Well when I was let go from a large company a year ago, I was back on the market looking for a suitable job. Some of the offers looked too good to be true and when I went for the interview I was told (luckily) that I would have to sign an NDA and have a similar 'will not work for a competitor' agreement to sign. Imagine if I found about the agreements after I accepted the post and was part of my 'orientation'. Then i'd have had to quit before I start. I personally dont mind an NDA, but i *do* oppose to being this close to being a bonded labourer.
No matter how much money they promised me I would never have taken the job, cause apparently according to the clause I cannot work for a competitor even if they fire me.
My advice: No matter how much green they throw at you, unless you have the freedom to leave and do your own thing, dont take it.
Instead of complaining that Linux needs a comparable media player, why dont you try emailing Sorensen and Apple about having the sorensen codec ported over to Linux. Email the webmasters of websites containing qt or asf streams asking them to write to Apple/Sorensen etc.
DivX isnt the greatest but it is still very good. Try using LAMP it plays quite a few varieties and next gen of xanim should be good. xmms with asf plugin plays quite a few asf files.
Compare multimedia on Linux now to what it was 2 years ago and then u'll see how far it has advanced.
Shouldnt be too hard to modify the eMAC eTheme to give it another fruit say an orange or a grape. Or considering Apples bullying I'd say a coconut or a banana would be appropriate.
My dislike of Apple the company was at an all time low and I was considering a dual processor Mac purchase with OS X. Now I guess I'd rather get _anything_ else than a Mac.
You forget that once Microsoft releases 'Mirosoft Linux', they *HAVE* to release the source code. If they refuse to release the source, they cannot call it Linux or anything related to Linux. They can all it MSUX.
Whatever they create may be another Unix / Linux clone but as long as they use GPL software, they have to release the source.
If it isnt compatible, then no one will get MS Linux.
So be a good lad and standardize. You have the different options so choose one. If you are a sysadmin and didnt standardise on the interface of your computers be it Unix, Unix-likes or Windows then you have no business working as a sysadmin.
If you were to roll out RedHat and then switch to debian, you have the option of installing all the same tools. Desktops? If you use Gnome on RH use Gnome on Deb or Slack or SuSe or Caldera. Same goes with KDE or WindowMaker or whatever.
If you already have Solaris or HP UX or AIX then go get CDE for Linux from Xig.
Dont whine about non-standardization. If you deploy then its partly your responsibility too. Dont blame us for giving you choices.
I bought both the versions, Windows and Linux. Reason being, I wanted to play Quake3 the day it released and i bought the Linux version shortly after to show support for my preferred platform. Since then I have bought almost all the games released by Loki, with the exception of Descent 3.
More people would have probably bought the Linux version had it been available locally in stores. I know 3 more ppl who ordered the Linux box set from Loki.
Just wait till the time that the $500,000 dollar house you just bought really belongs to the architect. The way things are getting.. it *could* Happen:)
The suit you bought belongs to the designer. You will have to sign a EULA at the store. Alterations? Forget about it unless you want to pay the designer big bucks to 'redesign it to suit your needs'.
Last on the agenda would be human genome copyright. Unless you pay *HUGE* royalties to HTAA (Horizontal Tango Association of America) You will not be allowed to procreate and a smaller license fee will be issued for recreational purposes. And if you *DO* beget some children good luck on choosing a name cause all the first names will be copyrighted. Expect to see people with names such as WQRTWQBVWHQ and NJSDWNWJW around (multiple charecters in different scripts - Kanji, Arabic, Cyrillic will be mixed with English to get a name which might not be copyrighted)
Enough of my ranting... This whole issue sucks anyways
I had a similar experience with an MCI reseller. Didnt matter that I had MCI service already for my business. He still droned on and on about what great service I was going to get. I told the *SAME* seles rep on 3 phone conversations not to call me back and take me off their list.
The 4th call which came about 4 hours after the 3rd finally made me extremely irritated. I told the sales rep if he called once more I was going to call his manager and file a formal complaint AND bill the company for my time wasted. I also told him I was extremely busy with my work and dont want to be disturbed. He said "But you have no idea what an important deal you are blowing by refusing"
So far I have sent a letter of complaint and a bill for an hours worth of work at $150/hour. I wont see the money, but I havent received a call since from that place.
Ever check out Bynari's TradeMail server? Or Intrastore Server? Both offer that on Nix systems.
At my old company (definitely a Microsoft shop - All NT servers, NT workstations etc) They decided that Exchange couldnt scale to the number of users they had. They run intrastore (on NT) as their mail server for over 250k employees.
But then again instead of switching, follow the basic principle, If it aint broke, dont fix it.
"Also the analogy is poor because medical products tend to be tightly regulated... "
This argument had nothing to do with regulations on medical products.
Point is: If you get confidential information from a company and knowing that it is confidential, you post it cause you think it is something that people should know, then you are liable to get in trouble for it. Bottom Line.
What irks me is that most of you bitch and moan where individual privacy is concerned, but dont want to allow companies to have privacy? Companies have confidential information so they can put a product out without someone copying it first and destroying all the work and money which has gone into it.
Tylenol is not gonna sue you cause the instructions are available widely - i.e on top of every bottle.
Now if you publish an internal confidential memo on how the tablets dont cure the pain completely, one which hasnt been de-classified, yes they can take action against you
At the company I used to work, we used an app called Safeboot. Safeboot encrypted the drive and installed itself in the boot sector. The only way to bypass it was to enter the password supplied. If you enetered the wrong password 3 times, it would lock itself out for 30 seconds, the next wrong entry for 60 seconds and so on and so forth.
The only way to bypass it is with a rescue floppy which was created at the time safeboot was installed. It stores information based on the machine and time it was installed on so each laptop has its own rescue floppy.
I have had to unlock the machines which had password entry lockout for almost a whole day.:)
If someone steals it, doesnt have the rescue floppy, he cant access the drive through fdisk, or any similar tool. Only thing left is to delete partitions and format, but the data is safe.
If you buy a laptop from Compaq you are screwed if you ever wipe out the drive.
There are NO driver floppies which came with the damn thing. All it had was a CD-ROM which restored the machine back to its original state. Now mind you that CD doesnt work if the partitions on the disk were changed in any way. Compaq has this unique partition thing which ensures that the restore CDs will work only with the laptop which it came with. My mistake in being cheap and buying a lower end laptop.
I went to compaq.com and no there are no drivers there either. I went to drivershq.com and similar sites, but no drivers there either.
Now I dont buy from Compaq at all. I buy from Dell or IBM now.
How about Compaq Laptops? I have a 400Mhz laptop, it even has a Made for Windows 98 label on it. Win 98 on a fresh install doesnt see the video card or sound or the winmodem.
Btw under Linux all work, even the fscking winmodem.
You said it dude,
I have used all distributions (up to the latest), I have a huge # of machines @ home which run RH7, Mdk, Debian, Caldera , Slackware , FreeBSD and also running NetBSD on my Sparc machine now.
I have used RedHat for a while, and so far except for bugs in the.0 releases, they have yet to disappoint me.
Mebbe I wasnt clear on what I was saying. What i meant was *you* the person who is spending money should have the say. If you want WFWG then by all means the store should install it for you.
I know enough retailers (at least in the Bay area) who will install your choice of Linux/BSD flavour.
The question is if they will install what _you_ want. After all it is *your* money. So why souldnt you get what you want installed whether it be Linux or BeOS or Windows 200 or even Plan 9:)
Not only do they do double talk, but they dont follow the terms of their own license.
Doesnt the license say that if I dont agree with it, I can return it for a full refund? I know there was a Windows refund day and all that but how many people actually got their refund?
If they dont follow such an integral part of their license, then why should I follow it? After all this behemoth of a company has just charged me $200 for something I dont want.
Of course this is only if you buy from an OEM and not if you build your PC yourself.
When Microsoft starts giving out refunds for copies that ppl dont want, I myself have 2 machines which dont have Windows on it and have paid for windoze and can return 2 OEM copies still in shrinkwrap.
Slashdot Mirror
Well when I was let go from a large company a year ago, I was back on the market looking for a suitable job. Some of the offers looked too good to be true and when I went for the interview I was told (luckily) that I would have to sign an NDA and have a similar 'will not work for a competitor' agreement to sign. Imagine if I found about the agreements after I accepted the post and was part of my 'orientation'. Then i'd have had to quit before I start. I personally dont mind an NDA, but i *do* oppose to being this close to being a bonded labourer.
...
No matter how much money they promised me I would never have taken the job, cause apparently according to the clause I cannot work for a competitor even if they fire me.
My advice: No matter how much green they throw at you, unless you have the freedom to leave and do your own thing, dont take it.
The number of the beast
Instead of complaining that Linux needs a comparable media player, why dont you try emailing Sorensen and Apple about having the sorensen codec ported over to Linux. Email the webmasters of websites containing qt or asf streams asking them to write to Apple/Sorensen etc.
...
DivX isnt the greatest but it is still very good. Try using LAMP it plays quite a few varieties and next gen of xanim should be good. xmms with asf plugin plays quite a few asf files.
Compare multimedia on Linux now to what it was 2 years ago and then u'll see how far it has advanced.
The number of the beast
For example, is there any DRI support for non-Linux platforms, especially *BSD?
...
For that you have to wait for 5.0 Feel free to tinker with the 5.0 CURRENT as that will supposedly have DRI
What about USB support?
USB support has been in BSD far longer than Linux.
Just my $0.02 but with rent prices in California i can only offer $0.01
The number of the beast
The dual head feature contains code which has been licensed from Macrovision. Therefore Matrox cannot give out the source without violating their NDA.
...
Even the driver sources from Matrox doesnt contain the sources for Macrovision IP.
The number of the beast
... that is copyright enforceable?
...
Shouldnt be too hard to modify the eMAC eTheme to give it another fruit say an orange or a grape. Or considering Apples bullying I'd say a coconut or a banana would be appropriate.
My dislike of Apple the company was at an all time low and I was considering a dual processor Mac purchase with OS X. Now I guess I'd rather get _anything_ else than a Mac.
The number of the beast
You forget that once Microsoft releases 'Mirosoft Linux', they *HAVE* to release the source code. If they refuse to release the source, they cannot call it Linux or anything related to Linux. They can all it MSUX.
...
Whatever they create may be another Unix / Linux clone but as long as they use GPL software, they have to release the source.
If it isnt compatible, then no one will get MS Linux.
The number of the beast
So be a good lad and standardize. You have the different options so choose one. If you are a sysadmin and didnt standardise on the interface of your computers be it Unix, Unix-likes or Windows then you have no business working as a sysadmin.
...
If you were to roll out RedHat and then switch to debian, you have the option of installing all the same tools. Desktops? If you use Gnome on RH use Gnome on Deb or Slack or SuSe or Caldera. Same goes with KDE or WindowMaker or whatever.
If you already have Solaris or HP UX or AIX then go get CDE for Linux from Xig.
Dont whine about non-standardization. If you deploy then its partly your responsibility too. Dont blame us for giving you choices.
The number of the beast
I bought both the versions, Windows and Linux. Reason being, I wanted to play Quake3 the day it released and i bought the Linux version shortly after to show support for my preferred platform. Since then I have bought almost all the games released by Loki, with the exception of Descent 3.
...
More people would have probably bought the Linux version had it been available locally in stores. I know 3 more ppl who ordered the Linux box set from Loki.
The number of the beast
Just wait till the time that the $500,000 dollar house you just bought really belongs to the architect. The way things are getting .. it *could* Happen :)
... This whole issue sucks anyways
...
The suit you bought belongs to the designer. You will have to sign a EULA at the store. Alterations? Forget about it unless you want to pay the designer big bucks to 'redesign it to suit your needs'.
Last on the agenda would be human genome copyright. Unless you pay *HUGE* royalties to HTAA (Horizontal Tango Association of America) You will not be allowed to procreate and a smaller license fee will be issued for recreational purposes. And if you *DO* beget some children good luck on choosing a name cause all the first names will be copyrighted. Expect to see people with names such as WQRTWQBVWHQ and NJSDWNWJW around (multiple charecters in different scripts - Kanji, Arabic, Cyrillic will be mixed with English to get a name which might not be copyrighted)
Enough of my ranting
The number of the beast
If Theo made the ISO images available, would you purchase an OpenBSD CD just to support him?
...
You *can* do an ftp install or AFS install or even make your own CD. So its not like you *have* to pay to get it.
The CD is $30.00 plus S/h, so buy it, get the CD set and have the warm fuzzy feeling of having contributed to the project in some way.
Btw the T shirts kick ass too
The number of the beast
I had a similar experience with an MCI reseller. Didnt matter that I had MCI service already for my business. He still droned on and on about what great service I was going to get. I told the *SAME* seles rep on 3 phone conversations not to call me back and take me off their list.
...
The 4th call which came about 4 hours after the 3rd finally made me extremely irritated. I told the sales rep if he called once more I was going to call his manager and file a formal complaint AND bill the company for my time wasted. I also told him I was extremely busy with my work and dont want to be disturbed. He said "But you have no idea what an important deal you are blowing by refusing"
So far I have sent a letter of complaint and a bill for an hours worth of work at $150/hour. I wont see the money, but I havent received a call since from that place.
The number of the beast
Ever check out Bynari's TradeMail server? Or Intrastore Server? Both offer that on Nix systems.
...
At my old company (definitely a Microsoft shop - All NT servers, NT workstations etc) They decided that Exchange couldnt scale to the number of users they had. They run intrastore (on NT) as their mail server for over 250k employees.
But then again instead of switching, follow the basic principle, If it aint broke, dont fix it.
The number of the beast
Time to start looking at your computers hardware. I have been using XF 4.0.x for a while and konqueror recently and it has been very stable for me.
...
The number of the beast
"Also the analogy is poor because medical products tend to be tightly regulated... "
This argument had nothing to do with regulations on medical products.
Point is: If you get confidential information from a company and knowing that it is confidential, you post it cause you think it is something that people should know, then you are liable to get in trouble for it. Bottom Line.
What irks me is that most of you bitch and moan where individual privacy is concerned, but dont want to allow companies to have privacy? Companies have confidential information so they can put a product out without someone copying it first and destroying all the work and money which has gone into it.
Tylenol is not gonna sue you cause the instructions are available widely - i.e on top of every bottle.
Now if you publish an internal confidential memo on how the tablets dont cure the pain completely, one which hasnt been de-classified, yes they can take action against you
At the company I used to work, we used an app called Safeboot. Safeboot encrypted the drive and installed itself in the boot sector. The only way to bypass it was to enter the password supplied. If you enetered the wrong password 3 times, it would lock itself out for 30 seconds, the next wrong entry for 60 seconds and so on and so forth.
:)
The only way to bypass it is with a rescue floppy which was created at the time safeboot was installed. It stores information based on the machine and time it was installed on so each laptop has its own rescue floppy.
I have had to unlock the machines which had password entry lockout for almost a whole day.
If someone steals it, doesnt have the rescue floppy, he cant access the drive through fdisk, or any similar tool. Only thing left is to delete partitions and format, but the data is safe.
Hot? Hellz No ..
If you buy a laptop from Compaq you are screwed if you ever wipe out the drive.
There are NO driver floppies which came with the damn thing. All it had was a CD-ROM which restored the machine back to its original state. Now mind you that CD doesnt work if the partitions on the disk were changed in any way. Compaq has this unique partition thing which ensures that the restore CDs will work only with the laptop which it came with. My mistake in being cheap and buying a lower end laptop.
I went to compaq.com and no there are no drivers there either. I went to drivershq.com and similar sites, but no drivers there either.
Now I dont buy from Compaq at all. I buy from Dell or IBM now.
How about Compaq Laptops? I have a 400Mhz laptop, it even has a Made for Windows 98 label on it. Win 98 on a fresh install doesnt see the video card or sound or the winmodem.
Btw under Linux all work, even the fscking winmodem.
You guys *do* know that there are binary tgzs available for install with a REAL simple install script right?
Just have to download all the tgzs, extract and Xinstall.sh then do sh Xinstall.sh
i have been using this and it works great.
You said it dude, I have used all distributions (up to the latest), I have a huge # of machines @ home which run RH7, Mdk, Debian, Caldera , Slackware , FreeBSD and also running NetBSD on my Sparc machine now.
.0 releases, they have yet to disappoint me.
I have used RedHat for a while, and so far except for bugs in the
Way to go Red Hat!
Mebbe I wasnt clear on what I was saying. What i meant was *you* the person who is spending money should have the say. If you want WFWG then by all means the store should install it for you.
Guess you made your choice. Now keep your finger on the reboot button, you'll use it a lot.
So that pretty much sums it as buying a house with furniture already kept inside.
.. it is late and I must sleeep!!!!
And if you have your own furniture, no more home owners insurance for you and the builder wont agree to sell the house without the furniture.
BLAH !!
Nope, ...
:)
I know enough retailers (at least in the Bay area) who will install your choice of Linux/BSD flavour.
The question is if they will install what _you_ want. After all it is *your* money. So why souldnt you get what you want installed whether it be Linux or BeOS or Windows 200 or even Plan 9
Not only do they do double talk, but they dont follow the terms of their own license.
Doesnt the license say that if I dont agree with it, I can return it for a full refund? I know there was a Windows refund day and all that but how many people actually got their refund?
If they dont follow such an integral part of their license, then why should I follow it? After all this behemoth of a company has just charged me $200 for something I dont want.
Of course this is only if you buy from an OEM and not if you build your PC yourself.
When Microsoft starts giving out refunds for copies that ppl dont want, I myself have 2 machines which dont have Windows on it and have paid for windoze and can return 2 OEM copies still in shrinkwrap.