At some point, shouldn't we just look at an organization like Napster and just say "Let it die, already."
Napster had already become little more than a joke without it being a pay service, now to add a monthly fee onto that is more insult than anything.
If it were still in its original form, sure... it'd be a great success, and tons of people would subscribe. But with it's currently mangled useability? I can't see it happening.
I snatched this from [H]ard|OCP since it was pretty darned relevent.
Regarding the AMD - Gateway stories, just remember that AMD isn't "suffering a blow" per se, as some people have been saying in relationship to this article. PC Sales have slumped BAD over the last year, Gateway and Dell have both been laying people off...etc. These are extremely tough times right now everywhere...not just the PC sector. Things are going to be rough for a while.
In response to stories today about AMD's business relationship with Gateway, please consider the following information:
Gateway continues to sell the Gateway Select 1400, a performance PC based on the 1.4GHz AMD Athlon(tm) processor. ( http://www.gateway.com/home/price/1000_1500.shtml ) AMD plans to continue working with Gateway to determine how AMD can help meet the needs of Gateway's customers. Computer manufacturers refresh their product offerings on a cyclical basis throughout the year. We work with them during each design cycle to determine how AMD's processors can meet the needs of their customers. This is an ongoing process, and we are always competing for business.
AMD's products are used by computer manufacturers around the globe. AMD's OEM partners sell more AMD processor-based systems today than ever before in the company's 32-year history. In the most recently-completed quarter, AMD experienced record unit microprocessor sales of our award-winning AMD Athlon and AMD Duron processors. In addition, AMD's worldwide unit market share for x86 processors has risen from 16.2 percent in Q499 to greater than 22 percent for Q201, according to Mercury Research. AMD today has the most diverse microprocessor portfolio in the company's history. We are providing our partners with leading solutions for desktop and notebook computers, and multiprocessor servers and workstations.
That's right. I was thinking about American Airlines at 20,000... but according to this article at CNN, as of 9/22 there had already been announcements of over 100,000 jobs cut in the airline industry (airlines & Boeing) alone.
Then you have all of the IT cuts that've been taking place lately....
I tell you what, if I weren't the only IT guy where I work (and therefore 'reasonably' secure) I might be looking for a way to make it that way.;^)
The G5 isn't going to make a lick o' difference. Afterall if someone's buying from Gateway in the first place, it implies that they're not technically oriented enough to build the system in the first place. Therefore they tend to not be 'up' on processor differences and whatnot, and will more than likely get (at least a bit of) a crashcourse in processor models, not to mention "Why the Mhz rating is important."
Nope, these people will only see "Apple" or "PC". And since everyone they know will be telling them to get a PC...
That brings it up to what? 30,000 or so lost jobs over the last couple of weeks? Definitely not very encouraging.
Though on another note, it's very disappointing to see Gateway abandon AMD in favor of Intel. Considering that the AMD processors have a tendency to 'whoop the crap' out of comparable Intel chips (when you factor in the cost, especially) it seems that AMD would've been more logical as a "More bang for the buck" system.
Would anyone like to guess what sort of 'Incentive' was offered by Intel?
Wonder what this would've done for Final Fantasy?
on
Sun Releases Starcat
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· Score: 2
I wonder how this would compare with the sheer amount of hardware that was thrown at the rendering of that movie. (I can't find the original link, but over and above the SGI stations that were used there were hundreds of clustered 'normal' PCs)
Just thinking "could they've just slapped a few of these suckers into place instead?"
One problem you have with Mame is the fact that the ROMs take so much space. (My collection alone is over 7 CDs, and a friend's is larger than that)
Anyone know of the feasability of using this with the broadband adapter to hook into your network and pull ROMs from another machine? (just map the shares and let it rip)
Heck, for that matter how about being able to run an MP3 server like this by doing the same thing?
And when you add in the VCD player that's already available for the Dreamcast. All we need is a DIVX player and we're set.
>PGP users should rest assured that I would still not acquiesce to any back doors in PGP.
It's really good to have a veteran with the possibility of being a champion for privacy issues. Afterall, we all know for a fact that Phil's willing to run the gauntlet in defense of what he thinks is right... I would think that's been proven.
I just hope it won't be necessary to go to the lengths that happened last time.
Hmmm... not sure how to take the article
on
Linux on the Desktop
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Afterall, the entire article shows where and how Linux and Linux alternatives can be used to replace Windows 2k... as well as it should since that's the primary thrust of the article.
I would think that everyone here would agree that Linux can more than admirably replace a Win2k desktop.
But my question would be, should it?
The wrtier uses Star Office for his example. (While there are better out there, I'll use it since he did) He even points out that the suite is missing quite a few of the Office features, almost all of which you and I will probably never use. But what about the secretary for your group? Or that person that uses Word to create forms? You might be able to do a lot of the things that these people rely on in Star, but what sort of hoops to do it? And could a computer 'illiterate' really catch on to those hoops?
That brings me to his PDF creation solution. Print to PostScript, then use a 3rd party utility to convert to PDF. It's not very user friendly, "but it works." If you look through the article, you'll find that phrase quite a bit.
My whole point is that Linux can replace/supplant a desktop for those of us on Slashdot, and typically do a far better job than the desktop it replaced. However 99% of the office workers out there are not the typical bored geek that hangs out on here.
So yeah you can replace Win2k with Linux for a business user workstation, but I personally don't think that you should. At least not yet.
It seems more of a 'feel-good' measure than anything. After all, Liston's quoted as:
"I'm holding about 1,000 Nimda scanning threads and 300 Code Red scanning threads at the HackBusters site. I'm holding them hard and I'm not letting them go"
Well what about the other threads that are spawned by the virus? If I remember correctly, don't Code Red and Nimbda spawn multiple threads to infect/probe several hosts at the same time? How does this really do anything other than just hold a thread captive while the other XX threads go about their daily business?
an executive working on the project said the company is open to an industry group--such as those already controlling Kerberos
And I wonder if they would treat it the way they treated the Kerberos oversight group? You know, that "Hey decide whatever you want, but we're doing it our way. Ain't market-share wonderful?" way.
Congress was quick to blame sophisticated encryption methods for the massive intelligence failure last week and is proposing that government officials should have backdoor access to encryption products to aid national security.
Funny... and here I had thought that the primary reasons given for the massive intelligence failure were due to budget constraints and de-escalation of the intelligence community. Sources from the CIA and various government officials have come out and point blank stated that they have a severe lack of spies out there to actually infiltrate these terrorist cells...
So how do they jump from that to blaming it on encryption? Sheesh.
Obviously it's not going to be affected by this silly law/requirement. So how is this going to affect in any way Joe Blow Terrorist in not using the latest version of Euro-PGP to be immune from FBI looking over their shoulder?
Think about how you get charged for every... little... thing... when you have to go to the hospital.
And now you have to pay for all this too? Ack! Do they have an attachment on that arm to allow the Billing Dept to remotely remove your wallet while they're at it?
You're right and I apologize for that statement, since it didn't come out as I meant it.
But be that as it may, this needs to be a time for open discussion about what to do... and what went wrong. But people using this as a platform from which to jump into their own pet soapboxes, I do find disgusting. (And the pet soapbox this time was the "My President is Charleton Heston" variety.)
Very true. Here in the States we have an excellent example of a 'Temporary Measure' that was put into place, even though it goes against the intent of our Constitution, and extended to a permanent basis.
It's called our Federal Income Tax, and was made permanent in 1913... 18 years after the Supreme Court determined it unconstitutional.
Hey, I think you guys replied to the wrong person.:^)
I was pointing out that the passengers of Flight #93 were able to defend themselves to the extent that they were able to thwart their kidnappers. Yes they died, but they had the choice and they took it. And I'm sure that we're all thankful that they had the resolve to do so.
If they'd all been armed would it have come out differently? Perhaps. Perhaps the terrorists wouldn't have tried taking over the plane in the first place. Perhaps the passengers would've restored order. Perhaps half the passengers would've died due to friendly fire on the plane, and the plane would still be hijacked. Maybe the plane would have been explosively decompressed due to some idiot taking a loaded weapon onto a plane.
You (in general) don't know what might/might not have happened, and to tell you the truth all the 'Monday Morning Coaching' that's going on is slightly disgusting.
I'm not sure if this could _really_ be considered terrorism since a couple of the primary goals were the death of the king and destruction of Parliament. That's always struck me as more of a 'overthrowing of the government' sort of thing then an act of terrorism.
Slashdot Mirror
At some point, shouldn't we just look at an organization like Napster and just say "Let it die, already."
Napster had already become little more than a joke without it being a pay service, now to add a monthly fee onto that is more insult than anything.
If it were still in its original form, sure... it'd be a great success, and tons of people would subscribe. But with it's currently mangled useability? I can't see it happening.
Dammit Sean, just write something else.
Thouhg as a bit of an addendum, I'm still partial to the thought if Intel offering them 'incentives' comprised of Rambus stock. hehe...
That's right. I was thinking about American Airlines at 20,000... but according to this article at CNN, as of 9/22 there had already been announcements of over 100,000 jobs cut in the airline industry (airlines & Boeing) alone.
;^)
Then you have all of the IT cuts that've been taking place lately....
I tell you what, if I weren't the only IT guy where I work (and therefore 'reasonably' secure) I might be looking for a way to make it that way.
Hehe... the looks I just got from everyone wondering what I was laughing about...
;^)
Next time you need to stick a disclaimer up there first.
The G5 isn't going to make a lick o' difference. Afterall if someone's buying from Gateway in the first place, it implies that they're not technically oriented enough to build the system in the first place. Therefore they tend to not be 'up' on processor differences and whatnot, and will more than likely get (at least a bit of) a crashcourse in processor models, not to mention "Why the Mhz rating is important."
Nope, these people will only see "Apple" or "PC". And since everyone they know will be telling them to get a PC...
That brings it up to what? 30,000 or so lost jobs over the last couple of weeks? Definitely not very encouraging.
Though on another note, it's very disappointing to see Gateway abandon AMD in favor of Intel. Considering that the AMD processors have a tendency to 'whoop the crap' out of comparable Intel chips (when you factor in the cost, especially) it seems that AMD would've been more logical as a "More bang for the buck" system.
Would anyone like to guess what sort of 'Incentive' was offered by Intel?
I wonder how this would compare with the sheer amount of hardware that was thrown at the rendering of that movie. (I can't find the original link, but over and above the SGI stations that were used there were hundreds of clustered 'normal' PCs)
Just thinking "could they've just slapped a few of these suckers into place instead?"
One problem you have with Mame is the fact that the ROMs take so much space. (My collection alone is over 7 CDs, and a friend's is larger than that)
Anyone know of the feasability of using this with the broadband adapter to hook into your network and pull ROMs from another machine? (just map the shares and let it rip)
Heck, for that matter how about being able to run an MP3 server like this by doing the same thing?
And when you add in the VCD player that's already available for the Dreamcast. All we need is a DIVX player and we're set.
(Now I wonder if all this would actually work?)
:^)
All I know is that if someone could stick Heroes of Might & Magic 3 on the thing, I'm there.
(Not only could I feed my addiction in the computer room, I could feed it in the living room too! Woo-hoo!)
that we railed on the impersonal juggernaut that was 3D-FX, and cheered the peppy little underdog that was known as nVidia.
.ahem.
>PGP users should rest assured that I would still not acquiesce to any back doors in PGP.
It's really good to have a veteran with the possibility of being a champion for privacy issues. Afterall, we all know for a fact that Phil's willing to run the gauntlet in defense of what he thinks is right... I would think that's been proven.
I just hope it won't be necessary to go to the lengths that happened last time.
Afterall, the entire article shows where and how Linux and Linux alternatives can be used to replace Windows 2k... as well as it should since that's the primary thrust of the article.
I would think that everyone here would agree that Linux can more than admirably replace a Win2k desktop.
But my question would be, should it?
The wrtier uses Star Office for his example. (While there are better out there, I'll use it since he did) He even points out that the suite is missing quite a few of the Office features, almost all of which you and I will probably never use. But what about the secretary for your group? Or that person that uses Word to create forms? You might be able to do a lot of the things that these people rely on in Star, but what sort of hoops to do it? And could a computer 'illiterate' really catch on to those hoops?
That brings me to his PDF creation solution. Print to PostScript, then use a 3rd party utility to convert to PDF. It's not very user friendly, "but it works." If you look through the article, you'll find that phrase quite a bit.
My whole point is that Linux can replace/supplant a desktop for those of us on Slashdot, and typically do a far better job than the desktop it replaced. However 99% of the office workers out there are not the typical bored geek that hangs out on here.
So yeah you can replace Win2k with Linux for a business user workstation, but I personally don't think that you should. At least not yet.
It seems more of a 'feel-good' measure than anything. After all, Liston's quoted as:
"I'm holding about 1,000 Nimda scanning threads and 300 Code Red scanning threads at the HackBusters site. I'm holding them hard and I'm not letting them go"
Well what about the other threads that are spawned by the virus? If I remember correctly, don't Code Red and Nimbda spawn multiple threads to infect/probe several hosts at the same time? How does this really do anything other than just hold a thread captive while the other XX threads go about their daily business?
an executive working on the project said the company is open to an industry group--such as those already controlling Kerberos
And I wonder if they would treat it the way they treated the Kerberos oversight group? You know, that "Hey decide whatever you want, but we're doing it our way. Ain't market-share wonderful?" way.
My local weatherman can't give an accurate precition of tomorrow's forecast, now I'll be able to get an inaccurate forecast for Australia too.
Now that's technology!
Congress was quick to blame sophisticated encryption methods for the massive intelligence failure last week and is proposing that government officials should have backdoor access to encryption products to aid national security.
Funny... and here I had thought that the primary reasons given for the massive intelligence failure were due to budget constraints and de-escalation of the intelligence community. Sources from the CIA and various government officials have come out and point blank stated that they have a severe lack of spies out there to actually infiltrate these terrorist cells...
So how do they jump from that to blaming it on encryption? Sheesh.
Obviously it's not going to be affected by this silly law/requirement. So how is this going to affect in any way Joe Blow Terrorist in not using the latest version of Euro-PGP to be immune from FBI looking over their shoulder?
Think about how you get charged for every... little... thing... when you have to go to the hospital.
And now you have to pay for all this too? Ack! Do they have an attachment on that arm to allow the Billing Dept to remotely remove your wallet while they're at it?
Getting in deeper and deeper threadwise. :^)
You're right and I apologize for that statement, since it didn't come out as I meant it.
But be that as it may, this needs to be a time for open discussion about what to do... and what went wrong. But people using this as a platform from which to jump into their own pet soapboxes, I do find disgusting. (And the pet soapbox this time was the "My President is Charleton Heston" variety.)
Very true. Here in the States we have an excellent example of a 'Temporary Measure' that was put into place, even though it goes against the intent of our Constitution, and extended to a permanent basis.
It's called our Federal Income Tax, and was made permanent in 1913... 18 years after the Supreme Court determined it unconstitutional.
Good point. Probably about the time we have our rights restored that've been stripped away during the "War on Drugs".
Hey, I think you guys replied to the wrong person. :^)
I was pointing out that the passengers of Flight #93 were able to defend themselves to the extent that they were able to thwart their kidnappers. Yes they died, but they had the choice and they took it. And I'm sure that we're all thankful that they had the resolve to do so.
If they'd all been armed would it have come out differently? Perhaps. Perhaps the terrorists wouldn't have tried taking over the plane in the first place. Perhaps the passengers would've restored order. Perhaps half the passengers would've died due to friendly fire on the plane, and the plane would still be hijacked. Maybe the plane would have been explosively decompressed due to some idiot taking a loaded weapon onto a plane.
You (in general) don't know what might/might not have happened, and to tell you the truth all the 'Monday Morning Coaching' that's going on is slightly disgusting.
This is a bit off-topic, but still...
I'm not sure if this could _really_ be considered terrorism since a couple of the primary goals were the death of the king and destruction of Parliament. That's always struck me as more of a 'overthrowing of the government' sort of thing then an act of terrorism.
Nobody could defend themselves in the 'weapons-free safety zone' created by FAA regulations and US law
Uh huh.
Tell that to the passengers of flight #93.