I am using the same version of firefox as you - although i made a mistake the tab is called "exceptions" heres a screenshot showing what i mean.
http://www.blackapology.com/downloads/cookies.pn g
also - i have just discovered that the "blank page" scenario is possible without hackery in firefox.
open the prefs dialog (it opens in the general tab) the first option "home-page"
click "Use Blank Page" (this populates the box with about:blank) delete the text here and type the URL you wish to have as the home page... dont click anything else, just click okay. If you close firefox now and then launch again it opens with a blank page but click the home button and it goes to google (or whatever you set it too)
there have been _MORE_ vulnerabilities in Firefox than IE in the last six months!
Whether thats true or not is open but; two points -
1) firefox hasnt officially released to the public yet its close Thats what the RC1 (release candidate) every one that is using firefox right now is a potential tester/bug reporter; if you find a problem with Firefox and you are a good citizen you should let them know via the bug tracking system.
2) The fact that you are seeing all these bugs being found should inspire confidence that the firefox team and testers are doing a good job in weeding them out.
When Firefox is officially released - after the RC stage. Then you can start getting worried about people finding bugs. Its enevitable that will happen but by the looks of things they are doing a damn good job of getting them out now, so when Firefox 1.0 Final comes out you should be in good hands.
1. Can't have firefox open on a blank page and have a "home page". This is handy in mozilla as a quick way to get to your favorite site (Home Key).
urm... yes you can!
try starting firefox like this
firefox about:blank
(if you are using windows you could create a desktop shortcut)
2. Cookie control is more coarse, I like being able to say which site gets to set a cookie when visiting, the new "for session only" in Moz is great. thinkgeek.com cookie? Ok. Hitbox cookie? NO! No cookie for you! cbsnew.com? Ok, but only this time.
Urm.. yes you can - preferences -> privacy -> cookies check -accept check -ask every time (the advanced tab allows you to set preferences for individual cookie originators)
3. File bookmark is a good thing. Firefox? No.
Urm, yes (I think) i just opened an image from my hard disk then right-clicked "bookmark this page" and the bookmark was created. but you may be refering to something different here.
4. Themes, what themes? Sure, Firefox is still a moving target, this will change in time.
Theres plenty of themes! You just need to look harder
Not sure how to take your comment - but I wonder if an mp3 player like this (complete with bone conduction) could actually be made small enough to be embedded under the skin and thus be completely invisible? perhaps it could recharge by induction and be accessed (for uploading tunes etc) via bluetooth. Is this possible with todays technology?
There are very good reasons to run linux on an OSX machine.
I used to run linux on several Mac's at my old workplace.
Reason OS9 is useless for serious web development work - sorry but dreamweaver and go-live are not my bag. Its also useless as a half decent web-server platform. I could have done some of these things on OSX granted but
a) it wasnt possible to persuade the powers that be to purchase OSX (not that I even asked)
b) on older Mac's - linux just performs much faster compare the speed of YDL on a blue G3 (333mhz) to OS9 running on the same machine - the latter is like a snail in comparison.
Now dont get me wrong - OSX is great and all - Someday soon I might treat myself to a powerbook. There are things that make OSX superior to Linux eg: availability of "cool" livestyle applications iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto, iWhatever - The other attraction for me about OSX is the avalability of proper decent Music Sequencing / Composition software like Reason / Logic and Cubase. All this cools stuff and the inner peace that "it's not windows/micorosoft" and "theres a unix variant under the hood" are the reasons I find it attractive.
Linux however is still IMHO better as a server platform because it enables you to cut out all the crap that goes with the OSX gui. Its much easier to set-up , configure and run in headless operation. Its easier to patch and keep up to date. OSX can be more expensive to keep running if you manage to get yourself into the upgrade cycle.
While OSX is a very capable OS in both the server and the desktop space. And in addition it can run lots of your fave Linux apps via Fink et.al. For serious server-side development all the sexy gui stuff "Just gets in the way" whereas for Joe sixpack "It Just Works". We had am OSX server at my old place I rarely used it because it was such a pain to configure apache and friends.
IMHO Linux PPC is great on older Macs as a desktop or a server / development platform
IMHO OSX is great on shiny Mac's as a desktop and as a point'n'clicky server for less experienced staff. Its also great if you have an eye candy fetish and an open source fetish.(you can still use many of your favorite apps), but also need use some of the proprietary apps that just dont exist on Linux.
Nick...
Re:Ethical concerns not just for the religious
on
Flying By Brain
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
An interesting post - too bad we dont have more discussions like this on slashdot.
Ethical issues are certainly something to be considered - but this does not neccesarily just apply to biological neural networks. I dont see any reason why we shouldnt apply the same concerns to neural networks in software or silicon. Although instinct suggests to me that a biological network is going to be the most similar to the real thing and therefore more likely to offer closer similarities.
My personal take on conciousness is that it is an emergent behaviour. For example imagine a brain that is kept alive- but has never received any sensory input. Its fairly likely that it couldnt be concious - because conciousness requires processes based on accumulated knowledge. Whether that is learned by cause and effect - as a baby learns quickly what actions to get a feed. The more choices we have , the more knowledge we have and the more we are able use these things to effect the world around us or to enjoy the things in the world around us.
It is also important to consider more lowly lifeforms which exhibit conciousness. One of my favorite examples is the "Bower Bird". The bower bird exhibits true creativity. The male bower bird attracts females by collecting colorful petals, butterfly wings and other items. And by arranging these items in a specific way create a beautiful display. (experiments were performed whereby a scientist rearranged pieces - the birds would put them in the correct spot again) Female birds then select a prospective mate by selecting the nest it finds most appealing.
What this shows is that these birds can be considered truly creative in that they can both create a work whilst also being able to appreciate the work of others.
To me this example highlights the fact that we should not make the mistake of thinking that it is only the larger - higher level animals that exhibit a complex conciousness.
Anyone interested in these kinds of issues and discussions should look at some of the work by Daniel C Dennet
While I must admit that this is a great technique that can be employed by the various alternative browser vendors such as the firefox team to weed out problems. With its track record I find it rather dubious that the guy was unable to crash IE. Im willing to bet there are a couple of people here on Slashdot who know a few tricks that will crash IE with nothing more than a couple of lines of code. Which would enevitabley point to a flaw in his system. If anything at all this highlights IE's highly forgiving HTML parsing.
Suppose I wanted to port WiX to run and install linux applications on linux (if i felt there were good reason to do so) would the license allow me to do so? And what-if I wanted to build an application for linux that used parts of WiX code ? say the XML parsing code or something?
Could using parts of microsofts open source offerings (in some cases) act as a double whammy against possible patent suits in the future? They aint gonna sue project (X) if it means project (Y) which they quite like might be affected etc.
If projects like MySQL are making the decision to use WiX it might be nice if their products used the same installer no matter which operating system is select as the base.
Im not sure that was the right answer to his question. What he was interested in knowing was using Java (to write a program) covered because Sun paid kodak off?
Urm... What happened to the old saying "Trust is something you earn" ?
In my book money cannot buy trust. And just because somebody slaps the name "trusted computing" on a piece of silicon it does not mean that I am going to "trust" it without question- even if they are being shipped by IBM (who can do no wrong!)
I also have an issue in that who's trusting who here ? IBM ? the computer hardware ? the software ? or me?
I dont need a chip to tell me that i can trust myself, thats for sure!
64bit game? Urm correct me if i am wrong - but N64 and howabout the Atari Jaguar? werent these 64bit consoles? and jees isnt the Emotion Engine (PS2) an 128bit processor? I think we have had 64bit (and higher) games for a while. This seems to be just as far fetched as Apples "Worlds first 64bit desktop computer"
Syllable certainly looks like an interesting project but my eyes are elsewhere... for those interested in an open-source AmigaOS should look no further than www.aros.org . While at this stage its a little low on the eye candy. It has the advantage of source code level compatibility with many old amiga programs such that you might find on AmiNet - In addition there are a fair few people porting some of our favorite linux app's too. One of the nice things is the integration of UAE - meaning binary compatibility with your old amiga games/software. I cant wait to see where this project goes once they have a complete implementation- and then they can start really adding more candy and features.
Will they be releasing articles complaing that XP Starter edition PC's are also a vehicle for pirating XP (full edition?) because you can sure as hell bet that is going to happen- as soon as consumers discover that they can only run 3 applications at once, out comes bit torrent and zip goes fdisk?
Has it ever occurred to them that Windows installation figures are also over-inflated because many people buy OEM PC's pre-loaded with windows and then erase and install linux exclusively ? I know... I've got three examples of this in my house right now...
I must say i dont think I have ever heard anything more infurating than this. Of course it doesnt need to be said who funded this study..
But to say this when it is so difficult to find any high street store or OEM that will sell you a computer without Windows -- because of the penalties imposed by Redmond... Man this fires me up badly.
Is it so difficult to swallow that some people actually prefer an operating system that doesnt have all the flaws that Windows has ? Is it so bad that OEM's and other companies are starting to notice this? what next ? It really amazes me who dreams up these new and wonderful FUD stories to try and blacken Linux, whos very existance is borne from love?
The increasing trend of OEM's selling PC's with linux pre-installed is because there is a certain amout of demand for it - in the server space and increasingly as an alternative desktop for developers and in some cases just ordinary folk.
Once again this simply emphasizes how worried they are in Redmond about the linux trend that they dont seem to be able to do anything about except generate lies and FUD which is usually ill informed - made up - or just twisted statistics. If these people are failing to see the merits of Linux and the community of people behind it creating software- well then there is no hope for Windows getting any better.
dont mean to be picky.. but I dont think I have ever seen windows do a seg fault. BSOD et al maybe - but never a seg fault (unless maybe this can happen under cygwin)
There are a couple of posters who have said this is a silly idea or its should be up to Sony to ensure enough battery life is available for its gear.
Well I think that you havent really got the gist of what Sony are saying. Sony can make the battery for the PSP as good as is possible (within the confines of cost and technology) for the PSP but if the thing is running say "Tetris" is going to use a hell of a lot less power than if it is running "Doom III". This thing aint a gameboy its basically a PS2 running off a lithium battery-powering a pretty damn big screen and some pretty powerful hardware.... just how long do you expect the battery to last on this thing?
Encouraging game developers to be careful about use of processing power and other parts of the hardware (eg optical drive motors/screen's/speakers) etc. Makes sense!
The more powerful these handhelds/portables get the more conservative use of hardware and resources is going to be an issue.
EG: imaging a game that streams shed loads of fmv off the optical drive... maybe there is a better way of acheiving this than having that drive constantly spinning. Howabout the use of audio etc ? having it constantly playing through the game? even on the title screens etc. There are lots and lots of legitimate reasons for Sony to encourage efficient use of hardware- I applaud them for that. It is Sony's job to ensure that the games that come out for the PSP are every bit as well engineered as the console itself. Cut them some slack 'cus they are only doing what is neccesary...
I'd have to disagree just a little bit;) Actually Bill Gates or Microsoft as a company are being influenced in big ways by people with much less money.
Think about how Open Source and Linux has changed the way Microsoft conducts its business. Would things like XP starter edition or "shared source" or even "trusted computing" be on the agenda if it wasnt for FOSS/Linux ethics and its proliferation ? Howabout all those virus writers exploiting the flaws and bugs in the operating system. These people are influencing IT in very big ways by putting security , openness and many of the issues we read about here every day on slashdot.
The only thing money allows you is purchasing power- the power to buy the little guy's technology or money to brute force competitors out of the marketplace.
I am not saying Bill G and his company are not influential because they are- only his influence is mainly concerned with twisting the arms of hardware manufacturers and using money and FUD to propogate his own monopoly, rather than being progenitors of new technology.
Slashdot Mirror
I am using the same version of firefox as you - although i made a mistake the tab is called "exceptions" heres a screenshot showing what i mean.
n g
...
http://www.blackapology.com/downloads/cookies.p
also - i have just discovered that the "blank page" scenario is possible without hackery in firefox.
open the prefs dialog (it opens in the general tab) the first option "home-page"
click "Use Blank Page" (this populates the box with about:blank)
delete the text here and type the URL you wish to have as the home page... dont click anything else, just click okay. If you close firefox now and then launch again it opens with a blank page but click the home button and it goes to google (or whatever you set it too)
Nick
there have been _MORE_ vulnerabilities in Firefox than IE in the last six months!
...
Whether thats true or not is open but; two points -
1) firefox hasnt officially released to the public yet its close Thats what the RC1 (release candidate) every one that is using firefox right now is a potential tester/bug reporter; if you find a problem with Firefox and you are a good citizen you should let them know via the bug tracking system.
2) The fact that you are seeing all these bugs being found should inspire confidence that the firefox team and testers are doing a good job in weeding them out.
When Firefox is officially released - after the RC stage. Then you can start getting worried about people finding bugs. Its enevitable that will happen but by the looks of things they are doing a damn good job of getting them out now, so when Firefox 1.0 Final comes out you should be in good hands.
Nick
1. Can't have firefox open on a blank page and have a "home page". This is handy in mozilla as a quick way to get to your favorite site (Home Key).
... yes you can!
.. yes you can - preferences -> privacy -> cookies check -accept check -ask every time
urm
try starting firefox like this
firefox about:blank
(if you are using windows you could create a desktop shortcut)
2. Cookie control is more coarse, I like being able to say which site gets to set a cookie when visiting, the new "for session only" in Moz is great. thinkgeek.com cookie? Ok. Hitbox cookie? NO! No cookie for you! cbsnew.com? Ok, but only this time.
Urm
(the advanced tab allows you to set preferences for individual cookie originators)
3. File bookmark is a good thing. Firefox? No.
Urm, yes (I think) i just opened an image from my hard disk then right-clicked "bookmark this page" and the bookmark was created. but you may be refering to something different here.
4. Themes, what themes? Sure, Firefox is still a moving target, this will change in time.
Theres plenty of themes! You just need to look harder
Not sure how to take your comment - but I wonder if an mp3 player like this (complete with bone conduction) could actually be made small enough to be embedded under the skin and thus be completely invisible? perhaps it could recharge by induction and be accessed (for uploading tunes etc) via bluetooth. Is this possible with todays technology?
...
Nick
I hope that this comes into fruition- Hopefully that will mean our tax payers money can be channeled into other things instead of micosoft fees.
anyone care to explain in reasonable level terms what having runtime level C++ support in the linus kernel actually means?
Whats the issue ?
nick...
It took me all of two seconds to view the site from the UK.
...
http://www.georgewbush.com.nyud.net:8090/
nick
This is somewhat of a stock remark.
...
There are very good reasons to run linux on an OSX machine.
I used to run linux on several Mac's at my old workplace.
Reason OS9 is useless for serious web development work - sorry but dreamweaver and go-live are not my bag. Its also useless as a half decent web-server platform. I could have done some of these things on OSX granted but
a) it wasnt possible to persuade the powers that be to purchase OSX (not that I even asked)
b) on older Mac's - linux just performs much faster compare the speed of YDL on a blue G3 (333mhz) to OS9 running on the same machine - the latter is like a snail in comparison.
Now dont get me wrong - OSX is great and all - Someday soon I might treat myself to a powerbook.
There are things that make OSX superior to Linux eg:
availability of "cool" livestyle applications iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto, iWhatever - The other attraction for me about OSX is the avalability of proper decent Music Sequencing / Composition software like Reason / Logic and Cubase. All this cools stuff and the inner peace that "it's not windows/micorosoft" and "theres a unix variant under the hood" are the reasons I find it attractive.
Linux however is still IMHO better as a server platform because it enables you to cut out all the crap that goes with the OSX gui. Its much easier to set-up , configure and run in headless operation. Its easier to patch and keep up to date. OSX can be more expensive to keep running if you manage to get yourself into the upgrade cycle.
While OSX is a very capable OS in both the server and the desktop space. And in addition it can run lots of your fave Linux apps via Fink et.al. For serious server-side development all the sexy gui stuff "Just gets in the way" whereas for Joe sixpack "It Just Works". We had am OSX server at my old place I rarely used it because it was such a pain to configure apache and friends.
IMHO Linux PPC
is great on older Macs as a desktop or a server / development platform
IMHO OSX
is great on shiny Mac's as a desktop and as a point'n'clicky server for less experienced staff.
Its also great if you have an eye candy fetish and an open source fetish.(you can still use many of your favorite apps), but also need use some of the proprietary apps that just dont exist on Linux.
Nick
An interesting post - too bad we dont have more discussions like this on slashdot.
Ethical issues are certainly something to be considered - but this does not neccesarily just apply to biological neural networks. I dont see any reason why we shouldnt apply the same concerns to neural networks in software or silicon. Although instinct suggests to me that a biological network is going to be the most similar to the real thing and therefore more likely to offer closer similarities.
My personal take on conciousness is that it is an emergent behaviour. For example imagine a brain that is kept alive- but has never received any sensory input. Its fairly likely that it couldnt be concious - because conciousness requires processes based on accumulated knowledge. Whether that is learned by cause and effect - as a baby learns quickly what actions to get a feed. The more choices we have , the more knowledge we have and the more we are able use these things to effect the world around us or to enjoy the things in the world around us.
It is also important to consider more lowly lifeforms which exhibit conciousness. One of my favorite examples is the "Bower Bird". The bower bird exhibits true creativity. The male bower bird attracts females by collecting colorful petals, butterfly wings and other items. And by arranging these items in a specific way create a beautiful display. (experiments were performed whereby a scientist rearranged pieces - the birds would put them in the correct spot again)
Female birds then select a prospective mate by selecting the nest it finds most appealing.
What this shows is that these birds can be considered truly creative in that they can both create a work whilst also being able to appreciate the work of others.
To me this example highlights the fact that we should not make the mistake of thinking that it is only the larger - higher level animals that exhibit a complex conciousness.
Anyone interested in these kinds of issues and discussions should look at some of the work by Daniel C Dennet
http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/biblio.htm
In particular his book
"Conciousness Explained"
Nick...
While I must admit that this is a great technique that can be employed by the various alternative browser vendors such as the firefox team to weed out problems. With its track record I find it rather dubious that the guy was unable to crash IE. Im willing to bet there are a couple of people here on Slashdot who know a few tricks that will crash IE with nothing more than a couple of lines of code. Which would enevitabley point to a flaw in his system. If anything at all this highlights IE's highly forgiving HTML parsing.
So basically its fairly useless on its own then. Bit of a con really.
Nick...
this seems to be related and has pictures and better info - just look at the size of those footprints?
http://karlammann.com/bondo.html
Bigfoot ?
Nick...
Suppose I wanted to port WiX to run and install linux applications on linux (if i felt there were good reason to do so) would the license allow me to do so? And what-if I wanted to build an application for linux that used parts of WiX code ? say the XML parsing code or something?
Could using parts of microsofts open source offerings (in some cases) act as a double whammy against possible patent suits in the future? They aint gonna sue project (X) if it means project (Y) which they quite like might be affected etc.
If projects like MySQL are making the decision to use WiX it might be nice if their products used the same installer no matter which operating system is select as the base.
Nick
Im not sure that was the right answer to his question. What he was interested in knowing was using Java (to write a program) covered because Sun paid kodak off?
Urm ... What happened to the old saying "Trust is something you earn" ?
In my book money cannot buy trust. And just because somebody slaps the name "trusted computing" on a piece of silicon it does not mean that I am going to "trust" it without question- even if they are being shipped by IBM (who can do no wrong!)
I also have an issue in that who's trusting who here ? IBM ? the computer hardware ? the software ? or me?
I dont need a chip to tell me that i can trust myself, thats for sure!
Nick
64bit game?
...
Urm correct me if i am wrong - but N64 and howabout the Atari Jaguar? werent these 64bit consoles? and jees isnt the Emotion Engine (PS2) an 128bit processor? I think we have had 64bit (and higher) games for a while. This seems to be just as far fetched as Apples "Worlds first 64bit desktop computer"
Nick
Syllable certainly looks like an interesting project but my eyes are elsewhere ... for those interested in an open-source AmigaOS should look no further than www.aros.org . While at this stage its a little low on the eye candy. It has the advantage of source code level compatibility with many old amiga programs such that you might find on AmiNet - In addition there are a fair few people porting some of our favorite linux app's too. One of the nice things is the integration of UAE - meaning binary compatibility with your old amiga games/software. I cant wait to see where this project goes once they have a complete implementation- and then they can start really adding more candy and features.
...
Nick
What are you going to do to stop large scale abuse of the patents system - particularly with regard to software.
Will they be releasing articles complaing that XP Starter edition PC's are also a vehicle for pirating XP (full edition?) because you can sure as hell bet that is going to happen- as soon as consumers discover that they can only run 3 applications at once, out comes bit torrent and zip goes fdisk?
... I've got three examples of this in my house right now...
Has it ever occurred to them that Windows installation figures are also over-inflated because many people buy OEM PC's pre-loaded with windows and then erase and install linux exclusively ? I know
I must say i dont think I have ever heard anything more infurating than this. Of course it doesnt need to be said who funded this study..
But to say this when it is so difficult to find any high street store or OEM that will sell you a computer without Windows -- because of the penalties imposed by Redmond... Man this fires me up badly.
Is it so difficult to swallow that some people actually prefer an operating system that doesnt have all the flaws that Windows has ? Is it so bad that OEM's and other companies are starting to notice this? what next ? It really amazes me who dreams up these new and wonderful FUD stories to try and blacken Linux, whos very existance is borne from love?
The increasing trend of OEM's selling PC's with linux pre-installed is because there is a certain amout of demand for it - in the server space and increasingly as an alternative desktop for developers and in some cases just ordinary folk.
Once again this simply emphasizes how worried they are in Redmond about the linux trend that they dont seem to be able to do anything about except generate lies and FUD which is usually ill informed - made up - or just twisted statistics. If these people are failing to see the merits of Linux and the community of people behind it creating software- well then there is no hope for Windows getting any better.
segmentation faults
.. but I dont think I have ever seen windows do a seg fault. BSOD et al maybe - but never a seg fault (unless maybe this can happen under cygwin)
dont mean to be picky
Nick
I only have one freind and he has a girlfriend (he's not a geek) so im pretty screwed right? Might as well kill myself now eh?
For a moment I thought the navy had their own executable and linking format. Must be too early in the morning for me !
There are a couple of posters who have said this is a silly idea or its should be up to Sony to ensure enough battery life is available for its gear.
Well I think that you havent really got the gist of what Sony are saying. Sony can make the battery for the PSP as good as is possible (within the confines of cost and technology) for the PSP but if the thing is running say "Tetris" is going to use a hell of a lot less power than if it is running "Doom III". This thing aint a gameboy its basically a PS2 running off a lithium battery-powering a pretty damn big screen and some pretty powerful hardware.... just how long do you expect the battery to last on this thing?
Encouraging game developers to be careful about use of processing power and other parts of the hardware (eg optical drive motors/screen's/speakers) etc. Makes sense!
The more powerful these handhelds/portables get the more conservative use of hardware and resources is going to be an issue.
EG: imaging a game that streams shed loads of fmv off the optical drive... maybe there is a better way of acheiving this than having that drive constantly spinning. Howabout the use of audio etc ? having it constantly playing through the game? even on the title screens etc. There are lots and lots of legitimate reasons for Sony to encourage efficient use of hardware- I applaud them for that. It is Sony's job to ensure that the games that come out for the PSP are every bit as well engineered as the console itself. Cut them some slack 'cus they are only doing what is neccesary...
Nick
I'd have to disagree just a little bit ;)
...
Actually Bill Gates or Microsoft as a company are being influenced in big ways by people with much less money.
Think about how Open Source and Linux has changed the way Microsoft conducts its business. Would things like XP starter edition or "shared source" or even "trusted computing" be on the agenda if it wasnt for FOSS/Linux ethics and its proliferation ? Howabout all those virus writers exploiting the flaws and bugs in the operating system. These people are influencing IT in very big ways by putting security , openness and many of the issues we read about here every day on slashdot.
The only thing money allows you is purchasing power- the power to buy the little guy's technology or money to brute force competitors out of the marketplace.
I am not saying Bill G and his company are not influential because they are- only his influence is mainly concerned with twisting the arms of hardware manufacturers and using money and FUD to propogate his own monopoly, rather than being progenitors of new technology.
Nick