The problem here is that not everyone needs to deal with firewalls and routers, or even their car engine, on a daily basis. However, we all have to deal with the law on a daily basis. Therefore, the ivory tower approach to creating laws (i.e. making them so complex you have to be a professional to understand them) is a Bad Thing(tm). Law is to govern the people, and since (in theory at least) "We the people...." are the government we should be able to understand the laws we live under. Or do you think that it's a good idea to have a tax code (just the tax code mind you) that is over 17 million words? The US tax code is two stacks of books, each 4½ to 5½ feet high.
It takes an organization to counter an organization. It is only by combining our voices and our strengths that we can hope to successfully strive against other organizations that want what we collectively have. At the risk of sounding extremist, take a look at a situation that every/.er is familliar with. Microsoft wants the money we collectively earn (money == power). Individually we all gripe about it, but their money (from us) allows them (in extremely blunt terms) to purchase court resolutions in their favor. Now along comes Linux. Bob in Calif works on part of the kernel, Fred in Texas writes a device driver, etc. After a brief period of growth we have many people working together towards a common goal, a competetive marketplace for OS's. What our single voices could not accomplish before may very well become a reality due to the combining of the unique strengths of numerous individuals.
It has happened. We have become ants.
Speak for yourself, I am still an individual and a human being, and will remain so regardless of dictatorship from Washington DC or Geneva. I can not believe that the above comment was moderated up as Insightful.
So, just because it's easy to pick a lock means I shouldn't have locks on my car, home, etc.? No, there is an entire hierarchy of locks, some more difficult to pick than others. The question is how much do you want to pay for your locks? A pin tumbler (aka cylinder lock) is inexpensive, fairly easy to pick (so I hear) and what almost everyone in the USA has on the door of their dwelling. Wafer tumblers are even easier to pick, but that's what protects your car. Why use them since they're so insecure? Because they do the job 99% of the time.
So do a cost/benefit analysis, are you better off NOT using SSH/SSL et. al. or does it make sense to use them? Take a look at the history of what you are discussing. I don't believe that SSL has ever been cracked "in the wild". All of the Internet credit card theft I am aware of has been from the server being rooted and access to the data obtained, never through intercepting it en route.
A year is an awfully long time in the computer industry. How many companies went broke or discontinued product lines because they were "only" a year behind? How many generations of processors are released in a year, 2 or 3?
I am not dissin' Linux, merely trying to be a realist.
Did you check the price on the RealDoll? Add that on top of the price tag for the Robonaut and it would be an astronomical sum! Hmmm, gives a different meaning to the phrase RealPlayer, now doesn't it?
If I am not mistaken the Honda robot's (was it called the Humanoid?) main excitement was that it walked and balanced like a human. Most of the engineering had gone into the balance and bipedal movement. Since NASA's 'bot will be working in a zero G environment most of Honda's engineering would have been wasted. NASA's focus is on giving the Robonaut dexterity equvilent or better than a suited astronaut. Combine that with the fact that Honda is a private company all the engineering on the Humanoid would probably be "closed source" and cost NASA a bundle to purchase and it would seem more cost efficient for NASA to start "from scratch".
Hmph, sounds like sour grapes to me. Don't feel too bad though, I wish it was me up there, too.
But seriously, why bother with space at all then? Either people will be living and working in that environment, in which case we need to develop the technology to cope with that environment as well as familliarity with that envronment, or people won't be living/working in that envronment, in which case, why bother with it at all?
Sadly, Loki was doomed from its conception. Until the majority of Linux users recognize that some people don't get paid when they steal software, and that if they don't get paid they go work where they CAN get paid. This is the basis of Capitalism, exchanging value for labor. Yes, it can be taken too far *cough* Microsoft *cough*.
Don't get me wrong, I think there are some wonderful things going on in the Open Source movement and Linus Torvalds and many like him are visionaries. Some of their visions are good and being made to work. Companies like Red Hat and SuSE are making money off of Linus' vision, and that's OK too.
But as it was put earlier Linux != free beer. Not much gameing development will take place on Linux until someone can make a profit at it.
Actualy GFLOPs are a better measure of performance than an any other that I am aware of, simply because floating point operations are what we deal with in the real world. So it doesn't matter how many millions of instructions per second a processor can execute. If it can't handle floating point operations quickly it's no good for real world applications.
How many people were in the bar that day/night? And do you honestly expect the bartender to keep track of how many ounces of alchohol he has served to each one? Two words, Personal Responsibility. Do you believe in evolution? Then think of this as natural selection. This kid was stupid (or uneducated, sue the school or his parents) and won't reproduce now. This doesn't make the kids' death less tragic. But don't blame the barkeep for it.
My goal as a parent of a 9 year old and a 7 year old is not to teach them what to think, but to teach them how to think. Yes, I am teaching them my opinions and values. I am also teaching them why those are my opinions and values. That is part of my job as a parent. Yes, it is the parent's responsibility to be there when their children surf the 'Net. It is also the parent's responsibility to see to it that their children are not shocked out of their socks when they are first exposed to many things in real life. Do I show my kids pornography? No, but they've already had "sex education" talks (and will have more) from my wife and I, and when they get older they will be told about porn. And drugs, and alchohol. Because this is MY responsibility, not some school teachers' (who may or may not even be able to teach math, english or other "concrete" subjects!).
...it is easy enough for the common "end user". That and the apps have to have been rubbed in their face. Unfortunatly "easy enough" is the cause of M$ stuff being bloatware.
And as easy as it is to slam Gates/Microsoft I respect 2 things about it.
#1) Gates had a vision of a computer in every home. Without M$ "in-your-face" marketing this would not have happend. The benefits of this proliferation are enormus (and I don't have either the time or space here to count them all). I'm going to sum it up in one word. Internet. Without ready access to computers that are "user friendly" (sorry for the buzz word!!!) we don't get all this communications stuff that makes up the "Information Age".
#2) Gates has put the monopoly power of M$ to good use at least once. He has forced hardware standardization on some parts of the computer industry. And frankly, if I didn't want to go with standardized hardware I'd have gotten an Amiga in '91 instead of a clone.
(Disclaimer: I am NOT a Microsheep) Do I hope that the DOJ trial breaks or regulates M$? You bet I do!!! IMHO the best possible result is for M$'s OS division to be split into a different company than the HW and Apps divisions.
My point in all the above is that Linux might become a mainstream server in the readily forseeable future, but unless it takes on some of the attributes of Windoze it will probably never make it to mainstream desktops.
As the saying goes "Heaven is a place where the British deal with the politics and the French handle the cooking. Hell is a place where these rolls are reversed." Do I really need to say any more?
Slashdot Mirror
The problem here is that not everyone needs to deal with firewalls and routers, or even their car engine, on a daily basis. However, we all have to deal with the law on a daily basis. Therefore, the ivory tower approach to creating laws (i.e. making them so complex you have to be a professional to understand them) is a Bad Thing(tm). Law is to govern the people, and since (in theory at least) "We the people...." are the government we should be able to understand the laws we live under. Or do you think that it's a good idea to have a tax code (just the tax code mind you) that is over 17 million words? The US tax code is two stacks of books, each 4½ to 5½ feet high.
It takes an organization to counter an organization. It is only by combining our voices and our strengths that we can hope to successfully strive against other organizations that want what we collectively have. At the risk of sounding extremist, take a look at a situation that every /.er is familliar with. Microsoft wants the money we collectively earn (money == power). Individually we all gripe about it, but their money (from us) allows them (in extremely blunt terms) to purchase court resolutions in their favor. Now along comes Linux. Bob in Calif works on part of the kernel, Fred in Texas writes a device driver, etc. After a brief period of growth we have many people working together towards a common goal, a competetive marketplace for OS's. What our single voices could not accomplish before may very well become a reality due to the combining of the unique strengths of numerous individuals.
It has happened. We have become ants.
Speak for yourself, I am still an individual and a human being, and will remain so regardless of dictatorship from Washington DC or Geneva. I can not believe that the above comment was moderated up as Insightful.
So, just because it's easy to pick a lock means I shouldn't have locks on my car, home, etc.? No, there is an entire hierarchy of locks, some more difficult to pick than others. The question is how much do you want to pay for your locks? A pin tumbler (aka cylinder lock) is inexpensive, fairly easy to pick (so I hear) and what almost everyone in the USA has on the door of their dwelling. Wafer tumblers are even easier to pick, but that's what protects your car. Why use them since they're so insecure? Because they do the job 99% of the time.
So do a cost/benefit analysis, are you better off NOT using SSH/SSL et. al. or does it make sense to use them? Take a look at the history of what you are discussing. I don't believe that SSL has ever been cracked "in the wild". All of the Internet credit card theft I am aware of has been from the server being rooted and access to the data obtained, never through intercepting it en route.
DLR
A year is an awfully long time in the computer industry. How many companies went broke or discontinued product lines because they were "only" a year behind? How many generations of processors are released in a year, 2 or 3?
I am not dissin' Linux, merely trying to be a realist.
Did you check the price on the RealDoll? Add that on top of the price tag for the Robonaut and it would be an astronomical sum! Hmmm, gives a different meaning to the phrase RealPlayer, now doesn't it?
Been there, done that. Isn't it nice to know that great minds think alike? ;)
If I am not mistaken the Honda robot's (was it called the Humanoid?) main excitement was that it walked and balanced like a human. Most of the engineering had gone into the balance and bipedal movement. Since NASA's 'bot will be working in a zero G environment most of Honda's engineering would have been wasted. NASA's focus is on giving the Robonaut dexterity equvilent or better than a suited astronaut. Combine that with the fact that Honda is a private company all the engineering on the Humanoid would probably be "closed source" and cost NASA a bundle to purchase and it would seem more cost efficient for NASA to start "from scratch".
Yeah, the "face" looks like a cross between Ultraman ( http://www.ultraman.com/ ) and a Power Ranger.
Hmph, sounds like sour grapes to me. Don't feel too bad though, I wish it was me up there, too.
But seriously, why bother with space at all then? Either people will be living and working in that environment, in which case we need to develop the technology to cope with that environment as well as familliarity with that envronment, or people won't be living/working in that envronment, in which case, why bother with it at all?
In Plano it was the one on the NW cornor of Alma and Parker.
Where is the comment for the Plano/N. Dallas meetup?
Sadly, Loki was doomed from its conception. Until the majority of Linux users recognize that some people don't get paid when they steal software, and that if they don't get paid they go work where they CAN get paid. This is the basis of Capitalism, exchanging value for labor. Yes, it can be taken too far *cough* Microsoft *cough*.
Don't get me wrong, I think there are some wonderful things going on in the Open Source movement and Linus Torvalds and many like him are visionaries. Some of their visions are good and being made to work. Companies like Red Hat and SuSE are making money off of Linus' vision, and that's OK too.
But as it was put earlier Linux != free beer. Not much gameing development will take place on Linux until someone can make a profit at it.
DLR
Actualy GFLOPs are a better measure of performance than an any other that I am aware of, simply because floating point operations are what we deal with in the real world. So it doesn't matter how many millions of instructions per second a processor can execute. If it can't handle floating point operations quickly it's no good for real world applications.
How many people were in the bar that day/night? And do you honestly expect the bartender to keep track of how many ounces of alchohol he has served to each one? Two words, Personal Responsibility. Do you believe in evolution? Then think of this as natural selection. This kid was stupid (or uneducated, sue the school or his parents) and won't reproduce now. This doesn't make the kids' death less tragic. But don't blame the barkeep for it.
My goal as a parent of a 9 year old and a 7 year old is not to teach them what to think, but to teach them how to think. Yes, I am teaching them my opinions and values. I am also teaching them why those are my opinions and values. That is part of my job as a parent. Yes, it is the parent's responsibility to be there when their children surf the 'Net. It is also the parent's responsibility to see to it that their children are not shocked out of their socks when they are first exposed to many things in real life. Do I show my kids pornography? No, but they've already had "sex education" talks (and will have more) from my wife and I, and when they get older they will be told about porn. And drugs, and alchohol. Because this is MY responsibility, not some school teachers' (who may or may not even be able to teach math, english or other "concrete" subjects!).
...it is easy enough for the common "end user". That and the apps have to have been rubbed in their face. Unfortunatly "easy enough" is the cause of M$ stuff being bloatware.
And as easy as it is to slam Gates/Microsoft I respect 2 things about it.
#1) Gates had a vision of a computer in every home. Without M$ "in-your-face" marketing this would not have happend. The benefits of this proliferation are enormus (and I don't have either the time or space here to count them all). I'm going to sum it up in one word. Internet. Without ready access to computers that are "user friendly" (sorry for the buzz word!!!) we don't get all this communications stuff that makes up the "Information Age".
#2) Gates has put the monopoly power of M$ to good use at least once. He has forced hardware standardization on some parts of the computer industry. And frankly, if I didn't want to go with standardized hardware I'd have gotten an Amiga in '91 instead of a clone.
(Disclaimer: I am NOT a Microsheep) Do I hope that the DOJ trial breaks or regulates M$? You bet I do!!! IMHO the best possible result is for M$'s OS division to be split into a different company than the HW and Apps divisions.
My point in all the above is that Linux might become a mainstream server in the readily forseeable future, but unless it takes on some of the attributes of Windoze it will probably never make it to mainstream desktops.
Dissenting opinions welcome!
David
At least mine is. Upstream is "only" 128k, tho'.
As the saying goes "Heaven is a place where the British deal with the politics and the French handle the cooking. Hell is a place where these rolls are reversed." Do I really need to say any more?