First, I think that idea of a unified, cross-platform packaging system is a great idea that isn't ready for prime time yet. Personally I don't think the technomogy is quite there yet. And the market isn't conceptually ready for it, either.
Second, these package wars are non-productive. Saying that RPM is inferior to DPKG does not help anyone. Especially when it's not true. Neither RPM or DPKG are significently superior to each other. When you break them down they are pretty much the same, just with some minor differences in implimentation. They are both very good tools.
Linus is killing Linux just as horribly as I'm killing Slashdot.
No, CT. You're doing a beautiful job of killing Slashdot. It's a work of art. I've never seen such style in the killing of anything. You are a master artisen.. . . . . . .
Ok, ok.! Moderate this down as a lame attempt at sarcasim that missed. Off Topic!
---
The one teacher that had the most influance on me was my father. He taught high school math and physics as well as being the football and track (and occational basketball and wrestling) coach. Not only did I have him through out my four years of high school as a teacher, he was my coach. And if you think I might have gotten a bit of a free ride in ether schoolastics or athletics because of it think again. He was incredible fair; I had to work just a little harder than anyone else but I passed or failed/played or not according to my abilities. After I graduated (and subsequently dropped out of collage) I had the privilage of coaching with him for a few years as his assistent.
I didn't only learn the subjects and sports from him, though. I learned how to teach, how to modivate someone to help them achieve their goals. I learned that you can be in a position of authority without having to be a dictator or tyrant. That having and keeping a good sense of humor can help you through hard times. I learned that nothing is more important than family. That being a man does not mean you can't feel and show those feelings. I also learned that knowledge is a gift that should be shared. Learn everything you can about anything and pass it on to someone.
There are many more things he taught me. How I live and who I am is, in a large part, due to him.
Last Feb. 2nd, he passed away after five years of illness. It's hard seeing the man who was your strength being eaten away in front of you. But even in this he taught me something. No matter what happens or how bad it gets, nothing can defeat your spirit. Never give up.
..."Shanghai Noon" (which was only stupid
deliberately and as a form of send-up).
That pretty much describes every Jacky Chan movie. And while he doesn't do all of his own stunts anymore (after smashing his body for decades, age has definitely taken it's toll), his sense of humor is still worth the price of a ticket.
As for other movies that have the same hart and soul, look no further than any Kurosawa movie with Toshirô Mifune (one of my personal favorates).
I know this is a useless, "Me, too", kind of post but the idea that the 'Net (or even the Web) has peaked is just a tad premature. It would be like saying that air travel peaked with the Wright Brothers.
Sendmail could be used to spam. This website sells software that is DESIGNED to extract email addresses and then stealth email them, most likely through hijacked mail servers with forged headers and from addresses.
Additionally, RBL should be blocking domains/IP's from addresses that actually send spam. If an ISP has an entire Class B and one IP/domain is sending spam then that should be the only one blocked. Even if the ISP will not do anything about the spamer. It's not the job of RBL or ORBS or any of the anti-spam projects to decide what others can and can't do. They should only block IP's and domains that send spam. Period!
This article just reaferms the old addage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Isn't there anything else out there besides games that is abandoned? I remember some really good utils and apps that would still be very useful. Anyone remember PFS-Write? No, it wasn't wysiwyg, but it was a killer word processor that took up little resources.
Why is it that games are the only things that get mentioned when Abandonware is thought of?
---
Being of Italian decent I never could understand having turkey for the Christmas dinner. Hell, the turkey from Thanksgiving still has leftovers that'll last through next week.
We always had manacotti for dinner. My mom would cook both cheese and meat manacotti so everyone would be happy.
More like a sacred bunch. I've been there, done that and the earlier comments about the ratio of quality admins to just bodies is pretty accurate on the Unclass side. It's a little better on the Calss side but still not what it should be. Money is one issue but the bigest problem is the buracratic morase that needs to be waded through just to change little things.
I personally know a number of people who were and who are DoD sysadmins. They catch far more flack than they deserve from both inside and outside the Fed.
If someone directly kept you from doing your job then reamed you for not getting it done... If you were subject to riddicule from people who will never learn as much as you'd forgotten about being a sysadmin... Well, how would you feel?
My personal favorite government web site is the US Army Publishing Agency's web site. OC, this might be related to the fact that I single-handedly built it from scratch and ran it from Nov '95 through Feb '99.
For those who are involved with the US Federal Government web sites there is an excelent resource available for you. It's called the DoD Webmasters list, though it isn't limited to just "dot mil" users. Information on this list can be found at http://www.army.mil/webmasters/faq. The archives are available there, too.
We have had lots of very good discussions on the issues of design and functionality in there.
Here in the Washington DC Metro area we've been doing this for a while. The change over the last decade has been quite drastic. The local area codes are 703 (VA), 202 (DC) & 301 (MD) and 10 years ago you didn't need to dial the area code at all if you wanted to call someone in the Metro calling area. Now you have to dial the 10 digit number if you want to call the house next to you. It hasn't been a problem, really. The only inconvienance is having to remember to update any speed-dial settings to add the area codes.
I've seen the comments, for and against, the phone numbering systems used in Europe. I lived in Germany for 14 years and remember, very well, the system used. It wasn't difficult to use either. I really think it's just a matter of what you are used to. People here in the States have a tendancy to be very ridgid and to not like change.
I have been charged with putting together a class on Linux for a local training company. They do certification training and want to add LPI certification to their list. I have convinced them of the benifit of a general "Getting to know you" Linux course but I'm having a tough time putting something together. So far, my plan is to use one of the many Linux books as the class text and cobble together a lesson plan from it. I've narrowed it down to:
Linux in a Nutshell
Red Hat Linux System Administration Guide
(Both available at Fatbrain near you). I'd prefer to teach a general Linux course but the company wants a Red Hat based one. I have no problem with that, though, as I know RH better than the other distros.
If anyone does come up with a course for Linux that's available please let me know.
This whol thing in FA just shows that the political and legal systems are fsck'ed! We've gone through how many weeks and how many recounts just for show. Bush won! He won because he got more votes in the places where it counted. Just like every other winner over the last few elections. If this election had been broken down to the county level Bush would have stomped on Gore. However, the way it's done is for people to vote and those votes are counted and not counted just to make sure a worthless polititon wins an election.
And for the recrod: Bush isn't what I'd call a great choice of the job. But, Gore is just so much more dangerous. And anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together knows he will continue in the decamation of our country.
Gopher would be a great thing to revive. The web is no longer about information, it's about flash and money and porn. There are many times when just having a repository of searchable, linked information would be very useful.
There was a program out called GN way back in the day that was a gopher server that could serve very basic web stuff, too. That might not be a bad place to start.
I was in on the Caldera IPO. I put about $4k in and it's worth around 1k now. Still, I see it as a long term investment and I do feel that the Linux companies will end up strong. I may not make my money back but what the hell.
---
There is an existing firewall called GNAT Box that is built on a core of FreeBSD. They have one version called the GB-Flash which is a 16 meg chip that plugs into the IDE controller of any PC. It has everything that any big-name firewall product has and only costs $1,500 (keep in mind it's target compitition costs between $20k and $40k).
I doubt the "average user" would find it worth buying but any small to enterprise sized business should definitely take a look at it and/or the GB-1000 Firewall Appliance. If you want to just test it out or see what it looks like there's a free, 5 node version called GNAT Box Lite you can get, too.
With the results split between the EC and the people, will this effect how the next President will be able to govern the US?
No. The Rep's won the House and hung on by the skin of their teeth in the Senate. How the next President will be able to govern rests soley with who wins.
If it's Gore then we still have the same situation of one side effectivly controling Congrass and one side the Executive office.
If Bush wins then we'll have all one party in control. While that sounds ominous, it's actually a good thing in that the Leaguslative and Executive branches will not be fighting over crap enough to possibly get some real work done.
And for those who are araid that a Bush win would be Bad Thing<tm>, take a look at the US from 1980 till today. You'll see no effective difference in anything that trully maters. We are all better off than we were before Regan and, after 12 years of Rep's and 8 years of Dem's, we're still doing better than we were before 1980.
Bottom line: Neither party is effectivly different than the other. They shout and rant about "Liberal" and "Conservative" but keep the basic status quo. It's in their coninued self interest to do so.
Discalimer: I don't know shit. I'm just posting my take on this after just two and a half hours of sleep. No, I wasn't up following the elections, though I did check in occationally. I have been trying to get TruboLinux Workstation 6.1 installed under VMware. And for the record, I voted for Bush because he scares me less than Gore does. Kinda like you're less afraid of a knife wealding madman than a gun toting madman.
I worked as a DoD GS'er for just under 15 years until I had to leave on a disability retirement. I worked 4 years or so in Germany and 10 years in the Washington DC area. I started as a GS-4 and ended a GS-12. The last job, at the 12 level, I was making around $50K. I knew I could make at least $75-$80 in the private sector. Why did I stay so long?
The benifites are unbeatable. Nothing in the private sector came close for medical or leave. When my son was born I got two weeks of paternaty leave without even haveing to ask for it. (My wife took 6 weeks though she could have taken 3 months). The retirement is fairly good. The job security is unmatched.
Yes, you do have to put up with a LOT of idots and meetings and crap. However, I've since found that the level of idiocy and crap isn't much different in the private sector. It's just less noisy so it's less noticed.
Working for the Fed isn't the greatest job in the world, nor is it the worst. It depends so much on where and for whom you work. I've had times where I got awards and extra pay for work well done then had to turn around and fight management action on stupidity like what time I had to call in if I were sick.
A 33% pay raise will be a good thing. Improving management would be better but that goes without saying everywhere.
None of the people running for office look like they are worth voting for. It's nice to think we have more than two choices but we don't. It's Bush or Gore, that's it. And both smell pretty bad to me.
So far this looks like another in the long lines of "pick the one you think is the lesser evil" elections. From that standpoint you'd have to go with Bush. Gore is just so much worse an option than Bush it's frightnening.
I know a guy who's been voting for Richie Blackmore for decades. I might join him this year.
---
An interesting reaction to the talk
on
Perl 6 Showcase
·
· Score: 2
I was at this session and there was a very interesting reaction to it from the people I talked to after it was done. It seemed that half were all pumped about perl 6 and the other half left resolved to switch to something else (python being the most mentioned). This surprised me a little.
Before anyone gets all hyper about this let me state that this was not any kind of scientific poll (I didn't talk to everyone) but it was a sample greater than four. Some of whom were long time perl users.
You must not get out much. In just about every office I've been in at least half of the people there print out the web pages they want to "keep" rather than bookmark them. And even if they do bookmark the pages they tend to refer back to the gardcopy printouts to read or look up the address.
And on the usefullness of the product...
The only valid uses i can see for cue cats, is in magazines and newspaper. Why? so that you can
access information about the person who wrote the article, to see what else they have written, or
for a digital copy of the article, or even for other articles from past issues relating to this article.
Hey, ever heard of a catalog? Or ads in those magazines and newspapers? That is the target market for the thing. And you can bet your CPU that the average person out there would use the hell out of the thing. Especially between now and the new Century.
But if you've decided to vote and care to say
why, here's your chance.
Well, to be honest neither of the two major choices are any good. However, I am probably going to vote for Bush. The primary reason is that while they are both scum^H^H^H^H polititions, Gore is a known lier of the like that makes even Clinton almost look good. Bush is no saint, but he hasn't proven that he is anywhere near as bad a choice as Gore.
Still, we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. I think maybe it's time to start a massive write-in campain for Richie Blackmore!
Yeah, and considering that the media is strongly behind Gore you can see that they do NOT care about who is elected or which party is in power. They only care about trashing anyone or anything they can.
Our whole election process need to be revamped. The Electorial Collage is a complete joke. A candidate can pull something like 50.5% of the popular vote yet sweep the Electorial Collage. It's almost sicknening.
Is the Amiga only going to be a game machine? That's what it sounds like. And the comment about BeOS is very true. There seems to be a lot of action happening for an OS that isn't yet real when there could be work being done on what that is. And BeOS is very real and well worth every developers attention.
This whole "project" is more than a hoax. It's fraud. As has been pointed out already, there are many reasons this idea of making an F1 self-driving car is redicules.
The big red flags for me are the claims that it will be able to beet the F1 champion when it's supposadly finished. If, by some mirical, they were able to get a self-driving car that could make it around the track there's no way they could program for the infinate number of vatiables, like weather and pit stops and other drivers actions. They are almost saying that they could put the equivilent knowledge and experience of an Ayrton Sena in the car.
Deep Blue was able to play chess because there are a finite number of moves that can be made based on the moves previously made. (As a side bar, Kasperov choaked! He should have beaten Deep Blue.)
Maybe when someone invents the positronic brain this will be potentially possible. Untill then this "research" company is just trying to steal money.
Slashdot Mirror
Second, these package wars are non-productive. Saying that RPM is inferior to DPKG does not help anyone. Especially when it's not true. Neither RPM or DPKG are significently superior to each other. When you break them down they are pretty much the same, just with some minor differences in implimentation. They are both very good tools.
---
No, CT. You're doing a beautiful job of killing Slashdot. It's a work of art. I've never seen such style in the killing of anything. You are a master artisen. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
Ok, ok.! Moderate this down as a lame attempt at sarcasim that missed. Off Topic!
---
I didn't only learn the subjects and sports from him, though. I learned how to teach, how to modivate someone to help them achieve their goals. I learned that you can be in a position of authority without having to be a dictator or tyrant. That having and keeping a good sense of humor can help you through hard times. I learned that nothing is more important than family. That being a man does not mean you can't feel and show those feelings. I also learned that knowledge is a gift that should be shared. Learn everything you can about anything and pass it on to someone. There are many more things he taught me. How I live and who I am is, in a large part, due to him.
Last Feb. 2nd, he passed away after five years of illness. It's hard seeing the man who was your strength being eaten away in front of you. But even in this he taught me something. No matter what happens or how bad it gets, nothing can defeat your spirit. Never give up.
---
That pretty much describes every Jacky Chan movie. And while he doesn't do all of his own stunts anymore (after smashing his body for decades, age has definitely taken it's toll), his sense of humor is still worth the price of a ticket.
As for other movies that have the same hart and soul, look no further than any Kurosawa movie with Toshirô Mifune (one of my personal favorates).
---
I know this is a useless, "Me, too", kind of post but the idea that the 'Net (or even the Web) has peaked is just a tad premature. It would be like saying that air travel peaked with the Wright Brothers.
---
So!?! What's this got to do with the price of tea in China? Yes, spam is a Bad Thing©. Yes, the people who write and sell software to harvest email and send spam are bad. Hasen't anyone ever heard of the phrase "Vote with your feet!"? If spam generating software is bad, don't buy or use it. Help others to understand why it's bad. Education is the way, not wholesale draconian domain blockings.
Additionally, RBL should be blocking domains/IP's from addresses that actually send spam. If an ISP has an entire Class B and one IP/domain is sending spam then that should be the only one blocked. Even if the ISP will not do anything about the spamer. It's not the job of RBL or ORBS or any of the anti-spam projects to decide what others can and can't do. They should only block IP's and domains that send spam. Period!
This article just reaferms the old addage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
---
Why is it that games are the only things that get mentioned when Abandonware is thought of?
---
We always had manacotti for dinner. My mom would cook both cheese and meat manacotti so everyone would be happy.
---
More like a sacred bunch. I've been there, done that and the earlier comments about the ratio of quality admins to just bodies is pretty accurate on the Unclass side. It's a little better on the Calss side but still not what it should be. Money is one issue but the bigest problem is the buracratic morase that needs to be waded through just to change little things.
I personally know a number of people who were and who are DoD sysadmins. They catch far more flack than they deserve from both inside and outside the Fed.
If someone directly kept you from doing your job then reamed you for not getting it done... If you were subject to riddicule from people who will never learn as much as you'd forgotten about being a sysadmin... Well, how would you feel?
---
For those who are involved with the US Federal Government web sites there is an excelent resource available for you. It's called the DoD Webmasters list, though it isn't limited to just "dot mil" users. Information on this list can be found at http://www.army.mil/webmasters/faq. The archives are available there, too.
We have had lots of very good discussions on the issues of design and functionality in there.
---
I've seen the comments, for and against, the phone numbering systems used in Europe. I lived in Germany for 14 years and remember, very well, the system used. It wasn't difficult to use either. I really think it's just a matter of what you are used to. People here in the States have a tendancy to be very ridgid and to not like change.
---
- Linux in a Nutshell
- Red Hat Linux System Administration Guide
(Both available at Fatbrain near you). I'd prefer to teach a general Linux course but the company wants a Red Hat based one. I have no problem with that, though, as I know RH better than the other distros.If anyone does come up with a course for Linux that's available please let me know.
---
And for the recrod: Bush isn't what I'd call a great choice of the job. But, Gore is just so much more dangerous. And anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together knows he will continue in the decamation of our country.
---
There was a program out called GN way back in the day that was a gopher server that could serve very basic web stuff, too. That might not be a bad place to start.
---
I was in on the Caldera IPO. I put about $4k in and it's worth around 1k now. Still, I see it as a long term investment and I do feel that the Linux companies will end up strong. I may not make my money back but what the hell.
---
I doubt the "average user" would find it worth buying but any small to enterprise sized business should definitely take a look at it and/or the GB-1000 Firewall Appliance. If you want to just test it out or see what it looks like there's a free, 5 node version called GNAT Box Lite you can get, too.
---
No. The Rep's won the House and hung on by the skin of their teeth in the Senate. How the next President will be able to govern rests soley with who wins.
If it's Gore then we still have the same situation of one side effectivly controling Congrass and one side the Executive office.
If Bush wins then we'll have all one party in control. While that sounds ominous, it's actually a good thing in that the Leaguslative and Executive branches will not be fighting over crap enough to possibly get some real work done.
And for those who are araid that a Bush win would be Bad Thing<tm> , take a look at the US from 1980 till today. You'll see no effective difference in anything that trully maters. We are all better off than we were before Regan and, after 12 years of Rep's and 8 years of Dem's, we're still doing better than we were before 1980.
Bottom line: Neither party is effectivly different than the other. They shout and rant about "Liberal" and "Conservative" but keep the basic status quo. It's in their coninued self interest to do so.
Discalimer: I don't know shit. I'm just posting my take on this after just two and a half hours of sleep. No, I wasn't up following the elections, though I did check in occationally. I have been trying to get TruboLinux Workstation 6.1 installed under VMware. And for the record, I voted for Bush because he scares me less than Gore does. Kinda like you're less afraid of a knife wealding madman than a gun toting madman.
---
The benifites are unbeatable. Nothing in the private sector came close for medical or leave. When my son was born I got two weeks of paternaty leave without even haveing to ask for it. (My wife took 6 weeks though she could have taken 3 months). The retirement is fairly good. The job security is unmatched.
Yes, you do have to put up with a LOT of idots and meetings and crap. However, I've since found that the level of idiocy and crap isn't much different in the private sector. It's just less noisy so it's less noticed.
Working for the Fed isn't the greatest job in the world, nor is it the worst. It depends so much on where and for whom you work. I've had times where I got awards and extra pay for work well done then had to turn around and fight management action on stupidity like what time I had to call in if I were sick.
A 33% pay raise will be a good thing. Improving management would be better but that goes without saying everywhere.
---
So far this looks like another in the long lines of "pick the one you think is the lesser evil" elections. From that standpoint you'd have to go with Bush. Gore is just so much worse an option than Bush it's frightnening.
I know a guy who's been voting for Richie Blackmore for decades. I might join him this year.
---
Before anyone gets all hyper about this let me state that this was not any kind of scientific poll (I didn't talk to everyone) but it was a sample greater than four. Some of whom were long time perl users.
You can make of this what you will.
---
You must not get out much. In just about every office I've been in at least half of the people there print out the web pages they want to "keep" rather than bookmark them. And even if they do bookmark the pages they tend to refer back to the gardcopy printouts to read or look up the address.
And on the usefullness of the product...
The only valid uses i can see for cue cats, is in magazines and newspaper. Why? so that you can access information about the person who wrote the article, to see what else they have written, or for a digital copy of the article, or even for other articles from past issues relating to this article.
Hey, ever heard of a catalog? Or ads in those magazines and newspapers? That is the target market for the thing. And you can bet your CPU that the average person out there would use the hell out of the thing. Especially between now and the new Century.
---
Well, to be honest neither of the two major choices are any good. However, I am probably going to vote for Bush. The primary reason is that while they are both scum^H^H^H^H polititions, Gore is a known lier of the like that makes even Clinton almost look good. Bush is no saint, but he hasn't proven that he is anywhere near as bad a choice as Gore.
Still, we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. I think maybe it's time to start a massive write-in campain for Richie Blackmore!
---
Our whole election process need to be revamped. The Electorial Collage is a complete joke. A candidate can pull something like 50.5% of the popular vote yet sweep the Electorial Collage. It's almost sicknening.
---
Is the Amiga only going to be a game machine? That's what it sounds like. And the comment about BeOS is very true. There seems to be a lot of action happening for an OS that isn't yet real when there could be work being done on what that is. And BeOS is very real and well worth every developers attention.
---
The big red flags for me are the claims that it will be able to beet the F1 champion when it's supposadly finished. If, by some mirical, they were able to get a self-driving car that could make it around the track there's no way they could program for the infinate number of vatiables, like weather and pit stops and other drivers actions. They are almost saying that they could put the equivilent knowledge and experience of an Ayrton Sena in the car.
Deep Blue was able to play chess because there are a finite number of moves that can be made based on the moves previously made. (As a side bar, Kasperov choaked! He should have beaten Deep Blue.)
Maybe when someone invents the positronic brain this will be potentially possible. Untill then this "research" company is just trying to steal money.
---