AOL isn't just dialup. I've never used it myself, but as a CSR for Compaq (well, for now at least....:/), I see a huge number of customers using AOL.
And believe it or not, the recent versions of AOL allow users to connect to their services via a VPN. A VPN can be established through anything... including Cable Modem, and a large number of AOL users are connecting to AOL through these methods now.
Personally, I think it's a good idea at the same time as being almost as stupid as giving Johnny the ability to make/modify/send shell scripts under Windows XP. (Off topic, but johnny can create a script that tells the user he's defragging the hard drive, while it's actually running a system command, like, oh, I dunno... Format? Macro-viruses built into the O/S!)
It's a good idea, because it will be one more reason for people to switch to Linux. The original article does a very good job of explaining and pointing this out, and I won't go into more arguments for it.
By that same token, the average AOL user is too ingrained into being breastfed by the techies to come anywhere near grasping a command-line architechture like Linux. KDE, Gnome, Litestep, etc. do a pretty good job of allowing the user to use Linux in a GUI, but let's face it: if you don't understand at least the rudiments of the Linux command-line structure, you're screwed when you try to modify it. It's not as good as Windows or Mac, and I doubt it ever will be.
The author of this article claims that Microsoft is being mean (for lack of a better paraphrasing) because they haven't created a tutorial that introduces users to the windows environment, etc....
Obviously the author hasn't seen Windows XP. Not only does WinXP have an excellent tutorial OOBE (no longer for people who buy a Compaq or a Dell or some other evil computer) that shows the end user how to use windows, it senses mouse/keyboard activity during the OOBE, and if the user sits there for long enough, it'll launch a tutorial that teaches them how to use the keyboard and the mouse.
While I know it's impossible, MS really has tried very hard to make the system idiot-proof.
At the risk of being redundant (well... I am being redundant), this author really should do his research before he makes himself look like an ass.
As a side note... I've actively tried to crash WinXP with no success... anybody have any suggestions? I couldn't even crash it when I was surfing the internet (160 IE windows, just for the hell of it), burning a CD, and listening to MP3's at the same time. Right click stopped working, but it didn't crash.... The CD played in my car CD player, too....:/
I think that this case should go to trial. I think that the Americans should hang on to Skylarov until he goes to trial. But they should also stop violating the Vienna Convention, and let him talk to his Embassy. Also, are not all people guaranteed the right to a speedy trial under the Constitution you hold so dearly?
This is a question of Jurisdiction, first and foremost. Your people arrested a Russian national for doing something that is PERFECTLY legal. Not only is it legal for him to decrypt the encrypted e-books in Russia, it's legal everywhere else. What's illegal is to then distribute the unencrypted intellectual property (e-books), which Skylarov never did. I'm aware that your DMCA prohibits the production/distribution of programs designed to circumvent encryption, but that law's considered illegal by most of you, anyway. Strictly speaking, the E-Book reader program from Adobe is designed to circumvent the encryption on e-books to render them readable....
The longer this case takes to be dismissed (and it will be dismissed), the worse Dubya looks in the international community. (That's pretty hard, since he started building nukes again.) Every day, there's an increasing number of protests about this internationally, and it wouldn't surprise me if other countries join Russia in lodging a formal complaint with the UN once the fall session opens.
Sorry, </rant>. The point is that the longer this case takes to be resolved, the more aware Joe Public is going to be. I understand that Skylarov is unjustly imprisoned, and I empathize for him and his family. I would certainly not want to be in his situation, and I can think of nobody that I would wish into that situation. But I would rather make a martyr out of Skylarov now than wait 15 years for resolution on DMCA and opression for all.
This ocurred to me when proofreading it after posting it... isn't it always the case?
I also strongly doubt that RedHat has a 50% market share. Namely because it's kind of hard o judge the market on FREE software. For all we know, Linux Antarctica is installed on 99% of the computers running Linux, because there is no real way to figure it out.
RedHat may sell the most boxed copies, they may have the most downloads. But in a market where it's perfectly legal, and common practice to make copies of the software and hand them to your friends, there is no real way to determine who's got what. I personally have about 20 different distros lying around the house.
Maybe the one real distro that everybody has and uses is TomsRTBT
You forget that Micro$oft also has other, non-OS products.
They make a killing selling Games, Office suites, graphics suites, etc. RedHat makes Linux. That is all.
Sure, Microsoft sells a 1-user license for Windows 2000 for $700. But the OS sales only make up a small part of their final revenue. For every 1 user that actually buys Windows 2000, Microsoft has 20+ users that buy the latest copy of MechWarrior 4 or whatever for $80. They've also got a large number of users buying MS Office every year for $600 a pop, and the graphics programs for $600 a pop. Then you've got Visual C++ and Visual Basic. Those cost another $800 a pop.
Do the math again. You'll see that the OS's only make up about 5-10% of Microsoft's final revenue. Probably less, because they charge $45 a call for Tech. Support. I'm Canadian, and using Canadian dollars, here. Feel free to convert that to American, but don't flame me because you don't speak Canadian....;-)
So we return to your math. Assuming that RH has a share of 50%, and makes 0.1% of what Microsoft makes. Factor in the 5-10% (let's be generous, and say 10%), that's 1% of the revenue being spent on MS OS's for RedHat. That's a significant change.
Why is it a significant change? Simple: Numbers. For every diehard Linux user you can find, I can find you 100 or more who want nothing to do with it, and would rather use Windows because it's easier.
I can see the flames coming...
I use both Windows and Linux. There's a time and a place for both. Specifically, my Games machine is currently running Windows 2000 Professional. In the last year it's run Windows 98SE, Windows ME, and Whistler. My workstation, my Seti@Home box you mean you don't have one? shame..., my firewall, my mailserver, my DNS server, etc. all run Linux. Most of 'em are running RH 6.2, but the DNS is running 6.0. I have no reason to update them, as they do everything I need. The firewall is a firewall. No open ports, so I'm not afraid of hacking.
But that wasn't your question. You asked, how much have I spent on Linux, and how much have I spent on Windows. I've spent the same: The cost of 4 blank CD's. About 3 dollars. Not even, because I buy them by the hundred for $30. I've bought one copy of Caldera for the manual. Everything else I've downloaded. The Windows has been acquired thanks to my friend's department (20 people) having a 100 user license and not being allowed to share the licenses with other departments. I feel like Dilbert....
To put it another way, I've spent more money on Everquest in the last year than I have on Windows and Linux put together, and I've only been playing it for 3 months.
According to Copyright law, it is legal to make one copy of -any- electronic media (games, movies, books, music, etc) for archival purposes. Furthermore, software or hardware technological devices that allow end users to exersize this "fair use" portion of their copyright agreement (read: CD Duplicators and the like) are protected under law....
Just thought I'd elaborate a bit more, as I can see the flames coming....
It's perfectly legal for me to modify, back up, and unencrypt anything to which I have bought rights. (Skylarov, listen up.)
It is not, however, legal for me to then distribute these unencrypted/backup versions.
This is where the problem arises. People are making legal backup copies, and then illegally distributing them via Napster, Gnutella, or whatever. This is why the RIAA is up in arms. This is why a Russian national is in jail in violation of the Vienna convention. This is why Sony is making CD's that destroy my CD player. (I never liked them anyways.... just another reason to boycott them.)
It's our own damn fault that the record companies are taking these steps. If people didn't copy the CD's, then the record labels could lower the price on the discs. But if they lowered the prices, people wouldn't copy the CD's. It's a death spiral, and the record companies are trying to break it by putting in a hardware (or software, depending on your perspective) limitation to hinder the illegal distribution. Somebody has to take the first step to break the spiral, and personally, I can respect Sony's decision. I don't like it. I think they're going about it in a boneheaded manner. But somebody's gotta take steps that will eventually lead to lower prices for Joe Consumer.
Personally, I'm just gonna go back to vinyl until they figure themselves out.
I work tech support for a certain OEM that people seem to enjoy berating. You wanna know why we don't just ship the PC without the O/S?
Cap'n Bucky doesn't have the slightest clue how to configure power management under windoze, and now you want him to INSTALL it?!?!?!?
Pure genius. Really, it is. If a user knows how to install an o/s, usually that's the first thing they do. Format the HDD and install Win98SE, W2K, or better yet Linux.
Just don't bitch at me when your 4-year old copy of Oracle doesn't work in Windows ME, like my favourite call from yesterday.
MSCE Training: $7200
MCSE Certification: $540
MCSE logo on your resume: $0
Getting a job because of the logo: +$60,000/year
The look on your fellow techicians face when you don't know how to login to an NT workstation: Priceless
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard. Accepted everywhere, even at Microsoft.
How about the A+ (Should that be A-?) who was afraid to replace a power supply... It takes all kinds....
there'll be some idiot telling you it's illegal. So if there's always some idiot telling you it's illegal and threatening to sue, why can't we sue the comedians?
No offense to our good friends to the south, but there's a reason that threatening to sue is an American stereotype. This whole load of BS with Ma$tercard threatening to sue the comics just reinforces that. M$ claiming that Linux is "against the american way" is another fine example.
Lawyers' fees: $1000/hour
Taxi to/from court every day: $60
Hotel fees: $400/night
Expression on the plaintiff's face when he's told the charges are bullsh~t: Priceless.
Some things Money can't buy. For everything else, who gives a flying foobar?
This could be a stupid question; I know nothing of the UK phone system....
But I was under the impression that as for getting new high-tech toys, the USA and Canada are at least a year ahead of most of the world. how come we don't have video phones? (Well, we do, but they're nowhere near common enough to warrant a video cellphone.) Why develop such a phone when there's nobody that can use it? Sounds like shooting themselves in the foot when the phone inevitably costs more than anything else.
Haven't we known for a very, very long time that sleep deprivation impairs mental function? Not just mental speed and memory, but also motor function? IOW, if your mind is toasted, you're not going to remember much?
What I wonder is how this affects those lucky bastards with some form of eidetic memory. Doesn't it usually appear because the mind is always writing information into the "permanent databanks"? And if that's true, then would it be possible for somebody with an eidetic memory to eliminate sleep with a combonation of stimulants and meditation?
Probably not, but could be an interesting subtopic in a story. Bring the Illuminati to a new definition.
>FYI: It's actually a Queen at the moment, has been for the last fifty years or so.
I know... QE2. Acceeded in 1952 at the age of 18, on the death of her father, Edward VI. But she's getting on in years, and I've heard a lot of talk about her stepping down. I've also heard that the main reason she doesn't is that she doesn't want Prince Big-Ears to acceed.
> You make Australia sound like some kind of backwater that's up there with the places they have more guns than food.
You mean, like the USofA?
Probably not the whole of it.... I'm sure there's a few pacifists in southern California and Alaska.:)
Now, if there wasn't some truth to the stereotype he's referring to, then why are you taking offense? Do you cling to the belief that you have a right to carry a gun in case the King of England walks in through your door? Do you think of proponents of gun control as left-wing extremists? Do you long for the day when it'll be legal for you to buy an IMI Uzi at the local gas station?
Who ever said that personal contact information has to be made available?
Do a whois query on www.internic.net, or any other site. You will probably be given CORPORATE contact information. The address given is for Corporate HO, not for the CEO's home. The Telephone number is the same.
Any person has access to this information anyway. They have a right to request the corporate address from the company, and if the company does not give it, the government has the right to revoke their license to operate as a business.
So this whole argument is BS for any company, and those mentionned in the article have no right to complain.
If you are not a corporation, you probably don't have to worry anyway. Most users of the internet would say "who-wha?" when you confront them with the idea of a Whois query. In the grand scheme of things, a very tiny minority of Internet users know about Unix tools and how to use them, and most of those are not of the sort to harbour an unwarranted hostile intent. (Of course, the moment I say this, the Unabomber is going to turn out to have been a Unix expert....)
Prolly already been said, but as you all know by now, I'm too lazy to read other comments until after I've posted mine....
The main problem with this kind of software is that there is too much of a grey area. At work, for example, we have a blocking software that blocks just about everything that could remotely fall under its guidelines. You have no idea how hard it was to convince them that/. was not a "communist or other extremist forum".....
As for this kind of software, it just "intelligent" (if you'll allow me to use that word) yet. What about fine art. I know of a few hundred sites that post pictures that are acceptable because they were created 300 years ago, but that would not pass a filter because they're showing a little too much skin. And what about different pigment types? Would it block http://www.exn.net because of pictures of aborigines in Africa? Would it even notice that those black tribesmen are nude?
The technology is there, sure, but it is also very unreliable. The only true way to filter out a site is to do it manually. Not gonna happen. Too much is posted daily to make it worthwhile for a company to employ people to check everything, and no program that blocks everything that hasn't been cleared would last more than a month.
It's not bloody likely that they'll ever get around to doing this. There's not enough bandwidth on the Internet to go around, and when the common users learn that their search engines are what's causing the net to slow to a crawl, they're not exactly going to be happy.
Not everybody can afford the 100MBit connection offered by Cogent, and those poor saps still using a 14,400 are completely screwed by such a move. Hell, most servers on the 'net are on a T1, or a T3 at most.
Learn to speak Metric. 'm' means Meter. 'mi' means Mile. (* Or an imaginary meter, we're not too sure. *)
Besides, he corrected himself. 200,000 km/h for the star's velocity. (Well, speed. For velocity, you'd have to mention that it is travelling at tangent to a circle around us with radius 170 LY.)
200,000 km/h/3.6 = approx. 55555.6 m/s.
1/200th of that is: 277m/s. 997km/h, or about Mach 0.6.
Consider that I regularly drive my car at 140km/h (or for ye who cannot speak Metric, 90mph). That's about 39m/s. Let's make it 40, because I'm too lazy to reach for a calculator, and I've had the beast up to 160km/h. (Side note: not bad for a 1991 Subaru, no?) The Jet is going 277m/s. Let's give the jet the advantage of the Jetstream, and make it 280. That's 7x the speed. Now, if you don't believe the jet can go that speed, then you can go race the 747 from San Diego, CA to New York, NY, and tell me who wins.
Yeah. Videotron. Think they'll start supporting Windows ME any time soon? But that's beside the point.... I'm with ADSL now, and I can honestly, and bluntly, tell you that I will never switch back to cable. I was with Rogers@Home in Ottawa for over a year. Then about 2 months ago, it all went to shit. Down an average of 18 hours a day. Any idea how hard it was to get a refund? How about the fact that I had to take them to small claims court to get more than 14 days? The list keeps going. I'm with Magma ADSL in Ottawa. I'm 6.1km away from the CO. Despite that, the speed I'm getting is better than Rogers has given me for the last 6 months, and I've got free reign to run whatever server I damn well please. Static IP, too. Really Static. Not just a DHCP that never changes like @Home. So you can have your opinion, and I'll keep mine. I'm with ADSL at least until a viable alternative becomes available. I'm looking into Starchoice sattelite, but that's about it.
>this will beat the hell out of a grainy ATI All-in-wonder or similar product
I don't know about that... I've got an ATI TV-Wonder Pro. ($95 Canadian, http://www.rbcomputing.com/) I'm decoding at 512*384 resolution, and it doesn't look too grainy. The only thing I don't like is that the picture is solid mauve on the second head of my display.
I salute you....
What I think I'll do is stick with the 20" widescreen TV that I have. (Well, not really Widescreen. Has some feature that Samsung calls "Vision+" which decodes more columns of resolution, and puts it out on a 16x9 screen.) For all of $450 (Canadian, that's what, $0.25 US?).
When/if the HDTV signal becomes manditory (BTW, I'm pretty sure its 2003 in Canada), the Cable co's will have to provide their users with HDTV-NTSC decoder boxes without charge. I'll be capitalizing on that until the price for true HDTV, Plasma display TV's become affordable. ($25k is a little too rich for a TV, methinks.)
Oi. Crappy as RS is, they are a good place to go for some things. Like some of those hard-to-find electronic tools. (Note: tools, not toys.)
Still, I can remember the time when a Radio Shack salesperson -completely straightfaced- told me that Level 2 cache was detrimental to computer performance.......
>I'll wait for the Ethernet version, thank you.
DirecTV in Canada is offering 2-way (at least, will be before the new year) through ethernet.
Old news?
For the last 2 months we've been hearing about 2-way sattelite service offered by one of the sattelite providers in Canada. (Not sure which one it is. I know it isn't ExpressVu, and am pretty sure it isn't PrimeStar. Dammit. Gonna come to me in the middle of my sleepy-time. Think it's DirecTV)
They're expected to launch it for Christmas. 2-way sattelite at Cable speeds. Nasty lag, but otherwise pretty good.
Slashdot Mirror
AOL isn't just dialup. I've never used it myself, but as a CSR for Compaq (well, for now at least.... :/), I see a huge number of customers using AOL.
And believe it or not, the recent versions of AOL allow users to connect to their services via a VPN. A VPN can be established through anything... including Cable Modem, and a large number of AOL users are connecting to AOL through these methods now.
Personally, I think it's a good idea at the same time as being almost as stupid as giving Johnny the ability to make/modify/send shell scripts under Windows XP. (Off topic, but johnny can create a script that tells the user he's defragging the hard drive, while it's actually running a system command, like, oh, I dunno... Format? Macro-viruses built into the O/S!)
It's a good idea, because it will be one more reason for people to switch to Linux. The original article does a very good job of explaining and pointing this out, and I won't go into more arguments for it.
By that same token, the average AOL user is too ingrained into being breastfed by the techies to come anywhere near grasping a command-line architechture like Linux. KDE, Gnome, Litestep, etc. do a pretty good job of allowing the user to use Linux in a GUI, but let's face it: if you don't understand at least the rudiments of the Linux command-line structure, you're screwed when you try to modify it. It's not as good as Windows or Mac, and I doubt it ever will be.
HTH
-RK
Hehe... number 500 or so.
:/
The author of this article claims that Microsoft is being mean (for lack of a better paraphrasing) because they haven't created a tutorial that introduces users to the windows environment, etc....
Obviously the author hasn't seen Windows XP. Not only does WinXP have an excellent tutorial OOBE (no longer for people who buy a Compaq or a Dell or some other evil computer) that shows the end user how to use windows, it senses mouse/keyboard activity during the OOBE, and if the user sits there for long enough, it'll launch a tutorial that teaches them how to use the keyboard and the mouse.
While I know it's impossible, MS really has tried very hard to make the system idiot-proof.
At the risk of being redundant (well... I am being redundant), this author really should do his research before he makes himself look like an ass.
As a side note... I've actively tried to crash WinXP with no success... anybody have any suggestions? I couldn't even crash it when I was surfing the internet (160 IE windows, just for the hell of it), burning a CD, and listening to MP3's at the same time. Right click stopped working, but it didn't crash.... The CD played in my car CD player, too....
I think that this case should go to trial. I think that the Americans should hang on to Skylarov until he goes to trial. But they should also stop violating the Vienna Convention, and let him talk to his Embassy. Also, are not all people guaranteed the right to a speedy trial under the Constitution you hold so dearly?
This is a question of Jurisdiction, first and foremost. Your people arrested a Russian national for doing something that is PERFECTLY legal. Not only is it legal for him to decrypt the encrypted e-books in Russia, it's legal everywhere else. What's illegal is to then distribute the unencrypted intellectual property (e-books), which Skylarov never did. I'm aware that your DMCA prohibits the production/distribution of programs designed to circumvent encryption, but that law's considered illegal by most of you, anyway. Strictly speaking, the E-Book reader program from Adobe is designed to circumvent the encryption on e-books to render them readable....
The longer this case takes to be dismissed (and it will be dismissed), the worse Dubya looks in the international community. (That's pretty hard, since he started building nukes again.) Every day, there's an increasing number of protests about this internationally, and it wouldn't surprise me if other countries join Russia in lodging a formal complaint with the UN once the fall session opens.
Sorry, </rant>. The point is that the longer this case takes to be resolved, the more aware Joe Public is going to be. I understand that Skylarov is unjustly imprisoned, and I empathize for him and his family. I would certainly not want to be in his situation, and I can think of nobody that I would wish into that situation. But I would rather make a martyr out of Skylarov now than wait 15 years for resolution on DMCA and opression for all.
This ocurred to me when proofreading it after posting it... isn't it always the case?
I also strongly doubt that RedHat has a 50% market share. Namely because it's kind of hard o judge the market on FREE software. For all we know, Linux Antarctica is installed on 99% of the computers running Linux, because there is no real way to figure it out.
RedHat may sell the most boxed copies, they may have the most downloads. But in a market where it's perfectly legal, and common practice to make copies of the software and hand them to your friends, there is no real way to determine who's got what. I personally have about 20 different distros lying around the house.
Maybe the one real distro that everybody has and uses is TomsRTBT
You forget that Micro$oft also has other, non-OS products.
;-)
They make a killing selling Games, Office suites, graphics suites, etc. RedHat makes Linux. That is all.
Sure, Microsoft sells a 1-user license for Windows 2000 for $700. But the OS sales only make up a small part of their final revenue. For every 1 user that actually buys Windows 2000, Microsoft has 20+ users that buy the latest copy of MechWarrior 4 or whatever for $80. They've also got a large number of users buying MS Office every year for $600 a pop, and the graphics programs for $600 a pop. Then you've got Visual C++ and Visual Basic. Those cost another $800 a pop.
Do the math again. You'll see that the OS's only make up about 5-10% of Microsoft's final revenue. Probably less, because they charge $45 a call for Tech. Support. I'm Canadian, and using Canadian dollars, here. Feel free to convert that to American, but don't flame me because you don't speak Canadian....
So we return to your math. Assuming that RH has a share of 50%, and makes 0.1% of what Microsoft makes. Factor in the 5-10% (let's be generous, and say 10%), that's 1% of the revenue being spent on MS OS's for RedHat. That's a significant change.
Why is it a significant change? Simple: Numbers. For every diehard Linux user you can find, I can find you 100 or more who want nothing to do with it, and would rather use Windows because it's easier.
Q.E.D.
I can see the flames coming...
I use both Windows and Linux. There's a time and a place for both. Specifically, my Games machine is currently running Windows 2000 Professional. In the last year it's run Windows 98SE, Windows ME, and Whistler. My workstation, my Seti@Home box you mean you don't have one? shame..., my firewall, my mailserver, my DNS server, etc. all run Linux. Most of 'em are running RH 6.2, but the DNS is running 6.0. I have no reason to update them, as they do everything I need. The firewall is a firewall. No open ports, so I'm not afraid of hacking.
But that wasn't your question. You asked, how much have I spent on Linux, and how much have I spent on Windows. I've spent the same: The cost of 4 blank CD's. About 3 dollars. Not even, because I buy them by the hundred for $30. I've bought one copy of Caldera for the manual. Everything else I've downloaded. The Windows has been acquired thanks to my friend's department (20 people) having a 100 user license and not being allowed to share the licenses with other departments. I feel like Dilbert....
To put it another way, I've spent more money on Everquest in the last year than I have on Windows and Linux put together, and I've only been playing it for 3 months.
HTH
According to Copyright law, it is legal to make one copy of -any- electronic media (games, movies, books, music, etc) for archival purposes. Furthermore, software or hardware technological devices that allow end users to exersize this "fair use" portion of their copyright agreement (read: CD Duplicators and the like) are protected under law....
Just thought I'd elaborate a bit more, as I can see the flames coming....
It's perfectly legal for me to modify, back up, and unencrypt anything to which I have bought rights. (Skylarov, listen up.)
It is not, however, legal for me to then distribute these unencrypted/backup versions.
This is where the problem arises. People are making legal backup copies, and then illegally distributing them via Napster, Gnutella, or whatever. This is why the RIAA is up in arms. This is why a Russian national is in jail in violation of the Vienna convention. This is why Sony is making CD's that destroy my CD player. (I never liked them anyways.... just another reason to boycott them.)
It's our own damn fault that the record companies are taking these steps. If people didn't copy the CD's, then the record labels could lower the price on the discs. But if they lowered the prices, people wouldn't copy the CD's. It's a death spiral, and the record companies are trying to break it by putting in a hardware (or software, depending on your perspective) limitation to hinder the illegal distribution. Somebody has to take the first step to break the spiral, and personally, I can respect Sony's decision. I don't like it. I think they're going about it in a boneheaded manner. But somebody's gotta take steps that will eventually lead to lower prices for Joe Consumer.
Personally, I'm just gonna go back to vinyl until they figure themselves out.
I strongly belief that more then 40% of all Windows licences are never in use but just lay around...
Maybe that'll help make up for all the pirated copies running around....
I work tech support for a certain OEM that people seem to enjoy berating. You wanna know why we don't just ship the PC without the O/S?
Cap'n Bucky doesn't have the slightest clue how to configure power management under windoze, and now you want him to INSTALL it?!?!?!?
Pure genius. Really, it is. If a user knows how to install an o/s, usually that's the first thing they do. Format the HDD and install Win98SE, W2K, or better yet Linux.
Just don't bitch at me when your 4-year old copy of Oracle doesn't work in Windows ME, like my favourite call from yesterday.
From that site...
MSCE Training: $7200
MCSE Certification: $540
MCSE logo on your resume: $0
Getting a job because of the logo: +$60,000/year
The look on your fellow techicians face when you don't know how to login to an NT workstation: Priceless
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard. Accepted everywhere, even at Microsoft.
How about the A+ (Should that be A-?) who was afraid to replace a power supply... It takes all kinds....
there'll be some idiot telling you it's illegal. So if there's always some idiot telling you it's illegal and threatening to sue, why can't we sue the comedians?
No offense to our good friends to the south, but there's a reason that threatening to sue is an American stereotype. This whole load of BS with Ma$tercard threatening to sue the comics just reinforces that. M$ claiming that Linux is "against the american way" is another fine example.
Lawyers' fees: $1000/hour
Taxi to/from court every day: $60
Hotel fees: $400/night
Expression on the plaintiff's face when he's told the charges are bullsh~t: Priceless.
Some things Money can't buy. For everything else, who gives a flying foobar?
This could be a stupid question; I know nothing of the UK phone system....
But I was under the impression that as for getting new high-tech toys, the USA and Canada are at least a year ahead of most of the world. how come we don't have video phones? (Well, we do, but they're nowhere near common enough to warrant a video cellphone.) Why develop such a phone when there's nobody that can use it? Sounds like shooting themselves in the foot when the phone inevitably costs more than anything else.
Haven't we known for a very, very long time that sleep deprivation impairs mental function? Not just mental speed and memory, but also motor function? IOW, if your mind is toasted, you're not going to remember much?
What I wonder is how this affects those lucky bastards with some form of eidetic memory. Doesn't it usually appear because the mind is always writing information into the "permanent databanks"? And if that's true, then would it be possible for somebody with an eidetic memory to eliminate sleep with a combonation of stimulants and meditation?
Probably not, but could be an interesting subtopic in a story. Bring the Illuminati to a new definition.
>FYI: It's actually a Queen at the moment, has been for the last fifty years or so.
I know... QE2. Acceeded in 1952 at the age of 18, on the death of her father, Edward VI. But she's getting on in years, and I've heard a lot of talk about her stepping down. I've also heard that the main reason she doesn't is that she doesn't want Prince Big-Ears to acceed.
> You make Australia sound like some kind of backwater that's up there with the places they have more guns than food.
:)
You mean, like the USofA?
Probably not the whole of it.... I'm sure there's a few pacifists in southern California and Alaska.
Now, if there wasn't some truth to the stereotype he's referring to, then why are you taking offense? Do you cling to the belief that you have a right to carry a gun in case the King of England walks in through your door? Do you think of proponents of gun control as left-wing extremists? Do you long for the day when it'll be legal for you to buy an IMI Uzi at the local gas station?
Probably not. So why let it bother you?
Who ever said that personal contact information has to be made available?
Do a whois query on www.internic.net, or any other site. You will probably be given CORPORATE contact information. The address given is for Corporate HO, not for the CEO's home. The Telephone number is the same.
Any person has access to this information anyway. They have a right to request the corporate address from the company, and if the company does not give it, the government has the right to revoke their license to operate as a business.
So this whole argument is BS for any company, and those mentionned in the article have no right to complain.
If you are not a corporation, you probably don't have to worry anyway. Most users of the internet would say "who-wha?" when you confront them with the idea of a Whois query. In the grand scheme of things, a very tiny minority of Internet users know about Unix tools and how to use them, and most of those are not of the sort to harbour an unwarranted hostile intent. (Of course, the moment I say this, the Unabomber is going to turn out to have been a Unix expert....)
Prolly already been said, but as you all know by now, I'm too lazy to read other comments until after I've posted mine....
/. was not a "communist or other extremist forum".....
The main problem with this kind of software is that there is too much of a grey area. At work, for example, we have a blocking software that blocks just about everything that could remotely fall under its guidelines. You have no idea how hard it was to convince them that
As for this kind of software, it just "intelligent" (if you'll allow me to use that word) yet. What about fine art. I know of a few hundred sites that post pictures that are acceptable because they were created 300 years ago, but that would not pass a filter because they're showing a little too much skin. And what about different pigment types? Would it block http://www.exn.net because of pictures of aborigines in Africa? Would it even notice that those black tribesmen are nude?
The technology is there, sure, but it is also very unreliable. The only true way to filter out a site is to do it manually. Not gonna happen. Too much is posted daily to make it worthwhile for a company to employ people to check everything, and no program that blocks everything that hasn't been cleared would last more than a month.
It's not bloody likely that they'll ever get around to doing this. There's not enough bandwidth on the Internet to go around, and when the common users learn that their search engines are what's causing the net to slow to a crawl, they're not exactly going to be happy.
Not everybody can afford the 100MBit connection offered by Cogent, and those poor saps still using a 14,400 are completely screwed by such a move. Hell, most servers on the 'net are on a T1, or a T3 at most.
Learn to speak Metric. 'm' means Meter. 'mi' means Mile. (* Or an imaginary meter, we're not too sure. *)
/3.6 = approx. 55555.6 m/s.
Besides, he corrected himself. 200,000 km/h for the star's velocity. (Well, speed. For velocity, you'd have to mention that it is travelling at tangent to a circle around us with radius 170 LY.)
200,000 km/h
1/200th of that is: 277m/s. 997km/h, or about Mach 0.6.
Consider that I regularly drive my car at 140km/h (or for ye who cannot speak Metric, 90mph). That's about 39m/s. Let's make it 40, because I'm too lazy to reach for a calculator, and I've had the beast up to 160km/h. (Side note: not bad for a 1991 Subaru, no?) The Jet is going 277m/s. Let's give the jet the advantage of the Jetstream, and make it 280. That's 7x the speed. Now, if you don't believe the jet can go that speed, then you can go race the 747 from San Diego, CA to New York, NY, and tell me who wins.
Yeah. Videotron. Think they'll start supporting Windows ME any time soon? But that's beside the point.... I'm with ADSL now, and I can honestly, and bluntly, tell you that I will never switch back to cable. I was with Rogers@Home in Ottawa for over a year. Then about 2 months ago, it all went to shit. Down an average of 18 hours a day. Any idea how hard it was to get a refund? How about the fact that I had to take them to small claims court to get more than 14 days? The list keeps going. I'm with Magma ADSL in Ottawa. I'm 6.1km away from the CO. Despite that, the speed I'm getting is better than Rogers has given me for the last 6 months, and I've got free reign to run whatever server I damn well please. Static IP, too. Really Static. Not just a DHCP that never changes like @Home. So you can have your opinion, and I'll keep mine. I'm with ADSL at least until a viable alternative becomes available. I'm looking into Starchoice sattelite, but that's about it.
'tis, but when I e-mailed your addy, I got a returned: user unknown. Please repeat addy:
"gerbil.gerbil@hotmail.com"?
>this will beat the hell out of a grainy ATI All-in-wonder or similar product
I don't know about that... I've got an ATI TV-Wonder Pro. ($95 Canadian, http://www.rbcomputing.com/) I'm decoding at 512*384 resolution, and it doesn't look too grainy. The only thing I don't like is that the picture is solid mauve on the second head of my display.
I salute you....
What I think I'll do is stick with the 20" widescreen TV that I have. (Well, not really Widescreen. Has some feature that Samsung calls "Vision+" which decodes more columns of resolution, and puts it out on a 16x9 screen.) For all of $450 (Canadian, that's what, $0.25 US?).
When/if the HDTV signal becomes manditory (BTW, I'm pretty sure its 2003 in Canada), the Cable co's will have to provide their users with HDTV-NTSC decoder boxes without charge. I'll be capitalizing on that until the price for true HDTV, Plasma display TV's become affordable. ($25k is a little too rich for a TV, methinks.)
Oi. Crappy as RS is, they are a good place to go for some things. Like some of those hard-to-find electronic tools. (Note: tools, not toys.)
Still, I can remember the time when a Radio Shack salesperson -completely straightfaced- told me that Level 2 cache was detrimental to computer performance.......
>I'll wait for the Ethernet version, thank you.
DirecTV in Canada is offering 2-way (at least, will be before the new year) through ethernet.
Old news?
For the last 2 months we've been hearing about 2-way sattelite service offered by one of the sattelite providers in Canada. (Not sure which one it is. I know it isn't ExpressVu, and am pretty sure it isn't PrimeStar. Dammit. Gonna come to me in the middle of my sleepy-time. Think it's DirecTV)
They're expected to launch it for Christmas. 2-way sattelite at Cable speeds. Nasty lag, but otherwise pretty good.