As a scientist and parent, the most profound takeaway that is most likely to ruffle the most feathers:
* We can only know what we have observed and kept track of
(and even that is subject to our interpretations and limitations on observation)
We have between 50 and a few hundred years of documented scientific observation, depending on the area of focus. We have belief that the world environment has never changed, and many assumptions about things we have not tested and verified (or cannot). As a scientist, I don't care whether you believe in creation or some other explanation. But let's not ruin science by misclassifying theories as law. We cannot expect the next generation to think critically if we refuse to teach them attention to detail and proper coefficients of faith in sources of information. At the end of the debate, we all place faith in something.
Computer science has suffered from something we find largely in the general scientific world: avoiding the discussion by calling the opponent "stupid" in whatever terms and language chosen.
RH -> Caldera OpenLinux -> SCO UL -> OpenSuSE -> Ubuntu -> Kubuntu. There was a brief stint with Mandrake in the middle, but *very* brief. I need to get work done. Linux/KDE is great for me to get work done. Ubuntu makes it easy, if not perfect:)
what about the bones? the ones that we believe are millions of years old even though the only data we've been able to analyze has been from the last 200 years or less? yeah, i'm skeptical. what about "other ages"? why do we believe that the things we study have always been as we've seen them recently? why do we believe that the earth's atmosphere has always been as it is, and not more like mars... or more different than mars? it is because children accept the things they learn when they are young that we teach them as we believe. this occurs in atheist and Christian, Muslim and Jewish households the world over.
i'm particularly amused about this "engineers" comment. i make quite a decent living as an engineer. i still believe in a created world, and a God at work behind it all.
bill has apparently bought into the idea that "the american scientific community is the source of all truth". sadly, he leaves little room for people who are skeptical about scientific rules and publications that seem to have more anti-God than actual science. i'm ok with hypothesizing and theorizing. however, the scientific community benefits if we call a theory a theory.
we don't need to simply accept evolution hook line and sinker to create amazing things. nor to understand how things work right now.
i simply fail to see how the wholesale swallowing of something as ill-proven and flimsy as evolution does us a whole lot of good today? it doesn't push forward science. it doesn't find the higgs-boson, nor does it enhance quantum-theory. it simply provides something to believe about the origins of the universe if you choose not to believe in a God-created world. the humor here is that evolutionists used to be the skeptics, in a largely God-believing world (however ill-informed). now, we believers are skeptical; we see the leaps of faith required to believe evolution... and the student once again becomes the master. we now get to be the skeptics.
sorry, bill. i'm not buying it. prove it, or accept that it is a theory.
and now for my awkward quote of the day: John 20:29 - Jesus said to him, "“Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”"
The man looks for a reason to slight Linux. Never does he actually look into the matter.
Sheep.
He is doing exactly as intended. Running home to mamma because he can't think for himself. Free shmee. Ubuntu doesn't pay money to give you free software... ok. actually they do pay for shipping of free CDs... Look closely and you'll notice that nearly every new PC is shipped with a Windows license, granting you rights to the included Windows codecs. The libdvdcss code is not illegal. Fair Use is still a concept worth investing in. I purchase DVD's and play them on Linux. Take away my rights, I dare you. Government of the people by the people and for the people. People should not fear governments. Governments should fear its people.
While I definitely agree with the R.E.S.P.E.C.T thread, I would like to see the answers to a couple questions raised here.
If you are going to change countries, you'd better plan to live by their rules. The US ain't perfect (or other 'free-er' countries), but you don't appreciate some of the perks until they're gone.
That said, I have dealings with a certain multinational company which has an affiliated company in China. I would like to better understand what their Chineese affiliate gets to see from their end, and what their life is like, particularly with regards to technology and freedom.
It appears China is not as it was 10 years ago, but much more open to change and modernization. What restrictions are imposed on Internet traffic? I am familiar with them modifying DNS queries.
I would rather not hear of circumvention techniques. I'm sure intelligent people can figure them out on their own, and smart ones probably don't do them. Besides, if someone *does* circumvent the restrictions, let's not encourage the closing of the loopholes by writing about them. That doesn't help anyone.
Anyone care to (or have the knowledge) to detail the restrictions China imposes on the Information Superhighway?
Re:I code C# for a living
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
Being self-taught on most the languages I use I suppose I probably don't adhere to all the standard lingo at times. If I had more 'training' I'd probably not have misinterpretted Event-Handling.
Personally, I appreciate the checked-exceptions. It has kept me from missing quite a few potential gotchas, and more importantly forced me to deal with them at least minimally at code-time. Made me think over the exception-handling decisions as I wrote code.
Good coding to you, Carpus
Re:I code C# for a living
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
Exceptions are an event, which is what I was originally getting at.
I have read code (not actually chosen this method of design myself) using Throwables and Exceptions to respond to events. When I think of "Event Handling" I think of both the Listener interfaces and Throwable/Exceptions. As I wasn't clear which type of events you were talking about, that was the first which popped into my head. Once you mentioned handling a Button click, I knew you were referring to Listeners. Not sure why that is so difficult to do, especially since once class can implement many different types of listeners, if you wish. It's about flexibility and personal choices, I suppose.
No, but how long before there is a "Kismet for RFID", not that it wouldn't be warrented. Since Kismet was released (along with NetStumbler and Wellenreiter and others) 802.11 security-awareness has increased a lot...
But as mentioned, RFID would allow potential attackers to know more than just *that* someone was carrying their passport (although there are some who leave them in their hotel-room). It would allow them to track particular people, potentially search for information on a given persion, and make VIP's much more easily targetted, either for passport-removal or far worse.
While this is not nearly as bad as the implant recently approved by the US-FDA the implications are still very scary. Since this is not voluntary, I am quite concerned. I guess I'd better go renew my passport before this comes to pass.
Does anyone know of any cheap hardware/free software to scan for RFID yet?
Re:I code C# for a living
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
Not a problem about the confusion, keeping track of discussions can be more difficult that spaghetti-code.
You're right, Throwable is a class; I was intending to speak of the approach to event-handling, not the prototype. But nice catch.
I'm willing to accept that C# is a good language. From the initial spec it looked a lot like Java, which in turn looked a lot like C (with a lot of improvements and a few limitations). I'm currently teaching myself Perl and it is reminding me how nice Java is to code in. Perl is excellent in its own right, but my coding-style and habits lend themselves to Java.
One thing which makes the whole "cross-platform" thing very important to me: I don't use Windows except when necessary. My business runs completely on Linux and only a couple customer sites force me to pop in the hard drive with Windows. So C# simply isn't an option for me at the moment. My knowledge of it is from reading but not doing. I wouldn't mind learning it, particularly the libraries. I am a security professional, so knowing at least basic hacking in the language is good. I've been looking into VBScript though. I'm not sure it will do what I need it to do, but when penetration-testing it is valuable to put code on the remote system without doing a "file-transfer" and definitely without compiling.
Keep doing the job and knowing the major players. They will both be around for some time, and getting religious about a programming language can't but hurt your career options and lessen the value of your opinion.
I do find that I am a little sensitive to Windows-only developers knocking Java either a) without understanding it or b) discounting many of the benefits
Microsoft has done a lot of good things over the years (security notwithstanding), and I am willing to accept that C# is one of them. I believe religious breakouts, especially amoung the non-Microsoft camps, is partly due to the possibility for the technology we have learned and loved to be discounted without cause and diminish to obscurity.
Nice chatting with you.
Re:I code C# for a living
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
I never called C# abstract:)
Event handling through the Throwable interface is quite powerful as is the event-listener interface. These are easily utilized for event-handling. I have done it many times, where other objects will register with the object throwing the event (like Button-click) and when the event occurs the listener has some method executed. Perhaps C# may have a simpler method implementation (I wouldn't know) but it is not something to discount Java for not having. Or did I miss something you were saying?
Hmmmm... Allowing a method to look like a Field, and that is supposed to make *more* readable code? Sounds to me like muddying the waters so you can *really* confuse other developers. One thing I appreciate about Java is generally knowing what I'm looking at and being able to read other developers' code. Nothing like Perl for non-compiled code-obfuscation;)
Sounds like you're full of opinions but I appreciate that you seem to value both languages.
Re:I code C# for a living
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
Perhaps I need some education. I know Java very well, C very well, but C# is less known.
JavaDoc is an automated documentation system writing out correlated HTML documentation for a code tree. Does C# have something like this?
Event-Handling Model: I guess I am speaking to Exception-handlers and the Throwable interface. What does C# do for Event-Handling?
Could you define what you mean by Properties and Events since I obviously don't follow you?
Thanks, Matt
Re:I code C# for a living
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
Let's see: * JavaDoc (still the undiscovered killer-feature) * A very stong Event-handling model * Cross-platform * API Documentation
And what exactly do you find in C# that isn't in Java, given that Java has great Properties and Events? Aside from the whole Microsoft Windows-only architecture, where does C# shine better?
Java still seems to be the choice of many enterprise system implementations as it provides a vendor-agnostic solution. There are many types of coders for these environments, including MS VisualStudio folks, Forte folks, and vi coders. Most large companies will still find both.NET and J2EE.
Correction: It is not "taking another's property" when you find it in an obviously and unrecoverably lost state. It is called *finding*
The original owner would never have seen these photos again. The blogger actually *assisted* in the return of the photos. There were no other means of finding the original owner. What if the owner was really heartbroken over losing the snapshots -- captured moments from his life? Copyright or not, it's not worth anything if the original owner lost the only copies.
How could the blogger know if the owner did not wish for the photos to be shared and distributed? It's not like there was any way to find out... the original owner was bereft of the originals through their own negligence, without any possible way of reconcilliation.
Now, if there were lude/nude/embarrassing shots, of course the blogger should be cautious, but barring that, I'd personally be happier to find those lost moment-imprints from my life than care that they were shared.
Sue Sue Sue. Too many morons sue for whatever the reasons. Just deal with the fact that this isn't a perfect world and most things are our own fault.
Recommendation: If you don't want your stuff used by someone else, don't lose it.
The correct action upon proof of ownership, however, would be to comply with the owners request regarding use of the material.
But seriously. How can you know what the desires of a lost owner would be? To find or keep private. This blogger took a chance, and provided thousands with entertainment in the process. I would be fine with my lost pictures being handles thusly, so long as the blogger acted respectfully.
I've given up my ROLM phone during an internal job transition and have been on the pilot rollout of Cisco 7920's, SIP/H.323 over 802.11b. It works great! I don't know what anyone could complain about. Then again, Cisco phone, Cisco Callmanager, Cisco AP's, not sure if this might be an "enhanced" solution. I know that Cisco CallManager doesn't play well with others in our implemented release. That's going to be next version, accoring to Cisco. But I have had VERY good luck. Perhaps it's probematic pieces, not the technologies themselves. Again, I'm very happy.
What does this provide that Cygwin does not? Does it allow all Linux x86 binaries to run? That seems to be the only thing that is missing in Cygwin (except the power of Linux on its own).
I guess the biggest issue is that the Windows Registry can still tank both systems at the same time...:(
Well put. Windows, full-featured - even with several hundreds of dollars of software bundled in - couldn't compete with the tools and power of Knoppix.
Honestly! This article is awful! It's as if the author doesn't know his behind from a DTD. The article would have you believing that OOo will be paying Microsoft because they use XML. The patent, however, seems to speak only of one particular use of XML, not the specification itself (as if SGML's child could be owned by M$). Just because IBM wants to patent a way to pay OSS developers *does not* mean that any company which pays for work will have to pay IBM royalties...
You're not a cynical bastard, or maybe I am too? Either way, it makes sense.
Next comment: What the heck is "personal" information doing in any location that can be Googled? Freakin' morons. Just because your personal web site which lists all your favorite dogs and "boy-bands" on it and that information shows up on Google doesn't warrent concern, except by the moron who put it out there in the first place.
It's not like any Hippy (or whatever that Medical acronym is) information is going to show up on Google. Why? Because it isn't available to just anyone! A duh. That's why the law is as it is. Now, search for your own name and you'll probably be surprised at how much you can see.. especially if you post to mailing lists.
What were the effects of MS Blaster BLASTING its way through the networks between power sites, disrupting the communication which would have stopped the cascading effect? I'm still betting on that being the root cause.
Perhaps AFS and/or CODA will provide enough diviersion that Microsoft is unable to nail either of them. The Distributed filesystems like CODA and AFS, while not well known by the general populace, would probably provide as much quiver down Bill's spine as Samba, not because they are better than Samba, but that they represent some very cutting-edge, future competition. Is M$ focuses on Samba too much and not on the other high-tech alternatives, they may just get handed their hat from behind...
Slashdot Mirror
As a scientist and parent, the most profound takeaway that is most likely to ruffle the most feathers:
* We can only know what we have observed and kept track of
(and even that is subject to our interpretations and limitations on observation)
We have between 50 and a few hundred years of documented scientific observation, depending on the area of focus. We have belief that the world environment has never changed, and many assumptions about things we have not tested and verified (or cannot). As a scientist, I don't care whether you believe in creation or some other explanation. But let's not ruin science by misclassifying theories as law. We cannot expect the next generation to think critically if we refuse to teach them attention to detail and proper coefficients of faith in sources of information. At the end of the debate, we all place faith in something.
Computer science has suffered from something we find largely in the general scientific world: avoiding the discussion by calling the opponent "stupid" in whatever terms and language chosen.
RH -> Caldera OpenLinux -> SCO UL -> OpenSuSE -> Ubuntu -> Kubuntu. :)
There was a brief stint with Mandrake in the middle, but *very* brief.
I need to get work done. Linux/KDE is great for me to get work done. Ubuntu makes it easy, if not perfect
what about the bones? the ones that we believe are millions of years old even though the only data we've been able to analyze has been from the last 200 years or less? yeah, i'm skeptical. what about "other ages"? why do we believe that the things we study have always been as we've seen them recently? why do we believe that the earth's atmosphere has always been as it is, and not more like mars... or more different than mars? it is because children accept the things they learn when they are young that we teach them as we believe. this occurs in atheist and Christian, Muslim and Jewish households the world over.
i'm particularly amused about this "engineers" comment.
i make quite a decent living as an engineer. i still believe in a created world, and a God at work behind it all.
bill has apparently bought into the idea that "the american scientific community is the source of all truth". sadly, he leaves little room for people who are skeptical about scientific rules and publications that seem to have more anti-God than actual science. i'm ok with hypothesizing and theorizing. however, the scientific community benefits if we call a theory a theory.
we don't need to simply accept evolution hook line and sinker to create amazing things. nor to understand how things work right now.
i simply fail to see how the wholesale swallowing of something as ill-proven and flimsy as evolution does us a whole lot of good today? it doesn't push forward science. it doesn't find the higgs-boson, nor does it enhance quantum-theory. it simply provides something to believe about the origins of the universe if you choose not to believe in a God-created world. the humor here is that evolutionists used to be the skeptics, in a largely God-believing world (however ill-informed). now, we believers are skeptical; we see the leaps of faith required to believe evolution... and the student once again becomes the master. we now get to be the skeptics.
sorry, bill. i'm not buying it. prove it, or accept that it is a theory.
and now for my awkward quote of the day:
John 20:29 - Jesus said to him, "“Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”"
And nine...nine rings were gifted to the race of Men...who above all else, desire power.
The man looks for a reason to slight Linux.
Never does he actually look into the matter.
Sheep.
He is doing exactly as intended. Running home to mamma because he can't think for himself.
Free shmee. Ubuntu doesn't pay money to give you free software... ok. actually they do pay for shipping of free CDs...
Look closely and you'll notice that nearly every new PC is shipped with a Windows license, granting you rights to the included Windows codecs.
The libdvdcss code is not illegal.
Fair Use is still a concept worth investing in. I purchase DVD's and play them on Linux. Take away my rights, I dare you.
Government of the people by the people and for the people. People should not fear governments. Governments should fear its people.
While I definitely agree with the R.E.S.P.E.C.T thread, I would like to see the answers to a couple questions raised here.
If you are going to change countries, you'd better plan to live by their rules. The US ain't perfect (or other 'free-er' countries), but you don't appreciate some of the perks until they're gone.
That said, I have dealings with a certain multinational company which has an affiliated company in China. I would like to better understand what their Chineese affiliate gets to see from their end, and what their life is like, particularly with regards to technology and freedom.
It appears China is not as it was 10 years ago, but much more open to change and modernization. What restrictions are imposed on Internet traffic? I am familiar with them modifying DNS queries.
I would rather not hear of circumvention techniques. I'm sure intelligent people can figure them out on their own, and smart ones probably don't do them.
Besides, if someone *does* circumvent the restrictions, let's not encourage the closing of the loopholes by writing about them. That doesn't help anyone.
Anyone care to (or have the knowledge) to detail the restrictions China imposes on the Information Superhighway?
Actually my friend, I heard it on Bugtraq first.
Being self-taught on most the languages I use I suppose I probably don't adhere to all the standard lingo at times. If I had more 'training' I'd probably not have misinterpretted Event-Handling.
Personally, I appreciate the checked-exceptions. It has kept me from missing quite a few potential gotchas, and more importantly forced me to deal with them at least minimally at code-time. Made me think over the exception-handling decisions as I wrote code.
Good coding to you,
Carpus
Exceptions are an event, which is what I was originally getting at.
I have read code (not actually chosen this method of design myself) using Throwables and Exceptions to respond to events. When I think of "Event Handling" I think of both the Listener interfaces and Throwable/Exceptions. As I wasn't clear which type of events you were talking about, that was the first which popped into my head. Once you mentioned handling a Button click, I knew you were referring to Listeners. Not sure why that is so difficult to do, especially since once class can implement many different types of listeners, if you wish. It's about flexibility and personal choices, I suppose.
No, but how long before there is a "Kismet for RFID", not that it wouldn't be warrented. Since Kismet was released (along with NetStumbler and Wellenreiter and others) 802.11 security-awareness has increased a lot...
But as mentioned, RFID would allow potential attackers to know more than just *that* someone was carrying their passport (although there are some who leave them in their hotel-room). It would allow them to track particular people, potentially search for information on a given persion, and make VIP's much more easily targetted, either for passport-removal or far worse.
While this is not nearly as bad as the implant recently approved by the US-FDA the implications are still very scary. Since this is not voluntary, I am quite concerned. I guess I'd better go renew my passport before this comes to pass.
Does anyone know of any cheap hardware/free software to scan for RFID yet?
Not a problem about the confusion, keeping track of discussions can be more difficult that spaghetti-code.
You're right, Throwable is a class; I was intending to speak of the approach to event-handling, not the prototype. But nice catch.
I'm willing to accept that C# is a good language. From the initial spec it looked a lot like Java, which in turn looked a lot like C (with a lot of improvements and a few limitations). I'm currently teaching myself Perl and it is reminding me how nice Java is to code in. Perl is excellent in its own right, but my coding-style and habits lend themselves to Java.
One thing which makes the whole "cross-platform" thing very important to me: I don't use Windows except when necessary. My business runs completely on Linux and only a couple customer sites force me to pop in the hard drive with Windows. So C# simply isn't an option for me at the moment. My knowledge of it is from reading but not doing. I wouldn't mind learning it, particularly the libraries. I am a security professional, so knowing at least basic hacking in the language is good. I've been looking into VBScript though. I'm not sure it will do what I need it to do, but when penetration-testing it is valuable to put code on the remote system without doing a "file-transfer" and definitely without compiling.
Keep doing the job and knowing the major players. They will both be around for some time, and getting religious about a programming language can't but hurt your career options and lessen the value of your opinion.
I do find that I am a little sensitive to Windows-only developers knocking Java either
a) without understanding it or
b) discounting many of the benefits
Microsoft has done a lot of good things over the years (security notwithstanding), and I am willing to accept that C# is one of them. I believe religious breakouts, especially amoung the non-Microsoft camps, is partly due to the possibility for the technology we have learned and loved to be discounted without cause and diminish to obscurity.
Nice chatting with you.
I never called C# abstract :)
;)
Event handling through the Throwable interface is quite powerful as is the event-listener interface. These are easily utilized for event-handling. I have done it many times, where other objects will register with the object throwing the event (like Button-click) and when the event occurs the listener has some method executed. Perhaps C# may have a simpler method implementation (I wouldn't know) but it is not something to discount Java for not having. Or did I miss something you were saying?
Hmmmm... Allowing a method to look like a Field, and that is supposed to make *more* readable code? Sounds to me like muddying the waters so you can *really* confuse other developers. One thing I appreciate about Java is generally knowing what I'm looking at and being able to read other developers' code. Nothing like Perl for non-compiled code-obfuscation
Sounds like you're full of opinions but I appreciate that you seem to value both languages.
Perhaps I need some education. I know Java very well, C very well, but C# is less known.
JavaDoc is an automated documentation system writing out correlated HTML documentation for a code tree. Does C# have something like this?
Event-Handling Model: I guess I am speaking to Exception-handlers and the Throwable interface. What does C# do for Event-Handling?
Could you define what you mean by Properties and Events since I obviously don't follow you?
Thanks,
Matt
Let's see:
.NET and J2EE.
* JavaDoc (still the undiscovered killer-feature)
* A very stong Event-handling model
* Cross-platform
* API Documentation
And what exactly do you find in C# that isn't in Java, given that Java has great Properties and Events? Aside from the whole Microsoft Windows-only architecture, where does C# shine better?
Java still seems to be the choice of many enterprise system implementations as it provides a vendor-agnostic solution. There are many types of coders for these environments, including MS VisualStudio folks, Forte folks, and vi coders. Most large companies will still find both
Correction:
It is not "taking another's property" when you find it in an obviously and unrecoverably lost state. It is called *finding*
The original owner would never have seen these photos again. The blogger actually *assisted* in the return of the photos. There were no other means of finding the original owner. What if the owner was really heartbroken over losing the snapshots -- captured moments from his life? Copyright or not, it's not worth anything if the original owner lost the only copies.
How could the blogger know if the owner did not wish for the photos to be shared and distributed? It's not like there was any way to find out... the original owner was bereft of the originals through their own negligence, without any possible way of reconcilliation.
Now, if there were lude/nude/embarrassing shots, of course the blogger should be cautious, but barring that, I'd personally be happier to find those lost moment-imprints from my life than care that they were shared.
Sue Sue Sue. Too many morons sue for whatever the reasons. Just deal with the fact that this isn't a perfect world and most things are our own fault.
Recommendation: If you don't want your stuff used by someone else, don't lose it.
The correct action upon proof of ownership, however, would be to comply with the owners request regarding use of the material.
But seriously. How can you know what the desires of a lost owner would be? To find or keep private. This blogger took a chance, and provided thousands with entertainment in the process. I would be fine with my lost pictures being handles thusly, so long as the blogger acted respectfully.
I've given up my ROLM phone during an internal job transition and have been on the pilot rollout of Cisco 7920's, SIP/H.323 over 802.11b. It works great! I don't know what anyone could complain about. Then again, Cisco phone, Cisco Callmanager, Cisco AP's, not sure if this might be an "enhanced" solution. I know that Cisco CallManager doesn't play well with others in our implemented release. That's going to be next version, accoring to Cisco.
But I have had VERY good luck. Perhaps it's probematic pieces, not the technologies themselves. Again, I'm very happy.
What does this provide that Cygwin does not? Does it allow all Linux x86 binaries to run? That seems to be the only thing that is missing in Cygwin (except the power of Linux on its own).
:(
I guess the biggest issue is that the Windows Registry can still tank both systems at the same time...
Well put. Windows, full-featured - even with several hundreds of dollars of software bundled in - couldn't compete with the tools and power of Knoppix.
Honestly! This article is awful! It's as if the author doesn't know his behind from a DTD. The article would have you believing that OOo will be paying Microsoft because they use XML. The patent, however, seems to speak only of one particular use of XML, not the specification itself (as if SGML's child could be owned by M$).
Just because IBM wants to patent a way to pay OSS developers *does not* mean that any company which pays for work will have to pay IBM royalties...
You're not a cynical bastard, or maybe I am too?
Either way, it makes sense.
Next comment: What the heck is "personal" information doing in any location that can be Googled? Freakin' morons. Just because your personal web site which lists all your favorite dogs and "boy-bands" on it and that information shows up on Google doesn't warrent concern, except by the moron who put it out there in the first place.
It's not like any Hippy (or whatever that Medical acronym is) information is going to show up on Google. Why? Because it isn't available to just anyone! A duh. That's why the law is as it is. Now, search for your own name and you'll probably be surprised at how much you can see.. especially if you post to mailing lists.
What were the effects of MS Blaster BLASTING its way through the networks between power sites, disrupting the communication which would have stopped the cascading effect? I'm still betting on that being the root cause.
Perhaps AFS and/or CODA will provide enough diviersion that Microsoft is unable to nail either of them. The Distributed filesystems like CODA and AFS, while not well known by the general populace, would probably provide as much quiver down Bill's spine as Samba, not because they are better than Samba, but that they represent some very cutting-edge, future competition. Is M$ focuses on Samba too much and not on the other high-tech alternatives, they may just get handed their hat from behind...