I've been looking around at free blog services (because I'm cheap... sue me) and I am running parallel blogs at two different sites. I'm playing around with blogger and also with the relatively new one at motime and I have to say motime seems head and shoulders above blogger, although I love google and would like to support them.
Google didn't really release a whole lot extra with this "free" release. I still don't have the two things I wanted most (commenting and hit counters). I had to hack in both of those to my template by getting a blogspeak account and using a free webcounter. Motime gave those to me for free right off the bat.
I think blogger needs to add some more before I'll be interested in them. Besides, I seem to get tons more traffic at motime when compared to blogger (granted, I've only had both of them for roughly a week).
I guess I'm just underwhelmed. I really don't think Google is giving away very damned much. Cough up some more features and I'll be more impressed, until then it looks like motime will be my free blog of choice.
I did some short term consulting work with a company recently to help them prepare some bids on the last BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) sent out by the DHS. The scope and scale of the projects that were in the request were quite interesting, with some that were tailor made for linux (wearable computing initiatives, anyone?).
We haven't heard any updates on the bid selection, but after looking at a good portion of those potential projects I can truthfully say that Microsoft is going to have a really tough time filling the required roles for many of them, let alone doing it securely.
I dislike microsoft on my own. I didn't need Sun to tell me to dislike them. And for the record, I don't think *hate* is a proper justification for any business decision. I think the desire to out innovate and out maneuver is much more important to a company's success. When you make decisions because you despise the other company you tend to make stupid decisions that focus on short term goals and neglect long term growth.
Does this mean I don't think it's ok to hate Microsoft? Of course not... but I do think using that hate to focus your business goals is wrong as well.
Run a business ethically and you may not be flashy, but you will do better in the long run, in my opinion.
Ah, trolling from AC's. How refreshing. Glad to see the/. I know and love still lives.
Continue to believe that it's a meritocracy, and that no one who was laid off was worth a damn. I know MANY MANY people who were laid off that were far better than me. Most of my management chain got laid off. Most of my peers got laid off. Some EXTREMELY good managers and EXTREMELY good engineers fell to the axe as well. To try and believe (or pretend) otherwise makes you look stupid and shortsighted.
Besides, you're going directly contrary to Sun party line now. It was SPECIFICALLY stated during the layoffs that people were being laid off across the board, not based on technical merit or ability, but merely cut because they were attached to projects that were being cut. While I don't believe this is 100% true, I also don't believe it's 100% false either, because I know many people who still work there that can barely manage to log in to their workstations without somehome shoving a mouse up their nose, spinning around 3 times and choking themselves to death on the cord. The only reason they seem to have been spared is because nobody knows who the hell they are or what they do. Perhaps you are one of these people?
And yes, I'm the @Corp who got laid off. Oh my God, we had engineers working in @Corp too, imagine that? And please kindly point out to me where I said in my post that I was "kicking ass?". I said I did very well while I was there, and I stand by that. Don't put words into my mouth, and when you're brave enough to come out from behind your AC shield then you can talk with me about things such as this. Until then, keep your head down, don't draw any attention your way, and pray that you survive the next round of cuts.
I used to work for Sun. Loved the company, loved what they stood for, felt like I should have been paying them for the privilege of coming to work every day. Truly my dream job. I'm a major Linux bigot, but that didn't stop me from loving Solaris and loving Sun.
5 years later, the bloom pretty much faded from the rose. Sun made a lot of stupid decisions and strictly in my *opinion* started behaving unethically. They began to reap what they sowed, and the current sad state of affairs at SUNW is a reflection of their abandonment of core Sun ideals. I don't think it's wrong to use ethics as a measuring stick for your business decisions, but I seemed to be in the minority.
I think this SCO deal is a reflection of the 'new Sun' and an example of everything that is wrong with the company currently. I mourn the loss of the old Sun, and I mourn the impending death of a giant, for I truly believe that Sun is destined for failure if they continue along the current path.
I used to respect and admire Scott McNealy for his willingness to take a stand and fight for what he thought was right, but somehow along the way Sun leadership no longer does this... they instead hedge their bets, play both sides of the fence, and refuse to stick to their guns on anything when push comes to shove.
I was one of the many thousands of engineers who got laid off from Sun in the last few years. I did well while I was there, did everything that I thought was humanly possible to ensure Sun's success despite the odds, and I'm sorry to see them fall. I still truly believe that Sun has the potential to regain their dominance in both the market and mindshare, but unfortunately they got rid of all the people who had the intestinal fortitude to make a stand for what they believe in instead of what was politically expedient.
Sun hardware kicks ass, plain and simple. Solaris is a damned good OS, but no longer the far and away market leader that it used to be. Can it be again? Who knows... I believe that it could given the right attitude and resources but again, that's just a personal opinion. I think Sun could do extremely well partnered with the Linux community (like IBM is doing) instead of being an adversary to it.
Am I bitter? I'm not bitter about losing my job to economic forces, and I'm not angry towards Sun, nor do I wish them failure. I truly enjoyed working there and would work there again if I felt that they were willing to commit to what it takes to succeed. I'd work until my fingernails bled to help them achieve that, but I don't see them even acknowledging the issues and problems they face, let alone actively striving to correct them. I don't think that makes me bitter, only honest.
I only hope that Sun some day wakes up, yanks back on the control yoke and comes out of their tailspin before it's too late. Things like this SCO business aren't helping them at all and they are too shortsighted and stubborn to admit it.
There's a LOT of technical professionals out of work right now, suffering from the dot com crash. It's not just recent graduates, so you have to realize that your 2 years of coop experience and 4 year degree is competing with some engineer who's been laid off from Sun and has 10 or more years experience directly in the trenches.
Not only are you competing against people who are a lot more senior in the field, you are competing for a very limited number of positions at this time, since the work force far outstrips the available jobs. I myself have been looking for work since being laid off from Sun last november, and have been lucky to even get RESPONSES to my resumes let alone interviews, and I'm a very experienced, very savvy ex Sun engineer with a lot of interesting projects and accomplishments on my resume... yet I now find myself applying for very junior jobs at a third of my old salary just because unemployment only lasts so long... and then I get that weird look from the hiring manager and the inevitable question "why are YOU applying for this job". Of course they won't hire me because they're worried I'll flee back to a more lucrative job once the economy recovers.
All I can say is that you need to make yourself stand out. I've discovered pursuing job leads via email is a dead end, use snail mail and personal appearances. Leverage your networking skills (people networking, not TCP/IP). Meet people face to face, press the flesh, and don't give up. It's a HARD economy for us geeks out there right now.
Also, don't overlook the benefit to volunteering your time doing things you enjoy. Not only does it give back to the community and make you feel good, but it gives you a chance to meet even more people and who knows, one of those people might know someone who's looking for someone just like you.
Oh come on, you are all such a bunch of weenies (whoops, -1, flamebait, can't accuse me of being a karma whore).
When he said "I don't see.dot" it's quite obvious he's saying "I don't get why someone would want to sponser a lame tld like.dot".
Of course, all the weenies and whiners want to immediately jump up and prove how superior they are by pointing out "doh... it's right there" thus proving their own weenieness.
Haven't you ever heard of giving people the benefit of the doubt? Sheesh, people, get a clue. They're on sale right now, a whole box of clues for a buck ninety-five, so you'd better stock up.
All this talk about waiving your rights to sue is complete bullshit. There are all sorts of federal laws in place that specifically PREVENT you from waiving certain rights, no matter what sort of document you sign saying you give them up.
These laws are specifically put into place to prevent companies/corporations/etc from bullying you into an untenable situation; sign your rights away or you can't have a job and you then starve to death. "fine, I'll sign this, but the law is on my side and if I take you to court anyways this becomes null and void" should be the thought going through your head.
This is not the case in ALL situations, but there are quite a few of these safety nets in place. The problem is that people *believe* that they are signing away their rights and don't realize that the feds are actually on their side in these cases so they never bother taking them out to the woodshed for the whupping they so richly deserve when they end up screwing someone over.
This is one case where the feds are actually doing a good thing, just not enough people know about it. Companies will get away with whatever you let them get away with, they follow the philosophy of "it's not against the law if you don't get caught".
I've been playing the stock market with some seed money trying to build up enough to by an empeg (and still have some left to continue to play with). I'm about to my goal, but I'd MUCH rather have a voice recognition version, especially at under half the price.
I think Jeff has done a remarkable thing. I am quite impressed with his seemingly genuine desire to right a wrong, and to take responsibility for something that he is in a position to affect.
I will support him however I might in his attempts at patent reform, and I applaud all of our community for pushing amazon on this issue... I don't think he would've about-faced like this if we hadn't gotten so outraged, and I applaud Tim for pushing him over the top.
<b>HOWEVER</b> it's not enough. I hate to say it, but it's just not enough. Jeff has committed to fixing a bad situation, but it's more akin to "oh, nobody else should do this but it's ok for us to do it". Bull. I think we should continue to hold his toes to the fire until he agrees to stop using his (admittedly) ridiculous patents offensively against <i>any</i> competitor. If he's truly contrite and truly committed, he should live by those principles instead of just trying to enforce those principles on everyone else.
If Jeff does have the guts to make a total about-face and admit that Amazon was wrong in the first place, I think he has the potential to get a HUGE amount of support from this community. He could end up scrambling out of this deep pile of shit he fell in and still smell like a rose, and he could then be held up as an example of "corporate ethics" to everyone else. I think he has the potential to really gather a lot of momentum and a lot of support, he just needs to close the loop.
None of that takes away from the fact that his open letter was full of good ideas that deserve lots of consideration and support, but his open letter doesn't take away from the fact that his company is still abusing the current patent system either.
I've been using Linux for many many years now, and one of my favorite rants (or discussions) is how to make Linux more commercially palatable. Invariably, I always end up holding forth on how linux will not be a force to be reckoned with until you can walk down the aisle at Fry's and see boxes and boxes of shrinkwrapped linux software.
Unfortunately, as we all know this is a two-way street. People don't want to port to linux because the base is so small, and people won't use a "niche" OS to raise the user base numbers until the apps are available. This is the classic catch-22 situation.
Well, now with companies like Loki you have managed to change the scene somewhat. I am delighted every time I walk down the aisle and see Loki software on the shelves, and consequently it seems like there are more and more companies coming to the table with linux ports or following a similar strategy as Loki.
It also seems to me that a critical mass point has been reached. Once you guys proved it was possible, lots of people started jumping on the bandwagon.
Now for my question(s). Did you set out on this path because you wanted to help kickstart this whole thing? Did you expect to be one of the major movers behind this sudden influx of commercial software for linux?
Also, the competition in your space seems to be heating up. You guys were the real "early adopters", meaning you were the first to market. However, now that you've proven it will work, I'm sure there are a lot of companies out there nipping at your heels, so how do you plan on staying ahead? How do you plan on keeping the forerunner position? Will you become a force for standardization among linux (with graphics API's, sound, etc) that will eventually trickle over into every other application space (besides just games?).
I believe in paranoia... I think it's a good thing. However, I do not think the FBI is stupid enough to trojan something like this. It would be found, and they know that...
I ran it on my DSL connected firewall box, as root... I also trussed and sotrussed it and monitored for network traffic. It looks to me like it's doing exactly what it claims to do. I don't claim to be an expert, but it's good enough for me.
Come on, people... if you honestly think the Feds are stupid enough to try and trojan this you need to take off the tinfoil hats and get out in the sun a little more. And if you don't think it's worth your time to ensure security of your machine you really should think a little harder. It goes way beyond just a recursive rm or two... if your box is compromised it allows someone to then use your box to stage other attacks, to spam people from your system, etc. etc. etc. And if you think you're secure just because you're obscure you are, quite simply, a fool.
I believe that just about any system can be owned given the time and resources and attention of the right people. The same goes with locks on your front doors. It won't keep the dedicated criminals at bay, but it filters out 99% of the riff raff and lets you focus on detection of the other 1%. I run a firewall on my system not because I think I'm a stud or anything, but to try and keep out the truly lame as well as to try and prevent someone from using my resources to bring down YOUR machine or spam YOUR email account or otherwise be nasty to all my internet neighbors.
I won't tell you to run the FBI binaries because I also believe they should have released source... but I will tell you to CHECK your damned systems to make sure you're not compromised and stay vigilant. If you're running a host on the internet you have a responsibility to all the other people on the internet to try and keep your box clean. If you don't want to keep your box clean, go back to AOL and reformat and reinstall windows every 3 months.
The internet was built on the theory of COOPERATION... remember? It's the same thing you all whine about day after day after day... "oh, but why is the internet going to hell... it's all these AOL lusers" everyone says. But I've got news for you, it's not the AOL lusers, it's the lusers who don't take the initiative and personal responsibility to keep their own systems clean and allow the shitheads out there to run rampant.
Personally, I think the whole topic is moot because I know *VERY* few girls who even read video game magazines.
That's sort of the whole point of her article... she's talking about why women don't read video game magazines, and her point is pretty valid. If I were part of that demographic group, I'd be put off by it too.
Personally, I agree with her summary... however, here's the big fat gotcha... if she doesn't like it, why doesn't she get together with some other women and start a video game magazine targeted towards a female demographic? Or find someone with deep pockets to fund such a venture...
To be honest, I think the reason that hasn't been done yet is because there's simply not enough of a potential revenue stream there to support such a magazine. However, I'd happy to be proven wrong.
Personally, I was rather disappointed with Corel linux. It seems to be pretty well put together, it's based on a good solid distribution, and there is quite a bit of value-add there. However, it's locked into a GUI install which bombs out if it encounters anything (such as a video card) that it doesn't know how to support.
I beta'd this thing for 'em, and enjoyed the experience... they've obviously put a lot of work into it and are trying to add value to the base distro. However, I don't run it on any of my machines because I can't get it to install. They did throw in a copy of the Loki port of Civ:CTP in the shipping version that they sent me, though, so it wasn't a total waste. Too bad it's just a limited (no multiplayer) edition though.
I think Corel could be a great distro, provided they iron out their support issues. It seems to be targeted towards more newbie users (with the nice pretty installer and all) and it's not going to win over any friends when it gets to the "probing hardware" part of the install, dies, spits the CD out and reboots the machine.
I think UFie is hilarious... and I am proud to have received his book for Christmas.
If you don't think UFie is funny you are either way over the political correctness edge _or_ you are in serious need of a sense of humor patch to bring you up to the current version.
A community or organism that can't laugh at itself is in serious trouble... and a comic strip that pokes fun without being all crude about it is even better.
Personally, I really like the running Quake storylines... mainly because I can identify (I suck at it too and constantly get fragged... and I enjoy seeing my own troubles needled in the strip).
I urge everyone who is displeased with this to write amazon some email and let them know exactly how you feel. I sent email to amazon immediately after I first found out about their lawsuit and let them know that they had just lost a customer.
I also stressed that I was switching my business to Barnes and Noble, and why I was doing this. I then emailed Barnes and Noble and let them know that I supported them, that I was fleeing from Amazon and that I was now shopping from them to show my support. I then placed an order for a couple of books.
Don't just rant... I urge everyone to stop shopping at Amazon (and I've already put the word out to my entire family that any books they may buy me for the holidays better not come from Amazon). I also urge everyone to LET AMAZON KNOW just how pissed off you are. Please, BE POLITE, and BE ADULT, but also BE HEARD.
Thats the manufacturer that is FORCING you. Not Microsoft.
No, dumbass, it's Microsoft forcing the manufacturer to sign restricted bundling agreements such that they then are forced to pass them off to me.
If Microsoft forced the manufacturer into this, then thats their choice. They accepted it. Therefore, you have to accept it or go to another manufacturer.
And that's the whole point of the matter isn't it? Up until about a year ago, you couldn't because Microsoft had forced them ALL into it, so I didn't have anywhere to turn. I even got one of them when I bought a bare fucking motherboard, so don't give me that shit about having a choice.
Keep in mind that no one is forcing you to use software, computers, etc. You do it at will.
Yet another completely specious statement. The whole point is that if I wanted to use a computer, I shouldn't be forced to pay Microsoft. Making a statement like "well, you could just choose to not use a computer" is simply ridiculous. That's the whole fucking POINT of antitrust legislation, dumbshit...
Everybody who bought Microsoft products (from OEMs and partners to end users) did so by their own choice.
What color is the sky in your world? I have three licenses to Windows... none of which I wanted, all of which I was forced to accept (and pay for) because the manufacturer wasn't allowed to sell me a bare system.
It's only just now starting to be a choice, but it wasn't a choice for many years. Remember all the Microsoft Refund Day brouhaha, or were you out touring alternate universes that day?
Why are people even bothering to question Corel's motives? Isn't it obvious? Here's a newsflash for you... Corel is gasp trying to make money!
Oh the inhumanity of it all.
Seriously, though. There's nothing wrong (at least in my book, others may argue differently) with a company trying to make a buck. That's what capitalism is, after all. Lest we forget, the unofficial goal of us linux-heads everywhere seems to be "settle for nothing less than total world domination". How do you expect to get there if you don't shine everything up with a slick interface, a seamless install, etc. etc. etc.?
Corel wants to leverage linux to try and regain some of the desktop app market share that they lost to Adobe and Microsoft. Microsoft owns the office suite market, and many of us have whined about Adobe not porting their stuff to linux... yet when Corel listens and begins a large porting effort we all question their motives?
No wonder people are scared of us... we're all lunatics.
This is great news (ok, maybe it's not so great considering all the time I will end up wasting).
Heroes III is one of my current favorites. I considered trying it out in vmware, but this is a way better option. One less game to boot back to windoze for.
I just hope it supports full multiplayer, and I'd like to know if the expansion pack is going to be ported as well. And finally, for the person who wanted to know if anyone is buying these... yep. At least one of us is.
Oh come on people, why do you even bother taking anything that WWN prints personally? This isn't even worthy of discussion. Nobody in their right mind reads these rags and believes one word of 'em... besides, would you want to date someone who read one of these rags and believed anything it said anyways?
These rags are by nature contrarian... they only consider subjects as fair targets when they become mainstream. And guess what? Geeks are mainstream now. We're successful, we're flush with cash, and lots of women consider us prime marriage material. We're easy to housebreak, we don't stray, and we don't treat women like trash. All that and a pocketful of stock options to boot.
I got married in August to someone who's entirely the opposite of a geek.. she's an artist, and part of the things she likes most about me is my geek nature... because she views that "sensitivity" (there's a loaded 90's word) as a plus, and she likes intelligence. And here's another news flash... she's NOT in the minority. More and more women are getting sick and damned tired of being treated like pieces of trash by various self-absorbed loser jock types and have decided to do exactly what this article states. They've decided to QUIT letting people walk all over them, they've decided to STAND UP for themselves, and DEMAND that they be treated as they deserve.
The funny thing is that as soon as they start doing all those things, THAT is when they realize that a nice geek is EXACTLY what they've been wanting.
These "hack this box" attempts are nothing more than publicity stunts, meant to satisfy a particular political agenda. They prove nothing technically.
These stunts generally only attract script-kiddies... a population against which any reasonably competent sysadmin can protect themselves against with a fair amount of effectiveness no matter WHAT their OS is (yes, even NT).
The type of cracker that doesn't go in for these cheap publicity shots is the type that you really need to be worried about anyway, and those crackers will penetrate your defenses no matter what you do to stop them.
For an interesting read on the type I'm referring to, check out the 8 second crack article on the internet auditing project. It's a long (but interesting read), the particularly juicy part is down in the Third week section.
That kind of cracker doesn't particularly care which OS you're running, they'll drop you in your tracks no matter what.
Commercial databases have their place in linux. Closed source software has its place in the business world, right beside the open source offerings. Open source is not (yet) always the "right answer", even though it is becoming the "right answer" more and more often.
Sybase/Oracle/DB2/etc servers running on linux are good for linux, and it's good for the open source movement, too.
"How is a commercial source database good for the open source movement?" you ask...
Well, view it as a two-pronged approach. First, it gets people using linux/apache/perl/etc to tie together interfaces to that commercial backend. Secondly, it provides an incentive for the MySQL and Postgres crowd to make their products better and better. Linux flourished as an alternative to Microsoft, and the competition and race to add features and run better than the competitors is what keeps it vibrant, alive, and growing. Commercial databases have the same effect on open source databases.
There is room for both. This isn't an either-or situation, and yes, sometimes it does make business sense to go with a closed source option, at least until the open source alternatives are (like linux) better suited for the task at hand.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been looking around at free blog services (because I'm cheap... sue me) and I am running parallel blogs at two different sites. I'm playing around with blogger and also with the relatively new one at motime and I have to say motime seems head and shoulders above blogger, although I love google and would like to support them.
Google didn't really release a whole lot extra with this "free" release. I still don't have the two things I wanted most (commenting and hit counters). I had to hack in both of those to my template by getting a blogspeak account and using a free webcounter. Motime gave those to me for free right off the bat.
I think blogger needs to add some more before I'll be interested in them. Besides, I seem to get tons more traffic at motime when compared to blogger (granted, I've only had both of them for roughly a week).
I guess I'm just underwhelmed. I really don't think Google is giving away very damned much. Cough up some more features and I'll be more impressed, until then it looks like motime will be my free blog of choice.
-- Gary F.
I did some short term consulting work with a company recently to help them prepare some bids on the last BAA (Broad Agency Announcement) sent out by the DHS. The scope and scale of the projects that were in the request were quite interesting, with some that were tailor made for linux (wearable computing initiatives, anyone?).
We haven't heard any updates on the bid selection, but after looking at a good portion of those potential projects I can truthfully say that Microsoft is going to have a really tough time filling the required roles for many of them, let alone doing it securely.
I dislike microsoft on my own. I didn't need Sun to tell me to dislike them. And for the record, I don't think *hate* is a proper justification for any business decision. I think the desire to out innovate and out maneuver is much more important to a company's success. When you make decisions because you despise the other company you tend to make stupid decisions that focus on short term goals and neglect long term growth.
Does this mean I don't think it's ok to hate Microsoft? Of course not... but I do think using that hate to focus your business goals is wrong as well.
Run a business ethically and you may not be flashy, but you will do better in the long run, in my opinion.
Right back atcha, 'twit'
Ah, trolling from AC's. How refreshing. Glad to see the /. I know and love still lives.
Continue to believe that it's a meritocracy, and that no one who was laid off was worth a damn. I know MANY MANY people who were laid off that were far better than me. Most of my management chain got laid off. Most of my peers got laid off. Some EXTREMELY good managers and EXTREMELY good engineers fell to the axe as well. To try and believe (or pretend) otherwise makes you look stupid and shortsighted.
Besides, you're going directly contrary to Sun party line now. It was SPECIFICALLY stated during the layoffs that people were being laid off across the board, not based on technical merit or ability, but merely cut because they were attached to projects that were being cut. While I don't believe this is 100% true, I also don't believe it's 100% false either, because I know many people who still work there that can barely manage to log in to their workstations without somehome shoving a mouse up their nose, spinning around 3 times and choking themselves to death on the cord. The only reason they seem to have been spared is because nobody knows who the hell they are or what they do. Perhaps you are one of these people?
And yes, I'm the @Corp who got laid off. Oh my God, we had engineers working in @Corp too, imagine that? And please kindly point out to me where I said in my post that I was "kicking ass?". I said I did very well while I was there, and I stand by that. Don't put words into my mouth, and when you're brave enough to come out from behind your AC shield then you can talk with me about things such as this. Until then, keep your head down, don't draw any attention your way, and pray that you survive the next round of cuts.
-- Gary F.
I used to work for Sun. Loved the company, loved what they stood for, felt like I should have been paying them for the privilege of coming to work every day. Truly my dream job. I'm a major Linux bigot, but that didn't stop me from loving Solaris and loving Sun.
5 years later, the bloom pretty much faded from the rose. Sun made a lot of stupid decisions and strictly in my *opinion* started behaving unethically. They began to reap what they sowed, and the current sad state of affairs at SUNW is a reflection of their abandonment of core Sun ideals. I don't think it's wrong to use ethics as a measuring stick for your business decisions, but I seemed to be in the minority.
I think this SCO deal is a reflection of the 'new Sun' and an example of everything that is wrong with the company currently. I mourn the loss of the old Sun, and I mourn the impending death of a giant, for I truly believe that Sun is destined for failure if they continue along the current path.
I used to respect and admire Scott McNealy for his willingness to take a stand and fight for what he thought was right, but somehow along the way Sun leadership no longer does this... they instead hedge their bets, play both sides of the fence, and refuse to stick to their guns on anything when push comes to shove.
I was one of the many thousands of engineers who got laid off from Sun in the last few years. I did well while I was there, did everything that I thought was humanly possible to ensure Sun's success despite the odds, and I'm sorry to see them fall. I still truly believe that Sun has the potential to regain their dominance in both the market and mindshare, but unfortunately they got rid of all the people who had the intestinal fortitude to make a stand for what they believe in instead of what was politically expedient.
Sun hardware kicks ass, plain and simple. Solaris is a damned good OS, but no longer the far and away market leader that it used to be. Can it be again? Who knows... I believe that it could given the right attitude and resources but again, that's just a personal opinion. I think Sun could do extremely well partnered with the Linux community (like IBM is doing) instead of being an adversary to it.
Am I bitter? I'm not bitter about losing my job to economic forces, and I'm not angry towards Sun, nor do I wish them failure. I truly enjoyed working there and would work there again if I felt that they were willing to commit to what it takes to succeed. I'd work until my fingernails bled to help them achieve that, but I don't see them even acknowledging the issues and problems they face, let alone actively striving to correct them. I don't think that makes me bitter, only honest.
I only hope that Sun some day wakes up, yanks back on the control yoke and comes out of their tailspin before it's too late. Things like this SCO business aren't helping them at all and they are too shortsighted and stubborn to admit it.
-- Gary F. (who refuses to post as an AC)
There's a LOT of technical professionals out of work right now, suffering from the dot com crash. It's not just recent graduates, so you have to realize that your 2 years of coop experience and 4 year degree is competing with some engineer who's been laid off from Sun and has 10 or more years experience directly in the trenches.
Not only are you competing against people who are a lot more senior in the field, you are competing for a very limited number of positions at this time, since the work force far outstrips the available jobs. I myself have been looking for work since being laid off from Sun last november, and have been lucky to even get RESPONSES to my resumes let alone interviews, and I'm a very experienced, very savvy ex Sun engineer with a lot of interesting projects and accomplishments on my resume... yet I now find myself applying for very junior jobs at a third of my old salary just because unemployment only lasts so long... and then I get that weird look from the hiring manager and the inevitable question "why are YOU applying for this job". Of course they won't hire me because they're worried I'll flee back to a more lucrative job once the economy recovers.
All I can say is that you need to make yourself stand out. I've discovered pursuing job leads via email is a dead end, use snail mail and personal appearances. Leverage your networking skills (people networking, not TCP/IP). Meet people face to face, press the flesh, and don't give up. It's a HARD economy for us geeks out there right now.
Also, don't overlook the benefit to volunteering your time doing things you enjoy. Not only does it give back to the community and make you feel good, but it gives you a chance to meet even more people and who knows, one of those people might know someone who's looking for someone just like you.
-- Gary F.
Oh come on, you are all such a bunch of weenies (whoops, -1, flamebait, can't accuse me of being a karma whore).
.dot" it's quite obvious he's saying "I don't get why someone would want to sponser a lame tld like .dot".
When he said "I don't see
Of course, all the weenies and whiners want to immediately jump up and prove how superior they are by pointing out "doh... it's right there" thus proving their own weenieness.
Haven't you ever heard of giving people the benefit of the doubt? Sheesh, people, get a clue. They're on sale right now, a whole box of clues for a buck ninety-five, so you'd better stock up.
All this talk about waiving your rights to sue is complete bullshit. There are all sorts of federal laws in place that specifically PREVENT you from waiving certain rights, no matter what sort of document you sign saying you give them up.
These laws are specifically put into place to prevent companies/corporations/etc from bullying you into an untenable situation; sign your rights away or you can't have a job and you then starve to death. "fine, I'll sign this, but the law is on my side and if I take you to court anyways this becomes null and void" should be the thought going through your head.
This is not the case in ALL situations, but there are quite a few of these safety nets in place. The problem is that people *believe* that they are signing away their rights and don't realize that the feds are actually on their side in these cases so they never bother taking them out to the woodshed for the whupping they so richly deserve when they end up screwing someone over.
This is one case where the feds are actually doing a good thing, just not enough people know about it. Companies will get away with whatever you let them get away with, they follow the philosophy of "it's not against the law if you don't get caught".
I've been playing the stock market with some seed money trying to build up enough to by an empeg (and still have some left to continue to play with). I'm about to my goal, but I'd MUCH rather have a voice recognition version, especially at under half the price.
YES. Sign me up!
-- Gary F.
I think Jeff has done a remarkable thing. I am quite impressed with his seemingly genuine desire to right a wrong, and to take responsibility for something that he is in a position to affect.
I will support him however I might in his attempts at patent reform, and I applaud all of our community for pushing amazon on this issue... I don't think he would've about-faced like this if we hadn't gotten so outraged, and I applaud Tim for pushing him over the top.
<b>HOWEVER</b> it's not enough. I hate to say it, but it's just not enough. Jeff has committed to fixing a bad situation, but it's more akin to "oh, nobody else should do this but it's ok for us to do it". Bull. I think we should continue to hold his toes to the fire until he agrees to stop using his (admittedly) ridiculous patents offensively against <i>any</i> competitor. If he's truly contrite and truly committed, he should live by those principles instead of just trying to enforce those principles on everyone else.
If Jeff does have the guts to make a total about-face and admit that Amazon was wrong in the first place, I think he has the potential to get a HUGE amount of support from this community. He could end up scrambling out of this deep pile of shit he fell in and still smell like a rose, and he could then be held up as an example of "corporate ethics" to everyone else. I think he has the potential to really gather a lot of momentum and a lot of support, he just needs to close the loop.
None of that takes away from the fact that his open letter was full of good ideas that deserve lots of consideration and support, but his open letter doesn't take away from the fact that his company is still abusing the current patent system either.
-- Gary F.
I've been using Linux for many many years now, and one of my favorite rants (or discussions) is how to make Linux more commercially palatable. Invariably, I always end up holding forth on how linux will not be a force to be reckoned with until you can walk down the aisle at Fry's and see boxes and boxes of shrinkwrapped linux software.
Unfortunately, as we all know this is a two-way street. People don't want to port to linux because the base is so small, and people won't use a "niche" OS to raise the user base numbers until the apps are available. This is the classic catch-22 situation.
Well, now with companies like Loki you have managed to change the scene somewhat. I am delighted every time I walk down the aisle and see Loki software on the shelves, and consequently it seems like there are more and more companies coming to the table with linux ports or following a similar strategy as Loki.
It also seems to me that a critical mass point has been reached. Once you guys proved it was possible, lots of people started jumping on the bandwagon.
Now for my question(s). Did you set out on this path because you wanted to help kickstart this whole thing? Did you expect to be one of the major movers behind this sudden influx of commercial software for linux?
Also, the competition in your space seems to be heating up. You guys were the real "early adopters", meaning you were the first to market. However, now that you've proven it will work, I'm sure there are a lot of companies out there nipping at your heels, so how do you plan on staying ahead? How do you plan on keeping the forerunner position? Will you become a force for standardization among linux (with graphics API's, sound, etc) that will eventually trickle over into every other application space (besides just games?).
-- Gary F.
I believe in paranoia... I think it's a good thing. However, I do not think the FBI is stupid enough to trojan something like this. It would be found, and they know that...
I ran it on my DSL connected firewall box, as root... I also trussed and sotrussed it and monitored for network traffic. It looks to me like it's doing exactly what it claims to do. I don't claim to be an expert, but it's good enough for me.
Come on, people... if you honestly think the Feds are stupid enough to try and trojan this you need to take off the tinfoil hats and get out in the sun a little more. And if you don't think it's worth your time to ensure security of your machine you really should think a little harder. It goes way beyond just a recursive rm or two... if your box is compromised it allows someone to then use your box to stage other attacks, to spam people from your system, etc. etc. etc. And if you think you're secure just because you're obscure you are, quite simply, a fool.
I believe that just about any system can be owned given the time and resources and attention of the right people. The same goes with locks on your front doors. It won't keep the dedicated criminals at bay, but it filters out 99% of the riff raff and lets you focus on detection of the other 1%. I run a firewall on my system not because I think I'm a stud or anything, but to try and keep out the truly lame as well as to try and prevent someone from using my resources to bring down YOUR machine or spam YOUR email account or otherwise be nasty to all my internet neighbors.
I won't tell you to run the FBI binaries because I also believe they should have released source... but I will tell you to CHECK your damned systems to make sure you're not compromised and stay vigilant. If you're running a host on the internet you have a responsibility to all the other people on the internet to try and keep your box clean. If you don't want to keep your box clean, go back to AOL and reformat and reinstall windows every 3 months.
The internet was built on the theory of COOPERATION... remember? It's the same thing you all whine about day after day after day... "oh, but why is the internet going to hell... it's all these AOL lusers" everyone says. But I've got news for you, it's not the AOL lusers, it's the lusers who don't take the initiative and personal responsibility to keep their own systems clean and allow the shitheads out there to run rampant.
-- Gary F.
Personally, I think the whole topic is moot because I know *VERY* few girls who even read video game magazines.
That's sort of the whole point of her article... she's talking about why women don't read video game magazines, and her point is pretty valid. If I were part of that demographic group, I'd be put off by it too.
Personally, I agree with her summary... however, here's the big fat gotcha... if she doesn't like it, why doesn't she get together with some other women and start a video game magazine targeted towards a female demographic? Or find someone with deep pockets to fund such a venture...
To be honest, I think the reason that hasn't been done yet is because there's simply not enough of a potential revenue stream there to support such a magazine. However, I'd happy to be proven wrong.
-- Gary F.
Personally, I was rather disappointed with Corel linux. It seems to be pretty well put together, it's based on a good solid distribution, and there is quite a bit of value-add there. However, it's locked into a GUI install which bombs out if it encounters anything (such as a video card) that it doesn't know how to support.
I beta'd this thing for 'em, and enjoyed the experience... they've obviously put a lot of work into it and are trying to add value to the base distro. However, I don't run it on any of my machines because I can't get it to install. They did throw in a copy of the Loki port of Civ:CTP in the shipping version that they sent me, though, so it wasn't a total waste. Too bad it's just a limited (no multiplayer) edition though.
I think Corel could be a great distro, provided they iron out their support issues. It seems to be targeted towards more newbie users (with the nice pretty installer and all) and it's not going to win over any friends when it gets to the "probing hardware" part of the install, dies, spits the CD out and reboots the machine.
-- Gary F.
I think UFie is hilarious... and I am proud to have received his book for Christmas.
If you don't think UFie is funny you are either way over the political correctness edge _or_ you are in serious need of a sense of humor patch to bring you up to the current version.
A community or organism that can't laugh at itself is in serious trouble... and a comic strip that pokes fun without being all crude about it is even better.
Personally, I really like the running Quake storylines... mainly because I can identify (I suck at it too and constantly get fragged... and I enjoy seeing my own troubles needled in the strip).
-- Gary F.
I buy and sell odd lots with Datek all the time. They charge ~ $10 a trade, and consistently fill my odd lot requests very quickly.
-- Gary F.
I urge everyone who is displeased with this to write amazon some email and let them know exactly how you feel. I sent email to amazon immediately after I first found out about their lawsuit and let them know that they had just lost a customer.
I also stressed that I was switching my business to Barnes and Noble, and why I was doing this. I then emailed Barnes and Noble and let them know that I supported them, that I was fleeing from Amazon and that I was now shopping from them to show my support. I then placed an order for a couple of books.
Don't just rant... I urge everyone to stop shopping at Amazon (and I've already put the word out to my entire family that any books they may buy me for the holidays better not come from Amazon). I also urge everyone to LET AMAZON KNOW just how pissed off you are. Please, BE POLITE, and BE ADULT, but also BE HEARD.
-- Gary F.
Thats the manufacturer that is FORCING you. Not Microsoft.
No, dumbass, it's Microsoft forcing the manufacturer to sign restricted bundling agreements such that they then are forced to pass them off to me.
If Microsoft forced the manufacturer into this, then thats their choice. They accepted it. Therefore, you have to accept it or go to another manufacturer.
And that's the whole point of the matter isn't it? Up until about a year ago, you couldn't because Microsoft had forced them ALL into it, so I didn't have anywhere to turn. I even got one of them when I bought a bare fucking motherboard, so don't give me that shit about having a choice.
Keep in mind that no one is forcing you to use software, computers, etc. You do it at will.
Yet another completely specious statement. The whole point is that if I wanted to use a computer, I shouldn't be forced to pay Microsoft. Making a statement like "well, you could just choose to not use a computer" is simply ridiculous. That's the whole fucking POINT of antitrust legislation, dumbshit...
-- Gary F.
Everybody who bought Microsoft products (from OEMs and partners to end users) did so by their own choice.
What color is the sky in your world? I have three licenses to Windows... none of which I wanted, all of which I was forced to accept (and pay for) because the manufacturer wasn't allowed to sell me a bare system.
It's only just now starting to be a choice, but it wasn't a choice for many years. Remember all the Microsoft Refund Day brouhaha, or were you out touring alternate universes that day?
-- Gary F.
Why are people even bothering to question Corel's motives? Isn't it obvious? Here's a newsflash for you... Corel is gasp trying to make money!
Oh the inhumanity of it all.
Seriously, though. There's nothing wrong (at least in my book, others may argue differently) with a company trying to make a buck. That's what capitalism is, after all. Lest we forget, the unofficial goal of us linux-heads everywhere seems to be "settle for nothing less than total world domination". How do you expect to get there if you don't shine everything up with a slick interface, a seamless install, etc. etc. etc.?
Corel wants to leverage linux to try and regain some of the desktop app market share that they lost to Adobe and Microsoft. Microsoft owns the office suite market, and many of us have whined about Adobe not porting their stuff to linux... yet when Corel listens and begins a large porting effort we all question their motives?
No wonder people are scared of us... we're all lunatics.
-- Gary F.
This is great news (ok, maybe it's not so great considering all the time I will end up wasting).
Heroes III is one of my current favorites. I considered trying it out in vmware, but this is a way better option. One less game to boot back to windoze for.
I just hope it supports full multiplayer, and I'd like to know if the expansion pack is going to be ported as well. And finally, for the person who wanted to know if anyone is buying these... yep. At least one of us is.
-- Gary F.
Oh come on people, why do you even bother taking anything that WWN prints personally? This isn't even worthy of discussion. Nobody in their right mind reads these rags and believes one word of 'em... besides, would you want to date someone who read one of these rags and believed anything it said anyways?
These rags are by nature contrarian... they only consider subjects as fair targets when they become mainstream. And guess what? Geeks are mainstream now. We're successful, we're flush with cash, and lots of women consider us prime marriage material. We're easy to housebreak, we don't stray, and we don't treat women like trash. All that and a pocketful of stock options to boot.
I got married in August to someone who's entirely the opposite of a geek.. she's an artist, and part of the things she likes most about me is my geek nature... because she views that "sensitivity" (there's a loaded 90's word) as a plus, and she likes intelligence. And here's another news flash... she's NOT in the minority. More and more women are getting sick and damned tired of being treated like pieces of trash by various self-absorbed loser jock types and have decided to do exactly what this article states. They've decided to QUIT letting people walk all over them, they've decided to STAND UP for themselves, and DEMAND that they be treated as they deserve.
The funny thing is that as soon as they start doing all those things, THAT is when they realize that a nice geek is EXACTLY what they've been wanting.
-- Gary F.
Even though Gibson was the first to popularize cyberpunk, he didn't invent it by any stretch of the imagination.
Vernor Vinge was there long before Gibson...
That all being said, I still love Gibson's work and I'll happily read anything he writes.
-- Gary F.
These "hack this box" attempts are nothing more than publicity stunts, meant to satisfy a particular political agenda. They prove nothing technically.
These stunts generally only attract script-kiddies... a population against which any reasonably competent sysadmin can protect themselves against with a fair amount of effectiveness no matter WHAT their OS is (yes, even NT).
The type of cracker that doesn't go in for these cheap publicity shots is the type that you really need to be worried about anyway, and those crackers will penetrate your defenses no matter what you do to stop them.
For an interesting read on the type I'm referring to, check out the 8 second crack article on the internet auditing project. It's a long (but interesting read), the particularly juicy part is down in the Third week section.
That kind of cracker doesn't particularly care which OS you're running, they'll drop you in your tracks no matter what.
-- Gary F.
Commercial databases have their place in linux. Closed source software has its place in the business world, right beside the open source offerings. Open source is not (yet) always the "right answer", even though it is becoming the "right answer" more and more often.
Sybase/Oracle/DB2/etc servers running on linux are good for linux, and it's good for the open source movement, too.
"How is a commercial source database good for the open source movement?" you ask...
Well, view it as a two-pronged approach. First, it gets people using linux/apache/perl/etc to tie together interfaces to that commercial backend. Secondly, it provides an incentive for the MySQL and Postgres crowd to make their products better and better. Linux flourished as an alternative to Microsoft, and the competition and race to add features and run better than the competitors is what keeps it vibrant, alive, and growing. Commercial databases have the same effect on open source databases.
There is room for both. This isn't an either-or situation, and yes, sometimes it does make business sense to go with a closed source option, at least until the open source alternatives are (like linux) better suited for the task at hand.
-- Gary F.