I am a professional, sir, and resent your insinuating that I am incompetent. If IIS5 came with usable documentation, which I had either read and misunderstood or refused to read, then that would be a sign of incompetence. The only reason I have this box is because I was not satisfied after reading about all the security holes installing FP extensions for Apache opens.
I even read the IIS portion of the MS resource kit, which was an odd clash of 'under-the-hood' details and MS propoganda that was wholly devoid of useful content (Sentances like "MS IIS 5 is the [easiest | best | fastest] product for [task]" belong in marketing media, not technical manuals). So, I have ordered a third-party book that looks promising.
But my points, which may have escaped you, are: why should I get more and better documentation on a product that I use for free that for a product that cost several hundred dollars? Or for that matter, why should an FTP server need securing beyond denying anonymous access and having good passwords? And if more is necessary, where is the documentation that tells me what steps I should take? Does it make me incompetent that I cannot, a priori, figure out IIS server 5 from what I have been provided -- a broken-out-of-box system with online help that does not go beyond "click add, then new, then FTP service?"
For Bob's sake, it took me like 15 minutes to download, compile, and install BIND after I got the security notice from CERT.
Meanwhile, I found recently that someone FTP'd a packet sniffer to my w2k box. Why? How? I don't know. I have anonymous access disabled, and passwords on all the accounts. Maybe if this product came with some reasonable fscking documentation I'd have a clue.
The only reason I have this win2k POS is so many of my customers have bought into MS's "if your ISP doesn't support FrontPage, you don't have a real ISP" bull.
The reason why I don't think it's true is the fact that my Alumni association, when begging for money (unsuccessfully, in my case), asks that you put a stamp on the business reply envelope to save them postage.
So either they're not clear on how this form of postage works, or you aren't -- and my bet is with them, simply because they're probably more greedy than you are.:)
Hawking's Brief History is the one thing I would get back, IF I had the power to receive one item out of all the tings I have ever lost to ex-girlfriends.
Read the category, bub. If I asked "Microsoft products are easy to use, but not as powerful as Linux; is Linux kept hard to give more power to the Digerati and widen the digital divide? Is the Open Source Movement up to something?" would you go accusing slashdot of yellow journalism, or would you just think I was clueless?
What I don't understand is why the ISPs have to be responsible for this. I run an ISP. I have enough crap to be responsible for; users already feel that everything that ever happens to their systems is my fault... having to get involved in money, collection, reconciliation, claims court, etc. would put a HUGE labor burden on any ISP.
My vote for this is NOT IT. The cost should be incurred directly by the user.
I think of software patents as things built out of LEGO blocks. We all have the same blocks, and the same potentially infinite number of ways to assemble them.
Is it possible to think of a truly novel way to fit them together?
I made something never made before!
Well, of course you did. Like the author's example of the programming assignment -- everyone will do it a little differently.
I found new ways to put blocks together!
Like, by gluing the flat sides together. Is that useful? Probably. Our lawyers will have to look into it.
I used a mold and some plastic and invented a new block!
You did? Congratulations! It probably deserves a patent, let's check the literature to be sure. . .
Woah there, hoss. I sell Verizon DSL -- or rather, am the Internet backend for the service -- and:
- I don't use PPPoE
- It's fast as crap, I use it at home
- the last time the service was down, it was on a Qwest T1 line. I moved the whole service over to a T1 of frame from Genuity. It hasn't been down since.
All ISPs are not created equal, pal. Personally, I work my ass off.
Reason: Because it hasn't! I mean, c'mon -- if latex could replace HTML, why would HTML have been invented already? Hasn't latex been around a whole heck of a lot longer? C'mon.
You're right, but saying "Don't bother with Linux because it might fragment one day" is like saying, "Don't elect Al Gore, he might die in office!" -- it's possible, but unforseeable.
I'm incredulous. How can the government tax something that is free (as in speech AND as in beer) and, I might add (according to the license) is not fit for any particular purpose?
At the same time, Netscape's rampant self-serviness illustrates a valid commercial open-source model. Companies don't just want to make money, they have to! And self-referencing/promoting is a very valid way to keep generating revenue while using open source software.
I make no argument concerning the fair treatment of Mozilla developers; I don't know enough about that to comment. But I did want to throw the above into the mix!
A: The UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) Project is a
comprehensive, open industry initiative enabling businesses to (I) discover each
other, and (II) define how they interact over the internet and share information in a
global registry architecture. UDDI is the building block which will enable businesses to
quickly, easily and dynamically find and transact with one another via their preferred
applications.
I'm no expert by any means. But if Nader can define GW as "A big corporation disguised as a person," then I feel I have every right to describe this so-called initiative as "A lot of buzzwords disguised as a web site."
[...]
86.v.(2): The user of this software Shall, upon acceptance of this license (i.e., through usage of this software), be heretofore bound to release the parentship and legal guardianhood of their first born child;
86.v.(3): In the event that the user of this software has no progeny, through adoption or sanguine procreation, the user shall complete their responsibility outlined in this agreement upon such time as they are able to procure the aforementioned child;
[...]
The big deal is this: he thought of it first. Step back for a sec and consider the modern art movement. Everybody from Mondrian to Jack the Dripper to Cristo has been famous for finding some unique "hook" in their artwork. It's different, and therefore, cool.
I run a small (one developer: me!) project at sourceforge: a text-based web bulletin board called vaxbb.
Although sourceforge says it's been downloaded 63 times, I've received nary a comment or email of any sort. Granted, it needs a lot of work before vaxbb will be an install-n-go program, but I definitely think it fills a niche (I started writing it because I couldn't find a free bb that I liked the look of).
So, after all that intro, my question is: Does a project have to be super-slick before people will use or contribute to it? How does one find developers w/out a huge user base. ..or get a user base without having a fully-developed program?
I have the same experience -- but my web server
multihomes -- and I use multiple IP's to do it
with separate running apache's -- I just counted
125 instances of httpd running, and the load average is 0.32 0.17 0.17. The most popular site gets only ~3k hits per day, but taken together it's probably a sh*tload.
The server is a Compaq Proliant with a 300 Mhz processor and 128 megs of RAM.
-Omar
PS -- The same box is also our primary SMTP server for ~500 email users (qmail, of course).
I hope it gets broadcast here in the states somehow...
I remember as a kid that we had tape recorded all the radio versions of Star Wars, HitchHiker's Guide, and the Hobbit. I sure wish I knew where those tapes were now. ..
Slashdot Mirror
The frequency
The "network number"
The encryption secret
I haven't heard of ways to arbitrarily break into one of these without some serious and expensive equipment.
-Omar
I even read the IIS portion of the MS resource kit, which was an odd clash of 'under-the-hood' details and MS propoganda that was wholly devoid of useful content (Sentances like "MS IIS 5 is the [easiest | best | fastest] product for [task]" belong in marketing media, not technical manuals). So, I have ordered a third-party book that looks promising. But my points, which may have escaped you, are: why should I get more and better documentation on a product that I use for free that for a product that cost several hundred dollars? Or for that matter, why should an FTP server need securing beyond denying anonymous access and having good passwords? And if more is necessary, where is the documentation that tells me what steps I should take? Does it make me incompetent that I cannot, a priori, figure out IIS server 5 from what I have been provided -- a broken-out-of-box system with online help that does not go beyond "click add, then new, then FTP service?"
-Omar
Meanwhile, I found recently that someone FTP'd a packet sniffer to my w2k box. Why? How? I don't know. I have anonymous access disabled, and passwords on all the accounts. Maybe if this product came with some reasonable fscking documentation I'd have a clue.
The only reason I have this win2k POS is so many of my customers have bought into MS's "if your ISP doesn't support FrontPage, you don't have a real ISP" bull.
It pisses me off.
Rant off,
-Omar@bastards!
"Okay, I'll be P, you be Q, and Ray here will be the equal sign. Do you have the NOT? Who's got the not?"
!
"Oh, there it is. Roll camera!"
-Omar
The reason why I don't think it's true is the fact that my Alumni association, when begging for money (unsuccessfully, in my case), asks that you put a stamp on the business reply envelope to save them postage.
So either they're not clear on how this form of postage works, or you aren't -- and my bet is with them, simply because they're probably more greedy than you are. :)
-Omar
-Omar
Hmm?
-Omar
My vote for this is NOT IT. The cost should be incurred directly by the user.
-Omar
-Omar
Is it possible to think of a truly novel way to fit them together?
I made something never made before!
Well, of course you did. Like the author's example of the programming assignment -- everyone will do it a little differently.
I found new ways to put blocks together!
Like, by gluing the flat sides together. Is that useful? Probably. Our lawyers will have to look into it.
I used a mold and some plastic and invented a new block!
You did? Congratulations! It probably deserves a patent, let's check the literature to be sure. . .
Metaphors R us,
-Omar
All ISPs are not created equal, pal. Personally, I work my ass off.
-Omarius
Reason: Because it hasn't! I mean, c'mon -- if latex could replace HTML, why would HTML have been invented already? Hasn't latex been around a whole heck of a lot longer? C'mon.
Next: will IPX replace IPv6?
A: No. ;)
-Omar
-Omar
-Omar
When are we holding elections again? ;)
-Omar
I make no argument concerning the fair treatment of Mozilla developers; I don't know enough about that to comment. But I did want to throw the above into the mix!
-Omar
2.) "Vermillion" has two L's, Hemos. Yes, the phrase is annoying, but my sense of irony refuses to let you criticize it before you can spell it. ;)
That is all.
-Omar
Until I think about the kind of whiplash you'll give yourself the first time someone really surprises you in your favorite multiplayer!
*BLAM* Wha? *CRAK* OW!
-Omar
I'm no expert by any means. But if Nader can define GW as "A big corporation disguised as a person," then I feel I have every right to describe this so-called initiative as "A lot of buzzwords disguised as a web site."
-Omar
86.v.(2): The user of this software Shall, upon acceptance of this license (i.e., through usage of this software), be heretofore bound to release the parentship and legal guardianhood of their first born child;
86.v.(3): In the event that the user of this software has no progeny, through adoption or sanguine procreation, the user shall complete their responsibility outlined in this agreement upon such time as they are able to procure the aforementioned child;
[...]
-Omar@my.2.cents.worth
Although sourceforge says it's been downloaded 63 times, I've received nary a comment or email of any sort. Granted, it needs a lot of work before vaxbb will be an install-n-go program, but I definitely think it fills a niche (I started writing it because I couldn't find a free bb that I liked the look of).
So, after all that intro, my question is: Does a project have to be super-slick before people will use or contribute to it? How does one find developers w/out a huge user base. . .or get a user base without having a fully-developed program?
-Omar
The server is a Compaq Proliant with a 300 Mhz processor and 128 megs of RAM.
-Omar
PS -- The same box is also our primary SMTP server for ~500 email users (qmail, of course).
At least I can take solace in the fact that I never read it.
-Omar
I remember as a kid that we had tape recorded all the radio versions of Star Wars, HitchHiker's Guide, and the Hobbit. I sure wish I knew where those tapes were now. . .
-Omar