When I saw: The Solaris 9 binary license is not all that restrictive when compared with Microsoft's EULA, but the additional supplements end up piling on so many more restrictions that it's more or less on par with the Windows license.
I know Solaris isn't GPL'ed, but the SCSL still lets you peek at the code if you want. (http://www.sun.com/solaris/source)
One thing that CDE/Solaris is missing is a comprehensive network configuration panel; network settings still have to be set by hand in Solaris 9, unfortunately.
Try typing: smc& at the command line. Sun Management Console is a very powerful tool indeed.
The most detrimental compatibility issue that I encountered with Solaris 9 x86 was that it did not have binary compatibility with Solaris SPARC, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, MS Windows or any other operating system.
One word Mister, lxrun. Try it.
This article really should have been written by someone who knows at least a little about Solaris. Or by someone who doesn't mind reading some documentation before writing their review. Apparently the author just expected to sit down and have the OS install itself, and then teach him how to use it.
And yes, there are security flaws in Solaris. That's why the SunAlert bulletins are your friend. That's why you need to roll out the new KJP's when they come out, make sure you keep up on your patch management etc. In other words you know, be a systems administrator and actually ADMIN your systems.
Yes, and didn't someone once say "Nobody will ever need more than 640K of memory." ? Or as I recall an IBM ad that I saw in the early/mid 1980's that read something to the effect of, "The new FIVE MEGABYTE hard drive, all the storage space you'll ever need!"
Just one of my customer accounts has a single Enterprise 10,000 cluster with ~20 TB of disk attached. Don't tell me that nobody will ever need a ZB of storage. Maybe not tomorrow, but in 20 years? Yea.
Your problem [1] is that you're too short sighted; You don't see the big picture. Companies with billion-dollar applications, Government agencies that need a reliable computer to launch rockets, companies who do molecular 3d modeling and research, those who build dams, nuclear power systems, design skyscrapers, build bridges, chemical engineering, and companies who handle emergency medical response systems, etc.
These are a few applications where companies want five 9's, and where they pay $500,000 a month to know that when they make a phone call, 30 minutes later the nerdy girl with the tool kit and the laptop are going to show up at the door with an entire company behind her. They want to know that if I can't fix it, Sun will fly someone in right-goddamned-NOW to find out why if they have to.
CIO's, stock holders, and someone with their life on the line doesn't want to hear about Linux and how it's open source and how you coded this in your spare time and blah, blah blah. All they wanna' hear is [3], "You ain't got no problem [customer], I'm on the mother**cker, go back in there, chill them [people] out, and wait for the calvary who'll be comin' directly."
Backbone of real supercomputers my ass. IBM still does most of the high-power processing in the world on their mainframes anyway.
[1] And the problem of most Linux fanatics[2]
[2] Not every Linux user or advocate is a fanatic. I use the term to refer to the more rabid zealots.
[3] To borrow a line from Pulp Fiction
Again. My own personal opinions. Not those of Sun.
I was told that SUN was primarily a hardware company, and that the more exposure they got, even from software, would create more hardware sales
Because if customers want to use Sun systems for their shop, but there isn't an office product that runs on it they still have to have PC's lying around. If Sun supplies them with the hardware, OS, and decent office tools, it's yet another reason the customer can use Sun.
suddenly SUN was a wee bit worried. They tried Solaris 9 for x86, then pulled it back later on
Uhm. I've got a copy of Solaris 2.6 x86 downstairs in my software library. If you think that Solaris 9 was the first x86 release of Solaris, you're not very educated on Sun products/offerings. The reason Sun "pulled back" from x86 is because they were ready to relinquish the x86 market to Linux. Customers SCREAMED at Sun NOT to do this. They WANTED Solaris reliability and functionality on x86 CPU's and didn't trust Linux completely. Sun happily obliged.
Does anyone else think that they're competing with themselves?
Huh?
They're not a software-as-a-service business model. They're not really even an OS Software "manufacturer" business. They're a hardware company who has tried their hand at everything from a programming language (Java), an office suite (staroffice), and OS/desktop (Solaris, Java Desktop).
Yes. Your one-stop-shopping place for all of your workplace needs. You need the hardware? Got that. You need an OS that offers seamless integration with the hardware? Here 'ya go. Want a built-in filesystem with the features of VXFS without having to pay a license fee to Veritas? ZFS comes in 10. Want to write your code in one language and run it on all of your other systems? Use Java. OS Desktop? That's just icing designed to take more $ from Bill G's pocket.
When Linux pulls through
Linux is a good OS and I am no stranger to it whatsoever, but it has a long way to go to catch up to Solaris. This announcement about Solaris 10 is demonstrating just that.
Oh, and by the way. Some of us in my office are playing with the internal-only betas of Solaris 10. Very sexy IMNSHO. For the heck of it, I started calling it SunOS X as a parody of MacOS X. The rest of the engineers on my team have followed suit, though as of yet none of us know what the "official" release name will be.:-)
*** Disclaimer *** I DO work for Sun but this is my PERSONAL opinion. It is NOT intended in any way, shape, or form to be construed as an official Sun position.
I used to work in the IT department of a plumbing company and frequently got the giggles about things the plumbers would discuss in the break room; Ballcocks, nut rings, etc.
I guess they'll have to change those words in LA too.
I work for Sun in a field office in the Mid-West USA. There are only 1 or 2 people who have permanently assigned offices in our suite, they are secretaries who never leave the office and can't effectively work on-the-move.
As most of the people in our office are field techs or sales reps, we really have no need for an assigned office about 75% of the time.
We have locking storage cabinets that we put our books and things in, as well as a file cabinet with a handle and wheels that we can pull into the office we've reserved for the day/week/whatever.
There is a reservation system in the suite where you can reserve an office/cubicle/work area for up to 10 days at a time. Most of the time, I only need a work area for a few hours before I'm off on another call or customer visit.
Alternatively, I can work from home. I have a Sun workstation that has full access to the Sun network via VPN, my office phone can be programmed to forward calls, I have a pager, cell phone, and company issue (solaris x86) laptop. I can call any Sun internal number by accessing the 800# system, and when I do go into the office, my mail etc is automagically synced up by my badge/smartcard, or by punching in a few numbers on the phone system.
The only downside to the whole scheme is this: Some jerkoff co-workers don't bother to check the reservation system and just plop down in any office or open work area they see. If I have it reserved for the day, they're in my way and I have to ask them to move or I have to go find another workspace. THAT pisses me off to no end.
Yah, the SunRay systems; they're heavily used at Sun offices/campuses. Cheap too, something like $100 per Sunray. Of course, you need a beefy connection and backend server to push all that stuff out to the users.
Our office has something like 50 users at any given time and I know the backend is a 6CPU E4500 with like 8GB ram. I never have a problem with latency or program load delay or anything.
I don't think this is practical for a home solution however.;-)
"awarded millions to some idiot who couldn't figure out that driving a car with hot coffee between her lap"
The facts of this case have been so misrepresented it's become an urban myth.
It was February 27, 1992. Her name was Stela Liebeck and she was a very active 79 year old retired department store clerk in Albuquerque NM.
She and her grandson drove her son to the airport one morning and on the way back they stopped at McDonalds drive through for breakfast. Her grandson was driving.
The grandson parked the car so she could put sugar and cream in her coffee. She had trouble removing the lid so she put it between her legs for leverage. When she got the top off, the scalding coffee spilled into her lap. (Most restaurants serve coffee that is 130-150 degrees, Mcdonalds coffee is 180.)
She was wearing a sweat suit, it held the 180 degree liquid against her skin and helped retain the heat. She suffered third degree burns to her genitals, buttocks, and legs.
She was hospitalized for 8 days, immobilized at home for 3 weeks, then went back to the hospital for skin grafts. It was an excruciatingly painful and VERY expensive experience. Luckily, her insurance DID pay most of her bills.
In 1994 Stella simply wrote to McDonalds and asked them to lower the temperature of their coffee. She did not plan on suing at the time.
Her familly felt that she was due $2000 for lost wages and various expenses. They had to pay the insurance deductible and her daughter had taken time off work to care for her. McDonalds offered her $800.
The family hired a lawyer and he asked McDonalds to give Stella $100,000 for her injuries and $300,000 in punitive damages. The lawyer tried to settle the case before they went to trial.
McDonalds' position was that Stella knew she was buying hot coffee and spilled it herself due to her own neglect. They knew that they were not liable for someone spilling coffee on themselves. If they took responsibility for this injury, they would have to take responsibility for untold numbers of other things that people do to themselves. They were technically absolutely right.
The plaintiff (that's Stella's lawyer really), said that McDonald's knew that their coffee was not drinkable at 180 degrees and that they knew there was a risk of severe burns, and that they had decided NOT to warn their customers and had NO INTENTION of changing their policies. He also showed large color photos of Stella's burns and reconstructive surgery.
This is where it gets fun.
McDonald's defense lawyers did themselves more harm than good by pressing their point and case which was LEGALLY SOUND, but EMOTIONALLY OFFENSIVE.
It turns out that McDonalds had incurred over SEVEN HUNDRED lawsuits from their coffee. A quality assurance supervisor dismissed the complaints as "statistically insignificant".
The McDonald's lawyers asserted that Stella was asking for too much money because she was old and therefore didn't have much use left in her injured body parts, therefore she deserved less money.
The lawyers also noted that Stella hadn't LEAPT from her bucket seat, so the coffee stayed in her lap making her burns worse.
In other words, McDonalds made themselves look like insensitive pricks to the jury, and the jury didn't like it one damned bit.
Now for the financial facts:
The jury awarded Stella $200,000 compensation for her injuries, but found her 20% at fault, so they lowered it to $160,000.
The jury also found McDonald's guilty of "Wanton, willful, reckless, or malicious conduct", which is grounds for awarding punitive damages in the US. The jury was fundamentally disturbed by McDonald's behavior and attitude and they wanted to send a message to the company bigwigs. They based the amount of punitive damages awarded on two days worth of McDonald's coffee sales. $2.7 Million dollars.
The judge reduced the award to $670,000. McDonald's appealed and the case went back to court. Stella and McDonald's eventually settled for an undisclosed amount of money.
McDonald's has since lowered the temperature of their coffee.
Please, research your facts before you speak.
-kate
"NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - You can't live with 'em. And you can't shoot 'em. "
Apparently they missed their own headlines a few days ago:
"Salvador Tapia returned to the Windy City Core Supply warehouse where he had been fired six months ago and killed six of his former co-workers, police said Wednesday."
Apparently, if you can't live with 'em, you can shoot 'em.
I read this on Commondreams a while ago, it really sums up my opinion on this matter.
-rl
Published on Wednesday, April 3, 2002 by Common Dreams What the American Flag Stands For
by Charlotte Aldebron
The American flag stands for the fact that cloth can be very important. It is against the law to let the flag touch the ground or to leave the flag flying when the weather is bad. The flag has to be treated with respect. You can tell just how important this cloth is because when you compare it to people, it gets much better treatment. Nobody cares if a homeless person touches the ground. A homeless person can lie all over the ground all night long without anyone picking him up, folding him neatly and sheltering him from the rain. School children have to pledge loyalty to this piece of cloth every morning. No one has to pledge loyalty to justice and equality and human decency. No one has to promise that people will get a fair wage, or enough food to eat, or affordable medicine, or clean water, or air free of harmful chemicals. But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth.
Betsy Ross would be quite surprised to see how successful her creation has become. But Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed to see how little of the flag's real meaning remains.
Charlotte Aldebron, 12, wrote this essay for a competition in her 6th grade English class.
Hahahaha. Remember the hissy-fit he threw when I called RMS a psychopath? He boycotted the CLUG mailing list until they agreed to ban me. (They never did.)
Bradly Kuhn as VP for the FSF is enough to make Afanassy Thompson roll over in his grave.
Speaking of which...it's been over a year since Afanassy passed away, I still think about him all the time, and I still miss him. He was a great guy.
And the big flaw in the technology (besides the extremely low speed), is that a magnet of the size required to do the job would create one -hell- of a blip on magnetic sensors. Such sensors are used to detect the disturbances in the magnetic fields of the Earth caused by extremely large ships.
So basically, even if they can't hear you...they still know where you are.
Then I don't suppose you remember the incident where one of the shuttles landed with a 1/4 inch deep "crater" in the windshield. It was struck by a _fleck of paint_ that had come off a piece of orbiting debris. Those items are entirely too small to track.
Last I read, the number of items tracked (debris and other), was somewhere in the range of 40,000 pieces. Granted, flecks of paint aren't likely to cause a catastrophic impact to Earth, but my point is we can't track all the items in orbit around Earth & tracking items further out has got to be even more difficult. ---
Wow, I've read both of those books...I'm amazed that anyone else has.;-P
I'm curious though, why should we believe that scientists/astronomers can track _every_ asteroid in a near-earth orbit, when they can't even track _every_ piece of space debris in orbit around earth now?
Sun Microsystems doesn't use MS Office internally. The standard office suite is StarOffice. (Though it used to be Applixware)
That's a pretty good example if you ask me. There are more than 10,000 employees at Sun worldwide (I think close to 30,000 really but I'm not positive), and use of Microsoft products is strongly discouraged. You might want to present that to your superiors as evidence that a company doesn't need MS to survive.
Well, it's not all that bad actually. My only complaint is that after I installed it, for some reason it doesn't want to start properly from the menu in GNOME. Althought typing 'wordperfect&' seems to get it going alright. Setting up a printer isn't nearly as easy as WP8 was either. It _does_ look smooth & work well though. Haven't crashed it once yet.:-) -rl
I think it's a marketing thing to change the name. People have heard the name "Merced" for years now and it keeps getting delayed. The only way to rekindle interest in the product is to change the name in hope that people will think it's something new and forget about all the delays with the original named product.
Slashdot Mirror
When I saw:
The Solaris 9 binary license is not all that restrictive when compared with Microsoft's EULA, but the additional supplements end up piling on so many more restrictions that it's more or less on par with the Windows license.
I know Solaris isn't GPL'ed, but the SCSL still lets you peek at the code if you want. (http://www.sun.com/solaris/source)
One thing that CDE/Solaris is missing is a comprehensive network configuration panel; network settings still have to be set by hand in Solaris 9, unfortunately.
Try typing: smc& at the command line. Sun Management Console is a very powerful tool indeed.
The most detrimental compatibility issue that I encountered with Solaris 9 x86 was that it did not have binary compatibility with Solaris SPARC, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, MS Windows or any other operating system.
One word Mister, lxrun. Try it.
This article really should have been written by someone who knows at least a little about Solaris. Or by someone who doesn't mind reading some documentation before writing their review. Apparently the author just expected to sit down and have the OS install itself, and then teach him how to use it.
And yes, there are security flaws in Solaris. That's why the SunAlert bulletins are your friend. That's why you need to roll out the new KJP's when they come out, make sure you keep up on your patch management etc. In other words you know, be a systems administrator and actually ADMIN your systems.
Yes, and didn't someone once say "Nobody will ever need more than 640K of memory." ? Or as I recall an IBM ad that I saw in the early/mid 1980's that read something to the effect of, "The new FIVE MEGABYTE hard drive, all the storage space you'll ever need!"
Just one of my customer accounts has a single Enterprise 10,000 cluster with ~20 TB of disk attached. Don't tell me that nobody will ever need a ZB of storage. Maybe not tomorrow, but in 20 years? Yea.
Your problem [1] is that you're too short sighted; You don't see the big picture. Companies with billion-dollar applications, Government agencies that need a reliable computer to launch rockets, companies who do molecular 3d modeling and research, those who build dams, nuclear power systems, design skyscrapers, build bridges, chemical engineering, and companies who handle emergency medical response systems, etc.
These are a few applications where companies want five 9's, and where they pay $500,000 a month to know that when they make a phone call, 30 minutes later the nerdy girl with the tool kit and the laptop are going to show up at the door with an entire company behind her. They want to know that if I can't fix it, Sun will fly someone in right-goddamned-NOW to find out why if they have to.
CIO's, stock holders, and someone with their life on the line doesn't want to hear about Linux and how it's open source and how you coded this in your spare time and blah, blah blah. All they wanna' hear is [3], "You ain't got no problem [customer], I'm on the mother**cker, go back in there, chill them [people] out, and wait for the calvary who'll be comin' directly."
Backbone of real supercomputers my ass. IBM still does most of the high-power processing in the world on their mainframes anyway.
[1] And the problem of most Linux fanatics[2]
[2] Not every Linux user or advocate is a fanatic. I use the term to refer to the more rabid zealots.
[3] To borrow a line from Pulp Fiction
Again. My own personal opinions. Not those of Sun.
-
I was told that SUN was primarily a hardware company, and that the more exposure they got, even from software, would create more hardware sales
:-)
Because if customers want to use Sun systems for their shop, but there isn't an office product that runs on it they still have to have PC's lying around. If Sun supplies them with the hardware, OS, and decent office tools, it's yet another reason the customer can use Sun.
suddenly SUN was a wee bit worried. They tried Solaris 9 for x86, then pulled it back later on
Uhm. I've got a copy of Solaris 2.6 x86 downstairs in my software library. If you think that Solaris 9 was the first x86 release of Solaris, you're not very educated on Sun products/offerings. The reason Sun "pulled back" from x86 is because they were ready to relinquish the x86 market to Linux. Customers SCREAMED at Sun NOT to do this. They WANTED Solaris reliability and functionality on x86 CPU's and didn't trust Linux completely. Sun happily obliged.
Does anyone else think that they're competing with themselves?
Huh?
They're not a software-as-a-service business model. They're not really even an OS Software "manufacturer" business. They're a hardware company who has tried their hand at everything from a programming language (Java), an office suite (staroffice), and OS/desktop (Solaris, Java Desktop).
Yes. Your one-stop-shopping place for all of your workplace needs. You need the hardware? Got that. You need an OS that offers seamless integration with the hardware? Here 'ya go. Want a built-in filesystem with the features of VXFS without having to pay a license fee to Veritas? ZFS comes in 10. Want to write your code in one language and run it on all of your other systems? Use Java. OS Desktop? That's just icing designed to take more $ from Bill G's pocket.
When Linux pulls through
Linux is a good OS and I am no stranger to it whatsoever, but it has a long way to go to catch up to Solaris. This announcement about Solaris 10 is demonstrating just that.
Oh, and by the way. Some of us in my office are playing with the internal-only betas of Solaris 10. Very sexy IMNSHO. For the heck of it, I started calling it SunOS X as a parody of MacOS X. The rest of the engineers on my team have followed suit, though as of yet none of us know what the "official" release name will be.
***
Disclaimer
***
I DO work for Sun but this is my PERSONAL opinion. It is NOT intended in any way, shape, or form to be construed as an official Sun position.
I used to work in the IT department of a plumbing company and frequently got the giggles about things the plumbers would discuss in the break room; Ballcocks, nut rings, etc.
I guess they'll have to change those words in LA too.
I work for Sun in a field office in the Mid-West USA. There are only 1 or 2 people who have permanently assigned offices in our suite, they are secretaries who never leave the office and can't effectively work on-the-move.
As most of the people in our office are field techs or sales reps, we really have no need for an assigned office about 75% of the time.
We have locking storage cabinets that we put our books and things in, as well as a file cabinet with a handle and wheels that we can pull into the office we've reserved for the day/week/whatever.
There is a reservation system in the suite where you can reserve an office/cubicle/work area for up to 10 days at a time. Most of the time, I only need a work area for a few hours before I'm off on another call or customer visit.
Alternatively, I can work from home. I have a Sun workstation that has full access to the Sun network via VPN, my office phone can be programmed to forward calls, I have a pager, cell phone, and company issue (solaris x86) laptop. I can call any Sun internal number by accessing the 800# system, and when I do go into the office, my mail etc is automagically synced up by my badge/smartcard, or by punching in a few numbers on the phone system.
The only downside to the whole scheme is this: Some jerkoff co-workers don't bother to check the reservation system and just plop down in any office or open work area they see. If I have it reserved for the day, they're in my way and I have to ask them to move or I have to go find another workspace. THAT pisses me off to no end.
Pretty neat. I wonder how long before they combine this with a realdoll? Think of the possibilities! :-)
Yah, the SunRay systems; they're heavily used at Sun offices/campuses. Cheap too, something like $100 per Sunray. Of course, you need a beefy connection and backend server to push all that stuff out to the users.
;-)
Our office has something like 50 users at any given time and I know the backend is a 6CPU E4500 with like 8GB ram. I never have a problem with latency or program load delay or anything.
I don't think this is practical for a home solution however.
So because I've been around forever (UID 1728), my input is more valuable? YAY! I RULE!! ;-)
I am not a lawyer.
:-)
(But I do sleep with one now & then.)
and I have no fucking idea why that came out formatted that way. grrrr.
"awarded millions to some idiot who couldn't figure out that driving a car with hot coffee between her lap"
The facts of this case have been so misrepresented it's become an urban myth.
It was February 27, 1992. Her name was Stela Liebeck and she was a very active 79 year old retired department store clerk in Albuquerque NM. She and her grandson drove her son to the airport one morning and on the way back they stopped at McDonalds drive through for breakfast. Her grandson was driving. The grandson parked the car so she could put sugar and cream in her coffee. She had trouble removing the lid so she put it between her legs for leverage. When she got the top off, the scalding coffee spilled into her lap. (Most restaurants serve coffee that is 130-150 degrees, Mcdonalds coffee is 180.) She was wearing a sweat suit, it held the 180 degree liquid against her skin and helped retain the heat. She suffered third degree burns to her genitals, buttocks, and legs. She was hospitalized for 8 days, immobilized at home for 3 weeks, then went back to the hospital for skin grafts. It was an excruciatingly painful and VERY expensive experience. Luckily, her insurance DID pay most of her bills. In 1994 Stella simply wrote to McDonalds and asked them to lower the temperature of their coffee. She did not plan on suing at the time. Her familly felt that she was due $2000 for lost wages and various expenses. They had to pay the insurance deductible and her daughter had taken time off work to care for her. McDonalds offered her $800. The family hired a lawyer and he asked McDonalds to give Stella $100,000 for her injuries and $300,000 in punitive damages. The lawyer tried to settle the case before they went to trial. McDonalds' position was that Stella knew she was buying hot coffee and spilled it herself due to her own neglect. They knew that they were not liable for someone spilling coffee on themselves. If they took responsibility for this injury, they would have to take responsibility for untold numbers of other things that people do to themselves. They were technically absolutely right. The plaintiff (that's Stella's lawyer really), said that McDonald's knew that their coffee was not drinkable at 180 degrees and that they knew there was a risk of severe burns, and that they had decided NOT to warn their customers and had NO INTENTION of changing their policies. He also showed large color photos of Stella's burns and reconstructive surgery. This is where it gets fun. McDonald's defense lawyers did themselves more harm than good by pressing their point and case which was LEGALLY SOUND, but EMOTIONALLY OFFENSIVE. It turns out that McDonalds had incurred over SEVEN HUNDRED lawsuits from their coffee. A quality assurance supervisor dismissed the complaints as "statistically insignificant". The McDonald's lawyers asserted that Stella was asking for too much money because she was old and therefore didn't have much use left in her injured body parts, therefore she deserved less money. The lawyers also noted that Stella hadn't LEAPT from her bucket seat, so the coffee stayed in her lap making her burns worse. In other words, McDonalds made themselves look like insensitive pricks to the jury, and the jury didn't like it one damned bit. Now for the financial facts: The jury awarded Stella $200,000 compensation for her injuries, but found her 20% at fault, so they lowered it to $160,000. The jury also found McDonald's guilty of "Wanton, willful, reckless, or malicious conduct", which is grounds for awarding punitive damages in the US. The jury was fundamentally disturbed by McDonald's behavior and attitude and they wanted to send a message to the company bigwigs. They based the amount of punitive damages awarded on two days worth of McDonald's coffee sales. $2.7 Million dollars. The judge reduced the award to $670,000. McDonald's appealed and the case went back to court. Stella and McDonald's eventually settled for an undisclosed amount of money. McDonald's has since lowered the temperature of their coffee. Please, research your facts before you speak. -kate
a7r [~a7r@a7r-the-fag.biot.com] has joined #linuxos
:-)
hahahaha.
It was in either City Beat or Everybody's News. (Everybody's News has since been absorbed into City Beat)
I remember it as well.
Yup it's official. With this announcement, SCO has officially jumped the shark.
"NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - You can't live with 'em. And you can't shoot 'em. "
Apparently they missed their own headlines a few days ago:
"Salvador Tapia returned to the Windy City Core Supply warehouse where he had been fired six months ago and killed six of his former co-workers, police said Wednesday."
Apparently, if you can't live with 'em, you can shoot 'em.
Overheard:
:-)
Co-worker1: "I wonder what would happen if I pinged 255.255.255.255?"
Co-worker2: "Don't do THAT! You'll ping the whole Internet!"
hahah.
I read this on Commondreams a while ago, it really sums up my opinion on this matter.
-rl
Published on Wednesday, April 3, 2002 by Common Dreams
What the American Flag Stands For
by Charlotte Aldebron
The American flag stands for the fact that cloth can be very important. It is against the law to let the flag touch the ground or to leave the flag flying when the weather is bad. The flag has to be treated with respect. You can tell just how important this cloth is because when you compare it to people, it gets much better treatment. Nobody cares if a homeless person touches the ground. A homeless person can lie all over the ground all night long without anyone picking him up, folding him neatly and sheltering him from the rain. School children have to pledge loyalty to this piece of cloth every morning. No one has to pledge loyalty to justice and equality and human decency. No one has to promise that people will get a fair wage, or enough food to eat, or affordable medicine, or clean water, or air free of harmful chemicals. But we all have to promise to love a rectangle of red, white, and blue cloth.
Betsy Ross would be quite surprised to see how successful her creation has become. But Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed to see how little of the flag's real meaning remains.
Charlotte Aldebron, 12, wrote this essay for a competition in her 6th grade English class.
Hahahaha. Remember the hissy-fit he threw when I called RMS a psychopath? He boycotted the CLUG mailing list until they agreed to ban me. (They never did.)
Bradly Kuhn as VP for the FSF is enough to make Afanassy Thompson roll over in his grave.
Speaking of which...it's been over a year since Afanassy passed away, I still think about him all the time, and I still miss him. He was a great guy.
-Randy
True, but on the Apollo 15 mission another flag was erected.
-rl
---
No, it was a caterpillar drive.
And the big flaw in the technology (besides the extremely low speed), is that a magnet of the size required to do the job would create one -hell- of a blip on magnetic sensors. Such sensors are used to detect the disturbances in the magnetic fields of the Earth caused by extremely large ships.
So basically, even if they can't hear you...they still know where you are.
---
Then I don't suppose you remember the incident where one of the shuttles landed with a 1/4 inch deep "crater" in the windshield. It was struck by a _fleck of paint_ that had come off a piece of orbiting debris. Those items are entirely too small to track.
Last I read, the number of items tracked (debris and other), was somewhere in the range of 40,000 pieces. Granted, flecks of paint aren't likely to cause a catastrophic impact to Earth, but my point is we can't track all the items in orbit around Earth & tracking items further out has got to be even more difficult.
---
Wow, I've read both of those books...I'm amazed that anyone else has. ;-P
I'm curious though, why should we believe that scientists/astronomers can track _every_ asteroid in a near-earth orbit, when they can't even track _every_ piece of space debris in orbit around earth now?
---
Sun Microsystems doesn't use MS Office internally. The standard office suite is StarOffice. (Though it used to be Applixware)
That's a pretty good example if you ask me. There are more than 10,000 employees at Sun worldwide (I think close to 30,000 really but I'm not positive), and use of Microsoft products is strongly discouraged. You might want to present that to your superiors as evidence that a company doesn't need MS to survive.
Well, it's not all that bad actually. My only complaint is that after I installed it, for some reason it doesn't want to start properly from the menu in GNOME. Althought typing 'wordperfect&' seems to get it going alright. Setting up a printer isn't nearly as easy as WP8 was either. It _does_ look smooth & work well though. Haven't crashed it once yet. :-) -rl
I think it's a marketing thing to change the name. People have heard the name "Merced" for years now and it keeps getting delayed. The only way to rekindle interest in the product is to change the name in hope that people will think it's something new and forget about all the delays with the original named product.