The horrible state of English dentistry means that each Britian possesses a set of uniquely fucked-up teeth. Simply entering them into a database should be trivial.
I think your first mistake is believing anything you read in Applied Cryptography. Its a well-known fact that Bruce Schneier is regarded as a leftist kook in the cryptographic community. Trust me, I got my PhD from UC Berkeley in cryptographic studies so I know what I'm talking about. Although we must give him credit for writing PGP, Mr Schneier has since then used his name to promote all sorts of snake-oil get-rich-quick schemes, and is a blathering font of anti-government propoganda. I'm sorry, Mr Schneier but had we not listened to your objections about such things as the Clipper chip installed in phones we may have learned about the 9/11 plot before it happened.
While America may have its faults (the anti-God secular humanist agenda being a prime one), I think any reasonable person will admit that the United States is generally a force for good in the world, and having the United States Armed Forces maintaining a military base on the Moon, capable of sending one hundred tons of steel encased rock to any place on the globe is no worse than the thousands of thermo-nuclear weapons that the US already has ready to launch in minutes.
But, you need only read "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" by noted patriot and moral American Robert Heinlein to realize what kind of trouble an unscrupulous, inscrutable adversary could cause the world if they controlled the Moon. Do you want to see Western Civilization in peril, under the yellow light of the moon? Do you computer geeks want to be told you can no longer buy Taiwanese RAM, under penalty of a Tunguska like event?
So, it's about time the keen strategic minds of President Bush's cabinet have realized that if we don't go back to the Moon and stake our rightful claim ahead of our oriental competitors.
I work as a consultant for several fortune 500 companies, and I think I can shed a little light on the climate of the open source community at the moment. I believe that part of the reason that open source based startups are failing left and right is not an issue of marketing as it's commonly believed but more of an issue of the underlying technology.
I know that that's a strong statement to make, but I have evidence to back it up! At one of the major corps(5000+ employees) that I consult for, we wanted to integrate the shareware version of Linux into our server pool. The allure of not having to pay any restrictive licensing fees was too great to ignore. I reccomended the installation of several boxes running the new 2.4.9 kernel, and my hopes were high that it would perform up to snuff with the Windows 2k boxes which were(and still are!) doing an AMAZING job at their respective tasks of serving HTTP requests, DNS, and fileserving.
I consider myself to be very technically inclined having programmed in VB for the last 8 years doing kernel level programming. I don't believe in C programming because contrary to popular belief, VB can go just as low level as C and the newest VB compiler generates code that's every bit as fast. I took it upon myself to configure the system from scratch and even used an optimised version of gcc 3.1 to increase the execution speed of the binaries. I integrated the 3 machines I had configured into the server pool, and I'd have to say the results were less than impressive... We all know that linux isn't even close to being ready for the desktop, but I had heard that it was supposed to perform decently as a "server" based operating system. The 3 machines all went into swap immediately, and it was obvious that they weren't going to be able to handle the load in this "enterprise" environment. After running for less than 24 hours, 2 of them had experienced kernel panics caused by Bind and Apache crashing! Granted, Apache is a volunteer based project written by weekend hackers in their spare time while Microsft's IIS has an actual professional full fledged development team devoted to it. Not to mention the fact that the Linux kernel itself lacks any support for any type of journaled filesystem, memory protection, SMP support, etc, but I thought that since Linux is based on such "old" technology that it would run with some level of stability. After several days of this type of behaviour, we decided to reinstall windows 2k on the boxes to make sure it wasn't a hardware problem that was causing things to go wrong. The machines instantly shaped up and were seamlessly reintegrated into the server pool with just one Win2K machine doing more work than all 3 of the Linux boxes.
Needless to say, I won't be reccomending Linux/FSF to anymore of my clients. I'm dissappointed that they won't be able to leverege the free cost of Linux to their advantage, but in this case I suppose the old adage stands true that, "you get what you pay for." I would have also liked to have access to the source code of the applications that we're running on our mission critical systems; however, from the looks of it, the Microsoft "shared source" program seems to offer all of the same freedoms as the GPL.
As things stand now, I can understand using Linux in academia to compile simple "Hello World" style programs and learn C programming, but I'm afraid that for anything more than a hobby OS, Windows 98/NT/2K are your only choices.
I would be very careful with using something like this. Its nice to think that one could use watermarking for protecting GPL'ed code. However, should the technique prove successful, expect to see everything under the sun watermarked by less benevolent entities.
I know it seems petty: Just a shift key. But the student did make it a goal to circumvent the copy protection on this device. This makes him guilty under the DMCA. Simply because it was trivially implemented is no reason to back off: someone who steals a candybar is prosecuted with as much vigor as someone who steals a car.
While I'm all for extra-planetary studies, I don't believe it should be funded by taxpayer dollars. I know this won't make me popular with the Slashdot crowd, but I think most NASA missions are overpriced boondoggles. I would much rather see things like this done via the private market. This would free up money for more important things, like fighting terrorism and tax relief to a beleagured public.
Unfortunatly the second installment of the Matrix series was terribly disappointing. It felt drained of the humanity and cleverness that made the first one so great. Hopefully this problem will be fixed in the third one. Otherwise the Matrix series is going down the same God-awful road that Star Wars went down. *shudder*
It doesn't do RPN, but that's an antiquated system and you'd do well to rid yourself of it (I *know* I'm going to get an argument on this. But hey, you don't store your data on punch cards, do you?) Plus, by avoiding HP you won't be supporting a company that continues to make Indonesian laborers work for slave wages (if you like doing that thing. Not everyone on Slashdot cares.)
Oh its for the web
on
Practical RDF
·
· Score: 1, Funny
I thought it was the Robotech Defence Force. Now I feel cheated.:(
Am I the only one who feels there's a little Bloom County inside of the Boondocks ? I think they both have the same political outlook, only instead of a penguin, the Boondocks has a militant black teenager.
I'll be the first to say that Scientology is evil. However, I'm distressed by this court's decision. For example, if I were to post an entire album by $BAND along with a critique, everyone would agree that this was copyright infringement.
Of course, this is Slashdot where all copyrights are bad, so I expect this post to drown in a sea of downmods. Still, I feel that I need to point out that this decision doesn't sit well with me.
Holy shit! Aliens are attacking all over the West Coast. I can see the Golden Gate Bridge burning now. Its like Red Dawn out here. Send Patrick Swaze now!
The best bombs in the world are pointless if they're "accidently" aimed at a foreign embassy or the pilot misidentifies his target. Personally I'd rather see the money spent improving America from within.
Sentance fragment, eds!
on
NASA's Sensor Web
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Not only a new way to test tech, but also perhaps a pervasive and inexpensive way to explore remote places such as Antarctica -- or Mars."
This begins with a sentance fragment. It should begin with "This is...". The way its written it not only sounds wrong, but according to proper rules of grammar, it is wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
The horrible state of English dentistry means that each Britian possesses a set of uniquely fucked-up teeth. Simply entering them into a database should be trivial.
I think your first mistake is believing anything you read in Applied Cryptography. Its a well-known fact that Bruce Schneier is regarded as a leftist kook in the cryptographic community. Trust me, I got my PhD from UC Berkeley in cryptographic studies so I know what I'm talking about. Although we must give him credit for writing PGP, Mr Schneier has since then used his name to promote all sorts of snake-oil get-rich-quick schemes, and is a blathering font of anti-government propoganda. I'm sorry, Mr Schneier but had we not listened to your objections about such things as the Clipper chip installed in phones we may have learned about the 9/11 plot before it happened.
While America may have its faults (the anti-God secular humanist agenda being a prime one), I think any reasonable person will admit that the United States is generally a force for good in the world, and having the United States Armed Forces maintaining a military base on the Moon, capable of sending one hundred tons of steel encased rock to any place on the globe is no worse than the thousands of thermo-nuclear weapons that the US already has ready to launch in minutes.
But, you need only read "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" by noted patriot and moral American Robert Heinlein to realize what kind of trouble an unscrupulous, inscrutable adversary could cause the world if they controlled the Moon. Do you want to see Western Civilization in peril, under the yellow light of the moon? Do you computer geeks want to be told you can no longer buy Taiwanese RAM, under penalty of a Tunguska like event?
So, it's about time the keen strategic minds of President Bush's cabinet have realized that if we don't go back to the Moon and stake our rightful claim ahead of our oriental competitors.
(A tip of the hat to Mr. Rightmann.)
I work as a consultant for several fortune 500 companies, and I think
I can shed a little light on the climate of the open source community
at the moment. I believe that part of the reason that open source
based startups are failing left and right is not an issue of marketing
as it's commonly believed but more of an issue of the underlying
technology.
I know that that's a strong statement to make, but I have evidence to
back it up! At one of the major corps(5000+ employees) that I consult
for, we wanted to integrate the shareware version of Linux into our
server pool. The allure of not having to pay any restrictive licensing
fees was too great to ignore. I reccomended the installation of
several boxes running the new 2.4.9 kernel, and my hopes were high
that it would perform up to snuff with the Windows 2k boxes which
were(and still are!) doing an AMAZING job at their respective tasks of
serving HTTP requests, DNS, and fileserving.
I consider myself to be very technically inclined having programmed in
VB for the last 8 years doing kernel level programming. I don't
believe in C programming because contrary to popular belief, VB can go
just as low level as C and the newest VB compiler generates code
that's every bit as fast. I took it upon myself to configure the
system from scratch and even used an optimised version of gcc 3.1 to
increase the execution speed of the binaries. I integrated the 3
machines I had configured into the server pool, and I'd have to say
the results were less than impressive... We all know that linux isn't
even close to being ready for the desktop, but I had heard that it was
supposed to perform decently as a "server" based operating system. The
3 machines all went into swap immediately, and it was obvious that
they weren't going to be able to handle the load in this "enterprise"
environment. After running for less than 24 hours, 2 of them had
experienced kernel panics caused by Bind and Apache crashing! Granted,
Apache is a volunteer based project written by weekend hackers in
their spare time while Microsft's IIS has an actual professional full
fledged development team devoted to it. Not to mention the fact that
the Linux kernel itself lacks any support for any type of journaled
filesystem, memory protection, SMP support, etc, but I thought that
since Linux is based on such "old" technology that it would run with
some level of stability. After several days of this type of behaviour,
we decided to reinstall windows 2k on the boxes to make sure it wasn't
a hardware problem that was causing things to go wrong. The machines
instantly shaped up and were seamlessly reintegrated into the server
pool with just one Win2K machine doing more work than all 3 of the
Linux boxes.
Needless to say, I won't be reccomending Linux/FSF to anymore of my
clients. I'm dissappointed that they won't be able to leverege the
free cost of Linux to their advantage, but in this case I suppose the
old adage stands true that, "you get what you pay for." I would have
also liked to have access to the source code of the applications that
we're running on our mission critical systems; however, from the looks
of it, the Microsoft "shared source" program seems to offer all of the
same freedoms as the GPL.
As things stand now, I can understand using Linux in academia to
compile simple "Hello World" style programs and learn C programming,
but I'm afraid that for anything more than a hobby OS, Windows
98/NT/2K are your only choices.
thank you.
I would be very careful with using something like this. Its nice to think that one could use watermarking for protecting GPL'ed code. However, should the technique prove successful, expect to see everything under the sun watermarked by less benevolent entities.
I know it seems petty: Just a shift key. But the student did make it a goal to circumvent the copy protection on this device. This makes him guilty under the DMCA. Simply because it was trivially implemented is no reason to back off: someone who steals a candybar is prosecuted with as much vigor as someone who steals a car.
While I'm all for extra-planetary studies, I don't believe it should be funded by taxpayer dollars. I know this won't make me popular with the Slashdot crowd, but I think most NASA missions are overpriced boondoggles. I would much rather see things like this done via the private market. This would free up money for more important things, like fighting terrorism and tax relief to a beleagured public.
Unfortunatly the second installment of the Matrix series was terribly disappointing. It felt drained of the humanity and cleverness that made the first one so great. Hopefully this problem will be fixed in the third one. Otherwise the Matrix series is going down the same God-awful road that Star Wars went down. *shudder*
Sounds like MS is trying to keep the number of people from joining this suit to an absolute minimum.
Nope. Guess not :(
It doesn't do RPN, but that's an antiquated system and you'd do well to rid yourself of it (I *know* I'm going to get an argument on this. But hey, you don't store your data on punch cards, do you?) Plus, by avoiding HP you won't be supporting a company that continues to make Indonesian laborers work for slave wages (if you like doing that thing. Not everyone on Slashdot cares.)
I thought it was the Robotech Defence Force. Now I feel cheated. :(
When Islamic terrorists fly a couple of planes into this?
Am I the only one who feels there's a little Bloom County inside of the Boondocks ? I think they both have the same political outlook, only instead of a penguin, the Boondocks has a militant black teenager.
Of course, this is Slashdot where all copyrights are bad, so I expect this post to drown in a sea of downmods. Still, I feel that I need to point out that this decision doesn't sit well with me.
Please, everyone knows that pedophiles exclusively use Freenet, due to its anoninimity.
To get ink from a mouse? Yeesh.
Everyone knows a female car would be unable to park at all!
Hmm...what happens when MIT decides to turn off this point, though?
...Increased computer playing leads to fewer dates. Why don't they spend their money on a cure for this?
Can it turn that water into wine?
That has to be just as much of a concern to the average Slashdotter.
Holy shit! Aliens are attacking all over the West Coast. I can see the Golden Gate Bridge burning now. Its like Red Dawn out here. Send Patrick Swaze now!
The best bombs in the world are pointless if they're "accidently" aimed at a foreign embassy or the pilot misidentifies his target. Personally I'd rather see the money spent improving America from within.
This begins with a sentance fragment. It should begin with "This is...". The way its written it not only sounds wrong, but according to proper rules of grammar, it is wrong.