Don't forget open proxy servers. Those are the spammer tool of choise these days. They're worse than open relays because they obscure the routing before the open proxy. Also, most people with open relays at least know that they're running a mail server. Many with open proxies don't.
Narf! "Nobody will ever need more than 2G of ram..." Heh, the limits change, but the song remains the same. I wonder how many gates were saved by just using the MSB as the RAM/ROM select? (I once saw a cheap-ass video poker machine that directly used the upper address lines of a Z80 as chip selects. I'm not sure they even had buffers on the lines. The funky part was that the address line was low to select the chip.)
What if you doubt your sysadmin's reliability?:^P I once (briefly!) worked with someone who routinely pressed the server's reset button when it thought the print queues were acting "funny". I almost had him escorted from the building when I saw him do it. (I didn't because he was only there for the rest of week. Why yes, I was there to replace him.)
A UPS is a Good Thing but the db still has to recover from acts of gods, demons and complete idiots.
Hmm, all those marines programmed with the backward-masked phase "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero". (Sound #95) Could cause trouble down the line...:^)
Next year Microsoft will enter Microsoft Bugs 1.0 in the contest. (Hmm. Damn I was going to say more. But Microsoft.. with swarming Bugs as product.. Other than Bravo for stepping out of the closet, what else can I say?)
Umm, their excellent work in the field, and, umm, the work on swarming worms and zombie DDOS attacks wouldn't have been the same without them.
My VCR does date back to the late 1980's! (Yes, it flashes 00:00. Information on Time is on a need-to-know basis. It doesn't need know -- until the networks show something worth resetting it for.)
As for the "next Einstein", let's just see if you're Y21-safe yet.
Next year's prize may go to the creator of 4.5-inch long swarming cockroaches.
Like that doesn't exist already? (And for a long long time.) On the bright side, maybe the patent office will still patent their idea? *sigh* It still won't work, of course: Trying to get a lawyer to serve cockroaches, hell, most of them already serve cockroaches.
Sheesh! Next you'll be saying that the Backhoe Fairy doesn't exist. (Everyone sends me $10, I leave it under my pillow, and she takes away a spammer's connection to the Internet. Trust me.;^)
Bah! Uganda is just so January! The hot new development is moving in the direction of Zambia The Scam Industry moves fast, and you have to be a leader in new innovation!
Ah, but you're not only throwing your bones, you're also looking at everyone else throwing their bones. Good, Bad, if you choose the same as everyone else, you win! It's one of those flocking algorythmic things.
hmm... time to roll up the monster, pass me that box of dice...;^)
One of the ironies that the article points out is that you can use innovation to lock people into your products. They'll think twice before decarding what they have to switch to something completely new.
But on that day that the ground moves under you, all that "lock in" suddenly turns around and bites you. Until now, the idea of going all Microsoft was good. All the Office products work well with each other, they work well with the OS. But now that plus is turning into a minus. If you want to keep using Office, you have to accept the next OS from Microsoft. You can't keep using what you have now. And if you have to make a change, why not look around? And if you know that everyone else is thinking twice, think three times!
Microsoft benefited from the last Great Change when Win 3.0 took off. Suddenly all the kings of the DOS world suffered a Reality Reset and had to compete on a new playing field. Microsoft's playing field. Why not switch from Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3 if you're changing the "OS"?
A lot of companies try that when they are in the position to. The article mentions IBM's attempt at PS/2 & OS/2. And then there's Netscape, those memory patent guys, etc.
They obviously have the same playbook, and we all know which one: "#199. I will not make alliances with those more powerful than myself. Such a person would only double-cross me in my moment of glory. I will make alliances with those less powerful than myself. I will then double-cross them in their moment of glory."
The other side of the cycle is that because companies grow addicted to the steady cash flow from the upgrade game, there is huge pressure to ship a product with an "acceptable" number of bugs in order to make the quarter look rosy.
Eventually this corrodes the QA from "it still has a few bugs" to "the customers won't vomit at first sight, and we'll have 80 megs of patches next week". Very bad practice for the software and the soul.
I think this lack of upgrade cycle deadline fever is a big plus on the Linux/Open side.
Sure, all industries try to sell the Latest and Greatest. One point of the article was that in technology, companies frequently try to bind us with innovations. I don't have to buy the latest Fnord product. I can switch to someone else's or keep my current model. If the rest of the office switches to a new version of Word, I'd probably be forced to go along. (And if I'm running OpenOffice, I'd better be really and truely compatable.)
It's the "lock in" factor that makes innovation in computers different from cars, or as Admiral Akbar said "It's a trap!"
You can deviate, but only if you don't force people to throw away everything else to get there. [Stupid analogy warning] It's like: rather than replacing the entire baby, you only change the diaper. However, after 20 years, it's time to rethink that stategy.:^)
Slashdot Mirror
Ouch, that'll leave a mark.
Don't forget open proxy servers. Those are the spammer tool of choise these days. They're worse than open relays because they obscure the routing before the open proxy. Also, most people with open relays at least know that they're running a mail server. Many with open proxies don't.
Narf! "Nobody will ever need more than 2G of ram..." Heh, the limits change, but the song remains the same. I wonder how many gates were saved by just using the MSB as the RAM/ROM select? (I once saw a cheap-ass video poker machine that directly used the upper address lines of a Z80 as chip selects. I'm not sure they even had buffers on the lines. The funky part was that the address line was low to select the chip.)
A UPS is a Good Thing but the db still has to recover from acts of gods, demons and complete idiots.
Hmm, all those marines programmed with the backward-masked phase "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero". (Sound #95) Could cause trouble down the line... :^)
Umm, their excellent work in the field, and, umm, the work on swarming worms and zombie DDOS attacks wouldn't have been the same without them.
As for the "next Einstein", let's just see if you're Y21-safe yet.
Like that doesn't exist already? (And for a long long time.) On the bright side, maybe the patent office will still patent their idea? *sigh* It still won't work, of course: Trying to get a lawyer to serve cockroaches, hell, most of them already serve cockroaches.
I'm sorry, you said you stuck a Matchbox car up your what? :^P
Obviously Amazon. Look at all those innovative patents!
Sheesh! Next you'll be saying that the Backhoe Fairy doesn't exist. (Everyone sends me $10, I leave it under my pillow, and she takes away a spammer's connection to the Internet. Trust me. ;^)
Bah! Uganda is just so January! The hot new development is moving in the direction of Zambia The Scam Industry moves fast, and you have to be a leader in new innovation!
Okay, so maybe it wasn't such a Stupid Analogy... :^P
hmm... time to roll up the monster, pass me that box of dice... ;^)
But on that day that the ground moves under you, all that "lock in" suddenly turns around and bites you. Until now, the idea of going all Microsoft was good. All the Office products work well with each other, they work well with the OS. But now that plus is turning into a minus. If you want to keep using Office, you have to accept the next OS from Microsoft. You can't keep using what you have now. And if you have to make a change, why not look around? And if you know that everyone else is thinking twice, think three times!
Microsoft benefited from the last Great Change when Win 3.0 took off. Suddenly all the kings of the DOS world suffered a Reality Reset and had to compete on a new playing field. Microsoft's playing field. Why not switch from Word Perfect and Lotus 1-2-3 if you're changing the "OS"?
We live in interesting times.
They obviously have the same playbook, and we all know which one: "#199. I will not make alliances with those more powerful than myself. Such a person would only double-cross me in my moment of glory. I will make alliances with those less powerful than myself. I will then double-cross them in their moment of glory."
Eventually this corrodes the QA from "it still has a few bugs" to "the customers won't vomit at first sight, and we'll have 80 megs of patches next week". Very bad practice for the software and the soul.
I think this lack of upgrade cycle deadline fever is a big plus on the Linux/Open side.
It's the "lock in" factor that makes innovation in computers different from cars, or as Admiral Akbar said "It's a trap!"
You can deviate, but only if you don't force people to throw away everything else to get there. [Stupid analogy warning] It's like: rather than replacing the entire baby, you only change the diaper. However, after 20 years, it's time to rethink that stategy. :^)
Are the companies that need the continous cash-flow of selling the latest upgrade every couple of years. (Naming no names. :)
Obviously TarProxy is slowing down Slashdot as part of its collateral damage.
In fact, because he was The Voice of Doom during WWII, he had to find other work once the war was over -- Nobody wanted to be reminded!
Nah, too slow! While the other players build up their forces, kill them with a Hobbit rush in two minutes. Just like in the book. :^P
Standard boilerplate for any contract that I've seen. (Your laws and colour of sky may vary.)
EULAs and real contracts always have a little clause that states if any one clause is illegal, the rest are still valid.