These basic ideas are already being worked on with such systems as myVocs(pdf), IAMSuite, and CoManage. It is an idea whose time has come due. It's basically about the web maturing and adopting system boundaries (however loose or tightly you want to define them). It's a similar transition from DOS->Win->NT (or any batch to multitask migration you want to draw a parallel to). The web is about like DOS right now.
Couldn't apple still offer a cheaper business edition? I imagine they'd get a discount on that too. They may have to take a bit of a loss or no gain, but that wouldn't be a first in a competition.
I've used SUSE 9.3-10.2 on a lightweight Dell laptop for the last 3.5 years. My experience was nearly identical, down the wifi connection issue after suspend and the work around.:)
I've used SUSE for a while. They pulled me away from RedHat with SUSE 9.0. It was the first linux I used that just worked after being installed. I didn't have to jigger with crap. RedHat lost me when they decided to put the desktop user in second place. I've used Linux exclusively for home and office for the past 5 years and it's been SUSE that made it enjoyable.
Too bad Novell felt the need to lick Balmer's d*** last fall. The best thing that could happen to the computing world is *not* greater compatibility between Linux and Windows. Windows is on its way disappearing into the ether. At the moment it fast becoming just a crappy API that can run (safely) in a VM to support the odd application that's not got a functional duplicate on Linux (eg. IE for testing web pages and some of the corporate crapware clients (oracle)). Too bad Hovispan forgot to read the judgment from the MS monopoly trial and pay attention to ever other poor bastard that thought they could dance with the devil.
I was interested in supporting Dell and it's Ubuntu decision. I'm not traditionally an Ubunutu user. I've SuSE/openSuse on my 3 year old Dell laptop since I got it years (didn't have any hardware compatibility issues and auto-detected everything important) and otherwise use CentOS and Debian but thought it would be worth buying one just to ease hardware selection since laptop hardware changes so much.
I looked at the specs for the Ubuntu laptop. 6 pounds! Holy crap, no way in hell I'm lugging that around. My current Dell laptop is under 3lbs. I brought up the page for Dells smallest laptop and wanted to compare the hardware to their Ubuntu one. I buy under government/higher-ed. Guess what...no mention of Ubuntu as an OS option in that category. Looks like it's only available in the Home section.
Ho hum, back to the old fashioned way. Checked for wifi support before I bought the littlest one, paid the MS tax, and kept my fingers crossed.
Dell's Ubuntu option is a nice idea, but restricting it to a single Laptop isn't all that engaging.
Unfortunately, if you hadn't noted from your Edenic paradise of FLOSS perfection, a large of PCs (whether work or home, Server or Desktop) run Windows. You can't be free from M$ if you use their stuff. It's not Windows the OS, it's M$ the organization. There are many other organizations which I can work to empower. I don't feel like undermining my own liberties by empowering the organizations that will take them away.
This begs a question - how to encourage people and companies to migrate from Windows to GNU/Linux? This just doesn't mean providing desktop environments (Gnome/KDE) but also a way to migrate applications (a big concern for business).
Java is not a problem, but the Microsoft languages (C#.NET and VB.NET) are. Have you heard of porting? There is nothing in the.NET world that can't be solved by other (free) technologies (especially with the GPLing of Java). It's not about running stuff on Linux, it's about not being beholden to an oligarch.
Microsoft hereby covenants not to assert Microsoft Patents against each Non-Compensated Individual Hobbyist Developer (also referred to as "You") for Your personal creation of an originally authored work ("Original Work") and personal use of Your Original Work. This pledge is personal to You and does not apply to the use of Your Original Work by others or to the distribution of Your Original Work by You or others. A "Non-Compensated Individual Hobbyist Developer" is an individual software developer (i.e., a person and not any corporation, partnership or other legal entity), including a developer of open source software, who receives no monetary payment or any other forms of consideration that can be valued monetarily for their creation of their Original Works. The fact that You may be employed as a software developer by, and receive a salary from, a corporation, partnership or other legal entity, does not disqualify You from treatment as a "Non-Compensated Individual Hobbyist Developer" under this pledge, provided Your activities related to the creation of Your Original Work are performed during Your free time and outside the scope of Your employment. The Microsoft Patents subject to this pledge are all patents issued world-wide to the extent they are owned or controlled by Microsoft or its majority owned subsidiaries. For additional information on obtaining rights under Microsoft patents to contribute Your Original Work to an open source project, please see Microsoft's Patent Pledge for Hobbyist Contributors. WTF is that? This is meaningless drivel. The whole point of free software is freedom to work on it community. If all I do is mod code at home and use it at home it ain't open and I'm not free. This also puts a big cloud over free software use commercially, ie. when i participate in and/or lead free software projects are part of my day job...which is a big component of this. Free software is a treasure trove of problem solutions. They are effectively saying you can work on or use that software without paying M$.
I like Suse. I've used it for years. I use OpenSuse and hope it will keep itself clear of that but I'm looking for alternatives. Ubuntu has a chance but anything that puts GNOME first is crap. I don't like Mono or the rest of Miguel's M$ fan-boyism. I don't want M$ crap in my life and haven't had it there for years.
This kind of data is what more of us should expose. We should also protect it with the GPL. Anyone would be free to use the data (source) however they like and extend it with their own analysis adding more data, as long at that data also carries the GPL.
This would eventually build a large data set that could be used by anyone both for evil marketing/spying or good counter advertising, like revealing the real cost of goods and services.
It really seems like the only option to overcome the large private databases that, in a large part, control our lives.
I don't know...a 266MHz Intel with MMX...that sounds a lot like my personal computer here at home. It's the only machine we have and it works just fine. Sure it's a little slow at times but it's perfectly adequate.
We always run two X sessions so my wife and I can fast user switch between our desktops. It serves as our stereo, and I run our family web site and a couple of low volume mailing lists off it. It only gets sluggish when I have way too many windows open.
Thinking of things a little differently, a slight delay while driving can be an advantage. You need the thing to not out pace you while you have hundreds of other tasks to perform, like driving.
In the August 15th opinion "Internet can level the political playing
field" (reprinted on the 20th in the SJ Mercury) the author's fail to
recognize that their request for an exemption for political SPAM is simply
another attempt by out of touch parties to claim a "relationship" with the
voter.
While I firmly believe that the Internet can level the playing field,
neither the Republocrats nor the Demoplicans need a helping hand.
The candidates that are worth their salt and that actually will make a
difference for the *voter* already use the Internet to communicate
effectively. They have a web site that clearly, openly, and honestly
states their views. They speak to their potential constituents and seek
to spread their message by word of mouth, from one person to the next. If
their friends are engaged, those friends will go on to spread the message
to the people they know. They may indeed use email, but it will be
communication through an already established relationship, a relationship
that is trusted and respected.
When I receive SPAM, I immediately know that the party sending it *does
not give a damn* about who I am or what I think. If I receive a message
from a friend with whom I regularly share my opinions, however, I know the
quality of the endorsement and can gage the quality of the candidate. If
I like the candidate, I may *choose* to subscribe to a direct mailing
service promoting their views.
If a political candidate wants to reach out to their voters, they need to
speak with them (not with companies, not with lobbyists, and TV broadcasts
don't count) during the campaign *and* while they are in office. If this
is "simply not practical" because there are so many people, then you are
not fit to represent a population of that size.
And he added that if he could be granted one LinuxWorld wish, it would simply be that people attending the show would talk to him and his colleagues.
"Please come to the booth, converse, vent, tell us what you love about Linux and tell us what Microsoft is doing right and doing wrong," Houston said.
"Just please don't ignore us."
So remember, do everybody a big favor and ignore them.
I know that's hard for the/. crowd, since they love to hate the MPAA, RIAA and yet have a voracious appetite for their products. Corporations don't get power that they are not given.
Actually, this is not a surprise. Think of stock car racing. It grew out of average
folks with limited budgets buying commodity hardware and making it scream
with a little tinkering. Today, NASCAR racing is big buisness and very popular with the Wal-Mart crowd. They are gifted with the hacker mentality.
Wal-Mart is just making it possible for the next generation of gear heads
to soup up the next generation of hardware.
Think of this. So what if the hardware isn't on the high end. So what if
all their Windows games aren't supported. I'd like to see people out
there (eg. high school/trade school shop teachers/LUGs) showing people how to
combine the power of their systems or tweak the shit out of them. Heck at
$300 some folks would be willing risk gluing a refrigerator to their CPU!
The fun will come from racing the tweaked-out systems, bringing them
together to render awesome graphics, or participating in multi-player
games.
This is a HUGE opportunity to foster LUGs in places other than the "big
city".
This doesn't necessarily mean that the politicians personally care about this issue. It is more likely to mean that we are seeing the birth of politics on the Internet. The independents are gaining a voice because they are more effectively rallying support for thier cause than the traditional lobbiests.
I'm happy about this.
What I'm not happy about is that once this process is understood by the majors, the same folks we dislike because they shut us out of pollitical processes today will be the ones controlling the debate on the Internet.
This Shared-Source(tm) thing is what RMS was talking about when he said the term "Open Source" would dilute the meaning of "Free" as promoted by the GPL.
If you think about it, it's really not much different than keeping your
mail on an ISP's mail server and just pulling it with imap on whatever machine you're going to read it from, except that the vision is
more than mail -- it's digital pictures, digital music, contact info, free/busy info (aka, calendaring info), and more.
Don't sell IMAP short. It's the protocol you want to use to keep those pictures, music, contact info, etc. in a central location that can be easily sync'd/replicated as needed on any client. IMAP is all about replicating MIME objects, after all.
It's a shame more ISPs don't offer IMAP because then we could have distributed disks all around the net.
The G-folk have been trying to use "scary porn" as a reason we need to hand over our rights. That didn't seem to be working, so now they've gone to planting articles like the one at USA Today. Let's show a picture of something that will fright all true-blooded, upstanding Americans--a crazy Arab terrorist!
This story is full of sources with questionable motives regarding security and the free exercise of liberties around the world: the FBI, our AG, "expert" panels, and "independent" Israeli "think tanks". Come on, how dumb does the American population look?
That dumb, huh?
How can we ever hope to combat that kind of propaganda?
At least I'm getting closer to a "Successful Slashdot Submission." -- AC #5.
It's far from free, but it has a lot of interesting features: fully programmable plus identical output to pdf. We're considering a migration from Crystal (which I don't recommend).
I'd like to see a bubble for "Just say NO!". If you don't like what you see you can just vote no. It would be even better if every non-voter was counted as having voted no. After all, that is what they are saying by not voting. It would make the statistics that currently read "48 percent" or "56 percent" much more interesting. We all know it's 48% of those less than 50% that voted. Why not admit to the fact that more than 50% percent of Americans find the system so much of a sham that it's not worth their time to participate. My vote for a candidate means nothing compared to some large donor's contribution.
It annoys me when people say that non-voters are lazy. They are smart. They are smart enough not to have the wool pulled over their eyes by some shyster.
What a great ad campaign! This is really the future, isn't it? Man! There are some folks at MCI that are just fucking in tune with their market. How much did ya get paid Hemos?
Seems like News archiving could benefit from the forgetless nature of Gnutella and similar technologies. The part I don't like about those designs is the HTTP-based transactions. It seems that since Usenet traffic is already encapsulated in messages and relies on the mailbox synchronization services of NNTP, we could just create a massive message file system (take a gander at what MS has in line for Office and Exchange). As more people get on line with permanent connections we could easily offer a small part of our disk space for a shared mailbox file system accessable via IMAP. Information would simply drift to where it is needed.
The biggest risk with such an automatic scheme is that some data would eventually timeout because no one requested it anymore. I guess these messages would start to be treated like endangered species. Maybe we could just send them out into a deep-space, time-delay file system to save them.
Slashdot Mirror
These basic ideas are already being worked on with such systems as myVocs (pdf), IAMSuite, and CoManage. It is an idea whose time has come due. It's basically about the web maturing and adopting system boundaries (however loose or tightly you want to define them). It's a similar transition from DOS->Win->NT (or any batch to multitask migration you want to draw a parallel to). The web is about like DOS right now.
Couldn't apple still offer a cheaper business edition? I imagine they'd get a discount on that too. They may have to take a bit of a loss or no gain, but that wouldn't be a first in a competition.
I've used SUSE 9.3-10.2 on a lightweight Dell laptop for the last 3.5 years. My experience was nearly identical, down the wifi connection issue after suspend and the work around. :)
I've used SUSE for a while. They pulled me away from RedHat with SUSE 9.0. It was the first linux I used that just worked after being installed. I didn't have to jigger with crap. RedHat lost me when they decided to put the desktop user in second place. I've used Linux exclusively for home and office for the past 5 years and it's been SUSE that made it enjoyable.
Too bad Novell felt the need to lick Balmer's d*** last fall. The best thing that could happen to the computing world is *not* greater compatibility between Linux and Windows. Windows is on its way disappearing into the ether. At the moment it fast becoming just a crappy API that can run (safely) in a VM to support the odd application that's not got a functional duplicate on Linux (eg. IE for testing web pages and some of the corporate crapware clients (oracle)). Too bad Hovispan forgot to read the judgment from the MS monopoly trial and pay attention to ever other poor bastard that thought they could dance with the devil.
I was interested in supporting Dell and it's Ubuntu decision. I'm not traditionally an Ubunutu user. I've SuSE/openSuse on my 3 year old Dell laptop since I got it years (didn't have any hardware compatibility issues and auto-detected everything important) and otherwise use CentOS and Debian but thought it would be worth buying one just to ease hardware selection since laptop hardware changes so much.
I looked at the specs for the Ubuntu laptop. 6 pounds! Holy crap, no way in hell I'm lugging that around. My current Dell laptop is under 3lbs. I brought up the page for Dells smallest laptop and wanted to compare the hardware to their Ubuntu one. I buy under government/higher-ed. Guess what...no mention of Ubuntu as an OS option in that category. Looks like it's only available in the Home section.
Ho hum, back to the old fashioned way. Checked for wifi support before I bought the littlest one, paid the MS tax, and kept my fingers crossed.
Dell's Ubuntu option is a nice idea, but restricting it to a single Laptop isn't all that engaging.
Java is not a problem, but the Microsoft languages (C#.NET and VB.NET) are. Have you heard of porting? There is nothing in the
Microsoft hereby covenants not to assert Microsoft Patents against each Non-Compensated Individual Hobbyist Developer (also referred to as "You") for Your personal creation of an originally authored work ("Original Work") and personal use of Your Original Work. This pledge is personal to You and does not apply to the use of Your Original Work by others or to the distribution of Your Original Work by You or others. A "Non-Compensated Individual Hobbyist Developer" is an individual software developer (i.e., a person and not any corporation, partnership or other legal entity), including a developer of open source software, who receives no monetary payment or any other forms of consideration that can be valued monetarily for their creation of their Original Works. The fact that You may be employed as a software developer by, and receive a salary from, a corporation, partnership or other legal entity, does not disqualify You from treatment as a "Non-Compensated Individual Hobbyist Developer" under this pledge, provided Your activities related to the creation of Your Original Work are performed during Your free time and outside the scope of Your employment. The Microsoft Patents subject to this pledge are all patents issued world-wide to the extent they are owned or controlled by Microsoft or its majority owned subsidiaries. For additional information on obtaining rights under Microsoft patents to contribute Your Original Work to an open source project, please see Microsoft's Patent Pledge for Hobbyist Contributors. WTF is that? This is meaningless drivel. The whole point of free software is freedom to work on it community. If all I do is mod code at home and use it at home it ain't open and I'm not free. This also puts a big cloud over free software use commercially, ie. when i participate in and/or lead free software projects are part of my day job...which is a big component of this. Free software is a treasure trove of problem solutions. They are effectively saying you can work on or use that software without paying M$.
I like Suse. I've used it for years. I use OpenSuse and hope it will keep itself clear of that but I'm looking for alternatives. Ubuntu has a chance but anything that puts GNOME first is crap. I don't like Mono or the rest of Miguel's M$ fan-boyism. I don't want M$ crap in my life and haven't had it there for years.
This kind of data is what more of us should expose. We should also protect it with the GPL. Anyone would be free to use the data (source) however they like and extend it with their own analysis adding more data, as long at that data also carries the GPL.
This would eventually build a large data set that could be used by anyone both for evil marketing/spying or good counter advertising, like revealing the real cost of goods and services.
It really seems like the only option to overcome the large private databases that, in a large part, control our lives.
Does postfix have milters? Sendmail is popular for a reason.
this will be reported, glowingly, as an Israeli action to curb terrorism by taking out a "suspected Hamas leader".
I don't know...a 266MHz Intel with MMX...that sounds a lot like my personal computer here at home. It's the only machine we have and it works just fine. Sure it's a little slow at times but it's perfectly adequate.
We always run two X sessions so my wife and I can fast user switch between our desktops. It serves as our stereo, and I run our family web site and a couple of low volume mailing lists off it. It only gets sluggish when I have way too many windows open.
Thinking of things a little differently, a slight delay while driving can be an advantage. You need the thing to not out pace you while you have hundreds of other tasks to perform, like driving.
In the August 15th opinion "Internet can level the political playing field" (reprinted on the 20th in the SJ Mercury) the author's fail to recognize that their request for an exemption for political SPAM is simply another attempt by out of touch parties to claim a "relationship" with the voter.
While I firmly believe that the Internet can level the playing field, neither the Republocrats nor the Demoplicans need a helping hand.
The candidates that are worth their salt and that actually will make a difference for the *voter* already use the Internet to communicate effectively. They have a web site that clearly, openly, and honestly states their views. They speak to their potential constituents and seek to spread their message by word of mouth, from one person to the next. If their friends are engaged, those friends will go on to spread the message to the people they know. They may indeed use email, but it will be communication through an already established relationship, a relationship that is trusted and respected.
When I receive SPAM, I immediately know that the party sending it *does not give a damn* about who I am or what I think. If I receive a message from a friend with whom I regularly share my opinions, however, I know the quality of the endorsement and can gage the quality of the candidate. If I like the candidate, I may *choose* to subscribe to a direct mailing service promoting their views.
If a political candidate wants to reach out to their voters, they need to speak with them (not with companies, not with lobbyists, and TV broadcasts don't count) during the campaign *and* while they are in office. If this is "simply not practical" because there are so many people, then you are not fit to represent a population of that size.
According to the Wired article:
/. crowd, since they love to hate the MPAA, RIAA and yet have a voracious appetite for their products. Corporations don't get power that they are not given.
And he added that if he could be granted one LinuxWorld wish, it would simply be that people attending the show would talk to him and his colleagues.
"Please come to the booth, converse, vent, tell us what you love about Linux and tell us what Microsoft is doing right and doing wrong," Houston said.
"Just please don't ignore us."
So remember, do everybody a big favor and ignore them.
I know that's hard for the
See any parallels!?!
There's still plenty of illegal activity out there. It's just that now you need to have secure systems to stay ahead of the traffic cops on the net. ;)
Actually, this is not a surprise. Think of stock car racing. It grew out of average folks with limited budgets buying commodity hardware and making it scream with a little tinkering. Today, NASCAR racing is big buisness and very popular with the Wal-Mart crowd. They are gifted with the hacker mentality.
Wal-Mart is just making it possible for the next generation of gear heads to soup up the next generation of hardware.
Think of this. So what if the hardware isn't on the high end. So what if all their Windows games aren't supported. I'd like to see people out there (eg. high school/trade school shop teachers/LUGs) showing people how to combine the power of their systems or tweak the shit out of them. Heck at $300 some folks would be willing risk gluing a refrigerator to their CPU!
The fun will come from racing the tweaked-out systems, bringing them together to render awesome graphics, or participating in multi-player games.
This is a HUGE opportunity to foster LUGs in places other than the "big city".
Good Luck.
Someone needs to set up a fax-your-congressmen site for this issue like the following one designed to help save Internet radio.
http://broadcastpromotions.net/carp/
It's the new era of web activism!
It's interesting that "they" are listening. Why?
This doesn't necessarily mean that the politicians personally care about this issue. It is more likely to mean that we are seeing the birth of politics on the Internet. The independents are gaining a voice because they are more effectively rallying support for thier cause than the traditional lobbiests.
I'm happy about this.
What I'm not happy about is that once this process is understood by the majors, the same folks we dislike because they shut us out of pollitical processes today will be the ones controlling the debate on the Internet.
Be aware of this.
So, what about the Linux Terminal Server Project. Isn't that all about X-terminals. What's to important about this "News". The benefits are known.
This Shared-Source(tm) thing is what RMS was talking about when he said the term "Open Source" would dilute the meaning of "Free" as promoted by the GPL.
Don't sell IMAP short. It's the protocol you want to use to keep those pictures, music, contact info, etc. in a central location that can be easily sync'd/replicated as needed on any client. IMAP is all about replicating MIME objects, after all.
It's a shame more ISPs don't offer IMAP because then we could have distributed disks all around the net.
The G-folk have been trying to use "scary porn" as a reason we need to hand over our rights. That didn't seem to be working, so now they've gone to planting articles like the one at USA Today. Let's show a picture of something that will fright all true-blooded, upstanding Americans--a crazy Arab terrorist!
This story is full of sources with questionable motives regarding security and the free exercise of liberties around the world: the FBI, our AG, "expert" panels, and "independent" Israeli "think tanks". Come on, how dumb does the American population look?
That dumb, huh?
How can we ever hope to combat that kind of propaganda?
At least I'm getting closer to a "Successful Slashdot Submission." -- AC #5.
It's far from free, but it has a lot of interesting features: fully programmable plus identical output to pdf. We're considering a migration from Crystal (which I don't recommend).
Nuf said. Think up, not down.
I'd like to see a bubble for "Just say NO!". If you don't like what you see you can just vote no. It would be even better if every non-voter was counted as having voted no. After all, that is what they are saying by not voting. It would make the statistics that currently read "48 percent" or "56 percent" much more interesting. We all know it's 48% of those less than 50% that voted. Why not admit to the fact that more than 50% percent of Americans find the system so much of a sham that it's not worth their time to participate. My vote for a candidate means nothing compared to some large donor's contribution.
It annoys me when people say that non-voters are lazy. They are smart. They are smart enough not to have the wool pulled over their eyes by some shyster.
BTW: I'm still fool enough to participate.
What a great ad campaign! This is really the future, isn't it? Man! There are some folks at MCI that are just fucking in tune with their market. How much did ya get paid Hemos?
Seems like News archiving could benefit from the forgetless nature of Gnutella and similar technologies. The part I don't like about those designs is the HTTP-based transactions. It seems that since Usenet traffic is already encapsulated in messages and relies on the mailbox synchronization services of NNTP, we could just create a massive message file system (take a gander at what MS has in line for Office and Exchange). As more people get on line with permanent connections we could easily offer a small part of our disk space for a shared mailbox file system accessable via IMAP. Information would simply drift to where it is needed.
The biggest risk with such an automatic scheme is that some data would eventually timeout because no one requested it anymore. I guess these messages would start to be treated like endangered species. Maybe we could just send them out into a deep-space, time-delay file system to save them.