I can see what you're saying here, and you do have some good points, but as the AC (rather rudely) pointed out there is a problem when it comes to popular software - using WINE just doesn't cut it. One of my main reasons for using Windows is the wealth of music composition software available for it - stuff that just isn't available on other platforms. Its popularity is a good feature, IMO.
But there are other reasons..
To give you a bit of background, I've been using Windows since 1992 and various flavours of Unix, including Linux, since 1997. Most times I've had a Windows and a Unix box available to work on. My current setup is Windows XP as a desktop box and the use of several Unix servers running OpenBSD at work. I also have access to a lab full of RedHat Linux machines which I use sporadically.
Well for starters, he is always asking me for advice and assistance with his system...and I have to go through and find ways to deal with the system settings, the control panel, all of that. Since I don't use Windows, it is tedious. The way things are arranged seems goofy (and I'm willing to bet that Linux seems goofy to Windows users).
The 'goofiest' thing I find with the various Unices is the use of configuration files to control the setup of programs. These are of many different formats with different extensions and there is often a muddle of command line switches to deal with too. In Windows there is the registry, split into segments called hives so you can split the configuration informations for the machine and the users.
Now, you may say the registry is bloatware, overkill, etc. but it is incredibly useful to have a standard structure and a standard API to store setup information. No more parsing of tens of different file formats.
If you have Linux and simply NEED to run a Windows App or game, well I haven't tried WINE, but VMWare has an excellent product which allows you to run XP (or Win2000) in a window in KDE or Gnome (or whatever windowing environment you choose--you have freedom to choose in Linux). VMWare does work, you can even try different distros of Linux in the VMWare window, to see if you like that distro better.
I've tried VMWare on NT to run OpenBSD in a box, and on Linux to run Windows 98 in a box, and I wasn't impressed. It was too slow and the screen updates were lacking. As for this freedom to choose - you also have that in Windows if you wish. You could replace the components that draw the windows etc. with your own if you really want to.
(rename all the files that have the name of G(bunch of letters)-1999-(two digits)-(two digits), to G(bunch of letters)-1998-(two digits)-(two digits) (f you have the year wrong when those files were created, and you don't want to go through and change one number in each filename by hand, when there are around 1200 of them!)
I use Perl (the ActivePerl distribution) on Windows to do any scripting tasks like that. Although, I could use the Windows Scripting Host to achieve the same ends I'm more used to Perl.
I could go on, but basically Windows can do everything Unix can. As with any OS, it just takes time and effort to learn the capabilities of it.
Re:where do they get these numbers??
on
WarTalking Arrest
·
· Score: 1, Troll
The next paragraph describes what they base these numbers on:
District Clerk Charles Bacarisse told the paper that confidential information was disclosed and the alleged intrusion eventually resulted in the county closing its wireless LAN only a month after it was activated.
Theft of information and the associated cost of dismantling the service is going to add up to at least five grand. I'm surprised it's not more.
And besides, computer hacking should stay underground where it belongs. Thinking it is good and proper to attack someone else's systems is ridiculous.
It's like gangs of burglars coming round to your house, breaking in and then telling you exactly how they kicked your doorframe in.
The current state of computer security is that we have legitimate companies of these burglars selling their 'security services'. It's ridiculous!
He should go down for this
on
WarTalking Arrest
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
On March 18, Puffer demonstrated to a county official and a Chronicle reporter how easy it was to gain access to the court's system using only a laptop computer and a wireless LAN card.
He obviously did it, so why shouldn't he be prosecuted?
I mean, come on. If some random outsider came up to me and started bragging about how he'd hacked my company's system I'd get the police and our legal department onto him straight away!
Flash-only unfortunate?
on
Fahrenheit
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
Why is it so unfortunate that it is Flash-only?
Would you prefer it if it was in Java?
I can't think of any other popular way of presenting the same material that it shows.
Flash is present in over 80% of the installed web browser base. I hardly think it is 'unfortunate' for people to use it!
How to think like a computer scientist
on
Think Python
·
· Score: 1
Sounds like a good read for anyone who thinks that 'computer science' is 'installing Linux and setting up a web server'.
The most pure computer science is essentially mathematical at heart. I don't think current CS curriculums put enough emphasis on that basic tenet.
Why do so many people on this weblog have such a bizarre obsession with beer?
At least twice a week there'll be a "mmm.. beer" post which inevitably gets modded up Funny or Overrated. And lots of similarly obsessed replies.
And, even worse, half the time the poster exudes some kind of smug satisfaction, as if they've just turned eighteen and are suddenly allowed in the bar.
Just go straight to http://www.yaledailynews.com, it has it on the front page which I would assume is static, and therefore less liable to give a HTTP 500 error.
Princeton officials broke into Yale online admissions decisions Yale to inform law enforcement officials of alleged network, privacy breach BY ELISE JORDAN AND ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER Staff Reporters
Princeton admissions officers gained repeated, unauthorized access to the admissions decisions of 11 Yale applicants in early April by exploiting Yale's new online admission notification system, Yale and Princeton officials said Wednesday.
A security report drafted by Yale's Information Technology Services showed that Princeton officials viewed Yale admissions decisions -- in several cases before applicants learned whether they had been accepted -- by inputting the applicants' birth dates and social security numbers to bypass Yale's security measures.
Yale General Counsel Dorothy Robinson said the University considers Princeton's actions an abuse of the private information students provided on their applications, a violation of Yale's computer network, and possibly a breach of several criminal statutes. Robinson said the University will consult law enforcement officials Thursday and notify all the affected applicants of Princeton's actions.
"We do believe there was a very serious violation of the privacy of the individuals," Robinson said. "It is a matter which we believe law enforcement should be informed about."
Stephen LeMenager, a dean of admissions at Princeton, characterized Princeton's use of Yale's Web site as an innocent way to check whether the site was secure by using a random sampling of students whose social security numbers were listed on their applications to Princeton. He said he did not know why certain records were accessed several times.
Yale officials said they learned of the security breach in June, after Princeton officials informally mentioned that they had accessed students' records on Yale's admissions Web site at an Ivy League deans' conference.
Yale then commissioned an investigation, which found records of 18 separate log-ins to the site from Princeton computers, accessing the information of 11 applicants. Fourteen of the log-ins were traced to four different computers at the admissions office.
In four cases, applicants did not view their sites -- or admissions decisions -- until after they had been accessed by computers at Princeton.
Alexander Clark '04, who developed the admissions Web site and prepared the security report for Yale officials on June 20, said he double- and triple-checked data in his report. Clark said members of Yale's Information Security office also reviewed and signed off on his findings.
The Web site, which was launched by the admissions office in December, was designed to allow applicants to access their admissions decisions online using their names, birth dates and social security number as passwords.
Upon the first log-in, accepted students were greeted with a display of virtual fireworks. Rejected students also received notification. After the first log-in, the decision screen no longer appeared, making it unclear to a student whether they had been admitted or denied admission.
Students were able to provide information about themselves, including extracurricular interests and a personal profile. By logging in, Princeton officials had access to those students' records and profiles.
Princeton could face legal action as well as a loss of funding if the allegations are proven.
The university could potentially lose its limited amount of federal funding if it is found to have violated the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act -- commonly known as the Buckley Amendment. The Buckley Amendment was designed to safeguard student information, and experts said the use of student social security numbers and access of protected information for Yale applicants may constitute a legal infraction.
Jennifer Granick, the litigation director for the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, said Princeton could also be sued for accessing Yale's Web site accounts without authorization.
Granick said that requiring a name, birth date and social security number to access the Web site could legally be construed as meaning anyone with those three pieces of information could log in. But she added that the presence of a disclaimer screen, which warned users of the site that it was only intended for the personal use of the applicant, made Princeton officials' use of the site vulnerable to a lawsuit or even criminal charges.
Granick said the standard for criminal charges included proof of criminal intent, and to be charged criminally in the federal system, someone would have to have caused $5,000 worth of damage. LeMenager said he and his colleagues meant no harm in accessing the information, and instead were attempting to assuage their own concerns about Web site security.
"It was really an innocent way for us to check out the security," LeMenager said. "That was our main concern of having an online notification system, that it would be susceptible to people who had that information - parents, guidance counselors, and admissions officers at other schools."
Harvard's director of admissions, Marlyn McGrath Lewis, said she was not surprised there had been unauthorized access to Yale's Web site.
"Any system that could be cracked, I think will be," McGrath Lewis said.
Clark, the designer of Yale's system, defended the security of the admissions site, and said security is only as good as the password. He said the passwords were chosen because of their "personally identifiable nature."
He added that he expects Yale will use a similar notification system for the Class of 2007, but will require personal identification numbers to access the information. Robinson said Yale's Web site was secure, and that no other breaches of security had been recorded.
"We did take a broader view and a broader look at the security of the system and we did not find evidence of any similar break-ins or wrongdoing," Robinson said. "So in other words, the activity that happened from Princeton was unique."
Why is it that so many people posting to this weblog fail to understand patents? Do they not realise that you can hold a patent on a specific design of something even if it has been done before different? Can you understand what prior art means?
Indeed? Are you religious at all? And have you tried any of the three things you disapprove of?
I think those are reasonable, sensible views. Only in hindsight though.
Before I'd done drugs (cannabis), drank alcohol and had premarital sex I was a lot more content with life.
The drugs messed my mind up quite a bit. The premarital sex - or rather the relationship that entailed that - messed my mind up a lot. And drinking didn't help matters much.
On the other hand, before I'd done all these things I was quite interested in trying them out. Hah. So in some bizarre way I'm glad I tried them all, especially if the negative effects can be counteracted in the future.
P.S. This isn't a troll (unlike most of my other posts this evening.)
I agree with this post. People should stop whinging! I hate people who whinge all the time, they really piss me off. Honestly, they just don't stop. I can't walk down to the shop to get a packet of overpriced crisps without hearing some annoying fool whinging on about who's annoying them this week. Damnit!
I think the point is that generally, people who whinge on about foreigners getting the nice jobs and the decent pay are just pretty crap at their jobs.
Unrelated to foreigners; I work with a guy who is completely rubbish at his job. We are both designers/programmers at a manufacturing company. Every week he whinges on at me about how stressed he is about how things aren't working - the reality is, he doesn't have the first clue about why or what to do to approach the problem. Then on top of that he starts going on about how much he should be paid if they want to keep him, quoting figures that are quite above what I'm being paid.
So anyway, I just sit there and be all sympathetic to him hoping he'll shut it and get on with what he's paid to do, or at least talk about something more interesting.
But my point is - arrogance and delusion. That is the problem with the people complaining about foreigners 'taking their jobs' (as well as a bit of background racism.)
But otherwise illegal acts are already carried out by ruling organizations - this already happens and is endorsed on a much wider scale.
For example, the death penalty for serious crimes. It's murder - except when the government do it!
And just look at religion. One of the commandments in Christianity is "you shall not murder". How hypocritical when their own god went and meticulously tortured and killed sections of a whole race of people (the Egyptians.)
Don't be shocked about this. There are many, many occurances of the same sort of thing to show that history does indeed repeat itself.
Slashdot Mirror
No, Taco's just trolling again for banner ad hits. Don't worry about it, just turn image loading off in your browser.
Yet another first person shooter. How tedious.
But there are other reasons
To give you a bit of background, I've been using Windows since 1992 and various flavours of Unix, including Linux, since 1997. Most times I've had a Windows and a Unix box available to work on. My current setup is Windows XP as a desktop box and the use of several Unix servers running OpenBSD at work. I also have access to a lab full of RedHat Linux machines which I use sporadically.
- Well for starters, he is always asking me for advice and assistance with his system...and I have to go through and find ways to deal with the system settings, the control panel, all of that. Since I don't use Windows, it is tedious. The way things are arranged seems goofy (and I'm willing to bet that Linux seems goofy to Windows users).
The 'goofiest' thing I find with the various Unices is the use of configuration files to control the setup of programs. These are of many different formats with different extensions and there is often a muddle of command line switches to deal with too. In Windows there is the registry, split into segments called hives so you can split the configuration informations for the machine and the users.Now, you may say the registry is bloatware, overkill, etc. but it is incredibly useful to have a standard structure and a standard API to store setup information. No more parsing of tens of different file formats.
- If you have Linux and simply NEED to run a Windows App or game, well I haven't tried WINE, but VMWare has an excellent product which allows you to run XP (or Win2000) in a window in KDE or Gnome (or whatever windowing environment you choose--you have freedom to choose in Linux). VMWare does work, you can even try different distros of Linux in the VMWare window, to see if you like that distro better.
I've tried VMWare on NT to run OpenBSD in a box, and on Linux to run Windows 98 in a box, and I wasn't impressed. It was too slow and the screen updates were lacking. As for this freedom to choose - you also have that in Windows if you wish. You could replace the components that draw the windows etc. with your own if you really want to.- (rename all the files that have the name of G(bunch of letters)-1999-(two digits)-(two digits), to G(bunch of letters)-1998-(two digits)-(two digits) (f you have the year wrong when those files were created, and you don't want to go through and change one number in each filename by hand, when there are around 1200 of them!)
I use Perl (the ActivePerl distribution) on Windows to do any scripting tasks like that. Although, I could use the Windows Scripting Host to achieve the same ends I'm more used to Perl.I could go on, but basically Windows can do everything Unix can. As with any OS, it just takes time and effort to learn the capabilities of it.
- District Clerk Charles Bacarisse told the paper that confidential information was disclosed and the alleged intrusion eventually resulted in the county closing its wireless LAN only a month after it was activated.
Theft of information and the associated cost of dismantling the service is going to add up to at least five grand. I'm surprised it's not more.Exactly.
And besides, computer hacking should stay underground where it belongs. Thinking it is good and proper to attack someone else's systems is ridiculous.
It's like gangs of burglars coming round to your house, breaking in and then telling you exactly how they kicked your doorframe in.
The current state of computer security is that we have legitimate companies of these burglars selling their 'security services'. It's ridiculous!
- On March 18, Puffer demonstrated to a county official and a Chronicle reporter how easy it was to gain access to the court's system using only a laptop computer and a wireless LAN card.
He obviously did it, so why shouldn't he be prosecuted?I mean, come on. If some random outsider came up to me and started bragging about how he'd hacked my company's system I'd get the police and our legal department onto him straight away!
Why is it so unfortunate that it is Flash-only?
Would you prefer it if it was in Java?
I can't think of any other popular way of presenting the same material that it shows.
Flash is present in over 80% of the installed web browser base. I hardly think it is 'unfortunate' for people to use it!
Sounds like a good read for anyone who thinks that 'computer science' is 'installing Linux and setting up a web server'.
The most pure computer science is essentially mathematical at heart. I don't think current CS curriculums put enough emphasis on that basic tenet.
Why do so many people on this weblog have such a bizarre obsession with beer?
.. beer" post which inevitably gets modded up Funny or Overrated. And lots of similarly obsessed replies.
At least twice a week there'll be a "mmm
And, even worse, half the time the poster exudes some kind of smug satisfaction, as if they've just turned eighteen and are suddenly allowed in the bar.
Anyone else notice this?
Please define "stupid user". Thx.
- At the time he was looking for a computer, I couldn't convince him that Linux would be a better choice
..
I'm not surprised. As far as features, ease-of-use and stability go, XP wins hands down.Exactly how would Linux have been a better choice for your friend?
Yes, so do I. But it changes every two hours as I'm on dialup, so if that was some sort of veiled threat - it didn't work.
Your opinions seem a bit warped. Maybe you should get out of the house more an experience some of the "real world" ..?
Damnit, boy, you make Slashdot look professional!
Your website doesn't work properly. It looks shit and comment posting doesn't work.
slashdotsucks.com sucks!
Just go straight to http://www.yaledailynews.com, it has it on the front page which I would assume is static, and therefore less liable to give a HTTP 500 error.
Princeton officials broke into Yale online admissions decisions
Yale to inform law enforcement officials of alleged network, privacy breach
BY ELISE JORDAN AND ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER
Staff Reporters
Princeton admissions officers gained repeated, unauthorized access to the admissions decisions of 11 Yale applicants in early April by exploiting Yale's new online admission notification system, Yale and Princeton officials said Wednesday.
A security report drafted by Yale's Information Technology Services showed that Princeton officials viewed Yale admissions decisions -- in several cases before applicants learned whether they had been accepted -- by inputting the applicants' birth dates and social security numbers to bypass Yale's security measures.
Yale General Counsel Dorothy Robinson said the University considers Princeton's actions an abuse of the private information students provided on their applications, a violation of Yale's computer network, and possibly a breach of several criminal statutes. Robinson said the University will consult law enforcement officials Thursday and notify all the affected applicants of Princeton's actions.
"We do believe there was a very serious violation of the privacy of the individuals," Robinson said. "It is a matter which we believe law enforcement should be informed about."
Stephen LeMenager, a dean of admissions at Princeton, characterized Princeton's use of Yale's Web site as an innocent way to check whether the site was secure by using a random sampling of students whose social security numbers were listed on their applications to Princeton. He said he did not know why certain records were accessed several times.
Yale officials said they learned of the security breach in June, after Princeton officials informally mentioned that they had accessed students' records on Yale's admissions Web site at an Ivy League deans' conference.
Yale then commissioned an investigation, which found records of 18 separate log-ins to the site from Princeton computers, accessing the information of 11 applicants. Fourteen of the log-ins were traced to four different computers at the admissions office.
In four cases, applicants did not view their sites -- or admissions decisions -- until after they had been accessed by computers at Princeton.
Alexander Clark '04, who developed the admissions Web site and prepared the security report for Yale officials on June 20, said he double- and triple-checked data in his report. Clark said members of Yale's Information Security office also reviewed and signed off on his findings.
The Web site, which was launched by the admissions office in December, was designed to allow applicants to access their admissions decisions online using their names, birth dates and social security number as passwords.
Upon the first log-in, accepted students were greeted with a display of virtual fireworks. Rejected students also received notification. After the first log-in, the decision screen no longer appeared, making it unclear to a student whether they had been admitted or denied admission.
Students were able to provide information about themselves, including extracurricular interests and a personal profile. By logging in, Princeton officials had access to those students' records and profiles.
Princeton could face legal action as well as a loss of funding if the allegations are proven.
The university could potentially lose its limited amount of federal funding if it is found to have violated the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act -- commonly known as the Buckley Amendment. The Buckley Amendment was designed to safeguard student information, and experts said the use of student social security numbers and access of protected information for Yale applicants may constitute a legal infraction.
Jennifer Granick, the litigation director for the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, said Princeton could also be sued for accessing Yale's Web site accounts without authorization.
Granick said that requiring a name, birth date and social security number to access the Web site could legally be construed as meaning anyone with those three pieces of information could log in. But she added that the presence of a disclaimer screen, which warned users of the site that it was only intended for the personal use of the applicant, made Princeton officials' use of the site vulnerable to a lawsuit or even criminal charges.
Granick said the standard for criminal charges included proof of criminal intent, and to be charged criminally in the federal system, someone would have to have caused $5,000 worth of damage. LeMenager said he and his colleagues meant no harm in accessing the information, and instead were attempting to assuage their own concerns about Web site security.
"It was really an innocent way for us to check out the security," LeMenager said. "That was our main concern of having an online notification system, that it would be susceptible to people who had that information - parents, guidance counselors, and admissions officers at other schools."
Harvard's director of admissions, Marlyn McGrath Lewis, said she was not surprised there had been unauthorized access to Yale's Web site.
"Any system that could be cracked, I think will be," McGrath Lewis said.
Clark, the designer of Yale's system, defended the security of the admissions site, and said security is only as good as the password. He said the passwords were chosen because of their "personally identifiable nature."
He added that he expects Yale will use a similar notification system for the Class of 2007, but will require personal identification numbers to access the information. Robinson said Yale's Web site was secure, and that no other breaches of security had been recorded.
"We did take a broader view and a broader look at the security of the system and we did not find evidence of any similar break-ins or wrongdoing," Robinson said. "So in other words, the activity that happened from Princeton was unique."
Well, that's what you get when you put a bunch of clever people together - sneaky but interesting solutions to problems such as this.
If anything, it shows that the guys at Princeton can 'think outside the box' more than those at Yale.
I'm impressed.
Why is it that so many people posting to this weblog fail to understand patents? Do they not realise that you can hold a patent on a specific design of something even if it has been done before different? Can you understand what prior art means?
Perhaps he meant MAME32?
Indeed? Are you religious at all? And have you tried any of the three things you disapprove of?
I think those are reasonable, sensible views. Only in hindsight though.
Before I'd done drugs (cannabis), drank alcohol and had premarital sex I was a lot more content with life.
The drugs messed my mind up quite a bit.
The premarital sex - or rather the relationship that entailed that - messed my mind up a lot.
And drinking didn't help matters much.
On the other hand, before I'd done all these things I was quite interested in trying them out. Hah. So in some bizarre way I'm glad I tried them all, especially if the negative effects can be counteracted in the future.
P.S. This isn't a troll (unlike most of my other posts this evening.)
I agree with this post. People should stop whinging! I hate people who whinge all the time, they really piss me off. Honestly, they just don't stop. I can't walk down to the shop to get a packet of overpriced crisps without hearing some annoying fool whinging on about who's annoying them this week. Damnit!
I think the point is that generally, people who whinge on about foreigners getting the nice jobs and the decent pay are just pretty crap at their jobs.
Unrelated to foreigners; I work with a guy who is completely rubbish at his job. We are both designers/programmers at a manufacturing company. Every week he whinges on at me about how stressed he is about how things aren't working - the reality is, he doesn't have the first clue about why or what to do to approach the problem. Then on top of that he starts going on about how much he should be paid if they want to keep him, quoting figures that are quite above what I'm being paid.
So anyway, I just sit there and be all sympathetic to him hoping he'll shut it and get on with what he's paid to do, or at least talk about something more interesting.
But my point is - arrogance and delusion. That is the problem with the people complaining about foreigners 'taking their jobs' (as well as a bit of background racism.)
Yes, but some things are only obvious after someone has already thought of it ...
But otherwise illegal acts are already carried out by ruling organizations - this already happens and is endorsed on a much wider scale.
For example, the death penalty for serious crimes. It's murder - except when the government do it!
And just look at religion. One of the commandments in Christianity is "you shall not murder". How hypocritical when their own god went and meticulously tortured and killed sections of a whole race of people (the Egyptians.)
Don't be shocked about this. There are many, many occurances of the same sort of thing to show that history does indeed repeat itself.