Do either MySQL or PostgreSQL include the ability to use stored procedures? I've found them to be a life saver on SQL Server and wouldn't mind trying open source/gpl'd databases if they had that feature.
A few years ago I worked at a company that did all their invoices with Filemaker and I had the task of updating the whole thing, both the look and adding/removing data fields. I never had worked with databases but found Filemaker a breeze to work with. Since then, I've learned Access and worked with SQL Server, but sometimes I miss Filemaker. I've considered getting my mother a copy for some database work she needs to do since she'd probably do better with Filemaker than with Access. Filemaker defintely has its place.
I would have to rate OLGA as one of those sites I'd love to see never go away. Luckily it is mirrored a lot and the mirrors put up whatever they want. Still if OLGA was out of its legal troubles I bet there'd be 10x as much tab submitted. I'm actually suprised in all my time on Slashdot this is the first time OLGA came up, I think it is as bad if not worse than the Napster/DeCSS/etc... cases.
This does bring up the related note of sites that just go down permanently which had good info on them. Does anyone remeber the Antics and Mayhem site with info on Fresnel lenses, Frozen CO2 and links to all sorts of crazy stuff? It moved a few times but now its gone. Guess I will just have to stick with Backyard Ballistics
Hey, I wrote Scorched Earth for mine, then the kid with the TI-85 wrote a better version b/c his calculator had more memory (I filled up all of my TI's 2K and used every variable name in the thing).
Actually it was the first rpm I downloaded and set up for my Linux box. That way I didn't have to run X to get some text editing done. For me, having a basic editor where all the (few) possible commands were right there to see was my biggest priority.
>If SUN gets software using the GNOME interface >to be consistently well designed, that would be >a major step towards increasing the >accessability of that software by everybody. A >lesson that could be learned by that company on >the other side of Lake Washington.
I thought that Windows was actually the platform with the best accessiblity? It had the most avalable software etc.. And the one person I know who used it because she was blind could use any software she wanted, including AOL.
I almost fell out of my chair when I saw this one in the article:
"You could swipe a code, and it would serve up a page on Amazon.com. But what if [the publisher] doesn't want it to go to Amazon.com, they want it to go to web site under their control... "
Umm...tough shit what the publisher wanted. What right does the publisher have to force me to a certain web page? None whatsoever. Yet another example of a clueless corporation trying to control every little detail and getting pissed when normal citizens won't play along.
You mean Star Control?:) Actually, the original game was Space War on the PDP-11 (I think, I know it was old and had a vector screen). Star Control was just my favorite implementation.
Well, last week I threw together a Java based CueCat decoder/web page finder. Its at http://www.timpatton.com/jcat. It just needs java 1.2 or better. I guess I will sit around and wait for my subpoena.:)
I find it ironic that the opinion that technology can't solve our problems comes right after a story about Dean Kamen, who thinks technology can solve our problems.
My personal feeling is that it can solve a lot of our problems permanently (hunger, disease, etc) however it won't spontaneously happen, it does require people and their priorities to change too. If a large enough portion of this planet decided tommorow that clean burning engines, safe drinking water and better agriculture were the areas they wanted to focus research on instead of the latest electronics gadget, then eventually we would solve those problems. In a certain way, technology is the answer, but only if society puts effort/money into moving technology ina certain direction.
Ok, I guess I don't understand which feature of IE they are refering to because I can't seem to figure out what the problem is.
The persistance feature is what lets me go to google, start typing in a search term and have all my old search terms with that letter pop up in a drop down box right? So how does this let a site uniquely identify me? Is this information accessible to Javascript running on that page? Does the entire list of everything I searched for get sent to the server or is it just kept on my hard drive?
I always find it disturbing that people seem to belive that because companies exist to make profit they are under no obligation to act with any morality or fairness whatsoever. It seems by this reasoning its ok to treat your wokers like slaves or make unsafe products because, hey, they are motivated by the almighty dollar and thats it.
I am not saying that every corporation should become a charity. But I feel corporations have (almost) as much responsibility as citizens to benefit their community. Otherwise you get situations like we have now, where they will grab as much power and money as they can, with no concern for how it affects consumers, or how good a value they really provide in their product.
I guess thats what bugs me, I would like companies to be motivated by providing the better value (the best, or the cheapest or however they judge it), and not by forming cartels and spreading FUD.
>Not so hard to prove, or at least claim, in my
>mind: every copy of Windows 3.1 someone runs is
>a copy of Windows WhatYearIsItNow that they're
>not running (or, depending on the application,
>OpenDOS or microLinux or VxWorks or...). Every
>minute I spend playing a ripped-off King's Quest
>I is a minute that I'm not playing King's Quest
>XVIII or whatever they're up to now.
By that reasoning, any time you spend doing anything else hurts the company's interests. You might be using MacOS or Linux instead of Windows. You might be playing old games you bought instead of buying new ones. Shame on you. Maybe we should all be required to buy a certain percentage of copywritten works each year so as not to harm a company's interests. See by making your arguement, you take away the consumers choice. If I choose not to support a company's new titles, that is my choice. It doesn't make a damn bit of difference what else I decide to do with my life, whether it is use software I bought from some other company or play abandoned games from this company. Arguements about what you would have done are completely irrelevant and take away an individual's freedom to chose.
You know, one thing I find interesting is that there are companies that feel they are entitled to their domain name in every variaion and misspelling and under every TLD. And the courts seem to agree with them. If that is the case what right do the registrars have to charge them for the domains? After all their service agreements (or whatever they are called) _don't_ say that all they do is provide you with root server services etc, but are actually selling you this domain name which if anyone else owned it a court would rule belonged to you anyway. And some of the registrars (is it NSI?) say they are only leasing or renting you the domain, they own it. Is it just me or is this a complete contradiction in how domain ownership is handled? Its like big company X owns its domain and all these variations and can get it taken back from any other company for free, but they need to buy the domain form the registrars. I am not against paying for registration, though I think you should be paying for the use of the root servers and not paying for your own trademarks.
Hey, I've got a great way that the government can "decrease crime, prevent terrorism, and save lives", lets allow the FBI to open up everyone's mail and read it to make sure theres nothing bad in there. And lets also let them install cameras in everyone's homes. That would go a long way towards decreacing crime and preventing terrorism, don't you think?
Tim
I put up a website for this
on
Pirate DNS?
·
· Score: 3
A few weeks ago, after submitting the ask slashdot, I put up a web site at www.piratedns.org if anyone is interested in contributing.
>That's a nice FANTASY. Whilst I am one of the biggest supportors of FREEDOM in this day and age, you have to face it - maintaining DNS _costs money_. Someone ultimately has to pay. The current system has its faults, but whilst we till live an a backward, money centred world, someone has to foot the bill and the current system allows this.
Yes it costs money when you have a centralized database and centralized root servers. It is not completely decentralized. Just like napster. However Gnutella is decentralized and no 1 server needs to be that powerful. That was my original idea.
>When I first read this guy's submission I almost hit the monitor, he clearly has NO IDEA how DNS actually works. DNS _is_ distributed. Ultimately YES, we do rely on a few root servers to occasionally be up to perform zone transfers, but in reality, the system is pretty damn distributed in nature. This guy is getting the non-distributed nature of the WEB and the distributed nature of the internet confused and has obviously noticed how easily twits like Cliff will post drivel given half a chance.
No, DNS is not completly decentralized, the root servers still get hit a lot and cost a lot of money as you mentioned. And yes, I have _some_ idea how the current system works. I'm proposing that a new system is built, even if it is radically different than the old one.
I was not talking about making something like Alternic, but something new with no central root servers. Obviously what I came up with in a few paragraphs is flawed, but I posted it to get constructive feedback, not flames. Anyway, I have set up a site for this at www.piratedns.org. Please only e-mail me if you have something constructuve to say, not this flaming "it will never work, your just dumb" crap.
Here's one from Walker Digital.com, they own priceline.com and a lot of patents. This is the beginning of their "Conditions of Use":
NOTICE. PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. BY ACCESSING THIS SITE AND ANY PAGES ON THIS SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BELOW, DO NOT ACCESS THIS SITE, OR ANY PAGES ON THIS SITE.
They go on to disallow "decompiling" or "disassembling" the site (hmm...guess I can't "View Source"), retrieving any info from their site by "automated means", or framing the site. Also they have a section that removes any liability from anything they might post on the site. Gee, I guess they could have a bunch of illegal MP3's for download if they wanted to, since the RIAA would agree to the conditions of use by looking at the site. Here's one of my favorite parts: "Walker Digital Corporation may, at any time revoke your access to the Web Site..." Like they could really keep someone out.
I'd post all of it but they'd probably sue me under the terms of the EULA. Here's a link to the page so you can read it (and be disgusted like I was): http://www.walkerdigital.com/IntellectualPropert ies/intellectual_properties.cfm?screen_id= 2
Be careful, though: after springboarding into the Discworld universe with any of these books, you're likely to end up doing silly things like buying up every UK edition of Pratchett's books from London bookstores while on vacation.:)
Yeah, between Pratchett and Iain M. Banks, my suitcase was bulging with new books when I went to London two years ago.
You know I thought "Johnny and the Bomb" had more depth than almost any "childrens" book I remember reading as an adolescent. It should be required reading for the 12-14 age group.
Slashdot Mirror
>That's worth $500 000 bail? Remind me never to
:) It makes NYC look clean.
>litter in Philadelphia; they might shoot me on
>the spot.
You've never seen a Philly street have you?
New Scientist also has an article about this with more info and pretty pictures.
Do either MySQL or PostgreSQL include the ability to use stored procedures? I've found them to be a life saver on SQL Server and wouldn't mind trying open source/gpl'd databases if they had that feature.
A few years ago I worked at a company that did all their invoices with Filemaker and I had the task of updating the whole thing, both the look and adding/removing data fields. I never had worked with databases but found Filemaker a breeze to work with. Since then, I've learned Access and worked with SQL Server, but sometimes I miss Filemaker. I've considered getting my mother a copy for some database work she needs to do since she'd probably do better with Filemaker than with Access. Filemaker defintely has its place.
I would have to rate OLGA as one of those sites I'd love to see never go away. Luckily it is mirrored a lot and the mirrors put up whatever they want. Still if OLGA was out of its legal troubles I bet there'd be 10x as much tab submitted. I'm actually suprised in all my time on Slashdot this is the first time OLGA came up, I think it is as bad if not worse than the Napster/DeCSS/etc... cases.
This does bring up the related note of sites that just go down permanently which had good info on them. Does anyone remeber the Antics and Mayhem site with info on Fresnel lenses, Frozen CO2 and links to all sorts of crazy stuff? It moved a few times but now its gone. Guess I will just have to stick with Backyard Ballistics
Hey, I wrote Scorched Earth for mine, then the kid with the TI-85 wrote a better version b/c his calculator had more memory (I filled up all of my TI's 2K and used every variable name in the thing).
Actually it was the first rpm I downloaded and set up for my Linux box. That way I didn't have to run X to get some text editing done. For me, having a basic editor where all the (few) possible commands were right there to see was my biggest priority.
>If SUN gets software using the GNOME interface
>to be consistently well designed, that would be
>a major step towards increasing the
>accessability of that software by everybody. A
>lesson that could be learned by that company on
>the other side of Lake Washington.
I thought that Windows was actually the platform with the best accessiblity? It had the most avalable software etc.. And the one person I know who used it because she was blind could use any software she wanted, including AOL.
I almost fell out of my chair when I saw this one in the article:
"You could swipe a code, and it would serve up a page on Amazon.com. But what if [the publisher] doesn't want it to go to Amazon.com, they want it to go to web site under their control... "
Umm...tough shit what the publisher wanted. What right does the publisher have to force me to a certain web page? None whatsoever. Yet another example of a clueless corporation trying to control every little detail and getting pissed when normal citizens won't play along.
You mean Star Control? :) Actually, the original game was Space War on the PDP-11 (I think, I know it was old and had a vector screen). Star Control was just my favorite implementation.
Well, last week I threw together a Java based CueCat decoder/web page finder. Its at http://www.timpatton.com/jcat. It just needs java 1.2 or better. I guess I will sit around and wait for my subpoena. :)
I find it ironic that the opinion that technology can't solve our problems comes right after a story about Dean Kamen, who thinks technology can solve our problems.
My personal feeling is that it can solve a lot of our problems permanently (hunger, disease, etc) however it won't spontaneously happen, it does require people and their priorities to change too. If a large enough portion of this planet decided tommorow that clean burning engines, safe drinking water and better agriculture were the areas they wanted to focus research on instead of the latest electronics gadget, then eventually we would solve those problems. In a certain way, technology is the answer, but only if society puts effort/money into moving technology ina certain direction.
Ok, I guess I don't understand which feature of IE they are refering to because I can't seem to figure out what the problem is.
The persistance feature is what lets me go to google, start typing in a search term and have all my old search terms with that letter pop up in a drop down box right? So how does this let a site uniquely identify me? Is this information accessible to Javascript running on that page? Does the entire list of everything I searched for get sent to the server or is it just kept on my hard drive?
I always find it disturbing that people seem to belive that because companies exist to make profit they are under no obligation to act with any morality or fairness whatsoever. It seems by this reasoning its ok to treat your wokers like slaves or make unsafe products because, hey, they are motivated by the almighty dollar and thats it.
I am not saying that every corporation should become a charity. But I feel corporations have (almost) as much responsibility as citizens to benefit their community. Otherwise you get situations like we have now, where they will grab as much power and money as they can, with no concern for how it affects consumers, or how good a value they really provide in their product. I guess thats what bugs me, I would like companies to be motivated by providing the better value (the best, or the cheapest or however they judge it), and not by forming cartels and spreading FUD.
>Not so hard to prove, or at least claim, in my ...). Every
>mind: every copy of Windows 3.1 someone runs is
>a copy of Windows WhatYearIsItNow that they're
>not running (or, depending on the application,
>OpenDOS or microLinux or VxWorks or
>minute I spend playing a ripped-off King's Quest
>I is a minute that I'm not playing King's Quest
>XVIII or whatever they're up to now.
By that reasoning, any time you spend doing anything else hurts the company's interests. You might be using MacOS or Linux instead of Windows. You might be playing old games you bought instead of buying new ones. Shame on you. Maybe we should all be required to buy a certain percentage of copywritten works each year so as not to harm a company's interests. See by making your arguement, you take away the consumers choice. If I choose not to support a company's new titles, that is my choice. It doesn't make a damn bit of difference what else I decide to do with my life, whether it is use software I bought from some other company or play abandoned games from this company. Arguements about what you would have done are completely irrelevant and take away an individual's freedom to chose.
Home of cool bands like The Promise Ring, doesn't have any RIAA connections that I know of.
You know, one thing I find interesting is that there are companies that feel they are entitled to their domain name in every variaion and misspelling and under every TLD. And the courts seem to agree with them. If that is the case what right do the registrars have to charge them for the domains? After all their service agreements (or whatever they are called) _don't_ say that all they do is provide you with root server services etc, but are actually selling you this domain name which if anyone else owned it a court would rule belonged to you anyway. And some of the registrars (is it NSI?) say they are only leasing or renting you the domain, they own it. Is it just me or is this a complete contradiction in how domain ownership is handled? Its like big company X owns its domain and all these variations and can get it taken back from any other company for free, but they need to buy the domain form the registrars. I am not against paying for registration, though I think you should be paying for the use of the root servers and not paying for your own trademarks.
Tim
I found this line in the article interesting:
"...walls, windows or even car interiors coated with the 'perfect mirror' could very efficiently reflect heat while appearing transparent."
Sorta sounds like the "General Products Hull" from Larry Niven's Known Space books.
Hey, I've got a great way that the government can "decrease crime, prevent terrorism, and save lives", lets allow the FBI to open up everyone's mail and read it to make sure theres nothing bad in there. And lets also let them install cameras in everyone's homes. That would go a long way towards decreacing crime and preventing terrorism, don't you think?
Tim
A few weeks ago, after submitting the ask slashdot, I put up a web site at www.piratedns.org if anyone is interested in contributing.
>That's a nice FANTASY. Whilst I am one of the biggest supportors of FREEDOM in this day and age, you have to face it - maintaining DNS _costs money_. Someone ultimately has to pay. The current system has its faults, but whilst we till live an a backward, money centred world, someone has to foot the bill and the current system allows this.
Yes it costs money when you have a centralized database and centralized root servers. It is not completely decentralized. Just like napster. However Gnutella is decentralized and no 1 server needs to be that powerful. That was my original idea.
>When I first read this guy's submission I almost hit the monitor, he clearly has NO IDEA how DNS actually works. DNS _is_ distributed. Ultimately YES, we do rely on a few root servers to occasionally be up to perform zone transfers, but in reality, the system is pretty damn distributed in nature. This guy is getting the non-distributed nature of the WEB and the distributed nature of the internet confused and has obviously noticed how easily twits like Cliff will post drivel given half a chance.
No, DNS is not completly decentralized, the root servers still get hit a lot and cost a lot of money as you mentioned. And yes, I have _some_ idea how the current system works. I'm proposing that a new system is built, even if it is radically different than the old one.
I was not talking about making something like Alternic, but something new with no central root servers. Obviously what I came up with in a few paragraphs is flawed, but I posted it to get constructive feedback, not flames. Anyway, I have set up a site for this at www.piratedns.org. Please only e-mail me if you have something constructuve to say, not this flaming "it will never work, your just dumb" crap.
Tim
Here's one from Walker Digital.com, they own priceline.com and a lot of patents. This is the beginning of their "Conditions of Use":
t ies/intellectual_properties.cfm?screen_id= 2
NOTICE.
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. BY ACCESSING THIS SITE AND ANY PAGES ON THIS SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BELOW, DO NOT ACCESS THIS SITE, OR ANY PAGES ON THIS SITE.
They go on to disallow "decompiling" or "disassembling" the site (hmm...guess I can't "View Source"), retrieving any info from their site by "automated means", or framing the site. Also they have a section that removes any liability from anything they might post on the site. Gee, I guess they could have a bunch of illegal MP3's for download if they wanted to, since the RIAA would agree to the conditions of use by looking at the site.
Here's one of my favorite parts: "Walker Digital Corporation may, at any time revoke your access to the Web Site..." Like they could really keep someone out.
I'd post all of it but they'd probably sue me under the terms of the EULA. Here's a link to the page so you can read it (and be disgusted like I was):
http://www.walkerdigital.com/IntellectualProper
Be careful, though: after springboarding into the Discworld universe with any of these books, you're likely to end up doing silly things like buying up every UK edition of Pratchett's books from London bookstores while on vacation. :)
Yeah, between Pratchett and Iain M. Banks, my suitcase was bulging with new books when I went to London two years ago.
Wouldn't a good health care system have been able to get you to a dentist who could fix the tooth (with a filling, etc) rather than have to pull it? :)
You know I thought "Johnny and the Bomb" had more depth than almost any "childrens" book I remember reading as an adolescent. It should be required reading for the 12-14 age group.