Why don't we just make it a standard practice to provide "verification" hash checksums from multiple algorithms? If you provide *both* the MD5 and the SHA1 hashes for a file, it will be many, many levels of magnitude more difficult to construct replacement data which hashes the same both ways. The collision space for this must be infintessimal?
If everybody just switches to AES or somesuch, aren't we just postponing the problem until similar methods of attack are proven against its algorithms? By combining multiple hash algorithms, you gain a sort of independent oversight.
What really woke me up was their statement that only 6% of the worlds engineers are educated in the USA.
Actually, that's ahead of the game. The U.S. only has about 4.6% of the world's population, so 6% is higher than expected (all other things being equal). Based on rounded population estimates of 2.93M for the U.S. and 6.39B for the world (numbers from the popclock).
Don't you just love how they spin things by calling it the "Artist's Rights and Theft Prevention Act"? Wouldn't a more apropos name be the "Big Fat Hollywood Studio Thoughtcrime Prevention Act"?
Does the porn industry already have established digital characters like this?
I don't know if they have "established digital characters", but the subject of "virtual child porn" has been discussed here before. (unforunately, the LA Times article mentioned is no longer available). Does anyone know if anything has happened in the case referenced?
For those of you (like myself) who don't have a TV or radio in your cube, and who are bemoaning that there's not enough bandwidth for CNN to serve the entire country simultaneously, try CNET Radio. No pictures, but good radio coverage.
Some good news -- the FAA has just reported that *all* commercial aircraft are now accounted for (there were about 50 in question), and have reported no problems, and are en route to nearby airports.
I was the sysadmin for a small ISP a few years ago. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about it, but there were plenty of headaches, too. I don't know about the cost differences between the US and Australia, but I'm sure a lot of the things I learned still hold true. First of all, you'll never make money on just dial-up services.
You *must* have some value-added services if you want a chance at getting any real profits. Even if you have to outsource it. Some good VAS: virtual hosting of domains/web/email, web design, office networking, colocation services.
Do everything you can to keep your systems secure. Sign up for all the major security-related mailing lists (BugTraq, NTBugTraq, and Vuln-Dev would be a good start), and apply patches and work-arounds as soon as possible. Don't think that just because you're out in the boonies that the crackers won't find you -- they will.
When possible, go above-and-beyond for customers. You can win some good customer loyalty that will help you hang on to them when UberProvider.net finally drops a POP in your area with prices that undercut your business. This is easier when you're just getting started, but be careful not to let people leverage your goodwill into free services. Driving out to a new customer's house to configure Dial-Up Networking for your service for free is okay (once), but helping them figure out how to do a table of contents in Microsoft Word is consulting work.
There is no such thing as "unlimited" connect time or disk space. If you offer such a thing, somebody will eventually take you at your word and abuse the spirit of it. Set reasonable limits, and wherever possible, automagically enforce them. Configure your dial-up server to automatically terminate connections after so much idle time or continuous connect time. Configure user and group limits for hard disk space. Track and throttle bandwidth on web pages. But don't be too restrictive. Make it "feel" unlimited for most of your users. Only the power users will use more than 100 hours/month of dial-up time (actually, the majority of users will probably use significantly less than 50hrs/mo). But offer reasonable alternative plans to cater to the power users. If you have several technically savvy customers, try to leverage them. Set up local tech support forums and offer discounts for customers who can help moderate them.
Plan for growth. If you aren't willing to commit the resources (financial or otherwise) needed to grow your business, you probably shouldn't start in the first place. Keep your eye out for new markets. When dealing with dial-up in rural areas, you want to find places where a single POP is a local call for many surrounding communities. For example, in my area it would be easy to make the mistake of installing a pop in Dothan, which is the largest local city, with a population of about 50K. But it would be smarter to put a POP in the tiny little town of Daleville. Daleville is a local call from Dothan, Enterprise, Ozark, Fort Rucker, and several other smaller communities which would have to call long distance to Dothan.
Good luck!
--
Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Hmm.... Venture capitalists suing company founders.... Didn't that account for a few chapters in Cryptonomicon?
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Wow. A thread about terraforming Mars, and nobody has managed to mention Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars / Green Mars / Blue Mars series? A lot of the discussions in this tread are remarkably similar to the "Red" and "Green" politics that sprouted up in the books.
The Greens were in favor of terraforming Mars. Anything that raised the oxygen level and ambient temperature was favored. Seed the atmosphere and surface with plants to increase oxygen. Set up nuclear reactors and let them meltdown to generate heat (and free up water from deep under the soil as they did the China Syndrome bit).
The Reds wanted to preserve Mars in its natural state, and tried to sabotage the efforts of the Greens.
Personally, I lean towards the Greens. Sure there are some features that would be worth preserving (in the sense of "don't bulldoze it just to put up a McMarsBurger joint"), just as we have national parks to preserve beautiful areas here on Earth. But I think we can be reasonably sure now that there is no life on Mars above the microbe level (darn it). So let's feel free to use it as a laboratory.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
That's the problem with trying to get 'revenge' on junk mailers. You have to spend your own time to do it. So unless you have time to spare, or really derive satisfaction from using the system against them, it's not worth it. I learned years ago that my time is worth money. Sometimes I have to just look at something and say "is it worth $100/hour for me to do this" (I figure that's about what my time would be worth as an independent contractor)? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
My brother-in-law works for Comsys, and telecommutes most of the time. They're an IT outsourcing firm that does a lot of programming conracts.
I almost signed up with them, myself (actually, I had already signed up, technically). They pay decently enough -- not as much as you might get as an independent contractor, but they'll keep you working steadily. The main reason I wound up *not* working for them was that they wanted me to do database programming, and I found a job locally doing full-time web development, which was my preference.
If you want a reasonable balance between doing the kind of work you want to do, and keeping a steady paycheck, you might want to check them out.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
I used to be the primary sysadmin for a small ISP (1993 - 1997). We started in late '93, with our public debut in early '94. When we started, we used Linux. However, this was right around the time of kernel 1.0, and we suffered instability problems occassionally. As a result, we wound up migrating our primary servers to FreeBSD. The only box that remained on Linux was our news server, because it also served up UUCP dialup with a fragile, customized configuration (we used UUCP to provide internet email gateway services to several local BBS's). Eventually, the UUCP customers died off and we migrated that box to FreeBSD as well.
Even though these days, I'd venture to say that the stability and performance of Linux and FreeBSD are probably about equal, I still prefer FreeBSD for more serious tasks. The main reason for me is that the system update functions and the ports/packages mechanisms are so much nicer than Linux's kernel updates and rpm/aptget/whatever package management. I realize, however, that this is pretty subjective, and there are likely those who disagree, and prefer rpm over FreeBSD's ports.
The best thing, for those who wonder, is to just give it a try. But *really* give it a try. Don't just install it, say "hey! it doesn't install [ABC] by default! weak!", and give up on it. Really *use* it. Make a kernel config file and build a new kernel. Install cvsup, use it to get your source tree in sync with -STABLE, and do a "make world". Install some extras from the ports tree (I like ports over packages, when possible, since they fetch the original source, are automatically patched for FreeBSD, and I can always go back and easily recompile with customized options if I don't like the default config).
Try it, you'll like it!
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
People who haven't studied this stuff often don't realize that "E=mc^2" is deceptively simple. It's only part of the equation. The whole thing is more like "E=((mc^2)/(sqrt(1 - (v^2/c^2)))", where v is the velocity of the mass in question.
"E=mc^2" is what the equation simplifies to when the mass is at rest (v = 0). When you put an object in motion -- especially if you achieve speeds that are statistically significant percentages of c -- the rest of the equation comes into play. And the denominator of that equation is also where relativistic effects such as time dilation come into play.
And if you don't think this stuff is important, well, don't come crying to me if you get stuck near the event horizon of a black hole.
And remember, E=mc^3 at some point just before you reach c:)
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Don't you see? It's all a trick! The NSA is obviously going to track down the identities of everyone who downloads selinux, and flag them in a secret database of "potential hackers". Anyone interested in a secure system *must* have something to hide, right?
To cover our tracks, everyone should start posting messages in alt.sex.furry about the "cool new animorphic porn screensaver that you can download from http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/slinux-200012181053-rel ease.tgz -- don't worry about the file size, the pictures will be worth it!" Then their servers will be overwhelmed by irrelevant requests, and the real security freaks will just get lost in the noise.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Okay, I'll take this opportunity to plug my own site -- The War on Spam. I try to keep up with the latest news and tools related to spam. I'll be adding the Death to Spam site after it's done being/.ed.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Ahhhh, thank you. You probably saved me at least 10 minutes of poking around trying to find it myself (already checked the FAQ, but of course, no mention of how to download from behind a firewall there).
And with the right software, you can disable Macrovision and region codes on your DVDROM. Well, you have to stoop to using Windows for the software I use, but the point is that there are less complicated, less expensive ways to defeat Macrovision for most DVDROM owners.
The software I speak of is called Remote Selector. I won't bother giving the link, to keep the site from getting slashdotted too badly. If you really want the program, you'll search for it and find it easily enough.
I was a telecommuter until recently. In my case, it didn't work out, but I know that there are other employers/employees doing it successfully.
In my case, the major problem was lack of communication. Partly, this was because I was working for a small company in which the boss basically embodied the company, for all practical purposes. In other words, he spent a lot of time in and out of the home office, dealing with customers, and found that he often didn't have time to call me or email me with new or updated assignments. With the other programmers in the office, he could just verbally give them quick instructions as he buzzed through the office. But as the only long-distance telecommuter, I was a special case that he had to take extra time out for. Time he didn't have.
Also, I found after a while that I missed the social interaction that you get in a regular office. Sometimes I'd get a mental block on some code I was working on, and long for feedback from other geeks. Peace and quiet is great sometimes, but every once in a while you need a little distraction.
I think the keys to a successful telecommuting experience are: 1) good management. Yeah, yeah, I know "management" is a four-letter word, but it really is necessary in most job situations. The person signing your paycheck needs to know that he's getting his money's worth. You need some sort of regular communication -- structured, but not stifling. 2) contact and communication. Working in complete isolation can be disorienting and disheartening after a while. You probably need some way to communicate with your virtual coworkers. Stay in contact via ICQ or a company chat server or something. And when it comes down to it, having to visit the office once in a while can be a good thing. I had to drive up for a mandatory company meeting once a month. It was a 4 hour drive, but it was actually kind of refreshing to get away from the house for a while. The most important thing is that the company understands that just because you aren't in the office, it doesn't mean that you aren't getting work done. And of course, you should try to help them understand that by providing them with progress updates as often as is feasible. 3) discipline. You really have to be disciplined, or you'll wind up spending all day reading Slashdot instead of getting work done. Eventually, your boss is bound to notice:)
Telecommuting can work, as long your employer knows how to handle it. As for me, I'm back in an office, with a 45+ minute commute. Not my dream situation, but I enjoy the work, and I've got good people around me. And as long as it pays the bills, those are the important things.
*sigh* Thanks for that link. I'll have to try out some of those emulators and dig my old Coco software out of storage.
Man, those were the days. A whopping 2MHz of 8/16-bit (hybrid) power. You could use a POKE command from BASIC to double your clock speed (by turning off the RAM refresh!) And The OS-9 operating system was The Stuff! I was soooo proud when I wrote my first OS-9 program in assembly language (a utility to strip TAB characters out of text files, I think it was).
A friend and I were having a discussion recently about how his kids didn't seem very interested in computers, except as a game system, like their Nintendo 64. When he and I were around his older son's age (14 or 15), we were both delving into "serious" programming ("serious" in that we spent a lot of time and effort learning how to program in BASIC, 6809 assembly, Pascal, C, or whatever we could get our hands on). We would spend hours tediously typing in source code from RAINBOW magazine for some simple little game or utility. In college, I started to write my own BBS software, implementing a circular queue for the message base, before I had even learned what a circular queue was.
Because of the "hobbyist" nature of computing in those days, and because we had to do so much of it ourselves (there wasn't a plethora of commercial software to choose from), we learned a lot about computer hard/software out of necessity. Plus, we had the satisfaction of knowing that we could sit down at a computer, spend a few hours (or perhaps a few days) hacking out code, and turn out a game or utility that *was* as good as any commercial software that existed at the time!
Kids these days don't really have that kind of incentive. The current games and apps are turned out by teams of programmers and artists, with thousands of man-hours behind them. Gone are the days of the lone hobbyist releasing a new version of the "dir" command to an audience eager to receive it. Why should a kid today bother to learn how to program, when he'll never be able to create the next Pong, let alone the next Final Fantasy VIII?
What's left today to get kids excited about learning more about a computer than how to right-click an icon? Porn and MP3 piracy? I think if we were to draw a graph of "Available Programming Talent over Time", we'd start seeing a dip around now. We've gone past the wellspring of inspired, enthusiastic, self-taught hackers. Granted, we'll still see a few of those here and there, but they will be the exception rather than the rule. The rule of cookie-cutter, carbon-copied, MIS grads who wouldn't know a JNE instruction if it bit them on their asses, and who wouldn't know an opamp from a demultiplexer if you showed them the datasheets.
Raise your hand if you ever soldered something directly to your motherboard. The rest of you, go back to your latte and Java For Dummies books.
-- Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3 Got Spam? http://spam.gunters.org/
"With the single molecule memory, all a general-purpose ultimate molecular computer now needs is a reversible single molecule switch," said Reed. "I anticipate we will see a demonstration of one very soon."
In other words, right now they can change the "memory" state of the molecule from 0 to 1 once, but they can't tell it to flip back, right? They need to develop the switch. And after that, they'll probably need to develop a general purpose way to read the memory (and write, of course). And it will probably take time to integrate this stuff with existing electronics.
Don't get me wrong, this is definitely exciting stuff! But don't expect to see the "general-purpose ultimate molecular computer" anytime soon.
-- Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Sure, there are barcode scanners that you can use with Linux. There are lots of them that plug into the keyboard port on the computer, so that they act exactly like someone typing on the console. Very quickly and accurately:)
But using a barcode scanner with a Palm device is much more exciting than using it with a clunky desktop PC. See, I used to be the Systems Manager at a company that did a lot of warehousing (among other things like manufacturing and running an ISP). A few years ago, we spent not-inconsequential amounts of money on some RF barcode scanners. These suckers were basically handheld DOS 3.3 boxes with some custom C libraries to access the laser and RF functions.
It was fun programming the client/server app for those, but it would have been a lot more fun to do it on a Palm platform. Not only would it have been easier to find related resources, but we could have used them for a wider variety of office/warehouse applications. AND, your entire barcode scanning apparatus could have fit in your shirt pocket, if you used a pen-style scanner, rather than the gun-style (but OTOH, the pen scanners can't read a barcode from 3 feet away, so there's a trade-off).
Thinking about it almost makes me miss that job. But then I remember the overtime, the dusty warehouse, and the fact that I work only 8 hours a day now, and from home, to boot.
-- Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
ESR continues to be one of my primary heros. He always manages to explain the heart of our community with such well-spoken clarity, without sounding like a zealot.
One of the things he points out, which I think that many PHBs don't get, is that programming is a creative process. We often allow ourselves to think that technical thinking and creative thinking are on opposite ends of a spectrum, but that just isn't so. Hacking -- programming in particular -- is very much a creative process, where we manage to encapsulate leaps of logic into a logical framework. This is why we tend to be so passionate about our work, because art and passion are inevitably linked, and we are artists in our own right
This interview allows ESR to reiterate so many of the things he said in Homesteading the Noosphere: Open Source is a forum where we geeks can indulge in a little self-agrandizment. We can say "Look at what I did!" to a community that understands why it is that what we did is cool.
I really like his notion that the company of the future will concetrate more on how much value it can offer to people on the outside, rather than how much value it can extract from people on the inside. This is the kind of image some companies today are already trying to display, but few actually live up to.
I've been really excited by the headway that Open Source is making into more "traditional" business circles these days. I don't think it will be much longer before we begin to see its promise realized a higher and higher levels. Really, we're already beginning to see it, as the examples of Cisco and IBM that ESR mentions show.
-- Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
I vaguely remember a while back that there were rumors of two new Palm models, dubbed the "7" and the "11" (which I thought was kind of funny, naming their projects after a convenience store...). The 7 was supposed to introduce wireless connectivity, and the 11 would have color. Hmmm.... So will the new model be the Palm XI?
Man, I'm really torn now. See, my fiancee really wants my Palm III, which of course means I need to buy myself a replacement. Do I go ahead and get a Visor Deluxe, or should I hold out a while longer and keep sharing my III until something new comes along? I'm also kind of reluctant to get the Visor right now, until there's some word about how to get the PalmOS 3.3 update into those suckers.
-- Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Do any of the current DVD drives/players work under Linux/FreeBSD under WINE? Granted, that's not the real point, but it would at least be something while we wait for a native player.
-- Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
This is a fun one. On the one hand, a similar case of "mandatory filtering" in a library has already been shot down by a Federal judge in Virginia. On the other hand, this one talks about Federal funding, which I think adds a new spin to it (IAMAL, of course).
I always thought that the easiest solution would be to have two types of access terminals: full-access, and youth-restricted. Send minors to the youth-restricted, filtered, monitored, whatever terminals. Let adults choose to use the full-access terminals, if that's what they desire. Keep the full-access terminals oriented in such a way that the screens aren't visible to everybody that wanders around the room.
But that's just me. And I don't have a lobby to back me up, so I guess that will never happen.
Hmmm.... the Slashdot Lobby.... Hmmmmm....:)
-- Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Slashdot Mirror
Why don't we just make it a standard practice to provide "verification" hash checksums from multiple algorithms? If you provide *both* the MD5 and the SHA1 hashes for a file, it will be many, many levels of magnitude more difficult to construct replacement data which hashes the same both ways. The collision space for this must be infintessimal?
If everybody just switches to AES or somesuch, aren't we just postponing the problem until similar methods of attack are proven against its algorithms? By combining multiple hash algorithms, you gain a sort of independent oversight.
Don't you just love how they spin things by calling it the "Artist's Rights and Theft Prevention Act"? Wouldn't a more apropos name be the "Big Fat Hollywood Studio Thoughtcrime Prevention Act"?
Does the porn industry already have established digital characters like this?
I don't know if they have "established digital characters", but the subject of "virtual child porn" has been discussed here before. (unforunately, the LA Times article mentioned is no longer available). Does anyone know if anything has happened in the case referenced?
For those of you (like myself) who don't have a TV or radio in your cube, and who are bemoaning that there's not enough bandwidth for CNN to serve the entire country simultaneously, try CNET Radio. No pictures, but good radio coverage.
Some good news -- the FAA has just reported that *all* commercial aircraft are now accounted for (there were about 50 in question), and have reported no problems, and are en route to nearby airports.
I was the sysadmin for a small ISP a few years ago. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about it, but there were plenty of headaches, too. I don't know about the cost differences between the US and Australia, but I'm sure a lot of the things I learned still hold true. First of all, you'll never make money on just dial-up services.
You *must* have some value-added services if you want a chance at getting any real profits. Even if you have to outsource it. Some good VAS: virtual hosting of domains/web/email, web design, office networking, colocation services.
Do everything you can to keep your systems secure. Sign up for all the major security-related mailing lists (BugTraq, NTBugTraq, and Vuln-Dev would be a good start), and apply patches and work-arounds as soon as possible. Don't think that just because you're out in the boonies that the crackers won't find you -- they will.
When possible, go above-and-beyond for customers. You can win some good customer loyalty that will help you hang on to them when UberProvider.net finally drops a POP in your area with prices that undercut your business. This is easier when you're just getting started, but be careful not to let people leverage your goodwill into free services. Driving out to a new customer's house to configure Dial-Up Networking for your service for free is okay (once), but helping them figure out how to do a table of contents in Microsoft Word is consulting work.
There is no such thing as "unlimited" connect time or disk space. If you offer such a thing, somebody will eventually take you at your word and abuse the spirit of it. Set reasonable limits, and wherever possible, automagically enforce them. Configure your dial-up server to automatically terminate connections after so much idle time or continuous connect time. Configure user and group limits for hard disk space. Track and throttle bandwidth on web pages. But don't be too restrictive. Make it "feel" unlimited for most of your users. Only the power users will use more than 100 hours/month of dial-up time (actually, the majority of users will probably use significantly less than 50hrs/mo). But offer reasonable alternative plans to cater to the power users. If you have several technically savvy customers, try to leverage them. Set up local tech support forums and offer discounts for customers who can help moderate them.
Plan for growth. If you aren't willing to commit the resources (financial or otherwise) needed to grow your business, you probably shouldn't start in the first place. Keep your eye out for new markets. When dealing with dial-up in rural areas, you want to find places where a single POP is a local call for many surrounding communities. For example, in my area it would be easy to make the mistake of installing a pop in Dothan, which is the largest local city, with a population of about 50K. But it would be smarter to put a POP in the tiny little town of Daleville. Daleville is a local call from Dothan, Enterprise, Ozark, Fort Rucker, and several other smaller communities which would have to call long distance to Dothan.
Good luck!
--
Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Hmm.... Venture capitalists suing company founders.... Didn't that account for a few chapters in Cryptonomicon?
--
Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Wow. A thread about terraforming Mars, and nobody has managed to mention Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars / Green Mars / Blue Mars series? A lot of the discussions in this tread are remarkably similar to the "Red" and "Green" politics that sprouted up in the books.
The Greens were in favor of terraforming Mars. Anything that raised the oxygen level and ambient temperature was favored. Seed the atmosphere and surface with plants to increase oxygen. Set up nuclear reactors and let them meltdown to generate heat (and free up water from deep under the soil as they did the China Syndrome bit).
The Reds wanted to preserve Mars in its natural state, and tried to sabotage the efforts of the Greens.
Personally, I lean towards the Greens. Sure there are some features that would be worth preserving (in the sense of "don't bulldoze it just to put up a McMarsBurger joint"), just as we have national parks to preserve beautiful areas here on Earth. But I think we can be reasonably sure now that there is no life on Mars above the microbe level (darn it). So let's feel free to use it as a laboratory.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
That's the problem with trying to get 'revenge' on junk mailers. You have to spend your own time to do it. So unless you have time to spare, or really derive satisfaction from using the system against them, it's not worth it. I learned years ago that my time is worth money. Sometimes I have to just look at something and say "is it worth $100/hour for me to do this" (I figure that's about what my time would be worth as an independent contractor)? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
I almost signed up with them, myself (actually, I had already signed up, technically). They pay decently enough -- not as much as you might get as an independent contractor, but they'll keep you working steadily. The main reason I wound up *not* working for them was that they wanted me to do database programming, and I found a job locally doing full-time web development, which was my preference.
If you want a reasonable balance between doing the kind of work you want to do, and keeping a steady paycheck, you might want to check them out.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Even though these days, I'd venture to say that the stability and performance of Linux and FreeBSD are probably about equal, I still prefer FreeBSD for more serious tasks. The main reason for me is that the system update functions and the ports/packages mechanisms are so much nicer than Linux's kernel updates and rpm/aptget/whatever package management. I realize, however, that this is pretty subjective, and there are likely those who disagree, and prefer rpm over FreeBSD's ports.
The best thing, for those who wonder, is to just give it a try. But *really* give it a try. Don't just install it, say "hey! it doesn't install [ABC] by default! weak!", and give up on it. Really *use* it. Make a kernel config file and build a new kernel. Install cvsup, use it to get your source tree in sync with -STABLE, and do a "make world". Install some extras from the ports tree (I like ports over packages, when possible, since they fetch the original source, are automatically patched for FreeBSD, and I can always go back and easily recompile with customized options if I don't like the default config).
Try it, you'll like it!
--
Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
"E=mc^2" is what the equation simplifies to when the mass is at rest (v = 0). When you put an object in motion -- especially if you achieve speeds that are statistically significant percentages of c -- the rest of the equation comes into play. And the denominator of that equation is also where relativistic effects such as time dilation come into play.
And if you don't think this stuff is important, well, don't come crying to me if you get stuck near the event horizon of a black hole.
And remember, E=mc^3 at some point just before you reach c :)
--
Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Don't you see? It's all a trick! The NSA is obviously going to track down the identities of everyone who downloads selinux, and flag them in a secret database of "potential hackers". Anyone interested in a secure system *must* have something to hide, right?
To cover our tracks, everyone should start posting messages in alt.sex.furry about the "cool new animorphic porn screensaver that you can download from http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/slinux-200012181053-rel ease.tgz -- don't worry about the file size, the pictures will be worth it!" Then their servers will be overwhelmed by irrelevant requests, and the real security freaks will just get lost in the noise.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Okay, I'll take this opportunity to plug my own site -- The War on Spam. I try to keep up with the latest news and tools related to spam. I'll be adding the Death to Spam site after it's done being /.ed.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
1994: "Accelerated graphics? I guess that's kind of neat, but who wants to spend $250 for a graphics card that you'll only use to play games?"
1998: "Did you upgrade to the new Voodoo card yet? No? Get with the times, luser!"
2001: "3Dfwho?"
Who woulda thunk it?--
Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Now, let's go check out Chromezone....
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Got Spam? http://spam.gunters.org/
The software I speak of is called Remote Selector. I won't bother giving the link, to keep the site from getting slashdotted too badly. If you really want the program, you'll search for it and find it easily enough.
--
Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
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I was a telecommuter until recently. In my case, it didn't work out, but I know that there are other employers/employees doing it successfully.
In my case, the major problem was lack of communication. Partly, this was because I was working for a small company in which the boss basically embodied the company, for all practical purposes. In other words, he spent a lot of time in and out of the home office, dealing with customers, and found that he often didn't have time to call me or email me with new or updated assignments. With the other programmers in the office, he could just verbally give them quick instructions as he buzzed through the office. But as the only long-distance telecommuter, I was a special case that he had to take extra time out for. Time he didn't have.
Also, I found after a while that I missed the social interaction that you get in a regular office. Sometimes I'd get a mental block on some code I was working on, and long for feedback from other geeks. Peace and quiet is great sometimes, but every once in a while you need a little distraction.
I think the keys to a successful telecommuting experience are: 1) good management. Yeah, yeah, I know "management" is a four-letter word, but it really is necessary in most job situations. The person signing your paycheck needs to know that he's getting his money's worth. You need some sort of regular communication -- structured, but not stifling. 2) contact and communication. Working in complete isolation can be disorienting and disheartening after a while. You probably need some way to communicate with your virtual coworkers. Stay in contact via ICQ or a company chat server or something. And when it comes down to it, having to visit the office once in a while can be a good thing. I had to drive up for a mandatory company meeting once a month. It was a 4 hour drive, but it was actually kind of refreshing to get away from the house for a while. The most important thing is that the company understands that just because you aren't in the office, it doesn't mean that you aren't getting work done. And of course, you should try to help them understand that by providing them with progress updates as often as is feasible. 3) discipline. You really have to be disciplined, or you'll wind up spending all day reading Slashdot instead of getting work done. Eventually, your boss is bound to notice :)
Telecommuting can work, as long your employer knows how to handle it. As for me, I'm back in an office, with a 45+ minute commute. Not my dream situation, but I enjoy the work, and I've got good people around me. And as long as it pays the bills, those are the important things.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
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Man, those were the days. A whopping 2MHz of 8/16-bit (hybrid) power. You could use a POKE command from BASIC to double your clock speed (by turning off the RAM refresh!) And The OS-9 operating system was The Stuff! I was soooo proud when I wrote my first OS-9 program in assembly language (a utility to strip TAB characters out of text files, I think it was).
A friend and I were having a discussion recently about how his kids didn't seem very interested in computers, except as a game system, like their Nintendo 64. When he and I were around his older son's age (14 or 15), we were both delving into "serious" programming ("serious" in that we spent a lot of time and effort learning how to program in BASIC, 6809 assembly, Pascal, C, or whatever we could get our hands on). We would spend hours tediously typing in source code from RAINBOW magazine for some simple little game or utility. In college, I started to write my own BBS software, implementing a circular queue for the message base, before I had even learned what a circular queue was.
Because of the "hobbyist" nature of computing in those days, and because we had to do so much of it ourselves (there wasn't a plethora of commercial software to choose from), we learned a lot about computer hard/software out of necessity. Plus, we had the satisfaction of knowing that we could sit down at a computer, spend a few hours (or perhaps a few days) hacking out code, and turn out a game or utility that *was* as good as any commercial software that existed at the time!
Kids these days don't really have that kind of incentive. The current games and apps are turned out by teams of programmers and artists, with thousands of man-hours behind them. Gone are the days of the lone hobbyist releasing a new version of the "dir" command to an audience eager to receive it. Why should a kid today bother to learn how to program, when he'll never be able to create the next Pong, let alone the next Final Fantasy VIII?
What's left today to get kids excited about learning more about a computer than how to right-click an icon? Porn and MP3 piracy? I think if we were to draw a graph of "Available Programming Talent over Time", we'd start seeing a dip around now. We've gone past the wellspring of inspired, enthusiastic, self-taught hackers. Granted, we'll still see a few of those here and there, but they will be the exception rather than the rule. The rule of cookie-cutter, carbon-copied, MIS grads who wouldn't know a JNE instruction if it bit them on their asses, and who wouldn't know an opamp from a demultiplexer if you showed them the datasheets.
Raise your hand if you ever soldered something directly to your motherboard. The rest of you, go back to your latte and Java For Dummies books.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
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In other words, right now they can change the "memory" state of the molecule from 0 to 1 once, but they can't tell it to flip back, right? They need to develop the switch. And after that, they'll probably need to develop a general purpose way to read the memory (and write, of course). And it will probably take time to integrate this stuff with existing electronics.
Don't get me wrong, this is definitely exciting stuff! But don't expect to see the "general-purpose ultimate molecular computer" anytime soon.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
But using a barcode scanner with a Palm device is much more exciting than using it with a clunky desktop PC. See, I used to be the Systems Manager at a company that did a lot of warehousing (among other things like manufacturing and running an ISP). A few years ago, we spent not-inconsequential amounts of money on some RF barcode scanners. These suckers were basically handheld DOS 3.3 boxes with some custom C libraries to access the laser and RF functions.
It was fun programming the client/server app for those, but it would have been a lot more fun to do it on a Palm platform. Not only would it have been easier to find related resources, but we could have used them for a wider variety of office/warehouse applications. AND, your entire barcode scanning apparatus could have fit in your shirt pocket, if you used a pen-style scanner, rather than the gun-style (but OTOH, the pen scanners can't read a barcode from 3 feet away, so there's a trade-off).
Thinking about it almost makes me miss that job. But then I remember the overtime, the dusty warehouse, and the fact that I work only 8 hours a day now, and from home, to boot.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
One of the things he points out, which I think that many PHBs don't get, is that programming is a creative process. We often allow ourselves to think that technical thinking and creative thinking are on opposite ends of a spectrum, but that just isn't so. Hacking -- programming in particular -- is very much a creative process, where we manage to encapsulate leaps of logic into a logical framework. This is why we tend to be so passionate about our work, because art and passion are inevitably linked, and we are artists in our own right
This interview allows ESR to reiterate so many of the things he said in Homesteading the Noosphere: Open Source is a forum where we geeks can indulge in a little self-agrandizment. We can say "Look at what I did!" to a community that understands why it is that what we did is cool.
I really like his notion that the company of the future will concetrate more on how much value it can offer to people on the outside, rather than how much value it can extract from people on the inside. This is the kind of image some companies today are already trying to display, but few actually live up to.
I've been really excited by the headway that Open Source is making into more "traditional" business circles these days. I don't think it will be much longer before we begin to see its promise realized a higher and higher levels. Really, we're already beginning to see it, as the examples of Cisco and IBM that ESR mentions show.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Man, I'm really torn now. See, my fiancee really wants my Palm III, which of course means I need to buy myself a replacement. Do I go ahead and get a Visor Deluxe, or should I hold out a while longer and keep sharing my III until something new comes along? I'm also kind of reluctant to get the Visor right now, until there's some word about how to get the PalmOS 3.3 update into those suckers.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
Do any of the current DVD drives/players work under Linux/FreeBSD under WINE? Granted, that's not the real point, but it would at least be something while we wait for a native player.
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3
This is a fun one. On the one hand, a similar case of "mandatory filtering" in a library has already been shot down by a Federal judge in Virginia. On the other hand, this one talks about Federal funding, which I think adds a new spin to it (IAMAL, of course).
:)
I always thought that the easiest solution would be to have two types of access terminals: full-access, and youth-restricted. Send minors to the youth-restricted, filtered, monitored, whatever terminals. Let adults choose to use the full-access terminals, if that's what they desire. Keep the full-access terminals oriented in such a way that the screens aren't visible to everybody that wanders around the room.
But that's just me. And I don't have a lobby to back me up, so I guess that will never happen.
Hmmm.... the Slashdot Lobby.... Hmmmmm....
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Ernest MacDougal Campbell III / NIC Handle: EMC3