As people wire up more and more. Especially the basic electronics of communication: there is really no excuse anymore for putting these into dangling breakable boxes when they can be easily moulded into belts. Think of "smart armour" more than "smart clothes". Backpacks that are thin and protective and also wired. Helmets that provide enhanced vision and sound as well as safety. Shoes that incorporate tracking devices. Shoulder packs that hold all the latest MP3s. It's inevitable.
The main strengths of FTP over HTTP for file transfers are:
Easy command line scripting of FTP sessions via 'ftp' client available on most systems. In contrast, scripting an HTTP session requires some simple but non-trivial programming in Perl, Ruby, etc.
Fastest file transfers, since binary data is not encoded in any way.
Simplicity of the presented information, which users see as a file system.
The main strengths of HTTP over FTP for file transfers are:
More-or-less guaranteed access through all corporate firewalls.
Virtual hosts, something that FTP does not support in any standard fashion.
Easily extended into more secure realms using various kinds of authentication, SSL, certificates, etc.
Support for MIME types.
(Obvious) Ability to encapsulate your files in an interesting context, e.g. web site, wiki, etc.
The other differences one sees are due to server design issues. I.e. most FTP servers are large and spawn a process per connection, which makes FTP sessions much slower than HTTP sessions. But if you want to use FTP, there are very fast FTP servers out there.
Overall, in today's world, it does not make sense to use FTP unless you have a requirement from your users. For public access to files, use HTTP or something more modern, such as rsynch, or a P2P network.
As usual, you should answer such questions by thinking about your target users and asking yourself what they are likely to be most comfortable using. Chances are it's their main tool, the web browser.
With Linux and Java, the actual CPU used inside a box is close to irrelevant. This was the same fact that made the DEC Alpha irrelevant: every program that ran on Alpha ran fine on Intel, with the exception of OpenVMS and Digital Unix software, which were also the only markets where Alphas sold.
Today, the OS has also become a commodity item, and niche OSes such as OpenVMS and Digital Unix are dead or nearing death. A hot expensive CPU cannot capture a market when it has to compete on a level playing field with cheap CPUs that run the same software can can be easily clustered or SMP'd to get the same performance.
The only way to break into a saturated market is to cut prices... does Itanium do this? I don't think so.
They may sell a few for the gadget hunters. But the notion of a CPU competing with IBM is so funny it's almost hilarious.
The best suggestion I saw on/. was to pay examiners for each application they could reject.
Another one: patents should be backed up by significant and provable documentation of the actual invention process.
Finally, there should be a bounty (payable by the patenter) for anyone able to break a patent by proving prior art.
The alternative is going to be a general constipation of innovation in those countries that allow software patents.
What is the relevance of FreeBSD today?
on
FreeBSD 4.7-RELEASE
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Just a question, I'm not knocking FreeBSD.
But I'm seeing Linux coming up so fast... Is there a likelyhood of putting the best of FreeBSD into Linux and getting a single best-of-breed Free Unix distribution?
I've said this before and other posters have said the same. Of course MS is after Sony's market, but they are very patient. IMHO they believe that normal PCs, running normal Windows, is the best gaming platform.
But PC software is always pirated. What they have to build is a DRM PC. And this is what they are making. The X-Box is a practice run. Their goal is a DRM PC. Cheap hardware, but impossible to run pirate software.
The payoffs from a DRM PC are much higher than any game console. And I believe this is what MS is aiming at. Modding the X-Box just pushes this process along faster than it would go otherwise.
This research is very interesting because it applies to much more than the Internet. Many natural systems have the same type of topology, i.e. self-similar scale-free organisation. There is a whole science of self-organising critical systems (try googling for ZIPF'S LAW).
What interests me is how such models apply to human networks. The article mentions sexual relationships, and implies that effort in combating AIDS should be targetted at key individuals, not randomly throughout the population. This draws a parallel with the Internet, which is (the article says) resistant to random failure but vulnerable to targetted attacks.
Consider the implications for other kinds of human networks if this theory is true. E.g. to fight crime, it does not pay to incarcerate minor felons. One has to take out the most important 'hubs', being the bosses.
This may seem obvious, but I find it ironic that we are using knowledge taken from modeling one of our creations (the Internet) to understand ourselves.
"In Your Face Compatibility" is the way to go. IYFC. Can't you find a better acronym? Full-frontal plug an' play? (FFPP) Make It Easy Migration (MIME^h^hEM).
So, will the next generation of hardware even be able to run Linux and display content off the Internet?
The answer is 'possibly not'. You have to assume that MS's agenda involves making this 'definitely not'.
The question will be answered when Microsoft starts producing PCs (as compared to the X-Box, which is a simpler issue). Take - for instance - the upcoming Microsoft tablet PC. My guess is that it will not only come with Windows preinstalled (that is not a surprise) but also that it will be impossible to change the OS. The hardware will be keyed to the OS, and MS will have learned their lessons from the X-Box.
If this does not already worry you, then consider the following scenario: MS then licenses this hardware platform, which will incorporate patented elements of DRM and TCP, to their current Windows licensees. The bargain will be: build PCs using our technology, or loose your margins on Windows. Once Dell produces a PC that cannot run Linux and where attempts to open the box can be countered by DCMA-style lawsuits, you wll see Microsoft's strategy.
If the US government was serious about preventing MS from becoming a monopoly, they should ban them from producing PC hardware.
The EPO invoked the DCMA to prevent employee J. Savage from exposing the inner workings of the EPO's patent approval process, saying "we consider the EPO's approval process to be a trade secret protected through our jargonising encryption machine (pat.pend), and any public discussion of this process would violate upcoming EuroDCMA legislation." Independent sources from said that Sony was working on a new jargon-compliant DRM package - OpenPatentOffice/MG - that would control and monitor all use of patented inventions automatically.
While the USPO will happily grant patents for software algorithms, the EPO does not do this, and clearly states so in its material, and when questioned. (I've asked the EPO myself.) No, the EPO does not allow such blatant exploitation by twisted business. No... you have to be much more sneaky, describing your algorithm as a 'machine' that just happens to be implemented as software. As so often in Europe, we have the same dirt as everywhere else, but it's cloaked in bureaucratic verbage. It would have been fun to rip into an EPO spokesman, but it would have to be someone with the authority so actually answer questions such as "How many US firms have already registered software patents while the EPO is refusing these from little European software firms?" You can tell I've not much hope for the EPO. They may be scientists, but that does not stop them being fools.
I agree: when was the last time dentistry actually *hurt*? I just hate the idea of someone cutting into me, and lasers / knives / drills / chainsaws all provoke the same reaction: AAAGH. It's far simpler to cut out the sugar from your diet and keep your teeth healthy like that. I stopped eating sugar about 20 years ago and have had one trip to the dentist since then. Do we really need more expensive hitech solution to stupidly simple problems?
Uh... this is what accounting is mostly about, AFAIK. Reduce the profits, pay less tax. It's most amusing to see the opposite happening. "Uh, we've successfully raised our tax bill by $1Bn..." This could only happen in a world where a company's worth is trivialised into something as meaningless as 'profit' in order to pump up shares way beyond their real value.
In my house, which was overrun by mice when they demolished a run-down building beside us. Dozens of mice, everywhere. The device produces little high frequency clicks that drives mice totally crazy. They just love it! All the mice descended on my kitchen, where I put the thing, and ate my cat's food. The cat just watched. Finally I had to poison them with old editions of MSDN, which they chew and swallow but cannot digest. They explode in little blue puffs. Cockroaches and mosquitos are less common here in Belgium, where I'm writing from, but tomorrow I'm going to download Punyaratanabunbhu's (that's Puny for short) Anti-Mal and try it on the cat. This has to be one of the weirdest uses for old PCs that I can imagine, following my neighbour, who gave an old laptop (no HD, no battery) to his kids as a toy. It really hurt to see them drop it and squeal with joy.
As a poster noted, it is quite ironic that/. effectively acts as a DoS against web sites. Yes, I'm trying to download the update to OpenSSL, an excellent product that we use in our applications. No, I can't reach their site, because millions of/.ers are trying to read the site. Isn't it time that/. did a Google? It cannot be so difficult to mirror a site and refer to that instead of the prime site? I like reading and posting here, but the/. effect is not just really annoying and traumatic to those sysadmins exposed to it, it's unpolite, and it's unnecessary. CmdrTaco, please consider doing something smarter to mirror targetted sites.
What is the real story here? 10oz of rock fragments for $2000-8000 per oz = $20-80k, not really a million dollar heist. This amounts to a theft of around 1/1400th of the total brought back from the moon. Big deal. It's the price of one new car. It's maybe worth commenting how law enforcement is starting to use the Internet to cross reference thefts with sales. But seriously: doing manual searches of e-Bay is not what I'd consider automation. Summer time... and the news is slow.
Bah, only 3 on the Spamassassin scale!
on
Spam Doesn't Work?
·
· Score: 2
Assuming that RealNetworks did spend the extra money on making a legal reverse engineering of the MS protocols, this is an excellent way of distributing that information in such a way as to do some damage to Microsoft. However... it's probably a waste of time. MSFT will simply change their protocols. Any OSS player based on RealNetwork's code will remain a niche player. Sorry for the pun. History shows that you cannot fight MSFT head on. You have to invent a new game. Streaming video and audio in the classic manner is dead. Long live P2P TV! RealNetworks would have done better to invest their money in an open source P2P TV product.
Slashdot Mirror
As people wire up more and more. Especially the basic electronics of communication: there is really no excuse anymore for putting these into dangling breakable boxes when they can be easily moulded into belts. Think of "smart armour" more than "smart clothes". Backpacks that are thin and protective and also wired. Helmets that provide enhanced vision and sound as well as safety. Shoes that incorporate tracking devices. Shoulder packs that hold all the latest MP3s. It's inevitable.
Sarge: "Dang, that remote works well."
HTTP/1.1 servers that support resume (which means most modern servers) use data chunking, which means encoding binary data.
The main strengths of HTTP over FTP for file transfers are:
The other differences one sees are due to server design issues. I.e. most FTP servers are large and spawn a process per connection, which makes FTP sessions much slower than HTTP sessions. But if you want to use FTP, there are very fast FTP servers out there.
Overall, in today's world, it does not make sense to use FTP unless you have a requirement from your users. For public access to files, use HTTP or something more modern, such as rsynch, or a P2P network.
As usual, you should answer such questions by thinking about your target users and asking yourself what they are likely to be most comfortable using. Chances are it's their main tool, the web browser.
With Linux and Java, the actual CPU used inside a box is close to irrelevant. This was the same fact that made the DEC Alpha irrelevant: every program that ran on Alpha ran fine on Intel, with the exception of OpenVMS and Digital Unix software, which were also the only markets where Alphas sold.
Today, the OS has also become a commodity item, and niche OSes such as OpenVMS and Digital Unix are dead or nearing death. A hot expensive CPU cannot capture a market when it has to compete on a level playing field with cheap CPUs that run the same software can can be easily clustered or SMP'd to get the same performance.
The only way to break into a saturated market is to cut prices... does Itanium do this? I don't think so.
They may sell a few for the gadget hunters. But the notion of a CPU competing with IBM is so funny it's almost hilarious.
[out of scope but worth correcting a libel]
Lindows does not violate the GPL. When you have bought the product you are able to download all the source code freely from an FTP site.
Their bites hurt less than those of supermodels.
And I married one. I should know.
This is a nice suggestion. Look at the case of the blue laser inventor, Nakamura, who made an incredibly useful breakthrough but the benefit of which went to his company, with nothing for him.
The best suggestion I saw on /. was to pay examiners for each application they could reject.
Another one: patents should be backed up by significant and provable documentation of the actual invention process.
Finally, there should be a bounty (payable by the patenter) for anyone able to break a patent by proving prior art.
The alternative is going to be a general constipation of innovation in those countries that allow software patents.
Just a question, I'm not knocking FreeBSD.
But I'm seeing Linux coming up so fast... Is there a likelyhood of putting the best of FreeBSD into Linux and getting a single best-of-breed Free Unix distribution?
But PC software is always pirated. What they have to build is a DRM PC. And this is what they are making. The X-Box is a practice run.
Their goal is a DRM PC. Cheap hardware, but impossible to run pirate software.
The payoffs from a DRM PC are much higher than any game console. And I believe this is what MS is aiming at. Modding the X-Box just pushes this process along faster than it would go otherwise.
What interests me is how such models apply to human networks. The article mentions sexual relationships, and implies that effort in combating AIDS should be targetted at key individuals, not randomly throughout the population. This draws a parallel with the Internet, which is (the article says) resistant to random failure but vulnerable to targetted attacks.
Consider the implications for other kinds of human networks if this theory is true. E.g. to fight crime, it does not pay to incarcerate minor felons. One has to take out the most important 'hubs', being the bosses.
This may seem obvious, but I find it ironic that we are using knowledge taken from modeling one of our creations (the Internet) to understand ourselves.
"In Your Face Compatibility" is the way to go. IYFC. Can't you find a better acronym? Full-frontal plug an' play? (FFPP) Make It Easy Migration (MIME^h^hEM).
The answer is 'possibly not'. You have to assume that MS's agenda involves making this 'definitely not'.
The question will be answered when Microsoft starts producing PCs (as compared to the X-Box, which is a simpler issue). Take - for instance - the upcoming Microsoft tablet PC. My guess is that it will not only come with Windows preinstalled (that is not a surprise) but also that it will be impossible to change the OS. The hardware will be keyed to the OS, and MS will have learned their lessons from the X-Box.
If this does not already worry you, then consider the following scenario: MS then licenses this hardware platform, which will incorporate patented elements of DRM and TCP, to their current Windows licensees. The bargain will be: build PCs using our technology, or loose your margins on Windows. Once Dell produces a PC that cannot run Linux and where attempts to open the box can be countered by DCMA-style lawsuits, you wll see Microsoft's strategy.
If the US government was serious about preventing MS from becoming a monopoly, they should ban them from producing PC hardware.
:) Moderators should be filtered for their sense of humour. Who moderated this down?
The EPO invoked the DCMA to prevent employee J. Savage from exposing the inner workings of the EPO's patent approval process, saying "we consider the EPO's approval process to be a trade secret protected through our jargonising encryption machine (pat.pend), and any public discussion of this process would violate upcoming EuroDCMA legislation."
Independent sources from said that Sony was working on a new jargon-compliant DRM package - OpenPatentOffice/MG - that would control and monitor all use of patented inventions automatically.
While the USPO will happily grant patents for software algorithms, the EPO does not do this, and clearly states so in its material, and when questioned. (I've asked the EPO myself.) No, the EPO does not allow such blatant exploitation by twisted business. No... you have to be much more sneaky, describing your algorithm as a 'machine' that just happens to be implemented as software.
As so often in Europe, we have the same dirt as everywhere else, but it's cloaked in bureaucratic verbage.
It would have been fun to rip into an EPO spokesman, but it would have to be someone with the authority so actually answer questions such as "How many US firms have already registered software patents while the EPO is refusing these from little European software firms?"
You can tell I've not much hope for the EPO. They may be scientists, but that does not stop them being fools.
Or 'open' in the sense of being so open-minded that your brains fall out.
I agree: when was the last time dentistry actually *hurt*? I just hate the idea of someone cutting into me, and lasers / knives / drills / chainsaws all provoke the same reaction: AAAGH.
It's far simpler to cut out the sugar from your diet and keep your teeth healthy like that. I stopped eating sugar about 20 years ago and have had one trip to the dentist since then.
Do we really need more expensive hitech solution to stupidly simple problems?
Uh... this is what accounting is mostly about, AFAIK. Reduce the profits, pay less tax. It's most amusing to see the opposite happening. "Uh, we've successfully raised our tax bill by $1Bn..." This could only happen in a world where a company's worth is trivialised into something as meaningless as 'profit' in order to pump up shares way beyond their real value.
In my house, which was overrun by mice when they demolished a run-down building beside us. Dozens of mice, everywhere. The device produces little high frequency clicks that drives mice totally crazy. They just love it! All the mice descended on my kitchen, where I put the thing, and ate my cat's food. The cat just watched. Finally I had to poison them with old editions of MSDN, which they chew and swallow but cannot digest. They explode in little blue puffs.
Cockroaches and mosquitos are less common here in Belgium, where I'm writing from, but tomorrow I'm going to download Punyaratanabunbhu's (that's Puny for short) Anti-Mal and try it on the cat.
This has to be one of the weirdest uses for old PCs that I can imagine, following my neighbour, who gave an old laptop (no HD, no battery) to his kids as a toy. It really hurt to see them drop it and squeal with joy.
As a poster noted, it is quite ironic that /. effectively acts as a DoS against web sites. Yes, I'm trying to download the update to OpenSSL, an excellent product that we use in our applications. No, I can't reach their site, because millions of /.ers are trying to read the site. /. did a Google? It cannot be so difficult to mirror a site and refer to that instead of the prime site? /. effect is not just really annoying and traumatic to those sysadmins exposed to it, it's unpolite, and it's unnecessary. CmdrTaco, please consider doing something smarter to mirror targetted sites.
Isn't it time that
I like reading and posting here, but the
What is the real story here? 10oz of rock fragments for $2000-8000 per oz = $20-80k, not really a million dollar heist. This amounts to a theft of around 1/1400th of the total brought back from the moon. Big deal. It's the price of one new car.
It's maybe worth commenting how law enforcement is starting to use the Internet to cross reference thefts with sales. But seriously: doing manual searches of e-Bay is not what I'd consider automation.
Summer time... and the news is slow.
Content analysis details: (3 hits, 1.5 required)
Hit! (3.0 points) BODY: Contains "Toner Cartridge"
Hit! (2.4 points) BODY: Plugs Viagra
Hit! (-2.4 points) AWL: Auto-whitelist adjustment
Assuming that RealNetworks did spend the extra money on making a legal reverse engineering of the MS protocols, this is an excellent way of distributing that information in such a way as to do some damage to Microsoft.
However... it's probably a waste of time. MSFT will simply change their protocols. Any OSS player based on RealNetwork's code will remain a niche player. Sorry for the pun.
History shows that you cannot fight MSFT head on. You have to invent a new game. Streaming video and audio in the classic manner is dead. Long live P2P TV!
RealNetworks would have done better to invest their money in an open source P2P TV product.