While the media's portrayal of Christians may be skewed, ask your Christian friends whether they consider themselves to be Republican or Democratic and whom they will vote for this year. After they tell you they are Republican, ask them what the Republican party would have to do to lose their vote, or what the Democratic party would have to do to gain it. Now weigh their answer against the probability of those reasons ever happening. This is the real point, and the politicians know it.
Of all the Christians I personally know, only one has already decided to cross the party line this year to vote non-Republican. He has decided that opposing Bush's policies on revitalizing US imperialism, ignoring UN entirely before invading Iraq, ignoring the 1997 Kyoto Treaty, reckless governmental spending, doing virtually everything possible to support big business (especially the oil industry), helping to screw the 40 hour work week, and countless others, are more important than supporting his Christian-based issues of anti-abortion, anti-gay/lesbian , anti-non-Christian religions, etc.
Granted, I haven't conducted a Gallup Poll, but I would certainly like to see the demographic breakdown. What do you think: 90% of people who identify themselves as Christian (not just religious, but Christian) vote Republican? More? Less? Anyone have access to this poll or this one?
Were it up to me, I would like to apologize to the entire world, on behalf of all citizens of the U.S. of A., for the entire "freedom fries" fiasco. But I won't - mainly because the twits that are responsible for the fiasco represent a majority of the voting populace of said country. (Well, almost all of the twits represent a majority of the voters...) Therefore, I'll just apologize for me - sorry, that was a stupid and pointless response to a soverign nation exercising it's right to not support an, at best, questionable military action against another sovereign nation that it's selling weapons to.
However, the facts here still remain: the original poster enforces the particular stereotype that I mentioned. Just because this upsets you does not invalidate the stereotype.
Actually, if you read to the end of my other, previously-posted reply to this thread, you'll see that I already discussed comments like this. Instead of this explanation, I could have easily posted YHBT.
1. v.,n. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also YHBT.
2. n. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll." Compare kook.
3. n. [Berkeley] Computer lab monitor. A popular campus job for CS students. Duties include helping newbies and ensuring that lab policies are followed. Probably so-called because it involves lurking in dark cavelike corners.
Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower category than flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial. See also Troll-O-Meter.
The use of 'troll' in any of these senses is a live metaphor that readily produces elaborations and combining forms. For example, one not infrequently sees the warning "Do not feed the troll" as part of a followup to troll postings.
1. vi. To post an email message intended to insult and provoke.
2. vi. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude.
3. vt. Either of senses 1 or 2, directed with hostility at a particular person or people.
4. n. An instance of flaming. When a discussion degenerates into useless controversy, one might tell the participants "Now you're just flaming" or "Stop all that flamage!" to try to get them to cool down (so to speak).
The term may have been independently invented at several different places. It has been reported from MIT, Carleton College and RPI (among many other places) from as far back as 1969, and from the University of Virginia in the early 1960s.
It is possible that the hackish sense of 'flame' is much older than that. The poet Chaucer was also what passed for a wizard hacker in his time; he wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, the most advanced computing device of the day. In Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, Cressida laments her inability to grasp the proof of a particular mathematical theorem; her uncle Pandarus then observes that it's called "the fleminge of wrecches." This phrase seems to have been intended in context as "that which puts the wretches to flight" but was probably just as ambiguous in Middle English as "the flaming of wretches" would be today. One suspects that Chaucer would feel right at home on Usenet.
To me, the subtle distinction lies in the reason for the post. The Troll is looking to get people worked up (and therefore respond), whereas the flamer (so to speak) is just being caustic.
A troll is a post carefully crafted to attract predictable responses and/or flames. The moderator probably read the post, saw the poster was "andy666" and thought some guy was trolling. It was a mistake.
After looking at andy666's posting history, the moderator should have known that andy666 really is a French grandmother named Andrea Tilley, who apparently has a grandchild old enough to post the parent article, and isn't happy that her grandchild considers her technically inadequate for this job. Wow - French and thin-skinned; but I repeat myself.
The ^'s aren't included, but I'm sure you can put them in appropriate places.;-)
Problems with patched OSes / custom builds
on
Known-Good MD5 Database
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
This sounds nice, but I see problems as installs move from the "100% installed code" to the "patch of the week" versions. Especially when you have to do custom builds of the software.
Are you running BIND, Apache, wu-ftpd, or (shudder) Sendmail? If you are, your system won't be entirely in their shiny dbase for more than a month (probably more like a week) after you install. And if _you_ don't update it, someone will be kind enough to "update" some file for you soon enough...
As a test, I checked/bin/ps on a few local systems. (If you don't know why I started with this one, you will. Probably sooner than you'd wish to.)
Binary compatibility is seen for systems 1, 2, and 5, but the RH7.2 system (#4) doesn't match. System #3 is a Gentoo system, which is probably the most secure, but also the least likely to ever match with their list. I guess that's the peril of compiling your own code.
So is XP. Let's see how many people out there in XP-land have the same XPerience:
A) Install. Reboot 7 times. B) Runs fine for a day. C) Crashes once. D) Runs fine for three days. E) Crashes 6 times. G) Install that one driver that causes the system to becomes so unstable that you can't count the number of reboots. F) Wipe disk and reinstall. Reboot 7 more times.
** NOTE: Some users may experience looping and alternate paths between B, C, D, and E. Once you hit G, you're pretty much hosed.
Sound familiar to anyone? Especially with Abit Dual-Celeron boards?
This sounds weird to most native English-speakers, but not putting in an appropriate address (Mr., Dr., Ms., etc.) may be construed as an insult in Japanese society. Dean Takahashi is probably just being polite.
Ash OS durbatulk, ash OS gimbatul, Ash OS thrakatulk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul! Uzg-Microsoft-ishi amal fauthut bur
And speaking of politeness, it was rude of you to write this language here. (Even though it's completely true...)
Did anyone else out there buy the first edition of "Seven"? 2-disc set, looked cool, great movie--I bought it. Of course, their concept of an acceptable 2-disc set was where the user is forced to switch discs with ~20-25 minutes remaining in the movie. Major-league rip-off.
Then "The Princess Bride" came out. Most of the people who were the target audience had time to buy it (like me), then they released the Special Edition DVD.
Then there was "Army of Darkness", and now Tron. Tron was DVD number #3 for me, behind ST-FC and The Matrix. And yes, it's been a few years, but God #@%!#$@% Dammit--this practice is really pissing me off.
I wish they'd let us return the old one for a rebate on the purchase of the new one. Even Microsoft offers a discount for their corruptgrades, er, I mean upgrades.
I live in Palo Alto, California, right down the hill from Stanford University. I don't have broadband. And it appears that I won't have broadband until Crawford, TX freezes over, either.
For the past 15 months, I've tried virtually every option available and I can't get it. The.com bust didn't help some struggling providers, but the real problem is the bastards that control the last mile. Because they have monopolies on the copper coming into my house, I am left with the poor prospect of allowing SpeakEasy.net to service themselves monthly on my posterior, while being grateful that they're only charging $89.99 for an 128k line.
I'd like to have other options, but reality has a nasty way of intruding on my dreams. Here's a quick rundown for those who are interested:
Cable Modem: Real Soon Now[TM], @Home says so. And that's been their story for the last 15 months.
Sprint Wireless: I live in a local valley that line-of-sight technologies can't penetrate. Of course, Sprint isn't even offering this now...
Wireless (Ricochet): Had a fat 128k pipe, but Chapter 13 took down the connection. Aerie (who bought Ricochet) claims to be offering service again. If only they would have done something 2 months sooner.
Satellite: Check out Huge Aircrash's, er I mean Hughes Electronics' spiffy DiRECWAY technology. What's that? Only available for Windows 98, 2k, and ME? Well Windows ME harder! I refuse to buy another computer to access the 'Net.
Fiber: I can pay to have Fiberhood run
fibre to the rental I live in...or not.
DSL: Some local monopoly claims that they'll be upgrading their equipment in my area, which will shorten the 23,400 feet distance between my home and highspeed heaven Real Soon Now[TM]. And it's been their story for 15 months, too.
The real problem is that no one can afford to compete with the incumbent telcos. Even if someone could come up with a high-speed wireless solution (and 128k does not qualify) for my area, they'd be out of business within 2-3 years of inception and within 6-9 months of deployment. Why? Guess where the monopolies would spend their time upgrading their services--areas where customers have no choices, or areas where their monopoly is threatened?
The demand is threre. Content is not really holding up broadband. Broadband is being held up by the ILECs--at virtual gunpoint.
Maybe I missed something, but has the DOJ overturned the Judge Jackson's ruling that Microsoft abused their monopoly? No?
Then will somebody please explain how any other antitrust crimes in the last decade could possibly result in jail time for execs when this one didn't???
I know this is supposed to be a discussion of a civil suit, but Gates and Balmer should be getting quoted from a federal prison...
As a former EE grad slave/lecturer and CS instructor I can vouch for this first-hand. When I was a student, I always learned faster from instructors that gave examples/metaphors/explanations that I could tie into the foundation I already had. The difficult part about applying this to a classroom (or, in the case of the article, private tutoring) is finding that elusive common ground with your student(s).
It may sound relatively simple, but it really isn't--especially with Linux. When I started learning Linux, I was already an expert on Mac/Windows machines, and had been programming both for a while. I imagine that most people who are trying to teach someone else Linux also have a somewhat similar background, and try to explain things the way they learned it. Even worse, you try to explain the things _you_ do while using Linux instead of teaching the newbie in terms (s)he can understand, using tools that (s)he will probably use. I don't use any Finder/Explorer/gmc tools to navigate through my files, but I'll bet that newbies would sure like to see one. I use Vim for pretty much everything, but I'll bet that newbies would like to see some graphical editor instead.
The point about "knowing too much" could be valid, but there's also a darker side to it. If I'm talking about how to do something in Linux with a Linux-savvy friend, I may as well be speaking Greek as far as newbies (or even experienced Mac/Windows users) are concerned. And if a newbie is looking over my shoulder while I'm using Linux for everyday stuff, it's still mostly Greek. (Except for when I'm using ViM, or course...) The dark side of this is that if I _don't_ use l33t-5p34k around certain members of the Linux community, I have no credibility. (You may dismiss this point until you get in front of a class with a group of 2-4 h4x0r friends in it and see how disruptive they can be.)
And unfortunately for the masses, Linux is not at the point where newbies can easily get going. (I say this is unfortunate for the masses, not for Linux, for until the Linux community delivers a "ready-for-newbies" desktop solution, those users will continue to choose OSes that will bilk their companies and them out of hundreds or thousands of dollars today, and leave them with questionable tomorrows.)
I'm convinced that the Linux community will get software to a point where newbies can install, use, upgrade, and enjoy the GNU/Linux combination as much as they enjoy any other OS they may sit in front of. As long as standards remain free and open, I'm sure of it.
NSI has been pulling this crap for years. For me, it was a low priority fight for about three months, then I finally spent a couple of days on the phone (literally) getting them to change the domains. I've been 100% happy with DirectNIC since then. Check it out.
Perl allows you to do some really cool things, like fit 10-20 lines of code in any other language into 1 line of Perl. (Here's the proof.) Of course, you pay the penalty for being "clever" 6 months down the road.
It's good to remember that just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should do it.
Seriously though, if you've ever had to debug or maintain someone else's code, you should know how much trouble Perl can make for you. I'd almost rather debug assembly...almost.;-)
I reported this problem to Netcom about 6 years ago. After many e-mails, phone calls, and 12 months of being ignored, the problem was still there. I switched ISPs (obviously), but wonder if Netcom has bothered to fix the problem yet.
Try this out: Cut and paste the following text and send the e-mail to yourself.
==== Begin SMTP Bug-test =====
This text should appear in the reply whether they have a bug or not. .
But this text, however, will disappear if they have the bug.
==== End SMTP Bug-test =====
The problem is that putting a "." on a line all by itself is the way to tell an SMTP server that the message is done. That's what the RFC tells us. However, to prevent a line of your e-mail message from inadvertently terminating the message, good SMTP servers have various work arounds.
A test of their current systems reveals the following:
$ telnet smtp.ix.netcom.com 25
Trying 207.69.200.110...
Connected to smtp6.mindspring.com (207.69.200.110).
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp6.mindspring.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.9.3/8.8.5; Sat, 20 Jan 2001 17:23:45 -0500 (EST) quit
221 smtp6.mindspring.com closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
So my bug is fixed. (However, 8.9.3 is not exactly the most secure SMTP server to use...)
Also, if anyone is using Earthlink, run nmap on your own box, then run nmap on another box you know is running SMTP services. Earthlink filters port 25! Some troll pointed out that it is their _right_ to do this, but my problem is that my mail was black-holed - not bounced back to me. If they are going to stop spam by filtering, then they should do it The Right Way.
Turambar
------------------------------
Common sense is not so common.
--Voltaire
I'm trying to keep an open mind about Lost In Stupid Parentheses, er, I mean LISP, but am having a difficult time. Maybe I just can't wrap my brain around the structure...
I like the thought of EMACS being able to display images and PostScript inline. I just hope that it will still work with LaTeX...I don't think we have much to fear, though. =)
PKG ------------------------------ Common sense is not so common.
Their first name was most of a nice car. (OK, for me it's a great car.) The new name is part of a great metal.
I think one of the chief marketing people at intel has a hearing deficit and can't quite catch all of those conversations around the water cooler.
Either that, or intel's PHBs are running their spell-checkers on their new chip prototypes. PKG ------------------------------ Common sense is not so common.
While previewing this one, I found another problem, though. (It's probably the same one.) The "Preview" function replaces the actual code with the HTML equivalent.
PKG ------------------------------ Common sense is not so common.
Slashdot Mirror
While the media's portrayal of Christians may be skewed, ask your Christian friends whether they consider themselves to be Republican or Democratic and whom they will vote for this year. After they tell you they are Republican, ask them what the Republican party would have to do to lose their vote, or what the Democratic party would have to do to gain it. Now weigh their answer against the probability of those reasons ever happening. This is the real point, and the politicians know it.
Of all the Christians I personally know, only one has already decided to cross the party line this year to vote non-Republican. He has decided that opposing Bush's policies on revitalizing US imperialism, ignoring UN entirely before invading Iraq, ignoring the 1997 Kyoto Treaty, reckless governmental spending, doing virtually everything possible to support big business (especially the oil industry), helping to screw the 40 hour work week, and countless others, are more important than supporting his Christian-based issues of anti-abortion, anti-gay/lesbian , anti-non-Christian religions, etc.
Granted, I haven't conducted a Gallup Poll, but I would certainly like to see the demographic breakdown. What do you think: 90% of people who identify themselves as Christian (not just religious, but Christian) vote Republican? More? Less? Anyone have access to this poll or this one?
Were it up to me, I would like to apologize to the entire world, on behalf of all citizens of the U.S. of A., for the entire "freedom fries" fiasco. But I won't - mainly because the twits that are responsible for the fiasco represent a majority of the voting populace of said country. (Well, almost all of the twits represent a majority of the voters...) Therefore, I'll just apologize for me - sorry, that was a stupid and pointless response to a soverign nation exercising it's right to not support an, at best, questionable military action against another sovereign nation that it's selling weapons to.
However, the facts here still remain: the original poster enforces the particular stereotype that I mentioned. Just because this upsets you does not invalidate the stereotype.
Actually, if you read to the end of my other, previously-posted reply to this thread, you'll see that I already discussed comments like this. Instead of this explanation, I could have easily posted YHBT.
See The Jargon File for a complete explanation and more useful links. Here are the full cut-and-pasted definitions:
Troll:
1. v.,n. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also YHBT.
2. n. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll." Compare kook.
3. n. [Berkeley] Computer lab monitor. A popular campus job for CS students. Duties include helping newbies and ensuring that lab policies are followed. Probably so-called because it involves lurking in dark cavelike corners.
Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower category than flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial. See also Troll-O-Meter.
The use of 'troll' in any of these senses is a live metaphor that readily produces elaborations and combining forms. For example, one not infrequently sees the warning "Do not feed the troll" as part of a followup to troll postings.
Flame:
[at MIT, orig. from the phrase flaming asshole]
1. vi. To post an email message intended to insult and provoke.
2. vi. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude.
3. vt. Either of senses 1 or 2, directed with hostility at a particular person or people.
4. n. An instance of flaming. When a discussion degenerates into useless controversy, one might tell the participants "Now you're just flaming" or "Stop all that flamage!" to try to get them to cool down (so to speak).
The term may have been independently invented at several different places. It has been reported from MIT, Carleton College and RPI (among many other places) from as far back as 1969, and from the University of Virginia in the early 1960s.
It is possible that the hackish sense of 'flame' is much older than that. The poet Chaucer was also what passed for a wizard hacker in his time; he wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, the most advanced computing device of the day. In Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, Cressida laments her inability to grasp the proof of a particular mathematical theorem; her uncle Pandarus then observes that it's called "the fleminge of wrecches." This phrase seems to have been intended in context as "that which puts the wretches to flight" but was probably just as ambiguous in Middle English as "the flaming of wretches" would be today. One suspects that Chaucer would feel right at home on Usenet.
To me, the subtle distinction lies in the reason for the post. The Troll is looking to get people worked up (and therefore respond), whereas the flamer (so to speak) is just being caustic.
A troll is a post carefully crafted to attract predictable responses and/or flames. The moderator probably read the post, saw the poster was "andy666" and thought some guy was trolling. It was a mistake.
After looking at andy666's posting history, the moderator should have known that andy666 really is a French grandmother named Andrea Tilley, who apparently has a grandchild old enough to post the parent article, and isn't happy that her grandchild considers her technically inadequate for this job. Wow - French and thin-skinned; but I repeat myself.
It's SlashDot - what do you expect?
You're missing a few "ash"es, at least. The spelling's not quite correct either. Try this:
;-)
Ash nazg durbatuluk, Ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
The ^'s aren't included, but I'm sure you can put them in appropriate places.
This sounds nice, but I see problems as installs move from the "100% installed code" to the "patch of the week" versions. Especially when you have to do custom builds of the software.
/bin/ps on a few local systems. (If you don't know why I started with this one, you will. Probably sooner than you'd wish to.)
Are you running BIND, Apache, wu-ftpd, or (shudder) Sendmail? If you are, your system won't be entirely in their shiny dbase for more than a month (probably more like a week) after you install. And if _you_ don't update it, someone will be kind enough to "update" some file for you soon enough...
As a test, I checked
From the dbase:
RH 7.1 - MD5: ac0b58050deb21db1ed701277521320b
RH 7.3 - MD5: 6d3abf4efc9235e4eb5dc540d61d42fa
My systems:
#1 - MD5: ac0b58050deb21db1ed701277521320b
#2 - MD5: ac0b58050deb21db1ed701277521320b
#3 - MD5: 9724525265900e5f9020de3b431425b1
#4 - MD5: 881c7af31f6f447e29820fb73dc1dd9a
#5 - MD5: 6d3abf4efc9235e4eb5dc540d61d42fa
Binary compatibility is seen for systems 1, 2, and 5, but the RH7.2 system (#4) doesn't match. System #3 is a Gentoo system, which is probably the most secure, but also the least likely to ever match with their list. I guess that's the peril of compiling your own code.
So is XP. Let's see how many people out there in XP-land have the same XPerience:
A) Install. Reboot 7 times.
B) Runs fine for a day.
C) Crashes once.
D) Runs fine for three days.
E) Crashes 6 times.
G) Install that one driver that causes the system to becomes so unstable that you can't count the number of reboots.
F) Wipe disk and reinstall. Reboot 7 more times.
** NOTE: Some users may experience looping and alternate paths between B, C, D, and E. Once you hit G, you're pretty much hosed.
Sound familiar to anyone? Especially with Abit Dual-Celeron boards?
This sounds weird to most native English-speakers, but not putting in an appropriate address (Mr., Dr., Ms., etc.) may be construed as an insult in Japanese society. Dean Takahashi is probably just being polite.
Ash OS durbatulk, ash OS gimbatul, Ash OS thrakatulk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul! Uzg-Microsoft-ishi amal fauthut bur
And speaking of politeness, it was rude of you to write this language here. (Even though it's completely true...)
Or at least that's what my local MSCE believes...
Did anyone else out there buy the first edition of "Seven"? 2-disc set, looked cool, great movie--I bought it. Of course, their concept of an acceptable 2-disc set was where the user is forced to switch discs with ~20-25 minutes remaining in the movie. Major-league rip-off.
Then "The Princess Bride" came out. Most of the people who were the target audience had time to buy it (like me), then they released the Special Edition DVD.
Then there was "Army of Darkness", and now Tron. Tron was DVD number #3 for me, behind ST-FC and The Matrix. And yes, it's been a few years, but God #@%!#$@% Dammit--this practice is really pissing me off.
I wish they'd let us return the old one for a rebate on the purchase of the new one. Even Microsoft offers a discount for their corruptgrades, er, I mean upgrades.
For the past 15 months, I've tried virtually every option available and I can't get it. The .com bust didn't help some struggling providers, but the real problem is the bastards that control the last mile. Because they have monopolies on the copper coming into my house, I am left with the poor prospect of allowing SpeakEasy.net to service themselves monthly on my posterior, while being grateful that they're only charging $89.99 for an 128k line.
I'd like to have other options, but reality has a nasty way of intruding on my dreams. Here's a quick rundown for those who are interested:
Cable Modem: Real Soon Now[TM], @Home says so. And that's been their story for the last 15 months.
Sprint Wireless: I live in a local valley that line-of-sight technologies can't penetrate. Of course, Sprint isn't even offering this now...
Wireless (Ricochet): Had a fat 128k pipe, but Chapter 13 took down the connection. Aerie (who bought Ricochet) claims to be offering service again. If only they would have done something 2 months sooner.
Satellite: Check out Huge Aircrash's, er I mean Hughes Electronics' spiffy DiRECWAY technology. What's that? Only available for Windows 98, 2k, and ME? Well Windows ME harder! I refuse to buy another computer to access the 'Net.
Fiber: I can pay to have Fiberhood run fibre to the rental I live in...or not.
DSL: Some local monopoly claims that they'll be upgrading their equipment in my area, which will shorten the 23,400 feet distance between my home and highspeed heaven Real Soon Now[TM]. And it's been their story for 15 months, too.
The real problem is that no one can afford to compete with the incumbent telcos. Even if someone could come up with a high-speed wireless solution (and 128k does not qualify) for my area, they'd be out of business within 2-3 years of inception and within 6-9 months of deployment. Why? Guess where the monopolies would spend their time upgrading their services--areas where customers have no choices, or areas where their monopoly is threatened?
The demand is threre. Content is not really holding up broadband. Broadband is being held up by the ILECs--at virtual gunpoint.
Maybe I missed something, but has the DOJ overturned the Judge Jackson's ruling that Microsoft abused their monopoly? No?
Then will somebody please explain how any other antitrust crimes in the last decade could possibly result in jail time for execs when this one didn't???
I know this is supposed to be a discussion of a civil suit, but Gates and Balmer should be getting quoted from a federal prison...
As a former EE grad slave/lecturer and CS instructor I can vouch for this first-hand. When I was a student, I always learned faster from instructors that gave examples/metaphors/explanations that I could tie into the foundation I already had. The difficult part about applying this to a classroom (or, in the case of the article, private tutoring) is finding that elusive common ground with your student(s).
It may sound relatively simple, but it really isn't--especially with Linux. When I started learning Linux, I was already an expert on Mac/Windows machines, and had been programming both for a while. I imagine that most people who are trying to teach someone else Linux also have a somewhat similar background, and try to explain things the way they learned it. Even worse, you try to explain the things _you_ do while using Linux instead of teaching the newbie in terms (s)he can understand, using tools that (s)he will probably use. I don't use any Finder/Explorer/gmc tools to navigate through my files, but I'll bet that newbies would sure like to see one. I use Vim for pretty much everything, but I'll bet that newbies would like to see some graphical editor instead.
The point about "knowing too much" could be valid, but there's also a darker side to it. If I'm talking about how to do something in Linux with a Linux-savvy friend, I may as well be speaking Greek as far as newbies (or even experienced Mac/Windows users) are concerned. And if a newbie is looking over my shoulder while I'm using Linux for everyday stuff, it's still mostly Greek. (Except for when I'm using ViM, or course...) The dark side of this is that if I _don't_ use l33t-5p34k around certain members of the Linux community, I have no credibility. (You may dismiss this point until you get in front of a class with a group of 2-4 h4x0r friends in it and see how disruptive they can be.)
And unfortunately for the masses, Linux is not at the point where newbies can easily get going. (I say this is unfortunate for the masses, not for Linux, for until the Linux community delivers a "ready-for-newbies" desktop solution, those users will continue to choose OSes that will bilk their companies and them out of hundreds or thousands of dollars today, and leave them with questionable tomorrows.)
I'm convinced that the Linux community will get software to a point where newbies can install, use, upgrade, and enjoy the GNU/Linux combination as much as they enjoy any other OS they may sit in front of. As long as standards remain free and open, I'm sure of it.
Hey, wait a minute...
http://directnic.net/
...lies with the first moderator who doesn't get your humor. Oh well.
I'm sure this one will be flamebait too, because some moderator won't get the "-c" joke.
Perl allows you to do some really cool things, like fit 10-20 lines of code in any other language into 1 line of Perl. (Here's the proof.) Of course, you pay the penalty for being "clever" 6 months down the road.
It's good to remember that just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should do it.
Seriously though, if you've ever had to debug or maintain someone else's code, you should know how much trouble Perl can make for you. I'd almost rather debug assembly...almost. ;-)
Anyone else have this problem after leaving a PERL script alone for a few weeks?
I think I'll stick with PHP...
This isn't off-topic, as an anagram was posted in the original story. Come on moderators - wake up!
Turambar
------------------------------
Common sense is not so common.
--Voltaire
Try this out: Cut and paste the following text and send the e-mail to yourself.
==== Begin SMTP Bug-test =====
.
This text should appear in the reply whether they have a bug or not.
But this text, however, will disappear if they have the bug.
==== End SMTP Bug-test =====
The problem is that putting a "." on a line all by itself is the way to tell an SMTP server that the message is done. That's what the RFC tells us. However, to prevent a line of your e-mail message from inadvertently terminating the message, good SMTP servers have various work arounds.
A test of their current systems reveals the following:
$ telnet smtp.ix.netcom.com 25
Trying 207.69.200.110...
Connected to smtp6.mindspring.com (207.69.200.110).
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp6.mindspring.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.9.3/8.8.5; Sat, 20 Jan 2001 17:23:45 -0500 (EST)
quit
221 smtp6.mindspring.com closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
So my bug is fixed. (However, 8.9.3 is not exactly the most secure SMTP server to use...)
Also, if anyone is using Earthlink, run nmap on your own box, then run nmap on another box you know is running SMTP services. Earthlink filters port 25! Some troll pointed out that it is their _right_ to do this, but my problem is that my mail was black-holed - not bounced back to me. If they are going to stop spam by filtering, then they should do it The Right Way.
Turambar
------------------------------
Common sense is not so common.
--Voltaire
I like the thought of EMACS being able to display images and PostScript inline. I just hope that it will still work with LaTeX...I don't think we have much to fear, though. =)
PKG
------------------------------
Common sense is not so common.
I think one of the chief marketing people at intel has a hearing deficit and can't quite catch all of those conversations around the water cooler.
Either that, or intel's PHBs are running their spell-checkers on their new chip prototypes.
PKG
------------------------------
Common sense is not so common.
While previewing this one, I found another problem, though. (It's probably the same one.) The "Preview" function replaces the actual code with the HTML equivalent.
PKG
------------------------------
Common sense is not so common.