I remember seeing a show many years ago about XPARC and how they developed a system that would track an employee anywhere in their office by using transmitters on their ID badges. Problem was nobody would were the badges after they got through the front door because they didn't want to be tracked. Duh.
Some people (myself included) actually rename the files after they download them and remove things like %20 from the filename, which would make it unique. Of course I don't bother sharing so it doesn't matter much;)
The RIAA starts using these checksums to flag what is pirated and quickly shuts down everything.
You create some massive database (CDDB) created by the public, for the public, and then after a few years have some greedy bastards (GraceNote) close it up and charge money for access to it?
There's a lot of young stupid kids using this software and they're about as computer savvy as my dead grandmother. They may realize that the song is screwed up, but they don't even know they're sharing it and probably don't even know how to delete it.
DirectPC has two way. I don't use it, but I was really considering it when Adelphia was 8 months late on delivering broadband to my area. The local Radio Shack saleskid was running Napster (this was a couple years ago) and had 8 songs simultanously downloading, each at around 20KB.
Of course the hardware was around $300 and then the monthly service charge was $70 for two-way ($35 for one way).
Unfortunately this is the reason why a large amount of open source software isn't deployed for enterprise applications.
When you just have some programmers writing code and fixing bugs on the weekend, you can't rely on that software for things that need to be up and running all the time unless they are thoroughly tested in the environment you plan on running it in. And that of course gets back into TCO. And should something happen, and the server goes down, you have the source code, but does that mean you can quickly read hundreds of thousands of lines of code to find the problem?
Ok, you said "fund development". I would like to know what pieces of open source software you use, either personally or professionally, that you or your company have "funded". The entire argument that Carroll has is that open source programmers aren't paid. So aside from the major linux distros and StarOffice, what else is paid for?
I'm sure Adelphia Cable is next. They just got delisted from Nasdaq last week and are apparently involved in a little Enron mimmicking. Something like 2 billion worth of debt was kept off the books. I don't have the links handy but just lookup Adelphia Trouble in Google and I'm sure you'll find a hundred articles.
Backups? It's not like you can just stop an online game and restore a backup because a single character feels the got ripped off by another player. The online games are fairly integrated and you can't typically just restore one user.
And in MS's case, I thought they already had something like 500,000 game servers setup. Aren't they running a beta of "crash the server by sending too much data at once v0.5"?
I appear to be spending a lot of development time today wading through a call stack that is 40 levels deep. It wasn't that much of a stretch for some reason.
They named the program NEThics. To me, that would be pronounced Net-Hicks. So if they do provide a dating service for geeks, would it only be within your own family?
Call me an old fart (25), but back in the day when data transfer was 2400bps, things like this were called Message Boards. Now I know that it's not hip to allow two english words to come together to form the name of a technical entity, but we still use the term "newsgroups" now don't we.
So maybe we can shorten Messages Boards or acronymize it so it's cool:
Message Boards
Message Boards
Message Boards
There ya go. From now on things like this will be called Mebo's. That can be next years stupid term. Dibs on the trademarks though;]
I work for an ISP in a rural area. People call up all the time because they signed up for AOL and then they got their first phone bill and... you know the rest. But quite a few actually insist on keeping their AOL service even though we provide the same thing but without the flashy software with the "you got mail" WAV file. So they're will to pay us $18/month and whatever AOL is charging for an outside ISP account now ($10?).
I had an argument with a customer a few months ago. He was running Win 95 and had to keep rebooting his machine everytime he wanted to get on the internet and he said it was our fault for providing such crappy internet service. I told him that's normal, Windows 95 is unstable. His response was that it's been out for 7 years so they must have fixed everything that was wrong with it by now.
You may want to rephrase that statement and maybe say "because older linux kernels have been around longer"
I found a document containing username, password and secret code for a customer account at a UK bank. I was nice and notified the bank and the customer though.
Because as soon as some one has the information, EVERYONE will want to use it, including the government.
Suppose you're in a bitter custody battle for your children and the ex says you're a terrible parent and you're violent. Her lawyer would subpoena the cable company and then hire a psychiatrist to analyze your viewing habits and give expert testimony against you based on information that is totally irrelevant. And you know most judges would believe them.
Or if you want to go with Big Brother conspiracy theories, then lets assume that the new and improved FBI/CIA is going to make a new Carnivore program that will analyze your viewing habits and flag you as a murderer, rapist, child molester, terrorist, etc..
Of course these are extreme views, but are they really that far out there when compared to recent laws?
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe they've added some incredibly new features in Wine ;)
I remember seeing a show many years ago about XPARC and how they developed a system that would track an employee anywhere in their office by using transmitters on their ID badges. Problem was nobody would were the badges after they got through the front door because they didn't want to be tracked. Duh.
John Romero tried this in Doom. I don't think anybody considers him a "god" though.
Some people (myself included) actually rename the files after they download them and remove things like %20 from the filename, which would make it unique. Of course I don't bother sharing so it doesn't matter much ;)
The RIAA starts using these checksums to flag what is pirated and quickly shuts down everything.
You create some massive database (CDDB) created by the public, for the public, and then after a few years have some greedy bastards (GraceNote) close it up and charge money for access to it?
There's a lot of young stupid kids using this software and they're about as computer savvy as my dead grandmother. They may realize that the song is screwed up, but they don't even know they're sharing it and probably don't even know how to delete it.
O(* ) O
Incredible isn't it.
To get three-way with DirectPC you have to do a mod, and it doesn't work so good. Those circuit boards have some pretty sharp components on them ;)
Laziness: The library doesn't have an online ordering and delivery service.
You could also make a decent living but still be really cheap, and actually going to the library is public admittance that you are a cheapskate.
DirectPC has two way. I don't use it, but I was really considering it when Adelphia was 8 months late on delivering broadband to my area. The local Radio Shack saleskid was running Napster (this was a couple years ago) and had 8 songs simultanously downloading, each at around 20KB.
Of course the hardware was around $300 and then the monthly service charge was $70 for two-way ($35 for one way).
And how many of those thousands and thousands of programs have been fully debugged, documented and have 24/7 support options?
Unfortunately this is the reason why a large amount of open source software isn't deployed for enterprise applications.
When you just have some programmers writing code and fixing bugs on the weekend, you can't rely on that software for things that need to be up and running all the time unless they are thoroughly tested in the environment you plan on running it in. And that of course gets back into TCO. And should something happen, and the server goes down, you have the source code, but does that mean you can quickly read hundreds of thousands of lines of code to find the problem?
Ok, you said "fund development". I would like to know what pieces of open source software you use, either personally or professionally, that you or your company have "funded". The entire argument that Carroll has is that open source programmers aren't paid. So aside from the major linux distros and StarOffice, what else is paid for?
I'm sure Adelphia Cable is next. They just got delisted from Nasdaq last week and are apparently involved in a little Enron mimmicking. Something like 2 billion worth of debt was kept off the books. I don't have the links handy but just lookup Adelphia Trouble in Google and I'm sure you'll find a hundred articles.
Backups? It's not like you can just stop an online game and restore a backup because a single character feels the got ripped off by another player. The online games are fairly integrated and you can't typically just restore one user.
And in MS's case, I thought they already had something like 500,000 game servers setup. Aren't they running a beta of "crash the server by sending too much data at once v0.5"?
I appear to be spending a lot of development time today wading through a call stack that is 40 levels deep. It wasn't that much of a stretch for some reason.
Student: I can't stop downloading MP3s.
Eliza: Why do you think that is?
Student: I don't know, you tell me.
Eliza: Could you please rephrase that?
Student: I need help.
Eliza: Why do you think that is?
Student: FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! *bang* *clang* * crash*
And the student never bothers using a computer again.
They named the program NEThics. To me, that would be pronounced Net-Hicks. So if they do provide a dating service for geeks, would it only be within your own family?
Yep, just in a karma burning mood today.
So maybe we can shorten Messages Boards or acronymize it so it's cool:
Message Boards
Message Boards
Message Boards
;]
There ya go. From now on things like this will be called Mebo's. That can be next years stupid term. Dibs on the trademarks though
I work for an ISP in a rural area. People call up all the time because they signed up for AOL and then they got their first phone bill and... you know the rest. But quite a few actually insist on keeping their AOL service even though we provide the same thing but without the flashy software with the "you got mail" WAV file. So they're will to pay us $18/month and whatever AOL is charging for an outside ISP account now ($10?).
The bank said "Thank You" and said they'd look into it. The customer didn't respond.
I had an argument with a customer a few months ago. He was running Win 95 and had to keep rebooting his machine everytime he wanted to get on the internet and he said it was our fault for providing such crappy internet service. I told him that's normal, Windows 95 is unstable. His response was that it's been out for 7 years so they must have fixed everything that was wrong with it by now.
You may want to rephrase that statement and maybe say "because older linux kernels have been around longer"
I found a document containing username, password and secret code for a customer account at a UK bank. I was nice and notified the bank and the customer though.
Because as soon as some one has the information, EVERYONE will want to use it, including the government.
Suppose you're in a bitter custody battle for your children and the ex says you're a terrible parent and you're violent. Her lawyer would subpoena the cable company and then hire a psychiatrist to analyze your viewing habits and give expert testimony against you based on information that is totally irrelevant. And you know most judges would believe them.
Or if you want to go with Big Brother conspiracy theories, then lets assume that the new and improved FBI/CIA is going to make a new Carnivore program that will analyze your viewing habits and flag you as a murderer, rapist, child molester, terrorist, etc..
Of course these are extreme views, but are they really that far out there when compared to recent laws?
I can still hear my dad screaming at me from across the house when the phone rang at 4 in the morning so a BBS could auto-verify my phone number.