Most software is now so "helpful" that it has ways to bypass firewalls by tunneling through known-open ports, like 80 (HTTP).
RealAudio/Video, Windows Media Player, etc.
If you are connected to the Internet via ANY port then data can go out -- like embedded in a URL.
Also, unless you own the ENTIRE NETWORK you are traversing, your data could be sniffed on a "public" point. If the encryption is flawed, you're screwed.
This is a corporate term used in the manufacturing industry to make sure the people on the line have the proper revision documents when using paper.
I have worked at a couple of companies that are transitioning from paper to electronic docs. PDF was the best intermediate step. Docs could be locked, and NOT PRINTED, thus requiring the line workers to use the screen (which showed ONLY the current rev).
If they print, docs have a habit of laying around long after they are out of date. People are lazy and use them without checking, thinking "I didn't hear anything about a rev change, so this is still good."
Anyone who works in a large manufacturing environment that is/will be ISO-9000 certified or works to MIL SPEC knows what I mean. Documents must be controlled with almost a fascist method.
No, it is not possible to get people to check the docs every time. They just won't do it.
You're right, Asimov is dead. So is Zelazny and Heinlein as well as many other SF greats.
You're wrong, their works are not PD. They are owned for the most part by their respective estates. Copyright extends for the life of the author + some odd years (50? 75?)
While I have no problem at all with an author making as much as they can off their work (or anyone off of their own creative work), the idea that their "estate" can mooch for another 50+ years is sickening. They didn't create it, they only benefit by accident of association. Get a life! Create your own work and make a living for yourself instead of mooching!
I've been looking at new TVs and several have computer inputs and resolutions from 1280x720 to 1024x1024. Screen size is from 30" to 73" and one DLP projector that can project up to a 300" screen. These include several rear-projection and flat-panel plasma models. Prices go from $4,000 to $20,000+
(Note: The pixel sizes are odd because I am only looking at TVs with a 16:9 aspect. I refuse to consider a standard 4:3 any more.)
When I was a small child, I believed in Santa Claus -- no questions. He was magic. (He is an elf, after all.) This is phase 1.
When I grew up a bit (and became a smart ass), I figured much of those numbers and realized Santa must fly near the speed of light to get it all done. At this time, I also realized Rudolph was retired in favor of radar, FLIR and GPS. This is phase 2.
When I grew up more, I realized the "truth", that there was no Santa Claus. Phase 3.
Now, married with children, I know the real truth. Santa only delivers presents to children who have been good ALL YEAR LONG! On a good year, this narrows it down to 2 or 3 kids worldwide. On a slow year, he only has to make stops in hospitals for kids who've been in a coma for a whole year! This is the final phase.
P.S. -- Check it out. Santa owns a good chunk of FedEx and UPS. The sleigh is only for promotional events!
Employees that are happy and well compensated, stay.
If you consider training costs in lieu of raises/bonuses for the next year or so, you are going to irritate employees and then lose them.
My current employer:
1. REQUIRES me to get certified in two areas within the next year (I have 8 months left).
2. PAYS for all training, including expenses (books, classes, travel, hotel, meals, tests, etc.)
3. PAYS A BONUS when I actually receive certification.
4. PAYS ANOTHER BONUS if I can do it before 12/31/00. (My last test is scheduled for 12/29/00!)
I gave a verbal commitment to work for the company 2-years before considering anything else. (I didn't swear on a stack of Bibles; it wasn't written, recorded or otherwise made official.)
I was trained for 6 weeks (cram course) when I was first hired.
I'm paid a competitive amount -- my salary isn't going to double once I receive the certification if I go elsewhere. I'm still under the same annual performance review/quarterly stock & bonus review as everyone else. My chances for a bonus/stock grant actually go UP if I take more training!
Palm Beach wasn't the only problem area. Take a look at the vote breakdown for 3rd party candidates in Volusia County (Daytona Beach, Deltona -- where I live).
The Socialist Worker's candidate and the Constitutional Party candidate received almost 13,000 votes. This is about 12,990 more than in any other county -- 95% of all their votes in Florida and over 70% of their totals nationwide! Local news was reporting that the numbers modemed in didn't match the ones recorded to the vote-counting disks with Bush getting a +30% and Gore getting -10% of the real numbers!
The corrected numbers were reported to the State and the official totals about 2:00 a.m. 11/8 but the bad numbers are still being shown on many news websites (CBS and CNN for two).
It is interesting to see just how Babelfish translates things. So, Echelon violates a German patent on Semiconductors. Is this guy pissed because he is being spied on, or because Germany isn't getting its cut?
So, with stuff like this, what is the correct, legal procedure for presenting it to the Patent Office as prior art? That BT patent (along with several others) needs to be revoked.
Interesting. I agree with the last paragraph -- forged headers, non-existant remove addresses, etc. But, I take a completely different view of the first part -- it is a function of the time and effort required. There are no absolutes. I pick my battles, and something that wastes a few seconds of my time isn't worth the extra effort to spend thinking about it. For me it's a matter of the value of my time, not an absolute right-wrong issue.
Look at it this way. You probably wasted more time calling that 800-number and following up on all that (one incident) than you would have in deleting unwanted spam for a year.
Ok, I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but I honestly don't understand this hatred towards spam.
Yes, I get a dozen or so UCEs every day -- but it takes me less than 10 seconds to delete them all. Maybe a full minute if I decide they can be added to my anti-spam rules on my e-mail client. This is a hell of a lot less time and effort than it takes me with junk mail (postal). There is no way to automate the processing (trashing) of junk postal mail, but my computer handles most of the spam without my help.
The myth of it costing you more is just that - a myth. 5 years ago you might have paid per message or per byte of e-mail, but not any more. Dial-in accounts have plummeted in price from per hour/per minute charges to flat rate. Some are now under $6.00 per month and there are several "free" ISPs if you'll tolerate their junk.
My point: your cost, as an end user, has not been affected by spam. If you think an ISP is going to lower your price if they stop transmitting spam, you're crazy.
Spam volumes are much, much better dealt with with QoS either in IP and/or the ATM backbone. Proper QoS with e-mail (which you wouldn't notice an extra few seconds delay on e-mail delivery).
For the record: I believe bulk e-mailers should be required to use a valid e-mail address and I agree that relaying off of someone else's mail server should be illegal. (Without paying for it, that is.) I also agree that they should be required to keep and honor opt-out lists, like Florida's for telephone solicitation.
The company that handles the network edition of DirecPC is Helius. They have a Linux "Satellite Router" based off of Caldera OpenLinux. You can get just the software, if you have the dish and card (which I do) in a "Lite 4-user" version for $199. I just ordered it. Haven't got it, yet. Great for a small home or office network. Still have to get an account (monthly) with DirecPC (Hughes) and an ISP for outgoing info. A bit bigger than a mini-dish (and elliptical), about 21". Coax to the card in the computer. Ethernet out of your ethernet card to the other systems. The box (basically a router) and up to 3 other machines share the connection. -chill
Open Source is a wonderful thing in that it gives people the ability to make their own changes -- make the program better themselves.
They key is *better*.
XiG competes with XFree not in cost, but in performance. I purchased XiG v5 even though XFree was up, running and working fine. Why? Because AcceleratedX smokes XFree in screen updates on my system (TNT2 card, dual P3-450).
The biggest visual cue is logging out from KDE -- I can watch the screen paint in 1280x1024x32 with XFree when it does the full-screen mask just before logging out. Takes a full three seconds. XiG blinks and is done in less than one.
Performance is what matters. If XiG can't get it's act together with nVidia, Matrox and 3DFx then they won't sell too many packages. If XFree handles those, it's going to be out in front.
You don't need to boycott XiG if they can't get those chipsets and can't do it better than XFree. It won't be necessary.
This is *very* interesting. I've been following their 3D pages for a couple of months now -- once I bought v5 AcceleratedX and I could *swear* there was mention of nVidia, 3dFX and Matrox support being some of the first.
They also have a new mention of a tradeup from v5 to 3D -- that wasn't there before.
Of course, with a Viper V770 Ultra it doesn't do me much good right now...
Netscape Webmail has been real flakey, too. I couldn't get in at all two days ago; the "premium services" have been "temporaily suspended" for a while now and just today when I tried to look up the message I saved with my Slashdot p/w it told me "message temporarily unavailable".
Does anyone have any opinions as to which webmail (Lycos, Yahoo, Netscape, Hotmail, OperaMail, etc.) is the best. By best I mean:
There are several places where pre-set forms are used and filled out that could greatly benefite from handwriting recognition:
Police Reports/Tickets Hospital/Doctor's Charts Signature Recognition (With a pressure-sensative device a signature could be used as a unique encyption key. It's basically a manual "key" now to banks, UPS, etc.)
There are numerous applications that lend themselves to handwriting much better than voice (noisy environments; limited but various response questionnaires, etc.)
I think the best items will combine both (voice notes w/recognition).
Several WinCE PDAs have the ability to record voice notes (w/o recognition).
"...although it wouldnt explain why most oil occurs in sandy areas ( i.e places where oceans used to be)."
Prior oceans do not necessarily have anything to do with "sandy places". The Sahara (the largest hot desert -- real sandy) is recorded as being much more hospitable thousands of years ago. It is growing (desertification) each year now without the presence of an ocean.
The presence of sand != a spot where oceans used to be.
In relation to the article. If the Earth is "sweating" off oil & natural gas, that's really pushing it out from internal pressure. Sand is more porous and easier to push through than rock or even dirt.
One of the *major* benefits I see for the SunRays is convenience. Don't have to log in and out, just pop in the card -- the environment follows you. My facility has 60+ PC, many of which are in a shared manufacturing environment. Having people log in, check e-mail, log out, etc. is a REAL PAIN. Not to mention configuring configuring e-mail client profiles for each floating PC and employee (say, 30 people x 40 shared machines). Also for others who work on presentations and other group items on their PC, then have to go to a conference room to log in, etc. Then remember to save everything, log out, etc. Popping in that card on a terminal and having instant reconnect looks like a dream come true. It also saves me from having to battery-backup each PC and I can spend some money on securing/protecting the server.
If I remember right, the Celeron cache runs at full CPU speed (say, 466 MHz) whereas the P-II and P-III cache runs at 1/2 speed (225 MHz on my dual P-III 450).
In certain applications this gives the Celeron a nice boost. Most non-super-stress tests such as office apps, etc. a Celeron would match the clock-equiv P-II beat for beat.
Not quite the same with something like Lightwave, Maya or other CPU-blasting programs. There the P-II and III stand out a bit more.
Besides, with Intel chopping prices on the P-III by up to 41% a couple of days ago, dual P-IIIs are getting cheaper. (A P-III 450 is now around $180.)
Checking with Network Solutions on a WHOIS gets "nicolai_tesla@MSN.COM" as both the administrative and billing contact.
Yeah, right. This person needs a life.
Re:Once again 4 intel ethernet cards
on
NOS Crossroads
·
· Score: 2
"But today, with Ingo Molnar's Software-RAID patches, Linux outperforms any hardware-RAID solution for a fraction of the cost."
Wait a minute. If you mean cost-performance, that is one thing, but sheer power outperformance? You mean your software RAID patches are going to outperform my Compaq SmartRAID with 16 Mb of battery-backed cache directly on the UltraSCSI bus?
No way. No how. Hardware RAID allows for some nice cache tricks that can increase speed and reliability.
Software RAID has potential for more flexability and certainly a better cost/performance ratio.
Slashdot Mirror
Firewalls are completely irrelevant.
Most software is now so "helpful" that it has ways to bypass firewalls by tunneling through known-open ports, like 80 (HTTP).
RealAudio/Video, Windows Media Player, etc.
If you are connected to the Internet via ANY port then data can go out -- like embedded in a URL.
Also, unless you own the ENTIRE NETWORK you are traversing, your data could be sniffed on a "public" point. If the encryption is flawed, you're screwed.
Very recently:
Lucent - 10% reduction in force
Cisco - 11% reduction in force
Both big megas. There are more. You could be next.
Document Control.
This is a corporate term used in the manufacturing industry to make sure the people on the line have the proper revision documents when using paper.
I have worked at a couple of companies that are transitioning from paper to electronic docs. PDF was the best intermediate step. Docs could be locked, and NOT PRINTED, thus requiring the line workers to use the screen (which showed ONLY the current rev).
If they print, docs have a habit of laying around long after they are out of date. People are lazy and use them without checking, thinking "I didn't hear anything about a rev change, so this is still good."
Anyone who works in a large manufacturing environment that is/will be ISO-9000 certified or works to MIL SPEC knows what I mean. Documents must be controlled with almost a fascist method.
No, it is not possible to get people to check the docs every time. They just won't do it.
-chill
The Dark Visions anthology and the Stainless Steel Rat series are his most well known.
He has won several awards and is considered among the greats of SF authors.
You're right, Asimov is dead. So is Zelazny and Heinlein as well as many other SF greats.
You're wrong, their works are not PD. They are owned for the most part by their respective estates. Copyright extends for the life of the author + some odd years (50? 75?)
While I have no problem at all with an author making as much as they can off their work (or anyone off of their own creative work), the idea that their "estate" can mooch for another 50+ years is sickening. They didn't create it, they only benefit by accident of association. Get a life! Create your own work and make a living for yourself instead of mooching!
I've been looking at new TVs and several have computer inputs and resolutions from 1280x720 to 1024x1024. Screen size is from 30" to 73" and one DLP projector that can project up to a 300" screen. These include several rear-projection and flat-panel plasma models. Prices go from $4,000 to $20,000+
(Note: The pixel sizes are odd because I am only looking at TVs with a 16:9 aspect. I refuse to consider a standard 4:3 any more.)
When I was a small child, I believed in Santa Claus -- no questions. He was magic. (He is an elf, after all.) This is phase 1.
When I grew up a bit (and became a smart ass), I figured much of those numbers and realized Santa must fly near the speed of light to get it all done. At this time, I also realized Rudolph was retired in favor of radar, FLIR and GPS. This is phase 2.
When I grew up more, I realized the "truth", that there was no Santa Claus. Phase 3.
Now, married with children, I know the real truth. Santa only delivers presents to children who have been good ALL YEAR LONG! On a good year, this narrows it down to 2 or 3 kids worldwide. On a slow year, he only has to make stops in hospitals for kids who've been in a coma for a whole year! This is the final phase.
P.S. -- Check it out. Santa owns a good chunk of FedEx and UPS. The sleigh is only for promotional events!
Employees that are happy and well compensated, stay.
If you consider training costs in lieu of raises/bonuses for the next year or so, you are going to irritate employees and then lose them.
My current employer:
1. REQUIRES me to get certified in two areas within the next year (I have 8 months left).
2. PAYS for all training, including expenses (books, classes, travel, hotel, meals, tests, etc.)
3. PAYS A BONUS when I actually receive certification.
4. PAYS ANOTHER BONUS if I can do it before 12/31/00. (My last test is scheduled for 12/29/00!)
I gave a verbal commitment to work for the company 2-years before considering anything else. (I didn't swear on a stack of Bibles; it wasn't written, recorded or otherwise made official.)
I was trained for 6 weeks (cram course) when I was first hired.
I'm paid a competitive amount -- my salary isn't going to double once I receive the certification if I go elsewhere. I'm still under the same annual performance review/quarterly stock & bonus review as everyone else. My chances for a bonus/stock grant actually go UP if I take more training!
chill
Palm Beach wasn't the only problem area. Take a look at the vote breakdown for 3rd party candidates in Volusia County (Daytona Beach, Deltona -- where I live).
The Socialist Worker's candidate and the Constitutional Party candidate received almost 13,000 votes. This is about 12,990 more than in any other county -- 95% of all their votes in Florida and over 70% of their totals nationwide! Local news was reporting that the numbers modemed in didn't match the ones recorded to the vote-counting disks with Bush getting a +30% and Gore getting -10% of the real numbers!
The corrected numbers were reported to the State and the official totals about 2:00 a.m. 11/8 but the bad numbers are still being shown on many news websites (CBS and CNN for two).
Vote for your favorite method of word destruction! (Can the poll handle 20 options?)
It is interesting to see just how Babelfish translates things. So, Echelon violates a German patent on Semiconductors. Is this guy pissed because he is being spied on, or because Germany isn't getting its cut?
So, with stuff like this, what is the correct, legal procedure for presenting it to the Patent Office as prior art? That BT patent (along with several others) needs to be revoked.
-chill
Interesting. I agree with the last paragraph -- forged headers, non-existant remove addresses, etc. But, I take a completely different view of the first part -- it is a function of the time and effort required. There are no absolutes. I pick my battles, and something that wastes a few seconds of my time isn't worth the extra effort to spend thinking about it. For me it's a matter of the value of my time, not an absolute right-wrong issue.
Look at it this way. You probably wasted more time calling that 800-number and following up on all that (one incident) than you would have in deleting unwanted spam for a year.
Thanks for the response. It was insightful.
Ok, I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but I honestly don't understand this hatred towards spam.
Yes, I get a dozen or so UCEs every day -- but it takes me less than 10 seconds to delete them all. Maybe a full minute if I decide they can be added to my anti-spam rules on my e-mail client. This is a hell of a lot less time and effort than it takes me with junk mail (postal). There is no way to automate the processing (trashing) of junk postal mail, but my computer handles most of the spam without my help.
The myth of it costing you more is just that - a myth. 5 years ago you might have paid per message or per byte of e-mail, but not any more. Dial-in accounts have plummeted in price from per hour/per minute charges to flat rate. Some are now under $6.00 per month and there are several "free" ISPs if you'll tolerate their junk.
My point: your cost, as an end user, has not been affected by spam. If you think an ISP is going to lower your price if they stop transmitting spam, you're crazy.
Spam volumes are much, much better dealt with with QoS either in IP and/or the ATM backbone. Proper QoS with e-mail (which you wouldn't notice an extra few seconds delay on e-mail delivery).
For the record: I believe bulk e-mailers should be required to use a valid e-mail address and I agree that relaying off of someone else's mail server should be illegal. (Without paying for it, that is.) I also agree that they should be required to keep and honor opt-out lists, like Florida's for telephone solicitation.
The company that handles the network edition of DirecPC is Helius. They have a Linux "Satellite Router" based off of Caldera OpenLinux. You can get just the software, if you have the dish and card (which I do) in a "Lite 4-user" version for $199. I just ordered it. Haven't got it, yet. Great for a small home or office network. Still have to get an account (monthly) with DirecPC (Hughes) and an ISP for outgoing info. A bit bigger than a mini-dish (and elliptical), about 21". Coax to the card in the computer. Ethernet out of your ethernet card to the other systems. The box (basically a router) and up to 3 other machines share the connection. -chill
Open Source is a wonderful thing in that it gives people the ability to make their own changes -- make the program better themselves.
They key is *better*.
XiG competes with XFree not in cost, but in performance. I purchased XiG v5 even though XFree was up, running and working fine. Why? Because AcceleratedX smokes XFree in screen updates on my system (TNT2 card, dual P3-450).
The biggest visual cue is logging out from KDE -- I can watch the screen paint in 1280x1024x32 with XFree when it does the full-screen mask just before logging out. Takes a full three seconds. XiG blinks and is done in less than one.
Performance is what matters. If XiG can't get it's act together with nVidia, Matrox and 3DFx then they won't sell too many packages. If XFree handles those, it's going to be out in front.
You don't need to boycott XiG if they can't get those chipsets and can't do it better than XFree. It won't be necessary.
-chill
This is *very* interesting. I've been following their 3D pages for a couple of months now -- once I bought v5 AcceleratedX and I could *swear* there was mention of nVidia, 3dFX and Matrox support being some of the first.
They also have a new mention of a tradeup from v5 to 3D -- that wasn't there before.
Of course, with a Viper V770 Ultra it doesn't do me much good right now...
-chill
Netscape Webmail has been real flakey, too. I couldn't get in at all two days ago; the "premium services" have been "temporaily suspended" for a while now and just today when I tried to look up the message I saved with my Slashdot p/w it told me "message temporarily unavailable".
Does anyone have any opinions as to which webmail (Lycos, Yahoo, Netscape, Hotmail, OperaMail, etc.) is the best. By best I mean:
1. Reliable! 99.99% uptime!
2. Quick access.
3. Everything else (sub-folders, filters, etc.)
-chill
There are several places where pre-set forms are used and filled out that could greatly benefite from handwriting recognition:
Police Reports/Tickets
Hospital/Doctor's Charts
Signature Recognition (With a pressure-sensative device a signature could be used as a unique encyption key. It's basically a manual "key" now to banks, UPS, etc.)
There are numerous applications that lend themselves to handwriting much better than voice (noisy environments; limited but various response questionnaires, etc.)
I think the best items will combine both (voice notes w/recognition).
Several WinCE PDAs have the ability to record voice notes (w/o recognition).
"...although it wouldnt explain why most oil occurs in sandy areas ( i.e places where oceans used to be)."
Prior oceans do not necessarily have anything to do with "sandy places". The Sahara (the largest hot desert -- real sandy) is recorded as being much more hospitable thousands of years ago. It is growing (desertification) each year now without the presence of an ocean.
The presence of sand != a spot where oceans used to be.
In relation to the article. If the Earth is "sweating" off oil & natural gas, that's really pushing it out from internal pressure. Sand is more porous and easier to push through than rock or even dirt.
It may just be easier to get to there.
I asked this of OSS a couple of weeks back (wanting to get rid of my SB Live! because of the driver situation) and they suggested the SB128.
One of the *major* benefits I see for the SunRays is convenience. Don't have to log in and out, just pop in the card -- the environment follows you. My facility has 60+ PC, many of which are in a shared manufacturing environment. Having people log in, check e-mail, log out, etc. is a REAL PAIN. Not to mention configuring configuring e-mail client profiles for each floating PC and employee (say, 30 people x 40 shared machines). Also for others who work on presentations and other group items on their PC, then have to go to a conference room to log in, etc. Then remember to save everything, log out, etc. Popping in that card on a terminal and having instant reconnect looks like a dream come true. It also saves me from having to battery-backup each PC and I can spend some money on securing/protecting the server.
If I remember right, the Celeron cache runs at full CPU speed (say, 466 MHz) whereas the P-II and P-III cache runs at 1/2 speed (225 MHz on my dual P-III 450).
In certain applications this gives the Celeron a nice boost. Most non-super-stress tests such as office apps, etc. a Celeron would match the clock-equiv P-II beat for beat.
Not quite the same with something like Lightwave, Maya or other CPU-blasting programs. There the P-II and III stand out a bit more.
Besides, with Intel chopping prices on the P-III by up to 41% a couple of days ago, dual P-IIIs are getting cheaper. (A P-III 450 is now around $180.)
Checking with Network Solutions on a WHOIS gets "nicolai_tesla@MSN.COM" as both the administrative and billing contact.
Yeah, right. This person needs a life.
"But today, with Ingo Molnar's Software-RAID patches, Linux outperforms any hardware-RAID solution for a fraction of the cost."
Wait a minute. If you mean cost-performance, that is one thing, but sheer power outperformance? You mean your software RAID patches are going to outperform my Compaq SmartRAID with 16 Mb of battery-backed cache directly on the UltraSCSI bus?
No way. No how. Hardware RAID allows for some nice cache tricks that can increase speed and reliability.
Software RAID has potential for more flexability and certainly a better cost/performance ratio.