There is a legal precedent for the expectation of privacy over the phone. Your net traffic bounces off of a dozen routers before hitting the target host.
There is no legal precedent that says cleartext net traffic has an expectation of privacy. Especially, since, unlike phones, publicly available encryption software/tools can enable you to have privacy. That people *choose* not to use them is their fault, which is a good reason why people should really understand the basics of computing/networking before getting on the net.
For me, if an email is private I use TLS (when sending within the company) and GPG externally. I don't send private emails as cleartext. As for the links, aside from a lot of porn, I don't view anything that isn't work safe. I have nothing to hide.
If you don't want to be part of a query database, don't use the service, or use the service through a proxy.
I'd pay money to play the original Command and Conquer [sans cutscene movies] on the DS. Bonus points for half intelligent but not super tough A.I. and hell maybe a random map generator.
Also the original Warcraft (with some unit limits lifted) would be fun too.
It seems at least once a day there is an article about this or that not working in Vista. Sure a lot of it is just bullshit postering. But a lot of the complaints are legit. Licensing problems, requirement for resource hogging addons, etc.
It's just funny what people put up with to have an "easy time" with their computer.
To me the computer is a tool, it allows me to develop software, browse the web, watch tv, play games. I've found that I can do this all with Gentoo. Sure I can't play the latest FPS, but if I wanted a PC to play FPSes I'd buy a console. Oh wait, I did. It seems people are willing to go to ridiculous lengths to play games. Get a fucking gameboy, or better yet, go out and have fun.
Sure, I gotta pay redmond cash money, run three different "anti-bad" scanners, buy approved hardware, and upgrade my box every 6 months, but look, I came play Doom 7 with the medium resolution settings!!!!!!!!
State run means you pay more tax to have them produce comedies, drama, docus, and news.
We have that [partially] in Canada through the CBC and various "arts" grants. But that said, CBC still largely fails to really hit it home with most Canadians [outside of the comedies and the news]. To add insult to injury, they run ads on the CBC. So we pay for it through taxes, and through ads. At least the BBC runs no ads.
Keyboard not working? Sounds really suspicious. Linux has supported both PS/2 style and USB HID keyboards for a long time now. USB support isn't always 100% on newer boards [e.g. bleeding edge] depending on the chipset. But out of all the boxes I've built with Asus and Gigabyte mobo's they have all worked out of the box.
Eitherway, whatever. You're clearly happy not trying anything new and want to stick to the proprietary route, which is your choice. Try not to rag on the rest of us successful OSS folk though ok?
The problem with that is most shows on CBC (equiv idea of BBC in Canada) sucks bad. Aside from a few comedies that is. So it wouldn't be a fair trade:-)
Though yeah I agree, some sort of "cultural" exchange could benefit all. Try spinning that idea in the US or Canada though... State run TV? sounds like a communist!!! ACK EVIL!:-(
Classic argument, and one on the long list of reasons that Linux zealots give to wave away complaints - you didn't try hard enough.
Maybe that's because so many of us have been using distros for years now? I refuse to believe that on a competently built desktop you can't get any distro of Linux or BSD to work. Sure there are some OEM desktops and laptops where things aren't so smooth, but that's why you don't buy Omar's back-o-truck special. Dell laptops seem to be fairly smooth with Linux, and most beige box desktops work out of the box.
When people turn around and flat out say "Linux doesn't work" I have to question how much effort they put into it. And even in the event you tried, chances are it's because you have some OEM box with non-standard hardware [e.g. winmodem, custom sound, etc]. Solution is to stop buying sub-standard hardware.
Even if you choose to run Windows, you shouldn't lock yourself into platform specific hardware. It just feeds the cycle and makes it more profitable to do the wrong thing.
BBC resells the programming to other countries. Like I get BBC World here in Canada (and BBC-K on one of them digital channels). I'm sure my they make money off that. While BBC is paid for by the tax, it's supplemented by the resell royalties.
I should add that I hate BBC World taunts of Top Gear "Not Available In North America" bullshit. hehehehe. Though it is nice to get sports/news from a diff part of the world.
As much as I hate AOL, I hate misleading summaries too. Search queries ARE NOT PRIVATE. AOL leaking it [or just giving it out] shouldn't be viewed as negative. There is no https://www.google.com/ (it redirects to the http version). No security, no privacy.
Well first off I question your experience with the modern distros. Millions of other people have sorted out this "Linux thing" it could entirely be that at the first sign of trouble you tucked tail and ran. Which is odd given the troubles that Windows causes on a regular basis.
The point isn't that you should only run OSS, it's that you should have a *CHOICE* to run OSS. By buying hardware from vendors who don't care about your freedoms, you are denying yourself the choice. And btw, my nvidia card works just fine in Linux. Sure the drivers aren't OSS, but I picked nvidia because they decided it was a good idea to support BSD/Linux users. I could have got a comparable ATI card, but I *chose* to have freedoms.
Vista is all about control, signed drivers, DRM loops in the media filters, etc, etc. Sure your latest game may [or given what I heard, may not] work in Vista, but you pay the price in vendor lockin. Now you can only get hardware from select vendors, who given the reduced market don't have to compete as much. Your fair use rights? out the window.
Look at MacOSX as an instance of vendor-lockin. Suppose the OS was really fine and dandy. You can only get it for Apple hardware. That means if you want to run the OS you have to buy a [usually] overpriced addon to go with it in the form of a laptop or desktop from Apple. Microsoft is heading down that path with signed drivers and the other restrictions. Give it time, in 5 years or so we'll see a diminishing list of "approved" hardware. Eventually your VistaXP++ Pro computer will come from one supplier, cost twice as much and allow you none of the freedoms you currently have with an OSS OS (or even XP to a certain extent).
I find it really odd that as someone who claims to have "chosen" Windows, you don't actually care about your freedoms.
Your devices don't work in free OS'es because you buy hardware from people who don't care about their customers. If they did, you'd have standardized interfaces, or at least, documented interfaces.
Truth is, you own gear made by people who just wanted your money, they don't care about providing an actual benefit to the customer. And by being scrupulous and malicious [they] have locked you into a single platform. They have taken your choice away, but that's ok, you don't care. Choice is bad, so long as your video games work. I just hope you enjoy paying for MSFT in every way they can manage.
There are two sorts of folk [mostly]. Those who will, at some point, try a Linux or BSD distro, realize it's just plain better, make the move. And those who won't even try one [or make an effort to try one] and be firm in their believe that their proprietary OS [be it windows, mac OSX or whatever] is just the only way to go.
XP because a success because it was the current version of windows. Kid yourself not, Vista will be a "hit" too. Just give enough time for XP to become useless [re: lack of new drivers] and folk will see the light of how superior [re: locked in] Vista is. Barring MSFT going under, Vista will be as popular if not more than XP in 2-3 years. Not because it's actually better but because people are too weak to say no to their corporate masters, go without the latest game for a year or two [*] and make a stand.
Good for them though. So long as my Linux distro is working I don't care what they do.
[*] Cuz if people left windows, games would follow. It's just plain business.
I'm not saying that they are going out of their way to support it, I'm saying their going out of their way not to stop it, or at least not as much so as the others.
Sites like gbadev.org and drunkencoders.com have been around FOR YEARS distributing development kits, interal specs and APIs and the like...
Had MSFT or Sony been at the helm sites like gbadev.org would be sued out of existence.
Should point out they fix a lot of bugs reported externally. But obviously my comment meant for those who don't supply linux distros, like Broadcom, Atmel, and the like.
You sir are why I disapprove of unlicensed breeding.
Snags could include things like "driver not working" to "driver not present/existing", etc. Snag doesn't mean "Linus is a shit head, fucked up the kernel and now I gotsta fix it." Snag just means something that isn't working yet.
If you look at a lot of non-distro patches, they're from people who ran into some problem or another.
Often it's not that the employers dedicate staff to work on the kernel. It's that they hit a snag and contribute the time so they can go about using the kernel.
They have to *look* like it's secure platform or the studios wouldn't make games for it.
Though, even though I have DS and GBA kits the only thing I "pirate" are NES games. I pay for my GBA/DS games since they're still on the market (yeah weak justification, but at least nobody is getting hurt).
That the DS/GBA are fun to play, and hackable though is nice all around. And judging by the amount of leaked internal details, and the lack of lawsuits, I'd say Nintendo is doing all they can, as a corporation to allow/permit/promote it to happen.
This is what happens when you're no longer in the business of solving problems.
They [they being all sorts of people not just msft] often use the term "solution" when they really mean "product." I question what problems they think they're actually SOLVING with their "solutions."
I think both companies lost a firm grip on reality when they think that a web-based office suite makes more sense than say Office or OpenOffice. Sure there will be a good initial blast of popularity, but unless people like lag and absolutely no privacy, I can't see web-based "solutions" taking off.
Slashdot Mirror
It's where I put my users home directories :-)
OH GOD, WHY DO I KEEP GETTING ROOTED?
hehehehe.
It's for text configuration data, gets horribly abused though. And Linux/BSD folk have different ideas of what goes there from what I recall.
Tom
There is a legal precedent for the expectation of privacy over the phone. Your net traffic bounces off of a dozen routers before hitting the target host.
There is no legal precedent that says cleartext net traffic has an expectation of privacy. Especially, since, unlike phones, publicly available encryption software/tools can enable you to have privacy. That people *choose* not to use them is their fault, which is a good reason why people should really understand the basics of computing/networking before getting on the net.
For me, if an email is private I use TLS (when sending within the company) and GPG externally. I don't send private emails as cleartext. As for the links, aside from a lot of porn, I don't view anything that isn't work safe. I have nothing to hide.
If you don't want to be part of a query database, don't use the service, or use the service through a proxy.
Tom
I'd pay money to play the original Command and Conquer [sans cutscene movies] on the DS. Bonus points for half intelligent but not super tough A.I. and hell maybe a random map generator.
Also the original Warcraft (with some unit limits lifted) would be fun too.
Tom
It seems at least once a day there is an article about this or that not working in Vista. Sure a lot of it is just bullshit postering. But a lot of the complaints are legit. Licensing problems, requirement for resource hogging addons, etc.
It's just funny what people put up with to have an "easy time" with their computer.
To me the computer is a tool, it allows me to develop software, browse the web, watch tv, play games. I've found that I can do this all with Gentoo. Sure I can't play the latest FPS, but if I wanted a PC to play FPSes I'd buy a console. Oh wait, I did. It seems people are willing to go to ridiculous lengths to play games. Get a fucking gameboy, or better yet, go out and have fun.
Sure, I gotta pay redmond cash money, run three different "anti-bad" scanners, buy approved hardware, and upgrade my box every 6 months, but look, I came play Doom 7 with the medium resolution settings!!!!!!!!
Tom
Isn't it obvious? I ported Windows to Linux. :-)
And technically you can use iptables "with" a windows system. It's called running your NAT router on a Linux box. *rolls eyes*
Tom
Point taken, except the DISTRO is a collection of various OSS licensed gear.
:-)
I wouldn't dare contribute to the kernel, I'm only a lowly software developer with 7 years experience and my beard-fu is weak.
Someday I hope to develop even weaker social skills, a long beard and the aptitude to wear a kilt. Then I can be a kernel developer.
Tom
Can't find any of their products on my workstation. Haven't seen this "norton" people keep talking about.
Decided iptables was more effective than zonealarm [more configurable] too.
Wow, I must be one of those Linux hippies...
Tom
public access != state run.
State run means you pay more tax to have them produce comedies, drama, docus, and news.
We have that [partially] in Canada through the CBC and various "arts" grants. But that said, CBC still largely fails to really hit it home with most Canadians [outside of the comedies and the news]. To add insult to injury, they run ads on the CBC. So we pay for it through taxes, and through ads. At least the BBC runs no ads.
Sure ok. Good for you.
Keyboard not working? Sounds really suspicious. Linux has supported both PS/2 style and USB HID keyboards for a long time now. USB support isn't always 100% on newer boards [e.g. bleeding edge] depending on the chipset. But out of all the boxes I've built with Asus and Gigabyte mobo's they have all worked out of the box.
Eitherway, whatever. You're clearly happy not trying anything new and want to stick to the proprietary route, which is your choice. Try not to rag on the rest of us successful OSS folk though ok?
Tom
The problem with that is most shows on CBC (equiv idea of BBC in Canada) sucks bad. Aside from a few comedies that is. So it wouldn't be a fair trade :-)
:-(
Though yeah I agree, some sort of "cultural" exchange could benefit all. Try spinning that idea in the US or Canada though... State run TV? sounds like a communist!!! ACK EVIL!
Tom
Lots of botnets run on windows ... I wonder if they could be commanded to scan for license keys.
Tom
Classic argument, and one on the long list of reasons that Linux zealots give to wave away complaints - you didn't try hard enough.
Maybe that's because so many of us have been using distros for years now? I refuse to believe that on a competently built desktop you can't get any distro of Linux or BSD to work. Sure there are some OEM desktops and laptops where things aren't so smooth, but that's why you don't buy Omar's back-o-truck special. Dell laptops seem to be fairly smooth with Linux, and most beige box desktops work out of the box.
When people turn around and flat out say "Linux doesn't work" I have to question how much effort they put into it. And even in the event you tried, chances are it's because you have some OEM box with non-standard hardware [e.g. winmodem, custom sound, etc]. Solution is to stop buying sub-standard hardware.
Even if you choose to run Windows, you shouldn't lock yourself into platform specific hardware. It just feeds the cycle and makes it more profitable to do the wrong thing.
Tom
BBC resells the programming to other countries. Like I get BBC World here in Canada (and BBC-K on one of them digital channels). I'm sure my they make money off that. While BBC is paid for by the tax, it's supplemented by the resell royalties.
I should add that I hate BBC World taunts of Top Gear "Not Available In North America" bullshit. hehehehe. Though it is nice to get sports/news from a diff part of the world.
Tom
As much as I hate AOL, I hate misleading summaries too. Search queries ARE NOT PRIVATE. AOL leaking it [or just giving it out] shouldn't be viewed as negative. There is no https://www.google.com/ (it redirects to the http version). No security, no privacy.
Tom
Well first off I question your experience with the modern distros. Millions of other people have sorted out this "Linux thing" it could entirely be that at the first sign of trouble you tucked tail and ran. Which is odd given the troubles that Windows causes on a regular basis.
The point isn't that you should only run OSS, it's that you should have a *CHOICE* to run OSS. By buying hardware from vendors who don't care about your freedoms, you are denying yourself the choice. And btw, my nvidia card works just fine in Linux. Sure the drivers aren't OSS, but I picked nvidia because they decided it was a good idea to support BSD/Linux users. I could have got a comparable ATI card, but I *chose* to have freedoms.
Vista is all about control, signed drivers, DRM loops in the media filters, etc, etc. Sure your latest game may [or given what I heard, may not] work in Vista, but you pay the price in vendor lockin. Now you can only get hardware from select vendors, who given the reduced market don't have to compete as much. Your fair use rights? out the window.
Look at MacOSX as an instance of vendor-lockin. Suppose the OS was really fine and dandy. You can only get it for Apple hardware. That means if you want to run the OS you have to buy a [usually] overpriced addon to go with it in the form of a laptop or desktop from Apple. Microsoft is heading down that path with signed drivers and the other restrictions. Give it time, in 5 years or so we'll see a diminishing list of "approved" hardware. Eventually your VistaXP++ Pro computer will come from one supplier, cost twice as much and allow you none of the freedoms you currently have with an OSS OS (or even XP to a certain extent).
I find it really odd that as someone who claims to have "chosen" Windows, you don't actually care about your freedoms.
Tom
Your devices don't work in free OS'es because you buy hardware from people who don't care about their customers. If they did, you'd have standardized interfaces, or at least, documented interfaces.
:-)
Truth is, you own gear made by people who just wanted your money, they don't care about providing an actual benefit to the customer. And by being scrupulous and malicious [they] have locked you into a single platform. They have taken your choice away, but that's ok, you don't care. Choice is bad, so long as your video games work. I just hope you enjoy paying for MSFT in every way they can manage.
And yea, my grammor is badly.
Tom
There are two sorts of folk [mostly]. Those who will, at some point, try a Linux or BSD distro, realize it's just plain better, make the move. And those who won't even try one [or make an effort to try one] and be firm in their believe that their proprietary OS [be it windows, mac OSX or whatever] is just the only way to go.
XP because a success because it was the current version of windows. Kid yourself not, Vista will be a "hit" too. Just give enough time for XP to become useless [re: lack of new drivers] and folk will see the light of how superior [re: locked in] Vista is. Barring MSFT going under, Vista will be as popular if not more than XP in 2-3 years. Not because it's actually better but because people are too weak to say no to their corporate masters, go without the latest game for a year or two [*] and make a stand.
Good for them though. So long as my Linux distro is working I don't care what they do.
[*] Cuz if people left windows, games would follow. It's just plain business.
Tom
I'm not saying that they are going out of their way to support it, I'm saying their going out of their way not to stop it, or at least not as much so as the others.
Sites like gbadev.org and drunkencoders.com have been around FOR YEARS distributing development kits, interal specs and APIs and the like...
Had MSFT or Sony been at the helm sites like gbadev.org would be sued out of existence.
Tom
Should point out they fix a lot of bugs reported externally. But obviously my comment meant for those who don't supply linux distros, like Broadcom, Atmel, and the like.
Tom
You sir are why I disapprove of unlicensed breeding.
Snags could include things like "driver not working" to "driver not present/existing", etc. Snag doesn't mean "Linus is a shit head, fucked up the kernel and now I gotsta fix it." Snag just means something that isn't working yet.
If you look at a lot of non-distro patches, they're from people who ran into some problem or another.
Tom
Often it's not that the employers dedicate staff to work on the kernel. It's that they hit a snag and contribute the time so they can go about using the kernel.
Tom
They have to *look* like it's secure platform or the studios wouldn't make games for it.
Though, even though I have DS and GBA kits the only thing I "pirate" are NES games. I pay for my GBA/DS games since they're still on the market (yeah weak justification, but at least nobody is getting hurt).
That the DS/GBA are fun to play, and hackable though is nice all around. And judging by the amount of leaked internal details, and the lack of lawsuits, I'd say Nintendo is doing all they can, as a corporation to allow/permit/promote it to happen.
Tom
What else are you doing that crafting professional documents is a waste of time? Honestly, sometimes I think people forget the nature of existence.
Pshaw, I can't possibly make a proper looking document, I'm just soooo busy with my social life. Lah-di-fucking-di-da-doo.
Tom
latex + CVS + input files == multi-user editing of a single document. :-)
And it will look better to boot.
FLAME ON!
This is what happens when you're no longer in the business of solving problems.
They [they being all sorts of people not just msft] often use the term "solution" when they really mean "product." I question what problems they think they're actually SOLVING with their "solutions."
I think both companies lost a firm grip on reality when they think that a web-based office suite makes more sense than say Office or OpenOffice. Sure there will be a good initial blast of popularity, but unless people like lag and absolutely no privacy, I can't see web-based "solutions" taking off.
Tom