I would focus on the pseudo-monopoly held by NSI and its ramifications for internet development. This story certainly has the juicy details to make for an interesting paper.
While open-source software has played a role in developing the net (TCP/IP, BIND, Sendmail, etc), I don't think the connection is particularly interesting in itself. In the early days of the internet, the open/closed source debate wasn't as apparent as it is now.
"Vast majority of Linux users dual-boot Windows anyway" - oh please, who are you to make such an assumption. Do you habe numbers to back that up? If not, then I suggest that you keep your own little statistics to your self.
List win98 as the OS, when the install guys come out (and they bring a 3c vortex card), just install it yourself-- I installed my card, because they say that they are not responsible for damage to the computer. The only thing that is done at install is they add your hardware address to the database--this is done over the phone, and this is far easier to find out in Linux. Most of the install guys should be flipping burgers. I tryed three groups before I found the one with the brain in it. Call the supervisor, remember there is always another one above that one. Call the sales rep for the county and the State. Or an alternate-- there are other xDSL carriers in GA (you are in GA right?). Try that, see what comesout...the wait is about six/eight months anyway--maybe you could find a better carrier. If you are in Atlanta, call the Linux General Store, they have a 2 ghz wireless DHCP setup going...just a thought.
It also won't hurt in getting some industry experience. Like trying to get a job at a game company. Get to know other developers, make lots of friends and contacts. At some point your home project might become a published deal.
I don't have any other references other than a guy from Creative contacted me with patches for the kernel ide-cd, which were needed for the Encore player to be ported.
Make of that what you want, but at least someone inside Creative is working on a port - and that seems like good news to me.
I so agree with you, from my personal experience. I personally downgraded to Windows NT Server 4.0 from Windows 95, under the idea that I had better get used to it to improve my employment prospects. Say what you will about Win95, I never had a day of trouble with it. This all changed when I moved to the 'more stable' NT, which had to be reinstalled three times in the first week. God help me, I then decided to try a home network. I'll leave describing this fiasco to those with more technical knowledge and better command of the language. Now, I'm running a dual boot of Windows NT (for games) and Red Hat Linux (for everything else). I'm still having trouble because I don't know what I'm doing, but at least that's self-correcting.
Then my work went to Windows NT...
OKay, back to lurking, I obviously still have more to learn.
Technically, Wassenaar only restricts countries from exporting to places that are considered to be dangerous or hostile. Most countries are treating it like a blanket restriction on all export, but Wassenaar doesn't stop anyone from exporting to allies (such as European Union members). And several countries (such as Canada)have recently announced that they won't be restricting export to friendly countries any longer.
If you are a web hosting service and you don't use suEXEC, you are an idiot! Now, if you haven't heard about it before, that's fine. But, if you are reading this message and you haven't already read through the Apache info on it and drawn up a battle plan to implement it, you should shut down your web hosting service and leave it to the pros.
For one, I'm sick and tired of getting e-mails about directories that get created by my Perl scripts and they have an owner of nobody because some dumbass forgot to setup suEXEC on their hosting service.
Believe me...it's not hard to do. I'll write a FAQ/HOWTO on it some day.
-- Brendan Byrd AKA SineSwiper Computer techie, PERL master, and all-purpose Internet guru
1) A new PC suitable for installing NT + Exchange and serving 600 people can cost $20k. Let's be more reasonable and discard things like RAID and 1GB of RAM and say $5k.
2) You neglected to factor in the cost of NT and Exchange, including 600 licenses. That's at least $1129 more, plus $40/user if they don't already have the licenses = $24,000.
3) It doesn't cost $200k/yr to run a mail server. Our network admin (admittedly incompetent) only gets about $50k. Factoring electricity, etc brings that up to $60k.
So let's re-add this. ~$30,000 for a new NT/Exchange or $0 for Linux. That sounds like a substantial savings to me.
-- "Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
I just read "Good News from Outer Space". Did you get that phrase from there or is it from somewhere else previously? -- "Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
So you are saying W2k is OK for single-user, single-process, simple work?
Sounds like Micros~1 stole more than a GUI from Apple. -- "Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Umm... I never understand this. Are you putting the sofa in front of the 21" monitor? How can you call it "watching" movie if you can't do it with pop corn and soda in front of you? Isn't the monitor supposed to be your working tool, on your desk? Optimized for the fast keybroad and the other home office environment?
I assume you have bought the PC-remote thing already. After using my uncle's super ergonormic 4-in-1 remote, I feel sick wheneven I use my remote to change cable\tv\vcr channles. That one alone is one strike against any win+dvd.
"...virtually ALL of the commercial players getting involved with Linux...are focusing on the server side?"
Virtual: seeming to be, but not actually being. See Virtual Reality.
It's true that Linux functions well as a server. And it's true that Linux may well more power than the average user needs on his desktop. But it is NOT true that the commercial players are forgetting the client side.
IBM: Linux on Thinkpads. NVidia: Linux drivers for high-end video cards (only useful on the desktop) Loki: Civ:CTP and many more desktop games to come Oracle, Informix, etc: Server side stuff first, client tools on the way
The only reason it seems like commercial entities are focusing on the server aspects is that the server software companies are bigger. An announcment from Oracle can overshadow announcments from "client-side companies".
That said, I don't think the company secretary will be using Linux on the desktop anytime soon--but:
1) Why take the short term view? 2) If Linux wins in the backroom, we make the rules. Win95 would start having to advertise (and support) its "Linux-compatible protocols", etc. In this scenario, while MS might still hold the desktop market, we would have achieved a major goal in squashing many proprietary formats and protocols.
BTW, why exclude Linux-only companies from your client/server dichotomy? If we include them (since there doesn't appear to be any reason to bar them), we can find a LOT more examples of client-side Linux. -- "Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
24% are planning not to move to W2k (but have presumably considered). These are people who have actively rejected W2k.
Furthermore, 28% are "uncertain" on "considering" Linux. That doesn't even make logical sense--they aren't sure if they are considering? That means they ARE considering. I find it more likely that 28% read the question as "planning". That brings the number of "considerings" up to 48%.
-- "Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
How many all-NT departments with 50 servers are considering Linux?
(Companies with a lot of servers are more likely to have competent sys admins. This question will tell us if we are finally getting through to the morons.)
How many of those with "Unix" listed (especially those with ("Unix" is a rather generic name. And the OS breakdown didn't list Linux as an option, even at 0%.)
What is the difference between the number of each OS that the IT Manager/Director/Whatever says they have and the number they REALLY have?
(The contention all along is that Linux has been sneaking in through the backdoor. The CTO, by definition, probably wouldn't know about this.) -- "Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
but what about all the cosmic debris that hits the moon every day? It's all pock marked with craters because there isn't any atmosphere to burn up or slow down all the rocks that crash in to it.
Those craters have formed over a time period of upwards of 4 billion years, which means there was typically a long time between impacts. IIRC, there is only one reported probable sighting of a meteorite impact on the moon, and that was several hundred years ago.
Micrometeorites (impacts of dust particles) may be a low level, but frequent danger. I don't know how bad.
I do not completely agree with your definition of "supercomputers". The scientific community can probably not even agree on one, except that all definitions of supercomputers have in common that they are relatively fast.
Actually, I've seen a definition of the term "supercomputer" that said it is a relative term, depending on the current state-of-the-art. At that time (according to that source) supercomputer meant any computer that had a peak performance of more than 1 GFLOPs. Now, it would probably be 5 or 10 GFLOPs, given that your home computer can have a P3 or K6-2 with vector instructions that can peak over 1 GFLOPs.
Typically, it does not matter what the architecture is, as long as it can be view as a single machine. Yes, vector parallel computers have been the most powerful for years, and the latest generations of the computers are still supercomputers.
However, massively parallel computers should not be ruled out. The question of Beowulf clusters being included in these is interesting; the fact is, they can provide the required performance.
The Deep Computing Institute will be able to make some great progress as long as they don't get mired in difficulties deciding what to work on next. So many things to compute - so few computers...:)
What's really missing here is the power of Massively Parallel Computing. The folks at SETI@Home have really landed a great piece of work. Instead of spending a ton of money on in-house computing resources, convince a million individuals around the world to spare their computing resources while they are not using them. I have 2 computers at work running 24/7 churning on nothing most of the time, and 3 at home running part time. Cooperatively leveraging the massively parallel resources of the net while understanding the chaotic nature of each individual node will be the internet's greatist benefit to mankind - and the individuals who are truely able to make it work.:)
Sure, I agree that if they are alerted to a defamatory article on their servers, they are wise to remove it. But removing links? I cannot see how this can make them liable; surely it is no worse than a newspaper saying "According to sources, so-and-so is a *@!£$!@" - and giving the sources. Which they already do.
Demon's move is a dangerous challenge to free speech on the net; a lot of die-hard UK netizens use Demon (it's been around for ever) and I can see them leaving in droves if they start this sort of Big Brother checking.
As an alternative to killing the links, why don't Demon instead notify the ISP carrying the article? They will then have served "due diligence" and should be absolved of any legal responsibility - and the other ISP can do as it pleases.
You are forgetting te fact that the human race is just another race of animals which is following its own instinct. So there is no doubt that mankind will never grow up, they are simply just doing what every animal does (without thinking in a grown up fashion) that is, populating their environment trying to survive and killing everything and everyone who is threatening the the way they are living. The problem is that mankind is the best on this world in doing that so they are known as the most evil race on the planet (until they finally destroy themselves).
I'm sorry to tell you this but we are just poor (dumb) animals doomed to be killed by their own genocidical actions, by another more evil race or by some disaster from (cruel) nature. If you want to talk about it, you can mail me.
Slashdot Mirror
Posted by d106ene5:
I would focus on the pseudo-monopoly held by NSI and its ramifications for internet development. This story certainly has the juicy details to make for an interesting paper.
While open-source software has played a role in developing the net (TCP/IP, BIND, Sendmail, etc), I don't think the connection is particularly interesting in itself. In the early days of the internet, the open/closed source debate wasn't as apparent as it is now.
Posted by Pepi:
"Vast majority of Linux users dual-boot Windows anyway" - oh please, who are you to make such an assumption. Do you habe numbers to back that up? If not, then I suggest that you keep your own little statistics to your self.
Posted by Jeff Martin:
List win98 as the OS, when the install guys come out (and they bring a 3c vortex card), just install it yourself-- I installed my card, because they say that they are not responsible for damage to the computer.
The only thing that is done at install is they add your hardware address to the database--this is done over the phone, and this is far easier to find out in Linux.
Most of the install guys should be flipping burgers. I tryed three groups before I found the one with the brain in it. Call the supervisor, remember there is always another one above that one.
Call the sales rep for the county and the State.
Or an alternate-- there are other xDSL carriers in GA (you are in GA right?).
Try that, see what comesout...the wait is about six/eight months anyway--maybe you could find a better carrier. If you are in Atlanta, call the Linux General Store, they have a 2 ghz wireless DHCP setup going...just a thought.
Posted by Wookie Trainer:
The images were formally being retrived off the adfu server, flotsam.slashdot.org. They are now hosted off slashdot.org now, i guess.
Posted by gamesgod:
It also won't hurt in getting some industry experience. Like trying to get a job at a game company. Get to know other developers, make lots of friends and contacts. At some point your home project might become a published deal.
Posted by Pepi:
I don't have any other references other than a guy from Creative contacted me with patches for the kernel ide-cd, which were needed for the Encore player to be ported.
Make of that what you want, but at least someone inside Creative is working on a port - and that seems like good news to me.
Posted by generic kewl tech reference:
...
I so agree with you, from my personal experience. I personally downgraded to Windows NT Server 4.0 from Windows 95, under the idea that I had better get used to it to improve my employment prospects. Say what you will about Win95, I never had a day of trouble with it. This all changed when I moved to the 'more stable' NT, which had to be reinstalled three times in the first week. God help me, I then decided to try a home network. I'll leave describing this fiasco to those with more technical knowledge and better command of the language.
Now, I'm running a dual boot of Windows NT (for games) and Red Hat Linux (for everything else). I'm still having trouble because I don't know what I'm doing, but at least that's self-correcting.
Then my work went to Windows NT
OKay, back to lurking, I obviously still have more to learn.
Posted by Pepi:
To my knowledge, at least. And they have shown an interest in adding the necessary kernel bindings to support an Encore port.
Posted by Anna Chronica:
Technically, Wassenaar only restricts countries from exporting to places that are considered to be dangerous or hostile. Most countries are treating it like a blanket restriction on all export, but Wassenaar doesn't stop anyone from exporting to allies (such as European Union members). And several countries (such as Canada)have recently announced that they won't be restricting export to friendly countries any longer.
Posted by Brendan Byrd/SineSwiper:
If you are a web hosting service and you don't use suEXEC, you are an idiot! Now, if you haven't heard about it before, that's fine. But, if you are reading this message and you haven't already read through the Apache info on it and drawn up a battle plan to implement it, you should shut down your web hosting service and leave it to the pros.
For one, I'm sick and tired of getting e-mails about directories that get created by my Perl scripts and they have an owner of nobody because some dumbass forgot to setup suEXEC on their hosting service.
Believe me...it's not hard to do. I'll write a FAQ/HOWTO on it some day.
--
Brendan Byrd AKA SineSwiper
Computer techie, PERL master, and all-purpose Internet guru
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
1) A new PC suitable for installing NT + Exchange and serving 600 people can cost $20k. Let's be more reasonable and discard things like RAID and 1GB of RAM and say $5k.
2) You neglected to factor in the cost of NT and Exchange, including 600 licenses. That's at least $1129 more, plus $40/user if they don't already have the licenses = $24,000.
3) It doesn't cost $200k/yr to run a mail server. Our network admin (admittedly incompetent) only gets about $50k. Factoring electricity, etc brings that up to $60k.
So let's re-add this. ~$30,000 for a new NT/Exchange or $0 for Linux. That sounds like a substantial savings to me.
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
I just read "Good News from Outer Space". Did you get that phrase from there or is it from somewhere else previously?
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
So you are saying W2k is OK for single-user, single-process, simple work?
Sounds like Micros~1 stole more than a GUI from Apple.
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by My_Favorite_Anonymous_Coward:
Umm... I never understand this. Are you putting the sofa in front of the 21" monitor? How can you call it "watching" movie if you can't do it with pop corn and soda in front of you? Isn't the monitor supposed to be your working tool, on your desk? Optimized for the fast keybroad and the other home office environment?
I assume you have bought the PC-remote thing already. After using my uncle's super ergonormic 4-in-1 remote, I feel sick wheneven I use my remote to change cable\tv\vcr channles. That one alone is one strike against any win+dvd.
CY
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
"...virtually ALL of the commercial players getting involved with Linux...are focusing on the server side?"
Virtual: seeming to be, but not actually being. See Virtual Reality.
It's true that Linux functions well as a server. And it's true that Linux may well more power than the average user needs on his desktop. But it is NOT true that the commercial players are forgetting the client side.
IBM: Linux on Thinkpads.
NVidia: Linux drivers for high-end video cards (only useful on the desktop)
Loki: Civ:CTP and many more desktop games to come
Oracle, Informix, etc: Server side stuff first, client tools on the way
The only reason it seems like commercial entities are focusing on the server aspects is that the server software companies are bigger. An announcment from Oracle can overshadow announcments from "client-side companies".
That said, I don't think the company secretary will be using Linux on the desktop anytime soon--but:
1) Why take the short term view?
2) If Linux wins in the backroom, we make the rules. Win95 would start having to advertise (and support) its "Linux-compatible protocols", etc. In this scenario, while MS might still hold the desktop market, we would have achieved a major goal in squashing many proprietary formats and protocols.
BTW, why exclude Linux-only companies from your client/server dichotomy? If we include them (since there doesn't appear to be any reason to bar them), we can find a LOT more examples of client-side Linux.
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
24% are planning not to move to W2k (but have presumably considered). These are people who have actively rejected W2k.
Furthermore, 28% are "uncertain" on "considering" Linux. That doesn't even make logical sense--they aren't sure if they are considering? That means they ARE considering. I find it more likely that 28% read the question as "planning". That brings the number of "considerings" up to 48%.
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by _DogShu_:
...and then you watch the movie on the > TV you connected to the analog output.
>
Does this mean I can't watch it on my computer screen?
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
I'd like to see some figures on:
How many all-NT departments with 50 servers are considering Linux?
(Companies with a lot of servers are more likely to have competent sys admins. This question will tell us if we are finally getting through to the morons.)
How many of those with "Unix" listed (especially those with
("Unix" is a rather generic name. And the OS breakdown didn't list Linux as an option, even at 0%.)
What is the difference between the number of each OS that the IT Manager/Director/Whatever says they have and the number they REALLY have?
(The contention all along is that Linux has been sneaking in through the backdoor. The CTO, by definition, probably wouldn't know about this.)
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by nobodyouknow:
I want to tell you all about these things, but evrything I do is closely watched by the post-it notes on my monitor
Those craters have formed over a time period of upwards of 4 billion years, which means there was typically a long time between impacts. IIRC, there is only one reported probable sighting of a meteorite impact on the moon, and that was several hundred years ago.
Micrometeorites (impacts of dust particles) may be a low level, but frequent danger. I don't know how bad.
Dear AC,
I do not completely agree with your definition of "supercomputers". The scientific community can probably not even agree on one, except that all definitions of supercomputers have in common that they are relatively fast.
Actually, I've seen a definition of the term "supercomputer" that said it is a relative term, depending on the current state-of-the-art. At that time (according to that source) supercomputer meant any computer that had a peak performance of more than 1 GFLOPs. Now, it would probably be 5 or 10 GFLOPs, given that your home computer can have a P3 or K6-2 with vector instructions that can peak over 1 GFLOPs.
Typically, it does not matter what the architecture is, as long as it can be view as a single machine. Yes, vector parallel computers have been the most powerful for years, and the latest generations of the computers are still supercomputers.
However, massively parallel computers should not be ruled out. The question of Beowulf clusters being included in these is interesting; the fact is, they can provide the required performance.
- ze Apocalyptic Lawnmower
Posted by TheCanoleCaptain:
:)
:)
The Deep Computing Institute will be able to make some great progress as long as they don't get mired in difficulties deciding what to work on next. So many things to compute - so few computers...
What's really missing here is the power of Massively Parallel Computing. The folks at SETI@Home have really landed a great piece of work. Instead of spending a ton of money on in-house computing resources, convince a million individuals around the world to spare their computing resources while they are not using them. I have 2 computers at work running 24/7 churning on nothing most of the time, and 3 at home running part time. Cooperatively leveraging the massively parallel resources of the net while understanding the chaotic nature of each individual node will be the internet's greatist benefit to mankind - and the individuals who are truely able to make it work.
Posted by andygates:
Sure, I agree that if they are alerted to a defamatory article on their servers, they are wise to remove it. But removing links? I cannot see how this can make them liable; surely it is no worse than a newspaper saying "According to sources, so-and-so is a *@!£$!@" - and giving the sources. Which they already do.
Demon's move is a dangerous challenge to free speech on the net; a lot of die-hard UK netizens use Demon (it's been around for ever) and I can see them leaving in droves if they start this sort of Big Brother checking.
As an alternative to killing the links, why don't Demon instead notify the ISP carrying the article? They will then have served "due diligence" and should be absolved of any legal responsibility - and the other ISP can do as it pleases.
Posted by Philosopher2:
You are forgetting te fact that the human race is just another race of animals which is following its own instinct. So there is no doubt that mankind will never grow up, they are simply just doing what every animal does (without thinking in a grown up fashion) that is, populating their environment trying to survive and killing everything and everyone who is threatening the the way they are living. The problem is that mankind is the best on this world in doing that so they are known as the most evil race on the planet (until they finally destroy themselves).
I'm sorry to tell you this but we are just poor (dumb) animals doomed to be killed by their own genocidical actions, by another more evil race or by some disaster from (cruel) nature. If you want to talk about it, you can mail me.
Posted by Justin:
;)
i do what i can
thanks. i needed that. (no, that is not sarcasm)