So maybe this was the test run for "fine tuning"? I suppose it's OK to test this on "enemy combatants" even if it has horrific results. Oh well, war is profitable. The beat goes on. Tralalalala.
For timed reminders, you want a combination of cron (for the scheduling and execution of reminder pop-ups) and Zenity (to produce GUI based dialog "pop ups"). Zenity is rather impressive adding GUI based feedback, input/output to shell scripts.
Metcalfe: Well, anonymity cannot be the rule. Anonymity has to be the exception. You should allow people to be anonymous if they want to, but the general rule shouldn't be anonymity, which is the present case. The source field of every packet in the Internet goes uninspected. You can cram anything you want into that and generate denial-of-service attacks (just to name one).
If networks were configured so that the "general rule" is NOT to be anonymous, then there is no way you can guarantee true anonymity. The reason being that if someone wantred to be "anonymous", they would have to request that privlege from some kind of "anonymity broker" or... own their own network. And even then, with the ability to track the packets, the only guarantee of anonymity is not technical, but social. The owner of the network that the message originated from would have to be the barrier. And as we all know, the current political climates around the world will be unlikely to respect that anonymity if they decide that your activities are "illegal". If someone wants to send e-mail saying they hope that a certain politician gets assainated, in some locations, that would be "illegal". Even though it's really freedom of speech. So, I don't think his suggestion works because it's not true anonymity unless you are in a very powerful position. Every citizen (from beggar to king) should have access to anonymity.
...a lot of doctors and pharmaceutical corporations are no longer operating with the patient's best interests at heart. They are soley driven by money and they are overprescribing certain profitable meds. Look at the whole Celebrex fiasco. The company knew that Celebrex caused problems, but decided that it was better to make money even if people died.
We also have a massive epidemic of medical prescriptions for supposed A.D.D. kids. Did anyone ever stop and think that the A.D.D. kids might just be... I don't know... normal bored kids? I used to day dream in class a lot because the subject matter sucked. But I wasn't sitting there totally spaced even though it looked it. I was doing circuit design in my head for various projects (robots to kill the school bullies, bombs to blow up teacher's cars that I didn't like, remote display systems so that I could gain access to computer systems remotely during dull history tests, etc...). Or when I was wandering all over the place during basketball games in gym class... that wasn't A.D.D. That was just that I hate sports and find competition to be an abrasive characteristic. Cooperative games, I was all into. (You know. The thing like taking the parachute and throwing it up as a group and huddling underneath it and then throwing it up again and siting outside of it. Now that's my idea of fun sports.)
Then we have the problem of big pharma pushing antibiotics without warning people that they should be replenishing their G.I. tract with probiotics lest other horrific diseases infest your body. I had a very personal experience with this. Horrible sinus infections every year since my teens. So... the cure? Antibiotics. Sure I was happy and I got better, but I didn't realize the damage that was being done. Every year the sinus infections got incrementally worse and I had to take longer and longer course of antibiotics. Finally when I was in my late 20s, I was prescribed a new (and very dangerous) antibiotic in the Quinolone family. It was called Levaquin. After the first few days of taking it, I had unbelievable depression. I told my doctor that I thought it might be caused by the Levaquin even though it makes no scientific sense since antibiotics are not psychoactive. He agreed and said, just keep taking them. I did, and it just got worse and worse. After the 14 days, it took me about two or three months to start feeling normal again.
The next year, I had a really bad infection but didn't want to feel that horrible depression again. I did some searches on the net and discovered that other people were reporting depression caused by Levaquin in various forums. So I realized I wasn't alone. Unfortunately, I still had the sinus infection and still wound up taking antibiotics, but I was able to tell my doctor to skip the Levaquin. (Levaquin is being pushed hard right now because it supposedly has fewer side effects than other antibiotics) This time around, I got a horrible skin rash that was extremely uncomfortable. Again 10-14 days of antibiotics. But this time two weeks after the course ended, the sinus infection came back. So I was on the meds again for another 14 day course. An entire summer ruined.
The next year, same thing... Horrible sinus infection even worse than the previous year. I wound up doing still more reseearch on the net and found some information on systemic yeast infections. The symptoms were identical to mine and the root cause in many cases appears to be antibiotics. Even more research revealed that the company that makes Levaquin finally acknowledged that Levaquin can cause depression and suicidal thoughts in "a small number" of patients. Sorry, but ANY number of people with depression or suicidal thought is too large.
I had experienced the suicidal thoughts myself, but it's not connected to depression. It's actually a lot like a safety mechanism gets switched off in the brain and you forget very basic things you should be aware of to keep safe. I almost took a drill to my head because
Mods on crack again. Fuck you all. People with mod point should mod up tomhudson's original post as insightful. To anyone who modded the post incorrectly, I piss on you. To anyone who incorrectly mods me, I spit on your grave. A pox on all of you who abuse mod points.
Ahhh... I see. There was a typo in my original post. It was not supposed to be Windows 2000, it was supposed to be Windows XP. Sorry for the confusion. I HAVE run Windows 2000 on a Pentium 233 MMX with 32 Megs of RAM. It ran slowly, but it did run usably. I still stand by my original post, but replace Windows 2K with Windows XP Pro.
- Any modern game (I've run Unreal 2003 and Quake 3 on that system. I'm not a gamer though, so I don't care. I still think Riven and Myst are the best games known to man.)
- High-resolution photo editing (e.g. 8megapixel) I do this all the time with GIMP. Some of my largest images are 500 megs each (high resolution scans). The system handles them well and is very responsive. In fact the dual P II 450 is my main photo editing system via my remote desktop setup (Using Linux + GIMP).
- PVRHeheheh... done that too. As long as you have a decent capture card (PVR-250 rules for PVR functions in Linux) you could use a non-MMX Pentium 200 and still get decent results.
- Video editingBzzzzt. Wrong again. When I was still running Windows on that box (NT 4), I used Sonic Foundry software for video editing and again, it worked great. These were standard 640x480 video captures from an analog camcorder. I don't use DV because I don't have DV, but I'm pretty sure this system would rock with that as well.
- GentooI ran Gentoo on a Pentium 100.
Sure it took a long time to build, but it worked just fine. So I imagine running it on a dual PII 250 would scream by comparison. I've also got a P4 system (for professional audio work). It came with XP Pro but it's now running a very customized RedHat 9 and it runs much faster in Linux than in Windows. The funny thing is that desktop performance of Windows XP Pro is the same on that system as RedHat 9 desktop performance on the dual P II 450. The P4 also has a gig of RAM vs. the dual's 768 megs. Sorry, but on every count in this argument you lose. As long as I continue to run customized versions of Linux I can make the hardware last much longer than I ever could with Windows. You just can't tweak Windows enough to make a system scream. I don't care what registry settings you change, Windows is a pig and is the main reason people get rid of systems too early. The fact that I run tons of stuff on the dual PII 450 proves it to me. Yes... I have a longer initial set up time, but the system performs much better than Windows would ever make it run.
Wow. Such hostility. Have we met before?;P Maintenence costs money. At some point, it's just cheaper to buy a new machine. It doesn't matter how well the system is built: at some point, a component *will* fail.
Bzzzt. Wrong answer. We're talking home systems here. Not enterprise stuff. Sorry, but I don't have $2,000 to shell out every 4-5 years for a midrange server. (Yes. Servers ARE standard home equipment these days.) The system I bought in 1997 was $1999. I expect it to last me another two years minimum. And yes... under Linux it still runs today's apps. Name one thing I can't run on a dual PII 450 (with the exception of Windows XP).
With that said, I tried installing Win2K a few years back on my dual P II 450 with 768 Megs of RAM. It was on a really sweet Tyan board from 1997. It installed alright, but it ran like a slug through molasses on a cold January night. The boot alone took 10-15 minutes. This system had SCSI2 drives as well, so there really were no bottle necks. No weird interrupt problems to speak of, nothing odd. So then I installed RedHat 9 and did something you can never do with Windows. I recompiled the kernel for SMP and tweaked it with the realtime patches. I also customized the hell out of it by just installing the very minimum of RedHat, stripping what I didn't want and installing everything from source. The end result? A super secure, super efficient system that performs as well as a P4 running at 1 Ghz. It's been running like this going on three years now. Uptimes have been incredible compared to any desktop PC I've ever used before. It plays the role of internal DNS, NTP, Web, Mail and File servers. It's also the main application server for the house with centralized everything. The rest of my systems just act as thin clients that can easily attach to an IN PROGRESS desktop session using VNC. I never log out of my VNC desktop anymore, I just lock the screen. Same for my wife and two friends who use the system via OpenVPN over the internet.
The point to all this? I do things that you CAN'T do with Windows and this box is eight years old but feels like it's only 2 years old. Machines really should last closer to 10-15 years before having to buy a new one. The idea of the disposable machine is moronic.
...this is the second time in two weeks I've seen the URL to the main page of the Plasma project listed. And both times, I get "server could not be found" messages. What's up with DNS?
...wrong audience here. Most/. readers are operating home networks. Very few of them actually have real network related jobs. They might work help desk, or be in IT management. But real network jocks have very little to do with Slashdot.
Doesn't compare to feeling rain hitting you in full torrential mode. I suppose if you have a shower that has a 12'x12' square head, you might be able to pull it off.
...98% of all average computer users are stupid. No really. It's not that hard to avoid infection. Personally, I don't run Windows anymore. Most Linux distros are easy enough for anyone to use these days, but they need to get over the "but I need "X" software package to do "Y". Unless they are looking for a specific Windows only business app (which is not the target group that this study was conducted against), or a Windows only game (just dual boot with networking disabled in Windows and screw MMORPGs and internet enabled FPS games), Linux should do just fine.
However, I can easily run Windows and never get infected. It's just not that hard to keep up with Windows Updates and make sure you NEVER put your box directly on the net. If you run Windows and you don't have a hardware gateway/firewall, you're an idiot. I've got a non-technically literate friend who I set up with a hardware gateway, and I told him to NOT use that administrator account unless he's doing updates or some installs. He's been OK. Keep in mind, I'm a hardcore Linux user and really find Windows limiting for my needs. But it's just not that hard to keep a Windows box running if you follow some simple instructions and stop being a moron.
No your not. I've hacked your system. Go ahead and ping 127.0.0.1 and you will see that I have knowledge of your machine's IP address. Now tell me which OS you're running so I can tell you how to connect to your shared folders.;P
There is nothing like experiencing natural weather first hand. Back in the late 80s (I was about 19) we got a really fast thunderstorm with torrential rain. For some odd reason, I was compelled to take my t-shirt off and run into the middle of my back yard. I ran up and grabbed a towel to stick in the back entrance to my house and then threw the t-shirt, shoes and socks off and ran into the storm. I had a friend over who watched in shock as I did this. Since it was a really hot day (mid 90s) the rain felt really refreshing and the smell of the negative (or is it positive?) ions caused by the lightning was exhilirating. I know it was stupid to run out in the middle of a thunder storm, but I will never forget the experience. It was very different from being caught in the rain while walking somewhere. This was intentional. And I knew where my towel was...;P (How come stories like these are never told by women on Slashdot?)
I Won't be happy until I see the new series of Doctor Who premiered in the U.S. Canadians are lucky because they've already seen Doctor Who 2005 series 1 and they're slated for series 2 as well. We have to suffer the crap that our networks spew at us and SciFi is certainly no saviour. They program the worst SciFi (all action masquerading as science fiction) I've ever seen in my life. I mean, come on!!! Mansquito? Give me a f*cking break! Where is the thinking man's SciFi channel? I'm sick of all these macho programs that SciFI puts on claiming to be science fiction. Science fiction is not about wars, and guns and action. It's about using your mind and technology to solve problems in a world that is almost but not entirely like your own. Philip K. Dick did the best science fiction and SciFi repeatedly shits all over his stuff.
Zeb Horkulon: So you're telling me that the reason my picture looks like a magnified cubist painting is because my projection system isn't compatible with Windows?
MS Marketing Drone: Well... that's not it really. Your display is sort of compatible but only as long as it doesn't provide a sharp image when watching premium content. We can't have that since it would be all too easy for you to then archive the image to unauthorized deivces.
Zeb Horkulon: So my Maxivid 4000 photon cannon virtual screen that can provide me with beautiful desktop displays at 10,000 x 24,842 resolution will do so as long as I'm only running Word, Powerpoint or Excel. But as soon as I try to stream in some HDTV from the net or play a DVD I have to watch this wretched blow up of a pixel sized image?
MS Marketing Drone: Yes! You actually understand the concept! That's marvellous!
Zeb Horkulon: [GETTING NOTICEABLY ANNOYED] But why!!?
MS Marketing Drone: The model of your display was "hacked" last month by some pirates to enable copying of the video stream to unauthorized devices. You can blame it on them. They're the bastards, after all.
Zeb Horkulon: I only bought it four months ago! This is ridiculous!!!
MS Marketing Drone: No. It's not ridiculous. It's just another method insuring that we are protecting the intellectual property of the various copyright holders. That's progress. Ain't it grand??
Zeb Horkulon: Hrrrmph! Next, I suppose you'll be telling me that my eyes are unauthorized devices!
MS Marketing Drone: Heyyyy... That's a great idea!!!
I used OS/2 after I got fed up with DOS/Win3.1 crashing all the time. I was amazed at how much better of a desktop experience it provided in 1994 than Win3.1. It didn't have the slickness of Mac OS at the time, but it had a lot of things that went beyond Mac OS and were alsmot more NeXT-like. I used it for about a year, then Win95 came out and since I was into certain games that the OS/2 Windows subsystem didn't run well I moved to it.
Interestingly enough, I tried OS/2 again after a few years just on a lark. By this time I'd gotten a job that introduced me to Windows NT4 and I'd been working with that for about 2 years. It really amazed me just how much OS/2 resembled NT4 in a lot of ways, only with a better GUI and much more reliable. The fact that a lot of banks used OS/2 for a long time, indicates just how well made OS/2 was at the time when compared to DOS/Win3.1, Win9x and early WinNT. I think Microsoft, kind of, caught up to OS/2 with Windows 2000 SP3 in terms of reliability. But MS still doesn't seem to "get" the concept of a proper Object Oriented desktop. OS/2 did. NeXTSTEP did. And of course, Mac OS X does.
I think the solution is that there should be a specific Linux distribution dedicated to the average user. So far, I don't think any of the distributions have made a serious attempt at appealing to the average user. None of them have complete migration features as Asa pointed out. None of them have really tried. Lycoris and Linspire have come the closest, but... no real migration features. Instead Linspire tried to integrate WINE and failed. Allowing people to use the Windows applications in Linux is not going to work unless the desktop environment itself mimcs Windows completely. And at that point... we have an OS that people like me aren't going to want to use.
So the solution is to have the distribution packagers add a "Windows Migration" mode for the installation. It would be a choice along with Workstation/Server/Development/Custom modes. The default installation should then be the Windows Migration mode. People like me will go staright to Workstation, Devel or Custom and won't feel like we're using a hunk of garbage. If there's one thing I hate, it's systems that make assumptions about what I want instead of just letting me do everything. That seems to be the "Windows" way.
So there you have it. Just a simple installation option could make the world take a little more notice about a really nice OS. Now... who is going to write this beast? Think about all the apps on top of the Windows OS settings that would need to be migrated. That's a tall order!
That would be a very short list considering that most of the MS approved hardware sucks ass when compared to Apple hardware. If Jobs decided to move to Intel, then you know that they must have some technology that DOESN'T SUCK. For instance, as ubiquitous as Creative Labs hardware is, Apple can't support it because it's really low quality compared to Apple's on board audio (designed by Bang Olufsen). Apple knows quality which is why they use all the highest quality chips culled from the very best of the industry. While many of you don't know this, the reason Apple (under Jobs' guidance) made the switch to Intel is because just this year Intel chips finally broke the performance barrier that existed between x86 and PPC. IBM was not abe to deliver a strong contender to even the 32-bit Pentiums that Intel made available to Apple this year.
A few more little known facts: Apple uses all Bose speakers even down to the smallest speakers in their systems. And Bose designs the case section where the s peaker will be housed in order to provide high quality, room filling sound no matter what system you have. Digidesign and Mark of the Unicorn wrote the microcode for all music processing features on all Macs. The startup tone for Apple Macs were designed by: Wayne Shorter, Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, and the latest is from Black Tape for Blue Girl. There's a rumour that Plaid will be doing their next startup tone. Obviously, the highest of tastes and standards even for something as simple as the startup tone. I believe that a subsidiary of Volkswagen is responsible for the latest case shell designs. I've also heard that the system clock chip is made by Bulova for the highest level of accuracy. So why is it that Microsoft can't manage to get that calibre of quality behind it's OS. Christ! They don't even really make hardware. All they have to worry about is a freaking OS, right...? Trust me. It all comes down to the hardware control. That's why all those big names in the highest of the high art circles are involved.
Real company = Does something worthwhile for its customers and makes sure to keep them happy by bending over backwards for them.
Fake Company = Some crook who puts out a shingle claiming to offer something ostensibly worthwhile, but offering nothing worthwhile. Usually results in a lot of angry customers if there is some kind of product. However, in actuality, the fake company rarely offers anything at all and just abuses its status to serve it's own interests.
Really easy to comprehend if you aren't a dishonest scum sucking son of a bitch bastard. You're welcome.:)
The hybrid seems to work fairly well for smaller nations than the U.S. But it would probably be compromised here in much the same way. With that aside, I would still say that there are potential alternatives that haven't arisen yet. However, that doesn't mean that capitalism hasn't failed. The failure didn't happen overnight either. It started as soon as businesses grew way too big and went multinational. Once they got that much financial power, it was easy for them to start manipulating the government to protect their interests and screw the customer. As long as capitalism doesn't practice true competition, it is a failure.
Slashdot Mirror
So maybe this was the test run for "fine tuning"? I suppose it's OK to test this on "enemy combatants" even if it has horrific results. Oh well, war is profitable. The beat goes on. Tralalalala.
For timed reminders, you want a combination of cron (for the scheduling and execution of reminder pop-ups) and Zenity (to produce GUI based dialog "pop ups"). Zenity is rather impressive adding GUI based feedback, input/output to shell scripts.
If networks were configured so that the "general rule" is NOT to be anonymous, then there is no way you can guarantee true anonymity. The reason being that if someone wantred to be "anonymous", they would have to request that privlege from some kind of "anonymity broker" or... own their own network. And even then, with the ability to track the packets, the only guarantee of anonymity is not technical, but social. The owner of the network that the message originated from would have to be the barrier. And as we all know, the current political climates around the world will be unlikely to respect that anonymity if they decide that your activities are "illegal". If someone wants to send e-mail saying they hope that a certain politician gets assainated, in some locations, that would be "illegal". Even though it's really freedom of speech. So, I don't think his suggestion works because it's not true anonymity unless you are in a very powerful position. Every citizen (from beggar to king) should have access to anonymity.
...a lot of doctors and pharmaceutical corporations are no longer operating with the patient's best interests at heart. They are soley driven by money and they are overprescribing certain profitable meds. Look at the whole Celebrex fiasco. The company knew that Celebrex caused problems, but decided that it was better to make money even if people died.
We also have a massive epidemic of medical prescriptions for supposed A.D.D. kids. Did anyone ever stop and think that the A.D.D. kids might just be... I don't know... normal bored kids? I used to day dream in class a lot because the subject matter sucked. But I wasn't sitting there totally spaced even though it looked it. I was doing circuit design in my head for various projects (robots to kill the school bullies, bombs to blow up teacher's cars that I didn't like, remote display systems so that I could gain access to computer systems remotely during dull history tests, etc...). Or when I was wandering all over the place during basketball games in gym class... that wasn't A.D.D. That was just that I hate sports and find competition to be an abrasive characteristic. Cooperative games, I was all into. (You know. The thing like taking the parachute and throwing it up as a group and huddling underneath it and then throwing it up again and siting outside of it. Now that's my idea of fun sports.)
Then we have the problem of big pharma pushing antibiotics without warning people that they should be replenishing their G.I. tract with probiotics lest other horrific diseases infest your body. I had a very personal experience with this. Horrible sinus infections every year since my teens. So... the cure? Antibiotics. Sure I was happy and I got better, but I didn't realize the damage that was being done. Every year the sinus infections got incrementally worse and I had to take longer and longer course of antibiotics. Finally when I was in my late 20s, I was prescribed a new (and very dangerous) antibiotic in the Quinolone family. It was called Levaquin. After the first few days of taking it, I had unbelievable depression. I told my doctor that I thought it might be caused by the Levaquin even though it makes no scientific sense since antibiotics are not psychoactive. He agreed and said, just keep taking them. I did, and it just got worse and worse. After the 14 days, it took me about two or three months to start feeling normal again.
The next year, I had a really bad infection but didn't want to feel that horrible depression again. I did some searches on the net and discovered that other people were reporting depression caused by Levaquin in various forums. So I realized I wasn't alone. Unfortunately, I still had the sinus infection and still wound up taking antibiotics, but I was able to tell my doctor to skip the Levaquin. (Levaquin is being pushed hard right now because it supposedly has fewer side effects than other antibiotics) This time around, I got a horrible skin rash that was extremely uncomfortable. Again 10-14 days of antibiotics. But this time two weeks after the course ended, the sinus infection came back. So I was on the meds again for another 14 day course. An entire summer ruined.
The next year, same thing... Horrible sinus infection even worse than the previous year. I wound up doing still more reseearch on the net and found some information on systemic yeast infections. The symptoms were identical to mine and the root cause in many cases appears to be antibiotics. Even more research revealed that the company that makes Levaquin finally acknowledged that Levaquin can cause depression and suicidal thoughts in "a small number" of patients. Sorry, but ANY number of people with depression or suicidal thought is too large.
I had experienced the suicidal thoughts myself, but it's not connected to depression. It's actually a lot like a safety mechanism gets switched off in the brain and you forget very basic things you should be aware of to keep safe. I almost took a drill to my head because
Mods on crack again. Fuck you all. People with mod point should mod up tomhudson's original post as insightful. To anyone who modded the post incorrectly, I piss on you. To anyone who incorrectly mods me, I spit on your grave. A pox on all of you who abuse mod points.
- Any modern game (I've run Unreal 2003 and Quake 3 on that system. I'm not a gamer though, so I don't care. I still think Riven and Myst are the best games known to man.)
- High-resolution photo editing (e.g. 8megapixel) I do this all the time with GIMP. Some of my largest images are 500 megs each (high resolution scans). The system handles them well and is very responsive. In fact the dual P II 450 is my main photo editing system via my remote desktop setup (Using Linux + GIMP).
- PVRHeheheh... done that too. As long as you have a decent capture card (PVR-250 rules for PVR functions in Linux) you could use a non-MMX Pentium 200 and still get decent results.
- Video editingBzzzzt. Wrong again. When I was still running Windows on that box (NT 4), I used Sonic Foundry software for video editing and again, it worked great. These were standard 640x480 video captures from an analog camcorder. I don't use DV because I don't have DV, but I'm pretty sure this system would rock with that as well.
- GentooI ran Gentoo on a Pentium 100.
Sure it took a long time to build, but it worked just fine. So I imagine running it on a dual PII 250 would scream by comparison. I've also got a P4 system (for professional audio work). It came with XP Pro but it's now running a very customized RedHat 9 and it runs much faster in Linux than in Windows. The funny thing is that desktop performance of Windows XP Pro is the same on that system as RedHat 9 desktop performance on the dual P II 450. The P4 also has a gig of RAM vs. the dual's 768 megs. Sorry, but on every count in this argument you lose. As long as I continue to run customized versions of Linux I can make the hardware last much longer than I ever could with Windows. You just can't tweak Windows enough to make a system scream. I don't care what registry settings you change, Windows is a pig and is the main reason people get rid of systems too early. The fact that I run tons of stuff on the dual PII 450 proves it to me. Yes... I have a longer initial set up time, but the system performs much better than Windows would ever make it run.
Wow. Such hostility. Have we met before? ;P
Maintenence costs money. At some point, it's just cheaper to buy a new machine. It doesn't matter how well the system is built: at some point, a component *will* fail.
Bzzzt. Wrong answer. We're talking home systems here. Not enterprise stuff. Sorry, but I don't have $2,000 to shell out every 4-5 years for a midrange server. (Yes. Servers ARE standard home equipment these days.) The system I bought in 1997 was $1999. I expect it to last me another two years minimum. And yes... under Linux it still runs today's apps. Name one thing I can't run on a dual PII 450 (with the exception of Windows XP).
Then you're in the minority. Most of the /. crowd is not you.
With that said, I tried installing Win2K a few years back on my dual P II 450 with 768 Megs of RAM. It was on a really sweet Tyan board from 1997. It installed alright, but it ran like a slug through molasses on a cold January night. The boot alone took 10-15 minutes. This system had SCSI2 drives as well, so there really were no bottle necks. No weird interrupt problems to speak of, nothing odd. So then I installed RedHat 9 and did something you can never do with Windows. I recompiled the kernel for SMP and tweaked it with the realtime patches. I also customized the hell out of it by just installing the very minimum of RedHat, stripping what I didn't want and installing everything from source. The end result? A super secure, super efficient system that performs as well as a P4 running at 1 Ghz. It's been running like this going on three years now. Uptimes have been incredible compared to any desktop PC I've ever used before. It plays the role of internal DNS, NTP, Web, Mail and File servers. It's also the main application server for the house with centralized everything. The rest of my systems just act as thin clients that can easily attach to an IN PROGRESS desktop session using VNC. I never log out of my VNC desktop anymore, I just lock the screen. Same for my wife and two friends who use the system via OpenVPN over the internet.
The point to all this? I do things that you CAN'T do with Windows and this box is eight years old but feels like it's only 2 years old. Machines really should last closer to 10-15 years before having to buy a new one. The idea of the disposable machine is moronic.
...Microsoft "innovates" this concept into their keyboard line.
I think it's really smart of this company to make it platform independent. EVERYTHING should be that way to encourage competition.
...this is the second time in two weeks I've seen the URL to the main page of the Plasma project listed. And both times, I get "server could not be found" messages. What's up with DNS?
...wrong audience here. Most /. readers are operating home networks. Very few of them actually have real network related jobs. They might work help desk, or be in IT management. But real network jocks have very little to do with Slashdot.
Doesn't compare to feeling rain hitting you in full torrential mode. I suppose if you have a shower that has a 12'x12' square head, you might be able to pull it off.
...98% of all average computer users are stupid. No really. It's not that hard to avoid infection. Personally, I don't run Windows anymore. Most Linux distros are easy enough for anyone to use these days, but they need to get over the "but I need "X" software package to do "Y". Unless they are looking for a specific Windows only business app (which is not the target group that this study was conducted against), or a Windows only game (just dual boot with networking disabled in Windows and screw MMORPGs and internet enabled FPS games), Linux should do just fine.
However, I can easily run Windows and never get infected. It's just not that hard to keep up with Windows Updates and make sure you NEVER put your box directly on the net. If you run Windows and you don't have a hardware gateway/firewall, you're an idiot. I've got a non-technically literate friend who I set up with a hardware gateway, and I told him to NOT use that administrator account unless he's doing updates or some installs. He's been OK. Keep in mind, I'm a hardcore Linux user and really find Windows limiting for my needs. But it's just not that hard to keep a Windows box running if you follow some simple instructions and stop being a moron.
No your not. I've hacked your system. Go ahead and ping 127.0.0.1 and you will see that I have knowledge of your machine's IP address. Now tell me which OS you're running so I can tell you how to connect to your shared folders. ;P
There is nothing like experiencing natural weather first hand. Back in the late 80s (I was about 19) we got a really fast thunderstorm with torrential rain. For some odd reason, I was compelled to take my t-shirt off and run into the middle of my back yard. I ran up and grabbed a towel to stick in the back entrance to my house and then threw the t-shirt, shoes and socks off and ran into the storm. I had a friend over who watched in shock as I did this. Since it was a really hot day (mid 90s) the rain felt really refreshing and the smell of the negative (or is it positive?) ions caused by the lightning was exhilirating. I know it was stupid to run out in the middle of a thunder storm, but I will never forget the experience. It was very different from being caught in the rain while walking somewhere. This was intentional. And I knew where my towel was... ;P (How come stories like these are never told by women on Slashdot?)
I Won't be happy until I see the new series of Doctor Who premiered in the U.S. Canadians are lucky because they've already seen Doctor Who 2005 series 1 and they're slated for series 2 as well. We have to suffer the crap that our networks spew at us and SciFi is certainly no saviour. They program the worst SciFi (all action masquerading as science fiction) I've ever seen in my life. I mean, come on!!! Mansquito? Give me a f*cking break! Where is the thinking man's SciFi channel? I'm sick of all these macho programs that SciFI puts on claiming to be science fiction. Science fiction is not about wars, and guns and action. It's about using your mind and technology to solve problems in a world that is almost but not entirely like your own. Philip K. Dick did the best science fiction and SciFi repeatedly shits all over his stuff.
(Apologies to Douglas Adams)
Zeb Horkulon: So you're telling me that the reason my picture looks like a magnified cubist painting is because my projection system isn't compatible with Windows?
MS Marketing Drone: Well... that's not it really. Your display is sort of compatible but only as long as it doesn't provide a sharp image when watching premium content. We can't have that since it would be all too easy for you to then archive the image to unauthorized deivces.
Zeb Horkulon: So my Maxivid 4000 photon cannon virtual screen that can provide me with beautiful desktop displays at 10,000 x 24,842 resolution will do so as long as I'm only running Word, Powerpoint or Excel. But as soon as I try to stream in some HDTV from the net or play a DVD I have to watch this wretched blow up of a pixel sized image?
MS Marketing Drone: Yes! You actually understand the concept! That's marvellous!
Zeb Horkulon: [GETTING NOTICEABLY ANNOYED] But why!!?
MS Marketing Drone: The model of your display was "hacked" last month by some pirates to enable copying of the video stream to unauthorized devices. You can blame it on them. They're the bastards, after all.
Zeb Horkulon: I only bought it four months ago! This is ridiculous!!!
MS Marketing Drone: No. It's not ridiculous. It's just another method insuring that we are protecting the intellectual property of the various copyright holders. That's progress. Ain't it grand??
Zeb Horkulon: Hrrrmph! Next, I suppose you'll be telling me that my eyes are unauthorized devices!
MS Marketing Drone: Heyyyy... That's a great idea!!!
And security and reliability... You couldn't get that from Microsoft products back then and you're only barely getting that now.
I used OS/2 after I got fed up with DOS/Win3.1 crashing all the time. I was amazed at how much better of a desktop experience it provided in 1994 than Win3.1. It didn't have the slickness of Mac OS at the time, but it had a lot of things that went beyond Mac OS and were alsmot more NeXT-like. I used it for about a year, then Win95 came out and since I was into certain games that the OS/2 Windows subsystem didn't run well I moved to it.
Interestingly enough, I tried OS/2 again after a few years just on a lark. By this time I'd gotten a job that introduced me to Windows NT4 and I'd been working with that for about 2 years. It really amazed me just how much OS/2 resembled NT4 in a lot of ways, only with a better GUI and much more reliable. The fact that a lot of banks used OS/2 for a long time, indicates just how well made OS/2 was at the time when compared to DOS/Win3.1, Win9x and early WinNT. I think Microsoft, kind of, caught up to OS/2 with Windows 2000 SP3 in terms of reliability. But MS still doesn't seem to "get" the concept of a proper Object Oriented desktop. OS/2 did. NeXTSTEP did. And of course, Mac OS X does.
Homer: OMIGOD!!!! Tomompoline!!! I WANT ONE!!!
I think the solution is that there should be a specific Linux distribution dedicated to the average user. So far, I don't think any of the distributions have made a serious attempt at appealing to the average user. None of them have complete migration features as Asa pointed out. None of them have really tried. Lycoris and Linspire have come the closest, but... no real migration features. Instead Linspire tried to integrate WINE and failed. Allowing people to use the Windows applications in Linux is not going to work unless the desktop environment itself mimcs Windows completely. And at that point... we have an OS that people like me aren't going to want to use.
So the solution is to have the distribution packagers add a "Windows Migration" mode for the installation. It would be a choice along with Workstation/Server/Development/Custom modes. The default installation should then be the Windows Migration mode. People like me will go staright to Workstation, Devel or Custom and won't feel like we're using a hunk of garbage. If there's one thing I hate, it's systems that make assumptions about what I want instead of just letting me do everything. That seems to be the "Windows" way.
So there you have it. Just a simple installation option could make the world take a little more notice about a really nice OS. Now... who is going to write this beast? Think about all the apps on top of the Windows OS settings that would need to be migrated. That's a tall order!
That would be a very short list considering that most of the MS approved hardware sucks ass when compared to Apple hardware. If Jobs decided to move to Intel, then you know that they must have some technology that DOESN'T SUCK. For instance, as ubiquitous as Creative Labs hardware is, Apple can't support it because it's really low quality compared to Apple's on board audio (designed by Bang Olufsen). Apple knows quality which is why they use all the highest quality chips culled from the very best of the industry. While many of you don't know this, the reason Apple (under Jobs' guidance) made the switch to Intel is because just this year Intel chips finally broke the performance barrier that existed between x86 and PPC. IBM was not abe to deliver a strong contender to even the 32-bit Pentiums that Intel made available to Apple this year.
A few more little known facts: Apple uses all Bose speakers even down to the smallest speakers in their systems. And Bose designs the case section where the s
peaker will be housed in order to provide high quality, room filling sound no matter what system you have. Digidesign and Mark of the Unicorn wrote the microcode for all music processing features on all Macs. The startup tone for Apple Macs were designed by: Wayne Shorter, Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, and the latest is from Black Tape for Blue Girl. There's a rumour that Plaid will be doing their next startup tone. Obviously, the highest of tastes and standards even for something as simple as the startup tone. I believe that a subsidiary of Volkswagen is responsible for the latest case shell designs. I've also heard that the system clock chip is made by Bulova for the highest level of accuracy. So why is it that Microsoft can't manage to get that calibre of quality behind it's OS. Christ! They don't even really make hardware. All they have to worry about is a freaking OS, right...? Trust me. It all comes down to the hardware control. That's why all those big names in the highest of the high art circles are involved.
Simple:
:)
Real company = Does something worthwhile for its customers and makes sure to keep them happy by bending over backwards for them.
Fake Company = Some crook who puts out a shingle claiming to offer something ostensibly worthwhile, but offering nothing worthwhile. Usually results in a lot of angry customers if there is some kind of product. However, in actuality, the fake company rarely offers anything at all and just abuses its status to serve it's own interests.
Really easy to comprehend if you aren't a dishonest scum sucking son of a bitch bastard. You're welcome.
The hybrid seems to work fairly well for smaller nations than the U.S. But it would probably be compromised here in much the same way. With that aside, I would still say that there are potential alternatives that haven't arisen yet. However, that doesn't mean that capitalism hasn't failed. The failure didn't happen overnight either. It started as soon as businesses grew way too big and went multinational. Once they got that much financial power, it was easy for them to start manipulating the government to protect their interests and screw the customer. As long as capitalism doesn't practice true competition, it is a failure.