While you're right that efficiency and productivity is increasing, with certain manufacturing techniques, it's nebulous at best to actually measure.
Technologies like flow manufacturing don't measure productivity in the classic sense. You can't say Bob built 2 more machines than yesterday, therefore he's more productive. You can, however, say Bob's line was flowing smoothly and it produced 2 more machines than yesterday. Then again without overhead (and building-to-order which is what flow is good at) productivity doesn't really matter at all. What matters is building specific units to order. If you get it right and make it on time, productivity is completely irrelevant.
Yeah sure, Japan and other asian countries *make* (as in manufacture) these high tech electronics, but who do you think develops and designs them? They do their fair share, sure, but alot of that design is American. I've got a few friends that work at prototyping factores and they mainly prototype US designs for fiber routers, etc.
Actually most of that gain is artificial and is produced as a byproduct of GM and other manufacturers spamming the market. They say 'wow production is sky high' yet the demand isn't there. Read up on the subject and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Nobody said a major craptacular studio release should use this model, but it's ingenious for indie films. Get alot of your money back in one fell swoop before your film languishes on the IFC. Cuban is also a minority shareholder in Lion's Gate films, which tends to take on indie projects these days.
Regardless, that wait time is what encourages borderline pirates to go ahead and download.
Firefox, in it's current incarnation, sucks. I've been using it for 2 weeks on linux and windows, and it's just not finished. Half the time the download handler doesn't give you the option to do anything with the file (ok is greyed out for some weird reason). The rest of the browser rocks and I'll be glad when it's done.
But to answer your question, I was actually going to put that in my original reply. The best way to keep crapware off of a Windows pc is to completely avoid IE and Outlook/OE. They're like the goatse man's hole, waiting for crapware to be deposited daily. So generally, after I 'fix' someone's windows pc, I install the mozilla suite and say 'welcome to your new browser and email client'. People are pretty happy once they figure out it's actually better than IE.
Exposure and advertising are all relative. You can have exposure by watching a movie at your friend's house, which happens to still be in theaters. I know many of you already do this yet it's hardly legal. Still, it's what the public wants, otherwise Kazaa and it's brethren entities wouldn't be so hot with movie traders.
Granted, there will always be that minority that will pirate regardless, and will not venture into the theater to see a movie that potentially sucks (like 90% of what comes out of Hollywood these days), but for the majority, Mark Cuban's concept is a good vision. It's a double-edged sword to create new distribution channels as well as keep piracy down.
Over the past year I've seen many independent films in local theaters (fortunately I live in Dallas, and there are plenty of independent theaters), and with no word of mouth or advertising budget, I've been exposed to some great films. I later went on to buy said films when they were released on DVD, and was able to buy them much sooner just because they were indie films. I didn't have to wait for the end-of-theater-life cycle, the end-of-marketing-dollars cycle, or any other crap. I just waited until a little after it made it's runs and then it was on DVD.
Just in case you want to watch some good movies, I recommend City of Ghosts and Identity.
Here in Dallas, Mark Cuban (owner of the Mavericks) is trying to shift the paradigm just a little with a new concept. He owns the Landmark chain of theaters here along with a production company. He's hoping to create some good original films in the future, and sell you a copy of that movie in DVD form as you exit the theater.
Imagine if you went and saw any movie and you could buy a pristine DVD copy the same day! The theater would be raking in the dough, popcorn and soda prices would fall, and everyone would be happy. The current dumbass Hollywood model of distribution just seeks to milk every single film for all it's worth, while ignoring the rising likelihood of piracy in the interim between the film's theatric debut and the dvd sale.
Currently Hollywood does this: make film. Release film in theaters in the US. Release film in other countries (staggered, not synchronized). Sell lots of film related crap through Taco Bell and other friendly corporate entities. Hype some more. Right about the time nobody cares, release the DVD.
Mark Cuban's way: make film. Release film in all theaters (granted it's only a local domestic chain but the model is the same). Release DVD the same day, in the theater where you just watched the movie. Watch profits roll in.
He's also considering broadcasting the movie via ppv hdtv since he owns an HDTV network here. He figures if you'll pay to see it at home, what's the difference between that and the theater. And if you really want a dvd copy of it, come get it. No waiting.
I think it's a brilliant, all-encompassing concept. If Hollywood would quit rehashing crappy old movies and milking properties for every damn nickle, piracy wouldn't be the problem it's perceived to be today.
How is it not a technical issue? On one hand you've got millions upon millions of Windows desktops with their users basically running with root privileges. On the other you have Linux boxes of all flavors and varieties, most with differing configurations for daemons, userspace privileges, etc. One OS encourages you to be root, the other discourages you.
I'll be the first to say this study has major flaws (I've seen high school projects more thorough), but the fact remains that there are an incredibly larger number of 'root' users running windows than Linux. It is still up to the distro maintainers to create a default, working security model for their distributions. This has nothing to do with culture or anything else.
Please enlighten me. What distro comes with all this stuff pre-installed and running on first boot?
I don't know about the other distros, but Mandrake has discouraged telnet installs for years. If you choose to install Apache and/or FTP + mail services, you'll get warned by the installer *before you even install them*. There are no default internet services installed hands-free on Mandrake.
Maybe Redhat or others do this, but not my favorite distro.:)
Who was it that said no box is ever really secure? I believe that. However, like you say, some OS's are inherently more secure based on models, default configurations, etc.
However, generally when Linux or BSD has a security flaw, it's announced and fixed in a timely manner. Windows isn't the same. Sometimes serious security holes are discovered, reported, then Microsoft sits on the fix. Meanwhile your server keeps getting owned and there's nothing you can do about it. Then they eventually release the fix in a massive service pack update 5 months from now.
There's only so much you can do to secure a windows server, and alot of the time you must depend on Microsoft to help you. If they don't help, you don't get the security you've paid through the nose for.
Add to this the fact that the most recent 2.4.xx series has been plagued with root exploits over the past year. 2.6.x is looking great but it's so new not too many are using it yet.
Ultimately it's the admin's job to make sure these boxen are secure. Do you really think that the MCSE A-Team at your local corporation has any idea how to secure a linux box? Doubtful. From my point of view, there aren't very many 'linux admins' administering these boxen. Basically I fully agree with you.
That would ultimately be up to the Distro maintainers/packagers. Crap like Lindows would propagate root-only desktops, but almost all other distros would not.
Security is relative, and anyone stupid enough to run as root all the time (hell even IRC programs warn you not to) deserves what they get. The fact that Windows users run with root privileges just makes it that much easier to 0wn.
You can't really directly compare a Windows desktop to a Linux desktop right now since the vast majority of Linux desktop users *do not* run as root.
IIRC, Windows XP shipped with the tftp server wide open and ready for a locomotive to be driven through it. SP1 or some other security patches finally locked this port down. I'm no windows expert but I casually follow the holes being reported on it, so what I say may not be 100% accurate, but it's close.
All in all, Windows XP, by default, is vulnerable to virii and worms. You have no idea how many people's machines I've had to fix because they are constantly getting redirects in their browser (a fake google result page even) or popups that won't go away. Spyware and worms run rampant on XP like you wouldn't believe. It's gotten to the point where I won't even fix it for friends anymore. I just tell them stop using Internet Explorer and Outlook/OE.
Re:Magnusson Moss Warranty Act
on
Hack Your Car
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Courtesy the AC in case anyone missed it: "Subaru WRX STi has 300hp"
Actually it's closer to 320 but what makes it to the ground is less (yeah an AWD drivetrain is lossy). They don't sell this model in Japan, it's an American market only car, which is unusual for Subaru. The WRX STi there gets smaller displacement to fit with the World Rally rules (2.0 liters of displacement only). Ours is a 2.5 liter IIRC...and the main reason they pulled this rabbit out of the hat is to beat Mitsubishi's EVO8.
Re:Magnusson Moss Warranty Act
on
Hack Your Car
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
There's another limiting factor here along with fuel effiency. In Japan, they have some weird gentlemen's agreement among all the heavy hitters. No 300hp+ cars from the factory. Sure, you can make a 290hp twin turbo Supra, but not 300hp. There are lots of Japanese supercars that are 'underclocked' to match this wacky ideal, all it takes is a few choice parts to earn you well over 50hp.
Mitsubishi is famous for this as is Toyota (well, Toyota was. Haven't made anything good for a long time now).
No, he's talking about GTA3. If there's one thing I learned in the 2 weeks I played it using Winex, it's that if you don't drive too fast and honk, people will run or jump out of your way. Depends on what part of town you're in also. Mainly in the beginning, near the police station, they'll jump.
Why in the world would you take a graphics tablet to your grandmother's funeral? Were you going to photoshop a smile on her face or something? That's just creepy man.
There's no excuse for poor build quality with handmade cars. They're supposed to be BETTER. For example, the Acura NSX. Each and every NSX is hand built and a technician signs off on each part he works with. Every body piece is aluminum (as is the engine) and sometimes hand-filing is required for exact fitment. Every NSX is test driven at Honda's racetrack after it rolls past the last assembly station for a shakedown drive. If the driver says it's good, it ships.
All this for $80k new, very affordable and reliable used for around $30k. Sure, it's not as fast as the Ferraris, but it's an everyday, midengined, rear wheel drive supercar with comfortable seats, an a/c, power windows, etc.
I agree with Ford's styling. 'Gee boss, none of this junk is selling, what do we do?' 'Go take a look at cars that sold really well a long, long time ago. Make the new cars look just like them.' Done.
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While you're right that efficiency and productivity is increasing, with certain manufacturing techniques, it's nebulous at best to actually measure.
Technologies like flow manufacturing don't measure productivity in the classic sense. You can't say Bob built 2 more machines than yesterday, therefore he's more productive. You can, however, say Bob's line was flowing smoothly and it produced 2 more machines than yesterday. Then again without overhead (and building-to-order which is what flow is good at) productivity doesn't really matter at all. What matters is building specific units to order. If you get it right and make it on time, productivity is completely irrelevant.
Yeah sure, Japan and other asian countries *make* (as in manufacture) these high tech electronics, but who do you think develops and designs them? They do their fair share, sure, but alot of that design is American. I've got a few friends that work at prototyping factores and they mainly prototype US designs for fiber routers, etc.
Actually most of that gain is artificial and is produced as a byproduct of GM and other manufacturers spamming the market. They say 'wow production is sky high' yet the demand isn't there. Read up on the subject and you'll see what I'm talking about.
It's not the accent that throws me off, it's the "Thank you come again!" at the end of every call that freaks me out.
Nobody said a major craptacular studio release should use this model, but it's ingenious for indie films. Get alot of your money back in one fell swoop before your film languishes on the IFC. Cuban is also a minority shareholder in Lion's Gate films, which tends to take on indie projects these days.
Regardless, that wait time is what encourages borderline pirates to go ahead and download.
Firefox, in it's current incarnation, sucks. I've been using it for 2 weeks on linux and windows, and it's just not finished. Half the time the download handler doesn't give you the option to do anything with the file (ok is greyed out for some weird reason). The rest of the browser rocks and I'll be glad when it's done.
But to answer your question, I was actually going to put that in my original reply. The best way to keep crapware off of a Windows pc is to completely avoid IE and Outlook/OE. They're like the goatse man's hole, waiting for crapware to be deposited daily. So generally, after I 'fix' someone's windows pc, I install the mozilla suite and say 'welcome to your new browser and email client'. People are pretty happy once they figure out it's actually better than IE.
Exposure and advertising are all relative. You can have exposure by watching a movie at your friend's house, which happens to still be in theaters. I know many of you already do this yet it's hardly legal. Still, it's what the public wants, otherwise Kazaa and it's brethren entities wouldn't be so hot with movie traders.
Granted, there will always be that minority that will pirate regardless, and will not venture into the theater to see a movie that potentially sucks (like 90% of what comes out of Hollywood these days), but for the majority, Mark Cuban's concept is a good vision. It's a double-edged sword to create new distribution channels as well as keep piracy down.
Over the past year I've seen many independent films in local theaters (fortunately I live in Dallas, and there are plenty of independent theaters), and with no word of mouth or advertising budget, I've been exposed to some great films. I later went on to buy said films when they were released on DVD, and was able to buy them much sooner just because they were indie films. I didn't have to wait for the end-of-theater-life cycle, the end-of-marketing-dollars cycle, or any other crap. I just waited until a little after it made it's runs and then it was on DVD.
Just in case you want to watch some good movies, I recommend City of Ghosts and Identity.
That's specific to Debian then. AFAIK Suse, Redhat, Mandrake, and other big distros don't let you do this, and they actively discourage it.
No culture about distro maintainer policies.
Here in Dallas, Mark Cuban (owner of the Mavericks) is trying to shift the paradigm just a little with a new concept. He owns the Landmark chain of theaters here along with a production company. He's hoping to create some good original films in the future, and sell you a copy of that movie in DVD form as you exit the theater.
Imagine if you went and saw any movie and you could buy a pristine DVD copy the same day! The theater would be raking in the dough, popcorn and soda prices would fall, and everyone would be happy. The current dumbass Hollywood model of distribution just seeks to milk every single film for all it's worth, while ignoring the rising likelihood of piracy in the interim between the film's theatric debut and the dvd sale.
Currently Hollywood does this: make film. Release film in theaters in the US. Release film in other countries (staggered, not synchronized). Sell lots of film related crap through Taco Bell and other friendly corporate entities. Hype some more. Right about the time nobody cares, release the DVD.
Mark Cuban's way: make film. Release film in all theaters (granted it's only a local domestic chain but the model is the same). Release DVD the same day, in the theater where you just watched the movie. Watch profits roll in.
He's also considering broadcasting the movie via ppv hdtv since he owns an HDTV network here. He figures if you'll pay to see it at home, what's the difference between that and the theater. And if you really want a dvd copy of it, come get it. No waiting.
I think it's a brilliant, all-encompassing concept. If Hollywood would quit rehashing crappy old movies and milking properties for every damn nickle, piracy wouldn't be the problem it's perceived to be today.
How is it not a technical issue? On one hand you've got millions upon millions of Windows desktops with their users basically running with root privileges. On the other you have Linux boxes of all flavors and varieties, most with differing configurations for daemons, userspace privileges, etc. One OS encourages you to be root, the other discourages you.
I'll be the first to say this study has major flaws (I've seen high school projects more thorough), but the fact remains that there are an incredibly larger number of 'root' users running windows than Linux. It is still up to the distro maintainers to create a default, working security model for their distributions. This has nothing to do with culture or anything else.
Please enlighten me. What distro comes with all this stuff pre-installed and running on first boot?
:)
I don't know about the other distros, but Mandrake has discouraged telnet installs for years. If you choose to install Apache and/or FTP + mail services, you'll get warned by the installer *before you even install them*. There are no default internet services installed hands-free on Mandrake.
Maybe Redhat or others do this, but not my favorite distro.
Doesn't need to be. Can't this be set up as a cron job?
Who was it that said no box is ever really secure? I believe that. However, like you say, some OS's are inherently more secure based on models, default configurations, etc.
However, generally when Linux or BSD has a security flaw, it's announced and fixed in a timely manner. Windows isn't the same. Sometimes serious security holes are discovered, reported, then Microsoft sits on the fix. Meanwhile your server keeps getting owned and there's nothing you can do about it. Then they eventually release the fix in a massive service pack update 5 months from now.
There's only so much you can do to secure a windows server, and alot of the time you must depend on Microsoft to help you. If they don't help, you don't get the security you've paid through the nose for.
Add to this the fact that the most recent 2.4.xx series has been plagued with root exploits over the past year. 2.6.x is looking great but it's so new not too many are using it yet.
Ultimately it's the admin's job to make sure these boxen are secure. Do you really think that the MCSE A-Team at your local corporation has any idea how to secure a linux box? Doubtful. From my point of view, there aren't very many 'linux admins' administering these boxen. Basically I fully agree with you.
That would ultimately be up to the Distro maintainers/packagers. Crap like Lindows would propagate root-only desktops, but almost all other distros would not.
Security is relative, and anyone stupid enough to run as root all the time (hell even IRC programs warn you not to) deserves what they get. The fact that Windows users run with root privileges just makes it that much easier to 0wn.
You can't really directly compare a Windows desktop to a Linux desktop right now since the vast majority of Linux desktop users *do not* run as root.
IIRC, Windows XP shipped with the tftp server wide open and ready for a locomotive to be driven through it. SP1 or some other security patches finally locked this port down. I'm no windows expert but I casually follow the holes being reported on it, so what I say may not be 100% accurate, but it's close.
All in all, Windows XP, by default, is vulnerable to virii and worms. You have no idea how many people's machines I've had to fix because they are constantly getting redirects in their browser (a fake google result page even) or popups that won't go away. Spyware and worms run rampant on XP like you wouldn't believe. It's gotten to the point where I won't even fix it for friends anymore. I just tell them stop using Internet Explorer and Outlook/OE.
Courtesy the AC in case anyone missed it: "Subaru WRX STi has 300hp"
Actually it's closer to 320 but what makes it to the ground is less (yeah an AWD drivetrain is lossy). They don't sell this model in Japan, it's an American market only car, which is unusual for Subaru. The WRX STi there gets smaller displacement to fit with the World Rally rules (2.0 liters of displacement only). Ours is a 2.5 liter IIRC...and the main reason they pulled this rabbit out of the hat is to beat Mitsubishi's EVO8.
There's another limiting factor here along with fuel effiency. In Japan, they have some weird gentlemen's agreement among all the heavy hitters. No 300hp+ cars from the factory. Sure, you can make a 290hp twin turbo Supra, but not 300hp. There are lots of Japanese supercars that are 'underclocked' to match this wacky ideal, all it takes is a few choice parts to earn you well over 50hp.
Mitsubishi is famous for this as is Toyota (well, Toyota was. Haven't made anything good for a long time now).
No, he's talking about GTA3. If there's one thing I learned in the 2 weeks I played it using Winex, it's that if you don't drive too fast and honk, people will run or jump out of your way. Depends on what part of town you're in also. Mainly in the beginning, near the police station, they'll jump.
Sounds like a Steven Wright joke to me, I can just picture his deadpan delivery on something like this.
Why in the world would you take a graphics tablet to your grandmother's funeral? Were you going to photoshop a smile on her face or something? That's just creepy man.
If by detonator you mean batteries, and by bomb you mean flashlight..then yes. That's what it does.
There's no excuse for poor build quality with handmade cars. They're supposed to be BETTER. For example, the Acura NSX. Each and every NSX is hand built and a technician signs off on each part he works with. Every body piece is aluminum (as is the engine) and sometimes hand-filing is required for exact fitment. Every NSX is test driven at Honda's racetrack after it rolls past the last assembly station for a shakedown drive. If the driver says it's good, it ships.
All this for $80k new, very affordable and reliable used for around $30k. Sure, it's not as fast as the Ferraris, but it's an everyday, midengined, rear wheel drive supercar with comfortable seats, an a/c, power windows, etc.
I agree with Ford's styling. 'Gee boss, none of this junk is selling, what do we do?' 'Go take a look at cars that sold really well a long, long time ago. Make the new cars look just like them.' Done.
Man all I can say is when people call me a geek, it's almost enough to make me quit the circus. Bitin' the heads offa chickens ain't no joke.
Thanks for the update, very enlightening.
:)
I'm typing this from Konqueror in kde3.2 right now, hopefully I'll get a chance to use all the new goodies today.