I stopped using ICQ years ago because it was so script-kiddie friendly and AIM not long after. I'm quite happy using Jabber with a gateway to Yahoo Messenger, thankyouverymuch.
I'd use this only as a last resort. Regardless of the "it's the thought that counts", I don't have room in my life (or apartment) for anything that I don't actually have a use for. As Tom Lehrer said
Relations, sparing no expense'll
Send some useless old utensil,
Or a matching pen and pencil.
"Just the thing I need! How nice!"
I don't get into the whole commercialism anyway, but if someone feels they MUST give me something, go to my amazon wish list and pick out something I actually want. Or better yet, donate to some worthy charity in my name.
I have always heard the whole "You pay more for IBM because of the name" thing. I bought an Aptiva about 3 years ago, the same time as many of my friends bought Gateways/Dells/etc that cost significantly less. Mine has been turned off only for hard drive upgrades, adding RAM, and kernel updates. Most of my friends have had to toss their boxes and replace them. I'll pay a little more for longevity.
I was under the impression that/. was a site for discussion of a wide variety of issues/stories that would be of interest to technically minded people. Hence the frequency of stories about genetics/astronomy/physics/science in general, as well as discussion of new hardware/software regardless of platform. A large number of/. users run Windows at home or at work or both and often are responsible for maintaining those machines. A story such as this is a valid story for this audience, and as I have to run Windows at work I like to know what is likely to have an impact on me.
I'm definitely going to check this one out, as I'm something of a security freak. I'm currently reading "Security Engineering" by Ross Anderson (Wiley) and while the author has an obvious bias in favor of Windows, it is a great look at designing security for distributed systems.
I must be confused. A company is offering premium service (just like RHN does) for a reasonable fee and every gets their panties in a wad. They are not discontinuing the free updates (as the teaser implied they were), they are simply saying "if you pay us, you'll get priority access". Red Hat has been doing this for years with FTP access. A real world analogy would be this: For 32 cents (US) the US Postal Service will send your letter anywhere in the US. For another few dollars they will make someone sign for it, and for a few dollars more they'll get it there faster. Are you saying you'll boycott the USPS because they charge more for faster service?
As for myself, my time is actually worth something so I'm more than happy to spend 10 bucks a month on a useful service that gets my updates to me faster.
What if I just use a sufficiently free app without reading the insufficiently free documentation? Am I still OK?
Re:fax will never die... at least not yet.
on
Email Turns Thirty
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
>. home users can get broadband for cheap in the form of cable or DSL, these options are not offered to businesses because of the "fear" that the company will use it more than the home user,
Do you know ANYTHING about business connectivity? A few of the companies that offer broadband connectivity specifically for businesses: AT&T, Qwest, SouthwesternBell, Earthlink, UUNet, Verizon, BellSouth, PacBell, DSLi, MegaPath, Sprint, Prodigy, SNet, MSN, Global Crossing, PSINet, XO, Verio, Roadrunner, MediaOne, MPower, and those are just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. There are many many more regional and local providers, and business users are the ones who have driven the industry (AT&T bought up either Northpoint or Covad (don't recall which) and are dropping the consumer side because the real money is in providing business connectivity.
Um, details?
on
Future Of IDS
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· Score: 4, Informative
That was one of the most content-free articles I've ever seen this side of USA Today. Any chance of tracking down a detailed side by side analysis of the products tested with pros and cons and maybe WHY they thought snort was so much better (not that I disagree, but vagaries don't tend to be terribly convincing when presenting to management).
I found this highly entertaining, but people who do not have a particularly dry sense of humour may not enjoy it. I think he makes some excellent points, especially when addressing some of the things our spy industry does that the mainstream media covers up.
I've been using Evolution since I believe.6 (I've been on it for over a year) exclusively and have yet to have a problem with it. YMMV, but I'm very impressed.
There have been plenty of comments so far that essentially say "This is all common sense, it's a 'For Dummies' book" etc etc. I've been doing web development in a variety of companies for 6 years, and it's amazing how little "professional" web developers and designers understand about useability. People who have disabilities are limited not because they are "too dumb to know how to upgrade their browser" but because they have physical limitations that will not be cured by using the spiffiest new web browser. The reason Nielson points these things out is because they still need to be pointed out. Don't shoot the messenger.
Probably should've just stopped there. If you hear anything on talk radio and don't verify it with a real news source then you're an idiot. It's the equivelant of taking everything you see on Friends as absolute truth.
While I agree with most of what Stallman has to say, he has a tendency to be confrontational and to come off as belligerent and antagonistic. This tends to make people uncomfortable. I personally think it would be bad for Gnome if he became a board member, but I'm not a voter. I don't question his commitment or his ability, but rather his approach.
Re:Slashdot tip of the day....
on
Concept PC 2001
·
· Score: 1, Offtopic
The part you quote was in italics. The submitter, not the approver (CmdrTaco) made the error.
Seriously though, I've been using Evo since the.5 days and have enjoyed watching the advances in stability and feature set. Sure, it's no pine, but it's stable and offers all the functionality I need to convince my wife to try linux instead of winblows (she swears by Eudora and won't use anything else, no matter how much she complains when her Win2k box crashes several times/week).
I have worked on several open source projects that likely could have gotten some funding (not VC crap or marketing dollars, just pay for some additional work/documentation/support) but never made the effort. I'm now working with some friends on an interesting system that we plan on doing just this sort of thing with.
Note that they state it was a combination of the move to linux and lowered telco/comm costs. A minor, but important, point.
Re:Little content, little meaning...
on
MS DOS: A Eulogy
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· Score: 1
>Microsoft might actually believe that Windows is stable enough that you don't need the DOS prompt anymore
Microsoft also believes that their products are secure and reliable. Just because a fanatic believes something, doesn't make it so. I'd trust real world examples of this stability long before I'd believe the Kool-Aid drinkers in Redmond.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, it's Windows with different icons! I'm so impressed. Anyone remember linuxOne?
I stopped using ICQ years ago because it was so script-kiddie friendly and AIM not long after. I'm quite happy using Jabber with a gateway to Yahoo Messenger, thankyouverymuch.
When I submitted this story on the 28th, it was rejected. Today it's accepted. I love the consistency.
I have always heard the whole "You pay more for IBM because of the name" thing. I bought an Aptiva about 3 years ago, the same time as many of my friends bought Gateways/Dells/etc that cost significantly less. Mine has been turned off only for hard drive upgrades, adding RAM, and kernel updates. Most of my friends have had to toss their boxes and replace them. I'll pay a little more for longevity.
I was under the impression that /. was a site for discussion of a wide variety of issues/stories that would be of interest to technically minded people. Hence the frequency of stories about genetics/astronomy/physics/science in general, as well as discussion of new hardware/software regardless of platform. A large number of /. users run Windows at home or at work or both and often are responsible for maintaining those machines. A story such as this is a valid story for this audience, and as I have to run Windows at work I like to know what is likely to have an impact on me.
I'm definitely going to check this one out, as I'm something of a security freak. I'm currently reading "Security Engineering" by Ross Anderson (Wiley) and while the author has an obvious bias in favor of Windows, it is a great look at designing security for distributed systems.
As for myself, my time is actually worth something so I'm more than happy to spend 10 bucks a month on a useful service that gets my updates to me faster.
What if I just use a sufficiently free app without reading the insufficiently free documentation? Am I still OK?
>. home users can get broadband for cheap in the form of cable or DSL, these options are not offered to businesses because of the "fear" that the company will use it more than the home user,
Do you know ANYTHING about business connectivity? A few of the companies that offer broadband connectivity specifically for businesses: AT&T, Qwest, SouthwesternBell, Earthlink, UUNet, Verizon, BellSouth, PacBell, DSLi, MegaPath, Sprint, Prodigy, SNet, MSN, Global Crossing, PSINet, XO, Verio, Roadrunner, MediaOne, MPower, and those are just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. There are many many more regional and local providers, and business users are the ones who have driven the industry (AT&T bought up either Northpoint or Covad (don't recall which) and are dropping the consumer side because the real money is in providing business connectivity.
That was one of the most content-free articles I've ever seen this side of USA Today. Any chance of tracking down a detailed side by side analysis of the products tested with pros and cons and maybe WHY they thought snort was so much better (not that I disagree, but vagaries don't tend to be terribly convincing when presenting to management).
I found this highly entertaining, but people who do not have a particularly dry sense of humour may not enjoy it. I think he makes some excellent points, especially when addressing some of the things our spy industry does that the mainstream media covers up.
I've been using Evolution since I believe .6 (I've been on it for over a year) exclusively and have yet to have a problem with it. YMMV, but I'm very impressed.
This, of course, from the same company that used to let you drag the whole OS to the trash bin and delete it...
There have been plenty of comments so far that essentially say "This is all common sense, it's a 'For Dummies' book" etc etc. I've been doing web development in a variety of companies for 6 years, and it's amazing how little "professional" web developers and designers understand about useability. People who have disabilities are limited not because they are "too dumb to know how to upgrade their browser" but because they have physical limitations that will not be cured by using the spiffiest new web browser. The reason Nielson points these things out is because they still need to be pointed out. Don't shoot the messenger.
I'd rather not use AV software that was designed not to work. Of course, I run Linux so it's not really an issure for me...
>I just heard some sad news on talk radio -
Probably should've just stopped there. If you hear anything on talk radio and don't verify it with a real news source then you're an idiot. It's the equivelant of taking everything you see on Friends as absolute truth.
While I agree with most of what Stallman has to say, he has a tendency to be confrontational and to come off as belligerent and antagonistic. This tends to make people uncomfortable. I personally think it would be bad for Gnome if he became a board member, but I'm not a voter. I don't question his commitment or his ability, but rather his approach.
The part you quote was in italics. The submitter, not the approver (CmdrTaco) made the error.
Not every system is the same. If you can't handle the reality that different people have different experiences, that is your problem, not mine.
Seriously though, I've been using Evo since the .5 days and have enjoyed watching the advances in stability and feature set. Sure, it's no pine, but it's stable and offers all the functionality I need to convince my wife to try linux instead of winblows (she swears by Eudora and won't use anything else, no matter how much she complains when her Win2k box crashes several times/week).
I have worked on several open source projects that likely could have gotten some funding (not VC crap or marketing dollars, just pay for some additional work/documentation/support) but never made the effort. I'm now working with some friends on an interesting system that we plan on doing just this sort of thing with.
If you get it going (esp networking multiple boxes to the DSL modem) let me know, I've had no luck yet. Speedstream 5260...
Note that they state it was a combination of the move to linux and lowered telco/comm costs. A minor, but important, point.
>Microsoft might actually believe that Windows is stable enough that you don't need the DOS prompt anymore
Microsoft also believes that their products are secure and reliable. Just because a fanatic believes something, doesn't make it so. I'd trust real world examples of this stability long before I'd believe the Kool-Aid drinkers in Redmond.