So I guess you've given up on all the web sites that require logins and/or use cookies and JavaScript that don't work if you use TOR in the proper way that prevents tracking. Because TOR is doesn't work on many sites if you set it up to properly actually protect your identity.
Add-ons like Disconnect, Privacy Badger, Self-Destructing Cookies, Adblock, and Flashblock provide reasonable mis-direction to tracking with an added VPN that randomizes your visible IP address.
And NoScript is fantastic except for all the care and feeding necessary to keep up with all the tricks the sites impose. And many sites now make it impossible to view their sites if you use NoScript.
HTML5 was developed advertising industry input built-in, so its even harder to avoid being tracked.
So now the choice is becoming be tracked or do not use the web.
See: http://repo.xposed.info/ for info on installing the Xposed framework which basically places a hook into the main event loop of Android where Xposed modules like XPrivacy can watch, block or "lie" to most of the rest of the Apps running within Android.
And BTW, iPhone Apps are not any better about this stuff like phoning home and spying on you unless they are rooted and modified. It is just that the greater openness of Android platform ersus iOS makes it easier to spot. But that also means that there are more and better countermeasures.
If you want to be shocked take your phone place it in WiFi only mode and then use network packet sniffer on all the data flying by like tcpdump or wireshark while using apps on it. You will then realize that you the purchaser of the device does not "truly own" that device as it is delivered.
You can also replace the stock Android OS with Cyanogenmod:
This is easy to defeat with a simple 2.4ghz jammer in the protest area. Both Bluetooth and most WiFi would be disabled. So the devices cannot mesh. Turn off the cell networks and ability of protesters to coordinate is gone.
So it could be useful when Government is not the adversary such as in a disaster, but is easily disabled by Government if that is it's intention during protests.
It can be re-flashed with either OpenWRT or DD-WRT to provide firewall and a variety of VPN types. It also has enough flash to add other features and given that it includes 2 USB 2.0 ports can also used as a low power (compared to a full hardware PC) internet server.
The disadvantage on this router is that it only supports 1750AC and not 1900AC and that the USB ports are only 2.0. There are routers that cost a lot more that provide both 1900AC and USB 3.0, but they also do not currently FULLY support OpenWRT and DD-WRT.
My personal experience is that OpenWRT is more module than DD-WRT. This makes is easier to pick and choose "packages" in any configuration you'd like. For instance, I added the stunnel package to protect a IP video camera that did not provide HTTPS for remote home monitoring. Now the router provides necessary HTTPS for that use case.
If you are looking to use either DD-WRT or OpenWRT check their home pages BEFORE purchasing a router so you know that it is fully supported by each.
The router to AVOID at the moment appears to be the Linksys 1900AC which the manufacturer FALSELY claimed in their sales literature at launch supported. It still does not.
Electric Imp would be interesting if open source. Alas, it's not. It's proprietary and everything is in "the cloud," so if the company dies so do all the projects and products that work with it as you lose access to the Imps that are deployed.
What I find amazing is that product's like Lockitron are totally dependent on this may not be there tomorrow proprietary cloud platform.
When the cloud is a regulated utility then we can begin to think about putting critical data in it. Or worse running critical infrastructure applications that may be changed by someone else on their timetable, rather than yours breaking what you have invested in.
Right now, in using the cloud, you are just handing what may be your most important asset to a 3rd party who likely does not care about it as much as your organization does. And may happily share it with any number of others who asks via the 3rd party doctrine.
The cloud is fine for unimportant stuff that you can afford to lose or applications that are not critical. Consumer Smartphone apps fit that criteria. But if it is important, using the cloud is like not ever checking the backups you've made. It likely won't be there when you really need it.
Yes, you want an Open API or access to data without encumbrance via a standard interface. Preferably, enforced by a contract and SLA.
We've already played the "scraping game" for decades. If you want to always be chasing the last change made by the target you are scraping, while also handling all your user complaints because your app just broke... again for the 3rd time this week... then go ahead and scrape.
And please come back and tell us how long it took you to give up.
You have to ask yourself: is it really worth developing an app that integrates with, or worse runs completely on Facebook's platform?"
If Facebook pays me: Sure.
They better be paying you incrementally for each user forever for all the data they collect from users that use your app or service... otherwise, you'd be a fool to base *anything* "on top of" the Facebook ecosystem.
I am constantly amazed that there are so many services that build upon Google, Apple or Facebook web authentication systems. It's just plain stupid for anyone to do that unless they are Google, Apple or Facebook as those services can eliminate your access to your customers ANY TIME they choose without you having any say in the matter.
And of the 3, Facebook is the worst, since by forcing users to have a Facebook account to use your service you are broadcasting how little you care about their ability to control any of their privacy given that tracking that you enable FB to perform against those users all over the net and FBs consistent history of altering their user terms to the detriment of their users.
If I see a service that REQUIRES a Facebook account, I will not use it whether it is free, paid or otherwise. And I am far from alone. Any developer that forces FB authentication in their apps or services is likely giving up at least 1/3rd of potential customer/users.
DNSSEC was also being promoted/talked about in 1995 to protect against exploits found 5 years earlier.
It was also ignored as a problem.
Maybe, finally., the cost of not implementing these has finally become greater than ignoring them..... but I somehow doubt it. ISPs can make more $$$ off the scarcity of IP4 addresses than they are likely to make pushing IPng/IPv6.
IPng/Ipv6, DNSSEC and "Duke Nukem Forever" have far more in common than they should.
If customers don't demand these they won't happen just like they've only been marginally implemented over the last 16 years.
Virgin Mobile in the US is about as close to prepay as you can get. Their least expensive plan is a prepay $25/month (including all taxes and BS charges) for 300 talk minutes plus unlimited data and texts.
Alas, the phone is still locked to Virgin Mobile's rented network. Which is really Sprint's CDMA network.
But you can get a Samsung Intercept Android phone from Virgin Mobile (or other retailers) for around $180 on sale.
$180 for the phone and $300/yr for service is a hugely sweet deal compared to the iPhone on AT&T for over $1200/year on AT&T's crummy network.
What's funny is that Sprint also offers the Samsung Intercept for $99 and $70/month (or $840/year) with a 2 year contract. Same network, same phone, just a whole lot more expensive.
Only in the Sun386i, which Sun killed in 1990 when they introduced the Sparcstation 1 and put all their "wood behind one arrow" in the SPARC architecture.
The Sun486i, while developed, never saw the light of day as a product BECAUSE it was faster than the SPARC offerings of that time.
Part of the issue was that the 386i and 486i were developed on the east coast at the former Apollo Computer that was acquired earlier by Sun. There was a lot infighting between the divisions on the each coast. The east lost.
That would be Windows Phone 7. Thanks to Android it's likely to meet a similar fate.
If Microsoft open source most of Windows Phone 7 and licenses it for free to hardware makers it may have a chance. They'd just have find a sweet spot of control like Google has. Otherwise, Windows Phone 7 is already doomed.
Agreed. The idea of cloud computing is a power play to make users feel more secure given the inherent problems of (primarily) Microsoft Windows usage on the Internet.
The pitch is: "We'll do everything for you in the cloud and then it won't matter what you are running on your internet access device."
The problem with that model is that everything gets controlled by someone else. But the majority of non-technical customers do not understand how much they are giving away with that service model. They feel safer with a large corporate entity telling them what to do than with local in-house technicians and service providers.
I think that the future model should be more of local clients synced across the internet. Like the DropBox service provides. Everything works whether you are connected or not. And everything is re-synced whenever a client connects to the net, but no processing or closed applications are run "for you" in the cloud.
Most consumers see technology as "magic" and don't realize what they give away or lock themselves into until it's way too late. We are seeing that more and more each day with Facebook, Apple, Google, etc. Whose business models depend on the naive user to accept free services or supposedly "safe hardware" in exchange for lock-ins.
Google at least seems to be offering the most open data formats on it's services, so the user lock-in is not nearly as complete as with Apple products.
Apple seems to want to re-invent television via a complete locked-in patent controlled proprietary walled garden that they can charge tolls on to everyone who uses it. Good for Apple and their shareholders, and bad for almost everyone who buys into it. But most buyers won't realize that until they've invested time, $$$ and their data in a product that's more like pretty handcuffs than a good tool.
Or the car manufacturer will discontinue that model and therefore the stop making replace computers aka ECUs aka Engine Control Units.
Car collectors don't even bother collecting cars that have closed ECUs. Why? You can't get the necessary info to replace them once the limited life electronic components fail. And such a car will never pass required SMOG tests and is therefore WORTHLESS.
I have an early 90s sports car. I can no longer buy an ECU for it. The ECU is completely proprietary and the manufacturer hasn't made any of them since the late 90s. The last available ECU for that model has been sold.
Reverse engineering the ECU would be very expensive. It has tens of inputs from various sensors and how it reacts to all those inputs is unknown except to the manufacturer. And even if you could reverse engineer it, the state SMOG laws consider that an illegal modification of the car. So all you can do is scrap the car.
So now, if you own that car and your ECU fails you are SOL. You can't get a SMOG certificate and you can't drive that car in ANY US state.
Wearable computers will initially need you to also wear extra batteries. Clothing will change to support the batteries.
The visual interface will be a HUD like display via glasses that overlay the real world in front of you. Initially, there will be text input based on your finger movement. Subtle body movements like gestures will provide other inputs. There will also be voice recognition commands whose interpretation will occur in the cloud rather than locally in your phone due to power limitations. In fact, many requests will occur in the cloud with the results presented in the HUD or on the screen. When you go from place to place you'll be able to plug your phone into a standard interface to use other peripherals and transfer data.
Companies providing the technology will get their revenue from ads and charging you for long range wireless access, but WiFi will also be work.
There will laws against driving while wearing your computer.
The tech for all this exists right now at about the level of the Apple Newton is compared to the iPhone of today. It's all there. It just needs to be combined, standardized, refined (a lot) and productized. It's coming. The only question is when it will arrive in a viable form.
The operating system platform is likely to be open source. Android is a likely grandfather of this kind of operating platform.
Eventually, after better batteries and more efficient processors and memory this may all become a wrist computer with wireless interfaces to HUD and data input devices. But that will take longer.
If you want privacy don't use services or purchase anything on the Internet. Never buy anything online. Never use a service that requires that you get an account. Even then use anonymizing techniques or services like Tor for those few sites that you do visit via random WiFi connections you find by driving randomly around after purging all the cookies in the browser you are using.
But while you are doing that make sure that you always pay for everything in cash. Do not use a library card. Avoid all areas that use video surveillance. Do not get healthcare or have a medical record.
You really don't have any privacy anywhere anymore. If the info is on a network connected computer somewhere, there is someone you have not authorized that can get access to it and copy it. There may be laws against that, but they won't be enforced... because its way too much effort.
Before networked computers held info of all kinds there was the illusion of privacy, but even then it didn't exist. It was just harder to get at the data.
The internet is a public forum. The only privacy that exists is what you set up with other parties BEFORE you use the Internet.
The only value that Windows has over other operating systems is hardware and software backward compatibility. Vista does not have that and Windows7 won't either. Except for the virtual XP piece, which has been tacked on at the last minute, because there is no reason for any organization to upgrade to Vista or Windows7. There is ZERO upside, except that Microsoft has a gun to your head and will stop supporting XP.
Windows 7 is Vista SP3. Microsoft is hoping that rebranding Vista will get corporations to adopt it, but without transparent compatibility for ALL their existing hardware and software companies will just keep wanting XP.
XP performs better on the same hardware. XP is compatible with everything they have.
There are ZERO killer features in Windows7 to make it worthwhile to upgrade to it from XP.
Windows7 offers nothing except higher resource requirements and incompatibility with the installed base. So there is no reason to upgrade to it.
We used Sun386i's for commodity trading workstations. They were fantastic. You could run multiple MS-DPS instances with all the MS-DOS applications. You could even use PC hardware with box DOS and SunOS simultaneously. All while running large trading apps in SunOSin Sunview or X11. (But you had to build your own X11.)
Adding a parallel printer interface to a Sun386i was a $50 card at Fry's. It cost at least $800 on any other Sun product at the time. Almost any ISA hardware could be made to work if you could get interface documentation.
We wanted Sun486is! But it became clear after the SPARCStation was introduced that Sun was never going to release the Sun486i or any Intel based systems. Our company never bought another Sun product. The Sun486i was faster than any SPARC offering at the time, while the Sun386i was about the same as a SPARCstation in performance.
For a while the Sun386i was Sun's fastest Workstation.
I also wrote a Sunview/video driver on the Sun386i for the DOS version CAD/CAM program. The driver allowed the Sun386i to use the DOS version of that program like the SunOS version that cost 8 times as much, but ran at about the same speed. If the accelerated graphics card was added to a Sun386i, my DOS version ran faster than the SunOS version.
When Linux arrived and had a groundswell of first hobbiest and then developer support it was clear that Sun was doomed unless they adapted their offerings to Linux. They never really did and then opened Solaris way too late for anyone to care.
Hardening Windows is a fools errand. It has repeated been demonstrated that new Windows vulnerabilities are constantly developing and the lag time before Microsoft patches them can be years.
Switching to Linux and learning to use it is a one time event. Constantly patching and protecting Windows is an ongoing and never completed task.
Viewers complaining to FOX is like cattle complaining to the cattleman. Viewers are the product for advertisers, what they think does not count. And unless all the cattle/viewers disappear FOX does not care.
Slashdot Mirror
And NoScript is fantastic except for all the care and feeding necessary to keep up with all the tricks the sites impose. And many sites now make it impossible to view their sites if you use NoScript.
HTML5 was developed advertising industry input built-in, so its even harder to avoid being tracked.
So now the choice is becoming be tracked or do not use the web.
But you need to "Root" your phone.
See: http://repo.xposed.info/ for info on installing the Xposed framework which basically places a hook into the main event loop of Android where Xposed modules like XPrivacy can watch, block or "lie" to most of the rest of the Apps running within Android.
XPrivacy is available here:
http://repo.xposed.info/module...
And BTW, iPhone Apps are not any better about this stuff like phoning home and spying on you unless they are rooted and modified. It is just that the greater openness of Android platform ersus iOS makes it easier to spot. But that also means that there are more and better countermeasures.
If you want to be shocked take your phone place it in WiFi only mode and then use network packet sniffer on all the data flying by like tcpdump or wireshark while using apps on it. You will then realize that you the purchaser of the device does not "truly own" that device as it is delivered.
You can also replace the stock Android OS with Cyanogenmod:
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/
to gain better control of your device.
This is easy to defeat with a simple 2.4ghz jammer in the protest area. Both Bluetooth and most WiFi would be disabled. So the devices cannot mesh. Turn off the cell networks and ability of protesters to coordinate is gone.
So it could be useful when Government is not the adversary such as in a disaster, but is easily disabled by Government if that is it's intention during protests.
The classic router for this purpose was the Linksys WRT54G, but that is getting very long in the tooth and does not support 802.11n or 802.11ac.
The current reasonably priced (about $100) pick that supports everything and is a *working* 2.4ghz and 5ghz 802.11ac router with OpenWRT or DD-WRT is:
TP-Link Archer C7 V2 AC1750
Manufacturer Info is here -> http://www.tp-link.com/en/prod...
It can be re-flashed with either OpenWRT or DD-WRT to provide firewall and a variety of VPN types. It also has enough flash to add other features and given that it includes 2 USB 2.0 ports can also used as a low power (compared to a full hardware PC) internet server.
The disadvantage on this router is that it only supports 1750AC and not 1900AC and that the USB ports are only 2.0. There are routers that cost a lot more that provide both 1900AC and USB 3.0, but they also do not currently FULLY support OpenWRT and DD-WRT.
My personal experience is that OpenWRT is more module than DD-WRT. This makes is easier to pick and choose "packages" in any configuration you'd like. For instance, I added the stunnel package to protect a IP video camera that did not provide HTTPS for remote home monitoring. Now the router provides necessary HTTPS for that use case.
If you are looking to use either DD-WRT or OpenWRT check their home pages BEFORE purchasing a router so you know that it is fully supported by each.
The router to AVOID at the moment appears to be the Linksys 1900AC which the manufacturer FALSELY claimed in their sales literature at launch supported. It still does not.
You can view info on the OpenWRT project here -> https://openwrt.org/
And the DD-WRT project here -> http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/ind...
Electric Imp would be interesting if open source. Alas, it's not. It's proprietary and everything is in "the cloud," so if the company dies so do all the projects and products that work with it as you lose access to the Imps that are deployed.
What I find amazing is that product's like Lockitron are totally dependent on this may not be there tomorrow proprietary cloud platform.
When the cloud is a regulated utility then we can begin to think about putting critical data in it. Or worse running critical infrastructure applications that may be changed by someone else on their timetable, rather than yours breaking what you have invested in.
Right now, in using the cloud, you are just handing what may be your most important asset to a 3rd party who likely does not care about it as much as your organization does. And may happily share it with any number of others who asks via the 3rd party doctrine.
The cloud is fine for unimportant stuff that you can afford to lose or applications that are not critical. Consumer Smartphone apps fit that criteria. But if it is important, using the cloud is like not ever checking the backups you've made. It likely won't be there when you really need it.
Java, the COBOL of our era!
Is that praise? Or is it condemnation?
Yes, you want an Open API or access to data without encumbrance via a standard interface. Preferably, enforced by a contract and SLA.
We've already played the "scraping game" for decades. If you want to always be chasing the last change made by the target you are scraping, while also handling all your user complaints because your app just broke... again for the 3rd time this week... then go ahead and scrape.
And please come back and tell us how long it took you to give up.
If Facebook pays me: Sure.
They better be paying you incrementally for each user forever for all the data they collect from users that use your app or service... otherwise, you'd be a fool to base *anything* "on top of" the Facebook ecosystem.
I am constantly amazed that there are so many services that build upon Google, Apple or Facebook web authentication systems. It's just plain stupid for anyone to do that unless they are Google, Apple or Facebook as those services can eliminate your access to your customers ANY TIME they choose without you having any say in the matter.
And of the 3, Facebook is the worst, since by forcing users to have a Facebook account to use your service you are broadcasting how little you care about their ability to control any of their privacy given that tracking that you enable FB to perform against those users all over the net and FBs consistent history of altering their user terms to the detriment of their users.
If I see a service that REQUIRES a Facebook account, I will not use it whether it is free, paid or otherwise. And I am far from alone. Any developer that forces FB authentication in their apps or services is likely giving up at least 1/3rd of potential customer/users.
In 1995 IPng was to be implemented ASAP.
Now 16 years later we're still talking about it.
DNSSEC was also being promoted/talked about in 1995 to protect against exploits found 5 years earlier.
It was also ignored as a problem.
Maybe, finally., the cost of not implementing these has finally become greater than ignoring them..... but I somehow doubt it. ISPs can make more $$$ off the scarcity of IP4 addresses than they are likely to make pushing IPng/IPv6.
IPng/Ipv6, DNSSEC and "Duke Nukem Forever" have far more in common than they should.
If customers don't demand these they won't happen just like they've only been marginally implemented over the last 16 years.
Virgin Mobile in the US is about as close to prepay as you can get. Their least expensive plan is a prepay $25/month (including all taxes and BS charges) for 300 talk minutes plus unlimited data and texts.
Alas, the phone is still locked to Virgin Mobile's rented network. Which is really Sprint's CDMA network.
But you can get a Samsung Intercept Android phone from Virgin Mobile (or other retailers) for around $180 on sale.
$180 for the phone and $300/yr for service is a hugely sweet deal compared to the iPhone on AT&T for over $1200/year on AT&T's crummy network.
What's funny is that Sprint also offers the Samsung Intercept for $99 and $70/month (or $840/year) with a 2 year contract. Same network, same phone, just a whole lot more expensive.
Only in the Sun386i, which Sun killed in 1990 when they introduced the Sparcstation 1 and put all their "wood behind one arrow" in the SPARC architecture.
The Sun486i, while developed, never saw the light of day as a product BECAUSE it was faster than the SPARC offerings of that time.
Part of the issue was that the 386i and 486i were developed on the east coast at the former Apollo Computer that was acquired earlier by Sun. There was a lot infighting between the divisions on the each coast. The east lost.
ionice works great in a terminal window, but isn't integrated into any of the Desktop GUIs.
I suppose you could prefix the various file transfer commands used by the GUI with an added "ionice -c 3", but I haven't bothered to look.
Using ionice to lower the i/o priority of various portions of MythTV like mythcommflag, mythtranscode, etc. can make it quite snappy.
Let me guess. The "inmate ankle band" is made by Microsoft or Apple, right?
That would be Windows Phone 7. Thanks to Android it's likely to meet a similar fate.
If Microsoft open source most of Windows Phone 7 and licenses it for free to hardware makers it may have a chance. They'd just have find a sweet spot of control like Google has. Otherwise, Windows Phone 7 is already doomed.
The Foleo was kind of an iPad with a keyboard. Without the keyboard and a lot more hype it might have worked.
Yes, this is a joke.
Agreed. The idea of cloud computing is a power play to make users feel more secure given the inherent problems of (primarily) Microsoft Windows usage on the Internet.
The pitch is: "We'll do everything for you in the cloud and then it won't matter what you are running on your internet access device."
The problem with that model is that everything gets controlled by someone else. But the majority of non-technical customers do not understand how much they are giving away with that service model. They feel safer with a large corporate entity telling them what to do than with local in-house technicians and service providers.
I think that the future model should be more of local clients synced across the internet. Like the DropBox service provides. Everything works whether you are connected or not. And everything is re-synced whenever a client connects to the net, but no processing or closed applications are run "for you" in the cloud.
Most consumers see technology as "magic" and don't realize what they give away or lock themselves into until it's way too late. We are seeing that more and more each day with Facebook, Apple, Google, etc. Whose business models depend on the naive user to accept free services or supposedly "safe hardware" in exchange for lock-ins.
Google at least seems to be offering the most open data formats on it's services, so the user lock-in is not nearly as complete as with Apple products.
Apple seems to want to re-invent television via a complete locked-in patent controlled proprietary walled garden that they can charge tolls on to everyone who uses it. Good for Apple and their shareholders, and bad for almost everyone who buys into it. But most buyers won't realize that until they've invested time, $$$ and their data in a product that's more like pretty handcuffs than a good tool.
Or the car manufacturer will discontinue that model and therefore the stop making replace computers aka ECUs aka Engine Control Units.
Car collectors don't even bother collecting cars that have closed ECUs. Why? You can't get the necessary info to replace them once the limited life electronic components fail. And such a car will never pass required SMOG tests and is therefore WORTHLESS.
I have an early 90s sports car. I can no longer buy an ECU for it. The ECU is completely proprietary and the manufacturer hasn't made any of them since the late 90s. The last available ECU for that model has been sold.
Reverse engineering the ECU would be very expensive. It has tens of inputs from various sensors and how it reacts to all those inputs is unknown except to the manufacturer. And even if you could reverse engineer it, the state SMOG laws consider that an illegal modification of the car. So all you can do is scrap the car.
So now, if you own that car and your ECU fails you are SOL. You can't get a SMOG certificate and you can't drive that car in ANY US state.
Wearable computers will initially need you to also wear extra batteries. Clothing will change to support the batteries.
The visual interface will be a HUD like display via glasses that overlay the real world in front of you. Initially, there will be text input based on your finger movement. Subtle body movements like gestures will provide other inputs. There will also be voice recognition commands whose interpretation will occur in the cloud rather than locally in your phone due to power limitations. In fact, many requests will occur in the cloud with the results presented in the HUD or on the screen. When you go from place to place you'll be able to plug your phone into a standard interface to use other peripherals and transfer data.
Companies providing the technology will get their revenue from ads and charging you for long range wireless access, but WiFi will also be work.
There will laws against driving while wearing your computer.
The tech for all this exists right now at about the level of the Apple Newton is compared to the iPhone of today. It's all there. It just needs to be combined, standardized, refined (a lot) and productized. It's coming. The only question is when it will arrive in a viable form.
The operating system platform is likely to be open source. Android is a likely grandfather of this kind of operating platform.
Eventually, after better batteries and more efficient processors and memory this may all become a wrist computer with wireless interfaces to HUD and data input devices. But that will take longer.
This makes it really clear.
The Google Toilet Service:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrontojPWEE
If you want privacy don't use services or purchase anything on the Internet.
Never buy anything online.
Never use a service that requires that you get an account.
Even then use anonymizing techniques or services like Tor for those few sites that you do visit via random WiFi connections you find by driving randomly around after purging all the cookies in the browser you are using.
But while you are doing that make sure that you always pay for everything in cash.
Do not use a library card.
Avoid all areas that use video surveillance.
Do not get healthcare or have a medical record.
You really don't have any privacy anywhere anymore. If the info is on a network connected computer somewhere, there is someone you have not authorized that can get access to it and copy it. There may be laws against that, but they won't be enforced... because its way too much effort.
Before networked computers held info of all kinds there was the illusion of privacy, but even then it didn't exist. It was just harder to get at the data.
The internet is a public forum. The only privacy that exists is what you set up with other parties BEFORE you use the Internet.
The only value that Windows has over other operating systems is hardware and software backward compatibility. Vista does not have that and Windows7 won't either. Except for the virtual XP piece, which has been tacked on at the last minute, because there is no reason for any organization to upgrade to Vista or Windows7. There is ZERO upside, except that Microsoft has a gun to your head and will stop supporting XP.
Windows 7 is Vista SP3. Microsoft is hoping that rebranding Vista will get corporations to adopt it, but without transparent compatibility for ALL their existing hardware and software companies will just keep wanting XP.
XP performs better on the same hardware.
XP is compatible with everything they have.
There are ZERO killer features in Windows7 to make it worthwhile to upgrade to it from XP.
Windows7 offers nothing except higher resource requirements and incompatibility with the installed base. So there is no reason to upgrade to it.
We used Sun386i's for commodity trading workstations. They were fantastic. You could run multiple MS-DPS instances with all the MS-DOS applications. You could even use PC hardware with box DOS and SunOS simultaneously. All while running large trading apps in SunOSin Sunview or X11. (But you had to build your own X11.)
Adding a parallel printer interface to a Sun386i was a $50 card at Fry's. It cost at least $800 on any other Sun product at the time. Almost any ISA hardware could be made to work if you could get interface documentation.
We wanted Sun486is! But it became clear after the SPARCStation was introduced that Sun was never going to release the Sun486i or any Intel based systems. Our company never bought another Sun product. The Sun486i was faster than any SPARC offering at the time, while the Sun386i was about the same as a SPARCstation in performance.
For a while the Sun386i was Sun's fastest Workstation.
I also wrote a Sunview/video driver on the Sun386i for the DOS version CAD/CAM program. The driver allowed the Sun386i to use the DOS version of that program like the SunOS version that cost 8 times as much, but ran at about the same speed. If the accelerated graphics card was added to a Sun386i, my DOS version ran faster than the SunOS version.
When Linux arrived and had a groundswell of first hobbiest and then developer support it was clear that Sun was doomed unless they adapted their offerings to Linux. They never really did and then opened Solaris way too late for anyone to care.
Transition costs. Code rewrite costs.
Hardening Windows is a fools errand. It has repeated been demonstrated that new Windows vulnerabilities are constantly developing and the lag time before Microsoft patches them can be years.
Switching to Linux and learning to use it is a one time event. Constantly patching and protecting Windows is an ongoing and never completed task.
Viewers complaining to FOX is like cattle complaining to the cattleman. Viewers are the product for advertisers, what they think does not count. And unless all the cattle/viewers disappear FOX does not care.