I disagree, BSOD jokes are funny as long as BSOD is still relevant! Of course Win2K Server wasn't giving me a BSOD the yesterday, it would just lock up tight. Brilliant OS, that one...
If you don't like the anti-MS bias, go back to ZD with the rest of the low IQ beings!
I have had my yahoo.com e-mail address since they offered it YEARS ago. For a while I used it as a SPAM trap and just deleted the whole thing periodically. I finally decided I wanted to use it and have set up a number of filters to take out crap.
Stuff like "Casino", "Porn", "u.n.i.v" in the subject and china.com, and.br (since for some reason I've been getting hit from Brazil) in the from line all go to the Trash.
Is blocking entire domains and nations blocking out potential legit e-mail? Yep, sure is! Am I losing sleep? H3ll no! Look, I'm very sorry if you're unable to do some things on the net b/c you're domain is blacklisted, but that's just too bad. Then complain to your ISP to do something. If enough people scream to their providers to do something, the ISPs will HAVE to do something or else lose users and hence - business.
I'm not going to endure the kind of garbage I have in the past. As for legit businesses that get blacklisted, well, as the article said, it was resolved in a day...
One thing that is interesting is Yahoo!s little feature of marking a message as SPAM. Apparently, they review it and use it to update their filters. I'd be interested to know how well it works...
and write your Reps and Senators! Remember that a massive letter writing campaign kept Hollings' bill from getting out of committee. If we get going on the same response with this bill, all the better. We may help provide a backbone to our "elected officials" to stand up to the big corporate dollars.
Remember, RIAA and the rest of the Horsemen of the Apocalpse aren't going to stand by. They'll fight this thing with every dollar, lawyer and lying press release they can dream up.
This could be a HUGE momentum swing. Let's take advantage of it...
let's not forget that the vast majority of coding is for customer-specific business apps. (Source: Cathedral and the Bazzarr) The vast majority of bad code is produced by you and me. Although MS may contribute...
In the frequently encountered sw development environment good coders are typically placed into a situation where we have to cut corners to meet deadlines. A faulty design or architecture has to be forced in due to time and/or money constraints. How many people here have had to develop to poor &| missing requirements? How did those projects work out?
Another issue, IMHO, is the proliferation of "look, you don't have to think anymore" IDEs. I am currently working maintenance on an "enterprise" project (the only thing enterprise is the price tag) which was built using Java-J2EE (enterprise ready) and deployed on enterprise hardware and app/db servers. Yet our throughput is abominable and we have huge memory issues.
The people who originally wrote this mutated plague 'o the land clearly had NEVER written a Java app in their lives and were writing code more-or-less out of the book (I was hired on when we started maintenance). However, it was written using a very powerful IDE which did a lot of code generation and allowed people with below-average IQs to become Java programmers... If they had tried to write this thing using a text editor, they would have been exposed and thrown out much earlier.
The power of thought and understanding cannot be underestimated. I am leery of any tool that seperates the user from the underworkings of any system, be it OS, language, DB or other. In the end, these tools allow people who have little understanding to create something that barely works.
Just because it will 'javac' doesn't mean it works for sh!t...
Well, the sad thing is that I live downtown Denver. It's not as bad there as say - Castle Rock or Larkspur. But we've had some of the ash snow (twice actually), and a few days where I really didn't want to head to the Tech Center...
IBM may be removing active support, but if they use Linux-compatible HW &| release driver specs, that's almost as good! Isn't it?
Obviously having active support is great, but I'll take what I can get. Granted, I'm biased. I have a 570 that runs great with both Slack and Mandrake. Sound and the whole nine yards.
In this day and age of cost-cutting it really isn't a suprise. Only geeks (like those found here) are going to use *nix on a laptop anyway and most of us can handle our own installs and tweaking.
Hope I'm wrong... Either way, unless these kinds of efforts continue to grow, IBM probably made a good BUSINESS decision, even though I (we?) may not like it.
with this fellow. I think the biggest issues with wizards, gui-helpers and other demons from h3ll is that they tend to shield the user from the OS. Therefore people never really understand what is happening
In the windows world, this is most likely a positive thing (token Windows cheap shot, acutally I feel that MS doesn't want people to know so they can control compatibility, but that's another topic). But with Linux I feel it's important to have a better understanding of what goes on at the OS-level so you can
the dreaded RPM? After trying Slack, getting used to it and finally liking it (my biggest mistake was appreciating simplicity) I had to give it up. Even before I tried Slack, I was not a fan of RPM. IMHO, it's "installation through obsfucation" (which I have mightily mis-speeled).
The issue is that as a Java dork, I tend to use some IBM tools, actually I have to for this new job. I have to issue with the tools themselves, they perform a function. But they INSTALL via RPM.
Despite the fact that my Slack install had all the packages mighty IBM wanted, they were not registered via RPM, and thus were non-existant to IBM tool X,Y&Z...
So I had to re-install using Mandrake and cussing (like a sailor in a storm) removed every bloody package I could find that I didn't need/want. I like Slack best of the distros, but I really do wish there was a way to make RPM type installs be able to "see" packages (libraries, whatever) NOT installed via RPM.
If anyone knows how to do this, I'd appreciate enlightenment, until then, I'll sit here - grumpy. But I really AM a nice person after this first cup o' coffee
So what? Does your point matter? MS distributed a virus with their code! Whether or not it runs, is this indicative of their source control?
There is no way it can be stated that it's no big deal when this kind of thing happens. Period. The bottom line here is quality. If this kind of thing gets through, what else can get through? What kind of quality controls are really in place?
Whatever controls ARE in place, apparently they aren't effective or aren't being followed...
I take on that MS Office comment. There is little that I HATE more that trying to deal with an app that's thinking for me. Word and that stupid fscking talking paper clip drive me nuts. It's one thing to have functionality, it's another to have that functionality forced on you.
Example: "smart" tabbing and numbering for lists.
I know that you can turn a LOT of that stuff off, but not all of it and it's unclear how to turn it off at times.
generally OSS is of a slightly poorer quality than commercial
Yeah, maybe, but just slightly. Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, Evolution and OpenOffice are quickly closing that gap. That's all I run at home!
but doesn't this sound like another Golden Opportunity to annoy some of our elected officials? It seems like the Geek Rabble Rousing Committee was able to get enough folks to write about and eventually shelve (if only temporarily) Sen Disney's SSSCA bill.
If we start doing the same thing here, at some point, they listen. I think we take this document and use it as a battle flag. With the availability of ethanol we could solve 3 problems at once:
Address an energy problem
Help out US farmers
Take a much-deserved swipe at our Arab "Allies"
BTW, in a recent vote taken by Exxon-Mobil, there was increased support for
embracing renewable energy. Not too much support, but improving.
Then BUY a copy of the OS! Look, I'm no MS fan - PERIOD. But I don't agree with using stolen SW. If you don't like MS or their prices then use something else!
Example: My roommate and I traded a months rent for an IBM laptop with '98. XP would bring this machine to its knees. That and I'm not shelling out the $$$ to a company I find dishonest for a product I feel is inferior for the money and resources it demands. Soooo, I put Slack, Mozilla and OpenOffice on there and guess what? Except for games (which I don't really play anyway) I have a laptop that works better (IMHO) than most laptops with Windows and provides the same function!
I think people need to start "walking the walk" a little more. People bitch about MS, tout *nix, but then most use IE and Win to read/. ! I don't get it. I have to use Win2K (but installed Mozilla) at work, but other than that...
take a long hard look at some of the cool shit MS is doing.
Sorry, but I'm apparently not that smart. How is this ANY different from VNC or a remote X session? Actually is looks like it IS different. VNC and X allow multiple users, Mira allows -> 1?
"Cool sh*t"? I suppose some have a lower expectation of "cool sh*t" than others...
Part of what has made MS successful is now biting them in the butt. They tout "ease-of-use" to such a degree that people sub it for competence. People get an MCSE and suddenly they are competent? No, I don't think so.
I don't want to beat on MCSEs any more than they already get it, but MS has cultivated a large number of semi-competent admins for their systems. Therefore, when patches come up, there are a large number of people who DON'T apply the patch and may not even know they are running the service!
C'mon, Code Red is still out there! Not to say that all MCSEs are incompetent, but let's compare it to Java certification. (since I'm a Java dork)
When someone tells me they are Java certified, my eyes glaze over. It means very little (to me) and I still want to devle into their tech knowledge. But it seems like MCSE opens the door to a greater degree, and it shouldn't
I was a user of enlightenment, but isn't development nearly dead? The last major release was in Oct of 2000.
From the site, it looks like there has been more news of late. Is development kicking back up? I personally liked enlightenment although I ran it independent of Gnome. It was a bit heavy, but soooo configurable / maleable. I'm definately a fan of it from that standpoint...
Oh please... You really think that the most recent console price war would have happened without the entry of MS into the field? Seriously believe that?
Previous to this, the console makers were wary of lowering their prices in such a fashion. They were somewhat like the airlines in that they wouldn't often engage in serious price wars.
Are you people all on crack?
I worked with a guy who once said "Just because nobody agrees with me doesn't mean I'm going to give in". What a PITA. Maybe other people have a point. Maybe not, but it's probably worth considering - 'ya think?
I think Alan vastly underestimates the power of the OSS community when it comes to political issues. It would seem to me that the community is very tuned into what is going on in the tech world and is responsive when it coems to issues. The SSSCA (or whatever it is now) has been shelved and may be dead for the time being.
It's not widely publicized, but it IS happening, when lawmakers get hundreds (or more) of letters with a disticnt opinion on a topic. It puts lawmakers in the uncomfortable position of listening to voters as opposed to campaign contributors. Which is WHY it's not widely publicized - "If those darn voters start getting intersted, I'm going to have to do some real WORK, the bastards".
I think Alans comment on the EFF is off-base. The OSS community is a loose confederation of geeks ("Bazaar" in The Cathedral and the Bazaar). I don't speak for everyone, but I don't want to be associated with any one group, I enjoy the freedom and chaotic nature of OSS and the "community". Not to say I don't support some of what the EFF does, but I'll not join a group to give political power to a group when the power of the masses is of greater concern. If they have something worthwhile I want to support, I'll do it, otherwise I'll ignore it.
Doesn't this seem somewhat like an MS tactic - lowering prices beloew cost for the sole purpose of driving a competetor out of the market? Do we know if Sony or Sega are making much money from the consoles?
I don't suppose these are monopolistic practices since neither Sony nor Sega controls the gaming industry by themselves. Together they are evidently quite a force. BTW, I'm not commenting on the legality of such moves as IANAL. Although I do find it interesting when:
when these practices are used vs. MS
How seriously these companies are taking MS-entry into the gaming market
I don't know if you have ANY interest in going this route, but something that can help in config nightmare is (are you ready for this?) using Slackware. I'm not kidding. There are no wizards. You're completely in the config files. But it works in a very consistent manner and makes config from system to system much easier.
IMHO, the wizards hide what is really going on and in doing so remove the opportunity for the user to reall understand what the OS is doing. Especially when you have to learn how the wizards work from distro to distro.
For the end user, wizards are fine, but should deal with the most critical data only and not get into the minutia when possible.
One last point, I've heard people saying that one should keep biz users on Windows. I have a friend in finance (some options stuff that I don't really understand). All of the guys in his office use Sparc stations because the algorithms they run are very math intensive and Windows on Intel won't cut it. I have NO IDEA if they've tried Linux or BSD. The point is that average users ABSOLUTELY can use those "nasty, hard *nix systems". End users really aren't THAT dumb...
I'm inclined to agree here. There's even a couple responses downplaying what you posted using the same techniques you mentioned. Not that people aren't entitled to their own opinions. But it's the subtle slights against Linux that play to the MS marketing pamphlet that are the tip off.
Quite frankly, you have to give some credit to MS. They've improved their efforts on the boards. It used to be pretty easy to spot, but it's getting tougher...
Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Hold there, cowboy. Don't confuse the "Linux community" with companies who are trying to make some $$$ from Linux. Big difference.
Linux IS (in my mind) good enough to stand on its own. Have you READ any of the debates on here when versions of KDE &| Gnome are released? The Linux community is fickle and tends to hold developers very accountable.
There's constant whining and putting-down of Microsoft, yet everything that goes into KDE and Lindows tries to make Linux more Windows-like.
Whatever, I find the business practices of MS to be reprehensible. That's not whinning. If you want to be a sheep, by all means, but don't complain when others don't.
KDE and Lindows are 2 efforts to make Linux more palatable to the average user. Lindows may be Windows-like, but I think KDE is quite different. Finally, let's not forget that Windows pulled most of its ideas from Mac and (early on) OS/2.
Slashdot Mirror
If you don't like the anti-MS bias, go back to ZD with the rest of the low IQ beings!
Stuff like "Casino", "Porn", "u.n.i.v" in the subject and china.com, and .br (since for some reason I've been getting hit from Brazil) in the from line all go to the Trash.
Is blocking entire domains and nations blocking out potential legit e-mail? Yep, sure is! Am I losing sleep? H3ll no! Look, I'm very sorry if you're unable to do some things on the net b/c you're domain is blacklisted, but that's just too bad. Then complain to your ISP to do something. If enough people scream to their providers to do something, the ISPs will HAVE to do something or else lose users and hence - business.
I'm not going to endure the kind of garbage I have in the past. As for legit businesses that get blacklisted, well, as the article said, it was resolved in a day...
One thing that is interesting is Yahoo!s little feature of marking a message as SPAM. Apparently, they review it and use it to update their filters. I'd be interested to know how well it works...
Remember, RIAA and the rest of the Horsemen of the Apocalpse aren't going to stand by. They'll fight this thing with every dollar, lawyer and lying press release they can dream up.
This could be a HUGE momentum swing. Let's take advantage of it...
In the frequently encountered sw development environment good coders are typically placed into a situation where we have to cut corners to meet deadlines. A faulty design or architecture has to be forced in due to time and/or money constraints. How many people here have had to develop to poor &| missing requirements? How did those projects work out?
Another issue, IMHO, is the proliferation of "look, you don't have to think anymore" IDEs. I am currently working maintenance on an "enterprise" project (the only thing enterprise is the price tag) which was built using Java-J2EE (enterprise ready) and deployed on enterprise hardware and app/db servers. Yet our throughput is abominable and we have huge memory issues.
The people who originally wrote this mutated plague 'o the land clearly had NEVER written a Java app in their lives and were writing code more-or-less out of the book (I was hired on when we started maintenance). However, it was written using a very powerful IDE which did a lot of code generation and allowed people with below-average IQs to become Java programmers... If they had tried to write this thing using a text editor, they would have been exposed and thrown out much earlier.
The power of thought and understanding cannot be underestimated. I am leery of any tool that seperates the user from the underworkings of any system, be it OS, language, DB or other. In the end, these tools allow people who have little understanding to create something that barely works.
Just because it will 'javac' doesn't mean it works for sh!t...
Then it's getting close to what a rogue Forrest Ranger can do in Colorado!
In this day and age of cost-cutting it really isn't a suprise. Only geeks (like those found here) are going to use *nix on a laptop anyway and most of us can handle our own installs and tweaking.
The only place I can see this biting IBM in the @ss is in the case of Europe where we have France giving a major contract out to Mandrake and the stories about Linux PCs selling in Scandinavia. Even though Walmart is going to start selling Linux loaded PCs soon. Despite the Walmart decision, I don't think we'll have the same enthusiasm (as we're seeing in Europe) in the US for a while.
Hope I'm wrong... Either way, unless these kinds of efforts continue to grow, IBM probably made a good BUSINESS decision, even though I (we?) may not like it.
Thinken that skin up!
In the windows world, this is most likely a positive thing (token Windows cheap shot, acutally I feel that MS doesn't want people to know so they can control compatibility, but that's another topic). But with Linux I feel it's important to have a better understanding of what goes on at the OS-level so you can
MHO, of course
EOL
The issue is that as a Java dork, I tend to use some IBM tools, actually I have to for this new job. I have to issue with the tools themselves, they perform a function. But they INSTALL via RPM. Despite the fact that my Slack install had all the packages mighty IBM wanted, they were not registered via RPM, and thus were non-existant to IBM tool X,Y&Z...
So I had to re-install using Mandrake and cussing (like a sailor in a storm) removed every bloody package I could find that I didn't need/want. I like Slack best of the distros, but I really do wish there was a way to make RPM type installs be able to "see" packages (libraries, whatever) NOT installed via RPM.
If anyone knows how to do this, I'd appreciate enlightenment, until then, I'll sit here - grumpy. But I really AM a nice person after this first cup o' coffee
There is no way it can be stated that it's no big deal when this kind of thing happens. Period. The bottom line here is quality. If this kind of thing gets through, what else can get through? What kind of quality controls are really in place?
Whatever controls ARE in place, apparently they aren't effective or aren't being followed...
Example: "smart" tabbing and numbering for lists.
I know that you can turn a LOT of that stuff off, but not all of it and it's unclear how to turn it off at times.
generally OSS is of a slightly poorer quality than commercial
Yeah, maybe, but just slightly. Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, Evolution and OpenOffice are quickly closing that gap. That's all I run at home!If we start doing the same thing here, at some point, they listen. I think we take this document and use it as a battle flag. With the availability of ethanol we could solve 3 problems at once:
BTW, in a recent vote taken by Exxon-Mobil, there was increased support for embracing renewable energy. Not too much support, but improving.
Example: My roommate and I traded a months rent for an IBM laptop with '98. XP would bring this machine to its knees. That and I'm not shelling out the $$$ to a company I find dishonest for a product I feel is inferior for the money and resources it demands. Soooo, I put Slack, Mozilla and OpenOffice on there and guess what? Except for games (which I don't really play anyway) I have a laptop that works better (IMHO) than most laptops with Windows and provides the same function!
I think people need to start "walking the walk" a little more. People bitch about MS, tout *nix, but then most use IE and Win to read /. ! I don't get it. I have to use Win2K (but installed Mozilla) at work, but other than that...
Sorry, but I'm apparently not that smart. How is this ANY different from VNC or a remote X session? Actually is looks like it IS different. VNC and X allow multiple users, Mira allows -> 1?
"Cool sh*t"? I suppose some have a lower expectation of "cool sh*t" than others...
I don't want to beat on MCSEs any more than they already get it, but MS has cultivated a large number of semi-competent admins for their systems. Therefore, when patches come up, there are a large number of people who DON'T apply the patch and may not even know they are running the service!
C'mon, Code Red is still out there! Not to say that all MCSEs are incompetent, but let's compare it to Java certification. (since I'm a Java dork)
When someone tells me they are Java certified, my eyes glaze over. It means very little (to me) and I still want to devle into their tech knowledge. But it seems like MCSE opens the door to a greater degree, and it shouldn't
From the site, it looks like there has been more news of late. Is development kicking back up? I personally liked enlightenment although I ran it independent of Gnome. It was a bit heavy, but soooo configurable / maleable. I'm definately a fan of it from that standpoint...
Previous to this, the console makers were wary of lowering their prices in such a fashion. They were somewhat like the airlines in that they wouldn't often engage in serious price wars.
Are you people all on crack?
I worked with a guy who once said "Just because nobody agrees with me doesn't mean I'm going to give in". What a PITA. Maybe other people have a point. Maybe not, but it's probably worth considering - 'ya think?
It's not widely publicized, but it IS happening, when lawmakers get hundreds (or more) of letters with a disticnt opinion on a topic. It puts lawmakers in the uncomfortable position of listening to voters as opposed to campaign contributors. Which is WHY it's not widely publicized - "If those darn voters start getting intersted, I'm going to have to do some real WORK, the bastards".
I think Alans comment on the EFF is off-base. The OSS community is a loose confederation of geeks ("Bazaar" in The Cathedral and the Bazaar). I don't speak for everyone, but I don't want to be associated with any one group, I enjoy the freedom and chaotic nature of OSS and the "community". Not to say I don't support some of what the EFF does, but I'll not join a group to give political power to a group when the power of the masses is of greater concern. If they have something worthwhile I want to support, I'll do it, otherwise I'll ignore it.
As long as I'm discussing geeks "acting up", why don't some folks go take a whack at RIAA?
I don't suppose these are monopolistic practices since neither Sony nor Sega controls the gaming industry by themselves. Together they are evidently quite a force. BTW, I'm not commenting on the legality of such moves as IANAL. Although I do find it interesting when:
IMHO, the wizards hide what is really going on and in doing so remove the opportunity for the user to reall understand what the OS is doing. Especially when you have to learn how the wizards work from distro to distro.
For the end user, wizards are fine, but should deal with the most critical data only and not get into the minutia when possible.
One last point, I've heard people saying that one should keep biz users on Windows. I have a friend in finance (some options stuff that I don't really understand). All of the guys in his office use Sparc stations because the algorithms they run are very math intensive and Windows on Intel won't cut it. I have NO IDEA if they've tried Linux or BSD. The point is that average users ABSOLUTELY can use those "nasty, hard *nix systems". End users really aren't THAT dumb...
Quite frankly, you have to give some credit to MS. They've improved their efforts on the boards. It used to be pretty easy to spot, but it's getting tougher...
Linux IS (in my mind) good enough to stand on its own. Have you READ any of the debates on here when versions of KDE &| Gnome are released? The Linux community is fickle and tends to hold developers very accountable.
Whatever, I find the business practices of MS to be reprehensible. That's not whinning. If you want to be a sheep, by all means, but don't complain when others don't.KDE and Lindows are 2 efforts to make Linux more palatable to the average user. Lindows may be Windows-like, but I think KDE is quite different. Finally, let's not forget that Windows pulled most of its ideas from Mac and (early on) OS/2.
Sheesh, some days you just can't BUY a break...
Sorry, had to say it. ;)