That's why it's called a parable. For the purposes of the parable, engineering ideas realized through software is like air. In this respect, we may be more accurate to call the story a "fable", but that would be picking nits.
Showing the flaw in an argument by analogy is a time-honoured method of expression. It's funny. Laugh.
Mom - "Okay..." (Switches to PC, where you can put as many files as you want in a folder without it slowing down).
I couldn't let this pass w/o comment.
Obviously different ways of working with get different results. I use nest folders, and generally don't put a lot of discrete files in a single directory. At least not in folder I need to access via the Finder.
It's just the way I work. The way you work has indicated there may be a problem. Fair enough.
There is no way that the Windows Explorer is somehow superior in all ways, except perhaps in this particular case. I've fought with the Windows Explorer for years as a user, and as a developer. Here's my opinion:
Windows Explorer, whether from an unpatched Win95, or a from the latest IE update on XP, sucks donkeys. It does everything it can to appear fast, but underneath it is busy lying to the operating system about what it is doing. Everything about the Win32 API regarding the Explorer is a hack on top of a hack.
The fact is anyone who has to live with Windows has found ways to work around the many Explorer bugs.
Your point is well taken, but Windows Explorer should not be held up as an example of a good user interface or a good API.
The real point is that whether or not an animal is "fit to survive in this world" is determined by one thing and one thing only, and that is, well, survival. If an animal goes extinct, for whatever reason, it is unfit. If it comes back, in any manner, it is by definition fit again. It's really that simple.
This is of a simple take on the story. The fact is that all kinds of pressures on these natives animals happened all in a very short time. It is possible, but rare, that normal natural history would offer the same pressures.
Besides hunting and environmental change, the biggest pressure on all marsupials is uterine animals moving into their habitat. This is one of the reasons that most marsupials are on islands, protected from well-adapted mammals. It's not that mammals are all that better adapted, but are better adapted to the earth as it is in this particular era. Marsupials were once the dominant groups of species in most continents, including (what is now) North and South America.
Some of these original marsupials have managed to adapt well (i.e., Possums), but most of those species died out for several reasons a long time ago. In modern times we can observe that introducing mammals almost always push marsupials to the brink of extinction.
Of course, it is the mammal with one of the highest encephaletic rates (no, not whales) that introduced all these other mammals. The issue isn't so much "survival of the fittest", but rather "are humans deciding who is fit without even knowing it".
At least I'd know how to fix the problems. As I've stated earlier, all workstations tend toward the brittle. How easy it is to patch back together is an important quality, and one that Windows NT/2000/XP do not have. At least in my experience.
Windows boxes have their good qualities; maintainability is not one of them.
I wouldn't advocate anything, at least not without knowing more details. Each company has different needs which would need to be taken into consideration.
Sometimes a typewriter would be the most productive tool some people will use at the office.
The fact is, if you know how to make Linux run for you, you could take it to the office, given a little work.
Everyone else just ends up using the box the IT guys give to them. Most use it badly.
If it was my company, however, you'd be free to use whatever box you wanted. I'd mandate no dependecies on proprietory application file formats, however, and you can guess what the backend would be.
Saying something is good if it is "setup properly" is disingenuous, at best. Of course, when something is maintained properly, it will be better!
The point I was making is that NetWare (even NW 3.x) is, and was, a complete network operating system from the ground up, which supports a very complete ACL model. It can be configured to host a a huge variety of clients, while appearing transparent to most of those clients.
NetWare is a good choice for a mixed use network with deep security needs who are on a budget (like a school or university). You let the Windows boxes be workstations, and leave the back-end and user authentication/authorization to NetWare.
I certainly won't deny that NetWare has it's warts. Version 4.0 is a big improvement over previous releases, and they've finally given into TCP/IP. I'd still trust my class marks more if they were kept on a NetWare volume than a homogeneous Windows NT or Active Directory network.
Others have replied to your one-liner with sufficient detail, so I'll just add my $1.49.
You indicated that I have two choices: I'm lying, or I haven't used Win2K/XP.
May I suggest a third alternative: neither. I am talking from several years of development experience here. Prior to my coding job, I did years of technical support. As I took pains to state in the original posting, you experience may differ, but in my experience, the downtime of our Windows workstations must be taken into consideration when measuring "productivity" on any scale.
I have been constantly thwarted by various Windows problems (OS and app-level) when getting my work done. This is echoed by our IT guys.
I was merely pointing out that, for this hacker, running Windows at work is no guarantee of productivity.
Sorry, but if I added up all my time spent fixing broken Windows, and compared it with the cheerful hacking I do on Linux or BSD, Windows would come out far more expensive.
Of course, YMMV, but in our 300-plus node network of Windows boxes, you can always guarantee one thing: they break when you need them most.
Personal computer systems are brittle as hell, and, as far as I'm concerned, running Windows is no guarantee that your day won't be wasted. Perhaps NT decided to blue screen because there wasn't a PS/2 mouse plugged in (true story).
My personal obsvervations indicate to me that it is a fallacy that Windows is easier to maintain. Tell that to our IT guys.
At least they have the sense to run a proper networking OS for the LAN. Don't "dis" Netware -- Windows is only getting near the kind of stability and usability Novell has offered for years.
Including your notebooks? Please direct me to somewhere where you can buy all the notebook parts to "build your own".
Well, I didn't say I was advising you to build your own, or to not buy from a well-known PC vendor; only that I've never had the need to buy from a PC vendor. If you have particular needs that can best be met by Dell, IBM, et al, by all means knock yourself out.
I've never had the need, so I never got an OEM copy of Windows. Sheesh. That's all I meant, and checking on my previous posts, that's all I said.
Well, Linux is not exactly cutting-edge technology. It was designed with well-known and well-established OS principles in mind. In "OS years" it's significantly older than 10 years. More like 20-25 years, in parts of the paging and VM code.
Of course, the distribution model and licensing can be considered cutting-edge.
Honestly, does anyone here actually pay for Windows, especially at home to play games and whatnot? I've always assumed that the reason Microsoft products are so expensive is that they so rarely get paid for.
And yes, I have paid for my various distros, my copy of BeOS and my shareware (that I use for more than a few months).
Another example of traditional media getting it worng is a report by CBC Radio that terrorists used stenography to hide messages in MP3s.
This interesting piece of obviously wrong information is too perfect: not only are technologies like crypto and stenography dangerous unless controlled by governments, those pesky MP3's are just part of the problem. Even more reason to simply outlaw unencumbered audio formats.
Now we've associated all of these technologies with terrorism.
This is not to say that net sources do not originate bogus information. The danger (as already pointed out) is that we tend to accept traditional sources at face value.
How many albums you know use the full 78 (wasn't it 74?) minutes?
There were a few stereo records made that cut it pretty close to the reasonable limit for LPs. One that comes to mind is The Beatles Abbey Road. "Her Majesty" was often missed by listeners spinning the disc on some automatic-return turntables.
+70 minutes is still a reasonable limit for most popular recordings.
... and then a short drop from the side of your bed will cause it to lock up tight...
Just because something is "solid-state", doesn't mean it can survive a drop any better than tube or mechanical designs. The entire inside back of a Palm is covered with a layer of conductive foil (shielding? ground plate?). Just the right kind of sharp hit can, and will, cause it to short out the device.
Back in the valve days, there was military-grade equipment made to survive considerable shock and other environmental stresses. Of course, having to design for +100 VDC may have had a factor in making equipment safer when it got wet...
Dropping your consumer-grade PDA from the top a ladder without breaking it means you were consumer-grade lucky.
Just for fun, I sometimes browse or nmap the IP addresses the end up in my log from infected machines. With a nimba URL it's fun to browse their boxes for porn and "sensitive" information!
One of the IPs I went to was a "consultancy" that proudly displayed their Microsoft and Cisco certification and a list of retarded services they offer. All done up in FrontPage, of course.
Now, these folks knew how to drum up business -- they had carefully indicated their (Toronto area) phone number in several places, but they didn't have an email address anywhere on the page.
Considering that the rawest beginners usually figure out how to use email (even badly), you'd think a telephone number would be an alternative means of communication for someone offering "PC advice".
On top of that, how am I supposed to email them my sarcastic opinions?
Wow. I am constantly reminded how clueless the folks are who make legal decisions in so-called "developed nations".
Of course this dude found the hole by accident! Tech support folks are always poking and prodding to see how things break. It's called "problem solving" and the DOJ should look into it.
I mean, I have personally reported security holes to webmasters on three separate occasions. In one case, browsing to the right URL got you a dirlist which showed a bunch of.txt files. Again: of course I looked in these files. They were in a public location. That's the point.
How is it my fault that the files contained credit card information (including expiry dates) with associated personal information (in some cases, Social Insurance Numbers (it was a Canadian site, eh)?
If it was a wallet, I'd look for a name and address and return it, wouldn't I? Why am I suspect if I pick up the wallet in the first place?
Even if the so-called hacker is suspect, it is often recommended to legal types to do their homework and investigate before flying off the handle. Where there is one hacker, there's three. Why not try and catch a few more, especially if they are stupid enough to contact you about their "exploits" using a valid email return email address.
I bet he had his telephone number in his.sig, as well. Must be some hacker. Totally above the law.
I'll stop now. This much sarcasm is not good for me, and I'm starting to feel all superiour to the government, again.
Slashdot Mirror
That's why it's called a parable. For the purposes of the parable, engineering ideas realized through software is like air. In this respect, we may be more accurate to call the story a "fable", but that would be picking nits.
Showing the flaw in an argument by analogy is a time-honoured method of expression. It's funny. Laugh.
Oh. My. God.
Mozilla looks absolutely beautiful with the haxie enabled. It looks as sweet as Chimera.
I am the happiest Geek in the office.
I couldn't let this pass w/o comment.
Obviously different ways of working with get different results. I use nest folders, and generally don't put a lot of discrete files in a single directory. At least not in folder I need to access via the Finder.
It's just the way I work. The way you work has indicated there may be a problem. Fair enough.
There is no way that the Windows Explorer is somehow superior in all ways, except perhaps in this particular case. I've fought with the Windows Explorer for years as a user, and as a developer. Here's my opinion:
Windows Explorer, whether from an unpatched Win95, or a from the latest IE update on XP, sucks donkeys. It does everything it can to appear fast, but underneath it is busy lying to the operating system about what it is doing. Everything about the Win32 API regarding the Explorer is a hack on top of a hack.
The fact is anyone who has to live with Windows has found ways to work around the many Explorer bugs.
Your point is well taken, but Windows Explorer should not be held up as an example of a good user interface or a good API.
Has Symbian actually released anything that is in production use on a daily basis?
This is of a simple take on the story. The fact is that all kinds of pressures on these natives animals happened all in a very short time. It is possible, but rare, that normal natural history would offer the same pressures.
Besides hunting and environmental change, the biggest pressure on all marsupials is uterine animals moving into their habitat. This is one of the reasons that most marsupials are on islands, protected from well-adapted mammals. It's not that mammals are all that better adapted, but are better adapted to the earth as it is in this particular era. Marsupials were once the dominant groups of species in most continents, including (what is now) North and South America.
Some of these original marsupials have managed to adapt well (i.e., Possums), but most of those species died out for several reasons a long time ago. In modern times we can observe that introducing mammals almost always push marsupials to the brink of extinction.
Of course, it is the mammal with one of the highest encephaletic rates (no, not whales) that introduced all these other mammals. The issue isn't so much "survival of the fittest", but rather "are humans deciding who is fit without even knowing it".
Perhaps.
At least I'd know how to fix the problems. As I've stated earlier, all workstations tend toward the brittle. How easy it is to patch back together is an important quality, and one that Windows NT/2000/XP do not have. At least in my experience.
Windows boxes have their good qualities; maintainability is not one of them.
I wouldn't advocate anything, at least not without knowing more details. Each company has different needs which would need to be taken into consideration.
Sometimes a typewriter would be the most productive tool some people will use at the office.
The fact is, if you know how to make Linux run for you, you could take it to the office, given a little work.
Everyone else just ends up using the box the IT guys give to them. Most use it badly.
If it was my company, however, you'd be free to use whatever box you wanted. I'd mandate no dependecies on proprietory application file formats, however, and you can guess what the backend would be.
I can agree with you in principle, only.
Saying something is good if it is "setup properly" is disingenuous, at best. Of course, when something is maintained properly, it will be better!
The point I was making is that NetWare (even NW 3.x) is, and was, a complete network operating system from the ground up, which supports a very complete ACL model. It can be configured to host a a huge variety of clients, while appearing transparent to most of those clients.
NetWare is a good choice for a mixed use network with deep security needs who are on a budget (like a school or university). You let the Windows boxes be workstations, and leave the back-end and user authentication/authorization to NetWare.
I certainly won't deny that NetWare has it's warts. Version 4.0 is a big improvement over previous releases, and they've finally given into TCP/IP. I'd still trust my class marks more if they were kept on a NetWare volume than a homogeneous Windows NT or Active Directory network.
Others have replied to your one-liner with sufficient detail, so I'll just add my $1.49.
You indicated that I have two choices: I'm lying, or I haven't used Win2K/XP.
May I suggest a third alternative: neither. I am talking from several years of development experience here. Prior to my coding job, I did years of technical support. As I took pains to state in the original posting, you experience may differ, but in my experience, the downtime of our Windows workstations must be taken into consideration when measuring "productivity" on any scale.
I have been constantly thwarted by various Windows problems (OS and app-level) when getting my work done. This is echoed by our IT guys.
I was merely pointing out that, for this hacker, running Windows at work is no guarantee of productivity.
Check your attitude at the main page, AC.
Depends what you mean by "productive", doesn't it?
I certainly wouldn't advocate yer average business user switch to Linux. Then again, I wouldn't advocate they use Windows 2000, either.
Sorry, but if I added up all my time spent fixing broken Windows, and compared it with the cheerful hacking I do on Linux or BSD, Windows would come out far more expensive.
Of course, YMMV, but in our 300-plus node network of Windows boxes, you can always guarantee one thing: they break when you need them most.
Personal computer systems are brittle as hell, and, as far as I'm concerned, running Windows is no guarantee that your day won't be wasted. Perhaps NT decided to blue screen because there wasn't a PS/2 mouse plugged in (true story).
My personal obsvervations indicate to me that it is a fallacy that Windows is easier to maintain. Tell that to our IT guys.
At least they have the sense to run a proper networking OS for the LAN. Don't "dis" Netware -- Windows is only getting near the kind of stability and usability Novell has offered for years.
Well, I didn't say I was advising you to build your own, or to not buy from a well-known PC vendor; only that I've never had the need to buy from a PC vendor. If you have particular needs that can best be met by Dell, IBM, et al, by all means knock yourself out.
I've never had the need, so I never got an OEM copy of Windows. Sheesh. That's all I meant, and checking on my previous posts, that's all I said.
-- cmYou buy a computer from dell,hp,ibm,x,y,z and you pay the Mircrosoft tax.
Never done this. Hand-built clones all the way.
Well, Linux is not exactly cutting-edge technology. It was designed with well-known and well-established OS principles in mind. In "OS years" it's significantly older than 10 years. More like 20-25 years, in parts of the paging and VM code.
Of course, the distribution model and licensing can be considered cutting-edge.
Honestly, does anyone here actually pay for Windows, especially at home to play games and whatnot? I've always assumed that the reason Microsoft products are so expensive is that they so rarely get paid for.
And yes, I have paid for my various distros, my copy of BeOS and my shareware (that I use for more than a few months).
Another example of traditional media getting it worng is a report by CBC Radio that terrorists used stenography to hide messages in MP3s.
This interesting piece of obviously wrong information is too perfect: not only are technologies like crypto and stenography dangerous unless controlled by governments, those pesky MP3's are just part of the problem. Even more reason to simply outlaw unencumbered audio formats.
Now we've associated all of these technologies with terrorism.
This is not to say that net sources do not originate bogus information. The danger (as already pointed out) is that we tend to accept traditional sources at face value.
While SuSE does have some good things going for it, whether or not it "deserves" to survive is a matter of natural selection in the marketplace.
They should bailed out forever for having such a cool sticker pack in the latest release.
I like stickers.
-- cmHow many albums you know use the full 78 (wasn't it 74?) minutes?
There were a few stereo records made that cut it pretty close to the reasonable limit for LPs. One that comes to mind is The Beatles Abbey Road. "Her Majesty" was often missed by listeners spinning the disc on some automatic-return turntables.
+70 minutes is still a reasonable limit for most popular recordings.
... and then a short drop from the side of your bed will cause it to lock up tight...
Just because something is "solid-state", doesn't mean it can survive a drop any better than tube or mechanical designs. The entire inside back of a Palm is covered with a layer of conductive foil (shielding? ground plate?). Just the right kind of sharp hit can, and will, cause it to short out the device.
Back in the valve days, there was military-grade equipment made to survive considerable shock and other environmental stresses. Of course, having to design for +100 VDC may have had a factor in making equipment safer when it got wet...
Dropping your consumer-grade PDA from the top a ladder without breaking it means you were consumer-grade lucky.
jdv
It was the handiest CD/uname I had. So sue me.
BTW, I _could_ claim that installing one rev back from current is safer. Considering the whole point of OpenBSD, this would not be so unexpected.
Sheesh. OBSD 2.8 is not *old*. It's *prudent*.
No, thank you for playing, you've been a real sport.
Just a sec... Ok, done:
# uname -a
OpenBSD martini 2.8 MARTINI#14 i386
Just for fun, I sometimes browse or nmap the IP addresses the end up in my log from infected machines. With a nimba URL it's fun to browse their boxes for porn and "sensitive" information!
One of the IPs I went to was a "consultancy" that proudly displayed their Microsoft and Cisco certification and a list of retarded services they offer. All done up in FrontPage, of course.
Now, these folks knew how to drum up business -- they had carefully indicated their (Toronto area) phone number in several places, but they didn't have an email address anywhere on the page.
Considering that the rawest beginners usually figure out how to use email (even badly), you'd think a telephone number would be an alternative means of communication for someone offering "PC advice".
On top of that, how am I supposed to email them my sarcastic opinions?
Wow. I am constantly reminded how clueless the folks are who make legal decisions in so-called "developed nations".
.txt files. Again: of course I looked in these files. They were in a public location. That's the point.
.sig, as well. Must be some hacker. Totally above the law.
Of course this dude found the hole by accident! Tech support folks are always poking and prodding to see how things break. It's called "problem solving" and the DOJ should look into it.
I mean, I have personally reported security holes to webmasters on three separate occasions. In one case, browsing to the right URL got you a dirlist which showed a bunch of
How is it my fault that the files contained credit card information (including expiry dates) with associated personal information (in some cases, Social Insurance Numbers (it was a Canadian site, eh)?
If it was a wallet, I'd look for a name and address and return it, wouldn't I? Why am I suspect if I pick up the wallet in the first place?
Even if the so-called hacker is suspect, it is often recommended to legal types to do their homework and investigate before flying off the handle. Where there is one hacker, there's three. Why not try and catch a few more, especially if they are stupid enough to contact you about their "exploits" using a valid email return email address.
I bet he had his telephone number in his
I'll stop now. This much sarcasm is not good for me, and I'm starting to feel all superiour to the government, again.
What is the "killer app" for the stack machines you are designing?