I do high end low voltage installations for a living. And while most of the hardware is insanely expensive, the same results can be achieved with commondity equipment and open source solutions.
That being said, pre-wiring is the most important aspect of what you will be doing. Depending on your budget you will want to wire CAT5 (or 6e) into all light switch and telephone locations. At a minimum you will need CAT5 to every video location.
Wireless technology is too dependant on outside factors to be reliable. Good old copper gets the 1s and 0s to the correct place much more efficently. Plus, if it's called for, power over ethernet doesn't work very well wirelessly:) CAT5 isn't just for bits and bytes any more. It works great for remote thermostat sensors, infrared transmission, etc..
While we install touch panels by AMX Corp. the same thing can be done with a cheap touch overlay'ed display, PXE, and VNC. I would recommend staying away from X10 products. If you don't want to spend the time to write your own control software, the NetLinx programming language (used on AMX products) is easier than learning QBasic. Some of their controllers show up on Ebay for reasonable amounts.
The single most preventative aspect of this project is the amount of time involved. We will spend months in design, prewire, install, and programming on even relatively small systems. But if your wiring is not in place, no amount of time spent will be as productive.
I'm a Marine and am damn thankful for the things you and your Corpsmen do for us. Believe me, I wouldn't be humping around the country side with only a 9mm.
You are welcome to my DirecWay dish (parabolic.. about 2' x 3') and the RX/TX unit (a DW4000). See the dish. The dish weighs 80lbs approx. Aiming the dish is usually done by a professional installer with a special signal strength meter. Anyone have a good POC for getting one of those? Little yellow device IIRC.
I don't have the DW4020 (right model number?) which has the built-in router so a Windows machine would be required as the RX/TX unit is USB with no available OSS drivers. A headless mini-ITX machine would be perfect. It could do bandwidth control and NAT/DHCP as well. I've run this same setup (albeit stationary) without any trouble. Download speed is great but capped to 169Mb per four hours (see more detail. Upload is good enough for email and the all important pr0n.
As long as the motor pool would allow it, it could be mounted to the side of a hummer or 5 ton very easily. Setup/takedown would be minimal. It's bright white so motor T may need to donate some paint as well. Might be a bitch getting cami netting over it.
Can the rest of Slashdot see any problems or offer any other help?
Picture this.. it's 2am and you're a Slashdot editor. The glow of your beautiful 21" LCD bathes you in 60-70hz of XF86 windowed goodness. Having beaten Mindbreaker 256+ times consecutively you decide to submit an article to the masses. Beside your lack of anything to do while the rest of us code/sleep/code in our sleep, you forgo reading the article to see if it contains anything worth reading at all.
*Post*
And now back to dragging and dropping little pins in place...
You actually detail some of Linux's problems quite well. Let's see:
"I don't run Windows anymore unless I want to play Carmageddon II at home". I don't recall ever walking into Wal-Mart and buying a Linux game. Consumers want to be told what to buy. Such as: Get Armagetron here! 3D! Multiplayer! New, new, new! (No, really check it out). Windows has better games because Windows games have better advertising because Windows has a bigger market share. It'll be a long time until you hear some ten-year-old say, "I had to install Linux so I could play Doom 6.66. It just isn't the same on Windows."
"at work I only get into Windows if I need to use the custom workorder system that ties into Novell and MS Access." Legacy software, hardware, and geeks will eventually fade into/dev/null. Until then continuing to use the same old crap will be cheaper in man hours and dollars. And as always management can almost always be convinced to keep using the same old thing if it worked well enough that they didn't get blamed.
"We need to start new-to-computers people with non-MS operating systems." Great idea. But have you ever looked at the books or web sites these people try to learn from? You know the ones where there is a chapter on the mouse complete with blow-by-blow steps for double clicking? Try finding something like that for any distro. Your standard Linux distro has hundreds of powerful, Ghz using, bandwidth blasting apps that new-to-computers" people can live their entire lives without using. The community is great as long as you know that hard drive storage is different than system memory. If your knowledge isn't that advanced (like 90% of users) you'll be lucky to get any help at all.
With all the incredible advances the community has contributed to Linux sometimes Windows is still necessary.
New or old hat?:: This exploit, having been long awaited by linux hackers and warez kiddies both is different from both the 007 and MechWarrior hacks. It doesn't require the retail games making the hack free as in beer. Additionally, both require that the game is executed and a save is loaded to cause the overrun. To do this the disc must be in the DVD drive. Because the Xbox (without a third party BIOS) will reboot when the eject key is pressed, this severely limits what the DVD can contain (such as a bootable linux partition).
Patchable?:: Furthermore, Microsoft cannot permanently patch this hack through an Xbox Live update. Version 1, v1.2, & v1.3 Xboxes will always execute the current vulnerable code. Should they remotely update the dash; one would simply open the Xbox, write an old image to the hard drive, and reboot. In the process it would be trivial to add bert and ernie (the modified fonts). Xbox Live BIOS updates are not possible due to M$ imposed hardware limitations. Of course, third party BIOS updates are not a problem for those willing to open the case and get crazy with a little solder.
Availability?:: Legal or not, at this point it's not an issue for the end user. The base-64 posted by Mr. Esser isn't going away. Proof? Try this...
X-Prize?:: Probably not. This cannot be executed or copied from a third party memory card ala 007. So opening the box is required. Partial payment maybe.
Theoretically, if we bag this silly-ass naming system, its replacement should allow for millions and millions of possible domains and each one should be individually assigned? I thought we already had that. Hmmm... how about something that looks like?
This silly-ass naming system is not going to go away until users become less lazy or someone can find a solution easy enough for the sheep. In orderwords, it'll be a long, long time. Your post's title is indeed apt.
As the article states; humans are a long way from replacing themselves with machines. The likelyhood this will happen in our lifetime is slim; then again, nobody will ever need more memory than 640k either.:) The increases in human knowledge will outpace AI reseach for many years to come, unfortunately. For example: Big Blue can think of more possible chess moves in a second than most people think of in an hour. But Bobby Fisher could "see the obvious."
Until we have the ability make robots "see the obvious" the human element will always be necessary...
Consolidation of Linux distros & hardware vendors should be a true concern for Open Source enthusiasts. As Linux becomes more accepted and it will, some distros will diverge from what makes the OS so rubust. They'll forget that Linux is a hack in the Stephen Levy-esque sense of the term. The development of Linux should not be dictated by hardware vendor's wants but rather by its original owners: the dev community.
As soon as we have hardware and system vendors who start telling the community the course x distro will take in regards to hardware support and development, we will have lost the true value of an Open Source operating system. Aa fas as I'm concerned, they get their value from the outstanding configurability not their cookie-cutter "compatibility" as Compaq, ect.. would like us to swallow.
Vendors (both distro and hardware) should work in support of each other but not for each other.
Slashdot Mirror
That being said, pre-wiring is the most important aspect of what you will be doing. Depending on your budget you will want to wire CAT5 (or 6e) into all light switch and telephone locations. At a minimum you will need CAT5 to every video location.
Wireless technology is too dependant on outside factors to be reliable. Good old copper gets the 1s and 0s to the correct place much more efficently. Plus, if it's called for, power over ethernet doesn't work very well wirelessly :) CAT5 isn't just for bits and bytes any more. It works great for remote thermostat sensors, infrared transmission, etc..
While we install touch panels by AMX Corp. the same thing can be done with a cheap touch overlay'ed display, PXE, and VNC. I would recommend staying away from X10 products. If you don't want to spend the time to write your own control software, the NetLinx programming language (used on AMX products) is easier than learning QBasic. Some of their controllers show up on Ebay for reasonable amounts.
The single most preventative aspect of this project is the amount of time involved. We will spend months in design, prewire, install, and programming on even relatively small systems. But if your wiring is not in place, no amount of time spent will be as productive.
I'm currently surrounded by the SSIDs, "linksys" and "default". Can someone tell me where I am?
I'm a Marine and am damn thankful for the things you and your Corpsmen do for us. Believe me, I wouldn't be humping around the country side with only a 9mm.
You are welcome to my DirecWay dish (parabolic.. about 2' x 3') and the RX/TX unit (a DW4000). See the dish. The dish weighs 80lbs approx. Aiming the dish is usually done by a professional installer with a special signal strength meter. Anyone have a good POC for getting one of those? Little yellow device IIRC.
I don't have the DW4020 (right model number?) which has the built-in router so a Windows machine would be required as the RX/TX unit is USB with no available OSS drivers. A headless mini-ITX machine would be perfect. It could do bandwidth control and NAT/DHCP as well. I've run this same setup (albeit stationary) without any trouble. Download speed is great but capped to 169Mb per four hours (see more detail. Upload is good enough for email and the all important pr0n.
As long as the motor pool would allow it, it could be mounted to the side of a hummer or 5 ton very easily. Setup/takedown would be minimal. It's bright white so motor T may need to donate some paint as well. Might be a bitch getting cami netting over it.
Can the rest of Slashdot see any problems or offer any other help?
I'd be jumping around too, if I were sleeping with Princess Leia. Think golden bikini...
Obviously, you failed to read the story but posted as soon as you had the chance. Would you happen to be a Slashdot editor in training?
Picture this.. it's 2am and you're a Slashdot editor. The glow of your beautiful 21" LCD bathes you in 60-70hz of XF86 windowed goodness. Having beaten Mindbreaker 256+ times consecutively you decide to submit an article to the masses. Beside your lack of anything to do while the rest of us code/sleep/code in our sleep, you forgo reading the article to see if it contains anything worth reading at all.
*Post*
And now back to dragging and dropping little pins in place...
You actually detail some of Linux's problems quite well. Let's see:
/dev/null. Until then continuing to use the same old crap will be cheaper in man hours and dollars. And as always management can almost always be convinced to keep using the same old thing if it worked well enough that they didn't get blamed.
"I don't run Windows anymore unless I want to play Carmageddon II at home". I don't recall ever walking into Wal-Mart and buying a Linux game. Consumers want to be told what to buy. Such as: Get Armagetron here! 3D! Multiplayer! New, new, new! (No, really check it out). Windows has better games because Windows games have better advertising because Windows has a bigger market share. It'll be a long time until you hear some ten-year-old say, "I had to install Linux so I could play Doom 6.66. It just isn't the same on Windows."
"at work I only get into Windows if I need to use the custom workorder system that ties into Novell and MS Access." Legacy software, hardware, and geeks will eventually fade into
"We need to start new-to-computers people with non-MS operating systems." Great idea. But have you ever looked at the books or web sites these people try to learn from? You know the ones where there is a chapter on the mouse complete with blow-by-blow steps for double clicking? Try finding something like that for any distro. Your standard Linux distro has hundreds of powerful, Ghz using, bandwidth blasting apps that new-to-computers" people can live their entire lives without using. The community is great as long as you know that hard drive storage is different than system memory. If your knowledge isn't that advanced (like 90% of users) you'll be lucky to get any help at all.
With all the incredible advances the community has contributed to Linux sometimes Windows is still necessary.
Counter point away...
Patchable? :: Furthermore, Microsoft cannot permanently patch this hack through an Xbox Live update. Version 1, v1.2, & v1.3 Xboxes will always execute the current vulnerable code. Should they remotely update the dash; one would simply open the Xbox, write an old image to the hard drive, and reboot. In the process it would be trivial to add bert and ernie (the modified fonts). Xbox Live BIOS updates are not possible due to M$ imposed hardware limitations. Of course, third party BIOS updates are not a problem for those willing to open the case and get crazy with a little solder.
Availability? :: Legal or not, at this point it's not an issue for the end user. The base-64 posted by Mr. Esser isn't going away. Proof? Try this...
X-Prize? :: Probably not. This cannot be executed or copied from a third party memory card ala 007. So opening the box is required. Partial payment maybe.
Have you ever played a nice game of Chess on the Priceline super computer? How about Global Thermonuclear War?
Have you ever imagined a beowulf cluster of those things?
...is still better than Micro$oft odds.
Especially if all you have to do is verify a checksum. Shrink-wrapped, over-priced software comes out of the box "as is."
What's the checksum for IE + all 15 updates?
64.28.67.48
This silly-ass naming system is not going to go away until users become less lazy or someone can find a solution easy enough for the sheep. In orderwords, it'll be a long, long time. Your post's title is indeed apt.
Until we have the ability make robots "see the obvious" the human element will always be necessary...
As soon as we have hardware and system vendors who start telling the community the course x distro will take in regards to hardware support and development, we will have lost the true value of an Open Source operating system. Aa fas as I'm concerned, they get their value from the outstanding configurability not their cookie-cutter "compatibility" as Compaq, ect.. would like us to swallow.
Vendors (both distro and hardware) should work in support of each other but not for each other.