I totlly disagree.... The distinction does not lie in buisness vs. hackers. Its a question of availability and interface.
The use of computers skyrocketed in the 80's not because of the BASIC language as the first root of the thread sugests but because computer were financially feasable to John Q Public. With the advent of cheaper hardware, any individual with the PC spec could write their own operating system and drivers. But Nancy, a school teacher in Madison, Wisconsin is not about to buy a machine and learn how to write an OS for it, however if someone would do it for her, she would find a computer useful.
The internet is a good exmple as well. The internet, as stated OVER AND OVER, began as a military program ARPANET. This was handed over to universities later and beagn using open systems and protocols. (not entirely acurate but an adequate summary) Out of this camne the birth of gopher, ftp, www, irc, etc. Once again the use of email, web, news, IRC, goper, ftp would be great things for Nancy to use, but do you expect her to setup her own modem configuration, connect to an ISP (which were not heard of in most circles) and configure every little program need to do this (mail client, mosaic, etc.)
Here we get into one of the prevalent flaws in hacker style development, hackers code for hackers, a.k.a they code what they want. This means that tools for the average user are not usually develloped initially. I would cringe giving my dad a Linux ditro disk of two years ago for him to install on a computer. It was not designed for use by an average user. Now is a different situation because hackers (and companies) have started to realize the importance of the average user.
Big buisness on the other hand relies on the average user to be willing to pay for making something easy to use. Microsoft became who they are based on this principle, they made things so users didn't have to. When my dad was installing Windows 98, my cringing had nothing to do with his ability to install the OS (it had more to do with him installing THAT OS) The Internet was usable by the average user, but it wasn't until the prodigy/AOL/Compuserve all-in-one-Internet applications made basic Internet access easy to install/use that the average user got online.
Actually this area has already been mapped. There is a small solar system which exists in a small SEP field (S.E.P. -- somebody elses problem) in which there are two planets orbiting a very improbable sun. The first planet is where socks escape to through a wormhole in the tumble cycle of a dryer. The second planet is where partially used ballpoint pens escape to. After the discovery of this solar system, the president of the universe quickly disregarded the discovery as a fabrication of the media. Ironicly, he also began domineering the market in used pen and sock puppet sales.
This post stolen^H^H^H^H^H^Hinspired by Douglas Adams
I am see this turning into a way for some states to encourage internet companies to build there. You simply pass legislation against collecting sales tax on products sold on the Internet. You then pitch the state as "e-buisness friendly" since you don't charge sales tax on Internet orders. This could be serious leveraging for non-technical states to get in the industrry.
Now on to my comments on Bunny, it was georgeouis. To give an idea about the rendering almost all background shots were done with radiosity but most of the actual characters were simple (if you call that simple) raytracing.
Look at JBuilder for example. Excellent Java IDE with a Linux port.
I always find statements like this funny. JBuilder (at least the Linux "port") is a pure Java implementation of an IDE. This means that it should run on ANY port of the JDK >=1.2. The only Linux dependant aspect, and why they consider it a port, is the installer which installs in a Linux specific way. Of course the actuall executable does little more then run the main class of the app. In fact there is very little in the config scripts that is Linux specific and more often is Unix specific.
I like the approach that Mandrake used in making crypto and security packages available in their distro. You went ahead with the standard install of packages as you would expect. After the standard packages were installed and networking setup, the installation program prompted the user with a screen asking if they would like to install crypto/security packages from a remote server. The prompt would explain the legal ramifications of installing crypto packages in countries not allowing the importing of crypto.
This could be heavily borrowed on Debian. During the standard install, a prompt is issued explaing that the user can choose to install non-free packages at this time from a remote server. The prompt would have a condensed free software manifesto explaining the disadvantages of commercial applications and list free software alternatives to those commercial apps.
By doing this the Debian "distro" remains free but doesn't limit the freedom of the user in choosing the packages they wish to install initially.
IDKVB (I Don't Know Visual Basic;), but it seems that it references Cmos.com when updating the registry.
And it definitely writes a binary file at the end of a sub called CopiarCmosAfichero (CopyCmosTofile). To me it seems it is creating Cmos.com so it can write the Cmos to a file, and thus doing what it states, but I would like confirmation on what it is doing.
Actually beowulf clusters commonly use eithe MPI or PVM. Neither is required to classify a cluster as a Beowulf. The first demonstrated Beowulfs were by NASA and ran on the PVM libraries. Refer to the Beowulf into http://www.beowulf.org/intro.html
Despite the synicism of the subject, its nice to see a beowulf cluster on Slashdot which doesn't use Linux. It helps to remind people that Beowulf != Cluster of linux boxes. After all the definition of a beowulf is It's a kind of high-performance massively parallel computer built primarily out of commodity hardware components, running a free-software operating system like Linux or FreeBSD, interconnected by a private high-speed network.
The classic internet webcrawler with some more intelligent heuristics.
Have it search not on keywords but on content so a search for breast examinations will not return a bunch of pages for Human Anatomy 105 final Exam or a college girls P0rn site.
Have heuristics which determine which links on a page are most promising and which should be delayed until later. This could use domain name, url info, even a HEAD read to get meta tag info. But once again not a keyword search alone.
Build a database so it will try to find similar topics a.k.a a page dealing with only the term mamogram would also be noticed.
Here is the "overall" advantage. The ILOVEYOU virus made edits to the Windows registry which is what caused some of the symptoms to occur. In a Linux/Unix environment, similar attacks would only be possible if...
1. The mail client was being run as root. (which is the biggest no-no)
2. the script that was run specifically targeted a know exploit in an application residing on the system. (ex. A shell script which exploited a buffer-overflow in the mail client or even another program such as pump or sendmail) This chance is reduced due to the nature of unix (and moreso linux IMHO) security patches being developed quickly after an exploit is found.
These are all I could come up with, please follow up if I'm mistaken.
While many companies make very good systems, many of them still make non standard components. Things such as integrating the video/sound card with the motherboard. Using non AT or ATX motherboards which make the cases near impossible to use after the motherboard has died (post warranty).
My personal reccomendation is build if you have A) the knowhow- this should be easy for Slashdotters but I'm surprised how many computer novices try to tinker with the hardware. Sure its a good way to learn, but man is it expensive. B) The patience - it is a lot easier to just boot a preinstalled/tested system then spend a couple of hours wondering what is causing that nonstop beeping. C) The desire to upgrade - as I said before, many systems (particularly the cheaper brands) use different hardware which makes upgrading more difficult. Example is Sound cards/modems. I had an old PackardBell Legend which had an integrated modem and sound card. Not only did it make a noise like a helicopter every time I was online, but to replace one was to replace both.
Re:Google provides answer; film at 11
on
Tux Dolls?
·
· Score: 1
I bought one of the 10" Tux's and I have to say it's pretty darn close to the Ewing version. The body (especially the head) is a little elongated. It was still obvious to my coworkers who the penguin was, and that's really what matters isn't it. I found that the smaller ones are rather distorted but the 10" is pretty well done.
I don't think the goal of "phantom" characters is to reveal cheaters as much as it is to take the edge away from people using the AimBots. The point of the cheat is to enhance (dramatically) aiming accuracy. How can this be acccomplished if it tries to shoot at nonexistant characters.
I'm not going to launch into an anti-censorship rant so I'll briefly summarize my beliefs.
CENSORSHIP == BAD CHILDREN && PORN == BAD FILTERING SOFTWARE == GOOD if used voluntarily by observant parents, BAD if required in public computing fascilities.
Since I see no necessary evil in filtering software in voluntary use by observant parents, are there any products on the market that you feel do a fair job in filtering innapropriate content.
I'm sorry but I have to come out in defence of my precious little Java, the whipping boy of the hour. Java was not created as the answer to defeating Microsoft. It was initially created to allow mutiple piece of hardware to communicate with each other despite their architecture. The original Java was designed for intelligent appliances and was later geared toward computers (particularly Applets) This is apparant from the "sandbox security" mentality present in Java, especially Java 1.0. Now I do agree that Sun has over sold this technology as the Anti-Microsoft, and that has led to a hype let-down, but I wouldn't say that Java is finished. It is one 0of the best languages I have come across for quick networking solutions, as well as Web interfaces to complex programs.
Unfortunatly, it is usually the credit card company, or at least they are doing it in the name of the CC company ("Hi, I'm Pam calling from Citibank...") doing the telemarketing, not third party telemarketers, I don't know how such a feature would affect this.
I've gotten the same calls but they say("Hi, I'm Pam and we are calling Citibank credit card customers...") infering that this is where the got the information. Also the do not promote should be applied internally for situations like you discussed.
As for the late fee, its not a perfect system, and many companies are just evil about it. I've more then one personas credit record ruined because the company couldn't/wouldn't clear up late payments that may not have been the customers fault. It is sooo sad.
I know everyone knows how they work, but as someone who worked in a credit card company, you learn how they really work. Important rules when dealing with credit companies.
1. Never end a conversation with customer service regarding late fees like the situation above without speaking to a supervisor. Many (if not most) customer service representitives can not handle/ will not handle the removal of fees themselves and often do not know how. Many are college/high school students who are under-trained and don't know the policy. The others usually just follow the company policy without any regard to the customer.
2.If things are VERY important, make sure you write to the company and confirm over the phone that they receive the letter. Phone conversations are not legally binding, and allthough most phone conversations will be followed up, they are not legally required. Written communication MUST be followed up. Not sure how email ties in since we had not online services.
3. Companies should have a do not promote feature, USE IT. This prevents the company from forwarding your name/address/phone to telemarketers. Once again, do this my mail.
4. If someone tries to sell you credit protection, ask speciffically what it offers. Some states offer that if the cardholder dies, they will pay up to $???? on the balance. This is ironic since on many cards, if the account holder dies the balance is written off as uncollectable.
I believe all the information above is correct (but it has been 5 years since I worked there) so p[lease correct me if I'm wrong.
In a way, the Linux/GNU community is one of the only Communisms to ever exist.
Unlike the "communist" governments in recent history (and the present) Linux has no priveladged party. True you could consider the big Linux kernel hackers (Linus, Alan, etc.) to be a priveladged group, but the means of communication to them is in no way limited. Just join the kernel mailing list and contribute.
There is no need for anything outside of the community. Many communist governments failed, in part, due to the innability to rely on the community alone for success. Whether it was military ties, food, oil, communist nations still needed to rely on the outside world for parts. The Linux community, on the other hand, has always been able to provide for itself anything it desired. If a piece of hardware was need, or simply wanted, someone wrote a driver. There was no need to rely outside the community. There may be instances where outside source was used, but that was most likely out of convenience then necessity.
The major thing that seperates the Linux/GNU community as a true example for communism is that citizenship is voluntary. Sure people can emigrate the community and develop commercial applications, but that in no way means that the community is tied down to only that application. They can always develop from within the community. And true, you may be short one hacker but others will join.
Apache does not currently support Servlets (much to my personal dismay). There is currently the Jakarta project which is developing a free (speech) %100 Pure Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages implementation. This is planning on merging eventually w/ the apache project. If I am wrong about servlets w/ apache PLEASE correct me.
Slashdot Mirror
I totlly disagree.... The distinction does not lie in buisness vs. hackers. Its a question of availability and interface.
The use of computers skyrocketed in the 80's not because of the BASIC language as the first root of the thread sugests but because computer were financially feasable to John Q Public. With the advent of cheaper hardware, any individual with the PC spec could write their own operating system and drivers. But Nancy, a school teacher in Madison, Wisconsin is not about to buy a machine and learn how to write an OS for it, however if someone would do it for her, she would find a computer useful.
The internet is a good exmple as well. The internet, as stated OVER AND OVER, began as a military program ARPANET. This was handed over to universities later and beagn using open systems and protocols. (not entirely acurate but an adequate summary) Out of this camne the birth of gopher, ftp, www, irc, etc. Once again the use of email, web, news, IRC, goper, ftp would be great things for Nancy to use, but do you expect her to setup her own modem configuration, connect to an ISP (which were not heard of in most circles) and configure every little program need to do this (mail client, mosaic, etc.)
Here we get into one of the prevalent flaws in hacker style development, hackers code for hackers, a.k.a they code what they want. This means that tools for the average user are not usually develloped initially. I would cringe giving my dad a Linux ditro disk of two years ago for him to install on a computer. It was not designed for use by an average user. Now is a different situation because hackers (and companies) have started to realize the importance of the average user.
Big buisness on the other hand relies on the average user to be willing to pay for making something easy to use. Microsoft became who they are based on this principle, they made things so users didn't have to. When my dad was installing Windows 98, my cringing had nothing to do with his ability to install the OS (it had more to do with him installing THAT OS) The Internet was usable by the average user, but it wasn't until the prodigy/AOL/Compuserve all-in-one-Internet applications made basic Internet access easy to install/use that the average user got online.
Actually this area has already been mapped. There is a small solar system which exists in a small SEP field (S.E.P. -- somebody elses problem) in which there are two planets orbiting a very improbable sun. The first planet is where socks escape to through a wormhole in the tumble cycle of a dryer. The second planet is where partially used ballpoint pens escape to. After the discovery of this solar system, the president of the universe quickly disregarded the discovery as a fabrication of the media. Ironicly, he also began domineering the market in used pen and sock puppet sales.
This post stolen^H^H^H^H^H^Hinspired by Douglas Adams
The .NET platform breaks new ground in terms of using Internet standards</i>
and God knows they will keep everything standard....right?
Cough...Kerberos...Cough
I am see this turning into a way for some states to encourage internet companies to build there. You simply pass legislation against collecting sales tax on products sold on the Internet. You then pitch the state as "e-buisness friendly" since you don't charge sales tax on Internet orders. This could be serious leveraging for non-technical states to get in the industrry.
Actually, your first guess is completely correct. I was at an animation festival at The Ohio State University © with one of the tech leads who described how they rented a theater on very short notice to become eligable for Oscar nominations.
Now on to my comments on Bunny, it was georgeouis. To give an idea about the rendering almost all background shots were done with radiosity but most of the actual characters were simple (if you call that simple) raytracing.
I always find statements like this funny. JBuilder (at least the Linux "port") is a pure Java implementation of an IDE. This means that it should run on ANY port of the JDK >=1.2. The only Linux dependant aspect, and why they consider it a port, is the installer which installs in a Linux specific way. Of course the actuall executable does little more then run the main class of the app. In fact there is very little in the config scripts that is Linux specific and more often is Unix specific.
I like the approach that Mandrake used in making crypto and security packages available in their distro. You went ahead with the standard install of packages as you would expect. After the standard packages were installed and networking setup, the installation program prompted the user with a screen asking if they would like to install crypto/security packages from a remote server. The prompt would explain the legal ramifications of installing crypto packages in countries not allowing the importing of crypto.
This could be heavily borrowed on Debian. During the standard install, a prompt is issued explaing that the user can choose to install non-free packages at this time from a remote server. The prompt would have a condensed free software manifesto explaining the disadvantages of commercial applications and list free software alternatives to those commercial apps.
By doing this the Debian "distro" remains free but doesn't limit the freedom of the user in choosing the packages they wish to install initially.
IDKVB (I Don't Know Visual Basic ;), but it seems that it references Cmos.com when updating the registry.
And it definitely writes a binary file at the end of a sub called CopiarCmosAfichero (CopyCmosTofile). To me it seems it is creating Cmos.com so it can write the Cmos to a file, and thus doing what it states, but I would like confirmation on what it is doing.
Corrected from parent
Actually beowulf clusters commonly use eithe MPI or PVM. Neither is required to classify a cluster as a Beowulf. The first demonstrated Beowulfs were by NASA and ran on the PVM libraries. Refer to the Beowulf into http://www.beowulf.org/intro.html
It's a kind of high-performance massively parallel computer built primarily out of commodity hardware components, running a free-software operating system like Linux or FreeBSD, interconnected by a private high-speed network.
http://www.dnaco.net/~kragen/beowulf-faq.txt
Sounds familiar....
follow this for a couple of weeks of strips
http://ars.userfriendly.org/carto ons/?id=19981127
The classic internet webcrawler with some more intelligent heuristics.
Have it search not on keywords but on content so a search for breast examinations will not return a bunch of pages for Human Anatomy 105 final Exam or a college girls P0rn site.
Have heuristics which determine which links on a page are most promising and which should be delayed until later. This could use domain name, url info, even a HEAD read to get meta tag info. But once again not a keyword search alone.
Build a database so it will try to find similar topics a.k.a a page dealing with only the term mamogram would also be noticed.
Here is the "overall" advantage. The ILOVEYOU virus made edits to the Windows registry which is what caused some of the symptoms to occur. In a Linux/Unix environment, similar attacks would only be possible if...
1. The mail client was being run as root. (which is the biggest no-no)
2. the script that was run specifically targeted a know exploit in an application residing on the system. (ex. A shell script which exploited a buffer-overflow in the mail client or even another program such as pump or sendmail) This chance is reduced due to the nature of unix (and moreso linux IMHO) security patches being developed quickly after an exploit is found.
These are all I could come up with, please follow up if I'm mistaken.
Here is some of what you aski me
http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=preview&bid=upt
That is not true for the Handspring Visor which comes default with a USB cradle.
While many companies make very good systems, many of them still make non standard components. Things such as integrating the video/sound card with the motherboard. Using non AT or ATX motherboards which make the cases near impossible to use after the motherboard has died (post warranty).
My personal reccomendation is build if you have
A) the knowhow- this should be easy for Slashdotters but I'm surprised how many computer novices try to tinker with the hardware. Sure its a good way to learn, but man is it expensive.
B) The patience - it is a lot easier to just boot a preinstalled/tested system then spend a couple of hours wondering what is causing that nonstop beeping.
C) The desire to upgrade - as I said before, many systems (particularly the cheaper brands) use different hardware which makes upgrading more difficult. Example is Sound cards/modems. I had an old PackardBell Legend which had an integrated modem and sound card. Not only did it make a noise like a helicopter every time I was online, but to replace one was to replace both.
I bought one of the 10" Tux's and I have to say it's pretty darn close to the Ewing version. The body (especially the head) is a little elongated. It was still obvious to my coworkers who the penguin was, and that's really what matters isn't it.
I found that the smaller ones are rather distorted but the 10" is pretty well done.
I don't think the goal of "phantom" characters is to reveal cheaters as much as it is to take the edge away from people using the AimBots. The point of the cheat is to enhance (dramatically) aiming accuracy. How can this be acccomplished if it tries to shoot at nonexistant characters.
I'm not going to launch into an anti-censorship rant so I'll briefly summarize my beliefs.
CENSORSHIP == BAD
CHILDREN && PORN == BAD
FILTERING SOFTWARE == GOOD if used voluntarily by observant parents, BAD if required in public computing fascilities.
Since I see no necessary evil in filtering software in voluntary use by observant parents, are there any products on the market that you feel do a fair job in filtering innapropriate content.
I totally agree. My computers are
zaphod
prefect
trillian (next)
I also plan on...
slartibartfast
vogon
milliway
and of course for my fastest computer
deep_thought
and my oldest/slowest
marvin
I'm sorry but I have to come out in defence of my precious little Java, the whipping boy of the hour. Java was not created as the answer to defeating Microsoft. It was initially created to allow mutiple piece of hardware to communicate with each other despite their architecture. The original Java was designed for intelligent appliances and was later geared toward computers (particularly Applets) This is apparant from the "sandbox security" mentality present in Java, especially Java 1.0.
Now I do agree that Sun has over sold this technology as the Anti-Microsoft, and that has led to a hype let-down, but I wouldn't say that Java is finished. It is one 0of the best languages I have come across for quick networking solutions, as well as Web interfaces to complex programs.
/me dons fire proof suit
Unfortunatly, it is usually the credit card company, or at least they are doing it in the name of the CC company ("Hi, I'm Pam calling from Citibank...") doing the telemarketing, not third party telemarketers, I don't know how such a feature would affect this.
I've gotten the same calls but they say("Hi, I'm Pam and we are calling Citibank credit card customers...") infering that this is where the got the information. Also the do not promote should be applied internally for situations like you discussed.
As for the late fee, its not a perfect system, and many companies are just evil about it. I've more then one personas credit record ruined because the company couldn't/wouldn't clear up late payments that may not have been the customers fault. It is sooo sad.
I know everyone knows how they work, but as someone who worked in a credit card company, you learn how they really work. Important rules when dealing with credit companies.
1. Never end a conversation with customer service regarding late fees like the situation above without speaking to a supervisor. Many (if not most) customer service representitives can not handle/ will not handle the removal of fees themselves and often do not know how. Many are college/high school students who are under-trained and don't know the policy. The others usually just follow the company policy without any regard to the customer.
2.If things are VERY important, make sure you write to the company and confirm over the phone that they receive the letter. Phone conversations are not legally binding, and allthough most phone conversations will be followed up, they are not legally required. Written communication MUST be followed up. Not sure how email ties in since we had not online services.
3. Companies should have a do not promote feature, USE IT. This prevents the company from forwarding your name/address/phone to telemarketers. Once again, do this my mail.
4. If someone tries to sell you credit protection, ask speciffically what it offers. Some states offer that if the cardholder dies, they will pay up to $???? on the balance. This is ironic since on many cards, if the account holder dies the balance is written off as uncollectable.
I believe all the information above is correct (but it has been 5 years since I worked there) so p[lease correct me if I'm wrong.
In a way, the Linux/GNU community is one of the only Communisms to ever exist.
Unlike the "communist" governments in recent history (and the present) Linux has no priveladged party. True you could consider the big Linux kernel hackers (Linus, Alan, etc.) to be a priveladged group, but the means of communication to them is in no way limited. Just join the kernel mailing list and contribute.
There is no need for anything outside of the community. Many communist governments failed, in part, due to the innability to rely on the community alone for success. Whether it was military ties, food, oil, communist nations still needed to rely on the outside world for parts. The Linux community, on the other hand, has always been able to provide for itself anything it desired. If a piece of hardware was need, or simply wanted, someone wrote a driver. There was no need to rely outside the community. There may be instances where outside source was used, but that was most likely out of convenience then necessity.
The major thing that seperates the Linux/GNU community as a true example for communism is that citizenship is voluntary. Sure people can emigrate the community and develop commercial applications, but that in no way means that the community is tied down to only that application. They can always develop from within the community. And true, you may be short one hacker but others will join.
Apache does not currently support Servlets (much to my personal dismay). There is currently the Jakarta project which is developing a free (speech) %100 Pure Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages implementation. This is planning on merging eventually w/ the apache project. If I am wrong about servlets w/ apache PLEASE correct me.