Interoperability and sharing are all kinds of nice for the interchange of information, but what happens when a third-party developer comes up with something that can also plug-in, so it gets access to the data, but has some kind of big open hole in other parts of its code, so everyone's records are available to anyone?
One can make a very secure network by keeping an air gap between the LAN and the Internet. Encrypted connections, IPv6, and locked down workstations won't hurt either. All data partitions must be mounted no-exec and all executable partitions mounted read-only. Using the restricted mode of bash or zsh prevents workarounds like "source trojan.sh". Furthermore, KDE has a kiosk mode or there are other customizable options like Fluxbox.
From there, you just have to be careful about what applications are installed and limit any scripting/macro problems. e.g. keeping the document templates free of macros.
Ask Slashdot - what are useful FireFox extensions?
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Firefox In Print
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FireFox has more than a boatload of extensions and plug-ins. There's no practical way for one person to wade through all the options and a book on the topic, though useful, would be obsolete before it even hit the shelves.
Pro-patent lobbiest and apologists will argue that you can always go to court to overturn the patent with prior art if it is truly illegitamate (thereby neatly avoiding the entire point of how terrible patents are for anyone who cares about technological and human progress), and that's true as far as it goes... until you look closer and realize that, on average, it costs $1 million dollars to overturn a single patent, an amount of money few mere mortals have, and most small businesses can ill afford.
The figures mentioned at the FFII Software Patent Conference, Brussels 9-10 Nov 2004 were more in the ballpark of
4 million USD to shoot down an illegitimate patent. I'm not sure what the real figures are, but 1 million USD sounds cheap. However, whatever the cost, it will be neither cheap nor affordable for small or medium sized businesses.
Unfortunately, in Europe, the large majority of revenue is generated from small and medium businesses.
One thing that most articles miss is that software patents really screw anyone who even uses a computer, not just developers.
MS is just trying to shake down its remaining customers for more money. The BSA raids got people to start keeping track of the shiny holograms, so that's getting to be less of a source of income. The message is clear. If you stay in Bill's cult, you will pay frequently.
C'mon how much more clue does Chariman Bill need to give you that he wants everyone to dump MS-Windows?
However, those that just surf, check e-mail, balance the check book and write letters have no need to toe the line for ol' Chairman Bill.
This is a golden opportunity for LUGs to have installfests for these users. February and March is a good time since most people want indoor activities. At the very least, LUGs can contact the local newspapers and get them to print and article or two about the non-MS options out there.
If an installfest is too extreme, then just consider a showcase where Joe & Jane Sixpack can try out KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox, and so on and see that despite what they've been told, it doesn't bite.
Yes, thankfully the EU has not legalized software patents yet. However, Berlusconi's wife and other minions of MS / Hollywood on the EC are still trying to sliding it under the door, and will probably do so weekly until the issue is killed once and for all.
Until sw patents politics are dead, dead, dead, in Europe, we'll have to hear about firewall patents, boolean logic patents, modula patents and anything else that fits the formula "... with a computer". This hits not just designers and developers but actually any one even using a computer.
Heh. I don't think whatever process they're using will change the half-life of carbon-14. That's a nuclear process, not a chemical one.
It can be a chemical process too, instead of a nuclear one, if you set it up right.
You just need to get the desired ration of C-14 into the food chain. With mice you can feed them on yeast or algae pills made, at least partially, in an artificial environment. With a pine tree however, you'd have to operate a sealed 20m - 30m tall environmental chamber for 30 to 40 years with the special C-14 rich atmosphere the whole time.
Obviously you'd need a shorter time if you're wanting a smaller tree or smaller wooden object. Ten years ought to give you a tree more than large enough for a spork, be it 200 000 years old or 2 million.
Bill Gates donated the money, not any community unless you consider his wealth as aggregated from a particular community.
But actually to be more exact, Bill is calling on governments to match his investment in the purchase of expensive drugs produced by the pharmas he has heavily invested in.
If Bill weren't pumping his own portfolio and occasionally using such "charity" for coercion, I'd take a less cynical point of view towards his approaches to public health
OpenOffice.org is a big step and allows the Frensh police to decide what platform they will use. If they stay with MSO, then they are stuck on MS-Windows. If they start producing documents in the DRM'd MSO 2003 format, then migration to *any* competing product will be virtually impossible.
Just talk of dropping MSO will get Ballmer or Gates on the way soon. Right now Gates is running around the yard in Brazil trying to get President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvan back on the leash.
There are many studies like this for both sexes and these studies usually refer to the placement of the center of the bell curve. The conclusions are usually only meaningful when looking at a population as a whole not for individuals. That won't stop Politically Correct nuts from getting their knickers in a twist and picketing.
What will stop the PC nuts from picketing would be to ensure that they get at least one class each covering logic, statistics and basic scientific method.
But then again, some may find it more comfortable going through the world without thinking. Modern society has largely made the brain irrelevant to basic survival and reproduction, why take on an unneccessary burden?
The paper the AC pointed to, Improving Passive Packet Capture: Beyond Device Polling, seems to indicate that the problem is with the performance of tools like libpcap at high speeds and/or that a real time system is needed, not the open vs closed situation that the AC painted in the parent post.
Yes, a specialized kernel is needed. Yes, some other kernels, maybe QNX, might be better than plain vanilla BSD or Linux kernel. Yes, MS Windows isn't even anywhere remotely close to supporting this kind of technology.
But...
...as with any other activity, the packet loss will be reduced or go away by tuning your software (in this case the kernel) to the task at hand. That includes choosing libpcap, netfilter, or something else. However, for low and medium speeds BSD/Linux do a good job.
The best interface is the one you don't notice, it just does its job and enables you to get on.
Yes, for getting the job done that is true. However, I think there may be some perverse flaws in human psychology that prevent those from selling.
Just look at CRMs. Probably 99% of what most people use CRMs for can be done with file sharing (Netware, AFS, Samba) with ACLs, plus a local index, plus a web server. But that's not nearly painful enough and merely putting some files in a folder which can be seen from the web doesn't get the praise resulting from paying huge consulting fees and conquering a stack of manuals.
High consulting fees and training costs also show up on the books, which allows the herd mentality to kick in.
Resistance occurs naturally over time no reason glyphosate should be different. Natural resistance is seen where glyphosate has been applied frequently and heavily in Colombia to damage the coca crops. Over time the ones on the fringe developed an immunity and these were replanted.
It's bound to happen in grain crops as well. Farmers could speed it along by spraying a very dilute solution in the center of the field each year and keeping that seed for next year's planting. Not a good idea to spray the edges and cultivate resitant weeds.
Folks that dislike GM crops could do this on purpose and then distribute the seeds. That's not copying the gene or reverse engineering it, but developing a competing product.
Perhaps this firing will avoid a class action suit from PeopleSoft vict^H^H^H^Hcustomers. Many institutions have pumped money into Peoplesoft until their budgets were empty, without getting in sight of a working system. Others haven't yet run out of money.
PeopleSoft employees have made the mess the customers are stuck with today. The PeopleSoft staff ought to be tagged so that others can avoid hiring them.
The article says only that M$ will "ease" its licensing, not how or to what extent. So that's still bad, unless "easing" means that the schema and APIs are turned over to a not-for-profit third party without restrictions on re-use.
Otherwise, this is just a scam to
force MA citizens to buy MSO 2003 in order to access public data. MSO 2004, in turn, requires MS Windows and DRM...
distract from the advantages and rising success of OpenOffice.org
Massachusetts should insist on *open* formats, not PR gimmicks.
If that one company can take the keys to unlocking public data to its grave, where will that leave MA after all that investment? Not to mention, what are the privacy ramifactions of a format that phones home for every read, write, open, close, save, copy, print, and mail?
The carrying capacity of the planet is largely dependent on solar input. Yes, there are organisms that get energy by chemsynthesis, but most everything else depends directly or indirectly on photosyntesis.
It ought to be possible to vaguely guess the theoretical carrying capacity of the planet.
An Earth sciences book on my shelf suggests that the solar energy available at the Earth's surface is arond 5.42 x 10^24 J/a. Not all of the surface areas can support a lot of life. Even in the areas which can, somewhere on the order of 90% of the energy is lost in transfer between each level.
One reason not to advertise as much is that advertising is expensive and most of the customers are captive anyway. One of the goals for last year was to cut expenses, presumably before a real audit puts daylight on the situation. Last year was a banner year for F/OSS, even if you only count sales.
A potlach is no longer a useful way of spending the IT budget. That means MS-Windows and MS-Office must go, Linux, OS X and OpenOffice.org are in, and on the old hardware no less.
The hype and buzz of the dot-com era is finally fading and businesses are starting to look at getting things done rather than trying to incite competitors into bankrupting themselves.
Though software patents are currently only a problem in the U.S., I'd still say that they threat of stealth patents would be the worst bug. Proprietary material shouldn't get through the standards process.
Linux is well poised for the appliance market... but I have to wonder when DRM and the DMCA will make it difficult, if not impossible, to provide the services on Linux needed to compete in the media space
Linux is very well poised for the appliance market. Look at Tivo. Linux/BSD in general have been for years a major player in embedded devices.
The threat from DRM and DMCA (and Europe's equivalent) will likely come via the HD DVD or Blu-ray formats. While much hype is being made about claims that two different formats are competing, these claims are unfounded. The codecs for both are the same: MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and VC-1. The last one, VC-1 is the real bite as it is none other than WMP's own, controlled by Redmond. The anti-trust trial in Europe should have taken that one down, but didn't.
The solution now is to either drop VC-1 and go with MPEG only, drop VC-1 in favor of Dirac, or open VC-1 up including the DRM.
When Doom was the in thing, I saw a level with the same layout, colors and textures as a building I was often in every day. I only got to try the demo for 5 minutes, the effect was really strong for an hour or so after and slowly faded out over a week or two. It really made me interpret the building very differently for some weeks, especially the stair cases and other ambuse points.
That may not seem like a big deal if you are not currently using Linux outside of your infrastructure, but it does mean that MS-Exchange can't keep you from mixing MS-Windows, Linux, and OS X as it best suits the needs of your organization.
However, neither of these address the issue of scheduling thousands of staff more or less automatically.
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One can make a very secure network by keeping an air gap between the LAN and the Internet. Encrypted connections, IPv6, and locked down workstations won't hurt either. All data partitions must be mounted no-exec and all executable partitions mounted read-only. Using the restricted mode of bash or zsh prevents workarounds like "source trojan.sh ". Furthermore, KDE has a kiosk mode or there are other customizable options like Fluxbox.
From there, you just have to be careful about what applications are installed and limit any scripting/macro problems. e.g. keeping the document templates free of macros.
It would be a useful topic for "Ask Slashdot".
One thing that most articles miss is that software patents really screw anyone who even uses a computer, not just developers.
C'mon the if the trend is to attack a threat pre-emptively, then why is nothing being done? Or would that be too much like being productive?
C'mon how much more clue does Chariman Bill need to give you that he wants everyone to dump MS-Windows?
However, those that just surf, check e-mail, balance the check book and write letters have no need to toe the line for ol' Chairman Bill.
This is a golden opportunity for LUGs to have installfests for these users. February and March is a good time since most people want indoor activities. At the very least, LUGs can contact the local newspapers and get them to print and article or two about the non-MS options out there.
If an installfest is too extreme, then just consider a showcase where Joe & Jane Sixpack can try out KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox, and so on and see that despite what they've been told, it doesn't bite.
This next attempt will be via the External Relations Council next Monday (31 Jan 2005).
Until sw patents politics are dead, dead, dead, in Europe, we'll have to hear about firewall patents, boolean logic patents, modula patents and anything else that fits the formula "... with a computer". This hits not just designers and developers but actually any one even using a computer.
You just need to get the desired ration of C-14 into the food chain. With mice you can feed them on yeast or algae pills made, at least partially, in an artificial environment. With a pine tree however, you'd have to operate a sealed 20m - 30m tall environmental chamber for 30 to 40 years with the special C-14 rich atmosphere the whole time.
Obviously you'd need a shorter time if you're wanting a smaller tree or smaller wooden object. Ten years ought to give you a tree more than large enough for a spork, be it 200 000 years old or 2 million.
If Bill weren't pumping his own portfolio and occasionally using such "charity" for coercion, I'd take a less cynical point of view towards his approaches to public health
Just talk of dropping MSO will get Ballmer or Gates on the way soon. Right now Gates is running around the yard in Brazil trying to get President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvan back on the leash.
However, those are not the result of spamming or spoofing, merely of a zeitgeist.
What will stop the PC nuts from picketing would be to ensure that they get at least one class each covering logic, statistics and basic scientific method.
But then again, some may find it more comfortable going through the world without thinking. Modern society has largely made the brain irrelevant to basic survival and reproduction, why take on an unneccessary burden?
Yes, a specialized kernel is needed. Yes, some other kernels, maybe QNX, might be better than plain vanilla BSD or Linux kernel. Yes, MS Windows isn't even anywhere remotely close to supporting this kind of technology. But...
Just look at CRMs. Probably 99% of what most people use CRMs for can be done with file sharing (Netware, AFS, Samba) with ACLs, plus a local index, plus a web server. But that's not nearly painful enough and merely putting some files in a folder which can be seen from the web doesn't get the praise resulting from paying huge consulting fees and conquering a stack of manuals.
High consulting fees and training costs also show up on the books, which allows the herd mentality to kick in.
It's bound to happen in grain crops as well. Farmers could speed it along by spraying a very dilute solution in the center of the field each year and keeping that seed for next year's planting. Not a good idea to spray the edges and cultivate resitant weeds.
Folks that dislike GM crops could do this on purpose and then distribute the seeds. That's not copying the gene or reverse engineering it, but developing a competing product.
PeopleSoft employees have made the mess the customers are stuck with today. The PeopleSoft staff ought to be tagged so that others can avoid hiring them.
What is the timeline for support of the OpenDocument format?
Otherwise, this is just a scam to
Massachusetts should insist on *open* formats, not PR gimmicks. If that one company can take the keys to unlocking public data to its grave, where will that leave MA after all that investment? Not to mention, what are the privacy ramifactions of a format that phones home for every read, write, open, close, save, copy, print, and mail?
It ought to be possible to vaguely guess the theoretical carrying capacity of the planet. An Earth sciences book on my shelf suggests that the solar energy available at the Earth's surface is arond 5.42 x 10^24 J/a. Not all of the surface areas can support a lot of life. Even in the areas which can, somewhere on the order of 90% of the energy is lost in transfer between each level.
A potlach is no longer a useful way of spending the IT budget. That means MS-Windows and MS-Office must go, Linux, OS X and OpenOffice.org are in, and on the old hardware no less. The hype and buzz of the dot-com era is finally fading and businesses are starting to look at getting things done rather than trying to incite competitors into bankrupting themselves.
A current example would be packing VC-1 into both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
Though software patents are currently only a problem in the U.S., I'd still say that they threat of stealth patents would be the worst bug. Proprietary material shouldn't get through the standards process.
The threat from DRM and DMCA (and Europe's equivalent) will likely come via the HD DVD or Blu-ray formats. While much hype is being made about claims that two different formats are competing, these claims are unfounded. The codecs for both are the same: MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and VC-1. The last one, VC-1 is the real bite as it is none other than WMP's own, controlled by Redmond. The anti-trust trial in Europe should have taken that one down, but didn't.
The solution now is to either drop VC-1 and go with MPEG only, drop VC-1 in favor of Dirac, or open VC-1 up including the DRM.
When Doom was the in thing, I saw a level with the same layout, colors and textures as a building I was often in every day. I only got to try the demo for 5 minutes, the effect was really strong for an hour or so after and slowly faded out over a week or two. It really made me interpret the building very differently for some weeks, especially the stair cases and other ambuse points.
That may not seem like a big deal if you are not currently using Linux outside of your infrastructure, but it does mean that MS-Exchange can't keep you from mixing MS-Windows, Linux, and OS X as it best suits the needs of your organization.
However, neither of these address the issue of scheduling thousands of staff more or less automatically.