Head over to http://www.linuxdoc.org/ and learn how it works.
The new distributions try to hide what is really going on behind useless, extravagent, and confusing GUI's. If you read and understand the basics (runlevels, starting, shutting down,/etc/rc.d/init.d, etc) then you can clean up the mess your distro installs and have a fast, clean, fun to use system.
Yes, it does exclude baseball. And golf. I also don't think anything where an animal is the one doing most of the work should be considered a sport either. Horse racing, for example.
That said, there are many real sports that have been introduced to the olympics that I don't believe belong there. Mountain bike racing, for example. I am a mountain racer myself, but I don't think it makes a good olympic sport, since it isn't simply a test of an athlete's skill and endurance. Anything can happen when you are on a trail!
The olympics should be track & field, swimming, and wrestling. Nothing else. And absolutely no friggin' games!!! (basketball, baseball, football, water polo...)
Back in the day, it *WAS* all assembly. That was the only way you could get any amount of speed out of the hardware in use at the time (486/33 or less!!!).
I got into it after seeing "Unreal" Second reality was the sequel.
Back then the 8 bit soundblaster pro was state of the art, as was my 486/33:)
Re:IRC Clients can be relatively secure
on
Secure IRC?
·
· Score: 2
Yup. And if you implement IKE, check it out, the keys get exchanged automatically. Easy to use if you configure a (different) shared secret between you and each of your friends/channels.
It would be nice to have all of my references on a single pad that I could take anywhere with me and easily read or search. If the screen resolution were good enough, it may even be worth reading them there too.
For small paperbacks, however, I usually only read them once anyway, so E-books aren't that hot an Idea for them. But if I could get my full collection of perl/apache/mysql/linux/security, etc books on a single tablet with a nice crisp display, and that tablet was in the $100-$200 price range? Hell yeah, I'd buy into that!
We are allowed to run anything we want, so long as we aren't harassing people or doing anything to breach netiquette. My ISP is really cool with their policies. I just wish they were smarter WRT their own administration (I was effectively not able to browse slashdot for two weeks b/c my IP didn't reverse-resolve!)
So run your own IRC server on an IPSec network. Problem solved.
Re:IRC can be fixed easily.
on
Secure IRC?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Being able to see other people's IP's is probably the biggest flaw of IRC. Makes fscking with that guy who just kicked you off your favorite channel that much easier.
The only issue I can see, is how would DCC Chat establish a connection then? If you make it depend on the server, then you could still trivially get the IP address by faking a DCC initiation. I guess the server would have to stand in the middle and only hand out the IP to each end after each end agreed to the communication. Major change in the protocol.
Re:IRC doesn't need security..
on
Secure IRC?
·
· Score: 2
So run your own server. Then again, your friends would be paranoid of you then, huh?
I got tired of everything that was going on on EFNet a couple of years ago, and have been running my own server for mountainbikers ever since. It's great! Full control, and only people with the same interests pop in.
I disabled ident lookups, so even when people are at work behind firewalls, they can still use my server.
IRC Clients can be relatively secure
on
Secure IRC?
·
· Score: 2
You could write public key encryption into the client itself, or easily script it in. Of course other folks in a channel would see only gibberish, but you could do it on a/msg by/msg basis by user as well.
I was actually thinking of implementing IKE in an XChat script awhile ago. It just wasn't worth the time for me to pursue, however.
Actually, my ISP hardcodes our MAC addresses to our DHCP assigned IP Address, so it never changes anyway. No need to pay the extra money for a static IP that way, I guess:)
An easy way in any system that has ghostscript installed is to simply send your output to a file, and then run ps2pdf on that file.
Of course, I believe everything will be stroked this way (instead of using postscipts built in fonts and positioning), and the file could get kindof big, but it does work. I'm doing this with my resume at the moment.
So it does the same thing that ps2pdf does, but in a much more complex way?
Re:And you can thank...
on
PDF Virus Spotted
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
It lets you do those inane calculations on the boxes on the US 1040 form and carry data to other fields. It lets you only enter the necessary data and eliminates mistakes based on simple math. Also useful for forms that want things like your name on the top of pages 2-99. Fill in your name on page 1 and it carries through. Want to have an online version of your form and want no legal problems by having two versions of the same form? Put the PDF of the print form on with Javascript validation.
And all of those things could be achieved with an online form, processed and verified on the backend that the administrators have *FULL* control over. Have you ever written a javascript 'application?' Did you know that the '+' symbol is used for both string concatanation and for addition? And usually, javascript will pick the wrong operation : 2+2='22', for example. Yeah, that's how I want my tax information calculated, NOT!
This is almost the same shit I just had to go through with Pennsylvania's braindead online unemployment comensation registration. They did EVERYTHING as a FSCKING javascript/ActiveX client side app. UGH! It is so broken that I ended up just downloading a text form from the web site and faxing that in.
Can someone please explain to me why anybody, ESPECIALLY A GOVERNMENT AGENCY, would write things so heavily dependent on client-side tools?
Below is the letter I wrote to them:
...doesn't work at all under Netscape, Mozilla, Lynx, Links, KFM or
Konqueror on linux.
I did not test Netscape or Mozilla under Windows or Macintosh, but the
problems could be there as well.
In IE under windows, it caused a GPF 3/4 of the way through, and in
several instances did not load properly, not allowing me to fill out
fields that were required. Also in IE, your code causes a security
alert on *EVERY PAGE* when using Microsoft's default security settings.
WHY are you depending on so much client side code for what amounts to
nothing more than a series of forms that are used to feed a back end
database? There is NO EXCUSE for a GOVERNMENT AGENCY to be excluding
all types of people (including the blind, or the poor who could be
accessing your page from a text-only, no javascript browser) from
filing for UC Benefits online. It is simply unacceptable.
I am very disappointed in what you have slapped together to file claims
online, and hope that you fix it for future unemployed folks who would
like to file their claims themselves online, saving everyone time and
effort.
Yes, simple javascript can save some time by providing immediate
feedback for data verification to the end user...but you depend far too
heavily on it. What about people who are using browsers with no
javascript enabled at all? They cannot file online. This also breaks a
very basic security rule: You can't trust things coming from a client.
ALL DATA should be verified on the backend itself.
Since your application is totally useless for me, I decided to use a
fax fill out form instead (linked on the same page as the electronic
application). Well, it's a week later, and I haven't heard anything,
so I called the Lancaster Unemployment Office. The representative
there informed me that the preferred method is to file over the
telephone, as faxes "can get lost, or sit on someone's desk for a week
before being processed." Lovely. Why is the preferred (telephone)
method not stated on the web page?
Please re-write the online application. It can be a great tool to file
online, but the way it has been done is error-prone and excludes a
rather large set of people from using it. These people are then forced
to use other methods, causing the entire system to be much less
efficient.
Slashdot Mirror
...but it seems to be failing the load tests already.
You can code around lack of sub-selects though. It just means you are going to have to run more than one query to get the exact data you want.
The new distributions try to hide what is really going on behind useless, extravagent, and confusing GUI's. If you read and understand the basics (runlevels, starting, shutting down, /etc/rc.d/init.d, etc) then you can clean up the mess your distro installs and have a fast, clean, fun to use system.
It's good to see somebody finally getting it right! Amazing that it was a government agency.
That said, there are many real sports that have been introduced to the olympics that I don't believe belong there. Mountain bike racing, for example. I am a mountain racer myself, but I don't think it makes a good olympic sport, since it isn't simply a test of an athlete's skill and endurance. Anything can happen when you are on a trail!
The olympics should be track & field, swimming, and wrestling. Nothing else. And absolutely no friggin' games!!! (basketball, baseball, football, water polo...)
Chess as an olympic sport? *sigh* That's almost as bad as when they brought in baseball.
So Quake 5 will be IIII with a slash through it (how do you do that in one line of ascii, anyway?)
FTP, HTTP, Telnet, Usenet, Gopher, POP, SMTP...and of course, IRC!
Ban it all! One computer connects to another computer and gets stuff from it. That's how it all works and always has, dimwits!
Back in the day, it *WAS* all assembly. That was the only way you could get any amount of speed out of the hardware in use at the time (486/33 or less!!!).
Back then the 8 bit soundblaster pro was state of the art, as was my 486/33 :)
Yup. And if you implement IKE, check it out, the keys get exchanged automatically. Easy to use if you configure a (different) shared secret between you and each of your friends/channels.
I did this when Judge Jackson's findings of fact came out. Works like a charm!
For small paperbacks, however, I usually only read them once anyway, so E-books aren't that hot an Idea for them. But if I could get my full collection of perl/apache/mysql/linux/security, etc books on a single tablet with a nice crisp display, and that tablet was in the $100-$200 price range? Hell yeah, I'd buy into that!
Here is our TOS:
http://www.planetcable.net/policies.asp
They are difficult to patch or upgrade or remotely configure or fix, or even publish to.
So...how, exactly, are these systems easy to use again?
So run your own IRC server on an IPSec network. Problem solved.
The only issue I can see, is how would DCC Chat establish a connection then? If you make it depend on the server, then you could still trivially get the IP address by faking a DCC initiation. I guess the server would have to stand in the middle and only hand out the IP to each end after each end agreed to the communication. Major change in the protocol.
I got tired of everything that was going on on EFNet a couple of years ago, and have been running my own server for mountainbikers ever since. It's great! Full control, and only people with the same interests pop in.
I disabled ident lookups, so even when people are at work behind firewalls, they can still use my server.
I was actually thinking of implementing IKE in an XChat script awhile ago. It just wasn't worth the time for me to pursue, however.
My web server is still getting a hit from 24.xx.xx.xx every few minutes. It'd be nice if those were hits on my resume from prospective employers :)
Actually, my ISP hardcodes our MAC addresses to our DHCP assigned IP Address, so it never changes anyway. No need to pay the extra money for a static IP that way, I guess :)
Of course, I believe everything will be stroked this way (instead of using postscipts built in fonts and positioning), and the file could get kindof big, but it does work. I'm doing this with my resume at the moment.
So it does the same thing that ps2pdf does, but in a much more complex way?
And all of those things could be achieved with an online form, processed and verified on the backend that the administrators have *FULL* control over. Have you ever written a javascript 'application?' Did you know that the '+' symbol is used for both string concatanation and for addition? And usually, javascript will pick the wrong operation : 2+2='22', for example. Yeah, that's how I want my tax information calculated, NOT!
This is almost the same shit I just had to go through with Pennsylvania's braindead online unemployment comensation registration. They did EVERYTHING as a FSCKING javascript/ActiveX client side app. UGH! It is so broken that I ended up just downloading a text form from the web site and faxing that in.
Can someone please explain to me why anybody, ESPECIALLY A GOVERNMENT AGENCY, would write things so heavily dependent on client-side tools?
Below is the letter I wrote to them:
I was an OS/2 user in the past. DFM tried to be something like WPS on the Linux desktop. It did a decent job, but always seemed a little off to me.
The thing I love about ROX is it's simplicity. What can be simpler to use and understand than using the OS's filesystem to maintain applications? :)
Now if only Pronto Mail would use Xdnd properly...ooooh, I'd be one happy linux user :)