Man, I'm glad that I'm not using [Microsoft Product]. This new [virus/worm/trojan] exploits a [flaw/bug/backdoor] in [Microsoft Product], and it [does/doesn't] use Outlook and the stupidity of users. Luckily, I'm running [Free alternative to Microsoft product], so I'm not at risk. In fact, [Free alternative to Microsoft product] has protected me from [any integer over 200] [viruses/worms/trojans]. And just look at the [hundreds/thousands/millions/billions] of dollars that I've saved using [Free alternative to Microsoft product]. I hope that this [Free alternative to Microsoft product] takes off, along with [free alternative to Microsoft OS]. Unfortunately, my [company/home] has to pay for the stupidity of Microsoft: this [virus/worm/trojan] sucked [250KB/250MB/250GB/250TB] of bandwidth!
With all the improvements that Mozilla has made, Internet Explorer (5.5) is still about 2x faster at rendering nested tables than Mozilla 0.93. Try it for yourself: create a page with an absurdly large number of nested tables (you can use Mozilla's deeply nested tables debug page, save it as a.html file, and copy the tables about 100 times in a text editor), and then test it on Mozilla and Internet Explorer. Mozilla reported 16.42 seconds on my computer, IE only took about six (I don't have an exact number, I used a stopwatch).
However, Mozilla is finally becoming stable and usable. It may take more memory then IE, it may be slower, and it may use a nonstandard UI, but at least it's as stable as IE now.
By the way, I already saw the "IE Isn't Stable" replys coming. You're wrong. IE has crashed once this month (with 4-6 hours per day of use). Can you say that Mozilla can do better? I don't think so!
None of this would be an issue if the schools had half-assed decent security. My school runs NT 4, and the password for "administrator" is "administrator". It's just stupid. They don't have any sort of security on the file server that holds the grades (they expect that no one will figure out how to access "network neighborhood" on any of the client computers). It's just stupid. Schools have a problem with students messing up computers? Of course! They have no security!
Anyone else feel that the cube seems a bit oversized? I remember one "geeks in space" that discussed the fact that so many console units are so kludgy in their physical design... don't fit in the entertainment centre well, controller cords, etc. This seems to be more of the same.
The description of "Cube" seems to almost fit, tho.
The CGN (short for NINTENDO GAMECUBE*) is only 8" wide by 6" tall by 8" deep. By volume, it's smaller than the PS2 by about 2x, and smaller than the XBox by close to 4x!
And as for the controller cords, Nintendo has announced that they will be releasing RF controllers ("Wavebird")
Trust me, the CGN is plenty small.
* Nintendo requests that the proper way to name CGN is "NINTENDO GAMECUBE" (all capitols). "Nintendo Gamecube" is also acceptable, but "Nintendo GameCube" and "Nintendo Game Cube" are both incorrect.
Thanks for setting me straight. Actually, there were no facts behind my comment. I just wanted to take the oppurtunity to bash Japan.
(stupid Japanese taking over our car and computer production. oh well, they make good games.)
... is that Japan's network infistructure can't support it. Ever noticed how expensive bandwidth is in almost any country other than the US? That's because there isn't as much to go around. Japan survives now because of of it's slow wireless (slow connection = bandwith thrifty websites = not much load on the network) and lack of high-speed connections. Try putting 30+ million people on 128K-300K connections. Their network will collapse.
So what! Cellphones, cordless telephones, 802.11b, and just about everything else can be "sniffed"! There are a million ways to compromise the security of a PC. If you need maximum security, then don't use cordless mice or keyboards!
Why are people around Slashdot always so worried about this kind of thing?
When I was 10, I hacked into the school's email system (called Alpha, because, well, it was run on Alphas). It wasn't that hard - with the security of MacOS and the stupidity of the teachers. I got a list of everybody's password and logged onto the email account of a bully which I really hated. I sent a message (from his account) to his teacher saying, essntially, "Fuck You". The kid almost got suspended, but I felt bad and went to the principal. Normally, if this had been done with a paper note, the punishment would have been three days of suspension. However, since there was no policy at the time, I got off free (well, I had my Alpha account suspended, and it's still suspended to this day). The policy is now 3 days of suspension.
Bottom line: Don't mess with the schools. They are technophobes and they WILL crack down on anything you do.
The 33mhz Dragonball would never be able to decode MP3s.
Why it's better... not great
on
PDAs, PDAs
·
· Score: 1
This sure is an improvement over previous Palm OS Based devices - soft keyboard, high-res, voice recording. Too bad that it still has the same slow Dragonball processor. I'm sorry, but a 33mhz Dragonball just doesn't compare to a 206mhz StrongArm.
Other than that, a major step in the right direction for the Palm platform.
Isn't it ironic that they have disks failing at a high rate (and 1% IS high), and yet they advertise "CDs for music - Zip for important stuff".
How many CD burners have a 1% failure rate? (not counting buffer underruns)
I can't get DSL in my neighborhood, not because my system is too old but because it is too new. My phone company (Qwest) seems to have ditched copper altogether and instead has run fiber directly to the neighborhoods. However, this locks me out of DSL - no copper, no data. Until my phone company puts DSL modules in my neighborhood's switchbox (which should happen in about 2078), I can't get DSL. However, fortunatelly, my cable company has run fiber directly to my neighborhood recently, so I have @home. Usually I get between 100 and 300 kbytes/sec.
At least my neighborhood's wiring isn't f****d up like it is in every other nation on the planet. Ahhh... the beauty of the semi-rural community.
The only way to true security is through open source. You can't hide your security flaws behinde a binary and expect people not to find them. Open source lets the entire community find security flaws - and patch them. The point is not to create a product which has no apparent security flaws, it is to make a product with no security flaws period.
It has been proven time and time again in life and with computers (especially NT) that trying to hide security holes just doesn't work.
So, keep your code open and let others find it's flaws.
We had a problem in Florida this year, they couldn't count the votes properly. But imagine if the voting machines ran NT. "How many votes does Bush have? Um... between 0 and 9 billion?"
Our next candidate for president will be Bill Gates. He will win by a landslide; Gore - 1 vote, Gates, 279,999,999 votes.
Soon, Gates will outlaw all free software (that is, software that's not made by Microsoft), all non-approved game systems (All systems but XBox), all non-approved hardware (non MS hardware), and all non MS lawyers.
Soon afterwards, it will be illegal to think of thinking of linking to a page which contains instructions on how to make a manual on how to make a piece of software which might possibly be able to decrypt an encrypted work.
Oops... how did that get in there... this is Microsoft for president, not the RIAA.
I show my pride with custom T-Shirts. I design Linux, BSD, GNOME, KDE, etc. T-shirts then print them out.
Anyway, the point is that if you want to show that you "proudly run a non f***ed up OS", I suggust that you run down to Office Depot, buy some T-shrit transfers and design yourself a Tee. I like to put software projects that I have created/worked on on mine, but you could put anything on yours.
Oh... wait... this is Slashdot, not "Martha Stewert Living".
I don't like this. Winmodems are only compatible with Windows because they rely on Windows for firmware. But this requires Windows for no apparent reason. Why would they do this? Because MS has some sort of deal with them. It's bad enough to not support Linux, it's worse to make a device that requires Windows to run out of nececity, it's horrible to make a device that requires Windows just for MS's benifits.
Anyway, it's the beginning of the end because as Linux grows in popularity, MS will "ally" with hardware manufacturers to make devices that are deliberatelly incompatible with OS's other than Windows. If every device takes weeks of hacking to make it functional, Linux programmers won't be able to write drivers for a reasonable number of devices.
If there are 10,000 which work on NT and 1,000 which work on Linux, which OS will a computer manufacturer use? Duh.
If it runs for fifteen minutes on a cube of sugar, just think of how long it could run on a single Hostes Twinkee...
Oops... I just got an overflow error on my TI-89.
Re:Why I'm disappointed by XBox - and impresed by
on
First Looks At XBox
·
· Score: 1
I made a clay mockup from the photos (and from some measurments) that Nintendo provided. So, techniclly, no, I have held the controller, but I have held a scale mockup of it.
Why I'm disappointed by XBox - and impresed by NGC
on
First Looks At XBox
·
· Score: 1
This is totally screwed up. Much of the space on the controller is wasted by the translucent green "Xbox" logo. They could make the controller much more useful by removing it.
Also, how are they going to make money on this? PC motherboards and Pentium III's aren't cheap. I know that they can lose an amout of money on the hardware and make it up with the software (like the PS2), but selling a system which costs $600 for $300 - a net los of $300, means that they have to sell at least six games per system to even break even.
I, however, am looking forward to to the NINTENDO GAMECUBE (all upper case is the Nintendo-approved way to write it). The controller design is very innovative. It feels very good in your hands but is extremely intuitive and usable. GAMECUBE is powered by a 405MHZ IBM "Gekko" CPU (the Gekko is a PowerPC plus special instrucions for gaming). It has a cool ATI graphics chip which can apply up to 8 effects per pass (alpha, mip-mapping, texturing, bumpmapping, lighting, triliner filtering, etc.). While the XBox is a black box, the GAMECUBE is a small box ( My point is, that the XBOX's design is very disappointing. It's a black box. The controller is nonreviloutinary. It's a stinking black box with a 100baseT port on the back.
This is like other Microsoft hardware - "thuroughlly disappointing".
Innovation is getting faster, not slower. However, the impact that it has on our day to day lives is less. Which is a greater leap, from a 486 to a Itanium or from a car to an airplane? It depends on your perspective. The airplane is not much more technologiclly advanced than a car (I'm talking about early airplanes, not modern airmpanes), but the Itanium is several hundred times smaller, faster, and more advanced than a 486.
So then, it would be a bigger leap from a 486 to an Itanium than from a car to an airplane?
No. What can you do with an Itanium that you can't do with a 486? NOTHING. All that you can do is do calculations faster. What can you do with an airplane that you can't do with a car? For one, fly to places that would be impossible to reach on the ground. Move millions of people around the world in hours instead of months or years.
So, I end this comment like I end most of my comments, with the answer "no... but". It is not innovation that is getting smaller but the impact that it makes.
Slashdot Mirror
Man, I'm glad that I'm not using [Microsoft Product]. This new [virus/worm/trojan] exploits a [flaw/bug/backdoor] in [Microsoft Product], and it [does/doesn't] use Outlook and the stupidity of users. Luckily, I'm running [Free alternative to Microsoft product], so I'm not at risk. In fact, [Free alternative to Microsoft product] has protected me from [any integer over 200] [viruses/worms/trojans]. And just look at the [hundreds/thousands/millions/billions] of dollars that I've saved using [Free alternative to Microsoft product]. I hope that this [Free alternative to Microsoft product] takes off, along with [free alternative to Microsoft OS]. Unfortunately, my [company/home] has to pay for the stupidity of Microsoft: this [virus/worm/trojan] sucked [250KB/250MB/250GB/250TB] of bandwidth!
With all the improvements that Mozilla has made, Internet Explorer (5.5) is still about 2x faster at rendering nested tables than Mozilla 0.93. Try it for yourself: create a page with an absurdly large number of nested tables (you can use Mozilla's deeply nested tables debug page, save it as a .html file, and copy the tables about 100 times in a text editor), and then test it on Mozilla and Internet Explorer. Mozilla reported 16.42 seconds on my computer, IE only took about six (I don't have an exact number, I used a stopwatch).
However, Mozilla is finally becoming stable and usable. It may take more memory then IE, it may be slower, and it may use a nonstandard UI, but at least it's as stable as IE now.
By the way, I already saw the "IE Isn't Stable" replys coming. You're wrong. IE has crashed once this month (with 4-6 hours per day of use). Can you say that Mozilla can do better? I don't think so!
None of this would be an issue if the schools had half-assed decent security. My school runs NT 4, and the password for "administrator" is "administrator". It's just stupid. They don't have any sort of security on the file server that holds the grades (they expect that no one will figure out how to access "network neighborhood" on any of the client computers). It's just stupid. Schools have a problem with students messing up computers? Of course! They have no security!
8" wide by 6" tall by 8" deep
Whoops! Messed that up.
The real dimensions are 4.3"(H) x 5.9"(W) x 6.3"(D)
Anyone else feel that the cube seems a bit oversized? I remember one "geeks in space" that discussed the fact that so many console units are so kludgy in their physical design... don't fit in the entertainment centre well, controller cords, etc. This seems to be more of the same. The description of "Cube" seems to almost fit, tho.
The CGN (short for NINTENDO GAMECUBE*) is only 8" wide by 6" tall by 8" deep. By volume, it's smaller than the PS2 by about 2x, and smaller than the XBox by close to 4x!
And as for the controller cords, Nintendo has announced that they will be releasing RF controllers ("Wavebird")
Trust me, the CGN is plenty small.
* Nintendo requests that the proper way to name CGN is "NINTENDO GAMECUBE" (all capitols). "Nintendo Gamecube" is also acceptable, but "Nintendo GameCube" and "Nintendo Game Cube" are both incorrect.
Avoid sites with annoying ads, wherever possible. Like those annoying OSDN sites... some even with banners on the top and the bottom!
Annoying OSDN sites... like Slashdot?
Thanks for setting me straight. Actually, there were no facts behind my comment. I just wanted to take the oppurtunity to bash Japan. (stupid Japanese taking over our car and computer production. oh well, they make good games.)
... is that Japan's network infistructure can't support it. Ever noticed how expensive bandwidth is in almost any country other than the US? That's because there isn't as much to go around. Japan survives now because of of it's slow wireless (slow connection = bandwith thrifty websites = not much load on the network) and lack of high-speed connections. Try putting 30+ million people on 128K-300K connections. Their network will collapse.
So what! Cellphones, cordless telephones, 802.11b, and just about everything else can be "sniffed"! There are a million ways to compromise the security of a PC. If you need maximum security, then don't use cordless mice or keyboards!
Why are people around Slashdot always so worried about this kind of thing?
When I was 10, I hacked into the school's email system (called Alpha, because, well, it was run on Alphas). It wasn't that hard - with the security of MacOS and the stupidity of the teachers. I got a list of everybody's password and logged onto the email account of a bully which I really hated. I sent a message (from his account) to his teacher saying, essntially, "Fuck You". The kid almost got suspended, but I felt bad and went to the principal. Normally, if this had been done with a paper note, the punishment would have been three days of suspension. However, since there was no policy at the time, I got off free (well, I had my Alpha account suspended, and it's still suspended to this day). The policy is now 3 days of suspension.
Bottom line: Don't mess with the schools. They are technophobes and they WILL crack down on anything you do.
The 33mhz Dragonball would never be able to decode MP3s.
This sure is an improvement over previous Palm OS Based devices - soft keyboard, high-res, voice recording. Too bad that it still has the same slow Dragonball processor. I'm sorry, but a 33mhz Dragonball just doesn't compare to a 206mhz StrongArm.
Other than that, a major step in the right direction for the Palm platform.
Isn't it ironic that they have disks failing at a high rate (and 1% IS high), and yet they advertise "CDs for music - Zip for important stuff". How many CD burners have a 1% failure rate? (not counting buffer underruns)
I can't get DSL in my neighborhood, not because my system is too old but because it is too new. My phone company (Qwest) seems to have ditched copper altogether and instead has run fiber directly to the neighborhoods. However, this locks me out of DSL - no copper, no data. Until my phone company puts DSL modules in my neighborhood's switchbox (which should happen in about 2078), I can't get DSL. However, fortunatelly, my cable company has run fiber directly to my neighborhood recently, so I have @home. Usually I get between 100 and 300 kbytes/sec.
At least my neighborhood's wiring isn't f****d up like it is in every other nation on the planet. Ahhh... the beauty of the semi-rural community.
Actually, Anakin becomes enraged and attempts to kill Obi-Won, only fails and falls into an acid pit (thus the breathing suit).
At least that's what the books say...
The only way to true security is through open source. You can't hide your security flaws behinde a binary and expect people not to find them. Open source lets the entire community find security flaws - and patch them. The point is not to create a product which has no apparent security flaws, it is to make a product with no security flaws period.
It has been proven time and time again in life and with computers (especially NT) that trying to hide security holes just doesn't work.
So, keep your code open and let others find it's flaws.
We had a problem in Florida this year, they couldn't count the votes properly. But imagine if the voting machines ran NT. "How many votes does Bush have? Um... between 0 and 9 billion?"
Our next candidate for president will be Bill Gates. He will win by a landslide; Gore - 1 vote, Gates, 279,999,999 votes.
Soon, Gates will outlaw all free software (that is, software that's not made by Microsoft), all non-approved game systems (All systems but XBox), all non-approved hardware (non MS hardware), and all non MS lawyers.
Soon afterwards, it will be illegal to think of thinking of linking to a page which contains instructions on how to make a manual on how to make a piece of software which might possibly be able to decrypt an encrypted work.
Oops... how did that get in there... this is Microsoft for president, not the RIAA.
A sad time indeed.
I show my pride with custom T-Shirts. I design Linux, BSD, GNOME, KDE, etc. T-shirts then print them out.
Anyway, the point is that if you want to show that you "proudly run a non f***ed up OS", I suggust that you run down to Office Depot, buy some T-shrit transfers and design yourself a Tee. I like to put software projects that I have created/worked on on mine, but you could put anything on yours.
Oh... wait... this is Slashdot, not "Martha Stewert Living".
You use encryption to prevent copying, not enormous files! Put some good RSA encryption on a DVD and it would be much harder to crack.
I don't like this. Winmodems are only compatible with Windows because they rely on Windows for firmware. But this requires Windows for no apparent reason. Why would they do this? Because MS has some sort of deal with them. It's bad enough to not support Linux, it's worse to make a device that requires Windows to run out of nececity, it's horrible to make a device that requires Windows just for MS's benifits.
Anyway, it's the beginning of the end because as Linux grows in popularity, MS will "ally" with hardware manufacturers to make devices that are deliberatelly incompatible with OS's other than Windows. If every device takes weeks of hacking to make it functional, Linux programmers won't be able to write drivers for a reasonable number of devices.
If there are 10,000 which work on NT and 1,000 which work on Linux, which OS will a computer manufacturer use? Duh.
Just my $.02
If it runs for fifteen minutes on a cube of sugar, just think of how long it could run on a single Hostes Twinkee...
Oops... I just got an overflow error on my TI-89.
I made a clay mockup from the photos (and from some measurments) that Nintendo provided. So, techniclly, no, I have held the controller, but I have held a scale mockup of it.
This is totally screwed up. Much of the space on the controller is wasted by the translucent green "Xbox" logo. They could make the controller much more useful by removing it.
Also, how are they going to make money on this? PC motherboards and Pentium III's aren't cheap. I know that they can lose an amout of money on the hardware and make it up with the software (like the PS2), but selling a system which costs $600 for $300 - a net los of $300, means that they have to sell at least six games per system to even break even.
I, however, am looking forward to to the NINTENDO GAMECUBE (all upper case is the Nintendo-approved way to write it). The controller design is very innovative. It feels very good in your hands but is extremely intuitive and usable. GAMECUBE is powered by a 405MHZ IBM "Gekko" CPU (the Gekko is a PowerPC plus special instrucions for gaming). It has a cool ATI graphics chip which can apply up to 8 effects per pass (alpha, mip-mapping, texturing, bumpmapping, lighting, triliner filtering, etc.). While the XBox is a black box, the GAMECUBE is a small box (
My point is, that the XBOX's design is very disappointing. It's a black box. The controller is nonreviloutinary. It's a stinking black box with a 100baseT port on the back.
This is like other Microsoft hardware - "thuroughlly disappointing".
Innovation is getting faster, not slower. However, the impact that it has on our day to day lives is less. Which is a greater leap, from a 486 to a Itanium or from a car to an airplane? It depends on your perspective. The airplane is not much more technologiclly advanced than a car (I'm talking about early airplanes, not modern airmpanes), but the Itanium is several hundred times smaller, faster, and more advanced than a 486.
So then, it would be a bigger leap from a 486 to an Itanium than from a car to an airplane?
No. What can you do with an Itanium that you can't do with a 486? NOTHING. All that you can do is do calculations faster. What can you do with an airplane that you can't do with a car? For one, fly to places that would be impossible to reach on the ground. Move millions of people around the world in hours instead of months or years.
So, I end this comment like I end most of my comments, with the answer "no... but". It is not innovation that is getting smaller but the impact that it makes.