The best way to think about it is to imagine a balloon. Blow the balloon up. See the inner walls of it? That's the universe. You can place a pebble anywhere on those walls and roll it around, and it's pretty much trapped there.
Sure, this makes sense; it's valid. But what lies outside the balloon? A vacuum? Nothingness? What is nothingness? Is nothingness == vaccum?
It has existed infinitely far back in time, and it will exist infinitely far forward in time, in an infinite number of dimensions, etc... We are of like minds. I, too, imagine the universe as being infinite in every possible dimension, but I realize it's a paradox: the concept of infinity doesn't really make sense from the human perspective, either.
This is why I have a really hard time listening to astronomers and physicists when they refer to "the moment of the beginning of the universe." Beginning? WTF? The law of conservation of mass says that matter is neither created nor destroyed, so "before" the universe was created, there had to be mass already there. More paradoxes... And how about when they talk about "the edges of the universe?" Well, if there are edges, is there anything beyond those edges?
Yes, these may seem like basic, maybe naive questions, but I'm looking at the big picture, and we may never understand these questions.
I doubt that patching openbsd is at easy as opening the default browser, clicking on the Tools toolbar and click Windows Update Right you are, and as you say, it does have more to do with priorities, not only with the manufacturer, but with the end-user. There are very few people I know of who even realize that security is an issue to be aware of. As mind-numbingly easy as Windows Update is to use, I've tried and tried to get everyone I know to simply click on Windows Update once a week. Nobody does it. Same thing with antivirus software - they just won't do it.
And its at version 6.0 And your point is what? In case you're not aware, this is not the debut of Sun ONE Identity Server, it's simply the first version of it that is based on the Liberty Alliance Project specifications. Duh...
glad I use the newsgroups for music That's all well and good until someone comes along who uses both usenet and P2P. All of said user's MP3s are infected with the buffer overflows, and some of these files are then uploaded to usenet. Now you download these MP3s from usenet, and even though you don't use P2P you have the problem anyway.
Tell me again how one puts a "virus-worm hybrid" into a non-executable file and have it infect mp3 players Well, I can't tell you, since I'm not a programmer, but why don't you tell me? The supposed exploit is included as a C file in the text of the Gobbles post, so why don't you go and try it out? I'm serious. Do it and post back your results. If it turns out to be a hoax, then we'll all be relieved.
It seems to me very unlikely that anything with such a high rate of infestation would have gone completely unnoticed
I wish I could agree, but from reading the article and the Bugtraq post, it seems that for now, all this thing really does is sends the RIAA a list of what MP3 files you have on your system. It apparently doesn't destroy anything, and the post vaguely describes the method of contacting the RIAA as "specially crafted requests over the p2p networks." For both of these reasons, it may very well go unnoticed on many systems. It is unclear, however, what happens on machines with infected MP3s, but no P2P software.
However, the post also goes on to mention that the OpenBSD release song MP3s on the ftp.openbsd.org server are/were supposedly infected with this worm, and that Theo De Raadt was none the wiser to this fact. This is not surprising, since it's clear that Gobbles does not like Theo, but it is significant if it is true.
This is definitely not a flattering benchmark for the R14k, earning roughly half the scores of the Pentium 4 2.8 GHz, but when you remind yourself that the R14k is running at only 1/4 the clock speed of the P4, it reinforces the point that clock speed isn't everything.
Wait a minute - wasn't "cybersex" sort-of the envisioned killer app back around 1994 or 1995? Hasn't anyone figured out that it's not happening, or that it never really happened? It seems kind of pointless to write about it, and even more pointless to read about it. What's this guy's next book going to be about? The characters are surfing the web in 3-D and talking in 3-D chat rooms? These are the sorts of cliches that non-technical people scoop up, not the Slashdot crowd.
There's a wireless ISP in my area that offers apparently good service, at prices roughly the same as cable; thing is, on their website, they mention initial fixed equipment costs at $500-1000. If it weren't for the high initial cost, I'd switch in a heartbeat.
From the Inquirer article: ran at 0.001MHz, and had a massive 2000 bytes of memory and a behemothic 2500 bytes of storage. Those hairbrains seem incredulous that it runs at less than 1 GHz or has less than 128 MB of memory or 80 GB of storage. I got the impression that they weren't really reporting so much on the age of the computer as how slow it iswas. Kids these days...
How does buying one, 10 year old machine, in anyway approximate what he needs done? Well, you don't buy a 10 year old machine. Although my roughly 10 year old SPARCstation 10 that I bought for $15 does run the latest version of Solaris easily. You can snatch 2-3 year old, viable machines off of ebay for less than $1000. This is the beauty of the UNIX/RISC workstation/server market. Used machines depreciate even faster than plain-jane consumer PCs, because most companies don't want to buy used machines, and most consumers wouldn't know what to do with them. Who's left? Developers who just need machines for testing, and crazies like myself who dream of running an IBM zSeries in my basement.
They dumped one billion USD in a year for the OS/2 marketing campaign One billion dollars? I seriously doubt that. I don't actually have any idea how much they spent on marketing, but I can tell you that it wouldn't even be close to 1 billion.
Yeah, server side hardware costs may be higher And server side software costs may (actually, will) be higher as well if you use terminal services, Citrix, whatever.
one would need some pretty intellegent/knowledgable/creative IT's I'm not sysadmin, so I can only speculate here, but doesn't that go with the territory? In other words, it sounds like you're saying, "Whoa, in order to implement something like this, we would actually need sysadmins that can do their jobs." Sorry, but I would think that being intelligent/knowledgable/creative would be almost part of the job description of any halfway-decent sysadmin.
The average user probably views the OS and the computer with the same level of separation... Heh, whenever I mention the term "operating system" to less knowledgable people (actually make that most people) they have no idea what I'm talking about. I get "What's an operating system?" Or "What's the desktop?" Basically I end up defining the operating system as "Windows." Try explaining Unix/Linux/BSD to someone who doesn't even know what an operating system is.
Re:All about the benji's
on
Sun vs. OpenBSD?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
anyone who pays $$$ for modern Sun kit is an idiot if they want to run anything other than Solaris on it I can't speak for everyone, but it seems that things are usually the other way around: Sun hardware is a great platform on which to run OpenBSD. It's not as if "I have this SPARC machine, what OS should I run on it?" Rather, it's more like "I would like to run OpenBSD, what is a good hardware platform to run OpenBSD?" The 32-bit SPARC port of OpenBSD happens to be very mature and stable, and SPARC hardware (especially sun4m) is bulletproof. Now that the OpenBSD sparc64 port is moving further along, the developers really need official documentation to make progress. But to the OpenBSD developers it seems that Sun is ignoring them. IMO I would give it some time, as Sun is a large corporation, and things take time. Especially if Sun did not already have corporate policy/plans for relations with OpenBSD.
Unfortunately, I think many people see mainframes as "dinosaurs" because they don't have the features of the PCs they so small-mindedly revere.
What? That big, expensive thing doesn't even have USB ports? Can I watch DVD movies on it? No? What good is it then?
The submitter of the article had a condescending attitude about mainframes, almost like he was begging the question of whether mainframes should exist anymore.
I've heard that the Microsoft exams can be rather tricky and somewhat difficult What if I said I'd heard that, for example, the SCSA (Solaris) exams were extremely tricky and very difficult? All kidding aside, anybody who says MCSE tests are easy is lying, but trust me, the certification tests for UNIX/UNIX-like operating systems are much more stringent.
he said only him and another two guys in his whole class passed the exam the first time. Well, no wonder, some of those certification programs have a "money back guarantee" that you'll pass, so where's the motivation?
Solaris 9 12/02 (which was supposed to be released this month) Wow, you're really impatient, aren't you? It's only December 3rd, and the Solaris releases are really more like snapshots. Kind of like (but not really) when a snapshot of OpenBSD-current is taken and groomed for a release. The dates of the files in the release are about 1 month behind the actual release date, due to the release process. That's just my observation, and it seems to be the way things work.
Apple is actually now the leader distributor of UNIX, with OS X First, OS X is not licensed by The Open Group as UNIX, so in that regard OS X is not UNIX. Second, architecturally OS X is not UNIX. OS X is a Mach microkernel with a FreeBSD-derived userland. This does not a UNIX make.
these engines are making far closer to one HP/CID than any of the tin-can econoboxes Well, I've got just one such "tin can econobox" in my driveway: a Honda Civic, 2002's #3 top selling car in the US. The base Civic engine is 102 CID, and power ouput is 115 HP. That's 1.127 HP/CID. For comparison, look at the Corvette. It has as standard a 350 HP, 350 CID V8. That's 1 HP/CID, less than the Civic. And don't forget, the Corvette is one of the highest-performance vehicles sold in the US. Yet its V8's specific output is less than that of many economy cars' 4-cylinders. In the end, though, it all goes to show there's no substitute for cubic inches.
Those pushrod V8s went out of production in the mid 1990's Apparently, the parent is referring to the Ford 4.9 liter V8 (really, it's not 5.0 liters, check the specs,) which apparently is out of production. So you're right on that point. However, there are other pushrod V8s still available, most notably several varieties from GM: even the Corvette still comes with a pushrod V8. Not to mention the venerable GM 3800 V6.
Slashdot Mirror
The best way to think about it is to imagine a balloon. Blow the balloon up. See the inner walls of it? That's the universe. You can place a pebble anywhere on those walls and roll it around, and it's pretty much trapped there.
Sure, this makes sense; it's valid. But what lies outside the balloon? A vacuum? Nothingness? What is nothingness? Is nothingness == vaccum?
It has existed infinitely far back in time, and it will exist infinitely far forward in time, in an infinite number of dimensions, etc...
We are of like minds. I, too, imagine the universe as being infinite in every possible dimension, but I realize it's a paradox: the concept of infinity doesn't really make sense from the human perspective, either.
This is why I have a really hard time listening to astronomers and physicists when they refer to "the moment of the beginning of the universe." Beginning? WTF? The law of conservation of mass says that matter is neither created nor destroyed, so "before" the universe was created, there had to be mass already there. More paradoxes... And how about when they talk about "the edges of the universe?" Well, if there are edges, is there anything beyond those edges?
Yes, these may seem like basic, maybe naive questions, but I'm looking at the big picture, and we may never understand these questions.
I doubt that patching openbsd is at easy as opening the default browser, clicking on the Tools toolbar and click Windows Update
Right you are, and as you say, it does have more to do with priorities, not only with the manufacturer, but with the end-user. There are very few people I know of who even realize that security is an issue to be aware of. As mind-numbingly easy as Windows Update is to use, I've tried and tried to get everyone I know to simply click on Windows Update once a week. Nobody does it. Same thing with antivirus software - they just won't do it.
Apparently, there was a version 5.1. To wit:
Sun[tm] ONE Identity Server 5.1: Installation and Configuration
And its at version 6.0
And your point is what? In case you're not aware, this is not the debut of Sun ONE Identity Server, it's simply the first version of it that is based on the Liberty Alliance Project specifications. Duh...
glad I use the newsgroups for music
That's all well and good until someone comes along who uses both usenet and P2P. All of said user's MP3s are infected with the buffer overflows, and some of these files are then uploaded to usenet. Now you download these MP3s from usenet, and even though you don't use P2P you have the problem anyway.
Tell me again how one puts a "virus-worm hybrid" into a non-executable file and have it infect mp3 players
Well, I can't tell you, since I'm not a programmer, but why don't you tell me? The supposed exploit is included as a C file in the text of the Gobbles post, so why don't you go and try it out? I'm serious. Do it and post back your results. If it turns out to be a hoax, then we'll all be relieved.
It seems to me very unlikely that anything with such a high rate of infestation would have gone completely unnoticed
I wish I could agree, but from reading the article and the Bugtraq post, it seems that for now, all this thing really does is sends the RIAA a list of what MP3 files you have on your system. It apparently doesn't destroy anything, and the post vaguely describes the method of contacting the RIAA as "specially crafted requests over the p2p networks." For both of these reasons, it may very well go unnoticed on many systems. It is unclear, however, what happens on machines with infected MP3s, but no P2P software.
However, the post also goes on to mention that the OpenBSD release song MP3s on the ftp.openbsd.org server are/were supposedly infected with this worm, and that Theo De Raadt was none the wiser to this fact. This is not surprising, since it's clear that Gobbles does not like Theo, but it is significant if it is true.
This is definitely not a flattering benchmark for the R14k, earning roughly half the scores of the Pentium 4 2.8 GHz, but when you remind yourself that the R14k is running at only 1/4 the clock speed of the P4, it reinforces the point that clock speed isn't everything.
5orRY, n3V3R f0UND MUcH n33d +0 U53 irC. 4NyW4Y, unL3$5 m4jOr 4dV4NCE$ h4V3 833n M4de 1N cY83R53X, 15n'T 1+ ReAlLY tEH $4M3 tH1NG @5 pH0NE 5ex?
Wait a minute - wasn't "cybersex" sort-of the envisioned killer app back around 1994 or 1995? Hasn't anyone figured out that it's not happening, or that it never really happened? It seems kind of pointless to write about it, and even more pointless to read about it. What's this guy's next book going to be about? The characters are surfing the web in 3-D and talking in 3-D chat rooms? These are the sorts of cliches that non-technical people scoop up, not the Slashdot crowd.
There's a wireless ISP in my area that offers apparently good service, at prices roughly the same as cable; thing is, on their website, they mention initial fixed equipment costs at $500-1000. If it weren't for the high initial cost, I'd switch in a heartbeat.
From the Inquirer article:
ran at 0.001MHz, and had a massive 2000 bytes of memory and a behemothic 2500 bytes of storage.
Those hairbrains seem incredulous that it runs at less than 1 GHz or has less than 128 MB of memory or 80 GB of storage. I got the impression that they weren't really reporting so much on the age of the computer as how slow it iswas. Kids these days...
How does buying one, 10 year old machine, in anyway approximate what he needs done?
Well, you don't buy a 10 year old machine. Although my roughly 10 year old SPARCstation 10 that I bought for $15 does run the latest version of Solaris easily. You can snatch 2-3 year old, viable machines off of ebay for less than $1000. This is the beauty of the UNIX/RISC workstation/server market. Used machines depreciate even faster than plain-jane consumer PCs, because most companies don't want to buy used machines, and most consumers wouldn't know what to do with them. Who's left? Developers who just need machines for testing, and crazies like myself who dream of running an IBM zSeries in my basement.
They dumped one billion USD in a year for the OS/2 marketing campaign
One billion dollars? I seriously doubt that. I don't actually have any idea how much they spent on marketing, but I can tell you that it wouldn't even be close to 1 billion.
Yeah, server side hardware costs may be higher
And server side software costs may (actually, will) be higher as well if you use terminal services, Citrix, whatever.
one would need some pretty intellegent/knowledgable/creative IT's
I'm not sysadmin, so I can only speculate here, but doesn't that go with the territory? In other words, it sounds like you're saying, "Whoa, in order to implement something like this, we would actually need sysadmins that can do their jobs." Sorry, but I would think that being intelligent/knowledgable/creative would be almost part of the job description of any halfway-decent sysadmin.
The average user probably views the OS and the computer with the same level of separation...
Heh, whenever I mention the term "operating system" to less knowledgable people (actually make that most people) they have no idea what I'm talking about. I get "What's an operating system?" Or "What's the desktop?" Basically I end up defining the operating system as "Windows." Try explaining Unix/Linux/BSD to someone who doesn't even know what an operating system is.
anyone who pays $$$ for modern Sun kit is an idiot if they want to run anything other than Solaris on it
I can't speak for everyone, but it seems that things are usually the other way around: Sun hardware is a great platform on which to run OpenBSD. It's not as if "I have this SPARC machine, what OS should I run on it?" Rather, it's more like "I would like to run OpenBSD, what is a good hardware platform to run OpenBSD?" The 32-bit SPARC port of OpenBSD happens to be very mature and stable, and SPARC hardware (especially sun4m) is bulletproof. Now that the OpenBSD sparc64 port is moving further along, the developers really need official documentation to make progress. But to the OpenBSD developers it seems that Sun is ignoring them. IMO I would give it some time, as Sun is a large corporation, and things take time. Especially if Sun did not already have corporate policy/plans for relations with OpenBSD.
Unfortunately, I think many people see mainframes as "dinosaurs" because they don't have the features of the PCs they so small-mindedly revere.
What? That big, expensive thing doesn't even have USB ports? Can I watch DVD movies on it? No? What good is it then?
The submitter of the article had a condescending attitude about mainframes, almost like he was begging the question of whether mainframes should exist anymore.
I've heard that the Microsoft exams can be rather tricky and somewhat difficult
What if I said I'd heard that, for example, the SCSA (Solaris) exams were extremely tricky and very difficult? All kidding aside, anybody who says MCSE tests are easy is lying, but trust me, the certification tests for UNIX/UNIX-like operating systems are much more stringent.
he said only him and another two guys in his whole class passed the exam the first time.
Well, no wonder, some of those certification programs have a "money back guarantee" that you'll pass, so where's the motivation?
Solaris 9 12/02 (which was supposed to be released this month)
Wow, you're really impatient, aren't you? It's only December 3rd, and the Solaris releases are really more like snapshots. Kind of like (but not really) when a snapshot of OpenBSD-current is taken and groomed for a release. The dates of the files in the release are about 1 month behind the actual release date, due to the release process. That's just my observation, and it seems to be the way things work.
Apple is actually now the leader distributor of UNIX, with OS X
First, OS X is not licensed by The Open Group as UNIX, so in that regard OS X is not UNIX. Second, architecturally OS X is not UNIX. OS X is a Mach microkernel with a FreeBSD-derived userland. This does not a UNIX make.
these engines are making far closer to one HP/CID than any of the tin-can econoboxes
Well, I've got just one such "tin can econobox" in my driveway: a Honda Civic, 2002's #3 top selling car in the US. The base Civic engine is 102 CID, and power ouput is 115 HP. That's 1.127 HP/CID. For comparison, look at the Corvette. It has as standard a 350 HP, 350 CID V8. That's 1 HP/CID, less than the Civic. And don't forget, the Corvette is one of the highest-performance vehicles sold in the US. Yet its V8's specific output is less than that of many economy cars' 4-cylinders. In the end, though, it all goes to show there's no substitute for cubic inches.
Those pushrod V8s went out of production in the mid 1990's
Apparently, the parent is referring to the Ford 4.9 liter V8 (really, it's not 5.0 liters, check the specs,) which apparently is out of production. So you're right on that point. However, there are other pushrod V8s still available, most notably several varieties from GM: even the Corvette still comes with a pushrod V8. Not to mention the venerable GM 3800 V6.