If my memory is correct on this [this was a LONG time ago] on-line stores running on BBSes. This patent may get around that small detail by refering only to web sales. It's still pritty generic. It's also stupid. On the other hand shouldn't a person be worryed that Amazon has that information on record?
This could scare people from participating in the Internet. I don't mean just surffing but well like posting this message on/. and you reading it.. and maybe you'll comment on it.. mod it or just call me a duncehead and move on. People with a public presona may wish not to have unstarilised comments up on/.
I can make some pritty boneheaded comments some times and thats ok your reading it in context. But if I were Bill Gates and someone snipped my comments I could be made to say anything. If Bill Gates said "Linux is ok for hackers" in a long rant against Linux then bam on the news "Bill Gates says 'Linux is ok'" eventually the comments blur and it becomes "Bill Gates makes postive comments about Linux" a Slashdot artical and MsWindows enters it's finnal days.
Thats techno politics.. government politics is worse. People running for office are often missquoted and not allwase by mistake. Only 1 in a million reporters have some political ax to grind but right now with so many doppleganger reporters who don't check out storys it only takes one to prepetuate a myth.
It's much diffrent from seeing the original on-line quote as on-line the auther controls the context not a third party.
It would help if reporters would just give refrence urls rather than quoting [or missquoting] matereal. With reporters on deadlines it's very easy to misquote and even easyer when the quote is techlaced and the reporter isn't up to speed.
Rather than bash Microsoft on a point by point bassis there are really only two importent details to bring up in order to crush the whole notion that anything Microsoft has to say about Linux is valid....
1. Microsoft compeditor. Why should Microsoft say anything but nasty things about a compeating product? 2. Would anyone as big as Microsoft bother trashing a product if it wasn't a real threat to there own product line?
Anyway the Linux hype comes from happy Linux users not from a PR machine. Even if it's all BS the shear number of people it takes to make this much hype counts for something.
In some ways this is accually good news. Microsoft dose this in responce to some major PR for Linux. The word is spreading:)
Lotus writes apps and may in the not so distent future have to compeate with free services available over the Internet. Not only are they NOT in the net industry they compleat with it.
Your best bet is to work with an operating system your familure with. A lot of people prefer Linux in this mannor as it is easyer to get to know the internals of Linux just by looking at the source code. This dosn't mean Linux is the best choice but that it's the best choice for a lot of people. Clearly a person familure with the internal behavure of Windows NT would be better off. The problem being it is hard to get your hands on such information. While a cracker CAN do the research and get the information if you don't allready know the security defects a cracker may discover then your lunch.
A diffrent tactic is security by obscurity. This isn't 100% perfect sence the art of cracking is 90% research so all they need is to uncover what your using and the defects you don't know about. Obscurity and limited access is a better tactic. By using a Mac or a Dos system instead of a Windows or Unix system you get obscurity and limited access. Mac and Dos are not server operating systems and as such you don't have to worry about preinstalled internet services you don't use sence the only services that exist are the ones you personally install. The biggest security holes come from neglected services and incompatable services. With Mac you need only make shure what you install isn't installed in a way that leaves open a back door or dosn't interact with something else you installed to create a back door. Dos makes this whole process even easyer as Dos only runs one task. Sence the pacage your using is the only program running you don't have to worry about a program creating a back door. You still have to install the service correctly to prevent a random cracker from doing something like accessing a service that someone forgot to give a password or protect from the outside world. Ohh I forgot Dos "door" programs can also be a problem. If the main program passes control off to annother program you have to be shure THAT program is aware of it's position. Some dos programs allow users to "shell to dos" creating HUGE back doors just by using a dos program online that was not made to be used online. This same problem shows up when ever you use a program to handle internet services that was made with cute features not expecting the program would be used for remote or automated services.
The biggest worry of all is authers personal back door. Again research is 90% of the cracker game and thies back doors do not remain secret forever. Sadly obscurity is accually counter productive here sence an obscure pacage hasn't been looked over like well known pacages so thies back doors can remain unknown to the majority for years. With a closed source solution you may use a hexmap editor to look over the program and see if you can find any secret passwords or anything unusuall. Douptlessly a cracker would do the same. With open source you should look over the source code. It's easyer to find a backdoor in source code than in binarys. But be careful with binarys and source code the auther will at least try to hide his backdoor from prying eyes so a careful inspection is needed if your going to find a backdoor. With binarys you can hope that if you can't find it nither can a cracker but rember some crafty crackers can read binary. The good news is most crackers arn't crafty or even that good. The best bet against crackers is keep an eye on the system. I got most of my understanding of crackers from being a BBS System operator or SysOp. The hobby version of being a System Admin:) I cought most of my crackers just by watching the screen when I was bored.
I guess it boils down to the less thats involved the easyer it gets and the more effort put into securing the system the better. Know the software that is involved and remove anything you won't be using.
BTW I'm not a security expert I'm an incredable simulation:) Just an ex Sysop during a time when every 15 year old kid wanted to be a "cool hacker"
My view is it's not in Linux becouse it's not reliable. Thats really a running theam with Linux, not supporting unreliable technology. Linux dosn't do FS compression while Windows dose becouse it's not safe but it is neat. Of course thats also why Windows and Linux are for two totally diffrent users, Linux users stress reliability Windows users want neat toys. On a PC autodetection is more of a "neat toy" than a useful and reliable technology sence it dosn't work a lot of the time. There are horror storys of people fighting Windows over trying to get a sound card driver installed. I find adding new hardware to Linux much more fun than installing hardware on Windows becouse Linux dosn't try to do it automaticly. Linux dosn't go "Ohhh you have ABC multifunction data transport card" when you have a "ZXY soda machine addapter". To be fair Microsoft is TRYING to make Windows user friendly and "Plug and play" is part of that but the PC wasn't originally a plug and play system and the PC plug and play support is a joke. To do this right the system has to be designed for it from the start like TIs Explorer and the Mac II line where plug and play ment the driver was built into the card.. not that you couldn't use an optomised driver but if you were a clueless newbe you didn't have to. In short it's just one of those legacy issues. Any PC OS is "Hard to install" excluding maybe PC/MS-Dos before hard disk support was added and CP/M 86 again before HD support. After that it all heads down hill.
I use a personal "cheat sheat" for selecting my ISP. Rule 1. Must use an open source operating system [preferably Linux thow BSD works really well just hard to find an ISP that uses it] Rule 2. Small ISP.. It's a support issue... Usually Linux/Unix questions get forwarded to a SysAdm on a small ISP and go unanswered on a larg ISP. At least thats my limited experence.
I would recomend NOT doing busness with a company that forbids open source. Now if a busness allows open source and dosn't use any OSS thats ok as long as the people responsable for picking the best solution are allowed to pick the best solution reguardless of hype and fud.
Simply put the consummer shouldn't pay for the short sightedness of a manager who really shouldn't be interfearing with the jobs of the people who accually know what is or isn't reliable.
This reminds me of other situations where an expert is told how to do his/her job by someone who dosn't really know that job.
Anyway I think it's a good idea to get busnesses to sign some sort of agreement saying they will NOT ban open source software and avoid companys known to ban open source software.
Some people think they can identify gender by personality and start applying it to everyone on the Internet who clames to be female. This should end up with a lot of "false positives" and if you reverse it and apply it to guys you'll find all kinds of hidden ladys. "On the Internet no one knows your a Dog" This is very true... your on-line persona is a little diffrent from your RL personality and the on-line persona dose not reflect your gender, race, hight, apperence, or any of the other environmental trappings that usually effect your personality. Sadly economic status is amplifyed with expensive technology and tech egos.
I rember meeting people I've meet on BBSes in RL at BBS partys and you'd be supprised how "male" some females on-line presona can be. Similerly you'd be supprised how "female" some guys on-line presona can be. In some cases so female they take to pretending to be female on occasion.
As for Nitrozac hidding her face to keep from being identifyed as male... Illiad dosn't like HIS picture taken ether. It's a commen thing. People like to walk into a shopping mall and not have some random geek scream out "It's [insert name here]". It's also a tad ammount of being camra shy. If you move very fast you can screw up the shot.. advice for the camra shy when dealing with shutter bugs.
This isn't even on the topic. See what complaining about moderators get you?
The topic is the Y2K bugs ugly sister the 9999 bug Basicly 9999 is used in very old software as a "stop here" feald.. it's also how some of those old computers will record todays date. To those computers today is the end of the world as we know it. What happend on this early Y2K? Nothing... Yes the preview of the Y2K bug... Y2K bug Beta... No 9999 tests.. no certifcation.. noting... and we lived.
Now that you understand the topic.... He was relaying what happened in HK where the 9999 has allready hit....
It's funny... laff... They deployed the police expecting the world to end and.. it didn't... IMHO more damage will be done by people playing a certen song by a purple musician than will ever be done by the Y2K bug... Record players may be Y2K compliant but are they "Ug not that song AGAIN" people with hammors complient? Naaa they all died with the 9999 bug
Does that mean we have to make some kind of recolondria if we plan to visit other planets. A diffrent thought... If we could geneticly engenear Mitocondria could we add the features of a computer to it? Forget adding hardware go 100% wetware.. No more worrys about batterys... Of course if someone made a Mitocondria computer Virus the potental exists for a "Parasite Eve"
Linux and Java have diffrent goals. Java has to be used by 100% of the web browsers otherwise to some sites like eBay it might as well not exist at all. Thies web sites can not afford to turn away even a small precentage of browsers. Linux on the other hand is doing fine at 20% as long as Windows is also at 20%. Linux isn't going to dominate and control the market. It's just a really good os for those who can use what Linux has to offer. Windows has it's nitch group and no one expects them to give it up. Linux can do just fine sharing the market with like likes of Solarus, BSD, and other operating systems. Just as long as when the day is done Linux has.01% more users than anyone else.
Seimens makes almost everything when it comes to manufacturing electronics. My phone is an old Seimens phone [preveous owner was a busness who upgraded there phone system] It's a killer phone to.. Seimens kinda reminds me of Fairchild. Some people know em for only one of the many products they make. For years I knew Fairchild only for the Channel F game machine... Now if Seimens and Fairchild got together and made a Linux destro that would be pritty cool:)
Politicans and reporters who are not up on technology have a bad habbit of just believing what is spoon feed them. Political action groups don't have to put forward much effort to convence such people that some computer thing is evil. Politicians are quick to folow any strange recomendations given by a political action group when they don't even understand the "problem". When reality overwhelms ignore the little man behind the curten and do what the flamming head tells you to do.
Yeah I picture it... evolve thinking chips they pass testing and we network them all. World War III breaks out and we instruct the missles to launch and they send a message back saying "You might be suisidal but I'm not".
No missles launch anywhere...
Or worse.. someone "evolves" a super CPU and it gets implemented in everything. for some unknown reason the more chips are made the faster and more powerful it gets. Then a set of seamingly random computer gliches show up. A crackers computer shuts down. Viruses malfunction, poorly writen software vanishes. Spammers can't send spam.
Yeah thats whats cool about Linus. He transends the hype rather than rides it. The Linux revolution isn't his. He dosn't fight it and dosn't care to get dragged into that asspect of things. Linus will tell you something like "It was something cool to do" when asked why he made Linux But ask Bill Gates the same about Windows and he'll launch into market hype about demmand when really he did it becouse it was at the time "cool". Once Linux becouse "uncool" to Linus he'll hand it over to AC and be done with it.
journalists are supposed to prod, dig and keep that blowtorch close to the butts of politicians and others in power. When you are the ones in power you get in line and march with the rest.
They are also supposto be objective a little difficult when your commenting on someone working for a diffrent news agentcy. Some news agentcys do comment on compeating agentcys all the time and I think thats sick and wrong. The last thing a reporter needs to worry about is how a fellow reporter will react to a news story. It dose bother me that many reporters do not do there own research and just piggyback on other reporters work. Thats not how it should be. One ZD reporter screws up and lets his opinions poision his work other reporters should be able to see passed the mistake and report the facts minus the addatude. But they don't fact check themselfs they end up just repeating what someone else said, opinions and addtudes in tact.
However Mike of ABC seems to be one of the good guys and dosn't get into that BS and thats a GOOD thing.
I'm not saying Mac isn't useful to computer experts. I am saying Macs best market target is newbe users. MacOs makes a great Geek Os but it's image prevents it from selling as one.
And just as there are plenty of Mac Geeks there are plenty of Linux newbes. But Linux faces the same stereotype in reverse.
More or less Linux is a hybred of Minux and Herd. It's more Herd than Minux however.
Linux won't crush Windows alone. Linux makes a very good hacker os and an ok server and in those areas Linux dose a better job that 9x and NT. This strikes a blow at the Windows image of an os for "everyone". Linux just gets the ball rolling. Solarus, SCO Unix and BSD can attack on the high end server area where as MacOs and BeOs attacks on the multimedia and user friendly area. OS/2 and SGI can take on Windows in the workstation department. This leaves Windows with the gamers. Windows is a decent game os and other oses don't compeate in that area. But when an os is reduced to just playing games it's life is over.
From my prospective Linux alone won't crush Windows it'll be a 1 2 punch of both MacOs and Linux that dose the job. There will allwase be the techno types [geeks and near geeks] who want an advanced os thats Linux. There will also be the users who don't want to under stand how computers work thats what Macs for. Windows trys to be a good os for both kinds of users and ends up being worthless. Thats why Linux AND MacOs will crush Windows together.
The geek stereotype is basicly that of a techno intelectual. I rember checking out a book writen by a libarian for libarians. Sort of the User Friendly for libarians. It talks about all the problems libarians face. One of the grippes was the libarian stereotype. It's the same liberal godless stereotype that geeks face. Only libarians are seen as inactive, old, quiet moldy types where as geeks are young active loud types. The image of a libarian or a geek running nakid in the streets is well outside the stereotype.
In short I think it's a general "intelectual" stereotype that all intelectual groups face from University profesers to poets.
I just pictured a geeket/libarian mud wresling match and I kind of liked the image.
In the first Geeks in space someone let slip they are accually robotic counterparts made to take over the world... /. is just the foothold they need to start there world domonation...
For now however they will be making a badly needed kernel upgrade on each other....
Slashdot Mirror
My question for Bill Gates is...
As each system or program is develuoped with a group or function in mind I'd like to know what group or function is Windows primary market target?
If my memory is correct on this [this was a LONG time ago] on-line stores running on BBSes.
This patent may get around that small detail by refering only to web sales. It's still pritty generic.
It's also stupid.
On the other hand shouldn't a person be worryed that Amazon has that information on record?
This could scare people from participating in the Internet. /. and you reading it.. and maybe you'll comment on it.. mod it or just call me a duncehead and move on. /.
I don't mean just surffing but well like posting this message on
People with a public presona may wish not to have unstarilised comments up on
I can make some pritty boneheaded comments some times and thats ok your reading it in context. But if I were Bill Gates and someone snipped my comments I could be made to say anything. If Bill Gates said "Linux is ok for hackers" in a long rant against Linux then bam on the news "Bill Gates says 'Linux is ok'" eventually the comments blur and it becomes "Bill Gates makes postive comments about Linux" a Slashdot artical and MsWindows enters it's finnal days.
Thats techno politics.. government politics is worse. People running for office are often missquoted and not allwase by mistake. Only 1 in a million reporters have some political ax to grind but right now with so many doppleganger reporters who don't check out storys it only takes one to prepetuate a myth.
It's much diffrent from seeing the original on-line quote as on-line the auther controls the context not a third party.
It would help if reporters would just give refrence urls rather than quoting [or missquoting] matereal. With reporters on deadlines it's very easy to misquote and even easyer when the quote is techlaced and the reporter isn't up to speed.
Rather than bash Microsoft on a point by point bassis there are really only two importent details to bring up in order to crush the whole notion that anything Microsoft has to say about Linux is valid....
:)
1. Microsoft compeditor. Why should Microsoft say anything but nasty things about a compeating product?
2. Would anyone as big as Microsoft bother trashing a product if it wasn't a real threat to there own product line?
Anyway the Linux hype comes from happy Linux users not from a PR machine. Even if it's all BS the shear number of people it takes to make this much hype counts for something.
In some ways this is accually good news.
Microsoft dose this in responce to some major PR for Linux. The word is spreading
Lotus writes apps and may in the not so distent future have to compeate with free services available over the Internet.
Not only are they NOT in the net industry they compleat with it.
Your best bet is to work with an operating system your familure with. A lot of people prefer Linux in this mannor as it is easyer to get to know the internals of Linux just by looking at the source code. This dosn't mean Linux is the best choice but that it's the best choice for a lot of people.
:)
:) Just an ex Sysop during a time when every 15 year old kid wanted to be a "cool hacker"
Clearly a person familure with the internal behavure of Windows NT would be better off. The problem being it is hard to get your hands on such information. While a cracker CAN do the research and get the information if you don't allready know the security defects a cracker may discover then your lunch.
A diffrent tactic is security by obscurity. This isn't 100% perfect sence the art of cracking is 90% research so all they need is to uncover what your using and the defects you don't know about.
Obscurity and limited access is a better tactic.
By using a Mac or a Dos system instead of a Windows or Unix system you get obscurity and limited access.
Mac and Dos are not server operating systems and as such you don't have to worry about preinstalled internet services you don't use sence the only services that exist are the ones you personally install. The biggest security holes come from neglected services and incompatable services.
With Mac you need only make shure what you install isn't installed in a way that leaves open a back door or dosn't interact with something else you installed to create a back door.
Dos makes this whole process even easyer as Dos only runs one task. Sence the pacage your using is the only program running you don't have to worry about a program creating a back door. You still have to install the service correctly to prevent a random cracker from doing something like accessing a service that someone forgot to give a password or protect from the outside world.
Ohh I forgot Dos "door" programs can also be a problem. If the main program passes control off to annother program you have to be shure THAT program is aware of it's position. Some dos programs allow users to "shell to dos" creating HUGE back doors just by using a dos program online that was not made to be used online. This same problem shows up when ever you use a program to handle internet services that was made with cute features not expecting the program would be used for remote or automated services.
The biggest worry of all is authers personal back door. Again research is 90% of the cracker game and thies back doors do not remain secret forever.
Sadly obscurity is accually counter productive here sence an obscure pacage hasn't been looked over like well known pacages so thies back doors can remain unknown to the majority for years.
With a closed source solution you may use a hexmap editor to look over the program and see if you can find any secret passwords or anything unusuall. Douptlessly a cracker would do the same.
With open source you should look over the source code. It's easyer to find a backdoor in source code than in binarys. But be careful with binarys and source code the auther will at least try to hide his backdoor from prying eyes so a careful inspection is needed if your going to find a backdoor.
With binarys you can hope that if you can't find it nither can a cracker but rember some crafty crackers can read binary. The good news is most crackers arn't crafty or even that good.
The best bet against crackers is keep an eye on the system.
I got most of my understanding of crackers from being a BBS System operator or SysOp. The hobby version of being a System Admin
I cought most of my crackers just by watching the screen when I was bored.
I guess it boils down to the less thats involved the easyer it gets and the more effort put into securing the system the better. Know the software that is involved and remove anything you won't be using.
BTW I'm not a security expert I'm an incredable simulation
My view is it's not in Linux becouse it's not reliable. Thats really a running theam with Linux, not supporting unreliable technology. Linux dosn't do FS compression while Windows dose becouse it's not safe but it is neat.
Of course thats also why Windows and Linux are for two totally diffrent users, Linux users stress reliability Windows users want neat toys.
On a PC autodetection is more of a "neat toy" than a useful and reliable technology sence it dosn't work a lot of the time.
There are horror storys of people fighting Windows over trying to get a sound card driver installed. I find adding new hardware to Linux much more fun than installing hardware on Windows becouse Linux dosn't try to do it automaticly. Linux dosn't go "Ohhh you have ABC multifunction data transport card" when you have a "ZXY soda machine addapter".
To be fair Microsoft is TRYING to make Windows user friendly and "Plug and play" is part of that but the PC wasn't originally a plug and play system and the PC plug and play support is a joke.
To do this right the system has to be designed for it from the start like TIs Explorer and the Mac II line where plug and play ment the driver was built into the card.. not that you couldn't use an optomised driver but if you were a clueless newbe you didn't have to.
In short it's just one of those legacy issues. Any PC OS is "Hard to install" excluding maybe PC/MS-Dos before hard disk support was added and CP/M 86 again before HD support. After that it all heads down hill.
I use a personal "cheat sheat" for selecting my ISP.
Rule 1. Must use an open source operating system [preferably Linux thow BSD works really well just hard to find an ISP that uses it]
Rule 2. Small ISP.. It's a support issue... Usually Linux/Unix questions get forwarded to a SysAdm on a small ISP and go unanswered on a larg ISP. At least thats my limited experence.
I would recomend NOT doing busness with a company that forbids open source. Now if a busness allows open source and dosn't use any OSS thats ok as long as the people responsable for picking the best solution are allowed to pick the best solution reguardless of hype and fud.
Simply put the consummer shouldn't pay for the short sightedness of a manager who really shouldn't be interfearing with the jobs of the people who accually know what is or isn't reliable.
This reminds me of other situations where an expert is told how to do his/her job by someone who dosn't really know that job.
Anyway I think it's a good idea to get busnesses to sign some sort of agreement saying they will NOT ban open source software and avoid companys known to ban open source software.
I find the amount of Linux loathing amoung Mac users to be about equal to the amount of Mac loathing amoung Linux users.
Heres a question born out of this:
Nitrozac.. Has anyone doupted your geekness becouse you use Mac?
Some people think they can identify gender by personality and start applying it to everyone on the Internet who clames to be female.
This should end up with a lot of "false positives" and if you reverse it and apply it to guys you'll find all kinds of hidden ladys.
"On the Internet no one knows your a Dog"
This is very true... your on-line persona is a little diffrent from your RL personality and the on-line persona dose not reflect your gender, race, hight, apperence, or any of the other environmental trappings that usually effect your personality.
Sadly economic status is amplifyed with expensive technology and tech egos.
I rember meeting people I've meet on BBSes in RL at BBS partys and you'd be supprised how "male" some females on-line presona can be.
Similerly you'd be supprised how "female" some guys on-line presona can be. In some cases so female they take to pretending to be female on occasion.
As for Nitrozac hidding her face to keep from being identifyed as male... Illiad dosn't like HIS picture taken ether.
It's a commen thing. People like to walk into a shopping mall and not have some random geek scream out "It's [insert name here]".
It's also a tad ammount of being camra shy.
If you move very fast you can screw up the shot.. advice for the camra shy when dealing with shutter bugs.
This isn't even on the topic.
See what complaining about moderators get you?
The topic is the Y2K bugs ugly sister the 9999 bug
Basicly 9999 is used in very old software as a "stop here" feald.. it's also how some of those old computers will record todays date.
To those computers today is the end of the world as we know it.
What happend on this early Y2K? Nothing...
Yes the preview of the Y2K bug... Y2K bug Beta...
No 9999 tests.. no certifcation.. noting... and we lived.
Now that you understand the topic....
He was relaying what happened in HK where the 9999 has allready hit....
It's funny... laff...
They deployed the police expecting the world to end and.. it didn't...
IMHO more damage will be done by people playing a certen song by a purple musician than will ever be done by the Y2K bug...
Record players may be Y2K compliant but are they "Ug not that song AGAIN" people with hammors complient?
Naaa they all died with the 9999 bug
Does that mean we have to make some kind of recolondria if we plan to visit other planets.
A diffrent thought... If we could geneticly engenear Mitocondria could we add the features of a computer to it?
Forget adding hardware go 100% wetware.. No more worrys about batterys...
Of course if someone made a Mitocondria computer Virus the potental exists for a "Parasite Eve"
Or worse.... GPF in Mitocondria
Linux and Java have diffrent goals. .01% more users than anyone else.
Java has to be used by 100% of the web browsers otherwise to some sites like eBay it might as well not exist at all. Thies web sites can not afford to turn away even a small precentage of browsers.
Linux on the other hand is doing fine at 20% as long as Windows is also at 20%.
Linux isn't going to dominate and control the market. It's just a really good os for those who can use what Linux has to offer.
Windows has it's nitch group and no one expects them to give it up.
Linux can do just fine sharing the market with like likes of Solarus, BSD, and other operating systems.
Just as long as when the day is done Linux has
Seimens makes almost everything when it comes to manufacturing electronics. :)
My phone is an old Seimens phone [preveous owner was a busness who upgraded there phone system]
It's a killer phone to..
Seimens kinda reminds me of Fairchild. Some people know em for only one of the many products they make.
For years I knew Fairchild only for the Channel F game machine...
Now if Seimens and Fairchild got together and made a Linux destro that would be pritty cool
How did this hoax start anyway?
Politicans and reporters who are not up on technology have a bad habbit of just believing what is spoon feed them.
Political action groups don't have to put forward much effort to convence such people that some computer thing is evil. Politicians are quick to folow any strange recomendations given by a political action group when they don't even understand the "problem".
When reality overwhelms ignore the little man behind the curten and do what the flamming head tells you to do.
Yeah I picture it... evolve thinking chips they pass testing and we network them all.
World War III breaks out and we instruct the missles to launch and they send a message back saying "You might be suisidal but I'm not".
No missles launch anywhere...
Or worse.. someone "evolves" a super CPU and it gets implemented in everything.
for some unknown reason the more chips are made the faster and more powerful it gets.
Then a set of seamingly random computer gliches show up. A crackers computer shuts down.
Viruses malfunction, poorly writen software vanishes. Spammers can't send spam.
"Play nice or I won't run your software"
Yeah thats whats cool about Linus. He transends the hype rather than rides it.
The Linux revolution isn't his. He dosn't fight it and dosn't care to get dragged into that asspect of things.
Linus will tell you something like "It was something cool to do" when asked why he made Linux
But ask Bill Gates the same about Windows and he'll launch into market hype about demmand when really he did it becouse it was at the time "cool".
Once Linux becouse "uncool" to Linus he'll hand it over to AC and be done with it.
journalists are supposed to prod, dig and keep that blowtorch close to the butts of politicians and others in power. When you are the ones in power you get in line and march with the rest.
They are also supposto be objective a little difficult when your commenting on someone working for a diffrent news agentcy.
Some news agentcys do comment on compeating agentcys all the time and I think thats sick and wrong.
The last thing a reporter needs to worry about is how a fellow reporter will react to a news story.
It dose bother me that many reporters do not do there own research and just piggyback on other reporters work. Thats not how it should be. One ZD reporter screws up and lets his opinions poision his work other reporters should be able to see passed the mistake and report the facts minus the addatude. But they don't fact check themselfs they end up just repeating what someone else said, opinions and addtudes in tact.
However Mike of ABC seems to be one of the good guys and dosn't get into that BS and thats a GOOD thing.
I'm not saying Mac isn't useful to computer experts.
I am saying Macs best market target is newbe users.
MacOs makes a great Geek Os but it's image prevents it from selling as one.
And just as there are plenty of Mac Geeks there are plenty of Linux newbes.
But Linux faces the same stereotype in reverse.
More or less Linux is a hybred of Minux and Herd.
It's more Herd than Minux however.
Linux won't crush Windows alone.
Linux makes a very good hacker os and an ok server and in those areas Linux dose a better job that 9x and NT. This strikes a blow at the Windows image of an os for "everyone".
Linux just gets the ball rolling.
Solarus, SCO Unix and BSD can attack on the high end server area where as MacOs and BeOs attacks on the multimedia and user friendly area.
OS/2 and SGI can take on Windows in the workstation department.
This leaves Windows with the gamers.
Windows is a decent game os and other oses don't compeate in that area.
But when an os is reduced to just playing games it's life is over.
From my prospective Linux alone won't crush Windows it'll be a 1 2 punch of both MacOs and Linux that dose the job.
There will allwase be the techno types [geeks and near geeks] who want an advanced os thats Linux.
There will also be the users who don't want to under stand how computers work thats what Macs for.
Windows trys to be a good os for both kinds of users and ends up being worthless. Thats why Linux AND MacOs will crush Windows together.
The geek stereotype is basicly that of a techno intelectual.
I rember checking out a book writen by a libarian for libarians. Sort of the User Friendly for libarians.
It talks about all the problems libarians face.
One of the grippes was the libarian stereotype.
It's the same liberal godless stereotype that geeks face.
Only libarians are seen as inactive, old, quiet moldy types where as geeks are young active loud types.
The image of a libarian or a geek running nakid in the streets is well outside the stereotype.
In short I think it's a general "intelectual" stereotype that all intelectual groups face from University profesers to poets.
I just pictured a geeket/libarian mud wresling match and I kind of liked the image.
Kill the first poster
Anyway this looks cool but I'm not shure what it means for us...
Or maybe Microsofts code is all the code everyone else threw out...
In the first Geeks in space someone let slip they are accually robotic counterparts made to take over the world...
/. is just the foothold they need to start there world domonation...
For now however they will be making a badly needed kernel upgrade on each other....
and some of then are Beta versions...