The general attitude shown in those emails is amazingly foul. Either we're not being told the whole story or the people behind SmoothWall don't know the first thing about PR and consumer relations. I am actually inclined to go with the second option.
As am I. I'm quite close friends with the poster of the page, and I heard about every email as it was received. At the time, I commented to him that maybe he was pushing a little too hard at times, but the sheer attitude pulled by Morrell, et al. was just incredible to believe. Imagine the uproar you'd hear if some commercial company treated its customers like this. Just because it's open-source, it's now suddenly okay to treat consumers like shit? And these people actually want to be PAID for doing this...
This attitude isn't just limited to this incident, either. The original post had several cases that were even more egregious, including one where the founder of Smoothwall, good ol' Dick Morrell himself, verbally abused someone asking a (IMO) valid question and banned him for not knowing the answer. Is that the kind of attitude we want to portray ourselves as? I certainly don't...
If you mean "support" as in "contribute code," no. Never have, never will. I support what they're trying to do and wish them success, but nothing more than that. I don't even use IPCop (or Smoothwall, but I'd think that's pretty much implied). You'd think someone whose product relies on trust would be a little less condecending and arrogant towards their customers, don't you?
Not trying to be a karma whore here (well, not REALLY trying), but this site really is worth a look if you're thinking about using Smoothwall. IMO, the REAL security concern with it is not the package itself, but the developers in charge of it. I, for one, refuse to support a product led by a group of developers with their heads that far up their ass when it comes to dealing with potential customers. Especially when they beg as loudly as they do for donations...
However, that's the price to get something into orbit (IIRC). This wouldn't be a manned rocket, you wouldn't have to get it in orbit, you just shoot it up and let it fly along for a while until it burns up from the heat. Don't you think it'd be possible to reduce that cost?
I'm on one right now, bought earlier this year. There are several hundred throughout the building I work in, and probably quite a few more in other buildings.
I think they're more or less out of the mainstream consumer field, but businesses still buy a fair number of them directly from IBM. At least ours does...
At both institutions I went to, you can refuse to provide it (I did). Many applications say something like "If you don't want to give us your SSN, we'll give you an ID number to use instead." As a consequence, my student numbers started with 993 and 999, respectively.
Actually, no... you don't have to be registered with the SSA from birth. I was SSN-less until I got my learner's permit (at the sad, sad age of 18). It's not a requirement... after all, how is a 6 week old child going to pay the SSA? =)
Perhaps they're betting that Blizzard will rollback like before and reimburse items, so the character someone throws away because he/she lost her gear will suddenly be decked out with all the stuff they had before?
IIRC, isn't everything from government SPECIFICALLY excluded from copyright, as it's all done using the people's money? That applies to state governments, too, who write the building codes...
Unless I'm missing something, in which case, feel free to be good citizens and flame me out the ass for my lack of knowledge. You'll do it anyway, but I'll feel a little better knowing I asked you to and you weren't just being jerks.
"Our position is that we are an ISP, and we comply with the safe harbor provisions" of copyright law, Carpinello said, referring to legislation that protects Internet service providers from liability for copyrighted content transferred through their networks. "The RIAA is trying to impose on us a duty to patrol and censor what goes through a private network."
I'll admit that I've never used Aimster, but what differentiates it from a Napster clone (which doesn't appear to be an ISP in any sense of the term I've ever seen)? It just looks like a chat service / P2P distribution network. By that logic, ICQ is an ISP, too.
Or am I just missing something (always a possibility... it IS 1:15AM, after all)
Well, not large-project management in that sense... I meant it in the sense that there's a LOT of code there, and keeping it all straight requires a particular set of skills I didn't have when I started but I do (to some extent) now. I should have been clearer on that, I admit. Thanks for pointing it out.
That's what coming back full-tilt from a week-long caffeine withdrawal will do to you... =P
From what I've seen (I've been in the Half-Life mod development community for over a year now) is to get involved with an editable game and do some design work. Come up with ideas and implement them. In my (albeit limited) experience with CS, you don't learn much if anything that's directly applicable.
Not to pimp myself unduly, but I've learned a LOT about large-project management, design, and the like by working on my own projects for Half-Life(Granted, HL's not Linux friendly yet, but the same deal applies for really any game. It's just that HL has a very actuve community). Nothing will prepare you as well as actual experience will... I know probably half a dozen people who were hired at games companies solely because of their work on a mod or independant game. They're looking for those kind of people, and if you happen to be where they're looking, well... =)
"The FBI is using Authentica's software, company officials said. According to one source, the technology may help the agency keep tabs on would-be spies by preventing agents from printing files that reside on an intranet or by monitoring what they do or attempt to do with sensitive documents."
Somehow, I get the nagging feeling that, if the FBI isn't ALREADY monitoring this stuff (how hard is it to log access to so-called 'sensitive documents,' anyhow?), we have more serious problems on our hands. Now, I have no clue how tight internal security there is, but a software program like this obvioulsy isn't the way to keep people from viewing it. When (not if, when) it's cracked, if the FBI is relying solely on this program for internal security, that will be a Bad Thing(tm).
For those of you who have tried MUDs and find them to be just repetitive hack and slash with little character interaction or development save levelling up (kinda like D2, IOW... =) ), check out some of their other brethren. I've recently become readdicted to one of the strictly role-play variations, TinyMUX. If you're interested, www.mudconnect.com is probably the best place to search for something that you might be interested in. They cover all genres, so there's bound to be someting that at least sounds interesting.
If you like RP, hard sci-fi, and anthromorphized animals, give Startide a shot (and not just because I run it): jrwill.com:5125. Drop me a note if you do. =)
Thanks for the leads, guys. I took a look at the Solbourne Shack (that's what actually prompted me to ask here, as it was last modified in 97 or somesuch).
I checked out the BSD variants, but didn't find any that looked like they'd work. Oh well...
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I'm with you 100%, Corvidae.
Thanks. =)
The general attitude shown in those emails is amazingly foul. Either we're not being told the whole story or the people behind SmoothWall don't know the first thing about PR and consumer relations. I am actually inclined to go with the second option.
As am I. I'm quite close friends with the poster of the page, and I heard about every email as it was received. At the time, I commented to him that maybe he was pushing a little too hard at times, but the sheer attitude pulled by Morrell, et al. was just incredible to believe. Imagine the uproar you'd hear if some commercial company treated its customers like this. Just because it's open-source, it's now suddenly okay to treat consumers like shit? And these people actually want to be PAID for doing this...
This attitude isn't just limited to this incident, either. The original post had several cases that were even more egregious, including one where the founder of Smoothwall, good ol' Dick Morrell himself, verbally abused someone asking a (IMO) valid question and banned him for not knowing the answer. Is that the kind of attitude we want to portray ourselves as? I certainly don't...
If you mean "support" as in "contribute code," no. Never have, never will. I support what they're trying to do and wish them success, but nothing more than that. I don't even use IPCop (or Smoothwall, but I'd think that's pretty much implied). You'd think someone whose product relies on trust would be a little less condecending and arrogant towards their customers, don't you?
Not trying to be a karma whore here (well, not REALLY trying), but this site really is worth a look if you're thinking about using Smoothwall. IMO, the REAL security concern with it is not the package itself, but the developers in charge of it. I, for one, refuse to support a product led by a group of developers with their heads that far up their ass when it comes to dealing with potential customers. Especially when they beg as loudly as they do for donations...
However, that's the price to get something into orbit (IIRC). This wouldn't be a manned rocket, you wouldn't have to get it in orbit, you just shoot it up and let it fly along for a while until it burns up from the heat. Don't you think it'd be possible to reduce that cost?
Hugo Weaving? Oh, wait, sorry. Wrong Hugo. =(
Good call. And when has that ever stopped us before? ;)
So if you plug in a USB modem/broadband adaptor, you'd then be able to stream Real content onto a TiVO. It all makes sense now...
Except then Amazon has a fit because you might, theoretically, possibly order a product from clicking there. =P
Hell, Molly Millions could probably take this place on her own.
;)
Yeah, but if there's a razorgirl around now, we're in deeper shit than we all thought.
I'm on one right now, bought earlier this year. There are several hundred throughout the building I work in, and probably quite a few more in other buildings.
I think they're more or less out of the mainstream consumer field, but businesses still buy a fair number of them directly from IBM. At least ours does...
Gotta love David Gilmour, huh?
Thanks. ;)
Do you have a reference for that? Not intending to be argumentative, simply curious. =)
At both institutions I went to, you can refuse to provide it (I did). Many applications say something like "If you don't want to give us your SSN, we'll give you an ID number to use instead." As a consequence, my student numbers started with 993 and 999, respectively.
There ARE other options.
Actually, no... you don't have to be registered with the SSA from birth. I was SSN-less until I got my learner's permit (at the sad, sad age of 18). It's not a requirement... after all, how is a 6 week old child going to pay the SSA? =)
Perhaps they're betting that Blizzard will rollback like before and reimburse items, so the character someone throws away because he/she lost her gear will suddenly be decked out with all the stuff they had before?
I think I'm going to hide under my bed now, too. And they say you don't need to be paranoid...
Unless I'm missing something, in which case, feel free to be good citizens and flame me out the ass for my lack of knowledge. You'll do it anyway, but I'll feel a little better knowing I asked you to and you weren't just being jerks.
I'll admit that I've never used Aimster, but what differentiates it from a Napster clone (which doesn't appear to be an ISP in any sense of the term I've ever seen)? It just looks like a chat service / P2P distribution network. By that logic, ICQ is an ISP, too.
Or am I just missing something (always a possibility... it IS 1:15AM, after all)
That's what coming back full-tilt from a week-long caffeine withdrawal will do to you... =P
Not to pimp myself unduly, but I've learned a LOT about large-project management, design, and the like by working on my own projects for Half-Life(Granted, HL's not Linux friendly yet, but the same deal applies for really any game. It's just that HL has a very actuve community). Nothing will prepare you as well as actual experience will... I know probably half a dozen people who were hired at games companies solely because of their work on a mod or independant game. They're looking for those kind of people, and if you happen to be where they're looking, well... =)
"The FBI is using Authentica's software, company officials said. According to one source, the technology may help the agency keep tabs on would-be spies by preventing agents from printing files that reside on an intranet or by monitoring what they do or attempt to do with sensitive documents."
Somehow, I get the nagging feeling that, if the FBI isn't ALREADY monitoring this stuff (how hard is it to log access to so-called 'sensitive documents,' anyhow?), we have more serious problems on our hands. Now, I have no clue how tight internal security there is, but a software program like this obvioulsy isn't the way to keep people from viewing it. When (not if, when) it's cracked, if the FBI is relying solely on this program for internal security, that will be a Bad Thing(tm).
If you like RP, hard sci-fi, and anthromorphized animals, give Startide a shot (and not just because I run it): jrwill.com:5125. Drop me a note if you do. =)
I checked out the BSD variants, but didn't find any that looked like they'd work. Oh well...