Actually, I LIKE the new license. This will make it much easier to talk the wife and the boss into switching to Linux, and force me to figure out how to setup Linux for a media center or get a Wii. Games? We will figure that one out later. All and all, a good decision by Microsoft I would say.
Looks like they will certainly reduce piracy, as even a fully function version of the OS isn't fully functional and not even worth stealing.
This makes me wonder why they didn't put a link to info about his arrest in the article. Not everyone knew this, and it is just sloppy of the editors to NOT include a link to give a bit of context about the arrest.
What a lot of people aren't spotting is that we're talking about Switzerland. In Switzerland it's a relatively common assumption that people will obey the law.
And the whole country is firewalled from the rest of the world? Swiss are "special", not like other nasty Europeans and Americans who always break the law? That isn't a strong arguement. Hell, it doesn't even make sense.
Anything you install on a bunch of people's computers will get in the wild. It doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure out how. What it shows is only how technologically clueless a few Swiss government officials are.
I can't believe I just read that. They think they can use it and it won't get in the wild? This sounds as smart as the judge in the Spamhaus case, as in, totally clueless about "that there interweb spying softywear".
And of course the fact that you are modded Funny makes the fart jokes even funnier. Hell the only reason I entered the comments for this article WAS for the fart jokes.
Just remember, the farts are funnier when they are your own. And yes, the concept is interesting....sigh.
Another advantage of Steam: Many games have playable demos you can try before you buy. Many other good games do too. This used to be much more common, such as Duke Nukem 1,2 3. And yes, they promise that there will be a demo version of Duke Nukem Forever as soon as it comes out... (swear to you)
Shareware isn't dead, it has just evolved. Anything that you make worth selling should be worth letting someone try out for an hour or two (or a chapter or two) first.
This is why it is so discouraging to submit real news to/. This is fluff, not news. I expect this crap on digg, with virtually no editorial control, but hoped Taco could find something a bit more newsworthy for the weekend.
Would have been better if they actually LINKED to the study, instead of this lame 4 paragraph story that provided almost no more info than the/. summary.
Pretty weak stuff to be on the front page of/. if you substantiate it with more data.
It isn't about feeling sorry, or condoning anything. Its about the right of everyone to say stupid, cruel things.
Once you decide that certain types of speech are "hate", it is only a matter of time before any speech that is against the government is considered "hate". A slippery slope indeed.
FUD. Try reading the article instead of the lame Digg title next time...
WENATCHEE -- A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty to assault at an April bonfire party in No. 2 Canyon. Shilo E. Reyes, Wenatchee, pleaded guilty and was sentenced Monday.
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Chelan County Superior Court, Reyes, 20 at the time of the April 9 incident, allegedly used brass knuckles to punch a 17-year-old boy, then struck the boy in the head with a beer bottle.
One of his friends told Haynes he too had been assaulted and said he believed the attack was racially motivated.
Billy L. Tune, 24, who hosted the party at his home, pleaded guilty to malicious harassment last week and was sentenced to 30 days in jail for making a racial slur aimed at a 15-year-old boy after the attack.
As usual for digg, inaccurate title, only 4 diggs, marked as inaccurate. I'm pretty sure using brass knuckles is a crime in most countries, as is accessory to assult or "malicious harrasment" (which is not just racist words but the potential threat of violence). Cherry picking one line out of a violent incident isn't proof of anything AC.
At least you don't live here in the US. Oh wait, we have free speech here.... never mind.
But seriously folks, this rather smacks of Thought Police. I can understand why it is illegal to yell "FIRE" in a crowded movie theatre, but I have always believed it is better to allow those who have repugnant ideas to voice them openly so the whole world can see how big of a nut they are.
It's a fact: If you want your child to stay away from something, simply embrace it. Don't want them listening to rap, tell them you and all your friends love that new CD. Don't like the way they wear their clothes? Call them "G" and tell them they need to wear their pants down lower. Don't want them on MySpace? Tell them everyone at the office is doing it and you signed up, too. Ask them to be in your "family photo" to go ON MySpace.
Nothing freaks out a kid like thinking they might agree with their parents about what is cool.
It has a short half-life and must be replenished frequently.
Methane has a short half-life? I thought only radioactive elements had "half-lifes". Either I am just dumb about this (entirely possible) or someone chose their words poorly.
Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered social networking site today when recently discovered that its marketshare has begun to seriously slip, due to mainly to other sources of personal videos, such as Google's own service and uTube, combined with modern teenager's lackluster desire to socially network. Current random surveys indicate that a large number of new user signups over the last 3 months have mainly been middle aged single men and U.S. Senators.
You don't have to be a genious to see the writing on the wall: All the teenagers that want to be on MySpace already have accounts, and there simply aren't enough pre-teens coming of age to maintain this rate of growth. The future of MySpace is indeed bleak.
When asked for comment, MySpace founder Brad Greenspan replied "look, I just need a few weeks before you print this..."
This project is focused in distributing a Linux driver for the ZyDAS 1201 based USB 802.11b Network adapters. Such as the Sweex LC100020 sold by Sweex Essentials and others.
Originaly sweex distributed a linux driver for its Wireless(802.11) USB adapters, but suddenly they retired their linux drivers from their support site, and according to their technical support linux was no longer supported for that product.
A new, much smaller, driver was later developped to overcome the problems of the wlan-ng driver.
So yes, there is one single possibility from a company I know nothing about and no longer supports Linux. Not exactly what I was looking for, however.
Additionally, searching for "sweex usb" showed no returns on buy.com, cdw.com or even amazon.com, so my guess is that availability is rather limited in the US.
We have 15 people using it at the same time. (even tho its a 5 license, there is no hard limits built in like the new version) The only time we have had problems is if we hit a hard limit, like over 20,000 entries to a single vendor (have to setup a NEW account for the same vendor and use only the new account after that, sigh....)
We are running it on pretty good hardware tho, Dual Zeon 2.6, RAID 5 SCSI320 with hotswap online, Fedora 4, Samba, never crashes or locks. Never reboot unless I upgrade the kernel, which is rare since it is firewalled. Way too much hardware, which means it runs good. We crank the piss out of it and it handles it ok, it just isn't fast, even on Gbit ethernet with every workstation a 3ghz or faster. Running 2004 Complete version.
We also backup the datafiles offsite and 3 places onsite daily using some fun Perl scripts I wrote.
No wireless USB ethernet cards work out of the box. And yes, I have been using Linux for many years and so far, everything has just worked right out of the box. I've had better luck with a modern Linux distro than Windows by far. Most experience Linux users will tell you the same. On everything but the most unusual hardware, it just works more often than Windows does. (Nothing funnier than Windows asking if you want to go online and find a driver for your new ethernet card.....)
Considering the adapter is a Linksys brand, and they use Linux (and often violate the GPL....) I had assumed that they would have at least beta drivers. Linksys/Cisco is not interested in working with Linux, only in using it to save money and still hide their source.
I agree that it is stupid and arrogant, as if anyone who uses Linux is a fool. The guys I have talked to really act like Linux is just a "hobby OS" and no one would use it seriously. (Wow, I know, but they really do think that....) It boils down to "but we have always made software for MS" and people hate change.
Don't worry, if they change their mind and start making software for Linux and it's a hit, some PHB will probably get a raise for being "forward looking" and "cutting edge". Meanwhile, customers like myself are looking for alternatives.
Remember, experienced Unix/open source admins cost twice as much as Windows admins.
There is no extra payroll. In addition to other duties, I double as the entire IT dept. The amount of maintenance on FOSS servers is significantly less than on our older Windows servers and everything can be done remote, even from home. So in our case, FOSS costs significantly LESS than MS to maintain. They key is how it is installed, with no extra services installed, which is harder to do with MS. I don't upgrade every time a new kernel comes out, only when there is an exploit that affects our servers. Because they are all running the same OS, it is pretty easy to keep up with. We also farm out the actual ecommerce hosting (Yahoo) because it is cheaper than hiring IT people.
When a computer breaks out of warranty (always 3 year, Dell), we replace it instead of fixing it. Our methods are designed to be the most cost effective and productive. Not the best, but the least expensive way to get the most work done.
The most expensive part of any business is the employees as you point out, so the key is to use as few as possible, and try to grow sales as fast as you grow productivity so you don't hire or fire anyone, plus pay people better than average wages so you don't lose employees and have to retrain for this environment. Worked for many years this way, with solid sales growth, profit sharing and raises.
I think I am talking about something very different than you. To me, our business is a small to mid size biz. We do $10 mil a year, and generate close to 100,000 purchase orders, invoices and to a lesser degree quotes, per year. With 15 people. GnuCash can't do that. And yes, the accountant doesn't support it anyway.
We are not a technology company, we sell stuff. Our software needs are about inventory, manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, retail, ecommerce, and include 3 basic product catagories, 5 different price levels, 2 methods of sales, 3 locations, importing products from different countries, UPS, FedEx, LTL trucking, dedicated trucking, tracking, dropshipping, contract manufacturing, marketing, and a lot of other things that most companies with 15 people don't do. I have been here 13 years, and no one does it like us. Then again, most of the companies in my industry from 13 years ago are now out of business.
We are stuck in the middle and have unique needs, which is why I have spent the last several years kludging stuff together with Perl and doing most things with my 2nd or 3rd choice of methods. We are not a traditional small business, but we are not a full blown enterprise, and there is a complete dirth of products available for companies like us, both on the WinTel platform, but particularly in the FOSS arena, because there are not many companies like us to write for.
We dont use schedulers or calenders, source control, chat networks, bug tracking, etc. Not every Slashdotter works for a tech company. Some of us sell the stuff you guys buy with your extra money. I dual boot linux and MS so I can game and get work done. On the server side, we have used Linux for many years (think RH 5.x), including samba, bind, apache, etc. but for the heavy apps, they just simply do not exist for mid sized companies. Yet.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I LIKE the new license. This will make it much easier to talk the wife and the boss into switching to Linux, and force me to figure out how to setup Linux for a media center or get a Wii. Games? We will figure that one out later. All and all, a good decision by Microsoft I would say.
Looks like they will certainly reduce piracy, as even a fully function version of the OS isn't fully functional and not even worth stealing.
This makes me wonder why they didn't put a link to info about his arrest in the article. Not everyone knew this, and it is just sloppy of the editors to NOT include a link to give a bit of context about the arrest.
I found info here, here, and here
The first line says it all: "Yahoo is compiling a time capsule (Flash required)."
;)
With our luck, aliens will be using Amiga OS or DOS and never see it.
What a lot of people aren't spotting is that we're talking about Switzerland. In Switzerland it's a relatively common assumption that people will obey the law.
And the whole country is firewalled from the rest of the world? Swiss are "special", not like other nasty Europeans and Americans who always break the law? That isn't a strong arguement. Hell, it doesn't even make sense.
Anything you install on a bunch of people's computers will get in the wild. It doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure out how. What it shows is only how technologically clueless a few Swiss government officials are.
I can't believe I just read that. They think they can use it and it won't get in the wild? This sounds as smart as the judge in the Spamhaus case, as in, totally clueless about "that there interweb spying softywear".
And of course the fact that you are modded Funny makes the fart jokes even funnier. Hell the only reason I entered the comments for this article WAS for the fart jokes.
Just remember, the farts are funnier when they are your own. And yes, the concept is interesting....sigh.
Another advantage of Steam: Many games have playable demos you can try before you buy. Many other good games do too. This used to be much more common, such as Duke Nukem 1,2 3. And yes, they promise that there will be a demo version of Duke Nukem Forever as soon as it comes out... (swear to you)
Shareware isn't dead, it has just evolved. Anything that you make worth selling should be worth letting someone try out for an hour or two (or a chapter or two) first.
This is why it is so discouraging to submit real news to /. This is fluff, not news. I expect this crap on digg, with virtually no editorial control, but hoped Taco could find something a bit more newsworthy for the weekend.
Would have been better if they actually LINKED to the study, instead of this lame 4 paragraph story that provided almost no more info than the /. summary.
/. if you substantiate it with more data.
Pretty weak stuff to be on the front page of
It isn't about feeling sorry, or condoning anything. Its about the right of everyone to say stupid, cruel things.
Once you decide that certain types of speech are "hate", it is only a matter of time before any speech that is against the government is considered "hate". A slippery slope indeed.
As usual for digg, inaccurate title, only 4 diggs, marked as inaccurate. I'm pretty sure using brass knuckles is a crime in most countries, as is accessory to assult or "malicious harrasment" (which is not just racist words but the potential threat of violence). Cherry picking one line out of a violent incident isn't proof of anything AC.
At least you don't live here in the US. Oh wait, we have free speech here.... never mind.
But seriously folks, this rather smacks of Thought Police. I can understand why it is illegal to yell "FIRE" in a crowded movie theatre, but I have always believed it is better to allow those who have repugnant ideas to voice them openly so the whole world can see how big of a nut they are.
[insert "Won't someone please think of the children" line here]
Anytime someone is doing something "for your own good", rest assured that they are doing it for their own gain.
Holy cow, comment just the other day was meant to be funny, NOT true!
Life DOES imitate art!
It's a fact: If you want your child to stay away from something, simply embrace it. Don't want them listening to rap, tell them you and all your friends love that new CD. Don't like the way they wear their clothes? Call them "G" and tell them they need to wear their pants down lower. Don't want them on MySpace? Tell them everyone at the office is doing it and you signed up, too. Ask them to be in your "family photo" to go ON MySpace.
Nothing freaks out a kid like thinking they might agree with their parents about what is cool.
It has a short half-life and must be replenished frequently.
Methane has a short half-life? I thought only radioactive elements had "half-lifes". Either I am just dumb about this (entirely possible) or someone chose their words poorly.
that was his first post, and he is just another /. troll.
don't feed the trolls please.
Netcraft Confirms it: MySpace is dying.
Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered social networking site today when recently discovered that its marketshare has begun to seriously slip, due to mainly to other sources of personal videos, such as Google's own service and uTube, combined with modern teenager's lackluster desire to socially network. Current random surveys indicate that a large number of new user signups over the last 3 months have mainly been middle aged single men and U.S. Senators.
You don't have to be a genious to see the writing on the wall: All the teenagers that want to be on MySpace already have accounts, and there simply aren't enough pre-teens coming of age to maintain this rate of growth. The future of MySpace is indeed bleak.
When asked for comment, MySpace founder Brad Greenspan replied "look, I just need a few weeks before you print this..."
I'm hoping for something Christmas-themed, with Ewoks. And maybe a wookie. Oh - and a cocaine-fuelled heroine.
Cocaine-fuelled heroin? Isnt' that a Speedball? I was already under the impression that he was on drugs to begin with....
From the link you provided:
This project is focused in distributing a Linux driver for the ZyDAS 1201 based USB 802.11b Network adapters. Such as the Sweex LC100020 sold by Sweex Essentials and others.
Originaly sweex distributed a linux driver for its Wireless(802.11) USB adapters, but suddenly they retired their linux drivers from their support site, and according to their technical support linux was no longer supported for that product.
A new, much smaller, driver was later developped to overcome the problems of the wlan-ng driver.
So yes, there is one single possibility from a company I know nothing about and no longer supports Linux. Not exactly what I was looking for, however.
Additionally, searching for "sweex usb" showed no returns on buy.com, cdw.com or even amazon.com, so my guess is that availability is rather limited in the US.
We have 15 people using it at the same time. (even tho its a 5 license, there is no hard limits built in like the new version) The only time we have had problems is if we hit a hard limit, like over 20,000 entries to a single vendor (have to setup a NEW account for the same vendor and use only the new account after that, sigh....)
We are running it on pretty good hardware tho, Dual Zeon 2.6, RAID 5 SCSI320 with hotswap online, Fedora 4, Samba, never crashes or locks. Never reboot unless I upgrade the kernel, which is rare since it is firewalled. Way too much hardware, which means it runs good. We crank the piss out of it and it handles it ok, it just isn't fast, even on Gbit ethernet with every workstation a 3ghz or faster. Running 2004 Complete version.
We also backup the datafiles offsite and 3 places onsite daily using some fun Perl scripts I wrote.
No wireless USB ethernet cards work out of the box. And yes, I have been using Linux for many years and so far, everything has just worked right out of the box. I've had better luck with a modern Linux distro than Windows by far. Most experience Linux users will tell you the same. On everything but the most unusual hardware, it just works more often than Windows does. (Nothing funnier than Windows asking if you want to go online and find a driver for your new ethernet card.....)
Considering the adapter is a Linksys brand, and they use Linux (and often violate the GPL....) I had assumed that they would have at least beta drivers. Linksys/Cisco is not interested in working with Linux, only in using it to save money and still hide their source.
I agree that it is stupid and arrogant, as if anyone who uses Linux is a fool. The guys I have talked to really act like Linux is just a "hobby OS" and no one would use it seriously. (Wow, I know, but they really do think that....) It boils down to "but we have always made software for MS" and people hate change.
Don't worry, if they change their mind and start making software for Linux and it's a hit, some PHB will probably get a raise for being "forward looking" and "cutting edge". Meanwhile, customers like myself are looking for alternatives.
Remember, experienced Unix/open source admins cost twice as much as Windows admins.
There is no extra payroll. In addition to other duties, I double as the entire IT dept. The amount of maintenance on FOSS servers is significantly less than on our older Windows servers and everything can be done remote, even from home. So in our case, FOSS costs significantly LESS than MS to maintain. They key is how it is installed, with no extra services installed, which is harder to do with MS. I don't upgrade every time a new kernel comes out, only when there is an exploit that affects our servers. Because they are all running the same OS, it is pretty easy to keep up with. We also farm out the actual ecommerce hosting (Yahoo) because it is cheaper than hiring IT people.
When a computer breaks out of warranty (always 3 year, Dell), we replace it instead of fixing it. Our methods are designed to be the most cost effective and productive. Not the best, but the least expensive way to get the most work done.
The most expensive part of any business is the employees as you point out, so the key is to use as few as possible, and try to grow sales as fast as you grow productivity so you don't hire or fire anyone, plus pay people better than average wages so you don't lose employees and have to retrain for this environment. Worked for many years this way, with solid sales growth, profit sharing and raises.
I think I am talking about something very different than you. To me, our business is a small to mid size biz. We do $10 mil a year, and generate close to 100,000 purchase orders, invoices and to a lesser degree quotes, per year. With 15 people. GnuCash can't do that. And yes, the accountant doesn't support it anyway.
We are not a technology company, we sell stuff. Our software needs are about inventory, manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, retail, ecommerce, and include 3 basic product catagories, 5 different price levels, 2 methods of sales, 3 locations, importing products from different countries, UPS, FedEx, LTL trucking, dedicated trucking, tracking, dropshipping, contract manufacturing, marketing, and a lot of other things that most companies with 15 people don't do. I have been here 13 years, and no one does it like us. Then again, most of the companies in my industry from 13 years ago are now out of business.
We are stuck in the middle and have unique needs, which is why I have spent the last several years kludging stuff together with Perl and doing most things with my 2nd or 3rd choice of methods. We are not a traditional small business, but we are not a full blown enterprise, and there is a complete dirth of products available for companies like us, both on the WinTel platform, but particularly in the FOSS arena, because there are not many companies like us to write for.
We dont use schedulers or calenders, source control, chat networks, bug tracking, etc. Not every Slashdotter works for a tech company. Some of us sell the stuff you guys buy with your extra money. I dual boot linux and MS so I can game and get work done. On the server side, we have used Linux for many years (think RH 5.x), including samba, bind, apache, etc. but for the heavy apps, they just simply do not exist for mid sized companies. Yet.