only when an open source OS states these things in their press release will the general public listen.
The fact that FreeBSD is being released is of no importance to the "general" public. It is however important for the technical savvy who are allready looking into things.
The fact that a press release is issued does not mean it's targeted at the mainstream masses.. it's just that... a press release for the press that is interested in this kind of news... wether it be online of in print.
But the points (except numbers 3 and 6) are course of equal importance to the techies...
It looks like they listened to someone who studied ergonomics.. i would like one of those not just for games. In my daily work i am getting more and more stress on my wrist of my rightarm.
Mostly because of a non-ergonomical keyboard and of course to much working using a mouse..
So a mouse like this might help a little to relieve my wrist in daily operational work as well as my gaming evenings (strategy games are very heavy mouse controlled games..)
But i will have to wait and see.. some of the remedies for RSI were actually contributing to the situation or creating new situations alltogether.
The name LegOS was intended to sound and read just like LEGO. I read a lame excuse about the author saying his name would be translated into "Leg" and OS was meant to mean Operating System... However he also said to take it with a wink...
I grew up with LEGO. I still think it's the coolest toy around.. so much possibilities with only your imagination as the border... i'm glad they took this stand however i don not think it has anything to do with being european (i am european btw). It is just a case of sound mind.
For all i can tell the fact that hackers creating unthought ways of using Mindstorms has made the company sell more sets than even they anticipated.. (i read somewhere an est. 100.000 against the 15.000 they thought). It certainly would be a bad idea if they were going to bite the hand that feeds them..
Besides.. the software used for mindstorms isn't their core bussiness.. it's the plastic that we play an build with...
However i'm horrified about the recent happenings in NYC and DC i think it is a good idea to go on with our lives... not as if nothing happened... but to show people that we cannot be stopped by terrorism, how terrible the attacks have been..
</OT>
So... Does this mean ATAPI is becomming a better technology than SCSI? I fitted my most important machines with SCSI material because i always felt that that was the better choice. But with recent technological advancements (ATAPI RAID etc..) i am beginning to think it would be best to stick with the cheaper ATAPI.
Why is it that everyone want's to patent their programming idea's?
Most of the patents about software are just "I thought of it first" idea's and not truly novel or nonobvious idea's like for instance the creation of engines or airplanes...
I actually never understood the concept of patents anyway.
For starters, competition could result in lower quality to affect the prices to get the assignment. Of course this does not mean it always does but you can guess that with sums of money as large as they are now to get something into orbit the choice for a cheaper competitor looks very appealing.
Second, what would the competition do? Bringing satelites into orbit ? Or manned spacemissions as well? In the latter case the technologie needed should be aquired at what cost? Could we get patentwars in space propulsion techniques or heat resistant shield usage? There are too many angles to this than meets the eye. Far more than what i point out here.. If money rules space aviation than things could get worse then ever.
Besides. Who will pay for all the different projects and "space agencies" out there? The tax payer? Wealthy industries / persons? And if the wealthy industries / persons pay for the ride who would control what they do with the satelites up there? No-one to check if things are done correctly..
I would like to see government enacted space agencies for the moment. They probably abuse the system as well but at least it is for a common goal and not for something else. Maybe a coordination effort like the ISS is needed to propel space exploration to unknown hights (pun not intended) and not comercialising the playing field...
The crusoe architecture is different from the x86 and their concept doesn't even come near that of Intel's. So what potential lawsuits could they expect from Intel?
As for exporting to Taiwan. Well.. that's something worth considering.. low personel cost and highly efficient factorys over there.
Why doesn't NASA build something that lasts instead of producing more and more waste.. Here on earth people are trying to put a halt on disposable materials and in space we just dump right on.
Would it not be more usefull to build something that returns after a given period of time so that these things can be recycled or something?
I guess that NASA will have checked the specs as well. This mission is too important for them to fail. If this mission fails they will get less funding themselves.. besides.. Russia knows that they can, no MUST, not fail. If they do fail then the ISS project will be doomed.
If you can actually PROOF that you adhered to the specs that were outlined eveything is okay.. but as with alot of things people cannot be trusted enough to follow the specs. Just look at constructing. If a wiring scheme inside a building can be much cheaper because of cheaper wires they will put those in.. if a company can save money by NOT adhering to the specs they sure as hell will... if you create some specs and afterwards your product seems to adhere to them that does not mean that internally eveything is correct. At least with Open Source you can check that. Of course he is correct at the point of Linux and most other projects being chaos like. That's inherent to the bazaar model of things.. But strongly run Open Source projects with clearly outlined goals and specifications can be as secure as anything else...
That's what i call domainjacking... i hate it when people register the domains of others if they want to get rich of it.. but this? Gotta love these guys....
On a side note:
I didn't know there was a linux magazine? LJ i know but... Can anyone tell me if this mag is any good?
You make a classical mistake when it comes to hacking... HACKING is the way techs live... not breaking into other systems to rob them of anything they can get their hands on. The term HACKING refers to the need to know how things work and can be improved.
CRACKING is the thing you are referring to... and that is indeed not a good thing... (except to test security on your own systems)
Re:Your Linux box offering the same services.
on
Hacking The Tivo
·
· Score: 1
It would probably not take that long to see Opens Source products mimicing the functionality of TiVo. Once a couple of hackers start to play with it everything is possible..
But unfortunatly the TiVo is not available everywhere... Philips is a dutch company but don't even think that we might be able to buy such a device over here or even use one.. (of course i can always buy one at some inet shop but hey... if i can't use it over here why should i...)
So if someone is willing to create a similar device that is compatible with ALL standards then i would be very happy....
Realistically, he doesn't have a job or go to school. His full-time job is doing some Linux and Open Source advocacy here and there. Talk about *easy*!
First of all he does have a job. You say it yourself. And then.. who says Open Source advocacy is easy? You try to do his job.
And of course you don't have to forget the coding he does for Linux and other projects. If what he does is easy i don't want to know what difficult means....
Well.. first off... the fact that these things are mentioned so much is that for alot inside the opensource community seeing progress is vital. If you start a project and need more developers you have to create some noise to get attention. And to be frankly.. we did not hear from Berlin for along time accepts occasional mentionings in threads.
The fact that 0.2.0 has been reached is, at least for the tech savvy few, good news.
For joe sixpack though it means diddly. But it's the same when concerning kernel releases. the 2.3 series is not meant to be used by average users. Yet the release for a new developers kernel is News for Nerds. So why not the release of alpha stage code for some other project?
I know SCO has been bashing Linux alot. You can't blame them though. Linux is right there where their bussiness is. The Intel/Unix market.
The fact that they are embracing Linux and create their own distro is actually good news. It complements their own line of products of course but it also brings alot of knowledge to the community. Providing of course that they play by the rules.
Let them prove themselves over time. Don't bash them now because "they have seen the light".
As i see it you usually pay alot of money for nothing. What do you get if you pay 1k or more for software that is widely used ? Nothing.
You get the "right" to use their software, you have to shut your mouth if it doesn't work and you can't sue them if anything goes wrong...
Why pay the 1k? For research? For development? Hell... MS didn't get this big if these two things were really that expensive.
As i see it... Use UCITA and EULA, lower the prices. Or give people more rights when you ask that ammount of money. That way you will be able to pay up any liability lawsuits you encounter when your software causes a boo-boo.
Alot of inventions are unpredictable because the basics haven't been laid out yet..
Most of the early SF writers did predict alot of things we take for granted today. Jules Verne DID predict Space travel and deep sea exploration. And that in a time when such things sounded ridiculous. But the basics were there though... The moon was obviously around so fantasy about space travel was not uncommon. The sea and seatravel were around so why not deepsea travel..
The basics for these story were there.
As for PC's. Electricity was in it's infancy when the early SF writers were around. When computers came into sight most people were busy with rebuilding the world after WW2.
Don't forget that Computers haven't been around for such a long time... and when they were first implemented not many people were looking at them as they would change the world. Let alone be so popular. SF is as much about popular trends as about SF. Why write a book about computers when no one gives these things a thought?
I read alot of SF literature. I like it alot. But as is see it, alot of SF writers think of things not yet thought out but where people are truly fantasizing about. Isaac Asimov wrote about Positronic Brains while Robotics was still an exotic form of science and Robots were still being depicted as humanoid. And people still try to think about Robotics that way. Hence Data in ST:TNG.
Maybe we will be able to convince other authorities to do this as well? Traffic could be a lot better than now if some of the ideas out of "Utopia" can be realised.
Of course... i would also like it if they watched more movies and SF-series... would like to travel with the help of a transporterroom and it sure as hell would improve my cooking if i had a replicator...:-)
It all depends on how you view things. I use Linux... i use the X Windowing System on top of that and do everything within a GUI. It's just not Microsoft's GUI.
As far as MS is concerned. It's not the fact that they brought computing to the masses that's on trial here... it's the fact that they abused the aquired position to make sure they are the ONLY players around. Netscape had a great browser back in the nineties. Along came MS who suddenly realised the Internet was the place to be and away went Netscape.. first MSIE was just crap.. everybody still used Netscape. Then suddenly ISP's and PC manufacturers bundled MSIE with their own products and Netscape could not sell (and make a living of) it's own products. Now how did MS pull that off? Not by playing nice, i can tell you that.
Further more... what did MS really invent or innovate? Nothing. They copied and aquired. That is a well known fact.
And didn't Intel and IBM have something to with the PC boom?
I have a grudge against MS.. as i had a grudge against IBM in their booming days.. what is that grudge?.. Somewhere down the line they converted from benevolent company to BULLY. If you did not use their products then you should use no-one elses. Or at least that's what they thought.. they think they have the future in their hands and shove it down your throat.
I'm using Linux now... and in 5 or maybe 10 years i will probably be using something else.. (the HURD maybe)
FWIW, i'm a network administrator who has worked (or is still working) with MS Windows 3.x/9x/NT and Netware 3.x/4.x/5.x.
I use Linux solely at home although i would like to see otherwise.
Here in the Netherlands we have to use a carkit for our cell phones... high end radio's are equipped with control units which switch off sound if a call comes in. I would like to see the EmVAX equipped with similar technology... maybe just one microphone would be needed for both EmVAX control and Cell Phone control. Sure would like to buy such a thing... And if prices could be reasonable... not as expensive as the EMPEG...
One of the reasons i never bought a WinCE PDA is that i don't see the use of multiple windows open on such a small screen.. (the other one was off course that there was that ubiqiutous MS- in front of WinCE...;-). It's not really workable (used a Philips Nino for awhile so i have some experience).
I need a PDA which will be on as soon as i flip the cover, has a wide variety of apps available and which will be able to link me to my network so these apps could be installed on the fly. If possible i would like to see a voice controlled one.... that would be really interesting for most people i guess.
As far as corporatism and politics are concerned us europeans are safer than the americans... in America where politics is being done with money (getting elected means campaigning means funding means corporate sponsors) regulation is a BAD THING..... an elected politician will rule almost certainly in favor for the corporation funding his campaign. Why else is MS putting money in the campaign of a candidate? Not because the company consists out of people who will vote for him... more so because MS feels it gets better support from that particular candidate...
As far as ESR is concerned... he can preach all he wants but few will really listen to what he has to say. If he keeps the same attitude for long the people will dismiss him just as they are dismissing RMS. Not that they both are to be dismissed.. they have both real and big credibility to add to the OSS movement but they are too stubborn to see that the world changes all around them. GNU/Linux/OSS/FSF has moved out of it's shell into the big wide world and has to deal with that same world in a manner that will at least be condoned by the ones ruling that world. It is entirely possible to win over that world but not by fighting it head on. Linus is correct when he does not put himself upon a soapbox to shout world domination and freedom for anyone...
When you consider the things ESR stands for (pro gun activist etc..) what kind of world is he propagating for us? Will we really see improvement if government control is dismissed? Would all that be really better? A corporation which is not regulated by government rules can do whatever it sees fit to control it's customers. And that could include really nasty things like shutting them out of communities and such.
The Internet is an example of this. More and more control over the net is gained by companys with their own idea's and agenda's. That's not essentially bad but not good either...
Where can we find true improvements? In an environment where we are enabled to make improvements (Linux), protect the products from being harmed (GPL), AND WHERE A GOVERNMENT BODY CAN MAKE SURE SUCH ENVIRONMENT IS CREATED AND PROTECTED.
Slashdot Mirror
only when an open source OS states these things in their press release will the general public listen.
The fact that FreeBSD is being released is of no importance to the "general" public. It is however important for the technical savvy who are allready looking into things.
The fact that a press release is issued does not mean it's targeted at the mainstream masses.. it's just that... a press release for the press that is interested in this kind of news... wether it be online of in print.
But the points (except numbers 3 and 6) are course of equal importance to the techies...
It looks like they listened to someone who studied ergonomics.. i would like one of those not just for games. In my daily work i am getting more and more stress on my wrist of my rightarm.
Mostly because of a non-ergonomical keyboard and of course to much working using a mouse..
So a mouse like this might help a little to relieve my wrist in daily operational work as well as my gaming evenings (strategy games are very heavy mouse controlled games..)
But i will have to wait and see.. some of the remedies for RSI were actually contributing to the situation or creating new situations alltogether.
The name LegOS was intended to sound and read just like LEGO. I read a lame excuse about the author saying his name would be translated into "Leg" and OS was meant to mean Operating System... However he also said to take it with a wink...
I grew up with LEGO. I still think it's the coolest toy around.. so much possibilities with only your imagination as the border... i'm glad they took this stand however i don not think it has anything to do with being european (i am european btw). It is just a case of sound mind.
For all i can tell the fact that hackers creating unthought ways of using Mindstorms has made the company sell more sets than even they anticipated.. (i read somewhere an est. 100.000 against the 15.000 they thought). It certainly would be a bad idea if they were going to bite the hand that feeds them..
Besides.. the software used for mindstorms isn't their core bussiness.. it's the plastic that we play an build with...
However i'm horrified about the recent happenings in NYC and DC i think it is a good idea to go on with our lives... not as if nothing happened... but to show people that we cannot be stopped by terrorism, how terrible the attacks have been..
</OT>
So... Does this mean ATAPI is becomming a better technology than SCSI? I fitted my most important machines with SCSI material because i always felt that that was the better choice. But with recent technological advancements (ATAPI RAID etc..) i am beginning to think it would be best to stick with the cheaper ATAPI.
Am i right or wrong?
Why is it that everyone want's to patent their programming idea's?
Most of the patents about software are just "I thought of it first" idea's and not truly novel or nonobvious idea's like for instance the creation of engines or airplanes...
I actually never understood the concept of patents anyway.
For starters, competition could result in lower quality to affect the prices to get the assignment. Of course this does not mean it always does but you can guess that with sums of money as large as they are now to get something into orbit the choice for a cheaper competitor looks very appealing.
Second, what would the competition do? Bringing satelites into orbit ? Or manned spacemissions as well? In the latter case the technologie needed should be aquired at what cost? Could we get patentwars in space propulsion techniques or heat resistant shield usage? There are too many angles to this than meets the eye. Far more than what i point out here.. If money rules space aviation than things could get worse then ever.
Besides. Who will pay for all the different projects and "space agencies" out there? The tax payer? Wealthy industries / persons? And if the wealthy industries / persons pay for the ride who would control what they do with the satelites up there? No-one to check if things are done correctly..
I would like to see government enacted space agencies for the moment. They probably abuse the system as well but at least it is for a common goal and not for something else. Maybe a coordination effort like the ISS is needed to propel space exploration to unknown hights (pun not intended) and not comercialising the playing field...
Lawsuits about what?
The crusoe architecture is different from the x86 and their concept doesn't even come near that of Intel's. So what potential lawsuits could they expect from Intel?
As for exporting to Taiwan. Well.. that's something worth considering.. low personel cost and highly efficient factorys over there.
Why doesn't NASA build something that lasts instead of producing more and more waste.. Here on earth people are trying to put a halt on disposable materials and in space we just dump right on.
Would it not be more usefull to build something that returns after a given period of time so that these things can be recycled or something?
At this moment there is a bid out on Baan from Invensys PLC . Invensys is a UK based engineering and electronics company.
This week there will be a annual shareholders meeting where the bid will be discussed..
I guess that NASA will have checked the specs as well. This mission is too important for them to fail. If this mission fails they will get less funding themselves.. besides.. Russia knows that they can, no MUST, not fail. If they do fail then the ISS project will be doomed.
If you can actually PROOF that you adhered to the specs that were outlined eveything is okay.. but as with alot of things people cannot be trusted enough to follow the specs. Just look at constructing. If a wiring scheme inside a building can be much cheaper because of cheaper wires they will put those in.. if a company can save money by NOT adhering to the specs they sure as hell will... if you create some specs and afterwards your product seems to adhere to them that does not mean that internally eveything is correct. At least with Open Source you can check that. Of course he is correct at the point of Linux and most other projects being chaos like. That's inherent to the bazaar model of things.. But strongly run Open Source projects with clearly outlined goals and specifications can be as secure as anything else...
Just my thoughts about the subject
Hahaha.... Mac pays a T1 to a high school? :-)
That's what i call domainjacking... i hate it when people register the domains of others if they want to get rich of it.. but this? Gotta love these guys....
On a side note:
I didn't know there was a linux magazine? LJ i know but... Can anyone tell me if this mag is any good?
You make a classical mistake when it comes to hacking... HACKING is the way techs live... not breaking into other systems to rob them of anything they can get their hands on. The term HACKING refers to the need to know how things work and can be improved.
CRACKING is the thing you are referring to... and that is indeed not a good thing... (except to test security on your own systems)
It would probably not take that long to see Opens Source products mimicing the functionality of TiVo. Once a couple of hackers start to play with it everything is possible..
But unfortunatly the TiVo is not available everywhere... Philips is a dutch company but don't even think that we might be able to buy such a device over here or even use one.. (of course i can always buy one at some inet shop but hey... if i can't use it over here why should i...)
So if someone is willing to create a similar device that is compatible with ALL standards then i would be very happy....
Realistically, he doesn't have a job or go to school. His full-time job is doing some Linux and Open Source advocacy here and there. Talk about *easy*!
First of all he does have a job. You say it yourself. And then.. who says Open Source advocacy is easy? You try to do his job.
And of course you don't have to forget the coding he does for Linux and other projects. If what he does is easy i don't want to know what difficult means....
Well.. first off... the fact that these things are mentioned so much is that for alot inside the opensource community seeing progress is vital. If you start a project and need more developers you have to create some noise to get attention. And to be frankly.. we did not hear from Berlin for along time accepts occasional mentionings in threads.
The fact that 0.2.0 has been reached is, at least for the tech savvy few, good news.
For joe sixpack though it means diddly. But it's the same when concerning kernel releases. the 2.3 series is not meant to be used by average users. Yet the release for a new developers kernel is News for Nerds. So why not the release of alpha stage code for some other project?
I know SCO has been bashing Linux alot. You can't blame them though. Linux is right there where their bussiness is. The Intel/Unix market.
The fact that they are embracing Linux and create their own distro is actually good news. It complements their own line of products of course but it also brings alot of knowledge to the community. Providing of course that they play by the rules.
Let them prove themselves over time. Don't bash them now because "they have seen the light".
As i see it you usually pay alot of money for nothing. What do you get if you pay 1k or more for software that is widely used ? Nothing.
You get the "right" to use their software, you have to shut your mouth if it doesn't work and you can't sue them if anything goes wrong...
Why pay the 1k? For research? For development? Hell... MS didn't get this big if these two things were really that expensive.
As i see it... Use UCITA and EULA, lower the prices. Or give people more rights when you ask that ammount of money. That way you will be able to pay up any liability lawsuits you encounter when your software causes a boo-boo.
Alot of inventions are unpredictable because the basics haven't been laid out yet..
Most of the early SF writers did predict alot of things we take for granted today. Jules Verne DID predict Space travel and deep sea exploration. And that in a time when such things sounded ridiculous. But the basics were there though... The moon was obviously around so fantasy about space travel was not uncommon. The sea and seatravel were around so why not deepsea travel..
The basics for these story were there.
As for PC's. Electricity was in it's infancy when the early SF writers were around. When computers came into sight most people were busy with rebuilding the world after WW2.
Don't forget that Computers haven't been around for such a long time... and when they were first implemented not many people were looking at them as they would change the world. Let alone be so popular. SF is as much about popular trends as about SF. Why write a book about computers when no one gives these things a thought?
I read alot of SF literature. I like it alot. But as is see it, alot of SF writers think of things not yet thought out but where people are truly fantasizing about. Isaac Asimov wrote about Positronic Brains while Robotics was still an exotic form of science and Robots were still being depicted as humanoid. And people still try to think about Robotics that way. Hence Data in ST:TNG.
Hmmm.. let's hope they read "The Deus Machine" by Pierre Ouellette as well...
Sure would be scary if an AI computer links itself up to a genetics laboratory and starts designing lifeforms...
Maybe we will be able to convince other authorities to do this as well? Traffic could be a lot better than now if some of the ideas out of "Utopia" can be realised.
:-)
Of course... i would also like it if they watched more movies and SF-series... would like to travel with the help of a transporterroom and it sure as hell would improve my cooking if i had a replicator...
It all depends on how you view things. I use Linux... i use the X Windowing System on top of that and do everything within a GUI. It's just not Microsoft's GUI.
As far as MS is concerned. It's not the fact that they brought computing to the masses that's on trial here... it's the fact that they abused the aquired position to make sure they are the ONLY players around. Netscape had a great browser back in the nineties. Along came MS who suddenly realised the Internet was the place to be and away went Netscape.. first MSIE was just crap.. everybody still used Netscape. Then suddenly ISP's and PC manufacturers bundled MSIE with their own products and Netscape could not sell (and make a living of) it's own products. Now how did MS pull that off? Not by playing nice, i can tell you that.
Further more... what did MS really invent or innovate? Nothing. They copied and aquired. That is a well known fact.
And didn't Intel and IBM have something to with the PC boom?
I have a grudge against MS.. as i had a grudge against IBM in their booming days.. what is that grudge?.. Somewhere down the line they converted from benevolent company to BULLY. If you did not use their products then you should use no-one elses. Or at least that's what they thought.. they think they have the future in their hands and shove it down your throat.
I'm using Linux now... and in 5 or maybe 10 years i will probably be using something else.. (the HURD maybe)
FWIW, i'm a network administrator who has worked (or is still working) with MS Windows 3.x/9x/NT and Netware 3.x/4.x/5.x.
I use Linux solely at home although i would like to see otherwise.
Here in the Netherlands we have to use a carkit for our cell phones... high end radio's are equipped with control units which switch off sound if a call comes in. I would like to see the EmVAX equipped with similar technology... maybe just one microphone would be needed for both EmVAX control and Cell Phone control. Sure would like to buy such a thing... And if prices could be reasonable... not as expensive as the EMPEG...
As far as i'm concerned.... go for it!
One of the reasons i never bought a WinCE PDA is that i don't see the use of multiple windows open on such a small screen.. (the other one was off course that there was that ubiqiutous MS- in front of WinCE... ;-). It's not really workable (used a Philips Nino for awhile so i have some experience).
I need a PDA which will be on as soon as i flip the cover, has a wide variety of apps available and which will be able to link me to my network so these apps could be installed on the fly. If possible i would like to see a voice controlled one.... that would be really interesting for most people i guess.
As far as corporatism and politics are concerned us europeans are safer than the americans... in America where politics is being done with money (getting elected means campaigning means funding means corporate sponsors) regulation is a BAD THING..... an elected politician will rule almost certainly in favor for the corporation funding his campaign. Why else is MS putting money in the campaign of a candidate? Not because the company consists out of people who will vote for him... more so because MS feels it gets better support from that particular candidate...
As far as ESR is concerned... he can preach all he wants but few will really listen to what he has to say. If he keeps the same attitude for long the people will dismiss him just as they are dismissing RMS. Not that they both are to be dismissed.. they have both real and big credibility to add to the OSS movement but they are too stubborn to see that the world changes all around them. GNU/Linux/OSS/FSF has moved out of it's shell into the big wide world and has to deal with that same world in a manner that will at least be condoned by the ones ruling that world. It is entirely possible to win over that world but not by fighting it head on. Linus is correct when he does not put himself upon a soapbox to shout world domination and freedom for anyone...
When you consider the things ESR stands for (pro gun activist etc..) what kind of world is he propagating for us? Will we really see improvement if government control is dismissed? Would all that be really better? A corporation which is not regulated by government rules can do whatever it sees fit to control it's customers. And that could include really nasty things like shutting them out of communities and such.
The Internet is an example of this. More and more control over the net is gained by companys with their own idea's and agenda's. That's not essentially bad but not good either...
Where can we find true improvements? In an environment where we are enabled to make improvements (Linux), protect the products from being harmed (GPL), AND WHERE A GOVERNMENT BODY CAN MAKE SURE SUCH ENVIRONMENT IS CREATED AND PROTECTED.
Just my 2c