If you use EC2 as your server, aren't you are pretty much stuck using S3 as your data store, unless you want all of your data requests going out over the interweb and back to populate pages? This means you end up coding to S3 instead of a more generic database structure. That sounds fairly proprietary to me.
Also, although the pay as you go pricing structure is good for a business, it's a little pricey for someone to just try out or use for a hobby site. I can't afford $75 / month to set up a server to play with in my spare time over a couple of months...that buys almost a full year with a shared hosting plan.
Software Engineers and Programmers are not the same thing.
I work for a company that develops a very sophisticated scientific instrument. There are complex algorithms, sophisticated calibration techniques, and I am actually a 'software engineer'. I am doing real engineering to solve real world problems...my tool of choice happens to be software. Some people use electrons. Some people use concrete and steel.
I am an engineer by education and a programmer by trade.
Upon returning from a night out with my wife, I discovered that her younger brother (13 at the time) had been surfing porn on my computer. Now, I'm not uptight about such things, and to be honest if it were only boobs and butts, I very likely wouldn't have said a word about it. When I was a teenager, getting my hands on a Playboy or Penthouse was the most extreme porn that was readily available and they satisfied the basic curiosity of a young man. But, now with the InterWeb, it's straight to "Anal University" and "Hardcore, deep-throating grandmothers". There is absolutely zero escalation. It used to take years before a person became so desensitized that it took seeing a woman with her arm up a Donkey's ass to the elbow in order to get arroused. Now, with the internet, you can go straight from innocent and curious to downright filthy and jaded in 15 minutes.
The scary thing is that he was savvy enought to try to cover his tracks, but didn't do a very good job. Now, he has to suffer through the ask Mom for a password with every new website, slow as molasses, content protection filter that I installed on his computer...if only he would have stuck to boobs and butts, he would still be happily wanking away...but thats almost impossible online.
After going through every music player that I could find, both closed and open source, I have definitely landed square on wxMusik http://musik.berlios.de/. It Plays mp3, ogg, APE,MPC,FLAC, mp2, wav, aiff and wma (win only) files...sorry no AAC as of yet...but it's open source and cross platform, so you can make it happen.
I'm reminded of the Bush Administrations first reaction to Global Warming...that it didn't exist.
When confronted with mounting evidence to the contrary, the reaction from dubya was something to the affect of "What are you worrying about, it'll make winter weather less severe, last fewer months, and create a lot of new beach-front property. Everybody wins!"
Now, that's a great scientific mind at work.
On windows, there is a very excellent add supported/cheap converter called PDF995. You can get rid of the adds for $10 per person (less in volume). They also have an app called PDFEdit995 which allows you to do lots of modifications and offers lots of utilites, and Signature995 which allows for encryption and digital signatures.
I have found the quaility to be better than GhostScript.
I agree...and I thought we were past that point in American history where we blindly trusted our representatives to do the right thing in our best interest. I thought the time was passed when we trusted the arrogant "Trust us, we know things that you don't" rhettoric. It seems as though people have forgotten about Watergate. It seems as though people have forgotten about decades of systematic FBI surveilence of innocent citizens for political gain. It seems as though people have forgotten the backroom deals and country road politics that got Bush in office in the first place.
Frankly, the only thing that will help us save face in this case, is if we actually do find banned weapons in Iraq, and a lot of them.
I think it's about time to consider actions against corporations that behave this way, similar to actions recently taken against the SPAM-meisers. Such actions are akin to acts of civil disobedience against the government, which at first may seem like an odd comparison. However, the role of big corporations and their sizeable campaign contributions in our government are exactly what make this sort of behavior possible in the first place.
I think it's high time that these lawsuit corporations are made very aware that the citizenry will not stand for this kind of behavior. They have no product...they produce nothing of value...so they actually make it their business plan to litigate their way to profitablity.
I say screw 'em.
Any ideas of an appropriate plan of action. The irony of the Junk mail campaign against the SPAM King is most excellent, and I think makes a very obvious point. How can we do the same to these lawsuit corporations?
What if MS decided that they didn't want to develop Microsoft SQL server OR provide security fixes anymore?
They have basically done just that with the Jet databases engine (used in Access). There are known bugs in the 4.0 version which will never get fixed because MS has decided to stop development on the platform, thereby forcing people to migrate to some variant of SQL Server (or MSDE). This has caused no end of headaches for those who needed and used the Jet architecture as a simple file database for a small single/(or few) user application.
Longer Version: Over the years, I have installed several versions of Linux on various boxes of mine, only to abandon the process after minimal success. A few months ago, I gave things another try with RedHat 7.1. I can't speak for the Linux kernel, however, Gnome and KDE have both locked up on me several times...leaving me with no alternative but to cold boot the machine. Thanks, but I can get that with Win98. As a matter of fact, I can honestly say that I have had to reboot more times with Linux (KDE or Gnome) than with either Win2K or WinXP. Now, I can't say if I would have had these problems running only the CLI... But, why in the hell would I want to do that?
In theory, I am a strong supporter of open software, and will someday likely give Linux another chance; however, I have no intention of going back to a CLI for my regular desktop work.
This post represents exactly the kind of idiotic immaturity that makes a good point against the original poster. Arrogance... Ignorance... it has everything.
Charter Communications actually does block port 80, port 21, and I suppose other "server ports" as well, from outside their network trying to reach non-business IP addresses within their network. However, these ports seem to be pretty open form IP to IP within their network. Mind you, they started doing this with no warning and not even the slightest mention that there are now two different types of accounts - business & personal.
When our small (4 guys) office first signed up with Intermedia 3 years ago, there was surely only one type of account. Intermedia was purchased by Charter, and everything seemed to remain the same. Suddenly in mid October of this year, a client calls up and says he can't download a file from our web server. (We run a small server for providing specific demos and file downloads.) Within 2 weeks no one could reach our box. Charter assurred me that there was NO port blocking going on. I spent untold hours trying to troubleshoot this problem. I went through every possible server setting, talked to numerous ISP techs around the country about their DNS settings, all to no avail. Finally, when talking to the 3rd Charter rep that I tried, I was told that I should have converted to the business account which has "always been in existance" ( A LIE) in order to run servers on their network. The cost difference was negligible considered the usefullness of running our own server, but the real pain in the ass was they never even informed us that there was a 'business account'. They just started blocking ports and waited for people to complain.
I believe the same logic applies to 'stolen' MP3's as well. The record companies operate under the assumption that every download is a lost sale, and that's just not the case. In fact, I believe it is far more likely that people will buy the CD's that they really want and download stuff that they wouldn't mind having but aren't willing to shell out $16 (USD) for.
...need I say more. Although, I'm not surprised to see such a huge display of "dumbass" from a company like KPMG. A good buddy of mine used to work for them. Apparently, they're just eat up with "dumbass".
You're absolutely right, and the same is true in the movie industry, music industry, etc. How many 'new' movies are 'new' in any serious way? How many are re-makes of older movies...or worse yet, re-makes of re-makes of older movies? The only additions are different actors (whoever is most popular this month) and new special effects. When was the last time you heard some really unique sounding music come out of your radio? How many different versions of the same self-help book need to be pulished? 'The Idiot's Guide to Chicken Soup for Dummies'...anybody? There seems to be a serious lack of creativity these days...at least that actually makes it to the public.
Pardon me, but at what point did high school math or physics get complicated enough to need an advanced calculator. I used my HP28S & 48Gx extensively while getting my degree in electrical engineering; however, the most I ever used calculators in high school was for the Trig. (it's a little painstaking to calculate the cos(x) manually all the time.) At some point the methods of problem solving become more the issue than the actual execution of mathematical tedium. However, learning to do the tedium is part of any good education. Are high schools actually promoting the use of technology over actual learning?
I believe that there are several options available to do some similar things today. Zero Knowledge's Freedom Firewall provides an encrypted personal info tool with it's free firewall and cookie manager. You don't even need to sign up for their anonymous web browsing service to get it.
Has anyone been successful in reaching the referenced document. If so could you, please, make it available as WinterSpeak's server has apparently been/.ed.
Slashdot Mirror
If you use EC2 as your server, aren't you are pretty much stuck using S3 as your data store, unless you want all of your data requests going out over the interweb and back to populate pages? This means you end up coding to S3 instead of a more generic database structure. That sounds fairly proprietary to me.
Also, although the pay as you go pricing structure is good for a business, it's a little pricey for someone to just try out or use for a hobby site. I can't afford $75 / month to set up a server to play with in my spare time over a couple of months...that buys almost a full year with a shared hosting plan.
Software Engineers and Programmers are not the same thing.
I work for a company that develops a very sophisticated scientific instrument. There are complex algorithms, sophisticated calibration techniques, and I am actually a 'software engineer'. I am doing real engineering to solve real world problems...my tool of choice happens to be software. Some people use electrons. Some people use concrete and steel.
I am an engineer by education and a programmer by trade.
Upon returning from a night out with my wife, I discovered that her younger brother (13 at the time) had been surfing porn on my computer. Now, I'm not uptight about such things, and to be honest if it were only boobs and butts, I very likely wouldn't have said a word about it. When I was a teenager, getting my hands on a Playboy or Penthouse was the most extreme porn that was readily available and they satisfied the basic curiosity of a young man. But, now with the InterWeb, it's straight to "Anal University" and "Hardcore, deep-throating grandmothers". There is absolutely zero escalation. It used to take years before a person became so desensitized that it took seeing a woman with her arm up a Donkey's ass to the elbow in order to get arroused. Now, with the internet, you can go straight from innocent and curious to downright filthy and jaded in 15 minutes.
The scary thing is that he was savvy enought to try to cover his tracks, but didn't do a very good job. Now, he has to suffer through the ask Mom for a password with every new website, slow as molasses, content protection filter that I installed on his computer...if only he would have stuck to boobs and butts, he would still be happily wanking away...but thats almost impossible online.
After going through every music player that I could find, both closed and open source, I have definitely landed square on wxMusik http://musik.berlios.de/. It Plays mp3, ogg, APE ,MPC ,FLAC, mp2, wav, aiff and wma (win only) files...sorry no AAC as of yet...but it's open source and cross platform, so you can make it happen.
I'm reminded of the Bush Administrations first reaction to Global Warming...that it didn't exist. When confronted with mounting evidence to the contrary, the reaction from dubya was something to the affect of "What are you worrying about, it'll make winter weather less severe, last fewer months, and create a lot of new beach-front property. Everybody wins!" Now, that's a great scientific mind at work.
On windows, there is a very excellent add supported/cheap converter called PDF995. You can get rid of the adds for $10 per person (less in volume). They also have an app called PDFEdit995 which allows you to do lots of modifications and offers lots of utilites, and Signature995 which allows for encryption and digital signatures. I have found the quaility to be better than GhostScript.
I agree...and I thought we were past that point in American history where we blindly trusted our representatives to do the right thing in our best interest. I thought the time was passed when we trusted the arrogant "Trust us, we know things that you don't" rhettoric. It seems as though people have forgotten about Watergate. It seems as though people have forgotten about decades of systematic FBI surveilence of innocent citizens for political gain. It seems as though people have forgotten the backroom deals and country road politics that got Bush in office in the first place.
Frankly, the only thing that will help us save face in this case, is if we actually do find banned weapons in Iraq, and a lot of them.
It really all started a few years ago with... ... 'Compasionate Conservative'
I think it's about time to consider actions against corporations that behave this way, similar to actions recently taken against the SPAM-meisers. Such actions are akin to acts of civil disobedience against the government, which at first may seem like an odd comparison. However, the role of big corporations and their sizeable campaign contributions in our government are exactly what make this sort of behavior possible in the first place.
I think it's high time that these lawsuit corporations are made very aware that the citizenry will not stand for this kind of behavior. They have no product...they produce nothing of value...so they actually make it their business plan to litigate their way to profitablity.
I say screw 'em.
Any ideas of an appropriate plan of action. The irony of the Junk mail campaign against the SPAM King is most excellent, and I think makes a very obvious point. How can we do the same to these lawsuit corporations?
What if MS decided that they didn't want to develop Microsoft SQL server OR provide security fixes anymore?
They have basically done just that with the Jet databases engine (used in Access). There are known bugs in the 4.0 version which will never get fixed because MS has decided to stop development on the platform, thereby forcing people to migrate to some variant of SQL Server (or MSDE). This has caused no end of headaches for those who needed and used the Jet architecture as a simple file database for a small single/(or few) user application.
Short Version: I agree with your post.
Longer Version: Over the years, I have installed several versions of Linux on various boxes of mine, only to abandon the process after minimal success. A few months ago, I gave things another try with RedHat 7.1. I can't speak for the Linux kernel, however, Gnome and KDE have both locked up on me several times...leaving me with no alternative but to cold boot the machine. Thanks, but I can get that with Win98. As a matter of fact, I can honestly say that I have had to reboot more times with Linux (KDE or Gnome) than with either Win2K or WinXP. Now, I can't say if I would have had these problems running only the CLI... But, why in the hell would I want to do that?
In theory, I am a strong supporter of open software, and will someday likely give Linux another chance; however, I have no intention of going back to a CLI for my regular desktop work.
This post represents exactly the kind of idiotic immaturity that makes a good point against the original poster. Arrogance... Ignorance... it has everything.
I just did a quick check and BeOS5PE is available on Morpheus/KaZAA.
Charter Communications actually does block port 80, port 21, and I suppose other "server ports" as well, from outside their network trying to reach non-business IP addresses within their network. However, these ports seem to be pretty open form IP to IP within their network. Mind you, they started doing this with no warning and not even the slightest mention that there are now two different types of accounts - business & personal.
When our small (4 guys) office first signed up with Intermedia 3 years ago, there was surely only one type of account. Intermedia was purchased by Charter, and everything seemed to remain the same. Suddenly in mid October of this year, a client calls up and says he can't download a file from our web server. (We run a small server for providing specific demos and file downloads.) Within 2 weeks no one could reach our box. Charter assurred me that there was NO port blocking going on. I spent untold hours trying to troubleshoot this problem. I went through every possible server setting, talked to numerous ISP techs around the country about their DNS settings, all to no avail. Finally, when talking to the 3rd Charter rep that I tried, I was told that I should have converted to the business account which has "always been in existance" ( A LIE) in order to run servers on their network. The cost difference was negligible considered the usefullness of running our own server, but the real pain in the ass was they never even informed us that there was a 'business account'. They just started blocking ports and waited for people to complain.
...JackAsses!
I believe the same logic applies to 'stolen' MP3's as well. The record companies operate under the assumption that every download is a lost sale, and that's just not the case. In fact, I believe it is far more likely that people will buy the CD's that they really want and download stuff that they wouldn't mind having but aren't willing to shell out $16 (USD) for.
...need I say more. Although, I'm not surprised to see such a huge display of "dumbass" from a company like KPMG. A good buddy of mine used to work for them. Apparently, they're just eat up with "dumbass".
You're absolutely right, and the same is true in the movie industry, music industry, etc. How many 'new' movies are 'new' in any serious way? How many are re-makes of older movies...or worse yet, re-makes of re-makes of older movies? The only additions are different actors (whoever is most popular this month) and new special effects. When was the last time you heard some really unique sounding music come out of your radio? How many different versions of the same self-help book need to be pulished? 'The Idiot's Guide to Chicken Soup for Dummies'...anybody? There seems to be a serious lack of creativity these days...at least that actually makes it to the public.
Pardon me, but at what point did high school math or physics get complicated enough to need an advanced calculator. I used my HP28S & 48Gx extensively while getting my degree in electrical engineering; however, the most I ever used calculators in high school was for the Trig. (it's a little painstaking to calculate the cos(x) manually all the time.) At some point the methods of problem solving become more the issue than the actual execution of mathematical tedium. However, learning to do the tedium is part of any good education. Are high schools actually promoting the use of technology over actual learning?
I believe that there are several options available to do some similar things today. Zero Knowledge's Freedom Firewall provides an encrypted personal info tool with it's free firewall and cookie manager. You don't even need to sign up for their anonymous web browsing service to get it.
Has anyone been successful in reaching the referenced document. If so could you, please, make it available as WinterSpeak's server has apparently been /.ed.
Thanks.