Planned obsolessence was the procedure of making sure technology only lasted so long then HAD to be replaced. This was a commen practace in the 1970s and 80s. Commodore 1541 for example. Eventually you had to repair or replace hardware. Thats the idea. An idea stared with a number of design flaws in home computers and solidified by the Atari VCS.... the NEVER replaced never upgraded never broken Atari VCS.
Nintendo continued this by releacing game titles for only the latest Nintendo platforms. Microsoft by making it difficult to support old Windows versions.
And USB by renaming USB 1.1 to USB 2. So anyone with USB 1.1 would have to upgrade not becouse the hardware actually IS USB 2 but becouse the hardware is labled USB 2.
I'll be getting a USB 2 card becouse I actually do have USB 2 hardware (not hardware remarked USB 2) so this stunt won't impact me.. MUCH... Becouse I'm only getting it for home. At work I'll still be using USB 1.1 so if I get a USB drive later on down the road I won't know for sure if it will work ok at work or not untill I buy it.
Also I have already invested in a USB 1.1 hub and I'd I know I'll be getting a USB 2 hub for new devices and I would like to not waist plugging USB 1.1 devices into the USB 2 hub when I have ports free on the USB 1.1 hub.
I've felt Sun was going the wrong direction YEARS ago and they were. Sun had the chance to switch to Linux early on or just open the source to SunOs (Suns own *Nix clone) and create an alternitive but Sun desided to make money on the os market as well as the hardware market.
The reasons this was a bad idea is multifold. Microsoft was already crushing compeating operating systems and was prepairing to go after Unix. Linux was also making it's first threatoning moves to replace closed source Unix.
But Sun has faired quite well by what they've done. They have have even earnned Unix more years of life and probably were key in weakening Microsofts entry into the server market.
But things have changed and Sun was not standing still. In spite of clames Sun is it's own cheaf compeditor. One of if not the most populare Linux servers are the Cobalt brand servers made by Sun Microsystems.
Yes Linux is replacing Solarus but more importantly Cobalt is replacing the sparc. Both are Sun propertys.
Standing on the old and the new I'd say Sun is being pritty smart. Holding on to any ground Sun can in the Sparc while reclaming ground lost with the Cobalt means Sun will lose costummers to PCs but those can be scooped up later as Cobalt servers improve in ways PCs can't.
Also it means that most of the users who leave Sun Sparcs for Linux will still be relying on Sun with the Cobalt servers.
Sun isn't going to alienate it's primary userbase (Unix/Solarus/Sparc) even if it's new userbase is growing (Cobalt/Linux). Sun will experence an inital drop in income as users stop liccensing the expensive Solarus in favor of the cheaper Linux but in the long run Sun is prepaired for change. They don't look it however. Would you alert your userbase paying the big bucks than there is a cheaper alternitive (even if you sell it)? Sun will let go of all illusions that Solarus has a future when they can't milk it anymore.
Any time someone dose something someone else dosen't like you'll find someone quoting laws that do not exist.
IANAL but if there is any law forbidding war it can not possably be legal.
I'd also like to say that the folks who established many of the sighted problems are in fact not in power anymore. Tell you what... Remove "illegal" and replace "the folks" with "the government" or better yet "the offical policy". Oh yeah and that line about "friendlier demeanor" your kidding right?
However Microsoft Windows isn't sponsered by the United States government. Not that this is any great distiction. On the other hand we do have the source code. Ok well we may not have source code comming back from China but if we recreate RedFlag from source I doupt there'd be any back doors.
Turst the american government? Only so much as the freedom of information act is honnored. Turst the Chines government? Only so much as I can review the source code? Trust the Cannadian government? Only so much as they havn't invaded... yet.... give em time they'll get pissed off enough some day.
I can't wait for the new redesigned cities, I think I'll get me a condo I'll be happy to have a larger population on the sidewalks then maybe the public will be more intrested in having cross walk lights that work instead of street lights that work.
(A few years back street lights that worked was the big issue)
For years we've had cross walk lights that give you maybe 10 seconds to cross before the "don't walk" sign flashes. I had to run accrost to get accrost before the traffic light changed and get run over.
Of course we'll never actually get rid of roads but it would be nice if only 2% of the population actually drove. (Eather for hobby, sport or shipments)
You know it's probably not got anything to do with viruses or worms. It's more likely human error.
You know this is why everyone down the chain needs to start taking responsability.
Is Microsoft responsable? Yes (not legally I know) But so is the Syadmin and the utility that hired him. Quite frankly the utility should also be held responsable for agreeing to hold Microsoft blameless with out anyway of fixing it themselfs. (I had to add the qualifier becouse with Linux you CAN fix it... With Windows your stuck at Microsofts whims)
But you know Microsoft should be held blameless for the worms now becouse Microsoft has offered patches.
Also they could just blame viruses and worms when what really happend is they did something really stupid and won't admit it.
Baby bell employees ripping digital network hardware out becouse the trainning they have is obsolte and similare stunts...
ISPs were suing baby bells for refusing to bring in more phone lines or knocking lines out after install or ripping out T1-OCR3 hardware...
Now we have power companys who could be hit and a celulare company who is at the very least using it as an excuse for a major outage.
I'm gona start asking cell companys if they run Windows before I sign up. I don't care if they do have a good anti-virus/worm/security policy and armor systems 100% there is still the opratunity to blame human error on malware and not take responsability for major outages.
In Capitalist America... You don't destory your computer Your computer destorys you (with help from buggy software, ID theft, spam, hackers (Black hats) and Slashdot)
Compu$erve got this LONG before Micro$oft was anything evil. Back in the day Compu$erve was basicly a large mainframe (Compusere had been in business for a VERY long time) and at the time BBSes were everywhere. The problem was that Compuserve had become very expensive for the time due to charging an hourly rate and most of Compuserves services were available for free from BBSes.
People had gotten tired of it and started calling it Compu$erve.
Now a days Microsoft basicly overcharges for Windows for what they get for free with Linux.
I've mentioned this before when technology publications that focuse primaraly on Microsoft products CLAME the are impartal and have no ties to Microsoft that when you rely on someone for information your not impartal to that source.
Info 64 a publication for Commodore 64 users created on the Commodore 64 etc etc. The whole philosophy is the magazine should live and die by the products they support. Obveously they are no longer in publication.
Anywho when Commodore published the specs for the 4+ and C16 every Commodore mag published the specs exactly from the press kit. Info 64 did not.
A reporter at Info64 wrote an artical ripping on other Commodore based publications for doing that. The point he made was that ANY publication that focuses on Commodore is answerable to Commodore. When Commodore hands out press kits there is an implied threat "report this and be glad we give you anything". I rember that. I was a subscriber to Computs Gazzet Commoodre and Info 64. Compute was a publication powerhouse and got ALL the latest news and information but they were never critical of Commodore or the software titles. When they did report weak points they'd glaze them over like it didn't really matter. All the platform publications were like that. Except for Info64. Thats what I liked about them. Info 64 starts off with a bunch of reviews and I always read them over. They are very critical and careful to review the software properly. In other publications I skip the reviews becouse they were just free ads pretending to be lagit reviews. The greatest database program ever... on the Vic 20? See where I'm going with this? Some of thies reviews were just downright garbage becouse the publications were fearful of being cut off.
Info64 didn't care. If they can't do it right they can't do it at all.
No Commodore never cut them off.
But now jump forward... Commodore is dead Microsoft rains suppream and Microsoft is making noises about it's latest and greatest Windows 95. Bug free and an Os itself not an envronment running on top of Dos. It now uses protected mode processing like OS/2 so a bug in a driver or application won't crash the whole operating system.
Microsoft handed out Windows 95 beta CDs. Nearly every industry reporter got one. One reporter had the balls to point out every single problem in the Windows 95 beta. Microsoft was angry and pulled that reporter from the beta program.
Commodore was bluffing Microsoft wasn't.
Now everyone is being very careful.
Unless they are Mac or Linux publications.
If you work for a publication that works with Microsoft ANY time your critical of Microsoft you put your job at risk.
I showed my mother this and she was saying "I don't see the problem" But she was pulling this up on her PDA "What if it didn't work on your PDA?" If my website were to look up some data on a website with an expired domain it could get an error telling it the website dose not exist or it could get sightfinder.
Now this is a great idea that could be done quite well at the ISP level. Modify bind to do the task automaticly if you like or offer users a list of possabilitys.
But if say AT&T wanted to set up this for mlife costummers they'd have a problem as they'd get sitefinder instead.
What's to keep sitefinder from becomming an IE only service? or if they wanted they could say "Mozilla only". Picture it, Microsoft pays them to lock out non-Windows users and then AoL locks out all Non-Netscape users.
As much as I hate the internal IE error messages what if Microsoft wanted to do this same service and do this as an internal IE message redirecting to Microsofts portal? And if Google wanted to they could add this to the Google toolbar they could bypass Microsofts little portal but they can't change the way the Internet works and as it works right now if Microsoft, Goggle or AT&T provided this service it would be shut out becouse invalid domain names are resolved to be sitefinder.
If you bought a "token ring adapter" from Cisco and opened the box to find a device that allowed you to slip a Cracker Jack box toy ring over your finger, would you not feel a bit deceived? Yes I would. When I order a Token ring I expect a J.R. Token "one true" ring.
When an individual (adult or child) expresses intrest in means of mass murder or the ownership of wepons a parent should become more conserned about the childs state of mind, psycology and general well being.
Violent video games are more likely to stall a violent act rather than encurrage same as the game provides a vertual relase for that activity.
A presistant myth reguarding violent video games is that they are effective military trainning simulations. This clame appears to be a flat out lie put forth by one of the many making money selling books that blame violent video games.
Aimming with a mouse is entirely alien to the use of a gun. Moving with a keyboard is not like moving with your feet. The game is scued in other ways as well.
I am reminded of a project where a survalence mapping computer was created and then programmed to play Doom. This game used the real movements and firing from a realistic gun to move around and shoot inside the doom gamming environment.
If your child builds such a complex and expensive system purely to play a video game then maybe you could say the game is a useful trainning simulation. However even then your child will need to fix the gaming "physics" to more closely match reality before the game could do the job.
The amount of work and effort needed to turn violent videogames into useful trainning simulations is so much that should a kid actually do it there should be no doupt the parents aren't aware of what there kids are doing.
It's very hard to get Linux games on the shelfs so companys will try to snub Linux.
The companys who have supported Linux in the past enjoyed support from Linux users and what that means is that Linux many Linux users use Linux as a sort of personal server running personal websites, e-mail and other services from the system.
I've noticed the vast majority of game servers seam to be running on Linux. This becouse Linux makes a very good server and there are game clients for Linux. BSD and Solarus might make better servers but with no clients BSD and Solarus users just don't feel then need to support the games they themselfs can not play.
Linux users MAY chouse to reboot to Windows but those users will not be running game servers as they'll be taking those servers down to play. There just isn't any point to having a server if you can't play on it.
I use Gaim and I do find that notice from Yahoo a bit annoying and hope gaim updates the protocal soon. Just to be sure I did download the latest version of gaim but it's not helping.:(
If we do reach the deadline and I lose contact with Yahoo IM. Goodbye YIM.
It's seldom so simple as that. There are quite a few successful programs delivering food and shelter some even have access to the Internet through public libarys. To you the Internet may not seam to be a basic need but for someone whom information means the diffrence between dying in the gutter and making a better life a pocket computer is a life saver.
The worse the situation is the more a portable computer can help.
Education is vital if a person is to break out of poverty and a portable computer is probably the best possable way to getting that education to the poor who are busy trying to stay alive.
What your not aware of is that about the same time Microsoft inserted it's own "helpful" page instead of what the remote server sent web admin realised the value of using the servers own internal feature of sending a more helpful page.
The internal 404 usually is some sort of program to track down and redirect you to where you should be so instead of saying "This page no longer exists" it's saying "Hay maybe you want THIS page instead."
Also read the 404 page more carefully. If something has gone wrong with the website your given contact information (presumming the web admin did his job and put the admin contact e-mail into the server) in the 404 message so that you can contact the person or persons responsable for maintanence and tell them what went wrong.
But again you won't get that contact information under Microsoft Windows IE "helpful" page.
That page is IEs best guess as to what happend and being familure with the Internet I'm usually aware of what is wrong and what is really going on and quite frankly IE has yet to guess the real cause of the 404 message.
However the big diffrence between Microsoft IEs replacement "Hay quit complaining I'm only trying to help" and Verisons search website is that IE is on YOUR computer and if you don't like how IE works download Netscape, Opra, Mozilla or one of the many other web browsers that are out there and you get the REAL 404 message but Verison is basicly changing the Internet inferstructure to do this so we all get screwed reguardless of the programs and os we use.
IBM liccensed the stupid lawsute business method patents to SCO however SCO clames they have a forged e-mail saying IBM transefed ownership of the IP to them.
It's not a matter of throwing money at the problem. Every time Microsoft redesigns Windows they repeate the same basic mistakes over and over again. The reason is becouse Bill Gates has his own ideas on how an operating system should work and refuses to accept the fact that those ideas are the cause of Windows problems.
It would be more akin to trying to make the space shuttle streat legal while refusing to make it smaller.
The feat they did preform is more akin to making Minux stable and reliable. No simple feat but that is exactly what Linus was attempting to do when he first started working on his Linux kernel.
It's not your hardware buddy And that is why I havn't bought one yet.
Side step the Microsoft bashing I so enjoy doing... Nintendo entered the game console industry long ago knowing that the console wasn't itself a product as much as it was a peace of the bigger puzzle. The money is in the games and so Nintendo retains control over game software sales.
Microsoft in selling the X Box has a very keen mind for the business aspect. Maybe not so smart in the techno side of things but when a business plan works they are on it (all ethical considerations go out the window).
As such Microsoft is folowing Nintendos lead. Your not buying a peace of hardware your buying an entertainment pacage.
It's your hardware. You break it you fix it. But it's yours like the cable box is yours (assuming the cable company let's you buy it outright). Your still limited as to what you can do with it.
As for the patch I certanly understand why Microsoft did that. 1. Microsoft is conserned for the piracy of games that this defect would permit. 2. Microsoft in folowing Nintendos example is trying to make money selling games not game consoles and as such there is a very realistic consern that with this patch third party game makers could sell games with out going through Microsoft and cutting Microsoft out of it's share. 3. Well ok Linux sales not exactly making Microsoft happy. 4. "Oh so THAT is how this works.... Now we just build our own knock off clone and...." Once you have an os running it's a hop skip and a jump to discovering all that went into the design and from there a clone isn't that far off.
I prepose we wire up Cowboy Neal with all the cybernetics the Slashdot crew was talking about back on Slashdot radio years ago then use him as the test subject. That is presumming the robotic legs don't put him over the weight limit.
I was being overly simplistic. Sending garbage packets is just the easiest thing to do. But if only one person is doing the DoS then you have to get the server to send a reply that is much larger than the original request.
Receave = 2 bytes + bogus address Send = 5k responce to request sent to bogus address.
But say the defect that makes this DoS possable is patched or not present on your intended victiom.
Please not I tried to put this in order but I know some of them are compleatly out of place... Example I list the Apple II fans AFTER the "I built my PC" case stickers. By the time you could get those stickers the Apple II fans were long discontinued...
I remember when case modding was adding a lable to a S-100 computer to lable it's function. Taping over the key caps on a terminal so users would know what the Micro keys were programmed to do. And taping industructions to the desk.
and then there was the brackets to keep people from walking off with newer home computers (Vic 20, C64, Coco)
Or just ripping the lable off the computer so when you do your video or movie your not advertising for the computer manufacter. Forget that the computers were distictive back then and could be spotted a mile away.
Or ripping the lable off becouse your a board 15 year old.
Then there was replacing your Apple II case with one that had the number pad built in the case. Replacing your Commodore 64 case with a nifty C128 style sloped front.
Reloading the springs in the Commodore 64 keyboard to make it a little better for typing.
Painting the Mac case to look pritty.
Then there was the 64K Atari XL.. Not 64K ram.. 64 carrot.... dimands...
Modifying the PC case for better air flow. Actually removing the IBM logo off classic IBM brand PCs and slapping them on kit builds.
The "I built my PC" case logos
Apple II fans to improve airflow. Mac powers strips to put the button in reach.
Reset button (If one already existed relocated to be easier or harder to reach)
Reset button cut (or modified to be harder to push such as two buttons in two diffrent locations both must be pressed at the same time thus reducing the chance of an accadental reset)
Unpluging internal speaker. Routing internal speaker to external speaker with volume control. Putting a switch on internal speaker to turn on and off.
Case mounted temp display so you can tell how how the computer is running.
drive bay fans.
vareous cooling systems.
Turnning a dorm fridge into a PC case. (With negitive results)
reinforcing the CD rom tray so it actually will hold stuff.
System status LCD display to tell how many users are on, what the time is, how hot the system is or stock/news ticker.
Tower case Rack mount case Stereo cabnet fitting case. All in one case. Lugable case.
People who do this stuff also buy up computer hardware just to do this driving the cost of same down so the rest of us can not only afford it but get it at really cheap prices.
And some of this finds it's way back into the mainstream PC design.
So mod on guys... Mod on... And hay find a cheap way to modle plastic so your technology can be applied to every day items like clocks and bring the cost of same down.
And if someone could come up with a way to use plastic for radio interfearence shilding even better. Conductive plastics hmmmmm.
Slashdot Mirror
> sorry for messing that up on you.
Oh no it's just fine I don't see the problem at all.
What do you mean?
(Note how my responce not only changes the words by as a result effects the content and meaning)
Planned obsolessence was the procedure of making sure technology only lasted so long then HAD to be replaced.
This was a commen practace in the 1970s and 80s. Commodore 1541 for example.
Eventually you had to repair or replace hardware. Thats the idea. An idea stared with a number of design flaws in home computers and solidified by the Atari VCS.... the NEVER replaced never upgraded never broken Atari VCS.
Nintendo continued this by releacing game titles for only the latest Nintendo platforms.
Microsoft by making it difficult to support old Windows versions.
And USB by renaming USB 1.1 to USB 2. So anyone with USB 1.1 would have to upgrade not becouse the hardware actually IS USB 2 but becouse the hardware is labled USB 2.
I'll be getting a USB 2 card becouse I actually do have USB 2 hardware (not hardware remarked USB 2) so this stunt won't impact me.. MUCH...
Becouse I'm only getting it for home. At work I'll still be using USB 1.1 so if I get a USB drive later on down the road I won't know for sure if it will work ok at work or not untill I buy it.
Also I have already invested in a USB 1.1 hub and I'd I know I'll be getting a USB 2 hub for new devices and I would like to not waist plugging USB 1.1 devices into the USB 2 hub when I have ports free on the USB 1.1 hub.
I've felt Sun was going the wrong direction YEARS ago and they were.
Sun had the chance to switch to Linux early on or just open the source to SunOs (Suns own *Nix clone) and create an alternitive but Sun desided to make money on the os market as well as the hardware market.
The reasons this was a bad idea is multifold.
Microsoft was already crushing compeating operating systems and was prepairing to go after Unix.
Linux was also making it's first threatoning moves to replace closed source Unix.
But Sun has faired quite well by what they've done. They have have even earnned Unix more years of life and probably were key in weakening Microsofts entry into the server market.
But things have changed and Sun was not standing still.
In spite of clames Sun is it's own cheaf compeditor. One of if not the most populare Linux servers are the Cobalt brand servers made by Sun Microsystems.
Yes Linux is replacing Solarus but more importantly Cobalt is replacing the sparc. Both are Sun propertys.
Standing on the old and the new I'd say Sun is being pritty smart. Holding on to any ground Sun can in the Sparc while reclaming ground lost with the Cobalt means Sun will lose costummers to PCs but those can be scooped up later as Cobalt servers improve in ways PCs can't.
Also it means that most of the users who leave Sun Sparcs for Linux will still be relying on Sun with the Cobalt servers.
Sun isn't going to alienate it's primary userbase (Unix/Solarus/Sparc) even if it's new userbase is growing (Cobalt/Linux).
Sun will experence an inital drop in income as users stop liccensing the expensive Solarus in favor of the cheaper Linux but in the long run Sun is prepaired for change. They don't look it however. Would you alert your userbase paying the big bucks than there is a cheaper alternitive (even if you sell it)?
Sun will let go of all illusions that Solarus has a future when they can't milk it anymore.
the illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan
Any time someone dose something someone else dosen't like you'll find someone quoting laws that do not exist.
IANAL but if there is any law forbidding war it can not possably be legal.
I'd also like to say that the folks who established many of the sighted problems are in fact not in power anymore.
Tell you what... Remove "illegal" and replace "the folks" with "the government" or better yet "the offical policy".
Oh yeah and that line about "friendlier demeanor" your kidding right?
However Microsoft Windows isn't sponsered by the United States government.
Not that this is any great distiction.
On the other hand we do have the source code. Ok well we may not have source code comming back from China but if we recreate RedFlag from source I doupt there'd be any back doors.
Turst the american government? Only so much as the freedom of information act is honnored.
Turst the Chines government? Only so much as I can review the source code?
Trust the Cannadian government? Only so much as they havn't invaded... yet.... give em time they'll get pissed off enough some day.
Trust but verify....
Show me the source.
I can't wait for the new redesigned cities, I think I'll get me a condo
I'll be happy to have a larger population on the sidewalks then maybe the public will be more intrested in having cross walk lights that work instead of street lights that work.
(A few years back street lights that worked was the big issue)
For years we've had cross walk lights that give you maybe 10 seconds to cross before the "don't walk" sign flashes.
I had to run accrost to get accrost before the traffic light changed and get run over.
Of course we'll never actually get rid of roads but it would be nice if only 2% of the population actually drove.
(Eather for hobby, sport or shipments)
You know it's probably not got anything to do with viruses or worms.
It's more likely human error.
You know this is why everyone down the chain needs to start taking responsability.
Is Microsoft responsable? Yes (not legally I know)
But so is the Syadmin and the utility that hired him.
Quite frankly the utility should also be held responsable for agreeing to hold Microsoft blameless with out anyway of fixing it themselfs.
(I had to add the qualifier becouse with Linux you CAN fix it... With Windows your stuck at Microsofts whims)
But you know Microsoft should be held blameless for the worms now becouse Microsoft has offered patches.
Also they could just blame viruses and worms when what really happend is they did something really stupid and won't admit it.
Baby bell employees ripping digital network hardware out becouse the trainning they have is obsolte and similare stunts...
ISPs were suing baby bells for refusing to bring in more phone lines or knocking lines out after install or ripping out T1-OCR3 hardware...
Now we have power companys who could be hit and a celulare company who is at the very least using it as an excuse for a major outage.
I'm gona start asking cell companys if they run Windows before I sign up. I don't care if they do have a good anti-virus/worm/security policy and armor systems 100% there is still the opratunity to blame human error on malware and not take responsability for major outages.
In Capitalist America...
You don't destory your computer
Your computer destorys you
(with help from buggy software, ID theft, spam, hackers (Black hats) and Slashdot)
No I couldn't
Me:[monotone] "Welcome to Wendys may I take your order."
Costummer: "I want a pizza with everything and a big mac"
Me[Shooting costummer]: "Next"
Compu$erve got this LONG before Micro$oft was anything evil.
Back in the day Compu$erve was basicly a large mainframe (Compusere had been in business for a VERY long time) and at the time BBSes were everywhere.
The problem was that Compuserve had become very expensive for the time due to charging an hourly rate and most of Compuserves services were available for free from BBSes.
People had gotten tired of it and started calling it Compu$erve.
Now a days Microsoft basicly overcharges for Windows for what they get for free with Linux.
I've mentioned this before when technology publications that focuse primaraly on Microsoft products CLAME the are impartal and have no ties to Microsoft that when you rely on someone for information your not impartal to that source.
Info 64 a publication for Commodore 64 users created on the Commodore 64 etc etc. The whole philosophy is the magazine should live and die by the products they support. Obveously they are no longer in publication.
Anywho when Commodore published the specs for the 4+ and C16 every Commodore mag published the specs exactly from the press kit. Info 64 did not.
A reporter at Info64 wrote an artical ripping on other Commodore based publications for doing that.
The point he made was that ANY publication that focuses on Commodore is answerable to Commodore. When Commodore hands out press kits there is an implied threat "report this and be glad we give you anything".
I rember that. I was a subscriber to Computs Gazzet Commoodre and Info 64. Compute was a publication powerhouse and got ALL the latest news and information but they were never critical of Commodore or the software titles. When they did report weak points they'd glaze them over like it didn't really matter.
All the platform publications were like that.
Except for Info64. Thats what I liked about them.
Info 64 starts off with a bunch of reviews and I always read them over. They are very critical and careful to review the software properly.
In other publications I skip the reviews becouse they were just free ads pretending to be lagit reviews.
The greatest database program ever... on the Vic 20? See where I'm going with this? Some of thies reviews were just downright garbage becouse the publications were fearful of being cut off.
Info64 didn't care. If they can't do it right they can't do it at all.
No Commodore never cut them off.
But now jump forward... Commodore is dead Microsoft rains suppream and Microsoft is making noises about it's latest and greatest Windows 95. Bug free and an Os itself not an envronment running on top of Dos. It now uses protected mode processing like OS/2 so a bug in a driver or application won't crash the whole operating system.
Microsoft handed out Windows 95 beta CDs.
Nearly every industry reporter got one. One reporter had the balls to point out every single problem in the Windows 95 beta.
Microsoft was angry and pulled that reporter from the beta program.
Commodore was bluffing Microsoft wasn't.
Now everyone is being very careful.
Unless they are Mac or Linux publications.
If you work for a publication that works with Microsoft ANY time your critical of Microsoft you put your job at risk.
I showed my mother this and she was saying "I don't see the problem"
But she was pulling this up on her PDA
"What if it didn't work on your PDA?"
If my website were to look up some data on a website with an expired domain it could get an error telling it the website dose not exist or it could get sightfinder.
Now this is a great idea that could be done quite well at the ISP level. Modify bind to do the task automaticly if you like or offer users a list of possabilitys.
But if say AT&T wanted to set up this for mlife costummers they'd have a problem as they'd get sitefinder instead.
What's to keep sitefinder from becomming an IE only service? or if they wanted they could say "Mozilla only".
Picture it, Microsoft pays them to lock out non-Windows users and then AoL locks out all Non-Netscape users.
As much as I hate the internal IE error messages what if Microsoft wanted to do this same service and do this as an internal IE message redirecting to Microsofts portal?
And if Google wanted to they could add this to the Google toolbar they could bypass Microsofts little portal but they can't change the way the Internet works and as it works right now if Microsoft, Goggle or AT&T provided this service it would be shut out becouse invalid domain names are resolved to be sitefinder.
If you bought a "token ring adapter" from Cisco and opened the box to find a device that allowed you to slip a Cracker Jack box toy ring over your finger, would you not feel a bit deceived?
Yes I would. When I order a Token ring I expect a J.R. Token "one true" ring.
JK.
When an individual (adult or child) expresses intrest in means of mass murder or the ownership of wepons a parent should become more conserned about the childs state of mind, psycology and general well being.
Violent video games are more likely to stall a violent act rather than encurrage same as the game provides a vertual relase for that activity.
A presistant myth reguarding violent video games is that they are effective military trainning simulations. This clame appears to be a flat out lie put forth by one of the many making money selling books that blame violent video games.
Aimming with a mouse is entirely alien to the use of a gun. Moving with a keyboard is not like moving with your feet. The game is scued in other ways as well.
I am reminded of a project where a survalence mapping computer was created and then programmed to play Doom. This game used the real movements and firing from a realistic gun to move around and shoot inside the doom gamming environment.
If your child builds such a complex and expensive system purely to play a video game then maybe you could say the game is a useful trainning simulation.
However even then your child will need to fix the gaming "physics" to more closely match reality before the game could do the job.
The amount of work and effort needed to turn violent videogames into useful trainning simulations is so much that should a kid actually do it there should be no doupt the parents aren't aware of what there kids are doing.
It's very hard to get Linux games on the shelfs so companys will try to snub Linux.
The companys who have supported Linux in the past enjoyed support from Linux users and what that means is that Linux many Linux users use Linux as a sort of personal server running personal websites, e-mail and other services from the system.
I've noticed the vast majority of game servers seam to be running on Linux. This becouse Linux makes a very good server and there are game clients for Linux. BSD and Solarus might make better servers but with no clients BSD and Solarus users just don't feel then need to support the games they themselfs can not play.
Linux users MAY chouse to reboot to Windows but those users will not be running game servers as they'll be taking those servers down to play. There just isn't any point to having a server if you can't play on it.
I use Gaim and I do find that notice from Yahoo a bit annoying and hope gaim updates the protocal soon. :(
Just to be sure I did download the latest version of gaim but it's not helping.
If we do reach the deadline and I lose contact with Yahoo IM. Goodbye YIM.
It's seldom so simple as that.
There are quite a few successful programs delivering food and shelter some even have access to the Internet through public libarys.
To you the Internet may not seam to be a basic need but for someone whom information means the diffrence between dying in the gutter and making a better life a pocket computer is a life saver.
The worse the situation is the more a portable computer can help.
Education is vital if a person is to break out of poverty and a portable computer is probably the best possable way to getting that education to the poor who are busy trying to stay alive.
What your not aware of is that about the same time Microsoft inserted it's own "helpful" page instead of what the remote server sent web admin realised the value of using the servers own internal feature of sending a more helpful page.
The internal 404 usually is some sort of program to track down and redirect you to where you should be so instead of saying "This page no longer exists" it's saying "Hay maybe you want THIS page instead."
Also read the 404 page more carefully. If something has gone wrong with the website your given contact information (presumming the web admin did his job and put the admin contact e-mail into the server) in the 404 message so that you can contact the person or persons responsable for maintanence and tell them what went wrong.
But again you won't get that contact information under Microsoft Windows IE "helpful" page.
That page is IEs best guess as to what happend and being familure with the Internet I'm usually aware of what is wrong and what is really going on and quite frankly IE has yet to guess the real cause of the 404 message.
However the big diffrence between Microsoft IEs replacement "Hay quit complaining I'm only trying to help" and Verisons search website is that IE is on YOUR computer and if you don't like how IE works download Netscape, Opra, Mozilla or one of the many other web browsers that are out there and you get the REAL 404 message but Verison is basicly changing the Internet inferstructure to do this so we all get screwed reguardless of the programs and os we use.
IBM liccensed the stupid lawsute business method patents to SCO however SCO clames they have a forged e-mail saying IBM transefed ownership of the IP to them.
It's not a matter of throwing money at the problem.
Every time Microsoft redesigns Windows they repeate the same basic mistakes over and over again.
The reason is becouse Bill Gates has his own ideas on how an operating system should work and refuses to accept the fact that those ideas are the cause of Windows problems.
It would be more akin to trying to make the space shuttle streat legal while refusing to make it smaller.
The feat they did preform is more akin to making Minux stable and reliable. No simple feat but that is exactly what Linus was attempting to do when he first started working on his Linux kernel.
It's not your hardware buddy
And that is why I havn't bought one yet.
Side step the Microsoft bashing I so enjoy doing...
Nintendo entered the game console industry long ago knowing that the console wasn't itself a product as much as it was a peace of the bigger puzzle. The money is in the games and so Nintendo retains control over game software sales.
Microsoft in selling the X Box has a very keen mind for the business aspect. Maybe not so smart in the techno side of things but when a business plan works they are on it (all ethical considerations go out the window).
As such Microsoft is folowing Nintendos lead. Your not buying a peace of hardware your buying an entertainment pacage.
It's your hardware. You break it you fix it. But it's yours like the cable box is yours (assuming the cable company let's you buy it outright). Your still limited as to what you can do with it.
As for the patch I certanly understand why Microsoft did that.
1. Microsoft is conserned for the piracy of games that this defect would permit.
2. Microsoft in folowing Nintendos example is trying to make money selling games not game consoles and as such there is a very realistic consern that with this patch third party game makers could sell games with out going through Microsoft and cutting Microsoft out of it's share.
3. Well ok Linux sales not exactly making Microsoft happy.
4. "Oh so THAT is how this works.... Now we just build our own knock off clone and...." Once you have an os running it's a hop skip and a jump to discovering all that went into the design and from there a clone isn't that far off.
I prepose we wire up Cowboy Neal with all the cybernetics the Slashdot crew was talking about back on Slashdot radio years ago then use him as the test subject.
That is presumming the robotic legs don't put him over the weight limit.
I was being overly simplistic.
Sending garbage packets is just the easiest thing to do. But if only one person is doing the DoS then you have to get the server to send a reply that is much larger than the original request.
Receave = 2 bytes + bogus address
Send = 5k responce to request sent to bogus address.
But say the defect that makes this DoS possable is patched or not present on your intended victiom.
Then
receave = 2 bite + victoms address
send = 5k resonce to victom.
Sent out to as many people as possable... and you have a DDoS. Not garbage signal but it's all the same.
As for the legal stuff...
Ianal...
Before 9-11 I was a conservitive.
After 9-11 I'm a radical libral...
And my opinions haven't changed.
Please not I tried to put this in order but I know some of them are compleatly out of place...
Example I list the Apple II fans AFTER the "I built my PC" case stickers. By the time you could get those stickers the Apple II fans were long discontinued...
I remember when case modding was adding a lable to a S-100 computer to lable it's function.
Taping over the key caps on a terminal so users would know what the Micro keys were programmed to do.
And taping industructions to the desk.
and then there was the brackets to keep people from walking off with newer home computers (Vic 20, C64, Coco)
Or just ripping the lable off the computer so when you do your video or movie your not advertising for the computer manufacter. Forget that the computers were distictive back then and could be spotted a mile away.
Or ripping the lable off becouse your a board 15 year old.
Then there was replacing your Apple II case with one that had the number pad built in the case.
Replacing your Commodore 64 case with a nifty C128 style sloped front.
Reloading the springs in the Commodore 64 keyboard to make it a little better for typing.
Painting the Mac case to look pritty.
Then there was the 64K Atari XL.. Not 64K ram.. 64 carrot.... dimands...
Modifying the PC case for better air flow.
Actually removing the IBM logo off classic IBM brand PCs and slapping them on kit builds.
The "I built my PC" case logos
Apple II fans to improve airflow.
Mac powers strips to put the button in reach.
Reset button (If one already existed relocated to be easier or harder to reach)
Reset button cut (or modified to be harder to push such as two buttons in two diffrent locations both must be pressed at the same time thus reducing the chance of an accadental reset)
Unpluging internal speaker. Routing internal speaker to external speaker with volume control. Putting a switch on internal speaker to turn on and off.
Case mounted temp display so you can tell how how the computer is running.
drive bay fans.
vareous cooling systems.
Turnning a dorm fridge into a PC case.
(With negitive results)
reinforcing the CD rom tray so it actually will hold stuff.
System status LCD display to tell how many users are on, what the time is, how hot the system is or stock/news ticker.
Tower case
Rack mount case
Stereo cabnet fitting case.
All in one case.
Lugable case.
People who do this stuff also buy up computer hardware just to do this driving the cost of same down so the rest of us can not only afford it but get it at really cheap prices.
And some of this finds it's way back into the mainstream PC design.
So mod on guys... Mod on...
And hay find a cheap way to modle plastic so your technology can be applied to every day items like clocks and bring the cost of same down.
And if someone could come up with a way to use plastic for radio interfearence shilding even better. Conductive plastics hmmmmm.
I agree... Actually this is part of the artical. Barry points out that laws against mugging put muggers out of work.
It's part of the business to answer the phone thats why they have a published phone number.