ISPs who allocate dynamic IPs definitely track which account was using which IP at which point of time; if the ISP is already cooperating with the request, then static or dynamic doesn't make a bit of difference.
(Of course, dynamic IPs do make it harder for someone in the wild to track the activity of a particular user).
I don't know about cable, but plenty of DSL providers will be happy to mail you a self-install kit when you sign up.
When I signed up with Speakeasy, they just sent me a DSL bridge, the cables to plug it into my router and phone jack, and a self-install CD which I left in the box because I already knew how to set up an IP connection.
I would just like to mention that one of the worst headaches I've ever seen with viruses in the workplace was the outbreak of MS-Word macro viruses shortly after Office '95 came out.
Sure, it was a while ago, but I spent a lot of hours cleaning that crap off of people's machines in the couple of weeks before we had a real fix.
Around 1997 or so I worked in an office where they were considering an integrated voicemail system that was pretty cool. It had its own modular server/bridge hardware (this was an office of about 300 people) and interfaced in with the email system (which was Netware + Groupwise in this office). When you received a phone message it would automatically show up in your inbox with a phone icon next to it, and you could select to either play it through the PC speakers, or via phone headset, in which case it would instantly ring your line with the message. Pretty snazzy, and worked with the existing phone network.
I do understand the arguments against DRM, and I would LOVE high-quality unencumbered mp3s, but at least for the forseeable future, you/we're simply going to have to compromise a bit. (If you have any interest in owning major-label music, that is.)
My personal compromise is to find a used copy of the CD (so the RIAA doesn't see any of the money, and because it's good to recycle) and rip it to mp3 myself.
Re: "bug ridden" in Temple of Elemental Evil, install the patch that came out about a week or two ago, which really does fix 99% of the problems with the original release of the game.
ToEE as a module is still kind of sparse in terms of plot & storyline (the module its based on was a pretty straightforward dungeon crawl), but post-patch, it's far and away the best tactical combat RPG I've ever played on a computer. I really hope they design more modules/games using the same turn-based engine.
"Music" students are learning to use point and click applications instead of actually learning to play instruments. No wonder there is so much crappy non-music out there.
Performance, composition, and theory are all different beasts. I agree that learning to play a hands-on instrument is extremely useful for ear training and being able to turn ideas into music more easily. But there's a lot of things you can do with a computer that you could never do with a piano -- want to hear how that part sounds in a different key with a major third harmony added? A couple of clicks and there you are. The ability to experiment is incredible, and there's no reason the student should have to have X amount of skill as a performer before diving in and exploring. One's ability to compose isn't dependent upon the ability to play an instrument.
I once thought of Red Hat as a geuninely good thing, and I do have to give them a lot of credit for helping make Linux more widely accepted in the workplace.
But over the past year or two, based on their activities as a company and the merits of their distribution, I've been trying to convert all of the Red Hat servers at my workplace to Debian as time permits.
I simply cannot bring myself to pay the up2date tax when apt-get is free and just plain works better. So instead I waste a lot of time tracking down and trying to install release-specific RPMs, which is a huge pain. Even Microsoft provides free updates for their operating systems (which, in many cases, cost less than an equivilant Red Hat license).
I'd still rather administer a Red Hat server than a Windows server because it IS still Linux after all. But as a company, I really can't see much difference these days between RH and any of their enterprise-level competitors.
I'm a Debian fan through and through, but I have to admit that Win2K Pro is one of the most straightforward, best-designed OS installs I've ever encountered.
Shame on the aauthor of the article for trying to pass off some oddball vendor-specific version of the OS as an acceptable test case. And shame on Linuxworld for publishing this kind of badly-researched, biased FUD.
I've used Mozilla extensively (several hours a night) under Windows 2000 -- including Moz 1.0 final, 1.1 alpha, and most recently the 1.1 nightly builds. I cannot recall Mozilla crashing EVER on that machine, not once. My machine is a P4 2ghz, 512MB DDR. I also used Moz 1.0 for a while on a Win98SE machine (P3 500mhz, 192MB) and don't recall any crashes there.
The only Mozilla crashes I've witnessed within the past several months have been on Linux, and that was very definitely because the box didn't have enough RAM or a big enough swap partition -- once I bumped the RAM from 128MB to 256MB, it's been rock solid.
I'm not an expert on exactly how and when a file's MIME information gets parsed, but I know enough that I don't totally discounted the possibility of a trojan or virus masquerading as a JPG.
For instance, if I take an animated GIF, rename it to image.jpg, and link it on my website, the server (or browser) is still smart enough to know it's really a GIF and display it as intended.
I've seen people use similar tactics on free web hosts which don't allow external image linking. They link the file as "image.txt" (the web hosts do allow external linking of text files), but it shows up as an image just fine.
If tactics like this could be used maliciously, I don't think it'd be a trivial task -- after all, if I click on link.jpg and the browser tells me it wants to fire off an.exe, I'll know something is amiss. And I DO think the major AV vendors are some of the worst FUD mongers out there. But I also think it pays to be cautious, and not shrug off the possibility of a threat entirely just because it is couched in a lot of overblown hype.
[i]any one know of a easy to use linux distro for an IBM pent 133 Thinkpad 760E 32meg ram/1gb hdd and a 3com etherlink III card?[/i]
The latest Red Hat would not be a good choice because it has a suggested install size of 1.2 GB, with a 650MB minimum.
Other than that, a P133/32MB is plenty of machine to run Linux. I'm partial to Debian because it's got a very flexible, powerful packaging system whereby you have a lot of control over what you do and don't install.
Actually my advice is to do a google groups (deja google) search to see what kinds of Linux experience others have had with Thinkpads -- laptop hardware can be kind of particular, and that way you can find out which distros have a proven track record.
The catalyst was the founders son killing himself. Her name escapes me at the moment. She has a book out on the subject, not very impressive on an intellectual basis, but a good view into her head.
Her name is Rona Jaffe, and I believe the book is called "Mazes and Monsters". There was also a made-for-TV movie based on it, which I highly recommend for the entertainment value of seeing upstanding college students turn into crazed deluded maniacs running around in subway tunnels, all because of "The Game".
that's like saying "You have the right to walk through this door, but we don't require the doorman to actually unlock it for you." And THEN, if you pick the lock (because the doorman is being obstinate) they throw you in jail for violating the DMCA!!
That's a pretty accurate assessment of how things stand. The Home Recording Act of (I think) 1994 states that you are legally allowed to make personal copies of recordings you've purchased. That is to say, if you copy a CD to listen to at work or in the car, the record companies do not have the right to sue you or have you arrested. It doesn't say the record companies are REQUIRED to give you this right, merely that you haven't broken the law if you do it.
A couple years later, the DMCA comes along, which DOES make it a crime to circumvent copy-control mechanisms. If the door is open, you're free to use it; if the door is locked, you're not allowed to pick the lock.
This is further muddied by the fact that the Home Recording Act specifically mentions "recording devices", and the jury is still out over whether a computer is legally classified as a recording device or not. Therefore, as I understand the HRA, ripping a CD you own onto your computer is still a legal grey area in any circumstance.
No big surprises in the article, although it was nice to see somebody do a little semi-formal research to quantify where the most spam comes from.
I have a personal email address that I do not publish on the net at large, and have been remarkably successful at keeping it spam-free. I have another email address I don't publish, which came free with my dial-up account at home, that gets between 10-20 pieces of spam per day. I guess some ISPs (even good ones) sell their customer lists. I also have a couple of yahoo/geocities emails that have been getting spammed since day one, and I don't care. Work email gets about 3-5 pieces of spam a week, almost all semi-work related (notices of developers conferences, seminars, etc.)
One thing I *do* try to do is not publish my email directly on web message boards like slashdot. I've done so in the past and noticed a definite increase in spam as a result. Instead, I'll link to my web page and list my email there -- this makes it a little harder for automated email harvesting programs. Of course, I also post on usenet, so I'm not that fanatic about stopping every last piece of spam. As long as I have one email address I can maintain as a "clear channel", I don't mind as much if the others get a little clogged with junk.
The SIZE of spam also is a factor as to how much it annoys me. I'm much less likely to get bothered by 3 lines of "Make Money Fast" than I am by a 30K HTML monstrosity that looks like crap in mutt or pine. I've recently been getting spammed by some club/rave promoter in the UK (presumably because I run an electronic music site) with large HTML emails, several times a week. I don't even live in the UK, so this is particularly stupid and annoying.
From the ZDNet article: Miguel de Icaza, Mono's founder, said, "The consensus is that [Microsoft] could stop someone from implementing the specs by using patents. [But] nothing in dot-Net is really innovative, so it would be simple to use alternative non-patented approaches."
I'm sure that Miguel understands the technical issues involved here far better than I do, but the more I hear about this whole Ximian/Microsoft interaction, the more it looks to me like Ximian is a skilled but naive bunch of American Indians being offered a sweet deal on some really nice beads.
Whatever "assistance" Microsoft is offering to Mono, they're not doing for altruistic reasons. I don't trust them.
is it illegal for me to make copies (or partial copies) of CD's that i own for my own personal use?
No, according to the Home Recording Act of 1992, it's perfectly legal for you to make personal copies of CDs you own.
However, that same Act does NOT say that the record companies can't try to stop you from making such copies (through content control mechanisms) -- just that they can't sue you if you suceed. Of course, if you try to bypass these content control mechanisms, you're most likely in violation of the DMCA.
All of this may be moot as far as using your computer as a jukebox, however, since the courts still haven't decided whether or not a computer should be classified as a digital recording device (if it were ruled not to be so, it wouldn't be covered under the Home Recording Act).
Slashdot Mirror
Probably, but I suspect it was OS-iris who was presiding over the event.
ISPs who allocate dynamic IPs definitely track which account was using which IP at which point of time; if the ISP is already cooperating with the request, then static or dynamic doesn't make a bit of difference.
(Of course, dynamic IPs do make it harder for someone in the wild to track the activity of a particular user).
I don't know about cable, but plenty of DSL providers will be happy to mail you a self-install kit when you sign up.
When I signed up with Speakeasy, they just sent me a DSL bridge, the cables to plug it into my router and phone jack, and a self-install CD which I left in the box because I already knew how to set up an IP connection.
Just wanted to point out that email IS a verbal form of conversation, just not an oral one.
I would just like to mention that one of the worst headaches I've ever seen with viruses in the workplace was the outbreak of MS-Word macro viruses shortly after Office '95 came out.
Sure, it was a while ago, but I spent a lot of hours cleaning that crap off of people's machines in the couple of weeks before we had a real fix.
Around 1997 or so I worked in an office where they were considering an integrated voicemail system that was pretty cool. It had its own modular server/bridge hardware (this was an office of about 300 people) and interfaced in with the email system (which was Netware + Groupwise in this office). When you received a phone message it would automatically show up in your inbox with a phone icon next to it, and you could select to either play it through the PC speakers, or via phone headset, in which case it would instantly ring your line with the message. Pretty snazzy, and worked with the existing phone network.
I do understand the arguments against DRM, and I would LOVE high-quality unencumbered mp3s, but at least for the forseeable future, you/we're simply going to have to compromise a bit. (If you have any interest in owning major-label music, that is.)
My personal compromise is to find a used copy of the CD (so the RIAA doesn't see any of the money, and because it's good to recycle) and rip it to mp3 myself.
Repeat the experiment with *petrified* wood and I'll be genuinely impressed.
Re: "bug ridden" in Temple of Elemental Evil, install the patch that came out about a week or two ago, which really does fix 99% of the problems with the original release of the game.
ToEE as a module is still kind of sparse in terms of plot & storyline (the module its based on was a pretty straightforward dungeon crawl), but post-patch, it's far and away the best tactical combat RPG I've ever played on a computer. I really hope they design more modules/games using the same turn-based engine.
"Music" students are learning to use point and click applications instead of actually learning to play instruments. No wonder there is so much crappy non-music out there.
Performance, composition, and theory are all different beasts. I agree that learning to play a hands-on instrument is extremely useful for ear training and being able to turn ideas into music more easily. But there's a lot of things you can do with a computer that you could never do with a piano -- want to hear how that part sounds in a different key with a major third harmony added? A couple of clicks and there you are. The ability to experiment is incredible, and there's no reason the student should have to have X amount of skill as a performer before diving in and exploring. One's ability to compose isn't dependent upon the ability to play an instrument.
PA, having invoked Godwin's law, just lost much of what credibility they may have had in this case.
I once thought of Red Hat as a geuninely good thing, and I do have to give them a lot of credit for helping make Linux more widely accepted in the workplace.
But over the past year or two, based on their activities as a company and the merits of their distribution, I've been trying to convert all of the Red Hat servers at my workplace to Debian as time permits.
I simply cannot bring myself to pay the up2date tax when apt-get is free and just plain works better. So instead I waste a lot of time tracking down and trying to install release-specific RPMs, which is a huge pain. Even Microsoft provides free updates for their operating systems (which, in many cases, cost less than an equivilant Red Hat license).
I'd still rather administer a Red Hat server than a Windows server because it IS still Linux after all. But as a company, I really can't see much difference these days between RH and any of their enterprise-level competitors.
[i]Q: What is the difference between a car sales man and a computer sales man?[/i]
A: The car salesman knows how to drive.
I'm a Debian fan through and through, but I have to admit that Win2K Pro is one of the most straightforward, best-designed OS installs I've ever encountered.
Shame on the aauthor of the article for trying to pass off some oddball vendor-specific version of the OS as an acceptable test case. And shame on Linuxworld for publishing this kind of badly-researched, biased FUD.
I've used Mozilla extensively (several hours a night) under Windows 2000 -- including Moz 1.0 final, 1.1 alpha, and most recently the 1.1 nightly builds. I cannot recall Mozilla crashing EVER on that machine, not once. My machine is a P4 2ghz, 512MB DDR. I also used Moz 1.0 for a while on a Win98SE machine (P3 500mhz, 192MB) and don't recall any crashes there.
The only Mozilla crashes I've witnessed within the past several months have been on Linux, and that was very definitely because the box didn't have enough RAM or a big enough swap partition -- once I bumped the RAM from 128MB to 256MB, it's been rock solid.
I'm not an expert on exactly how and when a file's MIME information gets parsed, but I know enough that I don't totally discounted the possibility of a trojan or virus masquerading as a JPG.
.exe, I'll know something is amiss. And I DO think the major AV vendors are some of the worst FUD mongers out there. But I also think it pays to be cautious, and not shrug off the possibility of a threat entirely just because it is couched in a lot of overblown hype.
For instance, if I take an animated GIF, rename it to image.jpg, and link it on my website, the server (or browser) is still smart enough to know it's really a GIF and display it as intended.
I've seen people use similar tactics on free web hosts which don't allow external image linking. They link the file as "image.txt" (the web hosts do allow external linking of text files), but it shows up as an image just fine.
If tactics like this could be used maliciously, I don't think it'd be a trivial task -- after all, if I click on link.jpg and the browser tells me it wants to fire off an
[i]any one know of a easy to use linux distro for an IBM pent 133 Thinkpad 760E 32meg ram/1gb hdd and a 3com etherlink III card?[/i]
The latest Red Hat would not be a good choice because it has a suggested install size of 1.2 GB, with a 650MB minimum.
Other than that, a P133/32MB is plenty of machine to run Linux. I'm partial to Debian because it's got a very flexible, powerful packaging system whereby you have a lot of control over what you do and don't install.
Actually my advice is to do a google groups (deja google) search to see what kinds of Linux experience others have had with Thinkpads -- laptop hardware can be kind of particular, and that way you can find out which distros have a proven track record.
I brought along my towel... but my towel had no idea what was going on.
The catalyst was the founders son killing himself. Her name escapes me at the moment. She has a book out on the subject, not very impressive on an intellectual basis, but a good view into her head.
Her name is Rona Jaffe, and I believe the book is called "Mazes and Monsters". There was also a made-for-TV movie based on it, which I highly recommend for the entertainment value of seeing upstanding college students turn into crazed deluded maniacs running around in subway tunnels, all because of "The Game".
Now somebody will finally be able to hack the Gibsons.
that's like saying "You have the right to walk through this door, but we don't require the doorman to actually unlock it for you." And THEN, if you pick the lock (because the doorman is being obstinate) they throw you in jail for violating the DMCA!!
That's a pretty accurate assessment of how things stand. The Home Recording Act of (I think) 1994 states that you are legally allowed to make personal copies of recordings you've purchased. That is to say, if you copy a CD to listen to at work or in the car, the record companies do not have the right to sue you or have you arrested. It doesn't say the record companies are REQUIRED to give you this right, merely that you haven't broken the law if you do it.
A couple years later, the DMCA comes along, which DOES make it a crime to circumvent copy-control mechanisms. If the door is open, you're free to use it; if the door is locked, you're not allowed to pick the lock.
This is further muddied by the fact that the Home Recording Act specifically mentions "recording devices", and the jury is still out over whether a computer is legally classified as a recording device or not. Therefore, as I understand the HRA, ripping a CD you own onto your computer is still a legal grey area in any circumstance.
No big surprises in the article, although it was nice to see somebody do a little semi-formal research to quantify where the most spam comes from.
I have a personal email address that I do not publish on the net at large, and have been remarkably successful at keeping it spam-free. I have another email address I don't publish, which came free with my dial-up account at home, that gets between 10-20 pieces of spam per day. I guess some ISPs (even good ones) sell their customer lists. I also have a couple of yahoo/geocities emails that have been getting spammed since day one, and I don't care. Work email gets about 3-5 pieces of spam a week, almost all semi-work related (notices of developers conferences, seminars, etc.)
One thing I *do* try to do is not publish my email directly on web message boards like slashdot. I've done so in the past and noticed a definite increase in spam as a result. Instead, I'll link to my web page and list my email there -- this makes it a little harder for automated email harvesting programs. Of course, I also post on usenet, so I'm not that fanatic about stopping every last piece of spam. As long as I have one email address I can maintain as a "clear channel", I don't mind as much if the others get a little clogged with junk.
The SIZE of spam also is a factor as to how much it annoys me. I'm much less likely to get bothered by 3 lines of "Make Money Fast" than I am by a 30K HTML monstrosity that looks like crap in mutt or pine. I've recently been getting spammed by some club/rave promoter in the UK (presumably because I run an electronic music site) with large HTML emails, several times a week. I don't even live in the UK, so this is particularly stupid and annoying.
From the ZDNet article: Miguel de Icaza, Mono's founder, said, "The consensus is that [Microsoft] could stop someone from implementing the specs by using patents. [But] nothing in dot-Net is really innovative, so it would be simple to use alternative non-patented approaches."
I'm sure that Miguel understands the technical issues involved here far better than I do, but the more I hear about this whole Ximian/Microsoft interaction, the more it looks to me like Ximian is a skilled but naive bunch of American Indians being offered a sweet deal on some really nice beads.
Whatever "assistance" Microsoft is offering to Mono, they're not doing for altruistic reasons. I don't trust them.
is it illegal for me to make copies (or partial copies) of CD's that i own for my own personal use?
No, according to the Home Recording Act of 1992, it's perfectly legal for you to make personal copies of CDs you own.
However, that same Act does NOT say that the record companies can't try to stop you from making such copies (through content control mechanisms) -- just that they can't sue you if you suceed. Of course, if you try to bypass these content control mechanisms, you're most likely in violation of the DMCA.
All of this may be moot as far as using your computer as a jukebox, however, since the courts still haven't decided whether or not a computer should be classified as a digital recording device (if it were ruled not to be so, it wouldn't be covered under the Home Recording Act).
Fine idea as long you do it all with your own music and kindly defer from stealing others people stuff under the false pretense of "freedom.
If nothing turns up missing, how can it be "stealing"?