This case sounds like it should follow the general pattern of a mob trial:
1. Hitman (kid) gets caught in crime, and arrested.
2. Cops discover it was a conspiracy of a small time mob capo. (teacher)
3. Kid turns informant on teacher, in exchange for clemancy.
4. Mobster (teacher) claims it was all a harmless joke. "Hey, when I told that gavone to talk to da gentleman in particular, I meant he should TALK to him, not off him. It was a misunderstandin', capice?"
5. Authorities don't got too much on the capo, so, what the heck, might as well not lose the whole ballgame and prosecute the kid anyway.
High School has never been a more accurate slice of life.
I for one am quite pleased to see another QNX story. There are so many things about QNX that is 'done right'.
It's amusing to read comments from people who dismiss it. So many interesting projects have been done using it.
1. QNX does predate linux by some time. I bought version 1.04 in 1981. QNX users were spoiled by the direct access to the developers they had during this time that raised everyone's bar about the level of Customer service that could be provided.
2. It runs spectacularily well on rather low end hardware, XT, 286, 386
3. The networking is seemless. For instance, if your serial port was tied up on your machine, use one on someone elses! All computer resources, including CPU (per task) was set up this way.
It makes writing distributed apps easy.
QNX is an excellent architecture. It does real- time extremely well. I encourage all you embedded app developers to take a look at it.
Leo Binkowski
lbinkowski@NOSPAM.drscape.com
drscape.com is currently down, but for a more mundane reason. The power supply finally failed on the 386-40 that was running the machine, and we have been unfortunately unable to replace it with success, as we can't BUY this PS anymore. So it looks like I'm going to have to move it to a mix of old/new hardware.
(sorry to correct you Alan, but you are correct, essentially. It will STILL run on an XT, if you can find one that functions, just a 386-40 was faster at the time)
I had put this on the list of things to do, but as interest was nonexistant in Scepter, it became one of those tasks you never get to.
We had stopped accepting money to play a long time ago, and were keeping it running as a courtesy to our player base, but of course we dream of better things, and to meet again some of the community surrounding this most unique MUD.
Would anyone else like to see the Phoenix rise again?
Since when does attacking a half-built McDonalds qualify you for heroism status? Did they free the sesame seed buns from oppression?
This guy is not interested in liberty, he's interested in the price of his sheep, and he's probably pissed because McDonalds doesn't sell Mutton McTesticles, or some other such product that can be purchased from him.
I don't think he can be viewed as an american hero at all, unless you count being pissed off and lashing out at something that generates a mere media circus as a lofty american value, somewhere up there with mom and apple pie.
This is about as important a protest as that of the entartistes (dudes who throw pies in faces of famous people). It interests the 'supporters', satiates the media, and merely amuses the rest of us. But an american hero?
Well, I have two machines: "F-14 Tomcat" and "Genesis", and lemme tell you, it's like keeping old cars around: Good conversation pieces, and lotsa fun, but also lotsa repairs. Parts are hard to come by now that Williams has stopped producing them. So, you make do, with chewing gum and baling wire, and hope you don't break any of the plastic targets.
Now that I've had 'em for a while (10 years), my wife wants to use the room that they occupy for a jacuzzi. Well, perhaps I can put them up on blocks in the garage, and cover them with tarps...
Are the hardware vendors keeping quiet because this essentially means more hardware sold redundantly?
Think about it. If you want Windows 2000, you have to buy a machine from a hardware vendor and have them put it on. If you've cobbled together a decent machine out of spare parts, you get to stick with Linux, old NT licenses, or Solaris.
Hardware vendors:
"Gee it's just too bad that your 500MHz - four processor Xeon system that you paid $15,0000 for last year is unable to run Windows 2000 due to Microsoft's filthy license agreement. Can we interest you in a four processor P3 for another $15,000 this year?"
Hopefully, CNET will have hours of fun tracking down all banner ads that do CGI, just to prove that some of them are keeping track of hit counters, not actual users.
Well, it can be very expensive, to say the least. I spent two solid weeks in technical AND administrative time dealing with a spamming problem at one of the sites I support.
Some roadblocks to deal with:
- Client still expects full internet and email access during the attack.
- Client needs server for other work during the day. Can only fix at night.
- You server is listed on every Black Hole list. You must find 'em all and plead with every list to remove you.
If I were to do a breakdown of time by percentages:
10% of the time was spent analysing the situation. Since their connection was effectively down during the spamming period, (At the time, they had one 33.6k modem for an entire office. Try sending 100,000 emails through THAT!) I had to spend the late nights in the physical presence of the server, disconnected from the real world
15% of the time to test, configure, play with, test, attack, configure test sendmail without m4.
10% Researching and emailing for forgiveness from black hole lists.
10% Working with ISP to prevent the boatload of traffic.
Now the big one. Over 50% of my time spent on this problem was just dealing with the headaches that arose as the spamming was going on. Complaints of no internet access, mail being rejected by big providers, general fear of insecurity after being 'hacked' (attempts to explain differences between SPAM and HACK and VIRUS just waste air), and dealing with the resulting email flood apres-spam from angry recipients.
No, not $18,000, but close to $5000 for me. I have no problem believing $18k when it's done at a much greater order of magnitude.
Ask any programmer: The bug fix is the easiest part of dealing with a production system, but the paperwork to initiate the change in a production system chews up 90% of the time.
Let me tell you the story of a man named Bill, Beat up by the government; he's had about his fill One day he's up here marketing his tool, and he get's a call from a government fool...
Phone, that is. Email down; I love you.
So the next thing you know old Bill's got to bear Folks keep saying, "Bill, move away from there" Can-a-da is the place you oughta be. So he loaded up the truck and he moved to BC
Ironically, I used to worry about what my future would be about, as a programmer. I have been hacking code professionally for 18 years now. I started writing video games, and now I do web applications. Along the way, I picked up skills that were directly and indirectly related to my work. I have worked as an employee, and now have my own small consulting company. I am no longer worried about the future. There is far more need for experienced developers than ever before. Currently, I lead a team of developers that are ALL under 25. I feed off of their energy, but I make sure that they are all taken care of, as well. They NEED me, especially when it looks like the code will NEVER work. They need the experience to say: "It's OK. We are intelligent people. We can figure out a solution, or at least tell the customer why we shouldn't do it, if it is not feasible". Here are some tidbits to remember: "How much you get paid is directly proportional to how boring the project is." I found out that doing the same old, same old boring database work pays the best. The most boring of them all (in my humble experience) is Oracle Financials. However, I can pull $1K per diems for Oracle Financial work. However, the cool Java Web development applications pay significantly less (currently). This may change, but the rule has been stable for 15 years. I started out as a high school student earning $5.50 an hour in 1982, but I was writing VIDEO GAMES. The sexiest of applications, and a good thing to do when young, because they still don't pay well for good games developers. "Products come and go, but the technology changes slow enough to adapt" Linux is great, but it is essentially UNIX. This is NOT AN INSULT to Linux. It is what makes it endearing to me. I have used QNX, Solaris, HP-UX, SCO Unix, Xenix, even Mark Williams Unix (remember that?), and even more, but this would be a long list. However, they all share the same basic philosophy, and thus, it is easy to move around between them. However, products come and go, even microsoft's. However, C, C++, SQL, and Java will for a long time to come be core technology, because not just one product vendor supports it (ok, Java might need to be taken of that list someday, due to Sun's desire to control it) In short, if you're gonna worry about the future, worry about yourself, not the rest of the industry.
Slashdot Mirror
This case sounds like it should follow the general pattern of a mob trial:
1. Hitman (kid) gets caught in crime, and arrested.
2. Cops discover it was a conspiracy of a small time mob capo. (teacher)
3. Kid turns informant on teacher, in exchange for clemancy.
4. Mobster (teacher) claims it was all a harmless joke. "Hey, when I told that gavone to talk to da gentleman in particular, I meant he should TALK to him, not off him. It was a misunderstandin', capice?"
5. Authorities don't got too much on the capo, so, what the heck, might as well not lose the whole ballgame and prosecute the kid anyway.
High School has never been a more accurate slice of life.
I for one am quite pleased to see another QNX story. There are so many things about QNX that is 'done right'. It's amusing to read comments from people who dismiss it. So many interesting projects have been done using it. 1. QNX does predate linux by some time. I bought version 1.04 in 1981. QNX users were spoiled by the direct access to the developers they had during this time that raised everyone's bar about the level of Customer service that could be provided. 2. It runs spectacularily well on rather low end hardware, XT, 286, 386 3. The networking is seemless. For instance, if your serial port was tied up on your machine, use one on someone elses! All computer resources, including CPU (per task) was set up this way. It makes writing distributed apps easy. QNX is an excellent architecture. It does real- time extremely well. I encourage all you embedded app developers to take a look at it. Leo Binkowski lbinkowski@NOSPAM.drscape.com
drscape.com is currently down, but for a more mundane reason. The power supply finally failed on the 386-40 that was running the machine, and we have been unfortunately unable to replace it with success, as we can't BUY this PS anymore. So it looks like I'm going to have to move it to a mix of old/new hardware.
(sorry to correct you Alan, but you are correct, essentially. It will STILL run on an XT, if you can find one that functions, just a 386-40 was faster at the time)
I had put this on the list of things to do, but as interest was nonexistant in Scepter, it became one of those tasks you never get to.
We had stopped accepting money to play a long time ago, and were keeping it running as a courtesy to our player base, but of course we dream of better things, and to meet again some of the community surrounding this most unique MUD.
Would anyone else like to see the Phoenix rise again?
Leo Binkowski
lbinkowski@drscapeNOSPAM.com
Since when does attacking a half-built McDonalds qualify you for heroism status? Did they free the sesame seed buns from oppression?
This guy is not interested in liberty, he's interested in the price of his sheep, and he's probably pissed because McDonalds doesn't sell Mutton McTesticles, or some other such product that can be purchased from him.
I don't think he can be viewed as an american hero at all, unless you count being pissed off and lashing out at something that generates a mere media circus as a lofty american value, somewhere up there with mom and apple pie.
This is about as important a protest as that of the entartistes (dudes who throw pies in faces of famous people). It interests the 'supporters', satiates the media, and merely amuses the rest of us. But an american hero?
Vive le fromage!
yep, Phil Katz (eep!, Sorry!).
Oops.
I think I've had my Phil of Phamous Phils.
It's too bad that they didn't poll slashdot. I can think of a few algorithms that have a great impact on humanity, and probably more in use today:
.GIF files use for compression.
1. How about the LZW algorithm that
2. PK ZIP - arguably the most common file compression format in use today. Rest in peace, Phil Zimmerman.
3. BSP trees used in DOOM, and I believe also in Quake.
4. B-Trees and their derivatives, used in searching and sorting in relational databases.
Maybe slashdot should conduct their own poll on this one, since results from us common developers might be startlingly different.
Well, I have two machines: "F-14 Tomcat" and "Genesis", and lemme tell you, it's like keeping old cars around: Good conversation pieces, and lotsa fun, but also lotsa repairs. Parts are hard to come by now that Williams has stopped producing them. So, you make do, with chewing gum and baling wire, and hope you don't break any of the plastic targets.
Now that I've had 'em for a while (10 years), my wife wants to use the room that they occupy for a jacuzzi. Well, perhaps I can put them up on blocks in the garage, and cover them with tarps...
Are the hardware vendors keeping quiet because this essentially means more hardware sold redundantly?
Think about it. If you want Windows 2000, you have to buy a machine from a hardware vendor and have them put it on. If you've cobbled together a decent machine out of spare parts, you get to stick with Linux, old NT licenses, or Solaris.
Hardware vendors:
"Gee it's just too bad that your 500MHz - four processor Xeon system that you paid $15,0000 for last year is unable to run Windows 2000 due to Microsoft's filthy license agreement. Can we interest you in a four processor P3 for another $15,000 this year?"
This is great!
There is a really good reason to celebrate here.
Hopefully, CNET will have hours of fun tracking down all banner ads that do CGI, just to prove that some of them are keeping track of hit counters, not actual users.
May they waste their time in perpetuity.
Ok, now I'm REALLY intrigued, and must play it. Just for camp value, like watching "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." or "Plan 9 from outer space"
I really must find out if it out-sucks "Battlecruiser 3000", "Mode", or "Outpost"
Corel is rumoured to have spent $1M on "Mode", and PC Gamer was kind enough to vote it "Worst game of all time"
However, even the simple games like 'rock-paper-scissors' can be big hits if done right. Anyone try http://www.sissyfight.com ?
Well, it can be very expensive, to say the least. I spent two solid weeks in technical AND administrative time dealing with a spamming problem at one of the sites I support.
Some roadblocks to deal with:
- Client still expects full internet and email access during the attack.
- Client needs server for other work during the day. Can only fix at night.
- You server is listed on every Black Hole list. You must find 'em all and plead with every list to remove you.
If I were to do a breakdown of time by percentages:
10% of the time was spent analysing the situation. Since their connection was effectively down during the spamming period, (At the time, they had one 33.6k modem for an entire office. Try sending 100,000 emails through THAT!) I had to spend the late nights in the physical presence of the server, disconnected from the real world
15% of the time to test, configure, play with, test, attack, configure test sendmail without m4.
10% Researching and emailing for forgiveness from black hole lists.
10% Working with ISP to prevent the boatload of traffic.
Now the big one. Over 50% of my time spent on this problem was just dealing with the headaches that arose as the spamming was going on. Complaints of no internet access, mail being rejected by big providers, general fear of insecurity after being 'hacked' (attempts to explain differences between SPAM and HACK and VIRUS just waste air), and dealing with the resulting email flood apres-spam from angry recipients.
No, not $18,000, but close to $5000 for me. I have no problem believing $18k when it's done at a much greater order of magnitude.
Ask any programmer: The bug fix is the easiest part of dealing with a production system, but the paperwork to initiate the change in a production system chews up 90% of the time.
Let me tell you the story of a man named Bill,
Beat up by the government; he's had about his fill
One day he's up here marketing his tool,
and he get's a call from a government fool...
Phone, that is. Email down; I love you.
So the next thing you know old Bill's got to bear
Folks keep saying, "Bill, move away from there"
Can-a-da is the place you oughta be.
So he loaded up the truck and he moved to BC
Canada, that is, Hockey stars, high taxes.
"The BC BillHillies!"
(cheesy banjo music)
Ironically, I used to worry about what my future would be about, as a programmer. I have been hacking code professionally for 18 years now. I started writing video games, and now I do web applications. Along the way, I picked up skills that were directly and indirectly related to my work. I have worked as an employee, and now have my own small consulting company. I am no longer worried about the future. There is far more need for experienced developers than ever before. Currently, I lead a team of developers that are ALL under 25. I feed off of their energy, but I make sure that they are all taken care of, as well. They NEED me, especially when it looks like the code will NEVER work. They need the experience to say: "It's OK. We are intelligent people. We can figure out a solution, or at least tell the customer why we shouldn't do it, if it is not feasible". Here are some tidbits to remember: "How much you get paid is directly proportional to how boring the project is." I found out that doing the same old, same old boring database work pays the best. The most boring of them all (in my humble experience) is Oracle Financials. However, I can pull $1K per diems for Oracle Financial work. However, the cool Java Web development applications pay significantly less (currently). This may change, but the rule has been stable for 15 years. I started out as a high school student earning $5.50 an hour in 1982, but I was writing VIDEO GAMES. The sexiest of applications, and a good thing to do when young, because they still don't pay well for good games developers. "Products come and go, but the technology changes slow enough to adapt" Linux is great, but it is essentially UNIX. This is NOT AN INSULT to Linux. It is what makes it endearing to me. I have used QNX, Solaris, HP-UX, SCO Unix, Xenix, even Mark Williams Unix (remember that?), and even more, but this would be a long list. However, they all share the same basic philosophy, and thus, it is easy to move around between them. However, products come and go, even microsoft's. However, C, C++, SQL, and Java will for a long time to come be core technology, because not just one product vendor supports it (ok, Java might need to be taken of that list someday, due to Sun's desire to control it) In short, if you're gonna worry about the future, worry about yourself, not the rest of the industry.