Well, aside from the recent MS nimda spreading, wasnt there a virus on the Mac that changed the "dog-ears" type of file around (I read it somewhere about viruses). Turns out that that virus was distributed on commercial disks and spread around the user base. I'd appreciate if somebody knew the name of it....
Oh well. Stuff like this happens. In this kind of "software world" where everything's connected, I'm amazed this doesnt happen more often (commercial product virite distribution).
I'd go to the server and find out WHY windows is needed to install it onto Linux, but the server's gone. Is it just to "install" files? Still, I'm glad that Bioware is doing stuff on Linux. Even if it's only a release of a server on it, I'm happy. The way it looks, the developers are looking at Linux directly. The halfway house Loki did'nt have a business model. They regurgitate games to linux after a.5 year on WIndows.
These guys are doing it right.
By the way (very offtopic), but check out the First post. It's an ascii rendetion of goatse man. I saw it by looking at the first posters of this story. He was the only one. I guess I thought it was funny (like we havent been tricked into that link before;-).
Re:The future of productivity..
on
GUIs for Robots
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· Score: 2, Funny
Umm, could you click on it and then press (CTRL) + D and self sestruct PHBs?
I'd be all for it if you could.
Questions to developers...
on
GUIs for Robots
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Article said: ---"However, the nature of field robotics requires some significant differences in the implementation of the RTS interface method. For instance, there is no single source of accurate global information -- each robot can only provide relative data that has to be fused together. In addition, the tasks that each robot can perform change dynamically and this information must be reflected in the choices presented by the GUI to the operator"
Well, umm. Yes there is a single source of global information. It's called GPS. I believe, using the correct civillian gear, you can get centimeter-accurate location points. Also, political/geographic maps are available from many locations from different governments.
The best way I see that this can be used is that you create a neural network between the robots by way of bluetooth. The robots could share GPS location data in realtime. Make sure that they can pass on data to out-of-range units.
Once you have location links, you can piece screenshots (by using angles of the GPS coords). Personally, I'd craft chips designed specifically for piecing the screenshots to a 3d locale. No sense having a generic chip (x86 or whatnot) doing that. And NO beowulf clusters:-)
That's the thing. When you back up your computer (if you do), do you clone the whole drive, or do you get rid of the replacable stuff?
Games these days take up a gig for install. Why would you want to back up canned data like textures or default files from a popular OS? I'm waiting for these cd games to take DVD forms and install a few gigs of data in textures.
Why would an intelligent alien culture transmit in a low-density solution like light? That's so low bandwidth (in my opinion). If I was an interstellar commuter (alien), I'd transmit information in the form of directed gravity waves. It travels at the speed of light (perhaps faster), and has IMMENSE data storage due to the quark-size waveform. Why mess with LOS light when gravity is Line-Through-Everything?
Dont you know? This is one of the government's ways to funnel money to black ops groups. Seriously. There's things we do that teh public wouldn't want to know about. Since it's not a war, we funnel money from "profilings".
Big suprise. Guess what that black dome is above it. I'll give you a clue, the sticker that says "Camera" is right... Also, I'd expect the bank to keep the records for at least 10 years (census data/back taxes).
--Mark enters his office building and takes the elevator to 5. (cameras..)
Guess how much theft happens in places like that... They're just defending against that. And if trust between your employer is an issue, you can always get a different job. Just be glad they dont lock the fire doors like they did in the early 1900's.
--Mark writes a friend: "No raise. My boss is a liar."
Unless you're using heavy encryption AND sending to a secure source (someone who wont blab), he's an IDIOT. I'd laugh and then find a different way to fire/lay him off.
--Mark IMs his girlfriend: "Don't worry about last night. I'll get tested. Love you."
Anybody's who heard of DSniff wont be saying stuff like this over ANY network.
--Mark deletes a file containing freelance work he did for a competitor.
We've went over this in every major publication. This should NOT be new material. And figuring the crowd is the SciAM subscribers (me), I'd figure the average computer security like this would be common knowledge.
--Mark calls a friend from the street at his lunch break. "Dude, she wants me to get an AIDS test," he confides.
We know that cell phones are NOT safe. They're broadcast devices. Even during 9-11, some senator said that getting cell records were trivial at best.
--Almost home, Mark stops to buy deodorant and toilet paper; the card saves him 36 cents.
Dead horse. I simply state that I will fill in fake info if you give me one. I then take one, scribble through it, use it, and then toss it on the ground. Stores are pulling this shit, so I do the same.
--Mark shows his driver's license to enter his favorite bar.
I'd demand to talk to the bar manager, demand to know why he thinks he has the right to STEAL my information. If he doesnt let me in, I go elsewhere and LET both bars know that.
A lot of this "information stealing" is the cost of life in this type of society. Much of that data is useless. Simply, use your head. If it seems weird (like idiots who want to pre-approve you for a cred card) TELL EM' NO!
... I believe software should be damn reliable, because it's used in so many ways and whatnot. It's an engineering job that's no less serious than one of building bridges or buildings or whatnot, and it's getting increasingly more serious with each passing day. The time for "who cares about the bugs, they'll just reboot or something" is long over. Computing is a serious matter, and it must be treated as such."
That's the thing. Architechural engineers don't just come up with new schmeatics for every project they build. They have basic layouts of every major work. When a client comes to them, they just go to an archive of "SOLID" projects and modify to custom specs.
In the software world, there's good ways to do things and bad ways to do things. Most intelligent ccomputer programmers agree that POSIX is the best standard to do computing right. In this, Unix, Linux, Xenix, Lunix, **ix came from it. The Unix way seems to be the stablest, secure way of doing things. Everything's locked down with user permissions and such. Well, until Linux came around, there wasn't much work done with *Nix as most required beefy systems and/or mucho $'s. Well, Linus came around with his pet project hacking at a minix kernel. His little pet project will probably be the "computer revolution".
Well, this is where Dos/Windowss came in. You had a split of philosophies. Power or KISS. Windows was KISS. There was no/little security. In the Win9x line, you could read/write directly to videoRAM, something you could NEVER do in a REAL os. Well, where this has lead us is to a Windows platform with Games Galore (with good plability) versus Linux where games lag like hell (3d games). First, its a software issue. Linux 3d renderer is too young and the security takes a bit of overhead (with secure DRI).
Sadfully, MS will probably be gone in 20 years or so. They can either adapt or die. They also have too much pride to touch Linux, so they'll die. Apple was smart in that they're using the tried and true OS'es.
As a last note. I like those FreeBSD trolls. Don't they realise that BSD is now the MOST used *Nix out there? Apple would have used Linux, but the GPL was too strong. Oh well. I guess BSD is dying (g).
---"Maybe even some antennae that can absorb all the abundant radio/microwave radiation that cell towers, wi-Fi, bluetooth, high-power transmission lines, the sun, etc. etc. are constantly pumping out? Tesla's wireless power dreams finally realized!"
I like tesla too, and I don't mean that "alien supernatural" stuff you see on the web. Look his patents and you'll find a wealth of RF work on his part. However, something you need to remember about his idea of "portable energy" is that teh signal strength is inversly related to the square of the distance. You're talking about piddiling energy. It'd cost more in energy to MAKE the collector than it would ever get in its life.
I igure this battery life argment will go on ad absurdum. My idea is to use a decent low power chip WITH 2 redundant power cells (9 volt?). If 1 dies, the other one takes over. You would be able to "hot swap" batteries. Just go into a store and buy 1. Or ytou could use LiIon batteries. They're a bit more reliable for correct voltage. But when they die.....
---"Why should I spend weeks to months writing disk drivers, gui's, keyboard interfaces, etc, when there are OS's that have already done that?"
I DIDN't say GUI's.
For example, don't you consider a UI in a vehicle is the gear-shift, the brake, the gas pedal, and the speedometer ? I do. I see no point in writing disk driver codes or to filch code from a keyboard ps-2 driver in Linux, as there is NO need. You just write your own, as it's not hard.
Second example: what about microwaves? They use a simple touchpad and a computer interface to do the timing. The main computer just controls a driver that causes the tuntable to spin and the tubes to be powered on/off. Nor is there a Windows Microwave.vxd you can use. You write it yourself, as many (if not all) embedded projects.
My main point is that MANY embedded devices have no need for an OS, nor will ever need one. Most devices like that are RT devides that operate from a streamed input (usually some sort of sensor or output from another device). If you wanted to carry this argument to an extreme, look at a smoke alarm.. Is there a UI, yes (the reset button). Is there a controller? Yes. It takes 2 inputs (reset line and americum radiation smoke line). This processing is quite simple, that I could easily do it with a 1 MHz pic.
For shrunken computers, Linux seems viable. Shrunken computers (what many call embedded) are still computers. So what if they run on a flash card or e^2. Sounds like that the meaning of embedded isn't here. Well then, lets call sone of my confusion...
I call my Athlon 1GHz Tower an embedded computer since my BIOS image isn't booted off my hard disk. Am I right? Seems to be that "embedded" (well, here in slashdot) means something is taken from a chip.
---"I have to give Ransom credit for his good answers. Especially in the area of whether Caldera will make billions off Linux without giving back to the community."
The community gives to anybody who accepts their license (usually the GPL). The GPL has no clause saying that they must tithe if they make money on GPL software. I could care less if a company makes money on Linux, however if they provide a good product, I'll support them.
---"Ransom makes it pretty clear that Caldera's development of Linux, even though done for profit,"
Why even mention that? Go on to thier "Contact Us"... Caldera International, Inc. Hmm, wonder what that Inc. stands for.... It's not like they're an INCorporated company, right?
---"is in itself something big that's being given to the community--it's the effect that takes place when a product has a lot of support from reputable companies more than which lines of code Caldera writes and puts wherever. Even in Caldera didn't write a single apostrophe of code but only packaged other people's hard and free work and sold it for profit, they'd still be opening a market window for the Linux community that wouldn't have existed otherwise."
Since they're a company, let thier business stragedies hold them up.
---"I believe that for Linux to really be successful, both in terms of code quality and widespread acceptance, a team of companies needs to get together with a specific purpose to fulfill: To develop a desktop version of Linux similar in functionality to Windows XP or Mac OS X."
Funny thing is Linux is sort of the P2P os. All the parts are everywhere, there are multiple 'fixes' to the same problem, and developers are around the world. Asking some standards body to make a "UnifiedLinux" is asking for trouble. Other than thier words, what are these people going to do to sway developers to do addon X to code Y? The "UnifiedLinux" players are probably going to be PR and programmers, but still how's that going to guarantee that thier patch is going to be included?
---"In other words, other than a few options here and there, it wouldn't really have the possibility of configuring every detail. The bare-bones system, which basically means a desktop with a few icons on it for basic functionality (and no applications) would basically be integrated into the kernel."
In a way, isn't that true to a certain extent already? Linux/Unix ideas is you reuse components like crazy. Because of that, I just cant see "bare bones" along with desktop with a few icons. You need a bit of stuff to build your way up to X and your windowmanager.
---"When the computer boots up, it boots directly into a nice graphical desktop, kind of like the way BeOS did, except Linux will actually stick around. Most of the configuration would be built in, heavily reducing the number of "system" files."
So you're saying that "advanced OS'es like Windows" dont have as much systems files? Ever look at/windows ,/windows/system or the registery with regedit? Yeah. Windows has tons of configuration options, with most of those being hidden it clsid's and other crap. It's either configuration TEXT files or a kludge of a registery.
---"No desktop system needs to drown in its own configuration. I would say that a really good bare-bones desktop Linux OS shouldn't take more than 15 to 20 megs of space, and that includes all the beautiful graphics it would have."
15-20 megs wouldn't even be enough for the graphics libs for your "beautiful graphics". Considering that WinXP is 1 GB install, I think people would be OK with a graphic install around 300 MB. I actually mean having it work correctly (including all the pretties, decent fonts, AA, all the "new OS stuff").
---"To make this system useful, a number of applications made specifically for this version of Linux would be included, increasing the size to about 60 or 80 megs. This might include the standard "fun" stuff that consumers look for, like video editing, audio editing, image editing, and the more mundane crap, like word processing and whatnot. Obviously, major formats would need to be recognized."
Most of the closed formats have been dealt with. Office argment has been beaten (like that already dead horse). Even DiVX, MPEG 4, DVD's, and newer MS and Apple/Sorenson codecs are being released by 3'rdpartydevelpers.
---"Only when something that's actually easy to use becomes available, Linux will skyrocket in popularity and Windows will go into the dumpster. Yeah, most of the code for this exists. Someone just needs to recognize why Linux tends to be so damn complicated, and rearrange these pieces into something that's really well designed and coherent."
People will take "Easiness" over stability if that means complication. That alone shows why that is true. And of curse, you're dealing with the mysticism of a computer...
---"As a disclaimer, just so someone doesn't say, "You stupid fsck! If you think Linux is too hard, go back to Windows and enjoy crashing all the time."
That's what a slashdotters and other moronic haxor types do. They hurt linux. Usually though, RTFM or STFU is the best answer to a linux question (in their minds). Beginners have no idea a manual exists for Linux (man).
---"Otherwise, learn how to use the damn thing!" I've been using Linux for years now, since an old Yggdrasil distro I picked up at some computer trade show, and a 8 CD set of crap they downloaded from a bunch of mirrors and stuck on some CDs. (Back in those days, those CDs were really handy, especially considering that most folks had a 14.4 connection. And that was considered fast ! Even 56k was far off! So that was a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago.)"
Neat little rant:-) I'm a user since '97. I just dabbeled in it. Now I run it as my main desktop of choice. Windows is my games desktop, as that seems to be its forte.
---"Anyway, I've since realized that Linux is too fragmented. There's way too much duplication of effort. The Linux file system "standard" is totally wrong, IMO, because everything's in the wrong place. (/home should be under/usr, for example.) And the configuration is a nightmare! There are literally hundreds of configuration files strewn all over the system!"
I dont agree with that... You live in a home, so/home it is. If you have problems with.conf's everywhere (like I did), just cp the files to/etc and sym-link to the original location. Now ALL your configs are in 1 place. Now you can back up your/etc dir (and sym links across your whole FS).
---"So I since moved on to FreeBSD. All ya'll Linux folks out there can learn a shitload of great stuff from the BSD folks. Just look at how much of the system configuration for a FreeBSD system is in a single file (rc.conf). In Linux, this would be scattered across 10,000 different files in a monster directory structure under/etc/rc or something like that, as far as I remember."
I absolutely love the run-level structure. You have 1 script for each runlevel, along with some scripts for large program init's. YOu have a rc.modules, which you can update for newer hardware. My opinion, I love the RC setups.
---"As you can easily tell, I haven't touched a Linux system in ages, and there's a reason. That's why I say this desktop thing needs to be made. Linux can kick Windows' ass in server stuff. Now it needs to start kicking Windows' ass in the desktop, because only when Microsoft loses that battle, they'll no longer be able to embrace and extend, a practice that fscks up all our code because we have to be compatible with their bugs,"
Who says so? I would fully support a addon in Samba that would allow extra features (embrace and extend) than what Windows normally has. Then make a client for WIndows that can take advantage of these extra features. However, the whole idea is to make Linux seamless with windows clients/servers.
---"flawed design decisions, and programming features probably designed by lawyers and marketeers rather than programmers. Ooooooooooh well. Oh yeah, I had all kinds of Negra Modelo last night. It was fun. (If Cerveceria Modelo made software, their operating system would kick everyone's ass!)"
Most projects I see that use embedded software is in "all in 1 chips" that hold a decent line of I/O, a watchdog (nearly every chip), decent "IPS"/"FLOPS" (whichever one is more needed) rating for job being done and onboard memory.
If your device is fairly simple, you can easily get away from coding the whole thing in the chip ASM and feel comfortable. Anyways, if you need more memory, you have extra address lines.
If something more is required (some sort of a UI), build from the ground up tailoring the whole OS to your hardware. Linux is NOT needed in this type of device. Hoever, it seems viable for palmtops and other small computing environments, as windows seems to take more hardware power to do the same things (though slightly beter).
----"I feel that flash becoming open source is NOT a good thing for web designers. If it's support becomes more widespread and standard, it could cause web coders to become more lazy. A couple of examples."
Take a look at the license. It's too restrictive. They're just using 'Open Source' for a name, like many companies do. I don't blame them for it though. Might even get Linux tools for Macromedia up, and the last thing to do is bad-mouth them for it.
"Often web designers use marquees. Instead of using the much quicker tag, many designers use bloated swf files for their marquees.
That's just plain moronic.
"Another way flash is abused is with flashing text. Instead of using the common tag, people create huge swf files to make blinking text."
It's because people strip the blink flags off of html. You uuse something that works, and blinking text is annoying, but works.
"Another abuse, forms. Instead of using quick java based forms, people often create huge flash files just to input data."
They're a lot less usable, but you know of many bots that can "sign up" using these forms? That's why they use them.
"Finally, animations. Coders could easily use dhtml and animated gifs to create effective animations on their page, however instead they use bloated swf files that need state of the art pc's just to run simple anumations"
Using Flash is similar to programming. There's an efficent way of doing it and there's an inefficent way. I've seen both. It's just a tool.
Look at it from a corporate perspective. Who'll make more profits percentage wise: Big company who buys in bulk but pays mucho for hirees, buildings and other costs or Small 1 - 10 person company that buys medium amounts of bulk, but has way fewer people to deal with or 1 person who uses his "free time" and invests his time and money to build a computer for the same cost as the big and medium boys.
Look at MS's games (MW4 and others). How much did they make overall, and how much did they invest in? Now liik at ID software. They have only 16 or so people, yet they make killer hit games. Look at their overhead and their net profit. Looking at those alone would make you think, in gaming, ID is better than MS. Now just apply what I said to yourself, the local computer store, and the big company.
Lastly, I'd rather NOT trust local computer stores. What if something goes bad? Most of the time, they are already gone, because they don't get enough business. I've watched many of them go Pfffft. Even my first computer was big store bought, because the ones at the local store were better, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn't go belly up. Now, I build my own because I think my time is better spent on a machine that I know.
This isn't an article. It's more of an ad that resembles an article. Why?
They take 1 example from some defence contracter. So what. The next thing they praise themselves doing is making computers cheaper than what the big boys sell. You either buy parts and assemble it yourself or buy buy service and parts from big comp store. That works out as follows: parts(cost) + your time(no cost) = parts(cost) + their time(cost)
No big secret. Now my big question: How is this news? Please respond Timothy. I'm sure you've made a computer from parts and noticed how it was monetarially cheaper and better in quality than the big boys do (your time is another matter).
And no I'm not trying to be flamebait to the slashdot article. Slashdot just is a reprinter, like all news sites do (most via Reuters or the (dis)associated press). I am amased how this crap of an article(at sunspot) got through the reporters.
----"Microsoft knows what they're doing, and if this thing succeeds, you can forget about any non-Windows operating system being even remotely usable."
Oh come on. OK, how?
----"Microsoft holds a patent that describes a method by which hardware and software interoperate to guarantee "digital rights management" (aka fair use destruction and monopoly lock-in). The patent describes a mechanism in which there is a private/public key pair, with one half embedded in hardware (possibly the CPU). Only "authorized code" (aka Windows) can run in ring 0 (kernel space) on the CPU. Naturally, only Windows has the other half of the key."
Patent? Ohhh yeah, those things. Did anybody tell you that the US is NOT the world government? Well, not every country agrees with "Our" patent system. If that's true about PKI in the cpu, will there be ICE's? I bet so. Every encryption is breakable (by brute or bugs). Even their (e)x-box drm crap doesn't work, given the right xboxes hooked up inside the bios;-)
----"This is probably how the Xbox prevents third-party operating systems from running, and it probably is why they originally applied for the patent. But it also has lots of uses in the monopoly business. This article describes how useful the patent could be in implementing the Hollings bill. Take it one step further and it's easy to envision a world in which this type of "protection" is not only mandated by law... but unimplementable by Linux hackers due to patent problems."
So what, it's a law. Just becauase it's a law doesn't mean you agree with it OR do something that they dont like. They can arrest you for it, but if it's been released, they cant do anything to silence it.
----"Hopefully, by the time this thing hits critical mass (if ever), Linux will be too firmly entrenched for the industry to allow it to be required. I think we're already there on the server side (1 out of 4 servers sold today ships with Linux, more if you include the ones they can't count). In another couple of years we'll be there on the desktop as well. But as they say, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Let's make sure we get heard.b"
Pay attention to the messenger. Of all the news agencies, it's MSnbc. Who else would report with that much enthusiasm? And it also makes me think there's some intentional holes in MS update. How else do do you think they can get rid of all their "un-DRM'ed" systems? Prolly flip a k-byte somewhere on the HD, but most users wont be able to find it.
Anyways, this whole article reeks of MS fud. And so what if AMD wants to make these chips. I'll know who I won't buy from. AMD made good and cheap stuff now. That doesn't mean I'll trust them in the future.
---"Having the same systems implementing the filtering of spam (unapproved senders), restricting forwarding (unapproved redistribution), and also cover DRM (again, unapproved redistribution) allows the whole scheme to be marketed as an anti-spam system."
Do you have a hotmail account? If not, go get one. Keep it for about 3 days, and you start getting spam of every kind, with much of that being pr0n spam and "loans" spam. You actually think MS wouldn't sell off anony signatures to spammers?
---"Please tell them not to do it like how Tom does in Minority Report.. If I have to use both my hands to operate the PC, I wouldn't be able to, er.. massage myself.."
Well, first off NT 4.0 is now unsupported by MS. That means if there are any "show stopper" bugs, you're SOL. And if I remember the NT line correctly, there's a bug in buffering the command line (I do linux, not NT). All the NT's have it, and MS won't put a patch out for it.
Knowing that there are buffer bugs and NOT doing anything about it DOES make it craptacular.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, aside from the recent MS nimda spreading, wasnt there a virus on the Mac that changed the "dog-ears" type of file around (I read it somewhere about viruses). Turns out that that virus was distributed on commercial disks and spread around the user base. I'd appreciate if somebody knew the name of it....
Oh well. Stuff like this happens. In this kind of "software world" where everything's connected, I'm amazed this doesnt happen more often (commercial product virite distribution).
I'd go to the server and find out WHY windows is needed to install it onto Linux, but the server's gone. Is it just to "install" files? .5 year on WIndows.
;-).
Still, I'm glad that Bioware is doing stuff on Linux. Even if it's only a release of a server on it, I'm happy. The way it looks, the developers are looking at Linux directly. The halfway house Loki did'nt have a business model. They regurgitate games to linux after a
These guys are doing it right.
By the way (very offtopic), but check out the First post. It's an ascii rendetion of goatse man. I saw it by looking at the first posters of this story. He was the only one. I guess I thought it was funny (like we havent been tricked into that link before
Umm, could you click on it and then press (CTRL) + D and self sestruct PHBs?
I'd be all for it if you could.
Article said:
:-)
---"However, the nature of field robotics requires some significant differences in the implementation of the RTS interface method. For instance, there is no single source of accurate global information -- each robot can only provide relative data that has to be fused together. In addition, the tasks that each robot can perform change dynamically and this information must be reflected in the choices presented by the GUI to the operator"
Well, umm. Yes there is a single source of global information. It's called GPS. I believe, using the correct civillian gear, you can get centimeter-accurate location points. Also, political/geographic maps are available from many locations from different governments.
The best way I see that this can be used is that you create a neural network between the robots by way of bluetooth. The robots could share GPS location data in realtime. Make sure that they can pass on data to out-of-range units.
Once you have location links, you can piece screenshots (by using angles of the GPS coords). Personally, I'd craft chips designed specifically for piecing the screenshots to a 3d locale. No sense having a generic chip (x86 or whatnot) doing that. And NO beowulf clusters
"GeForce8 XP 512GB AGPxxx "......
;-)
SO! The industry finally found that adding the "porno transfer bus" along with standard AGP.
I guess in the future, autopr0n does survive
article:
---"Who wouldn't like to see a Linux/Windows mine sweeper death match!"
Does a crash count as a withdraw?
That's the thing. When you back up your computer (if you do), do you clone the whole drive, or do you get rid of the replacable stuff?
Games these days take up a gig for install. Why would you want to back up canned data like textures or default files from a popular OS? I'm waiting for these cd games to take DVD forms and install a few gigs of data in textures.
So Google's static but Teoma's a HeisenBUG. Now that's a sarch engine to (or not to) watch.
Why would an intelligent alien culture transmit in a low-density solution like light? That's so low bandwidth (in my opinion). If I was an interstellar commuter (alien), I'd transmit information in the form of directed gravity waves. It travels at the speed of light (perhaps faster), and has IMMENSE data storage due to the quark-size waveform. Why mess with LOS light when gravity is Line-Through-Everything?
;)
Other than that, amateur light proects are cool
Dont you know? This is one of the government's ways to funnel money to black ops groups. Seriously. There's things we do that teh public wouldn't want to know about. Since it's not a war, we funnel money from "profilings".
--Mark withdraws $100 at his bank's ATM machine.
Big suprise. Guess what that black dome is above it. I'll give you a clue, the sticker that says "Camera" is right... Also, I'd expect the bank to keep the records for at least 10 years (census data/back taxes).
--Mark enters his office building and takes the elevator to 5. (cameras..)
Guess how much theft happens in places like that... They're just defending against that. And if trust between your employer is an issue, you can always get a different job. Just be glad they dont lock the fire doors like they did in the early 1900's.
--Mark writes a friend: "No raise. My boss is a liar."
Unless you're using heavy encryption AND sending to a secure source (someone who wont blab), he's an IDIOT. I'd laugh and then find a different way to fire/lay him off.
--Mark IMs his girlfriend: "Don't worry about last night. I'll get tested. Love you."
Anybody's who heard of DSniff wont be saying stuff like this over ANY network.
--Mark deletes a file containing freelance work he did for a competitor.
We've went over this in every major publication. This should NOT be new material. And figuring the crowd is the SciAM subscribers (me), I'd figure the average computer security like this would be common knowledge.
--Mark calls a friend from the street at his lunch break. "Dude, she wants me to get an AIDS test," he confides.
We know that cell phones are NOT safe. They're broadcast devices. Even during 9-11, some senator said that getting cell records were trivial at best.
--Almost home, Mark stops to buy deodorant and toilet paper; the card saves him 36 cents.
Dead horse. I simply state that I will fill in fake info if you give me one. I then take one, scribble through it, use it, and then toss it on the ground. Stores are pulling this shit, so I do the same.
--Mark shows his driver's license to enter his favorite bar.
I'd demand to talk to the bar manager, demand to know why he thinks he has the right to STEAL my information. If he doesnt let me in, I go elsewhere and LET both bars know that.
A lot of this "information stealing" is the cost of life in this type of society. Much of that data is useless. Simply, use your head. If it seems weird (like idiots who want to pre-approve you for a cred card) TELL EM' NO!
---"Snip off of good stuff ;_)
... I believe software should be damn reliable, because it's used in so many ways and whatnot. It's an engineering job that's no less serious than one of building bridges or buildings or whatnot, and it's getting increasingly more serious with each passing day. The time for "who cares about the bugs, they'll just reboot or something" is long over. Computing is a serious matter, and it must be treated as such."
That's the thing. Architechural engineers don't just come up with new schmeatics for every project they build. They have basic layouts of every major work. When a client comes to them, they just go to an archive of "SOLID" projects and modify to custom specs.
In the software world, there's good ways to do things and bad ways to do things. Most intelligent ccomputer programmers agree that POSIX is the best standard to do computing right. In this, Unix, Linux, Xenix, Lunix, **ix came from it. The Unix way seems to be the stablest, secure way of doing things. Everything's locked down with user permissions and such. Well, until Linux came around, there wasn't much work done with *Nix as most required beefy systems and/or mucho $'s. Well, Linus came around with his pet project hacking at a minix kernel. His little pet project will probably be the "computer revolution".
Well, this is where Dos/Windowss came in. You had a split of philosophies. Power or KISS. Windows was KISS. There was no/little security. In the Win9x line, you could read/write directly to videoRAM, something you could NEVER do in a REAL os. Well, where this has lead us is to a Windows platform with Games Galore (with good plability) versus Linux where games lag like hell (3d games). First, its a software issue. Linux 3d renderer is too young and the security takes a bit of overhead (with secure DRI).
Sadfully, MS will probably be gone in 20 years or so. They can either adapt or die. They also have too much pride to touch Linux, so they'll die. Apple was smart in that they're using the tried and true OS'es.
As a last note. I like those FreeBSD trolls. Don't they realise that BSD is now the MOST used *Nix out there? Apple would have used Linux, but the GPL was too strong. Oh well. I guess BSD is dying (g).
---"Maybe even some antennae that can absorb all the abundant radio/microwave radiation that cell towers, wi-Fi, bluetooth, high-power transmission lines, the sun, etc. etc. are constantly pumping out? Tesla's wireless power dreams finally realized!"
I like tesla too, and I don't mean that "alien supernatural" stuff you see on the web. Look his patents and you'll find a wealth of RF work on his part. However, something you need to remember about his idea of "portable energy" is that teh signal strength is inversly related to the square of the distance. You're talking about piddiling energy. It'd cost more in energy to MAKE the collector than it would ever get in its life.
I igure this battery life argment will go on ad absurdum. My idea is to use a decent low power chip WITH 2 redundant power cells (9 volt?). If 1 dies, the other one takes over. You would be able to "hot swap" batteries. Just go into a store and buy 1. Or ytou could use LiIon batteries. They're a bit more reliable for correct voltage. But when they die.....
---"Why should I spend weeks to months writing disk drivers, gui's, keyboard interfaces, etc, when there are OS's that have already done that?"
I DIDN't say GUI's.
For example, don't you consider a UI in a vehicle is the gear-shift, the brake, the gas pedal, and the speedometer ? I do. I see no point in writing disk driver codes or to filch code from a keyboard ps-2 driver in Linux, as there is NO need. You just write your own, as it's not hard.
Second example: what about microwaves? They use a simple touchpad and a computer interface to do the timing. The main computer just controls a driver that causes the tuntable to spin and the tubes to be powered on/off. Nor is there a Windows Microwave.vxd you can use. You write it yourself, as many (if not all) embedded projects.
My main point is that MANY embedded devices have no need for an OS, nor will ever need one. Most devices like that are RT devides that operate from a streamed input (usually some sort of sensor or output from another device). If you wanted to carry this argument to an extreme, look at a smoke alarm.. Is there a UI, yes (the reset button). Is there a controller? Yes. It takes 2 inputs (reset line and americum radiation smoke line). This processing is quite simple, that I could easily do it with a 1 MHz pic.
For shrunken computers, Linux seems viable. Shrunken computers (what many call embedded) are still computers. So what if they run on a flash card or e^2. Sounds like that the meaning of embedded isn't here. Well then, lets call sone of my confusion...
I call my Athlon 1GHz Tower an embedded computer since my BIOS image isn't booted off my hard disk. Am I right? Seems to be that "embedded" (well, here in slashdot) means something is taken from a chip.
---"I have to give Ransom credit for his good answers. Especially in the area of whether Caldera will make billions off Linux without giving back to the community."
.... It's not like they're an INCorporated company, right?
/windows , /windows/system or the registery with regedit? Yeah. Windows has tons of configuration options, with most of those being hidden it clsid's and other crap. It's either configuration TEXT files or a kludge of a registery.
:-) I'm a user since '97. I just dabbeled in it. Now I run it as my main desktop of choice. Windows is my games desktop, as that seems to be its forte.
/usr, for example.) And the configuration is a nightmare! There are literally hundreds of configuration files strewn all over the system!"
/home it is. If you have problems with .conf's everywhere (like I did), just cp the files to /etc and sym-link to the original location. Now ALL your configs are in 1 place. Now you can back up your /etc dir (and sym links across your whole FS).
/etc/rc or something like that, as far as I remember."
:-)
The community gives to anybody who accepts their license (usually the GPL). The GPL has no clause saying that they must tithe if they make money on GPL software. I could care less if a company makes money on Linux, however if they provide a good product, I'll support them.
---"Ransom makes it pretty clear that Caldera's development of Linux, even though done for profit,"
Why even mention that? Go on to thier "Contact Us"... Caldera International, Inc. Hmm, wonder what that Inc. stands for
---"is in itself something big that's being given to the community--it's the effect that takes place when a product has a lot of support from reputable companies more than which lines of code Caldera writes and puts wherever. Even in Caldera didn't write a single apostrophe of code but only packaged other people's hard and free work and sold it for profit, they'd still be opening a market window for the Linux community that wouldn't have existed otherwise."
Since they're a company, let thier business stragedies hold them up.
---"I believe that for Linux to really be successful, both in terms of code quality and widespread acceptance, a team of companies needs to get together with a specific purpose to fulfill: To develop a desktop version of Linux similar in functionality to Windows XP or Mac OS X."
Funny thing is Linux is sort of the P2P os. All the parts are everywhere, there are multiple 'fixes' to the same problem, and developers are around the world. Asking some standards body to make a "UnifiedLinux" is asking for trouble. Other than thier words, what are these people going to do to sway developers to do addon X to code Y? The "UnifiedLinux" players are probably going to be PR and programmers, but still how's that going to guarantee that thier patch is going to be included?
---"In other words, other than a few options here and there, it wouldn't really have the possibility of configuring every detail. The bare-bones system, which basically means a desktop with a few icons on it for basic functionality (and no applications) would basically be integrated into the kernel."
In a way, isn't that true to a certain extent already? Linux/Unix ideas is you reuse components like crazy. Because of that, I just cant see "bare bones" along with desktop with a few icons. You need a bit of stuff to build your way up to X and your windowmanager.
---"When the computer boots up, it boots directly into a nice graphical desktop, kind of like the way BeOS did, except Linux will actually stick around. Most of the configuration would be built in, heavily reducing the number of "system" files."
So you're saying that "advanced OS'es like Windows" dont have as much systems files? Ever look at
---"No desktop system needs to drown in its own configuration. I would say that a really good bare-bones desktop Linux OS shouldn't take more than 15 to 20 megs of space, and that includes all the beautiful graphics it would have."
15-20 megs wouldn't even be enough for the graphics libs for your "beautiful graphics". Considering that WinXP is 1 GB install, I think people would be OK with a graphic install around 300 MB. I actually mean having it work correctly (including all the pretties, decent fonts, AA, all the "new OS stuff").
---"To make this system useful, a number of applications made specifically for this version of Linux would be included, increasing the size to about 60 or 80 megs. This might include the standard "fun" stuff that consumers look for, like video editing, audio editing, image editing, and the more mundane crap, like word processing and whatnot. Obviously, major formats would need to be recognized."
Most of the closed formats have been dealt with. Office argment has been beaten (like that already dead horse). Even DiVX, MPEG 4, DVD's, and newer MS and Apple/Sorenson codecs are being released by 3'rd party develpers.
---"Only when something that's actually easy to use becomes available, Linux will skyrocket in popularity and Windows will go into the dumpster. Yeah, most of the code for this exists. Someone just needs to recognize why Linux tends to be so damn complicated, and rearrange these pieces into something that's really well designed and coherent."
People will take "Easiness" over stability if that means complication. That alone shows why that is true. And of curse, you're dealing with the mysticism of a computer...
---"As a disclaimer, just so someone doesn't say, "You stupid fsck! If you think Linux is too hard, go back to Windows and enjoy crashing all the time."
That's what a slashdotters and other moronic haxor types do. They hurt linux. Usually though, RTFM or STFU is the best answer to a linux question (in their minds). Beginners have no idea a manual exists for Linux (man).
---"Otherwise, learn how to use the damn thing!" I've been using Linux for years now, since an old Yggdrasil distro I picked up at some computer trade show, and a 8 CD set of crap they downloaded from a bunch of mirrors and stuck on some CDs. (Back in those days, those CDs were really handy, especially considering that most folks had a 14.4 connection. And that was considered fast ! Even 56k was far off! So that was a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago.)"
Neat little rant
---"Anyway, I've since realized that Linux is too fragmented. There's way too much duplication of effort. The Linux file system "standard" is totally wrong, IMO, because everything's in the wrong place. (/home should be under
I dont agree with that... You live in a home, so
---"So I since moved on to FreeBSD. All ya'll Linux folks out there can learn a shitload of great stuff from the BSD folks. Just look at how much of the system configuration for a FreeBSD system is in a single file (rc.conf). In Linux, this would be scattered across 10,000 different files in a monster directory structure under
I absolutely love the run-level structure. You have 1 script for each runlevel, along with some scripts for large program init's. YOu have a rc.modules, which you can update for newer hardware. My opinion, I love the RC setups.
---"As you can easily tell, I haven't touched a Linux system in ages, and there's a reason. That's why I say this desktop thing needs to be made. Linux can kick Windows' ass in server stuff. Now it needs to start kicking Windows' ass in the desktop, because only when Microsoft loses that battle, they'll no longer be able to embrace and extend, a practice that fscks up all our code because we have to be compatible with their bugs,"
Who says so? I would fully support a addon in Samba that would allow extra features (embrace and extend) than what Windows normally has. Then make a client for WIndows that can take advantage of these extra features. However, the whole idea is to make Linux seamless with windows clients/servers.
---"flawed design decisions, and programming features probably designed by lawyers and marketeers rather than programmers. Ooooooooooh well. Oh yeah, I had all kinds of Negra Modelo last night. It was fun. (If Cerveceria Modelo made software, their operating system would kick everyone's ass!)"
Oh well. Fun rant
Most projects I see that use embedded software is in "all in 1 chips" that hold a decent line of I/O, a watchdog (nearly every chip), decent "IPS"/"FLOPS" (whichever one is more needed) rating for job being done and onboard memory.
If your device is fairly simple, you can easily get away from coding the whole thing in the chip ASM and feel comfortable. Anyways, if you need more memory, you have extra address lines.
If something more is required (some sort of a UI), build from the ground up tailoring the whole OS to your hardware. Linux is NOT needed in this type of device. Hoever, it seems viable for palmtops and other small computing environments, as windows seems to take more hardware power to do the same things (though slightly beter).
----"I feel that flash becoming open source is NOT a good thing for web designers. If it's support becomes more widespread and standard, it could cause web coders to become more lazy. A couple of examples."
Take a look at the license. It's too restrictive. They're just using 'Open Source' for a name, like many companies do. I don't blame them for it though. Might even get Linux tools for Macromedia up, and the last thing to do is bad-mouth them for it.
"Often web designers use marquees. Instead of using the much quicker tag, many designers use bloated swf files for their marquees.
That's just plain moronic.
"Another way flash is abused is with flashing text. Instead of using the common tag, people create huge swf files to make blinking text."
It's because people strip the blink flags off of html. You uuse something that works, and blinking text is annoying, but works.
"Another abuse, forms. Instead of using quick java based forms, people often create huge flash files just to input data."
They're a lot less usable, but you know of many bots that can "sign up" using these forms? That's why they use them.
"Finally, animations. Coders could easily use dhtml and animated gifs to create effective animations on their page, however instead they use bloated swf files that need state of the art pc's just to run simple anumations"
Using Flash is similar to programming. There's an efficent way of doing it and there's an inefficent way. I've seen both. It's just a tool.
This article isn't a troll. It's common sense.
Look at it from a corporate perspective. Who'll make more profits percentage wise:
Big company who buys in bulk but pays mucho for hirees, buildings and other costs or
Small 1 - 10 person company that buys medium amounts of bulk, but has way fewer people to deal with or
1 person who uses his "free time" and invests his time and money to build a computer for the same cost as the big and medium boys.
Look at MS's games (MW4 and others). How much did they make overall, and how much did they invest in?
Now liik at ID software. They have only 16 or so people, yet they make killer hit games. Look at their overhead and their net profit. Looking at those alone would make you think, in gaming, ID is better than MS. Now just apply what I said to yourself, the local computer store, and the big company.
Lastly, I'd rather NOT trust local computer stores. What if something goes bad? Most of the time, they are already gone, because they don't get enough business. I've watched many of them go Pfffft. Even my first computer was big store bought, because the ones at the local store were better, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn't go belly up. Now, I build my own because I think my time is better spent on a machine that I know.
This isn't an article. It's more of an ad that resembles an article. Why?
They take 1 example from some defence contracter. So what. The next thing they praise themselves doing is making computers cheaper than what the big boys sell. You either buy parts and assemble it yourself or buy buy service and parts from big comp store. That works out as follows:
parts(cost) + your time(no cost) = parts(cost) + their time(cost)
No big secret. Now my big question: How is this news? Please respond Timothy. I'm sure you've made a computer from parts and noticed how it was monetarially cheaper and better in quality than the big boys do (your time is another matter).
And no I'm not trying to be flamebait to the slashdot article. Slashdot just is a reprinter, like all news sites do (most via Reuters or the (dis)associated press). I am amased how this crap of an article(at sunspot) got through the reporters.
----"Microsoft knows what they're doing, and if this thing succeeds, you can forget about any non-Windows operating system being even remotely usable."
;-)
Oh come on. OK, how?
----"Microsoft holds a patent that describes a method by which hardware and software interoperate to guarantee "digital rights management" (aka fair use destruction and monopoly lock-in). The patent describes a mechanism in which there is a private/public key pair, with one half embedded in hardware (possibly the CPU). Only "authorized code" (aka Windows) can run in ring 0 (kernel space) on the CPU. Naturally, only Windows has the other half of the key."
Patent? Ohhh yeah, those things. Did anybody tell you that the US is NOT the world government? Well, not every country agrees with "Our" patent system. If that's true about PKI in the cpu, will there be ICE's? I bet so. Every encryption is breakable (by brute or bugs). Even their (e)x-box drm crap doesn't work, given the right xboxes hooked up inside the bios
----"This is probably how the Xbox prevents third-party operating systems from running, and it probably is why they originally applied for the patent. But it also has lots of uses in the monopoly business. This article describes how useful the patent could be in implementing the Hollings bill. Take it one step further and it's easy to envision a world in which this type of "protection" is not only mandated by law... but unimplementable by Linux hackers due to patent problems."
So what, it's a law. Just becauase it's a law doesn't mean you agree with it OR do something that they dont like. They can arrest you for it, but if it's been released, they cant do anything to silence it.
----"Hopefully, by the time this thing hits critical mass (if ever), Linux will be too firmly entrenched for the industry to allow it to be required. I think we're already there on the server side (1 out of 4 servers sold today ships with Linux, more if you include the ones they can't count). In another couple of years we'll be there on the desktop as well. But as they say, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Let's make sure we get heard.b"
Pay attention to the messenger. Of all the news agencies, it's MSnbc. Who else would report with that much enthusiasm? And it also makes me think there's some intentional holes in MS update. How else do do you think they can get rid of all their "un-DRM'ed" systems? Prolly flip a k-byte somewhere on the HD, but most users wont be able to find it.
Anyways, this whole article reeks of MS fud. And so what if AMD wants to make these chips. I'll know who I won't buy from. AMD made good and cheap stuff now. That doesn't mean I'll trust them in the future.
---"Having the same systems implementing the filtering of spam (unapproved senders), restricting forwarding (unapproved redistribution), and also cover DRM (again, unapproved redistribution) allows the whole scheme to be marketed as an anti-spam system."
Do you have a hotmail account? If not, go get one. Keep it for about 3 days, and you start getting spam of every kind, with much of that being pr0n spam and "loans" spam. You actually think MS wouldn't sell off anony signatures to spammers?
Quoth the article:
Tomorrow's microprocessors could be laser printed.
You think my HP can do it?.. Still I didnt think that the paper is pin compatible.
---"Please tell them not to do it like how Tom does in Minority Report.. If I have to use both my hands to operate the PC, I wouldn't be able to, er.. massage myself.."
:-)
Aww, shut up and get off of autopr0n.com
Well, first off NT 4.0 is now unsupported by MS. That means if there are any "show stopper" bugs, you're SOL. And if I remember the NT line correctly, there's a bug in buffering the command line (I do linux, not NT). All the NT's have it, and MS won't put a patch out for it.
Knowing that there are buffer bugs and NOT doing anything about it DOES make it craptacular.
Or you can Rot-13 it. They'll never know....