The article said they hired Net PD, to monitor the Napster system last weekend, so, I'm assuming they just looked for any any titles that had the word Metallica in them.
Short of listening to each song, there's no way to tell whether it's a song that was recorded by Metallica, or my personal recorded feelings on the band, which would be completely legal.
So, I would say, were I the folks at napster, that these 300,000+ users that they want banned are unwarrented requests, and due to the first ammendment, they have no right to ban anyone based on content, unless it is proven to violate a copyright, on an individual basis.
Yeah, and those silly DVD things will never catch on either...
Maybe it won't be TIVO (Beta and Laserdisc didn't succeed), but digital video recorders are going to be very common place soon. Think of the possibilities. With increasing bandwith and storage capacities the possibilities are fantastic.
Pay-per-view: You'll be able to access a virtual video store and order digital quality movies on demand.
Archiving: Supposedly, TIVO is archiving every television show that's broadcast. It also would be possible to backfill many of the previously aired shows, creating a huge data warehouse. Researching a paper on the gulf war? Instead of searching papers on microfilm or internet, checkout the news broadcasts from the time period.
And there's all other kinds of things that can be done that I'm not thinking about. New technology is always poo-pooed because it costs too much and people are envious of the folks who can afford it. But prices will go down, and you'll be able to afford it soon, and then it will seem like a much cooler thing...
If I could have only cheated this way...
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Laptop Exams?
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· Score: 1
Imagine the possibilities, go to an IRC channel, and the entire class can collaborate on the test... Have your buddy at home who took the class last semester feed you the answers...
It seems to me that allowing students to use wireless devices during tests kinda defeats the purpose of testing. You're just going to find who is the most proficient at cheating, and that is probably not the student who deserves the best grades.
Hell... I have the internet on my cell phone now, If I was still in college I could just create myself a little page using WAP/WML to help me remember all those pesky history dates. Or been able to search the text of Beowulf.
Well I suppose its job security for those of us who actually remember learning things... It's much more difficult to fake knowledge in the real world than it is in the classroom...
Amazon Boycott has nothing to do with books.
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King's New eBook
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· Score: 1
For those of you going to Barnes and Noble thinking you are doing the right thing in boycotting Amazon - you're not. In the bookstore business, B&N are widely seen as the real enemy - they are the ones going around and causing all the independents to close down. There were over 5,500 independent bookstores in the U.S. in 1990 - today there are less than 3,500. We can thank the chains, and especially B&N for our new lack of diversity of information sources.
Well first off, I don't think the Amazon boycott has anything to do with bookstores. It has to do with what we believe are unfair patents. They have two patents which really are unrelated to bookselling (Affiliate Program and One click purchasing). The fact that they sell books is secondary. Patents are the only reason that *I* personally am boycotting them, and I do feel that I'm doing the right thing by going to BN or Borders, or whatever...
The patent issue is much larger than the allegation that BN is pushing small stores out of the scene, because it affects more than just booksellers. It has an effect on everyone who does business online.
We need to let Amazon know that what they are trying to do will not be tolerated in the online community. This is a chance to show that in the online world, the real power is with the community, and not with business and money.
Dead or Alive, Mr. de Joot certainly is in the right here. The openssh.org site is not in anyway harming openssh. They're even providing the courtesy of linking to the projects site. OpenSSH should be happy that they're getting that much. They should have registered all of the TLD's, but didn't see it as being necessary, and apparently, they thought the.com was the one they needed the most.
Even the U.S. government has not been able to get around this mistake. There's the infamous whitehouse.com site, which is still active.
If someone came to me and said that I had to give them one of my domains, because they felt they had some right to it I'd laugh in their face. Simply because you're an open source project does not excuse stupidity.
Beyond all this, we're talking about the former Replay.com site here, now zedz.net which has provided for years a good many of us with free crypto systems. They were doing a service years before OpenSSH was even thought of.
I don't use OpenSSH on my machines yet, and I was considering switching, but due to this situation where it appears they're in the running for a Slashdot beanie for "Open source domain bully" I'm going to boycott the product, until they play nice.
I'm seeing several people saying that Apple needs to defend their trademark to protect it, but they also could give these authors express written permission to use it. Which, wouldn't make them look like bullies, and also keep them honest on trademark patrol.
But that's not their motive here. Their motive is to protect their "look and feel." There's plenty of places on the net where apple's logo is being used without express written consent, and I don't see them going after them. I know the "Apple Platinum" & "eMac" themes have an apple logo... Hmmm... But that's old stuff. So they aren't too worried about that.
<conspiracy theory> Could it be that Apple is going after Linux, because it's a competitor for their OS? It runs on their machines, is a better OS, and now can look just like it? Apple's had quite a run without competition for the OS on their machines. They got rid of Mac Clones, because they couldn't handle the competition. Prices were just too low. Fortunately for Apple, they had the OS to leverage, and without licences for Mac OS, these clones weren't really worth too much. Now... Linux is a mainstream competitor, and runs on Apple hardware, and can look just like their latest and greatest. Could someone build a G4 based machine with Linux preinstalled with the E-X theme and Aqua GTK theme on it? It's a possibility. Are they worried? I'm guessing so. </conspiracy theory>
I run a site that gets up to 3,000,000 hits a day, and I disagree with the idea that you should try to use as much static content as possible. The problem with that, is maintaining it. I try to make all my sites customizable by using templates and database lookups. This way, when I need to make a change I just go to one spot.
What I highly reccomend is getting a big hairy box for your DB server. Maybe something like a Sparc 4500 if you've got the cash. Maybe a 4 proccessor x86 box if you don't. Evaluate your database products thouroughly. You need to know how the product performs in the way you are using it, not what someone tells you is the best. MySQL is free of course, and you can get evals for DB2, Oracle, x10, etc... Spend some serious time here.
Spread out your webservers. Your webserver shouldn't run on your DB server. Cheap webservers are, IMHO the best way to go... need more power... for under 2000$ you should be able to get a high quality rackmount with SCSI.
RAID on the DB server, not the web servers. The web servers themselves should be hotswappable. keep at least one more in your round robin than you need.
Additionally, you should implement some sort of caching system on the webserver, you could write an Apache module to do this, if it's not already out there. Or... You could go for ColdFusion... Now that it runs on Linux. Coldfusion has caching built in, and it's fast.
Finally, get a good load testing program that allows you to put a simulated load on the group of webservers. This will allow you to know your limits.
Remember, you have to evaluate your situation yourself, and get some trials of products and see how they work with your stuff. That counts a whole helluva lot more than the benchmarks they release.
I've tryed the beta, and would have to say that this deserves a major version number. I believe the ISO is just the beta ISO (I hope) as I downloaded it and found quite a few problems, but overall was very impressed with the improvements made to the install process.
The diskdrake program was fantastic. Great interface, and easy to use. I may actually use that over fdisk.
The install actually detected my Voodoo Banshee and X worked without any modifications on my part, very nice.
The install detected my ESS Maestro Soundcard and sound worked out of the box... Normally I have to get AC's beta stuff to make this thing go...
There were some bugs with the actual package install, sometimes it would bomb out or sometimes it would report that it was going to install more (MB) than it should have. And the mouse left me after the X install... Kinda nasty...
IMNSHO, I think that this could be the release of a Linux Flavour that really opens up the desktop market (provided they get the bugs out of the install). Its not intimidating, and just about anyone should be able to handle a install. All they need now is a prettier version of LILO (even something like the BeOS loader would be cool) and I think they would have some real success selling to the average joe... Back to the point... It may not be a new kernel, but the Install is what can make it worth a new Major version... or at least a 6.5...
Re:AOL Time Warner not a monopoly. ---Whoa there.
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AOL Nation
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Hold on a second. All the points you made defending AOL can be applied to Microsoft. The big problem with the AOL / TW merger is that this new company will encompass so much, and so many people are locked into AOL as much as, if not more than they are Windows.
There are no competitors with AOL as it is _now_, to tell the truth. They have the lion's share of the ISP market right now. MSN, AT&T, et. all don't even come close to comparing, and none of them look like they even have a chance to challenge.
I really hate to paraphrase Bill Gates, but he is correct when he said that in the software industry someone can climb to the top virtually overnight. Linux has tremendous momentum right now, and when something like Mandrake's new installation tool for 7.0 hits the shelves I don't think anything is going to stop it. Linux is soon going to be on equal ground with Windows. Mozilla M12 has also really impressed me, and for the first time since version 3.0 I think it has potential to rival IE.
However... In the ISP market, things don't move nearly as fast. Great software can be created with nothing more than some blood, sweat and tears, but an ISP takes a lot more, namely a lot more of capital. AOL isn't going to be overthrown anytime soon, but MS has always been on shaky ground.
With the addition of a content giant such as Time Warner they will have the ability to "shut the door" on the internet, and force (let's say persuade instead) users to use their content, and deny non-users access to their content, to try make them AOL users. This sounds much like a monopoly to me. At the very least it sounds like monopoly power, which is what Judge Jackson found M$ has.
You may believe AOL would never do something like this. But, I've never seen AOL truely embrace the internet. They've always seemed to resent the internet a bit, and push their own crappy content instead. The internet access was a neccessary evil to them, and with this, well... maybe it won't seem so neccessary to have their users browsing other sites, creating revenue for other people.
The idea that software "safety" and auto safety are related is absolutely insane. The comparison makes no sense whatsoever, But lets look at the comparison a bit more:
Auto makers are expected to do their best to protect life and limb. They are not expected to "secure" the vehicles.
You can't sue an auto maker because a theif has found a way to steal a car. That's your fault. When you drive a Mercedes, you realize that there is a good chance it could get stolen, so you take precautions yourself like not leaving the keys on the dash, doors unlocked or the top down. You may even spluge and buy a 800$ security system for your 80,000$ car. Fact is, you realize that it's your responsibility to protect it, and if it gets stolen after you've done something stupid (keys on dash), it's all you. (Ask your insurance company about that one).
So, with your computer if you're concerned about security, you take the same basic precautions, don't open files that you don't know what they do or where they came from... Install the latest patches, and maybe you'll get one of those cute programs that are supposed to watch for malicious code for 30$...
Now a lot of people will argue that in large corporations, where most of the damage was done by Melissa (also the name of my sister-in-law, coincidence?) People who didn't know any better were the victims. Well, if we look back to the silly auto comparision, I'm sure as hell not going to let the 15 year old intern drive my mercedes... heck, he doesn't even have a license yet! People need to be educated on basic things like don't open files you recieve in email, unless you're sure of their origin. Don't install activeX controls unless you can be sure of their origin.
Bottom line, software makers aren't responsible for user error. And thats what these issues are. If they realize there is a back door, and don't do anything about it, well that's a different story.
What we have here are some people who got bitten, and now they're trying to push the blame on someone else. The lawyers are jumping at the chance to sue someone like Microsoft, because it's big money...
We don't need any more laws to protect stupid people.
I'm sick of seeing this crap that has no point but to cause panic. Just the other day an article was posted "Take the Y2k Pledge", a very good article IMHO. Slashdot should not encourage the fearmongering that the mainstream media has taken to, not because of facts, but people want to hear it for some reason. The only real problems that occur will be caused by people over-reacting, not computer failure.
So... please/. contributors, don't fall into this trap. I'm very willing to put money on civilization surviving the turn to 2000. If it doesn't, I guess it's just paper.
The biggest Y2K problem is that I'll be on call on Dec 31-Jan 1st, just as I suspect many of you readers will be and I'm supposed to stay sober as well as in cell range.
This would be very nice if it's true. Unfortunately, about 50% of the promises we hear about Java turn out to be greatly exaggerated, or vapor. (I say this as a Java programmer, and strong advocate) I'd really like to see Linux become a strong Java platform, as this would make writing software for Linux much less of a "?" Imagine writing a piece of software that runs both on Windows and Linux, and the same code runs better on Linux, and is kludgy on Windows... Wouldn't that be a thrill!:)
I know that we 'believe' that black holes exist, but, what I am wondering is why, if they continue to gain mass and their event horizon increases exponentially, we haven't yet been sucked up by a neighboring hole.
Wouldn't it make sense that, these black holes out there would eventually all converge together, gaining mass and 'size', presumably even increasing escape velocity?
Can someone explain why this hasn't happened yet? Or let me know exactly when it will happen.
I ran across this on EBay... http://www.100inchtv.com/ and was wondering if anyone has tried it... It's instructions on how to build a front projection TV. I am guessing that you'll loose nearly all your brightness in the magnification, but if it isn't too bad, would be kinda neat to put Rogue Squadron on my wall...
This varies from company to company. Currently, I use COX/@Home as my cable modem provider, well for 3 more days anyways. Their AUP says that you cannot run a server on your home PC's. However, they don't enforce this unless your neighbors complain about bandwidth, so I do run HTTP/FTP/Telnet services from home. I'm pretty much the only person who uses them, but I do have a MP3 archive out there for my friends to use.
COX/@home does not have anything that physically stops you from running a server, but they have limited your upstream bandwith to 16Kb, via an "En hancement". So, with them, you really aren't getting what you're think you're getting. Don't get me wrong, Downstream is blazing fast, but any upstream trafic is pretty slow.
There are other companies that don't do this, so be sure to give them 20 questions about bandwith, static IP's and whatnot. If you can, get it in writing.
You also certainly want to know what their packet loss and the distance it is back to your city. I am pushed through Atlanta to get back to Omaha (200+ms) and can see upto 30% packet loss, which is very nasty for telnet.
But in anycase, its going to end up being cheaper and much better than any standard modem connection you can get (if you have a second line).
This is a Sony Playstation that you're talking about. The company who has been backing the fight to destroy MP3(unsuccessfully), and attacking people writing emulators for their console system. Sony will not be supporting the play of mp3 on CD-R or bootleg movies.
You forgot to mention one thing... He's right. If you have the protocol, you can write your own client. Unless of course you can't write code. If you're writing say, a Linux client, the only thing you need (and probably the only thing you can use) is the protocol.
"forcing AOL users to violate their Terms of Service with AOL by requiring AOL users to give their passwords to Microsoft."
Forcing? How? Are AOL users now required to use this messaging client? News to me. Most of the people who would use this client are not AOL users, just people who want to use instant messaging. What AOL should do is patent the idea of sending messages to others... That would solve all the problems.
Microsoft is bad, mmmmkay? If microsoft did something, like say, hypothetically, make other vendors programs not work under Windows, the same people who are supporing AOL would be throwing a fit! But AOL does something that is essentially the same, and well, that's just good buisiness practices, damnit! You people have just been conditioned to believe whatever MS is doing is wrong, and apparently no longer can think for yourselves. Nothing is all Good, nor all bad... I know its hard to do , but sometimes you just gotta admit that someone you hate is right.
You're right... You don't deserve to be called a geek.
MS Office is the best office suite out there. FACT. You people need to realize that simply because a program is made by microsoft or doesn't run on Linux doesn't make it bad.
Office for Linux would be a great thing. I've used star office, Applix, and WP for linux. None of them even come close to performing as well as Office 97 performs on my 98 box. FACT.
Listen people, I'm a huge Linux advocate. Hell, I installed my first Linux system from floppies I downloaded over a 2400 baud modem. I'll be the first to admit (and SCREAM) that office applications under Linux suck ass.
MS Office would allow most of us dual-booters to have our cake and eat it too. And it would give common users a viable alternative. So... get real and realize that all that is MS is not crap, and all that is Linux is not gold.
I've seen sound on the motherboard work, and generally its a SB 16 chip, so that's rather easy to get going...
As for video, my personal opinion is a card is better. Video cards are dirt-cheap right now, you can pick up a S3 or ATI chipset for around $50 that works well with linux. If you do decide to get a video card on the board, make sure the chip is supported, and also make sure you can disable it if you decide to upgrade.
I've been very impressed with how E has been running for me. Occassionally I come across a bug, normally something to do with focus and will have to restart, but haven't had a crash in quite a while. It's gotten much better since DR 14, and with gnome 0.99.x I've been really happy running it as my full-time desktop.
Slashdot Mirror
The article said they hired Net PD, to monitor the Napster system last weekend, so, I'm assuming they just looked for any any titles that had the word Metallica in them.
Short of listening to each song, there's no way to tell whether it's a song that was recorded by Metallica, or my personal recorded feelings on the band, which would be completely legal.
So, I would say, were I the folks at napster, that these 300,000+ users that they want banned are unwarrented requests, and due to the first ammendment, they have no right to ban anyone based on content, unless it is proven to violate a copyright, on an individual basis.
This site's rankings are rather confusing. On their price ranking, they have several higher priced registrars listed above lower priced registrars.
In their composite rankings, they gave one registrar 3 stars for legal and 5 stars for price. Overall they gave them 2 stars.
This site offers a service that is very needed, but, it needs to be understandable by a normal person.
Yeah, and those silly DVD things will never catch on either...
Maybe it won't be TIVO (Beta and Laserdisc didn't succeed), but digital video recorders are going to be very common place soon. Think of the possibilities. With increasing bandwith and storage capacities the possibilities are fantastic.
Pay-per-view : You'll be able to access a virtual video store and order digital quality movies on demand.
Archiving : Supposedly, TIVO is archiving every television show that's broadcast. It also would be possible to backfill many of the previously aired shows, creating a huge data warehouse. Researching a paper on the gulf war? Instead of searching papers on microfilm or internet, checkout the news broadcasts from the time period.
And there's all other kinds of things that can be done that I'm not thinking about. New technology is always poo-pooed because it costs too much and people are envious of the folks who can afford it. But prices will go down, and you'll be able to afford it soon, and then it will seem like a much cooler thing...
Imagine the possibilities, go to an IRC channel, and the entire class can collaborate on the test... Have your buddy at home who took the class last semester feed you the answers...
It seems to me that allowing students to use wireless devices during tests kinda defeats the purpose of testing. You're just going to find who is the most proficient at cheating, and that is probably not the student who deserves the best grades.
Hell... I have the internet on my cell phone now, If I was still in college I could just create myself a little page using WAP/WML to help me remember all those pesky history dates. Or been able to search the text of Beowulf.
Well I suppose its job security for those of us who actually remember learning things... It's much more difficult to fake knowledge in the real world than it is in the classroom...
Well first off, I don't think the Amazon boycott has anything to do with bookstores. It has to do with what we believe are unfair patents. They have two patents which really are unrelated to bookselling (Affiliate Program and One click purchasing). The fact that they sell books is secondary. Patents are the only reason that *I* personally am boycotting them, and I do feel that I'm doing the right thing by going to BN or Borders, or whatever...
The patent issue is much larger than the allegation that BN is pushing small stores out of the scene, because it affects more than just booksellers. It has an effect on everyone who does business online.
We need to let Amazon know that what they are trying to do will not be tolerated in the online community. This is a chance to show that in the online world, the real power is with the community, and not with business and money.
Dead or Alive, Mr. de Joot certainly is in the right here. The openssh.org site is not in anyway harming openssh. They're even providing the courtesy of linking to the projects site. OpenSSH should be happy that they're getting that much. They should have registered all of the TLD's, but didn't see it as being necessary, and apparently, they thought the .com was the one they needed the most.
Even the U.S. government has not been able to get around this mistake. There's the infamous whitehouse.com site, which is still active.
If someone came to me and said that I had to give them one of my domains, because they felt they had some right to it I'd laugh in their face. Simply because you're an open source project does not excuse stupidity.
Beyond all this, we're talking about the former Replay.com site here, now zedz.net which has provided for years a good many of us with free crypto systems. They were doing a service years before OpenSSH was even thought of.
I don't use OpenSSH on my machines yet, and I was considering switching, but due to this situation where it appears they're in the running for a Slashdot beanie for "Open source domain bully" I'm going to boycott the product, until they play nice.
I'm seeing several people saying that Apple needs to defend their trademark to protect it, but they also could give these authors express written permission to use it. Which, wouldn't make them look like bullies, and also keep them honest on trademark patrol.
But that's not their motive here. Their motive is to protect their "look and feel." There's plenty of places on the net where apple's logo is being used without express written consent, and I don't see them going after them. I know the "Apple Platinum" & "eMac" themes have an apple logo... Hmmm... But that's old stuff. So they aren't too worried about that.
<conspiracy theory>
Could it be that Apple is going after Linux, because it's a competitor for their OS? It runs on their machines, is a better OS, and now can look just like it? Apple's had quite a run without competition for the OS on their machines. They got rid of Mac Clones, because they couldn't handle the competition. Prices were just too low. Fortunately for Apple, they had the OS to leverage, and without licences for Mac OS, these clones weren't really worth too much. Now... Linux is a mainstream competitor, and runs on Apple hardware, and can look just like their latest and greatest. Could someone build a G4 based machine with Linux preinstalled with the E-X theme and Aqua GTK theme on it? It's a possibility. Are they worried? I'm guessing so.
</conspiracy theory>
What I highly reccomend is getting a big hairy box for your DB server. Maybe something like a Sparc 4500 if you've got the cash. Maybe a 4 proccessor x86 box if you don't. Evaluate your database products thouroughly. You need to know how the product performs in the way you are using it, not what someone tells you is the best. MySQL is free of course, and you can get evals for DB2, Oracle, x10, etc... Spend some serious time here.
Spread out your webservers. Your webserver shouldn't run on your DB server. Cheap webservers are, IMHO the best way to go... need more power... for under 2000$ you should be able to get a high quality rackmount with SCSI.
RAID on the DB server, not the web servers. The web servers themselves should be hotswappable. keep at least one more in your round robin than you need.
Additionally, you should implement some sort of caching system on the webserver, you could write an Apache module to do this, if it's not already out there. Or... You could go for ColdFusion... Now that it runs on Linux. Coldfusion has caching built in, and it's fast.
Finally, get a good load testing program that allows you to put a simulated load on the group of webservers. This will allow you to know your limits.
Remember, you have to evaluate your situation yourself, and get some trials of products and see how they work with your stuff. That counts a whole helluva lot more than the benchmarks they release.
The diskdrake program was fantastic. Great interface, and easy to use. I may actually use that over fdisk.
The install actually detected my Voodoo Banshee and X worked without any modifications on my part, very nice.
The install detected my ESS Maestro Soundcard and sound worked out of the box... Normally I have to get AC's beta stuff to make this thing go...
There were some bugs with the actual package install, sometimes it would bomb out or sometimes it would report that it was going to install more (MB) than it should have. And the mouse left me after the X install... Kinda nasty...
IMNSHO, I think that this could be the release of a Linux Flavour that really opens up the desktop market (provided they get the bugs out of the install). Its not intimidating, and just about anyone should be able to handle a install. All they need now is a prettier version of LILO (even something like the BeOS loader would be cool) and I think they would have some real success selling to the average joe... Back to the point... It may not be a new kernel, but the Install is what can make it worth a new Major version... or at least a 6.5...
Hold on a second. All the points you made defending AOL can be applied to Microsoft. The big problem with the AOL / TW merger is that this new company will encompass so much, and so many people are locked into AOL as much as, if not more than they are Windows.
There are no competitors with AOL as it is _now_, to tell the truth. They have the lion's share of the ISP market right now. MSN, AT&T, et. all don't even come close to comparing, and none of them look like they even have a chance to challenge.
I really hate to paraphrase Bill Gates, but he is correct when he said that in the software industry someone can climb to the top virtually overnight. Linux has tremendous momentum right now, and when something like Mandrake's new installation tool for 7.0 hits the shelves I don't think anything is going to stop it. Linux is soon going to be on equal ground with Windows. Mozilla M12 has also really impressed me, and for the first time since version 3.0 I think it has potential to rival IE.
However... In the ISP market, things don't move nearly as fast. Great software can be created with nothing more than some blood, sweat and tears, but an ISP takes a lot more, namely a lot more of capital. AOL isn't going to be overthrown anytime soon, but MS has always been on shaky ground.
With the addition of a content giant such as Time Warner they will have the ability to "shut the door" on the internet, and force (let's say persuade instead) users to use their content, and deny non-users access to their content, to try make them AOL users. This sounds much like a monopoly to me. At the very least it sounds like monopoly power, which is what Judge Jackson found M$ has.
You may believe AOL would never do something like this. But, I've never seen AOL truely embrace the internet. They've always seemed to resent the internet a bit, and push their own crappy content instead. The internet access was a neccessary evil to them, and with this, well... maybe it won't seem so neccessary to have their users browsing other sites, creating revenue for other people.
Auto makers are expected to do their best to protect life and limb. They are not expected to "secure" the vehicles.
You can't sue an auto maker because a theif has found a way to steal a car. That's your fault. When you drive a Mercedes, you realize that there is a good chance it could get stolen, so you take precautions yourself like not leaving the keys on the dash, doors unlocked or the top down. You may even spluge and buy a 800$ security system for your 80,000$ car. Fact is, you realize that it's your responsibility to protect it, and if it gets stolen after you've done something stupid (keys on dash), it's all you. (Ask your insurance company about that one).
So, with your computer if you're concerned about security, you take the same basic precautions, don't open files that you don't know what they do or where they came from... Install the latest patches, and maybe you'll get one of those cute programs that are supposed to watch for malicious code for 30$...
Now a lot of people will argue that in large corporations, where most of the damage was done by Melissa (also the name of my sister-in-law, coincidence?) People who didn't know any better were the victims. Well, if we look back to the silly auto comparision, I'm sure as hell not going to let the 15 year old intern drive my mercedes... heck, he doesn't even have a license yet! People need to be educated on basic things like don't open files you recieve in email, unless you're sure of their origin. Don't install activeX controls unless you can be sure of their origin.
Bottom line, software makers aren't responsible for user error. And thats what these issues are. If they realize there is a back door, and don't do anything about it, well that's a different story.
What we have here are some people who got bitten, and now they're trying to push the blame on someone else. The lawyers are jumping at the chance to sue someone like Microsoft, because it's big money...
We don't need any more laws to protect stupid people.
So... please /. contributors, don't fall into this trap. I'm very willing to put money on civilization surviving the turn to 2000. If it doesn't, I guess it's just paper.
The biggest Y2K problem is that I'll be on call on Dec 31-Jan 1st, just as I suspect many of you readers will be and I'm supposed to stay sober as well as in cell range.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My God, its full of stars
"How to hook up with a surly construction worker, who will probably eventually beat you, but has a cute butt" Floppy ears... Bite me.
This would be very nice if it's true. Unfortunately, about 50% of the promises we hear about Java turn out to be greatly exaggerated, or vapor. (I say this as a Java programmer, and strong advocate) I'd really like to see Linux become a strong Java platform, as this would make writing software for Linux much less of a "?" Imagine writing a piece of software that runs both on Windows and Linux, and the same code runs better on Linux, and is kludgy on Windows... Wouldn't that be a thrill! :)
Wouldn't it make sense that, these black holes out there would eventually all converge together, gaining mass and 'size', presumably even increasing escape velocity?
Can someone explain why this hasn't happened yet? Or let me know exactly when it will happen.
I ran across this on EBay... http://www.100inchtv.com/ and was wondering if anyone has tried it... It's instructions on how to build a front projection TV. I am guessing that you'll loose nearly all your brightness in the magnification, but if it isn't too bad, would be kinda neat to put Rogue Squadron on my wall...
Read your AUP (Acceptable Use Policy).
This varies from company to company. Currently, I use COX/@Home as my cable modem provider, well for 3 more days anyways. Their AUP says that you cannot run a server on your home PC's. However, they don't enforce this unless your neighbors complain about bandwidth, so I do run HTTP/FTP/Telnet services from home. I'm pretty much the only person who uses them, but I do have a MP3 archive out there for my friends to use.
COX/@home does not have anything that physically stops you from running a server, but they have limited your upstream bandwith to 16Kb, via an "En hancement". So, with them, you really aren't getting what you're think you're getting. Don't get me wrong, Downstream is blazing fast, but any upstream trafic is pretty slow.
There are other companies that don't do this, so be sure to give them 20 questions about bandwith, static IP's and whatnot. If you can, get it in writing.
You also certainly want to know what their packet loss and the distance it is back to your city. I am pushed through Atlanta to get back to Omaha (200+ms) and can see upto 30% packet loss, which is very nasty for telnet.
But in anycase, its going to end up being cheaper and much better than any standard modem connection you can get (if you have a second line).
This is a Sony Playstation that you're talking about. The company who has been backing the fight to destroy MP3(unsuccessfully), and attacking people writing emulators for their console system. Sony will not be supporting the play of mp3 on CD-R or bootleg movies.
I'm even willing to put money on that bet.
Troll
You forgot to mention one thing... He's right. If you have the protocol, you can write your own client. Unless of course you can't write code. If you're writing say, a Linux client, the only thing you need (and probably the only thing you can use) is the protocol.
"forcing AOL users to violate their Terms of Service with AOL by requiring AOL users to give their passwords to Microsoft."
Forcing? How? Are AOL users now required to use this messaging client? News to me.
Most of the people who would use this client are not AOL users, just people who want to use instant messaging.
What AOL should do is patent the idea of sending messages to others... That would solve all the problems.
Microsoft is bad, mmmmkay? If microsoft did something, like say, hypothetically, make other vendors programs not work under Windows, the same people who are supporing AOL would be throwing a fit! But AOL does something that is essentially the same, and well, that's just good buisiness practices, damnit! You people have just been conditioned to believe whatever MS is doing is wrong, and apparently no longer can think for yourselves. Nothing is all Good, nor all bad... I know its hard to do , but sometimes you just gotta admit that someone you hate is right.
You're right... You don't deserve to be called a geek.
MS Office is the best office suite out there. FACT. You people need to realize that simply because a program is made by microsoft or doesn't run on Linux doesn't make it bad.
Office for Linux would be a great thing. I've used star office, Applix, and WP for linux. None of them even come close to performing as well as Office 97 performs on my 98 box. FACT.
Listen people, I'm a huge Linux advocate. Hell, I installed my first Linux system from floppies I downloaded over a 2400 baud modem. I'll be the first to admit (and SCREAM) that office applications under Linux suck ass.
MS Office would allow most of us dual-booters to have our cake and eat it too. And it would give common users a viable alternative. So... get real and realize that all that is MS is not crap, and all that is Linux is not gold.
I've seen sound on the motherboard work, and generally its a SB 16 chip, so that's rather easy to get going...
As for video, my personal opinion is a card is better. Video cards are dirt-cheap right now, you can pick up a S3 or ATI chipset for around $50 that works well with linux. If you do decide to get a video card on the board, make sure the chip is supported, and also make sure you can disable it if you decide to upgrade.
I've been very impressed with how E has been running for me. Occassionally I come across a bug, normally something to do with focus and will have to restart, but haven't had a crash in quite a while. It's gotten much better since DR 14, and with gnome 0.99.x I've been really happy running it as my full-time desktop.