The major difference here is that Caligula and Machiavelli were speaking of the political spectrum, whereas the RIAA falls into economics and capitalism. The main point of capitalism is profit, pure and simple. The RIAA is not immune and relies on this (thus the whole suing people because of loss of revenue).
I think there is a fine line between fear and hatred, where hatred becomes a threat in the political spectrum when the majority of people are against you, no longer cowering in fear -- of course, critical mass depends on how iron-fisted a ruler is as to when the masses can overpower him, his police, his supporters, AND his army.
The RIAA, on the other hand, can only lose from hatred. People already have file-sharing, indie labels, independent artists, and other means to obtain music, hurting the RIAA at the pocketbook. The more the RIAA feels the strain on the coffers, the more it'll try to squeeze until (hopefully) nothing is left. This is because of the free market, the fact that consumers have alternative (perhaps legal) choices for obtaining music -- that, or found more nefarious ways of hiding their online identity. This is classic cause and effect, kind of like the Israelis and Palestinians...
Perhaps you haven't read this or this article on the lack of support getting OOo ported to OSX. 'Being wanted' and 'being supported' are two separate things; support usually means people are active in getting something to work, participating in some capacity besides: "It would be nice to have that on OSX, I wonder when someone will do it?"
Another adamant point the article makes is the need for help on the project. I was very surprised to learn that there are only 2 volunteers -- i.e. they do this in their spare time -- on this project! OOo is a fairly intense project, and no doubt porting to OSX is a substantial task. While they really need developers/coders, anyone willing to help can be put to use to ease their burden.
I know there are a lot of idle coders on Slashdot talking about the OS movement and flaming about MS, but now is a good time to put your skills to use. Actions speak louder than words. I, for one, am going to see what I can do to help even though my coding abilities are nowhere near theirs'.
I can't find any articles on it, but I do remember my college having this problem. They kept seeing similar-sized traffic heading to the same IP address every -- I don't exactly remember -- 30 minutes or so. At first they thought they had been infiltrated by a virus that was launching zombies against the IP in a DDoS attack. After sniffing the traffic, it turned out that they were basically ping packets all being sent to the same URL.
What had happened was the ingenious engineers at HP decided to hardcode some poor soul's URL into their new Internet-enabled keyboards -- you know, the ones with the hotkeys. The point was that every so often (which ended-up being very often) the keyboards would send this ping-esque packet to the URL and if it received a response it would know it's still connected to the Internet.
Unfortunately, there were some lapses in the plan. Number one, HP thought this was a good idea, but I guess not good enough of an idea to have them ping their own site. Secondly, with this keyboard a part of new HP systems, these systems turned into DDoS machines on this poor guy's domain. The tricky part was the domain they were sent to wasn't any other company's site, just some apparently random URL the HP team picked; that guy must of thought he was the luckiest person with all the traffic he received, and all the bandwidth he was charged. We are a small college, and even we saw a hit on our network traffic from these keyboards, imagine what he was seeing at the focal point!
The point is, sometimes lack of common sense can have drastic consequences.
Coda: We tracked the IPs of our computer systems pinging the site and told those who owned them to disable the Internet keyboard.
I'm sorry, but this is a pretty ignorant way to base a vote, especially in an election that is already becoming a joke. That comment reminds me of:
Arnold Schwarzenegger has plenty of rich and famous friends. But to become governor of California, he really needs people like Marlon Sandoval. Sandoval, 26, a hip-hop musician and part-time security guard in Los Angeles, has never cast a ballot in his life. But he says that he'll go to the polls for Arnold "plain and simple". Sandoval, who saw "Terminator 3" last week for the second time, admits he has no idea where Arnold stands on the issues. "It doesn't matter," he says. "I'd vote for the Terminator anyway."
The sad part is that the parent's post and Marlon Sandoval (above) is probably how a lot of people are going to justify their votes; however, can you blame them? Look at some of the people running (Gary Coleman, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger) most people won't know where they stand on issues or their history in politics, but will instead judge them by who they are. This is like ultra-democracy, where the People can recall a leader and anyone can run for office -- ultimately, the People have the final say, for better or worse.
I seriously doubt this as a viable alternative. NASA is a US government agency that develops leading-edge space technologies. I do not think they would want to turn over such a highly-sophisticated telescope to anyone else, especially non-US companies.
This is more likely to be 'propoganda'. Since when does playing game based on factual events classify as propoganda? If anything, it serves to produce the reality of battle planning and team/individual management that makes success possible in modern warfare. I'm not saying that maybe it isn't propoganda, but sometimes a game is a game and more likely out for profit than political reasons. Of course, this stricks very similiar to this; so if anything, this Iraq game is more of a stylisitic ripoff.
Great solution! Except the OP asks about cleaning scroll wheels, not mice balls. Of course, this method may be good if you want to take your mouse apart and attack the mechanical scrollers directly.
By tinkering with two genes, scientists have produced roundworms that live six times as long as normal. The catch is that the worms are unusually sluggish ? imagine the globe as a nursing home for sluggish Methusalehs.
While the article states hearts, lungs, and other organs may be reproduced by pigs, it mentions nothing of the brain. So if the physical body slows down as it gets older and older, what about the mind? Some parts remain young -- I believe the kidney replaces its cells every couple of days, keeping it constantly young -- and those that don't can be replaced by the pig organs. Through this, the body may remain forever young, but the mind will continue to degrade.
Since the article states the roundworms became sluggish the older they get, just think of how decrepit the brain will become. Therefore, these 'highly-trained specialists' you mention will instead be 'highly-trained imbeciles'; think of all the mental ailments that come about the older one gets (e.g. alzheimers). Until a breakthrough in human genetics to actually REVERSE the aging process, slowing it will only produce limited benefits with outweighed consequences (famine, overpopulation, etc.)
Check out CERT, a good site for this stuff. Here's their warning (more info than DHS). A list of what they have to block: 135/TCP 135/UDP 139/TCP 139/UDP 445/TC P 445/UDP
Now that the RIAA has a list, I don't need to listen to the radio to find out the popular songs to download, I can just go to this list that has them all in one place!
...and I graduated Magna Cum Laude and a Distinction in CS. All through high school people would nag about procrastination, but it was when I procrastinated I did my best work. True, some people should not due it, it is detrimental to the work they produce, but I think there are a few out there where procrastination IS their work habit.
I tried turning off TV, music -- did the classical thing, didn't like it and felt like a sellout -- quiet study area, yadda, yadda, yadda. When it came down to it, 1am to class starting (a la 9am) was when I was the most productive and how I earned my A's. I've actually done assignments before they were due -- in a 'timely' manner, of you will -- and received worse grades than cranking the same assignment out in 4 hours or so.
For me, procrastination not only was a work habit, but it was more productive. It took me the night before a class to finish the majority of the assignment; this is condensed productivity. What would have taken me fragmented nights working ahead on assignments took only hours when the pressure was really on, leaving the majority of my college days and nights open to go to the bar and have fun.
My advice to you is continuing working how you see fit. Only you know what works best for you, and changing that will only make you less productive since you will be out of your element. Crank up that TV/MP3 background noise, run AIM, constantly check your email, and get ready to earn the best grades you can those precious hours before class!
And for the record, I have never had caffeine and don't drink coffee. It is the mindset that beats the tiredness and only the weak crack and go to sleep!
You guys are looking at this the wrong way. You should be asking "Only 100 addresses per person?" When everything else in life is supersized, why not the amount of IP addresses for myself? I need my boxers to talk to my rug to tell it it's time to locate the dirty laundry in my room for a cleaning. With nanotechnology just around the corner, all my dirty clothes will be able to coordinate with one another (via IPv6) and walk to the washer to get cleaned. Everything I touch should have an IP address so that I am constantly connected!
After my afternoon siesta, I go for a run and workout. Scroll to the bottom of that page and there's a nice little Preparation section.
I also suggest finding a sports league you're interested in and join up. I play in a lacrosse league once a week and a volleyball league once a week; just games, no practices. I hate the gym and workout like I did when I wrestled -- I find playing sports and doing the basics (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, running, and swimming) more rewarding and less monotonous than lifting weights.
>... the average taxpayer knows little or nothing about OSS, but will rapidly form and express vocal opinions about the government wasting money.
This may not be true for all government purchases but if you remember: Microsoft subsequently lowered its pricing to $31.9 million and then to $23.7 million -- an overall 35% price cut. The discounts were for naught.
On May 28, the city council approved a more expensive proposal -- $35.7 million -- from German Linux distributor SuSE and IBM, a big Linux backer.
The original prices were Linux $39.5M and MS $36.6M. Of course MS shaved some services and products to lower their price so much, but the point is -- in this scenario, at least -- the price differences between OSS and MS were negligible. This is just one recent example, but I wouldn't be surprised if the same were true for other government purchases; I think it is more symbolic if they switch to OSS, but saying buying MS is 'wasting money' may be a bit pretentious. You still get your tax refund, right?
How hard would these be to crack? There are probably a number of people who see the above 'images' in the inkblots and use it for their pw. How many people usually see 'a woman with big breasts' in inkblots their shown? I think I just crack half of the mens' passwords!
It's not as though WiFi is anything new, like it just started yesterday. Anyone who regularly visits Slashdot has seen WiFi in use for over a year, as well as being talked about on other sites. Obviously, this is nothing new, especially to those of us on top of technology; then again, we are probably the same people who first used Napster and saw its potential. Once again, the RIAA is behind the times, retroactively playing catch-up.
This makes me think about earlier predictions of Bluetooth and the goals of MS (among others) to have every home device Internet capable (with the help of IPv6). This means (potentially) every device will act as a mini-router for other devices around it, interconnecting everything in the world. Let's suppose, for a minute, that this is valid and MAY actually happen -- perhaps even in the near future -- where do ISPs fall in the scheme of things? Ideally, they'd be defunct; realistically, they'd probably provide more of a continental and WAN service between cities, countries, and across oceans. However, with devices talking to one another using <insert favorite wireless technology here> within the immediate vicinity, there would be no traffic regulation in a city/densely populated environment. This means illegal file sharing and copyright infringement will still be around (as always), but now be ultimately impossible for the RIAA to track because there would be no central repository trafficking data (i.e. ISPs).
Ever since the attack on Napster, I saw the RIAA's tactics as those of greed and ignorance. Instead of fostering technology, most companies see it as a threat and look to control it. Of course, this is a case of cause and effect and so people find better ways against being tracked and, ultimately, caught. I applaud the RIAA for what they are doing because 1) it is their right to defend what they own (although I may not agree with their tactics) and 2) technology and software have made extreme advances since 1999 to combat the oppressive techniques of copyright holders.
I agree, in the end it comes down to MS losing money by cutting out the services. My point, though, was that Munich would not have to upgrade all its computers with MS, but going with SuSE allowed the newest desktop version as well as free updates indefinitely for all computers.
The MS loss in revenue would have been worth it in their eyes to stem the increased turn towards Linux, especially in major income providers like government organizations.
Although the final Linux price was higher than the final MS price (35.7 v. 23.7), both started higher and then worked down a bit, albeit one more than the other. But, but MS cutting its price down so low to beat SuSE, it also came at a price. For instance, not all of the PCs would have the MS latest-and-greatest on them; overall, MS would have lost more in the deal than Munich.
"Though Microsoft underbid IBM and SuSE by $11.9 million in Munich, city officials were concerned about the unpredictable long-run cost of Microsoft upgrades, says Munich council member Christine Strobl, who championed the switch to Linux."
SuSE probably shaved the 'flexibility' portion of their price without cutting services like MS did. The upside is that here we have a city council unschooled in technology who saw the advantage of using Linux versus Windows. They were able to look at how MS has worked in the past and decided that Linux would be a more feasible alternative in the long run.
This is a very progressive shift for a governmental body who are usually conservative and resistant to change. But the Germans have always had a knack for being wise open to change -- if only other politicians would follow this lead.
When MS announced their creation of WinFS (/. link) I was a very happy person. After all, who wouldn't want to have one copy of their MP3s be referenced from multiple 'files' (alphabetically by artist, alphabetically by title, genre)?
The key issue that I ponder is that of fragmentation. How will the placement of files matter in a relational DB world? Right now, it is easy to group files together based on their hierarchical residence -- but, with something like WinFS, would filesystems take on a more DB role? Will moving my files from one system to another change from 'cp/home/me -R' to 'select * from home where personal=yes' (in an MS SQL-based world)? While I would love the change in FS logical design, I am hesitant about shifting paradigms to a world without folders and their convenience. Of course, I realize that those concerns are basically moot by definition of a paradigm shift, but making that leap is initially one of faith.
On the plus side, imagine the infinite ways to categorize your porn with metadata!
I can't speak for the business world, but LaTeX was used extensively in math courses at my college. It was especially useful for the analytical courses such as Discrete Math, Foundations of Math, and Abstract Algebra where my work required more proving than demonstrating.
On the flipside, for more quantitatvie courses (a la Calculus) Maple was the de facto standard. I was able to do so much when it came to graphing and calculating, but found LaTeX more suitable for explaining the why and writing proofs/papers/reports.
I'm not sure what the age demographic is here for Slashdot posters, but when I read news articles about this (as well as posts) I can definitely see a huge generation gap. This study was completely suprised about all of the conclusions it came to, yet I was not suprised at all. As a recent college graduate, this atmosphere is what I've been experiencing for four years; people playing games in class, studying, getting work done, IMing, emailing, sports, all of these activities coexist in a contemporary college environment. This comes as no suprise to those between 16 and 26. Not as though older people are ignorant of this fact, they just consistently misunderstand current culture.
My generation is one of multitaskers and speed-demons. Everyone I knew at college did not just sitdown and write a paper, most would also have the TV on, play MP3s, actively IM, and perhaps have a game of Freecell going. It's not that these students magically have more time in their days to play games, sleep, and study, it's that most of the time they do activities simultaneously.
Slashdot Mirror
$20 DVI -> S-video/composite adapter.
The major difference here is that Caligula and Machiavelli were speaking of the political spectrum, whereas the RIAA falls into economics and capitalism. The main point of capitalism is profit, pure and simple. The RIAA is not immune and relies on this (thus the whole suing people because of loss of revenue).
I think there is a fine line between fear and hatred, where hatred becomes a threat in the political spectrum when the majority of people are against you, no longer cowering in fear -- of course, critical mass depends on how iron-fisted a ruler is as to when the masses can overpower him, his police, his supporters, AND his army.
The RIAA, on the other hand, can only lose from hatred. People already have file-sharing, indie labels, independent artists, and other means to obtain music, hurting the RIAA at the pocketbook. The more the RIAA feels the strain on the coffers, the more it'll try to squeeze until (hopefully) nothing is left. This is because of the free market, the fact that consumers have alternative (perhaps legal) choices for obtaining music -- that, or found more nefarious ways of hiding their online identity. This is classic cause and effect, kind of like the Israelis and Palestinians...
Perhaps you haven't read this or this article on the lack of support getting OOo ported to OSX. 'Being wanted' and 'being supported' are two separate things; support usually means people are active in getting something to work, participating in some capacity besides: "It would be nice to have that on OSX, I wonder when someone will do it?"
Here's the link.
Another adamant point the article makes is the need for help on the project. I was very surprised to learn that there are only 2 volunteers -- i.e. they do this in their spare time -- on this project! OOo is a fairly intense project, and no doubt porting to OSX is a substantial task. While they really need developers/coders, anyone willing to help can be put to use to ease their burden.
I know there are a lot of idle coders on Slashdot talking about the OS movement and flaming about MS, but now is a good time to put your skills to use. Actions speak louder than words. I, for one, am going to see what I can do to help even though my coding abilities are nowhere near theirs'.
I can't find any articles on it, but I do remember my college having this problem. They kept seeing similar-sized traffic heading to the same IP address every -- I don't exactly remember -- 30 minutes or so. At first they thought they had been infiltrated by a virus that was launching zombies against the IP in a DDoS attack. After sniffing the traffic, it turned out that they were basically ping packets all being sent to the same URL.
What had happened was the ingenious engineers at HP decided to hardcode some poor soul's URL into their new Internet-enabled keyboards -- you know, the ones with the hotkeys. The point was that every so often (which ended-up being very often) the keyboards would send this ping-esque packet to the URL and if it received a response it would know it's still connected to the Internet.
Unfortunately, there were some lapses in the plan. Number one, HP thought this was a good idea, but I guess not good enough of an idea to have them ping their own site. Secondly, with this keyboard a part of new HP systems, these systems turned into DDoS machines on this poor guy's domain. The tricky part was the domain they were sent to wasn't any other company's site, just some apparently random URL the HP team picked; that guy must of thought he was the luckiest person with all the traffic he received, and all the bandwidth he was charged. We are a small college, and even we saw a hit on our network traffic from these keyboards, imagine what he was seeing at the focal point!
The point is, sometimes lack of common sense can have drastic consequences.
Coda: We tracked the IPs of our computer systems pinging the site and told those who owned them to disable the Internet keyboard.
I'm sorry, but this is a pretty ignorant way to base a vote, especially in an election that is already becoming a joke. That comment reminds me of:
Arnold Schwarzenegger has plenty of rich and famous friends. But to become governor of California, he really needs people like Marlon Sandoval. Sandoval, 26, a hip-hop musician and part-time security guard in Los Angeles, has never cast a ballot in his life. But he says that he'll go to the polls for Arnold "plain and simple". Sandoval, who saw "Terminator 3" last week for the second time, admits he has no idea where Arnold stands on the issues. "It doesn't matter," he says. "I'd vote for the Terminator anyway."
This is from this week's Newsweek, the whole article.
The sad part is that the parent's post and Marlon Sandoval (above) is probably how a lot of people are going to justify their votes; however, can you blame them? Look at some of the people running (Gary Coleman, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger) most people won't know where they stand on issues or their history in politics, but will instead judge them by who they are. This is like ultra-democracy, where the People can recall a leader and anyone can run for office -- ultimately, the People have the final say, for better or worse.
I seriously doubt this as a viable alternative. NASA is a US government agency that develops leading-edge space technologies. I do not think they would want to turn over such a highly-sophisticated telescope to anyone else, especially non-US companies.
This is more likely to be 'propoganda'. Since when does playing game based on factual events classify as propoganda? If anything, it serves to produce the reality of battle planning and team/individual management that makes success possible in modern warfare. I'm not saying that maybe it isn't propoganda, but sometimes a game is a game and more likely out for profit than political reasons. Of course, this stricks very similiar to this; so if anything, this Iraq game is more of a stylisitic ripoff.
Great solution! Except the OP asks about cleaning scroll wheels, not mice balls. Of course, this method may be good if you want to take your mouse apart and attack the mechanical scrollers directly.
Yeah, because the RIAA hasn't bypassed any US -- and possibly international -- laws by tracking down and harassing file sharers.
By tinkering with two genes, scientists have produced roundworms that live six times as long as normal. The catch is that the worms are unusually sluggish ? imagine the globe as a nursing home for sluggish Methusalehs.
While the article states hearts, lungs, and other organs may be reproduced by pigs, it mentions nothing of the brain. So if the physical body slows down as it gets older and older, what about the mind? Some parts remain young -- I believe the kidney replaces its cells every couple of days, keeping it constantly young -- and those that don't can be replaced by the pig organs. Through this, the body may remain forever young, but the mind will continue to degrade.
Since the article states the roundworms became sluggish the older they get, just think of how decrepit the brain will become. Therefore, these 'highly-trained specialists' you mention will instead be 'highly-trained imbeciles'; think of all the mental ailments that come about the older one gets (e.g. alzheimers). Until a breakthrough in human genetics to actually REVERSE the aging process, slowing it will only produce limited benefits with outweighed consequences (famine, overpopulation, etc.)
Check out CERT, a good site for this stuff. Here's their warning (more info than DHS). A list of what they have to block:C P
135/TCP
135/UDP
139/TCP
139/UDP
445/T
445/UDP
Also, it appears 4444 is being used,
Security Focus's incidentmailing list is also enlightening. And for good measure, a posting on the ineffectiveness one of MS's patch (as of 29 Jul).
Now that the RIAA has a list, I don't need to listen to the radio to find out the popular songs to download, I can just go to this list that has them all in one place!
...and I graduated Magna Cum Laude and a Distinction in CS. All through high school people would nag about procrastination, but it was when I procrastinated I did my best work. True, some people should not due it, it is detrimental to the work they produce, but I think there are a few out there where procrastination IS their work habit.
I tried turning off TV, music -- did the classical thing, didn't like it and felt like a sellout -- quiet study area, yadda, yadda, yadda. When it came down to it, 1am to class starting (a la 9am) was when I was the most productive and how I earned my A's. I've actually done assignments before they were due -- in a 'timely' manner, of you will -- and received worse grades than cranking the same assignment out in 4 hours or so.
For me, procrastination not only was a work habit, but it was more productive. It took me the night before a class to finish the majority of the assignment; this is condensed productivity. What would have taken me fragmented nights working ahead on assignments took only hours when the pressure was really on, leaving the majority of my college days and nights open to go to the bar and have fun.
My advice to you is continuing working how you see fit. Only you know what works best for you, and changing that will only make you less productive since you will be out of your element. Crank up that TV/MP3 background noise, run AIM, constantly check your email, and get ready to earn the best grades you can those precious hours before class!
And for the record, I have never had caffeine and don't drink coffee. It is the mindset that beats the tiredness and only the weak crack and go to sleep!
... so I can skip those pesky commercials and have a copy of my TV program.
You guys are looking at this the wrong way. You should be asking "Only 100 addresses per person?" When everything else in life is supersized, why not the amount of IP addresses for myself? I need my boxers to talk to my rug to tell it it's time to locate the dirty laundry in my room for a cleaning. With nanotechnology just around the corner, all my dirty clothes will be able to coordinate with one another (via IPv6) and walk to the washer to get cleaned. Everything I touch should have an IP address so that I am constantly connected!
After my afternoon siesta, I go for a run and workout. Scroll to the bottom of that page and there's a nice little Preparation section.
I also suggest finding a sports league you're interested in and join up. I play in a lacrosse league once a week and a volleyball league once a week; just games, no practices. I hate the gym and workout like I did when I wrestled -- I find playing sports and doing the basics (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, running, and swimming) more rewarding and less monotonous than lifting weights.
> ... the average taxpayer knows little or nothing about OSS, but will rapidly form and express vocal opinions about the government wasting money.
This may not be true for all government purchases but if you remember:
Microsoft subsequently lowered its pricing to $31.9 million and then to $23.7 million -- an overall 35% price cut. The discounts were for naught.
On May 28, the city council approved a more expensive proposal -- $35.7 million -- from German Linux distributor SuSE and IBM, a big Linux backer.
From here and here.
The original prices were Linux $39.5M and MS $36.6M. Of course MS shaved some services and products to lower their price so much, but the point is -- in this scenario, at least -- the price differences between OSS and MS were negligible. This is just one recent example, but I wouldn't be surprised if the same were true for other government purchases; I think it is more symbolic if they switch to OSS, but saying buying MS is 'wasting money' may be a bit pretentious. You still get your tax refund, right?
How hard would these be to crack? There are probably a number of people who see the above 'images' in the inkblots and use it for their pw. How many people usually see 'a woman with big breasts' in inkblots their shown? I think I just crack half of the mens' passwords!
It's not as though WiFi is anything new, like it just started yesterday. Anyone who regularly visits Slashdot has seen WiFi in use for over a year, as well as being talked about on other sites. Obviously, this is nothing new, especially to those of us on top of technology; then again, we are probably the same people who first used Napster and saw its potential. Once again, the RIAA is behind the times, retroactively playing catch-up.
This makes me think about earlier predictions of Bluetooth and the goals of MS (among others) to have every home device Internet capable (with the help of IPv6). This means (potentially) every device will act as a mini-router for other devices around it, interconnecting everything in the world. Let's suppose, for a minute, that this is valid and MAY actually happen -- perhaps even in the near future -- where do ISPs fall in the scheme of things? Ideally, they'd be defunct; realistically, they'd probably provide more of a continental and WAN service between cities, countries, and across oceans. However, with devices talking to one another using <insert favorite wireless technology here> within the immediate vicinity, there would be no traffic regulation in a city/densely populated environment. This means illegal file sharing and copyright infringement will still be around (as always), but now be ultimately impossible for the RIAA to track because there would be no central repository trafficking data (i.e. ISPs).
Ever since the attack on Napster, I saw the RIAA's tactics as those of greed and ignorance. Instead of fostering technology, most companies see it as a threat and look to control it. Of course, this is a case of cause and effect and so people find better ways against being tracked and, ultimately, caught. I applaud the RIAA for what they are doing because 1) it is their right to defend what they own (although I may not agree with their tactics) and 2) technology and software have made extreme advances since 1999 to combat the oppressive techniques of copyright holders.
I agree, in the end it comes down to MS losing money by cutting out the services. My point, though, was that Munich would not have to upgrade all its computers with MS, but going with SuSE allowed the newest desktop version as well as free updates indefinitely for all computers.
The MS loss in revenue would have been worth it in their eyes to stem the increased turn towards Linux, especially in major income providers like government organizations.
Although the final Linux price was higher than the final MS price (35.7 v. 23.7), both started higher and then worked down a bit, albeit one more than the other. But, but MS cutting its price down so low to beat SuSE, it also came at a price. For instance, not all of the PCs would have the MS latest-and-greatest on them; overall, MS would have lost more in the deal than Munich.
"Though Microsoft underbid IBM and SuSE by $11.9 million in Munich, city officials were concerned about the unpredictable long-run cost of Microsoft upgrades, says Munich council member Christine Strobl, who championed the switch to Linux."
SuSE probably shaved the 'flexibility' portion of their price without cutting services like MS did. The upside is that here we have a city council unschooled in technology who saw the advantage of using Linux versus Windows. They were able to look at how MS has worked in the past and decided that Linux would be a more feasible alternative in the long run.
This is a very progressive shift for a governmental body who are usually conservative and resistant to change. But the Germans have always had a knack for being wise open to change -- if only other politicians would follow this lead.
When MS announced their creation of WinFS (/. link) I was a very happy person. After all, who wouldn't want to have one copy of their MP3s be referenced from multiple 'files' (alphabetically by artist, alphabetically by title, genre)?
/home/me -R' to 'select * from home where personal=yes' (in an MS SQL-based world)? While I would love the change in FS logical design, I am hesitant about shifting paradigms to a world without folders and their convenience. Of course, I realize that those concerns are basically moot by definition of a paradigm shift, but making that leap is initially one of faith.
The key issue that I ponder is that of fragmentation. How will the placement of files matter in a relational DB world? Right now, it is easy to group files together based on their hierarchical residence -- but, with something like WinFS, would filesystems take on a more DB role? Will moving my files from one system to another change from 'cp
On the plus side, imagine the infinite ways to categorize your porn with metadata!
I can't speak for the business world, but LaTeX was used extensively in math courses at my college. It was especially useful for the analytical courses such as Discrete Math, Foundations of Math, and Abstract Algebra where my work required more proving than demonstrating.
On the flipside, for more quantitatvie courses (a la Calculus) Maple was the de facto standard. I was able to do so much when it came to graphing and calculating, but found LaTeX more suitable for explaining the why and writing proofs/papers/reports.
I'm not sure what the age demographic is here for Slashdot posters, but when I read news articles about this (as well as posts) I can definitely see a huge generation gap. This study was completely suprised about all of the conclusions it came to, yet I was not suprised at all. As a recent college graduate, this atmosphere is what I've been experiencing for four years; people playing games in class, studying, getting work done, IMing, emailing, sports, all of these activities coexist in a contemporary college environment. This comes as no suprise to those between 16 and 26. Not as though older people are ignorant of this fact, they just consistently misunderstand current culture.
My generation is one of multitaskers and speed-demons. Everyone I knew at college did not just sitdown and write a paper, most would also have the TV on, play MP3s, actively IM, and perhaps have a game of Freecell going. It's not that these students magically have more time in their days to play games, sleep, and study, it's that most of the time they do activities simultaneously.