Oh yeah... I forgot to mention why I'm posting so much flaimbait today... It's no fun being at the karma cap. You can't go any higher, so you might as well make a jackass of yourself for a while, and then it becomes a challenge to write good wholesome stuff once again to regain that lost karma. I think it would be best if there was NO cap, because then everybody would be in a big competition to produce the best content. Instead, malcontents like myself start producing crap instead of good comments.
Besides, a couple of good Mexican beers (Negra Modelo for those who care to know) and you'll be writing crappy comments too. So don't drink and post.
Disclaimer: I'm really just kidding about Bill Gates. I think he's a good guy. A little greedy, I think, but he still donates millions of bucks to all kinds of good causes. (Probably just to take a tax deduction, but it still costs him the same amount of money, so what difference does it make?) So he's a good guy. I don't like his crappy software. But when he does become king of the world, I don't think everybody will go hungry. In fact, he'll run this planet like a big business and next thing you know, humans rule the entire universe. (Likely with spaceships that randomly crash into some moon or star, but we'll rule nontheless.)
Oh well... Mod me a Metatroll if you want. It's just a joke. Get over it.
Microsoft's so-called products are CRAP. Here is the quantitative proof:
You see, it's really quite simple. Bill Gates wants to be king of the world. What he's doing is amassing a great fortune that he will use to buy the government of a small country. Then, he'll take control of that country and run it like a huge business. In other words, like Microsoft, just much, much bigger. Then, he'll use his great fortune from that to purchase another country. And then another. Until he'll own a United States of Bill Gates. Then, he'll be able to buy really big countries, and several at a time... He'll just buy a whole continent at a time. He'll buy North America. Then he'll buy South America. Then Europe. Then Africa. Then Asia. Then Australia. And finally, he'll even buy Antarctica. Just for fun.
Bill Gates will use his powers only for evil. He'll turn the entire world into a big piece of crap. All the buildings all over the world will be in ruins. The roads will be all smashed up. Nobody will have a job anymore, except to be Bill Gates' slave. People will haul big bricks to build enormous pyramids and palaces for Bill Gates. He will sit on a huge fancy throne, and everybody else in the entire world will go hungry.
Actually, I'm just kidding. We all know that Bill Gates will use all his power only for good. Every person in the world will live in a huge palace and they'll have everything they ever wanted. Nobody will ever go hungry. There will be no more bad in the world. Bill Gates will just run around making everything good for everybody.
Actually, that's not likely--I believe the first one better.
But where the hell was I? Oh yeah... to make a long story short, oh well.
Microsoft shouldn't care about security. The reason is simple: Security isn't all that important. In fact, whatever minimal importance there is to security is inversely proportional to the importance of the system. Suppose we're discussing some kid's video game console. Security isn't important. It's probably the last thing on the list. On the other hand, suppose we're talking about a mission critical banking system. However unimportant security is on a video game console, it's even less important on a mission critical banking system. The reasons are obvious and need not be listed here. To continue the analogy, suppose now that human lives are at stake, as is the case with mission critical military systems. Security is so negligible on such a system that the designers should deliberately make the system insecure, and introduce other faults, just to be sure. The reasons for this are left as an exercise for the reader.
In short, what I'm saying is that Microsoft should supply all software. There should be a federal law that makes any kind of security illegal on any system, and furthermore, Microsoft should become a part of the government, and it would be illegal to produce any non-Microsoft software. Actually, what I meant to say is that Microsoft should purchase all the governments of the world, and Bill Gates should be king of the world, and everybody would be his slave. Not only that, but through his billions, he would develop some technology to defy death--to effectively become immortal. Then, through psychological techniques and brainwashing, he would convince the world that he is God and everybody will have to pray to him all the time, stopping only to eat, crap and sleep.
Yeah. That's why Microsoft shouldn't care about security.
Microsoft can't make secure products because Microsoft SUCKS! This whole thing is a PR stunt. Microsoft's garbage products are defective and insecure by design, because they're slopped together, adding tons of useless features with each new release. The programmers don't have the time to make the software secure, because they have to get unreasonable things done in unreasonable deadlines. Microsoft management only cares about profits. They don't care if they sell a product that's so defective that it doesn't even load up without crashing the computer and every computer within 10 miles. They don't care if the defectiveness of their so-called "products" causes trillions of dollars in losses, as long as they show a profit. And that's because Microsoft SUCKS!
BeOS is the greatest *O*P*E*R*A*T*I*N*G* *S*Y*S*T*E*M* of all time!!! It takes almost no time to install, has graphics more beautiful than MacOS X or Windows XP, runs on any model computer, supports every piece hardware in the world, runs any software ever written, makes the processor do things it can't (such as twice as many computations per second than the processor is physically capable of), and can run hundreds of thousands of tasks at the same time. (Multiple users can log in at the same time and can each simultaneously read AND write two floppies (even if you have no floppy drives), read and write as many hard drives as you have, burn several DVDs, play 1000 movies (even if you don't have a video card), mix and play 40 tracks of 64 bit audio (even if you don't have a sound card), print hi resolution photographs to 8 printers (at photo quality, even on dot matrix printers), surf the web, AND serve 5000 FTP users (even if you don't have a network connection or modem)... all that and MORE, at the same time, when running on a Z80 with only 4 bytes of RAM and no hard disk or other storage media. In fact, forget the Z80... BeOS can run on a single transistor! Just put a transistor near a BeOS installation DVD and within moments, you'll be serving up 100,000,000,000,000 simultaneous users running 100,000,000,000,000 processes each! BeOS can do it all!
Who needs a BILLION transistors in a processor, for crying out loud?! Let me tell you something. A slow 4- or 8-bit processor can execute amazing things when coded correctly. Embedded developers have interfaced these processors to memory, hard drives, CD-ROMs, the ISA and PCI busses, and just about every kind of peripheral out there. I'm beginning to think that a fully functional and FAST computer can be built with NO x86 processor, but with about $20.00 (US) worth of these cheap, slow and small processors. It's the software that needs to be engineered correctly, and I'm afraid that nearly all software out there isn't.
What happened to the good ol' days when programmers--real programmers--wrote very clever, small and fast programs? When it had to be written correctly or it didn't work?
Try explaining to me why nearly all hardware needs to be engineered correctly, for a minimum of components and a maximum of performance, yet nearly all software is slopped together, taking up tens or hundreds of megs and running noticeably slow on today's powerhouse machines. You know what? There's no excuse.
I've seen a hard real time operating system coded in 700 words. I've seen processors with 128 bytes of RAM control industrial robotics. Speaking of industrial stuff, I've seen an automation system that packs a real time operating system, high speed communication, interactive user interface (including full control of the display hardware), and all the automation software... in 20 kilobytes. Seeing this, I cannot understand why something simple like a word processor program should be several megs in size (and why it should hog a ton of memory).
So back to the billion transistors question... why? Why should the processor have to predict the next mess of instructions, load them into a cache, find out it predicted incorrectly, dump the cache, find the correct location, load the instructions... Why are processors marketed by their internal clock speed when they spend most of their time waiting for data? And above all, why does software suck so badly?
OH WELL.
The Lord of the Rings. The book rocks. The movie sucks. Yeah, it SUCKS! I left the theater halfway through it. It SUCKS! But the book is awesome.
Let me digress from the topic for a moment, to give you a little background information about scum.
Have you ever read The Lord of the Rings? It's an AWESOME book. The author has many talents, not the least of which are causing the reader to actually care for (and feel concerned about) the characters. One of my favorite things about the book is the way it makes me feel as though I'm on a perilous journey along with the characters. Many authors don't have that subtle talent. Furthermore, the story mixes storybook-style characters with serious characters and situations. This creates a very interesting style of comedy relief. In my opinion, the author has a great arsenal of writing talents. Not only is the story very interesting, but the writing style itself is a great part of the fun.
Now let me get back on topic and talk about scum. Lord of the Rings, the movie. That's scum. It's trash. It's garbage. The movie sucks so bad, my friend and I actually left the theater in the middle of the movie, disgusted. The book rocks. The movie sucks.
The movie cut 9 out of every 10 scenes out of the book, and several characters, and modified the events. It gave away all mystery (I forgot to mention the element of mystery present in the book) right at the beginning. The movie took a well written, well unfolding book and turned it into a flat, obvious and boring plot. The feeling of being on a journey was gone. Instead, my friend and I felt that the movie dragged on and on, and for nothing. The characters didn't look or behave "real." ALL the beauty of the book was lost. All that remains is plagiarism. I don't care if New Line Cinema licensed whatever--it's plagiarism as far as I'm concerned, and really bad plagiarism at that. You may as well make Lord of the Rings a 30 second flick where Frodo mails the ring to mount doom, and the postman tosses it in the flames for him, because this so-called "Trilogy" of movies isn't any better than that. In fact, it's worse because it's being advertised as something worthwhile.
Leave it at that. Don't waste your time (and corrupt what might otherwise be your good image of the book) by watching that horrible movie.
Disclaimer: The following comment is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real world events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental and unintended.
Disclaimer: The following comment may contain statements of parody, but does not contain statements of fact, slander or libel. Any statements that appear so are purely parody and should not be taken seriously.
Disclaimer: Not responsible for lost or stolen items.
Disclaimer: The following comment may include language of an adult nature. Parental discretion is advised.
Ok... now what the heck was I going to say?! Oh yeah... This looks like the most awesome LAN party ever! In fact, when I first glanced at the picture (I clicked the link and went to a different window--using Opera 5.0 for Linux (but under FreeBSD, ironically) allows me to work in many different windows at the same time, which is very advantageous because I like to do many things at once--I can't wait for version 6 to be available commercially--and then came back to the window with the picture and thought it was the wrong picture because...), I thought it was a photo of a city at night. That's how nuts this LAN party is!
Copyright 2001, rice_burners_suck. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: This post is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to places, things, or people, living or dead, is purely coincidental and unintentional.
Disclaimer: This post contains statements of opinion. Author not responsible for lost or stolen items.
Yeah. I hope people do that. I hope this backfires. I hope the RIAA goes out of business. I hope the DMCA is repealed and federal anti-copyright, anti-copy-protection laws are passed tomorrow, in conjunction with laws providing rewards for anybody who uses strong encryption. Yeah. But it probably won't happen.
OH WELL.
This post Copyright 2001, rice_burners_suck. All rights reserved.
I just finished reading it and it is some wonderful information. Seriously, everybody who runs any of the BSDs or Linux should read this paper. It will give you a much deeper understanding of what's going on and why, and this will lead to better choices when you configure your next box (or maintain those you're running right now). As always, reliable operation of any machine (be it a computer, a car, or a nuclear power plant) depends heavily on knowledgeable use and proper maintainence.
Some vague claims have been made that the fuss was over stuff that I said. Well, if anything I said back in those days was a crime against
the community, I would say it again. And as anyone on our mailing
lists knows, I am not someone to mince words. I say things as they
are. Slackers are called slackers, people who can't read manual pages
are called losers, and in general, calling things what they are
results in developers wasting less time.
You gotta love comments like these! Well, you might not, but I do anyway. I say, why hide behind glossy, laminated marketing? (By the way, I'm not trying to say anything against the NetBSD team. They're good folks and NetBSD is a great product, as is OpenBSD.) All I'm saying is that people should say things as they are. If you can't read a man page, you shouldn't be using a computer! It's as simple as that.
Disclaimer: This post is either a parody or a bunch of opinions, whichever the author chooses it to be at any given time. It is a work of pure fiction and as such must not be taken as statements of fact, slander or libel. All persons, places or things mentioned herein are objects of the author's imagination. Any similarities to persons, places or things in the real world are coincidental and unintentional.
There are tons of GameCubes in the stores, but you'll have to kill for an Xbox, eh? Well let me tell you something: Xbox is a Microsoft product, and as such, I believe it sucks. For the uninitiated, I'm a biased, zealous, and most of all, sworn by blood oath Microsoft hater... who cares though? I got 50 Karma! Of course, this is because of some of my better posts, which ironically don't include any anti-Microsoft stuff. Well at least not excessive amounts of anti-Microsoft stuff. And I do admit that one of my computers has Windows 98 on it, but only because:
It came preinstalled, which means I payed for it anyway. I never buy computers prebuilt but this one is a laptop. I haven't found a way to build my own laptop yet. For everything else, I first decide what purpose the thing is supposed to fulfill and then plan, buy and configure accordingly. I believe that knowing how things work, configuring them correctly, constantly increasing your knowledge and experience, improving the system, and above all, maintaining it often and properly... results in systems that work efficiently and without problems during operation. Except, of course, when running Windows. <bias off>I really, honestly do have a lot of problems with Windows locking up and crashing, when none of my other systems do. Yes, I admit that I've had problems with my other systems. They're made by humans and as such are not perfect, but when it comes down to it, I never worry about, for example, FreeBSD crashing. It just doesn't, unless I'm really pushing the system to the max and doing about 3,000 things that I really shouldn't be doing at the same time! FreeBSD has never crashed under normal circumstances by any stretch of the imagination. It really takes heavy duty abuse to bring that down. But I always worry about Windows crashing, even during "normal" operation (especially during normal operation!) and guess what? It does. Very annoying, but true.<bias on> Now where was I? Oh yeah, the reasons I actually have Windows 98 on my of my computers (and hate every time I have to boot into that defective system).
I need to run several programs, which currently have no non-Windows replacement that I know of. Therefore, these programs run on my poor laptop... poor because it is forced to execute Microsoft code sometimes.
Luckily, I am writing this on a FreeBSD box, running Opera 5.0 for Linux, so you can't say I'm a hypocrite. And my laptop also runs FreeBSD and BeOS. Some of the hardware doesn't work under BeOS. Everything (to my knowledge) works under FreeBSD, thanks to the FreeBSD on Laptops site.) And I've established that I have no choice but to run Windows some of the time, due to programs which currently have no replacement, but this requirement is decreasing with every passing day, so that won't be a problem soon. Next time I get a laptop, I won't let them off so easy--I will pursue my refund from the manufacturer if it's the last thing I do.
So where was I? Oh yeah, I was talking about how the Xbox sucks but went off on a big tangent. The Xbox sucks because it's a Microsoft product. Unless it will run Linux and NetBSD, in which case, it's quite possibly an adequate device when used as a cheap computer. Perhaps it could even serve as a good platform for graphics, as a "poor-man's SGI" (phrase shamelessly jacked--Be made that one up back in the days of their "one processor per person is not enough" days when they were still a cool company) of sorts. Anyone know how to cluster these things? (Or, even better, does anybody know how to take an Xbox, GameCube and PS2 and make one big graphics computer out of them? That would be a cool hack. Don't laugh--I know a guy who buys disposable cameras and uses the parts in real systems because it costs far less than buying the parts individually.)
Well, here I done gone off on a tangent again. Anyway, I don't quite think that I want to support Microsoft by purchasing an Xbox. It's bad enough that I sometimes cause some of their code to be executed by allowing my laptop to boot that virus.
Oh yeah, but there was an opposing viewpoint that I wish to include here, just so you folks don't say i'm a biased, zealous, and most of all, sworn by blood oath Microsoft hater, because that's what I am anyway.:-) Someone commented in another story that Microsoft actually loses money on each Xbox, in the hopes of making big bucks from video game sales. So even after everything else I said above, about not wanting to support them, etc., if it's true that they lose money, then I could buy an Xbox to run Linux and NetBSD and just not buy any games for it. Then, I'd actually unsupport them! I mean, hey, I might build a 10,000 Xbox cluster someday!!!
Now let's see, I have to say something that's actually on topic, right? Hmmm, I'm at the Karma cap, so I must be doing something right, right? Well, for anybody who might be thinking of moderating this Offtopic, here's the ontopic stuff: The GameCube looks like a great toy.
This post is Copyright 2001, rice_burners_suck. All rights reserved.
From the article on IBM spraypainting Peace, Love and Linux:
IBM has already said it will spend $1 billion to help support the growth of Linux, but the company will have to add at least $120,000 to that total as part of its penance for the advertising campaign, Newsome said. The vendor will pay $10,000 in clean-up costs, close to $10,000 in city attorney's fees and then $100,000 to San Francisco's Clean Streets program for removing graffiti and trash.
I hope the $120,000 aren't being subtracted from the $1B that's supposed to help the growth of Linux. IBM could be using that money to finance the development of technical superiority in this wonderful system. In conjunction with all the other companies and individuals supporting Linux, this would result in a system like no other, with unprecedented power, flexibility and quality.
Besides, $120,000 could have gone into a very helpful advertising campaign. Instead, IBM is being made to look very unprofessional, despite everything else they do.
Well if what you're saying is true and Microsoft really does lose money on each Xbox sold (in order to make up for it in game sales), then I think it would be cool to buy Xboxes and use them as cheap computers to run Linux or NetBSD or something.
On the other hand though, Microsoft would be able to say, "We've sold 328 quadrillion Xboxes!" And then people would flock to buy Xboxes, and then buy the games too. And that would suck. Because Microsoft sucks. They SUCK! And so do all of their products. I am required by blood oath to tell you that Microsoft, Windows, Front Page, Outlook, Internet Explorer, MSN, Xbox and all other products made by them... SUCK! (That's just my opinion though and should not be taken as a statement of fact, slander or libel. The following, however, is a statement of fact: Linux ROCKS!)
I got 50 Karma. I can say whatever I want. Oh well.
so accordingly we should drive on driveways and park on parkways??:)
I know you're only joking, but yes, we should. No, that doesn't mean you'll do 45 on someone's driveway and crash into their garage. It means we'll rename parkways to driveways and vice versa. It also means that if the plural of 'mouse' is 'mice' then it stands to reason that the plural of 'house' should be 'hice.' Unless, of course, you want to go by whichever appears first in the dictionary, in which case 'mouse' should be called 'mouses.' But I like the way 'hice' sounds.
On the other hand, we could go by 'oxen' and use 'housen' and 'mousen,' or to make things as clear as possible, we should use 'hicen' and 'micen.' Which leaves me to wonder what the plural form of 'bison' should be. Maybe that should work the other way around, so that the plural is 'bouse.' But then, the plural of 'house' and 'mouse' would need to be changed accordingly to 'hison' and 'mison.' Yeah, that makes sense.
To go off on a tangent for a paragraph or so... I would pick the GameCube over the Xbox any day. Personally, I believe the Xbox is simply Microsoft's way of trying to monopolize yet another market with their inferior stuff. With the Sony PS2 and GameCube on the market, I believe there is no room for the Xbox. If you want a computer to run Linux or one of the BSDs on, get a real computer and don't support Microsoft. And if you don't want a whole computer, pick up a Circuit Cellar or some other magazine and get one of those 4x4 inch boards that contains a complete Pentium computer with everything, sometimes including even the sound hardware. Seriously, I really honestly believe that Microsoft is leveraging their monopoly in the area of operating systems and office productivity software to obtain monopolies in other areas as well. They've been talking about getting into the games market for about 5 or 6 years that I remember. (There were articles in the gaming magazines about 5 or 6 years ago with Bill Gates' pictures all over them.) I think Microsoft has done quite enough to put perfectly good companies out of business and take over markets with their inferior products (only because of the strength and vigor of their marketing).
Now back on subject:Both the GameCube and Sony's PS2 are very nice machines. I like how, over the years, these things have slowly transformed from machines designed only for video games into machines that serve as a nice component in a home theater (or, as they were called in the 80's, home entertainment systems--this makes more sense to me than home theater, as a theater is a place where you watch plays, a cinema is a place where you watch movies (so it should be called a home cinema rather than a home theater) and an entertainment center can contain any kind of component that serves to entertain). Nice article, and pictures.
This is an amazing discovery. I'd like to know what kind of equipment and techniques scientists (or should I say astronomers) use to compute the mass of things such as black holes.
In fact, I've always been interested in space, stars, planets and related subjects. If there was some software (inexpensive or even free) that allowed me to perform my own computations (perhaps using information on the net which is published by observatories or NASA or whatever), that would indeed be the coolest thing. I've searched for information like that, but I haven't found any, so I assume that space explorers down here on Earth don't make any of their information publicly available. It's a shame though.
Of course, I know of programs that have maps of the stars and whatever, but there really isn't any information on things like blue/red shifts (as an example off the top of my head).
Well all of this stuff probably requires supercomputers anyway, which is something I don't have.
Oh well.
Things are only getting worse.
on
DMCA 2, Freedom 0
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I believe that because existing copyright laws already make it illegal to make illegal copies of information, the DMCA is redundant legislation put in place by greedy corporations, whose interests do not match the best interests of the majority of Americans. If things continue the way they are right now, then next thing you know, you won't be allowed to copy your own data (that you create) without written permission from the governor. (Geez, you might not even be able to make data without a license!!)
The entire copyright system has been corrupted over the past century or so, the largest corruption being the increasingly long time the copyright lasts. In my opinion, 20 years is more than enough time for a copyright. After that, you'd better come up with something new to sell or you're an idiot. Just so you know, I spend nearly all of my time writing software for heavy duty industrial processes. It is very difficult work. Really. The blood, sweat and tears I put into this work are approaching a level of ridiculousness. Despite that, I refuse to put any kind of copy protection scheme in my software, even though a single instance of piracy makes me lose thousands of dollars. I simply don't believe in putting deliberate defects in my software. Furthermore, I'd be more than happy with a 20 year copyright. Like I said, by the time the 20 years are up, I'd better have something new to offer. This would keep people busy coming up with new things. I think it's idiotic that someone can come up with a song or book or program and profit off it for the rest of their lives, and for the lives of their great grandchildren, as seemingly happens with the copyright system today.
Think about how much better off we'd all be if people who profit from "nontangible" work are required to keep coming up with new things. An electrician who installs a light switch doesn't charge royalties on each use of that switch for the next 150 years. A mechanic who fixes cars doesn't charge for every mile driven on that car afterwards. Someone who builds skyscrapers doesn't stand at the door and charge people to enter, and then sue people who enter through the back door without paying. If you but a toaster, or a rock, or a screwdriver, or a slab of concrete, it belongs to YOU and you can do with it whatever you want. You can smash it to pieces if you want. It belongs to YOU. Now intangible data is intangible, so I agree that some kind of artificial system needs to be in place so that people can profit from their hard work. But why should someone (even me) come up with something intangible and charge for it through the nose for the next 6,000 years?! That's unfair, and I say that as a person who's career is nontangible work.
An electrician who profits from installing a light switch has to KEEP INSTALLING LIGHT SWITCHES in order to KEEP PROFITING. The same rule applies to any other job. Therefore, it stands to reason that a person who makes software, or songs, or books, or whatever should have to KEEP MAKING whatever they're making in order to KEEP PROFITING. I think that makes sense. If the electrician or [insert name of any other tangible job here] has to do it, so does the person making intangible DATA. Otherwise, you end up with idiots who strike it rich on some stupid work of theirs and spend the rest of their lives doing drugs, getting all kinds of piercings and tatooes and sexually transmitted diseases and stuff, because they just keep profiting off their work FOREVER. That's wrong. They should have to continue coming up with new material or get a real job. There will be less problems in the world!
Therefore, I believe the DMCA is a trash piece of legislation, and it should be repealed. Again, the DMCA is a law in MY favor, but I don't like it. Furthermore, I think that the limit on copyright should be changed to 20 (or at MOST, 30) years. Finally, I think the penalties for copyright infringement should be heavily reduced. It's absolutely ridiculous that a copyright violator can spend more time in prison under the DMCA and other laws than some murderers.
But it probably won't happen. The world is like any other system with problems: Things tend to get worse, not better. I think the whole human race has been going downhill ever since the beginning. Sure, we have technology and stuff but when it comes down to it, people now get punished for listening to music as if they killed people. Of course, that may just be the Brandy Alexanders talking. (1/3 parts each: Chocolate liqueur, Brandy and Cream, in case you're wondering. It's an old drink. Most bartenders have to look it up.)
I think it's better that Red Hat released the advisory ahead of time. The faster sysadmins, programmers, and other users know about remote root exploits, the faster the exploit can be closed.
Of course, there are some folks out there who won't patch their system. For those people, advisories like this don't help at all. But then, if you're running anything important, you should take the time to learn how to properly configure and maintain the system. Trying to hide known exploits from the public only serves to make things more difficult and dangerous for those of us who DO know what we're doing.
In other words, if you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't be using a computer.
I really hope you didn't use Front Page to post that comment.
No, in fact I did not use Front Page to post that comment. I used Opera 5.0 for Linux, running on FreeBSD 4.4-RELEASE, with XFree86 4, IceWM, and a csh in the background somewhere. Unlike some folks, I actually use the software I advocate. And why do you suppose I advocate it? Because it ROCKS!!!
I don't use Front Page because, and the following is a statement of opinion and as such should NOT be considered a statement of fact, slander or libel: Front Page SUCKS!
Disclaimer: The following comments represent opinion only and should NOT be regarded as statements of fact, slander or libel:
Microsoft SUCKS! Windows SUCKS! MSN SUCKS! Internet Explorer SUCKS! Passport SUCKS!.NET SUCKS! [insert name of Microsoft product here] SUCKS!
The following, however, are statements of fact:
Linux ROCKS! FreeBSD ROCKS! NetBSD ROCKS! OpenBSD ROCKS! Darwin ROCKS! Amiga ROCKS! BeOS ROCKS! IceWM ROCKS! vi ROCKS! Opera for Linux ROCKS! Qmail ROCKS! csh ROCKS! [insert name of UN*X program here] ROCKS!
"However we would detect modified versions that might be used by hackers."
Except modified versions that have been modified so as to fool Symantec's software into thinking it is part of a legitimate FBI investigation, in which case Symantec's software will ignore those versions.
I have an idea for a much better punishment for Microsoft. They would continue with business as usual, BUT the following must change: Microsoft must completely stop advertising its products. Instead, Microsoft would be required to double the amount of money it spends on marketing... half of this money would be spent on vigorous marketing campaigns to benefit Microsoft's competitors, such as Linux. The other half would be spent on elaborate advertising campaigns bashing Microsoft's products. They would be required to outright tell the world how much their products SUCK, and heavily discourage anyone from using their software. Not only that, but all their programs would be required to contain a ton of annoying popup ads advertising their competitors, and every minute, a window will pop up that will block the entire system, and it will bash Microsoft and try to persuade the user to switch, and this window would be on the screen for a random amount of time between 30 seconds and 2 hours before an OK button appears to hide it, and that button would only be visible for 1 second, and if you miss it, the window will stay for twice as long as it just has, and it will be impossible to shut down your computer properly while this window is up, and if you turn the power off, there will be a 5 second delay between every machine instruction during the scandisk that will take place, which you won't be able to cancel, just to make things more cumbersome. In other words, Microsoft would be required to make their software VERY annoying so that their users will have no choice but to switch to something with more choice. Furthermore, Microsoft would be required to pay 100 dollars (USD) to anybody who switches from Microsoft programs to a competing product. (100 dollars per program switched, that is.) Furthermore, Microsoft would be required to release all of its software to the public domain, including full source code. Furthermore, Microsoft would be prohibited from continuing development on their software. Their programmers would be paid to work on Linux full time. Of course, Microsoft would put all of their programmers through extensive UNIX training before beginning this work. Microsoft would be required to pay a one million dollar fine per bug found in their code. Bill Gates would be required to go on tour, praising the FSF, GPL, Linux, etc., and heavily bashing Microsoft and their trash products. Oh yeah, and to make things fair, all computer hardware in the world would be free from now on, because Microsoft would be required to pick up the tab for whatever hardware anybody chooses to buy. Oh yeah, and Bill Gates and all of Microsoft's executives and shareholders would be required to give all their money and material assets to people who make free software. Yeah. That's a good punishment for Microsoft. Because they suck. But it probably won't happen. Oh well.
One: I don't write VB vandalism. That's right. VB isn't code. It's vandalism. I don't write that trash.
Two: I code in C. I use efficient algorithms. And when the time comes, I optimize the hell out of the 2% of the code that needs it, resulting in enormous performance gains.
Three: I am 4 1337 h4x0r!!!!!!11111111111 j00 suck!!!!11111111111
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Oh yeah... I forgot to mention why I'm posting so much flaimbait today... It's no fun being at the karma cap. You can't go any higher, so you might as well make a jackass of yourself for a while, and then it becomes a challenge to write good wholesome stuff once again to regain that lost karma. I think it would be best if there was NO cap, because then everybody would be in a big competition to produce the best content. Instead, malcontents like myself start producing crap instead of good comments.
Besides, a couple of good Mexican beers (Negra Modelo for those who care to know) and you'll be writing crappy comments too. So don't drink and post.
Disclaimer: I'm really just kidding about Bill Gates. I think he's a good guy. A little greedy, I think, but he still donates millions of bucks to all kinds of good causes. (Probably just to take a tax deduction, but it still costs him the same amount of money, so what difference does it make?) So he's a good guy. I don't like his crappy software. But when he does become king of the world, I don't think everybody will go hungry. In fact, he'll run this planet like a big business and next thing you know, humans rule the entire universe. (Likely with spaceships that randomly crash into some moon or star, but we'll rule nontheless.)
Oh well... Mod me a Metatroll if you want. It's just a joke. Get over it.
Microsoft's so-called products are CRAP . Here is the quantitative proof:
You see, it's really quite simple. Bill Gates wants to be king of the world. What he's doing is amassing a great fortune that he will use to buy the government of a small country. Then, he'll take control of that country and run it like a huge business. In other words, like Microsoft, just much, much bigger. Then, he'll use his great fortune from that to purchase another country. And then another. Until he'll own a United States of Bill Gates. Then, he'll be able to buy really big countries, and several at a time... He'll just buy a whole continent at a time. He'll buy North America. Then he'll buy South America. Then Europe. Then Africa. Then Asia. Then Australia. And finally, he'll even buy Antarctica. Just for fun.
Bill Gates will use his powers only for evil. He'll turn the entire world into a big piece of crap. All the buildings all over the world will be in ruins. The roads will be all smashed up. Nobody will have a job anymore, except to be Bill Gates' slave. People will haul big bricks to build enormous pyramids and palaces for Bill Gates. He will sit on a huge fancy throne, and everybody else in the entire world will go hungry.
Actually, I'm just kidding. We all know that Bill Gates will use all his power only for good. Every person in the world will live in a huge palace and they'll have everything they ever wanted. Nobody will ever go hungry. There will be no more bad in the world. Bill Gates will just run around making everything good for everybody.
Actually, that's not likely--I believe the first one better.
But where the hell was I? Oh yeah... to make a long story short, oh well.
Microsoft shouldn't care about security. The reason is simple: Security isn't all that important. In fact, whatever minimal importance there is to security is inversely proportional to the importance of the system. Suppose we're discussing some kid's video game console. Security isn't important. It's probably the last thing on the list. On the other hand, suppose we're talking about a mission critical banking system. However unimportant security is on a video game console, it's even less important on a mission critical banking system. The reasons are obvious and need not be listed here. To continue the analogy, suppose now that human lives are at stake, as is the case with mission critical military systems. Security is so negligible on such a system that the designers should deliberately make the system insecure, and introduce other faults, just to be sure. The reasons for this are left as an exercise for the reader.
In short, what I'm saying is that Microsoft should supply all software. There should be a federal law that makes any kind of security illegal on any system, and furthermore, Microsoft should become a part of the government, and it would be illegal to produce any non-Microsoft software. Actually, what I meant to say is that Microsoft should purchase all the governments of the world, and Bill Gates should be king of the world, and everybody would be his slave. Not only that, but through his billions, he would develop some technology to defy death--to effectively become immortal. Then, through psychological techniques and brainwashing, he would convince the world that he is God and everybody will have to pray to him all the time, stopping only to eat, crap and sleep.
Yeah. That's why Microsoft shouldn't care about security.
Microsoft can't make secure products because Microsoft SUCKS! This whole thing is a PR stunt. Microsoft's garbage products are defective and insecure by design, because they're slopped together, adding tons of useless features with each new release. The programmers don't have the time to make the software secure, because they have to get unreasonable things done in unreasonable deadlines. Microsoft management only cares about profits. They don't care if they sell a product that's so defective that it doesn't even load up without crashing the computer and every computer within 10 miles. They don't care if the defectiveness of their so-called "products" causes trillions of dollars in losses, as long as they show a profit. And that's because Microsoft SUCKS!
Microsoft SUCKS!
Microsoft SUCKS!
Microsoft SUCKS!
Microsoft SUCKS!
Microsoft SUCKS!
Oh well.
BeOS is the greatest *O*P*E*R*A*T*I*N*G* *S*Y*S*T*E*M* of all time!!! It takes almost no time to install, has graphics more beautiful than MacOS X or Windows XP, runs on any model computer, supports every piece hardware in the world, runs any software ever written, makes the processor do things it can't (such as twice as many computations per second than the processor is physically capable of), and can run hundreds of thousands of tasks at the same time. (Multiple users can log in at the same time and can each simultaneously read AND write two floppies (even if you have no floppy drives), read and write as many hard drives as you have, burn several DVDs, play 1000 movies (even if you don't have a video card), mix and play 40 tracks of 64 bit audio (even if you don't have a sound card), print hi resolution photographs to 8 printers (at photo quality, even on dot matrix printers), surf the web, AND serve 5000 FTP users (even if you don't have a network connection or modem)... all that and MORE, at the same time, when running on a Z80 with only 4 bytes of RAM and no hard disk or other storage media. In fact, forget the Z80... BeOS can run on a single transistor! Just put a transistor near a BeOS installation DVD and within moments, you'll be serving up 100,000,000,000,000 simultaneous users running 100,000,000,000,000 processes each! BeOS can do it all!
Who needs a BILLION transistors in a processor, for crying out loud?! Let me tell you something. A slow 4- or 8-bit processor can execute amazing things when coded correctly. Embedded developers have interfaced these processors to memory, hard drives, CD-ROMs, the ISA and PCI busses, and just about every kind of peripheral out there. I'm beginning to think that a fully functional and FAST computer can be built with NO x86 processor, but with about $20.00 (US) worth of these cheap, slow and small processors. It's the software that needs to be engineered correctly, and I'm afraid that nearly all software out there isn't.
What happened to the good ol' days when programmers--real programmers--wrote very clever, small and fast programs? When it had to be written correctly or it didn't work?
Try explaining to me why nearly all hardware needs to be engineered correctly, for a minimum of components and a maximum of performance, yet nearly all software is slopped together, taking up tens or hundreds of megs and running noticeably slow on today's powerhouse machines. You know what? There's no excuse.
I've seen a hard real time operating system coded in 700 words. I've seen processors with 128 bytes of RAM control industrial robotics. Speaking of industrial stuff, I've seen an automation system that packs a real time operating system, high speed communication, interactive user interface (including full control of the display hardware), and all the automation software... in 20 kilobytes. Seeing this, I cannot understand why something simple like a word processor program should be several megs in size (and why it should hog a ton of memory).
So back to the billion transistors question... why? Why should the processor have to predict the next mess of instructions, load them into a cache, find out it predicted incorrectly, dump the cache, find the correct location, load the instructions... Why are processors marketed by their internal clock speed when they spend most of their time waiting for data? And above all, why does software suck so badly?
OH WELL.
The Lord of the Rings. The book rocks. The movie sucks. Yeah, it SUCKS! I left the theater halfway through it. It SUCKS! But the book is awesome.
OH WELL.
Let me digress from the topic for a moment, to give you a little background information about scum.
Have you ever read The Lord of the Rings? It's an AWESOME book. The author has many talents, not the least of which are causing the reader to actually care for (and feel concerned about) the characters. One of my favorite things about the book is the way it makes me feel as though I'm on a perilous journey along with the characters. Many authors don't have that subtle talent. Furthermore, the story mixes storybook-style characters with serious characters and situations. This creates a very interesting style of comedy relief. In my opinion, the author has a great arsenal of writing talents. Not only is the story very interesting, but the writing style itself is a great part of the fun.
Now let me get back on topic and talk about scum. Lord of the Rings, the movie. That's scum. It's trash. It's garbage. The movie sucks so bad, my friend and I actually left the theater in the middle of the movie, disgusted. The book rocks. The movie sucks.
The movie cut 9 out of every 10 scenes out of the book, and several characters, and modified the events. It gave away all mystery (I forgot to mention the element of mystery present in the book) right at the beginning. The movie took a well written, well unfolding book and turned it into a flat, obvious and boring plot. The feeling of being on a journey was gone. Instead, my friend and I felt that the movie dragged on and on, and for nothing. The characters didn't look or behave "real." ALL the beauty of the book was lost. All that remains is plagiarism. I don't care if New Line Cinema licensed whatever--it's plagiarism as far as I'm concerned, and really bad plagiarism at that. You may as well make Lord of the Rings a 30 second flick where Frodo mails the ring to mount doom, and the postman tosses it in the flames for him, because this so-called "Trilogy" of movies isn't any better than that. In fact, it's worse because it's being advertised as something worthwhile.
Leave it at that. Don't waste your time (and corrupt what might otherwise be your good image of the book) by watching that horrible movie.
Late.
- Disclaimer: The following comment is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real world events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental and unintended.
- Disclaimer: The following comment may contain statements of parody, but does not contain statements of fact, slander or libel. Any statements that appear so are purely parody and should not be taken seriously.
- Disclaimer: Not responsible for lost or stolen items.
- Disclaimer: The following comment may include language of an adult nature. Parental discretion is advised.
Ok... now what the heck was I going to say?! Oh yeah... This looks like the most awesome LAN party ever! In fact, when I first glanced at the picture (I clicked the link and went to a different window--using Opera 5.0 for Linux (but under FreeBSD, ironically) allows me to work in many different windows at the same time, which is very advantageous because I like to do many things at once--I can't wait for version 6 to be available commercially--and then came back to the window with the picture and thought it was the wrong picture because...), I thought it was a photo of a city at night. That's how nuts this LAN party is!Copyright 2001, rice_burners_suck. All rights reserved.
OH WELL
Disclaimer: This post is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to places, things, or people, living or dead, is purely coincidental and unintentional.
Disclaimer: This post contains statements of opinion. Author not responsible for lost or stolen items.
Yeah. I hope people do that. I hope this backfires. I hope the RIAA goes out of business. I hope the DMCA is repealed and federal anti-copyright, anti-copy-protection laws are passed tomorrow, in conjunction with laws providing rewards for anybody who uses strong encryption. Yeah. But it probably won't happen.
OH WELL.
This post Copyright 2001, rice_burners_suck. All rights reserved.
Theo included a good link in his interview...
I just finished reading it and it is some wonderful information. Seriously, everybody who runs any of the BSDs or Linux should read this paper. It will give you a much deeper understanding of what's going on and why, and this will lead to better choices when you configure your next box (or maintain those you're running right now). As always, reliable operation of any machine (be it a computer, a car, or a nuclear power plant) depends heavily on knowledgeable use and proper maintainence.
Oh well.
From the interview:
You gotta love comments like these! Well, you might not, but I do anyway. I say, why hide behind glossy, laminated marketing? (By the way, I'm not trying to say anything against the NetBSD team. They're good folks and NetBSD is a great product, as is OpenBSD.) All I'm saying is that people should say things as they are. If you can't read a man page, you shouldn't be using a computer! It's as simple as that.Oh well.
Disclaimer: This post is either a parody or a bunch of opinions, whichever the author chooses it to be at any given time. It is a work of pure fiction and as such must not be taken as statements of fact, slander or libel. All persons, places or things mentioned herein are objects of the author's imagination. Any similarities to persons, places or things in the real world are coincidental and unintentional.
There are tons of GameCubes in the stores, but you'll have to kill for an Xbox, eh? Well let me tell you something: Xbox is a Microsoft product, and as such, I believe it sucks. For the uninitiated, I'm a biased, zealous, and most of all, sworn by blood oath Microsoft hater... who cares though? I got 50 Karma! Of course, this is because of some of my better posts, which ironically don't include any anti-Microsoft stuff. Well at least not excessive amounts of anti-Microsoft stuff. And I do admit that one of my computers has Windows 98 on it, but only because:
- It came preinstalled, which means I payed for it anyway. I never buy computers prebuilt but this one is a laptop. I haven't found a way to build my own laptop yet. For everything else, I first decide what purpose the thing is supposed to fulfill and then plan, buy and configure accordingly. I believe that knowing how things work, configuring them correctly, constantly increasing your knowledge and experience, improving the system, and above all, maintaining it often and properly... results in systems that work efficiently and without problems during operation. Except, of course, when running Windows. <bias off>I really, honestly do have a lot of problems with Windows locking up and crashing, when none of my other systems do. Yes, I admit that I've had problems with my other systems. They're made by humans and as such are not perfect, but when it comes down to it, I never worry about, for example, FreeBSD crashing. It just doesn't, unless I'm really pushing the system to the max and doing about 3,000 things that I really shouldn't be doing at the same time! FreeBSD has never crashed under normal circumstances by any stretch of the imagination. It really takes heavy duty abuse to bring that down. But I always worry about Windows crashing, even during "normal" operation (especially during normal operation!) and guess what? It does. Very annoying, but true.<bias on> Now where was I? Oh yeah, the reasons I actually have Windows 98 on my of my computers (and hate every time I have to boot into that defective system).
- I need to run several programs, which currently have no non-Windows replacement that I know of. Therefore, these programs run on my poor laptop... poor because it is forced to execute Microsoft code sometimes.
Luckily, I am writing this on a FreeBSD box, running Opera 5.0 for Linux, so you can't say I'm a hypocrite. And my laptop also runs FreeBSD and BeOS. Some of the hardware doesn't work under BeOS. Everything (to my knowledge) works under FreeBSD, thanks to the FreeBSD on Laptops site.) And I've established that I have no choice but to run Windows some of the time, due to programs which currently have no replacement, but this requirement is decreasing with every passing day, so that won't be a problem soon. Next time I get a laptop, I won't let them off so easy--I will pursue my refund from the manufacturer if it's the last thing I do.So where was I? Oh yeah, I was talking about how the Xbox sucks but went off on a big tangent. The Xbox sucks because it's a Microsoft product. Unless it will run Linux and NetBSD, in which case, it's quite possibly an adequate device when used as a cheap computer. Perhaps it could even serve as a good platform for graphics, as a "poor-man's SGI" (phrase shamelessly jacked--Be made that one up back in the days of their "one processor per person is not enough" days when they were still a cool company) of sorts. Anyone know how to cluster these things? (Or, even better, does anybody know how to take an Xbox, GameCube and PS2 and make one big graphics computer out of them? That would be a cool hack. Don't laugh--I know a guy who buys disposable cameras and uses the parts in real systems because it costs far less than buying the parts individually.)
Well, here I done gone off on a tangent again. Anyway, I don't quite think that I want to support Microsoft by purchasing an Xbox. It's bad enough that I sometimes cause some of their code to be executed by allowing my laptop to boot that virus.
Oh yeah, but there was an opposing viewpoint that I wish to include here, just so you folks don't say i'm a biased, zealous, and most of all, sworn by blood oath Microsoft hater, because that's what I am anyway. :-) Someone commented in another story that Microsoft actually loses money on each Xbox, in the hopes of making big bucks from video game sales. So even after everything else I said above, about not wanting to support them, etc., if it's true that they lose money, then I could buy an Xbox to run Linux and NetBSD and just not buy any games for it. Then, I'd actually unsupport them! I mean, hey, I might build a 10,000 Xbox cluster someday!!!
Now let's see, I have to say something that's actually on topic, right? Hmmm, I'm at the Karma cap, so I must be doing something right, right? Well, for anybody who might be thinking of moderating this Offtopic, here's the ontopic stuff: The GameCube looks like a great toy.
This post is Copyright 2001, rice_burners_suck. All rights reserved.
Oh well.
I hope the $120,000 aren't being subtracted from the $1B that's supposed to help the growth of Linux. IBM could be using that money to finance the development of technical superiority in this wonderful system. In conjunction with all the other companies and individuals supporting Linux, this would result in a system like no other, with unprecedented power, flexibility and quality.
Besides, $120,000 could have gone into a very helpful advertising campaign. Instead, IBM is being made to look very unprofessional, despite everything else they do.
Oh well.
Well if what you're saying is true and Microsoft really does lose money on each Xbox sold (in order to make up for it in game sales), then I think it would be cool to buy Xboxes and use them as cheap computers to run Linux or NetBSD or something.
On the other hand though, Microsoft would be able to say, "We've sold 328 quadrillion Xboxes!" And then people would flock to buy Xboxes, and then buy the games too. And that would suck. Because Microsoft sucks. They SUCK! And so do all of their products. I am required by blood oath to tell you that Microsoft, Windows, Front Page, Outlook, Internet Explorer, MSN, Xbox and all other products made by them... SUCK! (That's just my opinion though and should not be taken as a statement of fact, slander or libel. The following, however, is a statement of fact: Linux ROCKS!)
I got 50 Karma. I can say whatever I want. Oh well.
I know you're only joking, but yes, we should. No, that doesn't mean you'll do 45 on someone's driveway and crash into their garage. It means we'll rename parkways to driveways and vice versa. It also means that if the plural of 'mouse' is 'mice' then it stands to reason that the plural of 'house' should be 'hice.' Unless, of course, you want to go by whichever appears first in the dictionary, in which case 'mouse' should be called 'mouses.' But I like the way 'hice' sounds.
On the other hand, we could go by 'oxen' and use 'housen' and 'mousen,' or to make things as clear as possible, we should use 'hicen' and 'micen.' Which leaves me to wonder what the plural form of 'bison' should be. Maybe that should work the other way around, so that the plural is 'bouse.' But then, the plural of 'house' and 'mouse' would need to be changed accordingly to 'hison' and 'mison.' Yeah, that makes sense.
Oh well.
To go off on a tangent for a paragraph or so... I would pick the GameCube over the Xbox any day. Personally, I believe the Xbox is simply Microsoft's way of trying to monopolize yet another market with their inferior stuff. With the Sony PS2 and GameCube on the market, I believe there is no room for the Xbox. If you want a computer to run Linux or one of the BSDs on, get a real computer and don't support Microsoft. And if you don't want a whole computer, pick up a Circuit Cellar or some other magazine and get one of those 4x4 inch boards that contains a complete Pentium computer with everything, sometimes including even the sound hardware. Seriously, I really honestly believe that Microsoft is leveraging their monopoly in the area of operating systems and office productivity software to obtain monopolies in other areas as well. They've been talking about getting into the games market for about 5 or 6 years that I remember. (There were articles in the gaming magazines about 5 or 6 years ago with Bill Gates' pictures all over them.) I think Microsoft has done quite enough to put perfectly good companies out of business and take over markets with their inferior products (only because of the strength and vigor of their marketing).
Now back on subject:Both the GameCube and Sony's PS2 are very nice machines. I like how, over the years, these things have slowly transformed from machines designed only for video games into machines that serve as a nice component in a home theater (or, as they were called in the 80's, home entertainment systems--this makes more sense to me than home theater, as a theater is a place where you watch plays, a cinema is a place where you watch movies (so it should be called a home cinema rather than a home theater) and an entertainment center can contain any kind of component that serves to entertain). Nice article, and pictures.
Oh well.
This is an amazing discovery. I'd like to know what kind of equipment and techniques scientists (or should I say astronomers) use to compute the mass of things such as black holes.
In fact, I've always been interested in space, stars, planets and related subjects. If there was some software (inexpensive or even free) that allowed me to perform my own computations (perhaps using information on the net which is published by observatories or NASA or whatever), that would indeed be the coolest thing. I've searched for information like that, but I haven't found any, so I assume that space explorers down here on Earth don't make any of their information publicly available. It's a shame though.
Of course, I know of programs that have maps of the stars and whatever, but there really isn't any information on things like blue/red shifts (as an example off the top of my head).
Well all of this stuff probably requires supercomputers anyway, which is something I don't have.
Oh well.
I believe that because existing copyright laws already make it illegal to make illegal copies of information, the DMCA is redundant legislation put in place by greedy corporations, whose interests do not match the best interests of the majority of Americans. If things continue the way they are right now, then next thing you know, you won't be allowed to copy your own data (that you create) without written permission from the governor. (Geez, you might not even be able to make data without a license!!)
The entire copyright system has been corrupted over the past century or so, the largest corruption being the increasingly long time the copyright lasts. In my opinion, 20 years is more than enough time for a copyright. After that, you'd better come up with something new to sell or you're an idiot. Just so you know, I spend nearly all of my time writing software for heavy duty industrial processes. It is very difficult work. Really. The blood, sweat and tears I put into this work are approaching a level of ridiculousness. Despite that, I refuse to put any kind of copy protection scheme in my software, even though a single instance of piracy makes me lose thousands of dollars. I simply don't believe in putting deliberate defects in my software. Furthermore, I'd be more than happy with a 20 year copyright. Like I said, by the time the 20 years are up, I'd better have something new to offer. This would keep people busy coming up with new things. I think it's idiotic that someone can come up with a song or book or program and profit off it for the rest of their lives, and for the lives of their great grandchildren, as seemingly happens with the copyright system today.
Think about how much better off we'd all be if people who profit from "nontangible" work are required to keep coming up with new things. An electrician who installs a light switch doesn't charge royalties on each use of that switch for the next 150 years. A mechanic who fixes cars doesn't charge for every mile driven on that car afterwards. Someone who builds skyscrapers doesn't stand at the door and charge people to enter, and then sue people who enter through the back door without paying. If you but a toaster, or a rock, or a screwdriver, or a slab of concrete, it belongs to YOU and you can do with it whatever you want. You can smash it to pieces if you want. It belongs to YOU. Now intangible data is intangible, so I agree that some kind of artificial system needs to be in place so that people can profit from their hard work. But why should someone (even me) come up with something intangible and charge for it through the nose for the next 6,000 years?! That's unfair, and I say that as a person who's career is nontangible work.
An electrician who profits from installing a light switch has to KEEP INSTALLING LIGHT SWITCHES in order to KEEP PROFITING. The same rule applies to any other job. Therefore, it stands to reason that a person who makes software, or songs, or books, or whatever should have to KEEP MAKING whatever they're making in order to KEEP PROFITING. I think that makes sense. If the electrician or [insert name of any other tangible job here] has to do it, so does the person making intangible DATA. Otherwise, you end up with idiots who strike it rich on some stupid work of theirs and spend the rest of their lives doing drugs, getting all kinds of piercings and tatooes and sexually transmitted diseases and stuff, because they just keep profiting off their work FOREVER. That's wrong. They should have to continue coming up with new material or get a real job. There will be less problems in the world!
Therefore, I believe the DMCA is a trash piece of legislation, and it should be repealed. Again, the DMCA is a law in MY favor, but I don't like it. Furthermore, I think that the limit on copyright should be changed to 20 (or at MOST, 30) years. Finally, I think the penalties for copyright infringement should be heavily reduced. It's absolutely ridiculous that a copyright violator can spend more time in prison under the DMCA and other laws than some murderers.
But it probably won't happen. The world is like any other system with problems: Things tend to get worse, not better. I think the whole human race has been going downhill ever since the beginning. Sure, we have technology and stuff but when it comes down to it, people now get punished for listening to music as if they killed people. Of course, that may just be the Brandy Alexanders talking. (1/3 parts each: Chocolate liqueur, Brandy and Cream, in case you're wondering. It's an old drink. Most bartenders have to look it up.)
Oooooooh well.
I think it's better that Red Hat released the advisory ahead of time. The faster sysadmins, programmers, and other users know about remote root exploits, the faster the exploit can be closed.
Of course, there are some folks out there who won't patch their system. For those people, advisories like this don't help at all. But then, if you're running anything important, you should take the time to learn how to properly configure and maintain the system. Trying to hide known exploits from the public only serves to make things more difficult and dangerous for those of us who DO know what we're doing.
In other words, if you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't be using a computer.
OH WELL.
I really hope you didn't use Front Page to post that comment.
No, in fact I did not use Front Page to post that comment. I used Opera 5.0 for Linux, running on FreeBSD 4.4-RELEASE, with XFree86 4, IceWM, and a csh in the background somewhere. Unlike some folks, I actually use the software I advocate. And why do you suppose I advocate it? Because it ROCKS!!!
I don't use Front Page because, and the following is a statement of opinion and as such should NOT be considered a statement of fact, slander or libel: Front Page SUCKS!
Oh well.
Disclaimer: The following comments represent opinion only and should NOT be regarded as statements of fact, slander or libel:
Microsoft SUCKS ! Windows SUCKS ! MSN SUCKS ! Internet Explorer SUCKS ! Passport SUCKS ! .NET SUCKS ! [insert name of Microsoft product here] SUCKS !
The following, however, are statements of fact:
Linux ROCKS! FreeBSD ROCKS! NetBSD ROCKS! OpenBSD ROCKS! Darwin ROCKS! Amiga ROCKS! BeOS ROCKS! IceWM ROCKS! vi ROCKS! Opera for Linux ROCKS! Qmail ROCKS! csh ROCKS! [insert name of UN*X program here] ROCKS!
Oh well.
Except modified versions that have been modified so as to fool Symantec's software into thinking it is part of a legitimate FBI investigation, in which case Symantec's software will ignore those versions.
I have an idea for a much better punishment for Microsoft. They would continue with business as usual, BUT the following must change: Microsoft must completely stop advertising its products. Instead, Microsoft would be required to double the amount of money it spends on marketing... half of this money would be spent on vigorous marketing campaigns to benefit Microsoft's competitors, such as Linux. The other half would be spent on elaborate advertising campaigns bashing Microsoft's products. They would be required to outright tell the world how much their products SUCK, and heavily discourage anyone from using their software. Not only that, but all their programs would be required to contain a ton of annoying popup ads advertising their competitors, and every minute, a window will pop up that will block the entire system, and it will bash Microsoft and try to persuade the user to switch, and this window would be on the screen for a random amount of time between 30 seconds and 2 hours before an OK button appears to hide it, and that button would only be visible for 1 second, and if you miss it, the window will stay for twice as long as it just has, and it will be impossible to shut down your computer properly while this window is up, and if you turn the power off, there will be a 5 second delay between every machine instruction during the scandisk that will take place, which you won't be able to cancel, just to make things more cumbersome. In other words, Microsoft would be required to make their software VERY annoying so that their users will have no choice but to switch to something with more choice. Furthermore, Microsoft would be required to pay 100 dollars (USD) to anybody who switches from Microsoft programs to a competing product. (100 dollars per program switched, that is.) Furthermore, Microsoft would be required to release all of its software to the public domain, including full source code. Furthermore, Microsoft would be prohibited from continuing development on their software. Their programmers would be paid to work on Linux full time. Of course, Microsoft would put all of their programmers through extensive UNIX training before beginning this work. Microsoft would be required to pay a one million dollar fine per bug found in their code. Bill Gates would be required to go on tour, praising the FSF, GPL, Linux, etc., and heavily bashing Microsoft and their trash products. Oh yeah, and to make things fair, all computer hardware in the world would be free from now on, because Microsoft would be required to pick up the tab for whatever hardware anybody chooses to buy. Oh yeah, and Bill Gates and all of Microsoft's executives and shareholders would be required to give all their money and material assets to people who make free software. Yeah. That's a good punishment for Microsoft. Because they suck. But it probably won't happen. Oh well.
One: I don't write VB vandalism. That's right. VB isn't code. It's vandalism. I don't write that trash.
Two: I code in C. I use efficient algorithms. And when the time comes, I optimize the hell out of the 2% of the code that needs it, resulting in enormous performance gains.
Three: I am 4 1337 h4x0r!!!!!!11111111111 j00 suck!!!!11111111111