saying they want the card that plays the game they're interested in quickly, is that it's completely stupid. (/blunt)
When you're looking for a video card, you -should- rely on a capable, and untainted/optimized benchmark for comparison simply because you can't predict what the software companies that make the actual games are going to do. Will they support -your- chosen card, or will some other GPU maker offer a better bribe to the developer? You may know that kind of info about games shipping RSN, or already on the shelves, but what about next year's?
Getting the card based simply on one or two games instead of looking at some kind of objective benchmark does no good whatsoever. It's just a way to rope yourself into upgrading the card faster.
Re:Astronauts were pioneers, not statistics.
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Shuttle Politics
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· Score: 1
So for that reason we should continue to spend billions of dollars and risk more lives?
Nope. For that reason we should leave it in the hands of the astronaut corps to decide whether they think it's worth the risk. If the commanders say "We don't want to fly in this deathtrap." it will be fixed.
Ok, these people are heros, brave, and all that. Yes we should remember them as such and not as statistics. But to say that because these people are brave and willing to take the risks, we as a society have no responsibility to look at and change the situation is ludicrous.
Who said that? I won't even call them heroes, because I believe the term has been watered down - and badly, by American politics of late - but who ever said we didn't have to change the situation? We do need to change the situation, as the Challenger disaster proved (We fixed the O-rings) and as Columbia is proving (The external tank design needs to be rethought), but why should we stop cold when we're doing something like this? We're doing just what we should. We've put a hold on the STS program until we know what we're doing wrong, and how to fix it.
I think its been pretty well established that the science done by the manned space program and on the ISS is not worth anywhere near what we spend on it. So we have to ask ourselves what the prestige of the manned space program is worth, both in dollars and in human lives.
The lives were volunteered. Those astronauts made the decision years ago that the cost that truly mattered to them was worthwhile. They judged the cost versus the benefit and found it just. Is the money worth it? I don't know. Neither of us does. I have a feeling that eventually, it will be. Something big will come of it, and that something will be of value beyond comprehension. Someday in the future mankind may look at the US space program as a true turning point for humanity.
Or maybe not.
As long as we have people dedicated to going up, and people dedicated to putting forth the best effort possible to making sure the come back down alive, we should continue.
Re:Why Politicians Are Shortsighted Idiots
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Shuttle Politics
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· Score: 1
That sounds like a decent idea to me. It wouldn't require as much testing or engineering complexity as redesigning the entire orbiter or thrust system, but could do a decent job protecting the craft from ice breakoffs. One thing I'd see not being wise though, would be to actually cover the orbiter at all. I'd leave the connections to the orbiter body as open as they are now, but simply create a different surface on the housing to attract more of the ice buildup in a way that will shear off earlier and more quickly. Possibly some sort of loosely connected metal sheeting that could be removed mechanically prior to launch? Or a positioning of the tank within the housing in a manner where there simply wouldn't be buildup on the sides facing the orbiter?
Either this, or some sort of climate controlled housing like they had over the capsules for the "original" spaceflight methods, but designed simply to keep condensation from building at the tip of the ET, retracted before launch.
I'm no engineer, but are there any that have opinions on these ideas?
Astronauts were pioneers, not statistics.
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Shuttle Politics
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Every one of those astronauts that died understood the risks. They understood the engineering behind the shuttle, and knew full well that they could pay for the experience or chance of being in space with their lives. Last time I checked, NASA was an all-volunteer organization where people fought like hell to get accepted into the astronaut ranks. Those 14 people volunteered, and not a one of them would want his or her memory reflected by the cancellation of something they spent their entire lives to achieve. (with the exception of McAuliffe, but I don't think she'd want it cancelled either)
We shouldn't remember them as some goddamn statistical casualties, we should remember them as people so dedicated to the cause of human space exploration that they willingly laid down their lives for the furtherance of human knowledge. This guy's statements bring those 14 brave people down to the level of a goddamn statistic, and I hope
Keep the shuttles flying as long as there are volunteers to crew them, and make every effort to bring them home. We have the technology now, we had it in the 1970's, all we need is the national will to do it right.
I live in Manchester, and have to say I'm all for this concept. I've also got three WAP's in my apartment and will be dedicating one as filtered (and possibly use limited) net access to anyone that happens by. Of course, being on the third floor of a building in the Sunset Ridge apartment complex may make it a bit difficult to connect to... but the point is, I'll make something available. Hell, it's available now. I think laws like this will protect people taking advantage of one of the more -fun- aspects of current-day networking.
However, I do think there is a missing link in the mix for true wireless sharing with some level of protection and security for the operator. I'd like something, preferably Linux based of course, that'd let me see all the people connected to the wireless network by IP and MAC, and possibly have some form of operator-paging request for access system. Anyone game to do it?
I can't speak for true "Macheads", but I can speak from the pre-Switch campaign switcher perspective. Newer Apple machines are simply better. Better built, better designed, better supported, and better looking (if that matters). I'd had so many problems with my PC laptops, that I was just being driven nuts by the things continually going wrong and wanted a change. When OS X came around and gave me the promise of unix on the go, with an interface that while bland, "Just Works(tm)", I figured it was worth snaring the cheap iBook on sale at a local closeout/salvage reseller.
After a year of using the iBook, I was left a little wanting but still impressed by the speed and flexibility of Jaguar. It got to the point where I could use it as a desktop replacement for anything but gaming once 10.2.3 came around and the video speed seemed smoother. I decided after a whim application for Apple Instant Credit which was granted, to look into updating it with a newer, faster iBook. I went down to the store in Salem, NH and wound up going for a one-day-old returned 867Mhz Powerbook G4 about a month before they announced the 12" and 17" models. A lot of people were bothered by this, but after some research I wasn't.
To make a long story shorter, and more importantly on-topic, I just have to say I've been really impressed with just about everything related to the system except for the stability not -quite- as good as I had expected. It's still better than any PC laptop OS I've ever used, but could use a few touches to make perfect. Apple may have some flaws, particularly when it comes to dealing with resellers, and at times overzealous IP protection, but they're really the best solution out there to actually get things done with your machine, for general computing tasks. And the BSD underpinnings are most certainly a huge draw.
With all the media attention Mitnick got, I definitely wouldn't hire him to do security for any business I had decisions to make for. He's a magnet for attention, primarily by his sycophantic half-informed wannabes. But on top of that, he was a destructive hacker, not just the type to sneak in and take a look around. I've read some things in the past that softened my stance on Mitnick from being a "Fry Kevin!" one a few years ago, primarily related to his mistreatment by the DoJ, but it doesn't change the fact he gave hackers a -truly- bad reputation as destructive forces rather than just kids poking around.
And does he -really- have any special skills? Not really. He was a social engineer, talked his way into systems and then used technical know-how to exploit them. As far out of the technical loop as he's gotten since his incarceration the ONLY part he has left to truly speak about is the social engineering part, and there're far better people that deserve those paychecks.
I've always wondered about the amount of actual bandwidth available to news organizations like CNN, the BBC and the rest. It's one of those things that came to mind whenever I'd see something like the grainy videophone footage we got used to in Gulf War 1.0, that looked like it was shot with a QuickCam using the Sony Pantycam(tm) image enhancement.
I actually enjoyed the original Dune miniseries, and may watch the one tonight. The only problem with watching back-to-back would be that I don't know if I can handle that many brown/tan tones... it'd be like playing Quake 2 all day again.
I'm actually a lot more excited about the Riverworld series starting up next week. Unfortunately, I'd be a lot more excited about it if they'd actually done something unexpected like... you know... stick to the goddamn books? Sigh.
Ever since the engine behind Tribes 2 was released for licensing at $99 per programmer, I've thought the entire concept of Garage Games was a rather good one to work with. An incredibly cheap engine license with built-in options for publication once a game is completed, the Torque Game Engine (TGE) is a great option for new game developers.
Not being a coder myself, I did refer a close friend to the engine when he started to burn out on Half-Life and Quake 3 modding, and he's dove right in with attempts to help TGE development move along. There are quite a few people out there around the Garage Games forums looking to put together one game or another, and some of them actually have proposals for things that aren't just Counter-Strike or Quake clones. Take a look at the games Garage Games sells in the store. All were made with TGE, none are shooters.
I can't say strongly enough just how much I think TGE will help revolutionize game production if people actually take notice. The entry cost of development is pretty low, particularly considering that you can develop on Linux and OS X based equipment in addition to Windows. There's a particularly large amount of room in TGE-based game development for Mac-oriented games, as well as Linux.
I'm on Garage Games' site as a designer, but haven't really been able to manage anything that went further than basic documentation. Even if I never accomplish anything, I at least feel glad I had a chance to try. Hopefully a few folks reading this post might give Garage Games and TGE a shot.
Slashdot Mirror
I just got a ReplayTV unit last week (and found out I was getting laid off for a month the day after - all the better to spend time watching TV with, I guess) and am quite happy with it. It may not be linux based like a TiVo, but they don't try and rope you in with the $99 "option" to make it integrate with the rest of the house. In the long run, I think the recent change in ReplayTV's pricing model will do some serious damage to TiVo simply due to the fact that I don't see any flaws in Replay's system other than not being #1 in the market.
There are even tools for the Replay like DVArchive (hosted on sourceforge) that let you stream shows from the ReplayTV onto your computer, and even download them. That, for me was the true selling point.
For months, my roommate and I had tried to put something together with MythTV but kept running into problem after problem after problem. We didn't get the right TV card the first time, and the one we got next didn't seem to perform all that smoothly. Finding an IR blaster someplace other than mail order was next to impossible, etc. We just kept having bad luck. Worst of all, when we did get MythTV working, the output quality on the TV screen after it was piped through the PC was just horrible and couldn't be decently boosted by us even on a P4 1.6.
However, I would still love for MythTV to be the centerpiece of our home system. In fact, I even have a rather interesting application in mind. If I can somehow manage to get back into any actual programming while I'm temporarily out of work, I'd like to see about integrating the ReplayTV to MythTV with something like a DVArchive plugin. (Though DVArchive source isn't available yet - the last version got badly b0rked in CVS apparently)
What makes my hopes and dreams for total integration truly intriguing is the fact I have a 14" touchscreen monitor for controlling the linux PC with. If we can only get a touchscreen interface that still displays all the actual media on the TV in a crisp, clear format, and integrates with the ReplayTV for scheduling, recording and playback... We'd have a work of art.
The thing with the XM PCR device is that there's never a digital stream of audio going through the USB port it uses for a connection to the computer. What the XM PCR does, is simply connect to the PC for control purposes then does output using a standard headphone jack. You wouldn't need to do anything special in the slightest to get the PCR to record songs on the PC, just copy the stream info tags (which are unfortunately limited to 16 characters, at least on my SkyFi unit) and start capturing a line-in.
However, the stream is a compressed one from orbit, so you might wind up with a not-so-pure recording when you encode it again for playback on a device.
Why is the group releasing this on their own?
To quote the wise sages of the Quake 3 voiceover...
HUMILIATION!
I can't even come up with a good joke for this. Seriously. It's just too good. Way, way too good.
I came into this thread expecting to see even more echoes of my own interaction with RM than I have, and was pleasantly surprised to see some positive developments as well. I wasn't exactly the most blameless person who ever had a fight with RM get to the seemingly common "Dick Morrell Barratry Special" stage, but I did wind up getting an apology from him.
I'm glad to see both IPCop and Smoothwall continuing to progress, and hope that some competition between the two projects can make the experience of a firewall system better for everyone who uses either package. I'd try and work on either now that I've graduated with a totally unused programming degree, but with a 10 hour work schedule I'm a bit out of the loop.
Glad to see things still moving along, and glad that Dick isn't dragging you all through any more mud. The notes from folks that I see RM still claiming copyright on Smoothwall are a little bit curious, but I'll take it on good faith that I'd never encounter him if I dealt with Smoothwall again. Maybe when it comes time to get my home LAN configured a little more flexibly, I'll give Smoothwall GPL a shot.
And a side note, one thing that would make any firewall project -highly- desirable for the more anal-retentive (and blinkenlighten fetishistic) users would be a status display screen. I've got a hacked iOpener box that would be incredibly well suited to firewall usage if the display were used to show network traffic details in realtime or semi-realtime.
The biggest problem this guy has with Open Source is that he seems to have been presented with a lot of pitch and little substance, in his job. When I worked at my college doing IT work, I attended the pitches by WebCT and Blackboard and saw some pretty solid seeming systems there. Open Source simply can't compete with those applications in a manner that school systems need. We may like to think of college as a place where faculty and staff are constantly innovating and striving to save a buck, but we also need to keep in mind that things often come down to one simple question: What is the easiest thing for us to maintain in the long term?
My college, for example, couldn't afford any option other than Microsoft based PC's. There was no budget for it, the faculty didn't have time to learn it, and even the computer course staff thought of Linux as a toy. (I went to a seriously shitty school) Open source advocates don't even need to target someone like the author of this article, because he isn't really the person or application open source is best suited to.
The strengths of open source are only there for those that have the power to enable themselves to take advantage of it. If he has a dedicated staff willing and able to take the next step and design what they need using open source tools, that's a wonderful thing and he should at least consider it. Being that he's at Princeton, he may indeed have that option. But most likely, that option isn't out there, and so open source solutions intended for that purpose need to be bulletproof, -simple- to use and complete. I don't see something like WebCT being implemented and supported under an open source license without a corporate entity set up to manage the project and provide documentation and support for a fee.
He spreads FUD, but only because he seems to have had people blowing smoke up his ass about how awesome open source is and how he absolutely has to use it to save money. Yes, there are costs to open source if you can't simply use the out-of-the-tarball product you download from Sourceforge. Yes, it is incorrectly targeted as "free" due to the unfortunate difference between beer and speech. But no, it is not inferior in any technical manner other than the fact that enterprise-adequate support for any given open source project only lasts as long as interest from the community that produces it. No more, no less.
With the release of iTunes and the iTMS on the PC, what is this all going to mean to Apple as a computer company? One of the side effects of releasing iTunes for Windows may very well be something Apple has been hoping to do for quite some time; demonstrate to PC owners just what the "Apple Experience" is actually all about these days.
Nobody bought an Apple machine because iTunes was the killer app, but most people that use it for managing archives of music are pretty steadfast about it being the best software for music management out there. Will people take this as a sign of Apple's quality of software development, and match that up with the quality of the iPod design for a pretty decent picture of Apple's design ethos? Could this be what Apple needs to jumpstart the market share?
Would the conduct SCO has been engaging in to this point be enough to qualify for a charge of barratry? They've moved to provide no legal basis, are refusing all good will efforts to negotiate, and have engaged in a form of corporate slander of the worst sort. I would think that with the intensely corporation-friendly legal system we have here in the US, that there must be some method by which IBM and other vendors such as SGI and Linux distributors could make some pretty substantial claims of interference or possibly even extortion. Hell, if I recieved a bill from SCO, I'd most likely contact the feds to look into charging SCO with extortion - they're sending a bill for something they can't prove they own, and threatening consequences if I don't pay.
That's one of the key features of iTunes music store, you don't necessarily have to buy -anything- that sucks. If you did, well... you had a chance to sample it.
When you've spent a few billion to put the two biggest commercial satellites ever built into orbit, you tend to get a bit protective of your profit stream. XM is a -great- thing to have, I've had a unit in my car for about the past year. They use something like a 192Kbps AAC stream from the satellite down, if I recall correctly. Very good quality, even on the Bose system in my car.
One way this could be really beneficial to people is to consider it an alternative and temporary source of income between job hunts. It doesn't take a -lot- of effort to put together a decent looking flyer, and a waiver form to limit or eliminate liability. A couple weeks ago I noticed such a flyer at a convenience store near where I work. Here are some things I noticed that were major signs to stay away.
1: 'Certified' was in italics on the lower left hand corner. All by itself. Alone. One word. Certified in WHAT? If you have applicable certifications, explain them genuinely. If you don't, describe your actual knowledge instead.
2: Let the prospective customer know you stand behind your work - but at the same time, don't put yourself in a bad position to be liable for anything. Say that your liabilty is limited to one free hour of additional service, should you determine that an oversight on the initial visit wasn't sufficient.
3: Offer what you know. This sign I saw in the store said they offered -computer detailing- service, anti-virus and OS installation... and that was about it. If this person knew more, they'd have said it.
4: If you have a logo... don't use stock clip-art. This sign used the lined-pyramid default image on every default MS Publisher template as his logo. Depressing.
My brother actually went into the high-activity, high-stress, high-speed job of water treatment sales. Our family, while "blessed" with ADHD also was fortunate to come with a generous helping of natural smarts. He's turned the ADHD habits toward rapidly focusing on customers and problem solving. He's gotten very good at it, but we still know when the other isn't dealing well at any given moment. What's really telling is that he and I pretty much grew up entirely seperately (and often hostile toward eachother) but still have a shocking amount of similarity in personality traits.
The best habits to get into are ones where you keep organized lists, get into a good steady routine and try and remain constantly aware that even though you can shift attention so quickly, you need to watch out that it doesn't switch so far away from the really important things to think about. I get the fun of learning those habits under the extreme pressure of a dispatcher's job. It's not easy, but I like the challenge.
I still dream of pure network management, though...
ADD/ADHD is definitely covered as a disability, but to get any help with it you'll need to have rock-solid evidence that you're not one of the Overly Diagnosed Throngs(tm).
I had a hard time with math in college, culminating in a professor with a grudge barring me from using my calculator in an exam. I wasn't taking advantage of ADA at the time, so the only reason I got lucky and made him relent to the calculator use was that he'd broken the rules of his syllabus. The following semester, I had to pull the ADA in to help. And it was worth it.
I was diagnosed with ADHD back when I was 13 years old, and I'm currently 29. Sixteen years ago, ADHD was even more hotly contested as to whether or not it was "real" than it is now. Yes, I do think it's been incredibly overdiagnosed by inexperienced doctors that didn't have a particularly good overview of kids in general, but I am certain that there is something quite substantial to ADHD diagnoses.
When I was diagnosed, it was by one of the leading child psychologists in the region, Dr. Dierdre Lovecki. I spent two days undergoing extensive analysis and testing at her office in Providence, before I recieved a report outlining in detail the various aspects of the situation. After this process, and after a 12 page report was handed to my father... nothing happened. The school system didn't implement any of the suggestions, my father didn't implement any of them, I wasn't put on any medications or habit modification plans... nothing.
It took me ten years to get my shit together. Anything I tried to do, I wasn't able to manage for long. Writing? Nope, distracted. Learning to code? Pft, not a chance. Too distracted. Getting a job? Nope, it was -much- more comfortable to collect disability due to the extreme nature of my ADHD and sit around the house becoming 'one' with the Internet. I wasted far too much of my life because I just never learned to get shit done.
I finally started getting help after the point where suicidal tendencies started to appear. I moved from my home state to another, and got on medication and weekly counseling to manage the bad habits I'd had for my entire life. I got better. Slowly, but surely, I got better. I don't think I'll ever manage to get a Bachelors, but I did nail honors for both years of a community school, and got a degree in programming there. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to use it efficiently. I spent far too long gaining the -wrong- habits, to be able to make up for the regimented diligence really needed for programming. Give me a network to administer, though, and I'm all ready to go.
My point with all this self-disclosing rambling is that if you really DO have ADHD, or even believe you -might- have it, that you can do a great deal simply by looking into behavior modifications. Get those habits down early, and well, so you don't have to think about them. If it really is a severe case, don't shy away from medication. Medication for something like ADHD is not something to be ashamed of or resistant to. It's there to correct an unfortunate flaw in the design of your brain. If you can't compensate for it by habit alteration, get that extra kick to help you work on habits to make your life better.
I've gotta go to work now - I've managed to get far enough out of the pit I got stuck in early in life enough so that I can work with my brother's company. He also has ADHD, as do all his children. He found the way to make ADHD work for him, I've found a way to get it far enough behind me so I can live with it. His kids are starting from age 4 by getting the habits that'll serve them well to defeat ADHD problems later in life. Don't get -too- frustrated with ADHD. Don't let it wreck your life.
Oh, and in closing, anyone that tells people not to use any ADHD medication and uses mind-altering drugs themselves for -fun- is a hypocritical asshole.
(blunt)The problem with a lot of the reasoning I see here with people saying they want the card that plays the game they're interested in quickly, is that it's completely stupid. (/blunt)
When you're looking for a video card, you -should- rely on a capable, and untainted/optimized benchmark for comparison simply because you can't predict what the software companies that make the actual games are going to do. Will they support -your- chosen card, or will some other GPU maker offer a better bribe to the developer? You may know that kind of info about games shipping RSN, or already on the shelves, but what about next year's?
Getting the card based simply on one or two games instead of looking at some kind of objective benchmark does no good whatsoever. It's just a way to rope yourself into upgrading the card faster.
So for that reason we should continue to spend billions of dollars and risk more lives?
Nope. For that reason we should leave it in the hands of the astronaut corps to decide whether they think it's worth the risk. If the commanders say "We don't want to fly in this deathtrap." it will be fixed.
Ok, these people are heros, brave, and all that. Yes we should remember them as such and not as statistics. But to say that because these people are brave and willing to take the risks, we as a society have no responsibility to look at and change the situation is ludicrous.
Who said that? I won't even call them heroes, because I believe the term has been watered down - and badly, by American politics of late - but who ever said we didn't have to change the situation? We do need to change the situation, as the Challenger disaster proved (We fixed the O-rings) and as Columbia is proving (The external tank design needs to be rethought), but why should we stop cold when we're doing something like this? We're doing just what we should. We've put a hold on the STS program until we know what we're doing wrong, and how to fix it.
I think its been pretty well established that the science done by the manned space program and on the ISS is not worth anywhere near what we spend on it. So we have to ask ourselves what the prestige of the manned space program is worth, both in dollars and in human lives.
The lives were volunteered. Those astronauts made the decision years ago that the cost that truly mattered to them was worthwhile. They judged the cost versus the benefit and found it just. Is the money worth it? I don't know. Neither of us does. I have a feeling that eventually, it will be. Something big will come of it, and that something will be of value beyond comprehension. Someday in the future mankind may look at the US space program as a true turning point for humanity.
Or maybe not.
As long as we have people dedicated to going up, and people dedicated to putting forth the best effort possible to making sure the come back down alive, we should continue.
That sounds like a decent idea to me. It wouldn't require as much testing or engineering complexity as redesigning the entire orbiter or thrust system, but could do a decent job protecting the craft from ice breakoffs. One thing I'd see not being wise though, would be to actually cover the orbiter at all. I'd leave the connections to the orbiter body as open as they are now, but simply create a different surface on the housing to attract more of the ice buildup in a way that will shear off earlier and more quickly. Possibly some sort of loosely connected metal sheeting that could be removed mechanically prior to launch? Or a positioning of the tank within the housing in a manner where there simply wouldn't be buildup on the sides facing the orbiter?
Either this, or some sort of climate controlled housing like they had over the capsules for the "original" spaceflight methods, but designed simply to keep condensation from building at the tip of the ET, retracted before launch.
I'm no engineer, but are there any that have opinions on these ideas?
Every one of those astronauts that died understood the risks. They understood the engineering behind the shuttle, and knew full well that they could pay for the experience or chance of being in space with their lives. Last time I checked, NASA was an all-volunteer organization where people fought like hell to get accepted into the astronaut ranks. Those 14 people volunteered, and not a one of them would want his or her memory reflected by the cancellation of something they spent their entire lives to achieve. (with the exception of McAuliffe, but I don't think she'd want it cancelled either)
We shouldn't remember them as some goddamn statistical casualties, we should remember them as people so dedicated to the cause of human space exploration that they willingly laid down their lives for the furtherance of human knowledge. This guy's statements bring those 14 brave people down to the level of a goddamn statistic, and I hope
Keep the shuttles flying as long as there are volunteers to crew them, and make every effort to bring them home. We have the technology now, we had it in the 1970's, all we need is the national will to do it right.
I live in Manchester, and have to say I'm all for this concept. I've also got three WAP's in my apartment and will be dedicating one as filtered (and possibly use limited) net access to anyone that happens by. Of course, being on the third floor of a building in the Sunset Ridge apartment complex may make it a bit difficult to connect to... but the point is, I'll make something available. Hell, it's available now. I think laws like this will protect people taking advantage of one of the more -fun- aspects of current-day networking.
However, I do think there is a missing link in the mix for true wireless sharing with some level of protection and security for the operator. I'd like something, preferably Linux based of course, that'd let me see all the people connected to the wireless network by IP and MAC, and possibly have some form of operator-paging request for access system. Anyone game to do it?
I can't speak for true "Macheads", but I can speak from the pre-Switch campaign switcher perspective. Newer Apple machines are simply better. Better built, better designed, better supported, and better looking (if that matters). I'd had so many problems with my PC laptops, that I was just being driven nuts by the things continually going wrong and wanted a change. When OS X came around and gave me the promise of unix on the go, with an interface that while bland, "Just Works(tm)", I figured it was worth snaring the cheap iBook on sale at a local closeout/salvage reseller.
After a year of using the iBook, I was left a little wanting but still impressed by the speed and flexibility of Jaguar. It got to the point where I could use it as a desktop replacement for anything but gaming once 10.2.3 came around and the video speed seemed smoother. I decided after a whim application for Apple Instant Credit which was granted, to look into updating it with a newer, faster iBook. I went down to the store in Salem, NH and wound up going for a one-day-old returned 867Mhz Powerbook G4 about a month before they announced the 12" and 17" models. A lot of people were bothered by this, but after some research I wasn't.
To make a long story shorter, and more importantly on-topic, I just have to say I've been really impressed with just about everything related to the system except for the stability not -quite- as good as I had expected. It's still better than any PC laptop OS I've ever used, but could use a few touches to make perfect. Apple may have some flaws, particularly when it comes to dealing with resellers, and at times overzealous IP protection, but they're really the best solution out there to actually get things done with your machine, for general computing tasks. And the BSD underpinnings are most certainly a huge draw.
With all the media attention Mitnick got, I definitely wouldn't hire him to do security for any business I had decisions to make for. He's a magnet for attention, primarily by his sycophantic half-informed wannabes. But on top of that, he was a destructive hacker, not just the type to sneak in and take a look around. I've read some things in the past that softened my stance on Mitnick from being a "Fry Kevin!" one a few years ago, primarily related to his mistreatment by the DoJ, but it doesn't change the fact he gave hackers a -truly- bad reputation as destructive forces rather than just kids poking around.
And does he -really- have any special skills? Not really. He was a social engineer, talked his way into systems and then used technical know-how to exploit them. As far out of the technical loop as he's gotten since his incarceration the ONLY part he has left to truly speak about is the social engineering part, and there're far better people that deserve those paychecks.
I've always wondered about the amount of actual bandwidth available to news organizations like CNN, the BBC and the rest. It's one of those things that came to mind whenever I'd see something like the grainy videophone footage we got used to in Gulf War 1.0, that looked like it was shot with a QuickCam using the Sony Pantycam(tm) image enhancement.
I actually enjoyed the original Dune miniseries, and may watch the one tonight. The only problem with watching back-to-back would be that I don't know if I can handle that many brown/tan tones... it'd be like playing Quake 2 all day again.
Dune, Dune, Dune. Yawn.
I'm actually a lot more excited about the Riverworld series starting up next week. Unfortunately, I'd be a lot more excited about it if they'd actually done something unexpected like... you know... stick to the goddamn books? Sigh.
Ever since the engine behind Tribes 2 was released for licensing at $99 per programmer, I've thought the entire concept of Garage Games was a rather good one to work with. An incredibly cheap engine license with built-in options for publication once a game is completed, the Torque Game Engine (TGE) is a great option for new game developers.
Not being a coder myself, I did refer a close friend to the engine when he started to burn out on Half-Life and Quake 3 modding, and he's dove right in with attempts to help TGE development move along. There are quite a few people out there around the Garage Games forums looking to put together one game or another, and some of them actually have proposals for things that aren't just Counter-Strike or Quake clones. Take a look at the games Garage Games sells in the store. All were made with TGE, none are shooters.
I can't say strongly enough just how much I think TGE will help revolutionize game production if people actually take notice. The entry cost of development is pretty low, particularly considering that you can develop on Linux and OS X based equipment in addition to Windows. There's a particularly large amount of room in TGE-based game development for Mac-oriented games, as well as Linux.
I'm on Garage Games' site as a designer, but haven't really been able to manage anything that went further than basic documentation. Even if I never accomplish anything, I at least feel glad I had a chance to try. Hopefully a few folks reading this post might give Garage Games and TGE a shot.