Its really not Monsanto thats to blame since they play the whole "IP" card by the book really. Laws is what should keep corporations at bay but in a fascist state that dont work so well.
I think theese patent trolls are doing us a great service. Its just a matter of time before one of them get greedy and steps in the wrong wasps nest. If anything it shows with utter clarity that the EU should in no way allow software patents. The problems by far outweights the benefits since the patents are seldom used to produce something, they are just ownership of pretty obvious ideas. Most patents for software is just about doing something really old, but on a computer.
I say the more patent trolls the better, let them ruin a broken system. The more companies that get burnt the more they will lobby for reform. Since the US is pretty much run by big companies thats the only way the politicians will do something.
I trust Google not to do stupid things with the data collected via ads but Microsoft? The least trustworthy company on the planet except for Halliburton.
"The NCC recommends that the European Commission bring softwre licenses under the same consumer protections that apply to other products in the EU."
Software companies has enjoyed unprecedented loose consumer protections. In fact, no protections has existed at all. The only protection is really the laws about advertising. That is, the software should act and do something that atleast is near what the adverts says.
If EU would bring normal consumer protection to software it should also work as expected. That is, it should not crash and burn without the manufacturer fixing it for you. With the same protections as for hardware it would cost countless millions to make your users the beta testers.
My work as an sysadmin would more be about tailoring solutions and less about getting expensive systems running with bandaid, duct-tape and broken patches that shouldnt be there in the first place.
Its about time software stops being treated like books and start living under the same rules as everything else. If a patch hooses my system the most i can hope for today is a patch regardless if it costs me millions in business. Most often in my case the answer has been "buy our next version, it really works this time, promise, cross my heart".
Things like this would punishing poor quality and i think that is really about time. Right now software really sucks.
I often wonder how internet would look like without pr0n. Where would things like online video, webshops, webcams, bandwidth and browsers be standing without it?
Without the pretty grlz i could live with a text only internet any day.
I really hope this will make it into OpenSSH after some security auditing. The performance gains was pretty impressive. It will make ssh much more fun for rsync, backups and other times when i transfer large files. I also wonder if one cant get similar performance gains with normal ssh and for example forwarded X-windows. That would be very interesting indeed.
Mac and Windows is two operating systems. That is not what i would call cross-platform in any way, shape or form. In that department Flash wins flat-out. Microsoft also competes with Apple and can pull the plug on them at any time if Apples marketshare threats windows.
The linux version, you must be kidding right? Its like saying that all Windows applications is cross platform because Wine exists. Right now all there is is a developer version without any packages. If thats the level of Microsofts cooperation id say that the Linux version is destined to be forever in alpha state lagging a couple of versions behind whats on the web.
Why anyone would want to implement silverlight this early on in Linux is beyond me. Mono/Moonlight is helping a closed product to the market with no benefits for the community whatsoever. Not many sites use it and those who do is paid for it.
Miguel de Icaza should just crawl over to MS on hes knees and beg to work there instead of acting as if he cares anything about open source.
Thats probably the only way they can make people use it. Who wants to make their pages Windows only volontarily? Until Microsoft releases a client for other OS its officially Windows only.
Why on earth did he not try copying from hard disk to hard disk, from network, large files and on the same disk? 9% improvement from a dog slow start isnt anything to chear about either. Since its still significantly slower than XP it sucks. Some reference points would also be very nice. If Vista is 70% slower than XP 9% is not much of an improvement.
Why not testing some common applications and see how they behaive. Its not uncommon that speedups in one place makes for regressions in others, especially with spaghetti code.
Its a pretty abysmal benchmark considering the source.
The thing that intrigues me is how they are going to fix the speed/memory issues without ripping DRM out. I have a hard time seeng other than smaller improvements in isolated areas as to Vistas performance less they rip/replace large parts of it. A new thorough benchmark comparing XP SP2 vs Vista SP1 would be very interesting. Does it still demand 2 GB to run smoothly under moderate load? Had one for testing on my desk a while ago (im a sysadmin) and frankly it was a real dog.
Dont get me started at audio issues in most games and audio applications, EAX? forgedaboutit!
"The New York Times, in the meantime, has accused Google of a Microsoft fixation."
Just this quote from Ballmer alone would put most companies on defcon 5. I wouldnt call it a fixation as much as a normal healthy reflex when someone attacks you.
"I'm going to f--ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f--ing kill Google,"
That was what i first thought. If MS remakes Yahoo into MSN people will just jump ship. I cant really imagine what MS gets out of this except a short term gain in marketshare. The really big downside for Microsoft is that the people jumping ship will most probably go to Google so the net result is even bigger marketshare for Google. I think Google is the ones least worried about this.
With the US going in the opposite direction of China, Iran, North Korea etc they will in a short timeframe meet halfways. We will have a world where the western world inches towards the banana republics and opressors while they go slowly towards democracy. This is interesting times to live in. One cant stop wondering if it will stop halfways or if a time down the road we westerners will be the new "muslims".
Maybe if the US had a reliable space vehicle they could go out and save it fast. Thats what you get for developing a spacecraft based on looks and coolness factor instead of using reliable stuff like Saturn V or other rocket types.
From what i understand their stance on this is that anything that is catched by UAC is not considered a security issue. Its not a local privielege escalation, Microsoft just blame the user who pressed OK. The security isnt better, its just the difficult decisions that has been lumped into the users.
This is ofcourse bad in the long run as most Windows Vista machines will get malware and become bots just as easily as Windows XP while Linux becomes more and more secure through the constant patching of all the apps.
First of all many flaws fixed in Linux isnt proved, just fixed anyway because someone thinks they perhaps can be exploited. Secondly dists like Redhat has SELinux standing in the way for many exploits but RedHat still fixes those exploits to be on the safe side. Thirdly not one single one of these reports does a risk assesement of the flaws before comparing. For Windows they take Microsofts word for its risk, for Linux they dont even try. Things like "a possible exploit exists in X if the user has rights to the admin group" gets the same rating as a remote anonymous exploit on Windows.
As it stands today with the very closed nature of Microsofts reporting its impossible to do any meaningful comparison. Its known and confirmed by former Microsoft employees that Microsoft silently fixes security holes in servicepacks and in bundled patches. For all we know Microsoft could have fixed thousands of holes between Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1.
Since its fairly obvious Microsoft is the one playing the number game here its very likely they strife to keep their vulnerability reporting down to a minimum.
Also, a couple of million Windows bots do not seem to read theese reports either.
I love the tags some people make. Most often they give a good picture of whats going on if you combine them. The funny ones like the one you complain about i would hate to go away.
No DRM solution is better than your everyday encryption. DRM is just an added layer ontop of the encryption that lends itself to new and expanded attack vectors against the protected material.
Also, no matter what scheme you use the analog hole is still prevalent. If your client shows that PDF/whatever to the wrong person any protection is useless.
A recession will have people laid off that needs to keep their skills fresh and useful. Combined with lots of spare time i would suppose it creates a status quo compared to when the times are good.
I dont think CD is to blame for the lousy sound we see in most music today. My strong beleif is that all the various corrections make the sound flat and very unconvincing. Pitch correction of bad singers not only makes things sound better, it also takes away any variance in the singers way of expressing themselves with their voices. Compression which nowadays is standard also takes away any dynamics in the music. Its like a steamroller went over most recordings flattening them out.
While vinyl has better resolution at the cost of S/N i dont think the same exact recording sounds much different on a good CD or a good Vinyl player today. Our hearing isnt that good except for a very few people.
If something is to be done to get better sound its a big slap at the studios with a big clue-by-four and force them to stop cutting corners all the time.
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Its really not Monsanto thats to blame since they play the whole "IP" card by the book really. Laws is what should keep corporations at bay but in a fascist state that dont work so well.
Ill take good sourcecode with reasonable commenting over documentation anyday.
I think theese patent trolls are doing us a great service. Its just a matter of time before one of them get greedy and steps in the wrong wasps nest. If anything it shows with utter clarity that the EU should in no way allow software patents. The problems by far outweights the benefits since the patents are seldom used to produce something, they are just ownership of pretty obvious ideas. Most patents for software is just about doing something really old, but on a computer.
I say the more patent trolls the better, let them ruin a broken system. The more companies that get burnt the more they will lobby for reform. Since the US is pretty much run by big companies thats the only way the politicians will do something.
I trust Google not to do stupid things with the data collected via ads but Microsoft? The least trustworthy company on the planet except for Halliburton.
"The NCC recommends that the European Commission bring softwre licenses under the same consumer protections that apply to other products in the EU."
Software companies has enjoyed unprecedented loose consumer protections. In fact, no protections has existed at all. The only protection is really the laws about advertising. That is, the software should act and do something that atleast is near what the adverts says.
If EU would bring normal consumer protection to software it should also work as expected. That is, it should not crash and burn without the manufacturer fixing it for you. With the same protections as for hardware it would cost countless millions to make your users the beta testers.
My work as an sysadmin would more be about tailoring solutions and less about getting expensive systems running with bandaid, duct-tape and broken patches that shouldnt be there in the first place.
Its about time software stops being treated like books and start living under the same rules as everything else. If a patch hooses my system the most i can hope for today is a patch regardless if it costs me millions in business. Most often in my case the answer has been "buy our next version, it really works this time, promise, cross my heart".
Things like this would punishing poor quality and i think that is really about time. Right now software really sucks.
I often wonder how internet would look like without pr0n. Where would things like online video, webshops, webcams, bandwidth and browsers be standing without it?
Without the pretty grlz i could live with a text only internet any day.
I really hope this will make it into OpenSSH after some security auditing. The performance gains was pretty impressive. It will make ssh much more fun for rsync, backups and other times when i transfer large files. I also wonder if one cant get similar performance gains with normal ssh and for example forwarded X-windows. That would be very interesting indeed.
Mac and Windows is two operating systems. That is not what i would call cross-platform in any way, shape or form. In that department Flash wins flat-out. Microsoft also competes with Apple and can pull the plug on them at any time if Apples marketshare threats windows.
The linux version, you must be kidding right? Its like saying that all Windows applications is cross platform because Wine exists. Right now all there is is a developer version without any packages. If thats the level of Microsofts cooperation id say that the Linux version is destined to be forever in alpha state lagging a couple of versions behind whats on the web.
Why anyone would want to implement silverlight this early on in Linux is beyond me. Mono/Moonlight is helping a closed product to the market with no benefits for the community whatsoever. Not many sites use it and those who do is paid for it.
Miguel de Icaza should just crawl over to MS on hes knees and beg to work there instead of acting as if he cares anything about open source.
Thats probably the only way they can make people use it. Who wants to make their pages Windows only volontarily? Until Microsoft releases a client for other OS its officially Windows only.
Why on earth did he not try copying from hard disk to hard disk, from network, large files and on the same disk? 9% improvement from a dog slow start isnt anything to chear about either. Since its still significantly slower than XP it sucks. Some reference points would also be very nice. If Vista is 70% slower than XP 9% is not much of an improvement.
Why not testing some common applications and see how they behaive. Its not uncommon that speedups in one place makes for regressions in others, especially with spaghetti code.
Its a pretty abysmal benchmark considering the source.
Well, in many ways actually. I strongly encourage you to read and analyze Microsofts own documents. I wont do it for you.
I skipped all of them and went Linux instead. Do i win something?
The thing that intrigues me is how they are going to fix the speed/memory issues without ripping DRM out. I have a hard time seeng other than smaller improvements in isolated areas as to Vistas performance less they rip/replace large parts of it. A new thorough benchmark comparing XP SP2 vs Vista SP1 would be very interesting. Does it still demand 2 GB to run smoothly under moderate load? Had one for testing on my desk a while ago (im a sysadmin) and frankly it was a real dog.
Dont get me started at audio issues in most games and audio applications, EAX? forgedaboutit!
"The New York Times, in the meantime, has accused Google of a Microsoft fixation."
Just this quote from Ballmer alone would put most companies on defcon 5. I wouldnt call it a fixation as much as a normal healthy reflex when someone attacks you.
"I'm going to f--ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f--ing kill Google,"
That was what i first thought. If MS remakes Yahoo into MSN people will just jump ship. I cant really imagine what MS gets out of this except a short term gain in marketshare. The really big downside for Microsoft is that the people jumping ship will most probably go to Google so the net result is even bigger marketshare for Google. I think Google is the ones least worried about this.
With the US going in the opposite direction of China, Iran, North Korea etc they will in a short timeframe meet halfways. We will have a world where the western world inches towards the banana republics and opressors while they go slowly towards democracy. This is interesting times to live in. One cant stop wondering if it will stop halfways or if a time down the road we westerners will be the new "muslims".
Maybe if the US had a reliable space vehicle they could go out and save it fast. Thats what you get for developing a spacecraft based on looks and coolness factor instead of using reliable stuff like Saturn V or other rocket types.
From what i understand their stance on this is that anything that is catched by UAC is not considered a security issue. Its not a local privielege escalation, Microsoft just blame the user who pressed OK. The security isnt better, its just the difficult decisions that has been lumped into the users.
This is ofcourse bad in the long run as most Windows Vista machines will get malware and become bots just as easily as Windows XP while Linux becomes more and more secure through the constant patching of all the apps.
First of all many flaws fixed in Linux isnt proved, just fixed anyway because someone thinks they perhaps can be exploited. Secondly dists like Redhat has SELinux standing in the way for many exploits but RedHat still fixes those exploits to be on the safe side. Thirdly not one single one of these reports does a risk assesement of the flaws before comparing. For Windows they take Microsofts word for its risk, for Linux they dont even try. Things like "a possible exploit exists in X if the user has rights to the admin group" gets the same rating as a remote anonymous exploit on Windows.
As it stands today with the very closed nature of Microsofts reporting its impossible to do any meaningful comparison. Its known and confirmed by former Microsoft employees that Microsoft silently fixes security holes in servicepacks and in bundled patches. For all we know Microsoft could have fixed thousands of holes between Windows Vista and Windows Vista SP1.
Since its fairly obvious Microsoft is the one playing the number game here its very likely they strife to keep their vulnerability reporting down to a minimum.
Also, a couple of million Windows bots do not seem to read theese reports either.
I love the tags some people make. Most often they give a good picture of whats going on if you combine them. The funny ones like the one you complain about i would hate to go away.
No DRM solution is better than your everyday encryption. DRM is just an added layer ontop of the encryption that lends itself to new and expanded attack vectors against the protected material.
Also, no matter what scheme you use the analog hole is still prevalent. If your client shows that PDF/whatever to the wrong person any protection is useless.
Im torn apart. Its very rude and tasteless but i cant stop my lunatic giggling.
A recession will have people laid off that needs to keep their skills fresh and useful. Combined with lots of spare time i would suppose it creates a status quo compared to when the times are good.
I dont think CD is to blame for the lousy sound we see in most music today. My strong beleif is that all the various corrections make the sound flat and very unconvincing. Pitch correction of bad singers not only makes things sound better, it also takes away any variance in the singers way of expressing themselves with their voices. Compression which nowadays is standard also takes away any dynamics in the music. Its like a steamroller went over most recordings flattening them out.
While vinyl has better resolution at the cost of S/N i dont think the same exact recording sounds much different on a good CD or a good Vinyl player today. Our hearing isnt that good except for a very few people.
If something is to be done to get better sound its a big slap at the studios with a big clue-by-four and force them to stop cutting corners all the time.