Just as a quick side-note to the MS side of things... well actually Novell side.
Novell has this funky "new" technology which basically goes like this:
1) You Re-Image the box with your standard Base Image (ie. only OS + Drivers) 2) You start the box (WinNT 4 sp5 for me) and login with a fresh account (ie. new profile) 3) Run Novell's SNAPSHOT software (takes picture of hard drive - all files, reg, ini, etc)
4) Install your app and configure. 5) Run SNAPSHOT again (Which now takes another picture of your hard drive & configuration, then sits and compares them, throwing the differences to a file, and copying all changed files to a location you specified) 6) Go for a drink (can take a while if its a big app) 7) Import the differences file SNAPSHOT created into NDS, then review/change/mangle the application however you see fit.
At the end of the day you've just created a "Application Object Template" which you can then import into Novell's NDS (where MS got its Active Directory idea:) ). Once you've tweaked the AOT (step 7 - and I do advise from experience that you at least review what changes the app makes - you'd be surprised how often things get "changed" that have *nothing* to do with what you want... IE setting changes comes to mind as a example), you can now push that application down to ANY NUMBER OF COMPUTERS.
This product is called ZENworks, and it really is great - note, I didn't say it doesn't have problems and glitches. It comes in a few different flavors: Server, Desktop (and 1 other?)
It's a really great idea/concept - lots of things currently available singlely, now nicely packaged into 1 thing. Unfortunately I haven't seen the equivalent in Linux/*nix yet ('course that *might* have something to do with *nix not yet having a nice Directory structure like NDS)
They only consider a license to be that hologram code that ships with the computer/CD. No hologram, no legal license.
This guy is either lying or MS doesn't know what it's own license looks like...
The little hologram on the front of a Windows 95 book isn't the license. All it is, is a certificate indicating that the BOOK is authentic from Microsoft (holograms are supposed to be hard to clone/print/recreate).
The actual license for Windows 95 is actually a few pages into the book, with a title like "End User License Agreement" (I'd get the actual title, but all ours are stacked in boxes in storage - we write a few product keys on a few Windows 95 CD cases:) ).
I guess getting notariety for being "audited" by big evil Micro$oft is worth a few lies to some/.ers...
I'm sure by now everyone's been to Kimble's website. I don't know how it compares to what others have seen/done, but I think it's one of the neatest examples of flash technology that I've seen.
Especially cool are the movies, personally I prefer the 1st over the 2nd (not for any obvious reason or anything coughlinuxcough...
I think my biggest problem with this sort of system is that the government can now officially know "exactly" where everybody is, every moment of everyday. Granted, for those nit-pickers out there, that people a) don't live in their cars and b) other people use your car occasionally, but that can be made to be a small problem.(ie. track a person's routine habits/stops)
The first scary thought that comes to my mind is "who gets to see this kind of information?" Once the government has been able to justify the expense and the intrusion into people's privacy, how long before some wise-ass finance minister gets the idea the government could sell this data to some marketing company (or worse perhaps a private investigation firm).
The second scary though is what happens when the police get their hands on the data? I am currently a local network admin for a large Canadian Policing organization *cough*mounties*cough*, and though I don't think the people here would do "bad" things with the data (it would actually be a big bonus to those members doing legit surveylance), but the possibilities *ARE* there...
Don't get me wrong, there are some really cool things that could be done with this data, especially if you add a few little user buttons:
1) Engineers know EXACTLY how many cars go along a certain road.
2) Emergency Vehicle response time could go down- they know exactly where to go...
3) Road Side assistance for that flat tire just got better and faster
4) Traffic Reports/Traffic Jam avoidance.
etc
I just don't know if this is something the government should be involved in... do the pros outweigh the cons?
Is this just one step closer to 1984 or a natural evolution of "customer care"?
a sufficiently advanced civilization would be able to create lots of virtual worlds and populate them with virtual lifeforms who would have no idea they were inside a simulation.
Yeah, there's a pretty good movie that came out a while ago (1999) with this in the plot... quite interesting really, makes you think a bit.
I'm very sympathetic to your struggle. There must be only a few ten thousands of companies that use some flavor of Unix today... and what a mighty, mighty challenge it must be, figuring out which companies.
Glad to see you're willing to help out a newbie, and aren't cynical or bitter like some of those linux zealots over at slashdot.... oh, wait a sec...
They did not have permission to copy and distribute the music in the first place
There is something called FAIR USE... MP3.com may not have had the right to copy this music, but the people who bought the CD's in the first place sure do... and so what if MP3.com contracts out storage space on their servers in return for a little ad revenue when their clients come to get their files?
Unless we're now saying that making and storing MP3's is illegal...
Does it really matter WHERE I store my MP3s? or for that matter whether I was the one to do the original ripping? I own the CD. Based on the legal crap on my CD's I can make as many copies for personal use that I want. Period. It doesn't matter WHERE I store them, or in what FORM I store them.
Seems to me that since only people who owned the CD's could listen to them through MP3.com, MP3.com isn't doing anything but renting storage space and a little bandwidth... since when is that an infringement on copyright?
With all of Intel's problems these days, I'm wondering a few things - like how much of this is caused by Intel rushing the P4 because AMD is kicking their ass.
Doesn't it seem even a little suspisious to anyone that the form factor "has to" change again just as AMD starts making inroads into Intel's market?
And pardon me for raising my uneducated head, but why is Intel dictating what the form factor should be? Seems to me that should be done by something like the IEEE or somesuch. Please, correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't allowing ONE company the ability to arbitrarily (but its necessary for innovation... yeah, sure it is) change "industry standards" give it a slight competitive edge?
Who controls the ATX form factor specs anyways? Intel?
Sorry, I know its not the same, but this sort of smacks of the fiasco with Socket 7. Change to a slot design to break compatibility, then change back to a socket for performance... only now they're trying to do it with case form factors.
I know AMD can and will change/keep up, but this means that they have to do work which they wouldn't of had to do before - all because Intel decides to be sloppy with power consumption (I assume that the huge heat is generated by using huge power - makes sense anyways)
I don't know about their other articles, but if thats the case, I think I'll be reading more. I found the writer to have a good grasp of what is really going on... "He gets it".
What I found very interesting was the history section, about how the the "fight for copyright" isn't anything new at all, and in fact has been fought pretty much since the beginning of recorded music. Heck, Sullivan (from Gilbert & Sullivan) was suing people his whole life! and that was for sheet music... you know? the kind that YOU have to play?
What scares me is that the music industry is using tactics which could affect not only the music industry, but like the article says, the core of democracy. I mean, just imagine if you would, a country where the government's control reached out and checked *everything* you did electronically. I know there are those out there that think this is happening right now, what with Carnivore and like floating around, but at least its not done openly and without harsh public critism/outcry. I'm talking about a society where government intervention is expected and accepted - where the people have completely placed their trust and security in the hands of the all-knowing government.
1984 anyone? Animal Farm ring a bell? "Everyone is equal. Its just that some people are more equal than others." Don't tell me that it can't happen - Russia/USSR is just getting over something much like this right now.
You know, it kind of strikes me as a bit silly, all this running around the RIAA is doing... it seems to me, that what this is all about is one industry standing up and saying:
"Technology has changed our market, and we don't want to change our business model or practices. We've been making good money for decades with this model, and we shouldn't have to change or innovate just because technology has made our current model obsolete and un-workable. Congress! Pay attention! We need you to make it illegal for technology to change our industry."
And as silly as that sounds, this is exactly what's happening. From the article:
"All academics I've ever met -- no matter what their political stance -- agree on one thing: all this Internet-related legislation is very, very premature."
He sighed. "You'd think they'd at least see what the car looked like before trying to drive it."
I seriously doubt even the law-makers themselves can tell you all the ramifications one little law makes, let alone the massive DMCA! I was very glad to see that the RIAA was hauled before a senate(?) committee to "answer" for some of its actions the DMCA "allowed". It sounds like congress passed the law because of a lot of pressure from RIAA/MPAA - like a kid given a new baseball bat to replace the old broken one. Only now congress is hearing reports that the kid has been beating up the other children in the neighbourhood and taking their lunch money...
It'll be interesting to see what kind of "parent" congress wants to play... I hope it'll be the one who leaves things pretty much alone, and lets the market figure things out for itself. 'Course, to do that they'd have to repeal the DMCA and few other things - this isn't impossible either.
Just imagine yourself being put in congress "by the people", and then suddenly finding out that 10% of your constituents are right royal pissed off at you because YOU helped shut down their Napster... Not exactly a perfect description, but pretty close I'd say.
I understand and agree that copyrights have to be upheld and all - but definitely *not* in their current form. Something like a 5 yr limit would be good. (or shorter, 5 is just a number). Hmm, remind you of another antiquated institution? coughUS Patent Officecough anyone?
Well, like a few other posts have commented, Novell has a lot going for it... So you know I'm not talking out my ass, I work for a government body that has in excess of 600 servers, all running Novell and all tied together via NDS - Anyone want to print 3 thousand miles away? [grin]
Linux was born in '91 right? Novell's NDS has been around almost that long, and its only gotten better. NDS allows you to tie pretty much everything together - Desktops, Servers, Users, eMail, Firewall, DNS etc. The real question is, why wouldn't Big Blue (tm) want them?
Now, I'm a big fan of linux (note: not a zealot), but there are some things that Novell just does better. Case in point, my buddy Arcterex and I have often debated (over a wee pint o' Guiness) over Novell's value as compared to Linux... as I work with Novell and he with Linux (surprise, surprise...) What it comes down to for me is this: Linux can't even come CLOSE to Novell for having an EASY way for management - Novell's Netware Administrator takes the money all the way to the bank!
Now, I'm not a Micro$oft fan either, but I have occasion to work with their products on a daily basis (not my choice, but they have the market share right now). Their management software (User administration, Server Administration etc) isn't that bad for ease of use (GETTING to where you need to go isn't bad...its making it do what you want thats a pain in the @$$)
The thing that BOTH Micro$oft and Linux could learn from Novell is integration. Netware Administrator (NWadmin for the uninitiated) does everything. No, I mean *everything*. There are some tasks you actually have to go to the server console for, oh wait, you can RCONSOLE there through NWadmin... [grin]. The point being, that for pretty much every task/area of management you want, there is a SNAP-IN for the Administrator. Very Handy.
With Linux you have to go to 15 million different files to get things configured properly. And the REAL key is knowing which ones you need and how to do it properly. This isn't necessarily a bad (tm) thing, but it does produce a pretty steep learning curve. You'll notice how Unix Admin's get paid buckets more than Novell ones... its because Unix is harder to admin (that and there is more demand for *nix admins than for Novell)
Well, I suppose it is a small good thing, but good none the less...
(Pre-amble) You see, L Ron Hubbard also published another series of books called An Alien Affair (Mission Earth). If you think BattleField Earth sucked, well, that movie was AWESOME compared to those books... Each book is about 800 pages. Each book has the same plot. NOTHING EVER CHANGES. The best way to read that series is to read about the first half of book 1 then skip to book 10** for the ending. (end pre-amble)
Ok, so knowing how much I hated the Alien Affair series, you can understand how I wasn't really wanting to read his Battlefield Earth novel, which is about ~1000 pages. So by seeing the movie I don't have to read another one of his #^$@ing books!
You can give me the prize now...:)
** 'Course I'm GUESSING that the plot wraps up here, as I only made it to book 8 before becoming completely disgusted, so I'm assuming he closed the plot somehow...
In our communication with NVIDIA, they've told us that at lower resolutions they're seeing Linux leading Windows.
Now, I'm not a linux guru, but it seems to me that Linux shouldn't be doing this, but rather the opposite, as its got less "crap" loaded/taking up memory/etc than Windows. ie) Shouldn't Linux go faster than windows when a heavier load is applied?
Or is this a direct result of the drivers (and their level of optimization)? Is it merely the drivers which are holding linux back in the performance field? Or are there other issues?
-=++=- Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had to kill because they pissed me off.
There was a REALLY good site for this called electricmonk.com, but apparently their company "changed focus" and instead of just letting the site deteriorate they pulled the plug.
Real shame that. handled english questions fairly well too.
We've all seen the campaigns about AIDS awareness, and abuse against women... what about forming our own little campaign? Fight fire with fire... not with lies or half truths the MPAA is propagating, but honesty and accountability.
(Soapbox) Think long term. This is not the first time a large and powerful organization has tried to use strong arm tactics and lies to get its way. This time its us. We need to rally together to fight this thing -> and/. is an AWESOME place to share ideas on how/where/when to do this. But the unwashed masses don't read slashdot (if they did, they'd have a clue and I think this wouldn't even be an issue.) To clear the air of this MPAA stink, we need to get the word out to those same masses. Hence, we need to do some PR. Yeah, yeah its a dirty word I know, but what better way to make this a non-issue (or better still, help make the MPAA look like what they are!)
I propose a campaign along the lines of that Red Ribbon one we've all seen. Only THIS campaign goes on on the web. I would think that most of the webmasters out there are people who have a clue about technology and how it can and can't be used.
Let us design a little ribbon of our own - an annimated gif type thingy. Let us get it posted all over the web. Let us have it linked to an URL which shows the truth, and has space for a faq, a q&a as well as a petition of people supporting this cause. And then when people start understanding what this whole thing is REALLY about, maybe we'll have enough mass support to make the MPAA back off. (/Soapbox)
There are probably a million +1 holes in this idea, but the point I think is that we need to stick together to defeat this. The EFF is doing a great job and I'm sure they will continue to do a great job, but that doesn't exclude us from doing what we can to help our fellow geek.
We keep talking about how the "the geek shall inherit the earth" and how geeks are the power of tomorrow. I'd say its high time to see what kind of rucus we can stir up:)
I think it would be interesting to be able to view the story submission queue. That is, what type of stories are being submitted
Issue #1
What about allowing everyone to read the Queue? Instead of having a small group of people posting stories, everyone just reads the queue. We already have a pretty good system for rating comments, why not just apply it to the articles in the queue as well?
Stories could be rated the same as comments: Anonymous Coward = 0 Logged In = 1 ...
In addition to saving CmdrTaco & Co. buckets of time from not having to constantly post articles, it has the added advantage of allowing all stories to be posted.
If the community likes a story it gets moderated up, if not, down. This way people can scan the highlights at 3 or 4, or can troll for everything at 0.
Also, if/. is REALLY serious about free speech, then why are posting rights only given to 3 people? Just a question.:)
Issue #2
As an side here's something that may prove interesting: Since comments aren't removed if they slander(etc) people, as this *might* force/. to be liable for ALL such comments... Could it be that Slashdot is liable for the stories they post if they don't post all of them?
Try this on for size: Slashdot posts a story about a company which is negatively portrayed. Story is later discovered to be false. Company sues SlashDot for (fill in blank here).
I'm not a lawyer nor a Newspaper guy, but what are the responsibilities of news outlets to report the truth? I know tabloids get sued all the time, and/. isn't exactly a tabloid, but it DOES have a habit of posting articles based on rumors. What happens when one day some company gets pissed off, and decides to really do something about it? Any thoughts?
Is a Canadian(?) organization specializing in distance learning. I had to take one or two courses online to get the required credits for my degree (~2 years ago). This was done in Canada at a local university college and IIRC there were people from all over the province in the courses.
I don't suspect that OLA is available in your area, but they might have associations elsewhere. The University I went to is called UCFV (check www.ucfv.bc.ca) and is able to transfer a lot of courses to major universities - ie. do your basic courses for cheap at a local college, then go do your remaining higher level ones somewhere "important".
As far as Online courses go however, I found it difficult to stay on top of the course with those things. There weren't any formal meeting times organized, just get online and d/l your grades and new homework, and don't forget to check the message board type idea. I found it difficult to motivate myself to recognize it as a "real" course while I also had 4 other courses per semester. I also found there wasn't a lot of info in the course material as such - lots of air, 'course that could have been due to the instructor preping the thing too...
Anywho, you might try to find a local university and go for transferable credits or alternatively a 'brand name' one which has a distance learning program in place. If you go the Distance learning route, be sure to thoroughly check out their program, and try to talk to some people who've been through it. It seems there are a lot of fly-by-night techy colleges springing up these days - be careful of them, some don't have the financial backing to deliver even a full year of their program (as a few of my friends found out).
AFAIK you can only have 2 IDE channels on a motherboard. You'll notice in the BIOS that there is only room to identify 4 drives - Primary Master & Slave and Secondary Master & Slave. I've never come across any hardware which allows for three (or more) channels.
That being said, there could be some wierd freaky mobo which allows it... I've had experience with several types & versions of SuperMicro Boards (they are THE BEST(tm) IMHO) and I'm fairly sure none of them will support it - you have to disable the onboard IDE channel to get a offboard one to work type idea...
Perhaps someone knows of a mobo/bios combo which allows this? Or has a hack around it? heh, feel like coding in hex? (or whatever they make BIOSes out of these days)
It seems as though the Brain has a HUGE storage capacity - just think of how clearly you can remember certain images/emotions/sounds.
The Problem(tm) I think is that we forget how to find things. Unlike computers which are designed to always know where it put something.
I read once (somewhere) that the human Brain has the capability to memorize the contents of approx. 2 million books - word for word. Of course I can't back it up, but it seems reasonable to me (not that you could normally DO this, but think of Autistic people -ie Movie: Rainman).
I think this relates to one of the postings above - on HOW the Brain stores things; seperate compartments for smell/vision/touch/sound. Do you instantly recall how something smelled? or do you have to THINK about how it smelled?
Ok, so does each section have the same capacity? or say does vision have more room? And what's the difference between the THINKING part and the STORAGE part?
Slashdot Mirror
Kinda sucks to pay $30 processing fee per meal...
And the week wait time is a killer.
So... what you're saying is you're NEW around here then??
Remember the Good Ole Days? When it was all about the Hot Grits!?
Where has the time gone?! All the good trolls must've grown up...
Just as a quick side-note to the MS side of things... well actually Novell side.
:) ). Once you've tweaked the AOT (step 7 - and I do advise from experience that you at least review what changes the app makes - you'd be surprised how often things get "changed" that have *nothing* to do with what you want... IE setting changes comes to mind as a example), you can now push that application down to ANY NUMBER OF COMPUTERS.
Novell has this funky "new" technology which basically goes like this:
1) You Re-Image the box with your standard Base Image (ie. only OS + Drivers)
2) You start the box (WinNT 4 sp5 for me) and login with a fresh account (ie. new profile)
3) Run Novell's SNAPSHOT software (takes picture of hard drive - all files, reg, ini, etc)
4) Install your app and configure.
5) Run SNAPSHOT again (Which now takes another picture of your hard drive & configuration, then sits and compares them, throwing the differences to a file, and copying all changed files to a location you specified)
6) Go for a drink (can take a while if its a big app)
7) Import the differences file SNAPSHOT created into NDS, then review/change/mangle the application however you see fit.
At the end of the day you've just created a "Application Object Template" which you can then import into Novell's NDS (where MS got its Active Directory idea
This product is called ZENworks, and it really is great - note, I didn't say it doesn't have problems and glitches. It comes in a few different flavors: Server, Desktop (and 1 other?)
It's a really great idea/concept - lots of things currently available singlely, now nicely packaged into 1 thing. Unfortunately I haven't seen the equivalent in Linux/*nix yet ('course that *might* have something to do with *nix not yet having a nice Directory structure like NDS)
They only consider a license to be that hologram code that ships with the computer/CD. No hologram, no legal license.
:) ).
/.ers...
This guy is either lying or MS doesn't know what it's own license looks like...
The little hologram on the front of a Windows 95 book isn't the license. All it is, is a certificate indicating that the BOOK is authentic from Microsoft (holograms are supposed to be hard to clone/print/recreate).
The actual license for Windows 95 is actually a few pages into the book, with a title like "End User License Agreement" (I'd get the actual title, but all ours are stacked in boxes in storage - we write a few product keys on a few Windows 95 CD cases
I guess getting notariety for being "audited" by big evil Micro$oft is worth a few lies to some
Neil.................
I'm sure by now everyone's been to Kimble's website. I don't know how it compares to what others have seen/done, but I think it's one of the neatest examples of flash technology that I've seen.
Especially cool are the movies, personally I prefer the 1st over the 2nd (not for any obvious reason or anything coughlinuxcough...
Neil.................
I think my biggest problem with this sort of system is that the government can now officially know "exactly" where everybody is, every moment of everyday. Granted, for those nit-pickers out there, that people a) don't live in their cars and b) other people use your car occasionally, but that can be made to be a small problem.(ie. track a person's routine habits/stops)
The first scary thought that comes to my mind is "who gets to see this kind of information?" Once the government has been able to justify the expense and the intrusion into people's privacy, how long before some wise-ass finance minister gets the idea the government could sell this data to some marketing company (or worse perhaps a private investigation firm).
The second scary though is what happens when the police get their hands on the data? I am currently a local network admin for a large Canadian Policing organization *cough*mounties*cough*, and though I don't think the people here would do "bad" things with the data (it would actually be a big bonus to those members doing legit surveylance), but the possibilities *ARE* there...
Don't get me wrong, there are some really cool things that could be done with this data, especially if you add a few little user buttons:
1) Engineers know EXACTLY how many cars go along a certain road.
2) Emergency Vehicle response time could go down- they know exactly where to go...
3) Road Side assistance for that flat tire just got better and faster
4) Traffic Reports/Traffic Jam avoidance.
etc
I just don't know if this is something the government should be involved in... do the pros outweigh the cons?
Is this just one step closer to 1984 or a natural evolution of "customer care"?
Neil.............
...Is that Microsoft is making the software :)
They'll have all the computers in the world running MS software tied in, and people will get fried for closing "Clippy"...
Neil..............
Got Root?
a sufficiently advanced civilization would be able to create lots of virtual worlds and populate them with virtual lifeforms who would have no idea they were inside a simulation.
Yeah, there's a pretty good movie that came out a while ago (1999) with this in the plot... quite interesting really, makes you think a bit.
If you're interested, check it out, it's called The Thirteenth Floor
Neil..........
Glad to see you're willing to help out a newbie, and aren't cynical or bitter like some of those linux zealots over at slashdot.... oh, wait a sec...
Neil..........
They did not have permission to copy and distribute the music in the first place
There is something called FAIR USE... MP3.com may not have had the right to copy this music, but the people who bought the CD's in the first place sure do... and so what if MP3.com contracts out storage space on their servers in return for a little ad revenue when their clients come to get their files?
Unless we're now saying that making and storing MP3's is illegal...
Does it really matter WHERE I store my MP3s? or for that matter whether I was the one to do the original ripping? I own the CD. Based on the legal crap on my CD's I can make as many copies for personal use that I want. Period. It doesn't matter WHERE I store them, or in what FORM I store them.
Seems to me that since only people who owned the CD's could listen to them through MP3.com, MP3.com isn't doing anything but renting storage space and a little bandwidth... since when is that an infringement on copyright?
Neil.........
With all of Intel's problems these days, I'm wondering a few things - like how much of this is caused by Intel rushing the P4 because AMD is kicking their ass.
Doesn't it seem even a little suspisious to anyone that the form factor "has to" change again just as AMD starts making inroads into Intel's market?
And pardon me for raising my uneducated head, but why is Intel dictating what the form factor should be? Seems to me that should be done by something like the IEEE or somesuch. Please, correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't allowing ONE company the ability to arbitrarily (but its necessary for innovation... yeah, sure it is) change "industry standards" give it a slight competitive edge?
Who controls the ATX form factor specs anyways? Intel?
Sorry, I know its not the same, but this sort of smacks of the fiasco with Socket 7. Change to a slot design to break compatibility, then change back to a socket for performance... only now they're trying to do it with case form factors.
I know AMD can and will change/keep up, but this means that they have to do work which they wouldn't of had to do before - all because Intel decides to be sloppy with power consumption (I assume that the huge heat is generated by using huge power - makes sense anyways)
Just my $0.035
Neil.................
Somebody should tell the RIAA and MPAA that...
:)
Neil................
What I found very interesting was the history section, about how the the "fight for copyright" isn't anything new at all, and in fact has been fought pretty much since the beginning of recorded music. Heck, Sullivan (from Gilbert & Sullivan) was suing people his whole life! and that was for sheet music... you know? the kind that YOU have to play?
What scares me is that the music industry is using tactics which could affect not only the music industry, but like the article says, the core of democracy. I mean, just imagine if you would, a country where the government's control reached out and checked *everything* you did electronically. I know there are those out there that think this is happening right now, what with Carnivore and like floating around, but at least its not done openly and without harsh public critism/outcry. I'm talking about a society where government intervention is expected and accepted - where the people have completely placed their trust and security in the hands of the all-knowing government.
1984 anyone? Animal Farm ring a bell? "Everyone is equal. Its just that some people are more equal than others." Don't tell me that it can't happen - Russia/USSR is just getting over something much like this right now.
You know, it kind of strikes me as a bit silly, all this running around the RIAA is doing... it seems to me, that what this is all about is one industry standing up and saying:
And as silly as that sounds, this is exactly what's happening. From the article:
I seriously doubt even the law-makers themselves can tell you all the ramifications one little law makes, let alone the massive DMCA! I was very glad to see that the RIAA was hauled before a senate(?) committee to "answer" for some of its actions the DMCA "allowed". It sounds like congress passed the law because of a lot of pressure from RIAA/MPAA - like a kid given a new baseball bat to replace the old broken one. Only now congress is hearing reports that the kid has been beating up the other children in the neighbourhood and taking their lunch money... It'll be interesting to see what kind of "parent" congress wants to play... I hope it'll be the one who leaves things pretty much alone, and lets the market figure things out for itself. 'Course, to do that they'd have to repeal the DMCA and few other things - this isn't impossible either.
Just imagine yourself being put in congress "by the people", and then suddenly finding out that 10% of your constituents are right royal pissed off at you because YOU helped shut down their Napster... Not exactly a perfect description, but pretty close I'd say.
I understand and agree that copyrights have to be upheld and all - but definitely *not* in their current form. Something like a 5 yr limit would be good. (or shorter, 5 is just a number). Hmm, remind you of another antiquated institution? coughUS Patent Officecough anyone?
Anywho, just my $0.035
Neil................
Well, like a few other posts have commented, Novell has a lot going for it... So you know I'm not talking out my ass, I work for a government body that has in excess of 600 servers, all running Novell and all tied together via NDS - Anyone want to print 3 thousand miles away? [grin]
Linux was born in '91 right? Novell's NDS has been around almost that long, and its only gotten better. NDS allows you to tie pretty much everything together - Desktops, Servers, Users, eMail, Firewall, DNS etc. The real question is, why wouldn't Big Blue (tm) want them?
Now, I'm a big fan of linux (note: not a zealot), but there are some things that Novell just does better. Case in point, my buddy Arcterex and I have often debated (over a wee pint o' Guiness) over Novell's value as compared to Linux... as I work with Novell and he with Linux (surprise, surprise...) What it comes down to for me is this: Linux can't even come CLOSE to Novell for having an EASY way for management - Novell's Netware Administrator takes the money all the way to the bank!
Now, I'm not a Micro$oft fan either, but I have occasion to work with their products on a daily basis (not my choice, but they have the market share right now). Their management software (User administration, Server Administration etc) isn't that bad for ease of use (GETTING to where you need to go isn't bad...its making it do what you want thats a pain in the @$$)
The thing that BOTH Micro$oft and Linux could learn from Novell is integration. Netware Administrator (NWadmin for the uninitiated) does everything. No, I mean *everything*. There are some tasks you actually have to go to the server console for, oh wait, you can RCONSOLE there through NWadmin... [grin]. The point being, that for pretty much every task/area of management you want, there is a SNAP-IN for the Administrator. Very Handy.
With Linux you have to go to 15 million different files to get things configured properly. And the REAL key is knowing which ones you need and how to do it properly. This isn't necessarily a bad (tm) thing, but it does produce a pretty steep learning curve. You'll notice how Unix Admin's get paid buckets more than Novell ones... its because Unix is harder to admin (that and there is more demand for *nix admins than for Novell)
Anywho, I'm done rambling... got work to do.
Neil.............
and illegal gambling?
:)
revenue
Not that I'm cynical or anything
Griffone...........
Great. But what happens when you reach halfway point and turn around?
...the language the researchers speak have to do with anything??? :)
"English Researchers Find Extra-Terrestrial Water"
And of course, there's the obligatory:
Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these?
Anyone got a top ten list happening yet?
Well, I suppose it is a small good thing, but good none the less...
:)
(Pre-amble)
You see, L Ron Hubbard also published another series of books called An Alien Affair (Mission Earth). If you think BattleField Earth sucked, well, that movie was AWESOME compared to those books... Each book is about 800 pages. Each book has the same plot. NOTHING EVER CHANGES. The best way to read that series is to read about the first half of book 1 then skip to book 10** for the ending.
(end pre-amble)
Ok, so knowing how much I hated the Alien Affair series, you can understand how I wasn't really wanting to read his Battlefield Earth novel, which is about ~1000 pages. So by seeing the movie I don't have to read another one of his #^$@ing books!
You can give me the prize now...
** 'Course I'm GUESSING that the plot wraps up here, as I only made it to book 8 before becoming completely disgusted, so I'm assuming he closed the plot somehow...
From the article:
In our communication with NVIDIA, they've told us that at lower resolutions they're seeing Linux leading Windows.
Now, I'm not a linux guru, but it seems to me that Linux shouldn't be doing this, but rather the opposite, as its got less "crap" loaded/taking up memory/etc than Windows. ie) Shouldn't Linux go faster than windows when a heavier load is applied?
Or is this a direct result of the drivers (and their level of optimization)? Is it merely the drivers which are holding linux back in the performance field? Or are there other issues?
-=++=- Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had to kill because they pissed me off.
There was a REALLY good site for this called electricmonk.com, but apparently their company "changed focus" and instead of just letting the site deteriorate they pulled the plug.
Real shame that. handled english questions fairly well too.
We've all seen the campaigns about AIDS awareness, and abuse against women... what about forming our own little campaign? Fight fire with fire... not with lies or half truths the MPAA is propagating, but honesty and accountability.
/. is an AWESOME place to share ideas on how/where/when to do this. But the unwashed masses don't read slashdot (if they did, they'd have a clue and I think this wouldn't even be an issue.) To clear the air of this MPAA stink, we need to get the word out to those same masses. Hence, we need to do some PR. Yeah, yeah its a dirty word I know, but what better way to make this a non-issue (or better still, help make the MPAA look like what they are!)
:)
(Soapbox)
Think long term. This is not the first time a large and powerful organization has tried to use strong arm tactics and lies to get its way. This time its us. We need to rally together to fight this thing -> and
I propose a campaign along the lines of that Red Ribbon one we've all seen. Only THIS campaign goes on on the web. I would think that most of the webmasters out there are people who have a clue about technology and how it can and can't be used.
Let us design a little ribbon of our own - an annimated gif type thingy. Let us get it posted all over the web. Let us have it linked to an URL which shows the truth, and has space for a faq, a q&a as well as a petition of people supporting this cause. And then when people start understanding what this whole thing is REALLY about, maybe we'll have enough mass support to make the MPAA back off.
(/Soapbox)
There are probably a million +1 holes in this idea, but the point I think is that we need to stick together to defeat this. The EFF is doing a great job and I'm sure they will continue to do a great job, but that doesn't exclude us from doing what we can to help our fellow geek.
We keep talking about how the "the geek shall inherit the earth" and how geeks are the power of tomorrow. I'd say its high time to see what kind of rucus we can stir up
Neil..............
I think it would be interesting to be able to view the story submission queue. That is, what type of stories are being submitted
...
/. is REALLY serious about free speech, then why are posting rights only given to 3 people? Just a question. :)
/. to be liable for ALL such comments... Could it be that Slashdot is liable for the stories they post if they don't post all of them?
/. isn't exactly a tabloid, but it DOES have a habit of posting articles based on rumors. What happens when one day some company gets pissed off, and decides to really do something about it? Any thoughts?
Issue #1
What about allowing everyone to read the Queue? Instead of having a small group of people posting stories, everyone just reads the queue. We already have a pretty good system for rating comments, why not just apply it to the articles in the queue as well?
Stories could be rated the same as comments:
Anonymous Coward = 0
Logged In = 1
In addition to saving CmdrTaco & Co. buckets of time from not having to constantly post articles, it has the added advantage of allowing all stories to be posted.
If the community likes a story it gets moderated up, if not, down. This way people can scan the highlights at 3 or 4, or can troll for everything at 0.
Also, if
Issue #2
As an side here's something that may prove interesting: Since comments aren't removed if they slander(etc) people, as this *might* force
Try this on for size:
Slashdot posts a story about a company which is negatively portrayed. Story is later discovered to be false. Company sues SlashDot for (fill in blank here).
I'm not a lawyer nor a Newspaper guy, but what are the responsibilities of news outlets to report the truth? I know tabloids get sued all the time, and
Neil..............
Is a Canadian(?) organization specializing in distance learning. I had to take one or two courses online to get the required credits for my degree (~2 years ago). This was done in Canada at a local university college and IIRC there were people from all over the province in the courses.
I don't suspect that OLA is available in your area, but they might have associations elsewhere. The University I went to is called UCFV (check www.ucfv.bc.ca) and is able to transfer a lot of courses to major universities - ie. do your basic courses for cheap at a local college, then go do your remaining higher level ones somewhere "important".
As far as Online courses go however, I found it difficult to stay on top of the course with those things. There weren't any formal meeting times organized, just get online and d/l your grades and new homework, and don't forget to check the message board type idea. I found it difficult to motivate myself to recognize it as a "real" course while I also had 4 other courses per semester. I also found there wasn't a lot of info in the course material as such - lots of air, 'course that could have been due to the instructor preping the thing too...
Anywho, you might try to find a local university and go for transferable credits or alternatively a 'brand name' one which has a distance learning program in place. If you go the Distance learning route, be sure to thoroughly check out their program, and try to talk to some people who've been through it. It seems there are a lot of fly-by-night techy colleges springing up these days - be careful of them, some don't have the financial backing to deliver even a full year of their program (as a few of my friends found out).
Anywho, best of luck
AFAIK you can only have 2 IDE channels on a motherboard. You'll notice in the BIOS that there is only room to identify 4 drives - Primary Master & Slave and Secondary Master & Slave. I've never come across any hardware which allows for three (or more) channels.
That being said, there could be some wierd freaky mobo which allows it... I've had experience with several types & versions of SuperMicro Boards (they are THE BEST(tm) IMHO) and I'm fairly sure none of them will support it - you have to disable the onboard IDE channel to get a offboard one to work type idea...
Perhaps someone knows of a mobo/bios combo which allows this? Or has a hack around it? heh, feel like coding in hex? (or whatever they make BIOSes out of these days)
It seems as though the Brain has a HUGE storage capacity - just think of how clearly you can remember certain images/emotions/sounds.
The Problem(tm) I think is that we forget how to find things. Unlike computers which are designed to always know where it put something.
I read once (somewhere) that the human Brain has the capability to memorize the contents of approx. 2 million books - word for word. Of course I can't back it up, but it seems reasonable to me (not that you could normally DO this, but think of Autistic people -ie Movie: Rainman).
I think this relates to one of the postings above - on HOW the Brain stores things; seperate compartments for smell/vision/touch/sound. Do you instantly recall how something smelled? or do you have to THINK about how it smelled?
Ok, so does each section have the same capacity? or say does vision have more room? And what's the difference between the THINKING part and the STORAGE part?