Re:Typical Bigotry...Give MS a fair shot...
on
CrackThisBox Updates
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· Score: 1
Way to go, Anonymous. Your point of view and rationality are things that Slashdot posters need to learn from. I'm surprised you actually got people to agree with you. Heh, it's funny. Whenever I post a Slashdot comment with the words "Microsoft" and "not evil" in it, I get flamed for days. Maybe it's just me.:)
I don't know what Microsoft is thinking, but, er...changing the application protection (which is actually a dropdown list, if I remember correctly) doesn't require a reboot. You don't even need to shutdown and restart the service. You just do it and click okay. I don't know why they're rebooting.
You'd think, given the general nature of Linux development and the open-source community as a whole, that Slashdot readers would be open to this rather intriguing challenge. But, instead of praising Microsoft for "putting their code where their mouth is," so to speak, the general response to this (judging from Slashdot comments) seems to be "I don't want to crack Microsoft's site because I can't read it and they won't pay me. And besides, if I do crack it, Windows will get better as a result, and that's scary!"
Do you get paid to find and report holes in Linux? Huh? Unless you work for a company that sells their own distribution and therefore it's your actual job, then no, the majority of you don't. So just what is the source of this stuck-up, arrogant, anti-Microsoft attitude? So what if Netscape won't read the page? I'd think that would be Netscape's fault, but no, you insist that the blame is to be placed on Microsoft. My Microsoft web browser doesn't choke on Javascript. Netscape's browser does. Netscape is the obvious problem here.
The open-source community has been calling for Microsoft to do something like this for a long time now. Microsoft is begging for you guys to show them what you're talking about when you say "Windoze sux". If Windows sucks so much, it shouldn't be any trouble to knock out that IIS box, should it? Huh? Then why are you wasting time complaining? Get over there and kill that sucker! And while you're at it, if you want an even easier challenge, you're more than welcome to try and kill my own Windows 2000 beta 3 web server. I haven't optimized it for security, because I don't see any need to. It's on a tiny pipe, and it'd probably be a snap to wipe that sucker out. Go for it! Go kill http://wonko.com/ and then let me know about it! Tell me how lame my system was and how easy it was for you to crack it. Go on! I dare you.:)
So, because the thought that "minorities" weren't represented in User Friendly never crossed my mind, am I a racist white pig? Thought so. Is it just me or does anyone else out there think that adding "minority" characters to comics, TV shows, and movies just to "keep things equal" is just as discriminatory as leaving them out? If there's a useful purpose for a "minority" character, then by all means add the character. But the plain and simple fact is, "minorities" don't always fit into certain situations, just as us whitefolk don't always fit into others.
I, being a middle-class white male American, watch predominantly "black" sitcoms (ie, "Family Ties", "Cosby", "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", that sort of rerun stuff) from time to time without even giving the slightest thought to the fact that there are very rarely any white people on these shows. It doesn't occur to me that there should be; the shows are about black families. Why should there be white people? So you have to ask yourself...why doesn't this work the other way around? TV shows with a mostly-white cast get called racist or discriminatory. Hmmm.
I know this isn't the time or the place, but in light of recent events I had to say something.:)
It sure would be nice to see people treat Windows with the same decency...comparing the strengths and weaknesses between Windows and Linux instead of just bashing the hell out of Windows because most aspects of it suck. *sigh*
I should clarify that I'm speaking from the point of view of someone who works for a large corporation, and when I send e-mail to anyone from my company address, it could be considered commercial.
Personally, I would ban all unsolicited commercial email.
Let's think about this for a minute...if all unsolicited e-mail were banned, where would that leave us? We would only be able to e-mail someone after we had, say, called them up on the phone and asked for their permission. Or spoke to them in person and informed them that we would be sending them an e-mail. Now tell me again how this would make things better?
The correct solution is simply to introduce legislation that requires e-mail advertisements to be accompanied by a return-address at which mail is read and handled by a real person. That's all we need.
-- Wonko the Sane
Re:Linux is not the fastest. No excuses.
on
NT vs. Linux: Again
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· Score: 2
Right on. I tried saying this after the Mindcraft tests, and half the Linux community sent me obscene e-mails. Hopefully they've all grown up since then.
As I've mentioned before, I run Windows 2000 Server beta 3 over at WonkoSlice, and it's really, really nice. Granted, as far as stability goes, it is less stable than Linux, although I haven't had a Windows-related crash on my Win2000 box ever since I first booted it up about 4 months ago. But as far as performance, ease-of-use, and speedy setup go, it leaves Linux in the dust. When I first installed Win2000, I did so with zero prior knowledge of how to run a web server or how to configure Win2000. I had my server up and running flawlessly within two hours. When I installed RedHat Linux with no prior Linux experience and only minimal web server experience, it took me days just to get the stupid system running correctly and get all my hardware installed, and by the time I started trying to set the web server up, I had totally screwed the system up and had to fdisk the partition and restart from scratch. Windows was much easier.
There's a zillion mirrors out there, but most are bogged or unstable. I've put up three mirrors of my own, and there's a list at http://wonko.com/duel.html. These three mirrors will be online indefinitely and are guaranteed to be stable (at least as long as I'm awake and watching them). Enjoy.
Overall, I've been very pleased with Microsoft's hardware quality, however I had an interesting problem when I got an IntelliMouse a year ago. My girlfriend bought it for me, and as soon as I got it I ripped the package open, ready to install it (I just love that wheel). Strangely, I couldn't get the friggin' thing to work on my computer. At the time, I attributed it to my computer's lameness (it really is pretty lame, and I wasn't sure if the PS/2 port was working right).
On a whim, I tried installing it on my mom's computer. Same thing: no luck. The next day I took the mouse to work with me. Once again, no luck. By this time, I was getting a little annoyed. I stole another IntelliMouse from off one of my fellow employees' desks, plugged it into my computer, and it worked perfectly the first time. Well, this had gone too far. I pulled out my trusty Leatherman, opened up my IntelliMouse, and lo and behold...
On the inside of the casing there's a small circuit board with a tiny female connector on it. There's a bundle of wires coming from the front part of the mouse with a male connector on the end. It was disconnected. I plugged the thing in, put the mouse back together, and it worked. Now why in the world couldn't they just solder the silly wires to the circuit board? I have no clue.
Ever since then, however, the mouse has been great, and I couldn't be more pleased.
Thanks, pal. It's nice to know at least somebody else exists who doesn't hold insipid stereotypes against Microsoft and displays some semblance of maturity. Ironic that you're sixteen, just like me, while the adult readership of Slashdot are the ones who are sending me obscene e-mails, posting nasty comments on my site, and flaming me for expressing a non-conformist viewpoint. Oh well...it's our world soon, anyway.
That post was extremely tongue-in-cheek, my blind friend. It was meant to be a jab at the possible crackability of the new printer protocol, not as an actual statement that I'd be looking forward to cracking peoples' printers.
You're getting the error because my site is hosted on a Win98 box running Personal Web Server...which has a maximum connection limit of 10 users at a time. My site doesn't generally get Slashdotted.
I have used all those products, actually, and for the most part, they were okay. Not the best by any means, but okay. I don't particularly like Office 97, although there's no better alternative for Linux. IIS 4.0 with NT 4.0 isn't all that bad...it performs much faster than Apache in some areas (CGI/ASP is one), while in other areas it's severely lacking, but it's good enough for me. NT 4 is a nice operating system if configured properly, although quite certainly not the best. Win95 just plain sucks, as does 98...
Er, no...I never had to fight MS tech support. I've never even called MS tech support. Never even looked up their number. And my webserver is a different matter entirely...it sucks because I don't know what I'm doing, not because of any fault of Microsoft. Besides, the problems I was having were in NT5 using IIS5 on a P166 w/64 megs of RAM...not the most optimal system configuration for such things. Thanks for visiting the page, though.:-)
And it should be pointed out that my intent was not to defend Microsoft, but rather to try and make people give them credit where they deserve it. I can honestly say that I would prefer to use Microsoft products under many circumstances, mainly because they're easy to use and stable enough for my purposes. Linux on the other hand, is almost impossible for me to use (I'm only a beginner when it comes to Linux, while I've had years of MS experience). I just think Microsoft has a pretty bad and not entirely fair stereotype going against them...
I think people tend to make far too many biased statements when arguing either for or against Microsoft products. Linux supporters invariably claim that Linux is faster and more stable, while Microsoft devotees tend to rely on the easier setup and configuration of Microsoft's operating systems and software.
This test just goes to show that every operating system has good parts and bad parts. While Microsoft may be the current lead in speed and usability, Linux is still a little bit ahead in stability (notice I said "a little bit"). I think the main reasons for this are resources and one of the fundamental rules of capitalism.
Microsoft has far more resources than Linux hackers could ever hope to have. While they may not have nearly as many developers working on the product, they do have a relatively closely-organized team all communicating within the group and heading for specific goals. They have entire company departments devoted to testing, user interface design, code beautification, etc. Linux, on the other hand, doesn't have quite as organized a structure. This isn't to say that the development of Linux is worse or less efficient, it's just disadvantaged in some areas, by no fault of its own.
As for that major capitalistic principle, it gives Microsoft both an advantage and a disadvantage. Microsoft's goal is to make money. In order to attain this goal, they must have a superior product in order to get people to buy it (let's leave the monopoly crud out of this for a moment). Therefore, Microsoft strives to make the best, fastest, and most usable product out there. And when they fail, they generally try to fix the problem as soon as possible via service packs, hot fixes, etc. On the other hand, this is also a disadvantage because rather than implementing features that are needed by a few customers, they implement only features that are needed by a majority of customers. This is where Linux has an advantage, obviously, due to its open-source model.
I won't get into it much further than this, but I think we should all at least give Microsoft the credit they deserve. For the most part, they do try to have a good quality product, and their latest work (e.g., SQL Server 7.0, Office 2000, NT 5.0/Win2000, IIS 5.0) has been of exceptional quality (at least, from my point of view). Why not view this as a challenge? I'd be willing to bet that Linux could catch up with and even surpass NT's benchmarks within a year or less.
And yes, I expect flames galore for saying good stuff about Microsoft...
I think he means that the concept of free software works. Even so, it wasn't a very hard post to write and I doubt it's something anyone needs to read...especially at the top of the page...anyone wanna moderate this?
Toilet humor? I'm sorry, but since when does the phrase "toilet humor" apply to anything that offends you? If you're a vegetarian, that's fine, that's great, but you know what? There are people out there who actually eat meat! Is that amazing or what? No, actually, I'm sure you knew that...right? Riiiiight? If you hadn't noticed by now, The Simpsons makes fun of a lot of things. They make fun of religion all the time, but even though I believe in some of the things they trash on the air, I don't let it bother me because it doesn't matter what they think, it's what I think that matters.
And speaking of the doctor...have you ever seen The Simpsons before? Have you ever paid attention to the character of the doctor? He's never been anything but a disgusting two-bit quack who doesn't really care about people's health. Sheesh...if you're going to be this offended by what you watch, then I assure you: television and the Internet are most certainly not mediums you should be getting involved with.
All I can say is, this could be the greatest toy ever birthed by the internet. I can sit in the nerdly inky blackness of my own home at midnight and send obscene messages to the unsecure printers of every poor soul who happens to be in the #50andsingle channel on IRC...
Wow. And to think that when I was fourteen, WinNuke was the latest and greatest toy. Now, a mere few years later, they give us PrinterNuke. The internet's a great place, man...
Hmm. For some reason the phrase, "I grok MST3K" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it as the good ol' "I grok Spock." Perhaps MST3K fans will succeed where ST:TOS fans failed?
Slashdot Mirror
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
Do you get paid to find and report holes in Linux? Huh? Unless you work for a company that sells their own distribution and therefore it's your actual job, then no, the majority of you don't. So just what is the source of this stuck-up, arrogant, anti-Microsoft attitude? So what if Netscape won't read the page? I'd think that would be Netscape's fault, but no, you insist that the blame is to be placed on Microsoft. My Microsoft web browser doesn't choke on Javascript. Netscape's browser does. Netscape is the obvious problem here.
The open-source community has been calling for Microsoft to do something like this for a long time now. Microsoft is begging for you guys to show them what you're talking about when you say "Windoze sux". If Windows sucks so much, it shouldn't be any trouble to knock out that IIS box, should it? Huh? Then why are you wasting time complaining? Get over there and kill that sucker! And while you're at it, if you want an even easier challenge, you're more than welcome to try and kill my own Windows 2000 beta 3 web server. I haven't optimized it for security, because I don't see any need to. It's on a tiny pipe, and it'd probably be a snap to wipe that sucker out. Go for it! Go kill http://wonko.com/ and then let me know about it! Tell me how lame my system was and how easy it was for you to crack it. Go on! I dare you. :)
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Wonko the Sane
So, because the thought that "minorities" weren't represented in User Friendly never crossed my mind, am I a racist white pig? Thought so. Is it just me or does anyone else out there think that adding "minority" characters to comics, TV shows, and movies just to "keep things equal" is just as discriminatory as leaving them out? If there's a useful purpose for a "minority" character, then by all means add the character. But the plain and simple fact is, "minorities" don't always fit into certain situations, just as us whitefolk don't always fit into others.
I, being a middle-class white male American, watch predominantly "black" sitcoms (ie, "Family Ties", "Cosby", "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", that sort of rerun stuff) from time to time without even giving the slightest thought to the fact that there are very rarely any white people on these shows. It doesn't occur to me that there should be; the shows are about black families. Why should there be white people? So you have to ask yourself...why doesn't this work the other way around? TV shows with a mostly-white cast get called racist or discriminatory. Hmmm.
I know this isn't the time or the place, but in light of recent events I had to say something. :)
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
I believe proofreader is a compound word. ;)
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
Let's think about this for a minute...if all unsolicited e-mail were banned, where would that leave us? We would only be able to e-mail someone after we had, say, called them up on the phone and asked for their permission. Or spoke to them in person and informed them that we would be sending them an e-mail. Now tell me again how this would make things better?
The correct solution is simply to introduce legislation that requires e-mail advertisements to be accompanied by a return-address at which mail is read and handled by a real person. That's all we need.
--
Wonko the Sane
As I've mentioned before, I run Windows 2000 Server beta 3 over at WonkoSlice, and it's really, really nice. Granted, as far as stability goes, it is less stable than Linux, although I haven't had a Windows-related crash on my Win2000 box ever since I first booted it up about 4 months ago. But as far as performance, ease-of-use, and speedy setup go, it leaves Linux in the dust. When I first installed Win2000, I did so with zero prior knowledge of how to run a web server or how to configure Win2000. I had my server up and running flawlessly within two hours. When I installed RedHat Linux with no prior Linux experience and only minimal web server experience, it took me days just to get the stupid system running correctly and get all my hardware installed, and by the time I started trying to set the web server up, I had totally screwed the system up and had to fdisk the partition and restart from scratch. Windows was much easier.
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
On a whim, I tried installing it on my mom's computer. Same thing: no luck. The next day I took the mouse to work with me. Once again, no luck. By this time, I was getting a little annoyed. I stole another IntelliMouse from off one of my fellow employees' desks, plugged it into my computer, and it worked perfectly the first time. Well, this had gone too far. I pulled out my trusty Leatherman, opened up my IntelliMouse, and lo and behold...
On the inside of the casing there's a small circuit board with a tiny female connector on it. There's a bundle of wires coming from the front part of the mouse with a male connector on the end. It was disconnected. I plugged the thing in, put the mouse back together, and it worked. Now why in the world couldn't they just solder the silly wires to the circuit board? I have no clue.
Ever since then, however, the mouse has been great, and I couldn't be more pleased.
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
And it should be pointed out that my intent was not to defend Microsoft, but rather to try and make people give them credit where they deserve it. I can honestly say that I would prefer to use Microsoft products under many circumstances, mainly because they're easy to use and stable enough for my purposes. Linux on the other hand, is almost impossible for me to use (I'm only a beginner when it comes to Linux, while I've had years of MS experience). I just think Microsoft has a pretty bad and not entirely fair stereotype going against them...
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Wonko the Sane
This test just goes to show that every operating system has good parts and bad parts. While Microsoft may be the current lead in speed and usability, Linux is still a little bit ahead in stability (notice I said "a little bit"). I think the main reasons for this are resources and one of the fundamental rules of capitalism.
Microsoft has far more resources than Linux hackers could ever hope to have. While they may not have nearly as many developers working on the product, they do have a relatively closely-organized team all communicating within the group and heading for specific goals. They have entire company departments devoted to testing, user interface design, code beautification, etc. Linux, on the other hand, doesn't have quite as organized a structure. This isn't to say that the development of Linux is worse or less efficient, it's just disadvantaged in some areas, by no fault of its own.
As for that major capitalistic principle, it gives Microsoft both an advantage and a disadvantage. Microsoft's goal is to make money. In order to attain this goal, they must have a superior product in order to get people to buy it (let's leave the monopoly crud out of this for a moment). Therefore, Microsoft strives to make the best, fastest, and most usable product out there. And when they fail, they generally try to fix the problem as soon as possible via service packs, hot fixes, etc. On the other hand, this is also a disadvantage because rather than implementing features that are needed by a few customers, they implement only features that are needed by a majority of customers. This is where Linux has an advantage, obviously, due to its open-source model.
I won't get into it much further than this, but I think we should all at least give Microsoft the credit they deserve. For the most part, they do try to have a good quality product, and their latest work (e.g., SQL Server 7.0, Office 2000, NT 5.0/Win2000, IIS 5.0) has been of exceptional quality (at least, from my point of view). Why not view this as a challenge? I'd be willing to bet that Linux could catch up with and even surpass NT's benchmarks within a year or less.
And yes, I expect flames galore for saying good stuff about Microsoft...
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane
And speaking of the doctor...have you ever seen The Simpsons before? Have you ever paid attention to the character of the doctor? He's never been anything but a disgusting two-bit quack who doesn't really care about people's health. Sheesh...if you're going to be this offended by what you watch, then I assure you: television and the Internet are most certainly not mediums you should be getting involved with.
-- Wonko the Sane
http://wonko.com/
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Wonko the Sane
Wow. And to think that when I was fourteen, WinNuke was the latest and greatest toy. Now, a mere few years later, they give us PrinterNuke. The internet's a great place, man...
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Wonko the Sane
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Wonko the Sane