There are three killer applications for me, in having high speed DSL.
Not in any particular order. 1. Home Office - VPN 2. Downloading my favorite linux distro in a reasonable amount of time 3. Video and Voice chat with family, especially my parents, who live out of state, so they can see the grandkids more than they normally would
In addition to this, having the "always on" connection, means it has mostly replaced the newspaper, telephone directory and a variety of other analog sources of information.
That is all right they will sell the sponsorship rights to John Deere. They are calling it a tractor after all. It will be painted green with a yellow deer on the side.
I can see the commercial now: "Nothing runs like a Deere, even in space", a voice says as a spaceship slowly tugs the asteroid away.
Another thing I would add to your list is a general discussion of the OSS replacements for common programs for use in everyday life, which you might adjust somewhat based on the make up of your class. You might want to show some major businesses that run their businesses on OSS/FOSS, like Google, a bit different than a strict business model approach. You might want to add a general history overview to show that OSS/FOSS is not some flash in the pan stuff, but has been around for quite a while. There is a good timeline somewhere of the history of UNIX and fellow travellers, but the url escapes me at the minute.
As they say, it is not paranoia when they really are out to get you.
>FEAR: Of loss of privacy, of misuse by Microsoft, os loss of user's rights.
Micro$oft has proven over and over again that they can not be trusted with sensitive data. Go to google and do a search on Microsoft and privacy. You are returned with a list of 1000's of articles about their poor performance in this area.
>UNCERTAINTY: of what's going to happen period. Almost everything I've read so far is speculation.
Given what the chief Micro$oft researcher said in his interview, it sounds less like speculation and more like well reasoned logical deductions as to what the company will do with this technology.
>DOUBT: Doubting Microsoft's intentions, doubting it will work. How much doubt do you want?
Given their track record, I can hardly see where expressing doubt about this company and its intentions is unwarranted. This is after all an acknowledged monopoly, which has been found to have abused its power by a court of law. It is a company that has shown nothing but open hostility toward OSS and more specifically, GPL'd software. Further it has gone out of its way to invade users privacy in ways very few other companies have even dreamed about, like the media player that phones home. The list of abuses goes on and on and on.
So in the final analysis your condemnation of all of this as our own FUD attack against Micro$oft is completely unfounded. It is not FUD to call Micro$oft exactly what it is, an avarice monopoly with less business ethics than a bowl full of pond scum.
Actually, the ability to "pirate MP3's" is the least of my concerns with "Palladium" aka Longhorn. It is the myriad of other privacy intrusions that will also be present. I do not want M$ looking through my email finding spam for me. I do not want M$ telling me what software is and is not acceptable to run on my system. I do not want M$ to protect me from virii, I can do that myself, thank you very much.
In truth it sounds like the RIAA and BSA have found a way to implement CBDTPA without going to the expense and trouble of having it pass through Congress. As great side effect, they will not only get to dictate what you can listen to and what you can watch, they will also get to dictate what software you can run on your computer.
I suppose if you can not get the public to agree to legislated cultural hegemony, then you only need to put out a new operating system which will enforce it on the public. And as if this was not enough, they also get a way to enforce what ever terms they like through system monitioring and reporting.
For a particularly cogent breakdown of these issues, I recommend this article on the Register.
I remember the hoopla that surround the book "1984", when the actual year came around. Its nice to know that BillG has not forgotten the book after all these years. And now with this new initiative from Micro$oft and the chipmakers Intel and AMD, we can finally live out the promise of that story.
I know my first wish is to have Big Brother Gates and his M$ and BSA jack booted thugs knowing everything I do on my computer, not to mention any government agency that wishes it. I know I will be one of the first in line to put my rights in the shredder for a safer, cleaner, more wholesome society. It is nice to see the end of privacy finally arrive and we can finally get on to the business of business. Better late than never, as they say.
I do this on every new project I code. I find it makes it easy to explain code to the non-coder who has written the program specs. This way I can easily walk them through the steps the program will take. They can tell me if it will accomplish the result they want to see and it helps to identify early on any cases which might not have been covered in the original design document.
As they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I will put in a plug for high tech companies to move to Iowa. I will say this about the state. The state has reasonable taxes, not to high and not so low that services suffer. The public schools are some of the top in the nation. And in my own humble opinion, there is also no better place in the country to raise children. Iowa is home to one of the premier engineering universities in the country and birth place of the digital computer, Iowa State University. Iowa is also home to one of the premier medical research universities in the nation, University of Iowa. Iowa is home to some the world's largest insurance and financial services companies, and because of this has a very technically savvy workforce. The people are friendly, polite and have that midwestern work ethic down to a science. The prices for real estate are quite low. The prices for building are quite low. And the prices for ongoing expenses are quite low. Iowa also has a excellent communications and transportation infrastructure.
I know you are all asking yourselves if it so great why everyone not located in Iowa. Yes, there is a downside. Chief and foremost right now is Iowa's winter, cold and snow and more cold, though it is warmer than Minneapolis. Second, gettting into and out of the state by airplane is a bit vexing at times. But this is really a chicken and egg problem. We cannot get better air service without more demand, and we cannot get more demand without better air service. So you might have to "bite the bullet" for a while and pay a little more for plane tickets. Finally, while there is a lot to do in Iowa, there is not always something going 24 hours a day, like there is in the big cities. For me persoanally I consider that a blessing as it leads to a life with a much more relaxing pace.
Oh and I almost forgot a benefit, at least for those in Silicon Valley, NO EARTHQUAKES:-)
To find out if the product violated GPL, you would not necessarily have to reverse engineer it. Simply using the string command will pull all of the text strings out of a binary. That usually includes some mention of the licensing some where. Further simple binary comparisons should point you at least in the right direction as to whether or not a program is the same as another implementation, especially for a non trivial program.
As for the root password, simply testing to see that a system was secure should not necessarily be considered a violation DCMA. Not having completely read the law, I can not be sure. However from what I remember, it specifically covers copyrighted data. As the password is not likely covered under any specific copyright it is likely exempt, but that is just a guess.
Now, my fellow/.ers, I am sure we are all simply misunderstanding the motive behind this clause. It is surely meant to be a caution to those developers who use Frontpage to design websites. I see it like this. Microsoft assumes that if you are using Frontpage you are also likely using IIS on Windows 2000. If a developer were to post an anti-microsoft page using Frontpage on IIS, the resulting increase in traffic from 3 views per minute to 6 views per minute would so overwhelm the server that it would be forced to shutdown. Thus see it is simply a public service by Microsoft to help keep IIS functioning and reduce support calls they receive at the same time.
While a bit over dramatic, this is exactly what is wrong with this type of "policing". None of the entities involved are acoountable to anyone. They do not answer to the government or to the citizenry at large as elected officials are ( well at least nominally anyway). And certainly do not ask the regulatory agencies to look at them because that would imped the ability of big business to do business. And unfortunately this trend is not just limited to DCMA ( can you say UCITA ), though it is by far the worst example yet. Take a look at the agricultural sector, where big business is being left to police themselves and run everyone else out of business.
I am extremely frightened by the erosion of personal liberties and rights that has taken place since the Reagan administration under the guise of "protecting business interests". Mostly it has been efforts to protect businesses from consumers. Not that this should be construed as a partisan claim since the Clinton adminstration helped this along as much as any other president.
I think that maybe we should take the law into our own hands. While the idea of creating an infringement problem for these companies has a certain appeal and would definitely be good for a laugh, I think we need another more permanent solution. We should as it is said route around this censorship and control as if it were damage to the system. Using a system like the one for the spam databases, start cataloging and blocking all of the ip address from which companies like Ranger operate. Before to long it will be impossible for them to operate in the open and they will eventually be put out of business. And as it is not illegal for us to block illegal access to our systems, there is not a thing they can do about it.
While I have no problem in principle with copyright, in fact I quite support it. In fact copyright helps protect some of my favorite things, such as Linux and the GNU software. The system in use today is no way, shape or form a reflection of the original intentions of these protections.
So start sniffing out those Ranger, et al. packets and lets get them on the banned list.
Slashdot Mirror
I converted it to xml and then searched for the pattern ' \w '. I ended up with "smithycodeJaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzv"
There are three killer applications for me, in having high speed DSL.
Not in any particular order.
1. Home Office - VPN
2. Downloading my favorite linux distro in a reasonable amount of time
3. Video and Voice chat with family, especially my parents, who live out of state, so they can see the grandkids more than they normally would
In addition to this, having the "always on" connection, means it has mostly replaced the newspaper, telephone directory and a variety of other analog sources of information.
That is all right they will sell the sponsorship rights to John Deere. They are calling it a tractor after all. It will be painted green with a yellow deer on the side.
I can see the commercial now:
"Nothing runs like a Deere, even in space", a voice says as a spaceship slowly tugs the asteroid away.
Another thing I would add to your list is a general discussion of the OSS replacements for common programs for use in everyday life, which you might adjust somewhat based on the make up of your class. You might want to show some major businesses that run their businesses on OSS/FOSS, like Google, a bit different than a strict business model approach. You might want to add a general history overview to show that OSS/FOSS is not some flash in the pan stuff, but has been around for quite a while. There is a good timeline somewhere of the history of UNIX and fellow travellers, but the url escapes me at the minute.
Just for my edification, what the hell is a contract right exactly. IANAL But I have never heard of such a beast.
As they say, it is not paranoia when they really are out to get you.
>FEAR: Of loss of privacy, of misuse by Microsoft, os loss of user's rights.
Micro$oft has proven over and over again that they can not be trusted with sensitive data. Go to google and do a search on Microsoft and privacy. You are returned with a list of 1000's of articles about their poor performance in this area.
>UNCERTAINTY: of what's going to happen period. Almost everything I've read so far is speculation.
Given what the chief Micro$oft researcher said in his interview, it sounds less like speculation and more like well reasoned logical deductions as to what the company will do with this technology.
>DOUBT: Doubting Microsoft's intentions, doubting it will work. How much doubt do you want?
Given their track record, I can hardly see where expressing doubt about this company and its intentions is unwarranted. This is after all an acknowledged monopoly, which has been found to have abused its power by a court of law. It is a company that has shown nothing but open hostility toward OSS and more specifically, GPL'd software. Further it has gone out of its way to invade users privacy in ways very few other companies have even dreamed about, like the media player that phones home. The list of abuses goes on and on and on.
So in the final analysis your condemnation of all of this as our own FUD attack against Micro$oft is completely unfounded. It is not FUD to call Micro$oft exactly what it is, an avarice monopoly with less business ethics than a bowl full of pond scum.
In truth it sounds like the RIAA and BSA have found a way to implement CBDTPA without going to the expense and trouble of having it pass through Congress. As great side effect, they will not only get to dictate what you can listen to and what you can watch, they will also get to dictate what software you can run on your computer.
I suppose if you can not get the public to agree to legislated cultural hegemony, then you only need to put out a new operating system which will enforce it on the public. And as if this was not enough, they also get a way to enforce what ever terms they like through system monitioring and reporting.
For a particularly cogent breakdown of these issues, I recommend this article on the Register.
MS to micro-manage your computer
I remember the hoopla that surround the book "1984", when the actual year came around. Its nice to know that BillG has not forgotten the book after all these years. And now with this new initiative from Micro$oft and the chipmakers Intel and AMD, we can finally live out the promise of that story.
I know my first wish is to have Big Brother Gates and his M$ and BSA jack booted thugs knowing everything I do on my computer, not to mention any government agency that wishes it. I know I will be one of the first in line to put my rights in the shredder for a safer, cleaner, more wholesome society. It is nice to see the end of privacy finally arrive and we can finally get on to the business of business. Better late than never, as they say.
I do this on every new project I code. I find it makes it easy to explain code to the non-coder who has written the program specs. This way I can easily walk them through the steps the program will take. They can tell me if it will accomplish the result they want to see and it helps to identify early on any cases which might not have been covered in the original design document.
As they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I know you are all asking yourselves if it so great why everyone not located in Iowa. Yes, there is a downside. Chief and foremost right now is Iowa's winter, cold and snow and more cold, though it is warmer than Minneapolis. Second, gettting into and out of the state by airplane is a bit vexing at times. But this is really a chicken and egg problem. We cannot get better air service without more demand, and we cannot get more demand without better air service. So you might have to "bite the bullet" for a while and pay a little more for plane tickets. Finally, while there is a lot to do in Iowa, there is not always something going 24 hours a day, like there is in the big cities. For me persoanally I consider that a blessing as it leads to a life with a much more relaxing pace.
Oh and I almost forgot a benefit, at least for those in Silicon Valley, NO EARTHQUAKES
For more information:
Iowa Dept. of Economic Development
A coder in Iowa
stoothman
To find out if the product violated GPL, you would not necessarily have to reverse engineer it. Simply using the string command will pull all of the text strings out of a binary. That usually includes some mention of the licensing some where. Further simple binary comparisons should point you at least in the right direction as to whether or not a program is the same as another implementation, especially for a non trivial program.
As for the root password, simply testing to see that a system was secure should not necessarily be considered a violation DCMA. Not having completely read the law, I can not be sure. However from what I remember, it specifically covers copyrighted data. As the password is not likely covered under any specific copyright it is likely exempt, but that is just a guess.
Now, my fellow /.ers, I am sure we are all simply misunderstanding the motive behind this clause. It is surely meant to be a caution to those developers who use Frontpage to design websites. I see it like this. Microsoft assumes that if you are using Frontpage you are also likely using IIS on Windows 2000. If a developer were to post an anti-microsoft page using Frontpage on IIS, the resulting increase in traffic from 3 views per minute to 6 views per minute would so overwhelm the server that it would be forced to shutdown. Thus see it is simply a public service by Microsoft to help keep IIS functioning and reduce support calls they receive at the same time.
While a bit over dramatic, this is exactly what is wrong with this type of "policing". None of the entities involved are acoountable to anyone. They do not answer to the government or to the citizenry at large as elected officials are ( well at least nominally anyway). And certainly do not ask the regulatory agencies to look at them because that would imped the ability of big business to do business. And unfortunately this trend is not just limited to DCMA ( can you say UCITA ), though it is by far the worst example yet. Take a look at the agricultural sector, where big business is being left to police themselves and run everyone else out of business.
I am extremely frightened by the erosion of personal liberties and rights that has taken place since the Reagan administration under the guise of "protecting business interests". Mostly it has been efforts to protect businesses from consumers. Not that this should be construed as a partisan claim since the Clinton adminstration helped this along as much as any other president.
I think that maybe we should take the law into our own hands. While the idea of creating an infringement problem for these companies has a certain appeal and would definitely be good for a laugh, I think we need another more permanent solution. We should as it is said route around this censorship and control as if it were damage to the system. Using a system like the one for the spam databases, start cataloging and blocking all of the ip address from which companies like Ranger operate. Before to long it will be impossible for them to operate in the open and they will eventually be put out of business. And as it is not illegal for us to block illegal access to our systems, there is not a thing they can do about it.
While I have no problem in principle with copyright, in fact I quite support it. In fact copyright helps protect some of my favorite things, such as Linux and the GNU software. The system in use today is no way, shape or form a reflection of the original intentions of these protections.
So start sniffing out those Ranger, et al. packets and lets get them on the banned list.