The way people were talking, I thought STS-133 was the final shuttle mission but now I realise there are two more chances to see a launch. Back in the 90s we had a family holiday to Florida during which there was a Shuttle launch window. Unfortunately the launch was delayed, so we didn't get to see blast off.
I'm now really thinking about taking a week to fly over there, it's not like it'll happen again....
The mass surveillance isn't as oppressive as you might imagine. That might sound a bit like I've got Stockholm syndrome, but hear me out.
First off, the CCTV is mostly ignored both by the general public and the police. For most crimes, the police fails to check CCTV "because it's hard work". Secondly, as a member of the general public you just get used to seeing cameras, they become part of the scenery and you carry on as normal.
Even though the police rarely bother to check CCTV footage, CCTV cameras still act as a deterrent. Muggers will avoid streets with cameras and instead go for people walking down unmonitored side streets. Whilst it's not a 100% guarantee, I do think they improve the situation.
In any case, the response from the public to oppressive surveillance, like the much more sinister Forward Intelligence Teams used to monitor political activists, has been sousveillance. The police don't take kindly to being photographed though.
Somehow I doubt that an Ubuntu image affecting the 500GB download cap/month you can subscribe to for a pittance was NOT the reason you turned down a job offer in Sydney. Sorry but compared to Australia, the land formerly known as the land of opportunity's government makes ours look like it's run by saints.
I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say here.
It's surprising how common the idea that "BIOS does very little" is, even amongst developers.
The coreboot guys did a Google tech talk about all the fun they had during their initial LinuxBIOS days as they began to discover just how much work a BIOS does. It's an hour long but quite fascinating!
That's total FUD. VAC doesn't scan your storage for cheat hacks and only the initial version of VAC banned people for faulty memory; those bans were rescinded.
Valve also doesn't take a "Talk to the hand" approach to VAC false positives, even the VAC Wikipedia entry lists four instances where VAC has made mistakes. All instances were rescinded.
That page lists only two instances of "benign cheats" causing irreversible VAC bans. Both those cases clearly contravened VAC policy.
Finally, only 56 games are VAC enabled and VAC bans only apply to games that use the same engine as the game you're caught cheating in.
As pointed out below, that ZDNet link highlights server sales; it's worth pointing out that will be largely driven by enterprise sales and not web servers. The virtualised Linux server is pretty much the de facto choice for web development.
The Windows counterpart to/dev/sda is \\.\PhysicalDisc0, is that more or less intuitive? Windows hides all that stuff from users, which is what all the issues you list boil down to: Windows has something approaching a clear and consistent UI, something Linux still lacks.
Getting a clear basic interface on Linux wouldn't be that big a challenge these days I don't think. I use Windows 7 on my desktop simply for DirectX 11 support, but aside from games the only apps I use are Chrome and a media player. I also use Office but would quite happily use an alternative on my home desktop.
So basically, to make "The Year of the Linux Desktop" actually happen all that's needed is a clean, minimal interface and support for games. That's not going to happen though.
Google is still better than their competition when it comes to filtering link farms; maybe it's just the things you're interested in that are heavily targeted?
But the law regarding stoning was put in place in '77 and Sharia was put in place via a referendum in '80. You could say the people voted for it, but the idea of a free vote in a dictatorship is kind of ridiculous.
Now there is a revolutionary situation in Egypt. There are both secular and Islamic forces at work and, at this stage, it's impossible to say who will be successful. It's incorrect to say that Egypt is a primitive society though, they have an industrial base, a developing economy and control of one of the major world shipping routes.
Hunter-gatherer tribes living in rainforests are primitive; Egypt is a brutal, repressive regime that the people are rising up against.
How exactly is Saudi Arabia in line for a revolution? Also, why would any western power ally themselves with enemies of the House of Saud? We've spent the past 80 years or so arming and training them in exchange for oil, I don't see that changing anytime soon.
It makes them easier to sort, otherwise you have to reverse the order and then sort.
For something like versioning it should certainly be yyyymmdd as that way if you have a directory full of enlightenment-yyyy-mm-dd.tar.bz2 name order == version order.
I expect it would be unlawful for MS to disclose further details; the only reason they can even mention this specific case and say that, in their opinion, it's bona fide cheating is because the account holder raised the issue publicly in the first instance.
Really? A company is under official investigation on three continents for the largest unauthorised capture of private information that has ever happened that we know about?
FTFY.
The Murdoch press are the lowest form of yellow journalism. Here in the UK reporters from The Sun are being investigated for illegal hacking of voicemail. The editor who was in charge at the time since became David Cameron's press officer but has now at least resigned from that post. Even the Met Police have been implicated as they started to investigate the matter initially when it was about hacking of Royal voicemail but then quickly dropped the matter after they'd got the reporter who'd done the Royals and then tried to ignore all the other cases their investigation had brought to light.
Capital has just as much ability to employ armed force
They don't. They depend on government for enforcement of contracts and laws.
But the reality is that Capital has a massively corrupting influence on the supposedly independent state. Why, for example, did the police open fire at striking workers during the Flint sit-down strikes? What possible justification can there be for going in guns blazing against unarmed, protesting workers? In that instance some very brave women had to intervene, taking advantage of the fact that, back then, most guys wouldn't shoot a woman.
The reality is that Flint, Michigan, was bought and paid for by General Motors. They were the biggest employer so they received absolute loyalty from the city. Of course the loyalty that GM showed Flint highlights the imbalance of power between Capital and the state that depends on it.
Yea, every computer on the internet is under constant attack. Like a lot of people, I've moved my SSH daemon to a non standard port out of annoyance with my secure log filling up with common username / password login attempts from botnets.
If you're presenting a service to the world on a standard port, botnets will always be trying to robohack you.
I'm not too sure of that Netcraft report though as Lush appear from their statements to have been with their current hosts since at least October last year, so they could've moved from Win2k more recently than three and a half years ago.
Not if the "zero day attacks" are in the bespoke code for your website. Then you'd be in the situation of getting whoever wrote your code to to sort their mess out, which for a relatively small firm like Lush would probably mean dragging back in whatever lowest bidder contractor they used.
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently NASA has to fly Atlantis, so it's definitely going ahead: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/orbiters.html
The way people were talking, I thought STS-133 was the final shuttle mission but now I realise there are two more chances to see a launch. Back in the 90s we had a family holiday to Florida during which there was a Shuttle launch window. Unfortunately the launch was delayed, so we didn't get to see blast off.
I'm now really thinking about taking a week to fly over there, it's not like it'll happen again....
Or it's just someone failing at being funny. No need to get so worked up :)
The mass surveillance isn't as oppressive as you might imagine. That might sound a bit like I've got Stockholm syndrome, but hear me out.
First off, the CCTV is mostly ignored both by the general public and the police. For most crimes, the police fails to check CCTV "because it's hard work". Secondly, as a member of the general public you just get used to seeing cameras, they become part of the scenery and you carry on as normal.
Even though the police rarely bother to check CCTV footage, CCTV cameras still act as a deterrent. Muggers will avoid streets with cameras and instead go for people walking down unmonitored side streets. Whilst it's not a 100% guarantee, I do think they improve the situation.
In any case, the response from the public to oppressive surveillance, like the much more sinister Forward Intelligence Teams used to monitor political activists, has been sousveillance. The police don't take kindly to being photographed though.
Somehow I doubt that an Ubuntu image affecting the 500GB download cap/month you can subscribe to for a pittance was NOT the reason you turned down a job offer in Sydney. Sorry but compared to Australia, the land formerly known as the land of opportunity's government makes ours look like it's run by saints.
I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say here.
It's surprising how common the idea that "BIOS does very little" is, even amongst developers.
The coreboot guys did a Google tech talk about all the fun they had during their initial LinuxBIOS days as they began to discover just how much work a BIOS does. It's an hour long but quite fascinating!
Look at that Wikipedia link again. A CD is 1,411.2kbps, i.e. 1.4Mbps. There's an order of magnitude difference between a 120kbps MP3 and an audio CD.
Valve also doesn't take a "Talk to the hand" approach to VAC false positives, even the VAC Wikipedia entry lists four instances where VAC has made mistakes. All instances were rescinded.
That page lists only two instances of "benign cheats" causing irreversible VAC bans. Both those cases clearly contravened VAC policy.
Finally, only 56 games are VAC enabled and VAC bans only apply to games that use the same engine as the game you're caught cheating in.
As pointed out below, that ZDNet link highlights server sales; it's worth pointing out that will be largely driven by enterprise sales and not web servers. The virtualised Linux server is pretty much the de facto choice for web development.
The Windows counterpart to /dev/sda is \\.\PhysicalDisc0, is that more or less intuitive? Windows hides all that stuff from users, which is what all the issues you list boil down to: Windows has something approaching a clear and consistent UI, something Linux still lacks.
Getting a clear basic interface on Linux wouldn't be that big a challenge these days I don't think. I use Windows 7 on my desktop simply for DirectX 11 support, but aside from games the only apps I use are Chrome and a media player. I also use Office but would quite happily use an alternative on my home desktop.
So basically, to make "The Year of the Linux Desktop" actually happen all that's needed is a clean, minimal interface and support for games. That's not going to happen though.
Google already derives $1bn/yr in revenue from Android, that figure can surely only grow.
Google is still better than their competition when it comes to filtering link farms; maybe it's just the things you're interested in that are heavily targeted?
The music in Civ IV is amazing, especially the modern era music which is by John Adams.
The Motorola Defy, which has HSDPA, can take being dropped or being immersed in 1m of water. Is that rugged enough for you?
Actually most racing simulations do have damage models: a bad crash will put you out of the race.
A racing simulation RPG where you could die or be injured would be quite interesting and would probably appeal to the hardcore sim crowd.
But the law regarding stoning was put in place in '77 and Sharia was put in place via a referendum in '80. You could say the people voted for it, but the idea of a free vote in a dictatorship is kind of ridiculous.
Now there is a revolutionary situation in Egypt. There are both secular and Islamic forces at work and, at this stage, it's impossible to say who will be successful. It's incorrect to say that Egypt is a primitive society though, they have an industrial base, a developing economy and control of one of the major world shipping routes.
Hunter-gatherer tribes living in rainforests are primitive; Egypt is a brutal, repressive regime that the people are rising up against.
How exactly is Saudi Arabia in line for a revolution? Also, why would any western power ally themselves with enemies of the House of Saud? We've spent the past 80 years or so arming and training them in exchange for oil, I don't see that changing anytime soon.
It takes a strong, forceful leader to rule primitive societies.
With this, you clearly show your prejudice.
It makes them easier to sort, otherwise you have to reverse the order and then sort.
For something like versioning it should certainly be yyyymmdd as that way if you have a directory full of enlightenment-yyyy-mm-dd.tar.bz2 name order == version order.
I agree with this post, especially the second point. I want to see an abbreviated threaded view just like in the old D2!
Other than that, I guess I can live with the redesign; it seems quite nice actually!
I expect it would be unlawful for MS to disclose further details; the only reason they can even mention this specific case and say that, in their opinion, it's bona fide cheating is because the account holder raised the issue publicly in the first instance.
Really? A company is under official investigation on three continents for the largest unauthorised capture of private information that has ever happened that we know about?
FTFY.
The Murdoch press are the lowest form of yellow journalism. Here in the UK reporters from The Sun are being investigated for illegal hacking of voicemail. The editor who was in charge at the time since became David Cameron's press officer but has now at least resigned from that post. Even the Met Police have been implicated as they started to investigate the matter initially when it was about hacking of Royal voicemail but then quickly dropped the matter after they'd got the reporter who'd done the Royals and then tried to ignore all the other cases their investigation had brought to light.
Capital has just as much ability to employ armed force
They don't. They depend on government for enforcement of contracts and laws.
But the reality is that Capital has a massively corrupting influence on the supposedly independent state. Why, for example, did the police open fire at striking workers during the Flint sit-down strikes? What possible justification can there be for going in guns blazing against unarmed, protesting workers? In that instance some very brave women had to intervene, taking advantage of the fact that, back then, most guys wouldn't shoot a woman.
The reality is that Flint, Michigan, was bought and paid for by General Motors. They were the biggest employer so they received absolute loyalty from the city. Of course the loyalty that GM showed Flint highlights the imbalance of power between Capital and the state that depends on it.
Apple is one of four companies to buy Google, having sufficient cash to do the job
Uh, what? Apple has cash reserves of about $60bn, Google is currently worth about $195bn.
In the event of a takeover, Google's market cap would obviously increase. So no, nobody is going to buy Google.
Yea, every computer on the internet is under constant attack. Like a lot of people, I've moved my SSH daemon to a non standard port out of annoyance with my secure log filling up with common username / password login attempts from botnets.
If you're presenting a service to the world on a standard port, botnets will always be trying to robohack you.
I'm not too sure of that Netcraft report though as Lush appear from their statements to have been with their current hosts since at least October last year, so they could've moved from Win2k more recently than three and a half years ago.
Not if the "zero day attacks" are in the bespoke code for your website. Then you'd be in the situation of getting whoever wrote your code to to sort their mess out, which for a relatively small firm like Lush would probably mean dragging back in whatever lowest bidder contractor they used.