It is called the command shell (and a terminal box, but that is a separate issue), and it is not meant to be DOS. As fas as I know it is not even using the 16bit subsystem anymore.
Just because it looks like DOS most people assume it should be DOS.
> You would think that even the RIM-haters would jump on a tablet that runs android at this price
At 299 you have a lot of other options, and they offer either better hardware or better support. This is a bargain only for the 64GB model, otherwise it is actually pretty lame.
QNX obviously failed, the only future for these tablets is that Android becomes reasonably stable.
> [A:] Never accept form data via GET, always require POST.
I agree, but how exactly is that news? I think in 1993 or so the HTTP standard defined that GET should only be used of operations that are essentially without side effects on the web server (ignoring statistics etc that are flawed anyway).
Of course you could go one step further and also send the session identifier via POST, but I am not sure that necessary nor convenient. Usually the combination of a GET parameter and a cookie should be reasonable secure.
Nice, but that is just the task switcher. Sure it is nicer than Android (2.x), but does it matter in the grand scheme of things?
> true multitasking
Android had multitasking for a long time, but it is optional (as it should be).
> 2. Synergy, and the notification system
Nice, except it was poorly implement, and only worked sometimes. Android has something similar, not as nice, but it seems to work much better.
> 3. Bluetooth pairing even with non-webos phones, to accept calls and display SMS messages.
I didn't even know that. And I wonder why you would want to lift a tablet to your ear instead of your phone?
I agree that the card feature actually got some media coverage. But on the whole I am quite underwhelmed with OS - it is very much missing that "killer feature".
You make me feel old. I started browsing the "web" using xmosaic on a 486 with 8MB of memory. And it worked, just about. 10kB was considered a large page back then - and myspace was still the future.
So yes, I am sure you can do useful things with 366 MHz. Heck, my phone only has 600 MHz, and it runs just fine (not always fast, but that's ok). Of course you are bound to struggle with some of the apps - Angry Birds is probably out of reach.
> webOS is simply superior in a number of areas - hardware requirements and performance being one of them.
Where did you get that feeling from? The TouchPad has the most powerful CPU of any tablet, and yet it takes nearly 2 minutes for WebOS just to boot. Starting applications is a pain, and the web browser is not exactly fast either.
webOS has great potential, but it is not a finished product. That's the main problem.
Indeed, and it sounds more like a programming flaw than a platform flaw. If you need a hash function with cryptographic properties, don't use MD5. It may not always be obvious, but if you work with unverified user input, chances are that you need some level of cryptographic strength.
It is however peculiar that MS rolls out an out-of-band patch for a DOS flaw. I suppose this means it has been exploited in the wild in several places, and MS is moving into "proactive mode" - which is rare enough an occasion:-). The flaw itself certainly does not warrant this kind of rush.
> Because every other digital marketplace is a disaster.
Agreed. The Android Market tempted me with the 10p apps, but man was it a painful experience. I would really really need an app to go through that again.
7 years ago I paid quite a lot of money on a reasonably "dumb" phone. It had a small colour screen, could go online and show mobile web pages (badly), it would even provide tethered mobile internet (very badly). But it did have a nice calendar, a decent address book, and Opera Mini worked (again badly).
Now I spent less money on a cheap Android, and it is great. I still spend around 1 buck prepaid per month, but I get a modest amount of free internet with it, just enough to use Google Talk on the move, to check out prices, or to upload a picture to Facebook. Android for the masses is what I have been waiting for. (And I am the first to admit that it has flaws and truck loads worth of bugs.)
Actually both is wrong. They need a GUI, and the problem is with the customers. The customers chose Siemens over some other SCADA solution exactly because it runs on Windows. Siemens made this decision very early on (I think in the NT4.0 days), and from a business perspective it is more successful then they could have imagined.
Technically it was wrong, I agree there, but would you rather go bust with the right technology or prosper with the wrong one? Because there were other big players in the market, using HP, Solaris etc. And they are all in trouble now both with the technology and with the business.
And to be honest, if you have an incompetent IT department, do you think they can secure an old version of HP/UX?
You misunderstand Siemens. It used to be a great electrical company, but nowadays it is an investment bank. What sets it apart from other investments banks is that they deal in technology (and foreign exchange), and they have a very good understanding of technology. The production/engineering/service segments are really just used for better investment leverage. That does not necessarily mean that the engineering sucks, actually some of it is brilliant. But either way it is not as relevant as it may seem.
> It's more of a conscious decision by the android team.
And what makes them decide this for me? Shouldn't this be a permission like so many other features of Android? I am asked whether I grant network access, and calling URLs should be pretty much the same.
> Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't.
Actually MS does that too, now. But MS is driving a rather schizophrenic agenda there - on one hand they want you to use the latest browser (IE9), on the other hand it is not available to the biggest installation base out there: Windows XP. That was a stupid decision, and it will hurt them for some time to come.
Indeed, which probably is a good sign for the safety of the light water reactor type. It sounds like there was a core melt down and a criticality event way beyond what engineers even considered as a plausible scenario, but without a moderator it is bound to be self contained. That is very much unlike the event in Chernobyl, which demonstrated an inherently dangerous (as in explosive) reactor design, handled by an incompetent crew.
But there are certainly lessons to be learned. If we want to use nuclear energy as a low carbon option, I hope we can come up with a better design than what is currently used.
> We use VS 2005 because it's the last version whose CRT supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP before Service Pack 2.
That's all very nice, but if you run an obsolete and out of support OS, why would you want to run the latest browser? Those users should be more than happy with Firefox 3.6.
Good point - Flash cookies should be on the list of evil. They are also illegal in the EU, although most advertisers seem to be not too concerned about that.
Slashdot Mirror
> but will _not_ get architecture changes
I wish they would not change the architecture ever 5 weeks...
> The NT line always had DOS emulation.
It is called the command shell (and a terminal box, but that is a separate issue), and it is not meant to be DOS. As fas as I know it is not even using the 16bit subsystem anymore.
Just because it looks like DOS most people assume it should be DOS.
> Since there seems to be so much crappily-written Windows software like this, it seems like MS should have put a compatibility mode into Vista/7
They did, it is called VirtualPC. And it is not terribly convenient, but then again it is probably not meant to be.
> so what they need is cheap solutions for people who have very little money and no access to an electrical socket.
Maybe they should include a portable solar panel instead of a charger? 10cm x 10cm should be enough to generate a decent amount of power in the sun.
Having the solar cell on the mobile phone is a bad idea in so many ways that it is hardly worth commenting on.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that "Slashdot is news for geeks". A mistake that is easy to make, I admit.
In my experience, Slashdot is more likely than not misinformation for the masses.
> You would think that even the RIM-haters would jump on a tablet that runs android at this price
At 299 you have a lot of other options, and they offer either better hardware or better support. This is a bargain only for the 64GB model, otherwise it is actually pretty lame.
QNX obviously failed, the only future for these tablets is that Android becomes reasonably stable.
> [A:] Never accept form data via GET, always require POST.
I agree, but how exactly is that news? I think in 1993 or so the HTTP standard defined that GET should only be used of operations that are essentially without side effects on the web server (ignoring statistics etc that are flawed anyway).
Of course you could go one step further and also send the session identifier via POST, but I am not sure that necessary nor convenient. Usually the combination of a GET parameter and a cookie should be reasonable secure.
> 1. Cards metaphor,
Nice, but that is just the task switcher. Sure it is nicer than Android (2.x), but does it matter in the grand scheme of things?
> true multitasking
Android had multitasking for a long time, but it is optional (as it should be).
> 2. Synergy, and the notification system
Nice, except it was poorly implement, and only worked sometimes. Android has something similar, not as nice, but it seems to work much better.
> 3. Bluetooth pairing even with non-webos phones, to accept calls and display SMS messages.
I didn't even know that. And I wonder why you would want to lift a tablet to your ear instead of your phone?
I agree that the card feature actually got some media coverage. But on the whole I am quite underwhelmed with OS - it is very much missing that "killer feature".
You make me feel old. I started browsing the "web" using xmosaic on a 486 with 8MB of memory. And it worked, just about. 10kB was considered a large page back then - and myspace was still the future.
So yes, I am sure you can do useful things with 366 MHz. Heck, my phone only has 600 MHz, and it runs just fine (not always fast, but that's ok). Of course you are bound to struggle with some of the apps - Angry Birds is probably out of reach.
> webOS is simply superior in a number of areas - hardware requirements and performance being one of them.
Where did you get that feeling from? The TouchPad has the most powerful CPU of any tablet, and yet it takes nearly 2 minutes for WebOS just to boot. Starting applications is a pain, and the web browser is not exactly fast either.
webOS has great potential, but it is not a finished product. That's the main problem.
Wow, this must be a first: an AC with an understanding of security.
Wait, actually he is wrong. Adding a few characters gives you minimal additional entropy, and it can very well be an easy attack route.
If you want to do this, do it properly - use PwdHash. As long as you can keep the master password secure, there is no reason for any annual rituals.
Indeed, and it sounds more like a programming flaw than a platform flaw. If you need a hash function with cryptographic properties, don't use MD5. It may not always be obvious, but if you work with unverified user input, chances are that you need some level of cryptographic strength.
It is however peculiar that MS rolls out an out-of-band patch for a DOS flaw. I suppose this means it has been exploited in the wild in several places, and MS is moving into "proactive mode" - which is rare enough an occasion :-). The flaw itself certainly does not warrant this kind of rush.
> Because every other digital marketplace is a disaster.
Agreed. The Android Market tempted me with the 10p apps, but man was it a painful experience. I would really really need an app to go through that again.
7 years ago I paid quite a lot of money on a reasonably "dumb" phone. It had a small colour screen, could go online and show mobile web pages (badly), it would even provide tethered mobile internet (very badly). But it did have a nice calendar, a decent address book, and Opera Mini worked (again badly).
Now I spent less money on a cheap Android, and it is great. I still spend around 1 buck prepaid per month, but I get a modest amount of free internet with it, just enough to use Google Talk on the move, to check out prices, or to upload a picture to Facebook. Android for the masses is what I have been waiting for. (And I am the first to admit that it has flaws and truck loads worth of bugs.)
> The problem lies squarely with Siemens.
> They don't need a GUI.
Actually both is wrong. They need a GUI, and the problem is with the customers. The customers chose Siemens over some other SCADA solution exactly because it runs on Windows. Siemens made this decision very early on (I think in the NT4.0 days), and from a business perspective it is more successful then they could have imagined.
Technically it was wrong, I agree there, but would you rather go bust with the right technology or prosper with the wrong one? Because there were other big players in the market, using HP, Solaris etc. And they are all in trouble now both with the technology and with the business.
And to be honest, if you have an incompetent IT department, do you think they can secure an old version of HP/UX?
You misunderstand Siemens. It used to be a great electrical company, but nowadays it is an investment bank. What sets it apart from other investments banks is that they deal in technology (and foreign exchange), and they have a very good understanding of technology. The production/engineering/service segments are really just used for better investment leverage. That does not necessarily mean that the engineering sucks, actually some of it is brilliant. But either way it is not as relevant as it may seem.
The bigger question is: why would anybody in a sane mind agree to such a contract?
It implies that Sony will provide certain services to you for a price, but then it implies that Sony may not do so, and you are explicitly SOL.
I wouldn't pay 2 dollars for a box that may or may not contain a bar of chocolate, for example.
> It's more of a conscious decision by the android team.
And what makes them decide this for me? Shouldn't this be a permission like so many other features of Android? I am asked whether I grant network access, and calling URLs should be pretty much the same.
> Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't.
Actually MS does that too, now. But MS is driving a rather schizophrenic agenda there - on one hand they want you to use the latest browser (IE9), on the other hand it is not available to the biggest installation base out there: Windows XP. That was a stupid decision, and it will hurt them for some time to come.
Indeed, which probably is a good sign for the safety of the light water reactor type. It sounds like there was a core melt down and a criticality event way beyond what engineers even considered as a plausible scenario, but without a moderator it is bound to be self contained. That is very much unlike the event in Chernobyl, which demonstrated an inherently dangerous (as in explosive) reactor design, handled by an incompetent crew.
But there are certainly lessons to be learned. If we want to use nuclear energy as a low carbon option, I hope we can come up with a better design than what is currently used.
> We use VS 2005 because it's the last version whose CRT supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP before Service Pack 2.
That's all very nice, but if you run an obsolete and out of support OS, why would you want to run the latest browser? Those users should be more than happy with Firefox 3.6.
You mentioned words in one sentence that do not go well together.
I have a deja vu feeling, and it is not an ad.
Or you could call it Double Plus Adblock, or even Double Plus Unad :-)
Good point - Flash cookies should be on the list of evil. They are also illegal in the EU, although most advertisers seem to be not too concerned about that.