So you're getting rid of Unix too? It was designed the same way as sendmail.
As soon as there's a usable alternative to Unix which is better, yes. Plan 9 was better, but isn't very useful. Windows is useful (in that there's a good community around it), but not better.
But there are usable alternatives to Sendmail which are more secure--so why not use them?
Postfix was written by the noted security expert Wietse Venema specifically so that bugs would not lead to security issues--e.g. instead of being one monolithic app which runs as root, it's broken down into several pieces, most of which run as non-privileged users.
Unlike sendmail, it was designed to be secure. I'll take the one for which security was not an afterthought, thankyouverymuch.
Remember slavery? How many Africans were killed, exactly?
Big difference between slaves who died 150-300 years ago, and protesters who died less than twenty years ago.
Infanticide? A lot of people would call aborton exactly that, so you're not off the hook there either.Yeah, I agree that it's wrong--but at least we're not forcing people to do that, as they do in China.
Not to mention dumpster babies, which America has had more than a few of.
A statistically insignificant number--and again, not the result of official coercion.
Many forced sterilisations back around the beginning of the twentieth century, and lots of Americans who think that we should bring back that kind of eugenics.
That was a long time ago.
Executing convicts? At least China doesn't execute children and the mentally incompetent. Oh wait, America finally bannd executing the mentally incompetent, although children are still fair game.
I don't believe that a child has been executed in the US in well over a century--possibly ever. We have executed adults who committed crimes as teenagers, which strikes me as perfectly decent: a 17 year old who rapes and murders is just as deserving of punishment as he would be if he'd waited a week.
And the idiots in the Supreme Court outlawed the practise anyway last year, in clear contravention of precedent and the plain meaning of the Constitution.
Also, AFAIK China does this still...
Censorship? Obviously you haven't been paying attention to the Republican's latest attempt to stop the media from revealing their crimes.
You're begging the question: was there a crime? There's a lot of very strong evidence that there was not. The laws in question would merely prevent publishing legitimate secrets, which is no big deal at all.
And the constant threats against Iran...
You mean the rogue state lead by a lunatic who worships an imam in a well and who threatens to wipe Israel from the map? You think we shouldn't try to keep them in line?
Don't dupe yourself -- America is a fascist state, and has been for some time now.
Don't kid yourself--America is nowhere near being a fascist state. Look, I disagree with a lot of what our State does (I'm a right-libertarian), but we are far, far from a regime like Hitler's, Stalin's, Mao's or even Gorbachev's.
And in any case, your objections are irrelevant: even were we as bad as you think, that would not make the Chinese any better in an absolute sense.
Am I pissed at the western press for giving Bush a free pass for so many years, and still showing a suprising lack of backbone even today?
You think that the press gave Bush a free pass? Dude, I want some of whatever you're on. Remember the Rather Memos? Remember the complete failure of Social Security reform? Remember No Child Left Behind, a product of Ted Kennedy which is now blamed on Bush? Remember the ludicrous Medicare prescription drug benefit?
If George W. Bush's name were Bill Clinton, he would be lauded for everything he's done: given Saddam the boot, increased the size of government and so forth. The only reason the press don't like him is because he's a Southerner, a Texan and belongs to a party partial to elephants.
Twit--you obviously feel free to speak out against the President and his policies, so apparently you're not afraid of being arrested. I'm reminded of the composer who put together anti-Stalinist pieces as a protest against the current administration, failing to note that Stalin executed men for humming such tunes, whereas Bush hasn't imprisoned a single person for opposing him.
Gosh, what could we have against the People's Republic of China? Well, there's the Tiananmen Square Massacre. And there's the Cultural Revolution, when millions were murdered. And there's the infanticide. And the practise of executing convicts (which is okay) and giving their organs to Party functionaries (which is not). And there're the constant threats against Taiwan. And there's the censorship. And...
Actually, IIRC (and I was a history minor, but that was long ago and far away), it was in part caused by welfare. The price of bread rose due to increases in the cost of materials, and so price controls were instituted so that the poor could afford to eat. And then bakers stopped producing bread because they would be losing money on the transaction, and shifted to selling other products. Add similar issues in other industries, and a small food shortage became a massive food shortage, and the ensuing riots resulted in the King convening the Three Estates, and the rest, as they say, is history.
If the key developers are gone, well development is halted... yes others can pick up where they left behind, and in 6months some development will start again by people that dont have the intimate knowledge of the system or the same set of skills. you could cripple most projects with that method
Of course, as How PostgreSQL Rose to Fame documents, PostgreSQL lay dormant for about two years and was picked up by a mostly-new set of developers. And it seems to be doing pretty well; no doubt MySQL could survive in a similar fashion.
Of course, my druthers would be for PostgreSQL to take over for MySQL, but that's just because I consider it a better database. It's conceivable that someday MySQL will be better. Although, quite frankly, I doubt it.
Oracle has become bloated and greedy (not unlike another large software company I could mention) and as their product continues to be mired in expensive add-ons and upgrades that not many IT departments have use for, they are seeing MySQL as the herald of their doom. MySQL is a lean, mean RDBMS that is slowly becoming the darling of programmers (how many PHP/MySQL books are there?) and Oracle is dominating the large-scale market but can't seem to make in-roads in the smaller markets. On the one hand, they covet MySQL's success; on the other, they see MySQL as a competitor to be squashed.
And then there's PostgreSQL: meaner, more stable and an actual proper RDBMS. MySQL is slowly getting better, no doubt (and I like that it has so many more built-in types), but PostgreSQL is far ahead of it, and just as easy to use. I find it truly stunning that so few projects are using it.
My family's first computer was a TI 99/4a, complete with external disk drive and a cable so it could write to an audio cassette. I remember the oldest of my little brothers helping me carry that huge disk drive down the stairs (well, we were something like 4 and 6) so that we could play Tunnels of Doom. I'd get my issues of The Electric Company and type in Basic programmes--the only problem was that they were always for Apple or IBM Basic, so I had to translate 'em. Without a reference manual, or any real understanding of what was going on. And then I'd record them to a tape, which like as not wouldn't play them back properly. Those were the days!
The first computer I ever owned was a Macintosh Classic my parents got me for Christmas one year. That was probably the best Christmas present I've ever gotten, and is probably responsible for my love of computers and my current career.
OSS kicks ass. It kicks ass because we GIVE each other the right to use, modify, and redistribute the code. There is no God given right that allows you to lay claim to the works of others...nor should there be. If they give you that right cool, but remember they are not evil because they choose not to.
And that's why Stallman prefers the term free software. He believes that it is evil to prevent the users of one's software from fixing it (remember, his whole project was spurred by a buggy proprietary printer driver), and from giving those fixes to others. I happen to agree with him: software should be free (as in freedom); users should be free. I don't see the world in black-and-white terms, though, so I tend not to talk about evil or good but about worse and better.
The Open Source movement argues that free software is technically better; the Free Software movement argues that free software is morally better. The former may be incidentally true, but not necessarily so--the latter is necessarily true.
Try going here sometime and looking through all of the licenses which Stallman not only had no part in authoring, but which he also would actually say are not "GPL compatible."
It's not that he says that they're incompatible; it's that they are actually illegal to use in conjunction with GPLed code. If you look at the FSF licenses page, you'll see that there are several free software licenses which are not GPL-compatible: they're free, but due to certain provisions they cannot be legally mixed.
Actually, you could probably make some money from that. Outfit a guy with armour and a sword, and let him fight the giant cassowary. Rent the armour & sword and charge a fee for each cassowary, and you could make a packet...
Do you need web access, or are you willing to deal with SSH-only? Or might you consider using one tool for the web and another via SSH?
If so, I'd recommend emacs. Gnus is an excellent mail client/newsreader, and emacs also offers calendaring functionality out of the box. Planner mode offers to-do lists, personal wikis and more. It's pretty sweet!
That's a common misconception--but the fact that life expectancy at birth was approximately 30 does not mean that there were few people over that age; rather, it reflects the high infant and childhood mortality rates. If you look at the lifespans of people who survived childhood, they're not much different from ours: Christopher Columbus lived to 55; Julius Caesar was 56 when he was murdered; Octavian was 77; Charlemagne was 67 or 69; Elizabeth I was 69; Alfred the Great was 50 and so on.
If you insist that embryos are living human beings, you should be consistent and also insist that ova and sperm cells are also living human beings.
No, because they're not: they haven't the right number of chromosomes, for one thing. An embryo, though, seemlessly transitions into an old man: there is no sudden moment, one side of which it's one thing and one side of which it's another. It's all a slow and gradual transition.
Now, religiously I doubt that an early-stage embryo has a soul (for it can split into identical twins, and obviously a soul cannot split), but scientifically it's as human as you & I.
The key is that the embryo is not a 'potential' life; it is a life--just a very young, very undeveloped one. Sperm and eggs are nothing more than gametes; they're just half-cells waiting to unite and become men.
It's only recently some religious zealots invented this absolutist anti-abortion nonsense.
Actually, it was secular physicians and the modern science of embryology which showed that the embryo is alive from its earlier moments, not a lump of flesh which receives a soul at some point.
A human embryo does not have a brain. Nor does it have a functional nervous system. Therefore it can neither think nor feel. Therefore, experimentation on them involves no suffering or loss of freedom (for the embryo).
A man in a coma can neither think nor feel, and experimentation thereon involves no suffering, but I wouldn't argue for that either.
Moreover, the embryo is very quickly developing a brain and nervous system. Does one semi-specialised nerve cell count as a brain? Do two? Do a thousand?
A grown man has more capabilities than a child, a child more than an infant, an infant more than a foetus, a foetus more than an embryo--but there is no instant change in kind, just slow and gradual improvement. The only instant change I can see is when the sperm and egg unite and the new creature is created.
The embryo is a new human being, albeit one with very impoverished faculties. To argue for his destruction is not different in kind from arguing for the destruction of anyone with diminished faculties.
Before WWII, many Japanese 'tourists' were seen taking all sorts of pictures (yes, even then they were known for it) of things like military bases and such--while the majority were legitimate, a not-insignificant minority were collecting intelligence for the Empire. Pearl Harbour was one of the sites photographed...
Given that we are in a war, given that our enemies like to attack civilian targets, given that an industrial target would be tempting to them--this makes perfect sense.
Undergrads enthusiastic about computers all too often transferred to other majors because they thought they were expected to emulate the MIT hacker culture in order to succeed. They were all high achievers who expected to give up parties and free time in exchange for an education, but they weren't willing to give up showers. Maybe if there were more figures like Emma Peel in popular culture they would have realized that you can both take care of yourself and gain skill.
The problem is that you can't. Every minute you spend taking care of yourself is a minute not spent gaining or improving skills. This doesn't really matter to most of us who aren't in hypercompetitive fields: the mild difference between a guy who spends every waking minute working and one who spends a few on other things really doesn't come into play. But when working with MIT types, and competing for the positions they seek (that is, the best of the best of the best), every little bit counts.
That's not to say that it's bad, wrong or incorrect to make that tradeoff; it's not. It's just that there is a tradeoff.
Plenty of Republicans agree that it's unfortunate that not everyone can afford premium health care; they just also realise that it's impossible to provide premium service to everyone.
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As soon as there's a usable alternative to Unix which is better, yes. Plan 9 was better, but isn't very useful. Windows is useful (in that there's a good community around it), but not better.
But there are usable alternatives to Sendmail which are more secure--so why not use them?
Unlike sendmail, it was designed to be secure. I'll take the one for which security was not an afterthought, thankyouverymuch.
First parsed as 'the possibilities are ripe' I was keen to reply '...and so are the French.'
Why does the new French navy have glass-bottomed hulls? So they can see the old French navy...
Big difference between slaves who died 150-300 years ago, and protesters who died less than twenty years ago.
Infanticide? A lot of people would call aborton exactly that, so you're not off the hook there either.Yeah, I agree that it's wrong--but at least we're not forcing people to do that, as they do in China.
Not to mention dumpster babies, which America has had more than a few of.
A statistically insignificant number--and again, not the result of official coercion.
Many forced sterilisations back around the beginning of the twentieth century, and lots of Americans who think that we should bring back that kind of eugenics.
That was a long time ago.
Executing convicts? At least China doesn't execute children and the mentally incompetent. Oh wait, America finally bannd executing the mentally incompetent, although children are still fair game.
I don't believe that a child has been executed in the US in well over a century--possibly ever. We have executed adults who committed crimes as teenagers, which strikes me as perfectly decent: a 17 year old who rapes and murders is just as deserving of punishment as he would be if he'd waited a week.
And the idiots in the Supreme Court outlawed the practise anyway last year, in clear contravention of precedent and the plain meaning of the Constitution.
Also, AFAIK China does this still...
Censorship? Obviously you haven't been paying attention to the Republican's latest attempt to stop the media from revealing their crimes.
You're begging the question: was there a crime? There's a lot of very strong evidence that there was not. The laws in question would merely prevent publishing legitimate secrets, which is no big deal at all.
And the constant threats against Iran ...
You mean the rogue state lead by a lunatic who worships an imam in a well and who threatens to wipe Israel from the map? You think we shouldn't try to keep them in line?
Don't dupe yourself -- America is a fascist state, and has been for some time now.
Don't kid yourself--America is nowhere near being a fascist state. Look, I disagree with a lot of what our State does (I'm a right-libertarian), but we are far, far from a regime like Hitler's, Stalin's, Mao's or even Gorbachev's.
And in any case, your objections are irrelevant: even were we as bad as you think, that would not make the Chinese any better in an absolute sense.
You think that the press gave Bush a free pass? Dude, I want some of whatever you're on. Remember the Rather Memos? Remember the complete failure of Social Security reform? Remember No Child Left Behind, a product of Ted Kennedy which is now blamed on Bush? Remember the ludicrous Medicare prescription drug benefit?
If George W. Bush's name were Bill Clinton, he would be lauded for everything he's done: given Saddam the boot, increased the size of government and so forth. The only reason the press don't like him is because he's a Southerner, a Texan and belongs to a party partial to elephants.
Twit--you obviously feel free to speak out against the President and his policies, so apparently you're not afraid of being arrested. I'm reminded of the composer who put together anti-Stalinist pieces as a protest against the current administration, failing to note that Stalin executed men for humming such tunes, whereas Bush hasn't imprisoned a single person for opposing him.
Gosh, what could we have against the People's Republic of China? Well, there's the Tiananmen Square Massacre. And there's the Cultural Revolution, when millions were murdered. And there's the infanticide. And the practise of executing convicts (which is okay) and giving their organs to Party functionaries (which is not). And there're the constant threats against Taiwan. And there's the censorship. And...
Baen rock. Their Webscriptions service is a great way to get books online--they've taken a fair chunk of my spare change that way. And the Baen Free Library is what introduced me to the works of Lois McMaster Bujold.
But my recollection could be incorrect.
Of course, as How PostgreSQL Rose to Fame documents, PostgreSQL lay dormant for about two years and was picked up by a mostly-new set of developers. And it seems to be doing pretty well; no doubt MySQL could survive in a similar fashion.
Of course, my druthers would be for PostgreSQL to take over for MySQL, but that's just because I consider it a better database. It's conceivable that someday MySQL will be better. Although, quite frankly, I doubt it.
And then there's PostgreSQL: meaner, more stable and an actual proper RDBMS. MySQL is slowly getting better, no doubt (and I like that it has so many more built-in types), but PostgreSQL is far ahead of it, and just as easy to use. I find it truly stunning that so few projects are using it.
The first computer I ever owned was a Macintosh Classic my parents got me for Christmas one year. That was probably the best Christmas present I've ever gotten, and is probably responsible for my love of computers and my current career.
And that's why Stallman prefers the term free software. He believes that it is evil to prevent the users of one's software from fixing it (remember, his whole project was spurred by a buggy proprietary printer driver), and from giving those fixes to others. I happen to agree with him: software should be free (as in freedom); users should be free. I don't see the world in black-and-white terms, though, so I tend not to talk about evil or good but about worse and better.
The Open Source movement argues that free software is technically better; the Free Software movement argues that free software is morally better. The former may be incidentally true, but not necessarily so--the latter is necessarily true.
It's not that he says that they're incompatible; it's that they are actually illegal to use in conjunction with GPLed code. If you look at the FSF licenses page, you'll see that there are several free software licenses which are not GPL-compatible: they're free, but due to certain provisions they cannot be legally mixed.
Actually, you could probably make some money from that. Outfit a guy with armour and a sword, and let him fight the giant cassowary. Rent the armour & sword and charge a fee for each cassowary, and you could make a packet...
If so, I'd recommend emacs. Gnus is an excellent mail client/newsreader, and emacs also offers calendaring functionality out of the box. Planner mode offers to-do lists, personal wikis and more. It's pretty sweet!
That's a common misconception--but the fact that life expectancy at birth was approximately 30 does not mean that there were few people over that age; rather, it reflects the high infant and childhood mortality rates. If you look at the lifespans of people who survived childhood, they're not much different from ours: Christopher Columbus lived to 55; Julius Caesar was 56 when he was murdered; Octavian was 77; Charlemagne was 67 or 69; Elizabeth I was 69; Alfred the Great was 50 and so on.
No, because they're not: they haven't the right number of chromosomes, for one thing. An embryo, though, seemlessly transitions into an old man: there is no sudden moment, one side of which it's one thing and one side of which it's another. It's all a slow and gradual transition.
Now, religiously I doubt that an early-stage embryo has a soul (for it can split into identical twins, and obviously a soul cannot split), but scientifically it's as human as you & I.
I was using 'man' in the generic sense, as in mankind.
The key is that the embryo is not a 'potential' life; it is a life--just a very young, very undeveloped one. Sperm and eggs are nothing more than gametes; they're just half-cells waiting to unite and become men.
Actually, it was secular physicians and the modern science of embryology which showed that the embryo is alive from its earlier moments, not a lump of flesh which receives a soul at some point.
A man in a coma can neither think nor feel, and experimentation thereon involves no suffering, but I wouldn't argue for that either.
Moreover, the embryo is very quickly developing a brain and nervous system. Does one semi-specialised nerve cell count as a brain? Do two? Do a thousand?
A grown man has more capabilities than a child, a child more than an infant, an infant more than a foetus, a foetus more than an embryo--but there is no instant change in kind, just slow and gradual improvement. The only instant change I can see is when the sperm and egg unite and the new creature is created.
The embryo is a new human being, albeit one with very impoverished faculties. To argue for his destruction is not different in kind from arguing for the destruction of anyone with diminished faculties.
Given that we are in a war, given that our enemies like to attack civilian targets, given that an industrial target would be tempting to them--this makes perfect sense.
The problem is that you can't. Every minute you spend taking care of yourself is a minute not spent gaining or improving skills. This doesn't really matter to most of us who aren't in hypercompetitive fields: the mild difference between a guy who spends every waking minute working and one who spends a few on other things really doesn't come into play. But when working with MIT types, and competing for the positions they seek (that is, the best of the best of the best), every little bit counts.
That's not to say that it's bad, wrong or incorrect to make that tradeoff; it's not. It's just that there is a tradeoff.
Plenty of Republicans agree that it's unfortunate that not everyone can afford premium health care; they just also realise that it's impossible to provide premium service to everyone.