DHCP is actually a weakness for a well trained hacker.
Some @Home DHCP systems give an IP address based upon the MAC of the router in the cablemodem. Whoops.. heh.. I guess the people on those services don't have a dynamic IP thru DHCP (I'm one of 'em).
Apparently DHCP is a weakness for some admins too.
I believe I am as safe as I need to be. I don't type it in and no one can get it. I type it in, anyone should be able to get it - even if they have to break into my computer to get it. Mind you, I have _some_ protection (eg. a nicely setup firewall).
If you don't want people to see your porn surfing habits, don't go to porn sites. They don't need to hax0r your computer to create a click-stream of your online-exploits (doubleclick?).
If you don't want someone to steal your credit card #, call your order in or go to the store. You could also, if you trust it, use encryption. Even if you call in your order, you have to TRUST the other end.
The BIGGEST thing we cable users face is DOS attacks. Because we are online for long periods of time we often keep the same IP address for the same long time period. This makes it easy for someone to DOS attack us and be very effective. For the record, my cable IP has not changed in 9 months, and only changed once when they swapped my modem for a newer model.
It's interesting (as a user) to telnet into the firewall and watch the hits go by. I set up a small script to count the number of incomming DOS attacks (including BO, Netbus, WinNuke, Smurf, etc) and the bandwidth they consume and sent the numbers to my ISP. I turned on my internal DUMMY MODE and did not let on what I really knew (I said "a lot of weird stuff is comming thru my pipe"). They LIED and said it was "standard internet traffic" (okay... maybe it's normal to get nearly 1MB/s of DOS attacks 24/7.. I dunno). I called back and told them what I did (firewall, logging, etc) and they didn't believe me at all. I even e-mailed them the logs and they asked me what they were supposed to do with 'em. Jeez. I finally broke down and set the firewall to ignore those packets again, but @Ho.. err.. I mean... my un-named ISP refused to do ANYTHING... They didn't acknowledge the problem, they didn't offer to change my DHCP entry to give me a new IP (as I said before.. I have a non-changing DHCP IP), or help trace the source of the attacks... NOTHING.
Oh well. I'm paying $40/mo for a service that pisses me right off.. but it's cheeper than DSL in my area so.. pfft.
Digital Convergence would probably sue them claiming they invented the concept of including links with products
True enough.
I was thinking upon the lines of when you load the file with WinAMP (or whatever) the browser shows a banner ("click here to learn more about this artist") and, if you clicked the banner, the artists website would appear. On their website, they can advertise their new CDs, tours (where the real money is made for the artist), clothes, etc.
/me hits myself on the head for not patenting this;).. whover does... enjoy your royalities and perhaps send me some;)
Thats true.. What you said reminded me about that whole Courtney Love article where she ragged on the RIAA for being selfish, arrogant, and taking all the money. Online distribution could easily free artists from greedy companies and deliver music straight to the fans (and money right back at the artists).
Authors should release "freebies" to the net which have embedded links to their website. It would be really cool to be browsing in a Napster-like-program, find a song you like, and find a link to the artists website attached to it. Suddenly, Napster stops becomming a rip-off scheme and it becomes and advertising rip-off scheme. Artists would be then able to (ab)use the Napster system and get hits to their websites from people acutally interested in their music.
Will people stop buying CD's if they can get their stuff free?
Certainly. But the music groups are going to have to offer an incentive to buy that CD - lower price, more features, custom mixes, etc. They could also sanction certain singles to appear on Napster as a promo for their entire album - granted Napster has no way of stopping people from going home and ripping those "extra" tracks onto the service, but I think you get the idea of where I am.
I've recently been getting into the www.mp3.com service (not the my.mp3.com one, the one where artists put their stuff up for public consumption). I love it. Even though I can download songs free, I have acutally bought some CDs from them...
Here is the thing... I own 2 cassette tapes and an audio CD that I got free with a DVD movie I bought (Dune DVD came with an album by Sting). That was it (and no, I never really used Napster.. I prefered stuff like Skaven, Jonne Valtonen, Teque, etc, which was only available over the net. With this system I was finally able to pay for the music that I liked and not the stuff that I didn't. That was the reason I never bought CDs... I had the radio, and most of the CDs only had one or two songs I was even remotely interested in... Bah.
It doesn't matter anyway... Piracy will find a way, I suppose.
If you put a name on it your article becomes as credable as the person who's name is attached to it (it doesn't even matter who actually wrote it). Most, if not all, news sites do this - place a brief summary with a nice photo and a picture of the "author." The article becomes credible because that person is credible. If we don't like the article, we don't blame the publisher so much as we blame the person taking credit for it (eg. It wasn't by MSNBC, it was by an affiliate named "Joe").
The same applies to Slashdot. We, the users, know that other users submit stories which are mucked with by the editors and, rarely, posted on the front. We blame the editors for what crap makes it to the front page but not the actual content. The actual content we blame on the person submitting it (or Rob in the case of an AC).
You take what you read with a grain of salt. If RMS posted something about GNU, you may see it more credable than if Bill Gates posted something about Linux.
Bottom line; no matter what the site, credability comes from the author, not the agency. However, if an agency (eg. Slashdot, MSNBC, CNN, whatever) plays host to a lot of non-credable people, then you will loose the visitors who are looking for credability.
The opportunity of a lifetime: Mission to Mir... one way ticket. You go up in our shuttle, you come down in Mir.;) OR, you could say (after the winner is up there of course) congrats for winning your very own de-orbiting space station.
Even better: Mir Survivor. send nine morons to populate Mir. Whom ever survives the impact wins.
The really interesting thing is what would happen if Microsoft went under (or got broken up). When you licence everything you have from one company, you get pretty screwed if they vapourize. So Microsoft has claimed that they will be around forever... uh huh. It's possible, I suppose, but are you really going to base your buisness strategy on Microsoft's existance?
What the ad forgets is that an operating system that is open cannot die and will remain compatable for users. When Microsoft went to 95 from 3.11, I remember a lot of app vendors getting pissed because all of their stuff either had Windows induced problems or flat out stopped working. I pissed off an instructor because I used DOS to copy files from one place to another (it took him 5 minutes to find-folders/click/drag/drop whereas I spent 10 seconds using the copy command).
Yeah, lets make everything we have all based on one vision, one strategy, one fuhe... uhh.. no thanks. I prefer diversity in my systems.
Umm.. Yeah, cool. They dug up some crystal and performed CPR on a germ. Good one guys. I hope they don't dig up some virus and revive it - a virus from a different eco-system, one which we have no immunity from. Wasn't one of those ways the human race will become extint is from a rampant virus? One with no cure? Well, this sure as heck looks like a good starting point to me.
Nah, lets breed the velico raptors and wipe out the human race the good ol' fashon Jurassic Park way. Gore. Blood. Annihlation. Total descruction.
"This is the worst idea in the whole history of bad ideas."
God destroies germ; God creates man; Man destroies God; Man creates germ.. Germ infects Man; Geeks inherit the Earth.
1) we offer training courses and accomidate them at every corner. We don't have the budget to convert them right away, so it HAS to be done gradually.
2) they REFUSE to use the simplest of newer technologies. We have to find a tv/vcr cart instead of them using the VCR/projector in the room (the difference is that the projector projects the TV image onto a large (40") screen whereas the TV/VCR cart just has the standard 21" screen. As a student, which one would you prefer? both being the same ease-of-use (exact same VCR), but they just need to push "source" on the remote control.. hrmm..
3) They are the biggest bunch of assholes on this planet. I'm all "yes sir, right away sir, whatever I can do to help sir." and all they do is yell and bitch about how I'm not jumping high enough or through enough hoops for them. Then they lie about things to their deen and threaten my job - all because of my suggesting that they try the new document camera (which can project even solid state documents) instead of the overhead projector which was broken (and we did not have a replacement available). It's too much to care about.
4) The worst thing is that they are from the school of science and technology. More like, old-science and obsolete-technology if you ask me.
We've been doing it for about 3 years now (I've been in it since the beginning). It's really cool what is possible when everyone has a computer that they can take home and wherever they go - no fighting for lab time is a big plus.
My brother went through a non-laptop program and I went through a laptop program. The main difference was that I was always able to do my work whenever I felt like it, and he had to fight for lab time. Now, we had/have a good computer at home, better than the ones at school, but we didn't have the software (actually, we had the software, but it wasn't compatable with what the school had...). Even if you have the same versions, there are multiple portions, dll's, etc that make each installation unique. Sigh;)
IBM Thinkpad A20m
14" LCD (16" for Autocad students)
6GB HD (12GB for Autocad...)
Celeron 550 CPU
128MB RAM
oodles of software
partitioned with Linux;)
Yup.. the cool thing is that some compsci classes (Systems Analysis, CST, ITSS, etc) install and run Linux as part of their course. You can't do that with desktops and its cool to do it in class and stuff.. r0x0r!
I work and go to school at a College in southern Ontario (Canada that is... ) and anyhow, we have a laptop program where students pay a small fee in their tuition and get the use of a laptop for their term. Advantage of the loan: the hardware is upgraded frequently and, in case of damages, students don't have to wait weeks for replacements from the company. The downside would be that the students (including myself) don't get to own/keep the laptops - but in 3-4 years, that laptop is gonna suck-ass at best.
The colleges two main campuses both have "mobile" rooms. At first glance, they seem like cheap classrooms (no computers), but what they have is awesome - each table has network connections and power, the podium at the front has a built in vcr, port replicator, document camera, etc, all connected to a data projector. We're talking capable of full multimedia presentations / lessons / etc, with web-based courses so you need not even show up for class (I used shoutcast once to stream a lesson for some ppl who didn't come one day).
HOWEVER, and this is the intelluctual side of things, it's not the sudents that are the biggest problem. The problem is that faculty - teachers - for the most part have not adjusted well to it. Some oppose it outright and refuse to use any of this 'modern technology'. friggin luddites. We have rooms with whiteboards and really whiz-bang stuff that can make an instructors life easier, and they insist on using blackboards with ancient overhead projectors. Thier students miss out because the teacher is unable or unwilling to upgrade to modern teaching methods. It's their right, but the students have the right to learn in a modern environment too.
Who defines what is moral and amoral in our society anyhow? While I may find something tasteful and artistic, someone else may see it as pornographic. I find it interesting that the US is all about personal liberties and freedoms but, in reality, its more socialist than the government would admit. Public health, public libraries, public access... all controlled, regulated, and censored by the government. Personal freedom ends where public morals begin. Is this good? Is it bad? Who am I to say... I'm just a number in the system, a peg in the hole, a cog in the wheel. You are too if you don't oppose censorshhip in public libraries.
Let the parents control what their children see. Let them be responsable for what may come from their inaction and inability to control what their children have access to. GO to the libraries and GO into the schools - see what they have in terms of monitoring and protecting the children from bad things. I agree, if a child is surfing hustler.com (or whatever), that is inapropriate for the setting and a person telling them so. But to coldly and calculatingly cut off access to information...
Finally, when does it go from censoring pornographic material to censoring religious texts and public forums. Where do you draw the line? Who decides this? If "we the people" mean anything anymore, it certainly won't be the government, and it certainly won't be a company.
Could this be a conspiracy by the companies that make that kind of software to get a lucradive "sweet" government deal? hrmm.
A game with great graphics will be bought and shelved. It won't stick around as newer, more gimmiky graphic games are released. OTOH, a game with good gameplay will last simply because the player enjoys the game. This "good gameplay" mark would include the storyline, input controls, reward system, point system, etc. These change depending on the kind of game you are playing.
Sometimes simplicity is the key to great gameplay. Pong, for instance, is a classic game that still has play value even today. What... two sticks and a ball. Not much in terms of graphics, but the way the game is played is just fun. So what makes Pong exciting and Dakitana boring? I dunno. In pong, the rules are simple and there is a direct challenge to the player. In Dakitana, there are good graphics (well.. so say some people) but the gameplay is boring and repetative.. no challenge.
I used to play LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon) and Tradewars almost non-stop 24hrs a day on many different BBS's. The graphics were low scale (mostly text with a few ANSI screens) but the gameplay was addictive and very rewarding. You were challenged, entertained, and stimulated in a way that a lot of games still don't capture even today.
Kingpin is an example, for me anyway, of a good story melded with a good graphics engine. Even though the ending of the game is lacking, the inital portions of the game draw the player into a rich story that made me overlook the downsides of the quick release.
heh, Just as I read the article, I fired up Miner'49er on my 64 and Jumpman on my 128... heh..
I'm tired of hearing companies claim that they are "in it for the community." That clam is utter bullshit. Any company, no matter what product it sells, is in it for the money. Don't get me wrong, however, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
From my point of view Redhat does not sell an operating system, rather it sells support for an operating system. The difference being that Mr. Young and the Redhat team fill a niche market. Great. Long live capatolisim... whatever. Don't claim to be in it for the community though.
I think Redhat Linux is a very good operating environment with a great set of packages and fair availability. Redhat, the company, has found a way to package and sell something that would normally be free. They realize that not everyone is able or even willing to 'roll their own' in preference of a pre-packaged solution. More power to them for this...
'The community,' which is so often referenced, will take care of itself. VALinux, imho, gives alot to the community in terms of open forums and sites to distribute and present new ideas and software. Redhat gives back by packaging all this Linux goodness together and makes revenue by selling it. With companies like Redhat, other companies such as IBM, Sun, and even Microsoft begin to take notice of Linux as being a real competitor in the buisness world.
Without Redhat (and companies like it), Linux will be viewed as a community project; not acceptable for "real buisness" (whatever that is supposed to mean). With Redhat (and companies like it), Linux gets commercial appeal and becomes a viable buisness solution (eg. it has a company standing behind it).
Just don't say you are in it for the community when, in reality, you are in it for the money (which, as I said before, is not necessarily a bad thing).
Microsoft, and any company for that matter, has full access to Linux. The only thing stopping "them" is the ideology and fundamental principals of what makes Linux what it is.
As a company, Microsoft has to watch the bottom line. You and I may dislike their "corporate politics", but they have every right to be in it for the money. I gather that most of these companies see Linux as a money pit - invest to your hearts content and you still don't own anything. Sure, MS could take Linux and give it a great GUI, provide technical support, and muscle out Redhat, Caldera, SuSe, etc, from the market, but Microsoft would be unable to gain a leverage - the GPL (AFAIK) would preclude this from happening - unless of course they re-wrote it from scratch... but that wouldn't be Linux, and they do have better things to do than re-writing Linux for their own evil purposes (such as destroying Canadian software companies).
Microsoft still doesn't have access to the source code to Linux because they would risk their Windows stuff. They are pushing Linux developers not to use Microsoft propritary API while at the same time ensuring that THEIR developers don't put Linux into Windows. If a concious Linux developer saw something of theirs (assuming they GPL'd it or something similar) in Windows, Microsoft would be up shits creek (to put it bluntly).
I don't deny that this Microsoft + Corel = Danger for Linux equation, but saying that "Oh no, Microsoft has access to Linux" is akin to saying that Al Gore invented the Internet. Sure, it's possilbe that they do have some more access, but they certainly don't control anything... yet.
If Microsoft released OPEN (ie. no click-wrap licdense) standards for.NET, I'm sure that some Linux user would find some use for it and that it would end up being developed. However, Microsoft will probably keep everything wrapped up tightly behind their EULA and further attempt to obfusticate the open internet protocols. After all, you don't step forward to world domination by feeding the poor with the scraps from your table - you force them to die out by tainting their food supply.
These "servers" will most likely be sold as the bargin-bin ultra elite savings models. We all know what big buisness thinks of "lite" versions of anything - hey... we got lotsa buks... whay r w3 buyz0ring 7h3 ch3p0r m0d3l! W3 5hu1d 8uyz0r th3 70p 0f 7h3 lin3z0r.
It'll be for small buisnesses who want to feel big about themselves and for 1337 h4x0rz to pump up their over inflated egos.
And BTW... AIX sucks... but just IMO, nothing to rant about.
What Safe Audit said was that the quality of service was not on par with their expectations. If we slashdotted a site one day, that sites impressions would shoot through the roof... but only for that day. And certainly, lots of those people will just ignore the banner. I'm not defending Safe Audit... it's pretty lame to "adjust" based on a perceptual thing (ie. its quantitative vs qualitative here folks).
What GameFAN has done is run out of money by not being able to sell banner ads. Whatever the reason really is, the fact is: they ran out of cash. I think that Express.com, being the new parent company of GameFAN, is obligated to pay their member sites something for carrying the ads - otherwise, as someone else pointed out, it beggs the questions of an advert scam to draw people to GameFAN/Express.com.
I think we can all learn:
1) RTFL
2) IANAL, YANAL, so GAFL!
3) The advertiser shouldn't "adjust" pay based on "quality" delivered.
4) The advertiser should be pro-active and let people know that they are dying - perhaps lower the rates or something to entice new clients.
I shall do roblimo one better by patenting NEGATIVE CLICK SHOPPING. That is, we partner with DoubleClick to analyze shopping trends and ship the products to people before they even know that they want it. We will, of course, pre-debit their credit cards and... oh wait.. I just realized Digital Convergance would win on a "prior-art" for shipping something that no one wants. my bad.
I would like to now patent, instead, the process of being really annoying and irratable. I feel that I am the premier and most annoying, ugly, irratable, insulent, pithy, wreched, cruel, indececisive, moronic, and flat out stupidest person on the entire planet. I would like to patent that, and lets see if anyone claims prior-art over THIS one;).
I think your routers would still end up getting gummed up with excessive traffic. Yeah, your internal network will survive and your servers won't go down, but you'll still get flooded off the net.
It would be like barricading the doors to a walmart when you're selling furbies for $1.99/ea because of too many customers trying to get through the door. Your tellers will be at peak effenciency, but no legitamite traffic can get through.
Oh well... thats why we have co-locations people;).
It's simple.. You have your home and you have your office. At home you generally relax and do simple household maintence while at work you put your nose to the grindstone to get things done. Most people associate their workplace with their job and their home as their life's homebase and do not want the two to mix. ie. you wouldn't want the fustration of a family problem bleeding into the workplace... or a big project keeping you tied up in the den when you'd rather be firing up the BBQ in the back..
Yeah, some people have the dicipline to do their work and live both in the same place. I doubt employers will like it when ALL of their employees are working from 8:30PM to 2:00AM... And when certain employess hand in reports with the titles coloured in with Crayola and spilt coffee.
If you can juggle it, thats great... go for it. But the office place symbolizes work and puts most people in that productive mindset.. though I wouldn't mind being able to turn the lights off, some people may find the atmosphere wrong..
we've seen great stuff from them before, but when we leave the cinema... we fell.. raped.
The problem with todays movies is that they will produce it so the trailer looks good. The trailer draws the people in and the movie.. well... ehh..
Not to say episode one was bad or anything... the lightsaber battles were great and the little gay tyke did a good acting job... bu man... that Jar-Jar.. now if they could only give an oscar for most annoying character.
Can you imagine Nelson being the Jar-Jar of the Simpsons?
WHY can't they live with creating a great TV show and not do the expected movie version.. I mean.. Sienfeld never did a movie.. and that would be funny.. a movie about nothing.. for two hours people will watch and when they leave... like.. what did I just watch? nothing? something? I know my time was wasted.. but did I see anything. No! you saw NOTHING. No script.. no actors.. you watch NOTHING.. thats the plot.
Slashdot Mirror
Some @Home DHCP systems give an IP address based upon the MAC of the router in the cablemodem. Whoops.. heh.. I guess the people on those services don't have a dynamic IP thru DHCP (I'm one of 'em).
Apparently DHCP is a weakness for some admins too.
Nevermind...
EVERYONE with a "broadband" (ie. faster than 56k) connection should IMMEDIATLY follow the following steps:
:)
1) Install Linux, FreeBSD, or GNU.
2) Connect to the Internet.
3) post your hostname and root password on Slashdot.
4) wait.
yup, XX-31337.whatever.home.com will magically point to your IP - even if it changes.
I'd do this just to see what happens...
Nevermind
Verbatim
I believe I am as safe as I need to be. I don't type it in and no one can get it. I type it in, anyone should be able to get it - even if they have to break into my computer to get it. Mind you, I have _some_ protection (eg. a nicely setup firewall).
If you don't want people to see your porn surfing habits, don't go to porn sites. They don't need to hax0r your computer to create a click-stream of your online-exploits (doubleclick?).
If you don't want someone to steal your credit card #, call your order in or go to the store. You could also, if you trust it, use encryption. Even if you call in your order, you have to TRUST the other end.
The BIGGEST thing we cable users face is DOS attacks. Because we are online for long periods of time we often keep the same IP address for the same long time period. This makes it easy for someone to DOS attack us and be very effective. For the record, my cable IP has not changed in 9 months, and only changed once when they swapped my modem for a newer model.
It's interesting (as a user) to telnet into the firewall and watch the hits go by. I set up a small script to count the number of incomming DOS attacks (including BO, Netbus, WinNuke, Smurf, etc) and the bandwidth they consume and sent the numbers to my ISP. I turned on my internal DUMMY MODE and did not let on what I really knew (I said "a lot of weird stuff is comming thru my pipe"). They LIED and said it was "standard internet traffic" (okay... maybe it's normal to get nearly 1MB/s of DOS attacks 24/7.. I dunno). I called back and told them what I did (firewall, logging, etc) and they didn't believe me at all. I even e-mailed them the logs and they asked me what they were supposed to do with 'em. Jeez. I finally broke down and set the firewall to ignore those packets again, but @Ho.. err.. I mean... my un-named ISP refused to do ANYTHING... They didn't acknowledge the problem, they didn't offer to change my DHCP entry to give me a new IP (as I said before.. I have a non-changing DHCP IP), or help trace the source of the attacks... NOTHING.
Oh well. I'm paying $40/mo for a service that pisses me right off.. but it's cheeper than DSL in my area so.. pfft.
Whatever.. nevermind...
Verbatim
True enough.
I was thinking upon the lines of when you load the file with WinAMP (or whatever) the browser shows a banner ("click here to learn more about this artist") and, if you clicked the banner, the artists website would appear. On their website, they can advertise their new CDs, tours (where the real money is made for the artist), clothes, etc.
/me hits myself on the head for not patenting this ;).. whover does... enjoy your royalities and perhaps send me some ;)
Verbatim
Thats true.. What you said reminded me about that whole Courtney Love article where she ragged on the RIAA for being selfish, arrogant, and taking all the money. Online distribution could easily free artists from greedy companies and deliver music straight to the fans (and money right back at the artists).
Fuck the industry, before they fuck you.
Verbatim
Authors should release "freebies" to the net which have embedded links to their website. It would be really cool to be browsing in a Napster-like-program, find a song you like, and find a link to the artists website attached to it. Suddenly, Napster stops becomming a rip-off scheme and it becomes and advertising rip-off scheme. Artists would be then able to (ab)use the Napster system and get hits to their websites from people acutally interested in their music.
Will people stop buying CD's if they can get their stuff free?
Certainly. But the music groups are going to have to offer an incentive to buy that CD - lower price, more features, custom mixes, etc. They could also sanction certain singles to appear on Napster as a promo for their entire album - granted Napster has no way of stopping people from going home and ripping those "extra" tracks onto the service, but I think you get the idea of where I am.
I've recently been getting into the www.mp3.com service (not the my.mp3.com one, the one where artists put their stuff up for public consumption). I love it. Even though I can download songs free, I have acutally bought some CDs from them...
Here is the thing... I own 2 cassette tapes and an audio CD that I got free with a DVD movie I bought (Dune DVD came with an album by Sting). That was it (and no, I never really used Napster.. I prefered stuff like Skaven, Jonne Valtonen, Teque, etc, which was only available over the net. With this system I was finally able to pay for the music that I liked and not the stuff that I didn't. That was the reason I never bought CDs... I had the radio, and most of the CDs only had one or two songs I was even remotely interested in... Bah.
It doesn't matter anyway... Piracy will find a way, I suppose.
Verbatim
If you put a name on it your article becomes as credable as the person who's name is attached to it (it doesn't even matter who actually wrote it). Most, if not all, news sites do this - place a brief summary with a nice photo and a picture of the "author." The article becomes credible because that person is credible. If we don't like the article, we don't blame the publisher so much as we blame the person taking credit for it (eg. It wasn't by MSNBC, it was by an affiliate named "Joe").
The same applies to Slashdot. We, the users, know that other users submit stories which are mucked with by the editors and, rarely, posted on the front. We blame the editors for what crap makes it to the front page but not the actual content. The actual content we blame on the person submitting it (or Rob in the case of an AC).
You take what you read with a grain of salt. If RMS posted something about GNU, you may see it more credable than if Bill Gates posted something about Linux.
Bottom line; no matter what the site, credability comes from the author, not the agency. However, if an agency (eg. Slashdot, MSNBC, CNN, whatever) plays host to a lot of non-credable people, then you will loose the visitors who are looking for credability.
Sigh.. Whatever.
Verbatim
Actually, it could be fun:
;) OR, you could say (after the winner is up there of course) congrats for winning your very own de-orbiting space station.
;)
The opportunity of a lifetime: Mission to Mir... one way ticket. You go up in our shuttle, you come down in Mir.
Even better: Mir Survivor. send nine morons to populate Mir. Whom ever survives the impact wins.
Anything for a TV show I guess
The really interesting thing is what would happen if Microsoft went under (or got broken up). When you licence everything you have from one company, you get pretty screwed if they vapourize. So Microsoft has claimed that they will be around forever... uh huh. It's possible, I suppose, but are you really going to base your buisness strategy on Microsoft's existance?
What the ad forgets is that an operating system that is open cannot die and will remain compatable for users. When Microsoft went to 95 from 3.11, I remember a lot of app vendors getting pissed because all of their stuff either had Windows induced problems or flat out stopped working. I pissed off an instructor because I used DOS to copy files from one place to another (it took him 5 minutes to find-folders/click/drag/drop whereas I spent 10 seconds using the copy command).
Yeah, lets make everything we have all based on one vision, one strategy, one fuhe... uhh.. no thanks. I prefer diversity in my systems.
Verbatim
Umm.. Yeah, cool. They dug up some crystal and performed CPR on a germ. Good one guys. I hope they don't dig up some virus and revive it - a virus from a different eco-system, one which we have no immunity from. Wasn't one of those ways the human race will become extint is from a rampant virus? One with no cure? Well, this sure as heck looks like a good starting point to me.
Nah, lets breed the velico raptors and wipe out the human race the good ol' fashon Jurassic Park way. Gore. Blood. Annihlation. Total descruction.
"This is the worst idea in the whole history of bad ideas."
God destroies germ; God creates man; Man destroies God; Man creates germ.. Germ infects Man; Geeks inherit the Earth.
Whoops.. my finger slipped.
allow me to expand upon "friggin luddites"...
1) we offer training courses and accomidate them at every corner. We don't have the budget to convert them right away, so it HAS to be done gradually.
2) they REFUSE to use the simplest of newer technologies. We have to find a tv/vcr cart instead of them using the VCR/projector in the room (the difference is that the projector projects the TV image onto a large (40") screen whereas the TV/VCR cart just has the standard 21" screen. As a student, which one would you prefer? both being the same ease-of-use (exact same VCR), but they just need to push "source" on the remote control.. hrmm..
3) They are the biggest bunch of assholes on this planet. I'm all "yes sir, right away sir, whatever I can do to help sir." and all they do is yell and bitch about how I'm not jumping high enough or through enough hoops for them. Then they lie about things to their deen and threaten my job - all because of my suggesting that they try the new document camera (which can project even solid state documents) instead of the overhead projector which was broken (and we did not have a replacement available). It's too much to care about.
4) The worst thing is that they are from the school of science and technology. More like, old-science and obsolete-technology if you ask me.
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We've been doing it for about 3 years now (I've been in it since the beginning). It's really cool what is possible when everyone has a computer that they can take home and wherever they go - no fighting for lab time is a big plus.
;)
My brother went through a non-laptop program and I went through a laptop program. The main difference was that I was always able to do my work whenever I felt like it, and he had to fight for lab time. Now, we had/have a good computer at home, better than the ones at school, but we didn't have the software (actually, we had the software, but it wasn't compatable with what the school had...). Even if you have the same versions, there are multiple portions, dll's, etc that make each installation unique. Sigh
Current specs of our laptops:
;)
IBM Thinkpad A20m
14" LCD (16" for Autocad students)
6GB HD (12GB for Autocad...)
Celeron 550 CPU
128MB RAM
oodles of software
partitioned with Linux
Yup.. the cool thing is that some compsci classes (Systems Analysis, CST, ITSS, etc) install and run Linux as part of their course. You can't do that with desktops and its cool to do it in class and stuff.. r0x0r!
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I work and go to school at a College in southern Ontario (Canada that is... ) and anyhow, we have a laptop program where students pay a small fee in their tuition and get the use of a laptop for their term. Advantage of the loan: the hardware is upgraded frequently and, in case of damages, students don't have to wait weeks for replacements from the company. The downside would be that the students (including myself) don't get to own/keep the laptops - but in 3-4 years, that laptop is gonna suck-ass at best.
The colleges two main campuses both have "mobile" rooms. At first glance, they seem like cheap classrooms (no computers), but what they have is awesome - each table has network connections and power, the podium at the front has a built in vcr, port replicator, document camera, etc, all connected to a data projector. We're talking capable of full multimedia presentations / lessons / etc, with web-based courses so you need not even show up for class (I used shoutcast once to stream a lesson for some ppl who didn't come one day).
HOWEVER, and this is the intelluctual side of things, it's not the sudents that are the biggest problem. The problem is that faculty - teachers - for the most part have not adjusted well to it. Some oppose it outright and refuse to use any of this 'modern technology'. friggin luddites. We have rooms with whiteboards and really whiz-bang stuff that can make an instructors life easier, and they insist on using blackboards with ancient overhead projectors. Thier students miss out because the teacher is unable or unwilling to upgrade to modern teaching methods. It's their right, but the students have the right to learn in a modern environment too.
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Who defines what is moral and amoral in our society anyhow? While I may find something tasteful and artistic, someone else may see it as pornographic. I find it interesting that the US is all about personal liberties and freedoms but, in reality, its more socialist than the government would admit. Public health, public libraries, public access... all controlled, regulated, and censored by the government. Personal freedom ends where public morals begin. Is this good? Is it bad? Who am I to say... I'm just a number in the system, a peg in the hole, a cog in the wheel. You are too if you don't oppose censorshhip in public libraries.
Let the parents control what their children see. Let them be responsable for what may come from their inaction and inability to control what their children have access to. GO to the libraries and GO into the schools - see what they have in terms of monitoring and protecting the children from bad things. I agree, if a child is surfing hustler.com (or whatever), that is inapropriate for the setting and a person telling them so. But to coldly and calculatingly cut off access to information...
Finally, when does it go from censoring pornographic material to censoring religious texts and public forums. Where do you draw the line? Who decides this? If "we the people" mean anything anymore, it certainly won't be the government, and it certainly won't be a company.
Could this be a conspiracy by the companies that make that kind of software to get a lucradive "sweet" government deal? hrmm.
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A game with great graphics will be bought and shelved. It won't stick around as newer, more gimmiky graphic games are released. OTOH, a game with good gameplay will last simply because the player enjoys the game. This "good gameplay" mark would include the storyline, input controls, reward system, point system, etc. These change depending on the kind of game you are playing.
Sometimes simplicity is the key to great gameplay. Pong, for instance, is a classic game that still has play value even today. What... two sticks and a ball. Not much in terms of graphics, but the way the game is played is just fun. So what makes Pong exciting and Dakitana boring? I dunno. In pong, the rules are simple and there is a direct challenge to the player. In Dakitana, there are good graphics (well.. so say some people) but the gameplay is boring and repetative.. no challenge.
I used to play LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon) and Tradewars almost non-stop 24hrs a day on many different BBS's. The graphics were low scale (mostly text with a few ANSI screens) but the gameplay was addictive and very rewarding. You were challenged, entertained, and stimulated in a way that a lot of games still don't capture even today.
Kingpin is an example, for me anyway, of a good story melded with a good graphics engine. Even though the ending of the game is lacking, the inital portions of the game draw the player into a rich story that made me overlook the downsides of the quick release.
heh, Just as I read the article, I fired up Miner'49er on my 64 and Jumpman on my 128... heh..
I'm tired of hearing companies claim that they are "in it for the community." That clam is utter bullshit. Any company, no matter what product it sells, is in it for the money. Don't get me wrong, however, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
From my point of view Redhat does not sell an operating system, rather it sells support for an operating system. The difference being that Mr. Young and the Redhat team fill a niche market. Great. Long live capatolisim... whatever. Don't claim to be in it for the community though.
I think Redhat Linux is a very good operating environment with a great set of packages and fair availability. Redhat, the company, has found a way to package and sell something that would normally be free. They realize that not everyone is able or even willing to 'roll their own' in preference of a pre-packaged solution. More power to them for this...
'The community,' which is so often referenced, will take care of itself. VALinux, imho, gives alot to the community in terms of open forums and sites to distribute and present new ideas and software. Redhat gives back by packaging all this Linux goodness together and makes revenue by selling it. With companies like Redhat, other companies such as IBM, Sun, and even Microsoft begin to take notice of Linux as being a real competitor in the buisness world.
Without Redhat (and companies like it), Linux will be viewed as a community project; not acceptable for "real buisness" (whatever that is supposed to mean). With Redhat (and companies like it), Linux gets commercial appeal and becomes a viable buisness solution (eg. it has a company standing behind it).
Just don't say you are in it for the community when, in reality, you are in it for the money (which, as I said before, is not necessarily a bad thing).
/rant
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Huh?
.NET, I'm sure that some Linux user would find some use for it and that it would end up being developed. However, Microsoft will probably keep everything wrapped up tightly behind their EULA and further attempt to obfusticate the open internet protocols. After all, you don't step forward to world domination by feeding the poor with the scraps from your table - you force them to die out by tainting their food supply.
Microsoft, and any company for that matter, has full access to Linux. The only thing stopping "them" is the ideology and fundamental principals of what makes Linux what it is.
As a company, Microsoft has to watch the bottom line. You and I may dislike their "corporate politics", but they have every right to be in it for the money. I gather that most of these companies see Linux as a money pit - invest to your hearts content and you still don't own anything. Sure, MS could take Linux and give it a great GUI, provide technical support, and muscle out Redhat, Caldera, SuSe, etc, from the market, but Microsoft would be unable to gain a leverage - the GPL (AFAIK) would preclude this from happening - unless of course they re-wrote it from scratch... but that wouldn't be Linux, and they do have better things to do than re-writing Linux for their own evil purposes (such as destroying Canadian software companies).
Microsoft still doesn't have access to the source code to Linux because they would risk their Windows stuff. They are pushing Linux developers not to use Microsoft propritary API while at the same time ensuring that THEIR developers don't put Linux into Windows. If a concious Linux developer saw something of theirs (assuming they GPL'd it or something similar) in Windows, Microsoft would be up shits creek (to put it bluntly).
I don't deny that this Microsoft + Corel = Danger for Linux equation, but saying that "Oh no, Microsoft has access to Linux" is akin to saying that Al Gore invented the Internet. Sure, it's possilbe that they do have some more access, but they certainly don't control anything... yet.
If Microsoft released OPEN (ie. no click-wrap licdense) standards for
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These "servers" will most likely be sold as the bargin-bin ultra elite savings models. We all know what big buisness thinks of "lite" versions of anything - hey... we got lotsa buks... whay r w3 buyz0ring 7h3 ch3p0r m0d3l! W3 5hu1d 8uyz0r th3 70p 0f 7h3 lin3z0r.
It'll be for small buisnesses who want to feel big about themselves and for 1337 h4x0rz to pump up their over inflated egos.
And BTW... AIX sucks... but just IMO, nothing to rant about.
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What Safe Audit said was that the quality of service was not on par with their expectations. If we slashdotted a site one day, that sites impressions would shoot through the roof... but only for that day. And certainly, lots of those people will just ignore the banner. I'm not defending Safe Audit... it's pretty lame to "adjust" based on a perceptual thing (ie. its quantitative vs qualitative here folks).
What GameFAN has done is run out of money by not being able to sell banner ads. Whatever the reason really is, the fact is: they ran out of cash. I think that Express.com, being the new parent company of GameFAN, is obligated to pay their member sites something for carrying the ads - otherwise, as someone else pointed out, it beggs the questions of an advert scam to draw people to GameFAN/Express.com.
I think we can all learn:
1) RTFL
2) IANAL, YANAL, so GAFL!
3) The advertiser shouldn't "adjust" pay based on "quality" delivered.
4) The advertiser should be pro-active and let people know that they are dying - perhaps lower the rates or something to entice new clients.
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I shall do roblimo one better by patenting NEGATIVE CLICK SHOPPING. That is, we partner with DoubleClick to analyze shopping trends and ship the products to people before they even know that they want it. We will, of course, pre-debit their credit cards and... oh wait.. I just realized Digital Convergance would win on a "prior-art" for shipping something that no one wants. my bad.
;).
I would like to now patent, instead, the process of being really annoying and irratable. I feel that I am the premier and most annoying, ugly, irratable, insulent, pithy, wreched, cruel, indececisive, moronic, and flat out stupidest person on the entire planet. I would like to patent that, and lets see if anyone claims prior-art over THIS one
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I think your routers would still end up getting gummed up with excessive traffic. Yeah, your internal network will survive and your servers won't go down, but you'll still get flooded off the net.
;).
It would be like barricading the doors to a walmart when you're selling furbies for $1.99/ea because of too many customers trying to get through the door. Your tellers will be at peak effenciency, but no legitamite traffic can get through.
Oh well... thats why we have co-locations people
It's simple.. You have your home and you have your office. At home you generally relax and do simple household maintence while at work you put your nose to the grindstone to get things done. Most people associate their workplace with their job and their home as their life's homebase and do not want the two to mix. ie. you wouldn't want the fustration of a family problem bleeding into the workplace... or a big project keeping you tied up in the den when you'd rather be firing up the BBQ in the back..
Yeah, some people have the dicipline to do their work and live both in the same place. I doubt employers will like it when ALL of their employees are working from 8:30PM to 2:00AM... And when certain employess hand in reports with the titles coloured in with Crayola and spilt coffee.
If you can juggle it, thats great... go for it. But the office place symbolizes work and puts most people in that productive mindset.. though I wouldn't mind being able to turn the lights off, some people may find the atmosphere wrong..
I dunno.. heh.. whatever.
Whats the point.. this is slashdot... the topic is irrelevant to the discussion.
So it's gonna be like episode 1...
we've seen great stuff from them before, but when we leave the cinema... we fell.. raped.
The problem with todays movies is that they will produce it so the trailer looks good. The trailer draws the people in and the movie.. well... ehh..
Not to say episode one was bad or anything... the lightsaber battles were great and the little gay tyke did a good acting job... bu man... that Jar-Jar.. now if they could only give an oscar for most annoying character.
Can you imagine Nelson being the Jar-Jar of the Simpsons?
WHY can't they live with creating a great TV show and not do the expected movie version.. I mean.. Sienfeld never did a movie.. and that would be funny.. a movie about nothing.. for two hours people will watch and when they leave... like.. what did I just watch? nothing? something? I know my time was wasted.. but did I see anything. No! you saw NOTHING. No script.. no actors.. you watch NOTHING.. thats the plot.
Bah..