The OS division is where MS gets the cash to pour into products that will never turn a profit, or at best break even; the services they're providing (even for a charge) that are good to have but aren't really marketable, or are only marketed by MS for the sole purpose of having a presence in that market, without hope of actually taking over.
Hint: public companies don't enter markets just "to have a presence." They enter markets to make money. The ultimate goal is to take over a market. NO ONE enters a market to have a presence, not even Microsoft. At the very least, they may take a loss in one market to sell people in that market other Microsoft products. But strangely enough, I don't think that was your point!?
Why not embed Linux and the XFree86 XServer on this wireless PC( I mean innovative display system ) and have xdm running on the beige box under the desk?
Wow, a remote display! How revolutionary!
Then where are all the Linux displays that work this way?
If you want a taste of this then get a Sharp Zaurus, a WiFi card and install the XServer on it. You don't have the realestate of a 1028x768 [sic] display but the idea is the same.
So you're saying it's not the same. And even at 1024x768, I wonder how X would compare to Microsoft RDP? (Which I've used over a fairly slow connection with AWESOME results.)
Boy, this Microsoft thing is pure genius. NOT.
It doesn't need to be pure genious. It just needs to work well and be marketed correctly. I think Microsoft might be able to do that?
I think we are beyond this, already. It's no secret that copyrighted materials are being traded. The question is, is that legal? If not, should it be? Is it fair use to download a copyrighted song? Is it fair use if you download it and listen to it for the purpose of deciding whether you want to buy the CD or not? Is it fair use if you owned the music previously, but lost/broke the CD?
The best question of all: Would the labels make more money offering their songs inexpensively over the internet in high quality mp3/ogg formats, rather than pissing off their customers and TRYING to thwart open digital formats? (I stress "TRYING.")
One day they will wake up. Until then, I couldn't care less how much copyrighted material is traded online... the legalities of which are only clear to the RIAA (i.e. "it's illegal").
Don't metal detectors work precisely because the x-rays are reflected back to the x-ray device when they hit metal? Therefore your entire duffle bag would set the alarm off and be searched, because it would reflect all the x-rays back (if it does indeed reflect x-rays). So either way I think you're screwed.
George W. Bush was not even elected to be in the Whitehouse, ffs.
Yes, he was. Does it suck that the popular vote is not used? I think so. Does it suck that the courts get involved in certain situations -- as laid out by our current voting laws -- yes it does. But he was legally elected by the laws we have in place for voting, so get over it.
SLASHDOTIA - The community known as Slashdot has announced today it's decision to secede from the United States of America. President and Commander(Taco)-In-Chief Rob Malda made the announcement shortly after new announcements came of ridiculous "rider" bills being tacked onto popular legislation.
Mr. Malda was quoted as saying, "with a Republican controled [sic] house and senate, we are loosing [sic] our RIGHTS as Americans! Well, those of us from Slashdot that live in America, that is. Therefore we are announcing the immediate secesion [sic] of Slashdot from the United States of America. We are drafting our Declaration of Independance [sic] as I speak. Thousands of my fellow Slashdotians are currently modding proposed wording for the decleration [sic] up and down, right now." He added, "Of course, I will be in charge of the final proofreading."
Fellow Slashdotian staffer Roblimo was quoted as saying, "Yes, we are hoping for a declaration that is +5 Insightful, but I fear we could end up with +5 Funny. It really depends on who happens to be participating in the conversation for the 1 hour it will take us to draft the document."
When asked how Slashdot -- devoid of a military -- figures to fair any better than the South did during the Civil War, Mr. Malda simply responded, "Two words: Slashdot Affect. [sic]"
Wrong. The user is prompted for an administrator password to use upon installation. Some dumbass administrators were entering blank passwords. This has nothing to do with Microsoft. I believe in versions after 7.0 they now make a bigger deal about entering a strong password.
the admin port open and running by default
This one I am not familiar with... we have our SQL Server firewalled, and use non-default ports, so I don't remember how things were by default.
and a *lot* of folks running sql server on the same box as their web server
As long as the SQL Server ports are blocked, and the webserver is kept secure/patched, this should not be a problem.
Most of the things you listed are problems SQL admins have, not problems in the software.
I was talked about SQL Server having very few exploits, relatively speaking.
Most recently (about two years ago) Microsoft added a "Security Update" for Outlook supposedly to protect users against viruses.
Supposedly?
The security update DOES do that. When you install it, it does two big things: blocks all access to executable attachments, and requires permission before an external program can gain access to your Address Book or use Outlook to send email.
Palm can still sync with Outlook, it just requires permission from the user.
This is also the default behavior in Outlook XP. (Good!)
Now if we could just get every Outlook user to install the patch or upgrade.
Great comment except for the EXCELLENT SQL Server part:)
I'm no Microsoft-lover, but SQL Server is THE BEST product they produce. Have you actually used it?
We never have stability problems with it. It's security record is not too bad. It's list of features is amazing. It's speed is amazing. It's really great software. I have heard of things lacking in Postgresql/MySQL which are implemented quite nicely in SQL Server. On the other hand, I haven't heard of anything in Postgresql/MySQL that is NOT in SQL Server, other than their price.
And based on the content of this ask slashdot, it's you.
You compare Zope to SQL Server. Zope is an applications server. SQL Server is an RDBMS, a relational database. You can't replace SQL Server with Zope. Zope can use SQL Server. Since you've already licensed the expensive (and, in my opinion, EXCELLENT) SQL Server, why not continue to use it? If you want to use Zope instead of ASP, go ahead, but what makes you think it's going to be any easier to maintain than what you've got now? Or rather, will the headache of converting to Zope (or whatever) be worth the end result? Could it be that your current setup is "a messy entanglement" because of the way it was written, and not due to the tools you are using?
Perhaps you should hire a consultant to look over what you've got and help you figure out the best solution. It's hard to make a good recommendation when we don't know WHY your current situation is so entangled, or how hard it's going to be to untangle it.
Re:Open Source Pioneers? Or $$$ Saving?
on
Film Gimp
·
· Score: 2, Offtopic
Not that this is a bad thing, just that it's not because they hate MSFT...
Strange that you equate loving open source with hating Microsoft. I like open source, I also like many Microsoft products. It's not an either/or situation.
People bitch that they release new operating systems too often, just to squeeze more money out of consumers.
Then they announce the next server release after this year's.NET server is going to be 4 years away instead of 2. Now people bitch because they're not releasing them fast enough. Huh?
Microsoft just can't win!
What's that you say, they dominate the desktop OS market and have a large portion of the server market as well?
Yes. And if the patch is slow in coming out, it's because they are regression testing it. Do open source clients regression test their patches against thousands of machines with different configurations, or just release it as-is and post followup patches if they have problems?
Judging by the number of klez variants in my inbox, I'd say "no".
The only thing that proves is that the majority of users don't keep their systems patched, since Microsoft has made Outlook immune to viruses (yes, IMMUNE COMPLETELY IMMUNE)... been that way for over a year now, maybe approaching 2 years.
this "transparent zips" feature of XP is one of the most annoying things I've seen. I want ZIPs displayed as ZIPs, to be opened when and if I care to peek inside them, not when the OS thinks I want to view their contents.
I don't understand your complaint. You have to open or expand the file to view the contents. It's not like XP just decided 'Hey how about I open this random zip file for you now.' How exactly are you running into problems?
I don't recall a setting to turn ZIP view off, but maybe there is one hidden somewhere??
Ummm, not hidden, just install a 3rd party zip program, such as, oh I dunno, PKware WinZip?
I wonder if this new business plan has come up because of the new feature in Windows XP -- Compressed Folders, aka.zip files that are treated just like folders. Zip files in XP now have the little + icon next to them, just like folders. Click on it, and it opens the file and directory listing just like a folder. Drag and drop files into and out of the 'compressed folder.'
IMHO, since 99% of the time all you do with archives is create them or extract them, it's not worth implementing features like 'add to archive', 'delete from archive' or 'update archive'.
You are crazy. Those features were made and are perfect for automated processes. Every day I have an AT process that runs (like a cron job for NT), and ADDS a single web server logfile to an existing monthly zip file. The log files are each around 80MB in size. At the end of the month, I archive the zip to CDROM.
Therefore the Unix model of tar and then a separate compression program makes more sense
What exactly does it offer over zip? You want something like tar, use zip without compression. You want something like.tar.gz, use zip with compression. We got it covered. How often do you create uncompressed Tape ARchives in the windows world?
Slashdot Mirror
The OS division is where MS gets the cash to pour into products that will never turn a profit, or at best break even; the services they're providing (even for a charge) that are good to have but aren't really marketable, or are only marketed by MS for the sole purpose of having a presence in that market, without hope of actually taking over.
Hint: public companies don't enter markets just "to have a presence." They enter markets to make money. The ultimate goal is to take over a market. NO ONE enters a market to have a presence, not even Microsoft. At the very least, they may take a loss in one market to sell people in that market other Microsoft products. But strangely enough, I don't think that was your point!?
Why not embed Linux and the XFree86 XServer on this wireless PC( I mean innovative display system ) and have xdm running on the beige box under the desk?
Wow, a remote display! How revolutionary!
Then where are all the Linux displays that work this way?
If you want a taste of this then get a Sharp Zaurus, a WiFi card and install the XServer on it. You don't have the realestate of a 1028x768 [sic] display but the idea is the same.
So you're saying it's not the same. And even at 1024x768, I wonder how X would compare to Microsoft RDP? (Which I've used over a fairly slow connection with AWESOME results.)
Boy, this Microsoft thing is pure genius. NOT.
It doesn't need to be pure genious. It just needs to work well and be marketed correctly. I think Microsoft might be able to do that?
I think we are beyond this, already. It's no secret that copyrighted materials are being traded. The question is, is that legal? If not, should it be? Is it fair use to download a copyrighted song? Is it fair use if you download it and listen to it for the purpose of deciding whether you want to buy the CD or not? Is it fair use if you owned the music previously, but lost/broke the CD?
The best question of all: Would the labels make more money offering their songs inexpensively over the internet in high quality mp3/ogg formats, rather than pissing off their customers and TRYING to thwart open digital formats? (I stress "TRYING.")
One day they will wake up. Until then, I couldn't care less how much copyrighted material is traded online... the legalities of which are only clear to the RIAA (i.e. "it's illegal").
Worst case scenario is that a competitor drives by your facility and gets the same realtime updates of your inventory that you do.
Assuming the signal is even that powerful, Faraday Cage.
MBNA works fine with Mozilla.
So does American Express. Never leave your home[page] without it.
Don't metal detectors work precisely because the x-rays are reflected back to the x-ray device when they hit metal? Therefore your entire duffle bag would set the alarm off and be searched, because it would reflect all the x-rays back (if it does indeed reflect x-rays). So either way I think you're screwed.
I'm sure you meant the fabric takes up less volume, as I would hope that weight is not an issue in space.
Ummm... heavier stuff requires more energy to get it off Earth into space, so yes, weight is an issue.
George W. Bush was not even elected to be in the Whitehouse, ffs.
Yes, he was. Does it suck that the popular vote is not used? I think so. Does it suck that the courts get involved in certain situations -- as laid out by our current voting laws -- yes it does. But he was legally elected by the laws we have in place for voting, so get over it.
SLASHDOTIA - The community known as Slashdot has announced today it's decision to secede from the United States of America. President and Commander(Taco)-In-Chief Rob Malda made the announcement shortly after new announcements came of ridiculous "rider" bills being tacked onto popular legislation.
Mr. Malda was quoted as saying, "with a Republican controled [sic] house and senate, we are loosing [sic] our RIGHTS as Americans! Well, those of us from Slashdot that live in America, that is. Therefore we are announcing the immediate secesion [sic] of Slashdot from the United States of America. We are drafting our Declaration of Independance [sic] as I speak. Thousands of my fellow Slashdotians are currently modding proposed wording for the decleration [sic] up and down, right now." He added, "Of course, I will be in charge of the final proofreading."
Fellow Slashdotian staffer Roblimo was quoted as saying, "Yes, we are hoping for a declaration that is +5 Insightful, but I fear we could end up with +5 Funny. It really depends on who happens to be participating in the conversation for the 1 hour it will take us to draft the document."
When asked how Slashdot -- devoid of a military -- figures to fair any better than the South did during the Civil War, Mr. Malda simply responded, "Two words: Slashdot Affect. [sic]"
Back to you, Dan.
Is there one politician left who takes this whole democracy thing seriously?
What democracy? The US does not have a democracy.
With a default administration account
You mean, like 'root' is a common admin account?
a common name by default
eh?
no password by default
Wrong. The user is prompted for an administrator password to use upon installation. Some dumbass administrators were entering blank passwords. This has nothing to do with Microsoft. I believe in versions after 7.0 they now make a bigger deal about entering a strong password.
the admin port open and running by default
This one I am not familiar with... we have our SQL Server firewalled, and use non-default ports, so I don't remember how things were by default.
and a *lot* of folks running sql server on the same box as their web server
As long as the SQL Server ports are blocked, and the webserver is kept secure/patched, this should not be a problem.
Most of the things you listed are problems SQL admins have, not problems in the software.
I was talked about SQL Server having very few exploits, relatively speaking.
Most recently (about two years ago) Microsoft added a "Security Update" for Outlook supposedly to protect users against viruses.
Supposedly?
The security update DOES do that. When you install it, it does two big things: blocks all access to executable attachments, and requires permission before an external program can gain access to your Address Book or use Outlook to send email.
Palm can still sync with Outlook, it just requires permission from the user.
This is also the default behavior in Outlook XP. (Good!)
Now if we could just get every Outlook user to install the patch or upgrade.
Yes, MS employees really do sit around figuring out how to keep Wordperfect from crashing.
Are these the same employees that worked on DR-DOS compatability?
Great comment except for the EXCELLENT SQL Server part :)
I'm no Microsoft-lover, but SQL Server is THE BEST product they produce. Have you actually used it?
We never have stability problems with it. It's security record is not too bad. It's list of features is amazing. It's speed is amazing. It's really great software. I have heard of things lacking in Postgresql/MySQL which are implemented quite nicely in SQL Server. On the other hand, I haven't heard of anything in Postgresql/MySQL that is NOT in SQL Server, other than their price.
to help a company that funds a company that is actively hostile to the members of this community.
What community is that? I'm a Slashdot reader, and I use Microsoft products all the time.
Not everyone on here is an anti-Microsoft zealot. (I'd wager the majority reading this site are accessing it from a Windows computer.)
And based on the content of this ask slashdot, it's you.
You compare Zope to SQL Server. Zope is an applications server. SQL Server is an RDBMS, a relational database. You can't replace SQL Server with Zope. Zope can use SQL Server. Since you've already licensed the expensive (and, in my opinion, EXCELLENT) SQL Server, why not continue to use it? If you want to use Zope instead of ASP, go ahead, but what makes you think it's going to be any easier to maintain than what you've got now? Or rather, will the headache of converting to Zope (or whatever) be worth the end result? Could it be that your current setup is "a messy entanglement" because of the way it was written, and not due to the tools you are using?
Perhaps you should hire a consultant to look over what you've got and help you figure out the best solution. It's hard to make a good recommendation when we don't know WHY your current situation is so entangled, or how hard it's going to be to untangle it.
Not that this is a bad thing, just that it's not because they hate MSFT...
Strange that you equate loving open source with hating Microsoft. I like open source, I also like many Microsoft products. It's not an either/or situation.
People bitch that they release new operating systems too often, just to squeeze more money out of consumers.
.NET server is going to be 4 years away instead of 2. Now people bitch because they're not releasing them fast enough. Huh?
Then they announce the next server release after this year's
Microsoft just can't win!
What's that you say, they dominate the desktop OS market and have a large portion of the server market as well?
OK, maybe they can win. Nevermind.
Pfft, frenchmen... I may be a geek, but I don't need any artificial means to be bulging.
::cough:: fatass ::cough::
Unfortunately, you're not talking about your pecker.
Get a new "slashdotted a star wars site" joke, please.
But then you need bacteriophagephage to kill the phage.
Does MS fix their vulnerabilities that fast?
Yes. And if the patch is slow in coming out, it's because they are regression testing it. Do open source clients regression test their patches against thousands of machines with different configurations, or just release it as-is and post followup patches if they have problems?
Judging by the number of klez variants in my inbox, I'd say "no".
The only thing that proves is that the majority of users don't keep their systems patched, since Microsoft has made Outlook immune to viruses (yes, IMMUNE COMPLETELY IMMUNE)... been that way for over a year now, maybe approaching 2 years.
this "transparent zips" feature of XP is one of the most annoying things I've seen. I want ZIPs displayed as ZIPs, to be opened when and if I care to peek inside them, not when the OS thinks I want to view their contents.
I don't understand your complaint. You have to open or expand the file to view the contents. It's not like XP just decided 'Hey how about I open this random zip file for you now.' How exactly are you running into problems?
I don't recall a setting to turn ZIP view off, but maybe there is one hidden somewhere??
Ummm, not hidden, just install a 3rd party zip program, such as, oh I dunno, PKware WinZip?
I wonder if this new business plan has come up because of the new feature in Windows XP -- Compressed Folders, aka .zip files that are treated just like folders. Zip files in XP now have the little + icon next to them, just like folders. Click on it, and it opens the file and directory listing just like a folder. Drag and drop files into and out of the 'compressed folder.'
Ouch WinZip...
IMHO, since 99% of the time all you do with archives is create them or extract them, it's not worth implementing features like 'add to archive', 'delete from archive' or 'update archive'.
.tar.gz, use zip with compression. We got it covered. How often do you create uncompressed Tape ARchives in the windows world?
You are crazy. Those features were made and are perfect for automated processes. Every day I have an AT process that runs (like a cron job for NT), and ADDS a single web server logfile to an existing monthly zip file. The log files are each around 80MB in size. At the end of the month, I archive the zip to CDROM.
Therefore the Unix model of tar and then a separate compression program makes more sense
What exactly does it offer over zip? You want something like tar, use zip without compression. You want something like