Let's just sum up why Vista is a bad idea then, shall we?
- In a normal production environment you will face more than one install. Laptop failures, hardware changes, you name it. Their approach DIRECTLY translates into an almost doubling of costs, not just in procurement but also license management.
- DRM. Was a bad idea, is a bad idea, shall remain a bad idea. Serial chains of single points of failure don't make sense, especially not if it for someone else's sake. And remember, one (1, uno, un, ein) screwup along that chain and bye bye data. Would YOU trust the CEO's laptop to that instead of a scheme that allows you a bit more resilience in backup? No? Thiught so, you'd like to continue in your job too. Oh, did I mention that the above serial chain of single points of failure is EDGE-TO-EDGE reliant on a Microsoft version 1 bit of software? Best avoid it.
- Hardware. New day, new version of Windows, new hardware. Yes, you can now write off over 2 years, but the fact is that you still have to spend it.
- Virus problems. Quite entertaining that you have to buy extra software to fix the deficiencies in Windows, but it gets better, now you can buy it from Microsoft! Yes, the very company that gave you the problem in the first place - quite a track record..
- Trojan problems. As virus problems, but with the added bonus that you can be taken to court for privacy violations. Or taken to the cleaners because someone stole your identity. Or both.
- Patching is beyond control. If you run Windows with a modem hookup, just forget about keeping up with the volume of patches emerging out of Redmond. You'd think that over so many years they'd finally come up with something that is fixed but hey, that would stop you from buying into the "hope" game (as in "the next version will finally deliver what our marketing team sells" or "we will eventually get the bugs out"). Just think about this as an extra, often hidden cost in terms of effort, time, infrastructure, bandwidth and - as always - Yet Another Risk Of Windows: you don't patch and it's stable but unsafe - you patch but it may contain all sorts of rubbish that you didn't ask for. If you eed any help, look up "Windows Genuine Advantage".
- THERE ARE VIABLE ALTERNATIVES. Yes, in caps. Try and grow some balls and TRY alternatives like Mac OSX and Linux. Especially Ubuntu is easy to try. Get a small team of people and let them try. If they meet the 80/20 rule then go for it - there's only profit in that direction. YOUR profit. And it's easier to maintain as well.
So, for God's sake, give alternatives a try. Don't believe anyone, try for yourself. You could be as amazed as quite a few people I've done this for myself - non-nerds. Ordinary people like you and me who just like a machine to work without fuss, and without fear.
It's worse - quite a lot of well qualified people end up working 80h weeks because some unqualified but certified brown-noser sold a misspec'd job. Idiot gets a bonus for the sale, you get shafted because the project is not ready in time.
And for that you get no raise (usual excuses) until you quit, at which point almost by magic the money appears to 'upgrade' your pay and life will be sunshine if you would just be so kind to stay because otherwise whatever you're working on falls on its face. It's then actually a delight to say the magic words 'f*ck off'.
The problem with that (sadly far too common) approach is a misunderstanding of motivation. Money tends to be the aspect that draws the FINAL line, it's IMHO rarely the root cause for someone starting to look elsewhere. So when someone STARTS to look they have in principle mentally already left, and offering a bit more cash at that point actually confirms the decision.
I have had the delight to run many tech teams, and every single person I've worked with appears to gladly work for me again (OK, I'm not so full of myself that I assume this to be the honest truth - I'm only human - but it seems to be a trend, and I'm proud of that). Not because I pay top dollar (I come in to rescue so they're existing teams), but because I don't accept BS from management as well as techs. I work out WITH the team what is going on and where things need fixing, I work with management to ensure they (a) stay off my back so I can do the rescue and (b) ensure I get what I need to quench their fires and (c) don't interfere with my team, whatever I do. And if I decide to haul the whole lot into the nearest pub and buy food & drink for all it's because they've earned it - pity the management soul who dares to comment (little tip: get the Board to understand exactly how deep they're in it and they'll help - 1st law of political self preservation).
And I stick to three principles: (1) the truth. It may hurt, but unattended problems tend to mushroom. (2) I lead. I listen to everyone, but it's MY neck. That also means that I protect my team. You want to talk to them, only through me. (3) Scold in private, praise in public. If I have an issue I'll close the door and have a quiet word. I don't need to boost my own ego by obliterating someone who's basically defenseless because (s)he's economically dependent on me. That's weak, ineffective and God help you if you try it with the teams I lead. And it's better to identify where it goes wrong because it's then not very likely to happen again - we all make mistakes. Just don't be stupid (sorry, low tolerance level there). But there must be balance. Everyone needs feedback, and I can recognise those that work, even if they're not very good at appearing on the political radar. Mr Quiet in the corner who's a whiz on Solaris - I'll know you too before the week is out. Acknowledgement of good performance or cool ideas in front of peers is not cheap entertainment - it's a must. Consider it guideposts to more.
Anyway, that's just me. Maybe I'm getting too old for this:-)
I recall a story about some Thai professor having developed a robot to defend a property (I think). I repeat my observation: which suicidal service engineer is going to maintain that thing if it goes rogue?
Class example (also Thailand): simple car defenses. Snazzy bullet proof BMW 7 series locks up - computer gone tits up. Bullet proof means no escaping through windows, central locking means no way of opening it from the inside (much better in Audi, BTW) or outside, no power means no airco, and "in Thailand" meant pretty toasted politicians when they had the thing finally opened by means of a BTW tech that had to be flown in. Good lesson IMHO..
Maybe I just have more tricky hardware, and I tend to install clean (I keep/home on a separate partition and mount if on rebuild as/oldhome so I can pick what I move over) - and always bought the boxed DVDs (the idea was to sponsor the development - "give back for what you take" principle).
I found 10.1 a pain in the proverbial to get going. Also, compared to Ubuntu that darn thing is HUGE. So, eventually I cut over to Ubuntu and my test server wil probably be next. Takes while to find everything but I'm quite happy with Ubuntu. As for the payback, I have a couple of crackers coming. You will know when I get busy, believe me.
I mean, that's the least MS should do for their guy. After all, if he's the 'first' nerd (totally untrue if you know a little bit about Mark Shuttleworth:-) and he's been so 'influential' (right time at the right place) than MS ought to give him the best help possible and send him up controlled by a bunch of Vista systems that are naturally edge-to-edge DRM-ed to make sure he's 100% "safe".
Buuuugs in spaaace. Oh sorry, that should be 'piiigs':-).
It doesn't matter what YOU want. As long as you can convince a large enough block of lemmings that they should buy it thought
- "me too" marketing (the never failing 'other lemmings us it' approach) - promises you don't keep (we will make it cheaper for education) - coercion (buy us and we'll invite you to our shop somewhere exotic) - threat (we will no longer support it and your data will vanish in a tidal wave of spam, virus infections and trojans).. it will not matter a bean what you personally want. Not at all.
Oh, and don't forget that perfection prevents the sale of any updates. So never expect a perfect product because that would be suicide for their current business model.
I remember the days I used W98 because it was quicker to get going on a PC than anything else. That rule has been taken over by almost any Linux distro, with Ubuntu far up front. And if I want a pre-install I can also buy a Mac - we've arrived at a point where MS products really are at the bottom end of the market except for price. It/WILL/ eventually get through to decision makers.
Here's a suggestion: disable AutoCorrect in Word or OpenOffice. It actually make misspelling worse because it doesn't allow you the normal fault feedback.
You may have been writing it wrong for quite some time but Word may have corrected it (so you didn't realise you had it wrong). Kill off that feature and your spelink will improve.
.. form a cleaner unplugging the thing - now all that needs to happen is a bit too thorought sanitizing. Those things will never survive a hospital environment unless it's British .
I'd be interested in getting some office servers to work a bit like most modern photo copiers.
Accessing them sets a timer, and after that has expired the machine spins the disks down and maybe goes into some sort of half sleep mode (i.e. still listening to the network). That way, it's still available when required (barring spin up time) but will cut down on power use during weekends, evenings etc. The startup time could be lessened too by maybe waking it up at 8:30am by timer, and a nightly backup could force standby when it has finished.
BTW, I wonder how much those stupid, pointless neon lights in power strips use on an annual basis..
Well yes, but you're going to sell sod all if you don't respond to email queries asking for a price. I sent you 3 in total, so enjoy being a poor developer because you're not going to get an income from this without customers.
And I stand by my comments - there is ALWAYS a potential for unintentional backdoors. Your assurances, although well intended, are not enough to sell in the security market. Without independent product evaluation you're asking people to believe you that it's not spyware infested, will not destroy the phone they put it on and has no ability to be tapped. That's not asking for belief, that's asking for religion.
You may want to think about partnering with someone to sell
I think I'd agree with the attempt to get their name protected. I mean, if some dork in their marketing department decides on a junk email campaign it's going to get very complicated to sort it out.
"Hi, I'm complaining about your spam" "Oh, terribly sorry Sir, was the product in a broken container?" "No, it's about your email" "You just said spam" "Yes, that's what I meant"
(1) less bloat. SuSE is good stuff, but it doesn't half get/HUGE/ on the disk. The basic Ubuntu still fits on one CD. Also handy when you want to kickstart from a LiveCD (in case of problems, or an NTFS rescue for someone) - less to load before you can get busy.
(2) it works. 10.1 was absolute crap and should have never been released. There's just so much to fix before you have a working system (screwing up the update system itself was a really inspired move, duh) that recommending it to Linux newbies is the best way to get them running back to Windows (you may sense my disappointment here - I used to buy every new SuSE version from 6.3 onwards after abandoning RedHat).
(3) easier to get hold of (partly size again). One CD to download instead of a whole series. Note that this is the most subjective part, though: SuSE is well kitted out so you simply need that many CDs (or DVD) to store it. It just happens to get in my way now, and Ubuntu is the easy answer. I'm even looking at maybe changing the office server over to Ubuntu. However, IMHO this is where it's desktop focus loses from SuSE 10.0, but that may also be because I'm not 100% familiar with the Debian and Ubuntu way of working.
WHat does annoy me is that I'd like bits of Edubuntu, Kubuntu and Ubuntu, with the Ubuntu logon logo (and sound). I now have a laptop that shows Kubuntu bootup, Edubuntu logon screen and Ubuntu desktop because I obviously installed things in the wrong order. So I'll probably do it again at some point, can't be asked to work it out..
That has been a problem from Worries for Windows onwards. Changing a piece of hardware requires a very precise process or you end up with an unusable system, and it hasn't improved since other than Windows now at least knows more devices and won't totally collapse in a heap if you get it wrong.
But despite all that, companies will switch to Vista in droves.
I'm game for the price - I'll email you from your website.
As for 'not publishing for fear of duplication' - I agree, that is on one hand a problem. On the other hand, it would allow others to pitch in as well, not to mention the fact that you could publicly be seen as having the best code. So, in the middle lies the question if your code could be reviewed under NDA by an independent party.
I can see you commit yourself contractually to the 'no backdoors', but I'm observing the fact that such a committment is meaningless in the way it's phrased for the aforementioned reasons. I can claim to be 'totally cancer free as far as I know' because I have no reason to assume otherwise, and thus have not tested it. It lacks independent confirmation. So, cute from a marketing perspective, pointless from an assurance angle. That is in general the problem with your plug - you make claims you cannot substantiate as you have no independent validation to offer. Leave that out and you're fine (or even suggest paths by which a buyer can do that - honesty wins in security, there are enough people selling BS already).
WinCE is IMHO not one of the most ideal platforms to carry this on (it's even crap with default apps), but the Linux platforms are AFAIK not yet mature enough (may be wrong here, I'm just not really in that market anymore). No idea about Symbian, but that was at least already doing small device multitasking (when it was called SIBO) when MS was still thinking about selling Worries for Workgroups so I'd imagine there should be decent support there.
You may want to think about making your code portable - also makes it easier to support other devices and thus widen your market.
Given the simple principle these things work on (voice transmission over crypto wrapped data channel) the prices charged for them are generally plain rediculous, and I've seen them all over the planet.
Furthermore, unless the source is available for the product it will not be subjected to independent review, and any claim that it's thus 'the best' or even 'secure' is thus meaningless, as is your website claim "no backdoors to our knowledge". That claim would still be valid if you allowed a US NSA official some time alone in the room with the code prior to compilation. You wouldn't know then, would you? All of these claims also assume that the base platform itself (WinCE) is uncompromised which is in itself amusing and unprovable.
BTW, for someone really in need of secure comms, Due Diligence on the product and product comparison would be a minimum requirement and the above is enough to delist yours from such a process.
Sorry to rain on your self advertising, but a bit more substance would be a good idea. Otherwise you're just competing with other snake oil vendors, and I've seen enough security BS over the last few months to last me a lifetime.
Since the 9/11 terrorists lived in the US I think it's only sensible that such information is reciprocated, after all, it would otherwise put the EU as a whole at risk by allowing entry from a country that harbours terrorists (after all, ignorance is no excuse, isn't it?)..
In order to combat this fallout of the War on Privacy, sorry, Terror, the EU should demand immediate access to passenger information for US planes flying into the EU. That also deals with the whole rendition issue.
The EU should just ask for the usual: flight details, name, address, DOB, credit and criminal history (would be a fun one if Bush came to the UK again), height, eye colour, VDMs (visually distinguishing marks), face geometry, iris scans, fingerprints of all 10 fingers and toes (as a backup in case of excessive nail biting), ear shape, nostril diameters, body odour strenght with and without deodorant (as deo's taken off passengers pre-flight), foot shape (needs TSA support as they will have no sense of smell left by now), present hair colour, a blood test, stool sample, a fair assessment of dress sense and a compulsory rubber finger probe by as many thick fingered ex wrestlers as the EU can get hold of.
If such data is not provided it will have to be provided on arrival. Refusing to provide will result in passengers being returned to point of origin in a leaky rubber dinghy routed via shark infested waters (one way or the other that will eventually deal with the initial volume problem).
Naturally that data needs to be provided again on departure as it may have changed (lost fingers, false eyes, you know what foreign countries are like:-).
Oh, and let's not forget the paperwork with that fantastic piece of research: "have you ever been a member of a terrorist organisation (Y/N)?" (yes, I know there are legal reasons for it but it's still rediculous). I'm sure we can add a good amount of dull questions to it, but it may cost a few forests just to get it all printed.
Although you're right in onse sense (companies trying to protecttheir turf), there is merit to this complaint and you'll have to look at the two parts of this complaint separately.
Firstly, MS/IS/ a monopoly, and can thus more or less do as it wants if left unchecked. That's why they had to be forced to open up SMB information, that's why they are under extreme scrutiny from the EU (and various other Governments AFAIK). In that context I'm more worried about them ramming their take on DRM down your throat - when was the last time you had a functional v1 from MS? And how are you going to recover your data if it fails? But I digress.
Secondly, yes, the complainants hold a strong position in the 'alternatives' market (the "sticky plaster market" possible because of Windows deficiencies) - but who else would you expect to start complaining? Solaris resellers? SCO? Oh, um, wait:-).
So, although the complainants have a vested interest, there is indeed something more generic to complain about. As for Adobe, I wouldn't say they have an MS-like monopoly. Their format is fully documented so you/could/ compete if you wanted to, and there are plenty of GPL compliant readers out there.
I'll forgo the personal attacks - that's just sad as you have nil idea who you're actually dealing with. But hey, it's Slashdot.
In the UK, edu were sold bargain basement priced copies of Windows too, until they were all dependent on it at which point the price went up rather savagely. And you haven't seen the devastation that a FAST visit can wreak on a little company that thought it had all systems licensed because of the copy of Windows that comes with the box, but then found that using a build requires a separate license (neat way to flog two licenses for one machine). Such a violation is AFAIK a/criminal/ offence, not something you argue with.
Don't tell me about "decent corporations" - I have personally witnessed how they sell to Government here and it stinks to high heaven. My problem is not with MS per se, but with the way they sell. I think they've done good stuff for usability, but they're now undoing that as 'featuritus' needs to drive sales, and their behaviour on the whole ODF affair was rather plain to see.
And, btw, I've seen it done in the military field too. The problem I have with that is that it is apparently convenient to ignore that failure in that case can mean that people die. I prefer to draw a line much before that.
Isn't MS the company with multiple court convictions?
However, going back to my original point - can you identify which specific skills absolutely require/Windows/? IMHO there aren't/any/, repeat,/any/, apart from maybe getting rid of Clippy.
As for Ubuntu, you may want to invest some time in finding out why Mark Shuttleworth is doing what he is doing. I think part of this debate is because you don't see beyond the box. See what was possible in the (poor) Extremadura region of Spain because of Linux (a club the Ubuntu team talks to), and tell me how that could have happened with Windows. I don't blame MS for that - they generate money in a different way but maybe, just maybe, that model is limping a bit.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's just sum up why Vista is a bad idea then, shall we?
- In a normal production environment you will face more than one install. Laptop failures, hardware changes, you name it. Their approach DIRECTLY translates into an almost doubling of costs, not just in procurement but also license management.
- DRM. Was a bad idea, is a bad idea, shall remain a bad idea. Serial chains of single points of failure don't make sense, especially not if it for someone else's sake. And remember, one (1, uno, un, ein) screwup along that chain and bye bye data. Would YOU trust the CEO's laptop to that instead of a scheme that allows you a bit more resilience in backup? No? Thiught so, you'd like to continue in your job too. Oh, did I mention that the above serial chain of single points of failure is EDGE-TO-EDGE reliant on a Microsoft version 1 bit of software? Best avoid it.
- Hardware. New day, new version of Windows, new hardware. Yes, you can now write off over 2 years, but the fact is that you still have to spend it.
- Virus problems. Quite entertaining that you have to buy extra software to fix the deficiencies in Windows, but it gets better, now you can buy it from Microsoft! Yes, the very company that gave you the problem in the first place - quite a track record..
- Trojan problems. As virus problems, but with the added bonus that you can be taken to court for privacy violations. Or taken to the cleaners because someone stole your identity. Or both.
- Patching is beyond control. If you run Windows with a modem hookup, just forget about keeping up with the volume of patches emerging out of Redmond. You'd think that over so many years they'd finally come up with something that is fixed but hey, that would stop you from buying into the "hope" game (as in "the next version will finally deliver what our marketing team sells" or "we will eventually get the bugs out"). Just think about this as an extra, often hidden cost in terms of effort, time, infrastructure, bandwidth and - as always - Yet Another Risk Of Windows: you don't patch and it's stable but unsafe - you patch but it may contain all sorts of rubbish that you didn't ask for. If you eed any help, look up "Windows Genuine Advantage".
- THERE ARE VIABLE ALTERNATIVES. Yes, in caps. Try and grow some balls and TRY alternatives like Mac OSX and Linux. Especially Ubuntu is easy to try. Get a small team of people and let them try. If they meet the 80/20 rule then go for it - there's only profit in that direction. YOUR profit. And it's easier to maintain as well.
So, for God's sake, give alternatives a try. Don't believe anyone, try for yourself. You could be as amazed as quite a few people I've done this for myself - non-nerds. Ordinary people like you and me who just like a machine to work without fuss, and without fear.
Like it used to be.
It's worse - quite a lot of well qualified people end up working 80h weeks because some unqualified but certified brown-noser sold a misspec'd job. Idiot gets a bonus for the sale, you get shafted because the project is not ready in time.
:-)
And for that you get no raise (usual excuses) until you quit, at which point almost by magic the money appears to 'upgrade' your pay and life will be sunshine if you would just be so kind to stay because otherwise whatever you're working on falls on its face. It's then actually a delight to say the magic words 'f*ck off'.
The problem with that (sadly far too common) approach is a misunderstanding of motivation. Money tends to be the aspect that draws the FINAL line, it's IMHO rarely the root cause for someone starting to look elsewhere. So when someone STARTS to look they have in principle mentally already left, and offering a bit more cash at that point actually confirms the decision.
I have had the delight to run many tech teams, and every single person I've worked with appears to gladly work for me again (OK, I'm not so full of myself that I assume this to be the honest truth - I'm only human - but it seems to be a trend, and I'm proud of that). Not because I pay top dollar (I come in to rescue so they're existing teams), but because I don't accept BS from management as well as techs. I work out WITH the team what is going on and where things need fixing, I work with management to ensure they (a) stay off my back so I can do the rescue and (b) ensure I get what I need to quench their fires and (c) don't interfere with my team, whatever I do. And if I decide to haul the whole lot into the nearest pub and buy food & drink for all it's because they've earned it - pity the management soul who dares to comment (little tip: get the Board to understand exactly how deep they're in it and they'll help - 1st law of political self preservation).
And I stick to three principles:
(1) the truth. It may hurt, but unattended problems tend to mushroom.
(2) I lead. I listen to everyone, but it's MY neck. That also means that I protect my team. You want to talk to them, only through me.
(3) Scold in private, praise in public. If I have an issue I'll close the door and have a quiet word. I don't need to boost my own ego by obliterating someone who's basically defenseless because (s)he's economically dependent on me. That's weak, ineffective and God help you if you try it with the teams I lead. And it's better to identify where it goes wrong because it's then not very likely to happen again - we all make mistakes. Just don't be stupid (sorry, low tolerance level there). But there must be balance. Everyone needs feedback, and I can recognise those that work, even if they're not very good at appearing on the political radar. Mr Quiet in the corner who's a whiz on Solaris - I'll know you too before the week is out.
Acknowledgement of good performance or cool ideas in front of peers is not cheap entertainment - it's a must. Consider it guideposts to more.
Anyway, that's just me. Maybe I'm getting too old for this
I recall a story about some Thai professor having developed a robot to defend a property (I think). I repeat my observation: which suicidal service engineer is going to maintain that thing if it goes rogue?
Class example (also Thailand): simple car defenses. Snazzy bullet proof BMW 7 series locks up - computer gone tits up. Bullet proof means no escaping through windows, central locking means no way of opening it from the inside (much better in Audi, BTW) or outside, no power means no airco, and "in Thailand" meant pretty toasted politicians when they had the thing finally opened by means of a BTW tech that had to be flown in. Good lesson IMHO..
Maybe I just have more tricky hardware, and I tend to install clean (I keep /home on a separate partition and mount if on rebuild as /oldhome so I can pick what I move over) - and always bought the boxed DVDs (the idea was to sponsor the development - "give back for what you take" principle).
I found 10.1 a pain in the proverbial to get going. Also, compared to Ubuntu that darn thing is HUGE. So, eventually I cut over to Ubuntu and my test server wil probably be next. Takes while to find everything but I'm quite happy with Ubuntu. As for the payback, I have a couple of crackers coming. You will know when I get busy, believe me.
= Ch =
I mean, that's the least MS should do for their guy. After all, if he's the 'first' nerd (totally untrue if you know a little bit about Mark Shuttleworth :-) and he's been so 'influential' (right time at the right place) than MS ought to give him the best help possible and send him up controlled by a bunch of Vista systems that are naturally edge-to-edge DRM-ed to make sure he's 100% "safe".
:-).
Buuuugs in spaaace. Oh sorry, that should be 'piiigs'
It doesn't matter what YOU want. As long as you can convince a large enough block of lemmings that they should buy it thought
.. it will not matter a bean what you personally want. Not at all.
/WILL/ eventually get through to decision makers.
- "me too" marketing (the never failing 'other lemmings us it' approach)
- promises you don't keep (we will make it cheaper for education)
- coercion (buy us and we'll invite you to our shop somewhere exotic)
- threat (we will no longer support it and your data will vanish in a tidal wave of spam, virus infections and trojans)
Oh, and don't forget that perfection prevents the sale of any updates. So never expect a perfect product because that would be suicide for their current business model.
I remember the days I used W98 because it was quicker to get going on a PC than anything else. That rule has been taken over by almost any Linux distro, with Ubuntu far up front.
And if I want a pre-install I can also buy a Mac - we've arrived at a point where MS products really are at the bottom end of the market except for price. It
Give it another decade or so.
= Ch =
Here's a suggestion: disable AutoCorrect in Word or OpenOffice. It actually make misspelling worse because it doesn't allow you the normal fault feedback.
You may have been writing it wrong for quite some time but Word may have corrected it (so you didn't realise you had it wrong). Kill off that feature and your spelink will improve.
Just my two cents..
The software may have a sense of humor too. It could even be evil and put 10 faxes in a queue on your phone number. :-)
Intelligence. Note the 'i' in the middle bit.
Sigh. Even quoting a Far Side cartoon doesn't compensate for that.
I've developed an executive level coaching package that addresses that precise issue.
:-).
It's quite fun and relaxing to run a business that makes money by being honest
.. form a cleaner unplugging the thing - now all that needs to happen is a bit too thorought sanitizing. Those things will never survive a hospital environment unless it's British .
I'd be interested in getting some office servers to work a bit like most modern photo copiers.
Accessing them sets a timer, and after that has expired the machine spins the disks down and maybe goes into some sort of half sleep mode (i.e. still listening to the network). That way, it's still available when required (barring spin up time) but will cut down on power use during weekends, evenings etc. The startup time could be lessened too by maybe waking it up at 8:30am by timer, and a nightly backup could force standby when it has finished.
BTW, I wonder how much those stupid, pointless neon lights in power strips use on an annual basis..
= Ch =
Well yes, but you're going to sell sod all if you don't respond to email queries asking for a price. I sent you 3 in total, so enjoy being a poor developer because you're not going to get an income from this without customers.
And I stand by my comments - there is ALWAYS a potential for unintentional backdoors. Your assurances, although well intended, are not enough to sell in the security market. Without independent product evaluation you're asking people to believe you that it's not spyware infested, will not destroy the phone they put it on and has no ability to be tapped. That's not asking for belief, that's asking for religion.
You may want to think about partnering with someone to sell
I think I'd agree with the attempt to get their name protected. I mean, if some dork in their marketing department decides on a junk email campaign it's going to get very complicated to sort it out.
"Hi, I'm complaining about your spam"
"Oh, terribly sorry Sir, was the product in a broken container?"
"No, it's about your email"
"You just said spam"
"Yes, that's what I meant"
{etc}
They're rent in the same office block as I do, so I ought to go and have a chat with them :-)
I mean, with a half life of several centuries, where's the rush? :-)
As an ex SuSE user myself:
/HUGE/ on the disk. The basic Ubuntu still fits on one CD. Also handy when you want to kickstart from a LiveCD (in case of problems, or an NTFS rescue for someone) - less to load before you can get busy.
/I/ found.
(1) less bloat. SuSE is good stuff, but it doesn't half get
(2) it works. 10.1 was absolute crap and should have never been released. There's just so much to fix before you have a working system (screwing up the update system itself was a really inspired move, duh) that recommending it to Linux newbies is the best way to get them running back to Windows (you may sense my disappointment here - I used to buy every new SuSE version from 6.3 onwards after abandoning RedHat).
(3) easier to get hold of (partly size again). One CD to download instead of a whole series. Note that this is the most subjective part, though: SuSE is well kitted out so you simply need that many CDs (or DVD) to store it. It just happens to get in my way now, and Ubuntu is the easy answer. I'm even looking at maybe changing the office server over to Ubuntu. However, IMHO this is where it's desktop focus loses from SuSE 10.0, but that may also be because I'm not 100% familiar with the Debian and Ubuntu way of working.
WHat does annoy me is that I'd like bits of Edubuntu, Kubuntu and Ubuntu, with the Ubuntu logon logo (and sound). I now have a laptop that shows Kubuntu bootup, Edubuntu logon screen and Ubuntu desktop because I obviously installed things in the wrong order. So I'll probably do it again at some point, can't be asked to work it out..
As always, YMMV. It's just what
That has been a problem from Worries for Windows onwards. Changing a piece of hardware requires a very precise process or you end up with an unusable system, and it hasn't improved since other than Windows now at least knows more devices and won't totally collapse in a heap if you get it wrong.
But despite all that, companies will switch to Vista in droves.
The argument: other lemmings use it..
I'm game for the price - I'll email you from your website.
As for 'not publishing for fear of duplication' - I agree, that is on one hand a problem. On the other hand, it would allow others to pitch in as well, not to mention the fact that you could publicly be seen as having the best code. So, in the middle lies the question if your code could be reviewed under NDA by an independent party.
I can see you commit yourself contractually to the 'no backdoors', but I'm observing the fact that such a committment is meaningless in the way it's phrased for the aforementioned reasons. I can claim to be 'totally cancer free as far as I know' because I have no reason to assume otherwise, and thus have not tested it. It lacks independent confirmation. So, cute from a marketing perspective, pointless from an assurance angle. That is in general the problem with your plug - you make claims you cannot substantiate as you have no independent validation to offer. Leave that out and you're fine (or even suggest paths by which a buyer can do that - honesty wins in security, there are enough people selling BS already).
WinCE is IMHO not one of the most ideal platforms to carry this on (it's even crap with default apps), but the Linux platforms are AFAIK not yet mature enough (may be wrong here, I'm just not really in that market anymore). No idea about Symbian, but that was at least already doing small device multitasking (when it was called SIBO) when MS was still thinking about selling Worries for Workgroups so I'd imagine there should be decent support there.
You may want to think about making your code portable - also makes it easier to support other devices and thus widen your market.
= Ch =
It means your user experience, whilst being limited, is going to be better than anything else on the planet.
/needs/ limiting so there's nothing to compare it with.
That is effectively true as well, because no other OS
See? Marketspeak 101.
(yes, tongue very firmly in cheek..)
Given the simple principle these things work on (voice transmission over crypto wrapped data channel) the prices charged for them are generally plain rediculous, and I've seen them all over the planet.
Furthermore, unless the source is available for the product it will not be subjected to independent review, and any claim that it's thus 'the best' or even 'secure' is thus meaningless, as is your website claim "no backdoors to our knowledge". That claim would still be valid if you allowed a US NSA official some time alone in the room with the code prior to compilation. You wouldn't know then, would you? All of these claims also assume that the base platform itself (WinCE) is uncompromised which is in itself amusing and unprovable.
BTW, for someone really in need of secure comms, Due Diligence on the product and product comparison would be a minimum requirement and the above is enough to delist yours from such a process.
Sorry to rain on your self advertising, but a bit more substance would be a good idea. Otherwise you're just competing with other snake oil vendors, and I've seen enough security BS over the last few months to last me a lifetime.
= Ch =
Since the 9/11 terrorists lived in the US I think it's only sensible that such information is reciprocated, after all, it would otherwise put the EU as a whole at risk by allowing entry from a country that harbours terrorists (after all, ignorance is no excuse, isn't it?)..
:-).
:-)
In order to combat this fallout of the War on Privacy, sorry, Terror, the EU should demand immediate access to passenger information for US planes flying into the EU. That also deals with the whole rendition issue.
The EU should just ask for the usual: flight details, name, address, DOB, credit and criminal history (would be a fun one if Bush came to the UK again), height, eye colour, VDMs (visually distinguishing marks), face geometry, iris scans, fingerprints of all 10 fingers and toes (as a backup in case of excessive nail biting), ear shape, nostril diameters, body odour strenght with and without deodorant (as deo's taken off passengers pre-flight), foot shape (needs TSA support as they will have no sense of smell left by now), present hair colour, a blood test, stool sample, a fair assessment of dress sense and a compulsory rubber finger probe by as many thick fingered ex wrestlers as the EU can get hold of.
If such data is not provided it will have to be provided on arrival. Refusing to provide will result in passengers being returned to point of origin in a leaky rubber dinghy routed via shark infested waters (one way or the other that will eventually deal with the initial volume problem).
Naturally that data needs to be provided again on departure as it may have changed (lost fingers, false eyes, you know what foreign countries are like
Oh, and let's not forget the paperwork with that fantastic piece of research: "have you ever been a member of a terrorist organisation (Y/N)?" (yes, I know there are legal reasons for it but it's still rediculous). I'm sure we can add a good amount of dull questions to it, but it may cost a few forests just to get it all printed.
So there. Any other problem you need solving?
= Ch =
Although you're right in onse sense (companies trying to protecttheir turf), there is merit to this complaint and you'll have to look at the two parts of this complaint separately.
/IS/ a monopoly, and can thus more or less do as it wants if left unchecked. That's why they had to be forced to open up SMB information, that's why they are under extreme scrutiny from the EU (and various other Governments AFAIK). In that context I'm more worried about them ramming their take on DRM down your throat - when was the last time you had a functional v1 from MS? And how are you going to recover your data if it fails? But I digress.
:-).
/could/ compete if you wanted to, and there are plenty of GPL compliant readers out there.
Firstly, MS
Secondly, yes, the complainants hold a strong position in the 'alternatives' market (the "sticky plaster market" possible because of Windows deficiencies) - but who else would you expect to start complaining? Solaris resellers? SCO? Oh, um, wait
So, although the complainants have a vested interest, there is indeed something more generic to complain about. As for Adobe, I wouldn't say they have an MS-like monopoly. Their format is fully documented so you
I'll forgo the personal attacks - that's just sad as you have nil idea who you're actually dealing with. But hey, it's Slashdot.
/criminal/ offence, not something you argue with.
/Windows/? IMHO there aren't /any/, repeat, /any/, apart from maybe getting rid of Clippy.
In the UK, edu were sold bargain basement priced copies of Windows too, until they were all dependent on it at which point the price went up rather savagely. And you haven't seen the devastation that a FAST visit can wreak on a little company that thought it had all systems licensed because of the copy of Windows that comes with the box, but then found that using a build requires a separate license (neat way to flog two licenses for one machine). Such a violation is AFAIK a
Don't tell me about "decent corporations" - I have personally witnessed how they sell to Government here and it stinks to high heaven. My problem is not with MS per se, but with the way they sell. I think they've done good stuff for usability, but they're now undoing that as 'featuritus' needs to drive sales, and their behaviour on the whole ODF affair was rather plain to see.
And, btw, I've seen it done in the military field too. The problem I have with that is that it is apparently convenient to ignore that failure in that case can mean that people die. I prefer to draw a line much before that.
Isn't MS the company with multiple court convictions?
However, going back to my original point - can you identify which specific skills absolutely require
As for Ubuntu, you may want to invest some time in finding out why Mark Shuttleworth is doing what he is doing. I think part of this debate is because you don't see beyond the box. See what was possible in the (poor) Extremadura region of Spain because of Linux (a club the Ubuntu team talks to), and tell me how that could have happened with Windows. I don't blame MS for that - they generate money in a different way but maybe, just maybe, that model is limping a bit.
"I cannot find the original article"
:-)
- because, they, um, have, er, clammed up?