Yes, I could leave... But in practice, I can't "just leave"
I moved here as my American Wife has three children from her previous marriage. It seemed easier for me to uproot and move halfway across the world.
If I was to leave then I would need to find a job in the UK before my wife could come and live with me (I have to be able to prove that I can support my wife). She wouldn't be allowed to work for the first six months even if she wanted to.
One of her children is still in School, and he wouldn't want to be ripped out of school, pulled across the globe and then subjected to a completely different education system.
I've bought a house here...
So, in practice I can't just leave and "go back home". There are some laws in the UK (RIPA) that are just as bad. So I wouldn't be getting anywhere by changing countries.
At least one of my colleagues CAN'T go back home as he originally came here as a refugee. He fears that if he goes back then he will be killed. He is now applying for Citizenship, and I might do that myself shortly.
But the original poster had said that he couldn't see anything wrong with the USA PATRIOT act. Personally I can't see anything right with it. There is little to no proof that any of the changes in that act will actually improve the security of the Citizens of America. The only changes that I can see are the broadening of surveillance powers. I am glad to see that the representative for the part of Oregon that I live in voted against it. If I ever get citizenship then I will vote for him if I can.
I scanned the EFF piece, and nothing lept out that really bothers me.
I'm glad that you have such a nonchalant feeling toward the USA PATRIOT act...
As a Non Citizen living in the USA (I'm married to a US Citizen) this act scares the bejesus out of me. Why? Not because I've done anything, but because I don't NEED to have done anything. According to that act I as a non citizen can be detained without a hearing, without legal representation, without anyone (including my wife) being told that I am being detained and without me even being told why I am being detained. Now, put yourself in my shoes, and ask "Do I like the USA PATRIOT Act now?".
If that doesn't worry you, then add this factoid to it. I work for a large healthcare provider in my area. I am one of six Unix SAs. Out of the team of six, we have one Japanese member of staff, one Indian, two Vietnamese, myself (a Scot) and only one American. The Indian is the only H1B in our department, the rest of us are Permanent Resident Aliens. Now how well would our department be able to perform in all of the non citizens were detained under the USA Patriot Act? What sort of effect might that have on healthcare in our region?
Of course, it's unlikely that I'll be detained. I'm not a terrorist. However, when I first met my wife (over the Internet) despite knowing that I am Scottish (and not Irish) her Mother was worried that I might be a member of the IRA. If she can make that mistake then how hard would it be for someone else to make the same mistake?
Of course I'm being fussy... But I only moved to the US three years ago. In the UK smaller cars are normal... A large British car is tiny compared to most SUVs... I used to walk and use public transport to get everywhere, now I have to drive to some places... It takes me about an hour to commute to work by public transport, compared to twenty minutes by car.
Even worse, the kind of car I like (2CV, Morris Minor,...) is not easily usable over here (even if you can find one) because all of those Suburban drivers with lift kits, pit bulls and Road rage will try and drive you off the road. (I've had that happen while I was driving a mini van... the *&%*er drove off of the road and back on to get back in front of me after I had dared to pass him. If I had been driving a small car I'm sure he would have tried to drive over the top of me.)
I HATE those So-called Mini Coopers... They bear even less relationship to the real Mini Cooper than the new Beetle does to the old one.
Look at the name Mini... Guess what, it's supposed to be small. You could practically fit an original Mini Cooper in the boot (trunk for Americans) of these over sized monstrosities...
I assume it's a safety feature making them so much bigger. After all the guys driving over sized trucks with lift kits on them wouldn't be able to see something as small as an original Mini Cooper... Mind you, you could probably drive the Mini under some of them...
Lol... I didn't mean That good Doctor, but Doctor Buckaroo Banzai. However Doctor Who (particularly the Tom Baker incarnation) is another very Good Doctor.
Get this:
Change/etc to/settings or/config
Change/var/log to/logs
Change/var to/data (or something like it)
Change/tmp to/temp (saving one character? sheesh!)
Change/usr to/programs
Change/bin to/system_programs
and then (drumroll) make symbolic links so that old scripts and programs still work.
Why not? Because...
Not everyone speaks english.
/temp is where I store the system temperature isn't it?
/programs/local/bin makes NO sense whatsoever and/programs/local/system_programs makes even less sense.
You can always make your own top level symbolic links pointing to these directories with names that make sense to you.
All old programs would have to be rewritten within two years... Thanks for volunteering.
Tab file name completion doesn't work in all shells. In fact it doesn't work in the majority of shells, so why should I have to type more because I don't like the same shell that you do.
/etc has been known to contain binaries as well as configuration files.
It's the way it's always been done, there is no reason why you couldn't change all of the names, but people ARE used to it.
So, I get the feeling that your suggestion will not be taken up in the short term. But if you are so keen on it, why not start your own distribution with all of the names you like...
- being able to move the mouse pointer between computers (assuming these are separate computers, not just multiple monitors); I assume this indicates some sort of network-transpart clipboard (and that the user is signed onto both computers). cool, that.
- the larger, semi-circle screen - mostly for the cool wraparound aspect (semi-inevitable considering increasingly thin monitors and e-paper (somewhere) down the line, though).
As others have already stated multiple network transparent clipboards are already available. I use X2VNC at work to share one mouse, one keyboard and two monitors between two computers. There are alternatives X2X, Win2VNC, keyboard switches, double headed displays and so on.
The same goes for the large screen display. In fact our Command Centre uses a huge display for monitoring the network (and watching TV at times)...Using X2VNC allows me to cut and paste between a Windows Screen and an X screen. If I'm browsing or reading e-mail I use Windows, if I'm working I'm using X. I can cut and paste between the two.
Way back in the old days (about 1993 I think) I had a PC (386) with a VGA card in it and a Hercules card in it. Not much took advantage of the second display, but Borland did for debugging software. The debugger would appear on the Hercules display while the program ran on the VGA display. That was useful back then... It looks more like Microsoft think that bigger displays are the way of the future. I think that multiple interconnected machines are the way of the present.
I think my most hated quote from that article has to be "The lines between home and office are blurring". I work at work, I live at home. I can work from home in an emergency, but unless I get to work at home whenever I want and don't have to work outside my current 40 hours a week (and I Get to choose WHICH 40) then I DON'T WANT to be able to work at home.
I realise that you've been marked as a troll (I disagree) but that is an interesting web page that you point at.
However I disagree with some of the Rhetoric that you use, and think that if you seriously intended that page to sway people then you would change it.
You describe a conversation with Richard Stallman where IBM asked RMS to sign a declaration that he wrote Bison and was free to give it away. He refused and suggested that the IBM product that you wanted to use Bison in should be Open Source. You then say "He was effectively implying that he'd stolen the code, and released it as open source just to further his personal views on software source code availability". In no way is this Effectively Implied... If IBM came up to me and said "please sign this document saying that you wrote this code and that you are giving it away." I would refuse too. It sounds like you offered the FSF a monetary grant in exchange for a signed affidavit. Fine, but would the grant have covered the costs of having the affidavit produced? I wouldn't know where to begin in such a case and I wouldn't pay for a lawyer to look at a document that you had produced before signing it. Refusal to sign a document does not imply anything about the theft of code. The only place that it mentions theft of code is in your arguments against RMS.
Yes the GPL is viral. Is this bad. No. If I write code then it is entirely up to me how it is distributed. If I write something then I don't (usually) mind giving it away for free. I don't want someone else taking my software, changing the name and then releasing it as their own software. So I use the GPL. If I didn't care about the software at all I might use a BSD licence. More likely I would attach a document that states "This software has been placed into the public domain". If someone wants to take one of the ideas in any of the software that I have ever written then they can. Feel free. But if you are going to steal the idea and make money out of it then you need to reimplement the idea yourself. Why not? It's only fair.
Having said that I never want to meet RMS. I've heard enough about him to know that he sounds like a fanatic, and possibly a genius. Just because someone is a genius doesn't make them likable, and I generally speaking don't like fanatics. Any fanatics.
It doesn't say that you have to use any DRM it says that third party DRM modules may be used with OEOne and that if you do use such third party DRM modules then you are agreeing that OEOne has nothing to do with it.
In other words "If you want to use something that has DRM and the DRM screws your machine over then take that out on the person who provided you with the DRM not us."
It seems fair enough to say that to me.
Doesn't mean that I'm having anything to do with the software though.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you have said...
Particularly "it's not only `okay' for a parent to exercise some control over what their child is exposed to, it's their responsibility to do so".
But, while I agree with what you say here, some people take this one step further... They think that because they don't want their kid looking at X then nobody should be allowed to look at X.
You can't keep kids wrapped in pink cotton wool all of their lives, eventually they are going to go out, skin their knees, and get experiences in the "Real World" (TM)...
When that happens they will come across Sex, Drugs (and hopefully Rock and Roll)... The "Bad Things" (TM) that you have tried to keep them away from. The best that you can do is teach them to think for themselves, to act responsibly, and to keep out of trouble.
The problem I have with censorship services (we use one here at work) is that they don't work. When you are looking at the TV listings do you look at the listings for every channel for programs for your 4 year old? I doubt it... "Hey, there's an educational program about Womens clothing through the ages on the Playboy Channel. They're doing a special on lingerie today." Or do you look at the listings for only those channels that you "know" will be relevant.
At work I can get to the NRA website. I can't get to the website for Buck Knives (I own a multi-tool made by them). I assume that Buck Knies are considered to be promoting violence. I doubt that I can get to the playboy website, but I'm sure that their blacklist does not include every possible porn site out there.
I know that I can view the text of banned sites using babelfish or the Google Cache. So if it's information I'm after I can usually work my way around the filter.
Comparing this to your TV analogy one last time. The filter that we use is like an incomplete TV listing. It lists some things as being "Bad", the rest it doesn't mark in any way. If it's not listed it is by default "Good" but new programs and channels are popping up all of the time. So the brand new "Axe Murderers Orgy" Channel is "Good" until someone decides that it isn't.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be all that happy about my kids watching that Channel.
Parking lots are not government regulated roads and insurance doesn't cover it if your car gets creamed in one of them.
Well, It depends... Here in Oregon the drivers manual explicitly states that all Oregon traffic laws apply to any public place such as Parking lots. I guess the idea is that it's close enough to being a road, in some cases roads run into parking lots with no obvious boundaries, and why shouldn't people have to obey the same laws when driving in a parking lot as they do a few feet away on the road.
Of course the speed limit on beaches in Oregon is (if my memory serves) 30 MPH which seems WAY too high to me.
Z.
p.s. Yes, we can't pump our own gas, but do you really want to get out in the rain to do it yourself anyway?
I'm currently about to buy a house in a Rural part of Oregon... It seems that local co-ops differ wildly depending on where you are.
In the area that I've been looking at there are at least three small phone companies. Two of which are co-ops (this is over about 4 or five exchanges, one small utility company has two exchanges, one co-op has one exchange and the other co-op has one or two...)
Out of these three providers, the small investor owned company has fibre to all the homes in one exchange and provides DSL in that exchange. It doesn't have DSL in the other exchange yet, but they are planning it. They also have a strict NO SERVERS policy.
Out of the two Co-ops, one of them provides Cable TV and Cable Modem as well as Phone service. They seem to have a reasonable "no unauthorised servers" policy but when I enquired it is basically a strict NO SERVERS policy. The remaining one has fibre almost everywhere, offers DSL and basically says "Hey, you're paying for it, you can run servers if you want..."
So, it seems that it just depends. The one that I'll probably end up with is the one with Cable TV...:-( Having read their information they seem to be very much into the push culture. They promote Cable Modem as a great way of bringing the wonders of the internet to your home.
Has anyone else come across this same dichotomy of sevice providers? "Here's a way you can consume more"... compared to "Here's a way you can help build a global community."
Looking further afield in Oregon it seems that at least the samller providers are split fairly evenly 50-50 between the 'Consume what we give you' and 'Here's a great enabler' factions.
Actually 1 Metre is 1.09 yards... Close enough for a rough estimate.
Britain (not just England) uses SI units for most things...
Though for beer we still use pints... And not those American 16 ounce pints, but real imperial 20 ounce pints. And speed is usually in Miles per hour... and distances in miles...
Linux, a clone of Unix, is similar enough that programmers don't need the more expensive Unix workstations
That average of $22,000 per desktop was not for Windows machines. They were buying machines for their Unix developers to work on... Sure they bought the top of the range hardware from Sun/HP. I've never yet met a developer who would argue that they could do their job with a bottom of the line machine.
Well, there we have it... We should not be allowed to use a font smaller than 24 point...
I know that point sizes don't really translate to computer screens (although the author of that comment obviously didn't) but... ARE YOU AWARE THAT 24 point is 1/3rd of an INCH. Yup, about 8 and a half millimetres tall. That is BIG type. If newspapers were printed in 24 point type they would be massive...
At the moment the machines I am using are set for various screen resolutions, from 800x600 up... You may prefer 1600x1200, but why should my preferences be dictated by you, or vice versa. In fact most of the graphics cards or monitors that I am using can't handle much above 1024x768. Some of them can, but not all of them.
I don't have any problems with this lot (Yes, most of the machines I use are "older" machines, but they are usually overpowered for what they are being used for...I am not a gamer) but if you insist that I double or triple my font sizes then I won't be using your software.
No, it's what you get too late on a Friday evening...:-P
Please let me try and clarify my thought processes...
Your server is on a UPS. Your disks are fully redundant(Raid 0+1, Stripe and Mirror) your path to your disks is redundant (two controllers) you have (of course) got ECC memory in your server, and multiple processors...
The only thing that is going to cause data loss is major hardware failure, or faulty software, and your software should deal with that for you IF THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU. Transaction logs for your database...
A Journalled file system does not gain you anything other than speed over a non journalled file system in synchronous mode.
If you can think of anything that would cause an incomplete write under these circumstances I would be interested to hear it...
But I would suggest that you shouldn't need to have a secure cordless phone... people should neither be asking for, nor telling passwords over the phone...:-)
Yes, a corded phone would work, but it's much more of a pain to try and do something while talking on it...
I've worked in three data centres. One small, cobbled together one, and two larger ones done properly...
Things to consider in my opinion...
Seperate the NOC/Command Centre from the Machine Room. This will give you access to the information you require without going into the room itself. You shouldn't need to go into the Machine Room too often. You certainly shouldn't need to work in there for too long.
Have a raised floor. Power should come up from under the floor. Air conditioning can be forced through a ventilated floor in which case put your networking cables in overhead trays (no air dams). If your AC isn't forced through the floor, then you can put the network cabling under there too if you wish...
Make sure ALL cables are labelled. At the ends, and at reasonable distances. There is nothing worse than finding a cable is entangled in a mess and not knowing which cable it is.
Arrange your Command Centre/NOC so that needed info can be displayed on one or two large screens. If they're not huge wall screens then make sure there is enough room for several people to gather around. You also want to make sure that this place looks good for when the management bring someone through.
Have locks on the doors of the Machine Room so people can't just walk back there. Have a window or two into that area from a corridor or the NOC/Command Centre so that management can see that you're not just sleeping back there.
Make sure that you have room for at least twice as many racks as you need in the Machine Room. You'll need that space sooner than you think.
Don't push the racks against the wall (or run cables from the racks to the walls) as that way it's harder than heck to get to the back of machine X to check the network lights or whatever...
Install a KVM/Console Server (Many to many, not one to many). For Unix boxes look at conserver. It's always handy if many people can look at many servers at once. A decent Unix console server will also log the console history (at least 64k of history) which can help you wwork out what the problem was a couple of days after the system rebooted itself.
Have a fire suppression system, fire alarms, climate control and back up power installed (UPS and generator). They WILL help save your bacon.
Look into enterprise wide storage and backup systems (SAN/NAS, netbackup/legato/amanda). Better to implement them before you HAVE to implement them, than when it becomes critical.
If using racks, allow space for equipment that won't fit into a rack. Gaps at the end of rows...
Have a CORDLESS phone on the wall of the computer room. You never know when you will needed to call someone from inside the machine room (for help) and running all the way back to your cubicle/control room just doesn't cut it.
That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. But if you get all of these ideas incorporated into your new data centre then you are doing well.
But if you look at the NAMESYS benchmark comparing ext2 to ext3 and ResierFS then it is clear that for sheer throughput ext2 wins...
IF Speed is your reason for choosing a Filesystem then writeback wins on almost everything in these examples...
But using a Journaled Filesystem isn't usually done for Speed... Unless you count speed booting after a crash. It's done to (more or less) guarantee filesystem integrity after a crash. You may lose data, but you only lose writes that never completed.
So, if you are choosing ext3 with writeback, is it faster than native ext2? I don't know. But it doesn't sound like it is any safer.
Of course, if you're worried about data integrity, you will have a mirror across multiple striped drives using multiple controllers. And then use a Journaled Filesystem to improve boot time.
The worst part? I'm not a US citizen, and so I'm not supposed to be allowed to donate campaign contributions. And yet, strangely, Hollings can take money from any US business that he likes. I despair.
So. Start a small company. It won't cost much for a business licence. Become the owner of an llc... and then the llc can donate money to the campaign.
Z.
I can't vote here either, but I still have to pay taxes and the like.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I could leave... But in practice, I can't "just leave"
I moved here as my American Wife has three children from her previous marriage. It seemed easier for me to uproot and move halfway across the world.
If I was to leave then I would need to find a job in the UK before my wife could come and live with me (I have to be able to prove that I can support my wife). She wouldn't be allowed to work for the first six months even if she wanted to.
One of her children is still in School, and he wouldn't want to be ripped out of school, pulled across the globe and then subjected to a completely different education system.
I've bought a house here...
So, in practice I can't just leave and "go back home". There are some laws in the UK (RIPA) that are just as bad. So I wouldn't be getting anywhere by changing countries.
At least one of my colleagues CAN'T go back home as he originally came here as a refugee. He fears that if he goes back then he will be killed. He is now applying for Citizenship, and I might do that myself shortly.
But the original poster had said that he couldn't see anything wrong with the USA PATRIOT act. Personally I can't see anything right with it. There is little to no proof that any of the changes in that act will actually improve the security of the Citizens of America. The only changes that I can see are the broadening of surveillance powers. I am glad to see that the representative for the part of Oregon that I live in voted against it. If I ever get citizenship then I will vote for him if I can.
Z.
Thanks ripler...
:-)
I was confused by the overrated notation.... But this makes more sense.
Thanks
Z.
I scanned the EFF piece, and nothing lept out that really bothers me.
I'm glad that you have such a nonchalant feeling toward the USA PATRIOT act...
As a Non Citizen living in the USA (I'm married to a US Citizen) this act scares the bejesus out of me. Why? Not because I've done anything, but because I don't NEED to have done anything. According to that act I as a non citizen can be detained without a hearing, without legal representation, without anyone (including my wife) being told that I am being detained and without me even being told why I am being detained. Now, put yourself in my shoes, and ask "Do I like the USA PATRIOT Act now?".
If that doesn't worry you, then add this factoid to it. I work for a large healthcare provider in my area. I am one of six Unix SAs. Out of the team of six, we have one Japanese member of staff, one Indian, two Vietnamese, myself (a Scot) and only one American. The Indian is the only H1B in our department, the rest of us are Permanent Resident Aliens. Now how well would our department be able to perform in all of the non citizens were detained under the USA Patriot Act? What sort of effect might that have on healthcare in our region?
Of course, it's unlikely that I'll be detained. I'm not a terrorist. However, when I first met my wife (over the Internet) despite knowing that I am Scottish (and not Irish) her Mother was worried that I might be a member of the IRA. If she can make that mistake then how hard would it be for someone else to make the same mistake?
Z.
Of course I'm being fussy... But I only moved to the US three years ago. In the UK smaller cars are normal... A large British car is tiny compared to most SUVs... I used to walk and use public transport to get everywhere, now I have to drive to some places ... It takes me about an hour to commute to work by public transport, compared to twenty minutes by car.
Even worse, the kind of car I like (2CV, Morris Minor,...) is not easily usable over here (even if you can find one) because all of those Suburban drivers with lift kits, pit bulls and Road rage will try and drive you off the road. (I've had that happen while I was driving a mini van... the *&%*er drove off of the road and back on to get back in front of me after I had dared to pass him. If I had been driving a small car I'm sure he would have tried to drive over the top of me.)
Z.
I'm sorry too... And I don't believe it...
I'm sure that someone out there has a REAL mini cooper for sale today...
So, it may be "the smallest conventionally-fuelled new car being sold in the US today."
If you want to see a REAL mini cooper and a six foot tall human next to it to get some idea of real size have a look at this picture.
Z.
I HATE those So-called Mini Coopers... They bear even less relationship to the real Mini Cooper than the new Beetle does to the old one.
Look at the name Mini... Guess what, it's supposed to be small. You could practically fit an original Mini Cooper in the boot (trunk for Americans) of these over sized monstrosities...
I assume it's a safety feature making them so much bigger. After all the guys driving over sized trucks with lift kits on them wouldn't be able to see something as small as an original Mini Cooper... Mind you, you could probably drive the Mini under some of them...
Z.
Lol... I didn't mean That good Doctor, but Doctor Buckaroo Banzai. However Doctor Who (particularly the Tom Baker incarnation) is another very Good Doctor.
Has anyone contacted the Banzai institute and asked for Buckaroo's opinion on the discovery of the location of Planet Ten?
Will the Nova police cover this story up?
Z.
Why not? Because...
So, I get the feeling that your suggestion will not be taken up in the short term. But if you are so keen on it, why not start your own distribution with all of the names you like...
Z.
- being able to move the mouse pointer between computers (assuming these are separate computers, not just multiple monitors); I assume this indicates some sort of network-transpart clipboard (and that the user is signed onto both computers). cool, that.
- the larger, semi-circle screen - mostly for the cool wraparound aspect (semi-inevitable considering increasingly thin monitors and e-paper (somewhere) down the line, though).
As others have already stated multiple network transparent clipboards are already available. I use X2VNC at work to share one mouse, one keyboard and two monitors between two computers. There are alternatives X2X, Win2VNC, keyboard switches, double headed displays and so on.
The same goes for the large screen display. In fact our Command Centre uses a huge display for monitoring the network (and watching TV at times)...Using X2VNC allows me to cut and paste between a Windows Screen and an X screen. If I'm browsing or reading e-mail I use Windows, if I'm working I'm using X. I can cut and paste between the two.
Way back in the old days (about 1993 I think) I had a PC (386) with a VGA card in it and a Hercules card in it. Not much took advantage of the second display, but Borland did for debugging software. The debugger would appear on the Hercules display while the program ran on the VGA display. That was useful back then... It looks more like Microsoft think that bigger displays are the way of the future. I think that multiple interconnected machines are the way of the present.
I think my most hated quote from that article has to be "The lines between home and office are blurring". I work at work, I live at home. I can work from home in an emergency, but unless I get to work at home whenever I want and don't have to work outside my current 40 hours a week (and I Get to choose WHICH 40) then I DON'T WANT to be able to work at home.
Z.
Greetings
I realise that you've been marked as a troll (I disagree) but that is an interesting web page that you point at.
However I disagree with some of the Rhetoric that you use, and think that if you seriously intended that page to sway people then you would change it.
You describe a conversation with Richard Stallman where IBM asked RMS to sign a declaration that he wrote Bison and was free to give it away. He refused and suggested that the IBM product that you wanted to use Bison in should be Open Source. You then say "He was effectively implying that he'd stolen the code, and released it as open source just to further his personal views on software source code availability". In no way is this Effectively Implied... If IBM came up to me and said "please sign this document saying that you wrote this code and that you are giving it away." I would refuse too. It sounds like you offered the FSF a monetary grant in exchange for a signed affidavit. Fine, but would the grant have covered the costs of having the affidavit produced? I wouldn't know where to begin in such a case and I wouldn't pay for a lawyer to look at a document that you had produced before signing it. Refusal to sign a document does not imply anything about the theft of code. The only place that it mentions theft of code is in your arguments against RMS.
Yes the GPL is viral. Is this bad. No. If I write code then it is entirely up to me how it is distributed. If I write something then I don't (usually) mind giving it away for free. I don't want someone else taking my software, changing the name and then releasing it as their own software. So I use the GPL. If I didn't care about the software at all I might use a BSD licence. More likely I would attach a document that states "This software has been placed into the public domain". If someone wants to take one of the ideas in any of the software that I have ever written then they can. Feel free. But if you are going to steal the idea and make money out of it then you need to reimplement the idea yourself. Why not? It's only fair.
Having said that I never want to meet RMS. I've heard enough about him to know that he sounds like a fanatic, and possibly a genius. Just because someone is a genius doesn't make them likable, and I generally speaking don't like fanatics. Any fanatics.
Z.
Read the EULA.
It doesn't say that you have to use any DRM it says that third party DRM modules may be used with OEOne and that if you do use such third party DRM modules then you are agreeing that OEOne has nothing to do with it.
In other words "If you want to use something that has DRM and the DRM screws your machine over then take that out on the person who provided you with the DRM not us."
It seems fair enough to say that to me.
Doesn't mean that I'm having anything to do with the software though.
Z.
Greetings,
I agree wholeheartedly with what you have said... Particularly "it's not only `okay' for a parent to exercise some control over what their child is exposed to, it's their responsibility to do so".
But, while I agree with what you say here, some people take this one step further... They think that because they don't want their kid looking at X then nobody should be allowed to look at X.
You can't keep kids wrapped in pink cotton wool all of their lives, eventually they are going to go out, skin their knees, and get experiences in the "Real World" (TM)...
When that happens they will come across Sex, Drugs (and hopefully Rock and Roll)... The "Bad Things" (TM) that you have tried to keep them away from. The best that you can do is teach them to think for themselves, to act responsibly, and to keep out of trouble.
The problem I have with censorship services (we use one here at work) is that they don't work. When you are looking at the TV listings do you look at the listings for every channel for programs for your 4 year old? I doubt it... "Hey, there's an educational program about Womens clothing through the ages on the Playboy Channel. They're doing a special on lingerie today." Or do you look at the listings for only those channels that you "know" will be relevant.
At work I can get to the NRA website. I can't get to the website for Buck Knives (I own a multi-tool made by them). I assume that Buck Knies are considered to be promoting violence. I doubt that I can get to the playboy website, but I'm sure that their blacklist does not include every possible porn site out there.
I know that I can view the text of banned sites using babelfish or the Google Cache. So if it's information I'm after I can usually work my way around the filter.
Comparing this to your TV analogy one last time. The filter that we use is like an incomplete TV listing. It lists some things as being "Bad", the rest it doesn't mark in any way. If it's not listed it is by default "Good" but new programs and channels are popping up all of the time. So the brand new "Axe Murderers Orgy" Channel is "Good" until someone decides that it isn't.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be all that happy about my kids watching that Channel.
Z.
Parking lots are not government regulated roads and insurance doesn't cover it if your car gets creamed in one of them.
Well, It depends... Here in Oregon the drivers manual explicitly states that all Oregon traffic laws apply to any public place such as Parking lots. I guess the idea is that it's close enough to being a road, in some cases roads run into parking lots with no obvious boundaries, and why shouldn't people have to obey the same laws when driving in a parking lot as they do a few feet away on the road.
Of course the speed limit on beaches in Oregon is (if my memory serves) 30 MPH which seems WAY too high to me.
Z.
p.s. Yes, we can't pump our own gas, but do you really want to get out in the rain to do it yourself anyway?
Greetings,
I'm currently about to buy a house in a Rural part of Oregon... It seems that local co-ops differ wildly depending on where you are.
In the area that I've been looking at there are at least three small phone companies. Two of which are co-ops (this is over about 4 or five exchanges, one small utility company has two exchanges, one co-op has one exchange and the other co-op has one or two...)
Out of these three providers, the small investor owned company has fibre to all the homes in one exchange and provides DSL in that exchange. It doesn't have DSL in the other exchange yet, but they are planning it. They also have a strict NO SERVERS policy.
Out of the two Co-ops, one of them provides Cable TV and Cable Modem as well as Phone service. They seem to have a reasonable "no unauthorised servers" policy but when I enquired it is basically a strict NO SERVERS policy. The remaining one has fibre almost everywhere, offers DSL and basically says "Hey, you're paying for it, you can run servers if you want..."
So, it seems that it just depends. The one that I'll probably end up with is the one with Cable TV... :-( Having read their information they seem to be very much into the push culture. They promote Cable Modem as a great way of bringing the wonders of the internet to your home.
Has anyone else come across this same dichotomy of sevice providers? "Here's a way you can consume more"... compared to "Here's a way you can help build a global community."
Looking further afield in Oregon it seems that at least the samller providers are split fairly evenly 50-50 between the 'Consume what we give you' and 'Here's a great enabler' factions.
Z.
Actually 1 Metre is 1.09 yards... Close enough for a rough estimate.
Britain (not just England) uses SI units for most things...
Though for beer we still use pints... And not those American 16 ounce pints, but real imperial 20 ounce pints. And speed is usually in Miles per hour... and distances in miles...
Z.
That average of $22,000 per desktop was not for Windows machines. They were buying machines for their Unix developers to work on... Sure they bought the top of the range hardware from Sun/HP. I've never yet met a developer who would argue that they could do their job with a bottom of the line machine.
Z.
1. limit all fonts to a 24 point minimum
Well, there we have it... We should not be allowed to use a font smaller than 24 point...
I know that point sizes don't really translate to computer screens (although the author of that comment obviously didn't) but... ARE YOU AWARE THAT 24 point is 1/3rd of an INCH. Yup, about 8 and a half millimetres tall. That is BIG type. If newspapers were printed in 24 point type they would be massive...
At the moment the machines I am using are set for various screen resolutions, from 800x600 up... You may prefer 1600x1200, but why should my preferences be dictated by you, or vice versa. In fact most of the graphics cards or monitors that I am using can't handle much above 1024x768. Some of them can, but not all of them.
I don't have any problems with this lot (Yes, most of the machines I use are "older" machines, but they are usually overpowered for what they are being used for...I am not a gamer) but if you insist that I double or triple my font sizes then I won't be using your software.
Z.
If you take the time to visit their website, you will see that they sign using a Root provided by GlobalSign. A Belgian company who are in Mozilla...
Z.
This is a misinformed opinion, at best.
No, it's what you get too late on a Friday evening... :-P
Please let me try and clarify my thought processes...
Your server is on a UPS. Your disks are fully redundant(Raid 0+1, Stripe and Mirror) your path to your disks is redundant (two controllers) you have (of course) got ECC memory in your server, and multiple processors...
The only thing that is going to cause data loss is major hardware failure, or faulty software, and your software should deal with that for you IF THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU. Transaction logs for your database...
A Journalled file system does not gain you anything other than speed over a non journalled file system in synchronous mode.
If you can think of anything that would cause an incomplete write under these circumstances I would be interested to hear it...
Z.
Good point...
But I would suggest that you shouldn't need to have a secure cordless phone... people should neither be asking for, nor telling passwords over the phone... :-)
Yes, a corded phone would work, but it's much more of a pain to try and do something while talking on it...
Z.
I've worked in three data centres. One small, cobbled together one, and two larger ones done properly...
Things to consider in my opinion...
That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. But if you get all of these ideas incorporated into your new data centre then you are doing well.
Z.
But if you look at the NAMESYS benchmark comparing ext2 to ext3 and ResierFS then it is clear that for sheer throughput ext2 wins...
IF Speed is your reason for choosing a Filesystem then writeback wins on almost everything in these examples...
But using a Journaled Filesystem isn't usually done for Speed... Unless you count speed booting after a crash. It's done to (more or less) guarantee filesystem integrity after a crash. You may lose data, but you only lose writes that never completed.
So, if you are choosing ext3 with writeback, is it faster than native ext2? I don't know. But it doesn't sound like it is any safer.
Of course, if you're worried about data integrity, you will have a mirror across multiple striped drives using multiple controllers. And then use a Journaled Filesystem to improve boot time.
Z.
The worst part? I'm not a US citizen, and so I'm not supposed to be allowed to donate campaign contributions. And yet, strangely, Hollings can take money from any US business that he likes. I despair.
So. Start a small company. It won't cost much for a business licence. Become the owner of an llc... and then the llc can donate money to the campaign.
Z.
I can't vote here either, but I still have to pay taxes and the like.
Who first read the headline as...
Music Industry Seeks Payola.
Z.
"Nothing new there" I thought.