I haven't thought this one through to the inevitable legal cases over the first ammendment, but a really simple solution to porn on the net would have been to require all 'adult' sites to have the same domain name. I.e. www.porn.sex, www.freshandjuicy.sex, www.comeandgetit.sex. Or it could be something like.adu for 'adult' sites only, or.porn or anything.
Just how easy would filtering become? Browsers wouldn't need extra-bundled filtering software, it would just allow or disallow all connections to anything.sex (or whatever).
I'm particularly annoyed because I wanted some clipart once, clipart.org WASN'T what it should have been, I really wanted clipart.com. I wanted to find out about Descent III - descent.com wasn't what I wanted, but descent-3.com was. I guess everyone's been caught out like this, often with a newbie in the room at the same time.
It's great to see Slashdot putting money into the hands of deserving open source projects. However, I have tried visiting the voting booth, and things are considerably more confusing than they should be. There are several pages worth of space devoted to pointless or non-existent awards. What would be much more rewarding is a simple category title of 'Best Project' in several key categories.
I don't know if the US gets better service than the UK, but over here AOL sucks bigtime.
I tried them as my first ISP on that fateful day that I first joined the web. Several hours of the evening were wasted due to the fact that the US version of the software wouldn't create me an account (Zip codes and Postcodes being incompatible, not to mention state codes).
Their software was very bad. To check five e-mail addresses, it dialed-up, checked a box, hung-up, dialed-up, checked the next box, hung-up, dialed-up... you get the idea. With a minimum charge of 5p per call.
Also, when I phoned their tech support to ask how to use Netscape or M$IE with their service, I got a really shirty guy who couldn't care less.
That's why my AOL experience lasted three days.
Now AOL CD's just go straight in the bin. I'm still looking for a good use for them.
It does MP3, e-mail, fax and telephone all in one watch. The Crusoe 3000 watch will also come with TV tuner and DVD-player as optional extras.
Transmeta have spent several months in R&D to come up with the ideal watch for all users. Aside from running the new Linux-Lite (a cut-down version to allow the wearer to lift their arm), the new Crusoe watch can also run Macintosh, Windows and Alpha compiled binaries. New developments in nano-technology have enabled Transmeta to incorporate a full-size keyboard in the watch, with a neatly concealed stylus for hand-writing recognition on the 1024 x 768 capable TFT screen.
A spokesman for Transmeta said that Linus Torvalds had actually been wearing a fully-working prototype during his speech, but had decided at the last minute not to announce it, as the bulb had blown in the watch's built-in LCD projector.
The watch will be available from the 19th of January, and is rumoured to be priced in the sub-$300 market to compete in the popular PDA market.
Microsoft and Citrix are actually rivals in this thin-client technology. Citrix produced the ICA protocol, which was much better than the original RDP protocol Microsoft made for their Terminal Server product. However, Microsoft is due to take this market back with their new version of RDP. This means Citrix would be better moving into more diverse markets.
This is where it gets wierd. Citrix HAVE produced a Linux client, and some Linux roll-outs in the enterprise sector are actually based on this. But it's a really old version, and much more limited than the DOS/Win16/Win32 versions they have brought out. There are also web and java versions of the client, but Citrix are really shooting themselves in the foot by not paying more attention to this ripe market. Come on Citrix, update the client!!!
I think something may have happened. I had to spend the whole of yesterday at a test centre waiting to do a NT Server 4 exam. They kept downloading it, and recreating different parts of my account, but it kept crashing. I was the first and so-far, only candidate to sit an exam this year (at least for this test centre). Has Sylvan Prometric been hit by the bug, and are trying to hide it? If anyone else had any problems, let's hear about them!
This just adds fuel to the predictions that the next world war will be fought in cyberspace.
At the moment the term 'hackers' brings nice warm thoughts of late night tinkering on the net to geeks, and a distant, unknown, but not that menacing thought to system administrators. If the government start re-training them, aren't they going to turn into something more like guerilla soldiers?
It would give hackers a bad name - I mean, worse than now.
Yes, many hackers have un-tapped skills, but taking these jobs would just bring forward a new age in warfare.
Cyberwarfare isn't like conventional warfare, where one side can simply win on bigger firepower. The net has always claimed to be a level playing field. Surely three hackers working for a third-world government (providing a decent level of resources) are as powerful as whole teams of hackers in a western-world country? It comes down to the abilities of an individual.
What's being proposed here is getting hackers to disable the enemy's defenses. This would lead to hackers aiming to turn opponents weapons back on their own country. Think about it for a minute. The more missiles you've got ready to launch on-command, the more firecrackers you've got waiting to blow-up in your face. And who's got the biggest number of firecrackers on the planet?...
It seems the US are setting out to hold the dog by the ears.
I'd like to nominate the Linux NAG (Network Administrators Guide) by O'Reilly.
It should get the award just for existing, kindova' lifetime acheivers award. It's a great book for reference, and has allowed people as uninformed as me to actually make some progress with networking Linux to other machines.
My fave's from last year would be the overclocking madness stories. In particular, the guy who documented how he submerged his motherboard in oil, then set up a system to cycle the oil around the motherboard to keep everything cool. Oh, and he did it all LIVE!
Recently Slashdot announced awards with *real money* prizes. Not what we would have expected from the old Slashdot, so this is a definite Andover influence - how much more is funding going to change Slashdot?
Personally, I'm really pleased to see this project.
The RISC OS desktop was developed by Acorn here in the UK. After their success in the mid-eighties with the BBC/Acorn computer series, they used their own machines to design the next generation, the Archimedes series. At the core of the Archimedes was four ROM chips that contained the RISC OS.
Man, that operating system was the best! Like greased lightning, obviously, because it was on ROM chips. More stable than anything else I've ever seen (Linux included - no flames please). I would love to hear from anyone who ever crashed one.
So coming into the nineties the Acorn Archimedes took the market in educational machines, being used in 9/10 schools here in the UK, with tons of educational software being developed (and still available today), as well as other packages.
Unfortunately somewhere around 1995(ish) they lost their way after targeting the home market with the A3010's - it should have worked, it's what all the kids used at school. They also had a fabulous new line - the RISC PC - which took their line up to using the StrongARM processor (now owned by Intel), and at the time blew away all the Pentiums on the market. It also had a PC card option, allowing you to boot Windows on one of these boxes.
RiscOS itself went up to version ~3.5 or version 4.0 IIRC. It was Drag 'n' Drop HEAVEN! Absolutely everything could be done with a mouse (making an ideal special needs hardware/applications platform), and used three-button mouse operation to the full potential.
Sorry to get all nostalgic, but I passed my A-levels programming on these machines, and I have an old A3010 gathering dust undeservedly.
As with most good computer stories, this one came to a sad end a few years ago, with Acorn downsizing, loosing their education markets and being swallowed up by bigger fish. I'm sure that some of you know the details better than I do, if so, don't worry about correcting what I have said.
to the rest of the IT industry - we pulled it off! The biggest scam of the last millenium!
We knew all along there was nothing to worry about. Most programmers have thought they were working in 2001 for the past twenty years anyway.
We worried the banks, we scared Wall Street witless, we even joined forces with Micro$oft to spread the word of doom.
We told the suits-that-hold-the-purse-strings that all our computers needed replacing immediately, when we weren't due for a real upgrade for another 18 months.
We convinced everyone that IT staff would need to be paid extra for millenium cover, but knew all along we wouldn't get a single serious call.
We got all the braindead Windows@Home users to rush out to their nearest PC stores to replace perfectly good 166mmx's, and to stock up with a years supply of tinned beans on their way home - simultaneously bringing down the prices of PC's and geek-food ATST!
I recommended that our servers should be taken down for the holiday period - not because I was worried they wouldn't roll over, but because our UPS systems hadn't been fully tested, and wasn't fully installed across all the servers.
Eventually we did some simple battery tests on the UPS devices, and other members of the office recommended leaving them up over the duration. This was due to fears that giving the mechanics of the hardware a long rest could mean problems when restarting the servers in the new year.
These are high-end Compaq ProLiant servers - unlikely to become unreliable, but I guess they're too expensive to mess with.
I've just logged into our servers from home, all up and running fine. No worries.
The home network was different. I worked through the roll-over with half the network on and running. My P75 Primary Domain Controller (!!!) rolled through no problem, despite the NSTL Year2000 software proclaiming it wasn't compliant.
It seems that I was right all along - Y2K was just media hype.
Having inherited a new PHB, I was dismayed to find yet another manager who sits under the equivalent 'Home Sweet Home' sign of 'Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft'.
He likes to back the winners, and considers Micro$oft the best way of backing the 'market leader'. But this led to an arguement in the office over the best web server.
I mentioned the latest NetCraft results, and how Apache was clearly the market leader with around 55% compared to Microsoft and Netscape's offerings. However, the arguement raised was that Apache cannot be the 'market leader', because it isn't market-ed. It isn't sold as such, so isn't part of the web server 'market'. Obviously I fought my corner well, but I do have a little difficultly arguing this technicality as I work in a business school. Comments please.
I have tried placing several orders in the past, with several companies, varying both telephone/web and both methods simultaneously to make an order.
My conclusion is that it's like trying to shoot a peanut with a shotgun - it's hit 'n' miss.
In August of this year I place two separate orders with two of the largest and well respected computer suppliers here in the UK - Simply Computers and Action Computer Supplies. I am *still* waiting for both orders to be completely fulfilled.
With the Action order - for hard drive caddies - every month that I phone, I am told the order will be delivered at the end of the month, and it never comes. Last time I phoned them I managed to find out they had about 400 back orders for this one item (obviously going back to August at least), and that I was 'about fourth from the top of the list'. Inspiring or what? Definitely what, because that was in November. However Action have managed to deliver other web orders successfully, and have delivered my lovely new Iiyama with no hassle.
Simply Computers have been much worse. This time it was several items ordered over the web, using their own 'Internet Account Card'. Simple enough order, SS7 motherboard, PC100 64mb memory and a full tower AT case to put it all in.
The motherboard and memory arrived successfully. But no case. So now at the beginning of September they send two cards simultaneously, each giving different dates for delivery. Either way I was to expect it for around 17th at the latest.
21st I phone them asking where it is. I find out it was cancelled at the start of the month, "But I was sent two cards saying it was on back-order?", says me. "Well we cancelled it 'cos your debit card expired and we couldn't be ****ed to tell you". Real helpful - promising delivery of an order that had been cancelled weeks before. And if they knew my card was going to expire - which they did - why couldn't they tell me? [Common Sense? We don't do that!]
Eventually, after re-ordering once or twice, and once more being sent a back-order card, the case finally arrives somewhen in October. Yippee, thinks me, presuming all was well with the world. That is, until I came to install the motherboard (an essential ingredient in most computers).
This is where it gets too technical for a computer company: I have ordered an AT motherboard. I have also ordered an AT case. AT motherboard goes into AT case. Simple, right? Not for Simply. Cutting this rant short, they've taken an ATX case, swapped out the PSU for a replacement AT PSU and scribbled out the 'X' on the box with a pen. So that makes it alright then.
Putting the (AT) motherboard into this case now leaves me with a huge whole in the case where the keyboard gets plugged in. Big enough for a hand to reach in and pull anything out. Big enough for screws or other such metal objects to find their way into my machine and short the motherboard. In short, about as secure as a house with no roof.
But wait, what's that I hear you cry? A backing plate? Of course! Digging out the backing plate is really helpful. It is an ATX backing plate. As in a backing plate for an ATX motherboard (which would normally go in an ATX case - yeah, I know).
Time for a three-page letter explaining the rudimentary elements of PC building for Simply's multi-award winning (yes, really!) Customer Service team. Sit back and wait.
And wait.
"Hello, Simply Customer Service Department please. Yes about that three-page letter I sent a week ago..." Pause. "What do you mean you can't find it?"
Lengthy discussion later, and I am promised an AT backplate for my case. Satisfactory, says me. Can't wait for it, says me.
A telephone call several days later: "Where's my backing plate?" Pause. "What do you mean it must have got lost in the post?" Another lengthy discussion, another promise of delivery, but this time I get the guys name.
So we're round about November now. And finally my AT backing plate arrives! Hoorah! Is it an AT backing plate? Yes! Does it fit? Does it heck! It's obviously for a completely different model of case (perhaps an AT case?) and I'm worse off with it in, ready to fall in on the motherboard, than I was before it arrived.
Feeling a little sore about this, I refer to my invoices once more. I'm not going mad, I definitely ordered an AT motherboard and an AT case - but wait a minute, that's not the price for the memory!
Another e-mail and telephone conversation: "So sorry, Sir. Our fault of course. I'll send the correct backing plate out straight away. Overcharged for the memory? Well if you send me a copy of your receipt..."? Oh yeah, ordering over the web. That must have been the page that popped up after submitting my order. Fortunately I kept this as a file on my desktop.
Another backing plate arrives! But it's identical to the last one. Speaking to the representative again he promises me that he's putting the correct one into an envelope "as we speak". I ask him to make sure that it's the correct one for my case, and he assures me it will be.
He also e-mails to say the difference in price for the memory has been credited back to their account. Of course, the difference should have been in my favour, but it's only money, right?
I am now waiting for the correct backing plate. For a company that offers next day delivery, it sure is taking a lot of next days for it to arrive. So I phone the guy. "Sorry, Sir. It'll definitely be with you in the next few days".
No it wasn't.
"Actually, Sir, the person who normally licks the stamps for the envelopes has been on holiday, and I thought it had gone out to you but it hadn't. But it's on it's way now!"
Amazingly he was right! A few (more) days later and another package arrived. This time it was exactly the same as the last two that were sent, but a bit more grubby and a bit more dented and bent.
"Would you like me to send you out another one, Sir?", "No, because you've tried four times, and each of the three that actually arrived have all been the same. You've proved you can't get it right even with four attempts, what's the point in a fifth?"
Then I ask to speak to someone above him. Now he gets rather evasive. He'll tell me his name, but of course he's in a meeting, and no, I can't have his extension number. I check that he's actually allowed a phone, and yes his is, but they're not allowed to tell me the number.
I insist that he calls me the minute he gets out of his meeting. Here's my home phone number. Here's my work phone number. Here's my e-mail address. And I'm told he will call me.
Does he? Nah.
Later that day I phone Simply again. Of course the bloke's gone home or is still in a meeting. So I leave a message with another member of their staff, promising me that this supervisor will call me. I give them my home phone and work phone yet again, and sleep fairly well safe in the knowledge that I'll be able to sort things out the next day...
Or the next day. Or the day after that, Or the week after that - in fact, I've been waiting several weeks for this elusive guy to phone me to sort out this minor problem of an incomplete order.
We're now at the present date and time. I'm still struggling with my old computer kit, and walking around the big box that contains a completely useless mutant AT/ATX tower case. I'm also a lot thinner on top... a receeding hairline long before my time.
So a big thanks to David Dawson, Simply Customer Services Agent, for the witty conversation, the useless AT backplate collection and the many laughs he's provided me with over the past four months. To Mike Clinell, his supervisor, for returning urgent calls so promptly, for running such an efficient and competant group of staff, or for his new Guinness World Record title for the worlds longest corporate meeting (the record now stands at about three weeks). I would also like to thank singer Ronan Keating and band REM for their excellent two songs I have listened to so many times, continuously, in a loop, for the past four months.
Sorry to use/. for a rant, but I needed it. And if anyone can recommend to me the best shrink in the UK, I'd love to hear from them.
Jim's obviously done a study into a solution for voting systems. Perhaps he should attack it from another angle - ie. do a study into different markets for his 'device'?
Mail order catalogues must be feeling the pinch right now, the net's better for all but the most un-techno-aware housewife (include househusband here) who don't have time/money/knowledge to use the web. Personally I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of starting a mail-order catalogue account, but I would if it used Jim's paper device.
This way the forms can be reusable still - you need some way of entering numerical data instead of multiple choice - then the device becomes a reusable mail order form. Note the word reusable. With good planning it could be sent out to customers wiped clean - but still with minimal weight keeping posting costs down.
Another good point: security. Take Mrs Average Housewife (or Mr Average Househusband) who normally fills out a tedious form to order some stuff out the catalogue. They include their credit card details at some point. Uh-oh, zero security. Mr Dishonest Post-Interceptor can read it. Whereas this paper computer could 'lock' and encrypt these details once the user had finished the order - now it's safe in the post - right up till the form is unencoded. No credit detail insecurity, no chance the order is misread and incorrectly dispatched.
Possibilities are endless, Jim. You could make it 'sexy computing' if you started taking it to the right people. Perhaps move away from the Vulture Capitalists, go straight to the potential customer - they'll always be looking to get ahead of the competition.
After much head-off-wall banging today, I have now entered a state of semi-denial. I received the offer by e-mail... but it was sent on the evening of the 2nd of December. Which meant that once the e-mail had flown over the water to the UK, it was already December the 3rd - the deadline for all the interest forms to be returned!
Is this some way of holding back shares? What was the point in sending me the e-mail in the first place?
Rough math told me that an investment of a mere £750 would have returned £18,750. Can any UK 'winners' confirm this?
Looking for that very faint, rather tarnished silver lining, at least I can feel the priviledge of having VA Linux recognise our OpenSource project as being of some worth...
Is this Pixar's way of including a thinly-disguised in-joke for all the geeks seeing the film? Does Tux really have a secret younger brother? And if so, does he represent open source, or even the mythical Linux-Lite? Are Pixar trying to sub-consciously convert and influence the impressionable minds of the young and naive that go to see this movie?
Are there any other inferences to be made from the characters? Does Buzz's inability to fly really scoff at NASA's rumoured decreasing funding and reluctance to commit to further manned missions to any planets? Does Rex's stupidity say anything about the failure of the scientific community to agree on a theory for the extinction of dinosaurs? And does Woody's limpness denote the loosening grip that American law-enforcement has on the crimerate of today?
So Monday night their website might be down? It would be kinda funny to think that all this time they've had the ability to take thousands of hits per minute just for a few lines of html.
They can't play this no-news-sudden-news thing without expecting masses of website interest the moment they finally put something up there.
More interesting than *what* it says, will be if, on Monday night, it actually says anything at all!...
I'm quite interested in the next release of Debian, and I've been thinking about trying it out over the RedHat CD's I've been installing for the past couple of years.
I know I want it - I just don't know why. Would some Debian users be able to tell me the main differences between Debian and RedHat? I already understand that Debian uses.debs instead of.rpms, but what else is there to know for a first time user?
"Microsoft enjoys so much power in the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems that if it wished to exercise this power solely in terms of price, it could charge a price for Windows substantially above that which could be charged in a competitive market," Jackson wrote.
It is *OUR* job to create the competitive market. In a way this should be seen as a failing on our behalf to create enough killer apps for our alternative operating systems. We've already voted with our feet by choosing other-than-M$ products - but we have to make these operating systems an alternative for OTHER PEOPLE, as well as ourselves.
Speaking as someone who has just finished the NT Core Technologies course this week; Microsoft has a legitimate product in NT, it is something I understand much better now. However, even the course instructor pointed out that Microsoft was using NT to hammer the opposition. Much of the course focused on Novell integration - to the point of replacing NetWare servers. Maybe W2K will focus on Linux integration...?
Come on then Nitrozac. You've got the geek-cred it takes to write the other side of this. How about an article for the 'geek girls' to get decent blokes? Roblimo's article said they weren't the best thing for geeks, what should they be looking for then?
Either way, Debbie can appear in your strip anytime - you have the POWER!
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't thought this one through to the inevitable legal cases over the first ammendment, but a really simple solution to porn on the net would have been to require all 'adult' sites to have the same domain name. I.e. www.porn.sex, www.freshandjuicy.sex, www.comeandgetit.sex. Or it could be something like .adu for 'adult' sites only, or .porn or anything.
.sex (or whatever).
Just how easy would filtering become? Browsers wouldn't need extra-bundled filtering software, it would just allow or disallow all connections to anything
I'm particularly annoyed because I wanted some clipart once, clipart.org WASN'T what it should have been, I really wanted clipart.com. I wanted to find out about Descent III - descent.com wasn't what I wanted, but descent-3.com was. I guess everyone's been caught out like this, often with a newbie in the room at the same time.
It's great to see Slashdot putting money into the hands of deserving open source projects. However, I have tried visiting the voting booth, and things are considerably more confusing than they should be. There are several pages worth of space devoted to pointless or non-existent awards. What would be much more rewarding is a simple category title of 'Best Project' in several key categories.
Eg. 'Best Project in... window managers', 'Best Project in... kernel development', 'Best Project in... spreadsheet software', 'Best Project in... games', etc, etc.
I don't know if the US gets better service than the UK, but over here AOL sucks bigtime.
I tried them as my first ISP on that fateful day that I first joined the web. Several hours of the evening were wasted due to the fact that the US version of the software wouldn't create me an account (Zip codes and Postcodes being incompatible, not to mention state codes).
Their software was very bad. To check five e-mail addresses, it dialed-up, checked a box, hung-up, dialed-up, checked the next box, hung-up, dialed-up... you get the idea. With a minimum charge of 5p per call.
Also, when I phoned their tech support to ask how to use Netscape or M$IE with their service, I got a really shirty guy who couldn't care less.
That's why my AOL experience lasted three days.
Now AOL CD's just go straight in the bin. I'm still looking for a good use for them.
New Crusoe watch from Transmeta.
It does MP3, e-mail, fax and telephone all in one watch. The Crusoe 3000 watch will also come with TV tuner and DVD-player as optional extras.
Transmeta have spent several months in R&D to come up with the ideal watch for all users. Aside from running the new Linux-Lite (a cut-down version to allow the wearer to lift their arm), the new Crusoe watch can also run Macintosh, Windows and Alpha compiled binaries. New developments in nano-technology have enabled Transmeta to incorporate a full-size keyboard in the watch, with a neatly concealed stylus for hand-writing recognition on the 1024 x 768 capable TFT screen.
A spokesman for Transmeta said that Linus Torvalds had actually been wearing a fully-working prototype during his speech, but had decided at the last minute not to announce it, as the bulb had blown in the watch's built-in LCD projector.
The watch will be available from the 19th of January, and is rumoured to be priced in the sub-$300 market to compete in the popular PDA market.
Microsoft and Citrix are actually rivals in this thin-client technology. Citrix produced the ICA protocol, which was much better than the original RDP protocol Microsoft made for their Terminal Server product. However, Microsoft is due to take this market back with their new version of RDP. This means Citrix would be better moving into more diverse markets.
This is where it gets wierd. Citrix HAVE produced a Linux client, and some Linux roll-outs in the enterprise sector are actually based on this. But it's a really old version, and much more limited than the DOS/Win16/Win32 versions they have brought out. There are also web and java versions of the client, but Citrix are really shooting themselves in the foot by not paying more attention to this ripe market. Come on Citrix, update the client!!!
I think something may have happened. I had to spend the whole of yesterday at a test centre waiting to do a NT Server 4 exam. They kept downloading it, and recreating different parts of my account, but it kept crashing. I was the first and so-far, only candidate to sit an exam this year (at least for this test centre). Has Sylvan Prometric been hit by the bug, and are trying to hide it? If anyone else had any problems, let's hear about them!
This just adds fuel to the predictions that the next world war will be fought in cyberspace.
At the moment the term 'hackers' brings nice warm thoughts of late night tinkering on the net to geeks, and a distant, unknown, but not that menacing thought to system administrators. If the government start re-training them, aren't they going to turn into something more like guerilla soldiers?
It would give hackers a bad name - I mean, worse than now.
Yes, many hackers have un-tapped skills, but taking these jobs would just bring forward a new age in warfare.
Cyberwarfare isn't like conventional warfare, where one side can simply win on bigger firepower. The net has always claimed to be a level playing field. Surely three hackers working for a third-world government (providing a decent level of resources) are as powerful as whole teams of hackers in a western-world country? It comes down to the abilities of an individual.
What's being proposed here is getting hackers to disable the enemy's defenses. This would lead to hackers aiming to turn opponents weapons back on their own country. Think about it for a minute. The more missiles you've got ready to launch on-command, the more firecrackers you've got waiting to blow-up in your face. And who's got the biggest number of firecrackers on the planet?...
It seems the US are setting out to hold the dog by the ears.
I'd like to nominate the Linux NAG (Network Administrators Guide) by O'Reilly.
It should get the award just for existing, kindova' lifetime acheivers award. It's a great book for reference, and has allowed people as uninformed as me to actually make some progress with networking Linux to other machines.
My fave's from last year would be the overclocking madness stories. In particular, the guy who documented how he submerged his motherboard in oil, then set up a system to cycle the oil around the motherboard to keep everything cool. Oh, and he did it all LIVE!
Recently Slashdot announced awards with *real money* prizes. Not what we would have expected from the old Slashdot, so this is a definite Andover influence - how much more is funding going to change Slashdot?
Personally, I'm really pleased to see this project.
The RISC OS desktop was developed by Acorn here in the UK. After their success in the mid-eighties with the BBC/Acorn computer series, they used their own machines to design the next generation, the Archimedes series. At the core of the Archimedes was four ROM chips that contained the RISC OS.
Man, that operating system was the best! Like greased lightning, obviously, because it was on ROM chips. More stable than anything else I've ever seen (Linux included - no flames please). I would love to hear from anyone who ever crashed one.
So coming into the nineties the Acorn Archimedes took the market in educational machines, being used in 9/10 schools here in the UK, with tons of educational software being developed (and still available today), as well as other packages.
Unfortunately somewhere around 1995(ish) they lost their way after targeting the home market with the A3010's - it should have worked, it's what all the kids used at school. They also had a fabulous new line - the RISC PC - which took their line up to using the StrongARM processor (now owned by Intel), and at the time blew away all the Pentiums on the market. It also had a PC card option, allowing you to boot Windows on one of these boxes.
RiscOS itself went up to version ~3.5 or version 4.0 IIRC. It was Drag 'n' Drop HEAVEN! Absolutely everything could be done with a mouse (making an ideal special needs hardware/applications platform), and used three-button mouse operation to the full potential.
Sorry to get all nostalgic, but I passed my A-levels programming on these machines, and I have an old A3010 gathering dust undeservedly.
As with most good computer stories, this one came to a sad end a few years ago, with Acorn downsizing, loosing their education markets and being swallowed up by bigger fish. I'm sure that some of you know the details better than I do, if so, don't worry about correcting what I have said.
to the rest of the IT industry - we pulled it off! The biggest scam of the last millenium!
We knew all along there was nothing to worry about. Most programmers have thought they were working in 2001 for the past twenty years anyway.
We worried the banks, we scared Wall Street witless, we even joined forces with Micro$oft to spread the word of doom.
We told the suits-that-hold-the-purse-strings that all our computers needed replacing immediately, when we weren't due for a real upgrade for another 18 months.
We convinced everyone that IT staff would need to be paid extra for millenium cover, but knew all along we wouldn't get a single serious call.
We got all the braindead Windows@Home users to rush out to their nearest PC stores to replace perfectly good 166mmx's, and to stock up with a years supply of tinned beans on their way home - simultaneously bringing down the prices of PC's and geek-food ATST!
In short, we win!
I recommended that our servers should be taken down for the holiday period - not because I was worried they wouldn't roll over, but because our UPS systems hadn't been fully tested, and wasn't fully installed across all the servers.
Eventually we did some simple battery tests on the UPS devices, and other members of the office recommended leaving them up over the duration. This was due to fears that giving the mechanics of the hardware a long rest could mean problems when restarting the servers in the new year.
These are high-end Compaq ProLiant servers - unlikely to become unreliable, but I guess they're too expensive to mess with.
I've just logged into our servers from home, all up and running fine. No worries.
The home network was different. I worked through the roll-over with half the network on and running. My P75 Primary Domain Controller (!!!) rolled through no problem, despite the NSTL Year2000 software proclaiming it wasn't compliant.
It seems that I was right all along - Y2K was just media hype.
Devastating logic, thanks.
;-)
You're right, that would make Opera the 'market leader', although I don't know if anyone else in the office has heard of Opera
I still think, whether it's sold or dnloaded for free, 55% of webserver 'market' is still pretty impressive. Apache is miles off the competition.
If the only reason it was popular was because it was free, then Linux would out-'sell' Windoze 2 - 1.
Having inherited a new PHB, I was dismayed to find yet another manager who sits under the equivalent 'Home Sweet Home' sign of 'Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft'.
He likes to back the winners, and considers Micro$oft the best way of backing the 'market leader'. But this led to an arguement in the office over the best web server.
I mentioned the latest NetCraft results, and how Apache was clearly the market leader with around 55% compared to Microsoft and Netscape's offerings. However, the arguement raised was that Apache cannot be the 'market leader', because it isn't market-ed. It isn't sold as such, so isn't part of the web server 'market'. Obviously I fought my corner well, but I do have a little difficultly arguing this technicality as I work in a business school. Comments please.
My online gifts haven't arrived yet.
/. for a rant, but I needed it. And if anyone can recommend to me the best shrink in the UK, I'd love to hear from them.
I have tried placing several orders in the past, with several companies, varying both telephone/web and both methods simultaneously to make an order.
My conclusion is that it's like trying to shoot a peanut with a shotgun - it's hit 'n' miss.
In August of this year I place two separate orders with two of the largest and well respected computer suppliers here in the UK - Simply Computers and Action Computer Supplies. I am *still* waiting for both orders to be completely fulfilled.
With the Action order - for hard drive caddies - every month that I phone, I am told the order will be delivered at the end of the month, and it never comes. Last time I phoned them I managed to find out they had about 400 back orders for this one item (obviously going back to August at least), and that I was 'about fourth from the top of the list'. Inspiring or what? Definitely what, because that was in November. However Action have managed to deliver other web orders successfully, and have delivered my lovely new Iiyama with no hassle.
Simply Computers have been much worse. This time it was several items ordered over the web, using their own 'Internet Account Card'. Simple enough order, SS7 motherboard, PC100 64mb memory and a full tower AT case to put it all in.
The motherboard and memory arrived successfully. But no case. So now at the beginning of September they send two cards simultaneously, each giving different dates for delivery. Either way I was to expect it for around 17th at the latest.
21st I phone them asking where it is. I find out it was cancelled at the start of the month, "But I was sent two cards saying it was on back-order?", says me. "Well we cancelled it 'cos your debit card expired and we couldn't be ****ed to tell you". Real helpful - promising delivery of an order that had been cancelled weeks before. And if they knew my card was going to expire - which they did - why couldn't they tell me? [Common Sense? We don't do that!]
Eventually, after re-ordering once or twice, and once more being sent a back-order card, the case finally arrives somewhen in October. Yippee, thinks me, presuming all was well with the world. That is, until I came to install the motherboard (an essential ingredient in most computers).
This is where it gets too technical for a computer company: I have ordered an AT motherboard. I have also ordered an AT case. AT motherboard goes into AT case. Simple, right? Not for Simply. Cutting this rant short, they've taken an ATX case, swapped out the PSU for a replacement AT PSU and scribbled out the 'X' on the box with a pen. So that makes it alright then.
Putting the (AT) motherboard into this case now leaves me with a huge whole in the case where the keyboard gets plugged in. Big enough for a hand to reach in and pull anything out. Big enough for screws or other such metal objects to find their way into my machine and short the motherboard. In short, about as secure as a house with no roof.
But wait, what's that I hear you cry? A backing plate? Of course! Digging out the backing plate is really helpful. It is an ATX backing plate. As in a backing plate for an ATX motherboard (which would normally go in an ATX case - yeah, I know).
Time for a three-page letter explaining the rudimentary elements of PC building for Simply's multi-award winning (yes, really!) Customer Service team. Sit back and wait.
And wait.
"Hello, Simply Customer Service Department please. Yes about that three-page letter I sent a week ago..." Pause. "What do you mean you can't find it?"
Lengthy discussion later, and I am promised an AT backplate for my case. Satisfactory, says me. Can't wait for it, says me.
A telephone call several days later: "Where's my backing plate?" Pause. "What do you mean it must have got lost in the post?" Another lengthy discussion, another promise of delivery, but this time I get the guys name.
So we're round about November now. And finally my AT backing plate arrives! Hoorah! Is it an AT backing plate? Yes! Does it fit? Does it heck! It's obviously for a completely different model of case (perhaps an AT case?) and I'm worse off with it in, ready to fall in on the motherboard, than I was before it arrived.
Feeling a little sore about this, I refer to my invoices once more. I'm not going mad, I definitely ordered an AT motherboard and an AT case - but wait a minute, that's not the price for the memory!
Another e-mail and telephone conversation: "So sorry, Sir. Our fault of course. I'll send the correct backing plate out straight away. Overcharged for the memory? Well if you send me a copy of your receipt..."? Oh yeah, ordering over the web. That must have been the page that popped up after submitting my order. Fortunately I kept this as a file on my desktop.
Another backing plate arrives! But it's identical to the last one. Speaking to the representative again he promises me that he's putting the correct one into an envelope "as we speak". I ask him to make sure that it's the correct one for my case, and he assures me it will be.
He also e-mails to say the difference in price for the memory has been credited back to their account. Of course, the difference should have been in my favour, but it's only money, right?
I am now waiting for the correct backing plate. For a company that offers next day delivery, it sure is taking a lot of next days for it to arrive. So I phone the guy. "Sorry, Sir. It'll definitely be with you in the next few days".
No it wasn't.
"Actually, Sir, the person who normally licks the stamps for the envelopes has been on holiday, and I thought it had gone out to you but it hadn't. But it's on it's way now!"
Amazingly he was right! A few (more) days later and another package arrived. This time it was exactly the same as the last two that were sent, but a bit more grubby and a bit more dented and bent.
"Would you like me to send you out another one, Sir?", "No, because you've tried four times, and each of the three that actually arrived have all been the same. You've proved you can't get it right even with four attempts, what's the point in a fifth?"
Then I ask to speak to someone above him. Now he gets rather evasive. He'll tell me his name, but of course he's in a meeting, and no, I can't have his extension number. I check that he's actually allowed a phone, and yes his is, but they're not allowed to tell me the number.
I insist that he calls me the minute he gets out of his meeting. Here's my home phone number. Here's my work phone number. Here's my e-mail address. And I'm told he will call me.
Does he? Nah.
Later that day I phone Simply again. Of course the bloke's gone home or is still in a meeting. So I leave a message with another member of their staff, promising me that this supervisor will call me. I give them my home phone and work phone yet again, and sleep fairly well safe in the knowledge that I'll be able to sort things out the next day...
Or the next day. Or the day after that, Or the week after that - in fact, I've been waiting several weeks for this elusive guy to phone me to sort out this minor problem of an incomplete order.
We're now at the present date and time. I'm still struggling with my old computer kit, and walking around the big box that contains a completely useless mutant AT/ATX tower case. I'm also a lot thinner on top... a receeding hairline long before my time.
So a big thanks to David Dawson, Simply Customer Services Agent, for the witty conversation, the useless AT backplate collection and the many laughs he's provided me with over the past four months. To Mike Clinell, his supervisor, for returning urgent calls so promptly, for running such an efficient and competant group of staff, or for his new Guinness World Record title for the worlds longest corporate meeting (the record now stands at about three weeks). I would also like to thank singer Ronan Keating and band REM for their excellent two songs I have listened to so many times, continuously, in a loop, for the past four months.
Sorry to use
Jim's obviously done a study into a solution for voting systems. Perhaps he should attack it from another angle - ie. do a study into different markets for his 'device'?
Mail order catalogues must be feeling the pinch right now, the net's better for all but the most un-techno-aware housewife (include househusband here) who don't have time/money/knowledge to use the web. Personally I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of starting a mail-order catalogue account, but I would if it used Jim's paper device.
This way the forms can be reusable still - you need some way of entering numerical data instead of multiple choice - then the device becomes a reusable mail order form. Note the word reusable. With good planning it could be sent out to customers wiped clean - but still with minimal weight keeping posting costs down.
Another good point: security. Take Mrs Average Housewife (or Mr Average Househusband) who normally fills out a tedious form to order some stuff out the catalogue. They include their credit card details at some point. Uh-oh, zero security. Mr Dishonest Post-Interceptor can read it. Whereas this paper computer could 'lock' and encrypt these details once the user had finished the order - now it's safe in the post - right up till the form is unencoded. No credit detail insecurity, no chance the order is misread and incorrectly dispatched.
Possibilities are endless, Jim. You could make it 'sexy computing' if you started taking it to the right people. Perhaps move away from the Vulture Capitalists, go straight to the potential customer - they'll always be looking to get ahead of the competition.
After much head-off-wall banging today, I have now entered a state of semi-denial. I received the offer by e-mail... but it was sent on the evening of the 2nd of December. Which meant that once the e-mail had flown over the water to the UK, it was already December the 3rd - the deadline for all the interest forms to be returned!
Is this some way of holding back shares? What was the point in sending me the e-mail in the first place?
Rough math told me that an investment of a mere £750 would have returned £18,750. Can any UK 'winners' confirm this?
Looking for that very faint, rather tarnished silver lining, at least I can feel the priviledge of having VA Linux recognise our OpenSource project as being of some worth...
Is this Pixar's way of including a thinly-disguised in-joke for all the geeks seeing the film? Does Tux really have a secret younger brother? And if so, does he represent open source, or even the mythical Linux-Lite? Are Pixar trying to sub-consciously convert and influence the impressionable minds of the young and naive that go to see this movie?
Are there any other inferences to be made from the characters? Does Buzz's inability to fly really scoff at NASA's rumoured decreasing funding and reluctance to commit to further manned missions to any planets? Does Rex's stupidity say anything about the failure of the scientific community to agree on a theory for the extinction of dinosaurs? And does Woody's limpness denote the loosening grip that American law-enforcement has on the crimerate of today?
Or is the likeness co-incidental?
So Monday night their website might be down? It would be kinda funny to think that all this time they've had the ability to take thousands of hits per minute just for a few lines of html.
They can't play this no-news-sudden-news thing without expecting masses of website interest the moment they finally put something up there.
More interesting than *what* it says, will be if, on Monday night, it actually says anything at all!...
I'm quite interested in the next release of Debian, and I've been thinking about trying it out over the RedHat CD's I've been installing for the past couple of years.
.debs instead of .rpms, but what else is there to know for a first time user?
I know I want it - I just don't know why. Would some Debian users be able to tell me the main differences between Debian and RedHat? I already understand that Debian uses
"Microsoft enjoys so much power in the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems that if it wished to exercise this power solely in terms of price, it could charge a price for Windows substantially above that which could be charged in a competitive market," Jackson wrote.
It is *OUR* job to create the competitive market. In a way this should be seen as a failing on our behalf to create enough killer apps for our alternative operating systems. We've already voted with our feet by choosing other-than-M$ products - but we have to make these operating systems an alternative for OTHER PEOPLE, as well as ourselves.
Speaking as someone who has just finished the NT Core Technologies course this week; Microsoft has a legitimate product in NT, it is something I understand much better now. However, even the course instructor pointed out that Microsoft was using NT to hammer the opposition. Much of the course focused on Novell integration - to the point of replacing NetWare servers. Maybe W2K will focus on Linux integration...?
would be viewed as another splinter in Unix, rather than a new OS in its own right.
It wouldn't have so much support, and it wouldn't get as much media attention. It would, however, strengthen Microsoft.
Free Linux is a Good Thing.
Come on then Nitrozac. You've got the geek-cred it takes to write the other side of this. How about an article for the 'geek girls' to get decent blokes? Roblimo's article said they weren't the best thing for geeks, what should they be looking for then?
Either way, Debbie can appear in your strip anytime - you have the POWER!
Only Windows users can vote for moves? Isn't this giving an unfair advantage to Kasparov? ;-)