You need a comm/network stack. If you don't use an OS, you end up rolling that yourself. That's NOT as easy as it sounds.
You need a GUI stack unless you're doing a simple register. If you don't use an OS with an app framework, you end up rolling that yourself. That's NOT as easy as it sounds.
Most people will choose to go with an embedded OS and GUI setup of some kind. The "thin" ones won't give you what you need (you don't want the daily reports locking up the machine- you might get that if you don't use a more advanced machine...) and the ones that DO give you what you need are pricey (Read QNX, for example...).
For example, the GDI calls aren't the same for Win95 and WinNT- API-wise, they're the same, but they don't DO the same things when called, merely similar things. Worse, if you try to PRINT the graphic you just did, the result will differ from printer to printer under NT but be surprisingly consistent for 95 for all printers. There's tons of others in that space.
The API's declaration is consistent, but what one version of Windows DOES with the parameters may differ slightly or radically from another, supposedly identical one.
An A1 certifiable system's grotesque overkill for most things the government does. Something along a B1 certifiable system would do nicely- something that an MS system couldn't do right now (nor, probably ever, from the looks of things at this point...).
There's a lot of things up on the moon that are more than abundant there that are much rarer here on Earth. The Helium 3 that it absorbs from the sun over time is sufficient to power the earth for many centuries to come- not to mention all the other stuff.
...I just don't want to be told that I can't play them on a Linux only laptop, etc. And don't tell me about using a portable or home player either- if I'm on the road, does that mean I need to buy another $500+ player or keep a Windows partition that I don't want (that eats up my disk space, normally not being used) in addition to my $1000 laptop?
"I don't see any mass uprising against the DMCA or against anything for that matter, so it means that the people approve it, at least by default. Joe Average doesn't care about such basic things as universal health care, a decent public education or a clean taxation system. Joe Average doesn't bother to understand those problems or to vote when all it takes is 2 hours driving to and from the polling station once every 2 years. Joe Average just grunmbles against Washington and "all those corrupt bastards" and doesn't give a shit. "
That's because Joe average doesn't know about the DMCA and other very wrong laws- nor does he understand what the law being on the books means to him. Once explained, that travesty that Hollings calls a bill, draws very negative reactions from people- they just didn't know about it or what it meant to them. The same goes for the DMCA- it was QUIETLY done and the average person doesn't even know it exists. If they did and you explained to them what was made illegal- they'd more often than not be very pissed off.
As for voter apathy- I'll sum it up for you:
Nobody thinks they can change the system- for better or for worse. The people running for office are more often than not the flip sides of the same corrupt coin. So, if that's the case, why bother voting if the deck is heavily stacked in favor of the people already richer than anyone else and the people in power?
Right or wrong, that's what it seems that a lot of people think these days. If you've got that as a viewpoint, it becomes really hard to make a stand or anything else. It would take something heinous to get them to act.
"So, if you had a machine available to you that decrypted all SSH traffic on a subnet you specified, without you or it breaking a sweat, does this mean it's unreasonable of me to think my SSH session..."
Actually, it would be reasonable of you to view it as private- because you took some sort of measures to ensure it was not directly visible, you encrypted it with something. Doesn't matter if you use IDEA or a Captain Crunch decoder ring- you have some reasonable understanding that it's supposed to be private between you and those you're communicating with. Just because you can unpack it without effort means little in regards to privacy- you took some measures to obscure your communications so that they'd be private.
If you take no precautions, it becomes much more of a grey area. A telephone conversation (not mobile) could be deemed as private because under normal circumstances, only the people involved in the conversation could really be listening (normal, being not wiretapped, etc.). A typical mobile phone conversation, however, is much more analogous to a CB channel or you shouting your head off in your house with the windows open than a standard telephone conversation (No matter how much the mobile companies want you to think of it like a magic phone, it's still more of a radio than a phone in almost every sense of it's operation.). In that case, no real measures have been taken by anyone to obscure the content of the conversation going on over the airwaves.
There is no assurances of privacy involved in either of those cases, and unless you're using a digital spread spectrum phone (something making the session more resemble a wireline conversation- tougher but still not really obscuring it in a way that can't be snooped...) or encrypting it (preferably both in light of the previous aside...) you're operating under conditions not unlike the CB situation- whether you realize it or not. Ignorance of the conditions you're operating under doesn't make it any more a privacy protected situation.
Legally speaking, it's not. If it's trash, it is deemed to be of no import to you and therefore is fair game. A police officer may dig through your trash at any time and not need a warrant.
...because it's one of their execs openly spouting off like that when he SHOULD have kept his mouth shut (they were still in the original final throes of the trial over this VERY thing...). Just because they "didn't act on it" openly doesn't mean they didn't act on it or that we shouldn't be deeply troubled about the conduct all the same.
Never mind the court case. It's become public knowlege that they were thumbing their nose at the judge (which is what precipitated his off the bench remarks to begin with...). Moreso with this. People won't want to deal with companies that are this corrupt (which is what it is...).
Knowing something about the parts market (I DO work for a set-top box company that's working on...alternate solutions...) those boxes cost something in the ballpark of $600-800 to make. Volumes do NOT make it dramatically cheaper to make- the harddrive, Celeron, etc. don't come THAT cheap. Why do you think the set-top box market went belly-up? It's because the stupid companies went with Geodes, etc. because they were CHEAP. Bill of materials costing you only $200 or so.
No. That would require re-certification of the whole unit instead of just the part as it would be something completely new. One mistake and it might cause a catastrophe not unlike the Challenger accident.
These parts have to be generally rad resistant (the 8086 is that compared to most other parts...) capable of handling the thermal variances and the mechanical abuse that they'd get on the Shuttle. The Transmeta's not been ever rated for this sort of thing for starters and that right there jumps up the price considerably, even if you could guarantee that it DID work as designed in the original application- so much so that it IS cheaper scrounging for surplus 8086's at this point.
The problem now is that they've been found guilty of the same thing they're roughing up businesses, municipalities, etc. over- something they call "piracy".
The public just got reminded of that- and they're doing this BS. Not good. That kind of PR doesn't help, ever. They've went past the point that bad PR doesn't harm them and actually helps them.
Adverts only go so far in fixing an image where you're a big bully- MS is winning that image in spades of late as it struggles to increase profitability (which is mandated by the gods (as opposed to God) of Wall-Street and Nasdaq) which has, unfortunately, pretty much reached it's limits in the markets that MS has dominated.
When I say "nobody" I mean the general populace. 1991 would be when many started twigging onto the reality of things. I suspected, but didn't know what is now public knowlege until 1995. Most other people didn't either.
In both examples you give, it's from the people getting reamed that are spreading the word. I didn't know about Hit Men, but I did know about Some of Your Friends Are Already This Fucked back 1997 or so when it confirmed what I'd been suspecting since 1995.
That's right. Until recently, nobody except the people being screwed knew anything about it. And most of the people being reamed didn't think that it could be any other way so they kept quiet about it.
Nowadays, technology has come to the point that the producers of art (for music and literature, at least for now) don't need these parasites to get their stuff out to their customers. They might need someone to play filter/promoter, but they don't need the labels as they currently are to do that- anyone can play that role, incl. independant labels, etc.
If they have few or no end users, Wall Street doesn't like it because they're supposed to make money at what they're doing (and litigating people out of existance isn't making money no matter HOW you slice it.).
I really don't like Adobe now (as if I liked them before after them pulling the stunt they did with Dimitri...). I'm sure there will be others as they burn up whatever goodwill they have with their customer base suing people over rather stupid things.
Ardi produces a solution to that issue that currently works under x86 Linux and Windows. Of course, that would require them to license some 3rd-party clone to do it, but it's been done all the same.
Besides, all we really need is a binary implementation of the Sorenson codec to begin with since we HAVE a Quicktime framework or two that works under X anyway.
Macromedia seems to have a Flash player available for Linux (Clicking on the link will give you the option to download Flash 5 for Linux if you're running under it...)
As a Mac and PC owner, I will throw this comment out...
Looks don't get your work done. I could have "good looks" even on a PC and not get a single thing done with the looks.
A "good" GUI won't get your work done- your apps will. If the "good" GUI makes the box slower than it needs to, it may be getting in the way of your work instead of helping you, no matter how "easy" it is to use.
You don't get AIDS by sex alone. It can be conveyed in numerous other ways. A cut, for example could be exposed to it via contaminated substances, etc.
Grumble all you want. They could make a configuration, just like the X-Box (Clue: It's NOT a special configuration- if you believe that keep drinking thier Kool-aid...) that can do apps, etc. It's not a stretch to do a wordproc, etc. in the same manner they're doing games. Just don't keep changing the damn runtime libs like they do in regular Windows.
Which translates into a big thing- they can't spin it away so easily now. They HAVE to own up to it, because it's the Chairman of the Board that said it under oath.
Each and every one of those games are transiently installed and they are all largely "3rd party apps" with the notable exceptions of things from Bungie. In all honesty, MS could install a version of XP Embedded as a personal/server OS and very probably achieve the stability they keep touting (and missing for the most part) for their other platforms. Part of where the stability problems come in is from all the "integration" and the fact that thier apps and a lot of other apps change key pieces of the system (like each and every one of the runtime libs...).
Believe me when I say I DO understand what I'm talking about and it doesn't matter whether or not it's XP Embedded or not- they COULD make a modular OS that doesn't have half the problems that their current "consumer" or "professional" editions have.
Re:The Tucker store stinks
on
Worst Buy
·
· Score: 2
"maybe that manager should look for a job at fry's."
Hell, I've gotten better treatment from the Arlington, TX Fry's and the Garland, TX Fry's.
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You need a comm/network stack. If you don't use an OS, you end up rolling that yourself. That's NOT as easy as it sounds.
You need a GUI stack unless you're doing a simple register. If you don't use an OS with an app framework, you end up rolling that yourself. That's NOT as easy as it sounds.
Most people will choose to go with an embedded OS and GUI setup of some kind. The "thin" ones won't give you what you need (you don't want the daily reports locking up the machine- you might get that if you don't use a more advanced machine...) and the ones that DO give you what you need are pricey (Read QNX, for example...).
Linux is a good fit in this sort of role.
For example, the GDI calls aren't the same for Win95 and WinNT- API-wise, they're the same, but they don't DO the same things when called, merely similar things. Worse, if you try to PRINT the graphic you just did, the result will differ from printer to printer under NT but be surprisingly consistent for 95 for all printers. There's tons of others in that space.
The API's declaration is consistent, but what one version of Windows DOES with the parameters may differ slightly or radically from another, supposedly identical one.
An A1 certifiable system's grotesque overkill for most things the government does. Something along a B1 certifiable system would do nicely- something that an MS system couldn't do right now (nor, probably ever, from the looks of things at this point...).
There's a lot of things up on the moon that are more than abundant there that are much rarer here on Earth. The Helium 3 that it absorbs from the sun over time is sufficient to power the earth for many centuries to come- not to mention all the other stuff.
...I just don't want to be told that I can't play them on a Linux only laptop, etc. And don't tell me about using a portable or home player either- if I'm on the road, does that mean I need to buy another $500+ player or keep a Windows partition that I don't want (that eats up my disk space, normally not being used) in addition to my $1000 laptop?
"I don't see any mass uprising against the DMCA or against anything for that matter, so it means that the people approve it, at least by default. Joe Average doesn't care about such basic things as universal health care, a decent public education or a clean taxation system. Joe Average doesn't bother to understand those problems or to vote when all it takes is 2 hours driving to and from the polling station once every 2 years. Joe Average just grunmbles against Washington and "all those corrupt bastards" and doesn't give a shit.
"
That's because Joe average doesn't know about the DMCA and other very wrong laws- nor does he understand what the law being on the books means to him. Once explained, that travesty that Hollings calls a bill, draws very negative reactions from people- they just didn't know about it or what it meant to them. The same goes for the DMCA- it was QUIETLY done and the average person doesn't even know it exists. If they did and you explained to them what was made illegal- they'd more often than not be very pissed off.
As for voter apathy- I'll sum it up for you:
Nobody thinks they can change the system- for better or for worse. The people running for office are more often than not the flip sides of the same corrupt coin. So, if that's the case, why bother voting if the deck is heavily stacked in favor of the people already richer than anyone else and the people in power?
Right or wrong, that's what it seems that a lot of people think these days. If you've got that as a viewpoint, it becomes really hard to make a stand or anything else. It would take something heinous to get them to act.
"So, if you had a machine available to you that decrypted all SSH traffic on a subnet you specified, without you or it breaking a sweat, does this mean it's unreasonable of me to think my SSH session..."
Actually, it would be reasonable of you to view it as private- because you took some sort of measures to ensure it was not directly visible, you encrypted it with something. Doesn't matter if you use IDEA or a Captain Crunch decoder ring- you have some reasonable understanding that it's supposed to be private between you and those you're communicating with. Just because you can unpack it without effort means little in regards to privacy- you took some measures to obscure your communications so that they'd be private.
If you take no precautions, it becomes much more of a grey area. A telephone conversation (not mobile) could be deemed as private because under normal circumstances, only the people involved in the conversation could really be listening (normal, being not wiretapped, etc.). A typical mobile phone conversation, however, is much more analogous to a CB channel or you shouting your head off in your house with the windows open than a standard telephone conversation (No matter how much the mobile companies want you to think of it like a magic phone, it's still more of a radio than a phone in almost every sense of it's operation.). In that case, no real measures have been taken by anyone to obscure the content of the conversation going on over the airwaves.
There is no assurances of privacy involved in either of those cases, and unless you're using a digital spread spectrum phone (something making the session more resemble a wireline conversation- tougher but still not really obscuring it in a way that can't be snooped...) or encrypting it (preferably both in light of the previous aside...) you're operating under conditions not unlike the CB situation- whether you realize it or not. Ignorance of the conditions you're operating under doesn't make it any more a privacy protected situation.
Legally speaking, it's not. If it's trash, it is deemed to be of no import to you and therefore is fair game. A police officer may dig through your trash at any time and not need a warrant.
...because it's one of their execs openly spouting off like that when he SHOULD have kept his mouth shut (they were still in the original final throes of the trial over this VERY thing...). Just because they "didn't act on it" openly doesn't mean they didn't act on it or that we shouldn't be deeply troubled about the conduct all the same.
Never mind the court case. It's become public knowlege that they were thumbing their nose at the judge (which is what precipitated his off the bench remarks to begin with...). Moreso with this. People won't want to deal with companies that are this corrupt (which is what it is...).
Knowing something about the parts market (I DO work for a set-top box company that's working on...alternate solutions...) those boxes cost something in the ballpark of $600-800 to make. Volumes do NOT make it dramatically cheaper to make- the harddrive, Celeron, etc. don't come THAT cheap. Why do you think the set-top box market went belly-up? It's because the stupid companies went with Geodes, etc. because they were CHEAP. Bill of materials costing you only $200 or so.
No. That would require re-certification of the whole unit instead of just the part as it would be something completely new. One mistake and it might cause a catastrophe not unlike the Challenger accident.
These parts have to be generally rad resistant (the 8086 is that compared to most other parts...) capable of handling the thermal variances and the mechanical abuse that they'd get on the Shuttle. The Transmeta's not been ever rated for this sort of thing for starters and that right there jumps up the price considerably, even if you could guarantee that it DID work as designed in the original application- so much so that it IS cheaper scrounging for surplus 8086's at this point.
To a point, yeah, any PR helps them.
The problem now is that they've been found guilty of the same thing they're roughing up businesses, municipalities, etc. over- something they call "piracy".
The public just got reminded of that- and they're doing this BS. Not good. That kind of PR doesn't help, ever. They've went past the point that bad PR doesn't harm them and actually helps them.
Adverts only go so far in fixing an image where you're a big bully- MS is winning that image in spades of late as it struggles to increase profitability (which is mandated by the gods (as opposed to God) of Wall-Street and Nasdaq) which has, unfortunately, pretty much reached it's limits in the markets that MS has dominated.
When I say "nobody" I mean the general populace. 1991 would be when many started twigging onto the reality of things. I suspected, but didn't know what is now public knowlege until 1995. Most other people didn't either.
In both examples you give, it's from the people getting reamed that are spreading the word. I didn't know about Hit Men, but I did know about Some of Your Friends Are Already This Fucked back 1997 or so when it confirmed what I'd been suspecting since 1995.
That's right. Until recently, nobody except the people being screwed knew anything about it. And most of the people being reamed didn't think that it could be any other way so they kept quiet about it.
Nowadays, technology has come to the point that the producers of art (for music and literature, at least for now) don't need these parasites to get their stuff out to their customers. They might need someone to play filter/promoter, but they don't need the labels as they currently are to do that- anyone can play that role, incl. independant labels, etc.
If they have few or no end users, Wall Street doesn't like it because they're supposed to make money at what they're doing (and litigating people out of existance isn't making money no matter HOW you slice it.).
I really don't like Adobe now (as if I liked them before after them pulling the stunt they did with Dimitri...). I'm sure there will be others as they burn up whatever goodwill they have with their customer base suing people over rather stupid things.
Ardi produces a solution to that issue that currently works under x86 Linux and Windows. Of course, that would require them to license some 3rd-party clone to do it, but it's been done all the same.
Besides, all we really need is a binary implementation of the Sorenson codec to begin with since we HAVE a Quicktime framework or two that works under X anyway.
Macromedia seems to have a Flash player available for Linux (Clicking on the link will give you the option to download Flash 5 for Linux if you're running under it...)
As a Mac and PC owner, I will throw this comment out...
Looks don't get your work done. I could have "good looks" even on a PC and not get a single thing done with the looks.
A "good" GUI won't get your work done- your apps will. If the "good" GUI makes the box slower than it needs to, it may be getting in the way of your work instead of helping you, no matter how "easy" it is to use.
What a positively nauseating image you had there...
You don't get AIDS by sex alone. It can be conveyed in numerous other ways. A cut, for example could be exposed to it via contaminated substances, etc.
Grumble all you want. They could make a configuration, just like the X-Box (Clue: It's NOT a special configuration- if you believe that keep drinking thier Kool-aid...) that can do apps, etc. It's not a stretch to do a wordproc, etc. in the same manner they're doing games. Just don't keep changing the damn runtime libs like they do in regular Windows.
Which translates into a big thing- they can't spin it away so easily now. They HAVE to own up to it, because it's the Chairman of the Board that said it under oath.
Each and every one of those games are transiently installed and they are all largely "3rd party apps" with the notable exceptions of things from Bungie. In all honesty, MS could install a version of XP Embedded as a personal/server OS and very probably achieve the stability they keep touting (and missing for the most part) for their other platforms. Part of where the stability problems come in is from all the "integration" and the fact that thier apps and a lot of other apps change key pieces of the system (like each and every one of the runtime libs...).
Believe me when I say I DO understand what I'm talking about and it doesn't matter whether or not it's XP Embedded or not- they COULD make a modular OS that doesn't have half the problems that their current "consumer" or "professional" editions have.
"maybe that manager should look for a job at fry's."
Hell, I've gotten better treatment from the Arlington, TX Fry's and the Garland, TX Fry's.