yet no news is posted when Windows releases a patch.
Because Windows doesn't release patches often if at all. Hmm - still waiting for WIn2K SP2 - It'll be out in a few weeks - called WinXP. Cost you a hundred bucks:)
The only patches I ever see publicized on Micro$oft are the IE security fixes. Otherwise WIndowsUpdate takes, IMHO, a very nice tool, and renders it worthless for lack of content. Why not offer WIndowsupdate options to include hotfixes, and other platform dependant fixes?
I'm glad the kernel gets updated regularly - I'd rather read through the Changelog once or twice a week then sit in wonder when Microsoft will grace us with the fixes we want/need.
Yes Microsoft has hotfixes and such, but its a nightmare finding them and there is no running log of what's changed, been released, etc.
Running 2.4.3 as of 7AM this morning and loving it. 2.4.3pre8 was just getting too old. LOL.
Thats a nice thought if it were true - but do you realize that cable provders PAY cable channel providers to carry their channels? Used to be the other way around, but not now. So part of your cable bill is already going to the content providers i.e. the 'basic' channels you get with cable.
My server network has been running redhat for years without issue (or reboots!) However, my desktops were running Winblows for using various office suite and embedded design apps.
I had resisted moving the desktops to Linux for the (irrational) fear that I'd miss something. I was a fool.
I switched over my primary design desk (Athlon 700) to RedHat 7.0. Installed Ximian Gnome and couldn't be happier. All the things I thought I might lose (ie Windows only) work fine. My DC_280 camera for article photos - works great on Linux. My TV TUner on my ATI All-in-wonder board (gotta keep up with the news!:) ) Works great with xawtv. ICQ to keep in touch with folks? GNomceICU. I can count the applications that I need to reboot for and they are dwindling fast: MS Money, and a couple of my embedded emulator applications. Thats it. Yes - I'm praying for a stable Mozilla 1.0 because it combines all teh things I like about Netscape Mail and MS Outlook into on package. But beyond that - I'm happy. Very happy and won't look back.
Why should kids care if they use Windows at school? Games? Not happening. Browsing? Netscape works fine and doesn't crash much more than IE does if installed properly. Do you really think school kids need a full blown office suite - will they used the most advanced features of MS Office? Hardly - Staroffice would do fine.
Kudos to this folks for doing this - things like this can revolutionize they way things are done. All I read about in teh paper today is how tight school budgets are. I'm sure many districts will look at the price points, what they spend on MS licenses (even at educational rates) and will jump at the chance. At the very least, they will allow them to co-exist with current MS desktops. And if they succeed, the MS desktops will fade away the next time MS releases a new OS version.
For commercial sites - sure, but there are many non profit groups and individuals that deploy SSL as well. Like the poster above, I use SSL for IMAP, SMTP, and webmail for about 40 domains for family, friends, and local non profit groups. it would be nice to avoid the initial 'untrusted certificate' prompts. Not a huge deal - but non the less. As it is I direct webmail through my commerical server with a valid certifictae to avoid the non stop prompting of IE (I've yet to convince everyone to leave the dark side:) )
Companies need to charge something to pay for the necessary checks to ensure you are who you say you are and also to handle revokations, etc. But $125/year seems kinda high, especially when you often need more than one certifictae to properly secure multiple services.
Verisign definitely has a huge market share - but others are trying to bust in. Our server certificates cames from Equifax - $75 each (for the first year - subsequent years - well they're a little bit more:) ) The browsers support it and the folks at Equifax were very helpful. I'd think a CA could make quite a dent (and a decent profit) at around $50 to $75 a certificate.
Hardly - Freenet is used to share ANY information. Not just MP3s - If something like Freenet were outlawed, you might as well outlaw NFS, WIndows SMB shares, etc.
THe tough part is going to be tracking anything down in Freenet - stuff is encrypted - you have no idea where it comes from, etc.
If I read it right (and IANAL), they feel that music streamed out like this would be covered under licensing agreements they already have in place - so they shouldn't have to pay more $$$. The Songwriters feel they should get royalties for it just like a CD sale.
Well this kind of defeats the purpose and probably violates rules when you signed up for the ads. However I've seen some sites use this tack. www.uncbasketball.com runs an extremely popular message board and they pay by the byte like many. So every so often they post to the users begging for click throughs. FOlks respond and their revenue gets up - but I find it somewhat wrong - I mean I only feel like clicking an ad I'm interested in. Heck - they'd probably be better off with a paypal setup since their fans are zealots. But begging for clickthroughs is probably against the rules and doesn't seem like a sound practice.
Agree 100% I was chuckling today reading about various.coms laying off half their workforce. "We're still making $$ and plan to be around for a while but needed to preserve our capital, etc, etc" Since when does it take 100 people to run a website? Yes, the larger sites take a lot of people and bandwidth does cost money. But nobody said you had to hire dozens of people to do it.
Growth comes from making enough money to expand, not expanding fast enough to keep up with expenses. The latter will bankrupt you anyday (even after the Shrub sticks it to the poor slob with too much debt)
Oh please! There are people out there who DO do this! They enjoy providing the info and the service. Its a hobby for them. SURE they wish they could rake in dollars. But they can't so it becomes a labor of love. So don't be so quick to judge others who are more charitable than yourself.
I'm happy to pay my $$$ for SDSL and host web sites that folks find useful. But it takes a day job to pay for it.
It always seems like the.coms going bust are the ones that got huge too fast. I guess you wave millions in VC money in front of people and you gotta spend it. Then if you seem successful, you gotta expand to 'grow' to please the investors, etc.
Seems like many.coms doing OK are the ones that are a) living within their means and b) doing what they do best.
/. is a prime example. They do what they do best - they aren't going nuts trying to expand into this or that - they are trying to improve what they currently do and grow within their means. Yes,/. isn't for profit per se, but they still need to 'survive' Yes they have a 'parent' providing them $$, bandwidth, etc. But I'm sure/. would sitll be alive today without Andover - cept the pages would probably load slower:)
I had to deal with one of these "get a new activation code on each install" with a quota package we used on NT. Needless to say we had to rebuild our server a few times over the years and this was VERY annoying. Constantly having to call the main office to get a code - waiting a day or two to get it.
But beyond that, I say when this comes to pass, we reinstall windows monthly:) Heck you practically have to do it every 6 months anyway and given the advances in hardware, you are usually on new hardware anyway - might as well make them hire tons of phone staffers to give out codes:)
You can't help but get excited when a group of dedicated people, coding free for glory and the ability to use a non Microsoft product, manage to accomplish what they have. I think that fact that people DO get excited about stuff like this shows how dedicated Linux users really are.
I'd rather use Linux and contribute what I can while I wait for certain features, vs using Micro$quish products that crash all the time and cost a fortune.
The above piece of code is a prime example. To me, it's as ugly as sin
Yes, well, to a Perl fanatic like me (and many others I'm sure) - its a thing of beauty and thus art. Perl never ceases to amaze me at what it can do and how compressed the code can be. It is by far my favorite language to write in.
freenet - the next problem - but they can't locate the people who share files - forbidding the use of freenet is the best solution
Yeah well, that is going to be a lot harder than folks think. If they start outlawing code based on what it could do (and I mean original code - not code reverse engineered ala DeCSS) they'll realize it useless. You can't do it.
Freenet is in its infancy. They do have a new MP3 sharing client called Espra If it works - the RIAA may be in trouble. Sure they could try to ban Espra - but that'll be harder (Just see all teh DeCSS mirrors out there) I'm surprised the RIAA isn't shaking in their boots. FreeNet CAN cause them major heartache. Admins have NO idea whats on their servers, it is encrypted. No central servers except for key servers, etc. They can go after key servers, but again, they aren't the sole distribution medium for keys.
Yes, Freenet is in its infancy and the media has shrugged it off, but I'm impressed by the advances they've made. Give it 6 months and more resources in development as Napster as a protocol faces the 'music' (which IMHO is a shame since P2P is so much more than MP3)
While things would probably a bit extreme from time to time - if you think the loss of technology would result in complete breakdown of rule of law - I doubt it. Yes, I'd grab my guns and make sure they're loaded. But I sincerely doubt it would be MadMax across the land. Yes things would grind to a halt, but they would recover. Sure many would try to take advantage, but anyone coming near my property with bad intentions would stay there as fertilizer:0
While declining to discuss individual patents, Q. Todd Dickinson, immediate-past PTO director, says the office doesn?t have a "silliness standard" in evaluating applications. "People pay their money, and they have a right to have their patents examined," he says.
Sure - few would question that - but the PTO clearly feels people have the right to patent the obvious and silly. Having it reviewed is one thing, but its time to start rejecting more as plain frivolous.
I love technology, but it would be the most stress free time for me. I'd kick back, relax, play with my kids, plant some crops, and stay oblivious until things got totally out of hand. Course Bill Gates probably has some hardened bunker with the keys to his kingdom and then he'd have a completel monopoly. Gets you thinking:)
I was a Computer Systems Engineer at RPI (Class of 92) It was great. We not only learned how to build the computer, but also how to program it. Yes, you don't get tons of high level language training, but enough.
I had a lot of fun building microprocessor based systems - you get to do hardware AND software (usually firmware) I'll never forget designing floppy interfaces for a PDP-11 from scratch (the PDP-11 uses a 'unique' bus signalling setup), controlling robotic arms with 68Ks to write words with a pen, hacking togetehr stuff with 68HC11 demo boards from Motorola in our dorm, developing a tiny multi-tasking OS in assembler, working with Xilinx FPGAs, etc.
Another nice thing is at the time it was a 'new' major and not many folks selected it. IN an engineering class of close to a thousand, there were 42 CSYS majors so you developed a close group of peers and friends. Pretty cool.
So I have to say college would probably have been more boring FOR ME if I was stuck in front of a terminal for 4 years learning C, etc. But in teh end, the Comp Eng market isn't as broad as that for COmp Sci types. But if you play your cards right and build a good software background in your 'free' time, you have a great marketability as long as the recruiter understands what Comp Eng of Comp Sys means.
Only drawback - the acronym for our major (Computer Systems Engineering) was CSYS - so everyone called use sissies!
But I got the last laugh (well at first) - I took my CSYS B.S. and was making 6 figures by the time I was 30 workin gfor a telecom company - then I quit my job to start my own business and now I'm broke:) Live and learn!
It's too bad that the distict was liable. Better to sue the actual fools that committed the offense.
While it is sad that taxpayer funds pay for this OR the insurance that pays for it, your statement is dangerous. Think about it - you work for a company and are asked to design a product - you do and it has a defect that kills someone - who should get sued - you, or the company that sold it? Granted - this everyone is a victim society we have sucks, but I'd stop designing shit if everytime someone was unhappy by something I had a hand in, all the involved engineers got sued instead of the company - I'm not shirking responsibility here - just that sometimes things get WAY out of hand as this lawsuit illustrates.
This program and effort is a good thing. If it gets even 10% of the stupid users out there to turn off sharing or protect it or even better invest in a firewall - all the better. Do you work at an ISP? Run a script to scan this newsgroup for IPs in your block - bam - you've got other people doing part of your job. Just alert the IP owner that they have an unsecure share and should close it.
Even more to the point - how can you say this is even remotely illegal? The unlocked home door analogy is close - makes you automatically say - illegal. But what about leave the blinds open while you and your significant get busy? If the creep is outside your window peeping in - trespassing, it is illegal (though you should be smacked for complaining if you leave the blinds open.) BUt lets say, for example, the crep is across the street with binoculars? Same line of thinking is police scanning yoru home from far away for EXTERNAL heat signatures - murky yes, but again - if the image, signature, visual, data can be received from a location OFF YOUR PROPERTY, I'd venture to say it is legal. Its up to you to protect your privacy. If you close your blinds at night - you should make sure your shares are closed or protected. Otherwise if someone wants to peer in - you shouldn't be able to complain.
Heck - a friend of mine - who is a network engineer, didn't realize he had inadvertanty left an anon FTP server running on his box (behind a firewall, etc) He likes to FTP into his server (yes not mega secure but still) but didn't realize he left anon enabled.
That is until someone started sticking files onto his ftp space. He promptly closed it - nuf said. He didn't scream, try to sue. He just fixed HIS MISTAKE and moved on.
If you leave your PC open and freely accessible to the internet - its fair game. Maybe this software will smarten up some folks and the others will provide free disk space to the rest of us;)
Being a RedHat user, I've been fairly happy with RPM, though if you lose track of what you've compiled yourself (without making it an RPM) and installed, things can get dicey.
But I have to admit - I installed Ximians red-carpet tool after throwing RH7/2.4.2 onto a new desktop and was really impressed. Its great to have everything - pick it choose it install it. Heck after I put RH 7 in, I used red-carpet to update another 90MB of packages. Very nice. - yes it still has dependency problems and I've found the rpms are not cutting edge - but good enough.
I'm sure apt-get is wonderful, but I found this article concentrated on just the low level stuff without looking at the GUIs cropping up for package mgmt and talking about how that effects the equation.
Personally, I could care less which pakcage manager is used - as long as it can get me current stuff that is easy to install. Don't get me wrong - I don't shy away from source compiles (I used HP-UX for years and anyone who has tried to compile stuff on HP-UX knows how difficult it can be given the 'unique' library layout) But RPMs/apt-get make for easy upgrades when you don't have to stay cutting edge:o
Slashdot Mirror
Because Windows doesn't release patches often if at all. Hmm - still waiting for WIn2K SP2 - It'll be out in a few weeks - called WinXP. Cost you a hundred bucks :)
The only patches I ever see publicized on Micro$oft are the IE security fixes. Otherwise WIndowsUpdate takes, IMHO, a very nice tool, and renders it worthless for lack of content. Why not offer WIndowsupdate options to include hotfixes, and other platform dependant fixes?
I'm glad the kernel gets updated regularly - I'd rather read through the Changelog once or twice a week then sit in wonder when Microsoft will grace us with the fixes we want/need.
Yes Microsoft has hotfixes and such, but its a nightmare finding them and there is no running log of what's changed, been released, etc.
Running 2.4.3 as of 7AM this morning and loving it. 2.4.3pre8 was just getting too old. LOL.
--
--
My server network has been running redhat for years without issue (or reboots!) However, my desktops were running Winblows for using various office suite and embedded design apps.
I had resisted moving the desktops to Linux for the (irrational) fear that I'd miss something. I was a fool.
I switched over my primary design desk (Athlon 700) to RedHat 7.0. Installed Ximian Gnome and couldn't be happier. All the things I thought I might lose (ie Windows only) work fine. My DC_280 camera for article photos - works great on Linux. My TV TUner on my ATI All-in-wonder board (gotta keep up with the news! :) ) Works great with xawtv. ICQ to keep in touch with folks? GNomceICU. I can count the applications that I need to reboot for and they are dwindling fast: MS Money, and a couple of my embedded emulator applications. Thats it. Yes - I'm praying for a stable Mozilla 1.0 because it combines all teh things I like about Netscape Mail and MS Outlook into on package. But beyond that - I'm happy. Very happy and won't look back.
Why should kids care if they use Windows at school? Games? Not happening. Browsing? Netscape works fine and doesn't crash much more than IE does if installed properly. Do you really think school kids need a full blown office suite - will they used the most advanced features of MS Office? Hardly - Staroffice would do fine.
Kudos to this folks for doing this - things like this can revolutionize they way things are done. All I read about in teh paper today is how tight school budgets are. I'm sure many districts will look at the price points, what they spend on MS licenses (even at educational rates) and will jump at the chance. At the very least, they will allow them to co-exist with current MS desktops. And if they succeed, the MS desktops will fade away the next time MS releases a new OS version.
--
Companies need to charge something to pay for the necessary checks to ensure you are who you say you are and also to handle revokations, etc. But $125/year seems kinda high, especially when you often need more than one certifictae to properly secure multiple services.
--
--
THe tough part is going to be tracking anything down in Freenet - stuff is encrypted - you have no idea where it comes from, etc.
Great system
--
--
--
Growth comes from making enough money to expand, not expanding fast enough to keep up with expenses. The latter will bankrupt you anyday (even after the Shrub sticks it to the poor slob with too much debt)
--
I'm happy to pay my $$$ for SDSL and host web sites that folks find useful. But it takes a day job to pay for it.
--
It always seems like the .coms going bust are the ones that got huge too fast. I guess you wave millions in VC money in front of people and you gotta spend it. Then if you seem successful, you gotta expand to 'grow' to please the investors, etc.
Seems like many .coms doing OK are the ones that are a) living within their means and b) doing what they do best.
--
But beyond that, I say when this comes to pass, we reinstall windows monthly :) Heck you practically have to do it every 6 months anyway and given the advances in hardware, you are usually on new hardware anyway - might as well make them hire tons of phone staffers to give out codes :)
--
I'd rather use Linux and contribute what I can while I wait for certain features, vs using Micro$quish products that crash all the time and cost a fortune.
--
Yes, well, to a Perl fanatic like me (and many others I'm sure) - its a thing of beauty and thus art. Perl never ceases to amaze me at what it can do and how compressed the code can be. It is by far my favorite language to write in.
--
Yeah well, that is going to be a lot harder than folks think. If they start outlawing code based on what it could do (and I mean original code - not code reverse engineered ala DeCSS) they'll realize it useless. You can't do it.
Freenet is in its infancy. They do have a new MP3 sharing client called Espra If it works - the RIAA may be in trouble. Sure they could try to ban Espra - but that'll be harder (Just see all teh DeCSS mirrors out there) I'm surprised the RIAA isn't shaking in their boots. FreeNet CAN cause them major heartache. Admins have NO idea whats on their servers, it is encrypted. No central servers except for key servers, etc. They can go after key servers, but again, they aren't the sole distribution medium for keys.
Yes, Freenet is in its infancy and the media has shrugged it off, but I'm impressed by the advances they've made. Give it 6 months and more resources in development as Napster as a protocol faces the 'music' (which IMHO is a shame since P2P is so much more than MP3)
Run a Freenet Server today!
--
--
Sure - few would question that - but the PTO clearly feels people have the right to patent the obvious and silly. Having it reviewed is one thing, but its time to start rejecting more as plain frivolous.
--
--
I had a lot of fun building microprocessor based systems - you get to do hardware AND software (usually firmware) I'll never forget designing floppy interfaces for a PDP-11 from scratch (the PDP-11 uses a 'unique' bus signalling setup), controlling robotic arms with 68Ks to write words with a pen, hacking togetehr stuff with 68HC11 demo boards from Motorola in our dorm, developing a tiny multi-tasking OS in assembler, working with Xilinx FPGAs, etc.
Another nice thing is at the time it was a 'new' major and not many folks selected it. IN an engineering class of close to a thousand, there were 42 CSYS majors so you developed a close group of peers and friends. Pretty cool.
So I have to say college would probably have been more boring FOR ME if I was stuck in front of a terminal for 4 years learning C, etc. But in teh end, the Comp Eng market isn't as broad as that for COmp Sci types. But if you play your cards right and build a good software background in your 'free' time, you have a great marketability as long as the recruiter understands what Comp Eng of Comp Sys means.
Only drawback - the acronym for our major (Computer Systems Engineering) was CSYS - so everyone called use sissies!
But I got the last laugh (well at first) - I took my CSYS B.S. and was making 6 figures by the time I was 30 workin gfor a telecom company - then I quit my job to start my own business and now I'm broke :) Live and learn!
--
Yeah - its late :o
--
While it is sad that taxpayer funds pay for this OR the insurance that pays for it, your statement is dangerous. Think about it - you work for a company and are asked to design a product - you do and it has a defect that kills someone - who should get sued - you, or the company that sold it? Granted - this everyone is a victim society we have sucks, but I'd stop designing shit if everytime someone was unhappy by something I had a hand in, all the involved engineers got sued instead of the company - I'm not shirking responsibility here - just that sometimes things get WAY out of hand as this lawsuit illustrates.
--
This program and effort is a good thing. If it gets even 10% of the stupid users out there to turn off sharing or protect it or even better invest in a firewall - all the better. Do you work at an ISP? Run a script to scan this newsgroup for IPs in your block - bam - you've got other people doing part of your job. Just alert the IP owner that they have an unsecure share and should close it.
Even more to the point - how can you say this is even remotely illegal? The unlocked home door analogy is close - makes you automatically say - illegal. But what about leave the blinds open while you and your significant get busy? If the creep is outside your window peeping in - trespassing, it is illegal (though you should be smacked for complaining if you leave the blinds open.) BUt lets say, for example, the crep is across the street with binoculars? Same line of thinking is police scanning yoru home from far away for EXTERNAL heat signatures - murky yes, but again - if the image, signature, visual, data can be received from a location OFF YOUR PROPERTY, I'd venture to say it is legal. Its up to you to protect your privacy. If you close your blinds at night - you should make sure your shares are closed or protected. Otherwise if someone wants to peer in - you shouldn't be able to complain.
Heck - a friend of mine - who is a network engineer, didn't realize he had inadvertanty left an anon FTP server running on his box (behind a firewall, etc) He likes to FTP into his server (yes not mega secure but still) but didn't realize he left anon enabled.
That is until someone started sticking files onto his ftp space. He promptly closed it - nuf said. He didn't scream, try to sue. He just fixed HIS MISTAKE and moved on.
If you leave your PC open and freely accessible to the internet - its fair game. Maybe this software will smarten up some folks and the others will provide free disk space to the rest of us ;)
--
But I have to admit - I installed Ximians red-carpet tool after throwing RH7/2.4.2 onto a new desktop and was really impressed. Its great to have everything - pick it choose it install it. Heck after I put RH 7 in, I used red-carpet to update another 90MB of packages. Very nice. - yes it still has dependency problems and I've found the rpms are not cutting edge - but good enough.
I'm sure apt-get is wonderful, but I found this article concentrated on just the low level stuff without looking at the GUIs cropping up for package mgmt and talking about how that effects the equation.
Personally, I could care less which pakcage manager is used - as long as it can get me current stuff that is easy to install. Don't get me wrong - I don't shy away from source compiles (I used HP-UX for years and anyone who has tried to compile stuff on HP-UX knows how difficult it can be given the 'unique' library layout) But RPMs/apt-get make for easy upgrades when you don't have to stay cutting edge :o
--
--
--