"I hate it when Apple ads state that "all" PC user know what the BSOD is. My PC has NEVER had a BSOD [...]"
Them PC users (you included) *all* know what a BSOD is. Some of us (you included) are fortunate enough to use a platform which doesn't suffer from them.
(1) Use telnet to try to connect to a host which doesn't have anything running on port 80. If a transparent proxy is in operation, then you will be able to get an initial connection, but entering 'GET index.html HTTP/1.0 [enter][enter]' will hang for a while and then usually return an error code. Of course, normally, the connection would just be refused.
(2) Inspect the http header contents returned from a convention http request. Many transparent web proxies add additional headers such as 'Via: ' which the web server might bounce back at you. The existence of such a header is a dead giveaway.
This is only the public unveiling of a technology that has been under development for some time, probably as part of the Cairo project. Our first glimpse of it was actually in the first Halloween Memo of 1998, whence it was referred to as 'Storage+'.
Eric's summary from the relevant section:
"I'm told by a former Microserf that the references to "Storage+" here and in the executive summary are much more significant than they seem. MS's plan for the next few years is to move to an integrated file/data/storage system based upon Exchange, completely replacing the current FAT and NTFS file systems. They are absolutely planning on one monolithic structure, called "megaserver", as their next strategic infrastructure. The lock-in effect of this would be immense if they succeed. "
Let's face it - CDs are cheap. It costs very little to mass produce, and they take up little space. There's no practical reason not to ship disks with the PC.
Ideally, HP (and every other OEM) would just ship a regular copy of the OS on removable media, with any drivers or what-have-you that are required for the hardware involved. You could even go so far as to have it all on one DVD.
But instead, OEMs are only shipping 'recovery' images which nuke a prexisting installation. This is surely a Microsoft-imposed constraint, not an HP one.
HP are simply trying to make the best out of a difficult situation.
Network Address Translation only provides one-way connectivity. It allows a system behind a NAT to establish connections from external sites and retrieve data.
What it *doesn't* allow is anyone out on the internet to go and connect to the machine behind the NAT, which is kinda essential for anything beyond web-browsing.
The internet is not just port 80. Many people treat it as such, and I hope they have fun. But don't delude yourself that you have a full internet connection, because you don't. You've just got a fancy TV with a few more channels.
NAT is a stop-gap measure at best. IPv6 is essential for allowing the internet to scale the way you want it to.
Think about it: it's not outrageous that MIT and similar institutions have class-A networks - it's outrageous that *you* don't. IPv6 can fix that.
Ask your ISP about their plans to upgrade to IPv6 - and what their IP allocation policy will be. If the ISP doesn't intend to give you lots of IPv6 addresses, start looking somewhere else.
Dynamic IP allocation sucks in the same way that NAT does. Many of the peer to peer projects nowadays, in order to keep functioning, have to build their own namespace and addressing structures just to work around it.
I tend to define an 'operating system' as the bare bones required for a system to be functional - ie, whatever that's needed to get to a UI and let you run programs.
A distribution is much more than just an OS - it is a suite or clients, apps and utilities which actually make the system/useful/.
Case in point - any Linux distro worth its salt comes complete with a huge range of server software - webserver, DNS server, Kerberos KDC, DHCP, SSHd, Samba, etc. etc.
I didn't have to pay anything for/any/ that - I just downloaded it.
How much would I have to pay to get the same functionality from a Microsoft distribution?
Whilst you are correct in saying that most people at Imperial College are on Exchange servers, that is not the same as saying that the users in the Department of Computing are.
As I'm sure you're aware, the Department of Computing runs it's own systems; moreover, the DoC does not use MS Exchange for mail services. As a result, we are not dependant on Outlook for the provision of mail services to our users.
As Outlook is an unacceptable security liability, we intend to strip it from all of our systems by the next academic year.
Cheers,
Dave McBride,
Computing Support Group, Dept. of Computing,
Imperial College, London
Interesting. RIAA is being charged with pricefixing using MAP.
If the plaintifs win this one, I would imagine that this could be a springboard for a similar case against the MPAA and it's region-coding pricefixing scheme.
The only difference is that region-coding is (at the moment) not dividing up countries, and in particular, doesn't rip of the US quite so spectacularly as, for example, the UK.
A decent DVD usually costs a bit under £20, often with a number of features missing from other regions.
Quite apart from the fact that encrypting a product and only allowing you to use it under 'controlled conditions' or a 'secure box' is quite unethical. If I buy something, I can do whatever the hell I like with it.
... you wouldn't need to provide your own drivers.
This parallels what's happening at NVidia at the moment - they've decided to release their own closed source binary set of drivers which require a dirty great 500k kernel module to be installed.
However, if they opened the register-level specs to the device, then there are enough other people out there who will take the specs and produce a set of open source drivers themselves. Witness the Utah-GLX project.
You could just release the register level specs to the device and if someone wants drivers for the thing, they'll hack em themselves. This is something I'd like to see NVidia do.
Slashdot Mirror
... here.
Ahem.
"I hate it when Apple ads state that "all" PC user know what the BSOD is. My PC has NEVER had a BSOD [...]"
Them PC users (you included) *all* know what a BSOD is. Some of us (you included) are fortunate enough to use a platform which doesn't suffer from them.
(See subject.)
There are a couple ways:
(1) Use telnet to try to connect to a host which doesn't have anything running on port 80. If a transparent proxy is in operation, then you will be able to get an initial connection, but entering 'GET index.html HTTP/1.0 [enter][enter]' will hang for a while and then usually return an error code. Of course, normally, the connection would just be refused.
(2) Inspect the http header contents returned from a convention http request. Many transparent web proxies add additional headers such as 'Via: ' which the web server might bounce back at you. The existence of such a header is a dead giveaway.
This is only the public unveiling of a technology that has been under development for some time, probably as part of the Cairo project. Our first glimpse of it was actually in the first Halloween Memo of 1998, whence it was referred to as 'Storage+'.
Eric's summary from the relevant section:
"I'm told by a former Microserf that the references to "Storage+" here and in the executive summary are much more significant than they seem. MS's plan for the next few years is to move to an integrated file/data/storage system based upon Exchange, completely replacing the current FAT and NTFS file systems. They are absolutely planning on one monolithic structure, called "megaserver", as their next strategic infrastructure. The lock-in effect of this would be immense if they succeed. "
Redhat.
Let's face it - CDs are cheap. It costs very little to mass produce, and they take up little space. There's no practical reason not to ship disks with the PC.
Ideally, HP (and every other OEM) would just ship a regular copy of the OS on removable media, with any drivers or what-have-you that are required for the hardware involved. You could even go so far as to have it all on one DVD.
But instead, OEMs are only shipping 'recovery' images which nuke a prexisting installation. This is surely a Microsoft-imposed constraint, not an HP one.
HP are simply trying to make the best out of a difficult situation.
Network Address Translation only provides one-way connectivity. It allows a system behind a NAT to establish connections from external sites and retrieve data.
What it *doesn't* allow is anyone out on the internet to go and connect to the machine behind the NAT, which is kinda essential for anything beyond web-browsing.
The internet is not just port 80. Many people treat it as such, and I hope they have fun. But don't delude yourself that you have a full internet connection, because you don't. You've just got a fancy TV with a few more channels.
NAT is a stop-gap measure at best. IPv6 is essential for allowing the internet to scale the way you want it to.
Think about it: it's not outrageous that MIT and similar institutions have class-A networks - it's outrageous that *you* don't. IPv6 can fix that.
Ask your ISP about their plans to upgrade to IPv6 - and what their IP allocation policy will be. If the ISP doesn't intend to give you lots of IPv6 addresses, start looking somewhere else.
Dynamic IP allocation sucks in the same way that NAT does. Many of the peer to peer projects nowadays, in order to keep functioning, have to build their own namespace and addressing structures just to work around it.
I tend to define an 'operating system' as the bare bones required for a system to be functional - ie, whatever that's needed to get to a UI and let you run programs.
/useful/.
/any/ that - I just downloaded it.
A distribution is much more than just an OS - it is a suite or clients, apps and utilities which actually make the system
Case in point - any Linux distro worth its salt comes complete with a huge range of server software - webserver, DNS server, Kerberos KDC, DHCP, SSHd, Samba, etc. etc.
I didn't have to pay anything for
How much would I have to pay to get the same functionality from a Microsoft distribution?
Actually, he's very right.
Whilst you are correct in saying that most people at Imperial College are on Exchange servers, that is not the same as saying that the users in the Department of Computing are.
As I'm sure you're aware, the Department of Computing runs it's own systems; moreover, the DoC does not use MS Exchange for mail services. As a result, we are not dependant on Outlook for the provision of mail services to our users.
As Outlook is an unacceptable security liability, we intend to strip it from all of our systems by the next academic year.
Cheers,
Dave McBride,
Computing Support Group, Dept. of Computing,
Imperial College, London
I am now more convinved than before that what I did was the right thing to do.
To the MPAA, and all who would follow in their footsteps: you may not censor me .
Interesting. RIAA is being charged with pricefixing using MAP.
If the plaintifs win this one, I would imagine that this could be a springboard for a similar case against the MPAA and it's region-coding pricefixing scheme.
The only difference is that region-coding is (at the moment) not dividing up countries, and in particular, doesn't rip of the US quite so spectacularly as, for example, the UK.
A decent DVD usually costs a bit under £20, often with a number of features missing from other regions.
Quite apart from the fact that encrypting a product and only allowing you to use it under 'controlled conditions' or a 'secure box' is quite unethical. If I buy something, I can do whatever the hell I like with it.
OpenDVD has a fair amount on this subject.
My room-mate has a younger brother with Duchenne's. As I understand things, he's not expected to live beyond 20.
There's a charity which supports the sufferers of Duchennes and their families. My roommate made the webpage for it.
Have a look at www.dfsg.org.uk.
Sir, your courage in the face of adversity was remarkable. You will be sorely missed.
... you wouldn't need to provide your own drivers.
This parallels what's happening at NVidia at the moment - they've decided to release their own closed source binary set of drivers which require a dirty great 500k kernel module to be installed.
However, if they opened the register-level specs to the device, then there are enough other people out there who will take the specs and produce a set of open source drivers themselves. Witness the Utah-GLX project.
You could just release the register level specs to the device and if someone wants drivers for the thing, they'll hack em themselves. This is something I'd like to see NVidia do.