I'm not sure if/. discussed this previously, but what about smart cards? These are normal credit cards with a microprocessor and around 32K(??) of memory. There's a reader that attaches to your computer, and when used at an online retailer that supports it, you can pop the card in the reader, enter your access code (like a PIN#) and it will send your information. It's triple DES encrypted, so your CC# is never transmitted or shown in plain text.
You can also access your account online in this way and do other things, like download coupons to the card to be used at retail stores. For example, you can go to http://www.fakecoffeestore.com, download a discount to the card, then go to the mall to FakeCoffeeStore and use your card there for a discount. Pretty neat...
Of course the problem with this setup is people have to support it.
Info on the card I have, the FusionCard, is at http://www.fusioncard.com. I haven't gotten my reader yet, should be a neat toy though.
I've read about this before, and what makes me nervous about it is that these disposable numbers are just one more thing to keep track of. I have a handful of credit cards as it is, and I find it hard to keep track. Somehow I doubt this catches on very well in its current implementation, but maybe its just me.
I've done some work for somethingawful.com, and can definitely attest that running the site: 1) is more than just a hobby, and 2) requires more money than most people would spend on a hobby.
I imagine many of the other sites would surprise you in the same way.
My only concern with advanced handheld's is battery life. Remember Sega's handheld? That thing could gulp down a couple of AA batteries per hour. That got expensive.
I liked the plain old gameboy... used little batteries, and since it was so graphically deficient, the emphasis was on gameplay rather than goofy effects like most modern games, regardless of platform.
I'll probably buy a gameboy advance for plane trips... but only because it looks ALOT like the SNES, which IMHO was one of the best consoles of all time in terms of game quality.
Anybody who is relying on client-side storage is asking for trouble. Basically, storing information in this way is little more than a suggestion to the client. Sort of like the server saying "here is what the price is, now send back what you think the price is!". This is useful for things like non-crucial state information, but use it for much else and youre asking for trouble.
Most people don't understand that HTTP is stateless and there are security considerations bundled with that.
The reason Napster is getting shutdown is because it targets music. As soon as someone comes up with a solid, easy to use P2P application for the masses, MP3 swapping will be back on its online feet.
There needs to be a P2P app with strong filtering, ie block executables and scripts by default, and with options to show only files with certain extensions, etc. As long as it isnt targeted at music, how could anyone shut down such a service?
And Napster's attempt to be a "music community" is rather laughable. The chatrooms are typically empty, and I highly doubt many people read their content. I won't even go into the program's technical dismerit (just look at the protocol). A better application could easily be made.
Don't forget... it's still easy to find MP3 on http, ftp, nntp, irc, etc. Those services all use a centralized server, but can't be shut down (by and large) because they are so general.
I wonder, though... if there were a generic centralized file-sharing service, would the authorities search it for MP3 and prosecute individual users? Something seems horribly wrong about all of this...
"unless I'm a real geek, I don't have an alternative"
That's an interesting point. Most 'non-geek' people I know don't even recognize a difference between windows and their PC. They consider the computer and windows as one appliance. I think Apple has a very similar "appliance-like" persona with its mostly-closed Macs. Common people walk into a store and see macs and windows computers, not macs and PCs.
Of course, this is what MS is going for. They want to be ubiquitous, and its beneficial to the industry that they are. I would rather there be choices for the common consumer, of course, but for now, there really arent.
Re:This reminds me of Disclosure
on
MUD Shell
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, I agree. I would much rather see a file named 'keys' from the shell rather than having to look under virtual couch cushions for it.
Personally, I'd like to see many of these wannabe startups vacate their space on the internet. A very large number of sites that have sprung up in the last three years or so are just people with venture capital trying to cash in on a craze. The quality is not there.
Some interesting food for thought; if you scrape away all of these internet scavengers, have you really lost any quality content? Not likely.
Also, think about how sites are built now. You get venture capital, you hire 100 (is that enough!?) people, and you try to run it like a traditional corporation, which rarely floats. Was Slashdot built in this manner? Would Slashdot be around if it were?
Back in 1998, I built a gaming site in my spare time (radium... we did Half-Life reviews). It took alot of work, but at its peak I was bringing in close to 15,000 unique visitors a day, which is alot of people for a one-man show. I did the site only because I enjoyed it. I put quality first, and that's what separated me from other sites and brought in visitors.
The fact is, people don't often pour heart and soul into sites anymore, only money. These are very different ingredients.
Of course, what I'm saying does not solve the problem of keeping sites afloat and making the internet a viable grounds for business. What I'm saying is that, from our standpoint, this need not be something to fear. Hopefully some good systems can be developed that will reward the work of people who do what they do because they love it.
I believe its important to have ACL's available in Linux - here's why.
My company, largely a Microsoft-based shop, is wanting to build a new intranet. I am totally *nix dependent, and up till now, I've run into only a few cross-platform issues with projects focused mainly on our internet offerings. But, an intranet is very different from an internet site. It's meant to be a central site for the company that ties together other systems and information, which in our case currently reside on mostly Microsoft-based solutions.
I really WANT to deploy our intranet on a Linux platform, but its proving tough and is possibly not feasible. One of the biggest obstacles is Linux' lack of ACL support. Our NT-based staff wants a web-based front-end to their fileserver that loses none of the functionality of NT's security. To do it, I planned to move the fileserver to Linux as well, which they were willing to do. But, it turns out I'm just not able to match the security configurability of NT, and my superiors won't stand for anything less.
If Linux had ACL support, perhaps I could find a way to pull it off. I'm still researching some of the ACL projects available, but my situation looks grim. What really disappoints me about this is that I'm having to admit that Linux is not ideal for our situation, and I'll likely end up on IIS and building the intranet in ASP. Ugh.
During my brief three-year employment in the gaming industry, I've seen the changes first hand. This includes the demise of turn-based games and many other things.
I think it can be attributed to the types of players that gaming companies want to attract now, and the new technology that has sprung up.
Gaming companies are not mom-and-pop shops anymore. Most big game titles are hitched with a gigantic publisher. A gigantic corporation, more importantly. Game developers dont neccessarily have the luxury of building games that appeal to niche audiences, such as the people who would play heavily-strategic turn-based games. They have to appeal to a broader audience of people who may not be nearly as sophisticated, or its very hard to get a good publisher and mainstream reach.
Five years ago, in the DOS days, not just anyone could setup a computer for gaming, it was comparatively much more difficult. I remember I typically had a different DOS6.2 configuration for each game (Masters of Orion, Civilization, Doom, XWing, etc). That's changed, and gaming has point/click potential. People want fancy effects and fast action, which are two things that don't neccessarily fit well into turn-based gaming.
Personally, I very much miss the way gaming was five years ago, and these changes prompted my departure from the industry. I find today's games lack the sophistication of the game's of five years ago. Or maybe I'm just getting older...
I've downloaded my share of songs from Napster, but I admit I have not served out my share. Not even close. As I download music, I organize it into directories that are outside of my Napster shared folder, so I'm rarely sharing more than a dozen files.
I don't want people maxing my weak upstream bandwidth. So, what if I pay $9/month, and download all I can, but never share anything? Aren't others getting ripped off?
Personally, if Napster goes away, I will have no problem finding MP3. Its on FTP's, newsgroups, IRC... not to mention Napster clones.
Hopefully with this new series they will focus on substance over sparkle. People are so preoccupied with fancy sets and expensive effects that content often takes second place. I think this is goes beyond Star Trek, and is applicable from everything to TV, to movies, to video games and many other forms of entertainment.
ST went downhill after TNG. StarWars is another good example of this trend - Episode I had great effects but fell short on content. Fantasy can exist without effects... its the reason you can play a text-based online RPG or even a paper-based one. The important thing is immersion.
At the same time, critics will skewer a show unless it has these needless effects, so what can you do? People just expect it now.
Iron Chef is a trip. Once Iron Chef stopped coming on, and the Sopranos second season was over, I had cable disconnected. (ot: it will be reinstated soon for season three!)
If you aren't into Iron Chef yet, you simply must check it out. There's a great Iron Chef site at www.ironchef.com. See their great FAQ if you're new to it.
Two minute kernel compiles sure sound nice. It took my PPro 32 minutes to do compile 2.4 yesterday. Still, I bet a brand new dual athlon system won't spit out dust while it compiles!!
Re:some (hopefully) constructive criticism
on
Freshmeat II
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· Score: 1
I constructively agree with the points made above. I think its a definite improvement over the old design, though.
My biggest peeve is the left hand blue bar... its a bit much, especially at anything above 1024 pixels wide, since its a 20% width scaling cell. Maybe if the width of that column were fixed, or the login box was just a small floating blue box it would help out.
Maybe some very light horizontal rules between news items would help too, such as
<hr size=1 color="#C0C0C0">
Again, just some constructive criticism. Great job overall.
I believe he is referring to "The Internet" from a commercial standpoint, since that's what's he's involved in and is discussing in the article. I doubt what he's writing is meant to have any bearing on any of the "gripping free content" out there or is meant to offend you. Can't you people stop being anal long enough to focus on the actual topic instead of nitpicking some guy's article to death?
That's awful! Repeatedly paying that $500 seems pretty dumb to me. I would surely find some some way around that (even if I simply refused to pay again), regardless of how it would affect my credit.
I worked for a dotcom (a gaming network mentioned on/. today actually) and was mysteriously fired as well. One friday, I was out sick. I had no home phone and my cellphone was at the office, so I sent word with two friends that I would not be in that day. Having two weeks vacation saved up and considering my stance there (I worked 80 hours weeks and was grossly underpaid), I thought absolutely nothing of it.
Later that day, I get a call from a friend letting me know that the CEO and my boss were going through my desk and took alot of my stuff upstairs and locked it in a room. This included a computer I owned that happened to be at the office. I was told by coworkers that they said what I did was a "malicious act". Hehe.
I couldn't get my computer until Monday, three days later. I went in that morning to pick it up, and the HR person tried to physically stop me from going upstairs to get it, insisting that I first had to sign some papers and meet with them. I took my machine (while four people hung over me like prison guards) and signed absolutely nothing. I hung out in the parking lot a while talking to shocked coworkers. Eventually the CEO came out and told me I couldnt loiter in his parking lot.
I received nothing saying I was being fired. No phone call, no letter, nothing. That night I had a friend let me in the office afterhours so I could get my belongings that were not locked away. I also printed a letter of resignation and left it on the CEO's desk. As far as I'm concerned, I quit.:)
I suspect they found out I was going to quit anyway (I had interviewed at Amazon.com and Disney that same week already) and were just looking for a reason to get rid of me. Why? I had alot of stock, and it vested a week later. We all know what dotcom stock is worth right? Needless to say I was not upset.
I now work as a webmaster for a software developer, and I have to say, I have never been happier or healthier. I get paid nearly twice as much, I strictly work nine-to-five, the people there are friendly, professional, and experienced, and there is no stress. Hell, I even have the makings of a social life again!
My advice to everyone in a dotcom startup is to seriously examine your situation and consider moving to a more traditional and stable environment. You might be surprised how much better it can be.
In many cases, software isn't made by programmers, its made by a company. Despite the engineers' wishes and goals, there are other departments in a corporation that have influence over the software's development. Marketing might want feature X by release because its needed for a campaign. Sales wants feature Y because a potential client is requesting it. An executive wants feature Z because... well because he's on a power trip and thinks he knows better than you.
Even if features X, Y, and Z are ridiculous features that will reduce the quality of your product in some way, you have to do what the company wants. Quality is certainly not what its necessarily about in the business world. Alot of executives will flat-out tell you this.
In part, this guy isn't complaining about crappy software, he's complaining about products developed in Corporate America -- a market heavily dependant on image and tricks.
Re: "free software", well... where's the incentive for quality? If I'm making a program in my free time in my basement, I'll make it as good or bad as I want. There's alot of possible scenarios here, of course. I won't elaborate.
As for his comments about the commandline... show me an admin who can setup an IIS server faster than I can setup Apache and we'll talk.
The solutions here is pretty easy. Leave a karma cap for internal use, but allow the actual karma to be unlimited. For example, you might have a +23233342 karma rating, but if the internal cap is set to 50, it uses 50 for its calculations.
This way, you get the best of both worlds.
It depends. If you really have the money to afford a good school where you might actually learn a thing or two, sure, maybe it's worth it. I'd say that's not the case for most people.
In my case, I was in college for three years and realized I wasnt learning a single thing. I looked at what graduates were doing, and I knew more than they did (and Im no genious). So, why keep making loans, get myself in debt, only to graduate and realize I'd have to start learning in the real world all over again? In my case, a good opportunity came along and I took it. It was better to stop making loans and get real experience.
Here's a cool scenario to chew on. It's 1995, me and you graduate high school together. You go directly to a great college and graduate in 2001 (five years later) and actually learn alot. You pay ~$30K a year for this (even this is a "bargain price"). You get out of school and youre good. You land a job making $90K a year - great. You spent ~150K to get there.
But back in 1995, I decided to skip college and get a job right out of high school making $35K a year. Now here's the question: by 2001, who is more valuable?
I guess it all depends on the individual's knowledge and choices, but the thing to realize is that, no, skipping college isnt a bad thing at this time. On recent interviews, over ~95% of interviewers showed absolutely no interest in my educational background and were concerned only with experience.
Slashdot Mirror
You can also access your account online in this way and do other things, like download coupons to the card to be used at retail stores. For example, you can go to http://www.fakecoffeestore.com, download a discount to the card, then go to the mall to FakeCoffeeStore and use your card there for a discount. Pretty neat...
Of course the problem with this setup is people have to support it.
Info on the card I have, the FusionCard, is at http://www.fusioncard.com. I haven't gotten my reader yet, should be a neat toy though.
I've read about this before, and what makes me nervous about it is that these disposable numbers are just one more thing to keep track of. I have a handful of credit cards as it is, and I find it hard to keep track. Somehow I doubt this catches on very well in its current implementation, but maybe its just me.
I've done some work for somethingawful.com, and can definitely attest that running the site: 1) is more than just a hobby, and 2) requires more money than most people would spend on a hobby. I imagine many of the other sites would surprise you in the same way.
So Slashdot editors should censor topics based on that? I doubt it. Wouldn't MSNBC report on CBS News doing something illegal?
I liked the plain old gameboy... used little batteries, and since it was so graphically deficient, the emphasis was on gameplay rather than goofy effects like most modern games, regardless of platform.
I'll probably buy a gameboy advance for plane trips... but only because it looks ALOT like the SNES, which IMHO was one of the best consoles of all time in terms of game quality.
LONG LIVE 2D SIDESCROLLERS! :)
Most people don't understand that HTTP is stateless and there are security considerations bundled with that.
There needs to be a P2P app with strong filtering, ie block executables and scripts by default, and with options to show only files with certain extensions, etc. As long as it isnt targeted at music, how could anyone shut down such a service?
And Napster's attempt to be a "music community" is rather laughable. The chatrooms are typically empty, and I highly doubt many people read their content. I won't even go into the program's technical dismerit (just look at the protocol). A better application could easily be made.
Don't forget... it's still easy to find MP3 on http, ftp, nntp, irc, etc. Those services all use a centralized server, but can't be shut down (by and large) because they are so general.
I wonder, though... if there were a generic centralized file-sharing service, would the authorities search it for MP3 and prosecute individual users? Something seems horribly wrong about all of this...
Of course, this is what MS is going for. They want to be ubiquitous, and its beneficial to the industry that they are. I would rather there be choices for the common consumer, of course, but for now, there really arent.
Yeah, I agree. I would much rather see a file named 'keys' from the shell rather than having to look under virtual couch cushions for it.
Some interesting food for thought; if you scrape away all of these internet scavengers, have you really lost any quality content? Not likely.
Also, think about how sites are built now. You get venture capital, you hire 100 (is that enough!?) people, and you try to run it like a traditional corporation, which rarely floats. Was Slashdot built in this manner? Would Slashdot be around if it were?
Back in 1998, I built a gaming site in my spare time (radium... we did Half-Life reviews). It took alot of work, but at its peak I was bringing in close to 15,000 unique visitors a day, which is alot of people for a one-man show. I did the site only because I enjoyed it. I put quality first, and that's what separated me from other sites and brought in visitors.
The fact is, people don't often pour heart and soul into sites anymore, only money. These are very different ingredients.
Of course, what I'm saying does not solve the problem of keeping sites afloat and making the internet a viable grounds for business. What I'm saying is that, from our standpoint, this need not be something to fear. Hopefully some good systems can be developed that will reward the work of people who do what they do because they love it.
My company, largely a Microsoft-based shop, is wanting to build a new intranet. I am totally *nix dependent, and up till now, I've run into only a few cross-platform issues with projects focused mainly on our internet offerings. But, an intranet is very different from an internet site. It's meant to be a central site for the company that ties together other systems and information, which in our case currently reside on mostly Microsoft-based solutions.
I really WANT to deploy our intranet on a Linux platform, but its proving tough and is possibly not feasible. One of the biggest obstacles is Linux' lack of ACL support. Our NT-based staff wants a web-based front-end to their fileserver that loses none of the functionality of NT's security. To do it, I planned to move the fileserver to Linux as well, which they were willing to do. But, it turns out I'm just not able to match the security configurability of NT, and my superiors won't stand for anything less.
If Linux had ACL support, perhaps I could find a way to pull it off. I'm still researching some of the ACL projects available, but my situation looks grim. What really disappoints me about this is that I'm having to admit that Linux is not ideal for our situation, and I'll likely end up on IIS and building the intranet in ASP. Ugh.
I guess Microsoft has done its dirty work well.
I think it can be attributed to the types of players that gaming companies want to attract now, and the new technology that has sprung up.
Gaming companies are not mom-and-pop shops anymore. Most big game titles are hitched with a gigantic publisher. A gigantic corporation, more importantly. Game developers dont neccessarily have the luxury of building games that appeal to niche audiences, such as the people who would play heavily-strategic turn-based games. They have to appeal to a broader audience of people who may not be nearly as sophisticated, or its very hard to get a good publisher and mainstream reach.
Five years ago, in the DOS days, not just anyone could setup a computer for gaming, it was comparatively much more difficult. I remember I typically had a different DOS6.2 configuration for each game (Masters of Orion, Civilization, Doom, XWing, etc). That's changed, and gaming has point/click potential. People want fancy effects and fast action, which are two things that don't neccessarily fit well into turn-based gaming.
Personally, I very much miss the way gaming was five years ago, and these changes prompted my departure from the industry. I find today's games lack the sophistication of the game's of five years ago. Or maybe I'm just getting older...
I don't want people maxing my weak upstream bandwidth. So, what if I pay $9/month, and download all I can, but never share anything? Aren't others getting ripped off?
Personally, if Napster goes away, I will have no problem finding MP3. Its on FTP's, newsgroups, IRC... not to mention Napster clones.
ST went downhill after TNG. StarWars is another good example of this trend - Episode I had great effects but fell short on content. Fantasy can exist without effects... its the reason you can play a text-based online RPG or even a paper-based one. The important thing is immersion.
At the same time, critics will skewer a show unless it has these needless effects, so what can you do? People just expect it now.
So do the math! There are full stats online at http://www.ironchef.com/ironstats.shtml.
If you aren't into Iron Chef yet, you simply must check it out. There's a great Iron Chef site at www.ironchef.com. See their great FAQ if you're new to it.
For a real treat, watch Iron Chef while drunk.
how well does it run vi?!
Two minute kernel compiles sure sound nice. It took my PPro 32 minutes to do compile 2.4 yesterday. Still, I bet a brand new dual athlon system won't spit out dust while it compiles!!
My biggest peeve is the left hand blue bar... its a bit much, especially at anything above 1024 pixels wide, since its a 20% width scaling cell. Maybe if the width of that column were fixed, or the login box was just a small floating blue box it would help out.
Maybe some very light horizontal rules between news items would help too, such as
<hr size=1 color="#C0C0C0">
Again, just some constructive criticism. Great job overall.
I believe he is referring to "The Internet" from a commercial standpoint, since that's what's he's involved in and is discussing in the article. I doubt what he's writing is meant to have any bearing on any of the "gripping free content" out there or is meant to offend you. Can't you people stop being anal long enough to focus on the actual topic instead of nitpicking some guy's article to death?
That's awful! Repeatedly paying that $500 seems pretty dumb to me. I would surely find some some way around that (even if I simply refused to pay again), regardless of how it would affect my credit.
I worked for a dotcom (a gaming network mentioned on /. today actually) and was mysteriously fired as well. One friday, I was out sick. I had no home phone and my cellphone was at the office, so I sent word with two friends that I would not be in that day. Having two weeks vacation saved up and considering my stance there (I worked 80 hours weeks and was grossly underpaid), I thought absolutely nothing of it.
:)
Later that day, I get a call from a friend letting me know that the CEO and my boss were going through my desk and took alot of my stuff upstairs and locked it in a room. This included a computer I owned that happened to be at the office. I was told by coworkers that they said what I did was a "malicious act". Hehe.
I couldn't get my computer until Monday, three days later. I went in that morning to pick it up, and the HR person tried to physically stop me from going upstairs to get it, insisting that I first had to sign some papers and meet with them. I took my machine (while four people hung over me like prison guards) and signed absolutely nothing. I hung out in the parking lot a while talking to shocked coworkers. Eventually the CEO came out and told me I couldnt loiter in his parking lot.
I received nothing saying I was being fired. No phone call, no letter, nothing. That night I had a friend let me in the office afterhours so I could get my belongings that were not locked away. I also printed a letter of resignation and left it on the CEO's desk. As far as I'm concerned, I quit.
I suspect they found out I was going to quit anyway (I had interviewed at Amazon.com and Disney that same week already) and were just looking for a reason to get rid of me. Why? I had alot of stock, and it vested a week later. We all know what dotcom stock is worth right? Needless to say I was not upset.
I now work as a webmaster for a software developer, and I have to say, I have never been happier or healthier. I get paid nearly twice as much, I strictly work nine-to-five, the people there are friendly, professional, and experienced, and there is no stress. Hell, I even have the makings of a social life again!
My advice to everyone in a dotcom startup is to seriously examine your situation and consider moving to a more traditional and stable environment. You might be surprised how much better it can be.
In many cases, software isn't made by programmers, its made by a company. Despite the engineers' wishes and goals, there are other departments in a corporation that have influence over the software's development. Marketing might want feature X by release because its needed for a campaign. Sales wants feature Y because a potential client is requesting it. An executive wants feature Z because... well because he's on a power trip and thinks he knows better than you. Even if features X, Y, and Z are ridiculous features that will reduce the quality of your product in some way, you have to do what the company wants. Quality is certainly not what its necessarily about in the business world. Alot of executives will flat-out tell you this. In part, this guy isn't complaining about crappy software, he's complaining about products developed in Corporate America -- a market heavily dependant on image and tricks. Re: "free software", well... where's the incentive for quality? If I'm making a program in my free time in my basement, I'll make it as good or bad as I want. There's alot of possible scenarios here, of course. I won't elaborate. As for his comments about the commandline... show me an admin who can setup an IIS server faster than I can setup Apache and we'll talk.
The solutions here is pretty easy. Leave a karma cap for internal use, but allow the actual karma to be unlimited. For example, you might have a +23233342 karma rating, but if the internal cap is set to 50, it uses 50 for its calculations. This way, you get the best of both worlds.
I heard that the modems being used in the area are made by John Deere!
In my case, I was in college for three years and realized I wasnt learning a single thing. I looked at what graduates were doing, and I knew more than they did (and Im no genious). So, why keep making loans, get myself in debt, only to graduate and realize I'd have to start learning in the real world all over again? In my case, a good opportunity came along and I took it. It was better to stop making loans and get real experience.
Here's a cool scenario to chew on. It's 1995, me and you graduate high school together. You go directly to a great college and graduate in 2001 (five years later) and actually learn alot. You pay ~$30K a year for this (even this is a "bargain price"). You get out of school and youre good. You land a job making $90K a year - great. You spent ~150K to get there.
But back in 1995, I decided to skip college and get a job right out of high school making $35K a year. Now here's the question: by 2001, who is more valuable?
I guess it all depends on the individual's knowledge and choices, but the thing to realize is that, no, skipping college isnt a bad thing at this time. On recent interviews, over ~95% of interviewers showed absolutely no interest in my educational background and were concerned only with experience.