I suggest everyone watches the 3 parter BBC program 'The Power of Nightmares' which while primarily about the West's handling of the rise of Islamic Fundementalism, it does show clearly how the governments around the world manipulate public opinion in an alarming way to get to an endpoint they desire.
Ah, I suppose that Poitiers and Vienna were just figments of my imagination. Islam has been the West's intractable enemy since 632; in some centuries its power has waxed and in others it has waned, but it has never gone away and it has never been utterly defeated. Its goal is the subjugation of the world--and yet you and your ilk seem to think it harmless.
I don't get the worship we have for privacy. It is illegal in the United States to publicise student test scores or course grades--in other countries these things are published in the local papers. The truth shall set you free: your academic performance is your performance, and even if you did want to keep it private employers--the folks one might want to hide it from the most--will demand it anyway if you want a job. Even medical privacy (which is generally a reasonable and good thing) can be taken too far: if someone is a threat to the public, shouldn't the public know it?
I'm not even certain that privacy's really a right. Rights are active: I have a right to worship or not worship God; I have a right to speak; I have a right to own weapons; I have a right to drink, smoke or inject anything I want; I have a right to do what I will with my own property, so long as it does not impinge on the rights of others. I'm not certain that the passive state of not-having-some-information-made-public is much of a right.
I'm not against privacy, nor do I think it should be eliminated wholesale (e.g. one has an expectation when in one's home that no-one's eavesdropping). I just think that we could be a lot more sane about it. Who cares if academic information is known?
GPS devices to track mileage?!? Why not just use the odometer? Well, besides the obvious reason that while an odometer tracks mileage, a GPS unit can be used to track position. That power would never be abused, I'm certain.
Sendmail is a lot more than just an SMTP/local mail server; it can act as a fairly complex mail gateway and can deal with a lot of older, funkier email protocols (UUCP, mail11, HylaFax and QuickPage according to Wikipedia; I could have sworn that it also handled Bitnet or Fidonet or something like that). It can also handle more email throughput than Postfix (or, I believe, qmail, exim and others). If you need to handle a large volume of email and cannot buy extra boxes to run Postfix, then you might need to use Sendmail instead. If you need to deal with some funky mail protocols beside SMTP, then you probably need to use Sendmail (although Postfix can handle some of 'em anyway, I daresay those code paths are even less exercised than Sendmail's...).
Oh, and if you want plausible deniability when your box starts acting maliciously on the network, Sendmail might be a good idea. That and SSH protocol 1 or even telnet/ftp...
This guy posted a list of recent Sendmail vulnerabilities. Moreover, Sendmail does too much and is too hairy for the vast majority of mail servers out there (I'll pull a number out of thin air and say 99.999% of mail servers just need to talk SMTP and local delivery and can safely ignore UUCP, Bitnet and the rest, and probably 90% don't need to scalability of Sendmail), and its monolithic nature means that a vulnerability in one part can easily lead to a root exploit.
Postfix, OTOH, was designed to reduce risk from the get-go. It's broken down into several small programmes, only a few of which need privileged authority; if an unprivileged programme has a bug it can't be exploited to get root privileges--that's pretty key.
The ease of configurability is also IMHO a security feature. Postfix makes it relatively easy to be certain that it's properly and securely configured; Sendmail just doesn't.
Postfix isn't perfect, of course: Sendmail can handle greater message throughput. But there's no reason that a RedHat, Solaris or AIX install should default to Sendmail. If you need Sendmail, sure--use it. But it should be a conscious decision, taken
Very different. The Linux/Unix Administration Handbooks are excellent works--you really can't be a sysadmin without one of 'em on your bookshelf. This book is good, but oriented more towards particular problems, while the L/UAH are full of vital day-to-day stuff.
Bram has done a fantastic job by writing two manuals--the user guide, to get you started, and the reference manual to exhaustively explain everything. Emacs has only one manual.
Huh? Emacs has the tutorial (C-h t or F1 t) to get one started; it has a reference manual {C-h i m emacs or F1 i m emacs); it has a language manual (C-h i m elisp or F1 i m elisp). Then there's the documentation for any function (e.g. C-h f goto-line) or variable (e.g. C-h v global-font-lock-mode), and for the current mode (C-h m or F1 m).
Emacs is easier than vim to start out with (it's not modal in the sense that vi is), gets a little hairier for a bit, then becomes much more pleasant. Being able to extend one's writing environment is wonderful. Having a text editing environment optimised for, of all things, editing text is wonderful.
I don't get all these comments about dropping things in toilets. I've never--ever--accidentally dropped something into a toilet. What do you people do, brush your teeth over the toilet? Count change over an open toilet? Sign mortgages over a toilet? I mean, sheesh...
I kinda want to add both a urinal and a bidet. The problem is that this would require a bathroom as large as a small bedroom. But it'd certainly be cool!
If you're going to be pragmatic, ditch the land line.
I just got a mobile phone for the first time. Egad, the voice quality is atrocious! Calling someone else's mobile can be an exciting adventure in 'hello? hello? you still there?' Compare to POTS, which Just Works 99.999% of the time. Then there's all the nickel-and-diming the mobile plans like to hit you with.
And even the most basic plan costs more than basic telephone service.
the small govt. republicans just can't resist growing the government to enforce their particular morality
Ah, unlike those Democrats who try to ban hate speech, hate crimes, employment discrimination, housing discrimination and other instances of their particular morality.
In other words, it ain't a Republican-vs.-Democrat thing; it's a human thing.
We don't have to review the source of all the programs we use to gain the "transparency" benefit of Open Source or Free Software. The idea is "many eyes", not "my eyes".
Well, the benefit of Free Software is precisely the user's eyes. Open Source is about writing decent software; Free Software is about freedom. And freedom is its own benefit.
Yes, some of us are prepared to use the best tool for the job rather than blindly follow FOSS.
Almost by definition, a proprietary tool cannot be the best tool for the job. When choosing a piece of software, one must take into account a myriad of factors: features; performance; support; mainenance; cost. Being able to hack the source code for every piece of software on my computer is worth quite a lot to me; it means that free software is never abandonware. Even more importantly, free software makes getting around foolish rights-limitation schemes trivial.
The only thing worse than ending a series is dragging it on past its natural conclusion.
See Babylon 5, where they had the final season cancelled, had to finish up quickly, then got a final season after all and, bereft of ideas, sucked hard vacuum for the final season. One of the worst things to happen to a great series.
Watching a SF show like BSG, Firefly, Babylon 5, the new hit Heroes, or even the reviled Deep Space 9 requires a good understanding of a large backstory in order to truly appreciate it.
Kinda like life and history, come to think of it...
I understand yet dislike Firefly and despise BSG. Does that make me an idiot?
Yes.
More seriously, perhaps not an idiot, but obviously lacking in taste and discernment.
More seriously still, I can see good reasons for disliking them from a certain perspective, as they do not serve to instill & encourage the virtues, but are simply entertainment. However, taken as entertainment I think that they are excellent, and I would have strong reservations about the aesthetic judgement of someone who dislikes them.
Actually, the reason we use the feminine gender to refer to ships is that in most European languages 'ship' has feminine grammatical gender. As to why they do it, I have no idea; apparently there are reasons why apples are feminine but little girls are neuter.
When personal or targetted solutions are possible, why do politicians always gravitate towards the most intrusive and broadest legislative solution as the answer?
I think because the targetted solution normally already exists, and nowadays no-one gets elected for arguing 'I preserved the law unchanged.' As an example, murder is already illegal--but folks want to ban guns too. Another: wife-beating was already illegal--but folks banned alcohol anyway. Another: driving impaired is already illegal--but people have banned drugs and want to ban alcohol again. And on and on it goes.
I have a 2070N and have been extremely happy with it so far. I had a spot of trouble getting it to work nicely on my network and was too lazy to troubleshoot it, so instead I just plugged it in via USB, whiched worked well. I think there's also a parallel port interface, but I've never played with it. Linux sees it and prints to it like a charm! A laser printer for approximately $100, IIRC--it doesn't get much better than that.
It's sad, that all the great volunteer work that went into Linux helps the military.
How is it sad? The military are the armed forces of our nation, composed of citizens just like the rest of us whose job is to execute the lawful orders of the President, as authorised by the Congress; they carry out our defense & foreign policy. It's excellent that our armed forces derive a benefit from Linux and other free software.
Looking at your quote, they replaced 'programming experience' with 'broad interests, diverse perspectives and whether applicants seem to have potential to be future leaders.' This is a computer science programme, not a political science one! Computer scientists probably do have broad interests, and may have diverse perspectives (although 'diverse perspectives' is a code word...). But leadership?!? Computer geeks aren't leaders; we're the guys who sit hunched in front of our computers for hours at a time, not the guys who spend hours on campaign posters trying to be Student Council Advocate or somesuch nonsense.
This is dumbing down, pure and simple. Not enough women made the cut under the stricter standards, and so the standards have been loosened. This is insulting to women and to men--to anyone wishing to get a CS degree, really. It does the less-apt applicants a disservice, and it does the apt applicants a disservice. It's muddle-headed and wrong.
In short, it fits in perfectly with modern American academia.
No, actually the Wild West wasn't violent because of the presence of guns, but because of the lack of young women. Young men left to their own devices get a bit shifty.
The same experiment was tried in the early Republic, and it worked excellently. Every single adult male (with the exception of ferrymen, some postal employees and so forth) was required to own a firearm along with the rest of an infantryman's kit (knapsack, boots, cartridges, belt). And yet I find no reference that the early Republic was notably violent--quite the opposite in fact.
The Wild West was mostly an invention of penny dreadful authors and filmmakers.
People like you have no idea what it means to live in a society where everyone has a gun.
Slashdot Mirror
Heck, this weekend we fit five adults into a single sedan. It's just not that big a deal.
Right.
I'm not even certain that privacy's really a right. Rights are active: I have a right to worship or not worship God; I have a right to speak; I have a right to own weapons; I have a right to drink, smoke or inject anything I want; I have a right to do what I will with my own property, so long as it does not impinge on the rights of others. I'm not certain that the passive state of not-having-some-information-made-public is much of a right.
I'm not against privacy, nor do I think it should be eliminated wholesale (e.g. one has an expectation when in one's home that no-one's eavesdropping). I just think that we could be a lot more sane about it. Who cares if academic information is known?
GPS devices to track mileage?!? Why not just use the odometer? Well, besides the obvious reason that while an odometer tracks mileage, a GPS unit can be used to track position. That power would never be abused, I'm certain.
Oh, and if you want plausible deniability when your box starts acting maliciously on the network, Sendmail might be a good idea. That and SSH protocol 1 or even telnet/ftp...
Postfix, OTOH, was designed to reduce risk from the get-go. It's broken down into several small programmes, only a few of which need privileged authority; if an unprivileged programme has a bug it can't be exploited to get root privileges--that's pretty key.
The ease of configurability is also IMHO a security feature. Postfix makes it relatively easy to be certain that it's properly and securely configured; Sendmail just doesn't.
Postfix isn't perfect, of course: Sendmail can handle greater message throughput. But there's no reason that a RedHat, Solaris or AIX install should default to Sendmail. If you need Sendmail, sure--use it. But it should be a conscious decision, taken
Very different. The Linux/Unix Administration Handbooks are excellent works--you really can't be a sysadmin without one of 'em on your bookshelf. This book is good, but oriented more towards particular problems, while the L/UAH are full of vital day-to-day stuff.
Huh? Emacs has the tutorial (C-h t or F1 t) to get one started; it has a reference manual {C-h i m emacs or F1 i m emacs); it has a language manual (C-h i m elisp or F1 i m elisp). Then there's the documentation for any function (e.g. C-h f goto-line) or variable (e.g. C-h v global-font-lock-mode), and for the current mode (C-h m or F1 m).
Emacs is easier than vim to start out with (it's not modal in the sense that vi is), gets a little hairier for a bit, then becomes much more pleasant. Being able to extend one's writing environment is wonderful. Having a text editing environment optimised for, of all things, editing text is wonderful.
You, sir, are a genius.
I don't get all these comments about dropping things in toilets. I've never--ever--accidentally dropped something into a toilet. What do you people do, brush your teeth over the toilet? Count change over an open toilet? Sign mortgages over a toilet? I mean, sheesh...
I kinda want to add both a urinal and a bidet. The problem is that this would require a bathroom as large as a small bedroom. But it'd certainly be cool!
I just got a mobile phone for the first time. Egad, the voice quality is atrocious! Calling someone else's mobile can be an exciting adventure in 'hello? hello? you still there?' Compare to POTS, which Just Works 99.999% of the time. Then there's all the nickel-and-diming the mobile plans like to hit you with.
And even the most basic plan costs more than basic telephone service.
Ah, unlike those Democrats who try to ban hate speech, hate crimes, employment discrimination, housing discrimination and other instances of their particular morality.
In other words, it ain't a Republican-vs.-Democrat thing; it's a human thing.
Well, the benefit of Free Software is precisely the user's eyes. Open Source is about writing decent software; Free Software is about freedom. And freedom is its own benefit.
Almost by definition, a proprietary tool cannot be the best tool for the job. When choosing a piece of software, one must take into account a myriad of factors: features; performance; support; mainenance; cost. Being able to hack the source code for every piece of software on my computer is worth quite a lot to me; it means that free software is never abandonware. Even more importantly, free software makes getting around foolish rights-limitation schemes trivial.
See Babylon 5, where they had the final season cancelled, had to finish up quickly, then got a final season after all and, bereft of ideas, sucked hard vacuum for the final season. One of the worst things to happen to a great series.
Kinda like life and history, come to think of it...
Yes.
More seriously, perhaps not an idiot, but obviously lacking in taste and discernment.
More seriously still, I can see good reasons for disliking them from a certain perspective, as they do not serve to instill & encourage the virtues, but are simply entertainment. However, taken as entertainment I think that they are excellent, and I would have strong reservations about the aesthetic judgement of someone who dislikes them.
Actually, the reason we use the feminine gender to refer to ships is that in most European languages 'ship' has feminine grammatical gender. As to why they do it, I have no idea; apparently there are reasons why apples are feminine but little girls are neuter.
I think because the targetted solution normally already exists, and nowadays no-one gets elected for arguing 'I preserved the law unchanged.' As an example, murder is already illegal--but folks want to ban guns too. Another: wife-beating was already illegal--but folks banned alcohol anyway. Another: driving impaired is already illegal--but people have banned drugs and want to ban alcohol again. And on and on it goes.
I have a 2070N and have been extremely happy with it so far. I had a spot of trouble getting it to work nicely on my network and was too lazy to troubleshoot it, so instead I just plugged it in via USB, whiched worked well. I think there's also a parallel port interface, but I've never played with it. Linux sees it and prints to it like a charm! A laser printer for approximately $100, IIRC--it doesn't get much better than that.
How is it sad? The military are the armed forces of our nation, composed of citizens just like the rest of us whose job is to execute the lawful orders of the President, as authorised by the Congress; they carry out our defense & foreign policy. It's excellent that our armed forces derive a benefit from Linux and other free software.
This is dumbing down, pure and simple. Not enough women made the cut under the stricter standards, and so the standards have been loosened. This is insulting to women and to men--to anyone wishing to get a CS degree, really. It does the less-apt applicants a disservice, and it does the apt applicants a disservice. It's muddle-headed and wrong.
In short, it fits in perfectly with modern American academia.
Ummm, root is the superuser. They are equivalent...
The same experiment was tried in the early Republic, and it worked excellently. Every single adult male (with the exception of ferrymen, some postal employees and so forth) was required to own a firearm along with the rest of an infantryman's kit (knapsack, boots, cartridges, belt). And yet I find no reference that the early Republic was notably violent--quite the opposite in fact.
The Wild West was mostly an invention of penny dreadful authors and filmmakers.
Neither, it seems, do you.