While I've used both vi and emacs, I tend to prefer vim. (Note: if I was stuck with just vi and not the extended features of vi, I would probably use emacs)
However, for those of you more comfortable with emacs, you should check out aquamacs. It's got some nice features specific to OS X.
Also, I don't really want to start a flame war, just point out the aquamacs link for those looking for a nicer emacs experience on OS X.
It's actually very easy, especially if you are the owner of the box to run a dictionary scan against the passwd file. (Or hopefully the shadow passwd file) There is a program that has been around forever called Jack the Ripper that will scan your password file looking for weak passwords. Some places routinely scan their systems with this tool and then email or deactivate any users with weak passwords.
It's really not that hard or time consuming. Now it would take quite a long time to figure out a good password (ie. one not based on a real word having letters and numbers and upper/lowercase combinations). That's why weak passwords are discouraged, because they are easy to find in a password scan.
And sometimes things are better the MS way. (Did I just say that?)
The one (and only) example I can think of is the way the enter key behaves in the spreadsheet tool. It makes sense to me, if I am entering in a lot of data, I should be able to tab through the rows and when I'm done that row, if I hit enter, it should go back to the first field of the next row. It does this in excel and I would probably switch to OO except this "feature" drives me nuts.
As much as I hate to admit it, Linux isn't ready now. Heck, OS X isn't ready now but OS X is a lot closer than Linux is. I mean, try to sync a blackberry. OS X has a blackberry sync tool but it does not seem to work well with OS X. Linux support is non-existent. There are still some features that are not supported under linux or OS X that some people need. (ie. blackberry support)
Plus there are still some features lacking in Open Office that are deal breakers for some people. Personally I find the spreadsheet tool in OO to be lacking and still fire up excel for those few times I need a spreadsheet.
Windows is still the most widely supported platform, until everything that works on windows works on some other platform, some people will never switch off of windows. Fortunately at work I have both and the windows computer is mostly for excel and email (exchange server, bleah). However, I'm not your average user...
Perl is exceedingly brief to write. It's also very difficult to read.
Perl code is only hard to read when you don't know the language or the programmer deliberately obfuscates the code. Yes, Perl does some things differently and if you don't know that $& contains the matched string in a regular expression, of course it's going to look funny.
Even though we do most of our programming in PHP here at work, I much prefer Perl. I find it more elegant.
Here's how I see it, I can get a mac and run OS X AND Windows or I can get a generic machine and I can only run Windows. (Well legally, we'll say that hacking the DRM is beyond the scope of most users) I'm sure a lot of people are interested in trying OS X but they don't want to be locked into it should they decide they don't like it.
Personally I, and I'm sure many others, won't bother. I don't care about games, I came for the UNIX and stayed because it looks nice. Imagine that, a UNIX that looks nice.
As for all the comments saying that now there will be no games for OS X, I say bull... If gamers are willing to shell out the extra cash for another license of windows just to be able to run games AND still use OS X, game companies will re-think their strategy because really, who wants to reboot everytime they want to play a game? So native OS X games will be more popular than those requiring reboot. (At least with Mac gamers)
I don't, I tell people that I think a mac is the right tool for the right job (Assuming it is in their case) but I could care less if they actually get a mac or something else. If they go the windows route I refuse to help them (or try when it comes to immediate family) when they have problems.
I could probably figure out how many people I've converted but I'll probably miss a few.
The problem is, if you don't publish it, Microsoft won't fix it. We've seen it countless times, Microsoft was notified of the problem but did nothing about it until it was published.
Besides, just because someone doesn't publish the exploit, doesn't mean there aren't people out there who are using it.
Except they aren't fighting for freedom, they are fighting for oppression. Freedom of religion? As long as it's Muslim. Freedom of speech? Sure, as long as it doesn't go against anything in the Koran. Right to live? Sure, as long as you are Muslim (and once you're in, you can never leave or it means death)
Sometime people kill to gain their freedom and to fight against oppression, other times they just kill you because you don't subscribe to their beliefs. I mean look what happened over a few cartoons... still think they are fighting for freedom?
Or your IT group is composed of a bunch of half-wits who can barely tell the difference between an ethernet jack and a phone jack. I hate to say it but it happens. I work for a small company who goes and installs a custom software package that is built on top of an Oracle Database. Now some of our clients will have the database all setup and everything ready to go. Other clients we go, install Oracle, install our software and then spend a lot of time teaching them simple things like how to backup the database. Also some of our clients we can just e-mail them a SQL script for an update and they run it and life is good.... others, we have to go there and install it for them.
So while a support contract may not be for you, there are a lot of companies out there who need one.
If you've ever watched one of those undercover cop shows, you'll notice they always actually make a buy before arresting a suspect. Otherwise, nothing illegal has happened. Well they could get them for posession (If they saw the drugs or whatever) but dealing is a much more serious crime so they usually want to get them for that.
This is where I part ways with a lot of open source folks. What exactly does it HURT to let Apple use this code?
Apple can use the code, provided they release whatever changes they make to everyone. Or do you mean what does it hurt to let apple take the code and do with it whatever they want without giving anything back?
The code is for reading/writing NTFS, a specification which isn't officially available anyway and Apple has no control over. There is no risk of "embrace and extend" here. So what's the motivation for denying them? It doesn't matter if apple has no control over the spec, it's about giving back to the community who created the code in the first place. Apple can use the code but for whatever reason they don't want to give any of their changes back to the community so they don't get to use it.
Who cares whether Apple gives you back their changes or not? Well I'm sure you don't and I bet you didn't write any of the NTFS code. Apparently the linux NTFS guys do care and since it's their code, it matters more than your opinion.
Could they actually make a significant improvement to Linux-NTFS? They could.
Are the Linux-NTFS developers admitting that Apple can do things that they themselves are too dumb to figure out? You do realize Apple is asking them for code right? Besides, it's not like you can say, I know how to improve the code 100% and implement it overnight. It takes a lot of time to develop code especially when the spec isn't available and you have to reverse engineer it.
And anyway, why would a developer in Apple's position start making wanton changes to the code when they already know that it works? Then why not just use the code as GPL? If they don't make any changes to it, they don't have to release any code.
The whole thing basically boils down to the fact that apple wants to take the developers hard work and give nothing in return. That's not nice and the developers have a right to say "No, I don't want you to do that, that's why it's GPLed."
But what about when you can afford to pay 10 employees but you want a raise. You then lay off 2, put one of their salaries back into the company, and the other to your paycheck. Is that still ethical?
Certain companies (like say Debian) don't make money, it's more of a community service. It would be like saying how do habitat for humanities make money. Well sure, there are some donations but largely it's a volunteer organization. The same goes for a large number of linux distros. There are companies such as red hat that offer their os for free but if you pay them, they provide services like phone support.
Also many of the developers work for companies that use Linux and have a vested interest. IBM is one such company. They have paid developers working on Linux because it is in IBM's best interest to see Linux thrive.
I think the Home Depot example is a bad one because you can still get 2x4s for other places. (Anyone still know what a lumber yard is?!?) Also a 2x4 from a lumber yard is compatible with a 2x4 from home depot. Thus you are not tied to Home Depot for your 2x4 needs. This is because 2x4s comply to an open standard. That is, everyone who makes 2x4s makes them roughly the same size. (Though interestingly enough a 2x4 is actually more like 1 1/2x3 1/2)
This is why I think that open standards are great. With linux, you have a variety of distros to choose from and for the most part, can be interchanged. (ie, putting a red hat box next to an ubuntu box isn't really going to hurt much. May not be as good of an idea as having all the same but it's not going to hurt anything or cause any real issues) However getting windows to intermingle with these computers often takes some tinkering.
I have a different issue in my workplace. We are a small company 5 employees and my Boss has a hesitation of moving anything over to linux because he fears that if I leave, no one will be able to maintain it because he doesn't want to take the time to learn it. Fortunately he finally got the idea to implement a bug tracking database (bugzilla) and he read that it was much easier to do this on linux than to try and get everything working on windows. Once he gave me the go ahead, I had things up and running that day. (Ok, I still needed to tweak the bugzilla pages to reflect our own company and that took a couple days but it was functional in one day)
Another hesitation of his is that none of our clients have expressed interest in running our product on linux. Of course I disagree with a lot of decisions my boss has made. (Like the decision to use Oracle just because it's a recognizable name, not because we need any of the features) Oh well...
Ok, so I pay for my connection to the internet to Verizon. (Well ok, I don't but I pay my cable company. We'll assume for this scenario that I have DSL) Google pays for their connection. (No way do they get that much bandwidth for free) Now Verizon wants google to pay them an additional fee?!? For what, so I (as a Verizon customer) can access google.com? This sounds like extortion to me.
What's next? Will every site on the internet have to pay extortion fees to all major Telcos and Cable providers to have their content available on their network? This would kill the internet as we know it.
I for one hope google starts their own ISP. mmmmm.... fiber connection to google... mmmm.....
First I live here in the USA and I love it here but....
People here are morons looking for a quick buck. I was amazed when I learned about the man who used his lawnmower to trim his hedges and then sued the lawnmower company when he hurt himself because there were no safetys or warning labels.
People need to start owning up to their own actions and stop expecting other people (in this case apple) to hold their hand.
I really wish judges could make the accuser pay for the legal teams of the other company for stupid and sensless lawsuits and disbar the lawyer who takes the case.
There's no innovation in OSS? Sure, maybe not on the desktop or with Samba but I certainly see it with Firefox. Firefox has had a lot of great things (like tabs) before IE does. In fact, IE is in a major state of catch up right now.
First, the dual core chip is in other computers, not just the Apple Mac Book Pro and iMac. Secondly the iMac is currently available. I mean I know this not only because apple said this and it's listed on their website as available for purchase now but also because I played with one at the apple store. I know it was a core duo because I went to about this mac and sure enough, it was an intel core duo. I mean did you read the./ summary at all? (Because I know no one bothers to read the actual link but the least you could do is read the summary)
What exactly is innovative about an identical looking laptop with a different, somewhat faster processor? That's like putting a different engine in your Ford.
Yes, you're right, if Ford put a Dodge engine in their trucks, it would make a lot of news. You say different like it's nothing. Apple had been praising the powerpc chip over the intel chip for what seems like forever. It's not like the chip is slightly different in that it's cache is arranged in a different way, it would be like George Bush becoming a Muslim.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't forget my favorite: http://www.rubyonrails.org/index.php
While I've used both vi and emacs, I tend to prefer vim. (Note: if I was stuck with just vi and not the extended features of vi, I would probably use emacs)
However, for those of you more comfortable with emacs, you should check out aquamacs. It's got some nice features specific to OS X.
Also, I don't really want to start a flame war, just point out the aquamacs link for those looking for a nicer emacs experience on OS X.
It's actually very easy, especially if you are the owner of the box to run a dictionary scan against the passwd file. (Or hopefully the shadow passwd file) There is a program that has been around forever called Jack the Ripper that will scan your password file looking for weak passwords. Some places routinely scan their systems with this tool and then email or deactivate any users with weak passwords.
It's really not that hard or time consuming. Now it would take quite a long time to figure out a good password (ie. one not based on a real word having letters and numbers and upper/lowercase combinations). That's why weak passwords are discouraged, because they are easy to find in a password scan.
And sometimes things are better the MS way. (Did I just say that?)
The one (and only) example I can think of is the way the enter key behaves in the spreadsheet tool. It makes sense to me, if I am entering in a lot of data, I should be able to tab through the rows and when I'm done that row, if I hit enter, it should go back to the first field of the next row. It does this in excel and I would probably switch to OO except this "feature" drives me nuts.
As much as I hate to admit it, Linux isn't ready now. Heck, OS X isn't ready now but OS X is a lot closer than Linux is. I mean, try to sync a blackberry. OS X has a blackberry sync tool but it does not seem to work well with OS X. Linux support is non-existent. There are still some features that are not supported under linux or OS X that some people need. (ie. blackberry support)
Plus there are still some features lacking in Open Office that are deal breakers for some people. Personally I find the spreadsheet tool in OO to be lacking and still fire up excel for those few times I need a spreadsheet.
Windows is still the most widely supported platform, until everything that works on windows works on some other platform, some people will never switch off of windows. Fortunately at work I have both and the windows computer is mostly for excel and email (exchange server, bleah). However, I'm not your average user...
I think he meant an emulation mode in terms of vi emulating emacs.
However, there are easier ways to emulate vi in emacs, namely viper.
Perl is exceedingly brief to write. It's also very difficult to read.
Perl code is only hard to read when you don't know the language or the programmer deliberately obfuscates the code. Yes, Perl does some things differently and if you don't know that $& contains the matched string in a regular expression, of course it's going to look funny.
Even though we do most of our programming in PHP here at work, I much prefer Perl. I find it more elegant.
Sensational Journalism at it's best...
Here's how I see it, I can get a mac and run OS X AND Windows or I can get a generic machine and I can only run Windows. (Well legally, we'll say that hacking the DRM is beyond the scope of most users) I'm sure a lot of people are interested in trying OS X but they don't want to be locked into it should they decide they don't like it.
Personally I, and I'm sure many others, won't bother. I don't care about games, I came for the UNIX and stayed because it looks nice. Imagine that, a UNIX that looks nice.
As for all the comments saying that now there will be no games for OS X, I say bull... If gamers are willing to shell out the extra cash for another license of windows just to be able to run games AND still use OS X, game companies will re-think their strategy because really, who wants to reboot everytime they want to play a game? So native OS X games will be more popular than those requiring reboot. (At least with Mac gamers)
But then again, no one ever listens to me.
I don't, I tell people that I think a mac is the right tool for the right job (Assuming it is in their case) but I could care less if they actually get a mac or something else. If they go the windows route I refuse to help them (or try when it comes to immediate family) when they have problems.
I could probably figure out how many people I've converted but I'll probably miss a few.
The problem is, if you don't publish it, Microsoft won't fix it. We've seen it countless times, Microsoft was notified of the problem but did nothing about it until it was published.
Besides, just because someone doesn't publish the exploit, doesn't mean there aren't people out there who are using it.
one mans terrorist is anothers freedom fighter
Except they aren't fighting for freedom, they are fighting for oppression.
Freedom of religion? As long as it's Muslim.
Freedom of speech? Sure, as long as it doesn't go against anything in the Koran.
Right to live? Sure, as long as you are Muslim (and once you're in, you can never leave or it means death)
Sometime people kill to gain their freedom and to fight against oppression, other times they just kill you because you don't subscribe to their beliefs. I mean look what happened over a few cartoons... still think they are fighting for freedom?
Or your IT group is composed of a bunch of half-wits who can barely tell the difference between an ethernet jack and a phone jack. I hate to say it but it happens. I work for a small company who goes and installs a custom software package that is built on top of an Oracle Database. Now some of our clients will have the database all setup and everything ready to go. Other clients we go, install Oracle, install our software and then spend a lot of time teaching them simple things like how to backup the database. Also some of our clients we can just e-mail them a SQL script for an update and they run it and life is good.... others, we have to go there and install it for them.
So while a support contract may not be for you, there are a lot of companies out there who need one.
If you've ever watched one of those undercover cop shows, you'll notice they always actually make a buy before arresting a suspect. Otherwise, nothing illegal has happened.
Well they could get them for posession (If they saw the drugs or whatever) but dealing is a much more serious crime so they usually want to get them for that.
Or you could by a new mac, put linux on it after wiping it clean, and then you have a free license for OS X to go onto whatever you want.
Granted I don't think many (if any) people are doing this but it's possible. They all are violating the DMCA however.
This is where I part ways with a lot of open source folks. What exactly does it HURT to let Apple use this code?
Apple can use the code, provided they release whatever changes they make to everyone. Or do you mean what does it hurt to let apple take the code and do with it whatever they want without giving anything back?
The code is for reading/writing NTFS, a specification which isn't officially available anyway and Apple has no control over. There is no risk of "embrace and extend" here. So what's the motivation for denying them?
It doesn't matter if apple has no control over the spec, it's about giving back to the community who created the code in the first place. Apple can use the code but for whatever reason they don't want to give any of their changes back to the community so they don't get to use it.
Who cares whether Apple gives you back their changes or not?
Well I'm sure you don't and I bet you didn't write any of the NTFS code. Apparently the linux NTFS guys do care and since it's their code, it matters more than your opinion.
Could they actually make a significant improvement to Linux-NTFS?
They could.
Are the Linux-NTFS developers admitting that Apple can do things that they themselves are too dumb to figure out?
You do realize Apple is asking them for code right? Besides, it's not like you can say, I know how to improve the code 100% and implement it overnight. It takes a lot of time to develop code especially when the spec isn't available and you have to reverse engineer it.
And anyway, why would a developer in Apple's position start making wanton changes to the code when they already know that it works?
Then why not just use the code as GPL? If they don't make any changes to it, they don't have to release any code.
The whole thing basically boils down to the fact that apple wants to take the developers hard work and give nothing in return. That's not nice and the developers have a right to say "No, I don't want you to do that, that's why it's GPLed."
VBA? Surely you're joking....
I'll grant you excel though.... Microsoft's one good program and possibly the only reason to not completely switch to Open Office.
That, i believe, is what people refer to as the digg effect
You must be new here. Slashdot has been slashdotting sites long before these annoying digg users ever came around.
But what about when you can afford to pay 10 employees but you want a raise. You then lay off 2, put one of their salaries back into the company, and the other to your paycheck. Is that still ethical?
Certain companies (like say Debian) don't make money, it's more of a community service. It would be like saying how do habitat for humanities make money. Well sure, there are some donations but largely it's a volunteer organization. The same goes for a large number of linux distros. There are companies such as red hat that offer their os for free but if you pay them, they provide services like phone support.
Also many of the developers work for companies that use Linux and have a vested interest. IBM is one such company. They have paid developers working on Linux because it is in IBM's best interest to see Linux thrive.
I think the Home Depot example is a bad one because you can still get 2x4s for other places. (Anyone still know what a lumber yard is?!?) Also a 2x4 from a lumber yard is compatible with a 2x4 from home depot. Thus you are not tied to Home Depot for your 2x4 needs. This is because 2x4s comply to an open standard. That is, everyone who makes 2x4s makes them roughly the same size. (Though interestingly enough a 2x4 is actually more like 1 1/2x3 1/2)
This is why I think that open standards are great. With linux, you have a variety of distros to choose from and for the most part, can be interchanged. (ie, putting a red hat box next to an ubuntu box isn't really going to hurt much. May not be as good of an idea as having all the same but it's not going to hurt anything or cause any real issues) However getting windows to intermingle with these computers often takes some tinkering.
I have a different issue in my workplace. We are a small company 5 employees and my Boss has a hesitation of moving anything over to linux because he fears that if I leave, no one will be able to maintain it because he doesn't want to take the time to learn it. Fortunately he finally got the idea to implement a bug tracking database (bugzilla) and he read that it was much easier to do this on linux than to try and get everything working on windows. Once he gave me the go ahead, I had things up and running that day. (Ok, I still needed to tweak the bugzilla pages to reflect our own company and that took a couple days but it was functional in one day)
Another hesitation of his is that none of our clients have expressed interest in running our product on linux. Of course I disagree with a lot of decisions my boss has made. (Like the decision to use Oracle just because it's a recognizable name, not because we need any of the features) Oh well...
Ok, so I pay for my connection to the internet to Verizon. (Well ok, I don't but I pay my cable company. We'll assume for this scenario that I have DSL) Google pays for their connection. (No way do they get that much bandwidth for free) Now Verizon wants google to pay them an additional fee?!? For what, so I (as a Verizon customer) can access google.com? This sounds like extortion to me.
What's next? Will every site on the internet have to pay extortion fees to all major Telcos and Cable providers to have their content available on their network? This would kill the internet as we know it.
I for one hope google starts their own ISP. mmmmm.... fiber connection to google... mmmm.....
First I live here in the USA and I love it here but....
People here are morons looking for a quick buck. I was amazed when I learned about the man who used his lawnmower to trim his hedges and then sued the lawnmower company when he hurt himself because there were no safetys or warning labels.
People need to start owning up to their own actions and stop expecting other people (in this case apple) to hold their hand.
I really wish judges could make the accuser pay for the legal teams of the other company for stupid and sensless lawsuits and disbar the lawyer who takes the case.
There's no innovation in OSS? Sure, maybe not on the desktop or with Samba but I certainly see it with Firefox. Firefox has had a lot of great things (like tabs) before IE does. In fact, IE is in a major state of catch up right now.
It's not released yet? That's news to me.
./ summary at all? (Because I know no one bothers to read the actual link but the least you could do is read the summary)
First, the dual core chip is in other computers, not just the Apple Mac Book Pro and iMac. Secondly the iMac is currently available. I mean I know this not only because apple said this and it's listed on their website as available for purchase now but also because I played with one at the apple store. I know it was a core duo because I went to about this mac and sure enough, it was an intel core duo. I mean did you read the
I know it was probably meant as a joke but that is not a valid IP address so it's not really all that funny.
What exactly is innovative about an identical looking laptop with a different, somewhat faster processor? That's like putting a different engine in your Ford.
Yes, you're right, if Ford put a Dodge engine in their trucks, it would make a lot of news. You say different like it's nothing. Apple had been praising the powerpc chip over the intel chip for what seems like forever. It's not like the chip is slightly different in that it's cache is arranged in a different way, it would be like George Bush becoming a Muslim.