For those of us who run small personal webservers, just for friends, family, associates and such, it's easy to change the webserver to run on port 1120 or some other such oddball port and mail the port address to those whom you want to have access.
It still sucks though,that you gotta pay up the ass for the priveledge of having general public website.
I really hope @Home doesnt start "cracking-down" on people who use VPNs over thier network.
McDoobie
---------------
This is my.sig. Yes, it really is!
Lately, I've been listening to the legions of geeks and technoweenies bemoan the fact that government is totally clueless when it comes to anything digital and/or Internet.
What have we done to fix it?
I've been toying with the idea of having a workshop or a set of workshops, directed towards out government representatives, with the intent of giving them a bit of an education on the workings of digital media. Everything from the Internet to Micro-broadcasting, but communicated in the legalese that congresspeople and lawyers are so familiar with.
Is it practical? I dont know. But it's something that should at least be considered. I would think that the relevance of such a workshop would give our representatives some incentive to attend.
It seems to me (from my limited perspective) that fusion would be a much more sensible solution than fission. Yes?
Has NASA even considered this possibility? Perhaps, out of curiousity, I should send them a letter and inquire. I doubt I'd get a response, but it doesnt hurt to ask.
I'm gonna go check thier website and find out who I should write to. Or does someone else here know off hand who I would send it too?
If NASA wants to persue this option, I would encourage them wholeheartedly, except for one reservation.
They would do well to invest heavily in fusion research, and particularly the containment problem. As this would be a much safer and dare I say more powerful solution, as opposed to a fission reactor.
Despite the naysayers, we are much closer to a fusion power reality than many think. We are able to initiate a fusion reaction, we just havent been able to contain/sustain the reaction. (And containment is not the safety hazard many would think, as the plasma gas cools off to quickly to do any damage when it escapes.)
Am I right here? At least that's what the fusion web sites are telling me.
Anyways, if NASA were to pour a bunch of money into this problem, we could concievably kill two birds with one stone.(No pun intended.)
Then again, maybe I'm fishing off the deep end. But this at least SEEMS to be workable possibility. I am open to correction though.
Fission is not such a problem, assuming the proper safegaurds are in place.
Any thoughts?
McDoobie
...This is my sig, there are many like it but this one is mine.
All these "hacker" laws seem to give me the impression that the people in office there are suffering from some sort of psychological disorder. Paranoid schizophrenia(sp?) perhaps?
Dont get me wrong, I'm not sure the U.S. is much better. But goddamn!
Perhaps some Aussie "hackers" should offer some free workshops for thier government reps, so as to dispell some of this mania that seems to have gripped thier legal system.
Perhaps some U.S. "hackers" might wanna consider doing the same thing.
A free workshop, think about it. Schedule it well ahead of time, and invite all the movers in the legal system. Then present the material in the legalese that lawyers and government officials are so familiar with.
At least this way, we can find out if these laws are based on simple ignorance, or if there really is some sort of psychological "cognitive dissonance" going on.
Any takers? I'd do it myself, if I wasnt a broke as hell, poor old schoolboy.
McDoobie
..."It's like a funnel, only the dumbest of the dumb fit through."
Radsoft doesnt seem to think so. (www.radsoft.net)
In fact, they seem to abhore the recent spate of so called "RAD" tools.
Thier solution is write thier UIs in straight C, with impressive results. They have a file manager replacement for Windows Explorer that wieghs in at 14.6kilobytes, and offers more functionality than Windows Explorer.
Frankly I'm of the opinion that people who use these tools as the sole source of thier interface design mechanisms shouldn't be programming at all. Because thier too stupid to work out the right way to build the application, rather than using the cookie cutter method. Oh, and actually thinking about what one is doing usually cuts down on development time. Believe it or not, it's true.
I've been using the Aonix toolchain for Ada95 for a couple years now. It works great.
I'm able to develope apps in half the time it was taking me in C/C++, and the run-time checks and compile time checks used in the compiler are usually able to hammer out over %80-90 of the bugs.
Personally Ada95 with either the Aonix or Sparks toolchain has been the best thing that's happened to me.
Oh, I can also compile my Ada95 code directly to Java bytecode. Also, the code is portable across both the Linux/Unix and Win32 platforms without modification(well, it rarely needs modification.)
Basically, the GPL is a good thing. "Open Source" software is a good thing. It gives people freedom. But it will never be a real threat to the MS desktop monopoly. Heres why...
"Open Source" developers and business dont give a flying fuck about the end user. Not referring to the AOL retards who can only stare at the screen and drool. I'm referring to the person who wants to know more about how thier system works, and struggles with learning the stuff, but is constantly either ignored or bashed because the l33t h4X0r5 just dont wanna be bothered with helping the new guy. I'm not talking about spoon feeding either. I mean people who spend 4 or 5 hours checking the documentation, find it to be worthless when it comes to actual troubleshooting, and then carefully explain thier problem, only to be shit upon by those higher up the knowledge ladder.
As an example...
I know computers, very well my associates would say. I program in C, Ada95, ASM, Perl, Python, and Common Lisp. I work with the Bash and Korn shells on a regular basis. Now, I ran into a sound problem with Mandrake and spent about 4 hours pouring over the docs and testing each nook and cranny I could think of to solve the problem. Nada. The documentation proved to be a waste of time because it doesnt document the meaning of the error messages the software was throwing out. Finally I posted some questions to some message boards carefully documenting what the problem was, where I had already looked for solutions, and asked for advice on how I might solve the problem.
In response, I either got bashed, or the response was along the lines of "...do a search on google...uh...dude."
Now, this type of attitude pervades the Open Source/Free Software community. That's why the software is still unusable for people who want to get some serious work done. The few packages which do actually work(and work extremely well, such as TeX, MySQL, and a few others) are few and far between. That's why professionals will be sticking with professional software from professional programmers/comapanies(IBM, Sun, et..) At least they support thier products when something goes wrong. AND, that's why OSS doesnt have a hope in hell of taking the desktop.
Relax Microsoft. Take some valium or something. Dont let the paranoia get to you. Sure, your crap crashes, but at least it's possible to get it up and running in the first place.
(Note: I've been a Linux/FreeBSD junkie for about eight years now. So dont think I'm a novice, because I sure as hell am not.)
Slashdot Mirror
For those of us who run small personal webservers, just for friends, family, associates and such, it's easy to change the webserver to run on port 1120 or some other such oddball port and mail the port address to those whom you want to have access.
.sig. Yes, it really is!
It still sucks though,that you gotta pay up the ass for the priveledge of having general public website.
I really hope @Home doesnt start "cracking-down" on people who use VPNs over thier network.
McDoobie
---------------
This is my
Lately, I've been listening to the legions of geeks and technoweenies bemoan the fact that government is totally clueless when it comes to anything digital and/or Internet.
What have we done to fix it?
I've been toying with the idea of having a workshop or a set of workshops, directed towards out government representatives, with the intent of giving them a bit of an education on the workings of digital media. Everything from the Internet to Micro-broadcasting, but communicated in the legalese that congresspeople and lawyers are so familiar with.
Is it practical? I dont know. But it's something that should at least be considered. I would think that the relevance of such a workshop would give our representatives some incentive to attend.
Thoughts?
McDoobie
It seems to me (from my limited perspective) that fusion would be a much more sensible solution than fission. Yes?
Has NASA even considered this possibility? Perhaps, out of curiousity, I should send them a letter and inquire. I doubt I'd get a response, but it doesnt hurt to ask.
I'm gonna go check thier website and find out who I should write to. Or does someone else here know off hand who I would send it too?
McDoobie
...No sig this time.
If NASA wants to persue this option, I would encourage them wholeheartedly, except for one reservation.
They would do well to invest heavily in fusion research, and particularly the containment problem. As this would be a much safer and dare I say more powerful solution, as opposed to a fission reactor.
Despite the naysayers, we are much closer to a fusion power reality than many think. We are able to initiate a fusion reaction, we just havent been able to contain/sustain the reaction. (And containment is not the safety hazard many would think, as the plasma gas cools off to quickly to do any damage when it escapes.)
Am I right here? At least that's what the fusion web sites are telling me.
Anyways, if NASA were to pour a bunch of money into this problem, we could concievably kill two birds with one stone.(No pun intended.)
Then again, maybe I'm fishing off the deep end. But this at least SEEMS to be workable possibility. I am open to correction though.
Fission is not such a problem, assuming the proper safegaurds are in place.
Any thoughts?
McDoobie
...This is my sig, there are many like it but this one is mine.
I like Australia, I really do. Nice place. But...
All these "hacker" laws seem to give me the impression that the people in office there are suffering from some sort of psychological disorder. Paranoid schizophrenia(sp?) perhaps?
Dont get me wrong, I'm not sure the U.S. is much better. But goddamn!
Perhaps some Aussie "hackers" should offer some free workshops for thier government reps, so as to dispell some of this mania that seems to have gripped thier legal system.
Perhaps some U.S. "hackers" might wanna consider doing the same thing.
A free workshop, think about it. Schedule it well ahead of time, and invite all the movers in the legal system. Then present the material in the legalese that lawyers and government officials are so familiar with.
At least this way, we can find out if these laws are based on simple ignorance, or if there really is some sort of psychological "cognitive dissonance" going on.
Any takers? I'd do it myself, if I wasnt a broke as hell, poor old schoolboy.
McDoobie
..."It's like a funnel, only the dumbest of the dumb fit through."
Try one of these...
. ht ml
http://www.globaldialog.com/~obsessiontscp/OBHP
That thing would make a great lawn ornament, dont you think? Right alongside the pink flamingos.
McDoobie
Radsoft doesnt seem to think so. (www.radsoft.net)
In fact, they seem to abhore the recent spate of so called "RAD" tools.
Thier solution is write thier UIs in straight C, with impressive results. They have a file manager replacement for Windows Explorer that wieghs in at 14.6kilobytes, and offers more functionality than Windows Explorer.
Frankly I'm of the opinion that people who use these tools as the sole source of thier interface design mechanisms shouldn't be programming at all. Because thier too stupid to work out the right way to build the application, rather than using the cookie cutter method. Oh, and actually thinking about what one is doing usually cuts down on development time. Believe it or not, it's true.
Have a nice day.
McDoobie
I've been using the Aonix toolchain for Ada95 for a couple years now. It works great.
I'm able to develope apps in half the time it was taking me in C/C++, and the run-time checks and compile time checks used in the compiler are usually able to hammer out over %80-90 of the bugs.
Personally Ada95 with either the Aonix or Sparks toolchain has been the best thing that's happened to me.
Oh, I can also compile my Ada95 code directly to Java bytecode. Also, the code is portable across both the Linux/Unix and Win32 platforms without modification(well, it rarely needs modification.)
Check it out at www.adapower.com
McDoobie
...slamming the GPL.
Basically, the GPL is a good thing. "Open Source" software is a good thing. It gives people freedom. But it will never be a real threat to the MS desktop monopoly. Heres why...
"Open Source" developers and business dont give a flying fuck about the end user. Not referring to the AOL retards who can only stare at the screen and drool. I'm referring to the person who wants to know more about how thier system works, and struggles with learning the stuff, but is constantly either ignored or bashed because the l33t h4X0r5 just dont wanna be bothered with helping the new guy. I'm not talking about spoon feeding either. I mean people who spend 4 or 5 hours checking the documentation, find it to be worthless when it comes to actual troubleshooting, and then carefully explain thier problem, only to be shit upon by those higher up the knowledge ladder.
As an example...
I know computers, very well my associates would say. I program in C, Ada95, ASM, Perl, Python, and Common Lisp. I work with the Bash and Korn shells on a regular basis. Now, I ran into a sound problem with Mandrake and spent about 4 hours pouring over the docs and testing each nook and cranny I could think of to solve the problem. Nada. The documentation proved to be a waste of time because it doesnt document the meaning of the error messages the software was throwing out. Finally I posted some questions to some message boards carefully documenting what the problem was, where I had already looked for solutions, and asked for advice on how I might solve the problem.
In response, I either got bashed, or the response was along the lines of "...do a search on google...uh...dude."
Now, this type of attitude pervades the Open Source/Free Software community. That's why the software is still unusable for people who want to get some serious work done. The few packages which do actually work(and work extremely well, such as TeX, MySQL, and a few others) are few and far between. That's why professionals will be sticking with professional software from professional programmers/comapanies(IBM, Sun, et..) At least they support thier products when something goes wrong. AND, that's why OSS doesnt have a hope in hell of taking the desktop.
Relax Microsoft. Take some valium or something. Dont let the paranoia get to you. Sure, your crap crashes, but at least it's possible to get it up and running in the first place.
(Note: I've been a Linux/FreeBSD junkie for about eight years now. So dont think I'm a novice, because I sure as hell am not.)