There are too many things that encrypted information can be sent in. A simple "Coke sends this free drink tray" windows binary could probably have a code hidden in it.
If someone wants to hide information, they will, period. All this law would do is make our own information - our credit card numbers and personal information - less secure.
Lets face it : if the feds can break it, so can crackers.
It is a bad thing. The kid who gets the job may not cause any more trouble, thanks to having real responsibilities, but it encourages another 10 to take his place.
It depends on what you're doing. I've found generally that if I'm writing a GUI app, it's nice to have all of the tools that Visual C++ offers, but if I'm writing a quick CL app, I'd prefer to just use a Makefile and be done with it.
Why have we been working with actual physical models to provide standards for so long? Didn't there used to be a bar representing the "exact" length of a meter before they switched it over to the distance light can travel in 0.xxx seconds?
If you're going to have standards, at least base them on constants, like the aforementioned speed of light for distance, the mass of certain molecules for mass, and...hmmm...can anyone think of anything for time? (I don't know what they currently use) Keep in mind that speed-of-light is taken.
Interesting point - I'm not sure, but it would still have scalability behind it. It takes very little extra time to add a few extra digits to the key. Being able to brute-force it at 20X wouldn't be much of a worry if you tack two digits onto the key.
Seriously - I'm afraid you've got it right. It is far easier to install windows, then redo everything by going to icq.com, real.com, quicktime.com, etc ad nauseum, - once a year, than to learn something that doesn't involve double-clicking an icon.
The average user nowadays is CL-phobic and admini-phobic. If it can't be done by any user at any time by double-clicking an icon, then it's more effort than it's worth.
I've been working with computers for years, and I love Linux, but people who don't have a resident guru generally have no idea how to install a program. If they're willing to learn, more power to them, but most Joe Sixpacks would rather re-install every year with relative ease than go through the "hassle" of learning a new system.
I agree with your point of view, but humbly bow to the unwashed masses who do not.
Absolutely agreed. One of the big problems is permissions - people have to switch to root to do a bunch of stuff - and who wants that on a home computer? I suggest (and I'm not kidding now) an "Insecure Linux" flavour, where there is only the root user. It wouldn't be online all the time, and it wouldn't be used to serve anything your average home user wouldn't use (ie, Licq/Gnapster good, webserver bad). "Too much like Windows", you say? Then quit whining about Linux' market share. Your average user doesn't *want* to know about anything as complicated as switching users, let alone installing through rpm.
</rant>
Re:I'll get hammered, but Internet Explorer 6 is o
on
KOffice 1.1 Rolls Out
·
· Score: 1
Seriously. A new KOffice (and I love the thing, I really do) is released every few months at the latest. A new major number for IE is pretty rare. I'd like to see the story (although I don't know how much I'd enjoy the ensuing flame-wars)...
...and not have any control over anything the installation program does?
Rpms and tarballed source install a bunch of stuff without asking the user for any input at all. At least with an installer, the distributor can give certain install options (that don't require reading the manual). Tack "less README" and the time to read it on to the time to rpm-install a package.
Another nice thing about a GUI installer is that you at least have the illusion of seeing how fast it's getting done:-)
Anyway, I'm sure those oh-so-clever Slashcode people can make it so that stuff goes through fine. Hell, why not take every example of ASCII art and whump it into a database, so that every new masterpiece has to be original?
Now *that*'s fsckin' brilliant.
By code, I mean programming - Perl comes to mind. The thing's 90% punctuation as it is.
For what it's worth (and I'm pretty sure it's close to nil), reverse engineering something is a lot harder than writing the format in the first place.
And "windows" (it's an entity now?) probably would "steel" the code from an open source format, considering it would be posted along with the standard.
As an aside, wouldn't a (partially at least) effective lameness filter just be to filter all comments which use punctuation characters as more than, say, 15% of the total comment length (in proportion to the actual comment length or whatever)?
It would catch code, and geekcodes. The best solution is to just let the thing be modded down. The only thing the lameness filter seems to have accomplished is inspiring a lot more creativity in trolling.
Fine - what I meant to say is that significantly less people will get it than if it were free (and to save the rest of you the trouble, I'll put it here - "No shit Sherlock").
I don't personally know anyone who paid for Redhat, VMWare, or Win4Lin for home use. I know of a few businesses, but no home users. I won't say broadly that *nobody* does it, but I'd say that home-use customers are in the minority.
You're right about the messed up analogy, though - the headline threw me off, and I was thinking in "Quicktime-for-Linux" mode. A whole lot more people would be willing to pay for a Windows-plugin emulator than what I mistook this product for, so I'd like to retract my previous statement.
No one's saying that the developers shouldn't be allowed to charge for their work. We're just saying that no one will pay for the work. How many popular formatscan you name that charge for their viewers?
The second anyone creates a popular, free video format, Windows will offer it. Don't Linux users deserve the same thing? And in any case, this isn't hurting the creaters of these formats financially - it's helping by providing more computers to view their content.
I'm all for superior, innovative formats, but I'd like to be able to view older, crappier *cough*Windows*cough* formats as well.
Yeah - "Tabula Rasa" means "clean slate", as per above post. It may have other contexts, but the only context I've heard this phrase in is in psychology, where it refers to the theory that babies are born without any knowledge at all; their minds are a "clean slate".
Could be an interesting game if the name refers to something like this...
Re:in celebration, i declare a ....
on
Linux Is 10 Today
·
· Score: 1
Nope, just an (apparently) pitiful attempt at humour. Sorry for the waste of time. (See? Got the tags right this time...great thing, this "Preview" button)
Re:in celebration, i declare a ....
on
Linux Is 10 Today
·
· Score: 1
It was *sarcasm*
<sigh> I'm taking a lot of abuse because I accidentally typed in <grin>, rather than & lt;grin & gt;, and slashdot parsed it out (despite my "plain old text" setting)
I'll learn HTML eventually.
Re:in celebration, i declare a ....
on
Linux Is 10 Today
·
· Score: 1
Hey, I want my OS to do everything from cooling an overheating system to solving world hunger. Linux has still got a long way to go
Re:in celebration, i declare a ....
on
Linux Is 10 Today
·
· Score: 2, Funny
"never crashed"? Screw you! I had crashes many times a day, and not once did Linux detect that my fan had come loose.
I read an article a few years back that explained how scientists at CERN, IIRC were trying to determine if there was any chance that perhaps these experiments would cause an unexpected chain reaction that would destroy the world....glad to see we're still around.
The money we're talking about is NOT from record sales, but from the levy charged on CD-Rs (in Canada, at least). It makes sense for a record company to divy out their record sales however they see fit to the artists signed to them. But when there's a levy on CD-R's, there should be a method in place by which every artist who has released a CD should be able to get his or her cut.
Slashdot Mirror
There are too many things that encrypted information can be sent in. A simple "Coke sends this free drink tray" windows binary could probably have a code hidden in it.
If someone wants to hide information, they will, period. All this law would do is make our own information - our credit card numbers and personal information - less secure.
Lets face it : if the feds can break it, so can crackers.
It is a bad thing. The kid who gets the job may not cause any more trouble, thanks to having real responsibilities, but it encourages another 10 to take his place.
Yeah, the "brave new world's" called "Canada".
It depends on what you're doing. I've found generally that if I'm writing a GUI app, it's nice to have all of the tools that Visual C++ offers, but if I'm writing a quick CL app, I'd prefer to just use a Makefile and be done with it.
...they're far smarter than me - thanks for the answers.
Why have we been working with actual physical models to provide standards for so long? Didn't there used to be a bar representing the "exact" length of a meter before they switched it over to the distance light can travel in 0.xxx seconds?
If you're going to have standards, at least base them on constants, like the aforementioned speed of light for distance, the mass of certain molecules for mass, and...hmmm...can anyone think of anything for time? (I don't know what they currently use) Keep in mind that speed-of-light is taken.
Interesting point - I'm not sure, but it would still have scalability behind it. It takes very little extra time to add a few extra digits to the key. Being able to brute-force it at 20X wouldn't be much of a worry if you tack two digits onto the key.
Seriously - I'm afraid you've got it right. It is far easier to install windows, then redo everything by going to icq.com, real.com, quicktime.com, etc ad nauseum, - once a year, than to learn something that doesn't involve double-clicking an icon.
The average user nowadays is CL-phobic and admini-phobic. If it can't be done by any user at any time by double-clicking an icon, then it's more effort than it's worth.
I've been working with computers for years, and I love Linux, but people who don't have a resident guru generally have no idea how to install a program. If they're willing to learn, more power to them, but most Joe Sixpacks would rather re-install every year with relative ease than go through the "hassle" of learning a new system.
I agree with your point of view, but humbly bow to the unwashed masses who do not.
Absolutely agreed. One of the big problems is permissions - people have to switch to root to do a bunch of stuff - and who wants that on a home computer? I suggest (and I'm not kidding now) an "Insecure Linux" flavour, where there is only the root user. It wouldn't be online all the time, and it wouldn't be used to serve anything your average home user wouldn't use (ie, Licq/Gnapster good, webserver bad). "Too much like Windows", you say? Then quit whining about Linux' market share. Your average user doesn't *want* to know about anything as complicated as switching users, let alone installing through rpm.
</rant>
Seriously. A new KOffice (and I love the thing, I really do) is released every few months at the latest. A new major number for IE is pretty rare. I'd like to see the story (although I don't know how much I'd enjoy the ensuing flame-wars)...
As another poster said :
...and not have any control over anything the installation program does?
:-)
Rpms and tarballed source install a bunch of stuff without asking the user for any input at all. At least with an installer, the distributor can give certain install options (that don't require reading the manual). Tack "less README" and the time to read it on to the time to rpm-install a package.
Another nice thing about a GUI installer is that you at least have the illusion of seeing how fast it's getting done
Anyway, I'm sure those oh-so-clever Slashcode people can make it so that stuff goes through fine. Hell, why not take every example of ASCII art and whump it into a database, so that every new masterpiece has to be original?
Now *that*'s fsckin' brilliant.
By code, I mean programming - Perl comes to mind. The thing's 90% punctuation as it is.
For what it's worth (and I'm pretty sure it's close to nil), reverse engineering something is a lot harder than writing the format in the first place.
And "windows" (it's an entity now?) probably would "steel" the code from an open source format, considering it would be posted along with the standard.
As an aside, wouldn't a (partially at least) effective lameness filter just be to filter all comments which use punctuation characters as more than, say, 15% of the total comment length (in proportion to the actual comment length or whatever)?
It would catch code, and geekcodes. The best solution is to just let the thing be modded down. The only thing the lameness filter seems to have accomplished is inspiring a lot more creativity in trolling.
Fine - what I meant to say is that significantly less people will get it than if it were free (and to save the rest of you the trouble, I'll put it here - "No shit Sherlock").
I don't personally know anyone who paid for Redhat, VMWare, or Win4Lin for home use. I know of a few businesses, but no home users. I won't say broadly that *nobody* does it, but I'd say that home-use customers are in the minority.
You're right about the messed up analogy, though - the headline threw me off, and I was thinking in "Quicktime-for-Linux" mode. A whole lot more people would be willing to pay for a Windows-plugin emulator than what I mistook this product for, so I'd like to retract my previous statement.
My bad.
No one's saying that the developers shouldn't be allowed to charge for their work. We're just saying that no one will pay for the work. How many popular formatscan you name that charge for their viewers?
The second anyone creates a popular, free video format, Windows will offer it. Don't Linux users deserve the same thing? And in any case, this isn't hurting the creaters of these formats financially - it's helping by providing more computers to view their content.
I'm all for superior, innovative formats, but I'd like to be able to view older, crappier *cough*Windows*cough* formats as well.
Yeah - "Tabula Rasa" means "clean slate", as per above post. It may have other contexts, but the only context I've heard this phrase in is in psychology, where it refers to the theory that babies are born without any knowledge at all; their minds are a "clean slate".
Could be an interesting game if the name refers to something like this...
Nope, just an (apparently) pitiful attempt at humour. Sorry for the waste of time. (See? Got the tags right this time...great thing, this "Preview" button)
It was *sarcasm*
<sigh> I'm taking a lot of abuse because I accidentally typed in <grin>, rather than & lt;grin & gt;, and slashdot parsed it out (despite my "plain old text" setting)
I'll learn HTML eventually.
Hey, I want my OS to do everything from cooling an overheating system to solving world hunger. Linux has still got a long way to go
"never crashed"? Screw you! I had crashes many times a day, and not once did Linux detect that my fan had come loose.
Actually, here's a story on how we narrowly averted an apocalypse, thanks to the wonders of the laws of physics.
I read an article a few years back that explained how scientists at CERN, IIRC were trying to determine if there was any chance that perhaps these experiments would cause an unexpected chain reaction that would destroy the world....glad to see we're still around.
The money we're talking about is NOT from record sales, but from the levy charged on CD-Rs (in Canada, at least). It makes sense for a record company to divy out their record sales however they see fit to the artists signed to them. But when there's a levy on CD-R's, there should be a method in place by which every artist who has released a CD should be able to get his or her cut.