Well, I'm not naive enough to think that the police will arrest every kiddie out there for every time they scan port 21 looking for wu-ftpd vulnerabilities on my servers.
But if I send an email to the offending ISP and they phone the kiddie saying 'this is unacceptable, don't do it again' then at least a start will be made.
If you broke into a neighbours garden to retrieve a ball and that neighbour then complained to your parents, there was a high likelyhood that you wouldn't break in again, correct?
The problem is that sysadmins see the scans from these kiddies and ignore them (those that even have a portsentry or similar application in place). If you saw someone walking around your house and trying the doors and windows, you'd call the police right away, wouldn't you?
So why do the kiddies get off free? Sheer apathy from most of the sysadmins in the world.
When you get scanned, you have the address (if it's not spoofed), you can send a mail to abuse@domain. But most people don't, because It's too much hassle or we can't be bothered or no harm was done.
Script Kiddies will have a far harder time when admins start practising zero tolerance.
Try Visual Slickedit. It has a built in macro language (SlickC) and support for loads of languages. Yes, it's not Free software, but I think £200 is about right for a good IDE. It's the only IDE I know of that correctly syntax highlights languages inside HTML.
I like IDEs because they are a labour-saving device. How many ppl here use a machine to wash your clothes? (no, Mum does not count;-) I don't want to have to update a make file because I changed 2 dozen files out of 2 thousand. I don't want to have remember which files are checked in and out, that information should be visible to me; I want to concentrate on coding.
Yes, there is the argument that hand crafted beats machine tooled, especially in software, but I don't want to spend time updating or fixing builds and headers when I don't have to.
Kudos to Danny for proposing this. But the quarter of the worlds population who earn less yearly than MS Word's monetary cost are not going to care about the internet or access to information when their children are starving while they assemble sports equipment.
However, the part about protecting indigenous people's pre-existing rights to information is very important. Often a company will quite literally steal a technology (often bio) that rightly belongs to a native people.
it also brings email and, you guessed it, shopping to the TV.
Of course, you can only buy from certain places. Sky doesn't allow you a proper net connection from their black box, you can only view what they want you to view.
All TV companies are terrified of the net, they're terrified of the choice it gives ppl, terrified that I might start doing something else, or productive.
Is that the same Stephen Donaldson that wrote about Thomas Covenant? I just couldn't get into his Thomas Covenent series, I found his writing to derivative of LoTR, and it just didn't grab me. Has his writing improved?
Yup, The Gap series is my favourite recent sci-fi. However, don't judge the whole 5 books on the strength of the first one (which imho is really a novella) which isn't that great. The characters go through hell, insanity and worse. Anyhoo, I shan't spoil it for you.
I have noticed several comments about how the book was garish or poorly laid out. I sent this email when I received my copy, and the reply I received is quoted below that:
----Begin my email---- Dear Sir,
For some months, I have been eagerly awaiting Jakob Nielsen's new book "Designing Web Usability." Unfortunately, when I received the book, I was very disappointed.
It is ironic that an author who advocates simplicity and usability can put his name to a book that was so difficult to read. I list some of the key points I disliked about the book below:
1) Inside and on the cover the book used garish colours for text. The front inside cover used a yellow/white font colour on a lime green background, rendering the text almost unreadable.
2) The paper used reflects any light source too readily, hampering readability. This book will be read at work, where strip-lights reflect off the page. I understand that to properly display high resolution and colour images you need paper like this, but combined with the other points I make, the paper hampers readability.
3) The "serif" font used throughout the book was too thin and unreadable. A better solution would have been to have used the sidebar font which was much more visible. This book will be referred to frequently; the text should be made as readable as possible.
4) The binding of the book is inflexible and flimsy. Look at O'Reilly's Repcover binding for a good example of how to bind a technical book. This book does not look like it will stand up to being constantly thumbed or referred to.
5) The text on many of the pages is too close to the central binding. Because of (4) above, I am reluctant to try to flatten the book so that I can read the text properly.
Apart from the presentation, I really liked the content of this book. I can now use this book to communicate why my department needs to spend more time on web usability. It is a pity the book was so poorly arranged; I find the www.useit.com website more readable than the book. ----end my email---- ----begin reply---- Mr. Clark,
Thank you for your comments and criticisms regarding the design and materials issues for *Designing Web Usability*. Your points are well made, and I'll be keeping them at hand for when we publish any subsequent editions of the book.
Please know that any design issues are not due to Jakob Nielsen; Dr. Nielsen left the book issues to us, the publishing people, for better or--as you've pointed out in your perspective--for worse. Designing a book by the world's leading authority on usability was a challenge and I'll be the first to admit that we didn't get everything right the first time. That said, we've received several comments from readers telling us they loved the design and the production values in the book. I think the optimal design is something we need to continue working to improve and I assure you, we'll be doing so. To that end your comments are quite valuable to us.
In any event, I'm very glad you like the content of the book: that was the most important matter, getting Jakob's message out for his audience. Thanks again for getting in touch and letting us know your thoughts.
Sincerely and respectfully,
--Steve Weiss
STEVE WEISS . executive editor professional graphics and design group new riders publishing . www.newriders.com 201 w. 103rd street . indianapolis . in . 46290 . usa v 317 817 7369 . fax 317 581 4663 v 800 571 5840 x 7369 steve.weiss@newriders.com ----end reply----
So they know about it. Just don't blame Nielsen for the poor layout.
With an Ethernet <-> USB adapter and a cheap LCD screen this would make a v. cool portable net appliance...
Going around the world? Road Trip? Take this baby with you (and a digital camera). Upload the pics from the camera via USB. Muck about with your pics on the mini PC, then upload them at a friendly Internet Cafe (which would have to provide an ethernet port...)
I agree with Rob tho' It really needs a battery.
Just remember folks, I've copyrighted the idea of Internet Cafes that provide a large screen, power and an ethernet or USB/net port to plug these guys into...
Saying that, In a couple of years we'll have these things a tenth of the size built into rucksacks. Mmmm, PC, USB, GPS, WebCam in a rucksack? Geek-tastic!
When I started up N6, it went through this whole routine told me that I would have to change my easy to remember name to something abstract and bizarre to satisfy its corporate renaming requirements. I think Netscape is merging the webmail name lists with AOL IM Service, which is integrated with Netscape IM. So now instead of "peteshaw" I need to come up with PeteShawSpankMyMonkey or something long and stupid.
Sorry, PeteShawSpankyMyMonkey is already taken. How about PeteShawSpankyMyMonkey140 ?
AFAIK there is nothing illegal about making a copy of CDs you own. (either here in the UK or in the US)
So what is so illegal about storing those CD "archives" at a remote site? Nobody would complain or try to sue you if you stored backup tapes offsite, in fact they would applaude you.
It's the same argument as taping a CD 10 years ago. I may want to tape a CD to listen to in the car, and that is OK. If I then sell or broadcast that tape then I'm breaking the law - I have no problem with that. Fast-forward to today. If I want to listen to music anywhere on my MP3 player then I should be able to.
There's no legal issue here at all. (only the music industry not trusting it's valued customers)
I think that there is scope for a slightly different kind of relationship between employee and employer.
RedHat, SuSE, VA etc. all make money from things that they do not own fully. Since they rely on having good software to bundle with their distribution, it follows that they should take an active interest in ensuring that software gets written. (OK, nothing mind-blowing in there;-)
Instead of the CoSource type model of doing a single task for money, the Free Software companies should fund individuals to write software full time. That is, pay the individual a full salary with the guarantee that said individual will produce an output that an old-style proprietry software house would accept. (that varies wildly, I know)
I can appreciate that many companies would have a problem paying someone to write code that any other company could use, so maybe some kind of charitable foundation (mmm, tax breaks) is the way forward. (didn't I read somewhere about a foundation for free software advocacy being set up? does it involve bob young?)
Rather than do a job, then leave as in CoSource, you would be a permanent employee of a charity. (Free Software Foundation?) Companies that use free software would donate to this charity, which would then use the money to pay people.
Hmm, does this fall under a charity? It could be described as a way for companies to dodge tax. (do employees of charities get tax breaks?)
I've always thought that the FSF could do more to promote itself - sell stuff through it's website (promoting GPL e-commerce?), advertise, employ. Why not employ a whole bunch of MS marketing gurus to promote the FSF? I'd imagine that a lot more people would buy GPL'd software if they were aware they could.
I think that having the software available to a company is more desirable than simply relying on the Free Software Community to do what you want. If paying a charity that employs highly-motivated individuals to write lots of code can be shown to be "profitable" then companies may go for it.
Anyway, I'd contact the FSF. I think they'd have the best idea on how to make writing gpl code pay for the roof over your head.
Looking at any non-trivial XSL stylesheets, you can see what a generally bad idea it is. My advice would be to use a real programming language with DOM bindings.
I wouldn't write off XSL on the strength of that article at xml.com...
When I first looked at XSL some months ago, I thought that it would be a messy and difficult language. I was wrong. XSL, IMHO, is the right solution for translating XML into pretty much anything. Yes, it does have a steep initial learning curve (much like our favourite OS:-) but once that is out of the way, you understand why the language is so useful. Why does it look so unwieldy? Because it's a "dialect" of XML. (Which I think is a good thing - it shows how flexible XML is) Typical XSL is as simple as saying "if you encounter this XML element, do this with it." Editing XSL text is really quite easy with the correct syntax highlighting. (TextPad is a good editor under windows)
As for non-trivial XSL stylesheets? On our project, we have written XSL to transform our XML data into binary outputs. The stylesheets used ran into tens of thousands of lines! I think that qualifies for non-trivial in anyone's book. I admit that the XSL is difficult to read, but show me any source that is easy to read when >10k lines...
XSL as a complete solution? No. Even in a relatively simple XML to HTML documentation tool I wrote, I called the XSL from a JavaScript app that handled things like file access and other helper functions. This was under Win2k, using the built in script engine to call the XSL via COM. (yes, even MS get's things right sometimes) The point is that XSL is better for tranforming XML than trying to use a DOM-manipulating language binding...
On another note, why does everyone assume that XML is solely for exchanging data on the web/net? I've used it for documentation, log files, test cases, application persistence and application exchange formats. It's a lot more useful and flexible than people think.
you have to wonder who will use it I have a monitor and a TV for the project I'm working on at work (Sony) running off a G400 The best feature is being able have a DVD playing in the background then watch it on TV...
Now if only I could get DirectX/OpenGL under Win2k to stop hanging the system, I'd be set. Quake 3 on a 32" widescreen. Mmmmm.
The Robot Wars TV series over here in the UK is in it's 3rd or 4th season now. It's interesting to see the brutal darwinian evolution that teams force their robots through between seasons. It's also amusing (if somewhat sadistic) to see university engineers spend £1k+ on a robot only to have it beaten by a £200 robot. Last week there was this robot called "Chaos 2" that could travel at 20mph and had a pneumatic ramp that could flip 80kilogramme robots 3 feet into the air!
Awesome geek entertainment, and the delectable miss Philippa Forrester just makes it a perfect evening.
Could someone who has played Alpha Centauri please tell me if it is any good? I bought Civilisation : Call to Power on the strength of some online reviews but found it quite limited in long-term appeal. How does Alpha Centauri compare to Civ:CTP? Does it have the same massive slowdown during later stages of a game? (ie. when many cities, etc are built) Are the computer opponents predictable?
It's interesting that there have been several mentions lately of IBM's support for Java on Linux. (and Linux in general...) It seems that while Sun makes a big noise about Linux and then catches flak for the SCSL, IBM quietly carries on supporting Linux and Java. However, my knowledge of IBM's real policies towards Linux are sketchy at best... Anyone care to tell us what licenses IBM are using? Has anyone had any good/bad experience with IBM and Linux?
Hmm, Here in the UK, BT have announced that a 512Kbs ADSL line will cost the end user 50 pounds a month plus installation and equipment costs. If this new Cisco wireless stuff really can give me 44Mbs all to myself with no connect charges... I'll buy one straight away. Hopefully Cisco won't delay selling this stuff in the UK. (which is what normally happens) I could see quite a few people in the UK switching to this kind of technology if it can deliver what it promises. (Like we all believe press releases...)
Where do I sign up?
On another note, if I could get 44Mbs over 30 miles, would I get 4.4Mbs over 300 miles? I realise that is an oversimplification, but 4Mbs+ over 100s of miles would be a godsend to countries with poor infrastructure (e.g. Africa, Russia)
Is this following on from the poll?
on
Interface Zen
·
· Score: 1
All the programming symbols on their own keys ($#|{}[]()<>?@)
Silent, soft but clicky keys. I hate noisy typists!
A whole bunch of keys with durable 32x32 LED panels on them, programmable to display different symbols. (so I can reprogram the windows key to be a penguin without buying a new keyboard) (or so I could program a key to do C-c C-f for open or C-c < for docbook)
Lasts a lifetime
Function keys below the space bar
Large keys so I don't miss
On-board memory for keymappings and symbols (see above)
Statistically designed using only programmers as the sample. This should give a keyboard with all those funny symbols in nice convenient places.
AFAIK the dvorak keyboards were designed statistically with the most frequently used keys closer to the fingers. why not do this now, using programmers as the sample? It could run a bit like the SETI programme, with users installing a little daemon that just records how many of each key was pressed and then sends that back to a central server... There should be no security risk as all that would be sent would be statistics, not something like the output from "script"...
According to Netcraft, they are using Apache 1.1.1, which is OLD! Old old old old old! Ancient, even! Offtopic, I know, but I did email their postmaster (only address I could think of) saying that they should really upgrade - if only for security's sake...
Let's face it, however. Whatever is announced will be a) expensive and b) a long time coming.
Slashdot Mirror
There are a people out there saying just that. this has some details...
Well, I'm not naive enough to think that the police will arrest every kiddie out there for every time they scan port 21 looking for wu-ftpd vulnerabilities on my servers.
But if I send an email to the offending ISP and they phone the kiddie saying 'this is unacceptable, don't do it again' then at least a start will be made.
If you broke into a neighbours garden to retrieve a ball and that neighbour then complained to your parents, there was a high likelyhood that you wouldn't break in again, correct?
The problem is that sysadmins see the scans from these kiddies and ignore them (those that even have a portsentry or similar application in place). If you saw someone walking around your house and trying the doors and windows, you'd call the police right away, wouldn't you?
So why do the kiddies get off free? Sheer apathy from most of the sysadmins in the world.
When you get scanned, you have the address (if it's not spoofed), you can send a mail to abuse@domain. But most people don't, because It's too much hassle or we can't be bothered or no harm was done.
Script Kiddies will have a far harder time when admins start practising zero tolerance.
Try Visual Slickedit. It has a built in macro language (SlickC) and support for loads of languages. Yes, it's not Free software, but I think £200 is about right for a good IDE. It's the only IDE I know of that correctly syntax highlights languages inside HTML.
;-) I don't want to have to update a make file because I changed 2 dozen files out of 2 thousand. I don't want to have remember which files are checked in and out, that information should be visible to me; I want to concentrate on coding.
I like IDEs because they are a labour-saving device. How many ppl here use a machine to wash your clothes? (no, Mum does not count
Yes, there is the argument that hand crafted beats machine tooled, especially in software, but I don't want to spend time updating or fixing builds and headers when I don't have to.
Kudos to Danny for proposing this. But the quarter of the worlds population who earn less yearly than MS Word's monetary cost are not going to care about the internet or access to information when their children are starving while they assemble sports equipment.
However, the part about protecting indigenous people's pre-existing rights to information is very important. Often a company will quite literally steal a technology (often bio) that rightly belongs to a native people.
it also brings email and, you guessed it, shopping to the TV.
Of course, you can only buy from certain places. Sky doesn't allow you a proper net connection from their black box, you can only view what they want you to view.
All TV companies are terrified of the net, they're terrified of the choice it gives ppl, terrified that I might start doing something else, or productive.
I hate TV.
Is that the same Stephen Donaldson that wrote about Thomas Covenant? I just couldn't get into his Thomas Covenent series, I found his writing to derivative of LoTR, and it just didn't grab me. Has his writing improved?
Yup, The Gap series is my favourite recent sci-fi. However, don't judge the whole 5 books on the strength of the first one (which imho is really a novella) which isn't that great. The characters go through hell, insanity and worse. Anyhoo, I shan't spoil it for you.
I have noticed several comments about how the book was garish or poorly laid out. I sent this email when I received my copy, and the reply I received is quoted below that:
----Begin my email----
Dear Sir,
For some months, I have been eagerly awaiting Jakob Nielsen's new book
"Designing Web Usability." Unfortunately, when I received the book, I was
very disappointed.
It is ironic that an author who advocates simplicity and usability can put
his name to a book that was so difficult to read. I list some of the key
points I disliked about the book below:
1) Inside and on the cover the book used garish colours for text. The front
inside cover used a yellow/white font colour on a lime green background,
rendering the text almost unreadable.
2) The paper used reflects any light source too readily, hampering
readability. This book will be read at work, where strip-lights reflect off
the page. I understand that to properly display high resolution and colour
images you need paper like this, but combined with the other points I make,
the paper hampers readability.
3) The "serif" font used throughout the book was too thin and unreadable. A
better solution would have been to have used the sidebar font which was much
more visible. This book will be referred to frequently; the text should be
made as readable as possible.
4) The binding of the book is inflexible and flimsy. Look at O'Reilly's
Repcover binding for a good example of how to bind a technical book. This
book does not look like it will stand up to being constantly thumbed or
referred to.
5) The text on many of the pages is too close to the central binding.
Because of (4) above, I am reluctant to try to flatten the book so that I
can read the text properly.
Apart from the presentation, I really liked the content of this book. I can
now use this book to communicate why my department needs to spend more time
on web usability. It is a pity the book was so poorly arranged; I find the
www.useit.com website more readable than the book.
----end my email----
----begin reply----
Mr. Clark,
Thank you for your comments and criticisms regarding the design and materials issues for *Designing Web Usability*. Your points are well made, and I'll be keeping them at hand for when we publish any subsequent editions of the book.
Please know that any design issues are not due to Jakob Nielsen; Dr. Nielsen left the book issues to us, the publishing people, for better or--as you've pointed out in your perspective--for worse. Designing a book by the world's leading authority on usability was a challenge and I'll be the first to admit that we didn't get everything right the first time. That said, we've received several comments from readers telling us they loved the design and the production values in the book. I think the optimal design is something we need to continue working to improve and I assure you, we'll be doing so. To that end your comments are quite valuable to us.
In any event, I'm very glad you like the content of the book: that was the most important matter, getting Jakob's message out for his audience. Thanks again for getting in touch and letting us know your thoughts.
Sincerely and respectfully,
--Steve Weiss
STEVE WEISS . executive editor
professional graphics and design group
new riders publishing . www.newriders.com
201 w. 103rd street . indianapolis . in . 46290 . usa
v 317 817 7369 . fax 317 581 4663
v 800 571 5840 x 7369
steve.weiss@newriders.com
----end reply----
So they know about it. Just don't blame Nielsen for the poor layout.
Are there any Buddhist extremists? I always thought Buddhists were really laid back and calm...
OK,
With an Ethernet <-> USB adapter and a cheap LCD screen this would make a v. cool portable net appliance...
Going around the world? Road Trip? Take this baby with you (and a digital camera). Upload the pics from the camera via USB. Muck about with your pics on the mini PC, then upload them at a friendly Internet Cafe (which would have to provide an ethernet port...)
I agree with Rob tho' It really needs a battery.
Just remember folks, I've copyrighted the idea of Internet Cafes that provide a large screen, power and an ethernet or USB/net port to plug these guys into...
Saying that, In a couple of years we'll have these things a tenth of the size built into rucksacks. Mmmm, PC, USB, GPS, WebCam in a rucksack? Geek-tastic!
:-)
When I started up N6, it went through this whole routine told me that I would have to change my easy to remember name to something abstract and bizarre to satisfy its corporate renaming requirements. I think Netscape is merging the webmail name lists with AOL IM Service, which is integrated with Netscape IM. So now instead of "peteshaw" I need to come up with PeteShawSpankMyMonkey or something long and stupid.
Sorry, PeteShawSpankyMyMonkey is already taken. How about PeteShawSpankyMyMonkey140 ?
The mini ghost seems to be only PS2 or DIN... I'm glad I got a USB keyboard now, even if it is M$
What version of the kernel is included?
I only ask because this afternoon was going to be the "download backpatch, compile and try to get USB mouse + keyboard working" session.
aicn have a few piccies from the trailer. All I can say is... Mmmmm, Mystique...
and at this site there is a cool campaign site parody that is very relevant to the x-men.
Enjoy!
AFAIK there is nothing illegal about making a copy of CDs you own. (either here in the UK or in the US)
So what is so illegal about storing those CD "archives" at a remote site? Nobody would complain or try to sue you if you stored backup tapes offsite, in fact they would applaude you.
It's the same argument as taping a CD 10 years ago. I may want to tape a CD to listen to in the car, and that is OK. If I then sell or broadcast that tape then I'm breaking the law - I have no problem with that. Fast-forward to today. If I want to listen to music anywhere on my MP3 player then I should be able to.
There's no legal issue here at all. (only the music industry not trusting it's valued customers)
I think that there is scope for a slightly different kind of relationship between employee and employer.
;-)
RedHat, SuSE, VA etc. all make money from things that they do not own fully. Since they rely on having good software to bundle with their distribution, it follows that they should take an active interest in ensuring that software gets written. (OK, nothing mind-blowing in there
Instead of the CoSource type model of doing a single task for money, the Free Software companies should fund individuals to write software full time. That is, pay the individual a full salary with the guarantee that said individual will produce an output that an old-style proprietry software house would accept. (that varies wildly, I know)
I can appreciate that many companies would have a problem paying someone to write code that any other company could use, so maybe some kind of charitable foundation (mmm, tax breaks) is the way forward. (didn't I read somewhere about a foundation for free software advocacy being set up? does it involve bob young?)
Rather than do a job, then leave as in CoSource, you would be a permanent employee of a charity. (Free Software Foundation?) Companies that use free software would donate to this charity, which would then use the money to pay people.
Hmm, does this fall under a charity? It could be described as a way for companies to dodge tax. (do employees of charities get tax breaks?)
I've always thought that the FSF could do more to promote itself - sell stuff through it's website (promoting GPL e-commerce?), advertise, employ. Why not employ a whole bunch of MS marketing gurus to promote the FSF? I'd imagine that a lot more people would buy GPL'd software if they were aware they could.
I think that having the software available to a company is more desirable than simply relying on the Free Software Community to do what you want. If paying a charity that employs highly-motivated individuals to write lots of code can be shown to be "profitable" then companies may go for it.
Anyway, I'd contact the FSF. I think they'd have the best idea on how to make writing gpl code pay for the roof over your head.
Looking at any non-trivial XSL stylesheets, you can see what a generally bad idea it is. My advice would be to use a real programming language with DOM bindings.
:-) but once that is out of the way, you understand why the language is so useful. Why does it look so unwieldy? Because it's a "dialect" of XML. (Which I think is a good thing - it shows how flexible XML is) Typical XSL is as simple as saying "if you encounter this XML element, do this with it." Editing XSL text is really quite easy with the correct syntax highlighting. (TextPad is a good editor under windows)
I wouldn't write off XSL on the strength of that article at xml.com...
When I first looked at XSL some months ago, I thought that it would be a messy and difficult language. I was wrong. XSL, IMHO, is the right solution for translating XML into pretty much anything. Yes, it does have a steep initial learning curve (much like our favourite OS
As for non-trivial XSL stylesheets? On our project, we have written XSL to transform our XML data into binary outputs. The stylesheets used ran into tens of thousands of lines! I think that qualifies for non-trivial in anyone's book. I admit that the XSL is difficult to read, but show me any source that is easy to read when >10k lines...
XSL as a complete solution? No. Even in a relatively simple XML to HTML documentation tool I wrote, I called the XSL from a JavaScript app that handled things like file access and other helper functions. This was under Win2k, using the built in script engine to call the XSL via COM. (yes, even MS get's things right sometimes) The point is that XSL is better for tranforming XML than trying to use a DOM-manipulating language binding...
On another note, why does everyone assume that XML is solely for exchanging data on the web/net? I've used it for documentation, log files, test cases, application persistence and application exchange formats. It's a lot more useful and flexible than people think.
you have to wonder who will use it
I have a monitor and a TV for the project I'm working on at work (Sony) running off a G400
The best feature is being able have a DVD playing in the background then watch it on TV...
Now if only I could get DirectX/OpenGL under Win2k to stop hanging the system, I'd be set. Quake 3 on a 32" widescreen. Mmmmm.
The Robot Wars TV series over here in the UK is in it's 3rd or 4th season now. It's interesting to see the brutal darwinian evolution that teams force their robots through between seasons. It's also amusing (if somewhat sadistic) to see university engineers spend £1k+ on a robot only to have it beaten by a £200 robot.
Last week there was this robot called "Chaos 2" that could travel at 20mph and had a pneumatic ramp that could flip 80kilogramme robots 3 feet into the air!
Awesome geek entertainment, and the delectable miss Philippa Forrester just makes it a perfect evening.
Could someone who has played Alpha Centauri please tell me if it is any good? I bought Civilisation : Call to Power on the strength of some online reviews but found it quite limited in long-term appeal. How does Alpha Centauri compare to Civ:CTP? Does it have the same massive slowdown during later stages of a game? (ie. when many cities, etc are built) Are the computer opponents predictable?
Any honest reviews would be gratefully received.
It's interesting that there have been several mentions lately of IBM's support for Java on Linux. (and Linux in general...)
It seems that while Sun makes a big noise about Linux and then catches flak for the SCSL, IBM quietly carries on supporting Linux and Java.
However, my knowledge of IBM's real policies towards Linux are sketchy at best... Anyone care to tell us what licenses IBM are using? Has anyone had any good/bad experience with IBM and Linux?
Hmm,
Here in the UK, BT have announced that a 512Kbs ADSL line will cost the end user 50 pounds a month plus installation and equipment costs. If this new Cisco wireless stuff really can give me 44Mbs all to myself with no connect charges... I'll buy one straight away.
Hopefully Cisco won't delay selling this stuff in the UK. (which is what normally happens) I could see quite a few people in the UK switching to this kind of technology if it can deliver what it promises. (Like we all believe press releases...)
Where do I sign up?
On another note, if I could get 44Mbs over 30 miles, would I get 4.4Mbs over 300 miles? I realise that is an oversimplification, but 4Mbs+ over 100s of miles would be a godsend to countries with poor infrastructure (e.g. Africa, Russia)
What I want in a keyboard:
AFAIK the dvorak keyboards were designed statistically with the most frequently used keys closer to the fingers.
why not do this now, using programmers as the sample?
It could run a bit like the SETI programme, with users installing a little daemon that just records how many of each key was pressed and then sends that back to a central server...
There should be no security risk as all that would be sent would be statistics, not something like the output from "script"...
Or maybe I need to think this through more
According to Netcraft, they are using Apache 1.1.1, which is OLD! Old old old old old! Ancient, even!
Offtopic, I know, but I did email their postmaster (only address I could think of) saying that they should really upgrade - if only for security's sake...
Let's face it, however. Whatever is announced will be a) expensive and b) a long time coming.
Do you get many cracker/script kiddie attacks on the various web sites you run?