There is a possibility this could actually be a good thing. How so you might wonder? Well lets look at the situation, Microsoft has acknowledged that linux is a serious operating system that is making gains in the enterprise market. The enterprise market, is what matters, perhaps as much as the desktop.
So with this insight, microsoft has decided to dissuade people from using linux. By doing this they will cause people to actually evaluate their decision more than before hand. If someone says hey "linux can't serve SMB shares as efficently as NT can" then most IT people will look into it. If they do a good job they will find that its not nescessairly true, and in many situations the information that mickeysoft says is wrong.
We've seen them do this before. Saying that Java development was slow, inefficent and lacked a use. Yet we see that Java is alive and very strong today. Partially because the stuff that mickeysoft said was false, partially because the people behind Java were smart enough to change the system to address those faults.
With all the smart people behind linux its likely that the same thing will happen. By showing where the major bulletholes are, linus, alan and the crew will hopefully be able to make it bulletproof.
As a side note, how do these things work with people who wear contacts sometimes and glasses other times. Would they not be able to wear contacts while using the ATM because it would mess up the iris scan? Anyone who knows something about this would be helpful, I don't want to look forward to a life where I have to take out my contacts every time I want to get money.
I don't see this really happening. The main reason is because of the fact that agencies that remain there use the internet to get information. UNHCR and the Red Cross both just used the dialups to EUNet in Pristina when I was there in december.
Another reason this is bad is because if its the US doing it, then its censorship. Believe it or not the news you get from CNN is biased (yes it really is). I've been forced to stop going there for information on this situation. Even the BBC and Telegraph are biased. Not to say that www.serbia-info.com isn't biased, but it provides another view of the situation. A single view promotes groupthink which is bad and just reinforces bad ideas.
Not a bad price. Considering that the official is $76.95 at LSL. Geeze...and here I was gonna buy the official RedHat, but I don't have that kind of money. Oh well, good thing I'm on a college ethernet.:-)
Does it seem to anyone else that RH is thinking they can charge more because linux is more respectable now? $76.95 seems really high. I purchased RH 5.0 official for $21 or something like that. Just a thought.
Anyone remember who RMS once said that O'Reilly was a virus that played off Open Source. I wonder what he would have to say about ZDNet then? I mean they can almost never get their information right, its like they don't have copy editors. They are also something of a FUD Factory. I suppose its only going to be a matter of time until we hear about this from RMS. Kinda reminds me of MS Developers Network putting on an open source conference or something like that.
Overall, I found the article an interesting read, but it was pretty much a basic top of the surface sort of article. However, the comments about people with non-technical degrees I found especially true.
I guess I can consider myself fortunate when I look at the fact that I was one of those people who had a chance to skip college and go right into the business world two years ago, but I didn't and I think its the best choice that I've ever made. I've also been offered the chance to do a co-op for a semester at some fairly good companies but turned those down.
Why? Would be the obvious question. There is something that most geek don't notice, there is a hell of a lot more to college than simply the studies. In terms of what you learn at college, only about 10% will be from classes. The rest you learn from people.
You will never be more free than the age of 18-23 when you are in college. You have pretty much no one to answer to and its a great time to explore. By passing that up and entering the work force, geeks a missing a lot.
First of all, I seem to remember some time ago seeing a small patch for the linux kernel that optimized a few short lines that created a 3fps increase in software rendered quake under linux on a p200. Which is a fairly nice improvement. I don't think this was ever incorporated into a release though.
The main benefit that I believe Draeker was speaking of was API level modification, which can be changed pretty quickly, rather than kernel level that allows a reboot. Many of you may know that the guy who wrote the Simple Direct Media Layer now works for LokiSoft. This means that if there is a change in the API that the developer (LokiSoft) notices will drastically fix problems in their games, they can do that and distribute it. This has actually happened as those of us testing CIV:CTP will be able to note.
Believe it or not, this will work for Microsoft. Sure those of us here will not settle for such a thing; could you imagine if you had to pay $89 to upgrade from Debian 2.0 to 2.1 or RH 5.0 to 5.1, much less kernel versions.
However here is why Microsoft will make this work. Becuase many many businesses use almost exclusive Win98 networks with a spattering of WinNT and Win95. The techs at these places usually hate having to deal with the BSODs and lockups that 98 creates. Therefore they will be able to convince the people with the money to upgrade the systems to "increase productivity".
In addition to this, Microsoft also will force PC OEMS into upgrading their licenses to ship the Win98-2ed, if they don't then they will be selling an "inferior product". Many times this leaves businesses with copies of Win98 that are never really used.
What makes the situation even worse is suppose you have a computer that has Win3.1 on it right and just suppose you can actually upgrade it to Win98 (I've seen places where they have pII-300's doing win3.1). You can't use the copy of 98 from the old computer! Why? Because they upgrade license agreements are written in such a way that all of the software must be installed on that machine. As a result there are some machines, my parents included that to use win98 must be upgraded in this order: Dos 5.0, Dos 6.2, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98-2ed. Thats an awful lot of time wasted because of poor licensing, but I guess thats the power of a monopoly now isn't it?
FYI: the region of serbia known as Kosovo is entirely landlocked. It borders with Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Monetnegro. Montenegro is the costal portion of Yugoslavia. However, it should be noted, due to the political structure of Yugoslavia, Montenegro has managed to declare neutrality in this situation. In fact, their leader (I forget his name) officially broke with Milosivic.
As for requiring costal access, this is not necessairly true. Switzerland and Austria seem to do fine. As do many other land locked nations.
Recently the United States has been really big on using the Diplomacy of Violence. Essentially, this amounts as violence from afar to acheive political goals. Usually this is done with planes or missiles and no men on the ground. Components of Katz's techo-war.
But there is a problem with such a situation. Diplomacy of Violence only works if dealing with a rational actor on the other end. If the person with whom they are trying to "negotiate" with is able to weigh the costs and benefits of a situation, then it will work.
But the problem lies in the fact that Milosovic and Hussein are not rational actors. Both of them suffer to a degree from the same problem Hitler did. Hitler was fanatical about the destruction of the Soviet people. So much so that he overlooked many common military procedures and diverted troops to what ended up as a disastrous operation (the whole thing about not bringing winter clothes when going to Moscow was a bad idea to).
Milosovic suffers from the same problem. He is a fanatical nationalist determined to see an ethnically pure Serbian state, and is willing to stop at no cost in order to acheive this. That is why the current Diplomacy of Violence will not work. All it has done since bombing began was speed up the clensing process and increase the Serbian resolve to continue.
I'm not trying to say one way or another what I think about the hurrent conflict, as that is irrevelent to the message of this post. What I'm trying to say is that the techno-war will inevitably fail against non-rational actors.
Maintainers of the popular kernel.org network of download sites have decided to aquiesce victory to Redmond today by announcing that kernel.org will stop mirroring the linux kernel and instead become a site devoted entirely to the art of popping popcorn.
I would say that the statement would be true. However, from my observations at my college its mainly the top 40 songs that are being affected. Which I'm partly thankful and partly unthankful for. On one side it means I don't have to hear all of Brittany Spears' album, on the other side it means I have to hear the same song over an over.
Otherwise here is a theory for you...how about the fact that CD's have risen in price by about 30% since 1996? I know that has affected how many CD's I buy. When a new CD now costs $16 or $17 as opposed to costing $11-$12, that is a pretty big impact on a college students wallet.
Or maybe the recording industry should look at the fact that they aren't pushing artists anymore and only pushing singles. This I imagine has much to do with it too.
Here is the point. I'm sure we all can argue like 5 year olds that Mitnick was a cracker not a hacker and he went against the "hacker code" (which applies to crackers now I guess). Anyway, the point is that it is FOUR years that he has been waiting for a trial! Doesn't that bother anyone else? I mean what if it turned out that he didn't do it in a trial that may be another year down the road (I know ZD says it would take place next month, but its ZD and they never get their facts right)? He could have served 5 years for nothing? I would honestly like to know what sort of progress has been made on this case each week by the people who have been putting off the trial.
Before you people go outright bashing SuSE for shipping KDE, if read the article, they also ship with GNOME. Anyway, not gonna feed the troll anymore...
I found the article to be pretty insightful. As a user who loves playing with the different distros and whose current box has packages dating back to RedHat 4.1 (or so) I gotta say this makes me consider using SuSE instead of RH 6.0 when it comes out to redo that system. In any case, I suppose I'll wait for the RH 6.0 review before I make my decision. The article was fair and even handed and highlighted a lot of the excellent things about SuSE that no one else has, like Star Office and Mesa (with 3dfx support).
Anyway, looks like it will give RH 6.0 a good run for its money.
No doubt. I've never really had a problem with the cold. I actually miss the cold now that I'm here in chicago. As for the cost of living, I still buy a ton of crap when I go home because its about the cheapest place you can live in America. And at least during the summer it isn't 80 bazillion degrees.
Something Even More Scary...
on
Windows ID
·
· Score: 1
Its not that much of a different issue. They both are used to track what you have done. Using a credit card I can track your movements around the country and personal habits. Using the windows thing I can track what you have written. If anything, the credit card thing should scare you more because its easier to get access to.
Also, I was not reffering to storage of credit card numbers. Thats a completely different thing.
Something Even More Scary...
on
Windows ID
·
· Score: 1
Here is something even more scary... There are these wonderful things that you can use to purchase things without money, I believe they're called credit cards. Anyway, you can buy stuff over the internet, or from the local store, or even of TV Informercials. But then they keep track of where you bought stuff! Good GOD! And for about 7 cents a piece companies can buy 4000 pieces of information about from places like Experian. You have no privacy. Deal with it, okay?
its funny, he relates it to OS/2 and Macs, saying Macs became a proprietary backwater and OS/2 died out. But what he doesn't realize is that the source is out there. Once its out there, you can't stop it.
Do you people read the articles? They have secured the domain name from Fred Van Kempen. Also, they are quoted as saying it will be a general purpose linux info site. This is an excellent thing, because previously linux.org was the one most people went too, but joe windows doesn't know about the org domain, so he would try com. Anyway, a little competition never hurt anyone. Best of luck to VA Research. Its awesome to see how much Augustin is putting behind Linux and the variety of stuff he supports now. Perhaps in the end it was better for him to get out of Yahoo and start VA Research.
this site is most impressive. However, I remember one incredibly disgusting, but very humorous text file I read sometime around 1989-1990 called how to microwave a cat. Anyone got this one?
I've run several medium traffic (1000 or so hits/day) database driven dynamic sites of an old 486/25 with an overdrive to p63 and 24 megs of ram. Runs just fine.
Slashdot Mirror
There is a possibility this could actually be a good thing. How so you might wonder? Well lets look at the situation, Microsoft has acknowledged that linux is a serious operating system that is making gains in the enterprise market. The enterprise market, is what matters, perhaps as much as the desktop.
So with this insight, microsoft has decided to dissuade people from using linux. By doing this they will cause people to actually evaluate their decision more than before hand. If someone says hey "linux can't serve SMB shares as efficently as NT can" then most IT people will look into it. If they do a good job they will find that its not nescessairly true, and in many situations the information that mickeysoft says is wrong.
We've seen them do this before. Saying that Java development was slow, inefficent and lacked a use. Yet we see that Java is alive and very strong today. Partially because the stuff that mickeysoft said was false, partially because the people behind Java were smart enough to change the system to address those faults.
With all the smart people behind linux its likely that the same thing will happen. By showing where the major bulletholes are, linus, alan and the crew will hopefully be able to make it bulletproof.
As a side note, how do these things work with people who wear contacts sometimes and glasses other times. Would they not be able to wear contacts while using the ATM because it would mess up the iris scan? Anyone who knows something about this would be helpful, I don't want to look forward to a life where I have to take out my contacts every time I want to get money.
I don't see this really happening. The main reason is because of the fact that agencies that remain there use the internet to get information. UNHCR and the Red Cross both just used the dialups to EUNet in Pristina when I was there in december.
Another reason this is bad is because if its the US doing it, then its censorship. Believe it or not the news you get from CNN is biased (yes it really is). I've been forced to stop going there for information on this situation. Even the BBC and Telegraph are biased. Not to say that www.serbia-info.com isn't biased, but it provides another view of the situation. A single view promotes groupthink which is bad and just reinforces bad ideas.
So wait...Does this mean that I can't post that I'm an international arms trafficker at the bottom of my emails anymore?
Not a bad price. Considering that the official is $76.95 at LSL. Geeze...and here I was gonna buy the official RedHat, but I don't have that kind of money. Oh well, good thing I'm on a college ethernet. :-)
Does it seem to anyone else that RH is thinking they can charge more because linux is more respectable now? $76.95 seems really high. I purchased RH 5.0 official for $21 or something like that. Just a thought.
Anyone remember who RMS once said that O'Reilly was a virus that played off Open Source. I wonder what he would have to say about ZDNet then? I mean they can almost never get their information right, its like they don't have copy editors. They are also something of a FUD Factory. I suppose its only going to be a matter of time until we hear about this from RMS. Kinda reminds me of MS Developers Network putting on an open source conference or something like that.
Overall, I found the article an interesting read, but it was pretty much a basic top of the surface sort of article. However, the comments about people with non-technical degrees I found especially true.
I guess I can consider myself fortunate when I look at the fact that I was one of those people who had a chance to skip college and go right into the business world two years ago, but I didn't and I think its the best choice that I've ever made. I've also been offered the chance to do a co-op for a semester at some fairly good companies but turned those down.
Why? Would be the obvious question. There is something that most geek don't notice, there is a hell of a lot more to college than simply the studies. In terms of what you learn at college, only about 10% will be from classes. The rest you learn from people.
You will never be more free than the age of 18-23 when you are in college. You have pretty much no one to answer to and its a great time to explore. By passing that up and entering the work force, geeks a missing a lot.
First of all, I seem to remember some time ago seeing a small patch for the linux kernel that optimized a few short lines that created a 3fps increase in software rendered quake under linux on a p200. Which is a fairly nice improvement. I don't think this was ever incorporated into a release though.
The main benefit that I believe Draeker was speaking of was API level modification, which can be changed pretty quickly, rather than kernel level that allows a reboot. Many of you may know that the guy who wrote the Simple Direct Media Layer now works for LokiSoft. This means that if there is a change in the API that the developer (LokiSoft) notices will drastically fix problems in their games, they can do that and distribute it. This has actually happened as those of us testing CIV:CTP will be able to note.
Believe it or not, this will work for Microsoft. Sure those of us here will not settle for such a thing; could you imagine if you had to pay $89 to upgrade from Debian 2.0 to 2.1 or RH 5.0 to 5.1, much less kernel versions.
However here is why Microsoft will make this work. Becuase many many businesses use almost exclusive Win98 networks with a spattering of WinNT and Win95. The techs at these places usually hate having to deal with the BSODs and lockups that 98 creates. Therefore they will be able to convince the people with the money to upgrade the systems to "increase productivity".
In addition to this, Microsoft also will force PC OEMS into upgrading their licenses to ship the Win98-2ed, if they don't then they will be selling an "inferior product". Many times this leaves businesses with copies of Win98 that are never really used.
What makes the situation even worse is suppose you have a computer that has Win3.1 on it right and just suppose you can actually upgrade it to Win98 (I've seen places where they have pII-300's doing win3.1). You can't use the copy of 98 from the old computer! Why? Because they upgrade license agreements are written in such a way that all of the software must be installed on that machine. As a result there are some machines, my parents included that to use win98 must be upgraded in this order: Dos 5.0, Dos 6.2, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98-2ed. Thats an awful lot of time wasted because of poor licensing, but I guess thats the power of a monopoly now isn't it?
FYI: the region of serbia known as Kosovo is entirely landlocked. It borders with Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Monetnegro. Montenegro is the costal portion of Yugoslavia. However, it should be noted, due to the political structure of Yugoslavia, Montenegro has managed to declare neutrality in this situation. In fact, their leader (I forget his name) officially broke with Milosivic.
As for requiring costal access, this is not necessairly true. Switzerland and Austria seem to do fine. As do many other land locked nations.
Recently the United States has been really big on using the Diplomacy of Violence. Essentially, this amounts as violence from afar to acheive political goals. Usually this is done with planes or missiles and no men on the ground. Components of Katz's techo-war.
But there is a problem with such a situation. Diplomacy of Violence only works if dealing with a rational actor on the other end. If the person with whom they are trying to "negotiate" with is able to weigh the costs and benefits of a situation, then it will work.
But the problem lies in the fact that Milosovic and Hussein are not rational actors. Both of them suffer to a degree from the same problem Hitler did. Hitler was fanatical about the destruction of the Soviet people. So much so that he overlooked many common military procedures and diverted troops to what ended up as a disastrous operation (the whole thing about not bringing winter clothes when going to Moscow was a bad idea to).
Milosovic suffers from the same problem. He is a fanatical nationalist determined to see an ethnically pure Serbian state, and is willing to stop at no cost in order to acheive this. That is why the current Diplomacy of Violence will not work. All it has done since bombing began was speed up the clensing process and increase the Serbian resolve to continue.
I'm not trying to say one way or another what I think about the hurrent conflict, as that is irrevelent to the message of this post. What I'm trying to say is that the techno-war will inevitably fail against non-rational actors.
Jamie's got some stuff on his site. See the following urls:
Resignation and Postmortem
Netscape and Aol
San Jose (AP):
Maintainers of the popular kernel.org network of download sites have decided to aquiesce victory to Redmond today by announcing that kernel.org will stop mirroring the linux kernel and instead become a site devoted entirely to the art of popping popcorn.
I would say that the statement would be true. However, from my observations at my college its mainly the top 40 songs that are being affected. Which I'm partly thankful and partly unthankful for. On one side it means I don't have to hear all of Brittany Spears' album, on the other side it means I have to hear the same song over an over.
Otherwise here is a theory for you...how about the fact that CD's have risen in price by about 30% since 1996? I know that has affected how many CD's I buy. When a new CD now costs $16 or $17 as opposed to costing $11-$12, that is a pretty big impact on a college students wallet.
Or maybe the recording industry should look at the fact that they aren't pushing artists anymore and only pushing singles. This I imagine has much to do with it too.
Here is the point. I'm sure we all can argue like 5 year olds that Mitnick was a cracker not a hacker and he went against the "hacker code" (which applies to crackers now I guess). Anyway, the point is that it is FOUR years that he has been waiting for a trial! Doesn't that bother anyone else? I mean what if it turned out that he didn't do it in a trial that may be another year down the road (I know ZD says it would take place next month, but its ZD and they never get their facts right)? He could have served 5 years for nothing? I would honestly like to know what sort of progress has been made on this case each week by the people who have been putting off the trial.
Thats what its about my friends.
Before you people go outright bashing SuSE for shipping KDE, if read the article, they also ship with GNOME. Anyway, not gonna feed the troll anymore...
I found the article to be pretty insightful. As a user who loves playing with the different distros and whose current box has packages dating back to RedHat 4.1 (or so) I gotta say this makes me consider using SuSE instead of RH 6.0 when it comes out to redo that system. In any case, I suppose I'll wait for the RH 6.0 review before I make my decision. The article was fair and even handed and highlighted a lot of the excellent things about SuSE that no one else has, like Star Office and Mesa (with 3dfx support).
Anyway, looks like it will give RH 6.0 a good run for its money.
No doubt. I've never really had a problem with the cold. I actually miss the cold now that I'm here in chicago. As for the cost of living, I still buy a ton of crap when I go home because its about the cheapest place you can live in America. And at least during the summer it isn't 80 bazillion degrees.
Its not that much of a different issue. They both are used to track what you have done. Using a credit card I can track your movements around the country and personal habits. Using the windows thing I can track what you have written. If anything, the credit card thing should scare you more because its easier to get access to.
Also, I was not reffering to storage of credit card numbers. Thats a completely different thing.
Here is something even more scary...
There are these wonderful things that you can use to purchase things without money, I believe they're called credit cards. Anyway, you can buy stuff over the internet, or from the local store, or even of TV Informercials. But then they keep track of where you bought stuff! Good GOD! And for about 7 cents a piece companies can buy 4000 pieces of information about from places like Experian. You have no privacy. Deal with it, okay?
Gimp 1.1.2 does compile with GTK 1.2. I just recompiled it this morning to get my theme support back.
its funny, he relates it to OS/2 and Macs, saying Macs became a proprietary backwater and OS/2 died out. But what he doesn't realize is that the source is out there. Once its out there, you can't stop it.
Do you people read the articles? They have secured the domain name from Fred Van Kempen. Also, they are quoted as saying it will be a general purpose linux info site. This is an excellent thing, because previously linux.org was the one most people went too, but joe windows doesn't know about the org domain, so he would try com. Anyway, a little competition never hurt anyone. Best of luck to VA Research. Its awesome to see how much Augustin is putting behind Linux and the variety of stuff he supports now. Perhaps in the end it was better for him to get out of Yahoo and start VA Research.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's certainly a strong case for people really disliking Microsoft. Most of the is because their operating systems really suck.
this site is most impressive. However, I remember one incredibly disgusting, but very humorous text file I read sometime around 1989-1990 called how to microwave a cat. Anyone got this one?
I've run several medium traffic (1000 or so hits/day) database driven dynamic sites of an old 486/25 with an overdrive to p63 and 24 megs of ram. Runs just fine.