No, I want it downloadable in a cross-platform format. Let's see: Windows Media...windows only. Liquid Audio...Windows and Mac. SDMI...yep, you guessed it. This is the heart of the matter in both this and the MPAA/2600 case. Every attempt at making downloadable music so far by a major company has been a half-assed version that's not useful to anyone who's not the status quo.
Since when is 1 an even digit? 12/28/888 has all even numbers in its numeric representation, but not all even digits. 08/28/888 would have been the last one with all even digits.
It's not cordless, but Logitech has released the "Wingman Gaming Mouse", which is basically the same mouse as what you're talking about (as well as the original MouseMan, and the Logitech Sensa) with a USB or PS/2 connector...the same wonderful 3-button, triangular shape. I find these to be the most comfortable mice for extended mousing that I know of. I haven't actually found any advantage of it being a "gaming" mouse, but it works great for netscape and switching xterms.
Java Servlets are rapidly becoming an excellent alternative to doing CGI. Java Servlets are much more efficient than straight CGI, gaining many of the same advantages that mod_perl does. Rather than a separate process for each CGI access, servlets run as a separate thread for each access, thus reducing system load significantly. Servlets are also started once, and only stopped (usually) when the server stops. This allows you to make (for example) one connection to a database, and share it among lots of different connections to the Servlet.
For more information on servlets, pick up the O'Reilly Programming Java Servlets book, as well as checking out Apache JServ and the JRun Servlet Engine.
(And really, if you know Perl and C++, Java is but a small step to learn, and provides nice resume fodder.:-> )
So...my question is: How much is Microsoft paying PC Chips to do this?
Why would Microsoft pay PC Chips to bundle Linux with their motherboards? Simple: To prove that they're not the only company who gets their OS shipped with a large number of computers out there...great anti-anti-Trust lawsuit material.
They might be shipping Linux with their motherboards, but a.) how many people are going to even pay any attention to those CDs that come with their motherboards? b.) what percentage of those people who _do_ pay attention to the CD are going to get a working Linux system running on their own?
Look at it this way: probably 3/4s of the people who buy PC Chips' cheap motherboards are going to be buying them because they're cheap, and they don't really know they're not the best board in the world...these same people probably aren't going to have the patience to read all the documentation, and get a linux system running happily on their own (especially on these lower-quality motherboards), so what this is going to end up doing is leaving a really bad taste of Linux in their mouths. Which is exactly what Microsoft wants.
So Microsoft gets a two-for-one deal here. They get fodder for their anti-trust defense, as well turning a large number of people off of Linux... Doesn't seem like quite as good of a thing now, does it?
They may have changed it since this happened, I'm not sure. However, at one point a couple years ago a close friend of mine ordered something from Amazon in a lab on her campus. A few hours later, she got another e-mail saying that 3 more books had been ordered on her card, and that they were being shipped to an address not hers. Amazon quickly took care of it, but the fact that things like this can (or could at some point) happen sort of weakens my faith in Amazon's system.
Agreed, that with properly set up machines, this shouldn't be nearly as large of a problem. But think about how many school campuses you've seen (or any other public place with a lab) that have 'doze boxen just sitting out for the public to use...even if the user reboots the machine before and after use, cookies are still going to be stored. I agree that things like keystroke loggers are just as big of a problem, but many places put in protection against them, whereas cookies aren't something people tend to think about...
...not to shop at Amazon. You'd think they'd realize that this gratuitous usage of cookies is not only a feature, but a huge security hole. I know personally at least two people who have had other people order things on their credit cards, because they made the mistake of ordering something from Amazon from a public computer lab, where their cookie was then stored, and retrieved (and thus their credit card number used) when another person came along and used the same machine to order from Amazon. You'd think people would realize that letting any remote site "store" your credit card number is a hugely bad idea...but then I suppose these are the same folks who randomly run the binaries sent to their AOL e-mail address...
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No, I want it downloadable in a cross-platform format. Let's see: Windows Media...windows only. Liquid Audio...Windows and Mac. SDMI...yep, you guessed it. This is the heart of the matter in both this and the MPAA/2600 case. Every attempt at making downloadable music so far by a major company has been a half-assed version that's not useful to anyone who's not the status quo.
Doh! Teach me to post to /. before I'm awake. *sighs*
12/28/1998.
Since when is 1 an even digit? 12/28/888 has all even numbers in its numeric representation, but not all even digits. 08/28/888 would have been the last one with all even digits.
It's not cordless, but Logitech has released the "Wingman Gaming Mouse", which is basically the same mouse as what you're talking about (as well as the original MouseMan, and the Logitech Sensa) with a USB or PS/2 connector...the same wonderful 3-button, triangular shape. I find these to be the most comfortable mice for extended mousing that I know of.
I haven't actually found any advantage of it being a "gaming" mouse, but it works great for netscape and switching xterms.
For more information on servlets, pick up the O'Reilly Programming Java Servlets book, as well as checking out Apache JServ and the JRun Servlet Engine.
(And really, if you know Perl and C++, Java is but a small step to learn, and provides nice resume fodder. :-> )
Why would Microsoft pay PC Chips to bundle Linux with their motherboards? Simple: To prove that they're not the only company who gets their OS shipped with a large number of computers out there...great anti-anti-Trust lawsuit material.
They might be shipping Linux with their motherboards, but a.) how many people are going to even pay any attention to those CDs that come with their motherboards? b.) what percentage of those people who _do_ pay attention to the CD are going to get a working Linux system running on their own?
Look at it this way: probably 3/4s of the people who buy PC Chips' cheap motherboards are going to be buying them because they're cheap, and they don't really know they're not the best board in the world...these same people probably aren't going to have the patience to read all the documentation, and get a linux system running happily on their own (especially on these lower-quality motherboards), so what this is going to end up doing is leaving a really bad taste of Linux in their mouths. Which is exactly what Microsoft wants.
So Microsoft gets a two-for-one deal here. They get fodder for their anti-trust defense, as well turning a large number of people off of Linux... Doesn't seem like quite as good of a thing now, does it?
They may have changed it since this happened, I'm not sure. However, at one point a couple years ago a close friend of mine ordered something from Amazon in a lab on her campus. A few hours later, she got another e-mail saying that 3 more books had been ordered on her card, and that they were being shipped to an address not hers. Amazon quickly took care of it, but the fact that things like this can (or could at some point) happen sort of weakens my faith in Amazon's system.
Agreed, that with properly set up machines, this shouldn't be nearly as large of a problem. But think about how many school campuses you've seen (or any other public place with a lab) that have 'doze boxen just sitting out for the public to use...even if the user reboots the machine before and after use, cookies are still going to be stored. I agree that things like keystroke loggers are just as big of a problem, but many places put in protection against them, whereas cookies aren't something people tend to think about...
...not to shop at Amazon. You'd think they'd realize that this gratuitous usage of cookies is not only a feature, but a huge security hole.
I know personally at least two people who have had other people order things on their credit cards, because they made the mistake of ordering something from Amazon from a public computer lab, where their cookie was then stored, and retrieved (and thus their credit card number used) when another person came along and used the same machine to order from Amazon. You'd think people would realize that letting any remote site "store" your credit card number is a hugely bad idea...but then I suppose these are the same folks who randomly run the binaries sent to their AOL e-mail address...