If you eliminate the fans, or put utterly silent ones in, what the frell are us techies who depend on white noise as a relaxation aid supposed to do? How can you possibly expect us to fall asleep in our chairs without that nice, ongoing, semi-pneumatic 'whirroosshh!' to mask out the noise of the couple getting it on in the supply room next door?
Criminys, some manufacturers just take all the fun out of tech-work...;-)
A CD player affecting modern avionics? Oh, please...
I'm an electronics engineering tech, and I used to work for Boeing. I've seen how the 'black boxes' are put together, and how they're installed in the jets. They're heavily shielded against stray interference, both by their own grounded metal housing and by the fact that every single non-coaxial wire going into the thing goes through at least a bypass capacitor, if not the cap and a ferrite bead, before it ever hits its destination.
Don't even get me started on how many of those wire bundles have shield braid over the inner conductors.
Couple that with the fact that there's a solid metal floor between the 'people' area and the avionics bay, AND the fact that the boxes are all mounted in a grounded rack, and I have a lot of trouble believing that a CD player could so much as create an electronic hiccup in anything more than the headphones of the person using it. If it did, then there was something seriously wrong with the plane's avionics to begin with.
Show me independently-verified lab results that a CD player (or anything else in the cellphone or PDA category) can freak out fully functional and properly installed avionics, and I will cheerfully STFU. Until then, I would consider such a story to be in the same category as the Weekly World News reporting that Edgar Cayce had been reincarnated as a psychic fly.
Far from it. Speed, in fact, is about second or third on my priorities list when it comes to looking at broadband.
What is a priority for me is whether I can be completely self-hosted. Find me a cable provider that will give me six static IP's, let me be completely authoritative on DNS for all the domains I host, and let me handle my own mail, web, and FTP servers, AND do it all for less than I'm currently paying for my DSL line and ISP, and I might consider switching.
In summary; Don't just look at the line speed. Ask yourself what you want to do with it. Somehow, I doubt any of the cable providers are willing to even consider letting their users do any or all of the above for less than hundreds of $$ per month (if at all).
The only way that marketing E-mail would EVER be "acceptable" to me is if it is not sent at all unless I explicitly ask for it first, AND confirm that request with a unique and randomly-generated token that the sender will keep on file along with my request.
That's confirmed opt-in. That's the right way to do E-mail marketing because anything you send with it is not spam by default; It was asked for by the recipient(s).
Oh, BTW, people that send "requested marketing email" are, by definition of the term "requested," not sending spam to begin with. You've got some self-contradiction in your post when you say that the spammers are just trying to send stuff that was requested. Heck, that might even be believable if they weren't all known career spammers to begin with.
The issue of spam is not now, and never has been, about CONTENT. It has always been about CONSENT. As in 'advance, explicit, informed, and confirmed' consent to receive the stuff. Spam would vanish overnight if the DMA and other marketdroids would just get that fact through their collective thick skulls.
This is 'stepping-stone' technology, along the same lines as hybrid gasoline/electric vehicles. They're still depending on hard drives for mass data storage. It's just the executables, libraries, and other application-type goodies that they're sticking into RAM.
You can do exactly the same thing by sticking an operating program into any sort of non-volatile storage (EPROM, EEPROM, memory card, whatever), and including a hard drive in the same device if need be. The new filesystem they're describing simply shifts more of the load to the silicon side instead of the electromechanical realm.
In short; The Disk is far from dead. This is just a first step in that direction.
Illiad has it right...
on
Easter Humor
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· Score: 1
The User Friendly strip for Easter Sunday has the right idea.;-)
Seems to me that VOIP transmissions could be pretty easily encrypted, just like E-mail can be with PGP. In fact, it's easier to encrypt digital traffic than it is any analog device (think POTS phones).
At the risk of sounding cynical, isn't that exactly the same thing that was said in the late 90's, shortly before the dot-bomb?
I will believe it when I see it.
I'll say this much...
on
Gas Goes Solid
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· Score: 2, Funny
It certainly adds new meaning to the phrase "It gives me gas." I can just picture future parents of a teen on his/her first night out driving the family vehicle...
"Sure I am tired of my spam but its not really an inconvenience, a couple clicks and it is gone. Isn't all this legislation going to start infringing on rights in the future if not now?"
No, because you're missing an important fact, and it can be summed up in three simple words; 'Private Property Rights.'
Contrary to popular belief, the Internet is not now, nor has it ever been, a truly "public" resource. It remains today, as it was in its humble beginnings, a vast collection of privately-owned computers, routers, switches, and data pipes.
The respective owners of all this stuff have, for the most part, graciously allowed others to use the resources in exchange for periodic fees appropriate to the type of usage. Spamming is not 'use;' Spamming is 'abuse.' Period.
Think about it; If the Internet really were a "public" resource, then there would be free or government-subsidized access for everyone, funded by Your Tax Dollars. Under such a setup, anyone who had a system connected to the 'net would likely be required to carry whatever traffic the government says they have to carry, especially if they're drawing government funds to keep their 'net presence operational.
I can state with absolute confidence that no one is paying me to maintain my servers. All the costs associated with maintaining my 'net presence -- electricity, bandwidth, maintenance and repairs -- are coming straight out of my pocket. No one's helping me; I do it because I want to, because I think the 'net can be a very valuable and useful tool in many ways.
As Jim Nitchalls once put it; "Free speech is not free when it comes postage-due," and that's exactly the problem with spam. When someone spams me, or one of my other users, they are literally stealing my resources for their own personal gain. I will not permit that under any conditions.
To that end, I make use of SPEWS, Spamhaus, other DNSBL's, and my own local blacklist to stop spam before it even enters the mail queue. Other Internet providers, motivated by user complaints, are taking the same measures. To many (myself included), the small risk of losing legitimate mail is worth it if it stems the flow of crap that threatens to overwhelm legitimate traffic to begin with.
If you're happy with spammers stealing your ISP's resources, and adding to your monthly costs as a result (it has been estimated that handling spam adds between $3-$5 to each Internet user's monthly bill), well, that's your privilege. However, don't ask me to accept any traffic from ISP's that are weak about terminating connectivity to their pet spammers, because I won't.
My servers, my bandwidth, my rules. Free speech does not apply in this context any more than it would if someone were to attach a big billboard to the side of your house without asking you, or arranging any form of compensation.
Had to have been, because my experience has been just the opposite. I called them to see about service docs for a couple of 11400-series digitizing O-scopes. Used to be that Tek would offer at least document support for ten years after production stopped.
No more! Despite the fact that production of the 11402 hadn't stopped until the mid-90's, all support -- including manuals -- was discontinued right around -- guess when? -- January of 2000, the same year they dropped their analog 'scope lines.
What's more, they were anything but nice about it. They copped attitude on me, along the lines of "Why in the world are you using that old junk?" and they wouldn't even discuss so much as manuals for the thing.
I guess they don't want their older (and still reliable) stuff competing with the Taiwan-built crap. I'd say you got really lucky if you were able to get data on the 321.
After all, xtra.co.nz was also the ISP that wrongly sued ORBS out of existence. It comes as no shock to me at all that they'd try anything they could to benefit themselves as a company, and screw their users in the process.
It is because of such deplorable practices that xtra.co.nz, as a domain, enjoys permanent residency in Blue Feather's 'Deny Access' list. I'm sure I can't be the only admin who's done that.
EVERYthing I've seen in the last decade or so in the electronics field, with the rare exception of some very high-end (and expensive, if bought new) test equipment, has been suffering from a progressive degradation in quality of design and physical build. Here's just a few examples:
1A2 Key Telephone Systems: Rugged as all get-out. Granted, they need one 25-pair cable per phone, but they just Kept On Going, and they had a nice balance of features perfect for small and medium-size businesses. My own has lasted over 25 years, and in all that time I've replaced maybe a couple of fuses and one bridge diode.
Their fate: All 1A2 equipment recalled by AT&T was destroyed by crusher and recycled. I guess it was TOO reliable to the point where it competed effectively with newer and cheaper crap. They're still made by ITT/Comdial, but their heyday passed with the death of the 'ever-better engineering' philosophy propagated by the original Bell System.
Tektronix: Used to be THE name in oscilloscopes, RF spectrum analyzers, and other gear. In the year 1998, they stopped including schematics and servicing info in their instrument manuals (and they used to have some of the best documentation in the business!) In 2000, they completely discontinued their entire analog 'scope line. Now, in 2K3, they're selling cheap crap that's made overseas and final-assembled in the U.S., and they couldn't care less about supporting older (and still very useful!) gear if it's over five years old.
Hewlett-Packard: Don't go there with me. They spun their entire test equipment division off into something called "Agilent." They used to have a most (older) IBM-ish attitude towards their gear, in that you could get manuals and parts for test gear up to at least ten years beyond its last production date. Not any more! Not with Crazy Foolerina at the top of the ladder. Now, what was once one of Silicon Valley's proudest achievements lies in ruins, fragmented into a company that doesn't seem to know what it wants to make, or what companies it wants to merge with next.
I could go on, but it's too depressing. Suffice to say that true "innovation," in my eyes, means taking the best lessons and techniques from older (and PROVEN!) technology, combining it with the best ideas from the new stuff, and watching what happens. It also, to my eyes, means finding better ways to build stuff that will LAST!
Does anyone have any real idea of how much of the planet's raw materials and resources have been wasted on "throwaway" technology that'll be polluting landfills for generations to come? No? I didn't think so. I doubt anyone really does know for sure (or care, to judge by today's corporate "ethics" -- or lack thereof).
Being paranoid again...
on
Legacy-Free PCs
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· Score: 3, Insightful
I see a deeper issue with this apparent obsession with "legacy-free," and it has NOTHING to do with "holding back the state-of-the-art."
First, consider this; All the peripherals mentioned -- ISA slots (which, admittedly, I wouldn't mind seeing go away), serial ports, parallel ports, keyboard-and-mouse ports -- are all dirt cheap, and dead easy to implement. The technology to do so has been around for decades. It is proven, it's stable, and it's all (as others have pointed out) add-ons. Having add-ons does NOTHING that I can see to inhibit the "evolution" of the core microprocessor and support logic.
UNLESS, that is, you're Microsoft or Hollywood. Consider all the noise in recent years about digital copyrights, copy protection, ad nauseum. Consider the vast array of add-ons Out There that let consumers burn CDs, DVDs, make tape backups, etc., adding to Jack Valenti and Hilary Rosen's ongoing nightmares. Consider further that Microsoft is one of several companies in a partnership that dictates PC hardware standards.
Now, how do you wrest control away from the computer consumer, in a slow and insidious fashion, so they won't even guess what's happening until its too late? In other words, how do you turn those pesky general-purpose PCs into something that will still do everything Joe or Jane SixPack will want it to, but that exerts all kinds of copy controls and limitations when you hook one of those annoying CD or DVD burners to it?
Why, that's easy. Disguise the removal of those annoyingly versatile, general-purpose, and (most importantly) difficult-to-copy-control features like serial, parallel, SCSI, and others as moving towards "legacy-free" systems!
What's more, let's remake the operating system so that add-on peripherals have to be blessed by Microsoft in order to even run with Windows, today and more than ever in the future! Sure! Just let Uncle Steve, Uncle Bill, and the RIAA/MPAA take care of EVERYTHING, and you won't ever have to worry about violating copyrights, or learning ANYthing more about computers than where the "On" switch is, ever again. Trust us, we know what's best for You!
Consider that, in the not-too-distant future, might we see a "PC" that has NO expansion slots? Just Redmond and Hollywood-approved "ports?"
Yes, I probably am letting my paranoid side run rampant again. However, as I said in another post; If the consumer crowd wants to let themselves be led around by the nose, fine. That's their privilege. All I ask is don't force this "Legacy-Free!" crap down the throats of those of us who don't need it, don't want it, and can't possibly make use of it for our applications.
Re:Let's hear it for legacy free!
on
Legacy-Free PCs
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· Score: 1
You write...
"No sign of those rs-232, or parallel ports. No ps2 or keyboard ports either..."
And this is a good thing because...?
Such a machine would be utterly useless to me in 90% of the applications I run. I need a parallel port to talk to my UPS shipping label printer, an RS232 port to talk to the package scale, a couple more RS232 ports for testing/talking to console-driven electronic test equipment, etc. Serial ports are one of the most versatile things ever to come along and, as others have pointed out, UARTs are cheap and a no-brainer to interface to.
What's more, I couldn't care less about the latest craze in OS's. NT 4, and even old faithful MS-DOS, do what I need them to do, and they do it efficiently and well. I have no REASON to "upgrade."
This is another of those cases where I have to ask 'Just because we CAN do something with technology, does it necessarily mean that we SHOULD?'
Why are we trying to get rid of mouse and PS/2 keyboard ports? Why do we need such things to be on USB, which only a few OS's handle? Dedicated ports have worked perfectly well for both devices for the last ten years, and they'd continue to work well for however long they're in place.
In other words, the technology is proven and stable; Why was it suddenly decided "Oh, these are Bad. They need to 'evolve.'"
I have no objection if other people think a "legacy-free" machine is the Way to Go. Just don't force it on those of us who have other applications and needs that DEMAND legacy stuff.
To me, the biggest question that comes up in regards to technology is; Just because we CAN do something with it, does it always mean that we should? Aren't there plenty of other issues that are far more worthy of our attention than making our appliances all talk to each other over the Internet?
How is our own growth, as a people and a culture, going to be better served by having such appliances, or blowing zillions of tax dollars on bridging the "Digital Divide" as opposed to feeding ourselves and other needy countries (and what better way to make insane dictators in other countries look unappealing to the local populace than to feed, clothe, and help said populace become literate enough to decide for themselves who should lead them? It sure works better than being the playground bully, like the Shrub seems to want).
How are our kids going to stand up, in terms of education and in terms of being this country's future leaders, against the kids of other countries when the teaching of reading, writing, math, and -- most importantly -- critical thinking and social skills is neglected in favor of corporate-sponsored sports scholarships and pep rallies?
How are the sciences and engineering fields ever going to be made appealing if those that choose them know that their future jobs are just going to be outsourced to foreign countries?
What's the motivation to even enter those fields if it comes with the knowledge that one will, just because they've chosen to use the brains that God gave them, be bullied and socially ostracized throughout one's entire set of primary and high-school years?
Can someone explain to me how having your refrigerator send you E-mail when you're out of milk is going to solve problems like those?
Technology is nothing more than a tool. It is a neutral tool that can serve the forces of Creation and Destruction equally well. How it is made to serve, and which side, is a reflection of the priorities of those who use it.
I don't pretend to have all the answers, but, based on what I'm seeing of our technology use alone, I really think our priorities, as a culture and as a country, could use some double-checking.
Spammers usually define spamming as "That which they do not do."
Here, we have a case where Microsoft is simply redefining software piracy as "That which we do not do."
Since Microsoft has also been known to spam, and has tried to weaken anti-spam laws in their favor, it comes as no surprise to me that the left hand has no idea of what the right is doing when it comes to handing out software.
Spammer logic. Amazing -- and kind of frightening -- how contagious it is.
If Steve "Uncle Fester" Balmy thinks he can produce a better product than Google, then I personally invite him to stick his neck out and do it!
However, he should bear in mind that whatever MS creates:
(1) Will have to have a noticeable lack of any sort of banner ads or popups.
(2) Will have to have a clean, simple, easy-to-use interface that's compatible with ANY BROWSER, from the text-based Lynx on up to the latest version of Opera, Netscape, or IE.
(3) Will have to be fully compatible with text-based screen readers, such as those used by vision-impaired folks.
(4) Will actually have to work as well as, or better than, Google if MS wants it to have a ghost of a chance.
Right now, Google completely fulfills requirements 1-3. I will be watching with great amusement as Uncle Steve and his Cronies try to add "value" to the search engine "experience," and most likely fall flat on their collective arses doing it.
...Have been doing photo-tweaking for years. Believe you me, it's nothing new.
Some of the funnier examples I've seen on the front page of the 'Weekly World News' while waiting in the checkout line at the food store;
"Edgar Cayce Reincarnated as Psychic Fly!"
Darned if this one didn't have an enlarged microphotograph of a fly with Cayce's face matted on top of its head. To WWN's credit, they did a decent job; It really did look like a big fly with a human head.
"Baby dolphin born with human hands!"
This one wasn't done quite so well. They took a stock photo (probably from the old Marineland park in St. Augustine, FL) of a mother and baby dolphin swimming together, and did some digital trickery to make it appear that the youngster had very short arms and a pair of hands instead of pec fins. The proportions were way off, as anyone who's spent any amount of time around live dolphins would know in a heartbeat.
The irony there is that a dolphin's pec fin does, in fact, have four finger bones, one shorter one where a thumb would be, and a wrist joint nearly identical to that of a human. I have to wonder if WWN already knew this, figured other people might know, and simply took the next (il)logical step forward.
Anyway; Digital trickery in photos, if done for the right reasons, is a fantastic tool for creative comedy. Done for other reasons, well... That's already been well-covered in this topic.
As I read it, and as others have pointed out, the new law makes an instant criminal out of (probably) 95%+ of the DSL and cable DSU users in the affected state. Anyone who uses a NAT-capable device (myself included) could be in a most uncomfortable position due to crap like this.
That's the bad news. The good news is that, given the sheer volume of people that already have NAT-type hookups, I don't see how this can possibly be effectively enforced. Even if the affected states try to make an example out of a few folks, it'll probably get appealed until doomsday.
I predict widespread 'civil disobedience' at first, followed by an effective court challenge that will overturn such legislative lunacy.
A Volkswagen Beetle the size of a small meteor exploded over Stuttgart today. It is believed that the Beetle in question was Germany's entry to the reality TV show, "Junkyard Wars." More specifically, it is believed that the vehicle was the result of the German team to create an economical and easy-to-maintain space shuttle.
The Beetle's flight recorder or "Black Box" was recovered approximately eighteen kilometers from the explosion site, solidly protected from impact and other forms of destruction by being secured inside the spare tire. Data from the recorder is still being analyzed, but it appears that the initial explosion was caused by a mid-air rear-ender collision with another "Junkyard Wars" team entry from Poland; Specifically, a modified Ford Pinto station wagon.
It is fortunate that both vehicles were unmanned drones; No one was killed in the blasts, but the Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen have suspended a planned merger until more is known about the incident...
Well, I decided to try going straight to the horse's mouth, as it were (ewwww! When was the last time this nag saw their dentist?!) I just got off the phone with the store manager at my local Office Despot, and -- are you ready for this? -- I knew more about it (from reading the article) than he did! In fact, he asked me to forward him the URL (which I did).
This tells me that OD may not have even decided where they're going with this right away, outside of getting persnickety with their suppliers. I don't see it affecting "generic" stuff like cables, CD-R media, floppies, etc., nor (according to the manager I spoke with) is it likely to cause them to stop carrying stuff like Linux or FreeBSD packages.
OD is, I was told, in the market to make sure that everything they sell in the computer hardware arena works with everything else they sell in the software arena. Those dreaded "Unsigned Driver" messages are indeed a big sticking point. They're out to provide, in the manager's words, a "Total Solution" to their customers (yes, you can laugh now).
I don't dare invoke Godwin by making a comparison that I'm sure you can guess at. I will say that I've bought maybe two software packages at CompUSA in the last ten years, and I don't see that changing any time soon, especially since you couldn't PAY me to use X(tra)P(ain).
The only other thing I'll add is that, in the long run, I believe this will only increase the demand for older (as in pre-XP and, more importainly, pre-DRM) software and hardware. I think, once again, the used-computer market is about to see another metaphorical shot in the arm (at least from those who know what the frell they're doing).
If this legislative loon manages to push something like that through, aimed specifically at students, I believe it would not only be questionable from a constitutional PoV (class discrimination, no pun intended), but that it would also have the direct opposite of the desired effect. It would probably spark widespread civil disobedience on a scale not seen since the last draft-card burning.
I have to wonder if the guy's an RIAA/MPAA shill. I also have to wonder if the entertainment industry, as it stands today, is ever going to realize that they need to either change their business model or be metaphorically swept away.
Slashdot Mirror
If you eliminate the fans, or put utterly silent ones in, what the frell are us techies who depend on white noise as a relaxation aid supposed to do? How can you possibly expect us to fall asleep in our chairs without that nice, ongoing, semi-pneumatic 'whirroosshh!' to mask out the noise of the couple getting it on in the supply room next door?
;-)
Criminys, some manufacturers just take all the fun out of tech-work...
A CD player affecting modern avionics? Oh, please...
I'm an electronics engineering tech, and I used to work for Boeing. I've seen how the 'black boxes' are put together, and how they're installed in the jets. They're heavily shielded against stray interference, both by their own grounded metal housing and by the fact that every single non-coaxial wire going into the thing goes through at least a bypass capacitor, if not the cap and a ferrite bead, before it ever hits its destination.
Don't even get me started on how many of those wire bundles have shield braid over the inner conductors.
Couple that with the fact that there's a solid metal floor between the 'people' area and the avionics bay, AND the fact that the boxes are all mounted in a grounded rack, and I have a lot of trouble believing that a CD player could so much as create an electronic hiccup in anything more than the headphones of the person using it. If it did, then there was something seriously wrong with the plane's avionics to begin with.
Show me independently-verified lab results that a CD player (or anything else in the cellphone or PDA category) can freak out fully functional and properly installed avionics, and I will cheerfully STFU. Until then, I would consider such a story to be in the same category as the Weekly World News reporting that Edgar Cayce had been reincarnated as a psychic fly.
Far from it. Speed, in fact, is about second or third on my priorities list when it comes to looking at broadband.
What is a priority for me is whether I can be completely self-hosted. Find me a cable provider that will give me six static IP's, let me be completely authoritative on DNS for all the domains I host, and let me handle my own mail, web, and FTP servers, AND do it all for less than I'm currently paying for my DSL line and ISP, and I might consider switching.
In summary; Don't just look at the line speed. Ask yourself what you want to do with it. Somehow, I doubt any of the cable providers are willing to even consider letting their users do any or all of the above for less than hundreds of $$ per month (if at all).
The only way that marketing E-mail would EVER be "acceptable" to me is if it is not sent at all unless I explicitly ask for it first, AND confirm that request with a unique and randomly-generated token that the sender will keep on file along with my request.
That's confirmed opt-in. That's the right way to do E-mail marketing because anything you send with it is not spam by default; It was asked for by the recipient(s).
Oh, BTW, people that send "requested marketing email" are, by definition of the term "requested," not sending spam to begin with. You've got some self-contradiction in your post when you say that the spammers are just trying to send stuff that was requested. Heck, that might even be believable if they weren't all known career spammers to begin with.
The issue of spam is not now, and never has been, about CONTENT. It has always been about CONSENT. As in 'advance, explicit, informed, and confirmed' consent to receive the stuff. Spam would vanish overnight if the DMA and other marketdroids would just get that fact through their collective thick skulls.
Rule #1: Spammers lie, cheat, and steal.
;-)
Rule #2: If you think a spammer is telling the truth, or being honest, see Rule #1.
Rule #3: Spammers are stupid.
Rule #4: Spammers define spam as "That Which I Do Not Send."
This isn't rocket science, folks.
This is 'stepping-stone' technology, along the same lines as hybrid gasoline/electric vehicles. They're still depending on hard drives for mass data storage. It's just the executables, libraries, and other application-type goodies that they're sticking into RAM.
You can do exactly the same thing by sticking an operating program into any sort of non-volatile storage (EPROM, EEPROM, memory card, whatever), and including a hard drive in the same device if need be. The new filesystem they're describing simply shifts more of the load to the silicon side instead of the electromechanical realm.
In short; The Disk is far from dead. This is just a first step in that direction.
The User Friendly strip for Easter Sunday has the right idea. ;-)
Seems to me that VOIP transmissions could be pretty easily encrypted, just like E-mail can be with PGP. In fact, it's easier to encrypt digital traffic than it is any analog device (think POTS phones).
At the risk of sounding cynical, isn't that exactly the same thing that was said in the late 90's, shortly before the dot-bomb?
I will believe it when I see it.
It certainly adds new meaning to the phrase "It gives me gas." I can just picture future parents of a teen on his/her first night out driving the family vehicle...
"Dear, did you remember to give our son gas?"
"Yes, I did. His trunk is full of it..."
Etc.
You write...
"Sure I am tired of my spam but its not really an inconvenience, a couple clicks and it is gone. Isn't all this legislation going to start infringing on rights in the future if not now?"
No, because you're missing an important fact, and it can be summed up in three simple words; 'Private Property Rights.'
Contrary to popular belief, the Internet is not now, nor has it ever been, a truly "public" resource. It remains today, as it was in its humble beginnings, a vast collection of privately-owned computers, routers, switches, and data pipes.
The respective owners of all this stuff have, for the most part, graciously allowed others to use the resources in exchange for periodic fees appropriate to the type of usage. Spamming is not 'use;' Spamming is 'abuse.' Period.
Think about it; If the Internet really were a "public" resource, then there would be free or government-subsidized access for everyone, funded by Your Tax Dollars. Under such a setup, anyone who had a system connected to the 'net would likely be required to carry whatever traffic the government says they have to carry, especially if they're drawing government funds to keep their 'net presence operational.
I can state with absolute confidence that no one is paying me to maintain my servers. All the costs associated with maintaining my 'net presence -- electricity, bandwidth, maintenance and repairs -- are coming straight out of my pocket. No one's helping me; I do it because I want to, because I think the 'net can be a very valuable and useful tool in many ways.
As Jim Nitchalls once put it; "Free speech is not free when it comes postage-due," and that's exactly the problem with spam. When someone spams me, or one of my other users, they are literally stealing my resources for their own personal gain. I will not permit that under any conditions.
To that end, I make use of SPEWS, Spamhaus, other DNSBL's, and my own local blacklist to stop spam before it even enters the mail queue. Other Internet providers, motivated by user complaints, are taking the same measures. To many (myself included), the small risk of losing legitimate mail is worth it if it stems the flow of crap that threatens to overwhelm legitimate traffic to begin with.
If you're happy with spammers stealing your ISP's resources, and adding to your monthly costs as a result (it has been estimated that handling spam adds between $3-$5 to each Internet user's monthly bill), well, that's your privilege. However, don't ask me to accept any traffic from ISP's that are weak about terminating connectivity to their pet spammers, because I won't.
My servers, my bandwidth, my rules. Free speech does not apply in this context any more than it would if someone were to attach a big billboard to the side of your house without asking you, or arranging any form of compensation.
Had to have been, because my experience has been just the opposite. I called them to see about service docs for a couple of 11400-series digitizing O-scopes. Used to be that Tek would offer at least document support for ten years after production stopped.
No more! Despite the fact that production of the 11402 hadn't stopped until the mid-90's, all support -- including manuals -- was discontinued right around -- guess when? -- January of 2000, the same year they dropped their analog 'scope lines.
What's more, they were anything but nice about it. They copped attitude on me, along the lines of "Why in the world are you using that old junk?" and they wouldn't even discuss so much as manuals for the thing.
I guess they don't want their older (and still reliable) stuff competing with the Taiwan-built crap. I'd say you got really lucky if you were able to get data on the 321.
After all, xtra.co.nz was also the ISP that wrongly sued ORBS out of existence. It comes as no shock to me at all that they'd try anything they could to benefit themselves as a company, and screw their users in the process.
It is because of such deplorable practices that xtra.co.nz, as a domain, enjoys permanent residency in Blue Feather's 'Deny Access' list. I'm sure I can't be the only admin who's done that.
EVERYthing I've seen in the last decade or so in the electronics field, with the rare exception of some very high-end (and expensive, if bought new) test equipment, has been suffering from a progressive degradation in quality of design and physical build. Here's just a few examples:
1A2 Key Telephone Systems: Rugged as all get-out. Granted, they need one 25-pair cable per phone, but they just Kept On Going, and they had a nice balance of features perfect for small and medium-size businesses. My own has lasted over 25 years, and in all that time I've replaced maybe a couple of fuses and one bridge diode.
Their fate: All 1A2 equipment recalled by AT&T was destroyed by crusher and recycled. I guess it was TOO reliable to the point where it competed effectively with newer and cheaper crap. They're still made by ITT/Comdial, but their heyday passed with the death of the 'ever-better engineering' philosophy propagated by the original Bell System.
Tektronix: Used to be THE name in oscilloscopes, RF spectrum analyzers, and other gear. In the year 1998, they stopped including schematics and servicing info in their instrument manuals (and they used to have some of the best documentation in the business!) In 2000, they completely discontinued their entire analog 'scope line. Now, in 2K3, they're selling cheap crap that's made overseas and final-assembled in the U.S., and they couldn't care less about supporting older (and still very useful!) gear if it's over five years old.
Hewlett-Packard: Don't go there with me. They spun their entire test equipment division off into something called "Agilent." They used to have a most (older) IBM-ish attitude towards their gear, in that you could get manuals and parts for test gear up to at least ten years beyond its last production date. Not any more! Not with Crazy Foolerina at the top of the ladder. Now, what was once one of Silicon Valley's proudest achievements lies in ruins, fragmented into a company that doesn't seem to know what it wants to make, or what companies it wants to merge with next.
I could go on, but it's too depressing. Suffice to say that true "innovation," in my eyes, means taking the best lessons and techniques from older (and PROVEN!) technology, combining it with the best ideas from the new stuff, and watching what happens. It also, to my eyes, means finding better ways to build stuff that will LAST!
Does anyone have any real idea of how much of the planet's raw materials and resources have been wasted on "throwaway" technology that'll be polluting landfills for generations to come? No? I didn't think so. I doubt anyone really does know for sure (or care, to judge by today's corporate "ethics" -- or lack thereof).
I see a deeper issue with this apparent obsession with "legacy-free," and it has NOTHING to do with "holding back the state-of-the-art."
First, consider this; All the peripherals mentioned -- ISA slots (which, admittedly, I wouldn't mind seeing go away), serial ports, parallel ports, keyboard-and-mouse ports -- are all dirt cheap, and dead easy to implement. The technology to do so has been around for decades. It is proven, it's stable, and it's all (as others have pointed out) add-ons. Having add-ons does NOTHING that I can see to inhibit the "evolution" of the core microprocessor and support logic.
UNLESS, that is, you're Microsoft or Hollywood. Consider all the noise in recent years about digital copyrights, copy protection, ad nauseum. Consider the vast array of add-ons Out There that let consumers burn CDs, DVDs, make tape backups, etc., adding to Jack Valenti and Hilary Rosen's ongoing nightmares. Consider further that Microsoft is one of several companies in a partnership that dictates PC hardware standards.
Now, how do you wrest control away from the computer consumer, in a slow and insidious fashion, so they won't even guess what's happening until its too late? In other words, how do you turn those pesky general-purpose PCs into something that will still do everything Joe or Jane SixPack will want it to, but that exerts all kinds of copy controls and limitations when you hook one of those annoying CD or DVD burners to it?
Why, that's easy. Disguise the removal of those annoyingly versatile, general-purpose, and (most importantly) difficult-to-copy-control features like serial, parallel, SCSI, and others as moving towards "legacy-free" systems!
What's more, let's remake the operating system so that add-on peripherals have to be blessed by Microsoft in order to even run with Windows, today and more than ever in the future! Sure! Just let Uncle Steve, Uncle Bill, and the RIAA/MPAA take care of EVERYTHING, and you won't ever have to worry about violating copyrights, or learning ANYthing more about computers than where the "On" switch is, ever again. Trust us, we know what's best for You!
Consider that, in the not-too-distant future, might we see a "PC" that has NO expansion slots? Just Redmond and Hollywood-approved "ports?"
Yes, I probably am letting my paranoid side run rampant again. However, as I said in another post; If the consumer crowd wants to let themselves be led around by the nose, fine. That's their privilege. All I ask is don't force this "Legacy-Free!" crap down the throats of those of us who don't need it, don't want it, and can't possibly make use of it for our applications.
"No sign of those rs-232, or parallel ports. No ps2 or keyboard ports either..."
And this is a good thing because...?
Such a machine would be utterly useless to me in 90% of the applications I run. I need a parallel port to talk to my UPS shipping label printer, an RS232 port to talk to the package scale, a couple more RS232 ports for testing/talking to console-driven electronic test equipment, etc. Serial ports are one of the most versatile things ever to come along and, as others have pointed out, UARTs are cheap and a no-brainer to interface to.
What's more, I couldn't care less about the latest craze in OS's. NT 4, and even old faithful MS-DOS, do what I need them to do, and they do it efficiently and well. I have no REASON to "upgrade."
This is another of those cases where I have to ask 'Just because we CAN do something with technology, does it necessarily mean that we SHOULD?'
Why are we trying to get rid of mouse and PS/2 keyboard ports? Why do we need such things to be on USB, which only a few OS's handle? Dedicated ports have worked perfectly well for both devices for the last ten years, and they'd continue to work well for however long they're in place.
In other words, the technology is proven and stable; Why was it suddenly decided "Oh, these are Bad. They need to 'evolve.'"
I have no objection if other people think a "legacy-free" machine is the Way to Go. Just don't force it on those of us who have other applications and needs that DEMAND legacy stuff.
To me, the biggest question that comes up in regards to technology is; Just because we CAN do something with it, does it always mean that we should? Aren't there plenty of other issues that are far more worthy of our attention than making our appliances all talk to each other over the Internet?
How is our own growth, as a people and a culture, going to be better served by having such appliances, or blowing zillions of tax dollars on bridging the "Digital Divide" as opposed to feeding ourselves and other needy countries (and what better way to make insane dictators in other countries look unappealing to the local populace than to feed, clothe, and help said populace become literate enough to decide for themselves who should lead them? It sure works better than being the playground bully, like the Shrub seems to want).
How are our kids going to stand up, in terms of education and in terms of being this country's future leaders, against the kids of other countries when the teaching of reading, writing, math, and -- most importantly -- critical thinking and social skills is neglected in favor of corporate-sponsored sports scholarships and pep rallies?
How are the sciences and engineering fields ever going to be made appealing if those that choose them know that their future jobs are just going to be outsourced to foreign countries?
What's the motivation to even enter those fields if it comes with the knowledge that one will, just because they've chosen to use the brains that God gave them, be bullied and socially ostracized throughout one's entire set of primary and high-school years?
Can someone explain to me how having your refrigerator send you E-mail when you're out of milk is going to solve problems like those?
Technology is nothing more than a tool. It is a neutral tool that can serve the forces of Creation and Destruction equally well. How it is made to serve, and which side, is a reflection of the priorities of those who use it.
I don't pretend to have all the answers, but, based on what I'm seeing of our technology use alone, I really think our priorities, as a culture and as a country, could use some double-checking.
Think about it.
Spammers usually define spamming as "That which they do not do."
Here, we have a case where Microsoft is simply redefining software piracy as "That which we do not do."
Since Microsoft has also been known to spam, and has tried to weaken anti-spam laws in their favor, it comes as no surprise to me that the left hand has no idea of what the right is doing when it comes to handing out software.
Spammer logic. Amazing -- and kind of frightening -- how contagious it is.
If Steve "Uncle Fester" Balmy thinks he can produce a better product than Google, then I personally invite him to stick his neck out and do it!
However, he should bear in mind that whatever MS creates:
(1) Will have to have a noticeable lack of any sort of banner ads or popups.
(2) Will have to have a clean, simple, easy-to-use interface that's compatible with ANY BROWSER, from the text-based Lynx on up to the latest version of Opera, Netscape, or IE.
(3) Will have to be fully compatible with text-based screen readers, such as those used by vision-impaired folks.
(4) Will actually have to work as well as, or better than, Google if MS wants it to have a ghost of a chance.
Right now, Google completely fulfills requirements 1-3. I will be watching with great amusement as Uncle Steve and his Cronies try to add "value" to the search engine "experience," and most likely fall flat on their collective arses doing it.
Some of the funnier examples I've seen on the front page of the 'Weekly World News' while waiting in the checkout line at the food store;
"Edgar Cayce Reincarnated as Psychic Fly!"
Darned if this one didn't have an enlarged microphotograph of a fly with Cayce's face matted on top of its head. To WWN's credit, they did a decent job; It really did look like a big fly with a human head.
"Baby dolphin born with human hands!"
This one wasn't done quite so well. They took a stock photo (probably from the old Marineland park in St. Augustine, FL) of a mother and baby dolphin swimming together, and did some digital trickery to make it appear that the youngster had very short arms and a pair of hands instead of pec fins. The proportions were way off, as anyone who's spent any amount of time around live dolphins would know in a heartbeat.
The irony there is that a dolphin's pec fin does, in fact, have four finger bones, one shorter one where a thumb would be, and a wrist joint nearly identical to that of a human. I have to wonder if WWN already knew this, figured other people might know, and simply took the next (il)logical step forward.
Anyway; Digital trickery in photos, if done for the right reasons, is a fantastic tool for creative comedy. Done for other reasons, well... That's already been well-covered in this topic.
Keep the peace(es).
As I read it, and as others have pointed out, the new law makes an instant criminal out of (probably) 95%+ of the DSL and cable DSU users in the affected state. Anyone who uses a NAT-capable device (myself included) could be in a most uncomfortable position due to crap like this.
That's the bad news. The good news is that, given the sheer volume of people that already have NAT-type hookups, I don't see how this can possibly be effectively enforced. Even if the affected states try to make an example out of a few folks, it'll probably get appealed until doomsday.
I predict widespread 'civil disobedience' at first, followed by an effective court challenge that will overturn such legislative lunacy.
A Volkswagen Beetle the size of a small meteor exploded over Stuttgart today. It is believed that the Beetle in question was Germany's entry to the reality TV show, "Junkyard Wars." More specifically, it is believed that the vehicle was the result of the German team to create an economical and easy-to-maintain space shuttle.
The Beetle's flight recorder or "Black Box" was recovered approximately eighteen kilometers from the explosion site, solidly protected from impact and other forms of destruction by being secured inside the spare tire. Data from the recorder is still being analyzed, but it appears that the initial explosion was caused by a mid-air rear-ender collision with another "Junkyard Wars" team entry from Poland; Specifically, a modified Ford Pinto station wagon.
It is fortunate that both vehicles were unmanned drones; No one was killed in the blasts, but the Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen have suspended a planned merger until more is known about the incident...
Strong words from someone who hides behind the 'Anonymous Coward' banner. That alone tells me how much stock you put in your own drivel.
I think, if you're looking for someone who truly needs to "get a life," you need look no further than your own bathroom mirror.
Well, I decided to try going straight to the horse's mouth, as it were (ewwww! When was the last time this nag saw their dentist?!) I just got off the phone with the store manager at my local Office Despot, and -- are you ready for this? -- I knew more about it (from reading the article) than he did! In fact, he asked me to forward him the URL (which I did).
This tells me that OD may not have even decided where they're going with this right away, outside of getting persnickety with their suppliers. I don't see it affecting "generic" stuff like cables, CD-R media, floppies, etc., nor (according to the manager I spoke with) is it likely to cause them to stop carrying stuff like Linux or FreeBSD packages.
OD is, I was told, in the market to make sure that everything they sell in the computer hardware arena works with everything else they sell in the software arena. Those dreaded "Unsigned Driver" messages are indeed a big sticking point. They're out to provide, in the manager's words, a "Total Solution" to their customers (yes, you can laugh now).
I don't dare invoke Godwin by making a comparison that I'm sure you can guess at. I will say that I've bought maybe two software packages at CompUSA in the last ten years, and I don't see that changing any time soon, especially since you couldn't PAY me to use X(tra)P(ain).
The only other thing I'll add is that, in the long run, I believe this will only increase the demand for older (as in pre-XP and, more importainly, pre-DRM) software and hardware. I think, once again, the used-computer market is about to see another metaphorical shot in the arm (at least from those who know what the frell they're doing).
If this legislative loon manages to push something like that through, aimed specifically at students, I believe it would not only be questionable from a constitutional PoV (class discrimination, no pun intended), but that it would also have the direct opposite of the desired effect. It would probably spark widespread civil disobedience on a scale not seen since the last draft-card burning.
I have to wonder if the guy's an RIAA/MPAA shill. I also have to wonder if the entertainment industry, as it stands today, is ever going to realize that they need to either change their business model or be metaphorically swept away.